Ryoko's Apartment

By E-Type.

Herein lies the Disclaimer. I don't own any of the characters portrayed in this story, I just borrowed them for a little while. Their respective owners can have them back when I'm done. No money is going to be made off of this anyway.
Thanks to Thermopyle for c&c on most of this.

Ryoko looked around the small apartment and sighed. She didn't know why she was still on the planet, there wasn't anything left for her.

Tenchi had chosen, and had rejected her not once, but twice. Sasami had been assimilated by Tsunami and was his first bride. Given he was from Jurai he was to have two wives, for political reasons. Ayeka had gotten the ring on her finger because she had been a little more laid back and hadn't pushed anything sexual on him too hard.

That hurt deeper than she had thought possible. Her one ray of hope in 700 years of imprisonment, stolen by two princesses who's real mate was a disguised old man.

Washu had tried to comfort her, but the scientist had never been one for much feelings. Given that everything she had wanted was now lost to her, she had thought about doing the space pirate thing, after contemplating suicide, but her heart just wasn't in it.

Indeed, her heart was still on earth, being ground under the royal families slippered feet. She could tell Tenchi felt bad about it, but he obviously loved Ayeka enough to ignore her feelings on the matter. Add to that that after Sasami and Tsunami had merged, the 12 year old turned goddess had shamelessly used her eons of knowledge to overtly seduce Tenchi without looking at all improper.

That was what may hurt the most. Sasami gave up her childhood in order to deny Ryoko her chance at happiness, even if she did have to share him. At that Ryoko had left, never intending to return.

Instead of leaving the planet like she had planned, she had gotten a job as a bouncer in a town close to Tokyo called Nerima. The job was incredibly easy; all she did was stand in front of a door with a list of names and prevent anybody not on the list from getting in. She didn't have very much time until she had to leave for her job.

For the life of her she couldn't figure out why she remained. It just reminded her of her pain. But every time she started to think about it, like now, it would just feel so wrong she couldn't bring herself to act on it.

Snapping her fingers for effect, Ryoko phased into her work clothes and headed out the door, still asking herself why.

Her shift hadn't been bad, but nor had it been good. No good fights were had, none of her few buddies had shown up, and her relief had shown up without fuss or drama.

To relieve the boredom she had decided that tonight would be the night that she would get drunk again. She had managed to stay off the sake when she was on pay, but something just wouldn't let her do it when she was off either. But not tonight. She was going to ignore that voice, get thoroughly sloshed and forget many of the events that had led her to this sorry state.

Several bottles later she was starting to feel the effects. Not that it helped much. Being an alien played havoc with what most people considered a normal metabolism. Another reason she couldn't do this very often. It was incredibly expensive.

After a few hours Ryoko had finally gotten to the point where she was starting to forget her problems when another one walked in the door. Not facing the door caused Ryoko to miss him until he put his arm around her shoulder, leaning suggestively against her.

Ryoko's reaction was immediate and violent. An elbow to the gut lifted him into the air, a backhand into his face hurled him into a wall where he struggled to remain conscious. After several minutes the room stopped spinning on him enough to stand.

He stalked over to where Ryoko still sat and glared at her until she turned around. "I'm warning you Ryoko, that was a serious offense. If I can't have you then you're going to die. Enjoy what's left of your sorry life."

As he finished he suddenly took note of the fact that Ryoko's eyes were glowing red. That gave him pause enough for Ryoko to get a reply in, something he hadn't originally intended. "Do you have any idea how much money you just cost me, Kenji?" She growled.

Still captivated by those eyes Kenji shook his head.

"A lot. A whole lot. I don't appreciate having all my efforts wasted. If you ever try and hurt me I'll *kill* you." she growled. Ryoko turned back to face the bar. "I'd suggest you leave before I get mad."

Kenji gulped, turned and stiffly strode out of the bar. Many of the patrons felt sorry for the spiky haired bouncer. Once you got Kenji angry he would stop at nothing to get revenge. Nothing was sacred or too low for him not to strike at.

Ryoko sat grumbling to herself. As much as she liked many of the safeguards and automatic responses programmed into her, she really could have gone without the instant sobriety one that had just activated when Kenji put his arm around her.

She slumped on her stool in defeat. So much money now wasted. Ryoko wandered out of the bar in the general direction of home, hands in her pockets, head down, wondering again why she stayed, when would it get bearable again. She didn't even try to wish for happiness, just not hell.

A month and several attempted attacks later Ryoko once again sat at the bar drowning her pain. She had finally decided to leave, no matter what her instincts screamed at her. Ryoko downed her final bottle for the night, hiccuped, then weaved her way toward the door. As soon as she passed out of the building a form detached itself from the shadows.

"She's outside. Take her." Kenji ordered with a smirk. It was the last mistake he ever made.

Ryoko stumbled down the small, dark, almost an alley, street, wondering why she felt like she was being followed. Not really concerned about it, since she was going to be leaving the area in the morning, well, hopefully before noon, she continued on to her apartment. A few doors down from where Ryoko stumbled along a mountain of a man with a baseball bat concealed in his trench coat slipped among the shadows. It was an amazing feat given the mans size, but he obviously had a lot of practice with this sort of thing.

At the end of the narrow street Ryoko turned left into an actual alley, the darkest leg of her commute. Big-and-burly pulled the baseball bat out of concealment and rushed around the corner, hefting his weapon over his head. Not ten steps ahead of him Ryoko still walked along, although at a slightly slower pace. The thug rushed forward and swung with all his might. He had seen her do some of her work at the club and he knew it would take something special to knock her out. But he knew he could do it. He was the best at cracking skulls, after all.

With a mighty clang the metal bat hit the back of Ryoko's head, sending her flying forward into a wall. Unseen to the thug, Ryoko's eyes glowed red with rage, another reason to go hunt down Kenji and kill him. This was the second time he had ruined a perfectly good bout with alcohol. She remained on the ground, slowly gathering energy into the palm of her hand, making sure that he couldn't see what she was doing or even get a hint at it.

She gathered enough that she knew he would die instantly. Ryoko spun around on the ground while bringing her hand up to firing position. Seeing a human shape down at the end of the alley she fired. The figure seemed startled to see a red ball of energy hurtling toward him, and had just enough time to say "Oh..." before it impacted his chest and hurtled him backward through a wall. A once again sober Ryoko smiled at the scene. She took a few steps forward, intent on dragging the body down to wherever Kenji was at the moment to make sure that he got the same message she had just sent the thug.

It was then that she noticed the huge man in Kenji's mandatory trench coat trying to hide in the shadows holding a baseball bat. Ryoko blinked, then her eyes widened in horror. Who had she just hit, if that was the man that had nailed her? She knew Kenji never hired more than one guy for a personal hit. Not really caring about the thug she teleported over his head and cracked his skull on her knuckles, dropping him faster than he could see . She again phased, over to where the hole in the wall was and started looking for blood, hoping that he might, possibly, still be alive.

Just as she caught sight of the body partially buried in rubble it did a hand spring and alighted on its feet a foot in front of her. The young man had black hair done up in a pigtail, the nicest blue eyes she had ever seen and a well chiseled body. What had once been a red Chinese silk shirt was now half a Chinese silk shirt, most of the front of it having been burned off and the rest slightly ripped.

He scowled at her and said. "What was that for? This was my favorite shirt!"

Ryoko blinked in shock. She knew that she had put more than enough power to kill a human in that blast, yet he was not only fine, but didn't even seem to mind getting hit, he was just annoyed that his shirt had been ruined.

The young man continued. "So were you going to challenge me, threaten to kill me or try and marry me?"

That got Ryoko's attention. "Why would I try to marry you?!"

"Ever heard of Genma Saotome?" He asked. Ryoko shook her head in a negative. The pigtailed lad smiled at that. "Then forget I said the marriage part. My name's Ranma by the way."

"Ryoko."

Ranma shook her hand, taking her completely by surprise. "Nice ta meet 'ya. Pretty name. So why did you shoot me, anyway? I don't think I've met you before." He rubbed his chest in the center of the hole in his shirt. "That actually kinda hurt. You must be a very good martial artist."

Ryoko shook her head. "No, I'm an alien actually." She slapped her hands over her mouth, wondering what had caused her to blurt that out. She just knew he was either going to make fun of her or run away in hysterics.

Ranma peered at her for a moment, then nodded. "Looks like it to me. You sure are cute for a creature from outer space, though."

Ryoko blushed at that. Of all the ways this conversation could have gone this was right down there with 'I've killed a god' or 'are you going to marry me'. Wait, he had already asked the second one.

Deciding she wanted to try and turn the tables on him she replied. "You're pretty cute yourself. I was actually aiming for the guy who hit me with a baseball bat. That blast would have killed a normal human. The guy who hit me is on the ground over there." Ryoko waived her hand behind her at the wall that she had clonked the thug in front of.

Ranma blushed and scratched the back of his head and looked away, spying the lump of trench coat still gripping the baseball bat. Blow to the top of the head from what he could tell. "Yeah, I'm really not a normal human I can tell you that."

Ryoko raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, waiting for the explanation.

"I've been training since I could walk and been in so many fights that I can't even remember all of them. It's made me one of the best martial artists in the world." There was no hiding the pride in the statement. Ryoko was inclined to believe it though. Anybody who could survive unscathed from a blast as strong as the one she had leveled against him had to be something special.

Ranma gestured over at the lump on the ground. "What were you planning on doing with him?"

Ryoko shrugged, her anger having been abated while she was taking to Ranma. Since she was leaving the next day she didn't really need to do anything with him. Killing him was just for striking her, but she had already taken care of that, kinda. She wasn't actually sure if the thug was going to come back to the living after she had knocked his head.

A shout echoed through the alley. "Ranma, prepare to die!"

Ryoko blinked in surprise. A bandanna wearing boy had thrust an umbrella into the space Ranma had just been in. Bandanna boy suddenly did a face plant as Ranma landed on his head.

"What did I do now, Ryoga?" Ranma asked in a bored tone.

Ryoga snarled and jumped to his feet again, tossing Ranma into the air. He did a couple flips and landed a little ways away on one foot. He used the other foot to kick a razor sharp bandanna from the air and into a wall.

"How can you say that after what you did to Akane!" Ryoga shouted.

Ranma rolled his eyes and sighed. "What's her problem now? Or did you just get lost again and can't stand me standing next to such a cute girl?"

"DIE!" Ryoga shouted, rushing again. Ranma stood calmly as the slightly larger boy's fist flashed out toward his face.

With an almost casual air he catches the fist, the force of the impact driving his feet down through the pavement a few inches. The two strained, neither giving ground until Ryoga suddenly broke off, his hands and feet blurring in a flurry of punches and kicks.

Ranma flowed around them, his entire body blurring at the same rate as his opponent's fist.

At this point Ryoga made a mistake, a gap in his often ignored defenses appearing for far too long a time. Smiling, Ranma punched him in the gut. Ryoko didn't think it had that much power behind it until she heard a staccato sound.

Looking hard at the two of them she realized Ranma was throwing several hundred punches in the space of a second. That was something she hadn't ever seen before. She would have to see if Washu had seen something like that.

Or she could ask him directly. But did she really want to see more of him?

A shout interrupted her. "Duck!"

Her instincts took over, dropping her in a low crouch. Ranma and Ryoga, locked together while trading blows, sailed by over her head.

Ranma spared her an apologetic glance. "Sorry!" He shouted before returning his attention to his rival. Ryoko glared at the Lost Boy. He was oblivious to everything around him and didn't even notice he had almost run her over.

Ranma got a healthy combo through Ryoga's defenses, sending him flying backwards and into, then through, a wall. Ranma turned his attention back to Ryoko while he had a few seconds.

"You alright?" When she nodded he smiled in relief. "You wanna leave before he gets outa the rock? Or stay until he gets lost?"

Ryoko blinked in confusion. Ranma noticed and explained. "Ryoga here has the world's worst sense of direction. He can get lost in a room with one door." Ryoko snickered.

"Oh, this is rather amusing. I think I'll stay and watch." Ryoko said with one of the first smiles she'd had in a long while.

Ranma shrugged and turned back to the concrete just when it exploded outward with a shout of rage. "Ranma! How dare you mock me behind my back! DIE!"

The pigtailed martial artist refused to follow the order, dodging and weaving in and out of the somewhat larger boy's strikes with what looked like practiced ease. "C'mon P-chan, you can do better than that. I'm hardly even trying here."

"Don't mock me Ranma! I might have not have killed a god like you did, but I can still kick your ass! There just haven't been any gods around here for me to take on, that's all."

