Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read my prologue. Like it explains anything... URL: http://www.geocities.com/psavola/index.htm OR http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html (currently only place these are archived at) Fanmail: psavola@onebox.com Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi Flames, Complaints and all that crap: p_savola@hotmail.com This is prologue as to what has happened before the real story takes its place. This is just side product that has nothing Anime or Manga related in it. No name's, nothing. Well, except maybe a little... ^_^ But this could shed some light to what has happened. And that is why you may want to read this. Go ahead.. Part 0, Prologue -Somewhere in the galaxy- The daily routines of the listening post on the fringes of the galaxy continued normally without anything new happening. The reason why this listening post was here was purely scientific. Its management could have cared less which side emerged victorious in the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. This station consisted mainly of a small token force of scientists and a few engineers who kept machines running. What the station monitored was not anything within the galaxy, but something outside. Theories on the nature of that something varied, and here the scientists tried to find a proof by maintaining a set of large scanners that monitored any and all movement on the edge. Of course their scanning radius also happened to contain many of the known regions where the war was being fought. These spare bits of random information that passed through here were enough for both sides to have a few of their own people in the station, just in case the information happened to be important. Every new person who was transported here was quickly introduced to the harsh reality and boring monotony of this job. The central computer that sorted out those normal recordings did most of the work. Still, a real person was needed in case the computer did, or did not read something right. This was the case now. The current monitor on duty had been bored, just as he had been an all previous shifts. His shift had almost ended when he noticed the newest addition to many false alarms. Just out of curiosity he took a closer look, and much to his surprise found that it was something that could be important. Quickly transferring the data into his personal data pad, he erased the data from the main data banks. - Rebel base, Yavin system, fifth planet - Han Solo had just been paid for rescuing Princess Leia from the Death Star. Ahead of him on landing bay 54 was the Millennium Falcon, ready to take him off of this planet to somewhere far away. Of course he would have to pay Jabba the Hutt back first; he would really hate it if Jabba's cronies started to hamper his movements, not that any of them would even get close. Han took another look at the Falcon. Chewbacca was on the roof making final minor repairs. It had been a long journey together; both he and the Falcon had been pummeled back and forth, but were still more or less intact. What worried Han was that the number of these minor fixup's were increasing, and at an alarming rate. It was only two more parsecs before the Falcon's recommended overhaul. Han cringed at the cost of that, it would take a fortune to do that kind of work. Still if it was not done soon, he would have to say goodbye to the Falcon. As Han stood thinking a rebel soldier had approached him. After a moment, he coughed politely to get his attention, interrupting Han's reverie. "What now? Another rescue mission? I don't have time to go rescuing princesses every day!" Han Snapped at the soldier, his tone made it clear how annoyed he was at this new bend in his plans to get off. "I'm sorry, sir. Mr. Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Mon Mothma are requesting that you meet them at the command center. They said it was urgent." the soldier answered. "Oh, what now?" Han muttered to himself then decided to at least see what they wanted. Turning around he motioned for the soldier to lead the way. - A few minutes later - As Han Solo stepped into the command center, or what passed as such in this not-so-old base, he was greeted by Luke Skywalker, "Hello, it's good to see you again." "So, what's this all about?" Han asked as Luke motioned for them to head towards one of the smaller planning rooms that were attached to the command center. "I don't know. I'm probably as surprised by this as you are" Luke replied. As the two arrived at the small planning room, they were greeted by Mon Mothma and Leia. "Mr. Solo, it's so good of you to come. I'm sorry to have to request your services again so soon after our recent battle, but we don't have any appropriate ships immediately available to investigate this phenomenon." Mon Mothma pressed a button on the table, bringing up a slowly rotating holo image. "This is the only image we have of the artifact, and we're not entirely certain what it is," Mon Mothma explained. "What data we do have indicates that it has been constructed in a manner far different from any standard among known civilizations. That, and we're picking up what appears to be some sort of distress signal." Having been examining the rotating image Han rose back up. "So, it's just a recon mission? Just why do you want me to do it? I don't think I'm the only one who's available." "It's in fact recon and possibly rescue mission, provided there is anything to be rescued." Leia answered, "And why you? Sending bigger warships in that area is going to attract unwanted attention from imperials. One more transport is not such a big deal." "You're making it sound too simple, so there is something you haven't told me yet. Things are never this simple," Han answered, looking at both Mon Mothma and Leia. "The additional thing is, that the one who told us about this, disappeared. I don't think I need to tell you by whose orders this most likely happened." Mon Mothma answered, continuing. "Our intelligence staff suspect that the Imperials did not get the data, so it's most likely they just know the location, not what is in there." Drawing a breath she continued. "This is why we need you, Han Solo. Your ship is, by certain approximates one of the fastest and you should get in there before the Imperials do." "And what if I refuse?" Han asked cautiously. Mon Mothma looked at Han Solo for a moment before answering. "Then we have to try reaching there by some other means. It's your decision." Keeping a short pause to give her next words more weight she said. "In return for this, we will offer complete repairs on your ship." This stopped Han. Complete repairs? Why would they offer that? Unless... Han thought, the doubt settling in. "I can't really refuse that kind of offer, and I think you know it." Han answered directing a long look at Mon Mothma. After a moment of silence, Han added. "Send the information to my ship, I take off as soon as I can." Having said that Han turned around and walked out of control room. Arriving back at landing bay 54 Han looked around, word had already been passed and the Falcon was as ready as she could. Climbing up the ramp to the inside Han shouted. "Chewbacca! Get her running, we have a mission to accomplish!" Getting no response, Han walked up the ramp entering the interior of Falcon. As Han stepped inside he found Chewbacca halfway inside the service duct. Evading the body of his Wookie companion Han sat down on the pilot chair, beginning to go through the mission parameters. Loading the file on one of the screens Han viewed the data provided. Calculated position of the object, some extra data on it and finally.. "A Diplomat!" Han shouted in surprise. Chewbacca bumped his head in the not so big service duct before crawling out of it. Standing up he directed a questioning howl at Han. Turning to Face his companion Han stood up and read in monotony voice "...In case of intelligent life forms being found. We have decided to include one diplomatic personnel on board." Continuing more normally, "You are to wait until she has boarded the falcon before proceeding on the mission." "A diplomatic person, just what we need..." Han's reverie was interrupted as Leia poked her head in. "Hello, I'm here." "Great. And it has to be just her," Han muttered shaking his head. "The princess..." On hearing Han's tone Leia took a more steady position as she put her hands on her hips. "What? Who would you have expected?" She said in a cold voice. "Master Solo, it would be better to show more respect to Princess Leia." 3C-PO's voice was accompanied by the protocol droid. Burying his head in his hand Han muttered, "Oh, no... not that droid." "You know that we will probably need a protocol droid with us." Leia pointed out to Han, Knowing full well how much Han had already began to dislike the normal babbling of 3C-PO. "Yeah, but there was not another one on the whole planet?" Han moaned. "I can hardly believe that I got stuck with just that one." "If master Solo does not mind, I would raise an objection" Threepio said. "As you may already know, I can speak..." the droid babbled on. "...And if I also may point out, I'm the most capable Protocol droid in this planet" - Later, On Fringes of the Helska system - The system consisted of small sun and a few planets that were on more or less stable orbits. Near the third planet that was plainly said a ball of ice that contained no known life, drifted a twisted, battered hull of a ship. The ship had surely seen better days, but by looking at the outside one could not really tell when those days had been for the ship's design was old, very old. The ship had lasted through occasional asteroid swarms, possibly been part of such for unknown period of time. Still now it seemed that it's journey would end in a fiery crash at the frozen surface of the ice ball known as Helska III. Deep inside the hulk a single computer system was still surprisingly alive although barely. For a long time it had sent out messages requesting aid like it had been instructed to do by the ships captain that laid in the stasis pod of the ship, unconscious, sleeping artificial sleep. Naught did the computer know that the antennae reserved for that task had long ago been wrecked useless. - Aboard imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor - The crew on the deck fell silent as the door opened with a low hissing sound. The dull, reverberating sound of hard heels hitting the metallic floor plating sounded as the visitor approached the officer in charge. "What is the ETA to Helska system?" Asked the cold metallic voice that belonged to the person in dark cloak. As the figure had stepped inside, all conversation had subsided down, mostly due to respect and fear. A bit nervous looking Officer stepped to meet with Lord Vader, giving the answer, "Two hours, 25 minutes" "Good, I do hope that the information you acquired from that spy was... accurate." Lord Vader replied, adding "Or your life ends in that same amount of time." Having said that he turned briskly around the black cape fluttering after him as he walked out of the bridge. - Helska system, two hours later - The sleek form of the millennium falcon slowly drifted forward, it had arrived in the system three hours ago. "How could they think we can find one single ship in this system?" Han muttered, as he looked out of the view port. Turning to look at Threepio who was connected to Falcons computer system Han Solo asked. "You having any luck?" "Master Solo, I feel it would be necessary to inform that your ship's interface is quite different from a normal one's." The droid started, but stopped as Han cast annoyed glance at it, "No, nothing yet." The droid answered falling silent. Returning to his seat Han began to review the data he had been given. "Still, the data clearly indicated that it should have been in here, near Helska III. Possibly on a slowly dying orbit." The Spirited roar of Chewbacca shook Han from his brooding. "What? You found it? Let me see!" Han shouted and rushed up to peer at the console in front of the Wookie. Han's attention was caught by the flash of light that he saw in the corner of his vision, turning his head he looked, seeing nothing but empty space. Just as he was about to turn away it happened again. The flash resembled too much like the one that could be seen when ship comes out of hyperspace. It was accompanied by second and third, rest of them coming in quick succession. "What's that?" Han muttered. "Master Solo, I would like to inform you that there seems to be a few other ships coming this way." Threepio spoke up. This also alerted Han who quickly returned to his seat while looking at the scanning equipment. Sure enough, there was something out there. A lot of something's. "What the..." Han muttered looking at the display. "Almost 50 Capital ships? heading towards us?" "Chewie! Start her up, we're leaving!" Han shouted to his partner. Leia who had been resting in the guestroom of the falcon had heard the commotion from the cockpit. And came to inspect it. "Leaving? Why?" She asked from Han Solo who was busy making Falcon to run smoothly. "Take a look at the scanner, it's half the Imperial fleet, That's why!" He snapped back. - Command Deck, aboard Super Star Destroyer Executor - The dark figure of Darth Vader had been waiting in the command deck for past ten minutes, passively, silent except for the hollow rasping sound of his mechanical breathing. As the Executor appeared in the normal space again, he asked. "Any signs of Rebel activity?" "Not yet, we are working on that." One of the men manning the scanning equipment answered. "Fine, give me a report in one minute." Vader answered turning to face out of the screen into the space. "You are out there somewhere Skywalker, and I will find you and your friend soon." He said more to himself than anyone present. "Sir?" one of the men asked cautiously. "The report you wanted, so far nothing except for single Transport on outbound vector." "And to whom this ship belongs to?" Lord Vader queried not bothering to turn around to face the man. "Not that it matters, shoot it down." "Sir?" The officer asked. "Didn't you hear me? Shoot it down." Lord Vader said again, the mechanical voice did not carry any real menace in it as it was unable to do so. Still the man scurried quickly off to give according orders. Few minutes later deployed squadrons of TIE fighters zoomed towards their target, the millennium falcon. "Deploy one of the Interdictor's so that the ship can't escape into hyperspace. I want that ship either destroyed or captured." Darth Vader added to no one in particular. Still his command was heard and acted on. One of the few Interdictor cruisers in the fleet started its massive gravity generators, directing the enchanced gravity area on the Falcon. "This is going to be nasty." Han Solo observed as the instruments noticed the increased gravity that disabled their ability to go hyperspace. "Yes, I know.. those ships are faster on sublight than we, we don't have that much time." Han Answered to the growling Wookie. Then he got an idea. "Get the planet between us and that fleet, it removes the effect of that interdictor cruiser." He said to Chewbacca, turning the throttle to full and turning the Falcon a bit. "Those TIE's are going to get into range real soon." Leia said as she looked at the scanner. "Fine, Chewie put shields full on back." Han said to his partner, "I'll go to the turret and see if I can do a bit of discouragement." He added. "It seems that there is no Rebel base in this sector, unlike what you said." Darth Vader observed, directing his words to the officer standing a few feet away. "I cannot argue with that, my lord." The officer replied nervously, "But the data we gathered..." The officer's voice died off as Vader turned to face him. "Because of information you did not verify, we directed this attack force here. At the same time leaving defenses weaker than they should be." Vader said in a metallic voice. After a pause Darth Vader continued "That, is most unfortunate." Adding as an after thought, "For you." The blood drained from the officer's face as the Sith lord directed his gaze at him. He let out a small gurgling sound as unseen fingers tightened around his throat. After a few moments of struggling he fell limp. Casting a final glance at the officer Vader waved his hand, this resulted in sickening crunch coming from the neck of the officer whose dead body fell on the deck. "I have had quite enough of you." He said to the body before returning to gaze out of the view port. There, farther away in the space few small dots of light slowly approached another, their target. As Vader looked at the moving points of light he realized what the pilot was trying to do, but it was too late. Before he was able to raise his voice the first point of light disappeared in a flash of light. To be continued... Thanks to following people: To my faithful PreReaders KaosQu, Qminster, Lord Jahaj and Christine Bryce Draco for coming up with a cool name, thanks ^_^ Kinematics for helping with few... things on this chapter. And few other interested people, who asked and prodded me about this, you know who you are... Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read my prologue. Like it explains anything... URL: http://www.geocities.com/psavola/index.htm OR http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html (currently only place these are archived at) Fanmail: psavola@onebox.com Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi Flames, Complaints and all that crap: p_savola@hotmail.com Part 1, The Girl -Command Deck, aboard the Imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor- "Sir!" a nervous looking officer said getting into attention, "The scanners have detected signs of an enemy base in this system." The Dark, foreboding figure of Darth Vader turned to face the officer, "No signs?" "No, Sir!" The officer replied. "The only abnormality is a shipwrecked cruiser that seems to be stuck in orbit around the planet" "And the planet?" Came another cold inquiry. "No signs of recent use, Sir!" The Officer replied curtly. "Very well, recall the search team. The Rumiko will investigate the shipwreck before rejoining us." Darth Vader said, turning to leave, "We'll be heading back immediately." "Yes, Sir!" -Twelve hours later, aboard the Destroyer Rumiko- As the tractor beam finished pulling the shipwreck into one of the flight decks, a squad of troopers along with a few technicians swarmed the ship. It took the technicians just a few moments to crack the battered hull open to allow the troopers to swarm in. The troopers who rushed inside found little of value, the ship was almost as much of a wreck inside as it had been outside. For a moment the odd looking, frozen contraption passed notice, but that ended when one of the troopers bumped against it, chipping a bit of quickly melting ice off. After a quick glance at the place the ice had been chipped off from, the trooper radioed his comrades, before shouldering his rifle and beginning to scrape a bit more ice off from the pod. As a few more troopers joined in, the pods surface became clear that much quicker, after a few more minutes of scraping they had cleared most of the ice from the pod and exposed what was in it. Beneath the thin glass that had been coated by ice, laid a slender Red headed five feet tall figure of a girl. Clothed in red shirt and blue pants, surrounded by more ice. Save for the large eyes, the girl could have passed for a human. One of the troopers commented and got nudged by another. Another said shrugging, the other troopers agreed before turning and filing out of ship. Once outside they informed the still present technicians of the matter before others, except the two troopers, left to return to their previous duties. -Cell number 231- The bed she was lying on felt nice and warm, nothing like that cold place she remembered. Slowly her consciousness returned, and she yawned, stretching on the bed. Then she remembered. Bolting upright she took a frantic look around. She was in a bed, and her clothes were still wet. The room she was in was barely large enough to contain the bed. Walls were plain white, and the whole room was bare, except for the bed. Sighing she buried her head in her hands, shaking it. Where am I? And how did I get in here? She thought. -In the control room- "She's awake," One of the security officers said. "Fine, let's see how she reacts to being a prisoner. Maybe that will put her to speak a bit more freely, not that I have that much hope of it happening." Another added. "Yeah, the rebel scum are way too tightlipped, but they have broken before and so shall this one too." The first commented, looking at the monitor that showed the interior of the cell 231. "Let's wait a hour or so, so that she fully realizes she has no hope of escape, then we send in the interrogation team." "Too bad the procedure is to terminate them when they become useless, she is quite cute looking." "So she is," the officer replied casting a quick glance at the monitor, before turning the chair towards his partner. "Say..." he began but turned quickly back to the monitor when the sudden movement caught his eye. "What.. is.. she.. doing?" the officer said slowly, staring at the monitor where the redheaded girl was seemingly fighting against an invisible opponent, or what passed for one. Now and then there was a faint distortion in the air, marking where this almost invisible second person was. The moves of the redheaded girl were smooth, and as much as the officer could see, graceful. For a moment he just sat there, staring, before he got back into functioning status. "The prisoner in Cell 231 seems to be fighting against someone, I'm going to check the other view spectrums, you check if someone opened the door and slipped in." The officer said turning to his terminal and beginning to enter commands, casting a glance at the camera view from now and then. "Nothing on IR or other visible field ranges but there's an energy reading moving around in there." the officer commented continuing to type furiously. "The door has not been opened since she was placed inside" the other replied. "Fine, I'm gonna get a squad to go in," The first said casting one more glance at the monitor, seeing just the girl, standing in place. "She.. stopped? What was that all about?" he added, his finger hovering over the button that would send an alarm. "And that odd energy reading is gone, wonder what was that all about?" the second officer added looking at the screen that showed the interior of cell 231. The screen showed the same redhead, now frozen in a crouching position, seemingly ready to jump back into motion at any minute. A few strands of the red hair were plastered to her brow by sweat. For a moment nothing moved, then she relaxed, dropping her arms back to her sides and standing up fully. "That's was real weird... maybe we should send the team in right away?" The officer asked his partner. "Good suggestion, and I surely will put this in my report, someone might be interested." His partner answered. -Back in the cell 231- Having finished her kata Ranma wiped a bit of perspiration off from her brow. "Whew, that felt good..." she muttered to herself, "Well, I better go an' take a bath." Then she remembered that this was not home, "Oh right!, I'm stuck in this room." she mumbled. turning and looking around for the door. Finding an indent of about door size on one of the walls she stepped closer to examine it, still, finding no way to open it, she looked at the door and frowned, "This ain't good." With that said, Ranma extended her hand and knocked on the door. After that she waited for a while in the eerie silence for someone to open the door. Having waited for few minutes she banged on the door, shouting, "Hey! Lemme out!" Seemingly only silence answered her, huffing Ranma waited for sometime before repeating her previous actions, adding "I wanna take a bath!! You hear me!!" Again with no answer, Ranma huffed, "Fine!! That's the way y'wanna play it, huh?" She shouted before leaning towards the door. Then placed her ear against the door, as if listening to what was going on behind the door. Letting her chi slowly fan outwards from her palm, Ranma examined the structure and design of the door. What she didn't know was that the monitoring equipment began registering the odd energy she was giving out and sent an alarm to the control room. The two officers who were in control room looked at the display of cell 231 just in time to see the redheaded girl kick the door and somehow blast it out of it's tracks. As Ranma stepped out of the cell through the remains of the door she looked around in puzzlement, "Man, I didn't know this would happen," she said turning to look at the remains of the door. As Ranma was standing there, she heard an announcement. <"Attention all squads, attention all squads, the prisoner has broken out of cell 231"> "Prisoner? Cell 231?" Ranma said aloud, looking around in puzzlement, "What IS this place?" Then her eyes fell upon the small tag next to the doorway, [Cell 231]. "Oh, Shit!!" she exclaimed, looking both ways in the corridor, "Their looking for ME!!" Deciding that one direction was as good as another, Ranma turned to the right and began to walk briskly away. For a while she met no one, until the corridor made a turn. As Ranma got nearer, she stopped when she saw people clad in white, plastic looking armor and wearing odd looking masks walk from behind the corridor and turn towards her. Damn.. Ranma thought, stopping as the troopers aimed their weapons at her. For a moment both sides looked at each other, before a man dressed in a gray uniform stepped forward. "You are under arrest for breaking out and wrecking imperial property, for the moment we have to keep you contained." He said looking at Ranma. "Contained? I've done nothing wrong!" Ranma shouted in surprise, "I don't even know where I am!" she added, gesturing around. Ranma thought she had seen a brief flash of sympathy pass through officers face before he spoke again, "I'm not allowed to tell you anything. And since you are arrested, you have to be kept in a cell." As Ranma listened to the officer, she got a strange feeling that he was not fully into this military thing, and he had this odd aura about him that conveyed the feeling that he did not want to do anything more than necessary. Besides, he felt like he had aura around him like Kasumi had, although much fainter, one that subtly messaged that he was a nice person. Why does he have an aura like that? I thought all officers were harsh and way too uptight? Ranma thought, "I just wanted to take a bath, besides that cell you had me put in was way too small. I couldn't even exercise properly." Walking slowly up to Ranma, the officer stopped a few feet away from her, "I can't promise anything like that." He said adding in a bit lowered voice, "I shouldn't be doing this, but I hate to see prisoners handled like this. so I'll try to arrange this bath for you. That is, if you really want to?" For a brief moment Ranma considered bashing this officer out and making a run for it but ditched the thought. Why get into trouble if things worked out fine without? "Yep." Ranma answered. "Okay." The officer said, motioning for his troopers to come forward, "I'll check where you should be put and try to arrange things after that." He added, picking a portable radio from his belt and assuming an unreadable expression again. <"Control room? I have the prisoner, are there any special orders?"> The officer said into the microphone, listening. <"What! Level 4? You sure? ... Who said that? ... oh, okay... I'll come and check that out after this."> The Officer replied, resignedly putting the phone back to his belt. Looking at the Officer who at first had looked surprised, appeared to be angry or annoyed, Ranma waited for a small moment before speaking, "Ummm, what did they say?" "They wanted to put you into level 4 cell." The officer answered bluntly, his tone telling that he did not like that. Finally seeming to suppress a sigh, the Officer straightened. Then motioned for the troopers to follow, with Ranma in the middle. As they turned around and headed back to where the troopers had come from, the Officer in lead and Ranma following behind, surrounded by the troopers. Eventually they stopped at front of something that was most probably an elevator. While waiting for the elevator to open, the officer turned to Ranma. "Just what did you do to get them this nervous?" "Nothing! I just exercised a bit and after that thought that I would like to get a bath." Ranma answered, not really understanding what the officer had asked. About then the wall slid to the side with a low hissing noise revealing a not so small compartment that seemingly functioned as an elevator. After they all had stepped inside, the officer spoke again, "I didn't mean that, I meant what did you do to get out of that cell?" "That? I... kinda kicked it? and it broke just like that, I didn't mean to wreck it that badly..." Ranma mumbled feeling a bit ashamed for breaking the door. -Level 4 detention cell D-6- As the door of the new cell closed behind her, Ranma looked at the new room she had been put in. If anything it was even more sparsely decorated, and while the last cell had had a bed and a small chair along with a little table. This one had nothing, except the bed, which was just a horizontal extension protruding from the wall. "What a place, would have thought they'd given me a bit more fitting room." Ranma muttered but still sat on the bed, leaning against the wall. For a while she sat like that, motionless before she withdrew her legs up to the bed and leaned her chin on her knees. Raising her right hand up at level with her eyes she idly looked at the bluish wisps of energy that danced between her fingers. What has happened? This has never been like this, all I've managed to do previously was a chi ball but nothing like this... Ranma thought, And the ease at which I draw this, it's like... like, I don't know... and when I kicked that door, I really meant to strengthen my kick just a tiny bit, not blow it clear off like that! -Control room of detention level 4- "How does she do that!" Exclaimed a figure, gesturing at the monitor that showed the interior of Ranma's cell. "I don't know, maybe she's a Jedi?" Another dark figure said, looking a bit lazily at what his partner was now shouting about. "Jedi?" The first spat, "Besides, they don't do fancy stuff like that, she must be a Sith" He added gesturing to the monitor that had been zoomed to show Ranma's hand, along with the faintly visible wisps of energy that danced between her fingers. "You think... we should inform Lord Vader?" The other figure replied a bit fearfully, "You know how he handles those that give him misinformation?" "I think we should do that." The first said gravely, "You also know what he does if we withhold this information and it IS correct?" "Yes, true." The second replied sullenly. At that moment there was a small beep that sounded from next to the door and both persons fixed their positions to more formal stance. As the door opened a sliver of light passed inside, lighting the room somewhat. The figure