Howdy Y'All!
I recently got around to writing the fifth chapter of this
story. Since it has been such a long time since the last chapter
was posted (almost a year now), I have decided to post the first
four chapters again, and then the new one. I will post the
previous chapters over the next couple of days, enlisting
Louis-Philippe Giroux's help in posting chapter three. If anybody
is interested, the first four chapters can be found at Tannim's
crossover web site (http://tannim.anifics.com), under the Games
section.
Okay, deep breath, here we go....
This is the exact same repost I made back in January. So
there may be dated material found in the Author's Notes. If
anybody has trouble with the fonts or such, let me know!
Author's Notes:
Hello! And welcome to my story, Second Star. The name is
actually Second Star On The Right, a quote from Peter Pan, but that
is a bit long, so Second Star is how I'm referring to it. This is my
second story, and the longest to date (01/04/00).
Special Thanks go to Chris Angel for allowing me the use of his
Avatar. He has read this chapter, and has approved the
characterization and dialogue as being true to his character. Thanks
Chris!
More Thanks go to Louis-Philippe Giroux and Donny Cheng. They
gave this chapter the once over for me. They are both very good
writers, and if you have not read their works, you should stop
reading this and go do so. Louis-Philippe Giroux is the author of
Lines Of Destiny (Ranma/Sailormoon), and Differing Powers
(Ranma/WheelOfTime).Donny Cheng is the author of many stories, and
his Life And Times series has Ranma crossovers galore!
C&C is always welcomed, even for old chapters. I happily
accept simple notes saying that you love the story, eagerly
read notes that give constructive negative comments, but I ignore
flames totally.
And now, on with the show!
It is a well known fact that I do not own Ranma 1/2, Sailormoon,
Starcraft, or any other copyrighted characters that might be found
within this story. I hope that those companies/people who do own
them realize that I am using them out of affection, and that this
story is a salute to those titles. I am making no revenue from this
story, although I hope to get some C&C.
Second Star On The Right
Written by: Michael D. Rever
Ohmen1@aol.com
Prelude
********************************************************************
Belldandy,
I am sorry I had to say Good-Bye in this way, but I was afraid
that if you knew what I was planning, you would stop me. I want to
thank you and the others from the bottom of my soul. If it wasn't
for you guys, I would have given up on life a long time ago. Thank
you. I can only hope that you can understand why I am doing this.
For a long time now something has been bothering me. I could not
figure out what it was until about five years ago when I traveled
back to China to visit Ryouga's grave. I realized, as I looked
around, that nothing had changed. It all looked the same as it did
the time I visited before, and the time before that, and the time
before that...well, you get the picture. At first I denied to
myself what I discovered, I traveled more and more, trying to help
people as much as I could, trying to find new challenges, and became
more depressed every day. Finally, I could take it no more, so I
sat down and did some serious thinking. And so here I am. I cannot
die, but I am not living. Not anymore. I'm going to change that.
I just want you all to know, I love you. You all have been the
family I lost 2000 years ago, and Chris has been the older brother I
never had. This is not goodbye, I know that someday we will meet
again. Wish me luck!
Ranma
********************************************************************
Belldandy stood by her window with the letter held carefully in
her hands. She continued to look out the window toward the sunset
until she heard a voice come from behind her.
'Bell?'
Belldandy spun around and ran to the owner of the voice, her
brother. 'Oniichan!'
Christopher Angel, God Of Moments, held his sister as she
sought comfort in his embrace. After a while he spoke, 'Do you
understand why he did it, Bell?'
'Some of it, but not all,' she replied, stepping back and
walking over to sit on her bed. Chris was slightly surprised that
her face was free of tears and that she seemed as calm as ever.
Chris sighed and walked over to sit by her. He impulsively
hugged his sister with one arm as he chose his words carefully. 'You
have lived among mortals for a long time Bell, and usually you act
so normal that it is very easy to picture you as human yourself.
But you are not human, you are a goddess. And there are several
things a goddess cannot truly feel nor experience, which is for the
best. But Ranma, he is mortal, and he is feeling those things now.
Can you imagine how tough it is being a mortal who cannot die by
normal means? How you constantly see friends die, and how you find
it increasingly harder to feel attached to the people who replace
them? How humanity itself begins to look like a race of strangers?
