Chapter Five

Nabiki could feel the beginnings of panic, of frantic worry, scrambling away at the edges of her mind, chipping away at the calm core of rationality that she prided herself on. That’s not me… that’s Rai… she tried to remind herself again. The part of Rai that is me now, at least…

It was getting harder to concentrate on things that were alien to her; she could feel the knowledge starting to slip away into incomprehensibility. She could feel Rai in her head, but things were changing, and not for the better.

I’m connected to her… somehow… and she’s being taken over by Elrii. Wonderful. She forced the cold stirrings of panic down and put on her sternest façade, spinning on her heel to face Ryouga so quickly that she made a sound like a blade being swung through the air.

“We’ve got to leave this place. Got to stop anyone else from getting involved.”

Ryouga looked dubious, but didn’t verbally disagree. He looked down at Ranma and Rai. It was rather disconcerting; Ranma’s eyes were still open, staring blankly at nothing, pupils shrunk into mere dots. “Are we going to leave them here?”

“Of course not, don’t be stupid.” Nabiki started to lift Rai; with some straining the older woman was slung over her shoulder.

Ryouga picked up Ranma easily, then retrieved Rai from Nabiki and carried her over his other shoulder. “You lead the way, then.” He couldn’t quite keep a note of hostility out of his voice.

Ryouga didn’t quite understand what was going on, or why he was feeling so infuriated with the situation. The missing gap of memory nagged at him, of course, but there was something else… a dislike for the three people around him that was irrational even for him. Yet there was no other way but to go along with them…

Nabiki looked at Ryouga suspiciously. If I didn’t know better… she shook her head. “Fine,” she answered curtly, and started down the stairs.

***

”Here,” Nabiki directed, letting loose her grip on Ryouga’s shirtsleeve. True to form the lost boy hadn’t even been able to follow her the short distance to the woods behind the high school… Nabiki double-checked that they were out of view of the road and the campus. Satisfied, she sat down heavily on a log and sighed. This is turning into a giant mess…

Ryouga laid the two prone figures in the center of the small clearing and took the log opposite Nabiki and looked at her with narrowed eyes. He didn’t say anything, and when she declined to speak looked away, busying himself with starting a fire against the enroaching cold of night.

Nabiki could feel Rai’s foreign brain patterns melding with her own. Thinking about it was depressing. It seemed unlikely that there was any way to separate them, now; even if they could, what would the division do to her? Will I ever be able to be just Nabiki Tendo again?

Nabiki had always had one person on whom she could absolutely rely – herself. Now, she couldn’t be so sure of that anymore… was she even herself anymore? She pulled her knees up to her chest – for warmth – and rested her head on them, not moving her eyes from the small but growing fire. She could just barely see Ryouga through the flames, but not Ranma or Rai. It brought a modicum of comfort.

“I’m sorry, Ryouga…” she was surprised to note even as she said the words that she meant them, every part of her, even the part that was Rai.

“Why?” he removed his gaze from the sleeping pair and focused on her, through the flames, meeting her eyes as they looked back.

“Well, I’m sorry for myself, too. I’m sorry for Ranma, I’m sorry for Akane and Miss Hinako and even Rai, oddly enough…”

“What do they have to do with anything? Nabiki – what happened today?”

The voice in her head that was Rai protested her decision to tell him. There was no reason to. It would just make him more suspicious of the world and depressed. Reason after reason flooded her mind, but she pushed them all away and focused on one fact.

“You deserve to know.”

“Well-”

“Shush. I’ll tell you. For free even.” She allowed herself a wry grin. “Although you owe me one.”

“I’d say it’s the other way ‘round.”

Nabiki laughed. It was funny. But the joke hadn't been all that was meant with that sentence, and she cut off uncertainly. Ryouga didn't so much as chuckle. “Guess so… anyway, it all started with…”

***

It took over an hour to tell the story, repeating and expounding on parts that were confusing, which were most of them. It wasn’t the entire story, of course, told as it was from Rai’s perspective, but she had - Rai had - managed to pick up enough of the details in her - Rai's - clean up earlier, when fixing the situation, to tell a version of the events reasonably well.

“Wow. So – these people are everywhere?”

“Not… everywhere. There are only a few thousand in this world and most of them are safe enough. Most of them, the weaker ones, were given a permanent suppressive and locked inside the minds of normal people. The androids – Jusenkyo curses - are only necessary for the troublesome cases.”

Ryouga locked onto one portion of the explaination. “Weaker ones are just locked away? Where?”