stopped for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darker interior before walking inside. Approaching both officers, the newcomer stopped behind their chairs looking calmly at the monitors along the walls. "Good afternoon, has everything been going as it should?" He said in a warm, friendly tone. "Yes, Kazya," the Second answered in a friendly tone. "Well... except this new prisoner..." he added after a small pause. "Yes, I was wondering about her myself," The one called Kazya began, "I heard she was to be put here in level 4, you know any reason why? She didn't seem all that dangerous." "Her? I take it you didn't see the video of what she did, did you?" the second asked, turning a bit to peer at Kazyas face. A brief flash of uncertainty flashed through Kazyas face before he answered, "No, I did not." "Well, look at this," the second said loading up the video feed from cell 231. "This here," the officer spoke, stopping the feed and indicating the faintly visible human shape, "first we thought this was a spy using high tech stealth equipment, but seems that this was not the case." Keying in a command he let the tape run again then he continued, "As you see, it looks very much like a human, but if you look at it in energy spectrum you see that it is made completely from energy. It really uses quite ridiculous amounts of it." Stopping the feed again at the position where the energy figure vanished, the officer spoke again. "Seems it just dissipated, right?" he asked a rhetorical question skipping a few frames backwards, "Here." He indicated the energy readings, she somehow absorbed most of that energy, I don't know how. The amount of energy should have fried her, totally." As Kazya frowned at this, thinking. The officer scrolled the feed forward, stopping it again when the girl leaned towards the door. "And here, I'm not sure what to make of this, but..." that said he switched to energy view that showed a faint, outwards spreading sphere that was centered around the palm of the redheaded girl. "And that's not all," he continued, forwarding the tape a few seconds to the point where the girl launched the kick at the door. "What would you guess happens now?" he asked turning to look at Kazya. "I honestly don't know. Hurt her leg perhaps?" Kazya answered, thinking about how strong the door was. "Wrong," the officer answered, putting the feed on slow motion. As the girls Leg got nearer the door, it seemed to gather a faint bluish outline that vanished as the leg connected with the door. "What the..." Kazya muttered, looking how the door just exploded outwards. "That's impossible..." Three inch carbon steel broken just like that? and to think troopers would require a LOT of explosives to get it explode out like that. Kazya thought staring at the screen but instead seeing it all repeat itself inside his head. "So one would think," the officer replied, "After we mentioned about this to high-ups they decided to put her somewhere safe, that place being level 4 detention cell." "I'm not sure if they made a mistake..." Kazya muttered. "What mistake?" the officer asked. "Well, I did take custody of that girl and she looked quite normal on the outside, if a bit annoyed. She mentioned wanting a bath." Kazya told them. "A Bath?!" The officer asked, surprised. "Yes, and I promised I would do what I can. I just fear that with how things are, I can't do all that much." Kazya explained, sighing. "Anyhow, what is she doing now?" Kazya asked after a moment of heavy silence. The officer complied, putting up the video feed from the cell Ranma was currently in. Kazya looked at the huddled figure sitting on the bed, "She doesn't look all that dangerous at the moment, does she?" he asked. At that moment the door opened and full squad of storm troopers rushed in, aiming their weapons at everyone in the room. "What is the meaning of this?!" Kazya shouted as he and the officer were grabbed and manhandled roughly out of the room by the troopers. "That you're charged with acting against orders." The tall, uncaring looking officer said frowning at Kazya and the Officer he had been talking with. "Commander Helios, you probably don't know this but your making a BIG mistake..." Kazya began after he noticed who the officer was. "Mistake? I suppose not," Commander Helios snapped, shooting an icy glare at Kazya. "And According to regulation A-23B, clause 312D you are under arrest for co-operating with prisoners wishes and not reporting all details. Also since you seem to sympathize with the prisoner so much, you both can share the cell next to her." Helios finished, motioning for the Troopers to escort the two prisoners away. As Kazya and The officer were being escorted towards the Cell, the Officer whispered, "What mistake were you speaking about?" "I think that she didn't even try to get out that hard..." He whispered back, "In fact I think she was..." he continued and was poked by a rifle, accompanied by a gruff order of "Quiet!" To be continued... Thanks to following people: To my faithful PreReaders KaosQu, Qminster, Lord Jahaj and Christine Bryce WndrMikey from fanfic forum for taking time to do a quick read through and fix-up on this fic Draco for coming up with a cool name, thanks ^_^ J. Wilde for trying to fix more than one of my errors, thanks ^_^ Too bad I lost your notes before I had the chance to apply the fixes to the fic... And few other interested people, who asked and prodded me about this, you know who you are... even if I have forgotten the names. Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read my prologue. Like it explains anything... URL: http://www.geocities.com/psavola/index.htm OR http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html (currently only place these are archived at) Fanmail: psavola@onebox.com Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi Flames, Complaints and all that crap: p_savola@hotmail.com Due to odd quirk, I had to do three different versions of this chapter, from three different viewpoints as follows: NBOM_2a Ranma's point of view NBOM_2b Kazya's Point of view NBOM_2c Helios' point of view This chapter is, like you can figure, NBOM_2a, that said, go on, read... - Detention Cell D-6 - Ranma stopped her contemplation of the odd changes in her chi's behavior as she heard some commotion from outside. Is it that officer? And do I finally get that bath or do I need to break out and find it on my own? Ranma thought, listening to the faint voices that barely carried through the door. She waited a bit impatiently for the door to open, but after a moment the voices faded away, that someone or someones seemingly walking away. What was that all about? Ranma thought, did that officer come back just to mock me? After a moment of thought Ranma came to the conclusion that they could not have known that she hear that, so it had to have been something else, but what? Standing up Ranma stretched the little stiffness out of her limbs. Having done that she looked around, "I wonder..." she muttered, a bit unsure about how long it had been since she had been put here. Ranma came to the decision that it had been way too long ago and that she wanted that bath now. Now, how to open that door without breaking it? Maybe that way those troopers won't mind if I take a quick bath? Ranma thought, stepping next to the door and eyeing it carefully. Uh huh... way too sturdy to get out this way, especially if I don't wanna break it... "Awww, to heck with it!" Ranma's shouted, launching a flurry of kicks and punches at the door, which trembled for a while before collapsing into dust. "Wha? I didn't expect it to work like that..." Ranma muttered, looking surprised, "I'll ponder about that later... now I'll get that bath." she added looking around and deciding on one direction. Ranma had wandered along the corridors for a while and had so far seen nothing special. "No real doors, no signs, nothing! How is one supposed to find his way around here?" she muttered to herself. Then her sharp hearing caught the sound of someone walking, someone with hard boots, a lot of someones. Probably a group of those white armored soldiers... Ranma thought, deciding to confront them. Maybe one of them knows where the baths are. Ranma thought as she got into a ready position. And food too... She added as her stomach grumbled. Fading away from sight by using one of the Umisenken techniques Ranma crouched in the middle of the corridor. A bit surprised enemy was always that little bit easier to beat, right? Besides, they most probably had guns and that gave them the advantage over longer distance. The petite female figure that seemed to appear from thin air made the squad stop dead. As they began to aim their weapons at the figure, she instead of attacking just crouched in there seemingly smirking. "Okay, tell me where the baths are and I don't have to hurt you... badly." The girl said, watching the squad intently. For a brief moment everything seemed to stop, then one of the troopers fired his rifle. Having seen the trooper to squeeze the trigger Ranma acted. Jumping to the side with speed that made her appear just as a blur to normal eyes, Ranma jumped again as soon as her feet touched the wall. Aiming towards the troopers who were too slow to even begin to think about dodging. After a brief moment of action had ensued, Ranma kicked the rifle from the hands of the last standing trooper before stepping up next to him and snarling, "Okay, you had your chance..." As the trooper took a tentative step backwards Ranma reached out grabbing his shoulder and shook him like he weighed nothing. "Tell me where the baths are?" Ranma said. "B-baths?" The trooper asked, why does she want a bath? For god sakes she is, no... was a prisoner, she would be expected to escape not have a bath! "Yes, bath, shower, whatever" The girl said, nodding her head. The trooper's thoughts were more along the line of surviving, not staying silent so he quickly told what he could remember, which was not much. Seemingly satisfied, the girl let go of his shoulder and smiled, "Thanks," she said before hitting him in the side of the head, knocking him out. Looking around Ranma observed the fallen shapes, "Not much of a fight..." She muttered, "Now how was it? Take a turn left, go up two levels, go right for a while... okay... I think I got it." she added to herself. Hearing more noises ahead, Ranma re-engaged Umisenken and faded from sight, It's no good fighting them, better to change back... I hate this curse.. Ranma thought beginning to creep forward. Passing the approaching group of six troopers who didn't notice her, Ranma glanced backwards, seeing the troopers examine their fallen comrades. Good thing they arrived, I think I might have hit one or two a bit too hard.. Ranma thought continuing to half-run forward. Nearly passing a door that looked to Ranma much like the one that had been in the elevator when she had been bought down here, Ranma skidded to halt. Now... how the heck do I open the doors without breaking 'em? Ranma thought, still invisible to normal eyes due to the Umisenken, If I break it, the elevator probably won't work.. Getting closer and examining the pad next to the door, Ranma noticed that there was a keypad and a small slot that probably was used for access cards or something similar. "Dang.." Ranma muttered, frowning. Then she smiled, as an idea formed in her head, If I can't use the elevator I'll just break both doors, this one here, and the one up along the shaft. Kicking the elevator shaft door inside Ranma peered first down and then up. "No cables? How I'm now gonna get up?" Ranma said before her eyes noticed the tracks along the wall. "I guess the elevator uses those.. so why not me?" A few moments later the elevator door two floors upwards exploded outwards, followed by a red blur that stopped once it had passed inside. "Now what?" Ranma mumbled, looking around before she noticed the few troopers who had been staring at the door but were now aiming their guns at her. "Aww, not now.... I don't have time for this..." Ranma mumbled, as she dodged the few bolts of energy that were shot in her general direction. Ranma rushed forward and grabbed the rifles, throwing them away from both men before they had time to react. Standing up and staring at the two, now unarmed troopers Ranma spoke up, "I don't need this from you. If you try to kill me, I don't care, everyone does." Ranmas face contorted to an annoyed frown as she snarled. "But try to stop me from taking a hot bath, THAT I can't tolerate." The two troopers looked at each other and nodded. The one on left tried to launch a punch at Ranma while the one on right tried to grab a hold of her. What the heck are they thinking? Did they really think they could get me? Ranma thought as she grabbed the left one's punching arm and twisting around threw him at the wall. At the same time kicking the trooper on the left. As both troopers fell down, Ranma turned to look at them both. "Now... lemme alone I'm not in the mood to beat the crap outta you." Ranma said turning around using the umisenken technique again, vanishing from sight. Can't I get a moment of peace without hiding? This really sucks... Ranma thought as she headed towards the supposed location of the baths, leaving two dazed troopers lying on the floor. Having wandered down the hallway for a while Ranma muttered, "Now.. where was that bath? Something about officers locker rooms..." Looking around, Ranma began to examine the doors more closely, noticing that most had a small text tag on the wall next to them. "Okay... now to find that locker room.." Ranma mumbled beginning to walk again, keeping her eyes on the tags. "Finally," Ranma mumbled, noticing the tag that said Officers locker room. Stepping closer to examine how the door was opened, she was caught by surprise as the door opened with small *swoosh* sound. "What the?" Ranma muttered, taken back by this odd happening. Deciding that changing back was more important than to study door mechanisms, Ranma stepped inside and looked around. The room was around 15 feet wide and the walls were covered with smaller locker doors. Towards the back of the room Ranma saw something that looked much like a washing area, which for all Ranma could see, did not have a bath. "I guess a good shower is better than nothing..." Ranma muttered to herself, examining the said washing area. A good HOT shower and I'll be back to normal again. Ranma was about to take her shirt off as she remembered something, How the heck I'm gonna keep those troopers out? With my luck they'll barge in just when I'm in shower... Hmm.. nothing to block the doorway with, Ranma thought looking around the room before her eyes brightened. "I'll just need to stop that door from opening... so if I put a small dent in it, it can't slide open," Ranma half whispered, starting towards the door again. "Now... which way did it slide?" Ranma wondered once she got nearer the door. Or would breaking the mechanism work? But where IS the mechanism that does this? "Oh well, maybe just wrecking those number pads next to door does it?" Ranma mumbled. "But I'll probably need to do it on both sides.." Stepping forward, Ranma waited for the moment it took for the door to open. "Okay, this is it." She said, stepping into doorway and punching the pad on the outside. The pad broke with a crunching sound, also there was a small flash and a yelp of pain as Ranma withdrew her hand quickly. "Stupid electricity..." Ranma muttered rubbing her still tingling hand. Stepping back inside Ranma waited for the door to close before turning to the pad on the inside. "Now's your turn." She said to the pad that most