Imagine, if you will, a world separate from our own. A world where fiction
is reality, and reality is a dream. Now imagine that there are thousands
upon thousands of such worlds, each with its own differences.

	A world where humankind is about to unknowingly cross a forbidden
threshold, the bridge between worlds.

	A world where magical curses that can changes ones form are possible, and
martial arts are not just a pastime, it's a way of life.

	A world where gigantic bio-mechanical machines piloted by young adults
protect the fate of mankind from weapons of mass destruction, and a secret
organization plots the end of the world.

	A world where magic exists as a way of life, not fantasy, and stomachs are
as vast as the farthest reaches of space.

	A world where an evil corporation unsuccessfully tries to control the
world, and a small group of individuals must protect the planet from an
evil force, and a giant meteor.

	A world where a madman has been in rule for over a year, mutilating the
face of the planet, and obtaining the magical power of Espers, where a
group of people must protect the fate of their planet's future.

	A world where giant combat robots fight battles, and the search for God
has ended.

	A world of no worlds. Where whatever life once existed, does not anymore.
A world of unending evil, and an entity with the power to end lives of
billions.

	Now imagine, if you will, a pivotal moment in each of these worlds,
sending them crashing together with amazing force, and an evil so great
that it bands together the heroes from each of these worlds.



	Prologue: Maelstrom



	Date: June 6, 1999 3:46 P.M.

	From the pages of the journals of Dr. Sarah Hanson . . . 

	The Quantum Transport has been successful. Margaret, the Chimp in the San
Francisco facility was teleported here no problem, and I'm proud to say, I
think it's ready for human testing. I've already arranged for a prisoner on
death row to try the experiment. He was more than willing, if it could get
him out of the prison, even for a few hours. We've placed extra security in
both facilities.							

	There was a Quantum divergence node found in the transport log, but it
seems to be nothing to worry about. Genetic tests on Margaret have returned
as %100 percent clean. But we'll find out tonight. The prisoner should
arrive here at any moment. If this experiment goes through all right, the
public will be treated to an extra special press release in the morning.

****

	Date: June 6, 1999 8:20 P.M.

	The experiment is ready. The prisoner has signed the release form. We've
begun to power up the machine. If all goes well, history will be made tonight.

****

	"Quantum nodes clean, Doctor."

	"Generators at 80% capacity."

	"Fifty seconds to primary transference sequence, Doctor."

	"Are you ready to make history, Mr. Colen?", Sarah asked the man sitting
inside a small structure in the center of the room through the intercom.

	"Well, even if it don't work, at least I don't gotta get the chair..." he
said with a sneer pointed towards the several armed guards in the room.

	"Thirty-five seconds doctor."

	She felt the growing anticipation.. Any second now...

	"Thirty.", she could hear the excitement in the lab assistants voice as well.

	"Quantum nodes still clean!"

	"90% Capacity!"

	"Twenty-five."

	"Life signs?", She asked the medical assistant.

	"His pulse rate is a little high, but its otherwise alright."

	"Hey, you can ask ME if I'm still alive, ya know!", the prisoner yelled
towards the doctor.

	"Fifteen seconds!"

	"95% capacity!"

	"Initiate the transference program on my mark."

	"Ten seconds!"

	"Nine."

	"Eight."

	"Seven."

	"Six."

	"Five."

	"Four."

	"Three."

	"Two."

	"One."

	"FULL CAPACITY!"

	"Zero."

	"Initiate!"

	The power loaded up into the machine, electronic sparks were flying
everywhere. Just then, the Quantum Node operator noticed something.

	"Wait!", he cried. "The other facility is sending a feedback loop! There's
a quantum node divergence!"

	She froze in panic. She knew exactly what to do, but the excitement of the
moment had overtaken her senses, and by the time her brain had processed
the information needed, it was too late.


	"Shut down the transference! Get the�", the explosion knocked the wind out
of her. The three armed guards by the structure were killed immediately,
thrown outwards towards the outer walls of the lab. It was then that Doctor
Sarah Hanson realized that something went wrong.

