[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 26 -
Lady or Tiger? Both!
Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these
stories. And I'll put them back when I've finished with them.
C&C , MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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per-Morituri
(these are the original versions)
What has gone before:
About Book 11, Akane and Soun Tendo throw Ranma out of the house.
Nabiki, in the guise of a wish, follows him. They meet EVA pilots Shinji
Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Soryu Langley and Jeffrey Davis.
The pilots, and Toji go into the realm of spirits to rescue Hikari
from the legacy of the Lloigor's spell. Rei leads the rescue, while Asuka
and Jeff destroy the spell.
Nabiki and Gendo have visions, giving insights into the situations.
Asuka and Jeff challenge each other to a cooking contest. Rei
participates as referee and facilitator.
Nabiki arranges an intimate dinner with Ranma. While Jeff begins
teach Rei about cooking.
Asuka and Jeff begin continue analyzing the equations to manipulate
the AT field, they discover an important side-effect of AT fields.
Search and Rescue training concludes, with Nabiki and Jeff being
accepted as full members.
The Lliogor, sentient energy, attack the school are defeated. The
pilots and their schoolmates must deal with the traps they left behind.
The pilots react to the rearrangement of living spaces, none like it.
They settle in with few problems. Misato reacts to her sudden isolation
poorly.
Captain Ramsey meets with the cults of the pilots, arranging a meeting
with all of them.
Nabiki finally goes over the pilots bios, including her own. She is
shocked by some of the things she finds there.
The meetings between the pilots and their new guards goes well. Ranma
gives Shinji, Rei, Nabiki and Ritsuko the first lessons in Martial Arts.
Ranko discovers the effects of absorbing Nyogtha.
The Scholarly Dragon trains Ranko by changing her into a small version
of Unit 04.
The arrival of a minor Angel interrupts the preparation of the food
for the contest. The battle is extremely one-sided due to Asuka's
increased AT field mastery and Ranma's mastery of Unit 04.
The cooking contest goes to Asuka, although Rei discovers Jeff made
sure she won.
And when the cuttin' were done The only part that wasn't bloody
Was the soles of the big man's feet Yea he were cut in in 'bout a hundred
places
And he were shot in a couple more
You Don't Mess Around With Jim - Jim Croce
Chapter 26 - Lady or Tiger? Both!
June 8, 1947
Letter from Sarah ggreg
HEY RACCOON!
It's Sarah, Sarah ggreg. I am officially Sarah ggreg, the adoption
was a mere formality. I've got a lot to learn, over the summer I'll be
going through Chicago. It should be interesting, I'd be interested in your
experiences.
The San Francisco operations will be closing down, they have some deep
secrets that you'll find out about, I don't know exactly what. I think I
don't _want_ to know.
I'll be going to a boarding school, so I'm getting commando training
before I go. Somehow, I'm not happy about that. I don't know how you
cured me of wandering, I guess getting shot at helps.
Hope to see you and the others, have Shinji give Rei a hug for me.
Sarah
----------------------------------------
Ramsey glanced around the empty warehouse, then at the cult leaders.
I've got to stop thinking of them that way, he reminded himself. He
recognized all six of them: Nabiki's accountant, Ranma's young martial
artist, the black-suited man from Davis, Shinji's housewife, Rei's WAC
lieutenant, Asuka's Tokyo police officer. Ironically, only the last was
Japanese. None of them were happy about seeing the others. Farther back,
their staffs waited. Only the leaders would sit at the conference table.
"You're here because I asked, not for each other," Ramsey told them as
he sat.
There was grumbling, but all took their seats.
Ramsey watched the dynamics of the group. Negative, even downright
hostile feelings, were often not reciprocated. Asuka's 'high priest' was
hostile to Ayanami's, but not the reverse. Davis - Saotome interactions
were complicated. The entire group was a powder keg.
"Any reports on the leaks?" Ramsey asked, to forestall the building
arguments.
"No," Nabiki's 'high priest' acknowledged.
"What many of you don't know, is the attack on the pilots on May 4th
wasn't a random action, it took place as part of a coordinated operation
against the pilots. We captured one of the conspirators," Ramsey handed
out the folders, "The descriptions and artists' sketches of the major
members of the group who took part in these attacks."
The murmurs became very ugly.
"Assuming you can trust someone who would betray, twice," the black
suited man said.
"We want them _alive_,_" Ramsey said flatly, "We need to know who
their bosses are, who is funding them and ultimately are their operations
political or religious, or something else." He gave them his iciest stare.
All six of the cult leaders gave minor signs of agreement.
"What limits do you put on their capture?" Saotome's representative
asked, "Aside from not killing them."
"If they're U.S. Military or Japanese nationals, their behavior is
treason. Judicial niceties of arrest don't apply. However, any one of you
who turn that into a hunting license will pay the price. I doubt any of
you will be eager to face a couple of armored divisions backed up by four
EVAs, and I'll make sure your divinity is leading the attack." The shock
on their faces pleased Ramsey, but he didn't show it. They all knew or
suspected how their patron would react to their name being used for that
kind of activity.
"We will make sure legitimate authorities are on hand for the actual
arrest," Davis's black-suited man said.
Asuka's policemen nodded immediately.
"There is a question that needs to be addressed, Captain," Rei's WAC
spoke quietly.
Like Ayanami herself, Ramsey thought, And the same iron under the
seeming deference. Ramsey nodded, "Go on, Lieutenant."
"The preparation of Units 05 through 09. There may be some trouble
getting them here and operational. We don't have anything definite, but we
do know there is a greater interest by some powers."
Ramsey knew that the plan as it stood, was to bring Units 05 through
09, the production models, to Japan then upgrade Units 00, 01, 02, and 04
to production standard protection, power systems, etc. The idea they were
in danger worried him, a lot.
"The other major reason I wanted to talk to you was the plans you've
been drawing up against each other. I want it stopped, now, by all of
you," Ramsey braced himself for the explosion he saw building, and was glad
he had the reinforcements available. He just hoped they'd arrive in time
to prevent any homicides, his own included.
----------------------------------------
Lessons in Grammar and Math
"Why are we doing this?" Asuka asked, she looked at the pilots and
their guards, who were assembled in Dr. Akagi's dining room.
"Because we didn't finish the last weeks of school," Ice Princess
said, "Besides after spending most of last week underwater, I'd like to
spend some time with people." Ice Princess looked out the window at the
rain coming down in buckets outside, "Also I don't want to be stuck testing
whatever Raccoon and Ritsuko are testing."
Wondergirl stood up and headed for the door.
"Wondergirl, you're leaving?" Asuka asked.
Wondergirl jerked the door open just before Hiroko could knock, "Boo?"
Asuka shook her head, "You can't scare people that way, Wondergirl."
"That's what you think," Hiroko replied in a shaken voice as she took
off her shoes to change into the slippers provided, she kept glancing at
Wondergirl.
"Let me take your coat, I'll get a towel," Ice Princess took Hiroko's
raincoat to the bathroom, keeping it from dripping on Horseface.
"How'd your hair get so wet?" Horseface asked, "Forget to use the
hood?"
Hiroko frowned, picked up a water glass, "No, like - "
"NO!" everyone in the room shouted, except Wondergirl. It couldn't
stop the flight of water.
The empty glass slipped from Hiroko's limp fingers and shattered on
the floor. She stared at `Ranko` looking around worriedly.
"There's an explanation," Ice Princess said carefully as she walked
back from the bathroom with the towel.
The knock on the door interrupted any further talking.
Wondergirl headed for the door.
"If I made a run for it," Hiroko sagged into the chair, glanced at the
guards, "They'd chase me down," she looked at Ice Princess, tried to smile,
"Wouldn't they?"
Ice Princess nodded and draped the towel over Hiroko's shoulders as
Hikari and Toji entered, followed by Kensuke.
"Do they - ?" Hiroko asked as she dried her hair.
Ice Princess nodded, "All the pilots, but - "
"You can guess which," Asuka told her, enjoying the look of disgust
shared by Ice Princess and Horseface.
"How did you get wet?" Hikari asked, irritated by the way Horseface's
damp shirt was clinging to her chest, and Toji's failed attempts not to
stare.
"Come Ranko," Wondergirl told her.
"Yeah," Asuka added, "You don't want to distract the Stooges."
Horseface got up to follow her.
"Some people have to see them to believe them," Asuka told her, "If
they never see them, they don't believe in them."
"What are you talking about?" Toji took a seat at the table.
"How, uh, fast Ranma left," Hiroko said desperately.
Hikari and Toji exchanged looks as everyone else around them looked
_very_ nervous.
Now Hiroko knows, and Raccoon still doesn't! I don't believe this!
Asuka wanted to scream, the `invincible` martial artist could supposedly
dodge _anything_, except water. If someone wanted to blast him, all they'd
have to do is electrify a stream of water, or mix poison into it.
----------------------------------------
"You violated security," Rei told Ranko, once she'd verified the
bathroom door was closed, "You must inform Dr. Akagi."
"No problem," Ranko tried to reassure her, as Rei angrily backed her
against the other door.
"Do not worry about Hiroko," Rei told him, "She is discreet,
Nabiki-kun would not trust her if she were not."
Ranko relaxed a bit, "Okay, I'll meet you out there."
"Use the phone in Dr. Akagi's room, I will not let anyone use the
other extension until you have returned."
"Right," she headed out.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko was getting sick of the noise. The recording of the jet
engine blared through the EVA plug simulator bay could be heard clearly in
the `soundproofed` control room. She could just imagine how Jeff was
reacting to it, locked in a plug for the duration of the test.
"Sempai, call from Ranko," Maya said from her console.
Ritsuko restrained her first impulse about the familiarity, but they
were alone, she took the phone without comment.
"Rit-chan!" Ranko's panic temporarily washed out the jet noise,
"Hiroko splashed me and saw it!"
Ritsuko nearly dropped the phone, "Did anyone else see it. Anyone who
isn't authorized?"
"No," Ranko said desperately.
Ritsuko sighed, "I'll contact Security, they'll have to talk with
her," What did you do to get her to splash you? Ritsuko didn't add.
"Okay, what do we do in the meantime? Rei's really mad."
"Nothing," Rei is mad? Ritsuko shook her head, wondering now if Ranko
was playing a trick on her, "Don't draw attention to it, don't discuss it.
You keep secrets by not mentioning them to anyone, even to people who
know." Ritsuko heard Ranko hang up the phone. She shook her head,
"Another disaster," Ritsuko told Maya, who nodded.
"We could just go public," Maya suggested.
"And have the world think the pilots are some kind of monster?"
Ritsuko asked, "Not a good idea. They'll be doing strange things soon
enough, no point in having it occur early."
Maya nodded again. Ritsuko checked the strips from the chart
recorders, she wished she could muffle more of the sound, it was beginning
to get to _her_.
----------------------------------------
"Math, math and all day more math," Toji complained as he got ready to
leave Dr. Akagi's place, late in the afternoon.
"That was the plan," Asuka retorted, hoping that Horseface had picked
up enough of the math to understand at least part of the AT field
manipulations.
"Tomorrow will be no different," Wondergirl told him, "You are still
inadequate, that will have to be remedied."
"Why?" Toji asked defensively.
"Toji-san," Hikari tried to pacify him.
"No, he must know," Wondergirl told him, "With your increasing
expertise, the Fourth must advance."
"So you only need me to convince Ranko to study?" Toji said
sarcastically, "Thanks."
"You are very effective," Wondergirl told him, "It is valuable."
"Why couldn't I be useful that way?" Kensuke complained.
Spineless covered his face and shook his head. Telling whether he was
laughing or embarrassed was impossible.
Ice Princess and Hiroko were waiting for the other three non-pilots to
leave.
"So, you all know about this?" she asked when she was alone with the
pilots and the guards.
"You may not speak of it," Wondergirl told her, staring at her, "To us
or anyone else."
"I understand," Hiroko nodded, swallowed.
Asuka rarely saw Wondergirl intentionally intimidate someone, she was
_very_ good at it without trying. Even Horseface moved away from
Wondergirl as she stared Hiroko down.
"To have the knowledge is a threat. To yourself, to us. There is a
simple solution," Wondergirl told her.
"You aren't going to kill her!" Ice Princess interposed herself.
Hiroko blanched.
Rei turned her attention to Ice Princess, attempting to intimidate
her. "You once suggested eating the Second's brain. We will apply the
technique here. We have enough ketchup," Wondergirl said, "Anything can be
eaten with enough ketchup."
"SHE'S TRYING TO TELL A JOKE!" Asuka suddenly realized.
"I was successful," Wondergirl told them.
Asuka shouted in disbelief at her. Hiroko looked like she was ready
to faint.
Hiroko and the guards actually looked grateful when Security arrived
to take her away.
"I believe nothing Security will do, will frighten her more than what
happened here," Wondergirl explained.
"Rei-chan," Spineless began, "You did that on purpose?"
"Yes," Wondergirl told them. Asuka thought she looked very proud of
herself.
Asuka wanted to throttle her, Ice Princess looked like she'd help,
instead she assured Hiroko that everything was going to be all right. She
kept glancing over her shoulder to glare at Wondergirl.
Hiroko shook her head, "I guess I'll be meeting with NERV Security
interrogators, again," Hiroko sighed, "I'm beginning to think I should just
get a clearance."
"Well, maybe you can join Search and Rescue," Ice Princess suggested.
"I think you people need a psychologist more than you need anything
else," Hiroko countered.
"Are you saying we're all crazy?" Asuka asked sweetly.
Hiroko stared pointedly at Wondergirl, "Do I really have to answer
that?" Hiroko asked innocently.
----------------------------------------
Confessions in the Dark
June 9, 1947
Gendo looked at the pieces of the creature the pilots had killed. "I
can't imagine why they sent this," he told Fuyutsuki, "There are no records
of any applied hypergeometric forms that would allow it to cross the void."
"If spells didn't bring it here? How?" Fuyutsuki asked.
Gendo thought his friend enjoyed bringing up such superstitions. "A
portal to the Dreamlands, all manner of nightmares could be dragged forth,"
Gendo considered.
"Since Mr. Ryoji has been relieved of the duty of protecting the
pilots," Fuyutsuki suggested, "We could assign him to locate this gateway."
"No, he is currently pursuing other projects," Gendo told his old
mentor, both knew it was code for Gendo's special project, that only the
two of them really understood.
"His staff then," Fuyutsuki added, "You said nightmares, they may
literally bring those across."
Gendo nodded, watched Fuyutsuki leave the room where they stored the
pieces. He had little doubt the activities would be useless, but it would
give the all important _appearance_ of doing something.
When the actions failed, and the next disaster hit, it would force the
others to take the actions he needed them to take. He'd doubted they'd
ever be aware how easily he manipulated them.
Dr. Akagi's reactions were the most troubling, she knew the
requirements, and seemed to be ignoring them. Katsuragi had inadvertently
overplayed her hand, but Gendo knew there were ways to rectify that
situation. Simply changing the content of her usual libation would present
the picture he wanted the pilots to see. He could imagine the pilots'
reactions to her `drunken` behavior, especially Shinji's, soon they would
return to the paths he'd set for them. More drastic action could wait
until later.
----------------------------------------
Shinji had decided to walk Rei home, after the second day of math
lessons ended, leaving Ranko and Nabiki alone to go over the `homework`
Asuka had assigned them when she and the others left. Nabiki suspected
that Shinji was `working on them` as she and Raccoon had tried on him and
Rei earlier. Something Rei had said, gave Nabiki the impression it was
_Rei_ working at it, and Shinji was just going along. The door opened and
Raccoon dragged himself in, Dr. Akagi followed. Nabiki thought Dr. Akagi
looked almost as bedraggled as Raccoon did.
"We got your homework for the past two days," Ranko teased him, "Where
were you?"
Nabiki headed into the entryway, she wanted to know too.
For the past few days, Dr. Akagi had been very closed mouthed about
the testing they were doing on Raccoon, during the few minutes they had
actually seen her, before she went back to the lab.
"It's all right to tell them," Ritsuko told him, "He's staying here
because I need to keep an eye on him." She smiled, "And even I'm getting
tired of NERV HQ."
