Authors’ quick notes! Sorry about the long wait for an update to those of you who actually read my fics, but things have been hectic in these final exams! Anyway on to the usual stuff.

Standard disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma1/2 or Neon genesis evangelion, they belong to their respective creators!

Ranma was relieved that the previous night dinner had been not only edible but good. Apparently

Shori had not inherited Akane’s skills in the kitchen.

Seeing the sun already shining through the curtain, Ranma decided it was time to get up.

He gently freed himself from Ranko’s embrace, careful not to disturb her.

Getting up and putting on his traditional red shirt and black pants,

Ranma silently made his way out of the room and towards the bathroom.

Out of habit Ranma did not notice the occupied sign, so after undressing was shocked when he bumped into a naked Shori leaving the room, water still dripping of her delicate features

"EKKKK", was all he cried before bolting out of the bathroom grabbing his

clothes on the way out.

Shori had been leaving the bathroom, having had a good soak but upon entering the changing room she was shocked to see a naked Ranma walk into her, scream and run out the room in a blink. She could not help but notice that he had a very attractive muscular figure. *I can see what mom saw in this guy if this is really that Ranma* she thought.

Ranma still in shock waited outside the bathroom for Shori, he wanted to apologise

*Don’t want her thinking I’m some sort of pervert* remembering back to his first encounter with Akane even though the tables were reversed.

A moment later Shori exited the bathroom dressed in jeans and a shirt.

"Shori?", He said to get her attention

"Yes..".

"I’m really sorry about walking in on you, I didn’t see the occupied sign I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind", Ranma apologised still blushing, he stared at the ground.

"It’s ok Ranma it’s understandable", Shori replied with a smile on her face then turned and walked downstairs.

"Y..eah I guess", Ranma said surprised, he had expected to be flying over Tokyo-3 by now.

Ranma quickly entered the bathroom still embarrassed by the event.

Breakfast went quite normally, Akane noted that Ranma and Ranko now ate at a reasonable pace no

longer duelling each other for food like she had remembered. She still had a hard time believing the

boy and girl in front of her were her friends from nearly twenty years ago.

"So Ranma what you going to do today?", Akane asked.

"mmmrrggmm......", was all Akane heard.

"We’re going to school Akane", Ranko answered helpfully.

Akane noted that Ranma had finished his meal and was sulking,

"Why are you going to school, according to you, your around thirty", Shori said questioningly

"Well I decided that since we’ve been out of touch with most of the world for the past fifteen years,

things might have changed so what better place to learn about the world than school", the redhead

answered

"What about you Ranma?", Akane asked knowing that somehow this was not to Ranma’s favour.

"He lost a bet, so he has to come along", Ranko said grinning madly at Ranma’s sulking back.

"I want a rematch how was I suppose to know that our match was going to destroy someone’s’ garden", Ranma said.

"Stop being such a sore loser Ranma", Akane teased.

"If you guys want to go to school you can go to the local one I’m attending", Shori said helpfully

amused by the pairs talk.

Before Ranma could argue, Shori was already leaving Ranko following close behind dragging

a reluctant Ranma by his pigtail out the door.

"See ya later Akane" ,Ranma called out before he disappeared round the corner.

Akane smiled, she was glad Ranma had returned if only for a short while, his presence brought

back memories of happier times.

-----------

Gendo walked into the control bridge of NERV, the room was empty besides Maya who was

working behind her console, he was still shaken up by yesterdays events.

"Maya I want you to go over the recordings of the yesterdays battle, specifically the time before the

angel was destroyed".

"Sir I’ve already gone over it and found nothing", the operator replied confused by the order.

"I want you to focus on a particular area about 100 feet to the right of the angel about 40 to 50 feet above the air" The commander replied ignoring what the woman had said.

Remembering what Rei had told him about where the beam seemed to originate from.

"you are to report to me immediately on any findings", he ordered

"Alright sir", she replied and began to pull up the recordings of the battle.

Gendo left without a word after that, still wondering how this anomaly would effect the human

complement project.

-------------

Ranma, Ranko and Shori arrived at school.

He noted the school looked familiar to Furiken High, although slightly more modern looking but

seemed more run down.

Shori went to her respective class after directing the pair to the registration office.

"Class we have two new students today", the teacher spoke indicating to Ranma and Ranko

who stood at the front of the class.

