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every window in the house. Then a stunned silence settled about them, 
broken only by C-ko's broken sobbing and Akane's gasps as she dragged 
herself slowly and unsteadily to her feet.

"Ranma?"

The word seemed to come from very far away, and it was some moments before 
Ranma could recover his scattered wits enough to try to move. Then slowly 
he began to stir, feeling the weight of something heavy pressing down on 
him, and hearing the ominous creaking of over-taxed boards as he shifted 
carefully in the narrow confines of the passage.

For a moment he wondered whether the roof had collapsed. Then as he 
shifted again, something dark and soft cascaded over his face, and he 
realised in sudden dazed comprehension that the thing pinning him to the 
floor was a body.

With a gasp of shock, Ranma shifted carefully, reaching, even as he pulled 
himself from the cracked boards, to ease the body gently to the floor.

Rolling frantically on to his back, he struggled painfully to sit up, 
still too dazed to wonder at the horrible vision of his own broken form in 
the bathroom, or to be relieved that he had changed back apparently 
without injury.

"Ak--" he began in a panic, then stared in confusion at the prone form.

Whoever she was, certainly she was not Akane. She was, he guessed, very 
tall, as amazon-tall as the savage gaijin, and stunningly beautiful, 
dressed even as she was in a simple black, form-fitting jump-suit that 
hugged her curves and left little to the imagination, her 
scandinavian-fair face framed by long dark hair that tumbled now in a wild 
cascade about her. Long lashes framed hypnotic blue-green eyes, yet her 
face was set in a rictus of pain, and Ranma shivered involuntarily as he 
stared for a moment in shocked confusion.

"Wha--!" he gasped stupidly at last.

Then another gasp made him turn just in time to see Akane drop to her 
knees at his side.

"Ranma! I don't think she's breathing!"

With that, Ranma's attention snapped back to the slender figure who lay 
now half on her back, arms flung haphazardly across her, sightless 
blue-green eyes staring emptily up at them from her pain-racked face.

"Oh Kami!" he exclaimed softly, "Oh Kami! I think you're right! And I 
can't sense her ki!"

For a moment he remained frozen while the world spun still crazily about 
him and he tried desperately to regain his scattered wits. Then he whirled 
again towards Akane.

"We gotta do something!" he began urgently.

But Akane was already diving to the girl's side, one hand reaching to her 
chest, the other for her wrist as she moved to bring her own mouth to that 
of the still form.

"Call Tofu-sensei!" she cried, suppressing the shaking as best she could 
as she shifted urgently, trying for a better position in the narrow 
passage. "Kasumi wrote his new number in that little book she keeps by the 
phone. Quick!"

Furiously she shifted again, reaching to catch the girl's cold, limp 
wrist, feeling desperately for a pulse. She had almost positioned herself 
when abruptly a board cracked and splintered beneath her, and she slipped, 
her left hand wrenched painfully from its position to clutch convulsively 
at the girl's own. In the next instant there was a cracking snap, and 
Akane flew headlong to slam screaming into Ranma as she clutched wildly at 
her hand. Smoke and the acrid smell of burning filled the air.

"Akane!" Ranma cried in shock, pulling himself upright for the second time 
in as many minutes, and catching her urgently to keep her from falling.

He caught her hand, staring aghast at four parallel burns that slashed her 
palm. Although not too deep, they were bad enough, and Akane's heart was 
racing wildly as he held her.

"It felt..." she tried at last. "I...Ranma; I don't..."

And with that, Akane went limp in his arms.

For one panic-stricken moment, Ranma lunged to feel wildly for a pulse. 
Then her chest rose and fell with a deep, even rhythm as her rapid 
breathing eased and her racing heart settled, and he realised she had 
fainted.

With a gasp of overwhelming relief, he eased her gently to the floor. Then 
turning, he leapt to his feet, and raced wildly for the phone.

It seemed to take an eternity before a tired and harried-sounding Tofu 
answered.

"Tofu-sensei, it's me! Ramna!" he began, his words tumbling over one 
another in his frantic haste. "Look, I'm really sorry for calling at this 
hour, but something's happened. Can you get here now? It's really urgent. 
Akane's had some kind of electric shock, and...and I'm not sure about the 
gaijin boy, or Shiko; and the other girl; I think she might be dead! Can 
you--!"

He broke off, fighting desperately to maintain his composure.

"Ranma? What on Earth!" Tofu demanded, sounding confused, but suddenly 
very much more alert.

For a moment he was silent, and Ranma thought he heard something that 
might have been the sound of bedclothes being thrown urgently aside. Then 
seizing on the one thing that seemed to have made sense, Tofu continued: 
"I'll be there as soon as I can. Keep Akane warm, and still, and keep a 
close watch on her pulse. If it shows any sudden changes, don't wait for 
me; call an ambulance straight away."

"Hai," said Ranma. "Thanks, and sorry again for--"

"Don't mention it," said the doctor quickly, cutting him off. "I won't be 
long."

The line clicked.

Ranma hesitated, half on the point of calling an ambulance in any case. 
But suddenly Akane moaned, and he dropped the phone and turned to race to 
her side once more.

"Akane?" he demanded urgently. "Are you all right?"

"Ranma?" she gasped, her eyes focussing slowly on his anxious face, before 
she began to try to sit up.

"No!" Ranma cried, pushing her down once more. "Tofu-sensei said you 
weren't to try to move. He's on his way."

"I can't just lie here like this, without anything on!" she exclaimed, 
suddenly angry. "And stop looking at me, you baka hentai!"

"Jeez! I'm only tryin' to help!" Ranma snapped, anxiety making him both 
angry and impatient. "Stupid otemba! For once just do what you're told, 
and don't argue about it, all right?"

"Baka!" she flared, trying again to sit up.

Then a sudden wave of giddiness crashed over her, and she gasped and 
clutched convulsively at her head.

"Jeez! lie still, won't you!" Ranma said angrily. "I'll get you something 
if you're that worried about it."

Without another word he turned away, speeding for the bathroom and the 
towels, heedless of the glass that crunched beneath his feet. A moment 
later he was back with several, kneeling to wrap them around her despite 
her protests.

"Tofu-sensei said I had to keep you warm, and to make sure your pulse is 
normal," he said quickly. "I'll get some blankets. But just stay still, 
all right?"

"Ranma, what about Shiko and the others?" she asked as he dived for the 
linen cupboards, sending sheets and towels flying as he wrenched out two 
large blankets, and came racing back to her once more.

"The gaijin girl was sucked into whatever was in the bathroom," he said 
with a sudden momentary shiver, struggling to pull the blankets about her 
while moving her as little as possible. "Shiko's fainted I think. I don't 
think she was hurt, but I'm not sure. I don't know where the gaijin boy 
is."

"I'm here, I think."

The words were little more than a groan, and a moment later Johnathan 
staggered drunkenly to collapse almost at Akane's side. "Oh lord!"