probably wasn't listening. "Take that!" Ranma shouted kicking the pad on the inside and breaking it. After that Ranma stepped in front of the door. As nothing happened she waved her arms. Getting no reaction Ranma brushed her hands, smiling smugly, "Now they can't get in,..." Getting back to washing area Ranma quickly undressed and stepped in. Now, how does this work? She thought staring at unfamiliar pad in the wall. The pad that was embedded into wall had four buttons, three in one column and one bigger next to the others. "Heck, might as well guess," Ranma said pushing the biggest button on the pad. It's good to be a man again Ranma thought as she stood under the warm shower, that is, until a wet lock of red hair that hung from her brow caught her attention. "N-no... it.. it can't be..." Ranma mumbled in a trembling voice that did nothing to comfort him, it was still the same girlish voice his cursed form had. Closing his eyes and drawing a beep breath Ranma turned his head down, Okay... this is it... He thought opening his eyes. Ranma screamed in disappointment, slumping dumbly to the floor, This aint fair... why it has to always happen to me? Why? "M-maybe it wasn't h-hot enough?" Ranma muttered still not really accepting that he would stay in his cursed form. Looking at the pad with bit teary eyes Ranma began pushing one of the buttons and yelped as the water became freezing cold. "N-not th-that o-one, ma-maybe th-this..." Ranma said through chattering teeth, starting to push another button. "Yoowww... HOT!!" Ranma screamed as steaming water fell on her. Jumping out from under the shower, Ranma fell down on the floor. "Why? Why!" She mumbled, looking at her slender hands through tear filled eyes. It ain't fair... Ranma mumbled between slow sobs as she sat on the floor, It just ain't fair... why does my curse have to lock up? Drawing a long shuddering breath Ranma sighed a bit sadly before murmuring to herself. "Seems I can't help getting cursed again and again." Rising up Ranma walked back to her clothes and began to put them on, "I need to get outta here, this ship sure ain't too friendly to me.." She thought aloud pulling the red shirt on. "Maybe Lya knows something?" Ranma continued to think aloud while pulling the pants up. "Lya..." Ranma repeated, remembering a smiling, happy face with big, bright blue eyes, surrounded by red hair that almost hid the two small horns that poked out from the brow, arching slowly backwards. "I wonder where you are now?" Ranma said finishing her dressing, "I have no clue as to what to do, might as well try to find you, Lya." "Okay... I'm outta here..." Ranma said, trying to sound cheerful, Cheerful? I'm cursed, lost and alone. What reason I have to be cheerful? "Yeah, I'm outta here..." Ranma repeated more sullenly, walking back to the door whose control panels she had broken earlier. "Hope those troopers are not behind the door, cause if they are, this is gonna hurt" Ranma said to herself taking few steps backwards before launching a jump kick at the door. As Ranma flew out with twisted bits of the broken door she noticed that there were no troopers in the hallway. Cool, maybe my luck is finally changing? Ranma thought. But I'll need a way outta this ship. Ship this big MUST have a shuttle or escape pod or.. something... something that I can use to get off... Ranma thought, looking both ways on the corridor, but which way? Finally shrugging, Ranma started to walk along the corridor, thinking about escape. Walking along, Ranma passed few intersections but saw nothing really interesting in them so she continued to just wander around. What now? Ranma thought as she spotted something different further down the corridor. A group of those white clad troopers had seemingly put up a temporary bunker or barricade. Why did they do they do that? Ranma wondered, continuing ahead under the cloak of Umisenken's unnoticeable technique. As she got nearer she noticed that the troopers were looking at somekind of equipment and pointing at her direction. Have they noticed me? Ranma wondered but continued to go ahead, more carefully. At the distance of 30 feet they seemingly noticed her, Ranma was not sure by what means, she should have been about undetectable by any normal means. As the troopers behind the barricade began to shoot towards her, Ranma noticed that their aim was really bad or they couldn't pinpoint her specifically and tried to just hit her. Letting her instincts guide her she got the odd feeling, like knowing a bit before hand where next bolt would be aimed and evading it easily, what is this? I didn't know I was able to do this either? Ranma thought as she slowly but surely edged along the corridor, evading the laser bolts while still staying invisible. As Ranma got up to round 12 feet away, she jumped at an angle towards the wall, pushing off from it again, and heading towards the troopers from a previously uncovered angle. Landing against the single, bigger gun that had been mounted on a pedestal, Ranma's momentum sent it crashing down. Pivoting around she roundhouse kicked one trooper to the temple while hitting another to the neck, causing both troopers to fall down unconscious. Before the other troopers had time to react, Ranma axe kicked another trooper and after hitting him, quickly kneeled and swept the last one's feet away, causing him to fall down where Ranma punched him in the helmet knocking him out. Taking a better look around, Ranma nodded to herself as she looked at the troopers, They weren't much of an adversary.. but how did they notice me? No one of these people had seemed to be able to do that... maybe.. maybe I relaxed and they saw me? Ranma looked around once more before continuing her wandering, muttering "How the heck I'm gonna get outta here?" After a while she noticed another, similar looking barricade, "Not again.. this is really annoying." Ranma mumbled. Then again... if they are trying to stop me from leaving, they are putting these on the way out of here... Ranma thought, her mood brightening. But would they too see me? Would it be possible to sneak past, or just better to rush them? Deciding that the faster she was done with them the faster she would get out of here, Ranma nodded once to herself before starting to run towards the barricade. "A contact, coming towards us, fast!" "Shoot it! Use the turret!" "We can't see it, it's invisible, all the feed we got is from motion scanner" "Just shoot, we're bound to hit it sooner or later!" That was when it hit them, fast and invisible. Before the first trooper had fallen down, the last was already incapacitated. "Hmpf" Ranma snorted, looking at the troopers, "they sure didn't have much..." Then she was running off again. Running along the corridor, Ranma was surprised as a reddish bolt flew past her head. Stopping in surprise, she wondered where it had come from. Another bolt answered her question. "I guess they are kinda expecting me up ahead, it would be a shame to disappoint them..." she muttered, starting to run again, evading the few haphazard bolts with ease. As she neared the post, the amount of fire intensified and she was ultimately forced to slow down a bit. That was when Ranma started to have this odd feeling, feeling that the next bolt would fly and hit her left shoulder. Twisting right, she indeed avoided the bolt that missed her left shoulder by few inches. The feeling repeated, again and again, like someone had told her what would happen or... she saw the future, a few fractions of second earlier than it happened. Deciding to trust this new "feeling" Ranma rushed forward again, no longer relying just to her normal senses. The faster she moved, the faster the new "feeling" told her things, it was like, like... Ranma didn't know what, but it felt nice, warm and comfortable. A few moments later Ranma pushed off from the ceiling, landing on one of the troopers, sending him down to floor. The troopers gun was still firing and thus drawing a line of burn marks from the wall, to floor, and then waving erratically around as the trooper lost consciousness, finally stopping as the magazine ran dry. While this had been going on, Ranma had not stood there to wait. Having landed on the floor next to the falling trooper she had crouched down and swept the legs away from another trooper, as the second trooper was still falling, Ranma had risen up again, punching the third to the stomach, causing him to double over. As the feeling screamed at her again, telling that she was about to be shot, she rolled to the side. Evading the burst of laser bolts that burned small craters on the metallic floor, as the fire began to follow her to the side, Ranma let the instincts flow again. Noticing that due to being mounted on a pedestal, the cannon like gun that the trooper used to shoot at her probably couldn't turn all that much upwards, left a huge hole for her to attack from. Second later, Ranma was the only one standing and able to move. After knocking out the fourth trooper, she had gone back and knocked the other two, who were getting up, out. Giving the scene one more look, she continued on her way to freedom, or what she thought would be freedom. This corridor has to lead somewhere.. Ranma thought after she had been walking along it for a few minutes, passing few side corridors. Finally getting frustrated, Ranma decided to give one of the earlier side corridors a try. Turning around, she began to walk back toward from where she had came. As she walked back towards earlier corridor, her eyes noticed the approaching forms. "Oh no, not again.." She groaned seeing the familiar figure of the Officer that had arrested her, accompany the troopers. "I don't want to fight them anymore..." she muttered, turning quickly around and beginning to run for the previous intersection. Ranma's escaping form was followed by shouts of, "Stop!" and "Wait!" along with sound of running. I don't want to fight them.. I might not be able to control myself... Ranma thought remembering the bit too much battered troopers from her first encounter since her escape. Making a sharp turn at the next intersection, Ranma continued running, Hope I can lose them... She thought. Then the corridor ended, opening into a big hangar whose height was around 30 feet. There were many odd looking ships hanging from the ceiling, suspended by metal clamps. Before Ranma had much time to react, shouts of "Shoot her!" and "stop her!" were accompanied by bolts of red energy that the two troopers were shooting in her direction. "Damn, I got too careless." Ranma muttered jumping to the side in an attempt to avoid the energy bolts. Then all Ranma felt was pain, burning pain in her left hand, shoulder, and left sde of her chest. Her concentration vanished and she made a clumsy looking somersault falling on the cold floor plating, her face down. Through the pain, Ranma heard another of the troopers shout triumphantly, "Yes, got her" Clenching her jaws together, she slowly got up, "That HURT!" she shouted, shooting an angry glare at the two troopers who looked shocked. "You got her? Huh?" the other trooper shouted to another. "Shaddap and shoot" the other replied beginning to aim his gun again. "So you want to play it rough, huh?!" Ranma shouted, crouching down, and cupping her hands on right side of her waist. The girl seemed to start to glow, first a faint blue, then the air around her began to shimmer and the next moment she seemed to be surrounded in bluish flames that danced around her. The next few bolts that were shot at her struck the flames and sizzled out harmlessly. Time slowed to crawl as the flames acquired a faint tint of red and small arches of red lighting began to seemingly jump around the girls body, the flames and lighting casting eerie, bluish-red shadows along the nearby walls and the floor. Seeing the two troopers stop shooting and jump behind nearby crates, Ranma changed her aim to point at the crates. With a shout of, "Mouko Takabisha" Ranma thrust her cupped palms forward, just like she had done many times before. The blue energy that gathered in her hands shot forward, as it left her hands, arches of red lightning jumped at it merging with the ball and beginning to dance around it. Ranma looked a bit horrified as the ball flew forward, the arches of lighting whipped around at the air. As it reached the crates, arches of red lightning launched from the ball, twisting around the crates and hitting something. A scream of pain was muffled by the blast of explosion as the blue ball hit the crates and exploded. "NO!!" Ranma shouted horrified, staring at the flames that sped outwards from the explosion. Another explosion as the nearby ammunition magazines exploded, spreading their burning contents around the hangar. No... not that.. I didn't mean to... Ranma repeated in her mind, over and over again as she was seemingly frozen, unable to move. Then the shockwave from the explosion hit her, throwing Ranma backwards, into the wall, the last thing Ranma saw before she lost consciousness were the blackened, charred remains of the two dead troopers that lay amidst the raging fire of the explosion. -***- Out somewhere, five people stopped their thinking, raising their heads at the odd disturbance they had felt. -***- The old, wrinkled head, covered in black robes rose up again and stared at the distant lights of Coruscant buildings. "Most interesting," it croaked to himself, "the disturbance in the force was great, this one had power, much power, but it is still untrained and corruptible." Pressing a button on the chair, the chair slowly rotated around with a whirring noise before locking in place again. "Mara Jade," he said, addressing the woman dressed in dark, body fitting suit of clothing, "I want you to find this girl, and if possible, bring her unto me." "Yes, my lord," the woman replied, bowing. "And take care, she might not be a normal Jedi but something special," the Emperor added, before turning the chair around again. -***- Out at the planet Dagobah, a small green skinned gnome stopped for a moment before turning to face the bluish transparent projection next to him. "Kenobi, disturbance in the Force I feel, unable to pinpoint it I am. Sure we can be that Palpatine and Vader have felt it too, but aid this will whom? Them or us?" "That my friend, I cannot answer, but I felt it too. This girl is strong in the force." the projection answered, before adding, "I hope she won't fall to the dark side." -***- Yet, on third place, on Yavin V, Luke Skywalker stopped what he was doing and stared at the sky, wondering what that feeling had meant, like small shivers. -***- The last person to feel this was wearing a dark cape, hiss of mechanical breathing as Darth Vader sat on his chair in his private chambers and thought about it, the disturbance in the force, could it have been Luke? And if not, who? He knew of no other Jedi that would have survived the cleansing that he had done. Rising up, he walked over to the communicator and contacted his lord, The Emperor on the matter. To be continued... Authors comments on.. stuff... Okay, I think I'll tell my theory of what the energy bolts the guns shoot are. Basically the bolts are hot plasma, encapsulated in a thin force field that keeps it from dissipating the heat. Sounds okay so far? Ok, now, as this bolt hits a person, for example Kay, the field breaks releasing the plasma, right into where it hit. Instant baked flesh anyone? *Looks around* so.. that IS the theory... I think it should be pretty much working one.. BTW, same tech is used in light sabers ... It's just a bit more refined... Thanks to following people: To my faithful PreReaders KaosQu, Qminster, Lord Jahaj and Christine Bryce WndrMikey from fanfic forum for taking time to do a quick read through and fix-up on this fic Draco for coming up with a cool name, thanks ^_^ J. Wilde for trying to fix more than one of my errors, thanks ^_^ Too bad I lost your notes before I had the chance to apply the fixes to the fic... And few other interested people, who asked and prodded me about this, you know who you are... even if I have forgotten the names. Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read my prologue. Like it explains anything... URL: http://www.geocities.com/psavola/index.htm OR http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html (currently only place these are archived at) Fanmail: psavola@onebox.com Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi Flames, Complaints and all that crap: p_savola@hotmail.com Due to odd quirk, I had to do three different versions of this chapter, from three different viewpoints as follows: NBOM_2a Ranma's point of view NBOM_2b Kazya's Point of view NBOM_2c Helios' point of view This chapter is, like you can figure, NBOM_2b, that said, go on, read... - Detention Cell D-6 - "I wonder what that was..." Kazya said aloud, meaning the vibrations that had just a moment ago shaken the cell's walls. The other officer, Kay, just shrugged. "I don't know and we can't check." He said. "True," Kazya admitted, sitting on the bed, "All we can do is wait." After a waiting for a long time that felt like forever, the door of the cell opened with a low hissing noise. "Kazya, we came to get you out of here." The trooper standing on the doorway said. "Come on." He added, stepping backwards and motioning for the cell occupants to get out. As Kazya stepped outside, he noticed that the 8 troopers standing in the hallway belonged to his own squad. "Thanks, I appreciate this, but why?" he said accepting the gun that one of the troopers handed him. "Hey, we can't let them mishandle our boss, can we?" the leading trooper said, nudging Kazya. "Yeah.. I.." Kazya began but stopped as he saw the remains of the cell door next to the one he had been. "What the hell happened here?" he asked. "We better get moving.. I'll explain on the way." The leading trooper said, beginning to head back towards the elevator. "Fine with me," Kazya answered, following close behind along with Kay and rest of the troopers. Those vibrations I felt... and that odd girl... there must be a connection.. "...And then we encountered this group of troopers, all knocked out, a few pretty badly" The corporal explained as they passed the still comatose group of white clad troopers. "What the?" The trooper exclaimed as he saw the door of the elevator. "When did that happen?" he asked aloud, referring to the now inward broken remains of the door. "That way seems to be blocked, the elevator won't function if the doors are broken." Kazya said, walking up to the doors and looking inside. "Seems that whoever broke this door got out two levels up." He added as he saw the hole in the door further up. "We need to use another route and also, as Helios has most probably informed other troopers of our escape, we can't risk anything." Kazya said, turning and beginning to lead them through the twisting corridors. "Hope we don't run into any patrols, I'd hate to kill persons who had nothing to do with this.." Kazya muttered. Using the next elevator not too far away, they crammed into the car and headed to the hangar level, two levels up. As they stepped outside, they caught another small patrol by surprise. With experience gained from many years of duty as a group, the troopers quickly took cover and began firing, bolts of red energy flew between the two squads, hitting walls, floor and men. As the last of the enemy troopers fell, Kazya turned back to his own men. "Any losses?" he asked, dreading to hear the answer. "Hicks didn't make it, neither did he," The corporal said motioning to the slack body of Kay. Kazya looked down at the bodies with a bit of sad impression on his face. "We'll remember you, friends." he muttered shaking his head. After another brief moment of silence Kazya straightened up again, hardening his resolve. "Let's go." he said after a moment of silence, beginning to lead the group again. The next few moments passed in silence, as the group was a bit too edgy from the first shoot-out. "Do we know our exact position?" Kazya asked as they neared the next intersection. "I would say we are in sector 30-D" one of the troopers replied, "and I think that the hangar access is to the right from that section ahead" "Good," Kazya agreed, then motioned for the others to fall silent. "Did you hear that?" he asked after a moment. "Hear what?" "Like something would have fallen on floor??" One of the troopers asked quietly. "Yes, and it came from that section ahead," Kazya said, motioning for them to get ready. A few long minutes passed but the group saw or heard nothing, finally getting a bit frustrated, Kazya motioned for the others to remain in place and began to edge towards the intersection. Arriving at the corridor, Kazya carefully glanced around the corner, then withdrew back again, motioning for the troopers to come forward cautiously. "What was it?" one of the troopers, Michael asked. Looking at Kazya's puzzled face. "Look yourself," Kazya said, shaking his head as the trooper peered around the corner withdrawing soon after. "Heck what a mess," He commented, "That barricade would have stopped us, but who wrecked it?" "Yeah, who? And is this who on our side?" Kazya said, motioning for the troopers to follow. "Each one takes what he thinks is needed," Kazya told them as they rounded the corner and headed towards wrecked barricade that had been raised in the corridor. As the troopers quickly rooted around the twisted equipment and broken trooper bodies they noticed that the troopers were still alive, even if in bad shape. Taking a quick survey Kazya noticed the normal blasters and pedestal mounted bigger gun that was not really meant for indoor use, mainly because it was too powerful. Then he noticed also the other, more odd equipment, Motion scanners? IR-detectors? What is going on? He thought as the group began to gather together, getting ready to leave. As the group started to walk ahead, they passed another bunker, but this one was almost intact, except for the unconscious troopers. The third bunker was in worse shape, the walls were covered with lines of burn marks as if the troopers had wildly tried to shoot something that moved way too fast. The line of almost 2 inch deep burn holes that still released some heat started at the center of the bunker, followed to the right, up the wall and then, nothing. It was clear that they had tried to use the cannon to shoot something but it had seemingly been too fast. Even taking into account the considerable amount of firepower they had stationed in these bunkers, there was no trace of this something, nothing that would tell about the nature of it. Shaking his head at the odd happening, Kazya motioned for the troopers to follow. Finally... behind the next corner, then we get off this ship.. Kazya thought as they neared the Hangar. Then his attention fixed on lone, small frame that was heading towards them from opposite direction. It can't be... Kazya thought, noticing the red hair and the familiar clothing. What is she doing up here? Motioning for his troopers not to shoot, he increased his pace a bit. Did she break that door? It was nearly 10 inches of carbon steel. And if so, how? If she did, did she knock all those troopers out? If she didn't, then who did? Kazya thought, remembering the remains of the cell door and the troopers along the corridors. The girl seemingly noticed them, making a sharp turn and beginning to run. "Hey! Wait!" Kazya shouted, running after her, The troopers close behind. Briefly before they rounded the corner the girl had taken, there was a bright blue flash that vanished as quickly as it had appeared, followed by a series of explosions as the ship shook under them. "What IS happening?" Kazya shouted in surprise as wave of hot air blasted from the corridor. "Should we check it, or try to go around?" the corporal asked. "We can't get around this one.. I just hope there ARE any ships left in there." Kazya answered, readying his gun and edging cautiously forward. As the group edged forward, the tang of smoke on the air intensified, as did the temperature. Arriving at the entrance to the hangar they saw a blazing sea of flames that seemed to cover almost the whole deck. "Dang," Kazya muttered, blinking his eyes that were watering form the amount of smoke inside. "Michael go check if there are any ships still in any shape." Kazya said to one of the troopers, surveying the area. Noticing a limp form next to the doorway, Kazya's eyes widened. It seemed that the whole left side of the girl had been badly burnt, no doubt it had been the fire. But what did she do in here? Except having escaped? Kneeling down next to her, Kazya checked for a pulse. "She's alive, barely." He said to the troopers. "She got this far, and we might as well take her with us." As time had been passing the fire had been spreading further, and producing more smoke. "What is keeping Michael?" Kazya shouted after a while, coughing as he inhaled too much of the smoky air. "There!" One of the troopers shouted, pointing at the figure who was standing next to a wall farther down the hangar, motioning for them to come. "Finally" Kazya said, rising up, "You two, take her along." He added to two troopers who did as instructed. "Now, let's go. This ship might blow for all I know, and we don't want to be here when it does, do we?" Kazya said beginning to run along the edge of the hangar, crouching to avoid most of the smoke that hung in the air. "There!" The trooper called Michael shouted, pointing toward a shape that was still visible through the smoke. Kazya and others adjusted their running direction towards the shape and continued running. Soon enough the shape in front of them resolved into a shuttle. Which stood on the deck its wings turned up and the ramp inside the ship open. The group stopped for awhile, looking at the shuttle. "Okay boys, let's get her up and running." Kazya said, starting to walk briskly towards the shuttle while a few of the troopers ran ahead to begin the start-up procedures. Stepping inside, Kazya headed towards the cockpit; shouting orders for his troopers, "Put the girl somewhere out of the way until we get out of here." Stepping into the cockpit, Kazya sat on the chair and began checking out the startup list. "Fuel ok, Navigation computer functioning," he said aloud, pushing buttons, as a low whining noise began to pick up, he added, "Engine running" "Is everyone inside?" he asked and after he got a positive answer he pushed another set of buttons. "The door won't close properly, I need someone to use the manual override next to it." "Good" Kazya muttered as the indicator light told him that the ramp door was properly shut. As Kazya pushed the throttle cautiously, the whining noise of the engines increased and the shuttle jerked as it lifted up on its repulsor lifts. "Hope they are more concerned about that fire than us. I'm not a fighter pilot, so I can't evade their fire for long." Kazya muttered, increasing the throttle. As the shuttle shot forward and outside, through the force field that kept the air inside, Kazya lowered the wings to flight position and pushed the throttle to full. Okay, they're gonna shoot now or not at all Kazya thought, gripping the steering controls. Luckily for them, the Rumiko didn't open fire. The last thing the people on the shuttle saw before they jumped into hyperspace was how the Rumiko exploded. To be continued... Thanks to following people: To my faithful PreReaders KaosQu, Qminster, Lord Jahaj and Christine Bryce WndrMikey from fanfic forum for taking time to do a quick read through and fix-up on this fic Draco for coming up with a cool name, thanks ^_^ J. Wilde for trying to fix more than one of my errors, thanks ^_^ Too bad I lost your notes before I had the chance to apply the fixes to the fic... And few other interested people, who asked and prodded me about this, you know who you are... even if I have forgotten the names. Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read my prologue. Like it explains anything... URL: http://www.geocities.com/psavola/index.htm OR http://www.rakhal.com/ranmalst.html (currently only place these are archived at) Fanmail: psavola@onebox.com Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi Flames, Complaints and all that crap: p_savola@hotmail.com Due to odd quirk, I had to do three different versions of this chapter, from three different viewpoints as follows: NBOM_2a Ranma's point of view NBOM_2b Kazya's Point of view NBOM_2c Helios' point of view This chapter is, like you can figure, NBOM_2c, that said, go on, read... -Somewhere on the ship- "Did you hear that they took our sergeant into custody?" One said. "No, why would they do that?" Second queried, a bit surprised. "I heard it had something to do with violating regulation A-23B, clause 312D" First voice answered. "The one that basically states that Prisoners are to be treated like shit?" The third voice commented. "Yep, the same." The first voice confirmed. "I think the incident with that girl went much better than it would have gone under normal circumstances" Fourth voice raised it's opinion. "True, the other officers just don't have the same feel like as ours does." Fifth agreed. "Yes, and most of them are S.O.B.s and think just about themselves." The sixth commented. "I think we might need to help our Lieutnant a bit, don't you?" First asked. "I agree, he doesn't belong here, and neither do we, not really." The second answered, getting supporting answers from the other voices present. -At the room of Commander Helios - Commander Helios smiled evilly as he listened to the conversation, "I knew it" he said to himself, "That Kazya WAS of a bad influence." Pressing a button on his desk he spoke, "Send a squad outside detention cell D-7, orders are to shoot unless proper clearance is given." Leaning back on his chair, Helios smiled to himself, "Let's see how they try to rescue their sergeant now." That Kazya, he was always a bit odd by doing things differently than any other officer did. Sure, he got things done quickly and well but the style was... too soft. Officers can't be soft and they should not think about prisoner's welfare. Besides, had he gotten much farther he would have begun to show off from the ranks, and it could have reflected badly on me. Helios thought. All in all, it was probably best I did this. And now I can just write this off on my report like he was going to jump on the Rebel side. The last bit made Helios smile again. "I wonder..." Helios muttered after a moment, "Why hasn't that squad reported back? They should have got there by now." Sitting back up he punched a few buttons on the panel, trying to raise the squad but got nothing. What the heck could have happened? He wondered. Punching a few more buttons he contacted another group of troopers, "This is commander Helios, go check on squad 23F and see why they won't answer on the radio." <"Commander? This is squad 23, we found the troopers"> "Yes, what was the problem?" Helios asked. <"They are all knocked out, most of them suffer possibly from concussion and few broken bones"> "Any idea what could have caused this?" Helios asked. <"No, Sir"> What could have happened? A whole squad knocked out before they had a chance to really react... Helios pondered, before giving more orders, "Fine, go check the status of prisons D-7 and D-6." After he had given the orders, Helios shut his eyes while trying to puzzle out what had happened. It can't be a coincidence? Can it? As soon as that girl appeared, things began to go to hell. <"Commander?"