Subject: [FFML] [Ranma][Action/Drama][Matrix Xover] Mirror Account: Chapter 3 (plus link to ff.net)
From: Chad Hutchings
Date: 3/29/2003, 1:24 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com


The story as it has happened so far is all at 
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1114565

PLEEEEEASE give C&C (Especially if you think something
should be added)

Mirror Account.
...
Chapter 3: Shit, meet Fan. 

"You saw it, didn't you, Tank?" Morpheus was rapt as
he stood at the helm of the Nebudchanezzar, his
jackboot clicking rhythmically on the metal flooring
in an effort to appease his nervousness.
"I saw the numbers, Morpheus. It's impossible." Tank
was still staring at the monitors, not even looking up
at the older man to see the expression that he knew
was there. It was another One. "You're acting like you
just saw a burning bush, or a stone spouting water,
Morpheus."
Tank could hear the smile in Morpheus' voice. "No,
Tank. It was just a girl." He abruptly stopped his
tenuous rhythm, spun on his heel and turned towards
the monitors and Tank. "How are Trin and Cypher
doing?"
"They're almost there, Morpheus. The Oracle should be
waiting."
The older man smiled again. "Yes, indeed."
Morpheus seated himself comfortably in the pilot's
seat of the Nebudchanezzar and turned the autopilot
off as he gunned the engines and headed for the source
of the small blip that they had not picked up,
somewhere on the easternmost of the continents. 

***

Ranma stared at the blood that adorned her hands, not
bothering to even touch the wet rag that Trinity had
supplied her from seemingly nowhere as she sat in the
back of the mysterious black Sedan and Cypher spoke to
Trinity in hushed tones, assuming that she didn't hear
him, acting as if she wasn�t less than four feet away.
"Did you see that, Trin? Did you fucking see that?"
She killed ten of them! She's incredible!"
"Calm down, Cy."
"But she killed them, Trin! Nobody's k-"
"Shut the hell up, Cy! She can hear you!"
Both woman and man turned to look back on Ranma as one
as she stared at her hands, still covered in blood.
"Get your eyes back on the road." Ranma heard her
voice cracking in grief, though she felt none. It was
all an act in the end, wasn't it?
Cypher turned around but Trinity still kept her eyes
on Ranma, staring daggers into her.
"They weren't human, you know."
Ranma looked up. "Like the guys that were chasing
after you before, right?"
Trinity nodded.
�Well why is it so different.� Ranma couldn�t
understand what wasn�t human about those guys. They
certainly looked it, and felt it as well. They had
bones. She�d cracked every one of them.
Cypher snorted, not taking his eyes off the road.
�Take my word for it,� Trinity�s eyes bespoke
sympathy. �You�re about to find out more than you
could ever want to know.
Unsatisfied, Ranma gave up the point for the moment,
scrubbed the now-caked blood from her hands, and
closed her eyes and took some much-needed rest as the
car wound its way across Japan.

***

Ranma shifted uneasily, keeping his distance from
Akane.
"How are you here?" He dared barely to even breathe as
he forced the words out, wishing he had never turned
the lights on, looking for his clothing, but not
finding any. 
The short-haired girl only looked at him confusedly,
tears welling up in her big, blank eyes as the steam
that her breath caused when impacting with the cold
air of the room played down between her breasts,
exciting Ranma, much to his own aggravation and
embarrassment.
"We've been like these forever, haven�t we, Ranma?"
She got up, giving Ranma a full view of her body for
the first time in years.
"Sit the hell down, Akane!" Ranma allowed some of his
fury at the girl to show. She sat down with a little
whimper, obediently following Ranma�s order to the
very letter. "You can't just barge back into my life
like this. Especially not now! How the hell did you
find me, anyway? I don't even know where I am!" He sat
down on the bed, his back to Akane. She immediately
put her arms around him as if by reflex and began
kissing the back of his neck.
"Get the Hell off of me!" Ranma stood up abruptly,
knocking Akane off of the bed, and the girl suddenly
froze, not moving even a millimeter.
"Why do you push this away," A deep, familiar,
grandmotherly voice queried from somewhere. "This is
what you want, is it not? You loved her once."
"Cologne?" Ranma knew her tired old voice anywhere.
"No" An old, motherly woman stepped out of the
bathroom. "I picked your brain, and chose a voice that
was appropriate. Like you, I'm out of place here. You
can call me the Oracle, for the time being."
"You did what?"
"I read your mind." The woman allowed herself a smile
and pulled a chair that Ranma had not noticed before
up to the bed. "That's not important, though. You're
here because you're special. You're here because we
can help each other."
"In other words, you want something from me." Ranma
gave the woman a level stare, but could not seem to
meet her gaze. There was something in her eyes that
bespoke years beyond anything that Ranma could
imagine.
The woman smiled obligingly. "It seems that it's time
for you to go, and time for you to return. We shall
speak later.
Akane resumed her motion and bore down on him as if on
cue, kissing him savagely with a strength which he was
unable to combat, and blackness came shortly after,
followed by Glaring light. He was awake, released from
the nightmare.

