[FFML] [Fanfic][X-COM][Teen Titans][Ranma 1/2] Reflections Lost on a Dark Road (ch3)

[Justin Wagner]

A/N
Update time again. Since we've gotten some reviews with concerns
about the internecine fighting between protagonists, we've made a few
small adjustments (Lathis and I do listen to our readers and care about
every review). However, this does not change the fact that the XCOM
world is comparatively paranoid and grittier than the DCAU. This is part
of the story and can't be changed. Also part of the story is the fact
that the protagonists don't just become BFFs right off the bat or
anything. There are just too many differences between them to overcome.
Keep in mind, too, that from our perspective, two or three of these
chapters is basically a drop in the bucket compared to the story as a
whole.

The intro sections were also written in a modular fashion as parallel
character arcs. Not everyone "appeared" at the same time and clearly not
in the same places. This was an experiment on our part, and it actually
made for some difficult "chapter assembly" editing. It was frankly a
relief to go back to putting together later, more conventional,
chapters.

Anyway. Chapter 3! Not really any action in this one. It's a character
chapter mostly, and a setting builder for what's to come.

- - -
Pre-crossover Chapters: Pre-crossover chapters of Lathis' "Teen Titans
and the Lost Boy" and the sequel "Dark Titans" can be found on his FFN
author site. Cap'n Chryssalid's "The Road to Cydonia" can be found,
likewise, on his FFN site or his TRTC Ufopedia archive.

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/992366/Lathis
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/235984/Capn_Chryssalid

Crossover Chapters: Chapters of this specific fanfic are to be hosted on
Cap'n Chryssalid's archive and on FFN

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2754251/
- - -

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone
prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last.  The
reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster
tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together.  With
Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding',
it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from
unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of
Atlantis.  Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well
deserved breather from their adventures.  But as unseen forces
manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and
within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered... and sooner than
they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into
UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its
seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and
the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization
has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by
increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial
artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for
the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications
continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

- - -


Reflections Lost on a Dark Road
First Contact
Chapter III


- - -

Cap'n Chryssalid
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

- - -

Darkness and light flashed all around him in a disorienting
kaleidoscopic whirlwind.  Ryouga felt the howling emptiness of eternity
clawing away at the edges of his mind, felt the pressure of a thousand
oceans pressing down on him, crushing him - but at the same time he felt
like he was trapped in the vacuum of space, his body attempting to
explode outwards to abhor said vacuum in a most gruesome manner.

The only thing that allowed him to cling to his sanity was the girl in
his arms.  Fighting the vertigo of the violently churning universe,
Ryouga turned his eyes down to Raven's cloaked form.  The girl's face
was locked in a rictus of pain, and she clutched her temples
desperately.  Dark tendrils of her energy, completely beyond her
control, spread out from her.  Many rose up above them, wrapping around
the Twenty Six Dimensional Hypergriffin which was the cause of all of
their misery.

The beast's unnatural screeches faded away into nothing in the face of
the absolute chaos that swirled around them.  Countless wings beat
furiously, but found no purchase in the void.  Its legs swung wildly,
but its claws could not slash through the ebony bonds that lashed it to
them.  He could see the primal animal fear in its dozens of eyes as it
tried to escape.  It was as if the world was ending and this thing knew
it ...

Whatever had happened, Ryouga somehow knew that they were at the heart
of it, sitting on their butts like a trio of idiots in the eye of the
tornado itself.  How long before ... before whatever this was started
tearing them apart as well?  The Lost Boy didn't even have a clue what
was happening, just a blurry memory of battling his way to Raven's side
... panicked shouting all around him ... then this -

As one, Raven's and the Griffin's pained screams rose to a fevered
pitch.  The outburst coincided with a shift in the storm around them;
the rapidly flowing walls of dimensional winds drew inwards, shrinking
the 'eye' in which they huddled to half its size in a matter of seconds.
The sudden increase in pressure nearly tore a scream from Ryouga's
throat as well, and he did everything that he could to use his body to
shield Raven.  The only thing for agonizing than the dimensional
energies trying to tear away at him, was the expression on the pale
girl's face, tears spilling helplessly from her eyes.

He was distracted away from Raven as the Griffin's oscillating screeches
suddenly increased yet again, despite the seeming impossibility of such
a feat.  Looking up, trying to see through his bangs whipping about
furiously in the maelstrom, he saw the swirling black 'walls' of the
storm close in further, actually seeming to consume the flailing
creature.  Despite the beasts wild, desperate struggles, it sank further
and further into the dimensional morass, the black bonds of Raven's
energy shredding away to dark smoke and sweeping away into the vortex.

And then, as if it had never been, the Griffin was gone, swallowed whole
by the shrinking cyclone of absolute chaos.  The gods only knew what the
creature's fate was, but Ryouga feared that they would be sharing it
soon enough.  The space they occupied was dwindling by the second, the
primordial winds eating away hungrily at the small platform of
laboratory floor that had been drawn with them.  Within seconds, there
was less than two yards separating them from the all devouring chaos of
the dimensional energies.  As the walls of the vortex closed in on them,
though, it only compacted down on the power that Raven was unleashing so
uncontrollably, creating an even more intense pressure on the Hibiki as
the dark energies tried to force equilibrium with the darker energies
crushing down on them.

'That's it!'

Without bothering to actually consider the ramifications of his 'plan',
or whether it even contained a shred of sanity in it, he clenched his
eyes shut and turned every iota of his will to a single task.  Even with
his eyes closed, burning azure light seeped through his eyelids as his
battle aura surged to life.  As of late, the emotional aspect of his
Shishi Houkodan had made the technique all but unusable to him - he was
just too damn happy most of the time to get properly depressed - but in
this instant dark, heavy emotions flowed into his mind as easily as
cracking a walnut.

An instant later, he felt one pressure lessen, only to be replaced by
another; he power of his aura resisted the crushing power of Raven's,
but soon came into direct contact with the dimensional barriers itself,
and began to battle against them.  Though he hated it - which only made
it easier to do - he forced himself to dredge up the worst events of his
life.  The image of Raven's limp body flying through the air to smash
horrendously against the wall of a cathedral, Ryouga himself
responsible, seared his brain and caused his aura to swell painfully.
The pure, azure light of the aura soon descended into vitriolic green
and black.

"R-Raven!" he shouted hoarsely, "You've got to fight it!"

He couldn't see her face, only the sound of her screams let him know she
was even conscious, but by instinct, he knew that he had gotten through.
Quick as thought, he felt the pressure bearing down on them lessen and
increase all at once, as Raven's power found focus and purpose once
more.  Her shouts silenced a moment later, and he dared to crack open an
eye.  The beautiful Titan was still in his arms, actually wrapping her
own arms around his neck as well, using him for support, and a look of
ultimate exertion was etched on her face, likely mirroring his own.
Their eyes met for a brief moment, and an unspoken word flashed between
them.

In unison, their respective powers flared as they poured everything they
had into pushing back the encroaching abyss.  Power built upon power,
and Ryouga felt his skin begin to burn as the intensity grew
exponentially, impossibly increasing power trapped within an inexorably
shrinking space.  One way or the other, something was going... to
have... to give-

A flash of light, brighter than the sun, blinded the Hibiki, and with
it, the sweet sensation of release.  In an instant, all of the
resistance, the pressure that had been crushing down on them, vanished.
The empty howl of infinity was replaced by the furious roar of power
contained become power unleashed.  As the power flowed out of him, it
dragged with it all of the emotions which had given it power, leaving
Ryouga in a state of utter emptiness.  All he could do was sit there,
his breathing coming in long, even breaths, staring down blankly at the
girl in his arms.

Raven stared back at him, her face in contrast to his own, swirling with
emotions that he couldn't identify at the moment.  In this moment of
calm clarity, the juxtaposition struck him as mildly amusing; him,
passively detached, and her overwrought with emotion. The moment was
shattered by the sound of screaming.  Even through the ringing in his
ears, Ryouga could easily make out the pained shouts, and instantly
realized that they didn't belong to either him, or Raven.

His gaze snapped up, finally taking in their surroundings-

His jaw dropped open in horror...  They were sitting in the center of a
street, or, at least the remains of one.  Where there should have been
asphalt and concrete, there was only exposed, blasted earth.  They were
perched at the very center of a massive crater which stretched from one
side of the street, clear across to the other.  One both sides of them,
several store fronts had been reduced to rubble by the blast; shattered
glass, powdered concrete and twisted metal security grates were
scattered in great swathes all around them.

Ryouga's mind shifted into overdrive as his mind tried to process every
single piece of information at the same time, as impossible as such a
task was.  As the world seemed to slow down around him, details began to
filter in, queuing up in a neat orderly manner for him to analyze.  The
light lancing down past the building tops and the bright pink skies
overhead told him that it was early morning, the sun still rising.  The
majority of the intact stores were closed, only a few had lights on, and
even the majority of those still had their security grates pulled down,
reinforcing the idea of an early morning.  There were several vehicles
on the street, though not many, as well as several individuals that had
likely been walking from somewhere to somewhere in the early hours of
the morning.

Despite his attempts to remain calm and collected, though, the sight of
an overturned car, a large truck flipped onto its side, both on the
outer fringe of the blast zone, began to crack his veneer of control.
The unmistakable sight of a uniformed officer hunched over in a daze on
the road several meters beyond the blast zone, and - to his unimaginable
horror - a morning jogger half buried in the debris of one of the store
front blasted him from his contemplation all together.

Moving as fast as his legs would carry, Raven still in his arms, he tore
across the street and skidded to a stop next to the collapsed
storefront, his feet digging long furrows into the upturned earth.  He
was on his knees a moment later - he carefully placed Raven on the
ground to his side - and frantically began digging the pedestrian out.
Picking up small pieces of shattered concrete, thankful that there
weren't any massive slabs that would have crushed the man, he quickly
uncovered the jogger.  A pained cough from the man gave him hope, and he
quickly lifted Raven to a sitting position next to the man.

"Raven, can you tell if he's alright?" he asked, frantic.

Still clutching her own skull, Raven stared at the man, trying to focus
her eyes.  A moment later, she nodded and reached forward, resting a
hand on his chest.  Even as a blue glow enveloped her hand, eliciting a
pained hiss from Raven, even as it caused the man's breathing to ease,
Ryouga spun around, looking over the rest of the disaster area.

He silently counted his blessings that, wherever they were, it was so
early in the morning.  He then proceeded to curse, wishing it had been
even earlier.

And then he was running again.  A hurried sprint carried him to the
overturned car in less than a second, and he quickly knelt down beside
the driver's door and looked inside.  A woman, the only occupant of the
vehicle thankfully - and Japanese, just like the man they had just dug
out of the rubble - stared back at him, wild shock in her eyes.  Still
hanging upside down, her seatbelt holding her in her seat, the woman
banged ineffectually at the driver-side window.  Not wasting another
instant, Ryouga punched his hand straight through the door, and pulled
the entire thing off with a squeal of twisting and tearing metal.

As gently as possible, he then reached in and undid the woman's
seatbelt, pulling her out of the vehicle.  This process was surprisingly
easy, as the woman offered no resistance at all, just stared at him with
unbelievably wide eyes.  Giving her a quick visual once over, he let out
a sigh of relief as he didn't see any signs of major injury, just a
trail of blood running down from her scalp, likely from hitting her head
when her vehicle was flipped over.

Satisfied that she would be fine; she wasn't reacting like she had a
concussion, and he'd had more than a little experience with those, he
walked to a clear patch of ground and sat her down on the road.  All he
needed to do now was flip that truck back up onto its wheels again and,
provided the jogger didn't require a rapid trip to the hospital, this
disaster would be well on its way to being mitigated.  Brushing his
hands off on his pants, he started towards the downed truck-

"H-halt!  Don't move! What's going on?!"

Ryouga started at that, as the order had been given in Japanese.
Spinning around, the martial artist noted the police officer that had
been knocked down earlier.  The officer was currently training a
comparatively harmless looking baton on the Hibiki, much to his dismay.
Soot covered half the young police officer's face and he had a bloody
slash across his forehead that he had to keep wiping at with his sleeve.
Holding up his hands, doing his best to give the impression of being
unarmed, Ryouga replied in a calm voice.

"Alright, officer.  I'm not moving."  He lifted his hands higher to try
to get his point across.  "I'm just trying to help.  We need to check on
the driver of that truck."

The officer, still looking shell shocked or even concussed, shook his
head violently.  "Shut - shut up!  Don't you move a damn inch! I saw...
I saw you... and the explosion..."

Obviously not interested in what Ryouga had to say, the officer tore a
radio from his belt and lifted began to bark into it.  "This is officer
Tsukino!  I require back up, immediately!  I - I got a pair of... I've
got a pair of damned terrorists! They just set off a bomb in the middle
of the street!  Send everything you've got!"

Ryouga grimaced at that.  A terrorist?  He thought they were terrorists?
How the hell were they going to explain this?

A voice crackled back via the radio.  "Officer Tsukino, report your
position! Are you injured?"

The wide eyed officer, still training his baton on Ryouga with one hand,
began to reply-

When, without any reason, the policeman suddenly collapsed to the
ground, out like a light.  A second later, an explanation was made
evident, as a thin trail of black energy detached itself from the back
of the man's skull, and evaporated back to where Raven was still sitting
on the ground next to the downed jogger.  Ryouga stared at the officer
uncertainly for a moment, then made his way to the dark Titan's side.
Immediately, he inquired about the man's condition.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"I've stabilized him," she replied through gritted teeth.  "He'll be
fine as long as emergency crews get here within the next few hours."

Relieved, he nodded and knelt down, scooping her up in his arms.  "And
you?"

Wincing slightly at the sudden lift, she nodded weakly.  "My head feels
like it's about to split open... and healing his injuries certainly
didn't help, but - but I think I'll be fine."

'Thank goodness for that.'

"And the cop?" he asked, nodding at the downed man.

"Just asleep.  He'll be fine as well, but I think we need to leave.
Immediately."

Frowning, Ryouga looked around him, surveying the damage that their
entrance had caused.  How much had been the dimensional anomaly... and
how much had been them?  The idea that they might have been wholly, or
even partially responsible for harming innocent people twisted his
stomach.  The thought of trying to explain this devastation to people,
especially panicked people in country where their brand of vigilantism
was still illegal, seemed like a tremendously bad idea at the moment.

"Damn... Damn!! We really stepped in it this time..."

- - -

It was the dead of night, hours since he had so slickly abandoned his
motel room, and with it, his cop tail.  Cyborg was chuckling to himself
as he wandered down the street, still shamelessly amused with himself.
According to the map he'd scanned, he should be in an area called
'Queens'.  Judging by said map, it looked to be a pretty highly
populated residential area, and his eyes told him that the immediate
environs weren't exactly a high scale region.  Reminded him a bit of
where he'd been staying before he joined the Titans.

Despite being in a completely different dimension, the large teenager
felt a bit like he was getting back into his element.  Everything might
be different, but the sights, sounds and smells were strangely familiar.
Looking up all around him, tall buildings - all at least fifteen stories
- dominated his view.  The sun was already starting to set again, but it
was just that much darker down here, walking between the tall
residential complexes.  He was pretty sure that he had plenty of time
before the cops finally realized that he wasn't coming back, but he
needed to find a place to stay for the night.

Unfortunately, even in an area like this, he wouldn't be able to get a
room, since these were long term domiciles, as opposed to the motel he'd
been staying at.  They wouldn't just let a vagrant without any
dimensionally relevant identification move in, especially right at the
end of the day. He didn't like the idea of squatting, but if given the
choice between a cardboard box in an alley and an abandoned apartment in
which to do his delicate scientific work, he had to choose the latter.

How to find an empty room, though?

Well, there was one way.  Approaching one of the apartment complexes, he
shifted his sight to thermal imaging.  Oddly, the resolution wasn't
nearly as good as he was used to, but it was still able to pick out heat
signatures through the less than optimal construction of the buildings.
The range wasn't great, but he could scan a few floors up, at least, and
if he wandered around the perimeter, he should be able to see if most of
the rooms had any inhabitants, or not.

The first building didn't offer any solace, nor did the second.  Walking
down the street to the third, Cyborg paused as he noticed an older,
heavily bearded man wandering past him in the opposite direction.  It
was sort of hard to miss, what with the large sign the man was carrying.
Cyborg found it hard to resist chuckling as he read it.

'ALIENS R REAL!  THE END IS NIGH!'

Shaking his head, Cyborg pulled out a handful of change and offered it
to the man. "Yo, dude, I totally believe you. Just so you know, though,
some of them aliens are pretty smoking hot, so I don't think you need to
worry as much as you think."

Smiling to himself, he continued on his way, leaving the very confused
man in his wake.  A few more buildings passed, fully inhabited on the
lower levels.  He was starting to think he might need to try to get a
higher vantage point -

Which was about the time that he realized what an idiot he was for not
noticing earlier!  Some of the apartments had satellite dishes clearly
hanging outside them!  If he could get his hands on one of those, he
could transmit a signal easy! All he had to do was find an apartment
that had a dish and was empty, or at least had an empty apartment close
to it.  Even a vacationing family would do; he wouldn't need it for
long, just long enough to jury rig it to send a signal!

So excited at his good luck, he didn't even think twice about rushing
down the wide, darkened alleyway before him, excitedly looking up at the
walls of the buildings around him, carefully looking for any rooms he
might make good use of, if only for a time. It didn't help that he was
focusing his attention not only upward, but in infrared. With his
internal computer drawing up a real-time schematic of the building
nearby, it was all too easy to lose track of his surroundings.

Accidentally kicking a bottle, he heard it break against a nearby wall,
momentarily shifting his attention back to the street. It was a
fortunate move, since it kept him from all too eagerly running right
into a metal link fence that blocked off the alley. Feeling more than a
little foolish, Cyborg turned to head back the other way.

Doing so, he noticed he wasn't alone.

Interposing themselves between the dimensionally lost Titan and the
street proper stood a group of young men. None looked older than mid
twenties and some were lightly dressed, despite the night's chilly New
York air. More than a few had specks of light that flared in his thermal
vision: cigs, dancing between lips and teeth. Switching back to normal
vision, Cyborg's sensors easily identified an assortment of weapons on
the thugs. They were also, to a man, latino - yes, it was definitely a
gang, but since this wasn't Gotham, he didn't have any data on the local
troublemakers.

