Millennia Past By Valandar the Red The stars outside the luxurious starliner's portals shone with the promise of the new Human Race. Two thousand years after recovering from the greatest disaster to ever befall mankind, they now traveled the stars, passing through the Milky Way as the voyagers of old would traverse the Atlantic. Annwyn Taldea was one of these passengers, who now found herself lost in thought. Her family had booked this vacation to celebrate her parent's twentieth wedding anniversary, and she took the first opportunity to sneak away from them, and explore the ship on her own. Something had always felt like it was missing from her life, and she was bound to find out what it was. As she turned a corner in a passageway, she nearly bumped into a young man, about her own age. "Oops, sorry!" she exclaimed. "That's okay," said the young man - who was now standing right next to her, not in front, steadying her. He was just over six feet tall, with black hair pulled back into a braid, and eyes so blue, she found herself... just... staring... Annwyn shook her head, and took control of herself. "Um, well, anyway, my name's... er... " As she trailed off, she found herself thinking, 'Those eyes... wow... ' "Well?" asked the young man, snapping her out of the spell. "Oh, um, my name's Annwyn Taldea. Uh, heh heh, what's your, um, name?" The black haired man smiled, and Annwyn felt her heart skip a beat. "Names... kinda tricky subject, huh? Well, I guess you could call me Ran." "No, um, family name?" asked Annwyn, a half smile forming on her face. A cloud passed across those sky blue eyes. "No. Not for a long time." Soon, the cloud passed, and the smile returned. "Hey, have you had lunch, yet? I hear the buffet on this ship is incredible." 'Self-confidence, self-confidence', chanted the young girl to herself. "So, um, Ran, is this a date you're asking me on?" This time, it was Ran's turn to get flustered a little. "Um, well, I dunno. Let's see what happens." Arm in arm, the young pair sauntered down the passageway, intent on finding new paths within each other. ****************** "My god, when was the last time you ate?" asked Annwyn, aghast at the stack of empty plates quickly piling up next to her erstwhile companion. He paused the action of 'food from plate to mouth' barely long enough to answer. "Bwrekfsht, thsh mrning." She blinked at that. "You mean you _always_ eat like this?" He shrugged, but didn't slow down. A passing waiter started to try to cart the plates away, but a quick slap from a blurred chopstick convinced him otherwise. "Hey, th' platesh're way ta keep score!" he said, a couple noodles hanging out of his mouth. Annwyn decided to go ahead, and wait for him to finish eating before trying to start any more conversation. It took a little while, but he was eventually ready for a conversation. So, she gestured towards the stack of plates. "Twenty-three?" "Hm, I'm not at my best today. I was trying to be polite." "Good god, I'd hate to see you when you're really hungry," she joked. "Anyway, how can you eat so much?" "Simple. I'm a martial artist," he answered. "A what? You mean you make paintings of war, or something like that?" The young woman was totally confused. "No, no, no. Look, a long time ago, there weren't any guns, cannons, tanks, or anything. People fought their wars face to face, and hand to hand. Over time, the techniques developed to fight that way were distilled, and condensed into an art form that was intended to be used in self- defense, and in the defense of others." He shrugged, and slid his chair back from the table. "If we can find a gym or something like that, I can show you." She scratched her head. "If this was so long ago, then how do you know about it?" He scratched the back of his head. "Well, my family practiced it for generation upon generation. Now, I'm the last one left. C'mon, let's go find a place for me to show you." ****************** The waiter watched the young couple leave, and reached under his apron. The small device he extracted fit neatly over his ear, and he began speaking into it. "Yes, it's time. Begin the Jyhad." Placing the device back into his pocket, he pulled out a small energy pistol, and thumbed the charging switch. 