***

Tank pulled wickedly long needle out of the back of a
gasping Ranma�s neck, staring at the screens and
trying to find out what happened. Finally, after
seeing perfectly normal readings across the board, he
gave up and asked Ranma.
�What do you mean �what happened�?� Ranma was sitting
up now, testing his slightly atrophied arms.
�Well...you didn�t come out on a hard-line. You aren�t
dead. In the past, those two have been mutually
exclusive. How�d you get out?�
�I just fell asleep. I passed out, I think.� Ranma
looked at Tank pensively. �Someone called The Oracle
was talking to me. She seemed to know what was going
on.�
Tank�s ragged face suddenly split into a grin. �Ah!
She would, wouldn�t she? You�d better head back down
there. Morpheus�ll be getting there any minute.� 
Ranma sighed and sat back down in the chair as Tank
inserted the needle once more and the world pulled
through that now-familiar inversion. When he �awoke�
in the bedroom, the Oracle was standing there, a
curious half-smile on her face, but Akane was gone.
�Back so soon?� the woman said in a tone that told
Ranma that she knew he�d be there. �That�s good. Why
don�t you head down to the dojo for a while? This
should be fun.�

***

Ranma opened her eyes, feeling the car stop, and found
herself outside the hotel that she had run to after
meeting Trinity for the first time. �This is�� 
�We�re here.� Trinity interrupted her, concise. �This
is the Oracle�s place in Japan.�
As Ranma stepped out of the car, the sun caught her
eyes and the wind blew, tickling her skin. That
reminded her of something. She was stuck this way.
�I want my body back.� She sighed as Trinity looked at
her inquisitively. �Let�s go. I wanna get this over
with.�

***


Ranma's heart leapt as he saw the familiar fiery hair
blowing in the wind so far below from the window of
the dojo.
"Cold water!" His voice came unintentionally as a sort
of harsh general's bark. The oracle stood near him,
unsurprised, holding a vase full of cold water. Ranma
greedily snatched it out of her hands and dumped it
over his head.

***

Trinity led the young girl to the front door of a
pristinely clean hotel office and knocked gingerly. A
young woman opened the door and smiled softly. 
"The Oracle is still with you. She'll be with you in a
minute." The amusement in her voice was plain. 
"Huh?" The confusion on Ranma's face at the seemingly
paradoxical speech of the woman was nothing short of
comical.
"Articulate girl, aren't you? Wait a minute, ok-" A
sudden earthquake rocked the hotel. "Never mind!" The
woman laughed merrily. "She's done early." She beamed
at Ranma and took her hand. "Come with me. There's
somebody you should meet."

***

Ranma stood, soaked and male, and laughed more
joyously than he had in as long as he could remember.
He was still male! This had to be a dream! Leaving the
Matrix must have cured his curse for good!
But who was the girl?
"She's here." The Oracle stood up and approached the
door to the dojo as if in response to Ranma's own
thoughts, which he no longer doubted was possible.
The Oracle slid the door aside to reveal a female
version of Ranma, poised with her hand ready to knock
on the door, a bemused look on her face. The look
quickly dissolved into a piercing gaze of hatred as
she made eye contact with Ranma.
"You!" The girl's voice was a snarl and her eyes
bloodshot. "Give me my body back, you bastard!" She
quickly took an offensive stance as her battle aura
flared.
Ranma quickly turned to the Oracle to ask her to
explain this, but found nothing.
He was going to have to fight for his life.
"I don't know who you are, or why you look like that."
Ranma took a more defensive stance of his own, knowing
that it would not matter in the least if this girl's
aura was what it looked like. "But you'd better be
able to back that up. I just got rid of that damned
curse, and I'm not about to let you ruin this."

