Guyver Ryoga / Ryoga 1/2 : Worlds in Collision A fanfic about three alternate Ranma 1/2 Universes by Mark Latus Part 4 : Let's Do The Time Warp Again! Monday Evening - Outside the Tendo Dojo - Guyver Ryoga Timeline Having sent his orders to his subordinates Ryogoid 207 headed for the dojo grounds. Closer proximity would assist his sensors in analyzing the residue from the dimensional shift. The house's other inhabitants were still inside. Possibly they were unaware Nabiki and Ryoga had just vanished. For the time being he had little else to do except run scans. As he approached the gate he noticed someone emerge from a parked car and head towards him. Whoever it was must have been watching the front gate. 207 shrugged, orders were to avoid trouble so he began angling away from the gate. The watcher kept advancing on 207 from behind. Things had been dull and Grothis was looking for a little excitement. He slapped a hand onto the norm's left shoulder, "Hey creep, talk to me." His chosen victim stopped and rotated to face him. There was absolutely no fear in his eyes as he got a good look at Grothis. That was a bit strange, at seven foot tall, 300 pounds of muscle and a face covered in scars he was used to scaring people. Of course compared to his Zoanoid form his human self looked warm and cuddly. The creep spoke up, "Just passing by. I'm not looking for trouble." "Tough luck, you found it." Weird, the creep's voice was steady. He'd thought he was squeezing hard enough to hurt. He increased the pressure. The creep sighed. It sounded weary, like royalty forced to deal with inferiors. In a blur of motion his right hand pulled something from his jacket. It was close in size and shape to an electric shaver. It emitted a faint hum as it pointed as Grothis's face. Looking slightly puzzled the creep put it away with the same blurring speed. "What the fuck was that toy?" The creep answered, "Neural Scrambler. It should have shut down your autonomic nervous system. An apparently natural death. I guess Zoanoid neural networks are too rewired to be affected. Live and learn." Grothis didn't understand the explanation but he caught the key word. This guy knew about Zoanoids! He squeezed hard enough to break bone. "Tell me what you know about Zoanoids or I crush every bone in your body!" There was absolutely no give in the creep's shoulder, what the hell was it made of? The creep smiled and without a trace of pain said, "Ah well, there are other ways to inhibit brain function." He punched the index finger of his right hand through Grothis's forehead. The Zoanoid saw a flash of white then keeled over dead. 207 caught the body as it fell. Data indicated Zoanoids dissolved slower in human form so he'd better conceal the remains. No witnesses, still he'd better be quick or he'd have more bodies to hide. Hmmm, the Zoanoid's car should serve. As he carried the body over 207 considered the intelligence level of Zoanoids. "I pointed a device at him and told him it was a weapon designed to kill him. He still didn't get the idea he'd better take me out immediately before I tried something else. Not that there was a lot he could have done to stop me. Still he could have tried." 207 studied the car and popped the trunk. Small car, small trunk, big man. The guy wasn't going to fit. Not unless he was folded just right. Resisting the urge to whistle a happy tune 207 got to work. The street was filled with multiple popping, cracking and squelching noises. Just as he was finishing and closing the trunk someone walked out the main gate of the dojo. 207 slid silently behind the car as Soun Tendo emerged. He was engaged with animated conversation with someone invisible to all of 207's senses. As he listened he realized the elder Tendo was talking to his late daughter Kasumi. Completely unaware of 207 and the outside world in general he headed off down the street. He was happy, Kasumi had come home and things were back to normal. Now he just had to find Genma and they could resume their game. Behind him 207 jammed the trunk lock. Hopefully by the time it was opened his victim would have sublimed into gas. It occurred to him he had unintentionally done the old man a favor. In his dementia he'd have been an easy victim if Kronos's watcher was still alive. Just one of those things. At which point 207 heard two trucks approaching rapidly from the north. He quietly moved away from the dojo and into deeper shadows. It could just be lost delivery trucks or it could be Kronos was making a housecall. Meanwhile inside the dojo Akane had realized something was wrong. She'd been staying away from the window thinking Ryoga and Nabiki might want some privacy. Of course that was just a guess, frankly she wasn't sure what they thought of each other. In any event