Ranko joined Nabiki in the entryway, both watched how slowly and
deliberately Raccoon was taking off his boots, "Long-range transport test.
No sleep, no food, just airplane noise, in the plug for 36 hours. I'm not
doing dinner, I'm gonna shower and then sleep," Raccoon told them.
Nabiki considered, physical exhaustion and hours of sensory
deprivation or overload, they could get some answers out of him in that
state. She led Ranko out of ear shot and waited, until Raccoon was in the
bathroom and Ritsuko was in her bedroom, to explain her plan to Ranko. She
was a little worried how easily she convinced Ranko to go along with it.
----------------------------------------
"'scuse me." Raccoon tried to step past Ranko, to get into the boys'
room.
"You'll never get to sleep all tensed up like that," Ranko suggested.
Ranko stood in his way wearing a pair of Nab-chan's tight shorts and one of
her shirts that was very tight on Ranko in all the right places. Anything
to distract him a little more, Ranko thought. She smiled at him,
remembering Nab-chan's shocked reaction at her change of outfits. She
reached up and touched the hard knot of muscle on his shoulder, "Sitting in
that chair for thirty-six hours." She stepped out of his way. She thought
he looked drugged, or drunk, he was so worn out. Yet Nabiki was correct,
she, they, needed answers from their ex-roommate, and this was a perfect
time to ask the questions.
"Solution?" he stepped into the room, opened the closet door and set
his clean clothes in the closet. He slipped out of his robe, while he
stood behind the closet door, waiting for her to leave or close the bedroom
door.
He's not just shy, Ranko thought, as she remembered the scars. "A
massage, get rid of some of those knots, help you relax, get a good sleep."
"Huh?"
"You lie on the floor, and I give you a massage."
He stared at her over the top of his glasses, "You're kidding."
"Raccoon, it's me, Ranko-chan," she smiled at him, "Not Ranma, or
Langley, or Nabiki. Just me, offering. No funny stuff." Ranko felt very
weird doing this, Raccoon hated Ranma, wouldn't trust him for anything,
Ranko was a whole different person and a good friend, as far as Raccoon was
concerned.
"'Kay." He pulled something out of the closet, Ranko couldn't see
through the robe. When he stepped clear, he was wearing a T-shirt, and a
baggy pair of shorts over his underpants.
Proprieties, Ranko smirked, He's got to loosen up.
"Supine or prone?" Raccoon asked in English, kneeling between the
closets and the bunk bed. Seeing Ranko's confusion, "Face-up or
face-down?"
"Face-down."
"Prone."
Raccoon lay down on the floor.
Ranko let her fingers carefully dig into the hard knots in Raccoon's
shoulder and neck muscles. She felt none of the cold that indicated he was
holding mana. The extent of the knots and tension amazed Ranko, it was
worse than the first time he'd massaged Nab-chan. This may take more than
just manipulation, she realized. She eased part of her chi into the worn
and knotted muscles. "So what did they have the tests for?" She didn't
like the extent of the chi imbalances she was detecting, Nab-chan might
want to ask questions, Ranko thought, But I'm getting a lot of unpleasant
answers without ever saying anything.
"New, bigger B-49, jet flying wing as transport for EVAs," exhaustion
muffled Raccoon's voice, "Faster than sea transport. Needed to check
physio - body and mind effects."
"So they asked you, if you went crazy, they'd still have the rest of
us," Ranko said, "Nice of them."
"Yeah, expendable."
Ranko let the silence hang for a little bit while she worked out more
kinks. She sometimes wondered where she'd learned all this stuff, it's as
if her body knew how to do it, but she couldn't remember learning it, or
being trained. She glanced at Nab-chan waiting at the doorway, listening.
"Feels good?" Ranko cooed.
"Sleep soon."
"Maybe I should have Nab-chan come in here and walk on your back."
"Sure, walks over ev'body else," Raccoon slurred.
Ranko smiled at Nab-chan who looked shocked, then she shrugged and
took off her slippers and socks. She put one hand on the rail of the top
bunk and stepped down carefully.
"Easy," Ranko urged both of them, "Easy, nice and easy."
Nab-chan gained a little confidence, digging her toes into the knots
along the spine, while Raccoon relaxed again.
"Two pretty girls giving you a massage," Nab-chan teased, "You'd pay a
lot of money for that."
Ranko shook her finger angrily, silencing further comments.
"Not payin'" Raccoon said.
"We didn't ask you too," Ranko soothed, " 'Biki-chan should be glad,
as first alternate, they didn't ask for her too. If you didn't suggest
that, it should be payment enough." Ranko glared at Nab-chan, daring her
to say anything, It was _her_ plan, why's she messing it up? Ranko
wondered.
Neither of the other two said anything.
Ranko watched Nab-chan work for a little while, Ranko wondered where
Nab-chan had picked up the skill, she was obviously very good at it. From
her expression she was finding lots of `business`.
"Racc - Jeff? What's between you and Ranma?" Ranko watched Nab-chan
scowl at her directness.
"Hate 'im," Raccoon said.
"I know that," Ranko continued, keeping her tone soft and playful,
"Why do you hate him? Maybe you told Nab - iki, but I never heard."
Raccoon raised a fist in the air, "I, Saotome Ranma, beloved by all
women and all gods, vow to see Ranko moldering in a unmourned grave." He
dropped his fist, "Rot'n bastard."
"'You mus' guard 'im, has hidden depths.' Yeah, 'n Gendo's th' Second
Coming," Raccoon fell silent.
Ranko felt Nab-chan's warning gaze before she looked up, her warning
to say nothing was unnecessary. Ranko wasn't sure she _wanted_ to know who
thought he had important hidden depths, enough to tell Raccoon to guard
Ranma.
"So you weren't kidding about guarding him? I heard him bragging you
couldn't fight him. Not wouldn't, couldn't."
" 'f Saotome saves the world, so wha' 'f Dav's dies. Gets bet'r."
Ranko felt her guts tighten at the flat statement, she put more
emotion into fixing dinner, so did Raccoon. There was no change in the
patterns of his chi, odd as they were. So he believed what he was saying,
and it didn't bother or excite him in any way. Nab-chan was having trouble
keeping her balance, physical and interior.
"You have to protect him, is that why you hate him?" Ranko asked.
"Nah, Ranko'sa good kid," he patted her knee, "Better you than him.
Won't let him kill you, kill 'im m'self first." He paused a long while,
"Poor lil' Ranko, only a thing. Curse to Ranma, pr'tty dolly ta ev'body
else, not person. 's a person ta me."
Ranko wasn't sure where to go from there. Ranma's transformation was
a secret from the school and public, it was an open secret at NERV, known
but not discussed. Except Raccoon had never seen it, believed it was a
vast joke by everybody else, to repay him for his jokes. He'd worked hard
to dissuade the other boys from chasing Ranko, even tried to `go along with
the joke`. Still, he was adamant that they were two separate people, even
producing eloquent and convincing arguments to support his position. Most
people who knew the truth, thought _that_ was Raccoon's best joke.
"Thank you," Ranko said at last. She didn't have many friends. Most
of the boys wanted to date her, even Shinji. Ranko suspected they wanted a
lot more than a date. Asuka, and most of the girls were openly hostile to
Ranko, because of the boys' attention, because of she was prettier and
better built. Nab-chan and Rei seemed to take the transformation in
stride, but neither of them was what she could call a confidant. Raccoon
didn't have any interest in dating her, but was always willing to stick up
for her, even against Ranma. He was also the first to tell her when she
messed up. It made Ranko very uncomfortable, but pleased her that he was
around.
"Jeff." She got the pronunciation right, "Please don't hurt him.
Despite all he's said, all he's done, he's still my only family. I'd feel
bad if something happened to him, even if he deserved it."
The silence dragged out, Ranko was growing worried that Raccoon was
refusing.
"Don' trust 'm. Ya shouldn' 'ther," Raccoon said at last.
"Please promise me," Ranko urged sweetly.
"No. But 'f he doesn' hurt ya . . . he'll live. 'f hurts ya, I'll
let 'm 'stroy h'mself next time."
Ranko knew that was the best she could hope for.
"It might help if he'd quit talking about you, as if you didn't
exist," Nab-chan suggested. Grinning broadly at Ranko, who frowned back.
Ranko wasn't sure what had gotten into Nab-chan, so she plunged ahead
with her questions. "There's a big, black, dragon, I guess. Shiny black
scales, big, glowing, pupilless yellow eyes, the rest of it's dark black,
not shiny: claws, teeth, two rows of spines down its back." Ranko noted
that Nab-chan was staring at her, she knew nothing about it. "It calls
Asuka 'Langley', like you do, I guess it calls you 'the boy'. What is it?
Is that your dreamself?"
"No," came the answer.
"So what is it?" Ranko asked.
"Fought Daimorigon. It kill me. I kill 't, Scholarly Dragon was
l'ft. No mo' Dreamlands fer me, no mo' dreamscape all wall'd off,
destroyed."
"But it likes you." Ranko gestured for Nab-chan to continue walking.
"Ask Lang'y, I w's dead."
"So who told you to protect Ranko?" Nab-chan asked.
"Don' hav' ta, j'st wanna," Raccoon replied.
"Who told you to protect Ranma?" Ranko asked, she hadn't detected any
change in the chi patterns, Maybe Nab-chan is right about this being the
time to ask. I wonder what would have happened if we'd asked these
questions before.
"The Dragon's Council, 'He's arriv' keep safe, your life for his,
can't let SEELE get'im.'"
"Who is SEELE a- ?" Nab-chan asked. Ranko had cut her off at her
first question, evidently he only answered the last question put to him.
"Gnomes of Zurich, B'vaaar'n 'luminati, s'rcer cult. S'rfice world,
fer immortality. Deal with Key 'n Gate for c's'mic wisdom," Raccoon
chuckled at that. "Slaves, bound fer'ver, fools," he added with real
venom.
"What do they want Ranma for?" Nab-chan asked. She'd paled on
Raccoon's revelation.
"S'cret. Important."
"Yes, but what?" Nab-chan insisted.
"Don' kn'w."
Ranko almost laughed at Nab-chan's frustration and disappointment.
"Kn'w all 'bout 'm though. All h's s'crets. Cats, punching fast,
capture alive."
Ranko felt cold, All the attacks of the last weeks, Ranko thought,
This SEELE bunch was after _me_!_ They know my weaknesses, my abilities.
That's why I couldn't protect myself, they were ready for me! Did Rei know
that too? Ranko paused to consider that, letting her hands and fingers
continue `unattended`. If they _had_ gotten me, what then? Sacrifice,
make me one of them, what? If it hadn't been for the others, Ranko gulped,
I'd know by now. But they only wanted Ran_ma_, not Ranko. Would they kill
Ranko and keep Ranma alive, or what?
"How do you know all this?" Ranko asked, now she detected changes,
cold seeped under her fingers, she hastily amended her question, "About our
enemies, those creatures?" The surges slowed, stopped. She glanced at
Nab-chan, warning her that there were some questions they wouldn't get
answered.
Raccoon laughed, "Books. Books 'n books 'n books. 'n mor' books.
Then ask'd th' EVAs."
"What kind of books?" Nab-chan asked. Ranko noted the surge of cold
that she'd felt had not affected her.
Raccoon chuckled again, "Evil, nas'y books here, story books in Ramna
dream."
"_ST_ - ory books?" Nab-chan cut her shout off, "You trust story
books?"
"Acc'rate," Raccoon replied, "Gendo said so too. Read 'em all too."
Ranko thought Nab-chan was going to start jumping up and down on
Raccoon, Ranko desperately stifling her own laughter didn't help Nab-chan's
disposition one bit.
"Story books," Nab-chan looked helplessly at Ranko.
"Good st'ries," Raccoon added, and nearly got himself ground into the
floor.
Ranko decided they'd had enough fun at Nab-chan's expense, Too bad
Raccoon can't defend himself, Ranko thought, Nab-chan's really cute when
she can't control everything, and she knows it. Ranko knew enough to hold
off with that attack, until it could do some good.
"So do you know what's going on?" Ranko asked.
"Lots."
Ranko glanced at Nabiki, who merely shook her head. Then Ranko
realized she was laughing. Ranko had determined to get the whole mess out
in the open, but could only ask one simple question at a time, Terrific,
when I really need a long-winded lecture, she agreed with Nabiki's
amusement, I can't get one.
"How about at NERV?" Ranko suggested.
"Lots."
Ranko glanced at Nab-chan again, "A little help?" Ranko didn't even
know enough to play twenty-questions about all the mysteries of NERV.
"Who is the enemy?" Nab-chan asked.
"Other people."
That chilled Ranko and Nab-chan.
"The creatures we fight aren't the enemy?" Nab-chan asked
incredulously.
"No."
"Why are other people the enemy?" Ranko asked.
"Servants, slaves, pow'r hungry . . . fools."
"What about the monsters, the things we fight?" Ranko was getting
confused.
"Hav' ta see us ta be en'mies," Raccoon told them, "They don', b'neath
th'r not'ce."
Ranko wanted to shake her head in amazement, "Then _why_ are they
fighting us?"
"Infesstion, clean off, make nice."
Ranko shared a look with Nab-chan, it changed everything. Ranko
hadn't considered that people would do something like this, that someone
would put some little thing above the lives of hundreds to millions of
others, and these people were after _him_, specifically. "What about
honor?"
" 'llusion."
"Is anyone on our side?" Nab-chan asked, Ranko noted the despair
etched on her face.
"Lots."
Ranko was beginning to think Raccoon was doing that to Nab-chan on
purpose.
"Can you name them?" Nab-chan asked through gritted teeth.
"No."
"Then how do you know they're there?" Nab-chan was near the end of her
rope.
"Met with some."
"Why would they help you, or the human race?" Ranko was horrified.
"Nob'dy wan's ta die. EVAs best cha'ce," Raccoon laughed once, "Less
you n' h'm fight. Humans . . . so many, exped'ble."
The three were quiet for a while. Ranko had already finished working
all the knots out of Raccoon's shoulders and upper arms, Nab-chan seemed to
be finding nothing more to work on.
"What are the EVAs?" Nab-chan asked as she stepped aside.
Ranko agreed it was a good start.
But they had waited too long, Raccoon was sound asleep. Neither
wanted to be the one to rouse him.
----------------------------------------
The two girls left Raccoon under a blanket in the boys' room, he'd
fallen asleep, and after 36 hours in the plug, neither wanted to wake him.
Even to put a pillow under his head. They were in the kitchen considering,
after Ranko had changed back to her usual red and black outfit. Nabiki had
gotten some of the answers she'd wanted, after Ranko had gotten the answers
she wanted, but both of them were left with more questions. The answers
had only showed them better how much further the mysteries extended.
Nabiki still wondered why Ranko had willingly dressed that way and asked
the questions she had.
"That's just weird," Ranma shut the hot water off in the sink after he
changed, "I'll never figure that guy out."
"Look at it from his point of view," Nabiki agreed, but had to play
devil's advocate, "He's positive you and Ranko are different, if I didn't
know better, he'd have some pretty compelling arguments. Like would Ranma
ever give someone a massage like that? Especially another _guy_?_" After
dressing up that way, Nab-chan admitted she was jealous. Ranma never
dressed up for her, And she fills out my best outfit better than I can.
Ranma winced at that, "That wasn't what I meant."
"Like I said, you keep talking about Ranko as if she were a curse.
Considering what's going on around us: women getting the vote in Japan, the
Nazis and supporters trying to buy absolution for their wartime actions,
the Nuremberg Trials, the War Crimes trials starting here. Your attitude
towards her comes across as straight misogyny, women-hating. When really
it's just your curse, and your arrogance. Considering that's how our real
enemies work, he's got to hate that."
"Thanks," Ranma left the kitchen to sit down at the dining room table.
"I notice, Ranko, managed to call him off." Nabiki followed him, she
enjoyed Ranma's stricken look, "If Ranma can keep his mouth shut, or at
least be civil about Ranko, he may live long enough to grow up. You notice
he didn't say he'd do something to Ranma, he'll let you destroy yourself."
Ranma sighed, "Considering this SEELE bunch is after me, it wouldn't
be too difficult," he stared at her.
