Okay, I just finished this one. Since I've posted the other story, I might 
as well do this one too.

Enjoy!!

Different Paths Chapter 0
-----------------------------------------------------

It was just a normal day, if you could consider
Nerima normal that is. I guess that's why I didn't
suspect anything. We had fallen into a ritual that
was comforting in its' regularity. He insulted me for
the same old stuff, I'd hit him for it, he'd flirt
with one of his "other" fianc�es, I'm hit him for
that too. After all this time I thought we were
finally getting used to this.

So when he never showed up to dinner, I first thought
he was out flirting with Ukyo or Shampoo. When we
wasn't home by bedtime, I thought he was picking a
fight with poor Ryoga. It wasn't until the next
morning that I really started to worry. At the end of
a week I was tearing Nerima apart to find out where
he was. It was as if he vanished without a trace.

I first assumed that he had run off with Shampoo or
Ukyo, but they didn't know he was gone until I came
storming through their front door. It wasn't long
until both left to go look for him. After that, the
weirdness stopped. Everyone just went their separate
ways. Even Happosai left without an explanation. The
only one who hasn't left is Genma, but I bet it's
Kasumi's cooking, father's shogi board, and his wives
katana more then anything else.

Kasumi keeps telling me not to worry, that Ranma will
show up eventually. I try to take her advice, but I
can't shake the feeling that Ranma isn't coming back.
That he would be here if he could, there isn't much
that have ever stopped him before, so what could be
keeping him now?

     -excerpts from Akane Tendo's diary

An Anime Junky Confederation production:
Different Paths Prologue
By: Numair
"In life, the journey is as important as the
destination."

Somewhere

A man staggered down the alley, bloody and tired. He
looked like he had just nine rounds with a meat
tenderizer. He clothes were battered and torn.
Bruises covered most of his exposed skin. There was a
slight limp in his step and one of his arms hung
uselessly at his side.

He could feel them, searching for him. The same
"things" who just destroyed his only family. He knew
that the rebellion was over. Midgram was just too
strong. While the rest of the world sat blissfully
unaware of the danger, his friends had fought and
died to release the strangle hold that Midgram had on
the world. The mans' heart cried for revenge, a
revenge he would never get, the hunters were closing
in on him.

Scanning his soundings for a place to hide, he
quickened his limping and hoped he could find shelter
soon. There were no loose boards to save him now. The
same boards he was arguing with Acchika to get
maintenance to fix just as the shock troops broke
through the ceiling. He didn't even know what was
going on until we was already pushed onto the weak
boards and broke through.

They're much closer now they'd be upon him any
minute. He was the last of the resistance, it was his
duty to rise from the ashes and continue the fight.
Looking around, he spotted well-lit alleys and well-
lit lots. Not a soul in sight save one, in a beat up,
dusty cloak and a black pig-tail.

"RANMA!!!" He yelled, hobbling quickly over to him,
"Thank god you're alive! The base has been
compromised, and we have at least 2 stars of hunters
coming. We gotta hide!"

The man just stood there and without looking said,
"Kenchi. You shouldn't be here."

"Me?! You shouldn't be here, we have to go before
we're caught! Some of our friends might still be
alive, we have to help them."

"I already know where they are." Ranma slowly turned,
"They're all dead."

Silence. A really long silence, one of those silences
that you can hear nothing but the hum of the city. It
hasn't been totally silent for hundreds of years.

Kenchi slowly slumped to his knees. "I.. I knew that
we were surprised, but.. but I hoped some would
survive."

"Those who surrendered did, but I was able to keep
Midgram from having them long to torture...."

Normally, Kenchi is usually a quick thinker, but
after losing everything, being shot at, finding that
you are one of two survivors of a horrible massacre,
and then told what Ranma just said, it would take a
moment to translate the round about way Ranma had of
speaking.

"You're not serious are you Ranma? You didn't kill
our own people.... did you??"

Ranma just sighed and turned back to something in his
hands.

"No... you didn't..." Kenchi backed away, horrified.
"WHY?! WHY DID YOU DO IT RANMA?! WE WERE YOU FRIENDS,
YOUR FAMILY!!"

Ranma just looked back, cold and silent.