'The Confederation will hear this message,' he thought. ****************** It wasn't a gymnasium, but it was large enough for Ran's purposes. It was actually a lifepod hangar, with enough space between the lifepods for even some of the more acrobatic of his techniques. "Okay, Annwyn, what I'm about to do is called a kata. It is a pre-arranged sequence of techniques, designed to practice both the techniques, themselves, and how they flow into other methods." He stretched high, and dropped into a stance. Soon, he launched himself high into the air, exploding onto a display of skill nearly lost to the star-faring culture that had grown out of the fall. Spinning back kicks flowed into reverse turning kicks, which set the stage for a spinning backfist. A sudden reversal of momentum, and a dual tiger punch lashed through the air, followed by dropping back into more complex combinations. Soon, Ran lost himself in the kata, and flowed into a more complex kata. Eventually, he had progresses into maneuvers unseen in thousands of years. The young lady stared in amazement. The acrobatic leaps, thirty feet into the air, might have been explainable by cybernetics, but nothing could explain the almost inhuman grace with which he performed the kata. It was something no artificial limb could capture, and something that seemed to almost ooze out of every pore. As he reached the climax of the kata, the starliner lurched to one side, a sickening groan echoing throughout the lifepod bay. "Ran, what was that?" squealed Annwyn. "Was it an asteroid hit?" The young man's face was deadly serious. "That was no asteroid. I know what that feels like." His eyes snapped to the bay entrance, and he snatched her up, diving behind one of the pods. "Wha..." She couldn't continue her question, as he clamped one hand over her mouth. "terrorists," he whispered. "no idea what they want. They probably detonated a bomb, and will be coming for the pods, so they can get away. we're nearly in-system, now, so they'll have someplace to go." She nodded, then her eyes widened, as she saw several men, one dressed as a waiter, rush into the pod bay. The waiter turned, closed the door, then fused it shut with a precise laser burst. The men climbed into one of the pods, and it launched itself down its tube. The pod quickly became visible as a spiraling flare of light just outside the porthole beside the tube. "Koytsu!" exclaimed Ran. "With the door welded shut, about a third of the passengers won't be able to escape!" He let go of her, and dove at the door. "Ran, no!" she yelled. "It's a blast door, nobody's strong enough to rip it open like that! Only energy can tear it open!" "Yeah, right. Just lemme try! KIAI!" His fist impacted with the door so hard that sparks flew, but all that his efforts resulted in was a fist-shaped dent. This impressed her enough, but what happened next surprised her. He stepped back, and hurled his hands forward with another shout. A brilliant burst of energy filled his hands, and lanced out at the stubborn blast door, pulverizing it. Seconds later, a rush of people came barreling in, racing for the pods. Annwyn pushed through the panicked crowd, until she made it to Ran's side. "Ran, my family!" She kept hold of him with one arm, while frantically scanning the crowd. Seeing a familiar face, she dragged her companion with her to intercept. "Sis, where's Mom and Dad?" The younger girl looked at Annwyn, tears in her eyes. "They... they were in the explosion." Then she broke down in tears, clutching her older sister. Ran looked around, and saw one lifepod with room remaining. Leaping over the crowd, he shoved the two girls inside. "Get out of here, you two!" He reached in, and pushed the ejection button, and slammed the pod's door shut. "NO!" screamed Annwyn. "RAN!" As the pod launched, no one noticed his hand clutched tightly around one of the pod's maneuvering fins. ****************** The fourth planet of the system the starliner was visiting was a wild one, still under quarantine by the Confederation's Exploratory Committee. Wild creatures that fell into no known classification dwelt there, with toxins that changed the very genetic structure of the victims. Unfortunately, this was the world that the lifepod holding Annwyn and her sister came to rest on. The impact wasn't gentle, and the younger girl was badly hurt when she was thrown across the pod as her restraining harness snapped. Annwyn forced the pod's hatch open, and crawled outside. What she saw made her intensely happy, and intensely confused. There was Ran, apparently unconscious, holding on to one of the pod's fins. He was badly burned, and much of his clothing had burned away during re-entry, but he was still alive. In fact, as she watched, the burns started to fade, and he stirred. "Oh, ite." Seeing her, he opened his eyes wider. "Daijobu?" "Huh?" she asked, quite intelligently. "Um, sorry. Old Japanese," he said. He looked down at himself, and back at her, blushing under his burns. "Um, could you please get me one of the jumpsuits from the pod? Oh, and how's your sister?" Annwyn ducked down, also blushing, and tossed one of the suits out without looking. "She... she's hurt. I don't know how bad." A few minutes of rustling, and he popped his