Nabiki nodded and wondered why they were after just him, wondered what
other threats were out there. The Kuno comparison doesn't apply, Nabiki
thought, Kuno would never kill, even to protect 'his loves', and never at
personal risk.
Her biggest question was still unanswered, If you have met with those
potential allies, Mr. Davis, who do _you_ work for? Where does _your_
final loyalty lie? She wasn't sure she should ask, for the answer she'd
get, Maybe being ignorant is safer in that case.
----------------------------------------
Ranma looked at Nab-chan, "Is it wrong to be worried about that?" He
was surprised the question startled her.
"I'm more worried about you even asking," Nab-chan told him as she sat
and scooted the chair next to him, "You love him more than you love me,"
she crooned, "I should be so jealous."
Maybe if you didn't try to confuse me all the time, Ranma didn't say,
"But he's so adorable, so strong and noble, and yet so vulnerable." Ranma
let out a Ranko-like sigh, "You're cuter, but a girl has to know her man
has a soft side too." Ranma thought Nab-chan could chew rocks right now.
"Now, that dinner, that's how a girl should act."
"When did _you_ learn how a girl should act?" Nab-chan's tone would
have turned the Sahara into a ski resort.
"Oh, watching Rit-chan and Rei-chan, and of course Asuka-chan, they're
all so ladylike." He let out another Ranko sigh, "I can see why Raccoon
and Maya love her so much."
The dual clunks as Nab-chan hit her head on the table, and Rit-chan
dropped her clipboard, told Ranma he'd gone too far.
"I was just teasing Nab-chan!" Ranma said desperately.
"Oh that's not it," Rit-chan swept him out of the chair, cradling him
easily, "I only sent Raccoon away because I was jealous. Now the four of
us can live in a perfect state of love!"
The slam of the front door indicated Shinji's silent arrival, and
extremely loud and rapid departure.
"Saotome," Nab-chan told him, without lifting her head, "If we'd
dropped just _you_ on Pearl Harbor, we would have won the damn war!"
----------------------------------------
Asuka looked at the bugeyed cargo plane, with the decidedly
unaerodynamic thing sticking out of its nose, landing at the _Army's_ major
Tokyo airfield. "If I didn't know better, Captain," Asuka joked, "I'd
think you'd brought me out here on a date."
"Sorry, it's business," Ramsey told her, "Although the Admiral and his
wife have invited us for dinner. They thought you might feel like
celebrating."
"Because we finally taught Horse - Ranma the most elementary calculus,
no. Your mysterious act is working," Asuka told him as they boarded the
jeep and drove towards the taxiing plane's destination.
They stayed out of the hanger until the engines shut down and the
ground crew had chocked the plane inside the hanger. The side doors opened
and crewmen rolled a portable stairway into place.
"Behold," Ramsey told her as they entered the plane's cargo bay.
For an instant she didn't recognize the two dozen long poles that,
with their pallets, filled the length of the cargo bay and stuck out the
nose. "Wait!" she recognized the ends of the poles, "Are these - they're
really them!"
"Your designs," Ramsey smiled as she raced along the length of the
cargo.
"The full length versions are coming by ship. Until the C-99 is
available, we can't ship the full-sized ones by air."
"Full-sized?" Asuka was confused, "These are nearly 35 meters long!"
"The full-sized sonic glaives are 175 feet, about 53 meters," Ramsey
told her.
"The heads are exactly my design." Asuka looked at the huge cutting
surfaces of the sonic glaives.
"Your design was more durable, yours didn't cut as well, but they
didn't bend or shatter every eight strokes either." Ramsey stood back and
watched her as she ran her hands over the smooth metal.
"When do we test them?" Asuka asked.
"Soon," Ramsey said, "Although they're already cleared for combat
use."
"So we can use these against an Angel when it shows up?" Asuka asked
delightedly, imagining the advantage they would have had against the giant
spider with the extra reach.
"You're scary when you look like that," Ramsey accepted Asuka's frown
and gesture in the spirit it was meant, "Well, first, we have to unload
them."
Asuka raced past him and down the stairs, "Well hurry up, they've got
work to do, and they could sound an alert any second!" Asuka wondered if
Unit 02 could unload the glaives faster than the crews could.
----------------------------------------
Exposed and Susceptible
June 10, 1947
The ordinance team walked through the NERV headquarters corridors.
The mustard-colored walls didn't signify anything more important than that
color paint had been available cheap in Japan, when they painted the
corridor. Some wit had speculated that the different, blandly-painted
corridors were actually some huge magical protection spell over the entire
complex. Only the fact that the same wit had died of a gunshot two days
later gave the story any credence. It might have been a warning to keep
such speculations to yourself, a murder as an object lesson fit Ikari's
sense of subtlety.
A bored guard checked the papers, all were in order. Correct U.S.
Army signatures and government authorizations. The team had people who
chattered together, and others who merely glared at others, all in all a
completely ordinary working crew. Security allowed them into the EVA bays
to do routine maintenance on the plugs. The guard wondered why ordinance
people did the work, he guessed it had something to do with the rockets
used to pull the plugs to safety after they cleared the EVA. He also knew
enough not to ask, people got disciplined for less, and his family had to
eat.
The team leader walked over to the pair who were the most mutually
hostile, they stood perhaps 3 meters apart and glared at each other.
"We have a job to do," the WAC lieutenant told them, "We do it, you
two check it, then you two can do whatever you want. You can kill each
other for all I care . . . AFTER the work is done right."
The pair headed off to the first plug the team was working on. The
lieutenant shook her head, she was only a very senior clerk, her job was to
oversee the paperwork, make sure everything was in order. That she would
do.
The devices were simplicity itself. Five 70mm HEAT warheads from the
old Japanese infantry cannon, all fixed to converge on the command chair,
triggered by a radio signal. To prevent it from occurring accidentally,
the signal had to be on five very specific frequencies and transmit a very
specific signal pattern, one frequency after another. The intricacies of
that mechanism were beyond her purview and that of her team. The triply
redundant fuses to fire the warheads were not. They too were electrical,
very clever, and would mean the death of anything in the way when they
fired. But battery backups ran down, L.C.L. had a habit of getting into
_everything_, no matter how well sealed it was supposed to be.
She personally believed the L.C.L. pried casings open and then forced
them shut once it was inside wherever it had been excluded from. No one
who'd been touched by even a drop of that foul stuff laughed at her
speculation, not with the dreams they had for weeks afterwards.
The team replaced the fuses and warheads with practiced ease, she
smiled at that. She wondered if anyone had considered doing what they were
doing. She'd always thought that five warheads really was overkill, three
or even one would do the job. The thoughts of those Japanese things where
a pilot could be, had gnawed at her, until she'd come up with an elegant
solution. NERV and Gendo Ikari had no more idea what and whom they were
fooling around with. If they really understood, they'd have their
priorities straight.
The teams closed covers, made their tests, the two inspectors made
theirs. Everyone who had to sign the papers did so, and they all trooped
out. She left copies for maintenance and Security, everything was in
order, and would continue to appear to be. Right until the EVAs went into
battle. Gendo Ikari and NERV might get an unpleasant surprise then, or
maybe they'd be reasonable.
Oh, we all believe that will happen, she thought as the team left NERV
HQ.
----------------------------------------
Ranma hated this, hated having to do this. He sat naked in the
bathroom, with a bucket of cold water in his hands. "Raccoon, get in here!
NOW!" He hoped the other boy hurried, before he lost his nerve completely.
There was a loud thump and an 'Ouch!' before the door slid open.
Ranma couldn't meet the other boy's gaze.
"Ranma?!"
"Don't say anything, just pay attention." Ranma sat so Raccoon could
get a good look at him, all of him, then he tipped the bucket over his
head. He screwed her eyes shut, but forced herself not to move, the other
boy _had_ to see this, had to understand.
"Ranma?" Raccoon said.
"Yes," Ranko said, wanting desperately to cover herself, to tell him
to shut the door, to run away and hide in shame. She looked back towards
Raccoon, staring at the bathroom floor.
A single drop of blood hung at the bottom of the hand that covered his
nose and mouth, then it fell, staining the floor. Ranko hated this, the
one guy who never hit on his female form, the one guy who never drooled or
lusted after it like even Shinji did. The one guy who could be trusted to
be a friend and confidant to _her_, was the first guy to see him/her naked
like this. More blood hit the floor as Raccoon slid to his knees.
"Now do you understand?" Ranko grabbed a towel to cover herself, her
shame blushing her crimson, "Now to you see?"
"No," Raccoon said, his voice funny, "Ah thought you were in trouble,
or found mah glasses."
Ranko looked up at his face for the first time, no glasses and tears
streaming down his face.
"Ah thought you were in trouble so ah ran here, ran into somethin' an'
the door post, ah think ah broke mah nose." Raccoon sagged against the
door post, "Ah wen' ta sleep, when ah woke up, ah forgot where mah glasses
were, then ya yelled. If ah knocked over a display case, Akagah-sensah
will throw me off the balcony - with ah rope around mah neck."
"So you, you didn't, I have to . . . " Ranko hung her head, she was
going to have to go through all this again.
"Found them!" Nab-chan announced as she walked up, then looked at the
pair, "Peeping would be better if you could actually see what you were
looking at." She focused on Raccoon's injured state, "She gets violent if
you barge in on her."
"It wasn't like that!" Ranko shot to her feet as Nab-chan helped
Raccoon to his.
"You dropped your towel," Nab-chan told her, "You'll give Shinji and
Toji quite a show."
Ranko scrambled for the towel.
"I think I'll hold on to your glasses for a bit."
"Medical," Raccoon managed as the pair staggered for the kitchen.
Ranko hung her head, "Why do things like this keep happening?"
----------------------------------------
Rei accepted the deck, split it into two piles and shuffled
inexpertly, "Jacks or better to open, deuces and jokers wild, if no one can
open, we ante again, and play the hand low ball." Rei found everyone
sitting and standing around Dr. Akagi's dining room table was staring at
her, "Was the terminology incorrect?"
"No, Wondergirl," the Second said, "We just can't figure out when you
ate a copy of Hoyle's Rules."
"I have not," Rei explained, she had wanted to test the odd of this
possibility.
"Then will someone explain to _me_ what's going on?" the Fourth asked.
"Don't worry," Shinji-kun told him, "It's not like we're playing for
real money." He smiled at Toji, Hiroko, Kensuke and Hikari, who were as
mystified as the Fourth. Rei could care less, she had read and memorized
the rules of poker and was eager to see if her improved knowledge of the
rules enhanced her percentage of games won.
Rei wasn't good at reading expressions, but she knew that the Second,
Roku-kun and Nabiki-kun were taking this as seriously as any other battle
they'd ever been part of. The others appeared as confused as Shinji-kun
and the Fourth. She dealt the cards, and watched the battle begin in
earnest. Her and the Second's mastery of the odds versus Nabiki-kun and
Roku-kun playing very different manipulation games. None of them was an
easy target for any of the others. Although again, Roku-kun and Nabiki-kun
seemed to be splitting the pots between them. Indicating odds were not the
entirety of the game.
The guards were also watching with interest, orbiting the table,
watching all the hands, revealing nothing. Kensuke, Toji, Hiroko and
Hikari were doing even worse than she and Shinji-kun were. She realized
that a superior understanding of the _written_ rules could not offset her
lack of understanding of the unwritten ones.
They redivided the pot, the deal changed hands, the results were the
same.
"You are not using any of the cheating techniques," Rei said to
Roku-kun and Nabiki-kun, "Yet you still won many of the hands."
Now everyone stared at those two.
"You were cheating?" Kensuke was shocked.
"Cheated by the Boss, and not even for match sticks," Hiroko said with
exaggerated tone and gestures, "Money is more important than her friends."
"When you're rich enough," Nabiki-kun assured her, "You can _buy_
friends."
"They would be of dubious quality," Rei assured her.
"It was a joke, Wondergirl," the Second's tone was irritated, and
irritating.
"It did not amuse or enlighten," Rei replied.
"Well, Raccoon had to be cheating," Nabiki-kun announced.
"How do you figure _that?_" Roku-kun answered defensively.
"Because I was cheating, and I still lost," Nabiki-kun smiled.
Indicating it was a joke, Rei told herself, "You are unskilled."
"When did you teach Wondergirl to tell jokes?" the Second asked.
"He said he'd teach you next," Shinji-kun told her, then dodged the
fluttering cards the Second threw at him.
----------------------------------------
The poker game broke up in the afternoon, "What do we tell our
parents?" Hikari asked, "We can't tell them we were playing poker all day."
"Mathematics and psychology," Rei told her, wondering why she hadn't
paid attention when Rei told her the _first_ time, when they started.
Hikari looked at her curiously. Rei stared back.
Hikari shrugged and headed after Toji.
Rei stared at Raccoon, "Your plan worked," she was learning to
socialize more with the others. As frightening as it was, it was
enjoyable, in retrospect.
Raccoon nodded.
"What plan?" Nabiki-kun asked.
The Second was frowning, indicating she either knew or suspected.
"The deepest, darkest mysteries," Raccoon told her.
"With wine and pesto sauce," Rei added, He was talking about
mushrooms, wasn't he? she thought.
Nabiki-kun frowned, for _her_ it indicated she didn't understand.
More and greater confusion, having to learn each person separately.
----------------------------------------
Raccoon sat at the table in Akagi-sensei's apartment, tutoring Ranko
on her English.
Nabiki and Hiroko were standing near the patio, talking. Hikari, Toji
and Asuka had headed home after a long day of `studying`. Rei had left
with the the guards.
"Ritsuko got our grades," Nabiki explained, trying to segue into the
real subject Hiroko was probably bursting to talk about, "Mine and
Raccoon's were acceptable, Ranma's were terrible. So she'd tasked herself
and us to get Ranma's grades back up. We gave up in a week."
"Yeah, I can see Ranma would be too hardheaded to accept the necessity
of an education," Hiroko agreed.
"However, when Raccoon started to work with Ranko, she actually
listened to him," Nabiki looked over at them.
"<They're>: meaning they are, and <their>: belonging to them. <It's>:
it is, and <its>: belonging to it. If the word means something belongs to
someone, it doesn't have the apostrophes. If it is a pronoun and a verb,
then it does. They are, <they're>; It is, <it's>; belongs to it: <its>,
belongs to them, <their>." Raccoon explained while making Ranko write the
words and pronounce them in English.
"That's easy," Ranko said brightly.
"Okay." He pulled out the flash cards he'd created, "Ready for the
next challenge?"
Ranko nodded eagerly.
Nabiki shook her head, "It's pure sorcery," she laughed at that.
"And you're jealous," Hiroko added.
"I AM NOT JEALOUS!" Nabiki insisted.
"We - are - working - here!" Raccoon admonished.
"I am not jealous!" Nabiki hissed at Hiroko.
"When was the last time Ranko, or Ranma, was like that around you?"
Hiroko asked quietly as they watched the beaming girl going through the
lessons. "He doesn't know?"
"Like I said," Nabiki turned back to stare out the window at the rain,
"He's never seen it." She frowned, " 'Ranma and Ranko aren't the same
person'," she mocked Raccoon's tone.
"That's crazy," Hiroko turned to the window and agreed, "If cold water
. . . it has to happen all the time."
"Believe me," Nabiki told her, "We were standing next to a puddle,
there was a truck coming . . . "
"And?"
"With his back to the truck, locked in an argument with Asuka, she
said 'truck', and he flipped his huge umbrella out and into place. We all
stayed completely dry," Nabiki said disgustedly, "If he'd been there that
day, he might have prevented you from throwing that water in the first
place."
"That's crazy," Hiroko insisted.
"Crazier than what you've already seen?" Nabiki asked.
----------------------------------------
The events of the week frustrated Nabiki, So many unanswered and
unanswerable questions. Hiroko knows about this, but not Raccoon. She
searched the area for a simple solution for the problem. She looked at the
stove, Raccoon was cooking their dinner, again, he didn't have to, he was
going home in a little while. Making up for losing the contest, she
thought. She suspected he'd done it to drive Dr. Akagi crazy, disturbing
her carefully constructed sense of order. Like it does to me, Nabiki
admitted to herself.