"Jeez! watch it!" Ranma exclaimed, catching him only a heartbeat before he 
would have landed on a dozen shards of broken glass, and easing him 
quickly to sit propped up by the wall.

"Thanks," Johnathan muttered faintly.

"You all right?" Ranma asked, turning back to Akane.

To his surprise, a bitter laugh answered him. "Oh yes! Fine! Just 
perfect!" Johnathan said, seeming half-way between sarcasm and tears as he 
stared numbly at the glinting refractions in a piece of glass between his 
feet. "I wake up in the middle of the night to have what I can only assume 
was some kind of panic attack, and collapse, only to wake up again in a 
place half-way between purgatory and the Scottish moors in the middle of 
winter! But somehow in all this, I get the chance to find someone I've 
imagined meeting for years, and she's killed ten minutes after I meet her 
in the world of Ranma 1/2. Yes, I'd say this just couldn't get better!"

"Well then, when you've stopped feeling sorry for yourself, you can go and 
see if Shiko's hurt," Akane flared, suddenly in a white-hot fury at the 
idiot gaijin's stupid self-pity.

Abruptly Johnathan deflated, numb hopelessness replacing the blazing anger 
of a moment before.

Dully he nodded, stumbling to his feet, and moving away in search of C-ko, 
while Ranma settled by Akane's side, and reached gently to take her wrist.

"Ranma?" Akane's voice was soft and subdued. "The other girl?"

"I don't think we can do anything for her," he answered quietly, the 
surreal horror of the night seming suddenly unreal. "She doesn't have any 
ki, and I think it's too late."

They sat in silence for several minutes, until at last there came faint 
sounds, and a moment later Johnathan's slight form appeared at the 
hallway's further end, C-ko, wrapped now in a bed-spread, stumbling at his 
side.

"She was hiding in Kasumi's room," he said, his tone still dull and empty. 
"At least, I assume it was Kasumi's room by the way it looked.

"Funny," he continued. "I'd have given almost anything to see all this 
before, to be able somehow to visit this universe, and BGC, and Project 
A-ko, and the Dirty Pair, and Mamono-Hunter Yohko, and Sailor Moon, 
and..." he broke off, his eyes seeming fixed suddenly on something 
infinitely far away. "Now, I don't give a damn."

Ranma and Akane regarded him for a moment, but neither could think of 
anything to say, and at last Johnathan eased himself to the floor, C-ko 
settling a little apart. She was staring almost fixedly before her, and 
seemed numb with shock, and only half aware.

For a space that seemed for ever no one spoke. Then at last Akane stirred.

"Why do you think Jo-ana-san is dead?" she inquired softly. 
"Johnathan-san, we...Ranma and I, went through that...whatever it was."

"Didn't you see the body in the bathroom?" he demanded, his dull eyes 
raising to fix on her with sudden fury. "I don't know what happened to get 
you into that place, but I think Joanna might have been right after all. I 
think you, or Ranma at least, *did* die, but somehow survived at the same 
time. I think that maybe it's part of whatever's gone wrong: whatever's 
allowed us to exist together in the same reality. And even if it's not, 
it's the sort of crazy thing that might happen in this world. But it 
doesn't mean it could happen in mine, or hers.

"I don't know; maybe she's not dead. But even if she isn't, she's gone 
from your reality, I'm sure of that, and I've no hope of finding her 
again."

"Why not?" Ranma asked.

"Have you any idea of just how many universes could exist out there!" 
Johnathan flared suddenly. "Even if we could somehow get from one to 
another as we wanted, trying to find out where she went..." He broke off, 
shaking his head in grim despair.

"All right; but what does that prove?" Akane shot back. "Even if 
everything you've said is true, that doesn't mean anything. For all you 
know, she might be ten minutes walk away. Who knows where that, whatever 
it was, sent her. We got back here safely."

Johnathan made as though to answer, but at that moment there came a 
frantic knocking at the front door.

"That'll be Tofu-sensei," said Ranma with sudden relief. "I forgot to open 
the door; can you get it?"

With a nod, Johnathan pulled himself to his feet, turned, and sprawled 
headlong over the other body in the hallway.

"Geez! Can't you do anything!" Ranma exclaimed.

"I don't see too well without my damned glasses," Johnathan gritted out 
with another burst of his own temper. "Who's--"

But another urgent knock stopped the question, and he turned and stumbled 
away along the passage.

Tofu was just raising his hand to knock a third time, when the door was 
pulled quickly aside, and he found himself staring at the slight, 
dishevelled figure of an unfamiliar boy. Dressed in no more than pyjamas 
and a dressing-gown, all of which looked considerably worse for wear, his 
red hair was a mess and coated with what looked like sawdust, and several 
livid bruises darkened his face.

"Who--" Tofu began. But Johnathan waved him quickly inside.

"I'm Joh...um...O'reilly Johnathan," he corrected himself quickly.

Tofu stared at him in confusion for a moment. Then slowly he nodded. 
"You...you're Engrish?"

Johnathan looked at him in bewilderment, then abruptly he realised that 
the doctor had spoken in clear, but heavily accented English.

"Um...you can talk Japanese," he said slowly and carefully, trying to 
smile, although it was more of a grimace than anything else. "I understand 
it, it seems, even though I can't talk it yet. I'll explain if I get the 
chance."

Again Tofu seemed to hesitate, as though translating to himself.

"Hmm; very well," he said at last in his own language, favouring Johnathan 
with a curious glance before he moved swiftly along the passage, while 
Johnathan closed the door once more.

Moments later, Tofu had dropped to his knees at Akane's side, careful of 
the splintered glass.

"Perhaps Ranma, you and O'Reilly-san could try to clean away some of 
that," he gestured at the mess, then abruptly he froze at the sight of the 
second girl.

"Who--"

"There's nothing we can do for her, I don't think," said Ranma quickly. 
"And I wouldn't go touching her," he added. "That's what hurt Akane. I 
thought it was Ki at first, but I can't sense anything from her, and I 
think it was some kind'a electricity. I know it sounds crazy, but..." He 
broke off helplessly.

Tofu remained staring intently at the still figure for a moment, but at 
last he shook his head, and turned quickly to Akane once more.

"Well, you're very lucky," he said after a minute or so of careful 
examination, and a touch at a shiatsu-point here and there. "The burns 
look far worse than they are, and they need only be dressed for a day or 
so. You took quite a jolt, and I think Ranma was right; it was an electric 
shock, strange as that seems. Still, your pulse and ki are stable, and 
your heart sounds as it should, and apart from a little delayed shock," 
his fingers moved expertly to a pressure-point in her neck, and Akane felt 
a gentle calm settle over her, "I think you'll be quite all right, 
although I'd prefer you not to do anything too strenuous for a few hours."

"Thanks, Tofu-sensei," she said, smiling as he helped her carefully to her 
feet. "Now I'm going to get dressed.

"Come on Shiko-chan; maybe we can't take a bath yet, but at least we can 
get cleaned up in the laundry, and I think I can find something for you to 
where, although it'll be a bit big on you."