head over the edge of the pod's door. "Let me see her. I picked up a few things over the years." He dropped down next to her, and began to pass his hands over the young girl. Her next question had been bugging her since she had seen him outside. "H-how did you survive?" "Hm? Oh. I just grabbed on to the pod, and rode it down." Now, his hands began glowing, brightly enough for her to not only see, but even feel. Something deep within Annwyn echoed with that glow, and she began opening and closing her hands. "But... but we were in deep space for forty minutes! And we also went through re-entry! Nothing alive could survive that!" she protested. "Wrong. I think the words you're lookin' for are 'nothing mortal' could survive that. Obviously, I did, and I'm alive." His hands stopped glowing, and the echo in Annwyn's soul stopped, as well. "Well, she doesn't have any broken bones. Mostly, it's a concussion, and some strained back and neck muscles. Go ahead and climb out, I'll be bringing her out in a second. Mutely, she did as he asked, and he lightly hopped out of the pod to the ground beside her very soon after. "Alright, Annwyn, let's go. We have to find a cave or something for shelter, especially for..." "Kelly," she muttered. "Yes, Kelly, here." He looked around, and pointed uphill. "There seems to be some sort of animal trail, here, so it might lead to either water, or a den, of some sort. Oh, by the way, I hit the emergency beacon. There should be a survey ship here in a week or so, even with the quarantine." "Good. I'm still confused, and I'm tired, and I... I think I'm still in shock, somewhat, over my parents, but at least we'll be safe. I think." They began trudging, and the alien foliage seemed to almost close behind them. ****************** The trail they had chosen split four times, but they eventually found an abandoned den of some sort, large enough for them all. A freshwater stream ran nearby, and Ran verified that certain fruits hanging near the cave were, in fact, safe to eat. That night, they settled down, using piles of leaves as blankets. "Ran?" asked Annwyn. "Yeah?" "How did you survive all that?" He rolled over, and settled deeper in his pile of leaves. "Don't ask me that. It's too complex to explain right now. Go ahead, and get some sleep. We've got to be well rested, so we can take care of Kelly." The young woman settled into her leaf bed, but couldn't sleep. 'What is he?' she wondered. 'He can't be human. Not with his strength, and grace, and those eyes... gotta stop thinking about that. How did he survive? Deep space, re- entry, either one should have killed him. And then there was that energy blast, and the way his hands glowed when he was checking to make sure Kelly was okay...' Her thoughts drifted away from that subject, and into dreams, dreams of riding a horse of Old Earth, as it rode through space and time until the end of eternity, with a man with a black braid and blue eyes beside her all the while. The next morning, Ran left the cave, to go look for more food, saying that the fruits would only fill them up, and not give them any sort of nutrition. Annwyn nodded, and rearranged the leaf blanket that protected her sister. The younger girl was still unconscious, but had settled into a relatively normal sleep. "Oh, Kelly, what are we gonna do?" she said aloud. "I'm glad Ran is here, so we'll survive, but what about Mom and Dad? You told me they died, so what'll we do when we get back home?" "Y...you'll... survive..." came a shaky voice from the mouth of the cave, from a form that quickly collapsed onto the rough stone floor. "Ran!" she screamed, rushing up to him. Beside him lay the pile of fruit he had been gathering, and sweat was rapidly pooling underneath his prone form. Frightened, she rolled him over, and saw his face twisted in agony. "Oh, God, Ran!" She dragged him over to his own leaf pile, and frantically piled the leaves over him to try to break him out of shock. "N..no, don't... worry. Poison... will be alright soon..." he muttered weakly. Annwyn ignored him, and continued her ministrations. Inside, her heart raced with terror, but she couldn't let it show. Not for Kelly, and not for Ran. ****************** Just over a day later, Kelly finally woke up. "S...sister?" she asked, weakly. "Shhh, yes, it's me. No, lay back down, conserve your strength," replied the older girl. The younger girl glanced over at the writhing form near her. "Wh-who's that?" Annwyn spared Ran a worried glance. "That's the young man who saved our lives. And the lives of a lot of people on board the starliner." Kelly frowned. "He don't look so good. Whass wrong?" "I don't know." The young woman bit her lip. "He said something about poison before I got him in the pile of