Sunlight trickled through the curtain fabric hesitantly, loathe to disturb the sleeping girl who lay in a huddled mass under the thick fabric of her bed coverings. Strands of moderately short black hair stuck to her cheeks and neck from the sweat of active dreaming and the warm spring air that lay trapped in the room overnight. Her body twitched in response to the rapid sweeping of her eyes under closed lids and thick lashes. A superfluous movement under her chin bounced around lazily, revealing itself to be a small black pig who was also under the spell of sleep. But the girl's sleep was far from as peaceful as the little piglet's. A small staccato moan escaped from her lips, the physical manifestation of partials of words and deeds enacted in slumber.
Akane looked around her, baffled by the immensity of the darkness that surrounded her. Its omnipresent nature was only broken by the large, grid-like structures that appeared scattered about her like floating islands. Each island had its own loud, bright color, and every one varied in size, from several feet long to several yards. As transparent as each grid looked to her here, it felt steady enough beneath her feet.
Where in the world am I? She continued to study the space around her, marveling the contrast the grids made to the surrounding darkness. She felt like she had been trapped in a twisted video game. She laughed, feeling the smirk grow on her face with a twist. I'm beginning to sound like Ryoga. Bringing her hand to her head in amused consternation, she suddenly noticed the odd clothing she wore.
A white body suit covered her from neck to toe, but she felt naked at the way it clung to every curve of her body. On top of that, a thick black bikini, the dark color of both top and bottom pieces broken only by two small panels of red, and tight black boots which reached her knees.
Wha--? Where are my clothes?! She felt the blush rise in her face furiously, instinctively crossing her arms over her chest to cover it. "This has to be a dream, right?" She closed her eyes, and imagined herself donning something more familiar, something more comfortable, anything that wasn't this! She focused on her school uniform, simple, yet effective. She opened her eyes tentatively, one eye pinched closed while the other peeked at the rest of herself below. With an embarrassed sigh, she resigned herself to her new fashion. "So much for all that stuff I read about lucid dreaming," she muttered.
A dull throbbing began a slow percussive drum in her head, the beginning of a headache. She easily attributed it to the glare of the colorful lights around her, irritating and unnerving in this pitch darkness. Within seconds it washed over the rest of her body, gripping every muscle in her body like the heart of a panic. Her mind, however, remained clear in its objectiveness. She was no where near the fear the panic that seemed to grip her body, even at the cellular level. She shivered uncontrollably, and couldn't shake the apprehension she felt, of the trembling quiet before the storm. Then it stopped. As if it had never been. She wrapped her arms around herself to try to steady her shaky stance. She felt unbalanced, and certainly more than ready to fall. With a deep breath, she regained herself and looked around, retrieving a hold of her situation. Whatever it might be here. She noticed with half her attention, a faint glow in the horizon that steadily grew larger and brighter as it approached. Then, like her previous physical affliction, disappeared. Akane crossed her eyes in frustration, more than perplexed by the point of this dream, this place (and her clothes!).
"KYAAAAAAHHH! The orange glow re-materialized in time to collide with her, pushing her off her feet and sliding her several feet under the forceful impact. With an angry growl, she rose to her knees and pushed herself back onto her feet, not quite registering the strange creature before her. With an enraged yell, she rushed at it, fist raised for the punch. Long, thin tentacles shot away from the creature in all directions, wrapping themselves tightly around her, holding her at bay. It tightened its constricting grip on her, threatening to either tear her apart, or force every inch of oxygen out of her body. She gasped ineffectually to take in air, trying to recapture the explosion of air that escaped her mouth in a surprised gasp. She struggled on for air, hands scratching uselessly at her throat, trying to break free. Each breath came harder and more raggedly, blackness creeping toward the edges of her vision.
Ranma... A sick realization told her he would not come. She struggled on, but felt her body weaken as she was continuously denied access to air. Her eyelids started to close heavily over dulling eyes, one step away from acceptance.
"AKANE! NO!" A blue light sliced cleanly through the fleshy, dripping trap that bound her, dropping her ungracefully to the ground. She bent to the ground, her head almost resting against the floor as she coughed, spluttered and gasped to take in as much air as her body would allow. Slimy, chopped pieces of her binds fell to the ground almost of their own accord, and she disgustedly swiped off the streaks of moisture that held some of the remnants to her. She raised her head weakly to look upon her savior.
