Subject: [FFML][Fanfic][Ranma][repost] Eve, chapters 3-4
From: "Kayu-chan" <stroma@globalnet.co.uk>
Date: 8/20/1998, 7:19 AM
To: "FFML" <ffml@fanfic.com>
Reply-to:

EVE
By Kayu-chan
@---{-----     
                                               
Notes for the series....           
_xxx_ = accenting words.           
~xxx~ = sound effects.          
((Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 created by the great and extremely funny Rumiko
Takahashi and owned by her, Viz., Kitty, Fuji TV and Shogakukan Inc. and
maybe other assorted companies. I hold absolutely no claim on any of the
Ranma 1/2 characters but Eve and Jaden are mine...))         

CHAPTER 3 - BITTERSWEET MELODY OF SOUL, PART 2    
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There's no truth that hurts more than truths about yourself."

     "This Jaden is a monster!" Akane gasped. "How can a person be so
twisted?"
      Nabiki cleared her throat loudly. 
     "You forget, little sister, that Jaden isn't truly human."
     "She's near enough!" Akane desperately tried not to look stupid.
     "Have you been reading this or just daydreaming about Ranma?" Nabiki
asked, seemingly innocently.
     "I don't daydream about that jerk all the time!"
     "So you _do_ think about him?" Nabiki smiled smugly.
     "..."
     "Now girls, you should really stop arguing. We have to go warn Ranma
and Ryoga about what this Jaden is capable of," Dr. Tofu spoke up, having
finished reading all he had saved.  This was worse than he'd expected. He
would have told Kasumi, too, but the girls seemed nervous about him going
near her, strangely enough.
     "Well, I'm ready. Akane, you can't go out like that, you'd better get
something decent on."
     "Nabiki, I'm dressed!"
     "Oh, my mistake, younger sister."

*    *    *    *    *    *
    
     Ryoga wandered down the street. He had had to get out of Ucchan's. He
needed space from sympathetic, pitying faces. He had never taken pity
well. The hot sun seemed to be beating his head in and annoyed his exposed
wounds which bit him back in anger. But his mind was on another wound: his
soul. Long ago he had lost his spirit. 
     He was not in an emotional stupor as he was before but he was
confused and teetering over the edge in hesitation. Ryoga was in shock.
Akari had dumped him. Sweet, loving Akari hated him, had no respect for
him. She never did. The one person in life who had kept his sanity in
place had stumbled away clumsily, knocking it over. But Ryoga thought he
didn't love Akari. Why should he be so upset at her separation?
     Too many questions left unanswered that simply didn't matter to
anyone but him. And he mattered to no-one. He saw his parents barely two
or three times a year. His mother had trouble remembering his name. No-one
would miss him if he...
     ...Couldn't possibly be thinking of doing _that_?! He still had a
home, a staple holding on to part of him. He even had a pet dog, who had
gone off him a little after Ryoga had poured hot water over him. A small
smile appeared on his face, he would find home and stay there until he saw
his family, but the smile never reached his eyes. 

*    *    *    *    *    *
    
     Ranma watched, bored and impatient, as Eve slowly finished her food,
seemingly taking every bite like she was a pirate and it was gold. She had
taken ages to order food from the hospital cafeteria and seemed to be in
slow motion. Soon she finished by licking her long fingers.
     "It's been _weeks_ since I last ate."  Her flute-like voice was
asking for an apology without actually being obvious about it.
     "I know the feeling," Ranma replied, apparently accepting her
apology.
     "No, really, it's been over two months since I last had some solid
food."
     "It was a little like that when me an' Pop were on a training trip.
Who knows _how_ many girls I was engaged to in order to get something to
eat!"
     "Four, not including Ukyo. One was a boy, even."
     Ranma spurted out the coke he was sipping. "How did yo -"
     "Please don't worry, all the girls except the boy are either in love
or engaged."
     "And the boy?"
     "He now lives in Nova Scotia." Eve watched Ranma stare back at her,
he seemed unnerved by her ability, still. "No need to be scared of me, I
won't hurt you. In fact, I'm going to protect you from Jaden."
     "Who _is_ ?" Ranma wanted to see what kind of tale she would come up
with, although his scepticism was fading , he couldn't help but distrust
this stranger. There was something about Eve which made him view her
differently. Maybe it was her icy-blue eyes which were a little too bright
and startling to be normal. Maybe it was the long, flowing red hair which
reminded him far too much of blood. It was creepy but not ugly, almost
beautiful as it shimmered, which scared Ranma even more.   
     "Jaden is evil, she has a _lot_ of magic at her disposal and she
wants to use it against me."
     "Okay...but why?"
     "Ran-chan, there you are!" a voice shouted uninhibitedly across the
echoing room. Ranma circled to see Ukyo, leaning over a barrier facing
him, flustered and worried. She wasn't her normal, happy self. There
seemed to be something haunting her. It was too Ryoga-esque for Ranma to
be comfortable with it.
     "Ucchan, what's wrong?" He walked - hobbled - over to his old friend.
     "It's Ryoga, I...I..."
     Ranma turned back to study Eve, to see if she knew what was going on
but her eyes were darting every which way but his.  "What about him?
What's happened?" Ranma knew Ryoga had jumped out of the window but
nothing odd had further happened, till now. 
     Ukyo seemed on the verge of tears and her face was a map of guilt.
Eager to get rid of it, Ranma smiled encouragingly at his upset friend.
"He was standing outside of my place, a total mess, so I brought him in to
have a seat. He was completely drained of his usual fire! I didn't know
what had happened to him. He was acting totally out of character! I'm real
worried, he's kinda like a friend to me..." When he's not a jerk that is!
But now's not the time to think like that....
     "Why should that make you feel guilty, Ucchan?"
     "I-I gave Ryoga a letter that Akari had left for him. I thought it
might cheer him up...but after reading it, he disappeared. I read the
letter he'd left behind..."
     "And?"
     "And in it, Akari had dumped him for someone else. It had somethin'
to do with her finding out about P-chan and it being pathetic, it's...it's
all kind of vague. I don't know what he's going to do but I know what he's
capable of and that scares me." Ukyo looked at Ranma for a reprieve but he
was too busy trying to hide his shame as he slowly realised what must have
happened. For a few moments, there was steel silence, the cafeteria was
quite sparse.
     "It was not your fault, Ukyo Kuonji," a quiet voice piped up. It was
Eve, wavering just beside Ranma. "Akari might not have even written the
letter. It could have been Jaden, then again..." She shrugged her
shoulders, undecided. "It might have been all lies that Ryoga's been
exposed to but truth isn't always easily available. What we have to do is
get out of these hideous hospital clothes and go search for him, if Jaden
hasn't already finished him off."
     "You're probably right," Ranma reluctantly answered.
     Ukyo stared, puzzled. "Who's Jaden?"
     "We've no time for explanations. Get something decent on, Ranma, I'll
do the same and we'll go."
     "Where? Do you know where Ryoga might have gone?" For once he sounded
worried about his rival.
     "I have an idea," Eve replied, almost instantaneously.
     "You seem to know a lot about Ryoga?" Ranma questioned.
     Eve passed him the same intense gaze she had given him when she first
had warned him about Jaden; it was as unnerving as ever. Except this one
seemed to have melancholy wrapped up in it. "I know everything about
Ryoga, what he's been through, how he felt about it, what he felt for
others..." 
     "How'd I come out of it?"
     "Do you really want to know, Ranma? It's not very pleasant
listening." She fixed Ranma with a more angry gaze. "All I can say is...
that Ryoga has been badly scarred by experiences, some involving you but a
few years back, he did regard you as a the nearest thing he had to a
friend."
      "He did?"
      Eve gave a silent nod. "...But not anymore." She motioned for them
to get ready as time was running the 400m sprint. What she didn't tell
them was that she had an awful headache and that was bad news, not just
for her health.
     
