[Note; as always, please use the addr. in the `Reply-To' field to reach me]

	Ok, this is *heavily* revised and should address all the problems with
the first five chapters.

----------

        "High-Lord Uranite-sama!"
        At the sound of her voice the high-mage turned, glancing for one brief
moment from his frantic sealing of the last of the sub-space crystals that
would hold the precious scrolls during their traversing of the gateway as
Kalleth rounded the doorway and stumbled to a halt. For a moment she stood,
eyes roving wildly as she gasped desperately for air while in the distance,
yet another low menacing rumble shook the stronghold and Uranite shivered as
yet more of the ruins of the realm was torn savagely from his perception,
vanishing as though it had never existed as the obliterating wave of oblivion
surged ever nearer.
        "They have not returned?" He said urgently, although he knew it to be
a foolish question.
        Even with the tearing pain of the failing of reality all about this
last refuge, he of all of them should have felt the stirrings of the portal
should Vedris or Alaegra have managed to re-enter the failing ruins of the
Kingdom. It was possible perhaps that they were simply unable to teleport back
and were awaiting their arrival, but Uranite doubted it. What little remained
of the Kingdom, now little more than the stronghold itself, was still stable,
his own powers would have warned him otherwise and he could only assume either
that they had taken it upon themselves to disobey, inconceivable given the
desperate nature of their situation, or more likely, that the terrible Senshi
had found them. He did not want to think about what might happen should that
be the case and should the dreadful wielder of the Ginzuishou be waiting for
them when they stepped from the exit and into the world once more. It would be
a massacre, of that he had no doubt. Even should they by some miracle be able
to gather the power needed to challenge her, an impossible hope, there was
nothing left for them upon which to draw. The Earth's mana was bound and
unreachable and all the Senshi need do was wait until they tired and they
would have them, broken and helpless to do with as they chose. There was no
hope in battle, of that Uranite had long ceased to doubt.  "High-Lord?"
Kalleth's urgent call brought him back from the black introspection and he
started, glancing quickly to her at his side.
        "They have not returned High-Lord." She said again, her voice tight
with barely restrained terror. "Are the scrolls ready?"
        "As ready as I can manage." He answered, indicating the five gleaming-
black crystals, each perhaps half the size of his clenched fist.
        With desperate speed, Kalleth reached for them, catching them up
quickly and binding them in a fractional instant close beneath her own silken
wrap. Her master had entrusted her with a task of almost inestimable import
and she would die before she would allow the precious library to come to harm.
        "You understand my instructions Kalleth?" He said quickly, glancing
once more about the home he had known for the few weeks since the cataclysm in
case something might have been overlooked. "No matter what may happen, you are
to protect the library and stay out of harm's way. Do I make myself clear?"
        For one brief moment his steel-grey eyes held her own and Kalleth
shivered despite herself at the seldom-seen intensity of his power. He could
and would destroy her should she fail, of that she was certain and indeed she
would have wished for no less, yet even now she was sure she caught a warmth
and understanding beneath the fire and she shivered again with a very
different emotion, her pulse quickening and a flush coming to her face as she
dropped suddenly to her knees before him.
        "I shall guard the library with my soul High-Lord." She said softly,
her cat-slitted green eyes shining suddenly with adoration as she gazed up
into his face. "May it be taken by the terrible moon-queen herself should I
fail."
        "Very well." He said, gesturing her quickly to her feet. "But now
speed is of the essence. Are all within the stronghold?"
        "All save the scouts High-Lord." She answered.
        He nodded and moved quickly to the door, pausing but for a moment to
glance one last time about the chamber before stepping out into the passage,
Kalleth at his side.
        From all about them came shouts and calls as youma raced hither and
thither in a last desperate attempt to gather all they could take, the sounds
of urgent voices interspersed with the crack of a teleport as those prepared
leaped into the great hall in the centre of the stronghold, most careless of
the air they displaced so desperate were they not to be left behind. Uranite
reached briefly to Chalenite, confirming that the others were ready and
waiting, catching the brief flicker of Terranite's power as the warrior-
commander reached to recall the scouts, even as Uranite prepared to leap to
the hall. He felt their acknowledgment, then in the next instant a wave of
agony crashed over him and in the same moment a cataclysmic detonation split
the air and a brief terror smote him, slashed into nothing as those beyond the
stronghold ceased to exist.
        `By Metallia!' He flashed wildly to the others. `It's here! We're out
of time!'