A tall woman, a little taller than she was, stood staring at the creature before them, stock still. She wore, she noticed, the same outfit she herself wore, but in black and a rich royal blue instead. Long, black, waist-length spiky hair seemed to disappear in the omnipresent opacity around them. The woman turned to look at her with narrowed, clear red eyes. A concerned and warm smile instantly melted away the icy stare she had given the creature a second before.
"Are you well?" Unable to find her voice, Akane nodded dumbly. The woman stepped between her and the creature, and raised her weapon, a thin sword that appeared to be made of light instead of steel. The creature, belying its bulk, deftly and quite gracefully jumped away, warily hesitating to see what its adversary's reaction would be. The woman gave chase, showing equal grace and quickness, dodging shooting tentacles as she swung her own weapon. This went on touch and go for only a few seconds, which to her felt like hours. Finally, they jumped apart and landed on separate grids. The creature crouched; the woman opposite raised her sabre high over her head. The creature leapt, thin tendrils extending for the kill. The woman herself bent down on one knee, tightening her stance further.
"Look out!" Akane's breath was cut short, as well as, she saw, was the creature's attack. The sabre cut through the monster entirely, sending a spray of blood everywhere. Akane's hand flew to her mouth in disgust, her eyes widening in disbelief.
The woman stood smoothly, obviously unaffected by the whole ordeal, and disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing out of nowhere only a few feet before her. Akane just wanted to scream, but felt her throat tightening, air barely able to make its way through, much less any sound.
"Akane, I am truly sorry. I don't know how the bedem found its way to you here. Hopefully no others will be able to." The woman let her sword draw in upon itself and vanish into thin air. She stretched out her arm and offered a hand to Akane. Akane could only stare back up from her seated position and push herself back, away from this woman, this weird place, weakly.
"Wha--? What is this place? Who are you?!" Akane's eyes were continuously drawn to the still, lumpy carcass that only lay a few yards away. She felt a rumbling shaking start throughout her body. This time, she recognized the feeling. It was not the ambiguous tremor she had felt before. This was the start of panic, the real thing. Her mind, this time, had a harder time fighting the physical responses.
"I am an Iczer. Iczer Liros. I'm sorry, I don't have much time here. The bedem followed you here into subspace hoping to kill you in your sleep."
Akane fought to swallow back down the bile that rose in her throat. She couldn't take her eyes off the kill. She pinched her eyes shut, trying not to hear the words that this woman was telling her. Just a dream, just a dream...
"Big Gold seeks her revenge on us and on the Earth that created her-- your Earth. She will summon all her daughters to her, and they will come. Akane, I cannot fight her alone; you are all we have." The words reached the Tendo girl more as flashing images and hallucinations than as spoken words. Even that way, everything was jumbled and confused. The strange woman, Iczer Liros(?) may as well have been speaking in tongues.
"But-- I don't-- understand..." Akane cringed as her voice came out only as a hoarse croak. What does she want with me?
"Akane, will you fight with me? With us?" She extended her hand again, amiably, and her face seemed to show no malicious intent, only a focused, but friendly face. Yet all Akane could do, still seated like a dumb fool on the floor, was continue to stare mutely. Suddenly she shook her head forcefully, shutting her eyes more forcefully. This just wasn't happening to her. Why wasn't she waking up if she wanted to, needed to? There was no way this was real. Couldn't be. Could it be?
"NO! I don't know!" Emotions flooded through her, mixing with the images and occurrences, unfortunately for her, all conflicting as they mixed together. "I don't know who you are, what I'm doing here, or even if this is real! Or even that I'd be of help! I'm not that strong a martial artist!" The admission stung more than she allowed to portray, but she knew it to be all too true. Her eyes felt a little heavy and cloudy as she spoke. "There is no way I could fight that-- THING!" She jerked an accusing finger at the end of a rigid arm straight at the monster's remains, and shuddered. She wanted her to fight? That?
