Authors Notes:

This is being reposted because of lousy formatting.

This could be classified as a crossover/meld/elseworld (whew!). The 
idea came to me one night in a flash of insight, and was later refined by 
Scriviner and me, during a long (and productive) traffic jam. 

It starts out very somber, but later on transforms into a much lighter
series. 
And while it takes off from an idea from Ranma 1/2, it later has very
little to 
do with it.

I hope you enjoy reading this fic as much as Scriv and I did coming up with
it.

Oh, and old TimeRunner fic readers (yay!) may find a section here familiar,
as 
it is taken almost directly out of another fanfic I made. Can you name which 
one?

On with the show.

=====

In Nerima, one seemingly normal day, Cologne and Happi struggled for
possession 
of the Nanban Mirror, but it slipped from their grasps and it fell,
shattering 
on the ground below.

As the Nanban Mirror shattered, its power collapsed unto itself, fragmenting 
across time and space, its shards scattering throughout the realms of 
possibility, finding those who would be made to change the past.



Four souls, four decisions. Four fragments of a whole greater than the sum of 
its parts.

====

IKARI GENDO - BLACK

	Ikari Gendo stood at his wife's gravestone, although he knew that her 
body was elsewhere. Silently he knelt down and lay a wreath of flowers at the 
foot off the gravestone, where it was darkened by the long shadows the marker 
cast in the light of the setting sun.
	Thirteen years? Was it really thirteen years ago? The old wounds still 
ached every time he came here, like the scars on his hand, from the burns he 
received while rescuing Rei from the Unit 00's entry plug.
	Rei. Every time Gendo saw her he saw Yui. It was Yui, yet it wasn't. The 
emotionless face, the red eyes� no, that was not Yui. Yet every time Rei
would 
smile he was able to pretend he was talking to his deceased wife.
	Everything was going according to the timetable set by the Dead Sea 
Scrolls. Shinji, his son, would soon be called to join his mad quest. Shinji. 
What would Gendo tell him when he comes? How would he explain to Shinji that 
he's fighting to bring his mother back, that he's giving up his life to bring 
things back to the way they were?
	The way things were. Gendo would give anything to have it all back. 
Anything to bring Yui back.
	Gendo's tears fell down his cheeks, unchecked.
	They sparkled, like the shard did as they struck it, as it sat at the 
base of the tombstone. 
	The shard flickered briefly, then filled Gendo's vision with light.


OTONASHI KYOKO - MAGENTA

	"Kyoko, it's Soichiro� he's�"
Kyoko felt her eyes brim with tears as she remembered that fateful day that 
seemed so long ago, now. Four years, it had been. Only four years.
	She found herself smiling, in spite of herself. "It used to be that 
memory would always drive me to sobbing, that it would hurt me, deep in my 
chest, right here�" she said as she held her right hand to the center of her 
chest. 
	"Now I hardly ever cry anymore, unless I purposely dig up the most 
painful memories�" She lowered her eyes. "Is that a good thing? I try to hold 
your memory in my heart, but those who are� alive are slowly entering my 
heart." 
	She reached out her hand to touch the inscribed letters on her dear 
departed husband's gravestone. There was no way she could ever truly for get 
Soichiro. And yet� Fewer and fewer things reminded her of him, lately. Was it 
time? Did time really heal all wounds?
	She thought of Godai, and of Mitaka. "I've always thought it wrong to 
forget you, just because you were taken away from me so soon, but now, in my 
unguarded moments, I find myself thinking of them, and not of you�" She
looked 
up, at the tombstone, and imagined Soichiro's face, smiling at her. "Oh, 
Soichiro�" She smiled, even as tears fell down her cheeks.
	"If you had never died� if you had never left me� I would never have had 
to feel this way."
	A single tear fell from her cheek and fell on the shard on the ground 
below. It began to glow, intensifying, first slowly, and then she was blinded 
by a brilliant flash of light.