"Ey man, you lost or something?" the one at the front spoke first. He
couldn't have been more than twenty, with a too-thin attempt at a
moustache. Two of the others exchanged quick words in Spanish, though
Cyborg's active translator quickly deciphered the conversation (yes, he
had an App for that, too).

[Big guy. You think he's high?]

[He ain't so big. Looks like a /translation_error to me.]

Cyborg sighed, instantly recognizing the group for what it was.  Yet
another slice of a life long forgotten.  It had been forever since a
group of punks like this had dared to lift a finger against him.  Of
course, he didn't exactly have a rep of any sort in this world to back
him up ... not that he needed it.

Holding up his hands, he gestured calmingly.  "Look, dudes, I'm not
lookin' for any trouble here.  I ain't exactly rollin' in the dough, so
shakin' me down ain't gonna get you anything.  Let's just pretend you
never saw me, and it'll all be cool, right?"

"We ain't chur dudes!" the lead gangster spat, snapping out a pocket
knife with what he probably assumed to be practiced ease, and in a
manner he likely assumed to be threatening. "An, guess what, we don
wanna rob you either."

"Teachin' you a lesson sounds like a lot more fun," another gangster
agreed, this one wielding an aluminum bat. Another, carrying a long pipe
in a loose, easy grip, just chuckled around his cigarette.

"What's wrong, big guy? You gonna shit your pants?" the one in the back
asked darkly. "Maybe then we'll let you go."

"..." Cyborg just stared at the gathered punks.  Teach him a lesson?
Man, and he hadn't wanted to get involved in this world at all, but they
were making it way too inviting to slip into old habits.  Heck, he would
be doing this dimension a favor putting these gang bangers down for a
few days.

Taking a step forward, Cyborg cracked his knuckles, each one sounding
off like a snapping tension line.

"Okay," he decided. "You punks wanna teach me a lesson?  Why don't you
start with addition?  As in my fist plus your faces, equals you lot
knocked the hell out on the ground?"

"Who da fuck you think you're talkin' too, pendejo?" barked the leader,
nearly red in the face. "You crazy if you think we're lettin' you walk
away now!"

Predictably, the head ganger charged forward, as did two of his cronies,
one with a bat, and the other swinging a short chain around like a
maniac. There were a few things that the cybernetic teen could have done
there to deal with the problem, like just slap the knife out of the
guy's hand and drop him with a tap to the head ... but that just didn't
feel like a good enough lesson for these guys.

So, instead, he just stood there, smiling broadly as the lead punk
charged forward and slammed into him with his shoulder, jamming the
knife into his gut as hard as he could.  The tiny metal blade snapped
loudly, dropping to the ground with a clatter a moment later.  No one
else seemed to notice, as his buddies kept charging in, but the leader
took a few uncertain steps back, staring at him in shock.

And then the other two swung in at him. Cyborg lifted both his arms
contemptuously.  The swinging chain wrapped around his left arm tightly.
The aluminum bat he simply caught in his hand.

The two punks joined their leader in shocked staring as the large teen
stared down at them with a wicked smile on his face. Then, without any
effort at all, he pulled back with his left arm and closed his right
hand into a fist.  Even as the aluminum bat was crushed into an aluminum
braid in his grip, the chain wielding punk went flying through the air
behind him, only stopping on account of slamming bodily into the chain
link fence, some ten feet away, and flopping to the ground.

Instantly, a hush fell over the crowd.  Easily tugging the bat out of
the punks grip, he let it drop to the ground a second later, where it
rang out ominously as it hit the ground.

"Now... was there a second part to this lesson you were gonna teach me?"
he asked, trying to sound genuinely curious. "Gotta admit, dudes, that
I'm not learning a whole lot in this curriculum."

Not nearly as dumb as they looked, the leader began to back off quickly,
as did pretty much everyone present - some of them even going so far as
to break and turn completely.  Feeling in a generous mood, Cyborg
decided to give them a helping hand.  Gently reaching forward, he placed
his palm on the chest of the backpedaling leader, and gave a light
'shove' to help him along his way.

The kid's body shot through the air, for all intents and purposes a
living bowling ball and he crashed into three more of his fleeing
friends, sending all of them spilling to the ground in a pile.

Taking another look around, it seemed like a couple were gonna make it
to the end of the alley, though.  Now, Cyborg didn't really need a bunch
of jerks running around telling the world about him before he had a
chance to get outta Dodge.  And, conveniently, their backs were to him
... Smiling, the Titan lifted his right hand, and with a loud clacking,
the appendage shifted into its sonic cannon configuration.  Rather than
ramp it up to full blast sonic assault, he quickly reconfigured it and
then fired.

With a dull thud, an expanding sphere of pale bluish light emanated from
the end of his cannon.  The series of low frequency sound waves washed
over the fleeing punks, reverberating through their bodies and playing
havoc with their equilibrium.  At first, they all simply lost their
balance and stumbled, but after a few seconds of carefully calibrating
the power, they dropped like flies, passing out from the weakened
attack.

"Well, looks like class is dismissed then," he quipped with a smirk.

Of course, it wouldn't be too long before they started to wake up, so he
needed to beat it quick.  Turning around, he took a quick look at the
chain link fence, and without a second though, leapt over it.

A moment later, he was gone out the other end.

- - -

"How are you holding up?"

The tone of concern in her companion's voice was appreciated, but the
ear splitting volume with which he asked was not.  The fact that he was
barely talking above a whisper told Raven just how terrible she was
still feeling.  Of course, it would be unproductive to dwell on her
aching skull, so she nodded very gently.

"It's ... not as bad as it was.  The smell of this dumpster isn't
helping anything," she muttered darkly, patting the garbage receptacle
they were hiding behind in the alley.

Raven then realized just what she'd done and quickly wiped her hand off
on her cloak.  They alleys were actually surprisingly and pleasantly
clean compared to what she'd been expecting, but unfortunately, the
dumpster was one of the few things big enough to actually block the view
of any people walking down the road.  It was troubling that they had to
hide, but at this point, they had little choice. Things had gone
unimaginably wrong in an unbelievably short period of time.  In the
blink of an eye, they had gone from heroes to terrorists.  It was
strange to contemplate, the idea that they could be considered
terrorists of all things!  Back in Jump City people like that were a far
removed threat, relegated to less developed, war torn countries, where
super heroes were generally not welcomed.

It just didn't make much sense to her for them to be labeled as... as
that kind of menace.  Super villains, certainly! Such acts of wanton
destruction were quite common among their ilk, after all. Regardless,
terrorist or super villain, the increase in police activity since the
incident left no doubt to how seriously the local law enforcement was
taking the situation.  If they were caught now, before they had a chance
of contacting any of their friends to begin smoothing things over...

Speaking of which.

"Have you had any luck with the communicators yet?"

The Lost Boy shook his head, befuddled. He held up the pair of yellow
communicators, one round and one hexagonal.

"No," he responded in a discouraged negative. "It's the strangest thing.
I can call your communicator fine, but no one else's.  The map database
is working fine, too, but the GPS function is down, so I can't actually
find out where we are."

Raven considered the new information for a moment.  "I think that Cyborg
mentioned something about some form of network that allows the
communicators to transmit across longer distances.  It's possible that
... whatever happened to us might have disrupted that function.  On
their own, they only function at a range of fifty kilometers or so."

"Hmph, that's still pretty impressive, actually, but not too helpful.
If we can't contact Robin and the others, then we can't ask them to help
us get out of this damned mess."

Her temples continued to throb painfully, but Raven ignored it with
practiced ease, nodding in return.  "And without the network running, I
can't contact Ranma, either, to get his assistance.  I never thought to
actually ask him for his phone number ..." She cursed herself for that
lack of foresight.  His help in this situation would have been
invaluable.

He made an oddly annoyed, noncommittal grunt, shifting into a cross
legged position.  "If only I had my pack.  I have the Tendo's phone
number in my address book, but it's been damn well forever since I used
the damn thing." He fired a mock glare her way.  "You know, I'm pretty
certain that I was promised that you guys weren't going to let me get
lost like this again."

"We're only super heroes, Ryouga, not miracle workers."

"Oh, har de har har.  How can you joke at a time like this?"

"You started it, if you recall?  Besides, letting ourselves succumb to
panic will only make things worse than they are.  We need to remain
calm."

He nodded slowly, his expression softening.  "Yeah, I guess you're
right.  The less suspicious we act, the less attention we'll draw.  At
least relatively speaking, anyway."

"That still leaves us with several notable problems," Raven continued.
"Finding out where we are.  Finding out how to get home.  And blending
in until we can figure out how to traverse the distance between point A
and point B."

"Blend in?" Ryouga asked with a puzzled expression.

The violet eyed Titan rolled her eyes, then looked down to her costume.
"Unlike you, not all of us wear street clothing when battling crime."

Ryouga smirked triumphantly, crossing his arms over his chest.  "Yeah,
and see where that got you?  Why do all you super hero types wear
colorful costumes, anyway?  I never really got that part of it."

"Well, considering you haven't even grasped the secret identity aspect
of the profession, that's not a surprise," Raven fired back ... only to
hesitate.  "Though, now that you mention it, I can't remember the reason
Robin gave for the outfits. Something about iconography, I think."  She
held up the corner of her cloak.  "This isn't even a disguise, this is
the style of robes common to Azarath before I came here. I realize it
doesn't conform to Earth fashions, but Robin thought it was quite
distinctive."

She could have swore that Ryouga muttered something that sounded like
'he's not the only one', but she couldn't be certain.

"Pardon me?" she asked.

Suddenly, the Lost Boy coughed loudly into his fist.  "Ahem!  Nothing,
nothing.  Just, we should probably both find some different outfits.  As
... 'distinctive' as your robes are, people probably got a good
description of me, too."

Raven nodded.  "You do have something of a... distinctive look as well.
Oh, and there is one thing that will certainly need to go."  With expert
skill, the cloaked girl reached up, and with a single flick of her
wrist, removed Ryouga's bandanna.

All of them.

The martial artist stared at her, incomprehension in his eyes as he felt
the wind blow across his naked forehead.  "H-how did you do that?"

She simply smirked.  "There are some secrets that you just aren't
prepared for, Hibiki."

It was amusing to see his speechlessness, but not exactly productive.
Her brief 'down dressing' of her teammate did give her an idea, though
it brought a tinge of pink to her cheeks.  Quickly, she gave Ryouga a
once quick over, then did a quick comparison on herself.

"Ryouga ... I need you to take off your shirt and belt."

The boy's face went from white to crimson in point five seconds.
Amazing circulation, these martial artists.  Moving quickly, she reached
out and clamped her fingers down on his nose to forestall a bloody mess.

"Breathe, Ryouga.  You're wearing your undershirt, right?"

Slowly, Ryouga nodded, his color returning to normal.  "Oh ... oh!
Right, right!"

Quickly, he pulled off his bulky yellow sweater, revealing the tight
fitting black T-shirt her habitually wore beneath it.

'This crisis is beginning to show its silver lining,' the blushing Titan
thought to herself.

She motioned for him to stand up next, and he then helped her stand with
a gentle hand up.  First, Raven unhooked her cloak and handed it to
Ryouga, taking his sweater in return.  When she slipped it over her
head, much as she expected, it fell down to cover most of her thighs.
Stealing his belt and cinching it around her own waist transformed the
ill fitting sweater into a makeshift, if not terribly fashionable dress.
She twirled around once, just to make sure it didn't reveal anything
that it shouldn't ... though, considering she was wearing it over her
regular outfit, that was a bit of a ridiculous thought.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, hoping it didn't look too unsightly
on her.  She wanted to avoid attention, not draw it with her poor
fashion sense...

"Ryouga?" she asked again, after several moments of silence.

For some reason, her companion was blushing again.

"Umm ... are you alright, Ryouga?"

Instantly, he shook his head furiously.  "No, no!  It's great - great -
you look great, yeah ..."

"Oh ... well, thank you," she mumbled back.

She also made certain to school her features to prevent the smile that
threatened to grow on her lips.  That had been more than she had been
expecting.  Though, it did take her a few moments to regain her train of
thought.  Unfortunately, changing her dress wouldn't be enough in her
case.  As distinct as Ryouga's appearance was, hers was far more so.
Even though it filled her with revulsion, she rose to her feet and
started looking through the alleyway.  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to
find any convenient hats, but she did find someone's discarded scarf.
Shivering slightly as she pulled the long strip of cloth from the
dumpster, she proceeded to drape it around her head and neck, doing her
best to cover up her hair, as well as the stone adorning her forehead.

It was far from ideal, and the smell was less than pleasant, but the
dark green scarf was far less unusual than a head of dark violet hair.
She shot Ryouga an inquisitive look, and took his non committal shrug as
confirmation that it was not a fashionable disguise at all.  Still, it
beat the alternative... she hoped.

"Alright then, where were we?" It took her a moment to recall where
she'd been heading with her plan.  "Oh, right.  Do you have any money?
If we're going to find new clothing, and more importantly,
transportation, we'll need some."

Ryouga looked at her, puzzled.  "Don't you have the cash card that Robin
gave each of us?"

Raven frowned at the martial artist.  She pulled out the hem of her
'dress' tellingly.  "Does this outfit look like it has any pockets?  I
didn't bring my purse to the battle for the same reason you didn't bring
your backpack." A weary sigh. "I suppose that means that you don't have
anything on you, either, doesn't it?"

"Actually," Ryouga countered with a weak grin, "Unlike you girls, guys
have these things called wallets that fit easily into their back
pockets."

To prove his point, he dug out a folded piece of leather that looked to
be older than Raven herself.  She almost expected to see plumes of dust
puff out when he opened it up.  Much to her surprise, the thing was
packed with various cards, mostly what looked like business cards from
around the globe, judging by the numerous languages she could see just
in the front row.  She felt a strong desire to simply take the wallet
and start rooting through its contents out of unbridled curiosity, but
she managed to fight it down.  She did spot his Titan Spending Card, so
that concern was put to ... wait a moment.

"Ryouga!  There must be close to four hundred dollars in there!"

The martial artist gave the wallet a quick look over.  "Yeah, that's my
'emergency lost funds'.  Whenever I managed to scrape a few dollars
together, I'd stick it in my wallet, since I'm slightly less likely to
lose my pants than my backpack ... man, that's a depressing statement."

Raven refused to laugh at the absurdity of his statement.  "That's a lot
of money, though."

He nodded.  "Yeah, tell me about it.  I guess I hadn't really noticed
that I kept on putting money in there, but I never took any out, on
account of not getting lost for so long.  And even then, the last time I
had the cash card, so I didn't need the 'emergency lost funds'."

"Please stop calling them your 'emergency lost funds'."

"What?  That's what they are.  Besides, it's an emergency, we're lost,
and we need funds, so I'd say they're pretty aptly named, being my
'emergency lost funds' and all."

She narrowed her violet eyes, brief fancies of violence flashing through
her mind, before sighing in defeat.  "Alright, you win.  Well, let's go
find a currency exchange, then we can find some new clothing. We should
be able to find out where we are while we're doing that."

Ryouga nodded.  "Shouldn't be too difficult."

Wrapping up his T-Brella with her cloak, he stuffed it under his arm and
started walking down the alley.  "There should be a bank around here
somewhere.  Follow me, Raven."

Luckily, their discussion of 'emergency lost funds' had refreshed her
memory to that often forgotten piece of information.

"Umm, no.  Why don't you follow me?"

- - -

Stifling a yawn, Ryouga leaned back into the chair, trying to find a
comfortable position in the inherently uncomfortable seat.  Add to that
the discomfort of being trapped in a woman's clothing store, waiting
outside the changing room certainly didn't help, either. He wasn't even
worried about anyone spotting him, so much as he was a bit uneasy
sitting within arm's reach of a large display of ... tiny, lacy
underpants.

He had already gotten himself a new disguise/outfit.  Raven had flat out
forbidden him to get another yellow or green Chinese shirt - it had
nearly come to blows, until she reminded him that she could toss him
into the ocean from where they were standing.  When he'd pointed out
that they were indoors, she just gave him a somewhat creepy smile.

So, now there he was, wearing a - he sighed in disgust - a polo shirt
with a tiny crocodile on the breast, and a pair of ... of khaki pants.
In comparison, the baseball cap and sunglasses he was wearing her
downright bearable.  He also had a duffle bag to hide his umbrella,
though he still had to carry the bag, since the strap wouldn't hold the
weight.

Despite the horrendous discomfort of the situation, waiting for Raven to
change did give him some time to think.  Their trip to the bank had
revealed one pertinent piece of data.  They were in Hokkaido, which
explained why they weren't able to ring Ranma, being well more than 50
kilometers away from the smug bastard. So, at least there was one upside
of their unfortunate side trip.

With a swish, the curtain of the changing room slid open, revealing the
newly outfitted Titan.

Okay ... make that two upsides.

Ryouga felt his jaw drop open a bit, but quickly shook his head and
snapped his mouth shut.  The navy blue sundress, not all that different
from the ones that Akane frequently wore, though a bit darker, was,
frankly, not like anything he'd ever imagined seeing the violet haired
girl wear.  The big floppy hat and sunglasses were just adorable, too.

"So, how does this one look?"

Not wanting to make himself look like an idiot twice in a row for the
same thing, he smiled lightly.  "Well, it's no yellow sweater, but I
guess it'll keep the rain off."

Her face fell into an indignant pout, before his smothered chuckling
tipped her off to his attempt at humor.  "How did you put it?  Har de
har har?  I just want to know that people won't recognize me."

"Are you kidding?  I hardly recognize you myself.  You should wear
dresses more often, you know?"

"You wish, Lost Boy."  Raven rolled her eyes - at least he assumed she
did, behind the sunglasses.  "Alright, then, I think we're done.  We
just need to pay and get out of here."

Ryouga nodded.  "And then figure out how to get home.  Which likely
means finding out where the nearest airport is."

Within a few minutes, they had paid for Raven's purchases and were soon
strolling through the mall, looking not at all like a wandering pair of
super heroes/martial artists. Their stroll ended abruptly though, when,
in utterly embarrassing fashion, Raven's stomach let out a loud rumble.
Instantly, her face flushed red and she clutched her stomach.  She fired
a death glare at the Lost Boy, vainly attempting to hold in his
laughter.

"You know, Raven, maybe we should stop for something to eat?"

Forcing her face to return to its normal pallor by pure force of will,
Raven nodded as if nothing had just happened.  "Well, if you're hungry,
I suppose it couldn't hurt."