she'd risked a look outside and seen nothing. That was a problem, they should have been in plain sight. Unless of course ... No it wasn't possible, they couldn't have vanished again. If they had then Ranma, herself and Daddy were in big trouble. Where was her father anyway? One thing at a time. Yelling at Ranma to check the garden for the others she commenced a frantic house search for her father. No trace. Ranma dashed back inside, being already in his female form the drizzle hadn't worried him. "Nobody out there. Unless they suddenly decided to take in a movie without telling we've got a problem." "You don't mean they vanished again, do you? We nearly died this afternoon when that happened." Akane felt the weight of the world pressing down on her. "Daddy's gone, Nabiki and Ryoga vanished and there's people ... things out there that want to kill us. I don't know how much more of this I can take." Ranma squatted down beside her. Forgetting for the moment he was female he took her hand. "Akane ... ", he began. Before things could get too touching the Zoanoids arrived. They'd transformed in the back of their trucks and leaped the wall on arrival. Monsters of varying description smashed through the walls. From outside the operational controllers watched via the cameras carried by the Zoanoids. Their main purpose right now was reminding their troops who they were supposed to take alive. "All right I want those two intact. Spread out and kill the others. Grab her you fools, she's only human. Hurry up ... what do you mean there's no one else in there? How can they be gone? Where the hell's Grothis anyway?" On the screen a furiously struggling Ranko Tendo was being gripped by two Ramothis class Zoanoids. Akane Tendo was helpless in the grip of a Varmore. Captain Charburn decided to head in to survey the situation. "Try and find the bastard who's supposed to be watching this place." His comrade nodded, he was happy to stay outside. Frankly he didn't trust the report that the Guyver was currently a long way away. The slaughter this afternoon was a reminder of what it was capable of. Charburn entered the house, the Zoanoids not holding prisoners saluted. One reported, "Sir, we can find no trace of Ranma Saotome or Soun and Nabiki Tendo." He nodded an acknowledgement and faced his captives. They looked defiant rather than scared. Interesting, he liked spirited women. It was enjoyable breaking that resistance. Sadly they were wanted intact. "Well ladies, care to tell me where your relatives are?" Ranko responded with a series of comments about his parentage. He smiled, "Well ladies this is sort of your lucky night. The good news is we want you alive. The bad news is we're going to destroy your personalities and brainwash you to obey us." "Hah, it'll never work creep!" That Ranko certainly was loud mouthed. "Tell that to Kasumi Tendo." Both paled at that reminder. In any event it was time to move out. He surveyed the assembled Zoanoids and made a choice. "Harbrel, Lithorne, you stay behind. Keep a motion detector. If Hibiki returns get out fast and report in. Do not attempt to engage him." They nodded. "If Ranma Saotome, Nabiki or Soun Tendo return kill them." "NO, YOU CAN'T!" That shout came from Akane Tendo. She struggled against the Zoanoid's grip but couldn't break free. "Don't be silly, of course we can. And we will." Charburn smiled and ordered his troopers out. They exited dragging their captives with them. Behind them Harbel headed for the fridge, "Stakeouts are thirsty work. So you've killed civilians before?" "Just once, normally I get stuck with guard duty." "Well I've done eight. It's like eating peanuts, you keep wanting more." Outside Charburn was talking to Ravel. From inside his truck came the muffled shouts of Ranko and Akane. It's hard to talk clearly with a paw covering your mouth. "Where the hell's our observer?" Ravel shrugged, "No sign of Grothis. He's either deserted or fucking off. Either way he's in deep shit. I'm leaving Webber behind to take over." "Fine." Webber saluted and slid behind the wheel of Grothis's car. As he watched the trucks pulled away carrying the captives off to Tempus. The lights in the house began clicking off as Harbel and Lithorne settled down to wait in the darkness. Inside the trunk Grothis's body continued to decompose rapidly. Webber settled back, no one in sight, everything was under control. Webber was wrong, he was under observation himself. In the shadows Unit 207 watched him. That had certainly been exciting, whatever it was. Perhaps 541 and 673 would find some answers. Assuming that a Kronos installation was the source of the dimensional shifting. It was under a minute later that 207 detected an incoming shift in a nearby sidestreet. There was a puff of displaced air, an energy flux then the signature of Ryogoid 218. 