Here is chapter one. I promised it would be here tonight, and here it is, just
befor 4:00 PM central time.Again, I'm going to add in the standard Author's
Notes for the series. Please send C&C, and I appreciate it, even if I don't
agree with some of it. For example, Lurker, your comment about 'Gos and Hikaru?
NO WAY' type holds no water. Need I say Woody Allen and Mia Farrow? Rick
O'Kasek and whatever her name was? There's a long history of geeks and babes
hooking up.


Author's notes: All the characters in this story are the property of their
respective creators, including those few I put in. Please don't sue me, I have
no money.






Chapter One: No Need For Pigtails!

    It was quiet at Gosunkugi Hikaru's apartment. In a few months he would be
getting his Bachelor's degree in parapsychology, to be followed shortly by a
Master's, then a Doctorate. Unlike many students, he had somehow managed to
actually get his own apartment, and was currently entertaining a visitor. If
you guessed that it was Shidou Hikaru, you'd be right. Both had their noses
buried in books, but where Gosunkugi had a furtive expression, as his eyes
passed over and over the same paragraph twenty times, determined to understand
its complex structure, Hikaru had a more serene expression. In fact, he could
swear that he heard her snore slightly. She didn't, but he was still convinced
that she had fallen asleep. After all, not many people could read with their
eyes closed.
    He smiled, an evil smile. His eyes weren't as sunken in as a few years ago,
a fact that actually enhanced the expression - but not much. He softly picked
his book off the table, and snuck around behind her. BAM! He closed it just a
foot behind her.
    "No, Mokona, I don't have to get up yet!" she blurted out, dropping her own
book, and bolting upright in her chair. "Huh? Um, Gos-chan, was I , uh..."
    He smiled, with a good bit more warmth than before. "Yup. You were asleep.
First time in all the time that I've known you that you fell asleep first while
we were studying. And I got my revenge! Bwahahaha!" He dropped the book on his
desk, and began an awkward, spastic victory dance. He paused briefly when he
heard the splash of a very large sweatdrop, but continued until Hikaru spoke
up.
    "Okay, okay. If I fell asleep, we must have been studying for too long.
We've just spent the whole Saturday studying, and it's only seven thirty. Why
don't we go out and pick up some food ?"
    "Where?"
    "How about the Ucchan's?"
    "Sorry, Hika-chan. Ukyou's probably teaching at the Tendo Dojo right now,
and the Ucchan's won't be open until about eight fifteen or eight thirty. Let's
just order in." Gosunkugi began walking for the phone. "Any preferences ?"
    "Actually, how about...hrk..." She fell silent, then suddenly collapsed on
the floor, curling up in pain.She was whimpering and quivering, unable to speak
or move, and in more agony than Gosunkugi had ever seen anyone in, even Kuno. 
    "Hika-chan! Hika-chan!"


    All was darkness and void. And within that void, lay a single, silver
sphere. It glowed with a faint light, not enough to banish the darkness
forever, but enough to hold it at bay. And within that sphere, lay a being
unfathomable by human minds. The words that mortals use cannot accurately
describe it, for the concepts that apply have no words. The being resonated
with a sensation. If this sensation were to be translated to terms a human
could understand, it would be patience... and excitement.