Hugging the blankets to her with one arm, she reached gently to take 
C-ko's hand, and guide her carefully down the passage and towards the 
front of the house and the stairs, mindful of the glass.

Tofu glanced after them for a moment, his expression curious, but it 
seemed making no connection, then he turned his attention once more to the 
prone form.

"You say she did that to Akane?" he inquired of Ranma.

"Yeah, when Akane touched her hand," he said.

Nodding, Tofu gestured towards the kitchen. "Ranma, could you fetch me 
some kitchen gloves? I'd prefer not to take a chance with surgical gloves, 
just in case."

"Why? Oh I get it. insulation, right?"

Again, the doctor nodded, and Ranma hurried to do as he requested, 
returning soon with an unopened packet.

Quickly, Tofu drew them out and slipped them on, then he dropped beside 
the tall still form.

For a moment he studied the form-fitting jump-suit in bewilderment, trying 
to find some means by which it could be opened. Then sighing, he reached 
forwards, his hands moving with gentle sureness to the place where the 
material clung tight about her long, slim neck. Startled, he found that 
the material, although obviously strong, was astoundingly supple, and 
peeled from her shoulders and arms without difficulty.

Ranma and Akane were mistaken, he was sure. Although imperceptible, the 
girl must still be breathing. Her skin was pale but not the ghastly grey 
of death, something both must have missed in their agitation. Also, 
although cool to the touch, she was certainly not cold, and her body was 
still supple. Yet strangely, like Ranma, he could sense no ki from her; 
not even the echo that always remained after the spirit had departed.

Drawing down the jump-suit a little more, Tofu placed the stethoscope to 
her chest; and froze in shock. There was no pulse. Instead, a faint defuse 
hum or rumble, difficult exactly to define, centred more in the central 
chest rather than where the heart should have been, filled his ears, and 
he found to his further confusion that Ranma and Akane had after all been 
right; the girl was not breathing.

"By the kami!" he said softly, his quiet words mirroring the sudden 
shocked amazement in his eyes.

"What?" Ranma demanded. "Doc, what's the matter with her?"

"Ranma, I know this is going to sound absurd," said Tofu quietly at last, 
his eyes turning to fix intently on Ranma's face through his glasses, "but 
I believe this girl is not human."

"What!" Ranma gaped, staring stupidly from Tofu to the prone form.

"She has no heart; or at least, what I'm hearing certainly isn't a 
heartbeat," Tofu continued. "And you were right; she's not breathing."

"Then she's--?"

"No," Tofu interrupted quickly. "She's pale, and she may well be badly 
hurt. But she's certainly not dead.

"You say Akane received the shock when she touched her hand?"

Ranma nodded numbly as Tofu reached carefully to lift the girl's limp left 
hand, holding it by the palm and back, and studying it intently. Reaching 
with his other hand, Tofu drew a fine scalpel from his bag, and moving 
carefully, he touched the gleaming metal to two of the girl's long, 
gleaming nails.

Instantly, a white flash and sudden sizzling whip-crack burst from the 
point of contact, and the scalpel shattered in Tofu's hand, the mid-piece 
and the further end dropping hissing to the floor, while the remainder 
smoked and sparked.

Ranma stared stupidly at the impossibility of what had just happened. But 
Tofu nodded again.

"Just as I thought," he said quietly. "These aren't fingernails, Ranma. 
They're some kind of conductive material, like ceramic. I think this girl 
is a machine."

"What!" Both Ranma and Johnathan exclaimed stupidly, staring at him in 
shocked disbelief.

"A machine, bioroid, android... whatever you choose to call her. She's not 
human; or at least, her body isn't."

Again, moving carefully, Tofu cut very gently at the palm with what 
remained of the scalpel. Then, managing to do no damage, he tossed it 
aside, and taking out another, he applied more pressure, until at last he 
was pressing as firmly as he was able, with no more success.

"This isn't skin," he continued, at last releasing the pressure once more. 
"It's some kind of synthetic, and obviously tremendously resistent to 
damage. And I imagine that should I manage to cut through it, she wouldn't 
bleed."

"So who is she? Catty? Ryoko? Nuku-Nuku?" Ranma demanded incredulously, 
shuddering a little at that last possibility, absurd as it was. "This is 
crazy! First Shiko, now something out of Gallforce, or Tenchi Muyo or...or 
the Dirty Pair!"

"Well why not?" Johnathan exclaimed, showing the first signs of animation 
since Joanna's disappearance, as his imagination began again to work 
through his misery. "It's possible she's something like that. C-ko's here. 
Doesn't that mean that other manga and anime worlds could be just as real? 
Although, Ryoko wasn't actually a machine, and this girl doesn't look much 
like Shasti," he ended with a lop-sided half-grin. "Probably just as 
well."

"Who?" Ranma said faintly. "Oh yeah; that psycho from that weird American 
comic-strip thing.

"Anyway, the whole idea's crazy! You're not seriously gunna expect me to 
believe..."

Abruptly, he faltered as Tofu caught his eye.

"Would you mind explaining?" he said mildly.

"Uh...um..." Ranma tried helpfully, suddenly feeling ridiculous at even so 
much as considering the idea.

Johnathan however was only too eager, and after he had started, Tofu 
remained silent while the two told their individual parts of the tale, 
until at last, when Johnathan had tried to prove his point with several 
illustrations of events that should have been known only to Tofu and 
Ranma, the doctor held up a hand.

"I think," he said quietly, "that we should deal first with the immediate 
problems. Let's clean up as much as we can, then sit down and talk this 
through, calmly and rationally."

"You're not gunna tell me you believe all this?" Ranma demanded 
incredulously. "Come on Tofu-sensei; it's crazy!"

"Ranma: O'Reilly-san has been talking English from the moment I first met 
him. Now, unless you've been hiding a great deal, I wasn't aware that you 
understood any more than a few words of that language, let alone knew it 
so well that you've been able to translate everything he's been saying to 
you as easily as though you'd known it all your life.

"I'm not suggesting we take all this at face value without thinking for 
ourselves. But considering what passes for normal in Nerima, it shouldn't 
be entirely surprising. Besides, you must admit that it's a fascinating 
idea, if somewhat disturbing. And you can't deny that something *very* 
strange and unsettling has happened; I don't think you appreciate yet just 
how unsettling. Certainly I'd advise calling Cologne-san this morning as 
she suggested, to see whether she's discovered anything further.

"But right now..."

And with that he rose quickly.

"What about her...um.it...um..." Ranma gestured helplessly at the prone 
form.

"Leave her for the moment," said Tofu quietly. "We'll have to be very 
careful about moving her. Akane was lucky. Almost vaporising a scalpal is 
no mean feat; she has a great deal of power in her, easily enough to kill 
anyone on contact."

Ranma shivered. Then nodding, he rose quickly to his feet, and stared 
suddenly helplessly about him. "Oh man; Tendo-san's gunna kill me when he 
sees this! Not to mention what Nabiki'll do! I'll be working for her for a 
hundred years to pay this back!"