One pan in particular caught her attention, a small pan of water with
herbs floating in it, she looked, Not boiling, hot but not too hot.
Perfect, she thought, then called, "Ranko, could you come here for a
moment?"
The redhead stepped into the kitchen, confused by Nabiki's expression.
Then blanched as Nabiki swung the pot off the stove.
"NO!" Raccoon shouted too late to intervene.
"_HOT_!_ _HOT_!_ _HOT_!_" Ranko ran from the kitchen. Raccoon
grabbed her as she passed and rushed her into the bathroom.
----------------------------------------
Jeff played the cold water from the shower over Ranko's head and back.
He didn't tell the girl he was also healing the second-degree burns that
Nabiki had inflicted on her.
"It hurts," she complained.
"Easy," Jeff soothed, he could see the white color in her voice that
indicated pain, "The cold water will deal with the pain, the burns don't
look too bad. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks," Ranko said in a frightened tone.
By the dark red of her voice, he could tell she was lying, Probably
trying to be brave. "Okay," he pushed her into the shower, "Keep that
running on you for at least ten minutes, as cold as you can stand. I'll be
back in a bit, with some dry clothes."
----------------------------------------
Nabiki didn't like the expression on Raccoon's face, as he came out of
the bathroom. She wondered if running out the door was even an option, or
if chasing her down would make him more angry.
"Just what was going through your mind?" he asked in a controlled
tone, stopping just out of reach, but blocking her way out of the kitchen.
"Well I saw the pan, and I - "
"Boiling oil was used to kill people around castles. Did you bother
to find out how hot the pan really was, or what was in it before you threw
it?" Raccoon's face was a mask of controlled fury. "This joke ends now,
'It's only funny until someone gets hurt,' well she's got some minor burns,
that's enough. So far I've gotten hurt, Ranko's gotten hurt, Misato nearly
blinded Ranma with kerosene, next time _I_ do the hurting, are we clear?"
"Very clear," she said quietly.
He nodded, "Since you ruined your dinner, you cook. Once Ranko's
okay, I'm leaving."
He marched out of the kitchen and back to the boys' room. Nabiki
looked over at Shinji, he shrugged, he'd obviously decided to stay out of
the way.
Nabiki got her breathing and heartbeat under control. Raccoon had
never threatened her directly the way he had Ranma, until now, That guy is
just scary.
----------------------------------------
Ranko let the cold water play over the tender parts of her scalp. She
was glad Nab-chan hadn't seriously burned her. She glanced over at Raccoon
as he entered with a set of dry clothes. She figured it was close to the
time. She stepped out, accepted the towel.
"Just blot, don't rub," Raccoon told her.
She swallowed her sarcasm, "Yes, I know."
"Can you keep a secret, Ranma?"
Only Raccoon's hand clamped over her mouth prevented her shout of
outrage. She stared angrily at him, she was tempted to just bite through
his hand. When she had calmed down enough not to shout, she pushed his
hand away, "You called _me_,_ Ranma."
"Yes, I did. Can you keep a secret?"
Ranko clamped her own hand over her mouth to keep from screaming at
him. She glared at Raccoon, prompting an explanation.
"In the Dreamlands, I received a seat on my Order's ruling committee
for my expertise in healing: physical, mental, spiritual; and enchantments:
spells laid on people, and things. I'm not a combat mage, I make and use
weapons, I heal the broken minds, bodies and souls of the survivors. That
also means, in effect, I've got a double doctorate, or a 36th-degree black
belt, in curses. I'm a _lot_ weaker here, barely more than a charlatan in
the Waking World, but I do have some abilities. And curses are my
specialty."
"But you always said - " Ranko fiercely whispered, "Yes, I can keep a
secret." She got a nod from Raccoon. "You denied the curse exists."
"I _never_ said that. Your curse," he caught some water from the
shower, "Your curse is to attract this stuff, if you stayed as Ranko all
the time, you'd attract _hot_ water. Your transformation is something else
entirely, something even more powerful than the Great Old Ones. I reduced
your curse while you were pouring coffee on yourself aboard the Coral Sea.
Reduced, not eliminated, sorry that's all I could manage."
"But I still change!" Ranko whispered fiercely, ran some hot water
over her hand. He noted Raccoon took a half-step back, Ranma could also
see the subtle defensive stance. Ranma had spied on Asuka and Raccoon
fighting on the roof of Sammi's building, whatever style they were using.
Ranma could still read that Raccoon expected to get hit, and had readied
himself to receive the blow. Ranma switched to the cold water, Ranko tried
to hide her reaction to Raccoon relaxing again.
"I never said one word about your curse, I said 'Ranma and Ranko
aren't the same person'."
He really believes it, Ranko realized, "Why keep it secret?"
"Well, after Miss Tendo parboiled you, consider it a little bit of
hard-earned revenge."
Ranko burst out laughing, Nab-chan was _so_ sure, "What about the
others?"
"The best way to keep a secret is don't share it. For getting you
scorched, I figured I owed you an explanation," he added apologetically,
"Telling you I understood, would have Gendo sticking bamboo splinters under
my fingernails until he found out _all_ I know. I'd like to avoid that.
He knows I know a little, but I'd rather not give him a reason to suspect I
know more. Besides, it's fun watching all of you jump to the wrong
conclusions and think I'm stupid."
Ranko's mind was racing, "Then what's my - transformation, for?"
"Balance I'd guess," Raccoon shrugged, "Ranma is just sooo serious
about being a 'manly, martial artist', I mean if he smiled or laughed, his
face would crack and his ears would fall off. Suddenly Ranko can go out
and have fun, discover girls aren't as weak as Ranma thought they were,
live life that Ranma won't, not can't, won't."
Ranko grimaced at that, then laughed when she realized how much she
could tease Nab-chan, and even Rit-chan about this.
----------------------------------------
Resolve Dissolve Clarify
Dr. Akagi noted the strange scene that greeted her return from work.
Ranma, in female form, was sitting between Shinji and Nabiki, and glancing
at the two warily and worriedly. The room was silent, except for the sound
of chopsticks.
"It smells good," she said pleasantly, not looking forward to defusing
another situation, she sometimes envied Sammi's pair, who were either
silently scheming or screaming at each other, or both.
"Nabiki cooked," Ranma said brightly, "It's real good." Not getting a
response from either of his/her fellow pilots, Ranma dropped back into
silence.
Ritsuko sighed, after having spent several hours the day before
yesterday explaining to Hiroko about Ranma/`Ranko`'s secret, with people
from Navy Intelligence and NERV Security, and the transport/plug test, she
was looking forward to a quiet evening at home. Now the two who rarely
caused a problem, generated the dilemma this time. She mentally rolled up
her sleeves and prepared for a battle to the death, fortunately they
weren't likely to work together against her, and Ranma seemed willing to
help her.
"What happened?" Ritsuko asked, in a tone that demanded an answer.
"Nab-chan showed Raccoon my curse doesn't work with hot oil, only
water," Ranma said, smiling brightly at Nabiki.
Nabiki seemed to collapse in on herself, ashamed of her action.
If I didn't know better, Ritsuko watched her charges closely, I'd
think Ranma was acting this way on purpose.
"Ranko," Shinji offered, "I don't think she meant to hurt you." If
Shinji meant to help, he didn't. Nabiki shrank even more.
"Oh, I know that," Ranma smiled, gave Nabiki a kiss on the cheek, "She
just shouldn't take things so terribly seriously. Just let them happen,
she's getting as deadly serious as Ranma is. It's just so sad." Nabiki
looked like she'd been kicked, not kissed.
Ritsuko thought `Ranko` was laying it on a little too thick. Ritsuko
sighed, "Do I need to ask why?" She could speculate why Jeff hadn't _ever_
seen a transformation, but that hardly excused Nabiki for splashing Ranko
or Ranma, no matter the material. "Ranma, you're right, Nabiki, I want you
to leave Ranma alone. It will happen eventually."
"She's right, Nab-chan," Ranma hugged Nabiki, which caused Nabiki to
wilt even more, "You just have to be patient," Ranma said with a smile.
What is going on? Ritsuko smiled at Ranma, who smiled back brightly.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko walked along the walkway around the floor of the apartment
building, "What's going on? I want some answers."
"Well," Ranma, still in female form, walked alongside her, "After
Hiroko saw me change, and after the others went home today, Hiroko asked
Nab-chan if she was jealous. I don't know what she should be jealous
about."
"You and `Raccoon`," Ritsuko told Ranma.
"We were just studying English!" Ranma retorted, "Words that sound
alike, but don't have that high comma." At Ritsuko's confused look Ranma
added, "It is and belongs to it, those kinds of things. It's not like I
was practicing Martial Arts, like I do with Nab-chan."
Ritsuko felt her headache coming back, He doesn't see it, she thought,
"You were happy? Weren't you?"
"Sure, I finally beat it," Ranma replied, looking at her curiously.
"A hug, a kiss, maybe a victory dance for the tutor?" Ritsuko asked
neutrally, watched Ranma blush.
"I guess," Ranma said, "Why should that make a difference? I tell
Nab-chan how well she's doing with her Martial Arts."
"It's not the same," Ritsuko tried to figure out how to explain it to
him, er her.
----------------------------------------
June 11, 1947
"I don't want to talk about it!" Asuka told her roommate, as the tank
took all of them to this morning's testing with the EVAs. She'd
practically had to beat Kensuke off with a stick to keep him from
accompanying them, she wasn't happy.
"I just wanted to know if it would hurt. Considering the rest - "
"_YES_!_ It would hurt!" Asuka shouted at Raccoon, "It would hurt a
lot! _NOW_SHUT_UP_ABOUT_IT_!_"
"What are you two talking about?" Horseface asked.
Asuka rolled her eyes, "What part of 'I don't want to talk about it'
don't you understand?!"
"Well, Raccoon - "
"Is trying to make me uncomfortable!" Asuka shouted at him.
"And succeeding," Wondergirl added.
"You're all conspiring against me!" Asuka complained, trying to move
as far from the others as possible in the vehicle. She watched Raccoon
lean close and explain what they'd been doing last night. She and Raccoon
had gone looking at Misato's dreams.
Asuka had seen plenty of torture and mutilation in the Dreamlands,
where they lacked more subtle interrogation and punishment methodologies.
Nothing she had ever seen compared with what Misato was doing to herself in
her own dreams. It was more subtle than thumbscrews, but just as
effective. In another context, she would have put it down to extreme and
virulent misogyny.
Except the perpetrator was female, and she was her own choice of
victim. The image and acts went far beyond pornography of any kind Asuka
had ever _heard_ of. It filled Asuka with revulsion, and an odd kind of
pity. To hate yourself so violently that it thoroughly poisoned your
dreams. . . .
She could see the concerned look on Spineless's face, even Wondergirl
holding his hand didn't lessen the intensity of that look.
He should go back and live with her, Asuka remembered Misato's drunken
accusation, that Spineless left Misato because of her, When in truth it was
her own damn fault. But he may be right. It's obvious she can't be
trusted to look after herself.
Asuka wondered how anyone could let themselves go that way, even if
they were filled with self-loathing, You have to have some pride in
yourself, she considered.
----------------------------------------
She finally had it in her hands. Unit 02 took an en garde position
with the sonic glaive, on the open field on the NERV campus. My design,
Asuka thought proudly. "Finally, a real weapon."
"Thank you!" Ritsuko said sarcastically, "Without my work, all those
would be are big sticks."
"So why didn't _you_ design these," Asuka confronted the scientist's
image in Unit 02's entry plug.
"Well - I - um, that is . . . "
"You can whip them out and measure them later," Ice Princess told
Ritsuko.
Asuka thought it was weird, seeing the images of Ice Princess and
Raccoon in the plugs, as technicians and support staff.
"All I'm saying is this is a big improvement," Asuka countered.
"What was wrong with the prog knives?" Horseface asked. The other
EVAs were assembled there, to test the new weapons.
"She cannot lose them," Wondergirl answered.
"Hey!" Asuka protested, "I don't _always_ lose my prog knife."
"None of us has ever lost ours," Spineless teased.
"Hey! I take the risks you're afraid to!"
"Like losing your prog knife and using an Angel's tooth instead,"
Raccoon piled on.
Nevertheless, none of it was enough to disturb her good mood. "Well,
if you think you're such hot stuff, Horseface, let's try this," she
advanced across the field towards Unit 04, holding the sonic glaive in the
proper spear guard position, "Cut power, just to make sure I don't hurt
him."
Horseface reared Unit 04 back into a series of loops. Too late, she
realized he was coiling into a spring. Shooting forward, Unit 04's mouth
closed on the haft of the glaive just behind the blade, while the rest of
Unit 04 entwined the rest of the weapon and Unit 02. Asuka realized she
could wrench herself and the weapon loose, but not without damaging the
glaive, Unit 02 or Unit 04. "Who's been teaching you?" Asuka released the
glaive, indicating her surrender.
"You wouldn't believe me," Horseface told her, unwinding Unit 04 from
Unit 02.
She didn't believe that.
----------------------------------------
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright
The animal smell in the abandoned manufacturing building was
overwhelming. Tembris wasn't averse to animals. These seemed even less
`tame` than wild animals. As if none of them had ever seen any of their
own kind in the wild. They were all acting as if all they'd learned of
predators had come from bad pulp magazines and penny dreadfuls.
The man, to used the term advisedly, was a good example: naked, steam
coming off his well-oiled muscles, obviously contemptuous of the `suit`
here to tell them how to do their job. From what Tembris could see of the
tigers `playing` in the enclosure that once held machine tools, and what
they were playing with, these idiots needed a lion tamer and a map to find
their ass.
"They're finally ready to let us go?" the naked man asked, undoubtedly
disappointed his nudity hadn't shocked Tembris.
"I'm not here to give you orders," he told the man, the cold of the
silver knives up his sleeves gave him all the equanimity he needed, "Just
to remind you that Saotome is to be captured ALIVE."
"Oh course we capture," the man laughed while frowning, "A little play
never hurt anyone." The man gestured at a few of the tigers `playing` with
a man they'd grabbed off the street a few days earlier.
Tembris figured SEELE wanted Saotome intact, not traumatized. His own
mage had practically begged him to call off this mission, then became
incoherent about the dangers. As if the possibility of Saotome being
infected with these creatures' form of lycanthropy, would be like setting
off an atomic bomb. Tembris had temporized and gone to see SEELE's
'ULMITATE JENUIS PALN'. Looking around he realized SEELE had no real
talent for hiring professional operatives, or listening to those they did
have. Their brute force approached worked, if your opponent wasn't better
at fighting than you were. So he was wrong for expecting competent
specialists, like the two werewolves who were the Meliorist's two guards.
I wouldn't trust this bunch to prevent the theft of a red-hot stove,
Tembris thought as he kept his face carefully neutral, I wonder if I picked
the right side of this fight. Instead, he nodded and headed for the exit.
'Once we have Saotome, we will kill and eat 'til the grease runs down
our chins,' one of the man's pride said to their leader, loud enough that
Tembris heard easily.
His own ally/bodyguard waited outside the building, staring at a tough
lounging outside the temporary pen for those monsters. "Sir?"
"Unusual, our mage actually _understated_ things," Tembris spoke in
the Dreamlands argot, "I say we nip this in the bud, make them wait for
July, when our plans will be ready. I have Ayanami's number, you phone
Davis and Langley. Then we pack up, and move again."
----------------------------------------
Jeff didn't know who had made the anonymous phone call, 'There's a
pack of tigers after Saotome.' There were too few people who knew about
the reaction Ranko had to a stuffed cat, and Ranma's near paralysis at
being meowed at. Jeff had simply told Asuka what they'd told him, and took
off. Even if it was a hoax, no one outside NERV should have known about
Saotome's vulnerability.
The tide of panicked people he had to force his way through on the
streets, included armed troops.
Shit! Jeff thought as he picked a rifle off a mauled corpse, If even
the Army's running away, these aren't ordinary tigers.
----------------------------------------
Asuka knew how stupid she looked, running through the streets with a
pair of highland claymores, one over each shoulder. But if Raccoon was
running off to save Horseface, it was logical to assume that Spineless and
Ice Princess were safe at Dr. Akagi's place. She'd called Juri Kon after
Sammi left, and told her to get over to Akagi's with Mr. Tendo, and some
crew-served weapons. She'd called Erin Carter, her own guard, and told her
where she was going, and made the same request.