And, worst of all for someone like Ranma, what do you do when you
have done it all? When you have learned as much as the world's
masters can teach you, when you have literally traveled to Hell and
back, when you have experienced love, hate, hope and despair over
the span of centuries? How could an adventurer live on a world
where there are no more surprises, no more mysteries to discover?
In the end, Ranma was bored, and since he is not allowed to visit
his friends in Heaven, he is lonely as well. And now he is willing
to do something, anything, to gain back his life the way it was,
when he was young and had an unknown road ahead of him to travel. I
hope that he finds the excitement, and peace, he is looking for."
Belldandy sadly nods her head, she knew that Ranma had not been
enjoying life anymore, but had not known what to do about it.
Belldandy looked thoughtful for a moment, 'I know he has been
unhappy for a long time now, but I thought it was because of the
Fourth Impact and the loss of his friend, Ryouga.' She looked down
for a minute then glanced sideways towards her brother. 'That
sounded very impressive Oniichan. You seem to know a lot about it.'
She smiled at the suddenly blushing Chris and watched his left hand
lift to scratch the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had picked
up from Ranma after decades of friendship.
'Well, we kinda talked. I understood where he was coming from,
I was mortal once too you know. Sometimes I wonder, if I didn't
have you girls and my duty, would I feel the same way?'
'You helped him write this, didn't you?' Belldandy guessed,
looking at the wording and writing style on the letter in her lap.
'Well, yeah. You know he has problems picking the right words
sometimes, and he wanted to leave on good terms with everybody, and
not have them mad at him because of a misunderstanding.' Chris
chuckled and saw his divine sister open her mouth to ask another
question, 'And before you ask, yes I am going to miss the jerk.'
His expression turned wistful and he looked out the window towards
the night sky.
Belldandy stood up and Chris joined her as she started walking
out the bedroom door, 'Keiichi will be home soon, he can get word to
Ranma's friends in Heaven tomorrow when he goes back.' Belldandy
winced as she thought about the damage those friends will probably
cause when they hear of Ranma's latest decision. ' How do you think
Urd and Skuld are going to take this?' she asked, changing the topic
slightly.
Chris looked thoughtful for a moment. 'Urd will probably be
upset because she was never able to seduce Ranma and now she won't
be able to. As for Skuld, well she kinda knew about this a while
ago.'
Belldandy's eyes grew large. 'She did?!?'
'Yup,' Chris smiled thinking about the view he had just seen
out the window, of the stars that were starting to dot the black
sky, 'who do you think made the Starship?'
Chapter 1 Cold Storage
Ranma Saotome sat in wonder as he watched the majestic rings of
Saturn pass by. All the years of video, pictures, and virtual
reality representations could not compare with the view that he just
seen. True, it would have been much faster for him to get where he
was going had he gone straight 'up' from the solar system, but he
had wanted to see the planets; to witness the seeming anger of Mars,
the challenge of running the gauntlets of the asteroid belt,
experiencing the huge storms of Jupiter, and now to see the infamous
fields of ice that Saturn is well known for. And for the first time
in a long time, Ranma felt awe and the thrill of seeing something
new and inspiring. Sitting up in the command chair of the fairly
cramped cockpit, he started to adjust his trajectory so that he
would be able to sweep by Neptune and Uranus before truly starting
out on his trek across space. He debated whether or not to include
flying past Pluto on his way out as well. He knew that the Senshi
of Time, Sailor Pluto, sometimes spent time on that barren chunk of
ice, and the two of them did not get along very well. In the end,
Ranma decided to include the last planet, but he would pass it at a
greater distance than the others. Ranma then settled back into the
chair and watched the view shift dramatically as the new coordinates
were fed into the navigational computer and the tiny vessel made a
wide turn and head towards the closest of the three planets to where
he was now. As it turned out, it was Pluto.
It is a widely known secret that the universe is run by a
computer called the Yggdrasil System. This computer system is
nominally overseen by three goddesses who make sure that the system
runs smoothly and efficiently. Unfortunately, like any computer
system no matter how well maintained, the Yggdrasil still
experiences glitches now and again. These glitches are called bugs.