Ryouga managed to control his mirth, and tactfully followed her to the
nearby food court.  It didn't take long before they had acquired some
slices of American pizza, drinks, and a small table to eat at.

"So, have you ever wandered through this city on your travels?" Raven
asked between bites, anxious to fill the silence.

Taking a large bite of his own, he shook his head.  "I've been through
Hokkaido before, but I don't know if I've been through this particular
city.  They all tend to blend together after a while, you know?"

Raven shook her head.  "No, not really.  But then, I don't exactly have
your... travel experience."

A weak chuckle.  "I suppose that's one way to put it.  It's too bad we
can't stick around, though; Hokkaido has some really famous tourist
attractions and stuff.  Mt. Tengu has a nice gondola ride, and there's
even a museum dedicated to Tengus on the mountain.  There's Flower Land,
which is actually nicer than it sounds. Then, of course, they have some
really famous hot springs as well."

Slowly, Raven digested those factoids along with her pizza. "A museum
dedicated to Tengu?  That sounds ... interesting."

Ryouga nodded absently, taking a sip of his soda.  "Oh, yeah, you'd be
amazed how many amazing artifacts they had related to them.  Oh, and
then there was that tour boat I got onto at Akan Lake. Man, now that was
a relaxing time. Though at the time I thought it was a boat to Hong
Kong..." He shrugged, not wanting to get sidetracked on exactly how
badly he'd gotten lost his last time up north. "Of course, that's
neither here nor there, since we have to get back to Jump city as soon
as possible."

Mulling things over as she nibbled away at her slice, Raven considered
the situation carefully.  Here she was, on the far side of the planet,
in what was apparently a beautiful area chock full of amazing tourist
attractions that she would likely never have the chance to see again.
Not only that, but she was here, alone, with Ryouga, away from all of
the distractions that her friends represented.

Of course ... their friends were possibly terribly worried about them,
and there wasn't really any easy way that they could contact them to
assuage their fears, not to mention the fact that they were doubtlessly
wanted criminals by this point.  Logically speaking, though, their
friends would be just as worried after one day as they would be after
two. It was just such an unprecedented opportunity; she'd never actually
been on a 'vacation' before.

"Do we?" she asked. "De we actually need to get back as soon as
possible, that is?"

The Lost Boy graced her with a puzzled look.  "Pardon?"

Raven shifted uncomfortably in her seat.  "Well, it's unlikely we'll be
able to get back right away, regardless.  Who knows the next flight we'd
be able to book on such short notice?  Is there any reason we couldn't
... I don't know, take advantage of this situation while we have the
chance?"

"Take advantage?" he asked. "I'm not sure I follow?"

Sighing weakly, Raven explained, "Well, how about this?  Why don't we
find a base of operations today, then we can find the nearest airport,
and check out the earliest flight we can catch.  Then, depending on how
long we have to wait, maybe... go see some of those sights you
mentioned?  It wouldn't really be delaying our return, per se, just...
not wasting the time we might be stuck here, anyway."

"Well, when you put it like that," Ryouga pondered aloud, "I guess it
does make sense. And I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to have a little
fun while in the middle of our crisis.  We'll just have to take extra
precautions to avoid the police and such.  As long as we use cash and
don't make any big scenes, we should be fine."

Raven nodded, feeling better about her decision by the moment.

"That's a good point.  We'll have to hope we don't run into any other
accidents, or incidents while we're here.  It will be hard, but we'll
have to resist our instincts to jump in and help out with every
emergency we come across."  An impish smile settled on her lips.  "I
suggest that we check this 'Flower Land' first.  I can't imagine too
many villains would be interested in attacking there."

Her companion let out a good natured laugh, and nodded full heartedly.
"Alright, fearless leader.  There should be an internet cafe in here
somewhere we can use to find out where we can stay and where the airport
is, so let's go."

Standing up, Ryouga offered her a hand to help her up as well. Hiding
her blush as best as she could, she accepted the offer, placing her
small hand in his rough, calloused one.

"Let's go?  I thought I was the fearless leader."  She quickly
reconsidered her statement.  "On second thought, I want to be the leader
about as much as I want Beast Boy to be the one running things.  Lead
on, MacDuff."

Ryouga stared at her oddly for a moment, before shrugging.  He began to
walk off in a random direction, before being stopped by her hand on his
elbow.

"Of course, by 'Lead on', I mean follow me while we go where you think
we should go," she quickly explained, already pulling him in the
opposite direction.

Huffing loudly in annoyance, he nodded.

"Yes, boss."

"I'm not the boss!"

"Whatever you say, boss."

"Oh, shut up already."

She stared at him darkly, just daring him to reply.  When it finally
appeared that he'd learnt his lesson, she finally turned to lead them
onward and forward-

"... Yes, boss."

The violence that followed was deemed, by Raven, to be perfectly
justified.

- - -

New York City

Officer Fielding whistled appreciatively at the baseball bat, snapping
on a pair of plastic gloves before bending over to pick it up. Part of
it had been crushed clean through, as if by a hydraulic press... but not
flat. Instead, it was crushed almost like a tin can. He wasn't even sure
what kind of tool you'd use to produce this sort of effect.

"Take a look at this," he said, handing the unusual item to his partner.

Officer Christianson examined it with open disbelief. Behind her, the
detective assigned to tail the "mystery man" stood among the site,
parked a short distance away from the police car near the entrance of
the alley.

They'd already talked to some local kids - known gangsters - who had
obviously had an earlier run in with some "giant monster freak."
Naturally, they claimed it attacked them. It was a load of bullshit,
obviously, but by the time they got to the scene to corroborate the
story, there was little left. A few things stood out. A trail of urine
where one of the punks had pissed himself. A broken switchblade, snapped
where the blade met the joint. The warped baseball bat...

No useful prints though.

They had managed to get what looked almost like a footprint from what
could only be a metal boot of some kind. The projected size of it was
over thirteen inches, but with the ground being solid asphalt, they
couldn't get a good weight estimate.

"Just what are we dealing with here?" Christianson asked what all three
were thinking, placing her hands on her hips in frustration. "Iron Man
or something?"

Her peers answered with a long silence.

Clearly not.

- - -

Lady Kiima wasn't exactly the hardest person on the base to find.
Whenever possible, she refrained from using her Jyusenkyou curse to
blend in, insisting to her team that it would be best if the rest of the
staff and personnel simply acclimatized to her unusual appearance. It
had taken a while, but after a few missions the military staff had
shrugged off the whole 'wings and talons for fingertips' thing. Chengdu
was a small facility and mostly military, so when the grunts decided it
wasn't an issue most everyone else followed suit. Fighting aliens had a
way of putting human differences in perspective, and an ally was an
ally. It didn't matter what they looked like, as long as they fought and
bled on the same battlefield against the same enemy.

Mint thus had little trouble finding her. Off duty, the former Captain
of the Phoenix Mountain Imperial Guard wore the same olive drab uniform
- shirts and pants for dress, fatigues for every day - they all sported.
Her rank within UNETCO was a mere Acting Sergeant, subordinate to Lord
Herb and able to give orders to the rest of Romeo Squad, but not yet
possessing full NCO accreditation.

Since she and the rest of Romeo could still be called up at any moment,
she wore duty fatigues in the common Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM)
camouflage style so many of the base's Commonwealth soldiers preferred.
Black gloves covered her hands, but her pure white wings stuck out,
quite literally. There was only so much she could do to fold them up
behind her and they had necessitated some alterations to her uniform
around the back to accommodate them. Her ceremonial sword rested against
her hip and swayed as she walked.

"Lady Kiima!" Mint called, nimbly moving around another person in the
corridor: a civilian in blue regulation uniform.

She glanced over her shoulder, peeking from around her left wing, and
saw him.

"Ah. Mint." Kiima paused to let him walk up to her side.

He could see a electronic pad tucked under her right arm. "I know you
must be busy, Lady Kiima, but... if you have a moment?"

"Of course I do, Mint," she replied with a friendly smile. "What can I
help you with?"

He smiled black; Kiima was so much nicer to her subordinates than Lord
Herb, as long as they didn't screw up anyway. She had a very short fuse
when it came to goofing off or incompetence and at the end of that fuse
one could expect a quick explosion and a good stomping. Not that Herb
was any different; his inclination had always been to just blast someone
into next week when they pissed him off. She was much more approachable,
though, especially when it came to certain topics.

"Is this about breasts again?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"No!" Mint yelped.

"Pretty girls?"

"No! Well. Kind of. Mostly no."

She sighed. "Go on, then."

"It's uhm... about the girl we brought in," he muttered, kind of
hesitant to continue, but already too invested to just run away. He
tucked his left hand guiltily into one of his pants pockets. The other
was still bandaged, and he let it hang by his side. "I'm having some
trouble. With writing my report of the capture operation."

"As long as you do a better job than Lime," she suggested. "Don't worry
too much about it."

"I know, but... but I really want someone to pay attention to this one,
and I don't know how to write things so they don't come out sounding
silly. I mean..." He could see her about to ask, so he explained, "The
girl we brought in. I don't think she's one of Cologne's weapons."

"You don't think she's an alien?" Kiima asked, tilting her head
curiously to the side. "She admitted to looking for Cologne."

"Yes, but... there are two Colognes now, right?" Mint asked. "And... and
I know she's an alien, or part alien part human... but I don't think
she's a bad person. I only fought with her for a few seconds, really,
but in that time, I couldn't help but think: 'this is kind of fun.' Even
though I got hurt, it was my own fault for being distracted and then
landing wrong. I don't think she wanted to hurt anyone. Well... maybe
she wanted to hurt Lord Herb..."

"Mint," she replied with a sigh. "You're rambling. Focus on what you
want to say."

He nodded sharply. "Yes. Okay. My experience as a martial artist and as
a Musk tells me she isn't an enemy. When I fight an enemy, a real enemy,
all I want is to kill him and then go back to what I was doing before.
That's always how I've felt. That's how I feel when I kill aliens or
other bad people. That wasn't how I felt when I fought this girl. My
instinct is telling me that and I believe it."

Kiima didn't reply at first, instead shifting her e-pad to her other
arm.

"Lord Herb... I think he believes the same," she said and looked
distractedly up at the ceiling. "He said her 'killing intent' was as
piss poor as he had ever seen. If she is a hybrid of some new sort, she
clearly isn't the kind Cologne would want to use." She turned back to
her Musk subordinate. "But that doesn't change the fact that she's an
alien and that she caused that destruction back in Hong Kong."

"But... some of the reports we received say that she tried to save
people from the falling building.  If she was really an alien agent,
then why would she do that?  Shouldn't we at least give her the benefit
of the doubt-"

Giving an annoyed grunt, Kiima cut him off with a wave of her hand.
"None of that has been substantiated yet.  Look, the heart of the matter
is that we are soldiers, Mint. We follow orders."

She could only maintain her stern expression for a short time, though.
A ghost of a smile gracing her lips, she reached over and patted him on
the shoulder. "Write your report and repeat what you said to me in it.
Be clear and confident. Don't ramble."

He nodded slowly.

"Chinese authorities are already looking into what happened back at the
city, so we'll know more about what happened in the city soon enough.
And we've got the... the alien sedated while the mind probe calibrates
and auto-extracts," she continued. "HQ is already flying in a specialist
to ID who made her, and Lord Herb is looking into everything personally.
We'll know in a day or two what she is and why she was sent here.
Personally, I suspect she was dropped off by that large scout we shot
down two days ago. Either that or she came from another Sirius Group
cell."

"And if she isn't an enemy?" he asked, sounding hopeful. He gently
clapped his injured hand in his undamaged palm. "What if she was looking
for Cologne to get answers or revenge or something?"

"If she isn't an enemy...?" Kiima answered, huffing at the possibility.
No one aligned with humanity's enemies on Mars would get any sympathy
from her. Not after the Massacre at Jusendo. "Well. That'll depend on
her temperament, I suppose. It isn't our call to make anyway. Now, was
that all?"

Mint quickly bowed his head. "That was all, Lady Kiima!"

"Good. Carry on," was all she said as she resumed her duties.

'She isn't an enemy. I know it.' Mint was sure. Sure enough that'd he'd
make sure his report read perfectly. 'They'll see. When they go through
her memories, they'll see. '

- - -

It was an odd sensation as the pair strolled down the street.

Raven found herself enjoying the anonymity as they traveled through the
city.  No one gawking - well, a few people still were, but not because
she was a super hero - no one rushing up to her to ask for autographs,
or to ask her to endorse their products.  Honestly, why had they ever
allowed Starfire to open up the flood gates with that Zorbrian Spider
Juice marinade?  The violet haired girl shook her head, flopping her hat
about amusingly; she was getting distracted quite easily today.

She saw no reason to worry about it, though.  It felt like a great
weight had lifted off her chest along with the migraine which had
dissipated over an hour ago.  The Titan wasn't certain if it was the
scenery, the atmosphere, or the company, but she was dangerously close
to having a spring in her step.

Beside her, Ryouga was staring at a vintage paper map with such
intensity that it could have been the schematic for a nuclear reactor.
Seeing him so close to his roots, with a look of confusion on his face
bordering on adorable, warmed her heart a few degrees. Of course, she'd
already memorized the route they'd planned to get to the motel they'd
chosen, so letting him read the map was mostly for her own amusement.

They had spent several hours in an internet cafe, though their actual
productivity had slacked off significantly after the first twenty
minutes.  They had located where in the city they were and had found the
closest airport, which wasn't terribly far away. She'd even printed off
the address in case they needed to get a cab. And then they'd located a
convenient place to stay for the night.

After that, Ryouga had started surfing across the various tourist sites
that he'd mentioned earlier.  There were so many beautiful landmarks, at
least, judging by the photos: Flower Land, the museums, the mountains!
She made sure to print off addresses and routes for all of those as
well.  Hopefully they would have plenty of time tomorrow to see at least
a few after they purchased tickets in the morning.

Not long after that, though, he'd started getting sidetracked into
martial arts videos and forums. For her part, Raven had spent the spare
time looking for soothing music to listen to while her headache went
away. That was about all the skill she had with computers, anyway,
surfing Youtube to find suitably gothic songs to 'groove' to, as Cyborg
would say.  It had actually been very companionable, and entertaining,
what with Ryouga's steady stream of "know it, know it, beat it - what
the heck is that? - know it."

She had long become accustomed to his amazing talent for martial arts.
It was just another method of excelling, such as Robin's brilliantly
analytical mind, Cyborg's incredible knowledge of technology, or Beast
Boy's baffling inability to make a funny joke. It was one of the
problems with being surrounded by super human people all of the time,
she supposed.  Even the most extreme things became humdrum after a
while.

"Hey, do you want a drink? And maybe dinner later?"

The question came out of left field, and shocked Raven back into the
moment.  Beside her, the lost boy had put the useless map away and was
currently sorting through a handful of change.  Apparently, in their
travel they had crossed paths with a set of vending machines, and the
boy was preparing to buy himself a drink at least.

It was, she mused to herself, the small things that seemed to take on
the most importance when you found yourself living among veritable
titans. This walking juggernaut, struggling to scrounge up enough change
to use a vending machine, and actually showing enough empathy to ask her
as well.  It was such a tiny gesture, but it meant so much to her.

Raven realized that Ryouga was still staring at her expectantly.  "Ah -
yes. Yes, I think I would.  Whatever is available should be good."

Smiling pleasantly, Ryouga nodded and began to dump change into the
machine.  Soon enough, the pair of them had cold drinks in their hands -
some kind of bizarre grape soda that didn't actually taste as bad as
she'd feared - and were on their way once more.

The time passed pleasantly, chatting back and forth about nothing in
particular: where they should visit first, what their friends must be
thinking, what might have happened to that griffin.  Of course, there
wasn't actually anything that could be done about either of the latter.
Stoicism, as it was called, was something that she wished that she could
practice more often, but it was so very hard for her to not worry about
certain things that were so very far beyond her ability to control.

In seemingly no time at all, they arrived at the motel.  She couldn't
read the name at all, but she recognized the logo easily enough.  With a
gentle push, they entered the lobby.  It was a nice enough place, the
interior was well decorated, clean, and the man standing behind the
customer counter seemed sharply dressed and professional.  Raven was
content to let Ryouga talk to him.  The two spoke back and forth rapidly
in Japanese for a few moments while she glanced at a stack of magazines
set out near a chair by the wall.  A few moments later, he handed over a
not-inconsiderable amount of the cash they had remaining.

The man then handed Ryouga a simple card, smiling brightly, and
gesturing which way they should go.  Raven made certain to take stock of
the gestures, so that they could actually find the room in question.
With only a few minor herding difficulties, they managed to locate it
and used the key card, to get inside.  Much like the lobby, the room
looked nice, had a few tasteful paintings, a television set up before
the bed...

Waaaiiiit a moment.

With glacial movements, Raven turned to stare at her companion. "Ryouga
... why is there only one bed?"

The martial artist withered under her scrutiny.  "W-well ... we only
have so much money, y'see ...  I wanted to make sure that we had enough
money to - to do some actual sightseeing tomorrow?"

"Oh, really?  And the second bed would have cost that much extra?"

"Yes! - ahem, I mean ... you would be surprised. Japan isn't exactly a
cheap place to visit, you know?"

Raven gave him 'the look' for a few moments, before finally relenting.
"Fine, whatever.  I'll let it slide this time.  It's been an exhausting
day; I'm not used to battling twenty six dimensional hypergriffins,
shopping and avidly avoiding the police all in one day. I really need to
get some sleep."

Ryouga nodded sharply.  "It's a bit early, but that doesn't sound too
bad.  ... Still how should we go about the sleeping arrange-"

"On the floor, Lost Boy!"

Looking down, more than a little red faced, Ryouga nodded.  "Right,
right, of course.  I'll just set up over here. On the floor. The cold,
cold floor."

Raven rolled her eyes and took off her hat, tossing it onto the night
stand.  "Don't even start.  Just pull the drapes so it's dark enough to
sleep."

"As you command." Smirking to himself, Ryouga moved over to do so.  "I
must say, this 'taking charge' thing is a lot easier when you tell me
what to do all the time."

The dark Titan gave a slight huff.  "You know, it wouldn't kill you to
take a little more initiative some times.  You've already proven,
repeatedly since joining us, that you are more capable than you think.
Your training with Terra ... what you accomplished in Atlantis - what
little that you told us about that, anyway.  You don't need to sit on
the back burner and wait for people to tell you what to do all the
time."