> The voice raised Helios back from his thinking. "Yes? What is it?" he asked. <"The cells D-7 and D-6 are both empty, and D-6's door is reduced to fine metal dust, also according to how it's fallen to the corridor it's been broken from inside, how, we don't know."> After a moment of silence, the trooper radioed again, <"Commander? What should we do now?"> Snapping out of it, Helios began to give orders, "Split up and try to find the prisoners, orders are to shoot on sight." Shutting the connection to the troopers, he called up the nearest security station. "Set groups to guard all intersections in sectors 20 to 33 and 7 to 17. I want the escapees caught or dead, either one fits me fine. Also, send me any information you have on the prisoners." Commander Helios, you probably don't know this but your making a BIG mistake... Helios recalled what Kazya had said, "Could he have known this would happen? Or did he know something else? Something important that I don't know?" Helios muttered to himself, quickly browsing through the material he had gotten from the security station. Then Helios noticed the small clip of video feed attached to one of the reports concerning the girl. "What the.." he muttered, looking closer at the image showing the red-haired girl sitting on the bed, staring at her hands, between which there seemed to be a few arcs or electricity. Is she some kind of android or a robot? Helios wondered, And did Kazya know this? Calling up the original video feed, Helios looked as the girl punched and kicked at the door. "Shit" Helios muttered, as he noticed that he couldn't really count how many times the girl did kick the door. Checking the rate of what the camera took the feed, he was surprised, "100 images/second is not enough? Just HOW fast is she doing that?" then Helios noticed the faint bluish aura that seemed to surround the girl, "She has some kind of portable force field too?" "If she's an android or robot, the only way to stop her would be to use EMP pulse or something similar, but we don't have such things here. The closest would be an ion cannon, which is too big to be handled inside the ship." Helios pondered. "At this rate, she might get out of this ship and there are a few things I'd rather not let my superiors know..." If I prime a few of the radio controlled explosives to go off and divide them around ammunition storage rooms I can blow the ship with one press of a button. Helios thought, but still, the rooms are guarded, I can't risk the troopers seeing me to do that, even if I'm their superior. I can't be sure of their loyalty. Picking up his radio again, Helios spoke, "Order the men guarding the ammunition stores to set up one of the Rx-2b mines in each room, we can't let the prisoners to get more weapons and fortify down somewhere." <"Yes sir, I'll forward the order"> came the reply. Sighing, Helios sat back again, then he noticed the blinking red light on his desk. Pressing a button he answered, "Yes?" <"The captain wants to see you on bridge."> "Very well, I'll be there soon." Kazya replied, suspecting that the captain had something to say about the prisoners and the trouble they were causing. <"Commander? We see something on the motion scanner, coming towards us, should we shoot?"> Came another radio message. "Yes," Helios ordered. Then he heard the sound of a few blaster shots, a crunching sound, then nothing. "what the?" he muttered, picking up the communicator, "Raise squad 54." A moment of silence, <"We can't seem to be able to raise them, the next post is silent too, no word from them."> Frowning at this new turn of events, Helios gave new orders, "Send more men there, find out what's the matter, and have the third squad maintain constant radio link, I want to know what is going on, also give them orders to shoot immediately at anything they notice." Deciding to get a brief update before seeing the Captain, Helios picked up the radio again, "Check the location of the prisoners X-2412 and Kz-351a along with Ka-325." Commander Helios issued his orders. <"Sir?"> came the reply, <"For some unknown reason we couldn't pinpoint X-2412 precisely, it seems she has some way of evading the visual cameras. But motion detectors seem to be able to "See" her to some extent, Kz-351a is currently in sector 30B and Ka-325 was found dead a few minutes ago in sector 28-C along with a couple of other troopers, all ours except one."> "What do you mean, doesn't show on the cameras?" Helios questioned, this could prove to be valuable, a way to avoid security cameras along with portable force fields. He thought to himself. <"She's seen, but so faintly that you can't really see her figure. The motion detectors only notice the motion of the air that is caused as she moves, even this will disappear if she stays in place, or moves slowly enough."> Nodding once, Helios spoke again."What about the other? Kz-351a?" <"Since the elevator in sector 22 is broken, he had to take another route with the troopers. I suspect they are heading towards the hangar. Due to his experience, and usage of knock-out grenades he's been able to get past most of the checkpoints with no casualties. As for the girl, she seems to be wandering randomly around, last physical contact with her was in sector 33d, where she knocked out two troopers."> "Fine, send another squad to reinforce the hangar, he can't be allowed to escape, after he's taken care of, we can concentrate on the girl." Helios ordered, cutting the line and sighing. Kazya was pretty close to that first squad, did he have anything to do with the missing radio contact? "Okay, time to see what the captain wants..." Helios muttered standing up and heading towards the command deck. -In the Command deck- As Helios stepped inside, the ship's captain confronted him. "Commander! What is this all about? Troopers running around my ship! Playing war games with who? Two escaped prisoners and a small group of renegade troopers!" The captain shouted. "It's an unfortunate happening, but it's being taken care of, Captain." Helios answered. "Yeah, depending on the reports I have seen, the elevator in sector 22 is no longer functioning, and there are at least a dozen squads incapacitated. Not counting the few dead, and there is some kind of red-haired "monster" running rampart on the upper decks" After one of the officers had run up and updated the Captain about the situation, he turned back to Commander Helios. "Two prisoners! Causing more trooper casualties than an assault on a fully manned and functional Correlian Corvette!" The Captain shouted back. "And causing more damage on the ship too!" Commander Helios listened impassively as the Captain shouted at him, finally after the captain had stopped, He spoke. "It's being taken care of, but I will go and check on the situation personally, if you want that." "Do that." The captain grunted back, turning away from the commander. -***- Having left the command deck without another word, commander Helios was heading back to his own room as the ship shook slightly, followed by another row of explosions. After He had steadied himself, he picked up his radio, "What's the meaning of this?" he asked. <"There was an explosion in the Hangar area, all ships are most probably destroyed, along with the trooper squads stationed there."> "Yes, but what caused this explosion?" <"I think it was the girl, she showed up and after the two troopers stationed near the doorway noticed her, they managed to get one hit in. After that the girl shouted something about 'playing it rough', then nothing."> "Shut down the hangar force field, that should take care of the flames" <"Sir, the field won't shut down, it seems like the electric circuits are fried. Also seems like fire's spread to sectors 32-B and 33-C."> "Contact the captain, I'm going to take care of the prisoners." Helios said, switching the radio off. Like hell I will, it's time I get off from this ship. He thought, beginning to head for the nearest escape pod. - Few minutes later on the command deck - "A shuttle is leaving without proper permission, should we shoot it?" "Forget the ship, we have to put those fires out!" Captain ordered, turning to look gravely at the schematic in front of him. "It's no good the fire's spreading despite all our attempts, it's already spread to 4 other sectors I fear we have to evacuate the ship." The captain said. The captain turned around, and was going to issue the evacuation orders when the ship was shaken multiple times again. More than a few of the terminals exploded in shower of sparks as backlash from the electrical circuits destroyed them. The lights on the ceiling flicked before shutting down leaving the deck bathed in the dim reddish light of the emergency lamps. "What happened!" The captain shouted, looking around. "The powers gone, same with life support and weapon systems also all electrical systems are malfunctioning" "Can we send an emergency signal?" the captain asked, looking grave. "We are not sure, we can't get any feedback from the circuits but it might work." "Good, do it" The captain ordered, adding, "Any way to evacuate the personnel?" "Afraid not, almost every corridor is now open to vacuum, we can't leave from this room." Soon afterwards, the engines exploded, shattering the rest of the Rumiko through the empty void. Out in space, two ships watched as the Rumiko died, one did this just before jumping into hyperspace, and the other's single passenger grinned. Finally after watching the remains of the Rumiko scatter through space, he picked up the long-range communication equipment stationed onboard. Punching in a number, he waited for a while before saying, "This is commander Helios, I need to talk with Lord Vader" <"Lord Vader is too busy to take personal calls, what reason do you have to contact him?"> "I do believe I have information that Lord Vader would be interested in, just show him the video feed I send." To be continued... Authors comments on.. stuff... hope you enjoyed reading this... I sure had fun writing it... ^_^ fun enough to ditch one or two stupid exams, you may not agree but you don't need to... ^_^ Thanks to following people: To my faithful PreReaders KaosQu, Qminster, Lord Jahaj and Christine Bryce WndrMikey from fanfic forum for taking time to do a quick read through and fix-up on this fic Draco for coming up with a cool name, thanks ^_^ J. Wilde for trying to fix more than one of my errors, thanks ^_^ Too bad I lost your notes before I had the chance to apply the fixes to the fic... And few other interested people, who asked and prodded me about this, you know who you are... even if I have forgotten the names. Ranma-StarWars Crossover, by me and Jakub. New Beginning, Old Memories For those wondering what has happened, and how things have turned out like they are, take the time to read earlier chapters, they would prove to be really helpful even if the quality might not be as good. We all get better with time, right? ^_^ Fanmail, Comments & Criticism: pauli@netcore.fi jpilecki@poczta.fm Chapter 3, Friend or Foe? Kazya leaned backwards in the chair as the small wrench in his stomach told him that they had gone to hyperspeed. For a small moment that it lasted, he looked at the stars that started to zoom past the cockpit window and then vanishing from sight completely leaving only dull grayness. Closing his eyes and sighing, a feel of uncertainty washed over him. what to do? Can I do what is right? There is now more than just me on this, what if I do something wrong and we all die? Pushing back the questions and doubt if he could do the things right, he quickly counted those on board, Kay is dead as is Hicks, two of us dead and we have gotten almost nowhere. No, I must stop thinking about those that died. Instead I need to think what to do now and how the rest of us could stay alive. Kazya closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind of the thoughts, relaxing for few moments before opening his eyes again and pushing himself up. I need to check how my team and that girl is doing.. he thought before realizing something, no, it isn't team anymore, it was once but now we aren't a team officially anymore not as we are not part of the Empire anymore. Wondering how this all really would end, he wandered towards back of the shuttle. -***- Kazya stopped as he heard the troopers talking. Curious, he edged carefully forward along the wall, listening to the conversation. "Why did we do this? We will all die, like those that were on Rumiko!" one said, sounding angry. "It was the only sensible thing we could do!" Another said. "So? We will still end up dead, The Empire will find us soon and execute us all" the first countered. "No we won't!" another snapped back. "We will, or you think anyone could escape?" Sensing that the two would be more or less ready to start real fighting, Kazya stepped into the room. Getting another person to the room made all look at him and stop what they had been doing. Seeing the looks on their faces others faces, Kazya stopped, "What is wrong?" he asked. Causing the troopers to exchange glances with each others, looking unfomfortable, and each not wanting to be the first to speak out aloud. Kazya looked at both men for a moment, trying to determine what would have been the reason before speaking again, "We were and still are under a lot of stress even now, but it doesn't mean we should lose control over our emotions. This fight could have meant nothing in long run or it could have caused you both to resent and distrust each other. That is something we can't have at the moment. We need to act together." Turning to look at the man on the left Kazya asked, "Kyle? you were ready to attack, why?" The man, Kyle seemed to study the floor for a moment, thinking about it, "Andrew... he said we will die." He finally said, sounding ashamed but still carrying tint of anger. "He could be right, Kyle." Kazya said tiredly causing everyone to look at him in surprise. "We could die." Kazya repeated, "We cannot change it yet if the possibility would impact on morale and ignoring this risk would be like inviting enemies to kill us right now." Kazya turned to face Andrew, his eyes hardening. "Yes, we could die but acknowledging that such posibility exist doesn't mean that we shoud give up." Kazya took one step towards the soldier looking down at him, while he seemed to shrink unded his gaze. "We will plan about what we will do, we will fight if necessary and in the end, we WILL survive. There is no other way of thinking about it Andrew. Otherwice you could just as easily sit down and wait for death to come." Retreating few steps, Kazya faced all the men in the room, "We are soldiers. We fought in the past and you should know how stress influences behavior. Don't let yourself be driven by emotions. We were and still are soldiers we were among the best teams there were and we have to work together now." "I need to thank you all for helping me out in there, if not for you I would be most probably dead." Kazya said, eyeing each carefully. "It seems we have different opinions on matters or about our future. This is understandable as we are no longer part of the military and as such there are no superior officers telling us what we need to or don't need to do." Drawing a breath Kazya adds, "We are responsible for our actions, whatever they are." As the doctor who had been checking on the troopers, finished with last of the