207 signalled his comrade to join him quietly. 218 arrived with a speed and silence any ninja would have killed to achieve. 207 adjusted his vocal systems to frequencies under the range of human hearing. It would have been more efficent to interface but human personality traits made the androids chose to talk in non crisis situations. "You're back already?" 218 shrugged. "I found them already, they're on Delta. I figured odds were from Gamma they'd end up either Beta or Delta." From the androids point of view their worldline was the Prime (or Alpha) Timeline. "Anyway I found two identical sets of DNA patterns. Corresponding to Nabiki Tendo and the Emperor's counterparts." "Fine." "Want me to go back and find out what they're doing?" 207 shook his head. "I don't care what they're doing. I just needed to know where those two were sent. If they only bumped up one level that indicates they don't have any fine control." He paused briefly. "Whoever exactly 'they' are." 218 nodded. 207 decided to ask him something he'd been wondering. "Say 218, do you have any idea why this operation was launched so quickly. We got sent back a few hours after I made my report about the anomalies in this timeline. Why the hurry? We could have spent days gathering a large force instead of just dumping the five of us back here because we were the only explorer units available. We've got time travel so why the rush?" 218's answer surprised him. "You've been in the field too much. You should download some of the theories of the human scientists sometimes?" "Humans? You mean the Emperor's listening to human thinkers?" "Yeah, they get some weird ideas. And time travel's a very weird thing. Anyway it's a variation of the idea of the observer influencing the observed. Basically 'now' is fluid. When we change a world's history we see its present change. Why? After all the new history is now the only reality that timeline ever had. Nothing changes until we depart from our time and make the change." "How does that apply here?" "Basically the possibility of our timeline being invaded by inter dimensional invaders from this timeline didn't exist until you reported it. After your report they had to hustle us back before reality changed on us. Sometime tomorrow we'll do something to this World's history. If we do the wrong thing we could undermine our own timeline's history." "This is just a theory ... isn't it?" "Yes, but with that kind of risk would you take the chance?" Both fell silent and wondered if their timeline's history still existed/ would exist. There was nothing to do know but wait for 541 and 673 to track the source of the shifting. While circumstances and people vary wildly across the multiple timelines that exist one thing is constant. That is time itself. To be more specific when it is say 2:03 am EST June 21st 1995 on one world it is this time on all the worlds that exist. So while all these events had proceeded on this timeline the three people bumped into another universe had been experiencing things themselves. In the timeline known to the Imperials as Delta .... ***************************************************************************** Monday Evening - The Garden of the Tendo Dojo - Ryoga 1/2 Timeline Nabiki had broken their embrace when she felt that weird disorientation again. Ryoga, who was already feeling disorientated from the kiss, hadn't noticed a thing. She glanced swiftly around the garden and felt ice crawling down her spine. There were new planks nailed over a hole in the training hall's wall. They hadn't been there a few minutes ago. Ryoga was struggling to think of something to say. "Uhh Nabiki ... I ... that is ... uhm ..." Nabiki grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Wake up, it just happened again!" Whatever exactly "it" was. Ryoga's mind started working again. Nabik was pointing at the wall? Then he realized there shouldn't have been a hole there. He looked around the garden, it was full of discrepencies. Things were moved, there were repairs that shouldn't have been there, missing damage. To him it added up to one thing. "Zoanoids!" He headed for the door, taking care to keep the umbrella over his head. Behind him Nabiki called, "Ryoga wait!" If her theory was right and they had somehow slipped into the past he might be about to kill their past selves. Inside the Dojo Ranma, Ryoga and the other martial artists heard someone in the garden heading their way. Ranma hoped it wasn't the Kuno with the weird armour. The door slid open and another Ryoga entered. Ryoga looked at his furious counterpart and said, "I hope that's not the same guy as this afternoon." "Ryoga, wait!" That call came from behind the new Ryoga. Behind him another Nabiki entered. Like