He returned an amused glance.

"Oh really?" he asked. "But it's okay for you to do so, is it?  You've
got a lot more experience being a member of this team.  You should be
much more prepared than me to take over in a situation like this.  Why
so insistent that I take over?"

She wasn't actually sure herself, so she shrugged.  "I'm not really the
commanding type... but Robin could use all the help he can get with our
team.  Having someone else that he can depend on could never hurt."

With that, she pulled the blanket off the bed and tossed a pillow to the
Lost Boy.

He caught it effortlessly and moved to the foot of the bed to spread out
the blanket.  While he was busy doing that, apparently silently mulling
over her words, she slipped the sundress off over her head and folded it
carefully before setting it under her hat.  Ryouga didn't even bat an
eye, considering she had been wearing her uniform underneath the entire
time ... though she did feel a tiny bit exposed without her cloak on
overtop of her leotard style outfit.

Kicking off her shoes, she then slid beneath the sheets of the bed.
Unfortunately, the mattress wasn't nearly as comfortable as her bed back
home, but she supposed she wouldn't have to deal with it for too long.

Apparently satisfied with his makeshift futon, Ryouga nodded to himself
and stripped off his polo shirt, again revealing the just a tad too
tight undershirt he habitually wore beneath it.  Then, in what she felt
was an odd twist, she quickly averted her own gaze down into her pillow
when he stripped off his pants, revealing his boxers before laying down
out of sight.  Sliding her head to the side, she found she could still
see his head as she peeked over the edge of the mattress.

"Comfortable?" she asked drolly, hiding her pinkened cheeks behind the
sheets as she glanced down at him.

Turning to look up at her, his hands resting beneath his head, he
nodded.  "Yes, actually.  The carpet is a lot softer than most places I
sleep.  I think I was getting a bit spoiled with actually having a bed
lately."

A tiny smirk twisted her lips at that thought.  "See, I'm doing you a
favor.  We wouldn't want you to get soft, would we?"

"Heh.  That would be quite the trick, considering I've spent the last
few months getting pummeled by Mammoth, Star, Cyborg and Terra."  The
boy's voice took on a somber tone.  "I had almost forgotten what real
pain felt like, after countless years of training in the martial arts...
but once I met you and everyone else, I found I felt decidedly...
average.  It's not exactly a bad feeling."

She nodded.  "Not standing out as some sort of freak does have its
appeal."

Raven then slid back into the middle of the bed, sighing lightly to
herself.  She closed her eyes and tried to will herself asleep.  It
wasn't exactly a winning proposition, though.  Her mind was racing a
mile a minute as she laid there, only a thin sheet covering her. Despite
their promise not to worry about things they couldn't control, she found
herself worrying about those very things.  Being lost, what their
friends must be thinking, the implications that they were considered
violent criminals... were all quite minor issues indeed compared to the
other issues on her mind.

One of the things most keenly on her mind lately was, of course, Jinx.

It seemed incredibly petty, considering the gravity of their current
situation, but she couldn't stop focusing on the major annoyance of
having her foremost rival, on more battlefields than just one, traipsing
around their city. The fact that Kasumi and Terra were silent advocates
of the pink haired terror only furthered the frustration, as their
opinions had a tendency to soften the opinions of other Titans.  Why she
couldn't have just remained lost, training with Happosai, Raven had no
idea. She didn't want to think too much about the main problem between
her and Jinx at the moment; it was just too frustrating to contemplate,
considering the situation.

Having Ryouga, half naked, at the foot of her bed was something of a
distraction.

At the same time, though, she didn't really want to fall asleep, either.
Her nightmares had only been getting worse over the past month, and
without an easy line of communication with Ranma, she was afraid that
Ryouga would find out about her ... problem.  There was absolutely no
way that she wanted to concern him over something he could do nothing to
alter, and the idea of explaining her nightmares of searing flame,
blasted hellscapes and tortured souls wasn't exactly high on her list of
'good ways to break the ice'.

So, she didn't want to think of her problem with her nightmarish
dreaming situation, either.

With so many things that she didn't want to think about, it left her
thoughts to continually circle around to the same point.  The fact that
there was a healthy male boy sleeping less than four feet away from her
- and the fact that she was thinking in redundancies only worried her
about her mental state more.  It was hard to ignore the fact that he was
there; she could literally feel his ... his himness from where she was
laying.

The violet haired girl tossed and turned beneath the sheets, finding
sleep to be as elusive as ever.  She was a night owl at the best of
times, so in retrospect trying to get to sleep early was doubly
ineffective for her.  Not wanting to sleep and not being able to sleep
were a potent combination; all she could do was watch the red glare of
the digital clock as the numbers ticked by, minute by minute.  As the
sun set, casting the room into perpetual gloom, she found her mind
wandering once again.

Was Ryouga uncomfortable on the floor?  Had it really been fair of her
to simply banish him from the bed without so much as a second thought?
It wasn't like he wasn't trustworthy.  He passed out on the couch with
Starfire all the time; casual contact was so easy between those two.
The same went for Ryouga and Terra, she'd seen him throw the girl in
more than one headlock and play-wrestle her for the remote with reckless
abandon.

Even Jinx managed to steal more than her fair share of personal moments
... like just earlier that very day in the S.T.A.R. labs.  The pair had
thought they'd leapt apart before she'd spotted them, but she had
clearly seen the way that the pink haired witch had sprawled herself
across the Lost Boy.  She wasn't sure whether she was annoyed or
thankful that Jinx actually had enough concern for her feelings to
attempt to hide those personal moments.

On the other hand, Ryouga rarely even got within arm's reach of Kasumi.
Something about the Tendo girl seemed to have that effect on all of the
Titan males.  They all but adored her, but even Cyborg, with his
desperately obvious crush, dared not touch her; it was as if they all
worshipped her, but only from afar.

So where did that leave her?

Ryouga and herself had been on several outings which could definitely be
mistaken for dates to an outside observer.  It was all but understood by
every one of the Titan's that there was 'something' between the two of
them, though what that was, was a hotly debated subject. As long as
Raven was out of earshot. If that was the case, though, then why was
contact between them as rare as contact between him and Kasumi?

Maybe it would be a nice gesture on her part to offer to share the bed
for the night?

Surely, if he slept above the sheets and she slept below them, it would
be perfectly proper and not indecent at all.  And... if they happened to
brush up against each other due to tossing and turning that would
inevitably be beyond their control ... well, they were both fully
dressed, more or less, so it wasn't like it would hurt anyone. Right?

She shook her head, blushing hotly in the darkness of the night.

There was no way she could bring herself to do that! Honestly, what
would Ryouga possibly think of her if she acted like that?  He was
handsome, and popular with the rest of the Titans; she doubted he'd
appreciate some lonely goth girl coming on to him out of the blue.

Her brow furrowed as she considered something else.  Flipping over and
stretching out, she wondered how Jinx did it.  She had no trouble
latching onto the Lost Boy like Shampoo on a certain pigtailed martial
artist. He'd spent so much more time with Jinx than with herself,
though, and so much of it in that Academy, where who knew what they
could have gotten up to?  And then again, during the week when Raven and
the rest of the Titans were on Tamaran, Jinx had had more than enough
opportunity to work her considerable wiles on the hopeless boy.

Not even sure why she did it, Raven suddenly spoke out.

"Ryouga ... are you asleep?"

She dearly hoped he was-

"Not really, no.  I guess I've gotten used to the late night patrols,
right?"

A low chuckle escaped Raven's lips.  "And I thought that I was the only
night owl here."

"So, what's on your mind?  Having trouble sleeping?"

'More than you can imagine,' she thought to herself.  She stared up at
the ceiling, able to pick out the silhouette of the light fixture
against the white ceiling.  "Ryouga, do - do you mind if I ask you a
question?"

There was a moment of silence, before her companion finally replied. "I,
uh, I suppose not...  What did you want to ask?"

The dark Titan quailed internally for several seconds, but emboldened by
the psychological disassociation of speaking to the darkness, she
finally gathered the nerve to ask:

"Have you ever kissed Jinx?"

"'Wha - what'?"  She could feel panic spike in his spirit, sense the
shock at being put on the spot so suddenly.

"Ryouga, calm down," she commanded.  "I'm not judging, or jealous, or
anything.  I'm just curious, really. I promise."

His fear subsided slowly, but she hoped that her earnestness broke
through to him.  She hadn't lied; she wouldn't hold it against him. She
knew that he had no real control of what Jinx happened to do while Raven
wasn't around to keep an eye on her, much less back when he had been at
the HIVE and under mental persuasion.  Honestly, she was more interested
in potentially learning something from her rival's boldness.

Finally, after a seeming eternity: "There - there was one time... in
Atlantis.  I mean, she started it, but - but..."

It was obvious that he wasn't sure how to explain it without hurting her
feelings somehow, so she cut him off and asked what she really wanted to
know.

"W-what did it feel like?" She could feel her cheeks burning hot enough
that she was surprised they weren't glowing.

She could feel the embarrassment rising up off of Ryouga like a bonfire
as well.  There was something else in his aura as well, though, but she
couldn't recognize it in the slightest.  Even though she couldn't see
him, she could see him in her mind, touching his fingers to his lips
thoughtfully.  Was he lost in some not so distant memory?  Remembering
the feeling of pink painted lips on his?

"It... was electric.  Literally.  We - we had just come within an inch
of dying, I think we were both in shock, and... once we realized we
weren't dead, something just snapped.  I don't know what it was, maybe
she couldn't control her power, or I couldn't control my chi, or maybe
both, but it was like kissing a live wire, only it was soft and warm at
the same time. I can't really describe it beyond that ...  I'm sorry."

Raven shook her head, though it was a meaningless gesture.

"You have no reason to apologize."  She found herself running a finger
across her own lips.  It sounded nice, honestly.  Exciting, passionate,
all the things that Raven wasn't.  She couldn't imagine having such a
kiss herself.  Throwing herself so fully into the moment, not a care in
the world?  It sounded wonderful, but could she risk it?  Unlike Jinx,
if she failed to control herself, she could actually hurt the martial
artist, physically and mentally.

Still ... it sounded nice.

Though she didn't really want to, Raven found herself drifting off to
sleep, thoughts of a perfect kiss on her mind.

- - -

It was their first night together, alone.

Tokyo wasn't particularly cool this late in winter and the city was
alive with activity. The canopy of stars overhead was obscured by the
light pollution of the great metropolis, leaving Ryouga and Nabiki
illuminated by the glow of street lights and nearby neon. With Mousse
gone for the first time since leaving the base, they were really alone
together. Both had spent far more time than they would admit thinking
about that while they slowly got prepared for their first true off-base
date.

In truth, they had been together for two months, but the majority of
that had been deep under Seiran Mountain, locked within the confines of
the underground base. They'd learned to steal short moments away from
the cramped confines of the facility during Ryouga's walks outside with
Shirokuro, but those were just brief excursions. Within the base, with
omnipresent security and friends and family always in close proximity,
it was hard to find time to be just together. Previous 'dates' - if they
could be called that - had simply been having lunch or dinner together,
seated face to face at the base mess hall or one of the rec rooms. A few
times, they'd had the combined courage and opportunity to invite the
other over to watch a program or recording on their personal computers.

When India Squad had finally qualified for a short off-base rotation to
handle quick-response investigations in Japan and Korea both knew it
would also be an opportunity to work out their relationship. It didn't
even need to be mentioned aloud. It was the kind of chance that would
come only twice a year, if that. For Nabiki's part, she'd been openly
ecstatic to get back out into the open air: to rent a hotel and eat out
and visit a few interesting cities.

Ryouga had been more reserved. For him, the furlough was simply a change
in environment. Unlike Nabiki, he left base every time he had a mission,
and he had little affection for city life, though he could understand
why many loved the atmosphere and the creature comforts. More than that,
he had known it would also involve them working out just what "they"
were.

He had to admit, it was one reason why he'd kept Mousse nearby.

Now, together, there was thankfully little awkwardness. The short times
they'd had together and the companionship developed over the months had
helped to alleviate the nervousness both of them felt both about each
other and about being thrown back into the civilian world. Ryouga's
rotation off base had necessitated a wardrobe of respectable civilian
clothes to suit a variety of aliases, so he had simply reused one:
wearing a plain pair of black pants and a comfortable yellow dress shirt
and dark sports jacket. He supposed he probably looked like any other
'young professional' his age. It wasn't suitable clothes to fight in,
but he had a few bandannas tucked away just in case of an emergency. His
belt, too, ensured he was never really unarmed.

Nabiki had clearly put more work into her appearance. He could tell,
from the moment they met up at the hotel lobby, that she was wearing
make up - a vanity she normally didn't bother much with. It had been a
little surprising seeing it on her, and it drove home that she wanted to
spend the time with him... and just him. He felt likewise, but at the
back of his mind he couldn't help feeling apprehensive. It wasn't like
he had a lot of experience with great relationships, or partnerships
with women that ended well. There was also that issue, too...

Still, she looked amazing.

Granted, she had always been an attractive young woman. The guys had
ribbed him about it before during off duty downtime when, more often
than not, they ended up talking about women... and especially the women
on the base (though actresses, models, video game girls, and, hell, just
about anything female was fair game). Even Kuno knew enough to
appreciate that Nabiki could be quite a sight. Her body was amazing, of
course, toned from years of light martial arts and regular exercise, and
her large brown eyes and typically smirking face were both alluring and
intimidating.

Showing up with eyeshadow and a professional pencil skirt, complete with
light blue jacket and embroidered blouse, he could guess why he'd been
waiting around for a good twelve minutes, praying not to get lost in the
lobby full of people coming and going. Especially once Mousse had left
him in one of the seats, chuckling madly about the whole situation and
promising to wring the details out of his commanding officer at a later
date. Twelve harrowing minutes resisting the urge to get up and loiter
around! But she'd even put on little silver earrings, an embellishment
he didn't recall seeing her wear before (especially since she'd told him
before she disliked earrings). The black boots, however, looked rather
tight, and he silently wondered just how she had even gotten them on.

"You clean up pretty well, Hibiki," was what she had said upon finally
finding him. He'd eventually given up on waiting and decided to waste
time by fiddling around with his cell phone.

His first words had taken a few seconds to make it from his brain to his
mouth.

"Um, you too I guess..." probably weren't the classiest choice of
compliment, but she had smiled, likely expecting something of the sort.
She'd taken his hand after that, and they'd left to walk around town a
bit before having dinner.

He'd stolen more than a few quick looks her way in the meantime, trying
to appear casual while they talked. Once out in the city, and free from
the restraints of Seiran Mountains and their work, he could see how
Nabiki really relaxed. She stopped frequently to point at things -
usually expensive objects in windows - and gush over how overpriced they
were and how she was sure she could find a better deal "online" or
"through her contacts." When asked why she didn't, she had merely
grinned and stated that, sometimes, one wanted to pay top dollar, even
when not totally necessary.

"I just don't understand that," he'd quickly decided, reusing a phrase
that had become rather stock common when it came to her quirks. "If
they're overpriced, then that should make them less worth buying. No one
wants to be gouged out of their money."

"Ryouga-baby," she playfully played along as they walked past the store,
her attention finally diverted from the merchandise. "You're treating it
as if any and every given thing has a set value."

"....huh?"

"I know you can haggle," she replied, bumping against his side to sort
him out. "Don't play dumb... or dumber."

"Oh, well, yes, there is that," he admitted. Not that he had to haggle
much since coming back from China, but it was certainly a skill set that
helped wanderers worldwide, martial artists or not.

"The price of any given item is determined by a battle between seller
and buyer," Nabiki explained, and held up her index fingers to
illustrate, putting them together tip to tip. "In some cases, the buyer
has the advantage, like if they're buying online or at a stall that has
to clear its inventory over a short time. Like all those shops that pop
up around temples for holidays. Most of the time, the seller has the
advantage, because prices in bulk are set from top down, not bottom up."

Her fingers pushed back and forth, mimicking the commercial tug of war.

"Call it a duel of wills. Instead of fighting intent and muscles, the
war between buyer and seller relies on conviction and buying power. 'If
I lose this customer, will I make up the sale?' 'Is it better to make a
small profit than risk no profit at all?'" she described it with
cheerful gusto. "Like two cars playing chicken: which one turns first?
Which one gives better than she gets?"

He scratched the back of his head in confusion. "I still don't get
why...."

"Let me put it another way, Ryouga-baby," Nabiki said, and thought for a
second about how best to clarify things. "Who's the strongest martial
artist you know who you don't want to kill?"

"One I don't want to...? Hey, you know, when you put it like that it
makes me seem like the bad guy!" Ryouga objected with a huff. "I don't
want to kill Cologne, or Tofu, or Ayabe, or any of them. They're trying
to kill me and everyone else!"

"Okay, so?"

He sighed. "I guess... Herb. Yeah. He's got a nasty personality, but
he's strong. Still stronger than me or Ranma in a straight up fight."

"And if you fought Herb to a standstill, you'd be pretty proud of
yourself?" she asked.

"Sure... I mean, I'd like to beat him in a clean fight, but..." he
trailed off. "Anyway, what does this have to do with any of that
overpriced jewelry stuff?"

"Because," she stressed the word. "The very fact that you can fight with
someone super tough, even if you don't win, kind of demonstrates how
awesome you are, right? And if I go and buy something expensive, even if
I could have gotten a cheap knockoff, it still shows that I can waste
money like a high roller."

She quickly added, "Of course... I'd be much happier swindling someone
out of something precious than just buying it at retail..."

The way she said 'retail' it may as well have been a four letter word.

Ryouga just shook his head.

After this long, he'd very nearly given up on trying to understand
Nabiki and money, simply accepting that she had eccentric tastes. There
was no question that she seemed to enjoy nothing more than cheating or
tricking people (himself included), even going so far as to claim it was
"her martial art." He briefly remembered the Christmas present he'd
gotten her and which she now wore around her neck, under her shirt. He
wasn't sure what had impressed her more when he explained how he had
gotten the necklace: that it was expensive or that he had gotten it at a
discount by pulling in an old favor.

So they spent another twenty minutes staring at various paintings on
sale in an upscale boutique.