*    *    *    *    *    *
    
     Ryoga staggered for a few hours, not quite sure where he was.  He
regarded the ordinary-enough house in front of him, a flicker of
recognition swatted him.
     "_My_ house?!"  He couldn't believe where he was. Surely he should
have been in Okinawa or somewhere similar? Sweeping out any doubts over
the situation, he stepped inside, greeted by his dog. "Hi Checkers!" He
patted his dog happily but a knot of emotional agony still lay in his
stomach and his body hadn't yet recovered from its burns. Unable to ignore
them anymore, he collapsed on his sofa, sinking into the soft material.
His mind, sad and bewildered, let unconsciousness take away the
unrelenting pain. 
      ....A few minutes later, something disturbed Ryoga awake. Blinking
his eyes open, he scanned the room. Nothing out of place. Was somebody
there? He shook the bad feeling off, he'd had a bad enough day without
becoming paranoid. His senses told him no-one was there but part of him
was convinced there was.
     "I'll just check the house once over. Checkers, Checkers?" No answer.
"That dog must be around here somewhere...?" Ryoga trailed round the house
looking for his pet and tried to keep matters of the heart from reaching
the front of his mind, concentrating instead on finding Checkers. Failing
miserably on both counts.
     "Where did this street come from?" He found himself outside of his
house. Right then he could have smashed up a few walls out of frustration
of life but he had no energy, he just slumped down against one opposite
his house. He leaned back against the brick wall and stared up at the
mid-day sun, who snarled back at him. 
     Nothing in life felt worth the energy. He was temperamental half-pig
with a lousy sense of direction who suffered from a terminal case of
unrequited love and who had never been able to completely defeat his
rival, his nemesis. And now he had a possibly psychotic paranormal being
after his blood. Life wasn't too good.
      Ryoga found himself doing the one thing he never thought he would
do: regretting ever following Ranma. He would have had none of the
troubles that had plagued him since. His martial arts skills might not
have been as good but a curse wasn't worth it... But how could he regret
meeting Akane and Akari? Maybe the fact that now his life was nothing
because of how he felt - or how he thought he felt - about those two.
      It was too late now, his life was too far down in the gutter for him
ever to be lifted out of it and cleaned up. He masqueraded as a pet pig so
that he could sleep in the same bed as the one he loved. How perverted,
how dishonourable, can you get? 
     But instead of seeing these self-realisations as stepping stones to a
new life, Ryoga felt he was drowning and the only way to end all the
suffering was to stop breathing. His only anchor was his home and his
family and that seemed desperately out of reach. It had been nearly six
months since he had seen his mother and it was likely it would be a few
months more before he'd meet her again. What's the point? She probably
wouldn't even know who he was! Sometimes, even he didn't know who he
was...
     Ryoga's drooping head flicked up abruptly as he smelt a familiar
choking, reeking scent slowly emerge from across the street. 
     No...
     Oh no...
     He stared, wide-eyed, in shock and horror and guilt at the sight
before him, not sure which emotion he should let come through.
     My house...
     On fire...
     The enveloping heat rasped over Ryoga as he dashed madly towards his
burning home. The house was now black. Had he been that involved in his
thoughts that he hadn't seen or smelt it before now? He bounded to the
door, hardly aware of his actions. The rasps of fire through the window
taunted his skin with daggers as he reached for the door handle. It was
white as his still bandaged hand grasped it and ripped the door off.
     ~Woooossshhhhh!!!~
     Ryoga shot back as a ball of fire streaked out of the door. The fires
fever and the cloaking smoke cocoons his staggering body, stinging and
rupturing the vulnerable body. But Ryoga was determined to get into the
house. To save possessions, to check that no-one had gotten lost in there,
to find Checkers. He didn't notice the crowds gathering around his house
and the nearing moans of the fire engine.  
     "Nooo...!" he screamed hoarsely, his throat tight and tense,
frustrated at the lack of entrances which wouldn't kill him. "It's my
fault!" Somehow he knew that it was. "Damn Fate!!" Ryoga prepared just to
smash his way through the wall, not caring about the consequences, when a
firm hand gripped his arm and sharply pulled him back.
     "You can't do that, even if it is your fault," a soft voice strongly
whispered in his cracked ears.
    Ryoga circled round to face the stranger, his body aching and crying
in pain with every movement. "Who are you?" The sight of a blonde woman
barely made it through his eyes before he collapsed into his own
blackness.       
                                                    
