Chapter 9: Numbers Lie

“Nabiki!”

At the call, Nabiki stopped and turned. “Ran-kun?”

The boy caught up with her at last, breathing heavily to catch his breath. “Yeah. Hey, I was curious about something…”

“Oh. Is it okay if we walk and talk, then? I promised to meet Kasumi…”

“Sure.”

“So, what did you want to ask me?”

“Well, I was reading the files you left in the computer for us. It said that this place was called the Heptagon, because…”

“Because of the building’s shape as an irregular seven-sided polygon and its status and the seventh outpost to be established.” She stopped in front of a sturdy-looking metal door and quickly typed a code into the keypad that barred entry. “Now if you’ll excuse me, this is a restricted area. See ya.”

The door slid shut behind her with a slight hiss. “But…” Ran-kun went on softly, then stopped. That’s odd… maybe the data in the computer was wrong about the third reason…

He shrugged and started making his way back to the kitchen/dining room. It was lunch time…

***

“And she wouldn’t say anything about it?” Ranma asked his twin curiously around bites of his lunch. They and Ryouga were the only ones in the room; the others were all busy or asleep, like Ryo-kun, who was completely exhausted from earlier.

Ran-kun shook his head. “She didn’t say anything and then left. But she cut me off, as if she knew what I was going to say and didn’t want me to say it…”

Ranma shrugged. “Are you sure that the computer was right? That seventh person could be Mousse, after all.”

“I don’t think so. Look, it says that this place was founded just over three years ago, and that Mu Tsu joined it just over one year ago. That’s hardly early enough to make him a ‘founding member’…”

Ranma blinked, thinking. “Hey, wait… they must have gotten the dates messed up. Or did they recruit a bunch of kids?”

“Oh, you didn’t catch that? This place is about two years ahead of us, time-wise. I figured that out when the date they gave for the deaths of their Ranma and Ryouga was eleven months from now. Or at least now for me, I have no idea if you’re temporally dislocated from me as well or not.”

“Temporally… dislocated?” Ranma took a moment to figure out what that meant, then shook his head. “I don’t think so… you’re sixteen, right?”

Ran-kun nodded. “Yeah. Not that it matters much. I just want to get home… get all this over with.”

Ranma raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re the one who started it…”

That elicited a wince. “I know, I know… but I never wished for this. What am I supposed to do here? How am I supposed to help, when I can’t fight like you and Nabiki doesn’t need my help?”

“You’re the nexus.”

They both looked at Ryouga, surprised that he had spoken.

“But what does that *mean*?” It had been bothering Ran-kun. This is all my fault… dragging other people around and putting them in danger without helping at all. But it’s not like I wished for *this*…

Ryouga shrugged. “That’s what she said. It sounded important to me.”

Ran-kun looked incredulously at him for a moment, then threw his hands into the air. “So? There’s no point in me being here!”

Ryouga just turned away again. “I’m more worried about what you said before than that.”

That got Ran-kun to stop for a moment, and think. “What… I said what?”

“That ‘Ranma’ and ‘Ryouga’ died eleven months from now.”

The other two froze, blinked in union.

“I don’t think that that’s a prophecy or anything, Ryouga…”

Ran-kun laughed somewhat falsely. “Yeah, I don’t think that just because something happens in one dimension means it’s going to happen in others. After all, that would mean that you two…”

Finally noticing the glares that were being pointedly directed at him, Ran-kun utilized his self-preservation instincts, coughed, and shut the hell up.

***

After all, that would mean that you two… The sentence had been left unsaid, but still it crawled through Ranma’s mind, leaving an aftertaste that made his previously enjoyable lunch go sour. Don’t think about that, don’t think about it… damnit.

Of course, all trying not to think about it did was insure that it was kept in the forefront of his mind. He dug into his food with a distinct viciousness that went unnoticed, luckily. Of course. Just because something happens in one doesn’t mean that it happens in the others. I have no intention of dying anytime soon, and Ran-kun’s not cursed. I’ll never get straight A’s in school – not if I keep getting snatched away like this – and he’ll never learn the Hiryu Shoten Ha. The logic was impeccable, and it consoled him immensely.

He couldn’t help a quick, furtive glance. But most of all, I’ll never fall in love with *him*.

Lunch gone sour in his mouth, he stood and left, suddenly feeling tired.