troopers and stood up, "No one was hurt badly, if at all," the doctor said looked around, "but... where is that girl? She at least seemed hurt" he asked. That was a clear question, which seeminly made answering easier, "We put her in the storage closet, on a makeshift pallet," one of the troopers grunted at the same time drawing all attention to himself. As the doctor was heading past Kazya, Kazya stopped him for a moment, "Go check her and try to get back here, we need to make choices." After the Doctor had left, Kazya turned to face the troopers again. "I need to thank you for helping me back there and I'm happy to be still alive. If we hadn't escaped, would we have died as Rumiko exploded? Would we be alive? It seems we are alive just because we were lucky but were we lucky or not, it doesn't change the facts." Kazya eyed the men, nodding to himself, they were listening and he had managed to get their attention away from arguing among themselves, "You all were good troopers by all standards until few hours ago when you rescued me. That choice made you all and me fugitives, and criminals from the Empires point of view. Back when you were still troopers, orders were clear, you followed them and lived on, now, things are different, before your orders came from me, who got them from someone else. But now, that is in the past and we cannot return to it. I myself would not, not even if I had a chance. The things we had to do were something I didn't like and as you all accompanied me, you too had something against it." "I'm not your commanding officer any more." Kazya said, "We are group of men, trying to survive, you have as much to say on things as I do. But to keep arguments and distrust from killing our group from within, we should talk about the decisions as a group." Kazya walked to the wall panel and activated it to bring a holographic representation of nearby space into view at center of room. "We need to discuss where we are going now, if at all possible, it should be a safe place with no connections to the empire." Deciding to state the current facts, Kazya explained, "This ship, as is, isn't equipped for long trips or for much comfort. I think we can all manage without that, it won't be the first time." Drawing breath Kazya continued, "The ship doesn't have much fuel left, or much supplies it seems it wasn't properly restocked before we took it so we have few days worth of food supplies and our fuel... it won't last too long." "This ring in here," Kazya explained, causing a faintly visible ring to appear around a white dot in map, "is how far our fuel will last. Now as I said, for the time being we want to avoid notice by Empire. If any of you have any suggestions as to a good place to go and restock, this would be good point to say it. The room fell silent. After a small moment one of the men coughed, "Sir, I would suggest Dubrillion, it's a remote mining outpost. With any luck there won't be any imperials around when we go in, buy what we need and get out." The man seemed a bit uncomfortable, "I know of it from my past before.. joining the empire, I did a bit of free lance trade with the ah.. alliance." "The alliance? Why you.." the room fell silent once more, with angry glares directed at the man. "Stop that!" Kazya said raising his voice, "So, he had some kind of connection with the alliance or Rebels, how ever you call them. Before that would have been bad thing but right now it would offer us probably our best hope for surviving or do any of you disagree?" After a few odd glares the men settled down again, "Okay, any other suggestions?" Kazya said, painting the dubrillion system in the holo projection red. Seeing the silence and feeling that most of the men didn't really care about it right now due to stress of what had happened and trying to deal with it by themselves. Sighing Kazya made the holo projection disappear, "Okay, I guess it's settled we shall head towards Dubrillion, once we get in, best course of action will, as far as I see it, be to play it formally, we could be looking around for any deserters, scouting operation and ran low on supplies." He continued, "After that, we need somekind of long time plan as to what to do whatever we will end up doing. Try to join the alliance or try to vanish." "What we will do with the girl is a big question. We could dump her out to space while she's still sleeping but I won't support that kind of action. It is not right. For all we know, she might prove to be reasonable and she might know something we don't. Something that could be of use. Only problem we have is, what if she wants to go out while we are landed? then what? There can't be many reasons to have civilian aboard, is there? And... an alien civ at that" -***- Ennet Clarkham was tired. Not physically but mentally. The whole situation was getting to him at last. Before this, everything had been happened so fast, Kazya's imprisoning, decision, releasing him, escape, explosion. Back then, there had not been time to think, no time to consider the outcome. He had just been part of the group, and had agreed without thinking with group decisions. Now, when his adrenaline level had dropped, the situation was starting to look much worse than during those few crazy hours. How could he be so careless? During his whole life he had been rational, calm type of person, never having broken a law. Hell, even as a child he never had stolen anything, and it wasn't because he had lacked of opportunities. Now... Actions that would guarantee death sentence on him, and for whom? Kazya, "Crazy guy" Maybe it would have been better to stay onboard? no, he would be dead by now if he had stayed. Was this better? Imperials would get them soon, no one had ever heard of succesful escape? None. During his whole life not once. Most probably whole team would be caught and made out as an example for others troops... Damn Kazya! Why did he have to be prisoned? Damn "the team", for saving him! Damn Rumiko for exploding! Why the hell had it all to happen? Ennet pushed the thoughts aside, he was here to check on that girl Kazya, that idiot, had decided to bring onboard not worrying about their fate. He was a doctor and as such, patients came first. The room was dark, actually the room wasn't a real room but a small closet that had been empty enough to make room for the girl to be put in. In the light that was shining from the corridor behind, he saw the unmoving body of the red headed girl. Turning on the lights, he stepped into room putting the case containing the medical supplies on the floor next to the pallet the girl was lying on. He felt something, his shackles rising up, was someone watching him? And if so, where? Looking around the room he saw nothing, nothing except the tools sitting in their fixed places on the walls. Turning to look at the doorway he saw no one there either. Shaking his head he turned back to the girl. She was cute, the bright red hair outlining her face. She didn't look old, maybe just 17 by human years, young girl, with; the man looked downwards; exceptionally well built body, one that other women would kill for. As he looked at her, the small voice that had been telling him someone was watching intensified, it was like.. almost you could feel a tension in the air, something he had sometimes felt before things happened, usually bad things. Feeling the need to break the silence he cleared his throat and mumbled something about being here to check the girl, not to stare at her half naked body. Turning to side, he opened the medical case and took out the scanner, beginning quick scan on the girls vital signs being surprised they were this good. He had seen the girl back in that hangar, half burnt, lying limp against the wall with a possibly broken head, barely alive. And now, the scanner said she had just slight concussion and mild burns? Getting a quick glance at her body again through what was left of her burnt clothes, he could see the burned skin even if it looked much better than he remembered. It must have been the stress, he thought. The concussion I can't do much about the head but the burns... I think this case had some bacta... it won't fix her completely but it won't scar or fester.. he continued to think, putting the scanner away and starting to search through the case, it wasn't a big case but as it was meant to contain so much different things it was packed tight, most of the things lying hidden beneath others. Getting the can of bacta, he moved to girls other side to be able to treat the burns better. When he started to apply the bacta to the burn area the girl whimpered as if in pain. Causing him to stop and wince himself holding his head, where did this head ache come from? and I never thought applying bacta could hurt, tingle a bit yes but not hurt. Who or what is she? There is no cases of humans rejecting bacta known! He thought, continuing to look at the spot he had applied the bacta already, noticing that it started to slowly heal, yes, but it was also turning to an unhealthy reddish color, as if it was undergoing allergic reaction to the bacta. Allergic reaction? That can't be true, Ennet thought, this shouldn't be happening, Bacta should work for all close to human species and quite few Alien ones too... Quickly taking scaner again he began another scan, this time a complete detailed one, trying to figure reason for such strange reaction. There was another suprise waiting for him. The scanner wasn't sure how to interpret part of the data, that was being gathered, the results were disturbing. She was either healthy or she was suffering of massive intermal damage. Ennet frowned at the scanner, glancing again at the girl, this couldn't be right; the scanner HAD to be broken. Looking at the rest of the results he saw that brainwave patterns were far outside of normal and according to the scanner they would suggest deep, biological related, mental sickness. The internal organs were abnormal according to scanners suggestions, which, Ennet thought was more and more likely broken, it was result of medical operations she had undergone in early age, unknown symbiosis or a mutation. These results are way too odd and they contradict themselves, besides, she does look like she's doing okay. Ennet thought, noticing that despite the seeming slight pain, the girl wasn't in any real danger. I need to do more thorough check on her once I get back to real medical station... also complete immersion on bacta tank wouldn't hurt, unless that allergic reaction persists then it could be fatal on that large scale. Then he remembered, There was no going back, Ennet thought angrily, anger hinted with fear, no going back, going back meant suicide now. This had to wait. There were more important things right now, first of all he needed to escape The Empire's wrath somehow, then solve the mess in his life and gain some position in New Republic. Easier said than done. Ennet turned back to his medical case, packing things back inside and exiting the room hurriedly, the girls mystery already half forgotten. -***- "Okay, so we now know where we are going next, is there anything else any of you want to bring up?" Kazya asked. "That girl is trouble" One of the troopers grumbled. "I'll say. If the Empire gets a clue that she's still alive and they will, they will come after her. AND us." Another added glumly "Yes, why did we have to pick her up?" Turning to look at the person who said the last line, Kazya frowned, "You mean we should have left her there to die?" "Yes, saving her didn't really help us in any way but did it hurt either no. at the moment we left I didn't know Rumiko would explode, the fire shouldn't have caused that much damage. But thinking about that is pointless, if we had left her there, she would be dead." Kazya said, "She would be dead and empire would know no better if she was really dead or with us would they?" "But how does that help us now?" one asked, "She's alive and that is okay with me but.. an alien, especially a good looking one will raise suspicion if seen around us. We don't really need anyone to take notice." He's right an alien will raise attention and the vids I saw.. I doubt we could confine her inside but should I tell them about that? It would be just one more thing for them to worry about? Kazya thought, trying to come up with something that would sound believable. "I'm quite sure she will be reasonable once we explain the situation to her and she might know something that could help us. She might know someone in the Alliance if we will end up trying to join that or.." Kazya stopped, "actually I'm not sure, I don't know any more about her than you do but until we find out better isn't it best to let her be?" Seeing the sceptical looks on some of the faces Kazya added, "Give her a chance, She was a prisoner too and we are not part of the army anymore, we can and should care for what happens to others." The meeting broke up after few more minutes, there wasn't much else to talk about or there was but no one was really ready to talk about those things yet. -***- Sometime later, Kazya found himself looking through one of the few windows this shuttle had, into a gray, disorted light of hyperspace and the stars that were zooming past, letting his thoughts wander. The sight was one he was used to, all those travels as a soldier. Still, it didn't mean he had liked it, never really did. He had always loved sky, sky and warm sun even as a child, on Durbis. He had used to lie on his back and watch the sky for hours, the sky had been so deep, so never-ending, so full of possibilities. Then he had grown up and continued to struggle to reach the stars from his backwater planet. For a short moment, he had succeeded. He had escaped from his parents and after a while he had ended up with others who had shared his outlook. They had been free to do everything they had wanted. Dreams of being space pirates, those were really foolish, Kazya knew it now, but back then that had been all they had dreamed of. They had managed to steal one of the smaller cargo shuttles and escape to space. That had been when he saw how stars really looked like, how black the space was. They had been so naive. What had happened next had been more or less certain, with them knowing next to nothing of space travel. They had managed to jump to other system and there they had been stopped by one of the Empire's space patrol groups. The boarding party that had come onboard to investigate the more than suspicious ship had found them, group of young men, terrified to death. In the end, one dream had changed to another, Space-pirating to being similar, professional looking trooper. It hadn't been hard choice, Even on their backwater planet they had heard how the Empire had treated those that had been against it. So without thinking it any more at that point, he had told he wanted to be a storm trooper too. Being Imperial trooper trainee had been really hard at first. Rigorious physical training, constant discipline, lessons, military tactics and last, one of the most often pressed lessons, Lack of feelings, Soldier should not or could not have their feelings to come in way of the current mission. The training hadn't been all bad, it had brought good things too, learning how to fight, stability, the life was stable and if not really comfortable, it wasn't uncomfortable either and also, few friends who didn't quite fit into the standard flock of troopers but who didn't differ too much to raise any real notice. The only thing that had been keeping him from being happy had been lack of contacts with family, his little sister was an adult now... it had all been so long ago.. No, I can't