        Then he was running, not daring to leap as reality lurched and
groaned, while all about him shouts turned to screams as panic took those
still in the passages. Youma leaped blindly, some reaching the hall, others
losing the coherence of the jump in their panic and vanishing into the
nothingness. Almost before them, Uranite saw a pretty humanic barely full-
grown tense as though to leap, then turn suddenly inside-out, her ruined mouth
opening in a petrified rictus of agony, a thin, horrible keening he was
certain would haunt his darkest dreams for many nights to come filling the air
before she exploded with a sickening tearing that left him wanting desperately
to be sick. Then another flash and crash thundered about them and Uranite knew
they could not reach the great hall on foot. From behind, a great thrumming
began, a throbbing rumble that rose and waxed until at last with a cataclysmic
roar and crash that shivered rock to splinters and struck youma in their
dozens to the floor the very fabric of reality quaked and lurched, gaping
suddenly wide like some hungry maw of nightmare. For one terrible moment as
Uranite and Kalleth looked back, the nothingness gaped wide before them, a
window into a blackness of thought and matter more absolute than the mind
could hope to comprehend. Then from the blackness something writhed and grew,
a bloated corruption of the very fabric of existence, a shapeless impossible
something that surged and waxed, blazing with a lurid, livid fire, a blight
that burned the very soul and turned every sense to reeling, screaming madness
and every thought to horror and gibbering despair. For Kalleth it was too
much. Screaming, her mind on the knife-edge of breaking, she turned, fleeing
wildly along the passage before her terror became too great even to run and
she leapt, vanishing in one last, hopeless lunge for the great hall and a
respite from the horror.
        Fighting with everything he had, Uranite wrenched himself from his own
paralysis and catching her in mid leap, directed her with his own reeling
power even as he fought to control his own senses enough to guide himself to a
safe landing at her side. A moment later both stood in the great hall while
beyond its bounds could be heard the screaming roar of ruin as all that
remained of the Kingdom erupted and vanished in twisting, howling nightmare
and oblivion.
        "Now! It must be now!" Uranite heard his own voice scream, even as he
leaped to the dais and summoned the power needed to open the gate.
        "But Vedris and--" Sapphite began.
        "You come with us now, or stay to die!" Uranite shouted, relief almost
driving him to his knees as the gate flashed into being before him.
        It was stable and showed no signs of succumbing to the roiling madness
about them.
        "He's right; we have no choice and no more time." Cried Terranite.
"Chalenite shall lead, then Emerite, Sapphite and Halite in that order. If all
is safe don't wait for us; we'll be right behind you."
        From beyond the hall came another crash, then suddenly the great hall
shuddered despite its seals of protection and the farther wall groaned and
shivered.
        "Go!" Terranite shouted.
        And they obeyed, Chalenite leaping through the portal but a fractional
moment before Emerite followed on her heels. "Good luck!" Cried the tall,
green-haired fighter, flashing a fierce smile even as she vanished.
        Sapphite wasted no time in following her sister. Then Halite was gone
and the two were alone with the last of their people.
        "Come! As quickly as you can! You first."
        Before Kalleth could understand what was happening, Terranite had
caught her up and hurled her through the portal with her precious cargo. "And
you." He continued, pitching a still barely-coherent Galenite after her. "Such
potential as you possess will be needed."
        Then the youma were streaming for the portal, his presence alone
preventing a wild panic as he held his power ready, prepared to kill in an
instant any who dared start a stampede.
        "Two-hundred, two-hundred and fifty;" He counted to himself. "come on,
come on! Faster!" He shouted. "Time is desperately short. Move!"
        As though to emphasise his point, the thrumming roar grew to a sudden
terrible crescendo. Then a piercing scream had him whipping in the direction
of the farther wall. For a moment he stared aghast as the rock reeled and
rippled like molten wax. Then with a cataclysmic crack it opened before his
staring eyes and Terranite saw, and wrenched himself wildly away.
        For most who looked into the abomination beyond it was the end, their
sanity deserting them in an instant, high keening shrieks of madness tearing
from suddenly gaping mouths as the incomprehensible horror robbed them of
reason and they leapt blindly, vanishing to the last into the nothingness
beyond the confines of their shattered reality. For some few able to bear the
sight, they turned, driven almost to quaking, fighting with all they possessed
to hold themselves upon the knife-edge of reason, knowing only too well what
would happen should they falter and plunge into the infinite madness of
splintering oblivion.
        "Come!" Terranite's voice thundered suddenly above the roar and scream
of ruin. "All who are able; follow!"
        And with that, he leapt into the portal, Uranite only an instant
behind him.
