Ranma ½ and all of its characters and situations are
the creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi. I use
these characters and situations without permission.
Neon Genesis Evangelion and all of its characters and
situations are the creation and property of Hedeiki Anno
and Gainax. I use these characters and situations without
permission.
Slayers and all of its characters and situations are
the creation and property of Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi,
Kadokawa Shoten, TV TOKYO, SOFTX, and Marubeni. I use these
characters and situations without permission.
Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy 7 and Xenogears and all of
the characters and situations within are the property of
Squaresoft Inc. I use these characters and situations without
permission.
Any and all additional characters and situations are the
property of me. No permission is needed, however if you wish
to use any of the original characters and situations, feel
free to do so, just let me know beforehand.
Converging Fates
By Kyle Emmerson
Chapter Four: Battle of Wits
****
"All right, Zel. Talk. What did we just run from?" Lina
asked, trying to catch her breath after the narrow escape.
Zelgadis narrowed his eyes in thought. The truth was, he
wasn't even sure himself what he ran from. He just sensed the
danger coming from the astral plane, and reacted upon it.
"Rah Tilt hurt it. It sent him... Out of that shell. The
woman he was using as his vessel was dead, that much I'm
certain of, but the entity itself mainly resides on the
astral plane."
"So whatever it was, came after us in the astral plane?"
Zelgadis nodded. "I'm certain that if it actually reached
one of us, we would be the new host."
Lina felt a shiver run down her spine. The thought that
something could even do that to someone was mind-blowing to
her.
"Hey, Lina?" Gourry asked from his cross-legged position
below.
"Yes, Gourry?"
"It's all good and fine that weird thing can't reach us
and all," he began. "But where are we going?"
Lina narrowed her eyes. "There's still that magic I
sensed from before. It's close. Very close."
Zelgadis looked over the horizon of trees before him. He
could vaguely make out a shape in the distance, just beyond
the endless abyss of trees.
"There," he said as he pointed.
Lina strained her eyes to see. "A town?"
"Yes," Zelgadis replied. "I think we may find the source
of the magic there."
****
"Terra?" Celes asked, deeply concerned about her friend.
It took a moment for Terra to snap out of it, but she
soon did. "Sorry," she said.
"You zoned out for a bit there," Celes said. "Are you all
right?"
Terra nodded. "Yes, it's just... The magic is getting
closer."
"What bothers me," Sabin muttered. "Is how we're so sure
that this new magic is gonna be friendly."
"It's hard to tell. I can sense two different magics. One
is dark, while the other... I'm not sure. It's somewhat
different, but it seems to be gray magic."
Shinji broke into the conversation by asking, "are you
sure it's not this... thing, whatever it was that you faced?"
Terra shook her head. "No, that was different... Raw...
Almost wild in a way. Whatever it is, it's sentient, but its
form of magic seems untamed. It's hard to explain."
"I'm still not up on this magic thing. Where I come from,
the only thing even close to magic are the Eva's," Asuka
muttered. "And they're made from science!"
Shinji shook his head. "The Eva's weren't that simple,
Asuka."
"Look, Shin-boy. If I wanted your opinion, I'd have asked
you!"
Shinji just shook it off and sped up, to try and catch up
with the others.
"Terra?" Celes asked.
"Yes?"
"How close are they?"
Terra looked towards the horizon and narrowed her eyes.
"Close," she replied.
****
"So how exactly do those things work?" Ranma asked,
motioning towards one of the materia embedded into Cloud's
sword.
Cloud popped the materia from it's slot and handed it to
Ranma. "It's hard to explain, actually. There are two ways to
use it. Flat out, which is a bit harder to do, or junctioned
to a weapon. In your case, we could probably hook a bracelet
or something on you."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "But how does it WORK?"
Cloud smiled. "Well, you call out the name of the spell,
and it'll be cast. It's fairly straightforward. How it works
from the inside... Is somewhat hard to say. As far as I can
figure, the materia are solidified mako power."
"Mako power?"
"Where I come from, it's the source of energy. At least
it was, before we found out what it's capable of."
"What's it capable of?"
"Turning a living human being into an insane monster."
Ranma quickly handed the materia back to Cloud.
Taking it back, Cloud laughed. "This materia is quite
harmless, I assure you. It's the raw mako you have to be
careful of."
"So where does this mako come from, anyway?"
Cloud sighed. "In our world, when someone dies, their
body is given to the planet to feed the life already there."
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, decomposition. I learned that in
school."
"Yes, but the soul also must go somewhere when it dies.
It goes into the earth, and is responsible for creating new
life. For giving life, rather than feeding."
Ranma blinked. "So, the mako power is really..."
"Souls of the Dead."
"So you get your power from these materia, which are
really..."
"Solidified souls."
Ranma swallowed and nodded in understanding. "I think I
see."
"Still want one?"
Ranma shook his head. "I think I can live with my own
magic."
"Your own magic?"
Ranma nodded. "I can do a couple ki attacks."
"Ki attacks?"
"Yeah. the Moko Takabisha and the Hiryu Shoten Ha. In
some cases, the Shishi Hokodan."