"Well, let's see what we can do about it then, shall we?" said Tofu with a 
smile. And turning, he made swiftly towards the kitchen.

For a moment, Ranma and Johnathan remained unmoving. Then with a unison 
sigh, they turned quickly to follow him.

For a moment after they were gone, everything was still. Then suddenly a 
swirling bloated darkness at the heart of which blazed a core of blood-red 
fire seemed to ripple into being beside the place in which the strange 
girl lay. For a moment it hovered, pulsing and writhing with a twisted, 
putrid parody of light, bubbling and shuddering as though the very fabric 
of reality reeled from the loathsome pressure of its touch. And from it's 
depths she came: cloaked and hooded in deepest black, her long flaming 
hair cascading like living fire to her waist, emerald eyes barely visible 
beneath the hood, spitting venom and nightmare and an infinite hatred as 
she stepped from the maelstrom, and stood still, gazing for a moment about 
her, then in the direction of the kitchen as though seeking something only 
she could see, before she turned her attention to the still form at her 
feet.

"Gone!" she hissed, her voice a low purring snarl, poisonous, yet horribly 
seductive as she knelt beside the prone form. "Self-smug complement 
she-bitch! And still so little time.

"Why?" she snarled softly, her face twisting for a moment in a paroxysm of 
boundless, venomous hate.

"Still," she continued at last. "no matter. Soon my precious," she 
murmured, reaching to stroke the long dark hair, her lips parting in a 
languid smile of unholy appetite, eyes kindled with a hunger and rage to 
shiver the soul to broken, jibbering splinters. "So beautiful. Yours will 
be so worthy; a fine thing to take your place when every reality is mine, 
and nothing is left but ruin and absolute despair.

"But now you must live so that she will exist. Awake, my little nemesis. 
Awake, and love them with all your heart, so she will hate, with a 
boundless, endless hatred."

And with that, she reached again, a momentary flicker of what might have 
been a nauseous corruption of blood-red ki seeming to leap from her hand 
as one slender finger touched but for a moment the girl's still lips. 
There was an almost imperceptible start as something reached within, a 
fleeting something against which no shield could protect, and savage power 
flashed for an instant through the inert body, while the look grew still 
more in the eyes of the figure, a power that reached far beyond the 
material world, to stir something the girl's builders would not have 
acknowledged could exist. Inert systems registered a surge, and subsequent 
crash, and at last a full reset was demanded, the CPU beginning its own 
tests before she would reboot, and wake again at last.

Still and tense, the thing of horror watched while a ki-like glow that 
only she was there to see, grew and surged around the still form. Then, as 
the body shuddered with its own internal tests, and the prone form began 
to breathe once more, she rose to her feet, glancing one last time with 
eyes of damnation towards the sounds coming from the kitchen, before the 
nightmare darkness swirled, and reality seemed to shudder as she stepped 
within, and was gone.

                                      * * *

As it turned out, the damage was not so serious as Ranma had imagined. 
True, every window in the house was shattered, and the mounds of glass 
took a deal of cleaning up. But compared to what Ranma had feared that 
final explosion had done, the worst, other than the glass and a damaged 
paper pannel or two, were a few cracked boards where he had been slammed 
down by the sudden appearance of the strange girl, and a Johnathan-shaped 
hole in the wall just outside the bathroom: something at least that was 
familiar to him.

While Tofu made a quick, concise inventory as to who would have to be 
called that morning to arrange for repairs, based on the notes Nabiki 
always kept by the phone, Ranma put together a decent, if simple 
breakfast. C-ko and Akane had offered, but Ranma's and Johnathan's 
combined panicked efforts had managed to distract them long enough for 
Ranma to do what needed to be done without their help. He had been more 
unsettled than he cared to admit by the gaijin's seeming understanding of 
his terror, but had tried to dismiss it as best he could, glad for any 
help in avoiding the combined culinary efforts of the two girls. Soon it 
was ready, and the four settled down to eat while Tofu contented himself 
with tea.

"So, there's nothing you can do for her?" Akane said to him after some 
time in which no one had spoken, glancing to the hallway where the girl 
still lay.

"You need an engineer, not a doctor, Akane," he said quietly.

"It's still hard to believe," she said softly, her expression 
introspective. "Where do you suppose she comes from?"

Tofu shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine," he said helplessly. 
"Perhaps Ranma was closer to the truth than he supposed. Who can tell?"

He was more unsettled than he cared to admit by the concept, nothing 
having brought the truth of the possibility home to him more completely 
than Johnathan's apparently detailed knowledge of their lives, and the 
astounding resemblance between the small, blonde-haired girl and the 
pictures of Kotobuki Shiko Akane had shown him on one of the tapes she 
possessed.

C-ko had all but demanded to watch her own Anime, but Akane had postponed 
that, at least until after breakfast.

"We can't even begin to speculate without more information," Tofu 
continued after a pause, "and whoever or whatever she is, it's obvious 
that she's in no condition to talk."

"I wonder," said Johnathan quietly. "Let's assume for a moment that 
she's...I don't know, crashed in some way, maybe as a result of whatever 
brought her here; it seems most likely if we assume she's not actually 
damaged. Well, we might be able to reset her. I mean..."

He broke off uncertainly.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Tofu inquired. His tone was mild, but 
his glance was keen and appraising as he studied Johnathan intently.

"Well...I'm not exactly certain," he admitted. "I suppose we can't risk 
trying to find something: some kind of interface to which we could connect 
a PC; I don't think Nabiki would be very happy if we blew up her 
computer." Ranma and Akane nodded emphatically. "But...well, a sudden 
spike through her systems, something nasty enough to make her reboot 
without doing any damage?"

"I really don't think that would be such a good idea, O'Reilly-san," said 
Tofu calmly.

"Yeah," Ranma added uneasily. "Do you really wan'a start playing around 
with something without knowing what you're doing? Who knows what might 
happen, or what she might do if you do manage to wake her up again."

"Exactly," Agreed Tofu. "Let's not have her external appearance rob us of 
basic common sense. We know nothing: absolutely *nothing* about her. It 
would be extremely inadvisable to start tampering with her, without a 
great deal more information. The technology alone required to build her 
is, I would imagine, so far beyond our own as to make any assumptions we 
might make concerning her blind guesswork at best, tremendously dangerous 
at worst. For all we know, she might well be a walking arsenal of weapons, 
with no similarity to us other than external appearance, and no more 
humanity than any computer system. Do you really want such a thing 
`awake', as you put it, without any idea of the consequences?"

Abruptly, Johnathan paled, some of the more unpleasant Anime possibilities 
(disregarding anything else) dampening his enthusiasm with frightening 
speed. This was no game: no fantasy of his own creation, whatever his 
wildly excited imagination might wish to believe. This was as grim and 
real as any decision he was likely to be called upon to make, and the 
doctor could not better have defined their situation.