the one they'd seen this afternoon this one was missing an eye. "No waiting! Get back." She did, rather hurridly as the newcomer yelled "GUYVER!". Around him the doorway and floor was shredded as if by an invisible sphere centered on the newcomer. Which was more or less what had happened. "We're in a lot of trouble here people.", Nabiki remarked. "Time to pull one of your winning-despite-incredibly-bad-odds tricks, Ranma." "Sooner him than me." Ryoga was trying to figure if he could pull the "they went that way" trick again. Probably not. For lack of any other options he snapped into a fighting stance alongside Ukyou and Ranma. Akane was still swiveling her head back and forth between the Nabiki next to her and the one behind the armoured Ryoga. The armoured Ryoga raised a hand to his chestplate. Then stopped as the Nabiki behind him slid past and into his firing line. "Get out of the way, Nabiki. They'll kill you." "Maybe. Except why haven't they transformed already? And how did they get in here and rearrange everything? Why duplicate Ukyou and Genma when we both know they're dead?" "I don't know, but I do know the only good Zoanoid is a dead Zoanoid!" "You're forgetting my timeslip theory." "Only because it's crazy." "And everything else in our lives makes sense?" The armoured Ryoga paused. "Well ... no." She nodded, "Exactly. Well, there's a simple way to test my theory." She reached for a vase, fumbling slightly as her depth perception wasn't what it used to be. She pulled out the flowers and picked up the vase. "If they're cursed they aren't Zoanoids, right?" "I guess so." Nabiki studied the crowd ahead of her. They all looked puzzled having not followed the last exchange at all. They also looked a little nervous having witnessed what the Guyver was capable of doing. "Here goes nothing!" She splashed the vase's contents over Ranma and Ryoga. The results weren't quite what she had expected. While Ranma naturally turned female the other Ryoga did not become P-chan. Instead he also turned female. Genma caught part of the splash and became a panda. He shrugged and went back to his boardgame. Neither he or Soun had reacted to the Guyver's appearance. Instead they had just shrugged and carried on playing. Neither of the newcomers knew what to make of this. Those had been the instantaneous transformations of the Jusenkyo curse rather than the sinew twisting change of Zoanoids. But that Ryoga had the wrong curse. Which meant ... what did it mean? "Hey you're that girl from this afternoon!", Ryoga shouted at his counterpart. "Ahh, you could say that", Ryoga-chan answered. If she got very lucky these guys would disappear any second. Unfortunately there was no sign of that happening. The one eyed Nabiki folded her arms across her chest. "I'd appreciate an explanation and I'd advise you to hurry. My friend back here tends to overreact to weird situations." Everyone looked at Ryoga-chan. "Well it's a long story." "Shorten it." "This is a parallel universe with a slightly different history. Here I don't have a suit like that and I fell in the same spring as Ranma." The new Nabiki looked at him. "I see." A pause. "So what's the long version?" Meanwhile over at the Kuno mansion there were two Tatewaki Kunos. So far neither was aware of the other. Guyver-Kuno was concluding his search of the mansion. He had found no trace of Saotome and was concluding that Nabiki had been wrong when she advised him to seek his enemy here. The last place to check was the underground training hall. He wondered what kind of shape it was in. When he'd initially activated the Guyver and regained his senses he had tested its capabilities downstairs. In doing so he had largely destroyed the hall. While he had ordered Sasuke to restore the place even he recognised that it was close to impossible. He headed downstairs, passing Sasuke on the stairs. "Sasuke, why are you not working on the training hall?" Sasuke studied his master with some surprise. "The training hall is in excellent shape Master Kuno." "We shall see, remember everything must be perfect for my two loves!" Kuno headed down leaving a puzzled Sasuke behind. His two loves? What had happened to number three? Which had he dropped, Akane Tendo, the pig- tailed girl od the bandanna girl? For that matter why was he up and around? Sasuke had thought Master Kuno was in his room recovering from his latest attempt to seduce the bandanna girl (known as Yuriko to Kodachi Kuno, the name under which Ryoga-chan had defeated her in gymnastic martial arts). On entering the training hall Kuno had looked around in amazement. He had underestimated Sasuke. The hall was restored to the state it had been before he cut loose with the Guyver. Incredible. He remembered why he had come and looked around. There was