"You realize of course, I have no idea what you're
talking about, right?"
"You don't have any ki theory in your world?"
Cloud shook his head.
"Well, the human soul is balanced into two parts. The
good and the evil. The yin and the yang. This is what we call
ki. It's a balance between the two parts that can bring out
the most power."
"A balance? Meaning you'd have to be good AND evil?"
Ranma shrugged. "You got me. That's just the theory. I
can use it, and I'm pretty sure I ain't evil at all."
"A demonstration, perhaps?" Cloud asked, smirking.
Ranma smiled. "Maybe a bit later. Right now I don't wanna
attract any more attention to myself than necessary."
Cloud nodded. "Of course. I think the uniform you're
wearing is doing enough of that."
"Like what Akane's wearing ain't doing any better?"
"I heard that, Ranma," Akane yelled from a few feet back.
"Besides, these are YOUR clothes!"
"Yeah, and because you TOOK my clothes, I'm stuck with
this cop uniform!"
"You'd rather me run around naked?"
Ranma fought the urge to answer that with a snide remark,
and just sighed and kept his eyes forward.
Meanwhile, behind them, Akane, Tifa and Locke were having
a conversation of their own.
"Is he usually like that?" Akane asked.
"As far as I can tell... Yes."
"Nah, he likes you," Locke said.
Akane blinked in surprise. "Eh?"
Locke nodded. "Yeah, it's easy to tell. Otherwise he
would have made a snide remark just then. He doesn't like to
fight with you."
"How can you tell?" Tifa asked.
"I've spent my life as a treasure hunter. Reading people
has become sort of a gift."
Akane remained silent.
"And I think Akane here likes him too," he smiled.
For all the success Locke had with his reading technique,
there was still the odd behavior that he couldn't read. In
this case, it was Akane's fist to his face.
Locke had hit the ground before he knew that he'd been
hit.
"Hey, guys," Shinji yelled, running up to them. "That
Terra girl says we're expecting visitors pretty soon!"
Cloud looked back and narrowed his eyes. "Should we
fortify?" he asked.
Ranma sighed. "I don't like the idea of us all being in
one place in front of a potential threat. We should get all
the non-combatants someplace safe before they arrive."
Cloud nodded. "Tifa, get Akane, Shinji, Asuka and Terra
somewhere safe."
Tifa didn't contest it. She just ran to gather them all
up and run to the side of the road near a tall tree, while
the others stepped forward.
"They're almost here," Terra said. "We should see them
any second now."
Needless to say, a few seconds later, they saw them.
****
"Doctor Sandhu?" the technician asked.
"Yes? Any progress?" the doctor asked from his makeshift
desk made from a picnic bench not twenty feet away from the
object.
"Well, I've unloaded a maintenance log from the system,
but..."
"What? What is it?"
The technician sighed before continuing. "The date system
they're using isn't gregorian. It's using the Jewish
calendar, but that's not the remarkable part. What's
remarkable is... the actual date, sir."
"Well, spit it out, man!"
"The current Jewish year is 5490, however the log states
the last bit of maintenance took place on 16 Cheshvan,
15875."
The doctor's eyes shot open. "A FIVE digit date? Are you
serious?"
"Yes, sir. Not only that, but the objects activation date
is 5788."
The doctor's eyes shot wider open, if such a thing was
possible. "You're telling me that thing is ten THOUSAND years
old?"
The technician nodded. "It was designed and created by
someone named Zohar in that year, aboard the USS Eldridge.
I'm looking for more references to Zohar or the Eldridge, but
there is a gap of ten thousand years between it's initial
creation and now. Although it is possible the date system is
corrupted, and the thing is only 100 years old."
Doctor Sandhu sighed in thought. "That still leaves the
question of how it got back to 5440."
"5490, sir. 5440 is the name of a band."
"WHATEVER, that's beside the point," he said. "The point
is, time travel is involved."
"So this thing is from earth, then."
"That's still debatable. I'm not so sure we'd renounce
use of the gregorian calendar so easily... Unless..."
"Unless?"
"You said the USS Eldridge, right? The use of Jewish
dates could mean a military involvement. The Military has been
using different measures of time for years now, they may turn
to the Jewish calendar just be be mindless gits," he said,
obviously deep in thought. Suddenly, he looked up. "Let me
try something," he said. "Let me in the craft."
****
"What do you think?" Fei asked, paying close attention to
the weapons held by the several guards placed at the entrance
to the park.
"Well, we could just go up and tell them we parked our
buggy in there," Elly suggested.
"The only thing that would lead me to believe that
wouldn't work is the simple fact that he's got a gun, and I
have feeling a feeling that our 'buggy' is the only reason
he's there."
"Well, shouldn't we at least give it a try?"
"No, look," Fei pointed to the nearby parking lot. "That
place was filled with buggy's when we left. It's empty now. I
think they've moved them all."
Elly sighed in thought. "Well, we have to get back, and
the only way I can think of is through there."
"A full on assault?"
"As much as I don't want to get shot, it may be our only
option."
Fei nodded. "We've got our gear that would protect us
partly from the bullets, but it still leaves our head open."