In your everyday software package a bug is annoying, but is usually
not very destructive. However, when you are talking about bugs in
the most powerful computer in existence, you are dealing with pieces
of chaos that can, and will, do massive damage to anything and
everything. With the installation of a partial AI into the
Yggdrasil System in the late 30th century, the number of bugs created
had drastically dropped. However, those few that did pop up, tended
to be more sneaky and destructive. One such bug resided in Ranma's
ship. Physically it resembled a large furball with many legs and
sharp teeth, and it was nestled securely behind the bulkplate
separating the ship's cockpit from the main drive section. And it
was playing its new favorite game, 'Lets Eat The Pretty Yellow
Wires'.
Ranma was busy thinking about the adventures that were now
before him. *I hope I get to Jurai quickly. Man, its been what,
1500 years, since they cut off contact with us? Hee hee, I can't
wait to see Tenchi's face again! He's gonna freak when I land! I
hope Sas-chan is ok, though with Tsu-chan looking out for her, I bet
she is. Maybe I can get Ryoko to spar...* Busy with his musings, he
failed to see several of the gauges on his right hand control panel
go haywire. He _did_ notice the sparks that shot out of the main
navigational screen in front of him however.
"What the hell?!" he yelped, startled out of his reverie.
Several more sparks jumped out, causing him to flinch back in
surprise. The bug decided to see if the blue wires were tastier
than the yellow ones. A long arc of blue energy shot out of one
control panel and connected to another, lasting for a total of about
five seconds. "Damn!" Ranma muttered as he started to wave his
hands in the air a bit, quickly punching random buttons whenever it
looked safe enough to do so. "Skuld didn't say anything about this
when she was showing me how to fly this stupid thing!" The bug,
having finished with the blue wires, decided that the red ones
looked pretty good.
Suddenly the sparks and arcs of energy stopped. Ranma blinked
twice and started to relax, thinking the worst was over. Then the
power went out. With the cockpit only illuminated by emergency
lights and the displays for two systems that were self-sufficient,
he looked around with a sinking feeling. He could hear the powerful
engines of the craft still operating at full throttle, but none of
the power seemed to be getting to the systems in front of him.
One of the two remaining systems spoke in a pleasant voice #Now
entering objective coordinates for the planet Pluto#. The bug,
having finished off all of the wires in its immediate area, decided
to see if the astronavigational circuit was as crunchy as the
backups had been. The voice of the navigational computer spoke
again, #WARNING. Coordinate lock has been lost. Interrupted feed
from main circuit, trying emergency backups.# The message 'Trying
emergency backups, please hold...' appeared on the nav-screen and
stayed there. Ranma could only stare at it for about 30 seconds
before the message vanished and never came back. The ship started
to spin.
Underneath Ranma's seat was a gravity pad anchoring him firmly
to the floor of the ship, so when the ship began to spin he did not
really feel much inertia. However, the spinning stars outside his
windows were more than enough to make his stomach slightly queasy.
And Pluto was slowly growing ever larger whenever he could see it
zoom past his cockpit's windows.
"OK Ranma," he started to say to himself, "lets see what we
got. OK. One, we got no power. Two, we have no control over the
ship. Three, we are a billion miles from anybody that can help.
Four, we seem to be headed straight towards a reeeealy large chunk
of ice. On the plus side... ... ...." Unable to think of anything
good in the situation he sunk deeply into his seat. "Heh," he
chuckled, "shoulda known Pluto was gonna be the end o me." He slowly
started to increase the level of chi in his body, not really knowing
why he was doing it, but it felt comforting all the same. Like being
held in a friend's warm embrace.
Ranma Saotome was a remarkable person. Physically he looked
like an Asian male in his late teens, but he had bright blue eyes
instead of the typical brown or black. His black hair was shoulder
length in the back, and kept in a loose ponytail. He had long ago
mastered his Chi, the spiritual energy that flows inside all living
things, and it could be seen as a bright blue aura that surrounded
him at all times unless he was deliberately trying to hide it. He
was also Immortal, meaning he could not die. Or, at least, he had
not yet found anything that could cause him to die. But right then,
staring out at the crazily spinning stars, planets, and sun, he
seriously doubted that he would be alive in ten minutes. He would
be correct in his assessment.
Meanwhile, back on Earth
Sailor Pluto walked quickly through the halls of the Crystal
Palace. Anybody who saw her would see nothing but a expressionless
face and a steady stride. However, inside she was seething.