***

Ranma stared at the bottom of the top bunk, letting the ache he felt in every portion of his body seep away into the mattress, his mind clear as he concentrated to systematically relax every single stubborn muscle in his body. Instinctively he jerked his wrist back quickly, causing the joint to crack loudly and the obstinate muscle there to finally loosen.

The sound was loud, but short, in the quiet room, drawing attention to the only other sound, the considerably softer one of Ryo-kun’s breathing, gentle and regular in sleep.

Ranma twisted his neck to give it the same treatment as his wrist. It didn’t crack, but it did cause him to look over, to the other boy who was curled in sleep founded in sheer exhaustion. Ranma’s lips twitched, ever so slightly. Ran-kun had told them about what had happened, about Ryo-kun’s success in creating something similar to the Mouko Takabisha. He must not be so weak after all, Ranma mused. Come to think of it, we never did find out how strong he was. They seemed interested in me, but he just kinda… hovered in the background. Quiet guy…

The new position was so comfortable that he didn’t bother to move out of it. He fought off sleep, wanting to stay awake, but the meager three hours he’d gotten that ‘night’ hadn’t really been enough. His body hadn’t caught up to the new timeframe, and it demanded rest, especially after such a workout.

He tried to keep his mind focused. He analyzed his form on each of the fights, analyzed those of his opponents, even tried to work out the puzzle that Ran-kun had brought up, but it was futile. His mind fuzzed, his eyes started to close…

A loud noise and a sudden bright light on the edge of his fading vision startled him into befuddled wakefulness.

There was a loud exclamation of pain as Ryo-kun woke and sat up so suddenly that he hit his head on the bottom of the upper bunk of his bed.

The figure that had tossed open the door was in shadow, overwhelmed by the much brighter light streaming in from the hallway, but Ranma recognized the silhouette. “Sorry if I woke you,” Kasumi apologized, “but could you please get up? This is important.”

Ranma jumped up, shaking his head to clear the lingering desire for rest, and followed Kasumi out, glancing over his shoulder as he did so. Ryo-kun stood, yawning and rubbing his eyes and a violently red patch on his forehead, where an impressive bruise was in the process of forming. He slowly followed as well, albeit sleepily.

***

They, along with Ryouga, Ran-kun, and Akane, ended up in the strange-looking room that they had first appeared in. Ranma examined it curiously, and he wasn’t the only one. It was totally empty, with plain metal walls that were occasionally decorated with some sort of pattern. Kasumi walked to one of the shapes a large reddish square about two meters on each side, and touched a barely visible green patch to one side of it.

Without any fanfare, the red square promptly slid silently up into the wall above it, revealing an extension of the room that was considerably more interesting than the main portion.

Seven recesses lined the opposite wall of the smaller annex. Four were empty, but blinking bits of electronics in one and several obvious loose connectors indicated that they hadn’t always been. The other three, though, contained something straight out of a futuristic anime.

Whatever any of the newcomers had been expecting, they certainly hadn’t counted on mechanical bodysuits.

“*Damn*.” Ryo-kun summed up their opinion on the matter as a furious round of shocked blinks circulated through the four. Akane and Kasumi simply stood back, smirking either inwardly or outwardly.

O-kay… so now I’m stuck in an episode of Bubblegum Crisis. Terrific. What’s next? Ran-kun covered his eyes with one hand and sighed. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Does this look like a joke?” A new voice from behind them said smugly.

After turning and staring for a moment, Ran-kun reflected that the armor didn’t look quite so excessive when it was being worn. The one Kuno was sporting was pale blue and sliver in color, and quite thin for the most part, it seemed. The design was simple, lacking excessive intricacies in design, but it looked very aerodynamic. Ran-kun could see the rounded shape of some sort of jet on the back. An opaque black visor on the front of the helmet was lifted, revealing most of Kuno’s face. He smirked, seemingly taking personal pride in the looks of shock on their faces.

His smile lessened somewhat as he lifted his weapon which they hadn’t noticed before. It was a katana, wickedly sharp  and slightly wider than the typical blade, formed from a gleaming bluish metal. However, no katana ever made before had a green wire protruding from the handle and connecting with the armor at its wielder’s wrist. He turned it slowly in his hand, demonstrating that it was otherwise loose in his grip.

Another round of blinks made it’s way around the group.

“In-ter-es-ting…” Ranma commented thoughtfully. I could get used to this. “Got any spares?”

Akane grinned and tilted her head to one side. “That’s why we brought you here.”

***

~Mordain

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