Making them, of course, late for their restaurant reservation. Ryouga
supposed it wasn't much of a surprise. Between his chronic...
'directional dysfunction'... and her desire to drool over expensive
items in every store on their way from the hotel, it was a miracle they
got anywhere as a couple. Dragging her away from the Sharper Image store
had been particularly difficult. Now trying to make up for some lost
time, they moved a bit more quickly.

Along the way, they saw other couples, gaggles of businessmen just
starting the night and on their way towards complete inebriation, and
groups of younger teenagers out with their friends. They were in a nice
part of town, but even at night, Tokyo was a busy and crowded place. Any
intersection near the subway hubs, in particular, were guaranteed to be
congested.

Vehicular traffic was lighter, luckily, and it was low enough on the
level of noise pollution to carry on a brisk conversation. Nabiki was
much more the talker than he was, though, so Ryouga spent most of his
time listening. Which was fine. Giving orders in battle wasn't that
hard. After a while, it was easy to drop your inhibitions in that
situation, but in places like this his natural shyness tended to
reemerge.

By the time they got to the restaurant, their reservation had expired.

Thus began Nabiki's "well meaning" attempts to get them inside. Never
one to go right to "pleading" or "giving up" she skipped right to
indignation, demanding a table - and when that failed - demanding to
talk to someone in charge, because "who the hell did they think they
were, anyway?" And also, not to be forgotten, "just who did you give our
booth to, huh?"

Never mind that one whisper of, "I bet you could level this entire
building with one finger, Ryouga-baby. Not that you should, but you
could. And accidents happen."

No: definitely not.

Eventually, after another half hour of wrangling, Nabiki seemed to have
gotten "the very next available table" when she declared she didn't want
it anyway. Ryouga spent most of the time quietly standing around and
trying to drive home the point that, yes, while he could destroy the
building with one finger (literally), it wasn't going to happen. Nor was
any other property destruction, if he could help it. He had a bad enough
reputation in certain parts of the country as it was. Like that one
landslide could be blamed entirely on just him tunneling around...

When it became clear that she was truly angry at the place, he guessed
they wouldn't be eating here, regardless of whether she got her way or
not. Fortunately, his cell phone had an app that could find nearby
restaurants, and when she finished chewing out the sacrificial lamb sent
down by that establishment's manager, he pointed out a nearby place that
would be just as good. Nabiki's mood seemed to go an abrupt 180, and she
smiled and dragged him off.

Ryouga remembered, while being dragged along, once telling his fellow
squad mates how "Nabiki was scary." It was still true. She wasn't like
the quiet, shy girls he'd imagined ending up with. A martial artist to
the core, it was traditional - or so he'd heard and learned - to find a
weak, mostly normal girl to protect. As someone who lived the Art and
who expressed themselves best with their fists, one could thus best
express one's love by protecting another. Nabiki was pretty normal
(though still physically quite above most women her age), but if there
was ever trouble, she wouldn't be the type to cower and let him jump in
to rescue her and look cool. She'd probably just toss him at the nearest
threat while happily cheering on the ensuing violence.

Which meant all his old fantasies of fighting an implacable enemy while
his girlfriend constantly yelled "Ryouga-samaaaa!" with tears in her
eyes... well, those had all been pretty much thrown out the window for
the foreseeable future.

Eventually, they found a Spanish and Italian restaurant, lined by glass
facades and running water, like waterfalls, that helped to obscure the
eaters inside from the lights and street life outside. Nabiki's mood
improved even more once they found a table. The restaurant was both
larger and less crowded than the one they had made the earlier
reservation for, and with fewer prying ears and eyes around, Ryouga
found himself relaxing a bit more as well.

The waiter brought a round of sangria, Nabiki's choice, and took their
orders. To Ryouga's surprise, Nabiki picked out one of the more
expensive entrees in the form of the ossobucco. It wasn't the price tag
that was surprising, it was that she would pick one of the meatier
dishes available.

"We should enjoy our time off base," she explained, after the waiter
left. "That means getting something nice to eat. Plus, I do love veal!
The more decadent the better!"

He did as well, and had ordered the seafood paella based mostly on the
logic that they'd end up sharing some of each other's dishes anyway.
Nabiki always tended to want to try out what others got, even back at
the base mess, where she could just walk thirty feet and get whatever
she was curious enough to try. For the middle Tendo daughter, however,
taking was always more fun than getting. After a while, he'd learned to
reciprocate, and so at lunch or dinner back at Seiran, she ended up
eating his food and he hers. Especially since she almost never finished
what she ordered.

While they waited for the food, the conversation became a bit more back
and forth. They chatted a bit about the mission in a general sense,
careful not to let anything sensitive slip. Eventually things strayed
into the realm of their immediate circle of friends. A favorite topic
was what Nabiki called the "Ryu-Ukyou-Konatsu" triangle.

Not that Ryouga thought there was - or should be - much of one.

"Come on, Nabiki, do you really want there to be some kind of love
triangle going on there?" he finally asked, not getting why she found
the topic so amusing. "Considering all the trouble we went through back
in Nerima-"

"Wait just a second there, lost boy! Trouble 'we' had? Don't bulk me in
with you love struck martial artist types. Aside from almost getting
killed by Ranma's fiances once or twice, I had a perfectly fine time
watching from the sidelines." She brusquely waved off the brush with
death as a natural consequence of getting too close to the pit fight
that was Ranma's tangle of engagements.

He spared her a hooded look. "Really?"

"It was funny!" she insisted. "I love Akane, but she she's just
completely stupid when it comes to boys, and Ranma's as clueless as you,
Ryouga-baby."

"Oh, thanks."

"All it would take is a little poke here, a few words there..." Nabiki
snickered. "And Shampoo would crash through a window into the bath, or
Ranma would see someone naked, or Akane would go running to find a
wooden sword or mallet or table to bash him with. Or you'd run off to
'protect' your precious, delicate Akane-san. I never could resist stuff
like that. Do you know how hard it is to walk by a bees nest and not
throw a rock?"

"Yes, well, this time we're basically trapped underground with that same
bees nest," he said, not surprised at all to hear about her difficulty
regarding rocks and angry insects. "So try not to poke it. Not that
there's anything there to begin with."

"Why? Because Ukyou and Konatsu had their little duel?" Nabiki asked and
chuckled at his apparent naivete.

"Yes! That's exactly why! They fought seriously." He held up a manly
fist, as if to demonstrate how important it was. "Between martial
artists, a single blow can speak a thousand words."

She shook her head sadly. "I think you're putting too much faith in the
human fist over the human heart, Ryouga-baby. But you'll see. Call it
women's intuition."

"As long as it doesn't affect them in the field, its no one's business
but theirs anyway," he argued, reaching for a glass of water. "Ukyou and
Ryu are both adults. They can do whatever they want to do. So can
Konatsu."

"All three of them, Ryouga-baby? Its kinky but I like it!"

A series of embarrassed coughs, and he had to turn away to wipe the
water that had come straight up his nose. God knows, if this was a half
year ago, he'd probably have transformed to boot. The satisfied,
giggling face of his date gave the distinct impression she had waited
for just the right moment to put that image in his head.

It was a stupid thing to have to worry about anyway.

X-COM, like many military organizations, did not have codified
fraternization rules discouraging certain activities on base or between
personnel. It seemed to recognize that duty in the organization on any
level, from engineer to scientist to pilot to soldier, was inherently
stressful. It recognized that it couldn't stop the sort of thing that
always happened when men and women worked and lived in close proximity.
Some affairs among the Command staff had even become quite well known,
such as the ongoing dalliance between Commander Barrett and one of her
pilots over at Andermatt. The two were said to be all but married.

Every base was different. Some Colonels and Commanders tried to
discourage it. Others turned a blind eye. Commander Yasuda fell into the
latter camp: so long as it did not affect one's performance, it was
considered personal business, and not something that needed to be
disciplined. Ryouga knew that he and Nabiki weren't the only item at
Seiran. Ranma and Akane had been together for... probably three or more
months now... though neither would ever publicly acknowledge it and both
still took pains to keep it a secret. Sergeant Hanley was supposedly
meeting up with a technician over in the psi-lab, according to base
gossip, Lieutenant Stirling had recently married a woman down in the
engineering fab.

It was just less common among soldiers, rather than soldiers and
civilian staff.

As an officer, he knew all women on base - with no exceptions - were on
some sort of implanted hormonal contraceptive. X-COM had a very strict
no pregnancies policy, both due to the practical needs of maintaining
base secrecy and functionality, and due to the danger of the work. Rad
counts were taken monthly from all personnel in proximity to Elerium and
Elerium powered technology. It was safe for adults, but experiments had
proven that long term exposure could have detrimental effects on fetal
development, and likely also on young children. They were not a family
friendly "Starship Enterprise" as Ranma would quip.

It was probably a policy some women took exemption to. Those women, he
assumed, were simply not accepted into the program or allowed to stay
on-base. There were always Sanctuary Communities, where they could
contribute in a lesser sense. However, base life necessitated the
contraceptive. As far as Ryouga knew, the only "woman" not using it was
Ranma.

"What's so funny?" Nabiki asked, surprised by his sudden bout of
laughing.

So he told her.

One thing he loved about Nabiki was that she wasn't a big fan of the
pigtailed martial artist. Ranma may well have been Ryouga's closest
friend and vice versa, but the Saotome heir was still an annoying cheap-
shot using jerk. Nothing was better than a good joke poking fun of the
pigtailed one, and to his joy, Nabiki was full of them. Not that she
disliked Ranma either, but Nabiki just loved to poke fun. And she was,
deep down, mean enough to appreciate it. He was no saint either, despite
the strictness of the martial arts code, and this was an instance where
their senses of humor tended to coincide.

Which brought him back, full circle, to the problem with on-base
relationships.

He liked Nabiki.

He did. And it was a little scary when he thought about it, for a lot of
reasons. The least complicated one to think about was that he was a
soldier now. X-COM mortality rates for a six month tour of duty (which
he was in the tail end of) were about forty percent. Nearly half of all
new recruits - all special forces or similar types - did not survive six
months of contact with the enemy. That was AFTER more than half of all
potential applicants were also weeded out for being psionically too weak
to be anything but a liability in combat.

By comparison, the unusually high death rate for allied troops in
Afghanistan for the current year was around one in thirty six or about
three percent. The death rate for UNETCO's soldiers was more than ten
times that of any modern terrestrial conflict, despite the finest
technology and training available. Alien weapons were still far too
deadly; their psionics still far too powerful; their numbers endless,
and their terror elements with no equal. The statistics brightened when
it came to veterans: after a one year tour, the mortality rate dropped
to a "mere" ten percent.

In any given mission, death was always a possibility.

As a martial artist, as one who loved and lived and breathed the Art,
Ryouga had accepted this. Death was a part of the lifestyle. One had to
always be ready to lay one's life on the line: for new techniques, for
honor, for your fellow man, for The Code. He knew he had come close to
death on many occasions.

Yet, how would things change, if Nabiki were in danger and he could do
nothing, being deployed hundreds of miles away? What if Seiran was
attacked while he was on a terror site somewhere? He had criticized
Ranma for being too eager to keep Akane out of danger, yet now he knew
just what the pigtailed fighter felt. Akane was a field operative now,
in another squad. Would she be one of that forty percent?

Relationships... complicated things.

And things were always complicated enough, even without them!

Dinner stretched on, past the as-predicted sharing of entrees (a handful
of his shrimp had been too tempting for her to pass up on taking), to
him finishing her ossobucco and properly picking it clean to the bone
("like a vulture," she observed, "Or some kind of anime character"), to
finally espressos and some after dinner dessert. Splitting a dish of
caramel custard flan and ice cream, the conversation somehow mutated
into a discussion about the recession, politics and the future of the
Liberal Democrat Party. It was all Greek to the martial artist at the
table; Ryouga had never paid much attention to politics, and the state
of the economy was something he only knew about in a very broad sense.

Nabiki may never have "managed the dojo finances" back home - or even
kept her own pockets that well stocked - but she seemed to know her
monetary policy. Not only had she been studying it at college, before
UNETCO picked them up, but she'd adapted what she knew to form some new
ideas about where the world would go after the aliens were defeated on
Mars. The big question was, she explained, whether they would find how
the aliens manufacture so much Elerium. If Cydonia had an Elerium
production facility, especially one that could be replicated and
expanded on, then the world would be headed for a new economic boom
fueled by interstellar expansion.

If not... if there was no sustainable means of producing Elerium on
Mars... then all the alien technology X-COM had produced and even
improved on would start to fail. Not all of it, of course, but much of
it required E-115. If Cydonia merely had a large reserve that would
quickly end up plundered and rationed out, then there would be fighting
between nations and corporations over the precious scraps. X-COM would
try and pool as much of it as they could to fund their own research into
a substitute or synthetic, or a manufacturing process of their own.

According to Nabiki, given a worst case scenario, the Elerium issue
could do what the aliens themselves had failed to accomplish. It would
be the end of the X-COM project and the end of UNETCO. Power blocks
would form to fight over what was left of the alien war machine, and
some would even blame others for defeating the aliens when there was no
source for new Elerium. She, and apparently some others she had been in
contact with, fully expected that - if the local aliens only imported
Elerium - then a global depression would hit the likes of which hadn't
been seen in almost a hundred years.

It was sober news to end the dinner with.

"Of course, they'll always be a market for men with your skills, Ryouga-
baby," she added with a wink. "I'm sure we can work something out after
we finish kicking alien ass! Have you ever heard of PMCs?"

After dinner, they'd planed to watch a movie at a nearby theater.
Nabiki, still a bit tipsy from the sangria, had luckily still been more
than cognizant enough to point him in the right direction. Despite the
initially shaky start, with the lost reservation and all, it had turned
into a nice night and a very pleasant dinner. It was still mostly Nabiki
talking and him listening, but he didn't mind that... or the chance to
hear and discuss topics aside from the Art. The food had been excellent
and they'd had a good time.

Ryouga found himself wishing they'd done it two or three days ago; the
delay really had been mostly his fault.

They'd decided beforehand on a movie called "Babel" that Nabiki insisted
was quite good and something they could both enjoy. Arriving just in
time to buy tickets and rush - with rather less dignity than either
would have preferred - to catch it before the previews ended, the rest
of the night was spend in comfortable silence. While the last year had
given him more comfort than before when it came to close contact, Ryouga
still found himself blushing in the darkness of the theater when Nabiki
rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm just a bit tired is all," she muttered, getting rather comfortable.

"You don't mind, do you?" she then asked, looking up at him. Of course
he didn't mind so much as he was still easily flustered. And she knew
it.

He offered a weak laugh to hide his embarrassment. "No, of-of course
not..."

They went back to watching the movie, though it quickly became clear
that Nabiki was a bit more tired than she let on. The film itself was no
action flick, but the multiple-plots coming together angle was
interesting, and it even had part of the film set in Japan. No ninjas
even. The theater wasn't crowded at all, either, which was a plus. As
some point, Nabiki managed to sneak one of her hands into his own,
playing with the calloused fingers while they watched the movie come
together and then wind down.

Like with the film, most of the way back to the hotel was spent in
pleasant and comfortable silence. Nabiki stuck close to him, and despite
being the clearly more sober and lucid of the two, Ryouga only managed
to get them nearly-lost twice. Walking at ground level was still very
confusing, and he was tempted to just roof-jump the rest of the way, far
more confident he'd be able to get them to the hotel if he just had line
of sight on it. Nabiki didn't mind walking, though, so he put up with
his terrible direction constantly forcing her to re-route them.

Though it seemed to take longer getting back then going out anyway.

The streets were less busy than before, with only the very late night
crowd and other night owls still hitting the town and enjoying the neon-
lit street life. It wasn't long before they came back to the concrete
sculpture and backlit fountain of the hotel. A bit of water splashing
their way nearly caused the martial artist in Ryouga to leap straight
up, and it took a bit of willpower to remind himself that he was cured.
Cured. And with his memories back, for better or for worse, thanks to
the insidious attack he'd suffered back at the assault on that alien
base.

Still: a good night, a good night.

In fact, it was probably the last good night they'd have for months.

It was traditional to escort his date back to her room, but given the
unique condition he suffered, both knew it would have to be reversed for
tonight. Besides, it was late, and neither wanted to have to wake Mousse
up just to get Ryouga back to his room. In front of the room's silver
plaque, 404, they stopped and basked in the end of the evening. It was
the perfect opportunity to say what he had been just thinking.

"Thanks," he whispered, carefully squeezing Nabiki's hand. "Tonight was
great. You were right."

"Of course I was," she replied, leaning into him. "A nice night."

"A nice night," he agreed.

He wasn't surprised when she leaned in a bit more and their lips met.
They'd kissed before, but this time, maybe due to the drink before the
movie, she was much more yielding and less aggressive. He didn't mind
her usually taking the initiative, but he'd be lying to himself if he
didn't find it a sudden turn-on. His hand came up to the back of her
neck, losing itself in her short brown hair; her hands rested against
his chest and shoulder, small gentle pinpricks of heat he could easily
feel through his clothes. Her breath still tasted of the after dinner
mints they'd shared, and when their kiss broke for air, it was quickly
followed by another.

Almost immediately, it became apparent that this wasn't like the handful
of previous intimate moments they had managed to steal while on base.
His right hand brushed Nabiki's cheek, and she sighed softly into his
lips. Was it the night they'd had? Or the drinks from before? Or was it
that they were alone, after months underground, with no cameras or
security checks in sight? Was it the stress of work, finally bubbling
over the restraints and inhibitions they had set up against it?

He felt her hand reach into his back pocket, retrieving the electronic
keycard for the room.

In that moment, he stared into her eyes, and knew what she was thinking.
What he had been thinking, too, if he were honest with himself. He
reached down to capture her hand in his own, though he'd originally just
meant to grab the card. Their fingers overlapped and the two paused,
suddenly unsure and a bit confused.

"Nabiki," Ryouga said, but didn't take the key from her hand.

She was almost a year his senior, but for the first time, with her
blushing like that, she actually looked like the shy younger girl he
knew she wasn't. He thought again about what had crossed both their
minds... and was now lingering there, teasing them with possibilities.
He was still a guy, after all, and Nabiki was soft and warm and a
perfect fit in all the right places. But...

"Nabiki," he said a bit more firmly.

"You... don't want to?" she asked, staring up at him. "Ryouga-baby?"

He avoided her eyes, not wanting to say what he was thinking. That they
couldn't. Shouldn't.