*Another one! Another one rejects us! This is not supposed to be!
For every city that accepts our protection and guidance, two more
turn down our offers! Damn you Saotome! WHO ARE YOU?!?* Setsuna
paused to collect herself after shouting that question inside her
mind. It was a question that she had asked countless times over the
centuries. She could clearly remember a time when Serenity ruled
the Earth with benevolent power and the world in return looked up to
her as the savior and Queen she was. *These memories are a lie!
They never happened! And all because one _boy_ and his friends!
All my work, all of the pain I have suffered, is as nothing!
History was changed anyways!* Logically Setsuna knew she was wrong
to hate Ranma Saotome. She really was happy that so many people's
lives had been saved because of Ranma's interventions, after all she
was neither a monster nor as cold-hearted as some would believe.
But she had suffered much to try to ensure that the future she knew
would come to be. And now her life's work is in ruins, her memories
are mostly wrong, and her beloved Queen was not getting the
recognition that she deserved. Oh, Queen Serenity was far from
powerless and unknown. She ruled all of Japan and part of what was
once Asia, and she was very much respected for her willingness to
help those in trouble, but she was not the Queen Of The World that
Setsuna believed she was supposed to be. And the only difference
between the world she remembered and the world as it was now was
Ranma Saotome. A man she did not remember from her 'previous life'.
*I cannot face the Queen with my mind in this state. I must find a
way to find peace...* Suddenly she broke off her thought and looked
up, there was something wrong, something was happening at her
ancient home... *By the Crystal, NO!* Summoning her time staff she
vanished from the hallways of the Crystal Palace...
...and appeared on the surface of the planet which was her
namesake. Looking around she could see a few vague ruins dotting
the surface of the tiny planet. Searching the sky she saw what had
summoned her here. Something powerful (she could not tell what it
was) was hurtling towards the very center of what was once the home
of her race. At the rate it was descending, and with the power it
was radiating, if it hit the surface nothing would be left of the
ruins; the last vestiges of her people would be gone. There was no
time, she had to get rid of it! Quickly summoning her power, she
unleashed the most basic attack she knew, therefore it was the
quickest to create and send towards its target. "Time Distortion!"
she shouted, pointing the end of her staff towards the bright object
that was moving swiftly towards her. A large purple sphere broke
from the tip of the Time Staff and shot straight at the intruder.
Compared to her more sophisticated attacks, such as the Dead Scream,
the attack was large, sloppy, wasted energy, and highly random. But
it was the best she could do with the time she had.
By this time Ranma had found that if he sent short bursts of
chi through the sides of the ship, he was actually able to stop the
crazy spinning and rotating. However he was still unable to control
where he was going, he just could see it now. The planet was
growing larger by the second. Suddenly the second of the two
unaffected systems activated. #WARNING, a massive distortion field
is heading for the ship. WARNING WARNING WARNING, interaction of
distortion field and engine coils would have unknown consequences.
Probability of destruction of ship greater than 90%. Initiating
Primary Safety Protocols now. Cryogenic freeze activated in
three...# (Ranma's eyes widened) #...two...# (His chi, already
amplified, suddenly increased exponentially as he instinctively built
it up) #one..activating. Have a nice sleep.# *Skuld, what in the
hell were you ....* Ranma was unable to complete the thought as his
world turned to ice. Due to his new popsicle state, he was unable to
hear the computer's next statement. #Initiating Secondary Safety
Protocols, ejecting cockpit. WARNING, distortion field will hit in
five...four...three...two...one#
Setsuna had to turn away and shield her eyes with her arm from
the explosion her attack had caused. Whatever that thing that had
threatened her home had been, it was completely destroyed. She then
smiled and stretched her arms above her head, feeling good. Maybe
launching that type of attack was like a soul cleansing scream, but
whatever it was, blowing up that thing made her feel a lot better.
She once again disappeared, now looking forward to her audience with
her Queen.
35,000,000 Years Ago
A bright flash of light appeared on the rim of the solar
system, leaving behind one badly damaged cockpit and one very frozen
Ranma Saotome. The bright flash caught the attention of a passing
ship, a ship that was a scouting vessel for the race known as
Xel'Naga.