Authors Notes:

Once again, the formatting stank. Here we go again.

This begins my most ambitious writing project to date, my very own 
attempt at an 'epic'. It 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