no trace of Saotome. He settled into a lotus posture, it was time to meditate. Since Saotome was not here should he seek him elsewhere and end the fiend's reign of terror. Or should he go to the Tendo Dojo to date the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo. This was a very weighty problem and would require his full mental abilities. While Kuno pondered Ryoga-chan was finishing her explanation to the pair she now thought of as Nabiki 2 and Ryoga 2. Ryoga 2 was still wearing his armour but from his posture seemed to have relaxed a bit. It occurred to Ryoga-chan that she was getting very practiced at this story. Of course prior to this her life hadn't depended on the explanation. Incentive is not always a good thing. Nabiki 2 had slumped against her armoured friend. She sighed, "So this isn't our past meaning I don't get to change anything. Everything happens the way I remember it." She looked pretty close to tears. The figure behind her rested a hand on her shoulder. Given the power of that armour Ryoga-chan would have considered that a hostile gesture. Nabiki 2 seemed to find it comforting. The peace of this moment was broken by Kasumi entering. "Oh my, no one told me we had visitors." Both Nabiki 2 and Ryoga 2 freaked! Nabiki 2 screamed and tried to slid herself between the wall and Guyver Ryoga. He stepped forward extending his arm blades as he raised a hand to his chestplate. Then stopped dead and studied Kasumi. She was watching him with polite incomprehension. He sheathed the sonic swords and lowered his hands. "Excuse me, I ... thought you were someone else." The guilt rose up inside him again, knowing he'd had no choice didn't make it any easier. Perhaps it was a subconscious desire for punishment that made him step away from Nabiki and deactivate the Guyver. Or perhaps he just wanted a chance to explain. The results were the same. Kasumi was introducing herself as Ryoga 2 shouted "Guyver" and felt his battlesuit fold itself away into its dimensional pocket. She looked momentarily startled then regained her mental equilibrium. "My goodness Mr. Guyver you have a striking resemblance to Ryoga. Are you related?" "Not as such, no." "Oh. And your friend is ... ?" Nabiki 2 stepped forward, "My name's Nabiki. It's really (amazing?, terrifying?) ... nice to meet you again." Kasumi frowned slightly. "Yes we met this afternoon. You ... left suddenly. Has anyone ever told you you bear a remarkable resemblance to my sister Nabiki?" Kasumi's subconscious tended to edit the weirder events she witnessed from her memory. This enabled her to remain an island of stability in the midst of constant chaos. "Yes, so I've been told." "Well I must make you some tea. Just a moment." Kasumi returned to the kitchen leaving the "guests" studying the room. Both were half convinced everyone would suddenly say "Hah, fooled you!" and transform into monsters. Paranoia had become a definite survival trait on their world. In any event the room had gone silent. Akane's gaze was still darting between the pairs, Ranma and Ukyou were remaining wary, while Ryoga and Nabiki studied their counterparts wondering why they had reacted to Kasumi. Ukyou broke the silence. "So who's going to pay for the damage to my restaurant?" "Uh ... sorry about that, it just ... " Nabiki 2 broke in, "Ryoga don't admit liabilty, that's the wrong way to start negotiations." Nabiki headed over to Ukyou. "For a small fee I'll be happy to serve as your agent in these matters." She could outmaneuver everybody else but could she outwit herself? The challenge was irresistable. However before things could get bogged down in financial negotiations Ryoga-chan decided to mention a few facts. "I hate to mention it but things can't stay permanently in another universe. When these two snap home everything that came with them vanishes with them. Including money." Ryoga 2 was happy to change the topic, frankly he felt safer facing Zoanoids than a furious Ukyou. "That's a good point, how long are we here for. There's people back ... back home who need us." That thought brought the reality of the situation home to him. "Shit, while we're stuck here Akane and Ranma are on their own. If the Zoanoids attack ..." Nabiki 2 paled. "We've got to get back immediately! How do we do that?" "How should I know? I don't even know how you got here? Just because I've been through this sort of crazyness doesn't mean I have any control over it." Ryoga-chan took a deep breath and calmed down. In a more reasonable tone she said, "As I understand it there are two ways to switch universes. The first is you get some kind of energy charge, when the energy's used up you snap back home. The second is there's a gizmo of some sort that holds you in the wrong universe, when it's destroyed you also