        Immediately the gate began to quiver while youma, released of the
cohesive presence of their commanders, fought with savage desperation for a
place within the diminishing passage to escape. For a few precious seconds it
held, while some few sensible enough to band together hacked and fought their
way to freedom. Then with a last cataclysmic crack it burst asunder, riven
into splinters even as youma screamed and fought like wild animals in a last
hopeless race for an impossible, broken dream.
        With a screaming roar the seals, strained beyond endurance, flashed
and exploded in a howling, shrieking eruption of magic gone mad and the last
tiny fragment of the Dark Kingdom broke and plunged down into the hungry maw
into
        nothingness.
        Still screaming, youma were hurtled into the gaping abyss, some
bursting instantly into flame, others turning to water or stone or hideous
nightmare parodies of their own form in body and in mind before splintering
and fracturing into screaming phantoms that dissipated swiftly, their agonised
screams dying to faint echoing cries of despair as their riven souls perished
in the impossibility of the nothingness beyond reality until at last even the
void shrank, bubbling and snarling until with a final hiss the emptiness
itself collapsed and ceased to exist.
        And in the nothingness beyond reality, in an emptiness of matter and
of thought beyond dream or imagination, something stirred, vague and ill-
defined, the barest splinter of a phantom thought, the faintest echo of the
rage and frustration of an anima of an impossible hope that shuddered,
writhing upon the knife-edge of existence until of a sudden it started,
sensing by some dreadful chance beyond fate the cataclysmic shattering of the
Dark Kingdom; and it slipped the moorings of its creator's mind, reached, and
was real.
        Laughter came then, a low purring that rippled and writhed as the
thing that was an abomination beyond pain or terror or the darkest nightmares
of the vilest fiend of any hell swirled and coalesced until at last she stood,
tall and terrible, cloaked and hooded in deepest night, her long hair swirling
about her like a curtain of living fire, eyes like emerald chips stabbing
frigid and merciless from a face to rend the soul and set reality itself to
quaking; and she was hate, and hate was all.
        "Mine." The word was soft, a low purring snarl of rage and seduction
to turn the mind to madness and the soul to broken, helpless obedience, a
promise that seemed to ripple to the uttermost reaches of the emptiness and
set the very fabric of reality to trembling. "Mine in perpetuity, for with me
begins agony and fear eternal and they shall hear, and scream."
        Reaching now with senses attuned to perfection to the emptiness, she
touched and caressed, reshaping it with subtle care so that it might make from
whomever should dare enter her domain the tools by which she might realise her
intent; and she smiled the smile of damnation as she felt them swirl and
coalesce, two already powerful enough to be of use to her, another nearly so
while the last was barely a flicker, created of a mind with little cause to
hate. But that would change. With savage eagerness she reached to draw them to
her, and gasped in shock and disbelieving amazement as the truth of their
presence here and of the bind of one of them to her became clear in a blinding
flash of understanding. Then she laughed again, a low purr of infinite
pleasure that rose and waxed until at last the very foundations of the
emptiness shuddered and trembled, writhing and reeling as in a moment the
completion of her desire and the means by which it could be realised was
revealed to her.
        "Come!"
        The command split the emptiness, thundering and crashing about her
even as they sensed it and turned, racing fiercely towards her. "Come, and
take your rightful places as my own, and the instruments of my desire. Come,
and hate!"
        And suddenly helpless they came, and in that moment the ruin of all
that was or that could be was begun.
                                     ** ** **
        Dark Chronicles
        An anime/Manga Cross-over
                                     ** ** **
        Chapter 4:
                                     ** ** **
        The first thing of which Johnathan became aware as he opened his eyes
was the fact that he was shivering violently with cold. Then there was light,
a diffuse, gloomy greyness that seemed little more than a diminution of
blackness. Then the pain hit him, a dull relentless ache of almost numbing
cold and the hard black something upon which he was sprawled, half on his
back, half on his left side. Johnathan moaned and began to move, every muscle
aching with the chill that seemed to have become a part of his very soul.
Slowly and painfully he scrambled to his hands and knees, then, with every
muscle screaming, he began to struggle to his feet.
        "What--! Where!--!" He gasped.
        HE was standing on a flat featureless greyness that seemed to stretch
as far as the eye could see in every direction. Not that that meant very much.
A thick, soul-numbing fog, defined only by its swirling whiteness, hung to the
ground about him and he could make out nothing only a few inches beyond his
outstretched hand. In any direction he turned the sight that met his staring
eyes was exactly the same. Above him, the diffuse grey light seemed to fill
all the sky, coming from no source that he could see.
        Johnathan stood still, shivering, staring about him.
        "Am I dead?" He muttered softly to himself.