start thinking about past, I need to think about what we should do now, Kazya thought shaking his head, abandoning the thoughts of his home. They were free again, out from under Empire's influence but how much freedom it was? He much more experienced and wiser then back in those days when they had been dreaming of being space-pirates. Still, somehow, Kazya felt that all that wasn't enough, he couldn't hope to evade empire forever, not at least in this ship. If it would be just me, I could put my life on line and play, hoping to win, to return to the routine life of the imperial Officer. Kazya thought, If it was only me... but that isn't it, my friends are in this too and I cannot risk them. They are all in this because of me, because... of friendship. Kazya stopped, that had been something Imperial army had lacked, emotions. They had been taught to just act on orders without second thought. He had managed to regain small part of his old self, as had those others, his friends. That had been what had driven them all to this, they had trusted me and i can't leave them alone, not now, not after what they did. Even if we have little hope of surviving.. Kazya thought turning away from the window, it wasn't really late but the recent events had been exhausting and he needed sleep, they all did. Yawning he headed towards back of the shuttle where they had arranged more or less makeshift sleeping place. -***- As Ranma woke up, he didn't feel too good, for one he found that constant, low, whining noise annoying and for second thing, his head felt like it was going to explode. After a while he slowly opened his eyes, seeing only dimly lit small room, or ceiling of it. What happened? Why am I here? Ranma thought before bolting up into sitting position, the two troopers, where were they? They were not dead, i hadn't killed them, had i? He thought before dizziness hit and his vision began to get blurry. Looking frantically around the room and seeing nothing immediately threatening, Ranma finally sighed in relief and fell backwards back to the makesift bed he had been on. As he did so, Ranma noticed the few locks of red hair that flashed in her field of vision. I'm still cursed? I guess it would have been too good to be just a nightmare.. she thought, observing the ceiling. If it had not been a nightmare or a dream... then she had killed someone, again. The thought of that brought tears to her eyes, what right did I have to kill them? There was always an alternative, there had to be! Blinking back tears she sat upright again, instead of the room, she was again in that dark corridor with light coming into it from the doorway ahead, small sliver of light and parts of those odd looking space ships. She had ran in and been surprised, it shouldn't have happened! Then she had felt like her whole left side had been on fire. Blinking again Ranma found herself again in the same small room, sitting on a bed, her side hurt, and despite the pain, her own memories didn't want to leave her alone, didn't want to stop replaying themselves... She had fallen on the cold floor, and had heard the trooper shouting triumphantly. They had thought she was dead? She stood up again, staring angrily at the troopers who shot at her again but the bolts disappeared, the scene stopped for a small moment as Ranma blinked at that, thinking why? Then it started again, she gathered chi in her hands, then finally releasing it, it all went forward in slow motion. The ball of energy flew towards the troopers. Ranma had wanted to scream, to stop it, but it was too late, the ball hit the crates troopers had hid behind, the explosion, Sea of fire rushing towards her, feeling thrown back by the explosion then.. nothing. Or had those two blackened lumps been the troopers remains? "NO!" Ranma screamed, withdrawing to one of the room's corners, before realizing that she was again in the room, and not... there. Withdrawing her knees up to her chest she huddled in the corner, not wanting to, but still staring at her hands. Small, the hands of her cursed form. Powerless looking but she knew better, should have always known better. Killed, killed the two that had just been doing their job, all because of mistake! A stupid mistake! Ranma thought as the tears, no longer under her control began to fall. "I lost control... I lost it" She mumbled, "A martial artist cannot lose control or he would become too dangerous." "Control... I lost it and now they are dead" Ranma mumbled, no longer being able to control her hurting body, which started to shake as she started to cry. Her face hid from the world by her hands and a curtain of red hair. -***- It was dark, with only few dim safety lights circling the room, giving enough light to see the rooms shape and the lumps on floor which, Kazya knew were others, sleeping. Twisting sideways under the blanket Kazya sighed. There were no real clocks in this shuttle but he knew that the time he could allocate for sleep would be even less than what it had been onboard Rumiko. Everyone, except Ennet, who was overseeing the cockpit just in case, was sleeping, exhausted by the day's events but for some reason, he couldn't. Kazya twisted around again, trying to find more comfortable position, he should sleep now, he knew it, but he couldn't, not with all these thoughts about past and possible future in his head. Kazya sighed and pushed the blanket aside, standing up, trying not to wake any others, As he headed towards the door he noticed one pair of eyes following him, he smiled, he had half expected that, they were soldiers after all. Upon reaching the corridor outside, Kazya headed towards the window he had been looking out from earlier. Looking outside he saw real stars, not the white blurring lines you saw in hyperspace but the ones in almost every sky, just brighter as they were in space. He remained there, looking at the stars and the small almost undistinquishable color patterns the sun and stars cast on the ships shields. Kazya frowned slightly as he remembered his little sister and that other small girl, the one they had rescued from Rumiko before it's explosion. Just who is she? Kazya thought, feeling more and more uncertain. On Rumiko they suspected she was somekind of advanced android or cyborg because of those... odd things but the doctor would have reacted differently if he had found anything like that. Kazya sighed, Just more and more complications, as if it was not bad enough already, trying to avoid Empire's wrath. They had now to wonder who she was and how it would affect their plans. Turning away from the window, Kazya headed towards the storage room, I might as well make a check on her, she shoud be still asleep, Kazya thought remembering Doctor mentioning something about concussion, but after all what happened, who knows... -***- Ranma was sitting in the corner, sobs slowly easening. Crying hadn't really made her feel much better, she had never really understood how crying helped it had just been something people did. She too had cried now and then but... she didn't really know why, all it did was make her feel weaker, more helpless. I must regain control, I can't break up and cry all the time, Ranma admonished herself, drying her eyes on the shirt sleeves. I need to think of something else except that, or.. I'll.. I might.. Ranma shook her head. What had happened before I was imprisoned? That is as good thing to think of as any other, Who had those guys been anyway? That ship had been huge, nothing she had ever been in before, or was it a ship to start with it could have been a base too... but that still leaves the who, they couldn't have been pirates, the equipment they had was too impressive, the guns were of some totally alien design... Ranma's stream of thought was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?" Ranma heard soft concerned voice ask. Gods, not now! Why.. Ranma thought, refusing to look up at the person who asked, or even open her eyes, she realized she had been too immersed in her thoughts to notice that the guy had entered the room. When he had touched her, she had felt part his aura, there was something familiar in there.. Ranma had not often met anyone with chi like this, only.. Kasumi and.. that officer from the ship! Ranma's eyes snapped open, what did he do here? What would this mean anyway? He must have to be an interrogator, she had killed... and done all those other things too, now they are trying to get me to tell what I did and how, I can't let that happen... Clenching her fists Ranma was about to hit him before she could gain control again. Why would I hit him? All he wants to do is help? Or at least that is how it looks, Ranma thought, turning away to hide her eyes, still reddish from all the crying. "Yes, I am all right." Ranma answered, feeling even worse listening to her own trembling voice. "Are you sure? I might be able to help." The man said, sounding concerned. Why now? Why has he to get here right now as I'm about to break to pieces! Ranma thought, gripping the closest available emotion, Anger. "I said I'm all right!" Ranma almost shouted whirling to face the man again, at the same time trying to wipe the tears out of her face. "No, I don't believe you are all right," the man answered calmly, which made Ranma feel even more angry. Doesn't he realize I want to be alone? I don't want to talk right now for any reason, Ranma thought angrily. "Think about it, the situation now, the possible future, how much of it you know? The situation is tricky, one or two mistakes and we all will end up dead or prisoners." Looking at her face, he seemingly noticed the surprise it showed, "Yes, your not a prisoner, none of us are, at least at the moment." The man said. Ranma didn't hear last sentence, first still ringing in her ears. Not a prisoner... not... a... prisoner... In daze she looked for first time really looked, at the room and the equipment on floor and walls. Yes, this is definitely not a prison, she thought, gazing at the pieces of equipment around. This guy is friendly... Too friendly, and this room indeed was in no way a prison of any sort and.. all this seeming freedom.. Ranma thought, it was then that the possibility occurred to her. i wasn't executed or put in prison again or anything else, maybe I did't kill those two soldiers? Maybe they were still alive? Maybe it had all been a bad dream. "They didn't die? Neither of them did?" Ranma jumped up, and took a step towards him only now noticing that he had retreated few steaps, looking up, her blue eyes shining both with hope and remnants of tears she had shed so little ago, as she met his. The man stopped, seemingly a bit hesitant and surprised at this sudden change in behavior, after a small pause, which felt like an eternity for her he answered, "If you meant the troopers at the hangar, yes, they both died, he answered. Ranma's figure slumped down under weight of depresion, filtered away for a short moment and then, set back, heavier than before. They are dead, then why am I here, treated 'better' than before? I need to calm down.. I can't let my control slip again. She though, and I feel like I am on some emotional roller coaster. I can't even think clearly.. she thought, starting to apply 'soul of ice'. It was something she hadn't done in some time, not counting the time she had been in stasis. The technique was not only useful to perform an attack but also very good way to control emotions. If I would only have realized that in time, at the time she still was in Nerima, before.. Ranma stopped that thought, no, this isn't place to remember those things... As the soul of Ice finally starting to take effect Ranma felt her emotions being pushed - however slowly and hestiantly, beyond a barrier of ice, allowing for more logical, unbiased reasoning. Who were these guys? She started to wonder. They could have been pirates, but it's unlikely. Not with those equipments they have. Gods! That ship I was on was bigger then Alliance first star cruiser! And those guns. And... WHY am I not prisoner? If I... had killed those men and I think I did... then.. then I should have been long dead! It was hard to think about it, but Soul of Ice helped. Only reasons they may have had to be so pleasant and keeping her alive... This has to be a plot to get something from me.. Ranma thought before firming her figure and shouting, "Why the heck am I here? Why I'm not in some cell drugged up so that I can't even move anymore? I killed those two, they were probably your friends too! You don't have to pretend to be friendly, I won't tell you or your superiors anything and you can't make me!" The man turned and Ranma was able to see his confused face, which looked a bit hurt too. For a while both stared at each other saying nothing. Finally the man shrugged, "So..." he began, "I guess you are not currently quite on top of current situation." "What do you mean?" Ranma said, still looking suspicious. "I'll try to summarize it, first you were onboard destroyer Rumiko, where you caused quite nice havoc runnning around. You probably know all this, except the ship name, then I got imprisoned for handling you too lightly, a bit after your second escape I was freed by my friends and we headed towards the hangars, where we hoped to find a shuttle to escape somewhere else." Kazya shrugged, "and you being here with us.. I felt I couldn't leave you there to die." "Now, if you are done with your outburst we can go look for some spare clothes or if you instead want to sit there, half naked, it's fine by me too." Kazya added, turning again and stepping outside to the hallway. The girl looked down at herself before letting out a small "eek" and snatching up the blanket she had been sleeping on and covering herself with it. Seeing the still embarrassed and hesitant look on the girls face, Kazya added, turning to leave the room, continuing "While your changing clothes or eating or.. whatever you want to do right now I can try to explain the present situation, if that makes you feel more comfortable." Seeing a suspicious look in the girls eyes Kazya tried to talk again with different approach. "Look, I'm not trying to hurt you and hopefully you are not trying to hurt us, if we had not taken you with us, you would be dead," Kazya said, looking carefully at the girl. "Why should I trust you?" Ranma answered calmly, looking suspicious, "People don't save others for the fun of it." she added after a small pause. Kazya sighed, "okay.. it seems we both have lot to talk and neither has that many reasons to trust each other but.. we can return to finding the answers bit later, more important matters first." Kazya waved towards Ranmas half naked form, "like new set of clothing? That old set seems to have served it's time, or.." Kazya thought, "When was the last time you had eaten? You must be hungry too." -***- During most of the conversation, Ranma had tried to keep up the soul of ice technique but for some reason it had not seemingly worked as well as she had expected. Up until now her mind had more or less wandered around, not allowing her to concentrate well on anything but as Ranma finally managed to clear her mind of the turmoil and emotions, she was able to feel the area around her better. The lack of aura's was a shock, they were all gone, well not all but only a handful remained, handful out of thousands she had felt earlier before getting knocked down. Handful of auras, surrounded by emptiness. What is this? Did that guy tell the truth? Ranma thought, wanting to apologize for the outburst but her pride stopped her, like it had so many times before. Instead she just followed the man out to the hallway, covering herself bet