The only ones not otherwise guarded were Pen Pen and Wondergirl. She
doubted they'd go after the penguin, which left one target. Wondergirl
didn't have an assigned guard, for some reason that no one had cared to
explain.
The Meliorist to the rescue! she thought, she hoped either Wondergirl
or Carter knew how to use a sword. She also had her Peacemaker and 20
extra rounds.
She hoped it would be enough, she wished she had a cavalry regiment
backing her up, or that the `adults` would quit letting this happen.
----------------------------------------
Rei had received the phone call, and had immediately called the
Commander. He'd told her to initiate full security protocols, Security
would send out forces to locate Saotome. The armored doors and shutters
had sealed her in, and the world out. Or so she thought.
Her front door was already bulging in from the blows it had received.
"Come out little mouse, and play," the singsong voice from the other
side of the door came again.
Rei already had a plan for dealing with it or them, when the door
failed. The Schofield in hand and four loaded speed loaders gave her 30
bullets. She had suspected that the Second had been teasing her about
'cold iron and silver' being the sovereign remedy for 'blasting enchanted
nasties'. But the young female Ordinance officer had been very helpful in
obtaining them for her. She suspected the woman had made them, and the
speed loaders, especially for Rei's pistol. The attention to detail had
gratified Rei, and the diligent service. Now she suspected it would save
her life.
The hammering on the door continued after another stream of
meaningless threats, blandishments, and pleas. Rei ignored them, the
Cthonians had been much more effective in that regard, leaving her able to
ignore such things from others. She suspected they were lying in any case.
She had the sights on the door, which was the only site of attack, and a
fresh speed loader in her hand. That would give almost any attacker pause.
----------------------------------------
Bling! Jeff watched the rectangular metal band sailing through the
air. The musical ring that accompanied it might have been pleasant, except
what it meant, and what it loudly announced was: 'Your Garand rifle is now
empty, bad guys feel free to eat me now!'
I would have to grab a rifle with only two shots! Jeff considered his
options as he closed in. The first shot had scared the creatures back, and
yielded one dead tiger. The second had dropped the boldest one remaining.
The rains had started again, before he'd located Ranko. They'd
trapped her in an alley, shivering from her wet clothes and terror at the
cats she couldn't even look at. The ladder to the building's roof was a
mere two meters away, but that escape was clearly beyond her at the moment.
Why the tigers had been holding back, he hadn't the faintest idea. He had
the bayonet fixed by the time he reached her side.
"Ranko!" he took her chin, lifting it so she could see him. Her
expression horrified him, an odd hybrid of a terrified, pleading young
woman, with a feral animal eager to be unleashed. It was as if the two
were flickering back and forth so quickly, they had blended. Jeff looked
over Ranko's head, and saw the tiger he'd most recently shot was getting
back up. The first tiger he'd shot was also stirring.
Okay, these aren't regular tigers! he thought, then concentrated on
Ranko, both the girl and the animal were desperate, the girl was losing her
grip, and the animal was frantic to be released. Jeff had no doubts about
Ranko's martial skills, but against creatures that could recover from rifle
shots to the heart, he doubted the released animal would have a chance.
"Well, you wanted to know how I changed," he told her as he channeled
the power he'd gotten from Chaugnar Faugn. He felt the mental resistance
from girl and beast, the phobia warred with the rational mind, neither
would abandon their fight against each other to resist him. He tried to
overwhelm both simultaneously. He just wasn't strong enough.
Her features relaxed, eyelids drooping. He felt as if he'd been
poleaxed himself. One of the tigers leapt, bounced off his AT field.
Another leapt through the weakened field, slamming him hard against the
wall of the building.
Tigers can climb trees, can they climb buildings? he wondered as he
slid to the ground. As darkness closed around him, he heard another cry,
another angry feline yowl, a _big_, ferocious one. Probably the pack
leader, he thought, Sorry Ranko, I failed. Whatever they did, he'd recover,
she wouldn't.
----------------------------------------
Rei wished the Second and Roku-kun had had more success with their
experiments. One of the huge half-animal creatures had managed to wrench
the door completely out of the jamb, and threw it aside. It had required
two precisely placed bullets to kill it, after Rei's AT field slicing it
into two pieces had failed to kill it. She reasoned cutting it into dozens
would suffice when she ran out of ammunition. The creature's blood filled
the entryway of her apartment. She was uncomfortable with the smell of it.
She had always thought animals would invariably shy away from her, she
could only reason that despite their form, they were not animals. The
runes had flared briefly, indicating that they were attempting to use magic
against her. That was a wasted effort, unless they were considerably
stronger than she was. She idly wondered what would have happened had this
attack occurred when the Cthonians had attacked, but the rains would keep
them away for nearly three months. Another poked its head around the
corner, Rei drilled it in the head with a snapshot. It lay twitching at
her doorstep, a second shot stilled its movements. Two, she told herself,
Each will require two. That gave her a finite number she could engage.
She knew the Commander would send help, but if all the pilots were targets,
necessity would spread the rescuers thin. The Fourth would be their
primary target, she stood in her apartment and considered, What portion of
available forces would his rescue require? What effective forces would
remain available for other uses? She killed a third with two shots, one to
the heart, one to the head. As she broke open the action and placed in six
more bullets, she considered what action would be required as ammunition
waned.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki found herself in an unusual situation, she wanted Ranma
_NOWHERE_NEAR_HER_!_!_ A rifle with a bayonet wasn't much of a weapon
against a tiger, but it was all she had between her and Shinji on one side,
and 400+ kilos of angry cat on the pointy end.
"Can you shoot it?" Shinji asked her the question she'd been asking
herself. She didn't know even if she could, would the shot kill or madden
it? She'd really rather not guess wrong.
Besides the trigger isn't working, she thought, "I don't know how it
works," Nabiki admitted, "And I don't have time for a careful analysis."
The hole in the middle of the rifle is probably where the bullets go, she
didn't think that boded well. Fortunately, the tiger didn't seem eager to
impale itself on the blade, but if it could bat the rifle out of the way,
Nabiki knew she had no chance. She doubted most of the Nerima Wrecking
Crew would have done well, one-on-one, unarmed, against this big cat.
If we can keep retreating, she reasoned, We'll circle around to the
apartment. Once inside, we'll have other options.
The figure that loomed over her from behind distracted her. The tiger
charged straight into a blast of buckshot. Tomiyo racked the action,
firing the shotgun twice more into the beast. Even smeared over the
walkway, it was still moving slightly.
"Come on," he urged them as he fed more shells into the pump shotgun,
"I don't think I left enough for a decent rug, but it's still moving," he
told them as the apartment door jerked open in front of Shinji.
Juri grabbed both kids and dragged them inside. She and Tomiyo
slammed the door as all four of them began barricading the entry and the
patio door.
----------------------------------------
Asuka heard the gunfire coming from Wondergirl's building as she took
the stairs two at a time. Erin had arrived and pulled a BAR from the jeep
she was driving. Asuka wished she had something heavier, like a .50 M2, or
some rifle grenades, or a flammenwerfer. Erin hadn't said anything about
the two blades, even when Asuka handed her one.
At the doorway to the fourth floor, one `sentry` paid for its
carelessness with its life. Asuka wasn't the insane sharpshooter
Wondergirl and Raccoon were, but she was a crack shot. Shooting the target
from beneath wasn't particularly nice, she was even more shocked when the
half-animal half-man turned into a naked man, like something out of a
horror movie.
"I don't think we're fighting people here," she told Erin, who was
having more trouble dealing with it than she was. "Wake UP!" she shook the
woman, "Wondergirl can't have infinite ammunition, if we can catch them in
a crossfire, we might get them all, or get her out of there."
"Okay," Erin told her, "Let me put the incendiary ammo in this thing."
Asuka wasn't so certain that was going to be enough.
----------------------------------------
The man with the rifle, on the building opposite Ayanami's apartment,
knew his orders: 'Watch. Don't be seen!' Anything else was acceptable.
He personally disagreed with this idea of alliance with all the other
groups, but some were natural friends and allies. The rifle grenade fitted
easily to the launcher, instructions told him to fire it like a mortar, he
knew he could also fire it direct, so he did. Eight to ten of whatever
they were, that besieged Ayanami's apartment, had a white phosphorus
grenade explode in their midst. Fire was considered an effective weapon
against most of these things.
It appeared that hadn't changed. He ducked down as the survivors
searched for the source of the attack, he reloaded a rifle blank and
another grenade. He would be proud to give his life for the cause, but
throwing it away needlessly was pure stupidity.
----------------------------------------
Rei stood in her apartment, when she heard the explosion and saw the
smoke, she wondered if the Commander had sent help to rescue her. One of
the attackers staggered in, a naked man covered with scars and burns. He
glared at her. Rei decided to save ammunition, but she needed him to get
closer.
"The boys in my junior high class are bigger," she remembered how
badly the aforementioned boys reacted to the other boys saying that. She
didn't understand the insult, people were all different sizes. However,
from the way they reacted to even a minor insult from a girl, this one
should - .
The man charged with a scream. Rei's AT field cut him in half
lengthwise, then into quarters, six pieces. She picked up two of the more
critical pieces, and flung them out of her apartment and over the walkway
wall. He or someone else would have to salvage them before he recovered.
She waited for the others to arrive, enemy or ally, she still had
ammunition. She could wait. For a little while longer.
----------------------------------------
Asuka readied the sword. She was dreadfully embarrassed she still
couldn't use it properly. The oversized grip and the additional
unsharpened area in front of the hand guard would let her use it like a
spear or ahlspiess. With those, she was an expert, and she could easily do
a lot of damage with them.
"Ready," Erin told her, she had the B.A.R. ready.
"Wondergirl! Stay inside! We'll come get you!" Asuka shouted.
Erin emptied the clip into the dissipating smoke. Asuka stabbed the
first one they encountered, he shrieked in surprise at the mortal wound,
she bashed another in the head. She hated this, she'd never killed
anything except animals when hunting for food, and Angels. She wasn't sure
if these were one, the other, neither or both. Asuka stabbed another as
they advanced.
Hang on, Wondergirl, Asuka thought, I can't believe I'm rescuing
_her_!_
----------------------------------------
Rei could hardly believe that the _Second_ was the one who had come as
her deliverer.
"Come on Wondergirl!" the Second urged her forward.
Rei grabbed her remaining ammunition and ran to her.
"Asuka," the Second's guard, Erin, was worried. "The ones I shot, are
getting back up."
"Silver bullets are required," Rei told them.
"Listen to the Lone Ranger," the Second fired into the head of one, it
stopped moving, "Where are we supposed to get silver bullets?"
"Ordinance," Rei told them, she glanced over the edge of the balcony,
"They have disassembled your jeep."
The Second glanced over, her expression changed, "Head to the roof.
There are a lot more of them down there," the Second led them to the
stairwell.
----------------------------------------
Fire that Warms and Burns
Jeff stared up at the sky. He couldn't sit up, not from any injuries,
but because Ranko was lying, shivering, on his legs and stomach. He was on
a roof, and someone had cleaned the blood off the back of his head where
he'd slammed it into the wall. He looked up, the tigers had cut him off
from any retreat. But there were only five, The pack had been at least
14, he wondered, Where are the others?
One of the tigers charged, building up a good head of steam, until it
got within 15 feet. Then its feet went out from under it, it did a slow
spin in confusion, until it reached an unseen ramp that lifted it over the
edge of the roof, and it flew off the building. Its desperate attempts to
catch hold of nothing as it hung in the air were comical.
Important fun fact, Jeff thought, AT fields can be made ab-so-lutely
frictionless. He pushed Ranko so she was lying across his lap as he sat
up. Two more creatures climbed over the parapet to the roof. Blood
covered his clothing, but his face, hair and hands, while wet, were clean.
The blood didn't seem to be his own or Ranko's. She was clean and didn't
have a mark on her. This doesn't make any sense, he thought as he wrapped
his jacket around the shuddering girl.
Well that's two, where's the other 12?
The tiger he'd first shot with the rifle, positioned itself to slide
straight at him and the still-comatose Ranko. As the creature hit the
slippery field, Jeff drew his .45, aimed and fired, throwing the creature
off course, a second hit slid it across the AT field and clear off the
building. It yowled in pain as it left.
Well, even if gunshots can't kill you, they still hurt, Jeff
remembered learning that lesson at the hands of, then Lieutenant,
Katsuragi, Although I doubt she remembers. He'd repay her `kindness`
eventually, but he'd never try to convince her to get a better gun than
that pea shooter she used.
He hoped someone heard the gunshots, hopefully someone who could
actually do something. He lined up on another one that was preparing to
charge.
----------------------------------------
"Six," Rei counted out loud as they climbed, "Seven, eight, change
magazines."
"What are you talking about Wondergirl?" the Second kicked the door to
the roof open, scanned the area.
"Roku-kun is fighting others," she told them as they closed the door
behind them, took up a position some distance away from the door.
The first of their enemy crashed through the door, she and the Second
fired together, flinging the creature down. It didn't rise again.
"Roku-kun?" Erin asked.
"Wondergirl can't pronounce Raccoon," the Second told Erin.
"Nine, ten," Rei reported, "I doubt Roku-kun is helpless against these
creatures. But he only has 32 shots."
"How many rounds do _you_ have?" the Second asked.
"Fourteen," Rei told her. The stairs had deflected her fire, but
firing forestalled effective pursuit, she wasn't sure if they had wasted
the ammunition.
"Twenty in the B.A.R., eight in my .45," Erin told them.
"I've only got four left in the pistol, and 12 more loose rounds," the
Second admitted.
Rei wondered if it would be sufficient.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko dropped the dead feline, she leaned tiredly against the wall
of Sammi's apartment building.
"The SPCA won't be happy with you," Sammi joked.
"They don't have to know," Ritsuko watched the corpse return to human
form. "You could have helped," she panted, "It shouldn't have been that
strong."
"That does explain why they're bulletproof," Sammi draped Ritsuko's
arm over her own broad shoulders and walked away, "So what now? Silver
bullets, fire, . . . let you rip their spines out with your bare hands?"
Ritsuko glared at her, "Normally I wouldn't worry about Ranma in a
brawl, but against these things," Ritsuko stood up, "He's completely
vulnerable. Now who knows that?"
"Let's take one alive," Sammi suggested, "Then we can ask. At our
leisure."
Ritsuko nodded as they headed back to the jeep to get another position
report. Overhead, the sound of helicopters, two of the new R-13s, one with
the stretcher compartments, the other with a man with a BAR in the
passenger compartment scanning the city beneath him.
"Follow them," Ritsuko ordered as Sammi started the jeep.
----------------------------------------
"Twenty-nine, thirty," Rei counted as she and the Second fired, none
of the creatures had tried to climb over the edge of the roof, nor had they
tried to rush the defense from both stairways at once. Rei hadn't
considered the other stairway, it was always choked with debris. Without
the Second's guard, one of their attackers might have gotten them by
surprise from that direction. Rei didn't understand why the heavy rifle
had little effect, and their pistols seemed to work perfectly.
"Helicopters," Erin told them.
Rei looked up, one helicopter had the stretcher pods, the other had a
man with a rifle like Erin's. They advanced on the helicopter, by her
count the Second had only two shots left, she had four. They jogged to the
helicopter. Erin made sure they were secured before they lifted off.
Rei glanced down, the direction was towards the base, she approved.
They could mount an adequate defense there. She looked around, but
couldn't see any other helicopters that might be rescuing Roku-kun and the
Fourth. She lay back and awaited landing.
----------------------------------------
Asuka was furious, "You rescue Horseface, and I'm stuck shooting it
out with monsters alongside Wondergirl." Ranko watched her angrily pace
the conference room.
"You get all the fun."
Ranko, even tightly sandwiched between Nab-chan and Raccoon, was still
shivering, "Fun she says!" She wasn't frightened despite the continuing
shivers, she was exhausted. The reason she was between Nab-chan and
Raccoon was a ferocious _need_. The thing she had feared in her own mind,
once she was locked in combat with it, she discovered it was very much like
Ranma, primarily combat-oriented, unlike him, it had a great need to be
social. Unlike what she considered regular cats, it was a pack animal.