"You may need some training, but the potential is there. I have seen you. Please! Everything depends on you! You're the only one I can synchronize with, and your ability is the strongest I have seen! Somehow, you can use Iczerio on your own. Big Gold will kill you for that!" Iczer Liros bent down on her knees to meet Akane, rather than try to get the girl to stand on her own. She knew this must all be a rather big shock to her. Being this open to the girl was awkward, but oddly acceptable. And Akane seemed to prefer it. But this could have gone so much better. Damn that bedem.
"If you turn back now, all you know and love may be lost-- your friends, your family, your planet. Would you sacrifice them?" Iczer Liros' voice was soft now, but its plaintive accusation still hung in the air as loud as any scream.
The air was thick with the emotions from the woman's words; Akane felt they would beat her about the head if she wasn't careful.
"I-- I--"
"I cannot come to you now, not yet, but a friend will find you. You will learn what you need to know. Akane, please... Akane..."
Akane...
"Akane..."
"Yo, Akane."
Shaking. Akane felt her world quake with the call of her name. Its sound was urgent, but losing the desperation that it seemed to hold just before. Her consciousness floated groggily to the surface of her reality, like rising from the bottom a deep pool, slowly...
"Akane, c'mon already! We're gonna be late for school again!"
School...?
"YAAAAAHHHHH!" Akane's head and body whipped up from the bed in a terrified realization, rushing to the blurry figure above her. And, she realized too late, towards a literal head-on collision. Her head slammed full force into an unsuspecting Ranma, his hand still clutching her shoulder from shaking her awake. He fell back with a pained cry, rushing heavily to meet the floor at the foot of the bed with a dull thud. She jumped out onto her feet, clutching P-chan tightly.
"Oh my Gods! Ranma, are you okay?!"
A warbly groan confirmed that his head was just as hard as hers.
"What did you think you were doing, being so close, anyway? Idiot!" It was as close of an apology as he was ever going to hear from her. It was his fault, anyway.
"I was trying to be nice you jerk!" Ranma's hand rose unsteadily to his forehead, feeling the beginning of a large lump. He rose to his feet and headed for the door of her room. "But if you want to spend all day sleeping with P-chan," he spit out in disgust, "Don't let me stop you." He reached for the doorknob. "Ungrateful wen--OW!" And was quickly punched out into the hallway for his trouble. He jumped to his feet swiftly, and tried to meet his still pajama-ed fiancee, ready with another insult. She stared at him silently, dripping contempt and slammed the door in his face. "Uncute tomboy! See if I'm late waitin' for you!" He stalked off, leaping over the banister to get downstairs, school bag in tow.
"Go ahead! Why should I care?!" She walked, or rather pounded her way back to her bed, flopping down on the sheets with a noisy exhale. "Hmph! So I slept late! And it's not like I bashed into him on purpose. Sheesh--ow, that smarts." She rubbed her forehead tentatively, feeling a tender spot hidden under thick black bangs. Hopefully it wouldn't bruise, or worse, swell.
Remembering the current delay, she rose from the bed in a rush and changed into her school uniform, a white shirt and blue jumper dress, grabbing her bag as she ran out.
"P-chan, be good, I'll see you later!" The little pig bweed in response, and jumped back onto her bed, curling by her pillow to fall asleep once more.
"Akane, are you going to have breakfast? You might have some time--" Kasumi wiped her hands on her apron, her soothing, breathy monotone never changing, even in the face of a crisis.
"No time now! If I'm late, Hinako-sensei* will really have it in for me! Bye!" Akane snatched her bento off the kitchen counter and sped out the door.
"Oh my. Bye! Have a good day!" Kasumi turned back to the kitchen, humming a tune.
"You ready yet?"
Akane skidded to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dust, turning to face the source of the male voice that had clearly stated earlier would not wait. But now leaning against the wall of the house. Staring at her with a calculated, even look on his face.
"Ranma..." She stopped and stared, not knowing what to make of the situation. "But I thought you said--"
"Well, are you goin' or not?" He walked past her nonchalantly, ignoring her hanging question, and making a point of not looking at her. She just stared and followed, soon both breaking into the daily sprint to school.
Neither noticed the small shadow on the floor, cast by someone on the roof of the house.
"Akane..."
Late again. Again. Damn. Akane stood in the hallway, holding one bucket of water for each hand. Next to her, as always, was Ranma, with two of his own for his troubles. For having waited for her. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, depending on her peripheral vision as much as she could. Ranma just stared obliviously out the window, his gray-blue eyes glazed over in boredom.