The girl might be anything, and regardless of how good Ranma might be, 
Johnathan was not fool enough to assume the predetermination of victory 
his creator seemed to have defined for him would be enough against a 
possibly homicidal machine from another reality, even assuming Rumiko 
Takahachi's will to be a factor in defining *any* aspect of his universe. 
Joanna seemed to point to such a conclusion being possible, but it was 
just as likely that the apparent correlation between events as depicted in 
the tales of his world, and the reality before him, stemmed rather from 
some innate potential in certain individuals to perceive pivotal people 
and events from a `resonant' reality, rather than as a direct result of 
their own creativity being given substance.

A single touch from one of those hands might very well end the matter 
there and then.

"Perhaps you're right," he said, his tone abruptly subdued. "Sorry."

"I believe I can at least begin to understand how you might feel 
Johnathan-san," said Tofu quietly, "but you're going to have to stop 
making assumtions based on what you might have read or seen, or on what 
you believe you know. Certainly you can't afford to make decisions based 
on those assumtions. At best, you might use such knowledge as a guide. But 
this is not Manga or Anime, and you will have to realise that, and 
quickly, if you don't wish perhaps to make a very serious and very 
dangerous mistake, and if you intend to stay here for any length of time, 
something that for the moment at least you're likely to have to do."

"Yes, I see your point," Johnathan agreed. "It's...I just..." He broke off 
helplessly.

"So what *do* we do with her then?" he said at last.

"For the moment, I'd say move her in here, and keep a watch on her. To be 
honest there's precious little we can do. If she hasn't recovered by this 
evening..."

He sighed. Now that he had had a chance to consider the matter at greater 
length, he really had no idea. It would be the height of unimaginable 
stupidity to surrender the strange girl to what might be termed the 
`appropriate authorities', without very careful consideration as to the 
consequences. If she truly were of inter-dimensional origin (a possibility 
he had to take into account, given Johnathan's appearance and what had 
happened to the others), and worse still, some kind of advanced weapon, 
the last thing he wanted to do was to allow her to fall into the hands of 
the Japanese, or worse, the American military, with all that that might 
then precipitate.

"I don't know," he said quietly at last. "I really don't."

"We can't let the JSDF or the damned Americans get their hands on her," 
said Johnathan, startling Tofu into glancing again quickly in his 
direction, both because of his words and the sudden vehemence in his tone. 
"The Lord alone knows what they might try!"

"Yeah, the Yanks are crazy enough, without something like this to play 
with," Ranma agreed. "But we can't just keep her here, and wait to see if 
she's going to wake up and blow us all up! This place is crazy enough as 
it is."

"Let's put some gloves on her for safety, and move her in here for a 
start," said Tofu, "then we can take another look at her. Perhaps there's 
some obvious means by which she can be activated in safety, or, if worst 
comes to worst, shut down altogether, rather than left in this state. We 
really have very little alternative."

Reluctantly the others agreed, and a moment later, Ranma and Tofu were 
moving to the hallway once more, Johnathan and Akane only a little behind 
them. C-ko was still staring at the first `Project A-ko' tape, her eyes 
alive with excitement and anticipation.

"One thing," Ranma continued uneasily as he hurried to the fore. "What do 
we tell Nabiki about this? I mean, if she gets the idea that a lot of 
money could be made out'a selling information about technology like 
that... I'm not sayin' she would -- I've never thought she's anywhere near 
as bad as she pretends sometimes, but i don't know whether I'd trust her 
not to--

"Oh chikusho!"

His sudden exclamation and stumbling halt brought Tofu and Johnathan to 
either side of him in an instant.

For a long, frozen moment they stood unmoving, staring down silently at 
the lithe form. She lay still on her back, but now the slender arms were 
layed one to either side of her, snug within the jump-suit's sleeves once 
more, and the rictus of agony had left her face, a faint, teasing smile 
seeming to play gently about her full mouth, as her breast rose and fell 
with an even, regular breathing.

"Oh Lord!" commented Johnathan unnecessarily in a small voice, backing up 
a step or two and nearly running into Akane, while trepidation mixed with 
a sudden unreasoning excitement took hold of him. "Um...I say...I don't 
think we're going to have to worry about getting her up and running."

Tofu stirred as though to answer. But whatever he had been about to say, 
the situation was taken abruptly out of their hands.

"Oh, is she awake?" came a sudden chirrup from the rear.

And before anyone thought to stop her, C-ko had somehow dashed between 
them, and dropped to her knees by the girl, reaching without hesitation to 
take her hand.

"Shiko!" Akane screamed in horror, then choked off as nothing happened.

C-ko turned her head for a moment, beaming up at her with a smug, 
self-satisfied smile. Her confidence took a sudden battering however when 
in the next moment the girl blurred into motion. In one instant she was 
still; in the next she stood, C-ko pinned close in her arms facing her, 
the Lepton princess's small body held between her and the suddenly frozen 
four.

"Two immediate possibilities present themselves," said the tall stranger 
calmly, her Japanese clipped and precise, and her low voice as frigid as 
the ice in her intense blue-green eyes as she regarded them intently. 
"Either Neechan's assumption was correct, and, like the supposed Youma, 
I've been dimensionally displaced during my period of...unconsciousness. 
Or I'm once more in enemy hands, and everything I'm experiencing is simply 
a complex, if to my mind bizarre simulation for some twisted, 
machiavellian purpose of their own. Everything appears to be real and 
consistent. But then it would, if my perceptions were being altered to fit 
the scenario. So, let's see, shall we?"

With that, her right hand blurred, the fine needle beneath her index 
finger extending to slip beneath the skin of C-ko's neck.

"Don't move" she said quietly as C-ko turned terrified eyes towards her, 
"and don't be afraid," she continued, her tone suddenly surprisingly 
gentle. "I mean you no harm."

Her hypnotic blue-green eyes fixed suddenly upon C-ko's own, and slowly 
the terror left her face, until at last she lay still and quiet in her 
arms.

"No conformity," said the stranger at last. "But then I suppose that's to 
be expected should you truly be as you seem. It will prove nothing if I'm 
in a simulation. But... Tell me; who are you?"

"I'm Shiko," she answered, her voice suddenly soft and unnaturally calm 
given her terror of moments before.

The girl nodded as though already knowing the answer, but before she could 
say more, Akane started forwards From her position almost immediately 
behind Johnathan, her face flushing with sudden fury at the Lepton 
princess's tone.

"What have you done to her?" she demanded, her blue battle-aura beginning 
to manifest even as the mallet appeared in her hand.

"You stupid, crazy otemba!" hissed Ranma in sudden alarm; "wha'd'ya think 
you're doing?"

The girl was terrifyingly fast: even perhaps faster than himself in female 
form, and he had no illusions concerning her ability to avoid Akane's 
swing with effortless ease, or what could happen should she decide to 
retaliate.

Far from taking offence however, the girl seemed to relax a little as she 
turned to Akane, the teasing smile playing again on her mouth as she 
regarded her for a moment in silence.