Ryoko stood there in shock. Both things that she had thought about that he would say that couldn't possibly happen had happened. Except it wasn't him that had said it, it was a rival of his. Ryoko shook her head and concentrated on what was happening. She could tell that Ranma was getting bored. It did indeed look like Ryoga didn't really have a chance of hitting him given how much faster Ranma could move.

Ryoga entered a fast series of punches toward his midsection, forcing the other boy to take a jump back or start taking a few hits on his forearms. Knowing how strong he could hit Ranma decided to jump. As soon as his feet left the ground Ryoga stopped and concentrated, a green glow emanating from his body. Ryoko blinked in surprise. How was he doing that? Was it just his energy?

She suddenly realized why Ranma hadn't gotten hurt when she had thrown that blast at him if this was the stuff that he dealt with all the time. Ranma saw what was happening too. He knew that he would survive the hit, but it still hurt like you wouldn't believe. Decided to use a little of his own ki he let it envelop his body, a light blue sheen surrounding him, infusing into his muscles. While still in the air he somehow managed to twist around the first beach ball sized blast. The second, however, impacted with his back, completely ruining his shirt and hurtling him backwards to impact with a wall.

Ranma leapt back to his feet, a much stronger blue aura surging forth from his body. Ryoga seemed to pause a bit in his attack, as if debating weather he really wanted to try and take him on. Pig headedness won out, and with a yell Ryoga charged once again, a flurry of kicks followed by a few punches all deftly blocked or allowed to pass and shatter some concrete and walls. Finally Ryoga made a bigger mistake than usual and Ranma took complete advantage of him.

Having overextended his arm just long enough for Ranma to grab it, a knee slammed into Ryoga's stomach doubling him over, followed by another to his face, lifting him into the air. Ranma laced his fingers together and raised them over his head before smashing down on Ryoga's back, bending him in half before momentum caught up and he bounced off the ground. In the air again he received a kick to the side that send him hurtling away, only to have his foot caught by the pig tailed martial artist. Yanking Ryoga back toward him he juggled him upright with a flurry of punches that couldn't be followed even by Ryoko. Finally he stopped and let Ryoga start falling backward, only to be helped along by a massive axe kick to the chest that embedded him into the pavement a good couple of feet, rendering him completely dazed and out of sorts.

Ranma stood over him, staring at him for a while before pulling himself back together and looking over at Ryoko. "You didn't get hit by anything did you?" He asked, concern in his voice. He seemed to have put that unbelievable fight behind him already, as if that was something that happened a lot to him, with this the usually outcome.

Ryoko nodded, thinking about some of the moves that she had seen him do. If she limited herself to attacks that wouldn't level more than a city block he could probably beat her. In fact, it seemed to be that there would be nothing she could do in a fight against him except to over power him with long range attacks. But that didn't mean she couldn't get better in the hand to hand area. She would have to ask Washu about that. He also didn't seem to be able to teleport. That would be one major advantage that she would have. If they ever saw each other again.

Ryoko had to keep reminding herself of that fact. If they ever saw each other again. For some reason she kept getting this feeling that it would be a Good Thing if she did see more of him. Even with her past experiences something about him just seemed to call out to her. And she had always followed her feelings before. She just couldn't believe that he wasn't already taken.

About this time she realized that Ranma had been trying to tell her something. She smacked herself to get her brain in gear and asked him to repeat himself.

"I said, now that that's done, I was wondering what you were going to do with trench coat over there." He said, pointing over at another wall where the baseball bat wielding thug was still half visible, buried under rubble. The two martial artists hadn't even noticed walking all over his fallen form after Ryoga had been kicked through that wall.

Ryoko laughed unconvincingly. "Oh him, uhh, I don't know. Maybe we should just leave him there." She really didn't know what to do with him at that point. She was just going to go over and kill Kenji for all the trouble he had caused her, but now she didn't really want to do that. She wasn't sure, once again, if she was going to be leaving the planet when she had first decided to. If she wasn't going to leave the planet it was probably a bad idea to kill somebody now that she had some sort of identity. But that was still her old side talking. The side when she still had somebody to care about. She refused to let herself go that easily again. She would have to make certain about everything and everybody before she would open up again. Given how long she was to live she thought it inevitable that she would find somebody that would get into her heart again. But she wasn't even thinking that it would happen this soon, or with this few precautions.

Ranma shrugged, not really caring what happened to the guy, but still feeling that something should have been done, given that was her original plan. Oh well, his plans never went the way he wanted them to either.

"Oh, well, whatever. I've gotta go now that Ryoga's lost again." He grinned sheepishly. "I don't have a place to stay and I was hoping find one before it starts raining. I really don't like rain."

Ryoko blinked in surprise. He didn't have a place to stay? No wonder he was so annoyed about the shirt. If he didn't have a place than he had everything on his back that he owned. There couldn't be that many things he could fit in there, after all, he didn't know Washu and her amazing folding reality. She toyed with the idea of inviting him over to her place to spend the night. That feeling she was having that she should get to know him better was getting harder and harder to suppress.

Deciding to risk it she asked him. "Say, you want to stay at my apartment for tonight? I'm leaving tomorrow so it won't be any problem."

He blinked in surprise. "I don't want to be any trouble or nothin'." He said. But Ryoko wasn't fooled. She saw the want in his eyes.

"C'mon, it'll be fun. We can trade stories, or something."

Ranma looked her in the eye for several long moments before smiling and nodding his head. Once he turned away Ryoko shivered. It had felt like he was looking in her soul to see if she could be trusted. For a human like him to be able to do that made her pause and wonder just what kind of stories he might have. If only she knew.

The pair arrived at her apartment and Ranma looked around appreciatively. "Nice place." He said.

Ryoko blinked in surprise. That had certainly not been what she had been thinking the entire time she had been there. But then again, just about anywhere would have to seem nice to him. Especially if he didn't have his own ship like she did. But that she couldn't really have mail delivered to and it made getting house calls very interesting to deal with, so she had decided, since earth money wasn't really good anywhere else, to just spend her money on a place to stay and get drunk a lot. Her job had kept her from getting too drunk though, and the apartment had been surprisingly relaxing. Now she just had to see how it would help her with Ranma. She smacked that thought down as soon as she realized that she'd had it. [I don't want to get in a relationship, I don't want to get in a relationship, I don't want to get in a relationship...] Ryoko repeated to herself over and over, hoping that she could convince herself that it was true.

She was snapped out of her mantra by Ranma, who was waving a hand in front of her face. "Hello? Ryoko, you alright? You spaced out there for a while." There was genuine concern swirling in his expressive blue orbs, something that caught Ryoko off guard. She'd only ever seen concern like that directed at her twice in her life. The first time with Tenchi, now with Ranma. Her earlier thoughts bubbled to the surface again as she stared into his eyes, losing herself in the windows to Ranma's soul.

It took a superhuman effort (good thing Ryoko isn't human) to pull herself from his gaze, a blush starting to rage across her face now that the moment had passed and her brain was left to deal with reality while her libido took off with her imagination. She turned away from her guest quickly, hoping to hide her burning cheeks. "Er..yeah...of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be." Ryoko almost smacked herself in the face. She sometimes really wondered about Washu's claim about her being the redheaded scientist's daughter. Washu didn't ever seem to have these speech problems, why did Ryoko have them?

Ranma didn't sound convinced. "Right...Say, do you have anything to eat around here?" Fortunately he let the matter drop to allow for more pressing things.

Ryoko just sighed in relief. That would have been the last thing she needed, for Ranma to start inquiring about her past. She hadn't even thought about how she was going to explain everything to the young man. That caused her to blink. [I was actually going to just tell him the truth?] Ryoko shook her head, trying to get her brain in gear. Why was she being so trusting all of a sudden? She wouldn't survive very much longer unless she got her edge back. Thinking back to when she had locked gazes with Ranma she had to admit that it seemed to be worth it no matter what happened. Just so long as she wasn't alone anymore.

"Yeah, there should be something in the fridge. Though I usually just order something, since I don't cook." Well, it was more like she couldn't cook something if her life depended on it, but she wasn't going to tell him that. Yet. If he stayed around for very long she was sure he would find out about it somehow, these things always do have ways of coming out.

Unknown to the alien, Ranma was having similar thoughts about his curse. He knew it would be a bad idea to keep it a secret, and she had reacted pretty good to what had happened earlier with Ryoga, but he wasn't sure if she was ready for that particular fact to come to light. She had been incredibly friendly and fun to be around the short time he had known her, and he really didn't want to ruin it by revealing his curse too soon. That was something he had learned that needed to be taken care of before they found out by accident, but only after they had at least gotten to know him for a little while. Past that point then they would still like him even if he was a freak, but if he just out and out showed anybody they would usually start calling him names and try and get rid of him. Rejection was something that Ranma just couldn't handle. He just hoped, prayed, that nothing would happen until she relaxed around him enough so she would accept him as he was, whatever gender.

The way things had been going he wasn't counting on it, but he could always hope. He opened the fridge and poked around, pulling out a rather large serving of several different types of meat and vegetables. Ryoko blinked in surprise. She had thought for sure that he was going to suggest they order something to eat. "You're making dinner?" She asked in surprise.

"Err...yeah. I hope you don't mind. I've been told I can make a pretty decent dinner." He said, his hands wringing out some celery into unrecognizable bits in obvious stress.

Ryoko laughed at him, wondering what else he was going to spring on her. He had already done the marriage thing, had mentioned something about beating a god, and was now making dinner in a most impressive fashion. "Go right ahead. If that tastes as good as it smells I might have to keep you around just to make me food."

The cyan-haired woman got a far off look in her eyes as she recalled the last person that had made meals for her. Why couldn't she ever get those thoughts out of her head? She didn't really want to remember Tsunami, not after what she had done. Sasami, she didn't mind. Sasami was nice and wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but the goddess that she had grown into was a greedy and spiteful woman that cared far too much about appearances and politics.

Ranma blushed at her compliment, but he quickly turned somber. He knew he could cook fairly good, his mother had told him so, and she was exception in the culinary arts. That comment about keeping him around for just his cooking skills had reminded him of his fiances that he had left behind, and the pain those memories brought with them. Neither occupant noticed the other lost in bad memories until Ranma's sensitive nose noticed the slightly overdone rice and removed it from the heat to join the quickly growing batch of expertly cooked eatery.

After only a few minutes more Ranma's martial arts cooking had done him proud once again, serving forth a sumptuous meal in a fraction of the time that it should have taken. He was surprised he hadn't caught Kasumi using the technique before. She certainly seemed skilled enough to use it. But he wouldn't think about things as they had been, but would try and get to know this fascinating woman that was before him. Something about her drew him to her, and he determined that he was going to learn all he could about her before she left the next morning.

"Hey, food's ready." He called.

Ryoko stared at him in shock. He had finished that much food that quickly? That was almost as good as some of Washu's ideas about food preparation. Of course, these looked like they would actually be good to eat, unlike most of the things that had surfaced from her mother's lab.

Ryoko floated into the room, her feet several inches off the ground, the good smells and friendly atmosphere that had quickly developed around Ranma bringing her back to happier times when nobody questioned being able to fly, form energy swords, or just about anything else that she could do. Fortunately for her, Ranma was facing away from her at the time, flicking several tasty looking items through the air to land artistically on a plate he was spinning on a finger.

The alien was just starting to settle into her place when Ranma turned and paused, noticing her strange movements. She did her best to hide any sort of expression that might give her away, trying to go for a look of complete innocent, fairly screaming that there wasn't anything unusual about her. Ranma, being who he is, decided to accept it for the time being. He didn't really know what she had been moving so smoothly for, anyway. But he would still ask her about it. Maybe it was some sort of training that he might be able to use. He had gotten techniques from stranger places after all.

Ranma tossed the plate into the air, gently arcing over to the table Ryoko sat at. Using the Amaguriken technique for something far less noble than winning a battle of honor he put as much food on his plate as he could, turned and ran toward the table,sitting with his own dish in front of him at the same time that Ryoko's food gently settled before her, spinning in place for a few moments. He smiled at her, ignoring the stunned expression that was on her face.

"I'm starved." He raised his cup of tea at her in a salute. "Here's towards new beginnings." Ranma blinked at that, wondering what had prompted him to say it, but just shrugged and took a couple of sips. As usual, he was talking faster than he could think. Rather unusually he had said the right thing to the right person, at the right time. New beginnings indeed.

Ryoko finally closed her mouth. She hadn't seen somebody move that fast since Yosho had upped Tenchi's training again. Heck, even the old man wasn't that fast. He was just good at feinting, which led one to believe he was even faster than he actually was. Ranma, on the other hand, was just plain quick. She had just barely managed to track his movements, and she could tell that he hadn't even put any effort into his moves. If she could combine her power with some of his speed...Ryoko cut that thought short when she realized she had been sitting immersed in her thoughts for far to long. Ranma was starting to look at her strangely, as if wondering if she was ignoring him or just distracted. remembering what he had said for a toast caused her to pause yet again, but she quickly gathered her courage and repeated him, knocking back some of her ever present sake.