He had waited for her.
She couldn't remember the last time she had actually been able to sit through the entire first class of the morning. Actually, the last time she could think of was just before that fateful rainy day that had brought a young red-haired girl and her panda to the Tendo dojo. She grunted discontentedly and focused her eyes straight ahead once more, joining the boy who was ever by her side to look out the window.
It's not like he would have been on time anyway. I don't know why I should feel guilty. Because I don't. I really don't. She was sulking. She knew it, but could do nothing about it. There was just nothing else to do. The voice inside the classroom lecturing the students who were actually seated inside was just out of earshot, and probably not worth listening to anyway. A relentless twist in her stomach also let her know she was lying. She peeked at Ranma again. Who was peeking back. Panicked, she looked away to her right, down the long corridor of the school's third floor.
"I'm sorry okay?" "So what happened?"
She turned to look at him for one confused moment, their first attempts at speech today coming out tripping and tumbling. Akane looked at her fiancee wide-eyed, not sure whether because of his actual statement or hers.
Ranma bent down to look her straight in the eyes, a quizzical, skeptical look on his face.
"For what?" He asked, after another second as she turned away again. Was that an apology? An apology from Akane was like blood from a stone. Never found naturally, and as equally hard to get under any circumstances. She continued to look away, but he could see from the red of her ears that she was blushing. Quite violently.
"I shouldn't have slammed the door on you. And for your head. I didn't mean to smack into you. And anyway, you should have been more careful. You know better than that."
"S'okay. Don't worry about it." Any apology, in any form given, would be taken. Ranma straightened and shrugged, buckets of water sloshing around as they responded to his movement. He stared at them warily, trying to physically will the water to stay peacefully where it was.
Akane turned her head slowly to look at him, unsure of what she should say.
"Why did you wait?" Her voice was low, shy, a little of the guilt she felt creeping through her voice. "You might have made it to school on time. At least you wouldn't have been stuck out here." Her voice was quiet, but her eyes stared at him piercingly, and he realized, as he looked up and out the window away from her, that it was his turn to blush.
"I dunno. Prob'ly've been late anyway." Ranma wondered why this had to come up, why just accepting the gesture quietly couldn't have been acceptable. Discussion turned in that direction was not a comfortable prospect. He shrugged again, this time with more care to the water he was holding. The last thing he wanted was to have water, especially cold, find its way to him. Curses had their way of continually reminding you that they were always there. In particular, curses that involved gender change. She continued to stare at him, and he blushed harder. Change the subject, change the subject... "So what happened with you? You're usually the one to wake up first. Practically had to drag your fat body out of bed." Ranma felt a little of his tension alleviated with the insult. But he still blushed, reminded of that morning, standing in her room, watching her sleep for those few seconds. He had felt bad to have to wake her up; see seemed so peaceful, so cu-- Don't think, stupid. Focus. Find your center.
Akane's eyes narrowed, irritated. I'm going to ignore that. "I-- had a weird dream. I just couldn't get out of it, I guess." Akane mused, thinking that quite the understatement. She tried to remember details that were now already just fuzzy images to her. What's his problem? She noticed that Ranma appeared to have calmed down, and now was watching her curiously. She considered for a moment about telling him what she remembered, then hastily dashed the idea. Dreams always seemed so rational until you told them to someone else, and then they just sounded so silly. She had no wish to bait Ranma into an insult match because she thought he might understand something she even didn't understand. But the anxiety she had felt had been very real, the urgency overwhelming. Those two emotions still stayed with her now in a corner of her soul, still crystal clear where other details from the dream had been lost. She felt a shiver run through her body, a tension rising in her that froze her where she stood. It became a pounding that beat like a relentless drumbeat in every nerve. Not quite pain, but...
"What's wrong? You okay?" Ranma now was right in front of her, pails forgotten on the floor, bending over to look her in the face. She didn't look bad, per se, but more like a deer caught in headlights. And ready for the car to run her right over.
Her two pails of water lay forgotten on the floor, water spreading out, flowing to form large puddles to the beat of the internal throbbing that now threatened to overtake her. Any breaths she managed to make came out in quick gasps, her heart beating in a breakneck staccato. Hands were on her shoulders now, partially to get her attention, partly to support. She felt her legs wobble, and grabbed one of Ranma's arms.