snap home." She paused. "I'm guessing here but since you already appeared and disappeared once today maybe the energy charge version is the answer. If so when it wears off you go home again." "You mean we're stuck here?" "For the time being. So while you're here maybe you can answer a few questions." "Such as?" Ryoga-chan studied her counterpart, "Well for starters, why did you try to kill me, Nabiki and Ukyou this afternoon?" In the confusion of the past few minutes everyone else had forgotten that. Ryoga 2 found everyone (except Nabiki 2) glaring at him. "Sorry, case of mistaken identity. I thought you were Zoanoids." "Zoanoids?" Nabiki decided to ask something that had been bugging her. "While we'd all like to know what Zoanoids are there's something I want to know. Why are you both scared of Kasumi?" The two outsiders looked at each other. After a pause Ryoga 2 said, "In our world Kasumi ... died a few months ago. So seeing her alive again was a ... a shock." This news was stunning. Akane was the first to say, "Kasumi? That ... that's awful. What happened?" Ryoga 2 looked awful. He was trying to answer but couldn't put together the right words. Nabiki 2 broke in, "It ... the Zoanoids are the ones responsible. Since you don't know the word maybe you don't have them here. If so you have no idea just how lucky you are." She paused to gather her thoughts. At which point a distraction arrived. A black rose suddenly embedded itself in the floor next to Ryoga-chan's foot. It would have embedded itself in her foot if she hadn't caught a glimpse of it coming and sidestepped. A somewhat damp Kodachi Kuno leapt in through the window she'd pried open. "Yuriko Hibiki I have come to finish you and claim my darling Ranma." Ryoga-chan groaned, entering that stupid contest after Akane injured her ankle had not been the brightest thing he'd ever done. Beating Kodachi had turned out to be an even worse move. Now she was determined to avenge herself and claim Ranma (who she was convinced was being pursued by Yuriko). "Where is my darling?" Ranma was rather glad he was in female form. "He left, won't be back all evening." "Oh really, then why are you, the cheater and the scully maid all waiting here." Ukyou pulled a few spatulas from her bandolier. "Care to repeat that you leotarded psychotic?" Kodachi twirled her ribbon threateningly, "You need a lesson in manners." "Take your best shot." "Look this is ridiculous", Akane decided to try playing peacekeeper. "Stay out of this you flatchested tomboy." "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" With the exception of the Nabikis every female in the room was glaring at each other. Suddenly the room was full of barely leashed tension. The slightest thing could trigger it. The kitchen door opened and Kasumi emerged, "The tea's ready." That was good enough. Suddenly the room exploded into a storm of clubs, spatulas, ribbons, bandannas and furiously struggling girls. From the sidelines Ryoga 2 and Nabiki 2 watched in amazement. The last fears they had of this being a Zoanoids trap dissolved. Who else could generate such chaos. Somewhat nostalgically Ryoga 2 remarked, "Reminds me of the way things used to be." Nabiki 2 nodded. "The good old days." "I guess they aren't ready for it yet", Kasumi said and retreated into the kitchen. The fight moved towards the window. Akane, nursing a bruised knee, had dropped out. Kodachi, realizing just how bad the odds were headed for the window. Ukyou, who'd been hoping to accidentally injure Akane but missed the chance, followed. Being tangled in Kodachi's ribbon Ranma-chan and Ryoga-chan were dragged along for the ride. Both were accusing the other of their predicament being his fault. The two outsiders headed over to the window to watch. Ryoga had forgotten it was raining until a gust of wind gave him a faceful of water. Engrossed by the fight, a reminder of better days, Nabiki 2 didn't notice. Akane was the first to see the results. "What's that?" Nabiki emerged from behind the TV where she'd taken cover. "What's what?" "That", Akane said pointing at the small black piglet standing by the second Nabiki at the window. She limped over and picked it up. "He's so cute." The piglet made a series of frantic squeals, evidently it wasn't used to strangers. "Easy, everything's all right. Poor baby." She cuddled it to herself. The piglet quieted down, though to Nabiki it looked almost embarrassed. Nabiki 2 turned from the window, the excitement was over. Nice to see a fight that wasn't the life or death struggle she was far to used too. She took in the scene behind her and froze. Then yelled, "RYOGA, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" The piglet began a series of frantic squeals. Nabiki stamped over and (with a little jealousy in