Ryoko wondered at herself. Had she really just toasted to new beginnings with an almost complete stranger? He was a cute stranger, and incredibly likable, but a man she had just met not over an hour ago. Something must have been affecting her in order to get that kind of response from her. Only she had no idea what it could be. It might be her mother, it could have been somebody from her past, it might have been somebody from her mothers past, or Yosho's past, or Kagato's past, or... Ryoko came to the realization she was related, or closely related to, far too many wanted people in the galaxy.

She glanced over at Ranma's happily smiling face as he tore into his food. Or maybe Ryoko was just softening up. Assimilating with Zero was playing havoc with her emotions sometimes, especially when she needed to keep them under control and just couldn't anymore. Sometimes she was really glad she was a girl. If she had been a guy she wouldn't have been able to stand not having her emotions in check, society being what it was, especially in Japan. Her only hope was to just go along with her feelings and see what became of them. AFTER she determined if he would be safe or not. Ryoko knew she would have to keep reminding herself of that. She couldn't afford to get too attached to another person like she had with Tenchi. It just hurt too much to have her love spurned for another's, the scars on her heart were going to take a long time to heal she knew. If only there was somebody for her. When she had those thoughts her gaze rested on Ranma, who stopped and looked at her quizzically, his head cocked to the side in such a manner that it made him almost unbearably cute.

She blushed, incredibly grateful that he couldn't read her thought like her mother could. He swallowed his food and asked her. "Something wrong? Your face is all red...."

The space pirate violently shook her head in denial, hoping that he would drop the subject. Ranma shrugged and did so, returning to his meal, but keeping an eye on her. Ryoko realized he was doing that and started to get self conscious. She hadn't ever really been watched before while she was eating, and it made her wonder if she was doing something wrong the way he kept staring at her.

Ryoko decided to just ignore him and get through the food. Now that she thought about it, he really was good at cooking. She couldn't seem to get enough of it. She smiled at him when he openly looked at her once, causing him to look away, blushing.

That gave her pause. She couldn't believe that he had blushed just by her smiling at him. Ranma himself had been stunned at the affect one of her radiant smiled had on him.

The two finished their food in companionable silence, not really knowing what else to talk about while they were stuffing their faces, especially since their mouths were occupied. Ranma quickly gathered their dishes together, a stack of them reaching a couple feet in height balanced on his index finger, another stack of cups and saucers balanced on the other. Once more displaying his incredible speed the young man dunked them into the sink and then back out again so fast Ryoko wasn't sure if she had caught all of his movements.

Ryoko seemed to suddenly realize what he was doing. She jumped to her feet and half ran half floated over to him. "Hey, you go sit down. I'll handle the dishes." As her guest, Ranma wasn't supposed to do the house keeping! That was why there was a host, to make the guest feel welcome. Not that she really took much stock in all that traditional stuff, as Ryoko herself wasn't from around there. But still, it was the proper thing to do.

He shook his head. "Nah, then I would be freeloading, and I refuse to do that anymore." He grinned at her, making her cheeks tint pink from the effect his good looks had on her. "Besides, I can get it done faster this way."

Ryoko knew that could be interpreted as a challenge, knew that she should probably take him up on it, just to show that he wasn't the only one that had some special skills. But she really didn't like doing housework, and he seemed so cheerful at it. She didn't want to spoil his fun, yeah, that was the reason she wasn't going to say anything about that comment of her being slow doing the dishes. Didn't have anything to do with her hating housework, nope, not one bit.

The cyan-haired woman sighed dramatically and said, "Yeah, I suppose you *might* be able to do them faster than me, so I guess I'll let you prove your point." Ranma blinked at that. That wasn't what he had meant at all, but now that he thought about it, she could've heard him that way if she was the competitive sort. He already knew she was that way, which meant she either really sucked at washing the dishes and she didn't want him to know how bad she was at it for some reason. Or she didn't want to do them and was letting him work of his guilt for staying there the night. He could handle that. He started whistling a cheerful tune while his hands blurred, washing, drying, and stacking the soiled dishes. Not doing enough things at once he turned it into a kata, *only* building endurance for the Amigurikan not enough for him anymore. With deft movements and secure spins and twirls he turned the kitchen into a whirlwind of flying towels, dishes and sometimes water. Key phrase here being water.

In his happiness he had totally forgotten about his curse, something that he really should have learned not to do by now, even if everybody he had known previously did already know about it. Even with the water magnetism of Jusenkyo victims, Ranma moved with such skill and precision that it actually took the intervention of the other resident before something happened.

Ryoko had become entranced while she watched the pig tailed martial artist work. He was doing so many things at once that were so perfectly coordinated, and whistling at the same time! She wondered where he had learned to do something like that.

Ryoko had been drifting closer and closer, trying to figure out what he was doing to make everything stay in the air for that long. If she didn't know better she would say he was just throwing them up in the air faster than even she could see. If she tried really hard she would be able to just see an afterimage of his arm. It fascinated her, given she was Washu's daughter and her conglomerate origins had given her some fierce curiosity, especially regarding anything that would help her in a fight.

Ranma noticed her and flashed her a smile, the joy and exhilaration of his impromptu workout clearly shown on his face. That was all that was needed for the final plate that was splashed with soapy water to redirect enough of it onto the young man, turning him into a beautiful young woman.

Ryoko had seen many strange things during her several thousand years of existence. Not life, no, that had only been the brief time she had been with Tenchi on that circus. But this transformation was something nobody had done before. Ryoko licked her lips. Ranma was as good looking as a girl as he was a boy, and that water had plastered her shirt to her ample chest. The cyan-haired woman suddenly started to wonder if he was as....healthy, as a boy. Her face burned as she tried to squash that thought. She knew she was going to have to satisfy her curiosity later that night, though. The joys of being able to float through walls.

Ranma hadn't even noticed he had gone female, having gotten used to both his sizes. Her hand unconsciously cinched the drawstring on her pants tight against her much slimmer waist, not even interrupting her juggling of dishes. A few more moments and that last dish that had suffered under the influence of water magnetism gently clattered to a rest on top of the pile. Ryoko decided to ignore his gender changing for now. There were other things that she wanted to ask him about.

"What's that you were doing?" Ryoko asked, trying hard not to sound too eager.

Onna-Ranma smiled at her. Ryoko realized at that time that Ranma's smile had a certain quality that was... enticing, male or female. Ryoko herself, however, would have to claim a certain bias toward his male side. But what fun it would be... Ryoko cut the thought off and got back to her original inquiries.

"It's just something that I picked up during my travels." The new redhead clarified. "It's called Kachu Tenchin Amigurikan. All it does is allow you to move really fast. It's pretty draining, so I've been finding ways to do it all the time to build my endurance." Onna-Ranma blinked at that. Why had he just given her so much information? Did she already trust the girl that much that she would open up to her? He would have to watch himself, or he might fall for her. That was something that he was fairly certain he didn't want happening just yet in his life.

Ryoko was having trouble containing her curiosity. "Really? Is it easy to learn?" Accessing some of the knowledge that had been given to her she came up with the translation. "It has something to do with picking things out of a fire, right? Chestnuts roasting over an open fire, huh, I could do that." She was trying to think if she had some chestnuts sitting around that she might be able use, not noticing Onna-Ranma's stunned look.

Ranma couldn't believe that her temporary house mate had managed to figure out what the technique was just by her describing what it was and the name of it. Course, now that she thought about it, it was kinda obvious how you could learn the move given it was named chestnuts roasting over an open fire. Her respect for Ryoko went up a few notches. She was good, or at least very perceptive to have figured that out. That didn't mean she could learn it, though.

She smiled at the taller woman. "Much as I would like to see you try it, I can't teach it to anyone that isn't part of the Amazon tribe. Since I don't think you are, nor will you be anytime soon, I can't. Sorry." Ryoko stared at her in shock. That she hadn't expected at all. Somebody actually holding to their word was unheard of in Ryoko's group, even Tenchi hadn't allowed her to show him around the universe like he had promised, he was doing that with his other two wives.

Onna-Ranma watched in concerned confusion as Ryoko went from thoughtful, to reflective, to incredibly depressed. He hadn't realized that the move had meant so much to her. At least, that was what she thought until the red haired girl looked into Ryoko's yellow eyes. She was transfixed, the pain and sorrow held within the windows to her soul were heart wrenching. Something really wasn't right in the girls past, and it tore at Ranma's heart to see her suffer like that. It reminded him all too much of his own past and what he had gone through to get where he was today; nowhere. Just as, so it seemed, was Ryoko. This, Ranma realized, wasn't just about the technique. It was about her past, about things that had happened to her that shouldn't have happened to any living soul.

Onna-Ranma reached out and touched her arm, trying to get her attention without totally breaking her free from the spell. Ranma knew from experience that girls tended to lash out at him when he did things like that. Even though it didn't look like Ryoko would be able to hit that hard he didn't want to take the chance. Shampoo didn't look like she should have been able to hit nearly as hard as she could either.

Ryoko at first didn't react at all to the contact, but just when Ranma though she was going to have to do something more to get her attention those slitted yellow eyes locked onto her blue ones, the pain and suffering held within almost too much for Ranma to bear. He let his own feelings swell within him, knowing that she was opening the window to her soul. She could only hope that what Ryoko found there would allow both of them some relief. That's what it looked like they needed at the least. A friend to confide in.

Ryoko stood transfixed, the concern that had been in her guests blue depths reminding her of the time she had looked into the dark brown eyes for the first time that held that same concern. This time, however, there was no fear that followed that concern. What it was, Ryoko didn't know, but as they stared at each other she could see the smaller man turned woman changing before her. No longer having the brash and confident wall before her, Ryoko could see clearly through to Ranma's soul, something that she couldn't ever really remember doing. Ranma had, apparently, somehow managed to see what she kept bottled up inside herself, and was going to share what was in his own. Ryoko gazed and tried to prepare herself, wondering what could have shaped a person such as Ranma. It must have been interesting.

To say she was stunned was an understatement. Ryoko hadn't seen anything like it in her life. She was honestly wondering if her mental link that she had with her mother and Ryo-ohki was helping her or just feeding her nightmares. For what she felt wasn't just impressions or feelings buried, but actual images and events of Ranma's past that were playing in her minds eye like they were actually happening. She felt everything that he felt during all of them, even got some impression of the other people. She didn't have any idea who they were except Ryoga, but she could tell by the emotions that things weren't going good for the pig tailed martial artist. Especially toward the end. Such pain and suffering for so little gain, so much heartache for so little comfort. It was a miracle that the young man could function at all. It reminded Ryoko a lot of herself, only on a slightly smaller scale. He was, after all, merely human. He didn't have to live with the knowledge that he had been responsible for decimating entire worlds. But he was close. He knew the burdens that he had, he knew the people that relied on him, he knew what honor and everybody else demanded of him. And knew that there was no way it could ever be satisfied. There was no hope, reflected across her link with him just like in her own soul.

At that moment Ranma was also feeling something strange going on, for she was reliving things that she really didn't want to think about anymore, but she couldn't seem to stop it. Barring her soul to the woman had seemed like a good idea, but now she was starting to doubt her sanity since she couldn't even get her own memories under control. Of course, Ranma didn't know that they were almost being pulled out by Ryoko's curiosity and need to know more about him. Ranma's aura had exploded outward, the rich blue energy swirling around him and mingling with Ryoko's red one. Such a thing Washu had never intended to happen, but it was. This was how she could form a mental link with anyone or anything that could control its energies to a certain degree. The cabbit had ingrained knowledge of everything that it did, but it still had expert knowledge of how to manipulate its own energy. It was a space ship, after all. It had better know what its doing.

Now that same link that Ryoko and Ryo-ohki shared was going to be implemented between the human and alien. This time, it was going to be a conscious decision, unlike her links with Washu and Ryo-ohki, which were active whether Ryoko wanted them to be or not. However, since this one had formed of their own free will, it was something that could be turned off by either party, either the transmitting or receiving ends. One could always send a message and have it heard, but whether it would be loud enough to really attract their attention would only be if they had their barriers down. Barriers that both of them had spent a long time erecting.

While it had seemed along time to Ryoko, it had, in fact, only been a few moments since they had first started, only enough time for Ranma's aura to swell and mingle with her own, easing and making permanent the path of memories through their heads. Though Ryoko hadn't returned the favor yet, now knowing what they had done Ranma wasn't put off by this, simply because he didn't know the woman was experiencing just about every important or noteworthy event in his entire life. With far too many of them ending up with him worse off than before, but he always grew stronger.