****

	"HIRYU GYOTEN HA!"

	The cold-fist blast hit the dragon faucet with amazing force, causing it
to realign, with the dragons head pointing up into the sky, or more
importantly, directly towards Ranma and Akane.

	Akane regained her form as Ranma fell to the ground. Cloaking his shirt
over Akane's naked body, he began to try and wake her up. With no success.

	"Akane?", he asked.

	No answer.

	"Akane, wake up, its over!"

	No answer.

	It was then that Ranma feared the worst. *When she closes her eyes, it is
too late.*

	"No.", he said as he said he checked her pulse. There was a pulse, even if
a faint one, but she wasn't breathing.

	"Akane...", he said. "This is all because you pulled that dumb stunt to
try and save me..."

	"Damn it Akane! Why did you have to be so stupid!?", he yelled at her. A
moment later, he realized what he did.

	He hit himself hard on the side of the face. "I'm sorry.", he said. "That
was wrong of me."

	He cradled her closer into his arms and looked towards the sky. "I
wish...", he began. "I wish I wasn't so awkward with my feelings."

	He brought her closer, bringing her into a deep hug. "I wish I could have
another chance... To tell you how I really feel.", he smiled out of the
edges of his mouth. "I always manage to goof it up, somehow."

	"Akane?", he asked.

	"Akane, please wake up... You can hear me, can't you?"

	There was no answer.

	Feeling the tears start to stream out of his eyes, and in one final
attempt to do.. Something, anything, he held her as deep as he could and
screamed.

	Whatever it was that he had done, somehow, in some way had reached into
her and pulled her out of the state she was in. A low moan was heard from
her lips as Ranma felt the air rush back into her lungs.

	Her movement, barely noticeable caught him off-guard. Her hand reached up
and stroked his face. She managed to open her eyes.

	Ranma was overcome with emotions. His reply, the only reply he could think
of was to embrace her again, deeper than ever and mutter her name. Akane
did the same.

	The sonic boom came quickly, catching the both of them off-guard. A moment
later, a light filled the air above them and descended like a falling
stone. Neither of them had time to move.

****

	Her hand came up and stroked his face. Shinji didn't know what to make of
it. He had been so angry at Asuka that he was sitting there, strangling her
while she was unconscious. Mad at Asuka, mad at the world, what little of
it was left, and mad at himself.

	The look on her face convinced him that he was crazy. For all he knew, he
& Asuka were the only ones left, and he had just about killed his only
companion.

	The face looked remarkably alien on Asuka, the one who took pleasure in
teasing and ridiculing him, but it looked, beautiful as well.

	She smiled at him as she fell unconscious again, and Shinji slumped back
onto the ground, and stared into the sky. The red, endless sky. When she
woke up again, they would have to find somewhere to go. Anywhere.

	It wasn't long before that was answered for him. A bright blue light
engulfed the area above him, crashing to the ground, it managed to consume
both he & Asuka before he even had a chance to scream.

****

	"Atlas City is just down the road, half a days walk, that's all.",
Zelgadis remarked.

	"Aren't you going to come with us?", Lina asked him, stroking her
now-white hair.

	"No. There are some things I need to do. But don't worry, I have a feeling
we'll meet again, Lina Inverse."

	"Wait!", Gourry interrupted.

	"What?", he turned around.

	"Can't you FEEL that?"

	Zelgadis and Lina paused for a moment. "He's right.", Lina said.
"Something's coming. I can feel it. Something BIG."

	As if on cue, the presence made itself known. The bright blue energy
pattern descended on the three of them without warning. Zelgadis managed to
let out a high-pitched squeal just before they were consumed.

****

	Cloud stared at the form of Sephiroth, melting into various sources of
light, as he disappeared, he muttered to himself.

	"Now what?"

	As if on cue, green patterns of energy made themselves appear around him,
swirling lights surrounding him from his boots to above his head. Above
him, he noticed the vortex.