Nabiki looked uncomfortable even as she answered. “You humans – we humans – only use a tiny fraction of our brain. Ten percent is average. They have methods of… breaking a prisoner’s spirit, literally, and then locking the pieces apart from each other, usually in different humans.” She looked away from Ryouga, feeling ashamed. Even her memories as Rai were replused by the reality behind that method.

“Locking them apart…” Ryouga looked back into the fire, looking strangely thoughtful.

Nabiki took the stretch of silence to worry. Are we both slowly being taken over by these… these… “Energists,” she suddenly said aloud.

“Huh?” Ryouga responded absentmindedly.

“Energists… that’s what I finally remembered to call them…”

“Okay…” He didn’t seem to much care about the name.

She didn't want to consider it, but Ryouga was acting unusually. There was just something off about his behavior. Like he’s being influenced by something else, Nabiki thought ruefully. Of course there’s always the chance that Cei is free, inside of him - but there was also the chance that he was simply thrown off-balance by the strange situation. She worried more about herself. The slip-ups in her speech were becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. She was starting to forget that she was a human and not an Energist – or rather, forgetting that some of the memories that were so vivid to her were, indeed, not hers at all.

She glanced at Rai. My – her - memory’s not slipping anymore. In fact, it’s becoming stronger. I’m starting to know what it’s like to be one of them… and it’s frightening… and yet… I am one of them now… partially…

She must be doing much better. I just hope that that person lying there is Rai, and not… not Elrii. She remembered some of Rai’s memories about the infamous Energist criminal, and shivered. She had despised other planes even before being banished to one – now, judging by her fury earlier, that hatred had only grown.

Rai stirred. Nabiki instantly snapped totally alert, the near-military instincts of Rai taking effect before she could stop them. Although in this case they were useful.

“Ryouga… watch her. If she acts suspiciously, I want you to do whatever you can to stop her… don’t let her go!”

Ryouga nodded, a little confused but understanding enough of the situation to agree to the command.

Rai’s eyes opened, slowly. They moved, also slowly, rolling in their sockets to take in the scene, but lazily as if laden with sleep. Then she spotted Nabiki.

“Nabiki!” she exclaimed, sitting up, suddenly awake. She stood, although not easily, and started to walk around the fire to the girl who looked eerily identical, just younger, to her.
Nabiki scrambled backwards, away from her. “Elrii…”

Rai – was it? – swayed to a halt. Her face looked dismayed. “Oh no…”

Ryouga suddenly appeared behind Rai-Elrii. He didn’t make any move to touch her, but she knew that he was there; looking out of the corner of her eyes she could see him. “Oh no…” she repeated.

She bolted. Nabiki caught unprepared for such action, was frozen for the moment it would have taken Rai to reach her –

- had Ryouga not been faster and stopped her before she had covered more than half the distance to Nabiki.

Nabiki blinked. After the moment of shock, her heart was racing, pounding in her chest until the sound filled her ears.

“Let me go!” Rai-Elrii squirmed, trying to break free of Ryouga’s grip. “I’m not Elrii, will you let me go!”

“Why are you attacking me, then?!” Nabiki demanded, not moving any closer to her.

“Attacking you? I’m not attacking! You should know what I was trying to do!”

“No, I don’t!”

“We need to go home!”

Nabiki stumbled back a step. “We can’t do that! They’ll kill us both!”

Rai shook her head violently. “You’re still thinking like a human. They won’t do that.”

“Why am I supposed to believe you? You’ve been contaminated by Elrii.”

Suddenly they were interrupted by the sound of a groan. They all turned, slowly, to see Ranma slowly sitting up, holding his head as if it were in pain.

Rai and Nabiki exclaimed at the same time. “Ah, shit…” They exchanged a glance. Rai, taking the moment of distraction to wriggle out of Ryouga’s grasp, ran to the awakening martial artist and raised one hand, ready to strike…

But she couldn’t move her hand down. Ryouga was much faster, and even being caught surprised had been able to grab her wrist before she was able to knock Ranma unconscious again. She pulled against his grip on her wrist, but it was futile; she couldn’t move her arm.

“Let me go!” she protested. “Elrii’s got him!”

“Elrii’s got you, too…” Nabiki commented, stepping around the fire.

“And Rai’s got you! You’ve got me! We’ve got to get this cleared up.”

“How?”

“Like this…” Nabiki was just close enough. Pushing with all of her strength and throwing her weight into it, she was able to leap. It wasn’t enough to free herself from Ryouga’s grip, but then that wasn’t necessary; with her free hand she brushed Nabiki’s, and that was enough.