*    *    *    *    *    *      
   
     Ten minutes before.... 
     Eve was madly bolting down the quiet street, her long, swirling,
sleeveless red dress not seeming to hamper her and her hair tied up
haphazardly in a white bow. She didn't seem to mind being bare-footed
either. "We're nearly there!" The message passed out of Eve's lips and
into the wind, catching Ranma on the way.                                 
     Ranma could barely keep up with Eve. And she was the one who was in a
coma yesterday, his mind decided to tell him. He was leaping across the
streets with the help of his crutches, wondering how anyone could go
faster than him when in pain like that. He didn't even know why he was
doing this. It wasn't as if he cared for the moronic jerk who once
attacked him late at night and got him thrown out into the rain, he just
needed some excitement. He curved his head round to see that Ukyo was at
his side for once, though she was tiring. She seemed to be gulping in the
air around her.
     Eve suddenly stopped in mid-sprint. Ranma managed to brake just
before hitting her. Ukyo was about to jerk forward into the air when Ranma
caught her arm and prevented her from flying or falling.
     "What's the big idea?!" he angrily shouted at Eve's hypnotised form.
She twisted round to meet Ukyo's and Ranma's stares. The bright blue in
her eyes had darkened and narrowed. 
     "Look over there." Eve pointed down the slope the three were on,
towards the a certain part of the city, barely two or three miles away.
"Look."
     Ranma and Ukyo strained their eyes to see what she was pointing at.
     "Oh, I see it... is that smoke? It's a house...on fire?" Ukyo asked.
Ranma peered a bit more and then spotted the smoke and where it was coming
from. His eyes widened in bewildered recognition. "What's the matter,
Ran-chan?"
     "That's where Ryoga's place is at... It looks like you're right, he
went home."
     "...But Jaden followed him. Ryoga does have _some_ honour, he would
not have burned down his own house.," Eve matter-of-factly stated. 
     "How do you know so much about Ryoga?" Ukyo was still unsure of the
whole situation.
     "We have to get to the house before Jaden causes too much damage."
Eve lifted her head up defiantly, the glare of the sun covering the fear
on her face. She ignored the question posed to her.
     "It looks too late for his home," added Ranma.
     "I wasn't talking about that."
     "Oh."
     "Let's go then!" Eve impatiently started to run down the small
downward-sloping street. Ranma and Ukyo began to follow, with new impetus
to reach their destination.
     Soon, the three were about to turn the corner, getting nearer to
Ryoga's place when Eve's senses shouted at her to stop, Ranma's instincts
blared wildly and Ukyo's sounded a foghorn. They stopped at the same time
and held their breath simultaneously. Eve peered round the corner, while
everything told her she should run now. Frowning, she turned back to Ranma
and Ukyo, who bared her sharp-edged battle spatula. 
     "I cannot see any danger but I can feel it. What _is_ Jaden up to?"
Eve pulled out a long, decorated sword from behind her back.
     "Where did you get that sword from?" Ranma asked, intrigued. Eve's
eyes were now fixed above her. 
     ~Rumble~
     She felt a shadow descending from above, slowly getting larger and
larger. She backed up towards the other two, who felt the shadowy object
from above come slowly down.
     "What's that?" Ukyo screwed up her eyes to see the long, vague object
come closer and closer. 
     "The sun's distorting its shape." Eve kept her eyes locked above. A
spark shimmered in her eyes. "It's a trick!"
     "What?" Ranma asked.
     "Jump!" she screamed and flipped into the air. Ranma and Ukyo also
leapt high into the sun's glare.
     "Look!" Ukyo pointed at the descending shadow, which disappeared.  An
underbreath of sound barely touched their senses as they all leaped to a
rooftop. "Aaaaahhh!"
     A burst of light slashed from under the pavement. It streaked into
the sky as the street shuddered and moaned in concrete anguish. The burst
of white light rushed down again and faced the three young people,
floating in mid-air.
     "What the -?" gasped Ranma, his eyes bugged out.
     "It's shaped like..."
     "...A Chinese dragon? Jaden, how unoriginal." Eve held her sword high
in the air, threateningly. 
     The white hot dragon, with tendrils of fire knitted with strands of
incandescent rays, distinguishing its shape and patterning it's ten-foot
long body, was strangely not blinding to raw sight but the heat flapped
out all around it. It glared menacingly at any spectators gathering, who
promptly ran away screaming. It would've been beautiful if it were not the
for the aura of pure loathing which it struck in those near it.
     "Just like Jaden herself," Eve scowled, "how apt. But I have a Ryoga
to save, so... go bye-bye." She flung her sword violently at the neck. It
was usually the weak spot on a monster like this. But nothing happened...
"What the..?"
     A few drips of silvery liquid dropped down from the "dragon" to the
pavement and sizzled snappily against it. Eve stood silent for a few
moments, her face painted with shock. "That was my best sword!!!"   
     "How do we fight this thing?" Ranma piped up, beside her. The dragon
was now fixed on them and wasn't too happy about its "heartburn". It came
closer. They stepped back. It came even closer. They stepped back. "I
can't just stand here!" Ranma roared, "I can defeat this light show!
.....Moko Takabisha!!" A massive ball of chi built up in his hands and he
fired it at the dragon. 
     Eve instinctively shut her eyes as the ball connected with the beast
of light. "Get down!" She cried. They slammed themselves to the hard
surface of the roof.
     The dragon roared in pain as an explosion of fire and light danced
through it, ripping it apart. Daggers of fire streaked out in all
direction, slamming into buildings, setting them on cataclysmic paths of
destruction.
     "No!" Ranma screamed as a massive ball of fire shuddered over them,
raking scalding heat over their backs, bristling their bones. A tremor
whip-lashed the empty house till it slammed to the ground.  
     "Unh!" Eve was flung across the street. Her body grated against the
rough and crisp concrete. Agony crucified her whole body, paralysing her
to the ground. Fear threatened to kill her but she stood up, unsteadily,
and gazed across the war-torn landscape. Balls of fire that were once a
dragon hurtled into the air, strangely dissipating into the clouds. The
fire which was supposed to spread, choked up as it neared the end of the
abandoned street. The reeking smoke from the houses made her feel like she
was being cocooned in an envelope of acid; "not a nice feeling, oh no."
     Something struck Eve and it hurt her thoughts. "Ukyo? Ranma? Where
are you?" She strolled uneasily around the steaming street, avoiding the
gash down the road which seemed to look like a mini-earthquake. Her groggy
demeanour struggled to find the two. "I didn't over-estimate your
strength, did I?"
     "No, we just took a short detour in the clouds," Ranma coughed, as he
felt his body lurch him forward, betraying his state to a withered Ukyo,
hanging on to him, and to Eve, who was concentrating on her balance. The
fire had burned off his top and his trousers were making a desperate bid
to stay on despite being in tatters. He had _deeply_ bonded with the
ground only a few minutes before and was barely recognisable with bruises
covering him whole. Ukyo was no better for wear.
     "You two look like hell."
     "Been there, done that," moaned Ukyo lightly.
     "But what are we going to do about this place? It's totally wrecked!"
     "Don't worry about it, it was empty and insurance will cover it.
No-one, except us, are hurt."  
     "You can shrug something like this off?"
     "Like I said, Ranma, no-one is hurt, that is what matters," sighed
Eve, her face turning away from his view; "there was this remote village
in China Jaden found me in... two young girls got in the way, I-I tried to
help but..." She seemed momentarily distracted and sighed again. The three
stood there in disturbed silence.
      "We should get going. Ryoga is in trouble!" Ukyo anxiously
interrupted the quiet.
      "You're right, Ukyo. By the way... well done with that energy-based
attack, Ranma, I overestimated Jaden's concoction, it was merely to slow
us down." Eve stopped abruptly and seemed to be in deep thought; "I have
an idea. I think that Jaden's leading us on a wild goose chase. She's
always been subtle and sneaky when chasing me."
     "What do you think she's up to?" Ranma eyed Eve carefully.
     "I have this really strong... feeling... that Jaden is heading for
the hospital and I know that the Tendo's are planning to visit you there
this morning," Eve grimly replied.
     Ranma stood quiet for a few seconds, his head filled with thoughts of
safety for one person. "Akane...!" He muttered under his breath. He calmly
turned around in the direction of the hospital, taking a few deep breaths
and then... shot madly down the street, his feet not making contact with
the pavement once.
     Ukyo raced after him frantically. "Ran-chan, wait!!"
     Eve also sped down the street... in the opposite direction. She was
steering herself towards Ryoga's fiery abode.        
     "That was less challenging than I thought; lying always came
naturally to me!" she puffed out as she danced over rooftops, her body
protesting with every jump. Ranma and Ukyo wouldn't make it a minute
against the twisted immortal entity, that liked to call itself Jaden, in
the state they were in. Eve had been taking a chance with them already.
They would only slow her down and jeopardise Ryoga's mortal existence.
Only she would stand be able to stand against the machinations of a being
who was past repentance and past caring about it... 
      The thumping pain came to her blistered head, again. Except it
sounded more like it was laughing at her. She was used to this, being
telepathic made it hard to decided whether she had a bad hangover or a
message from Jaden. She knew what this one was. She was being teased. She
_hated_ teasing and she _hated_ Jaden swimming in out of her thoughts and
her mind like it didn't matter.
     Eve was approaching the house when a chill shuddered down her back,
locking her bruised feet to the spot. A breeze fluttered down her back and
she knew something was wrong. Her muscles tensing up, she slowly circled
her feet round to see what it was following her. She screwed up her eyes
against the unrelenting glare of the sun, and tried to make out the
distortion of light which sparked occasionally against the sun, revealing
its presence.
     "What now?" She watched as drops of water dripped to the ground from
apparently nowhere. She took a mirror from out of a pocket and shined it
against the piece of so-called empty air. Shocks of sun rays blasted her
vision. Was it? Couldn't be! Squinting her eyes as the bitter burns on her
face pained her contorted face, Eve slowly recognised the rapidly
approaching phenomenon. "I was correct in my original estimation of you,
Jaden."
     She stood her ground and fixed a stare straight ahead. She held up a
new sword in one hand, the other tightened into a fist. "Give me all
you've got, ice dragon... And I'll take it all away from you!"
     A deep but animalistic wail echoed loudly round the neighbourhood
like an injured whale, bouncing off the sky, and only Eve knew where it
come from.
     ~Wsssssssshhhhhhhhh~
    She kept a stern face as her heart jumped in response to the
approaching danger. The dragon speeded forward towards the glare on Eve's
face. She snarled. The dragon came closer. And closer. She felt the icy
frost upon her. It was yards from her. She just stood there. The detailed
form of the moving ice sculpture came into view. She didn't move. It
opened its mouth. Her feet stayed stuck to the ground. The dragon prepared
to strike. Her hand gripped the sword. Its claws extended and reached out
to...
     ~Vihhhp!~
     Eve zipped to the side as the dragon hurtled past.
     "Eyaaahh!!!" She flashed her sword through the air and stabbed at the
creature. She slashed the dragon repeatedly, cutting it into lean slices
of ice. The dragon never had a chance to know it was destroyed before it
was. As she drew her sword back, the dragon collapsed to the ground,
splattering and instantly melting against the scorching concrete. "That
should halt your actions, permanently!!"
     The fire in her eyes calmed as her breathing slowed and her heart
stopped hitting her ribcage. The dress stayed plastered to her body with
sweat and humidity, gripping tightly against her, stifling her legs
movement. 
     ~Rrrrrip!~
     "That's much more to my liking!" Eve looked at her much shorter
dress, reaching a few inches above her knees. Burns and scars still
evident on her bare skin. But she ignored, with difficulty, any agony they
inflicted, concentrating her mind instead, on saving Ryoga. She took a
piece of ripped cloth and knotted it round her small waist - using it as a
makeshift belt and sword carrier. Her sparkling eyes gazed skywards and
she shook her fist in the air. "You think a little Chinese burn is going
to stop me?! Huh?! Well, you're deeply mistaken!" Eve shouted, determined
as ever and _really_ annoyed.
          