        His voice, curiously, seemed to echo and reverberate in the heavy
whiteness rather than falling dead as it should have done and abruptly, he was
reminded of the surroundings in the night's dream.
        "There's no chance I'm dreaming now." He continued, talking to make
some sound other than the barely heard sigh of the slowly swirling fog. "If I
am dreaming--."
        With that, he fixed his eyes on his hand, willing some detail to
change. Nothing happened. Johnathan slapped himself, then concentrated on his
own breathing and heartbeat. His body felt solid and absolutely corporeal as
did the frozen, almost glass-smooth hardness beneath his fingers when he bent
down to test the ground or whatever it was upon which he was standing.
        "Not a dream then, or the most real I've ever had." He muttered.
"Alright, let's take this one step at a time."
        Lowering himself carefully, Johnathan settled himself, his knees drawn
up to him, but almost immediately the chill began to gnaw at him and he rose
again to his feet. This was insane. He couldn't just stand here until he
collapsed from cold. Grimacing, he turned, thinking suddenly, absurdly, that
falling through a spar into oblivion wasn't exactly the entrance to another
world he'd been looking for when he'd imagined such adventures.
        "I say. Hello?" He called softly, then with more force: "Hello? Blast
it, if this is someone's idea of a joke it's not funny!"
        He turned, staring about him once more, but even had there been no
fog, he'd have had trouble with his deteriorated sight. He'd left his hated
glasses on his bed-side table and with the fog also to hinder him, his short-
sightedness meant that he was all but blind.
        "Damn it, damn it!" He continued in a furious mutter, the closest he
would come to swearing. "Hello?"
        He hesitated for a moment, then began to move forwards. "Hello damn
you!"
        With sudden explosive fury, he lashed out with a foot, and impacted
something soft.
        "Aagghh!" Something, or rather someone, screamed.
        In the next instant, Johnathan's foot was wrenched from the ground and
something shot at him and slammed him down.
        "Oof!" Was all he could manage.
        Then he was flipped over on his back and a figure, barely seen in the
greyness, was astride him, pinning his arms and legs.
        "Alright whoever you are, just where are we and who are you, and
whaddya mean by doing that?"
        "Wha! Leggo!" Johnathan gasped, wheezing as he tried to force air back
into his lungs.
        The voice that had addressed him was undoubtedly female and Johnathan
was suddenly very aware of how close the unknown girl was. Immediately he
began to panic in his usual fashion, all ability to form coherent speech
leaving him.
        "I don't..., I mean if you could..., when you..., that is..., um
I...!"
        "Jees, what an idiot!" He heard the girl mutter. "Listen, is all this
your fault?" She demanded, reaching to slap him on the face.
        The blow, apparently casual, made stars dance before his eyes and he
was certain he could taste blood.
        "Ahgh! Hey, what in God's name do you think you're doing!" He cried,
the pain shocking some sense back into him.
        "Well, you can talk properly then!" The girl demanded. Then: "Well?"
She continued.
        "Of course it's not, damn it! L-l-let me up for crying out loud."
        With a: "Hmph!" The girl released him and Johnathan scrambled to his
knees, then slowly struggled again to his feet.
        He turned, peering at the girl, trying desperately to make sense in
the fog of what he saw.
        "Hey, what're you staring at, hentai!" She demanded.
        "Wha!" Johnathan replied. "Are you Japanese by chance?"
        "You got a problem with that or something?" The other answered.
"Course I'm not Japanese. That's why I talk Japanese, because I'm Chinese. You
didn't know that?"
        "If you're talking Japanese then so am I." Johnathan retorted.
        "Well what do you think you're talking, German? Jees, what kind of
baka thing to say is that?"
        "Oh Lord I really can't deal with this now!" Johnathan muttered. "I'm
talking English, exactly as you, you idiot."
        Anger was making him coherent, that and the fact that the girl was no
longer so close.
        "Who're you calling an idiot you hentai?" The other shouted.
        A faint glow seemed to emanate from around her.
        "And who do you think you're calling a hentai?"
        "And if you're talking English how'd you know what that meant?"
        "Alright, alright!" Johnathan returned, putting a furious hold on his
rising temper. "This is just crazy. Shouting at one another isn't going to
solve anything. You say you're talking Japanese, right?"
        "Wha'd I just tell you!" The other said, still shouting.
        "Will you just shut up for a minute!" Johnathan said, his own small
voice raised again. "If you're talking Japanese and I'm talking English, then
it either means we've both suddenly learned each other's language perfectly
and don't know it, something's translating what each of us is saying for the
other, or we're not really talking at all. Or I'm dead or mad." He ended to
himself. "So let's just slow down for a moment. Ok, say something, slowly."