NATSUME RYUNOSUKE - YELLOW

	"Damn it! Wasn't that a little too harsh?" Kyusaku yelled as the Poison 
One flew off after delivering a massive volley of automatic rounds on his
beat-
up Land Rover, pockmarking its body and shattering the windshield. He bit his 
cigarette's filter in annoyance.
	He heard Ryunosuke sniffle and he turned to face him. "Ryu-san!"
	Ryunosuke held the cat in his arms. It lay there, still and lifeless. 
Blood was splattered over its chest and over Ryunosuke's shirt. "It's� It's
all 
my fault!" Ryunosuke cried, shaking with sobs, the little streak of red in
his 
brown hair matching the blood on his hands. "If I hadn't� If I hadn't
insisted 
on taking her along, she wouldn't be dead!"
	"They've gone too far this time," Kyusaku muttered, snorting out a 
billowing could of smoke. "You can't blame yourself, Ryu-san."
	"Yes, I can!" Ryunosuke sobbed. "It's all my fault! If I had listened to 
you, To-chan, this would've never happened! It's all my fault!"
	"You can't change things, Ryu-san," Kyusaku said, patting Ryunosuke on 
the head.
	Ryunosuke turned away quickly, avoiding his father's touch, tears flying. 
"I wish I could. I would if I could. I would do anything to make it up, if
only 
I could."
	A tear streaked out, towards the window, when it struck a falling shard 
of glass, strangely brighter than any glass Kyusaku had ever seen. 
It pulsed, flooding the car with a blinding light.


MASAKI NOBUYUKI - CYAN

	Nobuyuki stood at the grave, underneath a tree near the edge of a cliff.
	"Hello, Achika." He knelt down and placed a bouquet of beautiful roses at 
the foot of the grave. "I hope you like these..."
	He smiled, weakly. "Tenchi's doing fine, now. You should see him, dear... 
you'd be so proud... He even lectures ME sometimes... just the way that you 
used..." He paused, momentarily unable to continue. "Just the way you used
to."
	He sighed, sadly... "What have I become, Achika? I feel like I've lost 
myself, somewhere... That... That a part of me refused to go on when you left 
me... When you left I..." He paused, then... "I felt like it was all I could 
to, just to tell Tenchi that you'd gone... I felt so useless, that I was no 
good at being a father if all I could do for Tenchi was tell him that
you'd..." 
He turned away, ashamed to even look at the gravestone. "But that's not what 
you want me to think, is it? That's not it at all!"
	He took off his glasses and wiped away tears at the corners of his eyes 
with the back of his hand. "You teach a hard lesson, Achika. But I finally 
understand, now... I guess Tenchi can teach me a thing or two, after all...
	"Oh, Achika," Nobuyuki whispered, shutting his eyes to stem the tears, 
"if only you were alive� If only you'd been here, then perhaps things would
be 
different." He sighed. "Perhaps I would be different. I wouldn't be this
wreck, 
this useless piece of� this� this�!!!" He shut his eyes, pulled his glasses 
from his face and cried out, tears falling like a stream. They struck the 
gravestone and splashed, droplets scattering, some striking the shining shard 
that was falling from the sky. Suddenly, as he cried out, his world was
filled 
with light.
	"ACHIKA!!!"


Four destinies changed. Four second chances. Four shards changing four 
realities. Four shards of the One Mirror. Four fragments of a whole greater 
than the sum of all parts.

=====

The Sum of All Parts

A TimeRunner Fanfic

All trademarks found in this fanfic are being used without prior consent
from their respective owners, 
for non-profit purposes.

=====

PROLOGUE : BLACK

	"Well, I'm off, honey," Yui said, smiling at Gendo, as she pressed the 
button on the wrist of her plugsuit to pressurize it, causing it to shrink to 
fit her lithe form. She knelt down, beside the baby carriage and kissed her 
infant son.
	Gendo stood over her, a soft smile on his own face. He gazed proudly at 
his wife and son, especially his son, who thankfully seemed to take more from 
Yui than him. Gendo made no illusions about it; Yui was much more beautiful 
than he was handsome. Yui. Not a day would pass that Gendo thanked whatever
God 
was out there for his good fortune.
	Worry suddenly overtook pride and he knelt down beside Yui. "Are you 
really sure you want to go through with this, Yui?" he whispered, concern 
filling his voice.
	"Of course!" Yui said, facing him, smiling sweetly at him. "This is our 
dream, Gendo! I would risk anything if it meant fulfilling our dreams."
	"But�" Gendo said, but Yui cut him off.
	"No buts, mister," Yui said teasingly as she stood up to go. "This is the 
big synchro test Gehirn has been waiting for, and we won't get much further 
with our research if I don't go through with this." She held out her hand and 
helped him up to his feet. "How can I do this properly if you don't support 
me?"
	"You know I'm behind you all the way, Yui," Gendo said, kissing her 
lightly on the cheek. "I just don't want to see anything bad happen to you."
	She slipped out of Gendo's reach as she headed for the door. "Really, you 
worry too much. You're just like Fuyutsuki-sensei. I'll be fine, really." As 
she opened the door and step through, she gave Gendo the thumbs-up. "Goodbye. 
The dream, Gendo."
	As the door shut, Gendo whispered, "But you're my dream."