"Don't you..." she paused, a bit of her normal tone of voice coming
back. "I know you do. I know you like me. And... and I like you, too."
Her frowns creased a bit. "So... what's wrong?"

"I... I dunno," he lied.

Of course, she saw right through it.

"Ryouga," she said his name without the affection at the end. "What's
wrong? It isn't me, is it?"

"Of course not!" he quickly assured her, cutting off that line of
thought. "It... I just... I don't know. I worry about stuff. About...
hurting you, or... about maybe this is too soon. I know it sounds
stupid."

He glanced down the hallway, checking to make sure it was empty.

Nabiki was still watching him, still expecting more. And there was more
to it than that. He was worried about hurting her. His strength wasn't
entirely proportionate to his control; it was something he had been
working on before the incident all those months ago, and something he
had mostly neglected ever since. He could easily snap a normal human in
half, and Nabiki was - despite being in great shape - still basically
baseline human.

He was worried that maybe they were moving a bit fast, though not many
couples would call having your first real date after two months of
starting a relationship normal in the first place. They'd made the best
they could out of the situation at Seiran. They'd spent a lot of time
together before this, in his room or hers, just relaxing or talking or
hanging out. What made it seem fast was him. In the back of his mind,
doing something like this before he'd properly gotten revenge for
Akari... it felt like a betrayal. There was unfinished business, and it
had to end in blood.

It had to.

"Akane and Ranma managed fine," Nabiki finally said, sensing his
hesitation and his thoughts. "Ryouga-baby... we won't get another night
like this. Not for a long time..."

God, what kind of man was he, that he needed to be coaxed by a woman? A
beautiful, smart woman? Ryouga felt like shishi hokoudan-ing himself.
This wasn't how a man acted. He wasn't obsessed over that part of the
lifestyle like Ranma was (or pretended to be), but he was still a man.

"Ryouga-baby," Nabiki said, thinking now, analyzing the problem. "This
isn't just about us. There's something else."

"The curse..."

"I know about the curse," she insisted. "I've known for a long time now,
and I don't care. It isn't that."

"It's... it's..." he closed his eyes, finally relenting. Keeping his
voice low, he whispered the truth. The worst of it.

"Part of it doesn't feel right." He shook his head slowly, explaining,
"I like you a lot... as a close friend, and as... more, but... it feels
kind of wrong... Doing this. Because I... never did it with her. And..."

She could guess what he left unsaid:  'And I don't want to feel good if
it means I feel guilty.'

Nabiki sighed softly and leaned into his chest, resting her head against
him.

"Ryouga-baby..." her voice was barely a whisper. "Akari's gone. You know
that. You knew that when we..."

"I know," he cut her off. Placing an arm around her waist, he held her
close. "I know."

They stood there for a few seconds, leaning against the door to his
room.

"I don't think... it's even that," he went on. "I know she's gone. I've
accepted that. But... when Ranma and I freed you girls back on that
ship, all I felt was rage. It was all I wanted to feel. I wanted to just
keep killing and fighting and bleeding until it all went away, and I
didn't care what happened to me or to anyone else."

Resting his chin on the crown of her head, he could smell the lingering
scent of her shampoo.

"Then... then the guys started to grow on me. They stopped being just
weapons I could point at the enemy, and... and they became my friends.
Friends I don't want to lose," he confided, and he felt her press
comfortingly against him. "And you came along, and suddenly I wasn't as
angry as I used to be. Even on missions. At some point, I finally
realized: I wasn't just fighting for revenge, for her... I was fighting
because I wanted to come back alive with my friends... and with you."

"I feels like... if I go all the way," he finally said it. "It feels
like I'll be giving up; like I might hesitate... like I'll be unable to
fight like I need to. It's hard to describe."

It took a few seconds, but -

"I understand," Nabiki replied, her voice steady.

Reaching up with the hand that had been nearly-holding the key, he
cupped her chin and leaned down. They kissed slowly with less of the
intensity of before. Even as clueless as he often was, Ryouga could
sense Nabiki's disappointment. She was right. There wouldn't be another
chance for a night like this, not for months. Who knew what would happen
between then and now? Who know what and where he'd be sent to fight
next?

Gently resting their foreheads together, he kept his eyes closed.

He felt... like he was a selfish prick. It had been more than two months
now since she came along with that walk outside; since she had given him
her picture (or charged him for it, to be exact). He smiled at the
memory. He knew, in a vague sense, that Nabiki probably had needs of her
own. She wasn't sent out in the field like he was, but he knew she often
felt lonely at the base, despite her "friends and contacts" and her
family nearby. She wasn't very popular among many of her peers due to
her unusual rise up from nothing to coordinator for India Squad. He knew
she wanted this. He knew she wanted the night to end in a truly special
way.

And... he wanted her to be happy.

"Nabiki," he finally said, smiling slightly and trying to sound
confident. "I ... I want this. That's what matters."

"Are you sure?" she asked, knowing he wasn't normally the decisive type.

Not when it came to stuff like this.

"Yeah. I'm sure," he said, reaching down to press the key card into her
hand, rather than pluck it away. "I want you. If.. I mean, if you...
still..."

She nodded, once, and kissed him again.

Wordlessly, she opened the lock to his hotel room with a beep and a
click, and the two young adults slipped inside.

- - -

Down the hall and around the corner, Mousse pushed himself off the wall
with his elbows. Withdrawing a small mirror back into the sleeve of his
plain white shirt, he tucked his hands into his pants pockets and slowly
made his way back to his room.

"Looks like I got up for nothing," he dryly noted... but smiled.

Tomorrow would be a bit awkward, but interesting.

- - -

The next morning, Raven awoke with a start.  For a moment, she could
only sit there, sheets clinging to her chest and the sun streaming in
through the window... notably not sweating, or gasping for breath.  For
some reason, she couldn't remember her dreams, couldn't recall the
standard nightmarish apocalypse that had become the norm for her lately.
She felt oddly refreshed, actually.  In a way that she could scarcely
recall before.

Sitting up, she slid out of the bed and donned the lavender sundress
she'd bought the day before. She did like how flattering the dress was;
she'd even gotten more than a few turned heads yesterday, and not all
because she was a foreign barbarian, she wagered. The floppy hat went on
next, and she ran her fingers along the rim to adjust it just so.

"Ready to go, Raven?"  Ryouga asked, already dressed and standing by the
door.  She smiled and nodded, amused as he blushed and smiled, tugging
nervously at his bandanna as he was wont to do.

And then they were walking down the street.

Throngs of people lined the venue, but no one seemed to be paying any
attention to them, what with their clever disguises.

"So, where did you want to go first?"  Ryouga asked with a smile. "We
could go to Mt Tengu.  Or, maybe we should stop for breakfast first.
I'd really like to buy you something to eat, Raven."

The violet haired girl smiled shyly, a bit overwhelmed.  "Well, I would
like to get something to eat.  I'd like to say you don't need to buy me
breakfast, but you do have all the money, and it's probably not a good
idea to use our cash cards yet just in case the police are still looking
for us."

The martial artist looked at her oddly.  "The who?  ... Oh, wait, yeah.
The whole public destruction thing."

She shook her head in disbelief.  So forgetful, he was.

And, in a flash, there they were, at a nice bistro.  Ryouga was already
halfway through his massive omelet and she was pecking away at her
garden salad.  The waitress, a young woman with her brunette hair done
into a stylish page-boy cut, had just freshened up her tea and looked to
be expecting a tip for the service.  Ignoring her, Raven turned back to
her companion.  "I think you're right.  We should go to Mt. Tengu first.
I'd really like to see the museum they have.  I imagine it must have
some very fascinating artifacts."

Ryouga nodded agreeably, just barely avoiding splattering egg all over
his trademark sweater.  "I've been there before. I have to say, they did
have some good displays.  Also, fighting Tengu can be a really
challenging prospect.  Did you know that some legends say that Tengu
were the first to have actually taught humans martial arts?"

Raven's eyes widened in surprise.  "You've fought Tengu?  I didn't think
they actually existed."

The martial artist waved off her wonder with a roll of his wrist. "Oh,
yeah, both the winged, and the long nosed versions. Maybe if we're
lucky, we can run into the Tengu King?"

The cloaked Titan stared in shock, before slowly smirking.  "Oh, ha, ha.
I get it.  You really shouldn't tease me about things that are far too
plausible considering how insane our lives are."

"Hey, what can I say?  I'm Mr. Comedy, after all."

Raven stared at him for a moment.  "Um ... no you're not."

"Or not, I suppose.  Doesn't matter too much, either way, as long as
you're having a good time, right Raven?" he asked, smiling goofily.

Not finding any fault with his logic, Raven nodded happily.  "I am
having a good time, and the day is just beginning.  I think things are
definitely looking up today."

Her companion nodded, finishing off his meal.  "Exactly.  Nothing could
possibly go wrong today!"

Within a matter of minutes, they were strolling through the countryside,
a majestic mountainscape sprawling out before them.  It really was a
gorgeous sight, the beauty of the setting sun behind the mountain
casting an orange hue over the entire range, breath taking barely even
did justice to the scenic vista.

She squeezed Ryouga's hand, enjoying the warmth of his calloused fingers
in her own.  Feeling especially bold, she leaned against him, her
shoulder resting comfortably on his as they continued their walk.  The
gentle summer breeze teased her hair, and Ryouga's bandanna danced in
the wind like a long streamer.  The Lost Boy seemed to be enjoying the
moment as well, the light of the setting sun flashing in his unnaturally
pale blue eyes.

They walked past another couple, serenely strolling in the other
direction; the African American girl and the tallish Japanese boy didn't
pay them even the slightest mind, having eyes only for each other.
Raven could hardly blame them, the atmosphere was stunningly romantic,
and the girl's diaphanous wings were very flattering.

Soon, they were climbing the mountain trail, the lush expanse of
colorful flowers giving way to more rocky and, frankly less appealing
terrain.  It was starting to get dark as well, and Ryouga was keeping an
arm's length between them.  Even the small gulf between them felt like
an encroaching abyss, letting out a wheezing breath of cold and
loneliness and fear ...

She pulled her cloak around her more tightly to ward off the chill that
settled across her bones, disturbed by the rime of ice forming on the
fringes of the violet material.

Ahead of them, they were coming upon a pair of statues.  One was carved
in the shape of a humanoid figure, but obviously not human. With a
broad, arcing pair of wings rising into the sky, a feathered bird head,
and backwards turned legs ending in raptor-like talons, it looked to be
a creature straight from pages of mythology.  The statue across from it
was more human, but its wrongness was only more subtle, not less
prevalent.  The face, painted a bright red, bore a smile that seemed
more an expression of pain then one of joy.  And the nose was too long
and turned upwards in a parody of the human form.  Other small signs
pointed out at her of the statue's oddity, but she wasn't even sure what
they could be.

The statues began to move, a fact which didn't surprise Raven at all.

Taking several steps back, she turned to Ryouga ...

Who was gone?  Had he ever been there in the first place?

Perplexed, Raven turned back to the advancing pair of statues.  How
could she deal with such a pair of monsters?  It wasn't like she knew
the Bakusai Tenketsu, so what could she do to damage them?

Moving with surprising grace, the statues drew weapons.  The birdlike
one unsheathed a gleaming metal katana, while the long nosed Tengu
unlimbered a long spear, red tassels flailing in the gentle breeze.
Logically speaking, the situation seemed quite perilous to the violet
haired Titan, perhaps it would be best to go meet Ryouga at the airport
-

"'Hyaaaaa'!"

Raven froze in her tracks, the high pitched battle cry piercing the
night air, coming from somewhere above them.  A second later, a cloaked
figure dropped out of the sky like a rock.  The dark green robes of the
newcomer billowed wildly as they plummeted through the air, only to
vanish in a cloud of powdered stone when the green clad warrior smashed
through the birdlike statue like a cannonball through a house of cards.
Even as the stone colossus shattered into rubble and began to rain down
to the ground, the green cloaked figure touched lightly down on the
ground, barely even kicking up a ring of dust where they landed, before
launching themselves forward again at ballistic speed.  Cutting through
the raining debris as if it weren't even there, the hooded figure drew
back an arm and swung forward with all the might their slender form
could generate.

The cloaked figure's fist exploded into the Tengu's chest with the force
of a bomb!  A hole was blasted straight through the statue large enough
for the hooded demolition expert to fly straight through, even as a
jagged web of cracks and fissures spread out from the gaping hole to
every extremity of the living statue.  A second later, the long nosed
statue collapsed to a pile of stone and dust, kicking up a cloud which
obscured Raven's vision for several long seconds.

Finally, a strong gust of wind blew through, carrying the dust cloud
away with it, revealing the pristine, uncluttered mountain path once
more. A second later, the green cloaked figure landed before her, their
green robes flaring out dramatically before settling down to conceal
their slender body once more.  The person's hood, pulled down low,
concealed their face in a pool of shadows which Raven found to be
strangely unsettling.

They stood that way for a long time, the pair, possessing eerily similar
height and builds, made Raven want to think of something, but whatever
it was, it wouldn't come to mind, so she just asked the first thing that
came to her mind.

"So ... do you want to go see the Tengu museum?"

Lifting a hand slowly, the cloaked figure reached up to grasp the side
of their hood.  Then, in a dramatic flourish, they pulled the green hood
back -

"Dude!  Are you serious?  That'd be awesome!"  Beast Boy exclaimed,
voice thick with excitement.

Raven rolled her eyes.  "So glad you think so. Come on, if we don't get
there before dark they'll probably close."

A sudden chill ran down Raven's spine, she ... could have sworn she
heard something ... some distant bellowing.

"Did you hear that?"  She asked.

Beast Boy just looked at her oddly.  "Dude, s'nuthin to worry about!
Come on, we got some crazy bird statue things to look at!"

Put at ease, and with destination in mind, the pair continued their
ascent of the mountain.  Raven lost track of how long they walked,
conversing back and forth over whatever inane thing came to mind.  The
trail was steep, but it didn't bother either of them in the slightest,
the brisk breeze was actually refreshing as well.  Eventually, though,
they came upon the museum, or, at least a large archaic building that
looked like it would fit the bill.

"-and I tell you, Rae, I'm just not seeing it!  There's no way that
Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be aimed at girls.  I mean, seriously, it's
a show about kickin' monster butt and its filled with hot babes. How can
it not be aimed at guys?"

The violet haired girl replied with a put-upon sigh.  "And all of the
romantic subplots and obvious relationship centered drama?  It's the
next best thing to a soap opera.  I mean, why else do you think I
watched it?"

"But - but-"

What ever the green cloaked boy's response might have been, it was
completely drowned out by an earth shattering belch!  The sound
reverberated off of the stones, echoing again and again, rolling down
the mountain.

Actually impressed, Raven stared at Beast Boy.

"What?  It wasn't me?"

"Then who-"

Somehow they hadn't noticed it earlier: the orange cloaked figure
leaning against one of the pillars leading up to the museum.
Immediately, Beast Boy leapt in front of Raven, holding out his arms and
flaring out his cloak dramatically.

"Who are you!?" he demanded. "If you wanna get at Raven, then you're
gonna have to get by me first!"

Pushing off the pillar lazily, the figure's hood fell back, unleashing a
waterfall of crimson hair that flowed down her back in a cascade of
flaming silk.  Her cloak also fell open, revealing a familiar outfit,
colored an equally garish orange color, though... the Tamaranian's top
seemed just a bit too-tight, her skirt a touch too short ...  And the
look of utter boredom on her face also seemed just a bit out of place.

Sticking a pinky in her ear to clear it out, Starfire turned to glance
at the pair of them.

"And just what is it that the pair of you are looking at?" she asked.

"Feh, rude much?" Raven muttered.

"Who are you referring to as rude, girl suffering from a distinct height
deficiency in comparison to my own?" the overtly rude Starfire fired
back.

Brave Boy snickered, looking back and forth between them.  "Dude, I
think she just called you short."

Raven rolled her eyes. She'd been doing that a lot recently - no thanks
to the company she found herself in.

"You and I are the same height.  If she's calling me short, then she's
calling you short, too."

"What!?" the green teen barked. He spun back on the Vulgar Starfire,
scowling darkly.  "You better take that back, Striperella, or it's gonna
be go time!"

Rather than be incensed, Starfire just smiled saucily and stepped right
up to Beast Boy - towering over him by nearly a foot - and poked a
finger right into his chest.  "Is that a fact, diminutive, chlorophyll
colored humanoid?  Are you insinuating that you are desiring a piece of
me?"

Despite being overshadowed by the orange clad, orange-skinned alien,
Beast Boy didn't back down an inch, in fact, he leaned forward in
return. "And what if I do?  I can take you, anytime, any place!"

Raven wasn't sure that she liked the look that was forming on Starfire's
face as she faced down the fearless changeling.

"Well then, who would I be to deny you?"

Then, just like that, the pair lunged forward, Beast Boy leaping up into
Starfire's strong arms.  A second later, the couple were locking lips
like it was going out of style.  Starfire, understandably distracted,
staggered backward, slamming bodily into the stone pillar she'd been
leaning on.  The flimsy stone shattered like glass and the passionate
couple disappeared into the cloud of debris.

For a second, just a second, Raven considered trying to get a better
look as to just what was going on - judging by the sounds it was getting
interesting -

No!  No, no, no.

She shook her head several times and quickly scurried away, making her
way into the museum.

That had been odd, even by her standards.  Really, orange and green just
clashed so badly, trying to mix them like that, she just couldn't see
how it could work. ... It sure had looked fun, though. Unfortunately, it
also meant that she'd lost her companion again, and was wandering the
halls of the museum alone.

Certainly, the art works were a pleasure to behold.  Paintings, statues,
models and collages of ravens in every color of the rainbow filled the
halls and chambers.  It would have been nice to have someone to share
the scenery with, but she would make do.  One painting in particular
drew her gaze as she passed through one of the larger chambers.  It was
a grand painting of a midnight blue raven ... no, wait, it was a picture
of Raven. It depicted the proud Titan wear standing tall, draped in the
shadows as a queen might wear a cloak.  It was a vision of power and
strength, unassailable and beautiful.

"Have you ever looked at a painting ..."

Startled, Raven turned to stare at the speaker.  The yellow cloaked
figure strode up beside her, not bothering with any pretense at all
before lowering her hood, revealing the youthful face of Terra ... with
one notable addendum.

"Nice glasses," Raven quipped, "And, of course I have.  I'm looking at
one right now."