leaves, so I think he got bitten by something." "Oh. I'm sorry." Kelly began to close her eyes again, then half opened them. "Sis?" "Yeah?" "Y'need ta get some sleep. Y'look like hell." With that, the girl fell back asleep. Annwyn dug herself into her pile of leaves, her eyes never leaving Ran's recumbent form. "Yeah, right. Like I can, right now." ****************** Once again, dreams assaulted Annwyn. This time, however, she was with Ran in a chamber with a cool, flagstone floor. He was still racked by the spasms that tormented him in the waking world, but she was dressed in a fashion she didn't recognize. It was a yellow tunic of some kind, that folded one side over the other, with a black sash tied on her waist as a belt. Her feet were bare, and her legs were covered by yellow pants that ended just above her ankles. Ran, himself, was wearing a soft, slightly shiny red shirt, tied in the front by several wooden pegs, black pants, and black slippers. As she glanced around the chamber, she saw an entrance. She started to stand, when a soft glow filled the archway of that entrance. From the glow, an ephemeral, almost human shape flowed forth, towards the center of the chamber. "Wh...who are you?" she asked. The form turned to face her. "That question doesn't matter anymore. If you mean, 'who were you', then that would have meaning." It then settled down, as if kneeling, beside the prone from of Ran. "Alright," she growled, "who were you?" "Ah." It sighed. "I once was a god. A member of the Celestial Bureaucracy of a nation called China." "A god. Riiiight..." she began. A burst of brilliant light interrupted her, however, and she realized the light had come from where the eyes of the form would be. "I was a god. Do not doubt, or you may condemn him forever." The form reached down, and placed a diaphanous hand on Ran's brow. "I was a trickster, one who had gone too far. Shang Ti, King of the Celestial Bureaucracy, condemned me to eternal pain, with a further condition that I should grant a single wish of any who came to me. "At the time, and for fifteen hundred years after, the one who rests before me had a curse. It is unnecessary to explain the curse, but it was the greatest source of anguish in his life. When he found my cave, and heard my tale, he chose not to remove his curse." "Why?" interrupted Annwyn. "He chose, instead, to take upon himself my immortality. In so doing, he cursed himself further, but allowed me to die, and finally escape the punishment of Shang Ti. I had learned my lesson, after all." "Oh? How is immortality a curse?" she asked. "Imagine outliving your husband. Now, imagine outliving your son. And his son. And his sons. Imagine outliving your entire race, eventually. That is the curse of a mortal granted immortality." The form stood and faced her. "In addition, he had your love, and he would be condemned to outlive you my generations." "Me? But I only met him a couple o' days ago!" she protested. The form laughed, a gentle laugh. "I do not refer to Annwyn Taldea, but to an old incarnation, one whose garments you wear right now. I refer to Tendo Akane." At the mention of the name, memories started to slowly filter in to her mind. Shoving them aside for now, she asked, "Well, if he's immortal, why can't he just shrug off that poison, the way he did re-entry and explosive decompression?" "Alas, the poison is no normal toxin. It changes his very genetic structure into a form incapable of supporting life. He finds his immortal life force trapping his essence forever within a form incapable of sustaining that life, trapping him in an agony as great as my own was." Annwyn remembered an incident where Ranma had threatened to kill a skater named... Sanzenin?... for kissing him in his cursed form. She then remembered the incident with Saffron, where he had called out to her very soul, returning her to life with his love, a love the continued to deny for three more months. And she remembered him returning from his last attempt to cure his curse, and folding his arms around her... then the memory of that last, horrible fraction of a second... "Tell me how to take his immortality from him!" she demanded. "Ah. You have solved the riddle. Simply take his hand, and open your eyes." The form turned away from them, and drifted back to the archway. "Someday, Tendo Akane. Someday." ****************** Just less than a week later, a Confederation Exploratory vessel set down less than a quarter mile from their little cave. Kelly was much better, though considerably sore, and Annwyn, herself, had come to terms with what had happened. As they passed a low mound of freshly turned earth, she whispered, "Don't worry, Ranma. You waited three thousand years for me. Now, it's my turn to wait."