There was a blinding flash of light, a release and absorption of energy.

When the light faded and the spots cleared from Ryouga’s eyes, he could see that something had changed.

One of the Nabikis had disappeared. But he wasn’t sure which one. He was no longer holding one, yet the new one – who appeared as Nabiki’s normal age – was closer than the Nabiki he thought of as the real one had been. “Er…” he tried.

She – They – started to yell, loudly and incoherently. Ryouga stumbled back a step, confused. Is this what it was like when I was trapped in Miss Hinako’s body? The thought was a little embarrassing.

They turned to look at him, and shouted something that sounded vaguely like language but was too mixed up to be understandable.

There was a mental shoving match currently going on inside of the body that had the physical form of Nabiki. It was similar to when Nabiki had simply had Rai’s memories, but now there was also the conscious presence of them both. In one body.

It was really crowded. They didn’t get along very well, as it turned out.

You want to do *what*!?

Just go home! Get this settled out!

They tried to convey this conversation verbally, but all they managed to do was confuse Ryouga further. After a minute of this they lapsed into a sullen silence, their only conversation mental for sanity’s sake.

This is way too crowded. We can’t even willingly give control to just one of us. Rai stated it simply. It was just fact, after all.

I’m noticing! Why is it different?

Well, I’m weakened and this isn’t – quite – a totally human body. There’s something I don’t quite understand going on – it’s almost as if there’s something else taking up space.

Elrii!

No… I don’t think so. I think I was contaminated by a little of her sprit, but not her actual consciousness. Our methods aren’t that shabby, you know…

Ryouga had been attempting to talk, but caught up in the internal conversation as they were they didn’t hear him. Finally, by shaking their shoulder, they snapped out of it and looked up.

We have to tell him what our plan of action is. Both of us at once, so he can understand…

Wait! I haven’t agreed!

It’s the only choice.

Nabiki considered. Rai did have a point. They certainly couldn’t stay like this – while it was allowing them to regain a better self of self, eventually it would result in a merging of their consciousnesses from sheer lack of space. And that would be nearly impossible to fix. Rai’s memory severely limited their possibilities. Finally, she gave in.

Fine. But we’re not staying long, alright? It’s probably very dangerous.

Who knows? It’s never been tried before… okay, let’s ask…

“Ryouga, we need your help.”

Ryouga looked up sharply. They were actually speaking coherently! The voice had an echo that wasn’t quite the same tone as the voice itself, but they were definitely understandable.

“What?”

“We need to access the circuitry in your cursed form to initiate a transfer.”

A moment of quick recollection brought the meaning of that to the surface. “Oh… you’re sending Rai home? Can you do that?”

They hesitated. “Yes… sort of.” The qualifier was added on as an afterthought.

Ryouga paused. He wanted to ask a vital question, but part of him fought against it. That alarmed him, and for the first time he wondered if what he was going to ask about was already happening. "Will Cei get out?"

They hesitated.

Cei's loose already, isn't he? The question was an accusation in Nabiki's head.

Rai didn't answer for a moment, but she didn't have to. There's a chance of it, she finally answered.

I thought so! Is this safe for him, then?

Shouldn't be. The android's designed to keep Cei confined. Ryouga's not. It's probably safer for him to be in the other form - the failsafes will activate.

Then what are we waiting for?

They looked up at Ryouga, who was getting steadily more worried as Nabiki and Rai argued.

Finally they spoke again. "It should be alright. The virus that was introduced to your system is gone. You won't be aware of the separation, and the android has failsafes to keep Cei trapped." They echoed slightly differently this time, as if one were forcing the other one to give the full explaination.

Ryouga hesitated. “Okay.”

“Thank you.” Again, there was an odd dissonance in the tone. Rai didn’t want to thank him, Ryouga suspected.

Ryouga fetched a bottle of water and tested the temperature. Cold enough. Taking a deep breath, he poured it over his head, wincing slightly. While he didn’t remember the separation that Nabiki had described, he knew that no matter what he felt like when he transformed it wasn’t true. He was actually going to be separated from his body, controlling a little remote-controlled pig like a puppetmaster who thought he was the puppet.

Then he was a little black piglet. Everything seemed normal. He shivered involuntarily anyway.
Nabiki-Rai knelt down next to him and gave him an apologetic smile even as they lifted one hand. A tiny spark of rainbow lightening flashed on the fingertips of that hand. For a split second he was aware of the lightening, flashing every color of the spectrum, zigging for him, then his brain went haywire…

Colored light flashed over the surface and joints of the little robotic pig, which flailed for a moment and then fell inert.