*    *    *    *    *    *
       
      Jaden's malicious smile disappeared as she saw her nemesis come
closer towards her target. She moaned angrily. No way was that Eve going
to ruin her plan! "Things are gonna turn out differently this time, you'll
see," her soft voice slipped out almost silently. She turned her gaze upon
the unconscious Ryoga, slumped at her feet and leaning against a wall,
whose faint mutterings in sleep were the loudest sound in the long,
darkened alleyway, where mists of colour had faded away, afraid of the
blackness which was encroaching them. 
     "I'm glad I know my pressure points, I would doubt that Hibiki would
come with me any other way," she sighed lightly, flicking back a wandering
wisp of blonde hair. She started to rub her hands together obsessively.
Her eyes closed, hidden by the mirror-style glasses she wore, she took a
deep breath as she kneeled down to face one of Eve's rescuers. One who had
ruined her perfect plan to destroy the last of those damned by her; those
who had betrayed her...
      She placed her hands near either side of the lost boy's head and
started to chant to herself words of no known language. Slim, fuzzy
threads of brilliant white came from nowhere and started to entangle round
Jaden's long fingers, staying close to her rapidly paling skin like loyal
servants to their master as they circled round and round. They stopped
moving as their pointed ends gently touched the skin underneath the dark
mop of Ryoga's hair. His face was flushed bright red as, for some reason,
the blood from the rest of him clambered to his head, futilely trying to
prevent a process only Ryoga's mind could set him free from. They had lost
the battle before they could even choose a weapon.
      "Done now," Jaden said as she removed her hands from the sides of
the boy's head, the threads of white light disappearing almost instantly.
Ryoga's head slumped clumsily to the side, his eyes opened with a scream
but there was no life in them, the pupils were engrossed with dark colours
so deep, it was like looking into a soulless abyss. "It looks like only
your unconscious thoughts can save you now, Hibiki; you poor, poor guy."

*    *    *    *    *    *   
    
      "Aaaaah!" Eve stumbled forward as a mental paper-cut sliced through
her mind, leaving it bleeding. She stopped to take a breath and a hand
unconsciously went to her head, where messages and feelings rushed
unabidingly, unceasingly, through her unprepared mind. "What was that?
Something must be wrong," Eve surmised, her eyes cried with pain. Falling
to her knees as she grappled with these alien but horribly familiar
thoughts, an icy sensation pricked on one side of her head. She turned to
look at the sky, hoping against hope that it was raining... it wasn't.  
      "No-oo....! No-oo....!" she gasped out in horror, her
highly-sharpened senses finally realising what was happening to Ryoga and
not liking it one bit... "Not that... Not _that_!!" 

*    *    *    *    *    *    

      The sensation of falling and falling tapped into Ryoga. He opened
his eyes and saw nothing, just blackness and the sense that there was
nothing there worth seeing. He felt blind and confused... and dare he say
it... scared... Where was he? What was he doing there? Something about a
fire?  And why was it so cold? He felt as if he were in his own mind. His
mind..?
      He stopped falling into nowhere suddenly and now felt like he was
floating aimlessly in space.  Trying to see if there was anything below,
he noticed the lack of his body.  
      Before Ryoga could think further about this strangeness, everything
which had happened to him raked unexpectedly through his sore, vulnerable
mind. How could he forget?! All of it! N-no, it couldn't have happened,
his life couldn't be that bad, that miserable... but it was! Oh, how he
loathed these memories, how he loathed himself.... Suddenly, a strange,
low monotonous voice droned inside of him.
      *This is your time of reckoning, Ryoga, this is the time when you
choose whether you live or die,* something or someone sounded to him.
Reckoning? He...he could choose to die?
      He felt himself shiver even though he knew he was nothing more than
a spirit or something similar. It just felt so cold, so lonely, so morbid,
so him. He wanted to leave, he wanted peace and this place made him feel
so ill at ease.
      *Just choose....*
      I-I can't! I-I don't know!! I...I...
      *Maybe I should help,* the Voice answered his unconscious thoughts.
And so Ryoga's soul was unlocked and the pieces scattered like a jigsaw
over the unending abyss infront of him. *Take a look through this.*
      
  
End of Chapter 3...