***

Trinity stood, watching the perimeter of the hotel,
holding her cell phone at ready and waiting for the
call that she knew would come, telling her to prepare
the female Ranma for freedom, when Morpheus came up
behind her and took her shoulder in his large,
calloused hand.
"Where is she?"
It took Trinity a couple seconds to regain from the
shock of being snuck up on as she pointed towards the
hotel.
"Sorry for the scare. We found her, but something's
odd.  The male's neurokinetics just shot up
astronomically. Have you seen any agents or anything?"
Trinity shook her head, about to say that everything
was quiet when the windows of one of the higher floors
blew out, yielding two bodies, both hurtling towards
the ground in slow motion, throwing punches at each
other at blinding speeds, one in an ill-fitting dark
suit, a female sporting a red pigtail, the girl, the
other in Chinese clothing. It was Ranma, both Ranmas.

***

Onna-Ranma threw one, ten, a hundred punches at her
seeming male counterpart as he blocked every one with
an opposite fist. She kicked, and met the tip of his
opposite foot. They fought seamlessly, neither one
making a single strike, but both battering their hands
and feet with parried and intercepted strikes. After
what seemed like hours, the two of them hit the
ground. Ranma looked around quickly to find a playing
field where she could have the advantage, and spotted
a swimming pool. She began a loping run for the pool
and looked back to lead the male Ranma on, but he was
on his way too, matching her step for step, and
looking as confused as she felt.
�HALT!� The voice was deafening, and jarred both
Ranmas out of their battle.
The old woman who they had both come to recognize as
the Oracle stood next to the pool, staring at both of
the drenched martial artists, and shook her head.
�I would let you two go on if I did not know what was
going to happen. Now is not the time for this.� She
bent over the pool and took a female Ranma�s hand,
hauling her out of the pool with uncanny ease, and
followed suit with the male Ranma.
�Ranko. Child...� The Oracle shook her head. �There is
no Kaisui-Fuu, this time. There is no pill, no
technique, and no pressure point. You are female. Face
it.�
The girl made a motion to leap at the male Ranma
again. �This is all his fault!� Fortunately, an iron
grip from the Oracle kept her from even moving.
�Go see Morpheus.� The Oracle�s voice, completely
calm, heralded dire consequences if Onna-Ranma (No.
Ranko, she told herself) did not do what she said.
Thinking better of starting a fight with this woman,
Ranko quickly made towards the figure of Morpheus with
her usual loping run. Male Ranma made a move to follow
but the Oracle stopped him.
�You don�t hurt her, boy. Do you hear me? She is you,
in every possible sense of the word. Put yourself in
her shoes. She�s got more of a hell than you or I can
imagine sitting before her. You hurt her and you won�t
live long enough to regret it. Now go help her out.�
The Oracle smiled at Ranma as if he was a toddler who
had just gotten sand in his eyes and patted him on the
back. �You don�t have much of an easy time coming
yourself. Come back and see me together when she�s
situated.�
Ranma nodded, only understanding what the Oracle was
saying halfway, and ran after the red-headed girl,
yelling out for Morpheus to get the rig set up to free
Ranko.

***

Ranko, as she would have to call herself until she
found a way out of this, watched the small bathroom
mirror next to the ridiculous chair that Morpheus had
her sitting in. Slowly, deliberately, her reflection
winked and blew a kiss at her. She heard a chuckle
somewhere behind one of the piles of equipment and the
world inverted, allowing blackness to rain and pink
goo to cover Ranko, head to toe.
Pink goo?
She looked around, having trouble focusing, and then
felt something wholly unnatural in her mouth, pumping
something into her stomach. She flailed madly, trying
to yell, trying to fight it, and them something
pulled.
Suddenly, she felt the pinpricks of a limb waking up
and open air greeted her with a fire-water hello,
burning her inside and out with a corrosive pain that
almost made her lose consciousness. Something grabbed
her neck, strangling her, and them she felt arms
around her, holding her. A towel or blanket wrapped
itself around her and she still felt the arms, strong
and supporting, holding her. Finally, she felt the
warmth of a bed under her, and allowed her mind to
drift off to sleep. She couldn�t handle this. What was
going on?

***

Mouse kept his arms wrapped around the child even as
he brought her to the bed and lay her down. This was
the One? She was so frail! He watched all through the
night, hours on end as she fitfully slept and
sometimes even cried out.
�What are you dreaming of, eh?� He allowed himself one
of his rare smiles.
Attuned ears picked his voice up as, almost
simultaneously, Ranko woke up and Trinity walked into
the room.
�It�s a trip, eh?� Trinity looked at Ranko openly for
the first time she could remember. �The guys never get
how it feels.� Ranko was sure that if she could see
the woman clearly, she would have seen her wink.
A hand patted her arm, and then another.
�Sleep well. Mouse and I will be within hearing range
if you need anything.�


*********


Author�s Note:

That was a short chapter, but I hope it will get
longer.
C&C are wonderfulllll!

-Inu


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