Ryoko was actually trying to stop the flow now, trying to keep things from going too far. She knew enough about him now, far too much for her own good. She probably knew him better than he knew himself, while she didn't think that he had managed to read many, if any, of her own memories. She was both relieved and troubled by that.

If he had seen what was in her head than they could have just continued on, probably with him leaving her once he found out some of the things that she had done in her past. Then again, this meant that she had the opportunity to actually show him her true nature before slowly revealing the cold beast that lurked deep within her soul.

She knew better than to try and hide it from him, especially with all that she had been experiencing from him. If there was one thing that Ranma could not stand it was somebody that would hide the truth simply because they didn't want it out in the open. He knew he had to reveal his curse, he also knew that he couldn't do it as soon as they met the person. It would have to be after a couple day's, or they would just scream "FREAK" and throw him back out into the street. But once they got a chance to see some of the weirdness that followed him around they would just shrug and accept it as part of everything else that came along with him. He really didn't want the first taste of weirdness people got to be himself personally, and would much rather have it be the things that circled around him in his life.

Ryoko also knew the need to reveal just how much of an alien she was, especially given that she had planned on leaving the god-forsaken planet the next day to try and find something to do with her life. More accurately, to find somebody to do her life with. Loneliness was the one thing that Ryoko could not stand in any way, shape or form. For her entire existence she had been alone, with the sole exception of that wonderful period at the Masaki residence where she had made friends, had a rival/friend, had a love interest, a motherly daughter figure, a wise grandfatherly figure, and her mom was around, for what good that did.

But they had all been there, and she had thrived, grown, exalted in the presence of those that she could be herself with. Not a puppet, not a murderer, not a pirate, not an experiment. But Ryoko, the woman, who just happened to be able to fly and teleport through walls.

Ryoko's flood of foreign memories was slowing to a trickle the most recent that had culminated when he had left, finally ending with a sighting of a spiky haired woman with the most amazing eyes, and a smile that actually managed to penetrate the wall of ice that had formed around his heart.

Ryoko started to blush at that. She hadn't realized it had quite that effect on people. She would have to remember that in the future, although that particular smile was going to be reserved just for Ranma. She realized that it was now starting to actually be a good amount of time that they had been staring at each other, something that she didn't want to continue just at that moment until she had some things thought out. Like what she intended to show him through the link that they had apparently formed.

'Wait a minute, did I just think 'Link between Ranma and myself?' Ryoko thought to herself incredulously. Checking her memory briefly revealed that it was indeed what she thought it was.

Realizing that a test would be in order Ryoko tried to get some sort of an image from her currently female male house guest. An image popped up in her head of Ryoko running through a complicated kata that she didn't recognize, with such grace and control it actually made her envious of herself. Then she noticed the other part of it. Ranma was performing the same thing at her side, the two forms mirroring each other perfectly. Ryoko realized that it wasn't an imaginary thing, Ranma could actually do them that gracefully, and he apparently was running a fantasy which involved her being his partner in at least the martial arts.

That she could understand, since she had indeed signaled an interest in his occupation. Apparently he could also tell that she had plenty of combat experience, even if most of it was unwanted. Of course, she already knew just about every special attack that he had, since she had just seen the memory of him learning them. Ryoko had no doubt in her mind that she could accomplish them in just a few tries. At least, if she was in good enough shape. Even though she was a supernatural alien, some of the things Ranma did on a daily basis would have made him so strong as to cause any body builder to whimper in fear.

Ryoko was starting to wonder why Ranma hadn't been going through any of the things that she had been when she realized that she had been subconsciously keeping her end of the link closed, preventing the son of Genma from receiving any of her thoughts or memories. Whether she had done that out of fear or training she would probably never know.

Unless she asked her mother.

Ryoko realized that she had a golden opportunity here. If she could get Ranma to believe her that she had just watched all of his memories, and that he could do the same with her, only at a slower pace, they would be light years ahead than if they had tried sitting down and explaining everything that had happened in their lives.

But, how to do that in a controlled environment? Ranma obviously didn't have any experience dealing with mental links, so he wouldn't be able to block the flood of memories if Ryoko herself hadn't been able to. That left experimenting, something that she was sure would be a bad thing for their relationship. Which caused her entire train of thought to derail when she realized what she had just thought.

Now that she thought about it, Ryoko guessed that since she had lived through just about every one of his memories her instincts had made a judgment on her guest. Going by how much her libido was trying to get her attention her subconscious had given its enthusiastic support. Which meant the only thing left was Ranma himself. And the fact that Ryoko's mind hadn't been able to adjust to the change yet and wasn't ready to jump all over the boy like she had been with Tenchi, especially after seeing how that had turned out.

Therefore she was waiting patiently until they had known each other for at least a few more hours before showing him her own version of the Amazon Glomp (TM).

Having had no experience with mental links before Ranma was completely in the dark, not having left that part of his mind open to receive, while leaving the transmit section on full blast. Ryoko hated to admit it, but the best way to solve this problem was probably to ask Washu to teach the pig-tailed boy everything there was to know about mental links.

Now, how to find the older woman. She was a lot harder to track down now that she didn't spend all her time in the Masaki's closet. She might be in her spaceship, or she could still be in that closet, or she could be floating around the universe, or she could be in an alternate one now that she finished her alternate universe gateway again. 'Course, that wasn't really an alternate universe gateway so much as it was a dreamland gateway. It created a universe based on one's own desires that could be programmed in. It was an amazing device, with it's only flaw being you could tell you were in that alternate universe, instead of reality. But it was close, oh so very close.

"Hey, Ranma."

"GAAAAH!!!" Ranma picked herself up off the floor as soon as she could, once she realized that she hadn't been startled to death. "Don't do that!" she shouted at the taller woman.

Ryoko just stood there for several moments, stunned. Then she fell over laughing. She had just managed to knock Ranma over without even touching him! Once she regained control of herself Ryoko walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass of water, hoping that the redhead wouldn't notice that it was hot water.

She leaned in pretty close to him, her face only a couple inches away from the smaller woman. Ranma's eyes widened slightly, wondering what this was all about. Then she was splashed with the hot water and Ryoko found herself gazing at his sculpted chest. He sure did change sizes by Jusenkyo, it was amazing how much mass was displaced.

Ryoko groaned silently to herself. Now she was starting to sound like her mother! Ryoko slowly straightened up, till her face was once again level with his own. Now she stood pretty much erect, the two of them about the same height. Ranma had an incredibly nervous expression on his face, one that Ryoko knew all to well. He hadn't had a chance to explain the curse to her yet, and was now waiting for the fallout of having waited a couple hours too long.

"Ranma, I have something that I really need to tell you, that I hope you won't take the wrong way and leave." Ranma blinked owlishly at her, the normal course of events from this point on having been altered beyond his comprehension.

"Uhh, okay. I'm sure it won't be that bad." His eyes returned to normal as his brain caught up with his mouth. "But...uhh...weren't you a little curious about the water thing?" He seemed baffled that she wasn't demanding an explanation on punishment of death.

Ryoko shook her head before continuing. "No, you see, that's what I have to tell you. There is nothing about you that I don't know." His eyes regained their stunned look. Ryoko continued, hoping that he could still absorb information while speechless. It would make things a lot easier on her.

"remember a few minutes ago when we were looking in each other's eyes? That was what caused me to know everything about you. We now have a link between us, something that can never be broken, but can be turned off. That's why you can't feel it at the moment, because you have your side turned off. You've never had reason to turn it on, so you don't know how." Ranma had lost his stunned look and was staring at her with an intensity that was unnerving her a little.

But the most amazing thing was he didn't seem to be all that disbelieving of her. Then she recalled some of the things that had happened to him and decided that it didn't really seem all that strange after all. Now the only question was what to do about the link. Time to ask.

"Sooo...I'd like to take you to see my mother. She might be able to do something about the link. Either get it working right or disable it." Ryoko suddenly felt relief and disappointment flood her, a strange combination. Realizing that it was Ranma's emotions she tried to block the signals she was getting, surprising herself when she managed to partially do it. Though the disappointment made her think. Maybe she would see if Washu could, perhaps, just make it seem like there was nothing that could be done. After he had been able to see her memories. The good ones, anyway.

Ranma just seemed to stare at her for an uncomfortably long time, without even twitching. Finally, he nodded. "OK. So, where is she, anyway? I haven't heard you mention her before." Indeed, they had mentioned their family members. Or, at least Ranma had. Ryoko had neglected to mention that he mother was still alive and kicking. Something that Ryoko sincerely wished she could have kept him ignorant of.

"Well, she's pretty hard to find nowadays. I usually have no idea where she might show up next, so I'm not sure if we're going to be leaving as soon as I would like."

Ranma simply nodded, accepting her explanation as being fact, for he had no reason not to trust her yet. Ryoko sighed in relief and disappointment, wondering why she had hoped that he would question her further. Maybe she just wasn't used to having somebody trust her, yeah, that had to be it.

"So, you going to start looking tonight, or in the morning?" Ranma asked.

"Um, tonight I guess. No sense waiting when we might have to be traveling for a while." She didn't mention yet that they could be traveling in a spaceship. Some things would just have to be explained. She hoped that he wouldn't question her too much until they had a chance to ask Washu about getting their link set up with more control. That way she could show him all the memories that she wanted him to see and everything would be explained.

Ranma nodded in agreement. "Alright. You want me to do anything?"

"Nah, I'll just make a few calls and we should be all set." She looked him over once. "You might want to take a bath or something before we leave. Or do your laundry if you don't have any clean clothes left."

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I could use a bath, couldn't I?" Once he had turned away Ryoko smiled warmly at him, hoping that everything would work out in the end.

The more she went over the memories she had gotten from him the more amazed she became. Especially when she was really getting the feelings and details of everything that he had been through and strived to attain, to be denied by those he had thought were his friends. It was obvious to her that he had been torn to complete shreds by those that he had loved, or at least like to a certain degree. Hopefully, Ryoko wouldn't add herself to his long list of enemies.

Ryoko closed her eyes and started accessing another one of her links. This one went directly to her mother. So long as the redheaded woman was in the same dimension she should pick it up and give her a return call to figure out what she wanted. Ryoko finished her summoning and opened her eyes, glancing all around her. Those windows would pop up in the strangest places. Ryoko thought Washu did it just to scare her. For some reason terror was a look that would send the mad scientist into fits of giggles, sometimes even outright laughter. The non-maniacal kind, amazingly enough.

Ryoko was looking behind her when a voice yelled out right in front of her. "What is it, Ryoko-chan?"

The space pirates head snapped back around to the front, moving so fast a normal person would have broken their neck. Her hands were presenting warding signs, but other than that she was looking surprisingly composed. "Washu!" She yelped.

The much older 12 year old looking girl glared at her daughter and cleared her throat in an obvious hint. Ryoko composed herself just in time to catch it. "Ahem, I mean, MOM." The last word was said with about as little respect as possible while still sounding like something one might hear from a child. Washu decided to let it pass for now, something was obviously bothering her offspring.

"That's better. Now, what can I do for you?"

Ryoko suddenly looked a little embarrassed and started twiddling her fingers. "Umm, well, you see, I sorta formed a link with this guy I just met on earth, and I was wondering if there was something you could do about it?"

Washu had to blink a couple of times before she was able to figure that sentence out. She had been speaking awfully fast. Then her eyes bulged, her mouth dropped open and she fell off her cushion. Ryoko blinked at seeing her disappear, followed shortly by a *thud*.

Washu didn't become the greatest scientific genius in the universe for nothing, however. A few seconds later and she was once again on screen, looking none the worse for wear. "You formed a link, did you? Hmmm..." Washu seemed lost in thought, as if contemplating the possibilities.

She eyed her daughter warily for an uncomfortably long time before finally saying something. "So, how did you do that, anyway? You aren't supposed to be able to form bonds with anything else that I know of."

Ryoko facefaulted painfully. "I knew you wouldn't be able to help me, I just knew it." She grumbled.

"Hey, who said I couldn't do anything about it?! I designed you, I can figure out anything that possibly happened to you!"

Ryoko snorted. "Sure you can. You don't even know how I formed a link with somebody, do you?"

Washu scowled at her daughter. She had a point there, it was time to fire up some of her larger computers. After a few minutes Washu had an answer that she was satisfied with. "You were looking into each other's eyes and decided that it would be good idea to try and show one's feelings for the other person, or at least what you were feeling at the time. However, you let your battle aura get out of control and they started mingling, causing you to see each other's memories instead of just emotions." Washu sat back a smug look on her face. "That is what happened, isn't it?" It was more a statement.