	"First stage synchronization successful," Naoko declared.
	"Excellent, Dr. Akagi," Gendo acknowledged. "Contamination?"
	"At acceptable levels, Dr. Ikari," Fuyutsuki-sensei replied. "Below the 
safety threshold. Moir� patterns at undetectable levels."
	Gendo nodded, a little more nervously than he let show. "Yui, how do you 
feel?"
	"Hungry," was the reply over the communicator. Yui flashed another of her 
sweet smiles at the camera. "You owe me dinner, Rokubungi!"
	Gendo flinched. "I told you not to call me that anymore. I already took 
on your family name. You know my old name always makes me squirm."
	Yui grinned. "Why do you think I use it so much?"
	"Can we get on with this?" Naoko replied, and without waiting for an 
order pressed another series of buttons. "Commencing Secondary stage."
	Yui jerked back slightly, then she exhaled. "No problem. Nothing I can't 
handle."
	Gendo irritably looked at Naoko, then smiled at Yui. "I'm glad."

	Light suddenly filled Gendo's vision, filling him with memories he could 
not understand. He clutched at his head and reeled from the shock.
	Then it disappeared, as suddenly as it came.

	He looked around, but no one seemed to have noticed the light. No one 
even seemed to have seen the light, or him snap back in his seat. He shook
his 
head, trying to clear it�
	Then he gasped in realization. "Stop the test!"
	"Now?" Naoko asked. "We don't have enough data. Besides, Yui can take 
some more, can't you?"
	Yui's image on the viewscreen nodded, a little weakly.
	Fuyutsuki-sensei looked at Yui, then at him wonderingly; then he raised 
his eyebrows. "I don't understand, Dr. Ikari, but I'll do as you say. Dr. 
Akagi, shut down secondary stage tests immediately."
	"But we're at the threshold for the third stage test, Gendo!" Naoko 
protested. "We've gone too far to turn back now."
	"NO! Shut it off NOW!" Gendo replied. "Fuyutsuki-sensei, if you keep this 
up, in five seconds there will be a sharp increase in contamination."
	"How do you know this?" Fuyutsuki-sensei asked, and at that moment, a 
spike appeared in the contamination graph. "Oh, God! You were right! Stop the 
test now!"
	"No! The contamination levels are within acceptable levels. You can't let 
your feelings interfere with our research, Gendo!" Naoko snapped.
	Gendo walked over to Naoko. He raised his hand and slapped her across the 
cheek. "Stop this test now, Dr. Akagi. NOW!"
	Naoko clutched her cheek and glared at Gendo. "Fine." She shut down the 
secondary wave switches first, and as she did, another surge appeared on the 
contamination graph.
	Yui's head snapped back as she fainted in the Entry Plug.
	"Eject Entry Plug now!" Gendo shouted as he watched the viewscreen.
	"Ejecting! Switching off primary wave synchronization!" Fuyutsuki-sensei 
stared at the graph and at Yui in disbelief. "My God, at a higher 
synchronization level who knows what that might have done to her!"
	"How? How did you know?" Naoko said, eyes wide on Gendo. "How did you 
foresee this without any data on the subject?"
	"I� I think it's a second chance," Gendo said, as he ran and descended 
the stairs into the Testing Room.

	Gendo cried out in pain as he gripped the scalding hot hatch levers with 
his bare hands. Please, if there's a God at all out there, please say she's 
safe! Please let her be alright!
	He pried open the Entry Plug hatch door and allowed the LCL to escape. He 
shielded his eyes from the steam from inside the Plug and entered halfway in.
	As the steam cleared, he saw Yui's unmoving form slumped over her seat.
	"Yui!" he cried out. "Yui! Are you alright?"
	For a long moment, Yui did not move. Gendo felt his eyes fill up with 
tears as a gnawing fear built up inside him.
	Then she opened her eyes and looked up. "Gen�Gendo?"
	Gendo pulled Yui to himself and kissed her deeply, his tears mingling 
with the LCL on her wet face. He let her fill him again, finally, after
such a 
long while that he'd almost forgotten what it was like to hold her, to kiss 
her... 

	Afterward, he drew away slightly, to look her in the eyes. "I thought I'd 
lost you again�"
	"Again�?" Yui said weakly. "What do you mean?"
	But Gendo didn't reply. Instead he brushed her hair from her face, 
smiled, and said, "Yui, please don't say goodbye before a mission. It's too 
sad."