        "Something slowly!" The girl parodied with a smirk that Johnathan
couldn't see.
        "Oh very funny!" He said, his own temper near breaking again. "Still,
I think we might be getting somewhere. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn't
English, although I understood it. Now, if I say, hmm, you're a crazy baka!"
        "Hey!" The other shouted. "At least I'm not a little hentai like you."
        "What did you hear blast it?" Johnathan cried.
        "I heard--." The girl was silent for a moment, then exclaimed softly.
"You're right you know. I can't repeat what I heard, but I do know it wasn't
Japanese, apart from baka that is, and you didn't pronounce that properly."
        "Seems that, assuming we are speaking, we can understand one another's
language but not speak them, at least, not yet." Johnathan mused. "Although it
probably wouldn't take very long to learn, probably just a matter of getting
the mouth used to forming appropriate sounds."
        "Hey you know the more I concentrate, the more I can *hear* that
you're not speaking Japanese." The girl said.
        "Same with me." Johnathan answered. "That could mean either that we're
just waking up properly, becoming more aware of our own consciousness, or
because, being so impossibly unexpected and the copying or whatever it was of
each other's language each to the other being so perfect, it took us time to
realise consciously what had happened. Anyway, there's no point in trying to
speculate on that now. The question is, where are we? Oh, I'm Johnathan by the
way, oh and that's not John or Johnny; Johnathan O'Reilly."
        "Saotome Ranma, heir to the Saotome school of indescriminate
grappling." Said the girl, seizing and almost crushing a suddenly lifeless
hand.
        "Wha!" Was all Johnathan could gasp.
        "Hey, you still in there?" Ranma-chan demanded, peering at the
suddenly frozen boy.
        "You..., I mean I..., no! This is just...! It's just absolutely
crazy!"
        Johnathan proceeded to pinch himself viciously, then slap himself
savagely across the face, then bite his finger, hard.
        Ranma-chan simply rolled her eyes and waited.
        "I'm not dreaming! Tell me I'm not dreaming this!" Johnathan gasped at
last.
        "Not unless I am too." Ranma-chan answered. "What's the matter with
you all of a sudden? I thought you were weird but--."
        "Oh Lord. I don't believe this, I *really* don't believe it."
Johnathan exclaimed. "Alright." He continued. "Assuming I'm not dreaming, dead
or mad. You're Ranma Saotome right, son of Genma and Nodoka, engaged to Akane
Tendo, one of three daughters of Soun Tendo, the others being Kasumi and
Nabiki?"
        "Hey, how'd you know all that?" Ranma-chan demanded. "Just who are you
anyway? Oh, and it's family name *first* by the way; baka gaijin! And your
pronunciation is *really* terrible."
        "Just tell me if I'm making any mistakes." Johnathan was suddenly
almost babbling, nearly incoherent with growing excitement. "You're also
engaged to Uk...hmm I mean Kuonji Ukyou; your father did that for food; and
Shampoo thinks you're married to her because you defeated her, and Kod...Kuno
Kodachi is after you, and Tatewaki Kuno is after you're cursed form, and--"
        "Hey!"
        In the next moment, Johnathan found himself flat on his back with the
enraged Ranma-chan astride him again. This time though it wasn't so bad.
        "She's not really a girl." His mind told him.
        Then he saw the fist cocked to send him back into the land of very
deep sleep and decided that it was as bad after all.
        "Ok, start talking." Growled Ranma-chan softly. "Just how do you know
all this?"
        "I don't believe it, I really donoof!"
        This last as Ranma-chan's knee met his midriff.
        "Back to earth yet?" She demanded.
        "You-- didn't-- have-- to do-- that--!" Johnathan wheezed, all the air
driven out of his lungs for the second time in nearly as many minutes. "It's
quite simple. In my reality, you don't exist. That is to say, you're a manga
and Anime creation of Rumiko Takahashi."
        This time it was Ranma-chan's turn to gape.
        "Nani!" She gasped at last. "No way. As in Urusei Yatsura? You're
crazy."
        She hand-sprung off his stomach, causing another: "Oof!" and landed on
her feet. "You can stay as another weird part of this weird place for all I
care. I'm outa here."
        "Wait! Listen to me!" Johnathan tried to shout, managing only a croak.
"I'm telling you the truth. How else could I know so much about you?"
        "Who knows? Perhaps you're something Happosai called up. Perhaps I'm
dead or perhaps that kawaikunee tomboy hit me again and I'm still unconscious.
I dunno, but this is all too weird for me."