"Thank you," Terra replied, adjusting her horn rimmed glasses with a
smirk on her face.  "And, you interrupted me. I was saying:  Have you
ever looked at a painting, a painting that, at first glance seemed
perfect, flawless? But, the longer you look at it... flaws become
evident, like creases or runny paint, until the inconsistencies become
impossible to ignore?"

The violet haired Titan stared at the bespectacled geokinetic oddly.

"I ... I don't know what you mean."

Terra gave her a look, magnified by the large, though stylish glasses.
"Really?"  She then gestured to the painting she had been studying
earlier.  "Why don't you look again?"

"Wha ...?"  Hesitant for reasons she couldn't understand, Raven turned
back to study her portrait.  It was just as she remembered. A picture of
independence. Stern, strong ... alone? Yes ... now that she was looking,
she could see what Terra was talking about. Raven looked powerful, on
the surface, but now she could see what was hiding just below that
veneer of confidence.  Uncertainty, social awkwardness, fear of letting
people close; fear of herself.

"She's ... like a shell," Raven muttered to no one in particular.

Her blonde companion gave a good natured laugh.  "It's not quite that
bad.  She's just gotten so good at putting up a strong front, that no
one can see what's underneath any longer.  It's not that there's nothing
there, just that it's buried too deeply to see."

"You sound quite certain of yourself," Raven stated.  "Can you really be
sure that there is anything worthwhile inside her?"

Terra rolled her eyes.  "Duh, of course I'm certain.  You could say I'm
something of an 'Interralectual', if you know what I mean?"

A pained groan was Raven's reply.  "So the glasses are purely for show."
Ignoring the girl's annoyed yip, she turned back to study the painting
further. "Does she have to be so alone?  Why can't she just ... be like
everyone else?"

"I - I'm sorry.  That's probably my fault ... sorry."

Not overly surprised at the arrival of a new speaker, both Raven and
Terra looked over in the direction of the timid voice -

Only to burst out into a gale of laughter.

Cyborg, looking incredibly sullen and wearing a grey cloak that couldn't
even stretch across his broad shoulders, let alone reach the ground, was
too much to bear. Raven, at least managed to maintain some small shred
of dignity, the diminutive blonde, on the other hand, collapsed to the
ground, nearly drowning in the pool of yellow material that was her own
cloak.

"Wh-" Raven snickered helplessly, "What do you mean it's probably your
fault?"

Letting out a beleaguered sigh, very nearly an anguished moan, Cyborg's
shoulders slumped as he moved to join them.  "I'm just so - so scared
all the time.  Everyone else in here is so much more sure of themselves.
They're so brave, or smart, or angry, they know exactly who they are and
what they want.  I'm just ... timid; I'm the weak link holding everyone
back."

Finally regaining here bearings, Terra dragged herself back to her feet.
Wiping a tear from her eye, she turned to Cyborg.  "Factually speaking,
there is some merit to your statement."

Raven gasped, staring at the blonde.  Cyborg, who had been merely
looking like a poster child for Prozac descended into an expression of
abject despondence.

"I - I knew it.  You'd be better off if I wasn't here at all."  The grey
... caped cyborg kicked the ground forlornly, incidentally kicking out a
large chunk of the concrete floor.

Rather than look abashed, Terra simply smirked.  "Did I say that? It is
true that some aspects are more desirable than others, but all are
necessary. Even a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  But,
what is the more logical response?  To sever the link completely, or to
strengthen it?"

"Strengthen it?"  Cyborg looked, surprise-surprise, quite dubious about
the proposal.  "But - but how would you go about doing that?"

Raven was interested in that answer as well.

"Well," Terra began, taking a step closer to Cyborg.  "Since you aren't
completely made of metal, we can't apply a simple case hardening.  I
would recommend a vigorous application of social interaction related
stimulation."

Raven adopted Cyborg's dubious look.  "And what exactly would that
entail?"

Smirking wickedly, Terra suddenly reached up and grabbed the hood of
Cyborg's cloak.  "I thought I would start with this!"

At which point, the tiny Titan pulled Cyborg down to her level and
initiated a textbook example of 'lip lock'.

"'MMPH'!" was the extent of the shocked cyborg's reaction before Terra
tackled him to the ground a second later.

"Gah!" Raven cried, scandalized. "Not you two, too!"

More than vaguely disturbed by what was going on, on the floor in front
of her, the squeamish Titan pulled a quick about-face and beat a hasty
retreat from the large chamber.  Frankly, this museum wasn't nearly as
nice as she'd been lead to believe.

Still shaking her head to try to rid her mind of unwanted mental images,
Raven abruptly paced down the familiar hallway of Titan's tower.

"Hmph, it's not us that's the problem, anyway," Robin continued,
brushing back the red hood of his billowing cloak.  "It's everyone else
that's the problem!"

Raven rolled her eyes.  "Don't you think that's a bit extreme?"

"Ha!  Not extreme enough, if you ask me," Robin growled darkly. "Never
leaving us be, always interrupting us when we're busy.  Beast Boy always
getting on our nerves, Kasumi ... doing whatever it is that Kasumi is
doing."  Robin's eyes narrowed into burning red slits. "Ohhh, and Jinx,
don't even get me started on Jinx!"

"Well, I suppose we can agree on that point, at least," Raven conceded.
As they rounded another corner, she frowned in consternation.  "I just
don't know why no one will listen to me..."

Robin nodded sharply.  "She's a danger to have around.  She's unstable -
treacherous.  We should run her out of the city."

"At the least," Raven hissed, beginning to echo her companion's mood.
"It would be easy, too.  She's no match for us, not really-"

"'Annnnd that's about enough of that!"  In a flash of red and black, a
figure moving nearly too fast to see seemed to materialize out of thin
air between them.  In a dizzying display, the new arrival clamped a hand
down on Robin's crimson cloaked shoulder, then flipped him back over his
hip, tossing the seething Titan head over heels, before lashing out with
a palm strike that sent Robin flying into - then through the wall.

Raven was left staring in awe for several seconds, just long enough for
the figure's long, ebony black cloak to settle back down around him.

And then Ranma turned around, grinning that familiar, endearing grin of
his. Taking advantage of the silence hanging between them, Ranma took a
moment to take stock of himself, holding up the fringe of his black
cloak for inspection.

"Sheesh, what's up with this?  A black cloak?  What am I supposed to be,
you're 'eeeevil' side?  I thought I just tossed that guy through a
wall?"

Despite herself, Raven giggled in amusement.

"I don't think I have an evil side.  And if I did, I can guarantee that
you wouldn't be the avatar of my wicked ways."

Ranma considered this, before nodding in agreement.  "Naw, you're right.
It'd probably be some super hot goth lolita wearing leather corsets,
lace and all sorts of jailbait kinda stuff."

"Ranma!" Raven barked, not sure whether to be more scandalized, or
steamed.

"Heh heh heh. Oh no, Raven is mad at me!" Ranma chirped, holding his
hands up to his face.  "What are you gonna do?  Send me to a nightmarish
plane of eternal torment, where I will sup upon naught but pain, and
drink naught but suffering?"

The violet haired Titan tapped her chin a few times.  "Hmm, that
actually sounds pretty good.  I was just going to punch you in the
shoulder, though."

He smiled, dropping a friendly arm around her shoulders.  "See, that
sounds like a pretty reasonable response to a minor annoyance. What's up
with all this 'Run her outta the city' and 'She's no match for us'
crap?"

"Minor annoyance?" She squawked.  "That girl has been the bane of my
existence since I met her."

Giving her shoulder a squeeze, Ranma laughed out loud.  "Oh please. You
barely even spared Jinx a thought before she made her comeback from
trainin' with the old lech. And now that she's actually trying to behave
herself, suddenly you can't stop fuming about her. Don't you think
there's something a little odd about that?"

Raven hummed and hawed for a moment, not sure how to respond.  "... No?"

Her pigtailed friend shook his head fondly.  "You sure about that? Maybe
the only reason that you're angry that Jinx is around now is that
because when she was still being her bad self, she wasn't a threat to
you, not in any way that counted."

"A threat?  A threat how?"

His sky blue eyes rolled grandly.  "Don't play dumb, Rae, only one of us
can pull that off here.  You knew that as long as she was a villain,
that she didn't really have a shot with you-know-who.  But that's not
the case now, and its got you worried."

The cloaked girl frowned.  "Shouldn't I be?  I mean, I know that it's
foolish of me to worry about something so ... so normal, all things
considered, but I find I can't help myself."

"Yeah, well, I guess that's part of what they call the human condition.'

"You know, technically speaking, I'm not huma-"

"Shut it!" Ranma interrupted with a bark.  "I'm not sayin' you shouldn't
sweat the small stuff.  The small stuff is usually the real fun stuff
that makes life worth living.  I'm just saying: Don't let yourself get
carried away, here.  Jinx may be a pain, after all, but has she really
done anything to you that merits you runnin' her outta town on a rail?"

Raven lifted a finger, preparing to make a list-

"Since she came back!" he amended.

"Oh," she pouted.  "Well, she is insufferably rude and confrontational."

"Funny, you say the same thing about me all the time."  The martial
artist ignored her flat stare and smirked.  "Hey, I'm not sayin' you
gotta like her.  The chick is a jerk, no arguments there.  Just that you
should at least give her a chance to prove herself.  After all..."
Ranma's smirk grew into a full blown grin. "Showing Ryouga that you're
the bigger man - and we're talking metaphorically here, cuz you ain't
manly in the slightest - would probably impress him a lot more than
Jinx's 'bitchier than thou' attitude."

That, finally, brought a smile to Raven's lips.  "I hadn't thought about
it like that."

"Of course you did, or else I wouldn't have been able to explain it to
you.  You probably just didn't realize you were thinking of it like
that," Ranma replied sardonically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ranma just smiled.  "Hey, if you haven't figured that part out yet, then
you're on your own, sister.  Still, the part of the tour where you get
escorted around by hunky pigtailed martial artists is coming to a
close."

"What?  Why?" Raven asked, feeling a bit upset.

Her companion shrugged.  "There ain't exactly no rhyme or reason to what
goes on in here.  I just thought I'd say g'bye before just vanishing on
you.  Now, go get 'em, Tiger."

She gasped sharply and her back arched, when Ranma gave her a slap on
the bottom and a gentle push forward.  The red cheeked girl spun about,
preparing to unleash hell-

Only to find herself in her room.

Well, her room for the most part. It seemed to be just as she remembered
it, except that someone had got to the trouble of boarding up all of the
windows, save a small square at the very center of what had once been a
large bay of windows.  Said person was present, carefully arranging a
tasteful set of curtains over the small aperture, completely blocking
Raven's view of whatever it might have been that was on the other side.

The person's flowing white robes seemed to cling to their womanly
figure, creating an odd juxtaposition of allure and tedium as she put an
inordinate amount of attention into setting the curtains 'just' so.

"What are you doing in my room, Kasumi?" Raven asked, a trace of
annoyance escaping into her voice.

The older woman turned around, a beatific smile on her face and her
four, glowing red eyes burning merrily with hellfire.

"The view from your room is ... not very nice.  I thought that I would
spruce things up a bit."

Raven frowned at the eldest Tendo sister.  "And you thought that
boarding up my windows and hanging a few, admittedly nice, curtains
would 'spruce things up'?"

Kasumi nodded.  Behind her, the wall seemed to warp and twist, only to
stop a second later when the white clad woman reached behind her and
rested a hand against the wooden surface.  Again, a shiver ran down
Raven's spine.  A bellowing howl resounded through the room, but it
sounded distant, muted. For a second, Kasumi's face took on a strained
expression, and the curtains fluttered slightly to some unseen breeze
... but then a moment later, all was calm again.

"What - what was that, Kasumi?  What's behind that window?"

"Oh, it's nothing that you need to worry about anymore, Raven.  You just
let me worry about things in here."  The comforting tone in the woman's
voice was almost enough to set Raven at ease. But ...

Moving tentatively, the violet eyed Titan took a step forward.  Her hand
rose up shakily, reaching towards the curtain, intent to draw it open.

The closer her fingers came to the velvety curtains, though, the more
they began to shake, some unspeakable horror, dark and familiar, built
up in her stomach.  Just an inch away, though, a graceful hand came down
over hers, holding it gently and pulling it away from the hanging
drapes.  Slowly, Kasumi shook her head from side to side, a sad look
marring her otherwise beautiful face.  Her four eyes softened as she
matched Raven's confused gaze.

"Please, Raven, let me deal with this. It is my purpose, after all."

For what seemed an eternity, Raven stared at the burgundy curtains,
wanting, and yet not wanting to know what was behind them.  Finally, she
tore her gaze away from them and nodded slowly.  "A-all right, Kasumi.
If you feel so strongly about it."  A sudden thought struck her, now
that she had shifted her attention away from the curtains. "Say, do you
know where Ryouga is?  I haven't seen him in forever."

The brunette shook her head, smiling weakly.

"I'm afraid that I don't. I've been a tad preoccupied lately. I do know
someone that might, though.  I'm sure that if you go through that door,
they'll be more than happy to help you."

Well, finally some good news!

Smiling again, Raven nodded her thanks to the stoic Tendo and made her
way to the door.  What an amazing woman Kasumi was, so graceful and
feminine.  She would have to ask her how she did her make up some time,
too.  The blush and mascara Kasumi had used really brought out her eyes.

She exited her room, finding herself in a familiar abandoned cathedral.
It looked very much like a battle had just taken place; pews were
shattered, the alter was crushed, and rubble was strewn about almost
artistically.  Feeling quite comfortable in her new surroundings, Raven
walked to the center of the main hall, taking a deep breath.

"Hey there, Rae Rae!  You lookin' for something?"

Instantly, Raven's pleasant demeanor disintegrated.  Standing at the top
of the staircase was a pink cloaked figure, the very sight of which set
her hackles to rising.

Skipping gaily down the stairs, the cloaked figure's hood fell back,
unleashing Jinx's distinctive pink hair.  The pale skinned girl smiled
warmly as she hopped down the last few steps and began to traipse in
Raven's direction.

"Oh, don't be all Miss Sour Puss on me, Raven!  Didn't you come here
looking for my help?" asked the cat eyed girl in a sing song voice.

"As if you would help me, even if that was the case," Raven replied with
a scoff.

Doing a sideways cartwheel for no real reason, Jinx giggled.  "Of course
I would help you, Raven, if it would make you happy.  I don't want
anyone to be unhappy, not if I can avoid it."

Raven bore a skeptical expression.  "Since when?  Why would you care if
I was happy or not?"

"Raven, Raven, Raven.  I'm all about the happiness!"  Flipping back up
to her feet, Jinx began to twirl around to the side.  "In fact, I
already know what you want, and I'll be glad to help ... if you want me
to."

"Do ... do you mean that?  You'll actually help me if I just ask?"

Jinx nodded ecstatically.  "Everyone should be happy!  If me helping you
will make you happy, then I'm game!  Just say the word, pal'o mine!"

The dark Titan was, understandably, doubtful ... but, then again, Kasumi
had said that Jinx would help her.  Besides, what did she have to lose?
What was Jinx gonna do?  Send her wandering in the wrong direction for a
few hours?

Shaking her head, Raven finally shrugged helplessly.  "Fine. Jinx, would
you please help me?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" In a flash of pink on pink, Jinx leapt up,
Cheshire grin plastered on her face. "I know just what you need to make
you happy!"

Suddenly, the young sorceress lunged forward, grabbing Raven's face
forcefully in her hands-

And then crushed her lips over Raven's!

It was ... warm, and soft; it - it was just like Ryouga had explained
it, it was electric.

Despite herself, Raven began to melt into the kis-

- - -

Raven snapped awake, sitting up in the bed with a loud gasp.

Her breathing came in ragged gasps as she clutched the thin sheet to her
chest.  That ... what was that?! That hadn't been her usual dream. Not
by even the longest stretch of the imagination had she had a dream - er,
nightmare - like that!

"Raven, are you okay?"

The drowsy Titan started again, until she realized that it was Ryouga's
voice, laced with concern.  The Lost Boy was sitting at the end of the
bed, staring her uncertainly.

Honestly, Raven wasn't certain how to answer.

"I ... I'm fine, Ryouga.  It was just a - a nightmare, is all. Yes, a
terrible, terrible nightmare ..."

The martial artist stood up at that.  "Umm ... are you gonna be alright?
Do you need anything?"

Raven just shook her head.  All she needed to do was forget that dream.

"No, let's just get ready to go."

The sooner she could get her mind off of that ... whatever it had been,
the better.

- - -

The morning light streamed in through a crack in the window curtain.

In the slowly retreating darkness of the room, two figures lay under the
thinnest layer of bed sheets, the thicker upper layers either crumpled
together in a pile at the foot or the bed or strewn on the floor. A
digital clock by the side of the bed lay mute, leaving the room and its
occupants to pass the time in near silence. This wasn't the home either
of them knew: it wasn't the dojo, where the morning routine of Ranma and
his father fighting over breakfast or Akane rushing to school could
serve as a rude awakening. This wasn't even Seiran, where an alarm would
have long since sounded, calling one or the other to their duty station.

Nabiki inhaled, taking in the earthy, salty smell of her partner. The
lingering traces of the glow from the night's activities - the warmth,
the intimacy, the adrenalin - were slowly but surely giving way to a
measure of contented weariness and exhaustion, even after they'd both
fallen asleep. One thing she hadn't really been prepared for, after the
fact, was just how tired it would make her. That, and the fact she was
still covered by a layer of sweat. She made sure Ryouga was either
asleep or, at least, only half awake before allowing a guilty blush to
really form, coloring her cheeks.

This was what she had wanted, after all.

Her first real time, and his.

She'd tried to act supremely confident, to lead them in their dance, but
deep down she'd been more flustered and unsure than she could ever
remember. Even jumping out of that helicopter in her duel with Kinnosuke
hadn't been so secretly harrowing. At the same time, she knew it
wouldn't do for Ryouga to really know just how unsure or afraid she
actually was, sometimes. She was India Squad's coordinator. That meant
she had to be steady, calm, cool, and collected, not just for him, but
for the whole team. It also meant that, if the worst happened, she would
have to stand by and watch, safe back on base, while the boys she swore
to protect and support died.