Ryoko was suddenly cheerful at having been proven wrong. "So, you know how to control it, right?"

Washu smiled radiantly. "Not a clue."

Ryoko pulled herself off the ground after her most painful facefault, looking a little out of sorts. "What do you mean you don't have a clue?!" She growled.

"I mean that I know how you formed it, but since you've never done it like that before I have no idea how it might work. If I was given some time to experiment I might be able to figure out how to, but I have no data. Scientists can't do anything without data to work with, you know."

Ryoko slumped in defeat. "Yeah, yeah. So, where are you? I still have him here, we could go and get checked out." She suddenly had a suspicious look on her face. "Just so long as you promise me that it won't take longer than a few hours."

Washu smiled her most reassuring smile. "Of course it won't."

"DON'T LIE TO ME, MOM!!"

Washu pulled herself back onto her floating cushion. She had no idea Ryoko could lean through the viewing window and yell in her face like that. It was...interesting. Ryoko obviously hadn't brushed her teeth yet, however. Washu made a mental note to remind her daughter of that before they were finished talking. "Alright, alright. I'll make sure to keep it under a day. Happy?"

Ryoko just glared at the red haired girl, who started pouting. "That's no way to treat your mother. How can you be so cruel?" Ryoko's glare intensified.

"Alright, sheesh. So who is this guy that you bonded with, somebody you met in the bar? Is he cute? Does he have any amazing abilities that would be perfect for him to act as my Guinea pig?" Washu had developed a mad gleam in her eye by the end.

"Hey! I never said it was a guy!"

"Yes you did, it's not my fault if you forget these things. Besides, I can see him over your shoulder."

Ryoko squeaked and spun around to find...nothing. She turned back and glared daggers. "He is not! Ranma's taking a shower, you big fat liar!"

Washu's grin became unbearable. "Oh really, and why does he have to take a shower at this time of day, hmm? Not doing anything, 'inappropriate', were you?"

"NO!"

Washu once again climbed back onto her cushion. She would have to see about getting some protection from people leaning through her windows like that. It became annoying after the novelty wore off.

"I just want to see what can be done about this link we have, Washu. He doesn't know how to receive and I don't know how to teach him, because you just programmed me with that knowledge." Ryoko said as calmly as she could.

"I'm only about a day's travel away from where you are, Ryoko-chan. Why don't you and Ranma fly on over here and I should have everything set up by then. Alright?" Washu said, suddenly all business.

Ryoko sighed in relief. "Thank you. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Washu nodded and the window closed down, disappearing into nothing. Ryoko smiled to herself and turned around to get some carrots to bring with her, and to bribe Ryo-ohki if the cabbit was being stubborn. She bumped into Ranma, who was standing right behind her.

She had a deer caught in headlights look that refused to go away no matter how hard she tried to school her face into impassiveness. Ranma looked at her like there was nothing unusual about a window appearing out of thin air.

"So who was that in the window?" He asked.

Before Ryoko had a chance to respond the window appeared behind her once more. "I forgot to tell you something, Ryoko-chan."

So addressed former space pirate spun around and stared at Washu, wondering what could be so important that she called back. "What?"

"Be a good daughter and don't forget to brush your teeth next time you yell at me. That's a good girl." Just then she seemed to notice the previously unknown man standing just behind her daughter. "Oooh! He is cute! When were you planning on introducing me to him, hmm?" The window disappeared again only to reappear moments later right in front of Ranma.

"Gaah!" He back peddled a couple paces while presenting warding signs so he could focus on the life size face that was staring out at him. "Oh, er, uh hi. I'm Ranma Saotome. Nice to meet you..."

"My name is Washu, and I'm the greatest scientific genius in the universe!" Her chibi-Washu's had appeared on her shoulders, cheering while she made victory signs with her fingers. Ranma sweatdropped.

Ryoko burst through the window, standing in front of it with her arms spread to prevent him from seeing her mother. "Don't mind her, she's just a little bit crazy. Hehe." Ranma's cheeks tinged pink when he realized he was now staring at Ryoko's chest. And enjoying the view.

The window rose and Washu could be seen peeking over Ryoko's shoulder. "But you may call me Washu-chan!" The window moved to the side so she could look back and forth between the two. "I'll see you two in a little while, and don't forget what I said, Ryoko."

Ryoko, having been too involved with Ranma seeing the window had completely missed the advise. "Ah, what did you say?"

Washu grinned evilly. "Brush your teeth, we don't want to add rotted teeth to your list of problems. Droopy." The last was said with an exaggerated look down at Ryoko's breasts.

Ryoko blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. "THEY ARE NOT SAGGING!" She shouted in indignity.

Ranma looked rather confused. "Ahh, what are you two talking about?"

Ryoko's blush deepened considerably while Washu started howling in laughter. "Ahh, nothing, just forget all of that, alright." It wasn't a request.

Ranma's sweatdrop grew considerably. "Ahh, alright. Sure." He turned and walked away, wondering if maybe he was getting into something that perhaps was weirder than what he had left. He prayed that wouldn't be the case.

Ranma awoke from a cold feeling spreading across his chest. Right when he started becoming aware of his surroundings he felt the change take place, his wet shirt clinging to his skin and showing without a doubt he was currently female. Ranma had to admit that, given how he was normally wakened, this wasn't half bad.

"What did you do that for?" He asked without his usual angry scowl.

She looked at him in exasperation. "That was the only way I could get you to wake up. You blocked all my punches and ignored anything I said! That was the only thing left besides throwing you out the window."

"Oh." He had never thought about how hard it would be to awaken him given how good he was at avoiding punches, even in his sleep. "Uh, sorry. Have you had breakfast?" He hoped to make it up to her with some food. Besides, he really didn't mind being female all that much, and he would be taking a back to go back to male as soon as he got out of bed.

"Nope. Why, you going to make something?" There was a definite hint of hopefulness in her voice.

Ranma smiled at her and jumped out of bed. "Sure will. I'll just wash up and whip something together. Don't know what you have down there but I should be able to handle it." With that she bounded from the room, leaving Ryoko to shake her head in amazement.

Ranma wasn't broadcasting as powerfully today, so she had probably subconsciously started to lower the transmissions. That would probably make things easier for Washu when they showed up tomorrow morning. Ryoko hadn't felt the need to leave the night before since she was probably not going to get much sleep on the trip, and she did have this apartment till the next day, and she had said he could stay the night there, not on her spaceship. Besides, she wanted to give him some time to get used to it before they started on their trip.

Ryoko had already packed, everything she owned having been transported into Ryo-ohki as soon as the cyan-haired woman had risen from slumber. She would sill have a few minutes to herself before Ranma finished breakfast and wondered if there was anything she could be forgetting.

Thinking on the matter Ryoko wandered on down to the main room and sat at the table, staring off into space. Several minutes later Ranma found her in the exact same position, still trying to remember what it was that seemed to be nagging at the edge of her mind.

"Something on your mind, Ryoko?" Ranma asked quietly, not wanting to startle her too badly.

She jerked, but otherwise didn't react. Concerned, Ranma walked around the table and sat across from her, leaning forward a little to easily look into her eyes.<\p>

After several more minutes life returned to her slitted yellow orbs and she gazed back in wonder, marveling at the emotions and concern swirling in his expressive blue eyes. Ryoko wasn't even using the link and she could tell what he was thinking. She lost herself in happiness at the concern being shown to her.

Until Ranma spoke up. "What are you thinking about, Ryoko?"

Such a simple question, yet it made her feel like she hadn't for some time. Somebody was concerned about her in more than just how much money they could make off of her. The more time she spent with him the deeper her feelings for him ran. If it kept up like this for much longer she wouldn't even remember Tenchi's name unless reminded of him. That mind link she had established with him was working wonders on letting her understand him and why he might react to things in a certain way. It was wonderful, especially since she didn't have any competition for him at the moment. Ranma's various rivals and fiances hadn't shown up yet, and if they left the planet Ryoko wouldn't ever have to worry about them.

Ryoko finally responded to the question, her introspection reached its conclusion. "I just have the feeling that I'm forgetting something, but I know I already packed everything."

Ranma blinked in surprise. She traveled light apparently. Ranma thought about it for a moment before smacking his fist into his palm. "Ah ha! I remember." He exclaimed.

Ryoko looked at him blankly for a moment before remembering what they were talking about. "You remember what I forgot, huh? Talented, aren't you."

Ranma blushed a bit, not used to such a free spirited person as Ryoko. Especially for giving out praise. "Er, yeah. Weren't you going to stop by where that thug worked and give the boss a piece of your mind before we left? That's what you mentioned in the alley anyway."

Ryoko smacked her forehead. "Oh, right! I almost forgot about them after meeting you." An evil grin spread across her face that had Ranma transfixed. By fear or something else he wasn't sure. "Wanna go and help me take care of it?"

Ranma blinked in surprise. Every person he had ever met always insisted on doing things themselves, this was pretty much the first time that somebody had asked something of him besides sexual favors. "Sure, what can I do to help?"

Ryoko grinned evilly. Having all his memories sure made it easier to plan thing out. She already knew everything that he was capable of. Ryoko knew they weren't going to need most of their skills, just some tactics to get things too hot or dangerous for Kenji's group to get organized. She only wanted to kill Kenji. Somebody else in his organization that would raise to the top might actually be able to handle the business fairly and get it more popular than the last resort organization that it had turned into after Kenji had taken it over.

Plan's swirling around in her head Ryoko leaned over and asked Ranma his opinion on some things before she finalized their plans for conquest. The two huddled together over some breakfast while they plotted and planned Kenji's demise.

Ranma and Ryoko sat at the table in Ryoko's apartment, drinking sake and laughing their heads off. The two of them had just completed the mission they had spent that morning planning, and were relaxing with a bottle of sake.

"That was so funny when you showed up glowing blue like that! He pissed his pants and must have lost at least ten years. Course, I killed him afterword but that's beside the point." Ryoko couldn't stop laughing enough to actually take another drink. Ranma wasn't in much better state.

"Yeah, but I feel sorry for that girl he had with him. You must have scared her pretty bad walking through the wall like that. You gotta teach me how to do that one." He had been saying that ever since they had left the crime scene of Kenji's murder in self defense.

"Ask Washu when we get there. She can probably tell you how to do it, but I have no idea what I'm doing, I just do it."

Ranma nodded at her. "Man, that must be annoying at times. 'Course, then you don't have to go to school like everybody else." Ranma was trying to reflect the good points of her condition, but he managed to bring up some very painful memories.

They were of when she first became aware, of when she realized that Kagato would stop at nothing to kill her, unless she submitted to his mind control. Of the first, and only, few things she remembered clearly of doing while his slave. Of the horrified looks on the people's faces when her energy sliced through them, locking them in that expression for all eternity. Of hearing Kagato's horrible laughter ringing in her head, telling her what a good job she was doing and that she could probably live a little longer.

The memories Ranma jump started in her head came so suddenly and with such soul wrenching clarity that Ryoko just slumped onto the table they were sitting at, her head pillowed in her arms and started crying her eyes out. Kenji's face started mixing in with those of the innocents she had killed, as if her subconscious was trying to get her to feel even more guilty than she already was. About the innocent, not Kenji. She had no qualms about ending his life, the scum shouldn't have been born in the first place.

Ranma looked with wide, startled eyes as Ryoko broke down in front of him. He had never seen anybody do that before, just a simple comment by him eliciting such a reaction from the usually strong-willed woman. Ranma felt terrible for whatever he had done to get her to react so. He jumped over the table and sat beside her, dithering for several moments while he wondered what her reaction would be to him trying to comfort her. His record hadn't been too good in this department in the past, and he really didn't want to be malleted by Ryoko. He had no idea how hard she could hit, but he knew it would be extremely painful.

Gathering his courage Ranma leaned over a bit, wrapped an arm around Ryoko's shoulders, and gently drew her up from leaning on the table to leaning against him, his other arm circling around her, holding her tightly to his side.

Instead of the typical reaction from most of the people he knew, which involved a denial of ones feelings and any need of comfort, Ryoko threw her arms around him and held on tight, her face buried in his chest while she sobbed, trying to get her memories under control before she embarrassed herself any more. Ranma didn't mind in the least, he was only slightly uncomfortable from her death grip, and so whispered in her ear that he was with her, and she didn't have to worry anymore, and just let it all out. He had learned from Kasumi well.

After several minutes Ryoko realized that she wasn't in the most comfortable position, half twisted around so only the upper half of her body was against Ranma. Not feeling like she was ready to let go of him just yet she lifted up her legs and butt, spinning them around her pivot point of Ranma. She curled up tightly before settling herself in his lap, perfectly taking up the space there as if they had been designed to fit together.