"Shiko is perfectly unhurt," she assured her, her smile and the sudden 
surprising warmth in her tone doing much to settle Ranma's unease.

As though to emphasise her point, the girl withdrew her hand, easing C-ko 
with a lithe, fluid grace to the floor, steadying her for a moment with 
the same gentle care while she recovered from the hypnotic intensity of 
her eyes, before she released her once more.

"It's nearly enough," she continued in a more guarded tone after a moment. 
"Nearly, but not quite.

"May I?" She inquired, turning to Tofu, and extending her hand. "I 
apologise, but I must be as certain as I can be, given the situation."

He had remained watchful but calm after a moment of tension at her initial 
movement, and now he nodded, extending his own hand after only a moment's 
hesitation.

"A genetic sample?" he inquired mildly, watching in fascination as the 
micro-fine needle extended once more, this time from the stranger's middle 
finger. "I assume that is sterile?" he continued with a smile.

"Close enough; and it is perfectly sterile," she answered warmly, a sudden 
full, intense smile of her own seeming to transform her in an instant into 
a breath-takingly beautiful amazon who left Ranma frozen and gaping.

Tofu barely felt the touch of the needle as it slipped for a brief second 
beneath the skin of his finger. A moment later it was withdrawn, the 
stranger's eyes fixing on him in sudden curiosity.

"In my reality," she said calmly, "you wouldn't be considered quite human; 
nearly, but not quite. As I said, it proves nothing. But I'm satisfied, at 
least for now. I doubt even Genom could manage so flawless a simulation, 
or that they'd trouble to do it, even if they could. Why should they?

"Given what's happened already, I think I can be reasonably sure this is 
real."

Tofu made as though to answer, then glanced quickly aside at the sudden 
twin gasps from Akane and Johnathan.

"Oh my God!" Johnathan said faintly, taking an involuntary step backwards, 
and glancing swiftly behind him as though guaging the distance to the 
dining-room, and the garden beyond.

"Oh Kami-sama!" Akane echoed almost in the same moment.

"You realise" Johnathan continued almost conversationally, his mild tone 
belying his sudden terror, "we're probably all dead, don't you?"

"Oh?" Tofu inquired in the same mild tone, glancing quickly between him 
and a suddenly ashen-faced Akane. "Another one of your Anime, 
O'Reilly-san?"

"Yes," Johnathan managed, backing away still further and regarding the 
tall figure with increasing alarm. "And a particularly nasty one, at least 
if we're talking about the Genom of MegaTokyo. And I can't think of any 
Genom other than the one in Bubblegum Crisis. If I'm right, that thing is 
a Genom boomer, and if it's a boomer then it's probably a combat boomer, 
and if it's a combat boomer then we're most likely going to be very dead 
very quickly. Oh Lord!"

"There are several ways in which you may ensure that prediction becomes 
reality, Gaijin," said the girl with deceptive equanimity, yet with a 
subtle edge to her tone of icy steel as she turned a suddenly frigid 
glance upon Johnathan, "the swiftest and most certain being your 
continuing to refer to me both as a `thing', and as an `it'. Have I made 
myself sufficiently understood?"

By the time she had finished, the threat was very far from subtle, and 
abruptly, Johnathan seemed to realise just what he had done, and froze 
where he stood, a sudden panicked look filling his face as he averted his 
eyes, not daring to meet her blue-green stare for fear of what it might do 
to him.

"Oh-Lord-yes-perfectly-my-apologies-oh-Hades!" he gasped in a rush, 
shivering and staring pointedly at the floor before his feet.

"What did I say to you about judging a situation only by what you've read 
or seen?" said Tofu quietly. His tone was still mild, but the reproach was 
unmistakable, and the look he gave Johnathan far from equable.

"But Tofu-sensei!" Akane began urgently, then faltered as the doctor 
turned a gentler but no less disapproving glance in her direction.

"I apologise on their behalf," he said, bowing deeply to the tall 
stranger.

At his words, the ice vanished as though switched off, and she smiled once 
more, dancing a deep, flowing curtsey in return.

"Still, he is correct on three counts at least," she said calmly after a 
moment, seeming to address Tofu although her eyes shifted to each of them 
in turn. "The Genom to which I refer *is* the Genom of MegaTokyo, I *am* a 
buma, and I am a combat machine, at least in part. But I assure you I mean 
no harm to anyone here; not even a thoughtless Gaijin with more courage 
than is good for him," she added, the sudden playful edge to her tone 
taking the menace from the rebuke, and the sting from her words as she 
cast a quick, teasing look in Johnathan's direction that caught him 
utterly off-guard, and had him flushing and stuttering in a sudden 
bewildering mixture of shame, embarrassment and helpless confusion.

"But what are you then," he managed at last, feeling surprisingly 
confident despite his thoughtless blunder, "some kind of enhanced 33C? I 
know it sounds crazy, but I can't think of anything else."

To his further amazement, the boomer grimaced in an undeniably human 
display of dramatic disgust as her hand flew for a moment to her mouth, 
gagging theatrically as she regarded him with a widening of her magnetic 
blue-green eyes.

"Oh *please*; do you *mind*!" she exclaimed, her face contorting in 
exaggerated revulsion, and her voice laced with such a sudden comic excess 
of mock-indignation that they found themselves on the edge of laughter. 
"Do I look particularly homicidal, or devoid of reason, decorum or social 
graces?

"And if you dare so much as *suggest* I'm a female C-55 variant, I'll bean 
you with the nearest blunt object."

The playful, teasing tone had grown still more, and as the others laughed 
with a sudden release of tension, Tofu realised abruptly the effect it was 
having on all of them, even himself. Their unease was evaporating as 
though it had never existed, and he found himself warming to the suddenly 
magnetic stranger with alarming speed. Starting, Tofu fought down the 
sudden almost overwhelming urge to relax his guard, and resumed his 
watchful alertness beneath a quick smile for the stranger's benefit. 
Perhaps it was not intentional, but she was manipulating them (and perhaps 
something more if the subtle reactions he could sense even in himself were 
any indication) with consummate skill, and frightening ease.

"Then what, some kind of combat 33S?" Johnathan inquired, seeming utterly 
unaware of his own subtly altered demeanour. "Again, I know it sounds 
crazy but--"

"A *sexaroid*!" The girl's eyes widened further, the intense, teasing 
smile growing still more, while the sudden compelling magnetism seemed to 
surge palpably about her, so that it was suddenly almost impossible to 
look away.

Tofu tensed in alarm, able to maintain his taut alertness suddenly only 
with a supreme effort.

"I don't believe it!" she continued. "You've the audacity to stand there, 
and compare me to some...some preening, simpering...!" Words seemed to 
fail her, and she glared at Johnathan, although with such an obviously 
exaggerated look that he was left in no doubt that she was teasing him.

Abruptly she laughed again, a purring hypnotic peal of entrancing warmth 
and almost seductive intensity that set Tofu's every martial artist's 
sense to sudden screaming tension. In that moment he realised fully just 
how dangerous she might be, even ignoring her frightening physical speed.