Rit-chan, Nab-chan and Raccoon were very definitely part of its `pack`.
Its other drives were food, mates and kits/cubs. The first she wholly
agreed with, she wasn't too sure about it taking over to ensure the last
two needs were taken care of.
She also knew it had given up control, when the fighting was over and
its pack mates were safe. She didn't remember any of what it did, she was
only aware of what was uppermost in its `mind` as the transition took
place. But what had previously terrified her, what it would do to the
people she cared about when it took over, now she knew she had nothing to
fear on that score. She was half-tempted to tell Rit-chan about it, and
have her bring the creature out to meet the other pilots, see if they had
anything to fear from it.
No, she thought, Rit-chan would want to see how it worked in an EVA,
whether there were differences when it came from Ranma or Ranko, range of
motion experiments. Ranko knew that would be a complete disaster. She
smirked, It might be fun to see what effect it had on ole' Stoneface Ikari,
Ranko considered giving NERV's commander the scare of his life, and smiled
broadly.
"They were not real cats," Rei told her, bringing her back to the
moment.
Ranko wasn't sure if `Wondergirl` was trying to be reassuring or
sarcastic.
"Then what _were_ they?" Ranko demanded.
"Assassins," Rei told her and sat beside Shinji, who was also shaken
up by his encounter.
"I'm going to start carrying a _box_ of ammunition," Raccoon
complained. Ranko pressed a little more closely to him, then realized what
she was doing.
"Two," Rei said quietly.
"Where would you carry two boxes of ammu . . . ?" Asuka started,
"Don't lift your skirt! Just tell us."
"You might not believe me," Rei sat down again as she explained.
"Giving Raccoon and Horseface a panty flash wouldn't explain
anything!" Asuka retorted, "Save that for when you're alone with
Spineless."
"She's probably got little NERV symbols on them," Ranko joked.
"Like the kitties on your boxers, Saotome?" Asuka asked, setting off
another bout of shivers for Ranko. Despite being all right with what the
fear created, she still was terrified of cats.
----------------------------------------
The room was nondescript, deep in the bowels of NERV, and thoroughly
soundproofed.
"Who gave you the orders?" Gendo stared at the man bound by silver
wire to a chair bolted to the floor.
"I'll escape, I'll rip your hearts out and eat them! We will
sacrifice your `Children` to the Great God!"
The swab contained Silver Nitrate, the man could smell it. He drew
back as Ritsuko brought it close.
"You can either behave," Ritsuko coldly warned, "Or we can use
stronger methods."
"You won't do it," the man's bravado held, "We are stronger than you
weaklings! Only one of you is strong, and that one is already one of us!"
"You really believe that?" Ritsuko prepared to rub the swab on his
lips and tongue, and braced herself for the odor of scorched flesh.
----------------------------------------
Maya had arrived an hour before, and was sitting with the Children,
the guards patrolled the room. Maya thought they acted more like tigers
than the things that had attacked the Children had. None of the kids were
interested in food, or in talking, or in returning home.
"We're sure we got them all," she offered, her only answer was sullen
silence.
The kids were glancing at the walls and doors warily, expecting
problems, more monsters, etc. Maya didn't know what to tell them,
especially Ranko, who seemed to be hanging onto Nabiki and Jeff for dear
life, or more likely for sanity. Maya couldn't imagine what would have
happened if Ranko hadn't fainted, what kind of psychotic break she would
have suffered.
Sempai entered, "I think you should all go home," she said sternly,
"That's what I'm doing," she smiled.
The kids were listless, but they stood and headed for the exit. Maya
wondered how the guards were going to be distributed.
----------------------------------------
Ranma was heading into the EVA bays. After fencing with Asuka all
day, after the battle within himself, he wanted to talk to Raccoon about
what he'd revealed to Ranko, and a few other things. What disturbed him
the most was that when Ranko had been locked in the struggle with the thing
in his/her head, it was fully manifested, but not fully in control. The ca
. . . things had been unaware of what they had nearly unleashed. Then
Raccoon had arrived, and used whatever trick he did, to take the edge off
both `Ranko` and the thing inside. Neither would have surrendered, but
they stopped fighting each other.
Then that tig . . . thing slammed into Raccoon, and neither `Ranko`
nor the other had hesitated. Both prepared to leap into the fight, to
defend. There was a unity of desires, and that was the last thing he even
vaguely remembered, until Ranko opened her eyes, as she was licking the
last of the blood off Raccoon's face and hair. She knew it was the last,
because there wasn't another speck on his exposed skin or hair. She knew
it was blood, because Ranko could still taste it, and the faint taste of
the shampoo Raccoon used.
She'd collapsed a moment later, out of sheer exhaustion. Ranma hadn't
felt that tired since he'd fought Nyogtha. He'd also come to the
conclusion that Raccoon's looney assertion was right, there _were_ two of
them, except one was Ranma/Ranko, the other was this other. Ranma was
pretty sure it wasn't the threat he'd feared it would be. But I can't
control it either, Ranma admitted, that frightened him even more. His
control and his honor were all he had, if something could so easily
undermine one part, then the other was uncertain.
"Hey, Raccoon!" He heard Raccoon reciting poetry to the EVAs again.
Ranma thought it was nuts, then he remembered Nab-chan's unanswered
question about the EVAs. Added to what Ranma had read and studied, and
today experienced, Maybe there is something to it. Is it more nuts than
having something like that wandering around in your head? Maybe a shaman
is what I need, talk to this thing's spirit, find out what it really wants.
Negotiate with it, or have Raccoon bore it into submission, he smiled at
that.
He waited until Raccoon had finished and closed his book, "I looked up
shaman in Dr. Akagi's big dictionary. Then I had to look up half the words
in the definition. Do you even know what a psychopomp is?"
"I've been one," Raccoon told him, then muttered something in English
angrily.
Ranma could read Raccoon's guarded stance, he'd readied himself to get
a beating at Ranma's hands. He takes on things that scare me to death, and
instead, he's afraid of me, the contradiction irritated Ranma. He had to
figure out some way of talking to him, without confronting him.
"Was there something else?" Raccoon's polite tone warred with the
stance that to Ranma effectively screamed 'I'm gonna get hit, and there's
nothin' I can do about it.'
Ranma searched his experience for something, _anything_, to say.
Everything he'd carefully planned to ask went right out the window when
Raccoon took that `tone` with him, he couldn't talk to someone so afraid of
him. "I'm not going to hurt you!" he blurted out, he was tempted to douse
himself with cold water, and start the entire conversation again.
"I'm not worried about that," Raccoon replied.
"Because you're _expecting_it_, you're expecting me to hit you," Ranma
shouted, realized he was getting completely off the subject, "What you
said, to Ranko, is that true?"
"I've said many things to Ranko, you'll have to be more specific."
"To keep it away from . . . Nab-chan," he whispered the last, "That
subject."
"Yes, so?"
"You're wrong about Ranma and Ranko. But you may be right about
something else," he hated this, Raccoon standing that way. Shinji acted
the same way, if Ranma even raised his voice, Shinji would cringe,
apologize, and retreat. With Shinji it was more noticeable to others, but
Ranma could read both equally well, and he hated it. "Look, can you relax?
I just want to talk." He only got an answering nod. "There's something
else. Something that's different from Ranma and Ranko, but it isn't, I
guess."
"How is it different but isn't?" Raccoon asked.
Ranma was glad that once he got Raccoon working on thinking, he
concentrated on that. "It's pure animal," Ranma explained, "No thoughts,
just really powerful needs, and its emotions." Now Nab-chan and Asuka
would pounce on that 'no thoughts' let's see what he does, Ranma thought.
"Food, mates, pack members?"
"Yeah, exactly," Typical, Ranma thought, "How'd you know? Did you see
it?"
"Mammal and reptile behaviors. Exactly what the things we fought
bragged about being. Men stripped of all our 'Hypocrisies and false pride,
just the animal core!' Except no animal is that cruel without some
intelligence."
Ranma shivered again, remembering the encounter. A beautiful woman
walked up to him, asked him if he 'wanted' her, before he could answer or
bolt, she dropped her dress. All of this on a crowded street. A lot of
people were staring at her, Including me, Ranma admitted silently. He'd
never seen a woman so beautiful, tall and sultry, with such a powerful and
graceful way of moving.
He blushed, remembering how he'd felt when she brushed against him to
kiss him on the lips. Then his horror as she drew back, growing fangs and
fur right before his eyes. From transfixed to running away at his best
speed took about half-a-second. Even the rain and his transformation
hadn't put off his, then her, pursuers. More of the half-men joined the
chase. With the woman calling to him in that cat voice, promising all
kinds of things, if he'd just stop. Their cruel laughter, in those voices,
their very smell drove Ranko deeper and deeper into despair and closer to
insanity.
When they finally trapped her, they'd carefully assembled themselves
to keep her on the edge of terror. Maybe they could smell my fear, Ranma
shivered as he remembered.
All that happened after Raccoon arrived was unclear. I remember
collapsing on top of him, on top of the building, he remembered, The next
clear memory was Maya-chan treating Raccoon's head injury. Ranma knew
enough about wounds to know head wounds bleed a lot, But the blood covering
Raccoon's clothes wasn't his, or mine, then Maya said, 'This looks
practically healed', and that surprised Raccoon as much as it did me. So
if he didn't heal himself . . . unless the other did it, but how? And why?
Except for enhancing a massage, I can't do chi healing. If the other
wasn't intelligent, how did _it_ figure it out? Ranma knew chi healing
took years of training, training he didn't have. Or do I, or did one of
the things I `ate`? he wondered.
"So what do you want?" Raccoon brought Ranma back from his memories
and speculations.
"I want your help. To figure out what it is. What it wants, how to
control it, maybe use it."
"Like everybody tries with you? Don't you think you'd better deal
with Ranko first?" Raccoon asked.
"We are the same person!" Ranma shouted, Raccoon retreated a step.
This isn't working, Ranma lamented.
"I see two people acting so differently," Raccoon told him, "Treating
them as _being_ different people is perfectly reasonable. You know, I
wasn't teaching Ranko all those things to hear myself talk. What's the
matter? Is Ranko charging too much to teach you those lessons? Or is it
dishonorable to ask a girl for the help you need?" Raccoon asked angrily.
"No, it's not like that!" Ranma protested, "This has nothing to do
with Ranko and your lessons. This is completely different."
"How? It sounds like you've got a personality running loose in your
head. How is that different from the situation you have with Ranko? If it
isn't a different identity, then it's a matter of _self_ control. So what
is it? You started out uncivilized, and you seem to be backsliding. There
has to be a reason for it, even if you can't admit it to yourself."
"They aren't related," Ranma argued, "They _are_ separate problems."
"So you admit it is a problem," Raccoon said, "That's a good start. I
think they're related, and you don't realize or want to admit it."
"They _aren't_ alike," Ranma asserted.
"Okay," Raccoon said, "Let's take your assumption as fact. You claim
that the transfer of data, feelings, experiences occurs instantaneously and
completely, without any losses."
"Yeah, I guess," Ranma said, This _isn't_ what I wanted to talk about.
"Then I have a question for you. Why do you, Ranko and Ranma, act so
differently towards me, Nabiki, and Ayanami? This has nothing to do with
you 'being a man!' Because the difference crosses gender lines."
Ranma considered. He could see how he reacted differently, Ranma to
Ranko, for Raccoon and Nab-chan, but Rei?! "I think you know why."
"Of course _I_ know, do _you_?_ Give some indication you understand
the facts."
Ranma searched for some way to explain it without giving Raccoon
support for his argument, and to get the conversation back to more
productive subjects. He kept glancing at Raccoon, who wasn't pressuring
him to answer, which infuriated Ranma, He could at least _look_ like he was
worried I could beat him, then Ranma corrected himself, But not physically.
He couldn't find anyway to describe it, there was a slight difference,
he was aware of it, now that he looked at it, he could feel it. But he had
no words to explain it. Not to himself, and not to Raccoon.
"Giving up?" Raccoon asked neutrally.
"Fine, why don't you go first," Ranma threw up his hands in
frustration, "Then maybe we can talk about what I _asked_ about."
"All in good time. Ranko is looking for life, for companions, for
friends, maybe even lovers. She could do whatever she wanted to stop
Nabiki from touching her where she didn't want to be touched, when she
didn't want it to happen. But she doesn't, which encourages Nabiki to
continue, she also reacts as if she enjoys it, that's further
encouragement."
"That's not true!" Ranma insisted, "I just don't hit girls!"
"You don't dodge them too well either," Raccoon smiled, "Are you
saying you _can't_ dodge Nabiki's advances? Or Ranko's finding an excuse
not to?"
Ranma stared at him, I should be able to dodge her no sweat, but I
don't! Why not? Ranma was shocked he didn't have an answer.
"Ayanami-san's the real clincher, you - are terrified of her."
"Have you seen what she can do?" Ranma retorted.
"She can punt you around any time she likes, which fortunately isn't
often. If Cap'n K, or Langley tried to hit you the same way, they'd be
swinging at air. But not Ayanami-sama. She's got your number, and I'll
bet - Ranma - doesn't even know why."
Ranma had a sick feeling, the way the conversation was going, he had a
bad feeling, "You think I'm sweet on the red-eyed robot?!"
Raccoon looked disgusted, "Don't be completely ridiculous. _You've_
got every right to be afraid of her."
Ranma nodded at that, Rei was just too spooky.
"Ranko's the one with a crush on her."
Ranma watched the wall become the ceiling.
----------------------------------------
Counter Revolution
Shinji had come to a decision, he hadn't discussed it with anyone,
hadn't sought their advice or approval. Because he knew even talking to
Rei would convince him it was a stupid idea. It might work, he didn't
really believe it would, but he had to take the chance. Asuka and Raccoon
had reported what they saw in Misato-san's dream, with great accuracy. One
thing kept bothering him, he hadn't realized what it was until those things
attacked. The two foreigners, he'd use the word, had looked on the dreams
and the torture within as good versus evil, Misato-san punishing herself.
They didn't see it as he did, Misato-san was making herself unclean,
impure, like those half-man/half-tigers. Why she was doing that, he
wouldn't even guess, but he wanted to stop her. She'd been a lot happier,
and drank a lot less before Asuka arrived, Before _Kaji_ arrived, Shinji
thought.
The others had helped him, and Rei-san, they laughed at him, but he
also laughed at them. He survived, so did they. Maybe that's the point,
he thought, Let her laugh or cry, like a real person, instead of having to
hide. 'I mustn't let her run away!' He smiled at that, half the time he
felt like running away, but he didn't. Booze and nightmares were just
another way of running away.
It surprised him that as he left the conference room after
Akagi-sensei's announcement, Rei fell in behind him, walking a step behind
on his right. He was even more surprised when Asuka took the same
step-behind position on his left. Neither said anything, he could almost
feel Rei's curiosity, Asuka was probably the same. Only she wanted to see
`Spineless` do something entertaining.
He didn't care, he was going to at least try to do this.
He arrived at his father's office, he could hear Admiral Simson and
Captain Ramsey were there with his father and Commander Fuyutsuki. He
quietly wondered, How could I be so stupid to think I'll be able to change
anything. Let alone just get through this.
Asuka's quiet, 'Let's go,' shocked him, She's following me? he
couldn't believe it. He was glad the door to the office was open.
Otherwise, he would have walked right into it.
He walked across the oddly inscribed floor, none of the four men took
any notice of the trio of pilots as they walked across the room towards
them. Shinji was surprised he only heard his own footsteps mingled with
the muted conversations. Either the two girls had abandoned him, or they
were in step with him. He couldn't make them out in the corner of his eye.
Without turning his head, he wasn't sure whether he was alone or not. If I
turn now, he realized, I won't stop until I've turned around and run out of
here.
His limited English let him pick out they were talking about issuing
silver bullets to the guards, and chuckling about it.
"Excuse me," he could hardly believe it was his own voice. It didn't
sound as scared as he felt.
The men looked at him, he almost lost his nerve, if Asuka and Rei were
still there, he didn't dare turn to look at them. He wished he knew for
sure he wasn't completely alone here.