Kenchi suddenly remembered the hunters, they were
almost right over them, and more were on the way. He
reined in his anger, knowing that hunters had super-
human hearing. "We're about to die anyway, you might
as well tell me so my soul can rest easily."

Ranma only pointed forward, away from Kenchi, with a
small pipe shaped device in his hands and pressed the
only button on it. The space where he pointed seemed
to twist, and then a blinding flash. When Kenchi's
vision cleared, a blue portal silently hung there,
swirling. Kenchi could only sit there, gawking.

"I give you a choice Kenchi. You can stay here and
face your fate, or step into the unknown. All the
answers you seek from me are through here. The choice
is yours."

With that, Ranma entered the portal and disappeared.

Kenchi again felt the hunters coming overhead. He was
in the open, next to a blue, glowing.... thing, and
his only surviving friend has betrayed him. He knew
there was no way he would be able to escape the
hunters so he did what any good survivalist did.
Kenchi ran... limped to the portal had hoped that
Ranma was telling the truth about this.

The portal stayed for a moment and silently collapsed
and disappeared just as something flew over on black
wings. It was powered by a large, yet quiet jet
engine and bristled with weapons. It scanned the once
occupied lot. Finding nothing, it continued on it's
search pattern oblivious to what just happened.

******

Somewhere else

Coffee Time was a small shop that overlooked the
harbor. It fit snugly on the bottom floor of an
apartment building. It was clean and nearly deserted.
The soft music added to the relaxing atmosphere and
was the perfect place for two people to talk.

"Okay Ranma, I played along with your little game, I
jumped through your hoop. I want answers. Now."

"Fair enough Kenchi." Ranma slowly took a sip of
coffee, "By the way, How's your arm doing?"

"It's okay, still so... Damn it Ranma, don't change
topics!" Kenchi really did feel better, Kenchi was
used to Ranma's healing touch and it always made him
relax. Being one massive bruise tends to make Kenchi
grouchy, if that is the right word.

Ranma slowly collected himself, taking another sip of
coffee. collecting himself. The clothes they both
wore were now clean and free of holes, Ranma's cloak
still was just as beat up, but was without all the
dust it had early.

"To really understand why I did what I did, you have
to know about before I came to your world; before
Midgram, before I met you and the rest. Back in a
place called Nerima. Back there, I was great martial
artist, one of the best in the world."

"I know about the fighting Ranma," Kenchi said, "You
were the one that taught most of us how to fight."

"I just want to give a little bit of flavor to my
story, we got the time. Back then I was engaged by to
a girl called Akane. She was also a martial artist
and our parents wanted to unite the schools, a dream
from their younger days."

"Engaged? Then what about Flora, everyone knew you
too loved each other. Did something happen to make
you leave Akane?

"Well... I am still engaged to her... but yes
something did happen. I was taken from my world, from
my dimension by a bunch of scientists." Kenchi didn't
comment, waiting for Ranma to continue. "They were
working on a way to transport people quickly. There
was a galactic civil war going on and they were in
dire need of an edge over their enemy. I was what
they got their first trial run. I had no idea what
was going on. One moment I'm practicing in the dojo,
the next I'm in some weird lab."

"That must of scared the scientists."

"Not really, they were happy that their device didn't
explode. What really scared 'em was that I tried to
get out of the room. Since the room was sealed to
protect against an explosion, it took a few punches
to break through the ten feet of concrete and the
reinforced steel. They were being overly cautious.

"You were that strong? I never really saw you fight
other then in practice before."

"Yep, and when I beat up all of the security force
that tried to 'subdue' me. They finally tried to
communicate with me. It's kinda hard to talk with
someone who's wielding a weapon.

"So what happened? The didn't kill you obviously."

"The scientist ran around screaming, security locked
down the base, and I looked for something to eat. By
the time I found where they held their foodstuff, one
of the scientists had calmed down enough to try and
talk to me. Lucky for me, they all spoke a different
language, we couldn't understand each other. We ended
up yelling louder and slower at each other."

"You mean not everyone speaks Japanese?" Kenchi asks
innocently.