CHAPTER 4: - REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Is redemption a futile hope for those who feel that they are past it?"  

      Jaden smiled as she left the boy lying on the dusty ground,
fingering one of his ubiquitous bandannas in her still cold and pale
hands. She coveted this symbolic tag of victory, of a revenge complete -
and smirked sourly. She could have had Eve's soul if it hadn't been for
this poor kid and his best enemy. Then, Jaden would have been able to see
her retribution complete and justice for her ruined life finally
accomplished. But it hadn't turned out her way and she didn't like that.
At all. So Hibiki would drown in the quicksand of his own depression, and
Saotome...he didn't have a clue what his fate was, not a clue... 

*    *    *   *    *    *

      Brilliant streaks of deep black wrapped themselves around Ryoga till
he felt himself trapped in a metaphysical prison. He tentatively reached
out, at last seeing his hand and arm before him and his body, clothed
darkly, was back with the lost boy. This swirling black seemed different
somehow to the eclipsed abyss of black that was beyond it. It seemed so
much more real and vivid to him than the nothingness he had found himself
in. A glimpse of red hues played with his senses, flicking past his vision
erratically. What... what was this?
       *You know.*
       "Huh?" He could at last hear his voice speak out, though he felt
detached from it, separate.
       *Touch it and you'll know.*
        Ryoga hesitantly reached out his hand toward the blurred
boundaries of his dark glasshouse, captivated by the circling streaks of
black which built it. His finger gently brushed against the streaks...
       "Aaaah!!"
       ...and flinched back in an instant, repelled by the dual sensation
of a burning, raging heat and a dead, arctic chill which was so without
life it sickened him. Its touch swamped him with an overpowering aura of
complete wretchedness and hatred. Doubling over in a raw agony too
recognisable, Ryoga clenched his chest, feeling the panicked, erratic
thump of his heart as it tried to escape him, unable to cope. He started
to cry, unable to stop the burning tears from littering his face, though
they brought no catharsis to the melancholy bleakness which was crashing
through him like an untamed animal rampaging.
      "Oh god!! Nooo! Stoooop! " he screamed, choking with a vile taste
stinging and whipping his tastebuds. "Why me??!" He was unable to escape
his own depression..
      *You know what it is know, don't you? You finally know what I've
showed you.*
      "Stop it! Stop all these feelings! Please, stop them!" Ryoga
pleaded, trying to ignore the answer which seemed to scratch away at his
mind, as his conscious seemed to once again connect sharply with his
voice.
      *I can't, it would kill you.*
      "Why!?"
      *Because what you touched was your soul.*
      "My... soul?" Ryoga calmed down faintly, the vile taste still
lingering in his mouth while his other senses numbed slightly to the
bleak, harrowing emotions which had barricaded themselves inside his mind.
He had known the truth since the sensations had first entered him but he
hadn't wanted to admit it. To know he was so little just furthered his
depression further down the mental coil, just made the choice of living or
dying so much easier... but still, there was a small scrap of his
personality which wouldn't give in, tenaciously held him to life for an
abstract reason which the rest of him couldn't figure out.
      *Haven't decided, yet, have you?* The alien Voice which didn't
belong to him, echoed through him suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
      "No, I...I..." Ryoga heard his weak, pitiful voice squeak out
quietly. The sound of it disgusted him even more than Ranma ever had. The
cocky, confident, easy-going, self-fulfilled tone of Ranma's voice he had
always secretly envied and had wanted to destroy it and also Ranma's
happiness because he couldn't have either, could never have the same sort
of peace. He loathed Ranma for taking his own untroubled soul so
foregranted. 
      *I'll help you again, then.*
      "How?"
      The cold, unseen presence answered back, *You'll see.*

*    *    *    *    *    *

      Eve tore through the afternoon crowds of shoppers as she drew closer
to where she now knew Ryoga was. She had to get to him, the sooner, the
much, much better it would be. Self-recrimination, guilt and shame
intensified in her suddenly, blasting through her body. She didn't know if
the emotions were her own but it could only mean she was getting closer to
him. Closer and closer till her heart started to hurt.
      "Ooh!" Eve slammed to a halt abruptly, her body disabled and locked
up without warning. She couldn't move! Why? She wrestled her neck around
painfully, against a force which demanded it give in, her pride strained
against any thought of screaming. People stopped and stared at her like
she was a street-show. "Idiots," she snarled through gritted teeth and
with a jolt, wrenched her neck the other way. There was a long, narrow
alleyway barely a few feet from her and she could just see a shadow
slumped up against a wall near the far end of it. Damn, it must be Ryoga.
Except she could barely move. She willed her leg forward. Nothing
happened. Try again. Nothing. Again, again, again, again!!! "Arrrghhh! I
have to move!!"
      This was bad timing for Jaden to learn new moves and tricks, she
must be getting more powerful. Playing around with mortals had always
seemed to increase Jaden's capacities, Eve had never figured out why. Did
these ordinary humans have some sort of unknown power that Jaden was
feeding on? But... she should concentrate on getting to Ryoga. She gritted
her teeth together as she gathered all the inner strength she had to her
centre. Forcing and pushing and grinding all her energy to one place,
sweat swam all over her, her hands shaking as they tried to break free of
this spell. Imagining a metal chain around her, Eve tried to break it
apart. Her heart constricted and tightened, threatening to break free from
her body. But she couldn't stop... Ryoga... he...he deserved better than a
loser...he deserved better.
      ~C-rack!~
      Eve felt her teeth begin to break as they took the full brunt of her
stubbornness. Muscles toiled to work harder than ever, wanting to snap and
give in. Her screwed-up eyes couldn't see the surfacing veins in her skin
as they laboured the blood fast through her. If the body was a person's
temple, Eve was self-detonating it in the hope of breaking free.
      "Yeeessss!" Eve cried as she shattered past her pain barrier and the
spell, collapsing forward into a heap on the ground, barely able to stand.
The bemused crowd shuffled away as they saw that the "show" had come to an
end. The pain she was in would have a long ago killed anyone in that
crowd. 
      Catching long, deep, breaths of air, she shuffled her tired body
into the shadowed alley, her already damaged legs unable to take much more
inflicted torture. "Must get to him. Must." After what seemed to be
forever and a fortnight, Eve reached Ryoga's slumped side, leaning her
back against the wall with a body resigned to jolts of agony as yet more
injuries were discovered. 
       Her eyes glanced at Ryoga, who was wrapped in the glum, gloomy,
aphotic atmosphere of the alleyway. It would have made anyone else
practically blind if they had entered that backstreet but Eve's powerful
vision meant she could see more clearly. But it only felt like a curse at
this moment, seeing the miserable state which was partly her fault, and
the guilt which had slowly afflicted her stabbed now like a thorn in the
flesh. Reaching out her least damaged arm, instinctively knowing where the
spell had entered his mind, Eve gently touched the side of Ryoga's head...
Only to be hailed back by a split-second flood of dark, bitter emotions
from his Stygian soul. 
       "What...what was that?!" she gasped as she stubbornly overcame the
overwhelming depression, carefully shifting Ryoga's body around and
placing his head gently on her lap, which didn't appreciate it that much.
She slid an unhappy arm underneath his head to stop it dropping to the
ground. She only knew of one other who had been put under this magical
curse: herself, but it didn't help her understand it beyond the
superficial. And her walled-up unconscious only knew how she had escaped
it. It was probably self-imposed, to protect her from knowing anything
which could destroy the sort-of life she had built up since the tragedies
which had made her an orphan. Although she could remember vividly what had
happened to her family and the rest of her race, emotion hadn't tagged
along on those replays of the past. 
       Flicking back a stray lock of hair from Ryoga's face, Eve stared at
his shrieking eyes, fascinated by their depth and dull intensity. Even if
Ryoga decided to live, how was he going to cope with all these experiences
irradiating in his mind? How could she let this happen? How could she!?
She sickened herself, sometimes.  "I'm so sorry for this, Ryoga," she
whispered sadly, softly stroking his matted, greasy hair; "so sorry..."
       Someone's heavy breathing alerted Eve to their presence. She had
been so distracted, she had not noticed the girl standing barely a few
feet from her. She lifted up her drooping head, trying to hide the savage
guilt she felt. She was slightly surprised by this person's arrival, she
had expected them but not this quickly. And for some reason they hadn't
been affected by the same spell she had, it must only be for those with
the more unconventional senses. "Were you not chasing Ranma when I last
saw you?"
       "I lost R...Ran-chan, he ran t-too fast. I decided to look for
you," Ukyo choked out, trying not to let the reason for Ranma's worry and
panic bother her. Would he run like that for her if she was in danger...?
Switching subjects in her mind, Ukyo decided to broach a more immediate
problem, not really wanting the answer for that, either. "I-is Ryoga
alive? Is he breathing?"
       "He's breathing."
       Ukyo's relieved tone was evident, "So he's gonna be OK, then?"
       Eve's sad eyes looked up at Ukyo, hating herself for what she's
about to say, "...No, Ukyo, he's not." 