"Then what are you?" Akane inquired.

Her own tone was impossibly relaxed after the terror of only a few moments 
before, yet watching her Tofu noticed a subtle difference in her responses 
to those of Johnathan and Ranma, and suddenly he thought he could guess at 
a possible explanation for at least part of the hold the strange girl 
seemed to have gained over their attention with such savage speed.

The boomer turned to her for a moment, her magnetic smile abruptly the 
easy, familiar warmth of a life-long friend that seemed in an instant to 
captivate Akane with the same ease with which the intense, teasing 
playfulness of a moment before had done Johnathan, and a silent Ranma. And 
Tofu shivered, tensing still more.

For a moment intense blue-green eyes held her own. Then abruptly the smile 
grew cooler, and the illusion changed as the stranger drew herself up, 
standing suddenly tall and commanding, the projection of sudden majesty 
and indomitable will so absolute that, even aware of what she was doing, 
Tofu found his gaze riveted helplessly to her, and like the others he 
stood, unable to move or avert his eyes. For a space of breathless 
anticipation she remained silent, while they watched her, entranced.

Then she lifted her arms, and her voice was clear and cold.

"I" she proclaimed, her ringing cry seeming suddenly to fill the house, 
"am a Bu-33DA-ELITE, third of six, the prototypes of a new race. We herald 
a quantum revolution in potential for our kind beyond all Genom could have 
imagined. And we intend to survive."

Then abruptly she lowered her arms once more, and the illusion faded, 
vanishing like a dream as her smile softened to a quiet sadness, and she 
sighed and shook her head.

"Fine words," she said softly, her tone suddenly gentle, and the magnetism 
slipping from her like a mist. They stirred as though waking from a dream, 
and Ranma shifted uneasily. "But already they're so meaningless; so empty.

"You were right to be uneasy, Johnathan," she continued after another 
still moment in the same gentle tone. "I am almost unimaginably more 
dangerous than you could begin to appreciate, given the buma of which you 
seem to be aware. As I told you, I'm a combat machine, at least in part. 
But there is so much more.

"Command, espionage, covert insertion... We represent a pinnicle of 
achievement and scope of potential of which Genom once couldn't have 
dreamed. I possess raw computing power ten times that of the greatest 
mainframes of my era, coupled with the cutting-edge in quantum relational 
intelligence and S-type emulation, and weapons that would sicken you and 
make your blood run cold, many designed specifically for mission 
situations in which it might be necessary for me to kill while emulating 
guard, confidante, mistress... Do you understand?"

"Including a chemical plant that can produce mood-altering substances?" 
said Tofu quietly, his almost gentle tone nevertheless with an edge that 
warned her he was perfectly aware of what she had done.

"Including such a plant, yes," she said softly. "Although the relaxant was 
no more than a certain pheromonal combination, intended to lower your 
defences.

"I apologise for any offence. Those reactions are part of my initial 
assessment routines, designed to test for later advantage. But I will not 
apologise for what I perceived to be their necessity. You must understand: 
you're strangers and unknowns, and it's not in our nature to be careless, 
despite my conclusions concerning the situation in which we find 
ourselves, and my hope that I can take you all on trust. And although it's 
almost inconceivable that you could hurt me, I find myself in a situation 
in which I can't afford to take chances."

Tofu nodded, his taut, ready stance relaxing, and a quiet smile softening 
his features.

For a moment he continued to regard her in silence. Then bowing once more 
he extended his hand.

"I am Ono Tofu," he introduced himself formally as she caught it for a 
moment and squeezed it with a sudden obvious warmth. "Shiko you already 
know. This is Saotome Ranma and--"

"Tendo Akane," The DA finished with a smile. "I had guessed."

"Then this world is an Anime in the BGC universe?" Johnathan asked.

"Historical Manga and Anime; yes, it would seem so," The buma told him.

Then smiling, she bowed gracefully in formal Japanese fashion to each in 
turn. "My name is Camilla, and I am most pleased and intrigued to meet you 
all, but none more so than you Shiko. I can't imagine how both Ranma 1/2 
and... Ah, I see; you're also displaced."

"You seem very sure of that," said Tofu quietly.

"I haven't just been standing here while we've been talking, Tofu-sensei," 
she said with a momentary flicker of the teasing playfulness once more. 
"I've been integrating audio, video and digital traffic from as many 
sources as I could find, including your internet analogue, crude as it is, 
and have found information on the Project A-ko Anime, something that would 
be very unlikely were this some kind of aberrant composite reality; 
wouldn't you agree?"

Unflustered, Tofu smiled and nodded, while Johnathan gaped.

"You processed all that in a few seconds!" he exclaimed.

"Oh please!" she returned. "a fraction of a nano-second; what precisely do 
you imagine I am?"

"LORD! I say; just what can you do?" he continued tactlessly in his 
excitement.

"Just what can you do?" she countered, a sudden momentary chill to her 
tone. "I appreciate your curiosity Johnathan, but I don't feel 
particularly beholden to answer your every question without answers in 
return. Nor do I appreciate the implicit assumption in the question: the 
assumption that I'll accept being treated as no more than an interesting 
toy or a computer system with the added bonus of sentience, rather than 
the reverse. Tell me; are you native to this reality?"

"Sorry," he said quickly, very much chastened for the second time in 
almost as many minutes. "I'm not doing so well, am I?

"No; I'm from one in which all this is fictional: Ranma 1/2, Project A-ko 
and BGC. Yours must be some kind of variant though, since there are no 
Bu-33DA-ELITE boomers in the BGC Anime in my world."

"Nor in that native to this world, it would seem," she answered, her tone 
softening once more. "It would seem my variant diverged first with the 
project that led to our creation, then again in the period just after your 
last BGCrisis OVA. At least, Miriam Yoshida is imprisoned, but there seems 
little likelyhood of your BGCRASH coming to pass, as there is no Adama 
project, and Mackie Stinglay has not left to join Prof. Haynes in Germany. 
Curiously though, some things are similar, such as the existence of the 
Illegal Army mercenary group.

"Still" she continued, her glance shifting abruptly to each once more, 
"that's really of very little importance at the moment. Are you able to 
tell me how I'm here, and help me return home? It's vital that I get back 
as soon as I can."

"I'm sorry," said Tofu, "but we're as much in the dark as you, I'm afraid. 
But perhaps we should start from the beginning. And I really should be 
getting back to my Practice as soon as I can, or contact Ohara-san before 
we do ayything else; I have several consultations early this morning."

With that, he led the way into the sitting room once more.

To Tofu's relief, Ohara-hakase was happy to take the extra load, which 
freed him for the day, and soon afterwards, Camilla sat, listening 
intently while the others told their tales.

"It would seem," she commented, when they had at last fallen silent, "that 
ours is but a small part of a growing phenomenon. Unfortunately I was 
damaged and in no state to record my transition here, so I can't add 
anything more. Although it's possible that Liana-Neechan precipitated our 
current predicament with her attack on the Youma commanders; at least so 
far as what you term the `BGC' reality is concerned."