Ranma smiled, "It took four months of constant work
to slowly begin to be able to understand one another.
I learned all sorts of useful stuff there," Ranma
placed the same pipe shaped device from before on the
table, "like how this works. It was much bigger when
I got it and took longer to charge, but I've been
working on it ever since I left the base."

Kenchi immediately picked up the device and pulled
out his pair of scanning goggles. They looked like
oversized sun glasses, but did way more then block
light and give everything a yellowish tint. "So what
is this?" Kenchi asked as his goggles started
scanning the exterior.

"It's what took me from my home and will take me
back. It rips a whole in reality and creates a portal
to another dimension. I call it a D-hopper because
it's easier to say and remember."

"It what?" Kenchi looked up from his analysis for a
moment before looking back.

Ranma sighed, "Reality is broken apart into an
infinite number of alternate universes. There are an
infinite number of timelines with a limitless number
of possibilities."

"Huh?" Kenchi put down the d-hopper, "That doesn't
make any sense."

Ranma sighed again, "Everyone says that. Just accept
that it will get us from here to my home, and I've
been working on it for years. Trust me, I've been
using this for about 5 years now with only minor
mishaps."

"Minor mishaps??"

Ranma smiled and waved at Kenchi, "Oh don't worry,
I've worked out all the bugs in the first year or
two. It's one hundred percent save."

Kenchi raised an eyebrow. "Riiight Ranma. Let's get
back to your story. Why come to my.. dimension..
world... whatever you called it."

"Without going into too much detail, I needed the
scanning equipment that Midgram had. It was exact
enough that I would be able to find my specific
dimensional signature, a way that I can find my home
dimension."

"Dimensional sig-watsis?? No, never mind, I don't
think I want to know. So where did we come into this
situation?"

"I made a deal with Gram, the CEO, to use the
equipment I needed. He would do it if I would play
spy for him until I finished what I was doing. It
took about a month to infiltrate your group and from
then I was a quiet observer. After a while I began to
get a better understanding of the situation and
censored what I reported back. In the reports I
sounded like a small time operative, not on Acchika's
advisor counsel. It was my plan to escape to another
location the night I returned the equipment, but he
must have been waiting for me to be gone before he
stormed the base."

"What about Flora? Did you have to kill her too?

Ranma paused for a long time before he finally
answered. "She died a few hours before I left. No one
but myself and Acchika knew that she was dieing.
There was nothing I could do to save her so Acchika
just said she was working in her office all the time.
It hurt a lot to watch her waste away, but I'm I
healer, and I have learned to deal with death...
but... it's still hard to see someone go."

Kenchi sat and set down the d-hopper, thinking.
Ranma's story answered a lot of questions that he had
and felt better knowing what happened. He knew that
his world was gone, he would never see it. Still,
there was this new world to explore. Maybe he could
find a place there.

"I don't think I can forgive you for your betrayal
Ranma, but I can at least try to put it behind me.
Besides, *someone* has to keep you out of trouble. I
can't go home so all I can do is make the best of my
situation."

Ranma stood and collected his things. "Alright. Now
that we've come to an agreement on that, let's
introduce you to the Nerima Wreaking Crew." Ranma
smiled, "You ready?"

Kenchi stood up and put his goggles away, "As ready
as I'll ever be."

The both of them left the shop and walked to a
deserted alley way. Ranma pulled that same pipe out
and pointed it away from him. He pushed the button
and another portal opened. "Well Kenchi, welcome to
your new home."

"I don't know about that, but I'll give it a try."

Smiling they both entered the portal, one returning
after a long journey, the other staring a new one.
Ironically, both would change the course of events
and would forever affect the lives of all involved.

End of Prologue

--------------

Authors notes:
Finally got the plan out on paper, looking at about
14 chapters with an epilogue. I hope to get farther
in this before my muse distracts me with something
else. :)  I hope someone out there is getting a kick
out of this and hope you enjoyed it so far.


Contact the author at:
MSN E-mail or IM � numair42@hotmail.com
Yahoo IM � Numair042
AOL IM � Numair42
ICQ IM - 212049653

Comment about the story or just chat, can't assure
that I will reply but will try.

Revision history
Original: October, 2001
Revision 1: May, 2003
Revision 2: October, 2005



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