*     *     *     *     *     *       
         
      The darkness lightened, but barely, only to be replaced by the
ethereal streetlights, which haunted the early dawn streets with their
vivid, bright glow. Adjusting his eyes to this new light, Ryoga gazed all
around, still confused by the turn of events. "Am I back in the real
world?"
      *No. We're in your past.*
       ...Time travel?
       *Only in your memories.*
       Puzzlement settled comfortably in him. "How can I be in my own
memories?"
       *The same way you could touch your own soul, Ryoga,* the cold,
suddenly barren Voice answered, illuminating the disturbing recollection
hidden in the lost boy's patchworked mind. The nightmare memory screamed
and shrieked at him with merciless intensity.
        "Oh," he replied blankly, numbing the remembrance, deafening its
cries. He didn't want to know how he could have touched his soul, how he
could be walking in his own memories... he was happy to go on without that
knowledge.   
         *Anything seem familiar to you about where you are?*
          Ryoga blinked. He had totally forgotten that he was where he
was. Peering, trying to find details that would jog his memory... but he
found very little, only the faint wail of traffic in streets far away and
an odd buzzing noise inhabiting his sensitive sensorium stubbornly,
refusing to go away as he shook his head over and over. "Gaaah! What is
it?" He grumbled loudly.
         *It's telling you that you're not remembering right,* the
anonymous sound once again permeated his brain like a dull thud. *Nothing
about this place stands out as strange?*
         "Well, there is --" 
          *Apart from me.*
         "...No, not really. It looks like just any other empty street at
night." Ryoga sighed with saddened recollection, "I've seen many in my
life." He took another look round. "The lampposts do seem taller than
usual, probably foreign."
        *Step under a light and you will see.*
        Curious, Ryoga did as he was told. "Now what?" 
        *Raise your hands to your face.* 
        Cautiously doing just that, he was in for a surprise. His eyes
widened rapidly. "My hands!! They're so..." so... small, covered with baby
fat, still. Not the large, lean, weathered hands of a powerful martial
artist. More like a kid's chubby little paws.  "Why are my hands so small,
like a child's?!"
        *Because you are one.*
        "I'm what?" Ryoga asked, still not fully comprehending, his mind
mangled up with mixed emotions.
        *You are a child, Ryoga. Nothing more than a tiny brat!" the Voice
sneered nastily.
        "A kid, but how --" Ryoga cut himself off as he listened to his
own voice for the first time in a while. It was...high. Higher than
usual... Oh no!
        *I told you I was taking you back into your memories. This one's
been long repressed. Pathetic to look at, really.*
         "I...I did get lost...a lot...as a child," he remembered, with
melancholy drifting around his speech; "but what is so special about this
street, this place? Wherever it is." He gazed around the street, looking
into the distance where the sun began to rise, yet was still dominated by
the remnants of night. A flash of  light invaded his vision. Spinning
around, the fanged boy held his breath, stifling the sobs of despair grown
from loneliness which so much wanted freedom, his eyes locked on the sight
before him. "How... did you know?" he replied so quietly, he could not
even hear himself speak.
       *I thought you didn't want that knowledge...*
       Stirring the thoughts around his head, Ryoga grasped at the one he
was sure he wanted. "You're right, I don't want to." 
       Focusing again on the image presented to his eyes on Destiny's
plate of his personal fate, Ryoga  felt cold tears shiver down his cheeks.
There was a window in front of him. And inside that window was a lighted
room. And in the room there were children, happy children smiling at their
parents - Ryoga's face soured even further- as they opened their Christmas
presents. The lonely lost boy stared numbly at them, not caring if the
family spotted him. He now remembered this forbidden memory, which now
came unbidden, from December the twenty-fifth, ten years ago. He had
been...
      *Lost, alone and forgotten? ...Cold, sad and miserable?* the Voice
mockingly reminded him. *No presents to open? No stupid, lost parents to
give you them? No warm bed to snuggle up in? No --*
       "Yes, now please stop talking!" Ryoga answered snappily, trying to
stop the painful words the voice sent from reaching him. Emotions still
sent shockwaves of despair rushing round him as they grappled with the
contrasts set before them. These children so happy and were well-loved,
knowing that their parents will always be there for them. Unlike Ryoga. He
didn't have that certainty. This had been the first missed Christmas in a
long line of missed celebrations including New Year, Ryoga's first day of
school and his birthdays -- he had spent many of them alone. Laughing
bitterly, he wondered if his parents had even been there when he was born.
      But this disturbing recollection facing him right now, through a
window, had been caused after days of sitting still in an empty house,
waiting for his parents to come home. In ever encroaching sensations of
loneliness, the younger Ryoga had decided to go out and search for them.
That had been the first memory he had of being on his own. But the little
boy had soon been lost in the global jungle, turning every corner with
hope as he had been so sure that he had heard his mother call his name.
But he'd never been able to find out if that voice had been his mother's,
since he'd never made it around that damned corner. He'd always been so
far away from the one's he cared for, looking at pictures of his parents
to remind himself what they looked like.
       *Now, that _is_ pathetic. Not even knowing your own parents,* the
Voice popped up, whistling its unwanted tune through Ryoga. *This is the
point you lost your innocence, wasn't it? When you knew your life was
never going to be normal.*   
       He walked up to the bright window, watching as the two grinning
children hugged their parents, clutching their favourite toys; one toy was
a gentile doll, dressed in lace and all things nice, the other was a
scaled down plane, which the boy flew with one hand as he hugged his
mother with the other. Wishing that he could fly away, the small Ryoga
sighed against the cold window-pane causing the smoky air to spread across
the glass.  Is this all he ever had been? ...On the outside, looking in?
       "I want to go back to reality, now," Ryoga asked whatever had put
him here.
       There was no answer. Still waiting... Still silence.
       Feeling the cold kidnap any warmth left in him and the chilliness
skip and dance across his face and little fingers, an idea entangled
itself around Ryoga. It looked so warm in the house... the family seemed
so happy and nice... Would they let him share the glowing fireplace? Would
they get rid of the Voice which had itself from him, suddenly. But he
didn't want to wait for the voice's return. 
       Ryoga wanted, he needed, attention and love and someone to hug him,
unable to remember the last time his real parents had done that. His
family saw each other so infrequently, that their lives passed each other
by, perhaps even literally... But this family seemed stable and here. That
was the important part, they would be here for him...if they accepted him,
that was...
       ~Thump, thump,~ Ryoga knocked against the window.
       "Hello, can I come in? Hello?"
       The happy family's early morning Christmas was disturbed by his
noise. They looked around but saw nothing, Ryoga somehow invisible to
them.
        ~Thud, thud.~
        "Please, it's cold!!"
         The mother seem bemused and the father, looking uncannily like