Closing her eyes, she remembered hearing a howl of pain and anguish, not
from Ryouga or anyone on their squad, but from another coordinator
seated nearby. The owner of the cry had given Nabiki an immediate idea
of what had happened, only to have her macabre suspicions confirmed
moments later on an ongoing mission detail status report. A blaster
bomb, the most terrible and feared of all battlefield killers, had wiped
out three lives in an instant, leaving a forth broken and crippled. It
could easily be her, one day, staring mutely at a static filled screen,
her team vanished in the time it took to blink an eye. It could be her,
one day, crying in vain for someone to respond - for another team to
move in to support - a moment too late.

Wrapping her arms protectively around her lieutenant, her partner,
Nabiki tried to banish the thought. Burying her face into the muscular
side of Ryouga's torso, she could feel his steady heartbeat,
rhythmically drumming behind powerful muscle and bone. He was alive. So
was she. The aliens had taken out two bases over the last two months,
killing hundreds. In the privacy of her own mind, pressed up against
someone she trusted with her life, she could admit that thinking about
that scared her, too. Before, she'd always sort of thought of Seiran and
other bases as secret and impenetrable refuges. But they weren't. Even
there, the enemy could attack, and finish what they started when they
took her back in Nerima...

Even to him, she'd never thought to admit it, but the last few months
had been... scary.

Gods, and Akane was in the field now, too. Her sister had already lost a
teammate. She wasn't nearly as superhuman as Ranma or the lost boy.
There wasn't a mission that went by when Nabiki didn't worry about her
sister's safety. The best she could do, all she could do, was work with
India Squad - her squad - and try and accomplish their missions as
quickly and cleanly and decisively as possible. The better India did,
the safer every other squad was as well. They were all in this fight
together: from Ryouga and Ranma and Akane, out in the battlefield, to
Kasumi in the medical division, to her in Ops.

Unbidden, the pads of Nabiki's fingers wandered down over Ryouga's
chest, to the still rough scar near his belly button. She remembered
when he had gotten it, fighting that alien-human hybrid version of
himself. It had been her first mission with India, and the one that had
brought her into Ops. She remembered all too clearly hearing him grunt
in pain as the monster's hand punched through flesh, and the red lights
that lit up from Ryouga's armor as it detected the wound and tried to
administer painkillers and anti-coagulants.

The lost boy was hard to scar.

Everything before Seiran, all the years of hard living and brutal
training, had still only left him with a few visible marks on his skin.
It was amazing, but she knew the advanced healing techniques used by
martial artists of his caliber. To a point, only the worst of injuries
would leave lasting scars, and Ryouga had accumulated more than his fair
share of them over the last half year.

She'd seen him topless before, of course. Sometimes coming out of or
going to the furo back at the dojo (she even remembered seeing him
skipping down the halls, once, ecstatic over beating Ranma in a
fight)... then there had been the night of her abduction and rescue. So
many of the scars her fingers found now were new. A rough patch from an
alien plasma blast that had seared him, even through his armor; a
circular soft-spot where a telekinetic lance had punched into him; the
terrible wound that had almost eviscerated him; then there was the self
inflicted  damage he had done to his hands and fingers to increase the
power of his techniques.

Not fully asleep, still partly alert, his right hand reached over to
envelop her fingers and stop their wandering. He could probably guess
what she was thinking, feeling her move from one old wound to the next.
Looking across his chest, she could see the worst of them all: the mark
Cologne had left on both Ryouga and Ranma after their duel back at that
alien base in North Korea. The vile monster of a woman - if she could
even be called that anymore - had planted a parasitic blood vine into
both boys, letting the nightmarish creeper eat through their bodies and
expand unchecked.

The very thought was horrible to imagine.

Now, both had matching scars on their bodies. Ryouga's was confined
primarily to his right arm, where removing the vine had involved
literally tearing it out by the roots. Even his prodigious martial arts
healing had been unable to fully close the resulting wound, poisoned as
it was by the vine, even in death. A discolored belt of scar tissue,
slightly depressed to the touch, ran up the lost boy's arm, almost from
wrist to jaw. It was...

It was an ugly scar.

'Damn you, Cologne,' Nabiki thought, viciously. Even here, alone, they
couldn't escape the truth of what lay in the future. Even here, it could
never be totally forgotten.

Even here, it found a way.

'If only you could see us now, you bitch,' she thought, wishing the
hybrid woman could hear her across the void of space. 'See what I've
done? You'll never beat us. Not you, or the things you work for! We're
still here!'

Yes. That was right.

'And one day... one day we'll kill you all and save the world...!'

Next to her, Ryouga took a deep breath, a soft rumbling sound as his
hand gently closed around hers. Nabiki tried to put away her worry, as
secretly close to the surface as it often was, and clear her mind to
enjoy the moment. She had wanted this for some time, and now that she
had it... it felt like they had jumped a hurdle together. It felt like
some of the phantoms of the past, of Akari, of the Nerima attack, of the
close calls on missions, were fading away, just a little, bit by bit. It
felt like, more than ever, she had someone who needed her, who relied on
her, who wasn't just being manipulated or controlled or coerced. It felt
like she wasn't alone in a crowd, with no one to trust or lean on.

"You awake?" she asked, looking up at his chin.

"hnmg," was what passed for a response, "Kinda."

Slapping him playfully on the chest, her hand escaped from his to bounce
easily off his breaking-point and paida-gong hardened body. Without so
much as a word of warning, she pulled herself up and straddled his
stomach, using the motion to pull away his pillow. He grunted as his
head fell back, just barely bumping the bedpost. One hand lazily reached
up to try and wrest control of the pillow away, but Nabiki kept it just
out of reach before pressing it protectively against her chest. Her
cheeks colored hotly as she remembered how they had spent some time in
just about this same position a few hours ago.

He looked back up at her, hands falling weakly on her thighs to either
side of him, just above the knee. There was something about his
expression, about the feel of his body under her, that made Nabiki
suddenly feel very... liberated, very free, to do and think and believe
that things would work out after all.

It didn't matter what... questionable things she'd done back at
University or back in Nerima. It didn't matter that the man beneath her
had taken dozens of men's lives in the course of his duty. Everything
would be forgiven when they won! They were the good guys. They had
fought and bled and cried and sacrificed, and they deserved to be happy.

Gods, they deserved to be happy.

Leaning down, she let her short hair fall forward, framing her
lieutenant's face as their noses touched and brushed past. Their lips
met, and she kissed him hungrily, eager to relive and recapture the
warmth and glow from before that had started to fade. It was morning.
Soon, too damn soon, they'd both be back to work... and then back at
Seiran. She didn't want it to end yet. Not when she could have more.

She was, in the end, just naturally greedy.

The pillow between them withdrew, snatched away by the man below her,
and their bodies collided. By now, they had a more than passing
familiarity, and Nabiki slid back as she wrestled with his hands, one
still playfully holding the pillow. Eventually it left his fingers and
tumbled, lost, off the edge of the bed. In its place, their palms met
and fingers intertwined, locking together as she moved. His hands were
rough, both from a tough lifestyle and a tougher training regimen, and
as sparks of errant ki leaked out, betraying his loss of self control,
tiny sensitive hairs across her body stood on end.

'That's right! I wish you could see this, Cologne!' she thought, leaning
back as her body lost itself to a wave of pleasure. 'This is what you
gave up! This is power!'

Nabiki heard him call her name, and she opened her eyes to stare down at
him.

'We're human and we're happy and we're free! We don't need you! And...
he doesn't want anything you have to offer.' A mysterious smile lit up
her face. 'Together, we'll be stronger than even you!'

- - -

The ray of light from between the curtains lengthened as the two put off
tomorrow as long as they could. Beside the bed, the time on the digital
clock mercilessly advanced, the tiny red numbers eventually settling on
ten o'clock. Finally the blinds opened slightly as a young man in boxers
glanced out at the city spread out below the fourth to top floor of the
hotel. Opening it just a bit more - just enough to find a decent medium
between too open and too closed - the lost boy turned around and picked
up the room's television controller. A quick click later and the news
came up.

The sound of the TV was almost drowned out by the shower in the bathroom
running full force, curls of steam creeping out from the only partly
closed door. Something caught his eye in that moment, and he picked up
the 'do not disturb' sign from where it had rested on a nearby table.
Holding it up to check the other side, finding it was blank of course,
he wondered briefly if he should have put it out last night. Not like
he'd really had the chance. Or should he put it on there now?

Looking over his shoulder at the bed, he frowned a bit.

Truth was, he wasn't exactly eager to sleep in all that for another
night. He hadn't imagined actual... intimacy would have been that...
intense. It wasn't like anyone would really disturb them at this point,
and they'd be heading out soon, so maybe it was best to just leave it
be. Putting the door sign back down, he nodded to himself. Hotels had to
be prepared for, well, couples doing what couples did, right? He
technically had another night to stay here, so... yeah. Hopefully
someone would take of that. It was part of their job right?

Very, very briefly, he wondered what Ranma and Akane...

Shaking his head, he shuddered. No! In those thoughts lay madness.

Instead, he checked his phone, barely giving the news much attention.
Nothing he really needed to know for work would be in the news anyway.
Not if the Disinformation Ops were doing their jobs. Flipping open his
cell phone, he immediately noticed a text from Mousse. Several of them.

[11:38] - hey. u guys back yet? or are u still sucking face somewhere? -

Ryouga smiled, despite the tone and the stupid use of 'u' in place of
'you.' Mousse was never one for proper English in his messages anyway,
preferring expedience to clarity. At least he wasn't as bad as Ranma;
the man seemed to revel in translating his rough speech patterns into
text format.

[12:05] - I'll hang around for a few minutes then im hitting the sack -

So: Mousse had been staying up, in case something happened? Thinking
back to last night, Ryouga wondered - briefly - if Mousse had been
nearby. He hadn't exactly been on the lookout for anything but casual
observers when he and Nabiki had their little talk. Even if the Chinese
weapons master had been around, Ryouga supposed it didn't really matter
much. He was probably just watching their backs anyway (hopefully with
glasses on, the blind duck).

[7:34] - hope you had a good nights sleep, SIR -

Huh. So... he knew then.

[9:41] - somethings up. im looking into it. call when u can and get rdy
-

And, just like that, Ryouga's mood soured a bit and his brows gradually
creased together. That last message was less than a half hour old, and
given the shorthand and lack of pronunciation, it appeared to have been
hastily written and sent. Something was going on, and by the sound if
it, it was probably more "work." Tokyo and the surrounding areas were
supposed to be clean, now, for several hundred miles. No more anomalies
or strays or anything. All that was really left was paperwork, reports,
and maybe a little local face-time and checking up.

Quickly punching in Mousse's number, Ryouga found himself only waiting
two rings before someone picked up. It was the short sighted martial
artist, all right, and by the tone of his voice, he'd found something
that would need attending to.

"Glad you're up, lieutenant," the hidden weapons master said, even
before the lost one could speak up. "I was just about to call."

Rank again, right off the bat. Looks like they'd have to skip brunch or
breakfast. Duty called.

"What's the situation?" he asked, mentally shifting back to 'work' mode.

"Trouble. We got a red flag sent down the pipe by a surveillance team up
in the northern territories. Hokkaido. All automated footage that got
intercepted and screened by facial recognition. The authorities think it
might be part of some terrorist bomb scare up there, but that's not the
half of it. Give me a minute. I'll have a data file forwarded."

Ryouga held the phone away from his ear, and watched the central screen.
After a few seconds, it began downloading a file. Blue bars filled until
the transfer was complete, and then it spent another couple seconds
decoding the encryption. In the small screen, Ryouga could see a number
of still photos, taken by a camera somewhere. Security footage, given
the quality. Facial recognition had already highlighted and boxed two
individuals.

Moving to the next picture, Ryouga saw the first: she was a young girl,
Caucasian, with what appeared to be dark purple hair and eyes. It looked
like it had been taken by mall security somewhere; the image wasn't
perfect, but she seemed harmless enough. She'd purchased a hat that
appeared in the latter picture, but it hadn't done much to prevent a
camera from catching her face from outside a local bank. She appeared
pretty normal all-in-all, despite the violet hair.

Then he found the second set of photos... and almost crushed the cell
phone in his hands.

Gritting his teeth, he slowly lifted the phone back to his face.
"Mousse. This better not be a joke."

"You know it isn't." The Chinese fighter's voice was grave. "I wouldn't
joke about something like this, not after what happened last time.
Should I bring Ryu and Kuno in? We may need them for this capture/kill
op."

"Do it," Ryouga replied, trying to keep calm. "I want a briefing in
fifteen minutes. We'll meet you outside."

"Yes, sir."

Clapping the phone shut, Ryouga turned to stare out the window at the
city below.

Out there... somewhere... was another one of them.

"Was that Mousse? Is something wrong?" Nabiki asked, exiting the
bathroom with one large towel around her body and another haphazardly
covering her hair. She immediately caught his posture and mood, and
reasoned the cause.

"So," she continued, voice collected but... with a hint of regret.
"We're back into the fire then?"

"Yeah," he replied, putting the phone down on the dresser.

Ryouga didn't mention the photo of a man with his face... taken last
night, hundreds of miles away. The night was over and past. There was no
more time for fun or relaxation. It was time to go back. Back into the
fire. Back into the fight.

Back into the war.










- - -

Abstract -- Mu Tzu (Mousse) Rank: Squaddie, 1st class

Born in the Joketsuzoku village (see: Joketsuzoku Files; Terror Attack
China-5), mother: Ti Tzu (Tissue), father unknown. PRC has no formal
records of birth, education, or health records. Forgeries used to enter
Japan in 2004. Practices 'Hidden Weapons' style of martial arts (see:
Research: Hidden Weapons, Telekinetic Topography). Ongoing rivalry with
R. Hibiki (profile), R. Saotome (profile). Psychological notice:
Squaddie Tzu has exceptionally poor natural vision due to childhood
complications regarding an attempt by one of the village leaders to
'heal' his eyes. Corrective countermeasures have been taken (see: Mu Tzu
Medical files; re: Combat Effectiveness).

As part of Squad: India (Hibiki, Kumon, Tzu, Kuno) out of Seiran, under
Cptn Ben-Solomon. Assigned rank acting Squaddie (Oct, 2006); Squaddie
1st class (Dec, 2006). Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December,
2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna
(2007). (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile,
attached). Distinguished work done in cross-disciplinary research (see:
Hidden Weapons above). Full Access to Fabrication Suite, Seiran (Jan,
2007). Procurement Budget expanded (Dec, 2006. Jan, 2007. Feb, 2007).

Underwent two month mentor program (Lt. R. Tsuchihashi), standard
psionic imprinting (see: psi-gym usage), currently holds two (2) records
on base for extreme duration psionic activities. Squaddie Mu Tzu was
integrated into India Squad from its conception, with the original
intent that he would develop into an NCO position of (acting) sergeant.
The role was later deemed more suited to R. Kumon. Mu Tzu remains an
excellent combat operative, possessing both a high degree of lethality
and a versatility of approach unmatched in India. Mixture of unorthodox
and oblique patterns of attack/approach with extensive arsenal.

Any lingering animosity towards 'rivals' has not manifested in missions
with India or Juliet Squads. Note: Mu Tzu has shown some lack of
judgment with respect to Squaddie S. Pu (profile). PsyOps also indicates
conflict of loyalties between past associations (see: Amazons, Exiles);
not expected to directly impact mission performance. Morale and loyalty
are considered GOOD. Mu Tzu is an essential part of India Squad. If
we're bringing them in on CLEANSLATE, it'll have to be as a single unit.
Squaddie was passed over for NCO option due to lack of interest in
professional career, not lack of ability.

[signature redacted]







##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 9779 CODENAME: *Unknown* REAL NAME: Ryouga Hibiki

SPECIES: Human HEIGHT: 5'7" WEIGHT: 170lbs HAIR COLOR: Black EYE COLOR:
Brown

KNOWN ABILITIES:  Purportedly a highly skilled martial artist.  No
visual data has been acquired on the Subject as of yet, all information
gathered so far has been supplied by reports from Subject:203: Codename:
Robin.  Extrapolation of skill level has been made based upon recent
footage acquired of Subject: 9795: Codename: N/A: Real name: Saotome
Ranma, during the highly publicized battle against Subject: 10001:
Codename: Brushogun.  Taking into account rumours of similar skill
levels between both subjects, it can be theorized that the Subject
possesses super human strength, speed, agility and martial skill.
Reports also suggest an ability to project energy, as Subject: 9795, as
well as a less conventional technique used to 'detonate inanimate
material'.  Further investigation is required.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject is afflicted with a condition termed
'Jyusenkyou Curse'.  According to reports, if the Subject comes into
contact with 'cold' water, his body will revert to the approximate age
of a 12 year old child.  Highest probability of incapacitating Subject
is to activate 'curse' and render unconscious via conventional means.

KNOWN HISTORY:  Very little is known about the Subject's history.  Few
records, beyond birth certificates and enrolment records, exist to be
collected.  Apparently, the Subject left home at a relatively young age
and remained displaced for several years.  Only recently in the past two
years, have reliable reports of the Subject (in the Nerima ward of
Tokyo) begun to surface with any regularity.  Apparently the Subject was
involved in a prolonged 'rivalry' with Subject: 9795, and this
eventually culminated in a falling out which prompted the Subject to
leave the Nerima ward for an extended time, directly leading to the
Subject's initial encounter with Team Designation: Teen Titans.  The
Subject was temporarily enrolled in the H.I.V.E Academy, but has since
been rehabilitated and is now a permanent member of the Teen Titans.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: E

PERSONAL NOTE:  Despite the disturbingly large blanks in Hibiki's
background, Dick gives glowing reviews of him.  Rather than applying his
- if he is actually as close to Saotome in skill as Dick is insinuating
- considerable talent for martial arts to fighting crime with the rest
of the team, Ryouga dedicated his time to first restoring the geokinetic
girl, Terra, from her suspended animation, and then in training her to
better control her powers, apparently a tense topic originally.  While I
admire his desire to help others, I must question whether it was a good
idea to restore a known traitor.  On a related note, another of my
concerns was laid to rest by J'onn.  He has personally cleared Hibiki,
stating that all of the 'harmful' mental conditioning inflicted by
Brother Blood has been removed and repaired.  I'm a bit dubious as to
why he stressed the 'harmful' aspect, but he assured me that it was a
personal matter and mothering to worry about.  Regardless, though,
Hibiki seems like a good addition to the team, and if he should happen
to distract the Tamaranian from Dick, then who would I be to complain?

##