"Hey, what's wron--"
Everything seemed to change at once. Her feeling of reality shifted, the one thing she thought she had left. Nothing seemed to be different, though. Akane felt the pounding dissipate, propped herself up on Ranma from her sagging position and now stood on her own. Ranma's hand lingered on her shoulder in doubt. He stared at her in a mix of concern and apprehension.
"I'm okay now. I think." The feeling was totally gone now, the attack leaving her feeling more eerie than better. He took back his hand, but the look on his faced remained. The phrase repeated itself in her head like a mantra. Her sight cleared, and she looked around. Something looked different. But what? Ranma had apparently not noticed, and only continued to stare at her. She backed away from his grasp, and smiled weakly. "I'm okay, really." Appearing satisfied for the moment, Ranma stepped back as well.
"Great. Now you're really gonna get us both in trouble." Ranma looked towards the floor, minding to keep out of distance of the water, which luckily had seemed to spill away from them.
"What?! I didn't feel right! And what do you mean again?! This was an accident you moron! So I spilled the water! Why is that such a crime?!"
"Well, true," Ranma brought up a finger to his cheek in deliberation. "Everyone does know how much of a klutz you are."
Ranma always took his punches well. He merely stood frozen as Akane's fist found its way to his face. She grumbled something about him being insensitive and a jerk. Usual stuff, he figured. She then extracted her hand slowly, and looked beyond her victim.
zip
There. Her head whipped to follow the object as it zoomed past them. Ranma turned as he felt motion behind him, and saw nothing.
zip
Now there. It was an amorphous blur, and once stopped, made sure it would not be seen. Was it just Happosai? He seemed to be at the school as often as any student.
zip
Akane yelped in indignant surprise as Ranma pushed her back roughly against the wall, and stood in front of her, practically blocking her from going anywhere. Or from anything going to her. His body swept smoothly into an attack pose, right hand clenched into a fist. She strained to see around him, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that was there. She now realized what she had felt before. Something was different. The hallway, the outside of the school, nothing seemed as bright as it had been, a pale luminescence that seemed to be everywhere, but lit almost nothing. A glare heralding the impending darkness. Ranma's body tensed in front of her. A leopard waiting to pounce. The subtle difference of the surroundings now made themselves clear even to Ranma. Of course, Nerima's weather was now infamous for its fickle behavior, but both knew this went beyond a change in the sky.
zip
And it struck. It flew at their heads, a large, spongy looking creature, an overly exotic animal out of a nature film, long thin tentacles reaching everywhere. Akane felt the wind knocked out of her as Ranma threw her to the side, falling on top of her to block the attack. The creature deflected on the wall that had been behind them. And turned to attack once more. Ranma, however, was ready this time.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken*!" Fists flew in a flurry of punches, strikes throwing him forwards awkwardly, not a single hit finding its target. The creature, tentacles drawn back into its body, avoided every blow, and leapt onto his head, a spring board to get what was behind him. "AKANE!"
He spun around, in time only to see the thing catapulting towards her as she screamed and struggled to get away. She brought up her hands in a defensive maneuver, hoping numbly that it would be enough to stop it. In a fury of blue light that sped at it from nowhere, it exploded over her, blood and entrails drenching her, and splattering on everything else. With the explosion, he felt a shift in the air, the sun shining brightly through the window again, casting blocks of light to illuminate the pair. He ran to her side, kneeling, not caring what it was he was kneeling in.
"Akane, you okay?" It was all he could get out as shocky eyes wide with terror stared blankly back at him. He hoisted her up, an arm behind her to offer support as she sat upright. She was a dead weight in his arms as she sagged against him; he welcomed the burden if it meant she was okay, not totally lost to the irony of how many times he had teased her about it. He looked around as he heard the sounds of movement and real life, and saw everybody from his classroom, and several others, in fact, staring at the blood soaked students.
"What's the meaning of this?!" The little, yellow clad Hinako-sensei faced the two with a menacing scowl. Well, as menacingly as a four foot child could face an adult. "Oh my goodness, Akane-chan's hurt badly. Did you do this Saotome?"