his own, looked worried. The children lost attention in the noise and
began to play with their presents.
        ~Thump! thump!~
        "I'll be good, I really will!!"
        The father whispered something in the mother's ear. She smiled and
laughed gently, her smile so like mom's. Now, they both seemed at ease,
once again and began to regard their children with a loving gaze.
        ~THUD! THUD! THUD!~
        "I'll do anything!! _Please_!" 
         ~THUMP! Thump! Thump.....~
         "....any....thing...."
         ~Tap... tap...~
        The house and the family and the street disappeared, leaving
nothing but the dense black the lost boy was too used to...... 
      .....A cold wind blew, ruffling his hair. Where was he now? It
seemed familiar but distant.  A large building rose like a monolith before
him, intruding into the grey sky. Its apathetic, ridged design and
Boeotian countenance matched the weather, whose limp and sunless
appearance made it seemed almost resigned to a fate. But what could give
this place such a heavy atmosphere? 
      He walked slowly towards the building, against the hard, gritty
ground. Huh? Gritty? He looked down and saw that his blistered, swelling
feet were without shoes. Well, there were scared scraps of leather and
cloth flapping in the breeze, barely hanging on to his feet, undecided as
to whether they should give up or not. It was like they had been worn off.
And why did his feet seem as if they had shrunk, again?  Edging his hands
up to where his eyes could see, the owner of the eyes noticed that his
hands seemed to have shrivelled up, too... What -
      *Don't you remember your old high school, Ryoga?*
      "My old high school...?" Why was he here? Back, at this godforsaken
dump he had attended? But what here could make him want to die?   
      "Talkin' to yourself again, lost boy?!" He snapped around to see
where that sneering voice had come from and found himself face to face
with one of his enemies, he hadn't seen them for years. And it was still
too early to see his dishonourable face again.
      "Sotan...!" Ryoga growled up at his taller nemesis who seemed to
tower over him like the school building. Sotan's sneering smile, slightly
turned up at the ends of his lips,  turned to one of disdain and
disrespect. This was the boy who had had everything over him, including
height. The one that had made a life a living hell, long before Saotome
had turned up.
       The outwardly handsome boy reached out a hand and grabbed the nape
of the confused Ryoga's shirt, dragging him up to his level, their faces
inches apart but both together in temperament. "Don't you address me in
that manner, you pathetic little piece of dirt who no-one cares about!"
Sotan spat out, his voice chomping away with mockery at Ryoga's
self-esteem. A crowd started to gather around, curious but unwilling to
help the lost boy. 
       "Don't you call me -" Ryoga protested before a sharp pain snapped
round his head, trailing a path of fiery agony. "Yaaahh!! Stop it, you
tyrant!" He gripped his head with his hands, feeling the warm burns haunt
his skull. 
       ~Ka-thump!~
      The unyielding pressure roped around Ryoga's neck left, only to be
replaced the solid, unpenetrable existence of the playground which knocked
his tired body into gritty reality, wounding his unusually sensitive skin
with castigations of anguish. He'd forgotten what ordinary weakness felt
like; this whip-lashing of his twelve year-old body had painfully reminded
him, though. It'd been after bullying like this that he'd decided to take
up martial arts. Slowly sitting up, his head missing the bandannas which
were now gone, Ryoga - his eyes red with anger at both Sotan and himself -
stared up and saw Sotan dangle his first ever bandanna infront of him. It
had taken years of training before he felt worthy to wear it again.  
      "Heh... This what you looking for, Hibiki?" He smirked, ripping up
the piece of tough cloth like it was nothing. The crowd of young
adolescents started to laugh, at Ryoga, too. Jeering...at him! Had he
really been _that_ pathetic back then? Real memories of taunts, jokes
behind his back and teasing of his lack of directional sense smashed into
his mind like a tidal wave. He'd had no friends at high school when he'd
first started, no equal. The first year at the boys school had been a
literal hell. Stared at, poked at, laughed at... he had hated it so much
and now here he was, reliving it... reliving the damning crucifix upon
which his early faults had been displayed.!
      "Aw, look at the poor little idiot, he's scared!" gibed Sotan
bitterly, the acidity of his words seeping through Ryoga's head over and
over and over. Little... idiot... lost.... "Scaredy cat, scaredy-cat,
couldn't find his way out of a paper bag! All alone! All alone!"
      This really began to rile Ryoga, he knew that they weren't real,
that this was all a hallucination caused by something which wanted him to
die for reasons unknown. But, but it felt so real and when all the other
boys started to join in, not wanting to incur Sotan's infamous wrath, he
just...
      "Scaredy-cat, scaredy cat!"
     "I'm not!" he jumped up and protested, boiling and bubbling with an
impassioning fervour. This sort of thing had really happened, a long time
ago and he couldn't stand it! Not ever again!!
     "All alone!" The crowd chorused, like angels from hell, "Parents just
as dumb as him! Even they don't care for the lonely lost boy! Even they
don't care!"
      "No! They do care! They do!" he shouted half-heartedly, beginning to
believe them, like he had done all those years ago. He couldn't believe
that they were crowing the nightmarish song which had dogged his childhood
and had gnashed away any chance of self-esteem as a teen. 
      "Pathetic piece of dirt! Jerky jerky jerk!" The mob began to swarm
around him, closing in with their stinging words, their assimilated gaze
boring at his soul. "That's the story of the lonely lost boy! The lonely
lost boy!!"
       Ryoga didn't want to listen, he didn't want to fight, he just
wanted to get out there, the deja vu all too real. This may have been a
dream but it was based on events closer to home than he had been for most
of his life. "Go away! Go... AWAY!!" he cried out desperately - depression
compressing inside of him - only eliciting more mocking rhyme. Feeling
their nauseating breaths upon him, knowing he couldn't jump high enough in
this weak body to escape, he felt that there was nowhere for his
black-eyed soul to go but down to the black earth imprisoned beneath this
artificial terrain.
      "Breaking point!!!"
      ~Booom!~
      Diving into the underneath of concrete, Ryoga tuned out the screams
and cries of anguish as  shards of rock slammed into the off-guard mob
above him. All were above him while he was below. So far down...
      "Coward, Hibiki," an angry echo ricoched down the tunnel to him,
propelling him on further, "you're just a coward!" Coward, coward, coward,
coward, coward... He was nothing more than a coward, a shameful failure to
his family, running away from his problems, such a coward. Drops of
literal emotion streaked down his face as Ryoga kept going, severing the
earth below him as his mind was corrupted with insults he had long thought
he had forgotten.
      *Crying? How pathetic. No wonder your soul was such a sorry sight,*
the disembodied voice cackled with more frankness than Sotan ever had. 
       "Leavemealoneleavemealone!" Ryoga screeched out, the shrapnel from
his drilling hitting his face with brutal intensity, blood trickling into
his mouth. But he didn't care, he didn't deserve to live in comfort, he
deserved this punishment for his cowardice.
      *It doesn't matter how dig you deep, Ryoga, I'll always be with you.
You can't run away from me.*    
      "Leavemealoneleavemealoneleavemealoneleavemealone!!" Ryoga rambled
on, lost in the earth and in his psyche......