"We're in public, and as far as I can tell, these people
aren't like some kind of martial police force. They wouldn't
make it a head shot."
Fei nodded. "Should we make a break for it, then?"
"We can start up the gear and get it off the ground in a
few seconds, before they'd have time to grab us and pull us
out."
Fei nodded again. "On the count of three."
****
Doctor Sandhu was in perpetual heaven. He was delving
head first into futuristic technology, and enjoying every bit
of it.
In fact, he had found a panel behind the cockpit pilot's
seat, and had literally jumped in head first to examine the
circuitry underneath.
He was so involved in what he was doing, he failed to
hear the shots of gunfire from outside, the frantic yells, or
even the distinct sound of two people entering the cockpit
and closing it.
However, he definitely felt the engine start up, seeing
as he was busily playing with several wires that were
connected to it.
He popped his head out of the panel as quick as he could,
thinking that he had inadvertently started the craft up. That
was when he noticed the others.
"Who the hell is he?" the man asked.
"I don't know. He must be with those others," the woman
said.
"Who are you people?" Sandhu asked.
"We're already taking off. We're gonna have to take him
with us."
Doctor Sandhu's heart jumped. They were the pilots. The
actual pilots of the craft... and they wanted to take him
with them.
Bliss.
"To the future?" he asked excitedly.
"The future? So then we are in the past?" the woman
asked.
Doctor Sandhu nodded. "At least two hundred years, unless
the date in your system is correct, then it's closer to ten
thousand."
The man smirked. "Then we have to be on the planet of
origin!"
Doctor Sandhu held his breath as he watched out of the
cockpit window at the city below. The city of San Francisco.
Then he paused. "Planet of origin? You mean... You
weren't born on Earth?"
"Earth? That's the name of this place?"
The doctor nodded.
The man would have replied if it wasn't for a beeping
noise coming from the panel in front of him.
"What's the matter?" the woman asked.
"We've got company, Elly," he replied. After typing a few
things in the panel, an image came up on the viewscreen.
"What... is that?" Elly asked, looking at the object.
Doctor Sandhu strained his eyes to see, and adjusted his
glasses.
"Oh... my..."
"What?" the man looked back. "You know what that is?"
The doctor nodded. "That, my alien friends, is a United
States Army Apache Combat Chopper."
"So it's a bad thing, then?"
The doctor sighed. "Judging from how fast it's closing in
on us, it'll either force us to land, or shoot us down."
The man sighed. "Stupid military. What's their maximum
speed?"
"What?"
"Maximum speed. What is it?"
"Oh... I'm not sure. A couple of hundred clicks per hour,
possibly."
Elly thought for a minute. "Clicks? How fast is that?"
Different rates of measurement. Doctor Sandhu smiled. "A
bit faster than those cars below us can go."
"You mean the buggies?"
He nodded.
"Perfect. We can outrun them easily," he said as he typed
a few more things in. Finally, he reached for the throttle,
and pulled it back.
What was strange, was that the craft was moving at an
immense speed, faster than that of the helicopter. The doctor
saw the Golden Gate bridge pass by in an instant. He saw rows
of trees before them and a thin road, littered by the various
farm or small village.
What was even stranger, was that there was no inertia.
They were moving, but he couldn't FEEL them move.
The doctor did all he could to keep from fainting of
happiness.
"I think we're far enough, Fei," Elly said.
Fei nodded and brought the craft to a stop. Looking over
the area below him, he narrowed his eyes. "Where are we now?"
The doctor looked out of the window and let his jaw drop.
"Cedar Grove! You got us to Cedar Grove in THIRTY seconds!"
"I'm guessing that's a good thing," Fei said.
"A good thing! Even our fastest jets would take us two
minutes to get here! The Apache would be here in ten! That's
amazing!"
Elly seemed distracted for a moment. "Do you see that?"
Fei looked out the cockpit. "Is that...?"
Doctor Sandhu strained his eyes to see out the window and
get a view of what everyone was looking at. After he saw it,
he finally fainted.
Elly just looked down at the unconscious man, and then
back out the window.
"Are those people... FLYING?"
****
Special thanks to:
Gary Kleppe, without whom this fic, and all the fics I do
from this point on would never have been done, and...
Trevor Hoffert, without whom, I'd never have survived the
week it would have taken for me to get the package from the
post office.
Anyhoo, that's right, folks. I owe the people above a LOT
of thanks. As some of you already know, I was EXTREMELY
limited on what I could do on the computer I was using, as it
was not mine. Pretty much all I could do was check email.
However, Gary was kind and generous enough to send me his old
laptop, with which I could write ALL I wanted, and connect to
the internet as much as I wanted. Thanks SO much, Gary.
And Trevor, who lent me the money I needed (because I'm
so desperately poor) to get the package I needed by paying
the customs fees, because they deemed this a suspicious
package and decided to open it, and charge me for it. Oh
well, I'm still happy.
Anyway, finally... The size of this fic is somewhat
shorter than most of the CF chapters, but it's because of the
big clash happening in the next chapter, and I had to end it
off here.
As usual, C&C is greatly appreciated, and thanks for
reading!