her voice) asked Akane, "Mind putting Ryoga down Akane? Why are you so crazy about a pig anyway?" "Ryoga?", Akane looked down at the pig in confusion. For the first time she noticed the bandanna it was wearing. Nabiki looked over at the window, she noticed the pile of clothing below it. "Oh right I remember Ryoga's story now. He was the only one with the girl curse, all the other Ryogas he met had the pig curse." "WHAT?" Akane's voice indicated growing anger. She looked down at the pig in her arms. "YOU CREEP!" Nabiki 2 quickly grabbed P-chan from her sort-of sister. "Before you get too worked up I'd like to know if he acted petlike or you just grabbed him." "Uhm ... well I suppose I ..." Feeling embarrassed Akane blushed and went quiet. P-chan breathed a sigh of relief. Nabiki 2 looked down at him "Don't think you're off the hook yet. I thought you were over your thing with Akane. She's not even the right one." She ignored the piglet's frantic squeals of denial. "His 'thing with Akane'?", Akane repeated. "Things must be very different in their world." "Uh huh, right." Nabiki responded. To herself she thought, "She never did catch on that "our" Ryoga had a crush on her. Well he's my Ryoga know so Akane's stuck with Ranma." At which point the boys in question (who were still temporarily girls) reentered. They were still squabbling over whose fault it was they'd got entangled. "Where's Ukyou", Akane asked the mud drenched pair. Ranma answered, "Chasing Kodachi. Guess she needs to blow off some steam after that mess this afternoon." Ryoga nodded. "Sounds right. I don't know about you but I need some hot water and fresh clothes." "Good thinking, time to get back to normal.' Nabiki 2 handed P-chan to Ryoga. "In that case mind changing Ryoga back at the same time. I'm sure he's got some explaining to do." Ryoga-chan nodded absently. Ranma looked at the pig in confusion, "Ryoga?" "Different world, different curse. I distinctly remember telling you the story, Ranma." "Well yeah, but ... it's weird." Ryoga nodded and the three headed up to the bathroom. Nabiki studied her counterpart, "Say are you and Ryoga ... ?" "Just friends!", Nabiki 2 exclaimed a little too quickly. Nabiki shrugged, "OK, just wondering if you two were engaged like us." Nabiki 2 stared at her, "Engaged! You're kidding?" "Nope, I swear on my secret Swiss bank account." "Wow, you are serious." Akane decided to get things back on track, "About what you were saying earlier? You know before everything went crazy." "I don't want to talk about Kasumi, OK! I think the Zoanoid stuff can wait until the others rejoin us." Her tone made it clear she wouldn't budge from this position. "All right." Nabiki considered asking her counterpart how she'd lost her left eye but refrained. After all in her position, and if she'd been born in that world it would be her in that position, she wouldn't want anyone prying into her personal problems. They sat quietly until the boys returned. Ryoga 2 made a somewhat incoherent apology to Akane, incoherent since he got carried away and apologized for several things that hadn't happened on this timeline. With that out of the way the two outsiders began to explain what Zoanoids were. Along with what had been happening on their timeline. Ranma was glad Ukyou had left, she wouldn't have enjoyed hearing that she had died on the other Earth. They didn't give too many details about how but it became clear that a lot of their friends and acquaintances were gone. It took quite a while to conclude their story. At the end of it Nabiki 2 was slumping. She hadn't had a full night's sleep in quite a while. Her nightmares wouldn't let her relax. She yawned and mumbled, "'Scuse me, think I'm gonna doze off." "Ok, you can bunk in my room", Nabiki told her. "We're a little short on space with Ryoga, Ranma and his dad all living here." She helped her counterpart up the stairs. Behind them she heard the two Ryogas talking softly. A short while later she was putting her half asleep counterpart to bed. Barely aware of her, or perhaps thinking she was talking to herself Nabiki 2 muttered constantly. "Listen, I know Ryoga blames himself but he shouldn't. I know what I said but it wasn't his fault at all. No one could have saved Kasumi. My face, guess that was my fault but I had to try, she might have still been in there. Bad things happen sometimes, we just got real unlucky. That's all, not his fault, he did his best. What else can you do ..." She dozed off. Feeling very cold Nabiki headed downstairs. The living room was quiet. As she entered Ryoga pantomimed "quiet". Ryoga 2 was slumped over a cushion, deeply asleep. He padded over to join her. Once they were in the hallway he said quietly, "He just keeled over. Exhaustion finally catching up with I