Chapter Seven: Welcome to the Heptagon, Ranma, Ranma, Ryouga, Ryouga

“You’re not tired?” Kasumi asked courteously as she walked them to a room that had been hastily cleared out for them.

Ran-kun, the only one of the four who felt like talking rather than cursing fate, cursing one of the other three, and/or pointedly disdaining all human contact, answered. “No. Is it nighttime?”

Kasumi broke off a yawn and nodded. “Yes, it is. Was it not for you? I’m sorry… changing times can be very stressful. You should all probably try to sleep, to get acclimated to the difference as quickly as possible. I’ll tell the others, so that they know…” she broke off, and yawned again.

Ran-kun nodded knowingly. “Thank you. Don’t worry about us, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Kasumi smiled sleepily. “Thank you. You’re so courteous… Ranma was always so abrupt… such unbecoming behavior for a young lady…”

Ranma, who had been trailing behind and listening, jolted a little at this comment. Behind him, Ryouga snickered softly and mimicked in a low voice, “So unbecoming for a lady…” Ranma shot him a glare that promised retribution, and painful retribution at that. Ryouga just smirked back.

A few seconds later and they found themselves left in a smallish room that contained nothing but two bunk beds on the long sides of the rectangle, a tiny desk with a computer and a lamp at the far wall between the two, and a plain metal chair at said desk, all squeezed into the minimal floorspace. Ryouga immediately climbed to the top of one of the bunk beds and relaxed, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed disagreeably over his chest.

While Ranma and Ryo-kun took the lower bunks (Ranma took the one below Ryouga if for no other reason than to prevent being glared at by him), Ran-kun hesitantly booted the computer, then exclaimed with delight when it started instantly, the bright screen of some unfamiliar operating system blossoming onto the screen. There was a pause, and a white box filled with text appeared against the plain black and green background. Ran-kun read out loud.

“Welcome to the Heptagon. You have been given guest access to the computer network of this compound. It will allow you to access any information you may need regarding Karn and this Heptagon, as well as create documents and use most of the programs on this system. If you find you need to access anything not allowed with a guest access, please speak to the head of Computing, Tendo Nabiki. Thank you.”

Ranma and Ryo-kun, curious and bored anyway, sat on their bunks next to the desk and looked over Ran-kun’s shoulder as he figured out the operating system and found the document that was obviously meant to be read first (it’s filename was ‘readmefirst’), opened it, and scanned over it quickly while the other two read a little more slowly.

The brief history of the place (which was apparently known as the Heptagon) was concise and confusing, obviously written for people with considerably more background in the history of this particular world as opposed to that of a different one that was just similar enough to make it worse.

Ranma stopped trying to read the information when Ran-kun opened up another file, this one going into more specifics. Ran-kun started muttering to himself, trying to figure out what unfamiliar events meant, but relaxed when Ryo-kun took his hand and smiled at him.

“You shouldn’t stress yourself out,” he told Ran-kun in a low voice, earning himself a look and a loving smile.

Ranma turned his attention away, and laid back on his bunk with a heavy feeling in his stomach. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, determined to ignore everything else that was going on in the room. To their credit, Ran-kun and Ryo-kun didn’t do more than talk briefly before lapsing into silence; whether that was because they went to sleep or continued working on the computer in silence, Ranma wasn’t sure. Eventually he fell asleep, although not quite aware of doing so.

***

Contrary to appearances, Ryouga wasn’t watching anything in particular, instead sinking so deeply into thought that it could be said he became lost there. His conception of ‘the way things were’ had just been turned inside out, crumpled into a ball, and tossed into a dumpster to be hauled away to a landfill. He was familiar with the feeling of having no clue where he was, but he usually knew what the general situation around him was. And his own place in the mess.

Not sleeping, he watched without really seeing as the other trio puzzled over the information and then slowly gave up; even several hours later, after Ran-kun and his own unexpected twin went to sleep, he stayed awake, thinking and watching without seeing.

Sometime after that he drifted into a level of slight higher consciousness and became aware of his eyes, focused on the bunk below and across from his where his own figure lay, curled slightly facing away, and one hand clenching his pillow, the other reached out to brush the wall gently with two fingers. In the semi-darkness, the shape of his body was shrouded enough to make details indistinct, so it wasn’t quite so obvious that the two of them were identical in every way except minor details of clothing and mind.

It’s… me… and yet… it’s not me. Like looking in a mirror, but a distorted one, with a life of it’s own; me but ignorant of me. His eyes drifted up, to Ran-kun on the upper bunk. And… another mirror. Even more similar than mine… both arrogant, both so supremely confident in himself that they won’t share their true selves with anyone… except maybe, the mirror’s learned to open up to one… me… but *not* me…

His eyes closed slowly; the transition between the two states was so slight that he didn’t realize it. Damn it, this isn’t fair. I didn’t get asked to come along on this trip… it was pure chance, that weird woman said as much. I was near him, so what? Anyone could’ve happened to be close to him at that moment; it could’ve been Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane… his throat closed at the thought of Akane. I love her so much… it feels like I’ve betrayed her, but I haven’t, I’m not the one in love with… in love with… Ranma… the thought of that left a bitter aftertaste behind. But somehow that didn’t make him feel any better… It’s not me, damnit, he’s not even wearing the bandanna… there’s no way he’s gone through what I’ve been though. No way. I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to know what ‘could have happened’, I didn’t choose this…

He turned unto his side, trying to get comfortable on the unfamiliar bed. No one chose this, really… such a stupid way of making a decision, leaving it totally up to chance like that. It could’ve been anyone… and then where would they be? Some random person, what could they do? Unless they lied… there’s always that chance, in fact that seems rather likely. So unlikely that it would just happen to be the four of us… who was that woman, anyway? Every would she said could’ve been a lie… I don’t know who she was, where she was from, what her intentions are… this could all be a gigantic hoax… now stuck in a mental loop, he reached out with one hand to place his hand flat against the wall, subconsciously wanting to feel the comforting cool feel of the smooth, enclosing walls. The contact, despite the alien metallic texture of it, soothed him, and he drifted of, absently reaching up his other hand to pull down his pillow as he did so.

***

~Mordain

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