        "Please Ranma, for once don't just go crashing through everything. It
won't work this time. This is different. We shouldn't, we *can't* be in the
same reality. Something's horribly, *desperately* wrong, can't you see that!
Our only chance is to try to find out why we're here, and how, if that's
possible."
        "No way." Ranma-chan repeated. "I'm getting outa here now."
        "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Johnathan demanded.
"Look, we don't know where we are. We don't know how we got here or whether it
was by accident or design. We don't even know what here is. Our only hope is
to stay together and try to find out what's going on."
        "You mean you don't want to be on your own. You're more scared than
anything else."
        "Alright, what about it!" Johnathan flared. "Don't tell me you're
not."
        "You wanna try and prove that?" Ranma-chan shouted, cracking her
knuckles.
        Johnathan bit back his retort before it got him a fist in the mouth.
        "I don't want to fight you Ranma. I couldn't in any case. I wouldn't
stand a chance. I'm only trying to make you understand. Our only hope is to
keep together. We've no chance alone, can't you see that? For God's sake,
can't you see how wrong all this is? Can't you--"
        "Hey!"
        At the shout, both whirled. In the next instant, someone came racing
towards them out of the fog.
        "Baka!" A female voice shrieked. "There I was wasting my time worrying
about you and you've been just standing here."
        In the next instant, Johnathan winced as he heard a dull thud, then
Ranma-chan groaning as she collapsed in a heap on the hard ground.
        "BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA!" The girl he assumed impossibly to be Akane
Tendo wept as she pounded her fiance again and again. "I thought you were dead
you jerk! I thought that baka curse of your's had finally killed you!"
        "Hmm, if you keep hitting him like that you might well be right."
Johnathan ventured, wincing at each successive thud.
        As if noticing him for the first time, Akane stopped pounding on
Ranma-chan and turned to face him. Beside her, Ranma-chan groaned again, then
began to stir.
        "Kawaikunee!" She muttered, then slumped back into unconsciousness.
        "Who are you?" Akane demanded, glaring at Johnathan with the mallet
already raised.
        Johnathan shuddered. Ranma, and perhaps everyone in his reality, might
inherently be able to take punishment like that, but he was certain that a
single blow from that thing would split his skull like an eggshell.
        "Wait, for heaven's sake!" He cried, raising both hands. "My name is
Johnathan O'Reilly and I'm from a reality where that thing would be considered
a deadly weapon."
        And with that, he began to explain.
                                     * * *
        They were going to suffer for this, that she swore. She would hunt
down Gema Renae's soul and tear it to screaming quivering ribbons, her's and
every last piece of slime who had been in her pay. To be killed by something
so idiotic. She was dead, she had no doubt of that, although the frigid,
featureless greyness all about her was not exactly her idea of the afterlife.
Had she been so irredeemable? For a moment an all-too-familiar bitterness
engulfed her. It was what she might have expected from the filthy travesty of
a universe into which she had had the misfortune to be born. What else should
she have expected? God, as well as Gema, was going to get a piece of her mind
and hatred if she ever found her way out of this place. God, Satan, the
Morrigon, Kami-sama; name them; if they wanted a fight, they would have one,
and with interest.
        She continued to walk, something she had been doing for nearly an hour
now. There was no point in remaining where she was until she froze. She had
laughed at that thought. Could you die twice?
        The terrain was, of course, identical in all directions, but whatever
bastard filth had landed her here had reckoned without either her
determination or a certain intuitive ability when it came to direction,
amongst other things. She *knew* herself to be going in a dead straight line.
She could also see better than most in this pea-soup. Just let anything try to
touch her and she would tear it apart or go down with her blades, and then her
nails and teeth, in its throat when nothing else was left. Curious how her
clothes and tiny blades had followed her to the afterlife. But then, why not.
Perhaps they were a projection of her own soul. That was fine with her.
        She shivered. The cold was beginning to seep into her again. With a
snarl, she yanked her loosening coat tighter to her and refastened the buttons
yet again. At least her soul could have fixed the worn button-holes back to
their original size. She had tried concentrating on changing her clothes, the
fog and various other things regarding her situation but to no avail. Whoever
was playing this game with her obviously intended their domain and her
situation to remain static.
        "Fine then you bastards!" She had snarled. "We'll play it your way
until I find you. Then you can start to scream."
        She shivered again. The top button simply would not stay done up and
she was not dressed for this in any case. She had only put the coat on that
morning because it had been raining when she had left for school.