.......The mirkiness of the hot underground soon wilted away like a dying
flower only to be replaced by the eternal abyss which Ryoga had first
found himself in. It wrapped him in a blanket of comforting, woolly,
psychic wilderness, far away from all the pain. But traces of the mental
anguish still crawled around inside of him.
      *What do you choose, now?*
      "Just leave me alone," Ryoga moaned in a whisper, not caring if the
Voice heard him.
     *Did that reminder of your past tell you of your true self?*
      What could he say? It did show that he had been a coward, someone
unable to cope with bullies... but-but he had changed, he had grown
stronger and with his martial arts skill, no-one had dared bully him... A
heavy burden swallowed Ryoga's heart briefly ...But no-one had talked to
him either...at least the ritual teasing had stopped, that he was thankful
for. He had never been liked but he was respected for being unbeatable in
fights and soon it had been Sotan on the ground, frightened and ashamed.
The "lost boy" had been able to defeat those years older than him in the
daily lunch brawls over food. Ryoga felt a smile blossom on his face over
those recollections of good days. "I've decided, I -"
      *- Are you not forgetting something, or should I say someone? Let's
go back to those good ol' days.*
      Ryoga wondered what the Voice was talking about, the answer quietly
gnawing away at his grey matter. The cotton wool of nothingness was
removed from his sight and replaced with a once familiar scene: the
lunchtime brawl at the boy's-only school cafe where every day was a war.
Seeing the curry bread packet rise in the air, he jumped up, reaching with
all his might to catch it, to prove his fighting worthy. He smirked
inwardly with confidence. "It's mine!" What could depress him about this?
He felt the answer sneak up behind him -
      ~Bop!~
      - and bounce off his head, causing him to fall into the pack of
hungry young men. Shakily standing up, the warm memories faded as reality
bit hard and fast... Ryoga faced the one face he couldn't believe he's
forgotten. 
      "Ranma...you!" Ryoga roared as he trembled with rancorous resent at
the sight of the pony-tailed lad chewing on _his_ curry bread and killing
his beloved, feared reputation at the same time. He had been beaten time
and time again by the agile teen who now was filled with confusion at this
recognition...
      "Do I know you?" Ranma asked, "'cause you seem to know me."
      Cracking his knuckles, with barely tamed anger at his fingertips,
Ryoga decided to answer: "let's just say, your reputation precedes you."
      "I have a reputation?" The still all-male boy seemed surprised but
pleased and grinned mischievously. "Cool." 
        Cool? Cool?! COOL??! The one who was to gain all of Ryoga's
hard-earned respect with one mindless jump thought it was 'cool'. The one
who was to nullify his last shreds of confidence thought it was 'cool.'
Cool?! Ryoga had trained so hard and this newcomer was to unravel into a
mess that what Ryoga called his life??! No-one had taken him seriously
after Saotome's arrival, no-one to this day. Even if he had defeated Ranma
in a match, Ranma would defeat him in a rematch by cheating and using
dishonourable tactics. Ryoga's martial arts skills were nothing more than
a joke to those who knew of Ranma. Even Akane once looked at him with
unguarded pity, apologising for the pig-tailed scum's better skill and
speed; a look that had nearly killed him haunted him still, an anathema to
his soul...  
      And Ryoga didn't like coming second, didn't like it one bit.
      "Get me away from _him_," Ryoga growled shakily under his breath to
the Voice. "Now, I said, now!"
      Ramna looked at him, puzzled by this strange guy's behaviour. "You
OK, man?"
      "No, I'm not... And my name's Ryoga Hibiki, remember that."

*    *    *    *    *    *
              
        Eve watched with downtrodding guilt as Ukyo's relieved face
cracked into fearful confusion.
        "What... what do you mean Ryoga's not OK? I though he was
breathing...I..." The bemused countenance she held crumbled out of
existence as a realisation crushed it with force. "He's in a coma, isn't
he?" 
        "Sort of," replied Eve with uncertainty. "There's no real
definition or cure for it. It's hard to explain."
        "What's that supposed to mean?!" Ukyo suddenly snapped, her
mortified emotions searching for a definite answer to grasp on to. "Tell
me what's happened to him!" she growled down at Eve, whose intense,
dazzling blue eyes had shone in the darkness, dulling the blackness like a
bright torch, leaving Ukyo slightly unnerved but still determined and
frustrated. "He's my friend, I _need_ to know!"
       The lucent sadness from Eve's eye's dulled into the background as
her strong, prideful front awakened in the windows to her soul. "Help me
take him to the Tendo's and I'll tell all of you what's going on," she
returned smoothly, her eyes not meeting with the young chef's.
        
Author notes:
By the way, everything before the appearance of Ranma I made up. It is not
canon, just what _might_ have happened to a pre-Ranma Ryoga. Sotan is a
real name, though. As always, C&C required and esteemed highly!!! ^_^
Don't bother sending flames as I have a fire extinguisher! ^_-