"Youma! As in Sailor Moon Youma!" Johnathan gasped. "What on Earth! You're 
not from some weird Bad Moon Rising alternative or something, are you? 
Please don't tell me the DKR are going to pop in for afternoon tea!"

"Bad Moon Rising?" she inquired. For a moment she was silent, then she 
smiled. "A Sailor Moon fanfiction story by Mark Latus?" she continued.

At Johnathan's startled nod, Camilla flashed a request to the feed she had 
tapped, and a few seconds later she had scanned the work in question, and 
all related material.

"No, there's no correlation," she said simply, a touch of amusement 
playing gently in her eyes. "Not that I expected there to be. Don't let 
the apparent proof of creative endeavours become reality run away with 
you, Johnathan.

"It seems to me more likely that the Youma incursion into our variant is 
rather a result of the problem than its cause. Our immediate concern 
therefore must be to determine that cause before the destabilisation 
becomes acute."

"Destabilisation?" Tofu inquired with a touch of unease. "Then you believe 
this to be more than an aberration?"

"It would be wisest to treat it as such, given its scope and various 
manifestations," Camilla answered. "Either the phenomena we have 
experienced are a result of some purposeful experiment gone awry, not 
necessarily internal to one of our realities, although each of them could 
be considered likely candidates, or we're dealing with a far more 
insidious problem of a kind utterly outside our experience and sphere of 
influence.

"Ranma's tale seems to me the most worrying, simply by virtue of what 
happened to him after contact with nothing more than an extra-real scrap 
of fabric, and what such a destabilisation might mean for an inherently 
`magical' world such as this, or that of the Senshi. I need to see the 
scrap Cologne-san took, as soon as I can. It may tell us something.

"But whatever the problem's origin, we must assume some balance to have 
been upset, and that the results could be anything from benign to 
catastrophic, given what we've seen already. Consider what might happen 
should the fundamental laws of a reality break down to such an extent that 
basic physics can no longer function, and that, assuming material laws 
alone are the sum of existence in that world."

"Matter falling apart; physics breaking down; The sun exploding! Horror; 
madness; nightmare become real!

"Oh God! My God!" Gasped Johnathan softly, his face suddenly ashen as he 
regarded the DA's quiet, watchful expression. "The `Quiet Earth' scenario! 
And worse than that! The end of everything! You're talking about the end 
of everything; not just one reality, but all of them; everything that 
exists! Oblivion, for ever!"

"At worst, yes," she answered in the same quiet tone. "Assuming what we've 
experienced is simply the beginning of an extra-real collapse which can't 
be arrested, we're talking about the end of the sum of all existence; 
eternal and absolute oblivion."

For a long time after she had fallen silent, they remained still, while a 
slow, numb horror rose from the depths of Johnathan's soul, a frigid, 
nightmare horror to smother all thought and reason, and leave only dread 
in its place. Then another possibility occurred to him, and he felt his 
heart lurch horribly in his chest.

"Has it occurred to anyone that our being here together might be 
indicative of another phenomenon?" His voice sounded suddenly distant and 
detached to his own ears, as though someone else were speaking with his 
mouth. "Think. How likely is it really that out of all the billions of 
people in every reality, people pivotal to a series of Manga and Anime 
just happen to be the ones central to sudden unexplained phenomena that 
have made sure they appear conveniently in the same place, just in time 
perhaps to stop whatever's happening? Have you thought about the 
possibility that only one of us here is real?"

"You?"

Tofu's voice seemed impossibly calm in the face of the horror that was 
clawing at Johnathan's reason.

"I'm the only one present from a reality in which everyone is fictional, 
and the only one not known to anyone else," he continued quietly. "Perhaps 
what Joanna suggested was close to the truth, except that she picked the 
wrong person. It's me! I'm dead, or dying, and this is nothing but a 
dream: some manifestation of my own fantasies: a last flicker before the 
end. What I had last night was a heart-attack! I collapsed in the 
bathroom, and that was the last `real' thing that happened to me."

He turned, his eyes roving wildly about the room, as though he expected it 
to fade horribly to blackness at any second.

"A theory impossible to disprove in your eyes, save were I to complete the 
scenario, and kill you," said Camilla, the quiet gentleness of her voice 
seeming terribly stark in the sudden stillness. "I can assure you however 
that, so far as I can tell, we are each of us most definitely real.

"Still,) she continued, as Johnathan fought to regain some equilibrium, 
"part at least of your assertion is deeply disturbing. I must agree that 
the chances against such a convenient meeting of so many apparently 
pivotal characters from diverse and perhaps created realities is 
inconceivably remote, save for the imposition of one possible guiding 
factor."

"That this too is a tale, a story someone has conceived, or is conceiving? 
That we're no more than puppets dancing to an author's string? That *is* 
what you were about to suggest, isn't it?"

For the first time, Johnathan watched real unease flicker deep within 
Tofu's face, and the horror surged still higher.

Camilla glanced quickly at the doctor, a new respect in her eyes at the 
speed with which he had reached the conclusion. "Dramatic, is it not?" she 
agreed softly. "The stage is set, and the actors shall play their parts to 
the bitterest of ends. Except that in our case, the stage is the very 
fabric of reality, and the actors may never leave the theatre."

"Stop it!" Akane's sudden cry cut through the tension like a knife. 
"That's far from funny, Camilla-san!"

"I doubt she meant it to be," said Tofu softly, caught up in the sudden 
horror of the moment. "And she might well be close to the truth, as might 
Johnathan. It is a deeply unsettling concept, the possibility that we are 
no more than marionettes to be pulled this way or that at the whim of 
someone of another world."

"More unsettling even than any of you have realised."

At the sudden quiet words, the company whipped as one towards the open 
window. A moment later, a gnarled figure hopped up on to the cill. Then 
Cologne was dropping into the room to stand, her back to the chill 
early-morning breeze as she faced them.

"Jeez! Old Ghoul!" Ranma exclaimed, feeling his chest and glaring daggers 
at the amazon matriarch as she stood, her eyes flicking to each of them in 
turn, but resting somewhat longer upon C-ko and Johnathan, before she 
turned to regard the DA with wary and intense scrutiny. "Wha'd'ya tryin' 
to do; give us all heart-attacks!"

"I am sorry, Son-in-law," the matriarch answered, turning back to him 
again for a moment, although with a flicker in her eyes that showed she 
was nothing of the sought. "But it seemed an appropriate moment in which 
to make my entrance.

"Besides," she continued, "one at least of you has been aware of my 
presence from the moment I arrived.

"Is that not so?"

She turned to Camilla once more, her expression suddenly cool and 
calculating as she held her gaze.

The DA'S own smile was sudden ice in return, and abruptly Cologne stepped 
back a pace, her eyes hardening as she regarded the stranger with a sudden 
coiling of her small, gnarled frame.

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<To Be Completed>

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