Ranma held her close for a minute before subconsciously adopting a gentle rocking motion to help sooth the crying girl. She managed to get a few words out between her sobs. "Thank's Ranma. *SNIFF* T-thank you for being here, when nobody...*sob* nobody else is." Thinking about all those that she had thought were her friends, but weren't around to help her in her time of need only caused the link she had with Ranma to grow even stronger.

Ranma, unsure of what to say about something like that decided to just continue holding her and hopefully she would forget that he didn't respond to her words besides a mumbled, "Your welcome," in her ear. After a short while Ryoko managed to get herself under some semblance of control, just a shudder passing through her body every few minutes instead of the gut wrenching sobs she had been subjected to earlier.

Ranma was feeling pretty good about himself, since he had managed to calm the girl down and get her to stop crying. The best things was, now that she knew what was going on around her instead of being buried in bad memories, she wasn't trying to take advantage of the situation, or get mad at him for continuing to hold her in his lap like he was doing. For some reason he didn't really want to think about Ranma didn't feel like letting her go, in fact, was perfectly content to let her remain where she was until such time as they had to leave.

Ryoko managed to pick up on that thought and it suddenly occurred to her that they should have at least gotten on Ryo-ohki before they started doing things like this. She sighed in resignation before lifting her head to shout some orders.

"RYO-OHKI!! Go take off and bring us with you! We need to head towards Washu's ship before the morning is over!" Ryoko giggled a bit when she saw Ranma's pig-tail sticking straight up and apologized for yelling in his ear. She absently smoothed it down, continuing to run her fingers through his black hair far longer than was necessary.

Ranma was starting to fidget, since he had no idea what Ryo-ohki was, and he wasn't so sure about taking off. Ryoko's hand, he discovered to his amazement, was proving to be remarkably calming the way she stroked his hair.

Something flickered in the corner of his eye, streaking towards the window. It flashed bye and outside before he had a chance to identify it. He grew a little concerned when, moments later small flashes and sparkles could be seen taking place outside the apartment. A glance at Ryoko reassured him that it was nothing he needed to be worried about, so he let himself relax a little, enjoying the closeness of Ryoko being in his lap.

A minute later a pink cone of energy enveloped the two of them, causing Ranma to try and leap away. He surged into the air, but didn't make any forward progress. Ryoko straightened out in front of him before reglomping on, somehow wrapping her entire body around his frame. Ranma stopped struggling for a moment to once again look at her, the worry for both of their well being evident in his eyes.

She smiled at him and murmured in his ear. "Don't worry Ranma, we're going for a ride on my spaceship."

He instantly calmed, choosing to ignore the incredible level of trust that he seemed to have acquired for her for no apparent reason. "Why didn't you tell me you had a spaceship? I would have liked to have seen it before."

Ryoko giggled. "Oh, you'll see plenty of it from now on. I don't know if we're ever going to be coming back here."

Ranma seemed alarmed at that. "We're going to at least visit, right? I want to be able to say hello to my mother every once in while."

"Oh, we can stop by every once in a while, but I'm not going to live here anymore. Too many bad memories." She gazed fondly at him, a secretive smile on her lips. "Though you're making some good ones in the end. I like happy endings."

Ranma blushed, but otherwise didn't have chance to respond to that, since by then they had passed through the wall of the apartment and he could see what they were being sucked into. It was a large, gray, crystalline four pointed star, looking like it was a stand to hold a bowl, but with no bowl. Ranma rather liked it, though he couldn't say why.

Ryoko was giggling at his reaction to her ship, its impressive lines having become something she herself was used to, but it always caused the funniest expressions on people's faces when they saw it for the first time. While this hadn't happened in a long time, she could still clearly recall enjoying herself a few times at others expense when they first saw her ship.

A few moments later and they disappeared in the column of light to reappear on the bridge next to few large crystals. Ranma once again rubbernecked like crazy, trying to take in all the strange sights that were being presented to him. Especially when one of the crystals floated over to him and a furry face sporting golden eyes peered out at him. He stared at it dumbly until a "Miyah!" was shouted at him in greeting.

Ranma jumped several feet into the air, not having expected that from a giant crystal at all. He looked around for a moment, making sure that there weren't any cats around before focusing on the crystal again. The image in the large gem did sorta look like a cat, but it obviously wasn't one with the way the face and eyes were shaped. He actually had no idea what it was, but he did know it wasn't something he should be afraid of.

Of course, those feelings were being subconsciously reinforced by his link with Ryoko, who was also linked to Ryo-ohki. Not that Ranma really cared about all of that, he was just glad he wasn't running around in circles, gibbering like an idiot. He hated when that happened, like when Kasumi had freaked him out by putting all those cats on him not long after he had showed up at the Tendos'. Not one of the eldest Tendo daughters' better moments. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, concentrating on the face in the crystal before him.

"Hey, who're you?" He asked it. Fortunately he was so wrapped up in his fascination with the face in the gem that he didn't see Ryoko bugging out behind him. She had thought for sure that he would have a much worse reaction to the greeting her ship had given him. Thinking on it a moment she checked the connection she had with the pigtailed martial artist and realized that he was somehow accessing their link and must have been getting the friendly vibes that Ryo-ohki was sending out. What an interesting use for the link, something that Ryoko herself never would have thought of doing. It sure made things easier when they wanted to travel, though.

"Miya, mi-miya." Ryo-ohki said.

Ranma blinked in surprise. "Ryo-ohki? Huh, kinda sounds like Ryoko." He eyed the large floating pictorial representation, wondering. "So, where are we going, anyway? All Ryoko would tell me is that they were going to find Washu, but she wouldn't say where that was."

Ryo-ohki miyahed some more until Ranma had an idea of where they were going. About this time Ryoko was finally getting her jaw to close upon realizing that Ranma could understand the cabbit perfectly fine, something that she herself sometimes had trouble doing. Ryoko walked up behind him and asked him a question.

"You can understand her?"

Ranma turned and looked at her with a blank expression. "Her?"

"The ship, Ryo-ohki." She clarified.

"Oh, yeah! That's easy." He froze for several seconds at that point, as if something had just occurred to him that should have been obvious from the beginning. "Ahh, you wouldn't happen to know how I do that, would you?" He asked in a much more subdued voice.

Ryoko couldn't help herself. She laughed at him, long and hard, something that she hadn't done in far too long. "It has something to do with our link. You're going through me to get to her, since my ship and I are linked together like we are. I get pictures and feelings from her, while you seemed to have gotten translations from it. Interesting."

"Ahh, okay. Well, I'm glad she likes me." Ranma smiled at the crystal. Ryo-ohki miyad happily back at him.

Ryoko smiled at him, hoping that all his introductions went as smooth as this one. Thinking back on a few of his past introductions she doubted it.

Ranma looked away from the crystal and swept his gaze around the interior of the spaceship again, puttering around as he examining the sparse furnishings. By the time he had gotten back to the front of the ship where Ryoko stood he was walking a little faster, having discovered that there wasn't much around that didn't need to be there. He wandered back to the main collection of crystals that Ryoko stood beside, smiling at her in greeting, even though she had only been out of his sight for a couple of minutes.

Ryoko returned the gesture, her insides warming as she gazed upon Ranma's smiling face. She grew concerned when Ranma seemed to look a little lost when he glanced over her shoulder. "Something wrong, Ranma?" She asked softly.

Ranma shook his head in denial, but started speaking anyway. Trusting others with his emotions was obviously something he wasn't used to, despite what his brain was trying to tell him. "I'm leaving everyone behind, I'm running away, just like my pop. If he had a problem he would just run until it couldn't catch him anymore, and isn't that basically what I'm doing here? I'm running, running so far away that nobody will ever be able to find me."

Ryoko stood there, staring at him in surprise. She wasn't even sure if Ranma knew that he had said all that to her, since he seemed to speak with his subconscious a lot of the time. Great if you wanted to really get his feelings, but it could be somewhat annoying at times.

"Running from what, Ranma? Why should you be ashamed for taking yourself away from those that were hurting you? It's not like you had that much of a responsibility to those that were in Nerima." Ryoko said as she sifted through and tried to find the memories that he was talking about. There were so many, and all of them seemed to be bad to her, but there was obviously something in there that he was referring to specifically.

Ranma glance sharply at her, wondering how she could say that. "What do you mean? I had my honor, I had to marry them. Those agreements had been made, and instead of taking responsibility for what had been done I'm just running away with an incredibly beautiful woman." Ranma's cheeks tinged pink for a moment before he suppressed it.

Ryoko also blushed, but she let it rest there, as it was a feeling she hadn't had in a while and she was enjoying it. Embarrassed happiness was something she didn't think she would ever get used to. "It's only legal to marry one person in Japan, isn't it? So how could you possibly have dealt with that situation? Especially after what you found out about Akane."

"But that's the thing," Ranma argued back. "I could have. With Akane like that it meant there was a chance I could have married two of them."

"But that still leaves two more."

"Yes, well, one of 'em was crazy, so I don't think she counts."

"What about Shampoo, then? What could you have done about her? Were you really planning on going back to the Amazon village and turning yourself into a housewife after all that you've been through in your life? Or what about Akane? Do you think the Amazons would have accepted her as a real martial artist and treated her as an equal, given her poor self taught training? They would have creamed her and thought nothing of it."

"I don't know! But there must have been something! Akane... well, I mean..." Ranma faltered a bit, "I don't know what to say about Akane. Her skills, her ego, her entire attitude towards the martial arts, that's something she'll have to deal with herself eventually. Hopefully before it kills her."

Ryoko nodded in agreement, trying to think of something else that she could use to stop making him think he was a failure like his father. Unable to sort through his memories quick enough to come up with something she decided to try and see if he could talk himself into it. "Look, I know that leaving isn't easy for you, especially after all that your old man has done, but don't you think that it should be his problem anyway? I mean, he did cause all that without thinking about the consequences, he should be the one that has to deal with them."

Ryoko was looking rather pleased with herself. "That's the problem, Ryoko." Ranma informed her. "He never will. If I'm not there to take the burden he'll let Soun deal with it, or mom, or Nabiki, depending on the problem. I may not have been very good at it, but at least I tried to take a stand for what I thought was right. All of those girls had a claim on me and I tried my best to make sure that things would work out for the moment. It was impossible to plan for the future given I didn't have one in that situation. But I tried. I tried as best I could, and I didn't really get anywhere. I just ended up running away from it all like my father before me."

Ryoko recalled the sepeku promise. "Ranma, if the only thing left was death or escape, do you really think it would matter to anybody on Earth which one you chose? If they can't ever find you, how will they know the difference between death and absence? They're pretty much the same thing."

Ranma stood there and stared at her, eyes flicking to look over her shoulder at the receding planet that had spawned him. "No," Ranma whispered, "I guess it doesn't make that much of a difference." Ranma's blue gaze locked to Ryoko's yellow one. "But I would know."

Ryoko stepped forward and hugged him tightly, unable to really think of anything to say that would help him. She just stood there and held on, the feeling of relief that washed over her when his arms came up to grip her back almost making her collapse. A small couch shaped crystal formed behind them, and Ryoko gently dragged the pigtailed martial artist down onto it with her. She returned his action from earlier, rocking him back and forth, whispering encouragements in his ear while silent sobs wracked his body. She wasn't entirely sure she knew what he was going through, not having grown up in Japan, not having any friends before besides those few souls that came to live at the Masaki home and shrine. She knew there was more to this, honor was involved, it wasn't simple logic like Ryoko would like to wish.

But Ryoko had dragged him out to space, and she had no intention of letting him go, especially to return to that mad house that was Nerima. If there was one thing that she had learned from their link and his memories, it was listening was by far the best thing you could possibly do for Ranma. Even Kasumi, gentle quiet Kasumi had only offered a "That's nice," Whenever he had been trying to talk with her about something. He wasn't sure if she did that with everybody, but he was fairly certain she was simply ignoring him because he was upsetting the balance of the household.

After an even longer time than Ryoko had taken in her apartment Ranma eventually calmed, not loosening his grip on her, not moving his position, even when he seemed to have recovered. He seemed perfectly content to remain cuddled with her on the couch. Ryoko, however, was having a little bit of trouble. Her arm was going numb, and she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to stand it.

She was about to say something when Ranma straightened up and looked down at his arm, then over at hers, then his eyes widened in surprise. "Your arm was going to sleep, wasn't it?" He asked.

Ryoko blinked in surprise and nodded.