guess." She nodded. "So what did you think of their story." "Well hopefully they're both crazy. Because if they aren't their world has some real problems." "The Guyver part is real, so's her injury." "Yeah, yeah it is isn't it. Wish there was something we could do to help." "Like what?" "I don't know. I just think we should do something. They're us, or the us we could have been." He paused. "You know what I'm getting at?" Nabiki looked very serious. "Yes. But I don't know what we can do." They held each other realizing just how fortunate they were. About 2 am Nabiki 2 awoke with a start, covered in sweat. The nightmare had snapped her awake, now she stared around herself in confusion. She remembered where she was and calmed down. Her hearrate dropped back to normal and her eyes adapted to the darkened room. She was alone, the other Nabiki had mentioned finding a space in Akane's room. She seemed to recall saying something about her having to get used to having a roommate and seeing her counterpart color. Could she and the other Ryoga ... ? No, not a chance. Almost no chance anyway. In any event she didn't feel like going back to sleep. She located her clothes and pulled them on. Then, moving slowly, she opened the door and headed downstairs. Her Ryoga was slumped in the living room. He was asleep but far from peaceful. He twitched and groaned in the grip of his own nightmare. She hesitated a moment then reached out to wake him. Ryoga snapped awake and rolled frantically away from her. He began shouting "Guyv ...." then stopped the activation as he realized who it was. The air crackled with energy that slowly disappated. Nabiki felt embarrassed, she'd forgotten that lately Ryoga tended to wake fairly violently if disturbed. "Sorry." He let a breath and relaxed. "That's ok, it was a rotten dream anyway." He paused then asked, "Couldn't sleep?" "No, usual reasons." He nodded in agreement. "What I wouldn't give for one night's dreamless sleep. You could make a fortune that way." "Not from you, you're always broke." He chuckled, "You've got me there. He glanced out the window. It remained cloudy but the rain had stopped. "I could use some fresh air. Care to join me." "Sure. Nice to be able to step outside without worrying something's waiting for you." "Yeah." They stepped out into the garden. It was a quiet night, you could almost imagine the two of them were the only ones around. Ryoga felt peaceful for the first time in ages. At the back off his mind his conscience reminded him about the people back home but he ignored it. Until they got back there wasn't anything he could do. Perhaps he should just seize the moment. He remembered what they'd been doing when they arrived. He turned to her, "Nabiki ...", he began. The sudden cloudburst took them both by surprise. Whatever Ryoga was going to say suddenly came out as "Bweee" as his body changed. Nabiki cursed, scooped up the pig and ran inside. She looked down at the piglet cradled in her arms and smiled. "We have got to work on our timing." This was truer than she realized because at that moment the world shifted around them. ***************************************************************************** 2:30 am Tuesday Morning - Tendo Dojo - Guyver Ryoga Timeline Harbrel was waiting for his watch to end when the motion detector suddenly screamed to life. He kicked Lithorne awake hoping Hibiki wasn't back. Configurations didn't match him, meaning whoever it was was fair game. Whoever it was could be found by the patio door. He flicked on the light as He heard Lithorne slid up behind him. Nabiki Tendo froze in shock at the sight of two Zoanoids. "Shit, we're back", she muttered. The only other thing being detected was some sort of pet. Which meant no Guyver, which meant time for a little fun. Harbel smiled exposing a lot of fangs. "Run, maybe you'll make it to the street." Behind him Lithorne chuckled. She recovered her poise and said, "Sorry, I've decided to give up on the damsel in distress routine." She put the small piglet she was carrying down and stepped behind it. "It's only fair to warn you guys that this is an attack piglet." Harbel looked at Lithorne, that was a new one. A fairly miserable bluff but at least it was original. "Well I'm scared, are you scared?" Lithorne giggled. It sounded strange coming from an eight foot tall combination of squid and humanoid insect. "Absolutely, I'm terrified." Harbel unsheathed his claws. "But I'm also kind of hungry. I think pork chops will make a nice appetizer." He smiled at Nabiki, "Then I'll move on to the main course." He bore down on the piglet like an express train. End of part 4 Next in part 5 : What the androids have been doing Where Ranma and Akane are Why Nabiki's pulling this stunt Part 5 : Invincible Defender P-chan.