=====

PROLOGUE : MAGENTA

	Kyoko walked home to the Otonashi Residence, shopping bags in tow. How 
long was it, six months, she thought, that she had lived there with Soichiro 
and his family. They weren't anything like those stories about the horrible
in-
laws one would get, marrying into a well-to-do family. If anything, they were 
nicer to her than her parents were these days.
	Kyoko sighed to herself. It was to be expected, she supposed. After all, 
she had married Soichiro when she was barely out of high school. He was her 
substitute teacher, and she had fallen in love with him. She giggled. It
seemed 
so much like those trendy dramas on TV. How could she, probably one of the
most 
serious students in her class, foresee something like this happening to her?
	She arrived at the door of the house. She held one bag and cradled the 
other in the crook of her arm to free the other to open the door.
	The household was in bedlam. She could hear shouts from all over the 
house, which made her wonder what was going on.
	Mr. Otonashi - Soichiro's father - ran up to Kyoko frantically. "Kyoko! 
We must go to the hospital! Hurry!"
	"But why?" Kyoko asked. "What's happening?"
	Soichiro's sister said to her daughter, "Ikuko, come on." She led the 
sniffling little girl outside.
	"It's Soichiro! Quickly!" Mr. Otonashi said, holding her hand and rushing 
her out of the house.
	A glow began to form in her sight, then a brilliant flash� And then 
things that had not yet occurred flashed in her mind, like old memories yet
to 
happen. She watched the blur of events with the air of someone who had
watched 
all of this happen before� Was it truly happening all over again? Why was she 
forced to relive this terrible day, to watch it unfold before her like a
bitter 
lesson not quite fully learned�
	The room. This was the room where she found Soichiro� An ache grew in 
her, and she found it almost unbearable to come any closer. But Father
Otonashi 
pulled her along, and he opened the door and they both entered the room.
	Kyoko choked back the tears as she saw Soichiro, lying in the hospital 
bed, like he did four years ago� no, like he did, the last time she lived 
through this day. And yet while she was happy to see his face once again, she 
felt that this was the gods' way of punishing her for abandoning her love for 
her husband.
	"Go on," Mr. Otonashi said softly, motioning for her to go to him.
	She stood at the side of the bed and gazed upon his face. She felt the 
question materialize in her mind and her heart, the question she asked that 
very day, the first time she was here. "Why�?"
	She fell to her knees and sobbed, resting her head on his chest. "WHY?!" 
She began to weep uncontrollably, her head pounding� regularly�
	Pounding?
	She lifted her head and looked at Soichiro.
	He opened his eyes and faced her, a questioning look on his face. "'Why' 
what?"
	She gasped and stared at Soichiro; he looked pale and wan, he was hooked 
up to the dextrose feed, but he looked very much alive. "How?" she whispered.
	"Why? What? How?" Soichiro repeated, smiling weakly. "One question at a 
time, dear."
	"You're alive!" Kyoko said, embracing him, tears staining his hospital 
gown. "It's a miracle!"
	"Yes, it was a close call," Mr. Otonashi agreed. "But while he was 
delirious he kept calling out your name. I guess you pulled him through, 
Kyoko."
	Soichiro nodded. "I guess whoever's in charge up there's given me a 
second chance, huh, Kyoko?"
	A second chance. That must've been it. Kyoko nodded. "Yes, my dear 
Soichiro. A second chance."