"I'll be moving back into Captain Katsuragi's apartment, after I've
discussed it with her," he said with a calm that surprised him, "I thought
you should know."
"I haven't authorized that," Admiral Simson said. Shinji couldn't
read anything in the man's tone or posture. It could have been a reminder,
or a veiled threat, or a test.
Shinji suspected that Ranma or Asuka would have blurted out 'I wasn't
asking,' or something else that would make this a confrontation. He was
having enough trouble right now just standing here. "She is not looking
after herself properly."
"And you think a fourteen-year-old boy can look after an adult?"
Ramsey asked, "Better than an adult can?"
"Not always." Shinji wanted to tell them to forget the whole thing,
and just make a run for it. I can't let her keep doing that stuff to
herself that Asuka saw, Shinji told himself, held his ground, "In this
instance, yes, I believe I can."
"I concur," Rei said from behind him, "The Captain's behavior
stabilized, then deteriorated. I'm sorry."
"It's the truth," Asuka replied quietly.
Shinji looked at the faces of the four men. He couldn't read anything
on there. Shinji wanted to yell at them, or run away, Don't they see it?
he wondered, Or don't they care?
"Admiral?" his father asked quietly, got a nod from Simson, "How do
you justify your conclusions?"
Now Shinji knew they'd caught him, he couldn't tell them about dreams.
They'd either laugh, or they would look into things he knew Raccoon and
Asuka didn't want to explain. Then he remembered what the pair had found
when they went to her apartment last week, "Pilot Langley and Pilot Davis
have checked up on her, they found the same things. I believe I can help
her."
The four men stared at him. He wasn't sure whether they were
considering, or politely trying not to laugh at him. The time seemed to
crawl by, he wished he had some clue to which way they were leaning.
"I disapprove," Commander Fuyutsuki said.
Shinji's heart sank.
"As do I," Admiral Simson added.
Shinji knew that was that.
"But I won't stand in the way, you have one week, that is all Pilot
Ikari. Please close the door behind you when you leave."
Shinji stared, blinked.
"You are _dismissed_ pilots," the admiral repeated sternly.
Rei and Asuka grabbed his arms, turned him around and frogmarched him
out of the room.
"Thank you," Asuka managed, since Shinji couldn't.
As soon as the door closed, Asuka waved her hand in front of his face,
"NERV to Spineless . . . I guess I can't call you that any more, how about
Lord Iron Balls? Hello! You won, show some reaction!"
Shinji turned and stared at her, No reprimand, they disapproved, but
still let me do it? How did that happen?
"Wondergirl, you'd better give him mouth-to-mouth, I don't think his
brain's getting any air," he heard Asuka say. It didn't register until Rei
put her lips against his, and pinched his nose closed.
"He is breathing normally," Rei said as she broke the kiss. She was
blushing.
Shinji could feel his own cheeks burning. "It's not like that!" he
insisted.
"Good, you're back." Asuka took his arm, and gestured for Rei to do
likewise. Rei's hold on his arm was a lot more gentle than Asuka's.
"Let's go tell Misato," Asuka said, "Frankly, I don't _want_ to live
in her house."
"Do you believe you can save her?" Rei asked.
If Asuka hadn't been dragging him forward, he would have stopped. "I
have to try, don't I?"
"Whatever happened to all this 'The tallest tree is cut first' stuff?"
Asuka teased him.
"They have cut down neither you nor the Fourth," Rei replied.
"Well they'd be scraping lichen before they got to you two,
Wondergirl!" Asuka shot back.
Rei looked thoughtful, "Perhaps. Are you intending on sleeping with
Roku-kun again?"
"What?" Asuka shouted.
"Kraznyzamok-san said you slept in his lap, then in his arms."
"When did this happen?" Asuka sounded desperate.
Shinji hid his smile, remembering Raccoon carrying Asuka to the jeep,
to ride home.
"After you lost," Rei told her. Asuka turned purple.
"Kraznyzamok-san said 'Asuka was so adorable'."
"So what! Sammi thinks a Panzerkampfwagen Konigstiger is cute!"
"She reiterated, 'She's particularly adorable snuggling with a boy
like that'."
Shinji just ignored Asuka's retort, he wondered if the pair realized
they always argued this way. He knew enough not to point it out to Asuka,
but he would talk to Rei about it later.
----------------------------------------
Ranma looked up at the ceiling of the EVA bay from the floor. It was
a restful ceiling. It didn't say things that turned the universe upside
down and shook all the loose change out of its pockets.
Raccoon stepped into view, for a moment, Ranma was worried Raccoon was
going to spit on him. Then he remembered that spit was probably the safest
thing that could come out of Raccoon's mouth.
"That's your problem, Ranma. Remove martial arts, and your ambition
barely extends to your next meal. You're a lump. Ranko - on the other
hand, is so used to being told by you, that she's worthless, that she is
amazed she gets acceptance from anyone. More powerful emotions are
reserved for those of us who say: 'You're very good, but we expect you to
be better.' That's Ayanami, Tendo and I. We offer no condemnation, but
none of your bigotry of low expectations either. Even she's confused by
the strength of the feelings that stirs up.
"You don't care what non-martial artists think of you, so it doesn't
matter. Ranko is a social critter, I don't know if she's looking for
husband and children, or just people to knock around with. She hates that
you treat her like dirt, she hates that most of the other boys look at her
as a bed-toy. You don't care about the girls who think of you as a pretty
piece of meat, because most boys don't. But do you even understand how
Ranko feels? To want to be wanted, not for how she looks or how she
fights, but for who she is, all of who she is, and what she could be?"
Ranma stared at him in utter confusion. He didn't feel that way. He
was pretty sure he didn't feel that way when he was Ranko, But I'm not
certain, he thought, This is nuts! If Ranko felt that way, I'd know it.
"Ranko can't possibly have a crush on Rei."
"Oh," Raccoon squatted down, stared directly at Ranma, "Then why is it
that Ranko has never gotten belted when she's pissed off Miss Ayanami? Why
does Ranko use a soft tone with her, and look at her with those soft eyes,
she only looks at Nabiki - "
"And you!" Ranma accused, then closed his eyes and covered his face,
as realized what he'd just said.
"Exactly. So you do see it, if only when someone practically beats
you over the head with it."
"How does _any_ of this deal with what we were talking about? What
_I_ wanted to talk about?" Ranma was getting frustrated enough to hit
Raccoon on general principle.
"Why is Ranma acting the way he is, and Ranko is not? The key is your
third personality."
Ranma closed his eyes, he'd wanted and expected answers, not further
questions.
"Okay, first step, do you know why you act that way?" Raccoon asked.
Ranma could answer that easily, "No."
"So it isn't you're acting the way someone expects you to? Could it
just be a habit?"
"I don't know, I guess," Ranma admitted, "How can I have a habit if I
don't remember, I just get feelings if something is, well, me, or it
isn't."
"That sounds like a habit to me. Besides, you move and think so fast,
the difference between acting before and after judging it is almost
undetectable, it's that feeling that governs your behavior. So why are you
doing what you 'feel is me'?"
"If you can't answer, why don't you just tell me?" Ranma said.
"I thought you wanted a shaman? Do you learn addition before you
learn calculus, why?"
"Okay! Fine!" Ranma sat up and thought.
"Frankly, I doubt anyone can get Rei as mad as you do. Probably
because she sees Ranko, then she sees you, and since the Commander told her
you were the same, it's got to be confusing. Confusion often leads to
anger. I doubt that without threatening one or both of the Ikari's, anyone
else could get her as mad as you do on a routine basis. Yet, you're still
alive, I think Rei reciprocates your feelings to a certain extent."
Ranma closed his eyes, wishing he'd never started this. Wishing he
could be anywhere else, wishing Raccoon's crazy opinions would just stop,
wishing Raccoon's crazy opinions didn't fit the facts so well.
I act that way because it's comfortable, it felt right, Ranma thought,
But did that _make_ it right? "All right, it was habit. I can guess your
next question, I don't know why I keep doing it."
"Actually, I wanted to know why you didn't _change_ it."
Ranma sighed and flopped down on the floor, "Should I even ask what
the difference is?"
"Ask yourself, because Ranko changed, Ranma didn't. Think why a table
needs three legs, but people can get by with two or even one."
Ranma felt his eyes crossing as he stared at Raccoon, I _HATE_ Kooans,
'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' is just stupid. "You're enjoying
this."
"To master what Langley and I are working on, you'll have to learn how
to think a lot more flexibly. Because without your input, we'll never be
able to teach you."
Ranma stared in confusion, he didn't believe Raccoon had just admitted
he was necessary. Then he thought, I hate how easily he can manipulate me.
What does three legs have to do with people having two or one?
"Don't think with your head, think with your whole body. That's where
your talent lies."
Ranma stood, "Do you have to know _everything_?_"
"I don't have to know much to do this. I just have to know that you
know, all I'm doing is helping you find out what you already know.
Besides, you've seen me play soccer, and you can even ask that question?"
Ranma had to laugh at that, how _anyone_ couldn't figure out football,
even getting the name wrong, was beyond his understanding. Ranma tried
various stances, two legs, one leg, two legs and an arm, to take it further
he stood upside-down on one arm.
"Okay," Ranma told Raccoon while he was still upside-down, "I get it,"
Raccoon's neutral expression irked him, "Three legs don't need any little
moves to stay upright."
"So if you have two of three legs moving, what does the third do?"
"Stand still," Ranma flipped himself so he was on his feet again.
"Are your other two personality legs really that unstable?"
Ranma stood on one foot, then two, sweeping from one stance to
another, occasionally putting all his weight on his outstretched hand.
Ranma stood up, faced Raccoon, "No, they aren't, they just aren't 'me'.
So, I've been standing on Ranma, while Ranko moves ahead and that - other
thing - does whatever it does."
"It doesn't matter what _I_ think, but what you can do with the
breakthrough. The analysis we discussed was that there was an attempt to
balance your life. Giving you, Ranma, time and experiences to broaden your
outlook, to give you some of the harmony that you need in the pursuit of
true martial arts."
"What do you mean?" that got Ranma's full attention.
"Well, the few karate students I met over here told me, that a black
belt, is the beginning of learning, not the end. That combat is only the
outward manif - outside effect of inner strength and harmony. You're about
the most unharmonious person I've ever met. You were supposed to let your
female aspects grow and prosper, you weren't supposed to turn over all the
growth and learning to it." Ranma watched Raccoon walk away a short
distance. His expression clearly indicated the conversation wasn't done.
Just the end of round one, Ranma lamented, he was even more tired now,
Thinking is hard work. This is _worse_ than spear fencing with Asuka,
"Why do you care?" Ranma walked towards Raccoon, trying to find something,
some pattern to this conversation he could grasp.
"I told Ranko and Nabiki, didn't they tell you?"
"Yes," Ranma said in exasperation, "That doesn't explain things."
"Do you really want another long-winded explanation of how your
universe goes together? I thought one was your limit for the week."
Ranma shook his head no, Why can he talk my language better than me?
Ranma wondered. "I don't need a complete, dis - deiscer - "
"Dissertation."
" - on everything, just a few things, hints, clues. In short speeches
would help."
"I have to, simple as that. Why not just ask?"
Ranma considered if it would be more effective to just pound Raccoon,
or pound his own head against the wall, That's what I'm _trying_ to do!
"You walked up to those tiger-things, you shot at me then got clobbered by
Nab-chan, you stayed out when Shinji got stuck outside the school by those
Lliogor things. Who looks after you?"
"I know I'm vulnerable, so I take precautions. You practically can't
live unsupervised in the real world. You think your skill with your fists
makes you invulnerable, and you apply it to situations when it's completely
inappropriate, you can't punch some things and make them go away. Heck,
you couldn't even take _me_ in a life-or-death fight."
"_HA_!_" Ranma replied, "I could take you with one hand, with my feet
nailed to the floor."
Raccoon walked towards him, "Oh? You reeyowryowreyowrrreyowr . . . "
Ranma's world shrank to a pinpoint as Raccoon's cat-siren sound went
on and on and on, as he struggled to remain in control, to remain dominant.
The ones who'd caught him earlier had realized his, Ranko's fear, and used
it to keep him just on the edge of insanity. Playing with him. Again he
was completely helpless, unless he wanted to surrender himself to whatever
else the fear dredged up.
As the paralyzing fear faded, he watched Raccoon half spun around and
falling to the deck. Ranma couldn't move, he could only watch the slow
fall as the other boy hit the floor and curl into a ball. He could hear
Raccoon gasping in pain, his face purple. He was horrified that he'd done
exactly what Raccoon had been afraid of. The other hadn't taken control,
so he must have had lashed out in terror himself.
"Raccoon!" When he could finally move, he rushed to the other boy,
"What happened? What did I do?"
"Nothing," Raccoon uncoiled, his breathing and color rapidly returning
to normal, "If you had acted, you would have been defending yourself. You
act guilty, where did you learn you weren't permitted to protect yourself?"
"You tricked me!"
"Just like on top of the school. The others needed hope, so I gave
them a little performance. I told you I was practically a charlatan, a
fake, but I do know how to act like a master. I just gave you a little
performance, and you're acting like you committed murder."
"What was I supposed to think?" Ranma replied angrily.
"There's a lot you don't understand, but a lot more you need to. Our
enemies, your enemies, understand you better than you understand yourself.
You learned some today, which you previously chose not to understand. A
simple trick and I could have killed you, instead I act like you hurt me
and you practically drown in your guilt. Who made you responsible for _my_
actions? You have to watch out for yourself instead. The rest of us can
take care of ourselves. Running away is more effective than fighting a
battle you can't win."
You can't protect yourself, Ranma wanted to tell him, but he could
predict Raccoon's response, '_You_ have to protect _me_?_!_' He'd been
paralyzed by his fight to keep control against those creatures, then again
just a few moments ago. He'd had to depend on something he couldn't
understand, let alone control, to protect both of them. It was him, but it
wasn't. "So what am I supposed to do?"
"That's for you to decide," Raccoon opened the book he'd been reading
from, "Try practicing your English."
He looked at the words on the page, then at the EVAs, "I'd feel
stupid."
"Fine! Good!" Raccoon shouted at him, "Feel stupid, enjoy your right
to be intentionally ridiculous. Where is it written that Saotome Ranma has
to be serious all the time? Because I want to go and erase it!"
"But we have an important job!" Ranma replied.
"How does that preclude having fun? I've got an urgent telegram for
you Saotome, do you know what Gendo and company would do, if every
Thursday, you painted yourself blue, stood in Dr. Akagi's furo and spent
the entire night singing bawdy Swedish drinking songs to a football?"
Ranma shuddered to think, "I'd get in trouble."
"Wrong! That doesn't even answer the question I asked," Raccoon shot
back, "They'd see if it affected your sync rate and combat efficiency, if
they improved, they wouldn't say a thing. Nobody would _care_!_ The
universe isn't watching you Saotome, the vast majority of people you meet
don't care about you. Most of the rest either like the person you really
are, or hate you no matter what you do. So why waste time prostituting
yourself for people who will always hate you, and antagonize the people
that actually care about you. The rest won't care if you're pink, yellow,
or purple and orange plaid, as long as you don't affect them directly."
"That doesn't make any sense, we're pilots, the whole world depends on
us," Ranma protested.
"If we succeed, people go about their lives, read about us in the
paper and dismiss our existence with their morning coffee, or tea. Read!"
Ranma looked at the page. Which kind of person are _you_?_ he
wondered.
"Out loud!" Raccoon told him as he walked a short distance away.
"IF, by Rud-yard . . . Kip-ring," Ranma saw Raccoon wince, but the
other boy said nothing. "If you can keep your head . . . when all about
you, are los-ing theirs, and blaming it on you," he frowned at Raccoon, "If
you can tru - st your - self when . . . all men dou - bt you. B - ut ma-ke
arr - allow - ance for their dou - bting too,"
----------------------------------------
"If nei - ther foes nor lov - ing friends . . . can hurt you. If all
. . . men count with you, b - ut none too much, if you can f - ill the unfo
- rgiving mi - nute With six - ty seconds' worth of distance run . . .. You
- rs is the Earth and ever - ything that's in it, and wh - ich is mo - re .