	At first, he didn't know what to make of it, then, as he saw the hand
protruding from the vortex, he knew immediately. He was back in the life
stream, and the hand must have belonged to Aeris.

	A moment later, he snapped back to reality. He wasn't in the life stream,
he was still in the northern cave, and the hand had belonged to Tifa.
Managing to grab onto it just before the ledge he trod on collapsed, he was
faced with another problem. The life stream was coming down on them from
above.

	At least, that's what he thought. As the energy field consumed the two of
them, he realized it must have been something quite different.

****

	"So, what now?", Setzer asked nobody in particular.

	"Well, I'd like to return to Mobliz. But maybe we should sort out what to
do about the world first.", Terra replied.

	Sabin nodded. "Hmpf. Changing the world seemed so hard to do before, but
now we've done it. Twice."

	"The first wasn't our doing, but that doesn't excuse the fact that we were
partially responsible for it.", Celes shared.

	Locke walked to the head of the ship. "Look. No grass. No plants, few
trees. The first thing we've got to do is take care of�", he stopped
mid-sentence. He felt a presence, and it was beginning to confuse him.

	Celes felt it to as she walked up towards Locke, followed by Terra and
Sabin. 

	As they discovered the source, the last thing Locke, Celes, Terra and
Sabin saw was a very confused looking Setzer, standing right on the edge of
the energy field.

****

	"Fei!", Citan called out as he reached the ridge.

	"He'd better come back! He promised!", Bart yelled.

	"Chu Chu! Chu!", Chu-chu jumped about, pointing towards the sky. There,
high above the clouds, a single figure could be seen in the distance.

	"There he is!", Bart yelled.

	As the Xenogears descended, a green energy field appeared above it. At
first, nobody made anything of it, thinking it to be an emission from the
Xenogears. But as the Xenogears itself disappeared from existence, along
with Fei and Elly, everyone stared in confusion.

****

	A place of entities.

	Entities without bodies, neither gaseous, liquid or solid. But it existed.

	It believed its own solipsism, the universe was created for his purpose.
He was, after all, a god. A king among kings. Having just depleted another
planet of its resources, energy and life, it was eager to continue one,
saving the power of a billion nuclear explosions in itself, it continued.
The next planet, the next conquest, The next feeding. Perhaps only a
billion years to the next one this time, perhaps longer. But perhaps, it
thought as the green energy field descended upon it, sooner than he had
thought.

****

Authors Note: Yes, this _IS_ a crossover �En Masse', however it was not
planned as such, I had started writing this as an exercise, just something
to pound away on, to fight writers block (believe me, I've had a lot of it
recently), when the next thing I knew, I had a plot.. I pitched the idea to
a few people on FFIRC, and next thing I knew.. Viola! I ended up writing up
this prologue (C&C Draft, mind you), and posting it.. Anyways, I'm asking
for C&C, so give it up! :)


------------------------- 
|     The TydRipper     |  "Abandon all hope, ye who enter
|                       |  here."
| Master of the Tides,  |  - Dante's Inferno; Canto 3:9
| Keeper of the Old Way,|  "What really interests me is
| Writer of the Fanfic, |  whether or not God had any choice
| Baka to the end...    |  In the Creation of the Universe."
-------------------------  - Albert Einstein

Questions? Comments? Flames? Email Me.

~ The TydRipper

Whose Many projects include:

http://westwood.fortunecity.com/versace/189/ - Tyd's Fanfic Emporium
http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/suikoden/783 - Rysing Tyd's Audioplays
http://members.xoom.com/cultureshock - My brothers old page.
http://members.xoom.com/nrlmeltdown - Team: Neural Meltdown, again, my Bro's.

ICQ UIN: 32976386

[In the year 1999 and seven months, 
the great King of terror will come from the sky. 
It will bring to life the King of the Mongols. 
Before and after, Mars reigns happily.]
Nostradamus - Century 10: Quatrain 72