"NO! I would never-- it's not hers-- there was this--" What? He looked to for the remains of the body where it had fallen to the floor. Wherever it was, it was not there now. Nor, strangely enough, was there even evidence of blood or any attack at all anywhere. Only on him and Akane, who now lay limp in his arms like a lifeless doll. He realized with a sense of dread that he was not quite himself either. Was that her shaking, or him? Dammit, not now. Hold it together. Akane's depending on you. He closed his eyes to try to focus, to block out the sight before him. Find your center. Breathe. The mental reminders helped him to steel his resolve. He opened his eyes with the faint hope that Akane would be awake. She still lay there unresponsive, eyes not as wide, but still covered in a glassy sheen of terror. "Something attacked us."
"We better take her to the infirmary now then." Hinako-sensei ushered her students into the class with a fierce gaze, and surprisingly, they quickly obeyed. The trio soon found themselves alone in the cold, spotless hallway, the elder teacher escorting them to a more appropriate haven.
Akane's eyes flickered open, blurry vision clearing as they adjusted to the harsh light around her. A white room. A hospital room.
"What, where am I?" She lifted herself carefully, unsure of muscles that were not totally sure of her. A strong arm wrapped around her gingerly to offer support. She looked to the tall man next her, his face red and tear-streaked. "Daddy? What happened?" She had been changed into cleaner clothes, and felt much cleaner than she had, although her hair still felt heavy and matted. She brought a hand up and looked at it, noticing red stains that had been wiped off. Blood. Not her; she felt okay. But someone else's. Something else's. Realization hit her with an anchor's weight, and her calm confusion shattered. With a cry she flung herself around her father's neck, weeping loudly, sobs escaping in heaving gasps. "Daddy I was so scared! It came right at me, and then-- then-- I don't even know what happened!" Her words came out choked and confused, forming more questions than an explanation. Soun hugged his daughter back, and as he always did in times of stress and crisis, started crying again.
"Yes, what did happen, Ranma?" Sharp brown eyes faced the boy seated on the floor by the wall, pinning him there. His legs were crossed under him and every part of him recoiled at the accusatory glance. Nabiki was not without sympathy, however. She knew his devotion to her sister, however bizarrely shown at times, was unwavering. And he had saved her. But he still had a haunted look to him. So what happened?
"I don't know." His black short pigtailed braid swayed back and forth as he shook his head. "One minute everything was fine, and then we were attacked by this-- thing. It went straight for Aka-- her." He kept his focus on the wide tiles below him, but nodded his head once towards Akane. He kept the story as detached as possible. That meant no names. What had happened? He was still trying himself to decipher what had gone wrong. Or what had almost gone wrong. Not now. Not here. Breathe. Center. He swallowed hard as he took a breath, pushing back the bile taste that kept rising in his throat. He felt sick. He had almost failed. It had almost gotten her. He continued to stare at the floor, trying to block out the sounds of sobbing that tore at him. He had failed. Even if she was okay, for once he wasn't enough to keep her that way. If it hadn't exploded like that, it would have gotten her. Then what? Breathe. Center. He focused on the phrase. He couldn't consider possibilities beyond his control. But then, possibilities beyond his control had never been an issue before.
"So then what?" Nabiki tapped her foot in impatience on the floor, the dull thud the rubber sole gave out not annoying enough to others to be satisfying.
"Huh?" Ranma looked up at her, drawn out from his introspection.
Nabiki was ready to throw the shoe at him.
"What, do I have to drag it out of you? It attacked. That's nice. What happened to it? Did you get it, did it leave for a late appointment? What?"
"It just-- exploded." He took another shaky breath. Had he been holding it? "It was a ki attack, I think, but I don't know from where. There was no one else there. I didn't--"
BREATHE!
The forcefulness of his own conscience stopped him short. He looked at Nabiki, avoiding the gaze of the youngest Tendo daughter who now turned from her father's shoulder to look at him. He forced himself to glance at her, and saw her wiping her eyes on her sleeve. She caught his gaze, her look all puzzlement and openfaced trust. He turned away guiltily and returned to the harsher, but somehow less troubling gaze of Nabiki. Her gaze even then offered no comfort for him.