. . you'll be a Man, my son!" Ranma felt wrung out, reading English was
more exhausting than a workout. Worst was glancing up and seeing Raccoon
just standing there, not critiquing, not complaining or correcting every
misstep. It's like he didn't care, Ranma thought, I'm sweating after
reading one page in a book. Ranma could hardly believe it.
He considered the advice given in the poem, wondered if that was what
Raccoon wanted him to think about, how he set the measure of a man. Ranma
closed the book, considered. Everything in the poem about being a man had
been measuring yourself against yourself. "Being a man can't be all
inside."
"That's the only place it matters, Saotome. The real battle is and
always will be the you of the present against the potential you."
"What about all those people you and Asuka talked about?" Ranma kept
wondering why it bothered him that people thought of him that way, even if
it was just characters in someone else's dream.
"Remember what I said about people who don't care about you, well none
of those people cared about you, they wanted possession, a piece of paper
saying you were theirs. They were going to make you into their image of
you, and the devil could take what you wanted. Frankly, you give me the
choice between most of that lot, and the things we're fighting. I'll take
the things we're fighting, they make no pretense of their real objectives,
they _know_ their real objectives."
"Most of them wanted to marry me," Ranma countered quietly, something
about that rang a bell in his mind.
"Ha, as if that would have solved anything for them. Maybe you should
quit trying to live up to the expectations of people you don't really
remember, and are no longer beholding to, and start considering the people
who're actually around you. Or, HORROR OF HORRORS, you might actually have
to decide what _you_ want. Oh the Humanity! Once you know that, you'll
know what the other wants, because they'll be the same."
Ranma didn't let on, but the idea _did_ frighten him. Once you
removed being the best at martial arts, he hadn't the faintest idea what he
wanted, no ideas beyond doing what others told him to do. He piloted the
EVA because he was supposed to, and he was very good at it. He couldn't
ever remember anyone asking him what _he_ wanted to do. It shocked him, he
wouldn't have any answer when they did.
"I'm supposed to be the best at Martial Arts!" Ranma told Raccoon.
Yet he had no other goals, plans, nor even ideas about what to do once he
reached the pinnacle.
"Congratulations, you're already there," Raccoon told him dryly, "Only
Tendo-san comes anywhere close."
"Unless there's an Angel of Martial Arts," he said, he wondered why
Raccoon shaking his head at him filled him with worry. Is he disgusted, or
is he saying there isn't one, Ranma didn't like the second prospect at all.
It meant for all intents, his life had no purpose beyond being a better
Martial Artist than Nab-chan. Which he could do in his sleep. He didn't
know if he wanted to become a sensei in a dojo, or go study from other
masters. It appeared his future was as empty as his past. The stories
Asuka and Raccoon had told were disturbing, but they had one comforting
theme, someone else had mapped out his path, all he had to do was decide
which path and walk it. In the real world, he had to decide what he was to
do, today, tomorrow, for the rest of his life, and those decisions would
direct Ranma, Ranko and the other. He could be a man, a woman, both, or
something else, something nonhuman.
"What about you, Raccoon?" he asked, "What do you expect out of life.
You always have some kind of plan."
Raccoon frowned, "Considering the leadership here, I took those plans,
and dumped them in an ashcan in Boston. To answer Miss Tendo's question,
evangelion isn't a word, it is a corruption of evangelium from Latin or
euangelion from Greek both mean good news, or evangelian which means
rendering thanks for favors. That thanks usually meant a blood sacrifice
to the gods, blood sacrifice for good news? Saving the human race would be
good news wouldn't it? Four machines, six pilot, you do the math, or maybe
all ten of us. Words mean things, Girl Chaos Horse, especially names.
Don't ask advice on how to live from the dead, Saotome, my necks on the
block no matter what. I wasn't lying in the elevator. The last battle
comes, poof, I'm gone. I haven't _got_ anything to look forward to."
Raccoon turned and left, leaving Ranma shaking his head. He'd never
figured out why Raccoon hated Gendo and Misa-chan so much, and why he
thought they were out to kill _all_ the pilots, It doesn't make sense. If
he dies, why do the rest of us? "Besides, why hasn't he broken that curse?"
----------------------------------------
In the Darkness
A lot of things were running through Ranma's mind as he got ready for
bed. Shinji was already asleep. Despite how tired Ranma felt, he couldn't
relax. Couldn't keep his mind from running a mile a minute. Ranko had
felt betrayed Raccoon hadn't taken 'her' side in the fight, but tried to
knock out both combatants. Ranma knew if they were still surrounded by
those tiger-things, it was what he had to do. Heartless, but reasonable.
What really worried him was that Raccoon might be able to do that any time
he wanted, override his, or her, desires, wants, needs, entire volition.
There seemed nothing he could do to stop or resist him. The idea he could
do something like that, maybe he'd changed as Ranma had. He thought about
what that kind of power really meant. Ranma had already lost some control,
he was worried about losing a lot more.
Ranma wasn't sure how `honorable` someone would have to be to _not_
use that kind of power, let alone misusing it. Then he wondered if Raccoon
had been using it all along. Manipulating them subtly, a push here, a
nudge there, nothing that wouldn't seem like he was just using words to
convince them.
He tried to convince himself otherwise, Rit-chan would be in real
trouble, he realized, That's probably why he left. Ranma also hated the
need to be rescued from his own fear, _by_ his own fear. He didn't feel
right having other people fight `his` fights. Except Rei and Raccoon never
hesitated when a pilot, any pilot, was in trouble, they took any means
necessary to save them. The other had felt exactly the same way.
The next on his list of worries was, who was he? From what Raccoon
had forced him to see, he could be anything. Literally. Raccoon and Asuka
might think it meant limitless vistas and possibilities, to him it was an
open maw waiting to swallow him up. He could stay exactly like he was,
letting Ranko out only occasionally to satisfy the curse. Or he could
surrender himself completely to the other. Turn his back on honor, NERV,
even Humanity itself, there were large mountainous areas of Japan, he'd
never have to see another human being again.
Neither extreme was acceptable, he kind of liked being Ranko,
sometimes. It's a useful technique, he tried to justify it to himself,
then quashed that thought, If I can be _anything_,_ then I could also be
everything. That thought terrified him. Staying like he was wasn't
acceptable either. He hated how Raccoon and Shinji looked at, no, feared
him. He also hated how Shinji and the other boys looked at Ranko,
'bed-toy'. About the only person, besides Rit-chan, who treated him all
right in both his forms was Nab-chan, 'Bed-toy', he thought, Chew-toy might
be a better description. He wasn't completely comfortable with how she
acted, but she acted the same with both of his forms.
He could just marry her, but he didn't know if she wanted that, and
was afraid to ask, Just as afraid if she said yes, as if she said no, he
admitted. He could, no _Ranko_ could, get involved with Raccoon, but
figure out some way to make him less afraid of Ranma. He could just ignore
all of that and concentrate on his job, which seemed to be Asuka and
Raccoon's answer. The 'other' just complicated things beyond his ability
to figure out.
The next thing that worried him was the killings. He'd heard what had
happened, that the other had killed some of them. But then it must have
dragged Raccoon to safety and cleaned him up, Homicidal weirdos to the
rescue. Now I'm one of those, or I become one. Nobody had mentioned the
other. The pilots all figured Raccoon had done the killing, and he hadn't
corrected that misinterpretation. Ranma didn't like Raccoon getting
`credit` for something, but Ranma also didn't want the others to know that
he had something capable of that inside him.
He knew he wasn't being fair, but it still stuck in his craw that
Nab-chan and Rit-chan weren't his rescuers, ever. The people who hated
him, people and things he shouldn't have been able to trust, were always
keeping him out of trouble. He wasn't comfortable, he was piling up a debt
of honor to them, a debt he probably could never repay.
Not that they'd ever acknowledge the debt, especially of honor Ranma
considered, which disturbed him more, rolled over and tried to sleep.
----------------------------------------
"Admiral," Doctor Montgomery entered Simson's office.
The Admiral lifted his head, blinked, and remembered giving orders to
be awakened when he could question the soldier who witnessed Saotome and
Davis engaging those creatures. He yawned, stretched. "How is he?"
"He'll live," Montgomery assured him, "He was saying some crazy things
as we put him under to sew up his leg."
"Don't assume they were crazy," Simson assured the man. They'd
counted 18 corpses at Ayanami's, another 34 where Davis and Saotome had
fought them. They'd only captured three alive. All 18 Langley and Ayanami
accounted for were with pistols and grenades. Gunfire had hit only 15 of
the ones around Davis and Saotome. Something had shredded the rest, by
what, only one man knew. Simson intended to increase that to at least two.
In fact, they were guessing it was 34, that was all the pieces they could
put together.
As they entered the recovery room, Simson thought the man looked
terrible. These creatures had a particularly cruel idea of fun. He hoped
they enjoyed the treatment his people and Ikari's would give them to get
answers.
"Admiral," the man whispered, "Saw it, saw it all, sir." The wounded
man stared at him.
"Excellent son," Simson said, "The doc said you'll pull through, so
take your time, get it straight."
"Sir. A tiger, saber-toothed, black, white stripes, 15 feet long nose
to rump, tail nearly that long, real pretty."
Simson glanced at Montgomery, who shook his head. Neither had ever
heard of a live saber-toothed tiger, let alone one that color, the only one
Simson knew about looked like an oversized bobcat, no tail.
"Didn't see where it came from," the man laughed once, "Was kind of
busy. But to . . . tore into the other tigers. Never seen it before.
Teeth, claws, front and back. Admir'l, I swear, choked one to death with
tail."
Simson glanced at Montgomery, who shook his head. The admiral nodded
his agreement, No tiger can do that. Unless it only _looked_ like a tiger.
"Fang," the man in the hospital bed continued, "Foot long, top and
bottom. Right through the skull of one, tore the head off. Mad cat." The
man chuckled again. "All death, jumped, straight up, five stories. Must
have taken Saotome up. Then it landed, next to Davis. Thought he was a
goner." The man's frown creased his face, he couldn't believe what he was
remembering, "It licked him, real gentle-like. Then pick him up by the
scruff of the neck, and walked up the ladder to the roof. Saw a mama cat
do that with her little ones once. Passed out, next saw the medics.
That's all Admiral."
"You've been very helpful."
The Admiral and the Doctor left the room.
"I'm sorry, Admiral," Montgomery apologized, "I thought he was more
coherent than that. He was obviously still under the effected of the
anesthesia."
"Don't be too hard on him, Doctor," the Admiral replied, "He's
probably reporting exactly what he saw, or remembers he saw. What he
described is as good an explanation as any."
"Thank you, Admiral." Montgomery turned back to the patients' wards.
Simson was not convinced the man was hallucinating, or drunk with
anesthetic. One of the heads had punctures through the jaw and skull. If
they'd been done postmortem, he would have bet a strong man with a pickax.
Now he wasn't so sure. The only machine he could think of that would do
that kind of damage was a railway snow blower. Meat-packing equipment
wouldn't be so random and violent. Bismarck was right about making sausage,
he thought.
The creature the fighter pilots reported, the Scholarly Dragon, was
too big. 'As big as a B-36,' one man had said. It would have grabbed
Davis and Saotome, and broiled everything else in the alley to ash. And
one of the Japanese police reported that whatever did that, was real mad,
Admiral Simson thought as he entered his office, 'You only mutilate victims
that way, when there is a lot of rage involved' so what the heck can be
that angry, then that careful with the two pilots? Simson put away a few
papers and decided to get the rest of his night's sleep at home.
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko looked at the ceiling, thinking about what those things were.
The spells that bonded an animal form to a human should have shocked her.
Still, after Saotome's transformation, nothing really shocked her. Not
even 60 people willing to give up their humanity that way, for 'service to
our god.' She was just glad these were a one-time creation, she didn't
want to think about a whole sub-race of such things wandering around.
What she really wanted to know was _how_ they knew about Ranma's
vulnerability. The staff had been kept in the dark about it, the pilots
didn't talk about it. Creating those things must have taken weeks, she
thought.
So who told them? she wondered, It's obvious why. She found her anger
at whoever betrayed the secrets and threatened 'her kids' was beyond
anything she'd ever felt before. When the mortar attack occurred, she'd
been there, in danger with the kids. These attacks, while they could
reasonably expect they were safe, infuriated her.
If the pilots couldn't feel safe anywhere, she thought, What effect
would that have on them all? She found the silence didn't give her any
answers.
She glanced over at the lump that was Nabiki. Technically, she
shouldn't care about them the way she did. 'It might have a deleterious
effect on their utilizability for the final plan,' Gendo had warned her the
day she'd agreed to take Ranma and Nabiki into her home.
Except there's no evidence of such a thing, she thought, Other than
their `rebellion` against Misato, but she was never part of the final plan
anyway. She doesn't ask questions, that was her most helpful attribute for
the project. Ritsuko laughed bitterly at that, Misato our brilliant
military commander refuses to look at the secrets right under her nose.
What a world. Well, Gendo has done nothing to shake their confidence in
him as a commander. Whatever they might think of him as a human being.
Well, what about _you_?_ she wondered, You aren't supposed to be their
mother. You're just supposed to keep them alive, chart their progress and
other wise 'keep the required emotional distance'. But I can't, can I? she
lamented. She knew what the kids were really for, what would likely happen
to them in the end. They'd hate her, and everyone else at NERV when they
found out, As if it would matter at that point, she realized, she didn't
know why she sought to preserve the illusion for as long and as hard as she
did. When she _knew_ it would all turn to ashes in the end.
Ikari isn't so stupid, she thought, Treating them as expendable assets
from the beginning. He won't feel any especial loss on the last day, maybe
he'll feel some pride at their accomplishment, but he won't shed any tears
at their fate.
She had the oddest feeling, that if she told them the truth, the whole
truth, what they expected of them, what would happen to them, not one of
them would turn aside. The real curse is that they'd probably figure out a
way to weight the results even _more_ heavily in the favor of humanity, she
realized, But we don't dare tell them, on the minuscule chance they'd break
at the wrong time. And here I am, angry that someone would take them away,
with what we're planning, it would serve me right.
She squeezed her eyes shut, she hated crying. It was stupid, useless
and illogical. Knowing that didn't stop her.
----------------------------------------
Ranma stared at the bunk over him, lost in thought. What _do_ I want?
he didn't know why he couldn't answer such a simple question, It's not like
I'm happy where I am not.
"Shinji?" He tapped the frame of the upper bunk at rapid speed.
"What do you want?"
There was a groan from the bunk over him, "I want to sleep."
"I mean for the rest of your life?"
Another groan, "Can't this wait until morning?"
"You can't answer it now?"
Shinji sighed, "At two-thirty in the morning, quieter roommates. I
want sleep. Maybe later I want to be a musician, or a composer. Does that
answer your question?"
Ranma heard the bed squeak as Shinji rolled over.
"Maybe invent a portable music box and headphones, so I wouldn't have
to listen to silly questions in the middle of the night," Shinji told him,
"Good night."
Ranma really didn't consider that much of an answer, he wondered if
Nab-chan had any long-term plans. Of course he'd choke, if he had to ask
Asuka or Rei, Both of them would probably tell me to mind my own business.
He also wondered if Ranko would have gotten a different answer from
Raccoon. Since they were `different people` maybe. But would it have been
an answer I could use, he asked himself. He shuddered to think about
Raccoon suggesting marriage and kids with Ranko. Mainly because his best
defense 'I'm a guy' wouldn't affect Raccoon.
Worse was the comment about Rei. He remembered how mad Rei was that
Hiroko had found out, but Ranko admitted fault, then tried to calm Rei
down. Rei had calmed down, then supported her. She can't have any
feelings for Ranko! Ranma thought, She didn't hit me because it would have
drawn attention, Ranma didn't believe that. Rei had hurt Ranma for some
trivial things, but when she told Ranko something, she trusted Ranko to do
what she was told.
It can't be true, Ranma thought, Rei's only interested in Shinji.
Except for 'the Second', and 'Nabiki-kun', and 'Roku-kun' . . . Ranma
sighed, I've got a headache!
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