    Ranma looked around. He was definitely not in the dojo. In fact, it looked
like he was in a small hut, On one side was a spice rack, filled with various
powders and potions, while a weapons rack could be found directly opposite. The
door lay to his immediate right, and as he turned to face it, it opened. A
familiar looking old woman hopped in, perched like a vulture on a gnarled stick
twice her height. "Welcome, traveller," she began.
    "Hey, old ghoul, what's the big idea takin' me from the dojo? An' howd ya
do it, too?" His fists clenched, and he faced the person who was at once a foe,
and a teacher.
    "Hm. Though I may appear as this 'old ghoul' to you, I am not her. I have
taken this visage because it is that of one you trust to teach you, and whose
warnings you heed. I am only called Nomad." Ranma listened closely to the
voice,  and understood. Though it had an outward similarity to Colone's, it
also echoed with a thousand other voices, in several other languages.
    "Well, why'dja do that? If ya wanted to warn me of somethin', why didn't
you come in person?" He pointed his finger in the face of the false Amazon.
    She transfixed him with her glare. "Because I cannot. I am trapped in the
Dream Realm, and could not send you that which I must through any other means."
    "Well, whaddya wanna say? Say it quick, and send me back!'
    "Tendo Ranma, there is an entity, with power beyond even my own, who seeks
your destruction." Nomad's voice was full of doom, and his gaze bored into
Ranma's very soul.
    Ranma blinked once. "And ?"
    "Huh?"
    "You said a powerful entity of some kind wants ta kill me. What is it? Why
does it wanna kill me?"
    "You know, you're not reacting at all like I expected. I'm pretty certain
that most members of your race would have reacted with horror, or fear, or a
show of bravado to mask the fear inside."
    "Yeah, well, this isn't the first entity of power that's tried to kill me.
Anyways, so what's the deal?" Ranma crossed his arms, and leaned against the
wall, staring at the false Cologne.
    "Um, yes. Excuse me." Nomad cleared 'her' throat, and continued. "It has no
name, or if it did, it has been mercifully forgotten, but it does have a title.
It is called the Doomgiver, or, simply, the Foe. It lives beyond the reach of
most races, in the void that lies between realities. Its silver citadel drifts
near one world, then another, and it preys upon the energy of the stars of
these realities. Eventually, the stars of these realms burn out, ending that
universe."
    Ranma stared. Dragons, immortal phoenix gods, and ancient martial artists
he could understand, but a creature that feeds on entire universes? Only
instinct kept up his bravado, simply because his mind didn't work fast enough
to catch up with it. "So, why me?"
    Nomad hopped a little closer, and a box appeared under 'her' as she climbed
off the staff. "In many realities, on many worlds, there is a prophecy that the
Doomgiver will eventually be destroyed by the Breath of Heaven, the Light of
the Lion...and the Untamed Stallion."
    Ranma's mind rapidly pieced together what was being said. The Breath of
Heaven... chi ten...Tenchi? Then the Light of the Lion must be Gos's new
fiancee, and the Untamed Stallion must be...
    "Yes, Ranma. It is you. Now, he seeks to destroy you before you can fulfill
the prophecy. He had tried to slay you all, by using your own nervous system
against you. If I had not taken your minds here with me, the agony your body is
undergoing would have shattered your minds, and you would be unable to complete
your destiny." Nomad stretched. 
    Ranma took the bit in his mouth with something Nomad had said. "Minds? As
in more than one? Hikaru and Tenchi are here?"
    "Yes."
    "Then lemme see 'em, ya old monkey!" Ranma was away from the wall, in a
fighting stance, in a heartbeat. 
    "Of course." With a wave of 'her' hand2
    "Well, whaddya wanna say? Say it quick, and send me back!'
    "Tendo Ranma, there is an entity, with power beyond even my own, who seeks
your destruction." Nomad's voice was full of doom, and his gaze bored into
Ranma's very soul.
    Ranma blinked once. "And ?"
    "Huh?"
    "You said a powerful entity of some kind wants ta kill me. What is it? Why
does it wanna kill me?"
    "You know, you're not reacting at all like I expected. I'm pretty certain
that most members of your race would have reacted with horror, or fear, or a
show of bravado to mask the fear inside."
    "Yeah, well, this isn't the first entity of power that's tried to kill me.
Anyways, so what's the deal?" Ranma crossed his arms, and leaned against the
wall, staring at the false Cologne.
    "Um, yes. Excuse me." Nomad cleared 'her' throat, and continued. "It has no
name, or if it did, it has been mercifully forgotten, but it does have a title.
It is called the Doomgiver, or, simply, the Foe. It lives beyond the reach of
most races, i trying anyway.


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