Ranma smiled crookedly at her. "Mine was too, and I couldn't figure out why, since it was sitting out in the open. So I checked it, and then I realized where your arm had been the entire time." Ranma scooped her up and placed her back in his lap like they had been before, on Earth, and resumed cuddling. "Sorry, Ryoko."

Ryoko snuggled in. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I like this even better."

Ranma smiled and rested his head against the top of Ryoko's, his cheek on her smooth, spiky locks, surprising him at how soft they were. Ryoko giggled at his thought. "Everything about me is soft, you just have to get to know me," Ryoko murmured up at him.

Ranma blushed so bad Ryoko felt it burning against her skin. She gave him a cheesy smile. "You naughty boy. What were you thinking?"

Ranma managed to stammer out what had flashed through his mind and Ryoko chuckled as she turned as red as his shirt, prompting Ranma to join her a moment later. "Mmm, don't give me such good ideas Ranma, I'm tempted to go and try them."

Ryoko's lap seat tensed and he seemed about ready to bolt when she brought her head up level with his and kissed him soundly. Unable to recover from his amazement at the complete wonderfulness of it, Ranma remained right where he was, only the part of his mind controlling his lips still in operation. Eventually they broke apart, Ryoko sporting a huge grin. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it? You shouldn't fight it when you start thinking about such things, I get them all the time too."

Ranma looked startled once he finally regained his senses and mentally replayed what she had said to him. "You do?" He asked in amazement. "You mean I'm not a pervert when I start thinking about... that?"

Ryoko giggled at him, a beautiful sound in Ranma's mind, and something that he wanted to get her to repeat as often as possible. "Well, yes, you are being a pervert when you think like that, but if your thinking about me like that then it's perfect fine."

Ranma blinked at that one. "So, what's the difference?" He inquired. Pervertedness had always been something of an issue for him, despite the fact that he was fairly certain he hadn't ever done anything perverted to Akane. Well, that she hadn't brought upon herself.

"Well, when you think those things about me, somebody that you really like, and somebody who has those same thoughts about you, that's called being in a relationship. Being in a relationship also means that instead of just thinking them and believing you're being a pervert, or getting hit over the head with a mallet and being called perverted, you come over and tell me what you were thinking, and if I like what you're thinking, then we go over to the bed and act out those thoughts of ours."

Ryoko could feel the waves of heat coming from Ranma due to his blush. "Really?" He managed to get out. "Nobody ever told me anything about this kind of stuff."

Ryoko almost had a predatory gleam in her eyes. "Well, let me educate you my dear, clueless Ranma."

"Wow." Ranma said, his eyes glassed over. He was still on the same crystal formed couch with about half his clothes remaining on him.

"Yeah. Wow." Ryoko said, sitting next to him, their arms wrapped around each other, also in about half her clothes.

"And we haven't even done... it yet." He exclaimed quietly in amazement.

Ryoko nodded. "I get shivers whenever I think about what that might be like." A sultry smile appeared on her lips and she tightened her grip on Ranma. "I can't wait."

Ranma forgot to blush and said, "Neither can I. Man, I can't believe Akane got mad any time she thought something like that was going to happen. I mean, I'd thought she would be eager to do it."

Ryoko shook her head. "That's simply what she was raised to believe. Think about your other fiances. They were all eager to do it, but don't you think with an older sister like Kasumi some pretty tight laced ideas might have been put into her head?"

Ranma agreed with that point. "I guess she just doesn't know what all it entails. That's kinda funny, and it fits with what happened when Yuka finally showed her what some of it is. Too bad she never gave the other gender the chance to redeem ourselves."

"Her loss, my gain." Ryoko stated simply.

Ranma nodded, not loosening his hold on Ryoko in the slightest. For that the alien was very grateful. It just reaffirmed what her link was telling her Ranma was feeling. A bit sad, a bit tired, but overall incredibly happy. Who knew getting him to engage in a little foreplay would get him to open up so much. Ryoko admitted to herself that she too felt much more relaxed and willing to share her heart verbally.

Ryoko leaned against Ranma, using him to hold herself somewhat vertical. Ranma just smiled as his companion molded herself to him. The couple stayed like that for a couple hours, quietly talking about everything, topics changing faster than most could keep track of, switching between training stories, bad cooking, mega villains, sex, marriage, TV, lightsabers and more.

Ryoko laughed her head off when Ranma blushed during their sex talk. He simply shrugged and said old habits die hard, even as his cheeks burned strawberry red. She suggestively leaned against him, somehow showing off her large chest while pressing it against him. Ranma calmed a bit and said he was used to that, but just plain talking about it still unnerved him. Ryoko's yellow eyes glittered, making Ranma incredibly nervous, since he recognized that twinkle from when she had pounced him on the couch.

He relaxed a bit when he remembered how well that had turned out, and braced himself for whatever was to come. Instead of saying something embarrassing, however, Ryoko simply stated, "We're here."

It took Ranma a minute to realize what she was talking about. "OH! You mean Washu's."

Ryoko nodded, not wanting to let him go. Neither did Ranma, so they remained on the couch, Ryo-ohki drifting beside Washu's ship. After another hour Ryoko finally sighed in resignation and started to untangle herself from Ranma's embrace.

Not wanting to let go, Ranma tightened his grip on her. Realizing that she wasn't going to be able to get away from him without a major scuffle, one that would probably manage to distract her enough that she wouldn't end up leaving anyway, Ryoko simply teleported over to where her control crystals were.

Ranma blinked in shock, his limbs still in an outline of where Ryoko had been moments before. "How did you do that?" He questioned excitedly.

Ryoko looked at his eager face and sighed. She hated disappointed him like this. "It's not something that you can learn Ranma, it's an ability that I was born with."

Ranma thought back on what he had glimpsed when she performed the technique. It had felt like something her powers were controlling, not some mystical magic that allowed her to teleport. If he didn't know better he would think she just willed herself to be over there and that's what happened. Deciding to see if he could accomplish something on his hunch Ranma concentrated on his aura, trying to get it to warp somehow, to get him over to where she was without the interceding distance being in the way.

After several minutes, which Ryoko used to make sure that everything was working correctly in Washu's ship, Ranma thought he might be ready for his first attempt. One could never be too careful when it came to the redheaded genius. She was always in her subspace lab, she might not have checked how the air levels were doing on the her ship in far too long. Ryo-ohki told her that everything was fine, and that they could head on over at any time to try and get the old little youngster to let them in without doing anything dirty or embarrassing to them.

Just to be on the safe side, since he was dealing with forces he had never before even contemplated, Ranma asked Ryoko to teleport one more time so he could see how she did it. Ryoko looked at him strangely for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and disappearing. Ranma blinked and looked around, wondering where she had gone to.

Not an inch in front of Ranma's face long, luscious strands of cyan hair tumbled down. A second later Ryoko's face was staring at his, though inverted. Ranma chuckled at that, looking up to see her in a lotus position, much like he did, except she could float.

"Good enough, Ranma?" Ryoko asked, quirking her eyebrow, but having the expression look rather strange when upside down.

Ranma sighed and shook his head. No, he hadn't seen what he wanted, but it had been nice to be able to look into her eyes from that close up. Those slitted yellow orbs fascinated him, much like his blue ones affected her. "Nah, I couldn't see it this time," Ranma admitted. "I'll work on it, but you might be right. I might have had to be born like you to get that trick."

Ryoko shrugged, wondering just how many of her powers were ingrained knowledge from Washu and how many were things she had picked up over the years. Something to look into next time she was bored. She faded from view and shimmered into being in control of her ship once again, though pretty much the only thing left to do was get over to her mothers ship.

Ranma's eyes were as big as saucers. That last teleport had done it. He knew how she moved, knew he could duplicate her trick, but wasn't sure at all how much energy that took to move that much mass to a different dimension. It was obvious that it wasn't a parallel world exactly, but it Ryoko wasn't simply zapping herself over to wherever she wanted to go, she was sending her aura out to the place she wanted, and her body was instantly taken to where her aura was. Hence the shimmering, fading thing she did whenever she teleported.

Ranma had no clue where her body went while it was trying to catch up with her aura, nor did he really want to know. It was probably far too complicated for him to understand, but he knew the technique now. Gathering his aura around him, he prepared to try and send it off to where Ryoko herself was standing. He smirked, unable to control his happiness at completely dumfounding the super powered girl.

"Hey Ryoko," Ranma called out. "Check this out."

Ryoko turned and regarded him, wondering what this was about. She had been about to tell him that they were going over, too. Then, maybe, hopefully, Ranma would get to experience all that she had, and the same love that had blossomed in her heart would spring forth in his, covering over old wounds and past hurts that had been inflicted on both of them by those they had cared for.

Without warning Ranma shimmered from view. Ryoko gasped in shock, knowing what technique he was using given she had done that in front of mirrors enough to recognize it. That unique sound which accompanied all such teleport reached her ears, coming from the left. Ryoko's head whipped around to see Ranma, standing like he had done it thousands of times before.

He turned and looked at her, his eyes sparkling with happiness at his success. "I think I got it, Ryoko!" He exclaimed. He yawned hugely a moment later, showing her all of his teeth.

"Man, that took more out of me than I tho..." Ranma trailed off and crumpled to the floor, curling up like a cat into a compact little ball. A moment later a light snore could be heard.

Ryoko stared at him in shocked concern. Was a human even supposed to be able to do that? She had no idea, but they were right next to somebody who would know, so she decided to take him over there without delay. Ryoko scooped Ranma up in her arms and teleported over to Washu's ship.

Ryoko looked down at the busty little redhead resting peacefully on the examination table. She glanced over at the other redhead, this one a scientist, and wondered how their hair color could be so similar. She banished that thought and went back to worrying about her love.

"He's going to be all right, isn't he Washu?" Ryoko asked, her hands holding one of Onna-Ranma's smaller, delicate ones.

Washu nodded. "Of course Ranma's going to be all right. She just used too much of her ki at once, and she had to sleep to restore it." Washu conveniently forgot to mention that, by the time Ranma woke up, the boy changed girl wouldn't have that problem anymore.

Ryoko sighed. "So I'm just worrying about nothing, aren't I."

Washu giggled. "Bingo!"

Ryoko glared at the diminutive scientist. Some things about that woman Ryoko just couldn't ever fathom. Like how she could be so caring and understanding one moment, and completely callous, almost to the point of cruelty, the next. Ryoko just chalked it up to the fact the inhabited a 12 year old body, one that looked like it was just starting in on puberty. Why the scientist would choose that age to be Ryoko had no idea.

The two girls looked at the bedridden Ranma for a few minutes more before Ryoko asked her mother another question. "Tell me again why Ranma had to be female?"

Washu shrugged. "No reason, I just wanted a chance to check out both his bodies without any clothes on before letting my daughter have her fun."

Ryoko blushed the same shade as her currently female love's hair. Washu's eyes bugged out at the sight. "You've already had your fun?!? I knew I should have had Ryo-ohki transmitting while you were on your way over! Argh! Of all the missed opportunities..."

Ryoko was glaring rusty daggers at her mother, trying desperately to get rid of her blush and tell Washu off that no, they hadn't done it yet. Mainly from a lack of experience on both their parts, but still, facts were facts. Washu seemed to recover from her pouting about that moment and suddenly snapped her fingers in realization.

"Well, it doesn't really mater." She exclaimed brightly. "You two won't be leaving for a while until I have this entire link thing situated and Ranma gets her strength back, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to catch you in the act my little Ryoko-chan." The evil grin splitting the 20,000+ year old scientists face was sending shivers down Ryoko's spine.

"Nnnnnuuhg," Came from the bed.

Washu and Ryoko turned in surprise. Neither one of them had thought Ranma would be awake for a while yet. She recovered incredibly fast, something that Ryoko just knew was going to get her poor little Ran-chan into trouble with her demented, but brilliant, mother. The two girls rushed to the side of the bed, looking on with concern as Ranma's blue eyes fluttered open.

The first thing they locked onto was Ryoko's yellow orbs. A smile spread across her face and, "Kawaii," Escaped from her lips. Ryoko giggled in happiness. Washu blinked and leaned in a little closer, trying to see if her eyes were dilated or exhibiting other such unwanted activities. Ranma looked at the redhead leaning towards her, noticed the color, the shade of her hair. Noticed how long it was, easily cascading down the girls back and looking like it went for a ways farther. Noticed the bright green eyes that were staring into her own with a strange intensity.

And came to the conclusion that Happosai had been messing around with the incense again and caused her evil female half to come out again. With a cry of startlement Ranma back flipped off the bed. Or tried to. The straps holding her down were made of much sturdier stuff than what was Earth norm.