It shouldn’t be doing that, should it… Nabiki, a spectator for this action, questioned.

Shhhh… let me concentrate… Rai nudged Nabiki away, needing more space in the mind to make the calculations necessasary for the complicated and entirely new programming instructions that she was sending to the pig android.

Another bolt of electricity shot out from their extended fingertips, pure red this time.

That should do it, brace yourself… huh?

The lightning bounced off of the pig. They turned to see where it was going, and watched with dismay as it struck the shadowy android that lay inert next to the stirring Ranma. The robotic body crackled with the energy and started to flicker into existence. For a moment both forms of the cursed boy were visible, and then a thick bolt of red lightening arched, striking the tiny metallic P-chan, connecting the two for a moment.

Then the world dissolved into pure color so blindly intense that all Nabiki could see was a flash of impossibly bright white before her senses shut down from the overload.

***

Nabiki groaned. Her head felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. The word lightning bounced around her thoughts for a moment before hitting the right switch and clicking her mind awake.

Oh yeah…

She tried to probe around to see if she’d been separated from Rai, and found that there was nothing to probe. She looked around in panic.

“What the…!” Then she stopped, confused. The words, although spoken out loud, weren’t any different from her thoughts earlier.

“Are we… there?”

“Yes.” The word had a smile in it. Nabiki wasn’t quite sure how that was possible, but the word that had been spoken smiled as well as any face could. She opened her eyes.

It wasn’t much of a change.

Her eyes – or the part of her that she thought of as her eyes – couldn’t make much sense of what she was ‘seeing’. She wasn’t in a place. There was nothing there that was physical, including her. She was trying to make associations, analogies to what she was familiar with so that she could actually function, but the process was slow. Taking a deep breath – or the mental equivalent thereof – she opened her eyes, now managing to convince herself that she had them.

There.

A… being peered at her, literally radiating interest. She quickly gave it the shape of a nondescript human doctor. There. The surroundings slowly morphed into a rather plain examination room, but that was okay.

Rai was there too. Nabiki stumbled over a form to give her, but Rai soon gave herself one, that of a rather attractive young human female with long auburn hair and black eyes. It looked somewhat like a cross between Nabiki and Ranma-chan.

Then the surroundings were resolved into something that she could deal with, and she managed to relax. The doctor, seeing this, straightened and turned to some sort of chart. Nabiki didn’t define it any further than that.

She noted with no small amount of surprise that there were two other people there, who quickly resolved into the forms of Ranma and Ryouga. They were conscious, sort of. Awake at least, but unable to deal with their surroundings.

Nabiki reached for Ryouga’s shoulder, instinctively trying to shake him awake, but hesitated. She looked up at Rai questioningly. “Why are they here?”

Rai, leaning up against the doorway and looking extremely relived to be back home, shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure what happened. There was some sort of reaction between my command and the androids, and it dragged them along.”

“Wait – does that mean Elrii and Cei are loose on Earth?”

Rai shook her head. “No, they’re here.”

“*What*?!”

“Don’t worry, they’re in confinement. We have a little while, at least.”

“It’s safe?”

“Safer than on Earth. They’re being watched by ten of our best specialists. It’s safe, but temporary. Apparently our arrival here messed up the transfer mechanism; it’s being fixed now.”

“Oh.”

There was a pause. The doctor, who had been examining Ranma, kept glancing over his shoulder.

“I didn’t know it was possible for humans to exist here,” said Nabiki, the question obvious in her voice.

Rai started to speak, but the doctor cut her off.

“You’re not human.”

Nabiki stared at him. Even Rai looked startled.

The doctor continued, talking only in the sense that he was transferring information; in reality the knowledge just rushed into Nabiki’s mind. But she forced it to become words. Rai and Nabiki had done that automatically; he didn't.

“You’re human, in a manner of speaking. You were born as a human. You have three parts like a human. But you’re not human, not the part of you that you think to be yourself. You’re Kaei.”

“Kaei…” Rai breathed, looking at her. “No wonder…”

“Kaei?” Nabiki looked confused. Rai’s memories, which she’d almost gotten used to whether she wanted to admit it or not, were gone. “Who?”

“Rai’s predecessor,” the doctor answered smoothly.

***

~Mordain

Previous

Email me

Back to The Nest