        "Whoever you are, when I find you you'll be so damned sorry!" She
snarled softly. "Do you hear me?" She screamed suddenly at the very top of her
lungs. "I'll tear out your throat, and as for you you psychopathic little
bitch," She ended, picturing Gema in her mind. "I'll have you pleading and
screaming for death before I've properly started on you this time. You hear?"
        Her only answer were the impossible echoes of her own voice, dying at
last to silence. Then suddenly there was another sound, the faintest
suggestion of a whimper.
        Immediately she halted, whirling in the direction of the sound, pin-
pointing it relative to her position so that she could retrace her steps and
continue in the direction in which she had been walking if it turned out to be
yet another trick. Then she began, moving more quickly, her keen instincts
poised and alert for possible attack as she drew nearer. It was, as she had
expected, very suddenly that the figure came into view through the blanketing
fog. A moment later she was standing before a small shape curled up tight into
a ball in a single fluffy blanket, a head of blonde hair virtually all that
could be seen.
        "Who are you?" She demanded, none too gently, moving effortlessly into
a fighting stance, the edgy menace that was so much a part of her nature
falling like a cloak about her as she tensed, ready for any sudden reaction.
        Whomever it was, it certainly was not the little bitch she would have
been more than happy to find. She needed something on which to vent her
growing rage.
        Slowly the figure uncurled herself, lifting her head and turning a
tear-streaked face towards her.
        She stared in return, almost certain she had seen that face somewhere
before but unable to make any connection.
        "A-ko?" The figure whimpered, a hopeful smile beginning to touch her
mouth.
        Then her face fell once more. "You're not A-ko. Where's A-ko. I want
A-ko!"
        Immediately, she fell into full-fledged crying, her face screwed up
and her eyes streaming tears.
        "What!"
        The other simply gaped at her, for several moments too stunned and
thunderstruck to do anything else.
        "This is not happening." She said at last.
        Then her face grew hard.
        "If this is some perverse joke," She said, her tone very quiet and
very murderous. "I promise you you'll regret ever being born to play it."
        For answer, the huddled figure whom she now recognised impossibly as
being what the Anime Kotobuki C-ko would look like were she brought to life,
simply cringed down in the big fluffy blanket and began to wail all the
harder.
        "Oh for God's sake!" She exploded, suddenly at the end of her
patience. "Will you just shut up for a moment?"
        The last was screamed at the crying girl, with the result that the
crying grew even more intense, mingled with: "A-ko! A-ko help! She's going to
do something *horrible* to me. A-ko *pleeeeeeeease*!"
        "That wasn't a good idea." The other thought furiously to herself.
Then: "If this really isn't a joke, how the hell does A-ko stand this?"
        It was at about this time that she realised the impossibility,
disregarding everything else, that she could be talking to and understanding
this girl, and listening more closely to her wails, she leapt quickly to the
obvious conclusion.
        "I wonder how long it will take me to speak it?" She muttered.
        Try as she might, she could not think in the Japanese in which C-ko
was whimpering, only understand what she said and translate it to herself. She
supposed it must be the same for C-ko. "Let's worry about that later. First
I've got to stop her from screaming before something else hears her, if
there's anything else here to hear her!"
        With a sigh she shifted closer to the girl whilst slipping a blade
into her other hand, ready to kill her at the slightest sign of threat. C-ko
however simply continued to wail and cry for A-ko until at last, she reached
down and laid a hand gently on the girl's head.
        "I can't help you if you don't stop crying like that." She said
quietly.
        There was a catch in C-ko's sobbing, then the head lifted slowly and
large tear-filled eyes fixed on her face.
        "Y-y-you're not g-g-going t-t-t-to h-hurt me?" C-ko sniffled.
        "Not if you're whom you say you are, and if you promise to stop that
racket." She answered, trying to sound as comforting as she could.
        "And; and you'll h-help me find A-a-ko?" C-ko whimpered.
        "If I can." She answered, feeling that she would regret the promise
but not up to putting up with the girl's screaming by telling her just yet
that she was dead. Best to find out what had happened to her before she broke
that particular piece of news.
        Pulling her coat closer about her she coaxed C-ko up from her curled
huddle and had her stand, just to be certain she was safe. The girl was
certainly not dressed for this, in fact she was dressed only in a thin shift
with a pair of fluffy slippers, and after seeing that there was nothing
concealed in the shift, she let her settle once more beside her, although she
would not let her huddle against her, nor would she share the girl's blanket.
Regardless of anything else, close physical contact was not something she
allowed even her closest friends, let alone a stranger.