Ranma flopped back onto the bed, eyes a little crossed and pain flaring down her limbs. "That's going to leave a mark." She murmured to herself. Ryoko blinked in shock, wondering what the hell that had been about. She leaned back over her, at the moment, girlfriend.

"Are you all right?" Ryoko asked.

Ranma managed to get the room to stop spinning around on her and focused on the cyan haired woman standing next to her bed. "Yeah, never better." She said, giving her a fake smile.

Ryoko grunted in disbelief and poked her chest. "No your not. That's why your on the table in the first place, you drained all your ki when you did that teleport thing."

Ranma grinned up at her, the pig tailed girl's face becoming more animated as strength started flowing through her again, her bodies natural reserves returning to Below Normal, but above Your Almost Dead Low. "I told you I could do it, you just had to show me how."

Ryoko sighed. "Okay, so, yes, you did it. But that wasn't something that you can do again, now is it? That one move took all your strength away. It's just the way that I am, I have these huge power reserves so I use them. You don't, so you'll have to come up with other ways of doing things that don't take as much energy."

Ranma scowled up at her. "Yeah, well, how did you managed to get so strong? I'm sure I could at least match you," She said with confidence.

Ryoko shook her head. "You haven't got a chance Ranma." When his scowl deepened and it looking like the smaller girl was going to try and jump up from her bed again Ryoko quickly continued. "It's a matter of where I get my power from, not that you're physically incapable."

Ranma gave her a blank look. "What?"

"Look," Ryoko said, "See these gems on my wrists?" Ranma nodded. "Those are what I get my power from. Do you want to know how much power I'm talking here?"

Another nod.

Ryoko took a deep breath, hoping that nothing would show on her face that she didn't want there when she admitted this. "Enough to blow up a world, Ranma. Easily enough to blow up a world. And these little red wonders never run out of power. I use a lot of energy when I do my attacks simply because I have too much to spare. What am I going to do with all that energy? Hell, I can easily blow up buildings with my emergency spare that I used before I got my real gems back. That was just the power that I had within me, that wasn't including anything that the gems could provide."

Ranma simply lay there, not moving, staring up at her as she absorbed this. "So, your saying that no matter how much I train I won't be anywhere near as strong as you?" Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion. The lack of just about anything over the link was also starting to worry Ryoko greatly. Was he just blocking it all off to try and prevent any emotion from showing, or had he managed to block their link somehow?

Ryoko nodded. "That doesn't mean you won't be as good as me, that just means I'll always be able to make a bigger blast. There's a difference between power and skill. I was defeated by someone who didn't have anywhere near my strength, but he had skill, skill which I don't think I've ever seen matched." She smiled warmly down at her female boyfriend. "Until now."

Ranma blinked a few times as he absorbed this. While what Ryoko was saying was true, it still galled him that she just had that much power sitting there waiting for her to use. While he always hated free power ups, he had to admit that Ryoko obviously knew what she was doing with the power that she wielded. Unlike most of those he had seen with such a condition, they hadn't let it go to their heads that they deserved this power, instead of having earned it like himself. Boy, had he earned what he could do.

Ryoko sighed in relief when she saw Ranma drop his mask. The flood of emotion she got over the link was somewhat startling, but also relieving to feel. The feelings she was getting were a little strange though. Why would he be feeling proud, jealous, resentful and concerned?

Ryoko shook it off for something else she was concerned about. "Why did you react that way to Washu, anyway?"

Ranma blinked, then glanced all around her, trying to catch sight of the other redhead again. "That girl I saw earlier wasn't an evil spirit here to steal away my life energy?"

Ryoko shook her head. "Not to the best of my knowledge."

Ranma sighed in relief. "Well, that's good to hear. Last time I saw a girl that looked like her she was trying to steal my life so she could go spread evil upon the world." Ranma shivered at the memory, extremely unhappy that the almost pure love he had felt for the girl was just her messing with his emotions. He had finally known what almost true love was, only to have it stolen away from him in a betrayal. He was almost scared to admit that what he was feeling for Ryoko was starting to feel an awful lot like that which he had lost for his evil self.

Washu chose that moment to reappear. Ranma greeted her as best she could while still strapped down to the bed. "Hey, Washu. Sorry about what happened when I first saw you, but you kinda look like somebody who was trying to kill me."

Washu blinked, her eye lids making a squeegee sound. Blinked again, then shook her head as if to clear it. "Fine, fine. Just don't do it again. If there's one thing I won't do, it's kill my patient, so you don't have to worry about that." She walked over to the bed again and looked the more developed redhead over again. She reached down and pressed a button on the side of the bed, hidden from view.

"Here," Washu said, "Why don't you sit up so I can look you over before we start doing the more fun things." The bed suddenly went vertical, forcing Ranma to bend at the waist and sit up.

Ryoko sighed in exasperation. Washu could never just do things the simple way! The greatest scientist in the universe pulled a yellow ball with eyes and little feet out of nowhere and plopped it down upon Onna-Ranma's head.

Onna-Ranma looked up at the thing, her eyes crossing a bit as she tried to catch sight of what was on her cranium. The face on the little machine repeated her movements, making her look a little comical. An astral keyboard appeared next to Washu, distracting Ranma, who was trying to figure out what all the little symbols and diagrams flashing across the screen meant.

Washu just looked over the data for a minute before turning her attention back to the pig tailed martial artist. "Now, close one eye."

Ranma did so. The little yellow ball also did so.

"Close your other eye."

Ranma did so. The little yellow ball also did so.

"Now close both eyes."

Rewind, repeat.

"Open your mouth. Wider. Wider!" Washu scowled and reached out, grabbing Ranma's lips and yanking her mouth open.

Onna-Ranma's eyes bugged and she started mumbling curses about doctors. "Now smile," Washu said cheerfully.

When Ranma didn't do so, frowning instead, along with the yellow ball on top of her head, Washu scowled and reached forth with her hands again. Ranma saw this and instantly smiled brilliantly. Washu returned it, though now Ranma's was starting to look a little strained.

"That's great," Washu said, her attention focused on her screen flashing data. Ranma once again tried to make heads or tails of it and failed miserably. He grew a little concerned when she made a serious "Hmmm," sound.

"What? I don't have anything wrong with me, do I?" Ranma inquired nervously.

Ryoko stood to the side smirking. She just knew there was going to be a comment about her breasts any second now.

Washu reached out and poked Ranma's chest, her finger centered directly over a nipple. Ranma's pigtail stood on end, several hairs toinging out. "WASHU!" Ranma screeched in shock.

Washu ignored her and regarded her data for another few seconds. "Yup, just as I suspected. Your breasts are in perfect shape." The younger looking redhead glanced over at Ryoko, a evil look upon her face. "Unlike..." She didn't get a chance to finish the sentence.

Ryoko appeared next to her, her hand covering the smaller girls mouth. "Well, isn't that wonderful? I'm sure its something you've always wanted to know. Isn't it Ranma." The fake smile and the way the cyan haired woman was speaking through clenched teeth was really starting to unnerve the young Saotome.

"Er, yeah. Great." Onna-Ranma said.

Washu suddenly appeared on the other side of the bed, once again leaning in close to the buxom redhead. Ryoko squawked in startlement when she realized she was holding a stuffed doll that slightly resembled Washu.

"So Ranma, I hear you've been having trouble with a mental link recently." Washu inquired, her expression now serious.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, me and Ryoko somehow managed to set one up between us, but I have no idea how to access it, and Ryoko doesn't know how to turn it off." She glanced at Ryoko for confirmation before returning her attention to the greatest scientific genius in the universe. "So, can you help us?"

Washu cackled in delight. "Of course I can help you! For I am Washu! The greatest scientific genius in the universe!" More cackling followed until Ranma and Ryoko both sported huge sweatdrops on the back of their heads.

"Riiight." Ranma and Ryoko said in unison.

Washu suddenly spun around to face them, a small remote control in her hand with a large red button under her thumb. "All right, let's get you two ready."

Ranma had a slightly confused look on his face, similar to the one Ryoko sported. "Wait a minute, ready for wha..." Ryoko trailed off after a dart that neither one of them had noticed secreted its drug into Ranma and Ryoko's bodies, knocking the two of them out. Washu smiled. She would have plenty of time to get everything set up.

Ryoko struggled to open her eyes, unsuccessfully so far, wondering why they felt so heavy, as if she had been drugged. That triggered a memory, of Washu's thumb coming down on that red button right before she blacked out. Whatever she was in now was obviously her fault.

"WASHUUUUU!" Ryoko screamed, hoping that it would get the attention of the redhead where ever she may be. Having completed the scream the cyan haired woman opened her eyes to see Washu standing over her, her eyes in little swirly patterns and her hands clamped over her ears.

Ryoko blushed slightly, but managed to get it under control before Washu recovered. "What the hell is going on now, Washu?"

Washu's technological daughter looked around herself, at least as far as her restraints would let her. She appeared to be in a bed similar to the one Ranma had inhabited, only this one was much stronger and obviously had something there to prevent her from teleporting. It erked Ryoko that her mom always had something that would keep her from escaping. Just because she was such a genius didn't mean she had to always flaunt it!

Washu just stared at the cyan haired woman, as if waiting for something that should have been obvious from the start. Ryoko growled deep in her throat, sounding like a caged animal. "Washu-CHAN!" She finally said.

Washu-chan beamed at her. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Now, as soon as lover girl over there wakes up we'll begin."

Ryoko just managed to see Ranma, still female, just out of the corner of her eye. "Hey! You didn't answer my question. What's going on?"

Washu wagged her finger at the younger woman. "Just wait for Ranma, then all will become clear."

Ryoko sighed and settled in, trying to get comfortable with her arms and legs strapped down to the bed. Comfortable bed though it was, Ryoko never felt good when she was chained up like this, and no matter how hard she tried couldn't get her body to relax. Washu seemed to be ignoring everything around her, studying her astral computer as graphs and numbers flashed by on the screen.

After several minutes Ryoko came to the conclusion that they were going to get their link straightened out, and hopefully that was all. With Washu one could never be certain, but Ryoko didn't think that there was anything else the woman in the little girl body would try. Finally Ranma started to stir again, though Washu seemed surprised.

"I'll have to take a closer look at you, my little Guinea pig," Washu said to herself. "You shouldn't have been able to wake up nearly that quickly." Ryoko scowled. It had been bad enough with Tenchi, who had the power to get out if it was really necessary. Ranma couldn't, unless he was hiding an awful lot of energy that neither one of them knew about.

After another minute Ranma started to be coherent. Ryoko scowled some more. If Washu wasn't her mother Ryoko would probably try and maim her for all that she had done to Ranma that was completely unnecessary and painful. The things that woman would do for science was mind boggling.

"Hey, what's happening? Why am I a girl? How in the world did you fit all this stuff on your spaceship, Ryoko?" He paused there, anticipating a response. When none came he grew somewhat concerned. "Hey, Ryoko, you out there? Hello! Anybody? What the hell is going on here?!" The sounds of struggle came up then, as Ranma tried to get free of the bed for the second time, though he obviously didn't remember that first time.

Washu blushed. "Oops, I forgot that particular drug plays around with human memories for a few minutes after they wake up." For some reason Ranma didn't hear her, and Ryoko was trying desperately to figure out why she suddenly couldn't talk. Washu's doing, obviously, but she hadn't seen the scientist do anything that could cause this. Why wouldn't her voice work? Ranma needed her!

Washu finally stood and looked over at Ranma, becoming tall enough that the youth could see her from his prone position on the bed. Ranma calmed somewhat, now that there was a person that would hopefully answer some of his questions. He held his peace as she approached, hoping that the woman wasn't some mad scientist like in those TV shows he had seen in Nerima.

Washu pulled another remote out of nowhere and pressed one of a multitude of buttons adorning it. Ranma and Ryoko's beds suddenly snapped upright, tossing their occupants around in their restraints. Washu sweatdropped and made a quick note to not put the most powerful motors she could in her medical beds. Ranma and Ryoko recovered themselves at about the same time, their eyes lighting up when they spotted each other. The two were facing each other, about ten feet apart with a large... something hanging down between them that looked really high tech and complicated. Ryoko figured it was for the link thing they were supposed to be doing. Ranma, not remembering that part at the moment just hoped it wouldn't hurt too much.

Since Washu had still been approaching while Ryoko and her love had been communicating with their eyes Ranma was slightly startled when he was suddenly looking into a pair of bright green eyes, framed by flaming red hair.

"Ah, hi. Who are you?" Ranma decided to go with the basics first.

"My name is Washu, and I'm the greatest scientific genius in the universe!" Two little dolls that resembled Washu popped up on her shoulders, singing praises to the young looking researcher.

Ryoko shook her head in disbelief while Ranma became incredibly nervous. It