=====

PROLOGUE : YELLOW

	Kyusaku braced for the imminent impact their car was going to make with 
the huge scrap pile in front of them.  He hoped that the bindings he made on 
the android in the backseat were secure enough. "Land Rover Attack!" he 
bellowed, grinning.
	With a loud crash the Land Rover buried itself in the pile. "Maybe we can 
hide here, huh, Ryu-san?"
	Ryunosuke nodded solemnly at Kyusaku.
	Kyusaku blinked. Was that a flash of light he saw, looking at his son? He 
shrugged. It was the Poison One's searchlights. That had to be it.
	Sure enough, the searchlights panned over the scrap pile. "Keep quiet and 
maybe they won't hear us," he hissed.
	But the searchlights centered on their car. Both father and son uttered 
the same interjection. "Dokin�"
	Kyusaku ducked under the wheel as automatic gunfire peppered his beloved 
Land Rover, punching it full of holes on the car body and windshield, which 
shattered and sprayed shards of glass all over them.
	He held his breath as the Poison One helicopter banked and flew away from 
them. "Damn it! Wasn't that a bit too harsh?" he yelled. "This time they've 
gone too far!" He gnawed at the cigarette filter in disgust.
	He heard the cat cry and he turned to face the sound. His mouth dropped 
open, cigarette falling down to the floor.
	Ryunosuke was slumped over the cat, chest and back bloody. He had 
shielded the cat with his own body? But why? It was just a cat!
	"To� To-chan�" Ryunosuke spoke, softly, "I did it� I saved her�"
	"What are you talking about?! You're bleeding to death!" Kyusaku cried, 
trying to stop the bleeding by applying direct pressure on the wounds. It 
didn't work.
	"I made it up to her� I got a second chance to� to�" Ryunosuke coughed up 
blood, and his eyes began to close.
	Kyusaku racked his brain for a solution, for some way to save his son. 
What good was his knowledge as the most brilliant scientist in bio-robotics
if 
he could not save his own son?
	Bio-robotics! That's it! Kyusaku wrenched the backrest off his seat to 
make room for the operation, scrambling for the instruments and chemicals he 
needed. He looked at the android skeleton in the back seat and grinned 
nervously.
	"Hang on, Ryu-san!" he said, running his fingers through Ryunosuke's 
hair. "I'm going to give you the best Christmas present ever!"

=====

PROLOGUE : CYAN

	"We'll have to erase your memories, Nobuyuki, Achika," Miss Kiyone said, 
listening in on some communicator device.
	Nobuyuki shook his head. He could barely believe what had just happened. 
A dark entity from the future that came back to destroy Achika, their son 
coming back to warn them, Achika turning out to be a Juraian princess� And
now 
he held her, lying in his arms. It was too surreal to be true. "Why?"
Nobuyuki 
asked, ponytail flowing in the wind.
	Kiyone said, ear still on the communicator, "Washu says it's to make sure 
the time continuum isn't disrupted. I'm sorry."
	Achika opened her eyes. "Please. I know Tenchi's my son. You girls take 
care of him for me when I'm gone, okay?"
	"Gone?" Nobuyuki was puzzled. What was Achika talking about?

	Then, like the light of Achika's master key, with the clarity of her cry 
as she defeated Kain, his mind filled with light. The memories from a life
not 
yet lived! The Tree! A Juraian Tree! It could provide her with the energy she 
had expended during her battle with Kain! It could keep her alive, like it
kept 
Katsuhito - Yosho - alive, all these centuries!

	He was not going to waste this second chance! He was not going to have 
this precious knowledge erased before he could use it!
	"Achika!" he whispered to her. "Do you remember the tree in the middle of 
the lake, near your father's temple?"
	"Yes, why?" Achika whispered back.
	"Connect to it! Use your Juraian powers to draw energy from the tree!"
	"But why?" Achika asked.
	"Please! Just do it! Do it for us! Do it for Tenchi! He needs you! I need 
you!" Nobuyuki pleaded.
	Tenchi smiled at the both of them from where he was standing and waved 
them goodbye. "I love you, mother," he said.
	"Tenchi�" Achika murmured, softly. She nodded to Nobuyuki and closed her 
eyes.
	"I'm erasing your memories now. All non-standard memories are now being 
erased as the rest of us transport out of here. It's been nice meeting you.
I'm 
really sorry you won't remember us," Kiyone said, punching a button and
fading 
out of existence.
	"Goodbye," Tenchi said as he, too, faded out of existence.
	The final memory of which Nobuyuki would have no more recollection was 
the image of a ray of light extending from Achika's forehead towards the 
horizon�

=====

Four time shifts. Four deaths averted. Four collections of memories from 
realities that no longer existed the way they were, wiped away with the use
of 
a memory erasing device. Four realities brought together to form a reality 
anew. Four fragments of a whole greater than the sum of all parts.

The year is 1998. The place: Nerima, Tokyo.

To be continued in 'The Sum of All Parts':

Black - Neon Chronicle Evangelion
Magenta - Maison Otonashi
Yellow - All-Purpose Cultural Mecha Boy Ryu-kun
Cyan - Nobuyuki Muyo!



=====
TimeRunner's Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482

icq: 7153134 (Keiichi)
=====

"The story grew in the most convoluted way, as many people will be
surprised to learn. Writing episodically meant that when I finished one
episode I had no idea about what the next one would contain. When, in the
twists and turns of the plot, some event suddenly seemed to illuminate
things that had gone before, I was as surprised as anyone else."

--- Douglas Adams, "A Guide to the Guide"

"Mos people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They
want to HAVE BEEN  writers."

--- James A. Michener