        C-ko was obviously unhappy about not being allowed this extra sense of
security, nevertheless, she had stopped crying and was gazing at the girl she
was already beginning to regard as her new friend (for promising to help her
find A-ko) with relief and even the beginnings of a smile. She had been so
frightened here alone, and so cold.
        "I...I was asleep." She began in answer to the obvious question. "Then
suddenly there was a sound and my window opened and B-ko was there. She wanted
me to go with her but I wanted A-ko. Then she picked me up and wrapped me in a
big fluffy blanket and then we flew out the window and i wasn't so frightened
any more, but then something was there on the ground, something big and dark
and B-ko screamed and there was a bright flash and I was falling and B-ko was
screaming and fighting the dark thing and then I fell through the ground and
then I was cold and then I woke up and it was colder and I was here."
        By the time she had finished she was crying again.
        "I think something happened to B-ko." She sniffled. "Maybe something
happened to A-ko too and so B-ko came and then--."
        And with that, she was wailing all the more.
        "Oh please not again!
        "Alright." The other soothed, trying to reassure her if only to shut
her up. "We'll find her if we can. But now we have to be moving. We can't just
sit here; do you understand?"
        "Y-yes." Sniffled C-ko, making a surprising effort to stop whimpering.
"Can we go now?"
        "Now." She said, rising quickly to her feet.
        C-ko stood up, then tripped on her blanket and would have fallen if
the other girl had not caught her.
        "Here," She said in exasperation. "Stand still while I fix this.
There," She ended as she finished wrapping the blanket around her. "and keep
it held tight. And stop skipping about all over the place!" She added in
growing anger as C-ko began to bound up and down, beaming now with the
certainty that she would soon find A-ko again. "We've no idea what the
surrounding terrain is like. Do you want to end up breaking your silly fool of
a neck?"
        Immediately, C-ko sobered, moving close to her.
        "I'm cold." She said, her tone suddenly very soft and very afraid.
        "Come on." Said the other briskly, ignoring the sudden imploring look.
"We'd best get started."
        And with that, she began to move. C-ko took two steps and tripped on
the blanket again.
        "God almighty, what's the matter with you?" The other exploded, again
catching her just before she hit the ground. "Look, just hold the damned thing
tight alright? That's all you have to do. Just hold it exactly like that."
        With that, she slipped an arm reluctantly around the smaller girl,
shuddering and almost recoiling at the close hated contact, took too steps
forwards and plunged into oblivion again. There was no warning, no indication
to any senses that the ground before them was pure illusion.
        C-ko's scream of terror shrilled wildly around her, her own bitten
back viciously despite her terror and changed into a snarl of rage. Then in
the next instant they crashed into someone.
        "Hey! Whaddya think you're doing!" An outraged female voice yelled.
        "Baka, it wasn't me!" Another shouted back.
        Then everything was tumbling and shouting until abruptly light
exploded around them and they tumbled out of the sudden brightness into cold
water.
        "Aagghh! Cold!" Someone shrieked.
        "A-ko! *A-ko*!" C-ko screamed.
        "Baka! Hentai! Let go of me!" Came another, followed by a thud.
        "Kawaikunee! Whaddya do that for? I was only trying to help. Stupid
macho chick!"
        "Would someone mind? I can't exactly swim." Johnathan spluttered as he
was dunked several times in as many seconds.
        Struggling at last with a ferocity born of his fear of water from the
tangled mass of bodies, he splashed and thrashed about until a sudden fierce
grip caught his wrist. In the next moment he was scooped up as though he
weighed nothing and dumped unceremoniously face-down on soft grass.
        "Satisfied?" A new female voice demanded, its tone laced with
contempt. "How pathetic. The thing was only a pond, not the middle of the
Irish Sea."
        A moment later, Johnathan was flipped on to his back and found himself
staring up at his rescuer. Her long flaming red hair, tumbling in a wild
cascade below her waist, gleamed in the light of the newly risen sun and
emerald green eyes blazed with a savage, almost feral gleam as they looked
down into his own.
        For a moment, all Johnathan could do was stare in stunned, open-
mouthed amazement at the face that had filled almost his every waking moment
for years. Then faintly he gasped: "Joanna?"
-- 
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|Cally: `My people have a saying,  |Craig, Monarchist, *British*-Australian  |
|      a man who trusts can never  |Fantasy: Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dr. Who, B7|
|      be betrayed, only mistaken.'|Anime/Manga: BGC, Sailor Moon, P:A-ko,   |
|Avon: `Life expectancy must be    |R1/2, DH Yohko, AMG, DP, Nuku, T Muyo,   |
|      fairly short among your     |Visit the RAAC Anime fanfic Archive at   |
|      people.'                    |ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works|
+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+