"Well, I suggest we just go home and try to forget this mess." Nabiki sighed in frustration. Why do I have to always take charge? "It seems to have taken care of itself." She felt that same frustration rise to massive irritation, as much by the nonexistent strong male figure in her father, who still sat weeping as Akane tried to now calm him down, as by the fact that even the account from the people who had been there offered no solutions. Knowing you, Ranma, this is nowhere near over. If it could get past Ranma... She didn't want to think of that possibility, and from the way, she noticed, that Ranma looked towards Akane, neither did he. This was not going to be good.
I don't think we should wait anymore, you know. It was worried. Not afraid, but aware of the gravity of the situation. I don't think she'll remember you from this morning.
She will.
But she's already been attacked twice! She got Iczerio to behave for her this time, but what if it's not just bedems next time? Do you think those are planned attacks? Would Big Gold risk awakening her potential just to test her?
She's capable of anything. I don't doubt Big Gold's ultimate intentions, but what she plans to do before then is a mystery. If Big Gold manages to get to Akane first...
It very clearly understood the dangerous consequences of that. And you're not here yet! I'm too small to fight on my own! Now it was just angry. It never liked waiting. Waiting meant having to stay away. It wanted to join with its new partner. And making new friends with the others would be nice too.
Do you want to approach her on your own?
It shifted its stance on the tall clock tower of the school. It blushed, if that was possible. No, no, I couldn't. She doesn't know me. She's looking for you.
Since when do you get so shy? I know you better than that. A smile was threatening to creep out from behind the thought. The little one was definitely a weakness to her, but one she welcomed completely.
It returned a smile it knew the other was feeling. The last thing it could ever be was shy. But they did have some time, now especially that they had no choice; Robo had been hit really bad. I'll wait for now. She seemed pretty scared. After this morning, well...
I know. I will be there as soon as I can.
Good. It was happy with that. It couldn't wait for them to be together, one big family again. It felt the connection fade, and sighed. Alone again. But not for long. It watched intently from the roof as crowds upon crowds of students filed their way into the main courtyard of the school, migrating like so many flocks of birds into the streets beyond. It scanned the crowd and found what it was looking for. Akane was being led outside, surrounded by the protective cushion of family as friends and acquaintances checked on her and wished her well. Walking next to her was the boy who had tried to help her before. It hoped fervently that he wouldn't be a problem. Did he ever leave her alone? It doubted that things would be as easy as it hoped in approaching the new partner. It would have to try to approach her when she was alone, and able to think of the situation rationally, without the panic of those around her. It had not been with Iczer Liros and Akane in subspace, but it knew it had not gone as well as hoped. This is taking so long. I wish she were here already. I really don't want to do this without her. Akane's not going to know me. But Iczer Liros couldn't leave until Robo was fully repaired. "Akane..."
Akane stopped, turning around to look up where the voice calling her name had originated from. She looked up to the tall clock tower of the school, hoping with a curse under her breath that it wasn't Kuno. But all she caught a glimpse of was a flash of green light, that just as quickly as she had seen it, disappeared.
"What's th' matter?" Ranma tried to drift from her side to move around again in conjunction with the dark cloud he was now carrying over his head. With a quick, short yank, she held him in check.
"I thought I heard someone call for me." But she had seen or spoken to all the people she knew, and they had all since left on their own ways. She looked around, unsure as to why she was looking up instead of among the people who immediately surrounded her. Her entourage stared back at her now with looks of quizzical concern. She looked at her motley crew of family, panda, and fiancee, and smiled brightly. "Aaaahhh, probably just my imagination. I'm okay though." She gave Ranma's hand a quick squeeze and continued on, feeling stupid at having to fight back a blush as his fingers squirmed in hers to get a better grip.
Ranma had been holding on quietly to her hand since they had left the infirmary. Actually, taking it had been her idea. He had been hovering around her like a hungry mosquito, and it was either keep him in one place nicely, or beat him senseless and drag him. Frankly, she was just not up to reaching for physical violence. But she had to admit, with a hint of chagrin, that the warmth of his bigger hand made her feel better. And at least with Ranma, as opposed to her father, she wasn't comforting him as much as he tried to comfort her; with the side benefit, best of all, that when he was embarrassed like this, he kept his mouth shut. Thank the gods for small miracles.
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