Both Ranma and Ranko noticed that most of the student body of the class were around 14-15 years.

The pair made their introductions to the class, murmurs such as ‘Oh he’s cute’ ‘Wow I wonder if she’s

got a boyfriend’ and ‘they look a bit old’ were circulating around the class.

After a moment the teacher told the pair to take a seat.

Ranma seeing that there were some empty spaces by the window, gestured for Ranko to follow him.

He noted that the only person who had not taken any notice of their arrival was a blue hair albino girl, who happened to be siting in the area they were heading.

"Hi", He said as he walked passed her to take his seat.

The girl merely turned toward him and stared for a moment than nodded slightly in acknowledgement to his gesture.

Ranma immediately felt something wrong about the girl, over the years he could sense a person’s intend and emotions by just feeling their aura. The girl he had just spoken to seemed to have a

very calm aura exhibiting nearly no emotions at all.

"psss Ranma what’s up with you and that girl", the redhead asked.

"Why’re you jealous", Ranma teased back.

"hmmmppppp baka", was all she murmured.

"If you really want to know mind-speak with me during class", He whispered back. referring back to a spell they had developed years ago that allowed them to remain in contact even over large distances.

Rei had overheard him and thought to herself *Mind-speaking what does he mean*

Across the room Asuka was angry, a new boy had just entered the class room the fact that he was good looking made it even better. What really annoyed her was how he completely ignored her,

her the most popular and beautiful girl in the school. *Hmmppp he’s probably blind and stupid*

During lunchtime Ranma and Ranko decided to find a place to eat their lunches. Seeing a tree in the

yard brought back memories of his favourite spot in school. They ate their sandwiches in silence at

first.

"So Ranko what’s your opinion on that blue hair girl?".

"Well it’s like you said she hides her emotions pretty well".

"It’s strange though".

"How’s that?". the redhead asked back curiously

"Well I mean in a place like this which is always under siege you’d expect some sort of reaction".

Shori approached the pair,

"So who were you talking about just now?".

"Just some blue hair girl that seemed kinda out of it", Ranko answered.

"Oh her that’s Rei, she’s always been like that".

"why?". Ranma asked curiously.

"I don’t know it’s probably because she pilots those Evas". Shori said

"You mean it was her piloting one of those giant robots we saw yesterday!!". he said surprised.

Remembering to the previous nights conversation with Akane where she explained about the Angels and the ‘giant robots’ called Evas.

"Yeah apparently only certain people can do it".

"that must be tough on her practically having the fate of the world in her hands". Ranko commented.

"Yeah....". Was all Ranma said although he did not really believe that to be the reason.

As school was coming to an end, Ranma saw Shori and Ranko already leaving the school gate through the second story window, he ran to catch up with them.

He ran through the corridors slamming doors open as he passed them, he had resisted the urge to

merely jump from the second floor as it would attract unwanted attention to him.

At that moment Shinji and Touji were walking in the opposite direction to Ranma, as Touji was

about to open the door. It was slammed in his face knocking him to the ground.

Ranma immediately stopped when he saw what he had done, running back to the boy who was

now sitting on the floor clutching his jaw, with another boy leaning over him.

"Umm Sorry about that I was kinda in a hurry", Ranma apologised offering his hand to help the boy up.

Shinji knowing the temper of his friend and seeing that it was the new student apologising,

quickly wanted to get the boy away from Touji.

"That’s alright really you’d better go now" he said.

"Are you sure he looks in pain". Ranma said edging closer to Touji.

"Look really it’s alright". Thinking up a way to prevent Touji from beating up the new kid.

"ALL RIGHT WHO DID THAT?", Touji shouted jumping up while clutching his nose.

"Um I did, are you ok?", Ranma asked, noticing the other boy was backing away from them.

"No I ain’t but neither will you be in a minute", He shouted throwing a punch at Ranma’s

head expecting it to connect.

Instead he found his attacking arm caught in a vice like grip, struggle as he might he could not get free.

"Look I’m sorry but as I was saying to your friend I’m in rush", Ranma tried to explain not wanting to fight the youth.

"So what!! I’m gonna beat the crap out of you", was all Touji said before he attacked with his free

arm.

To his surprise he found himself unable to move that arm.

"Look I sorry that’s all I can say, but if you want to fight it out I fine with that", Ranma said casually,

he didn’t like the boy’s attitude he was similar in many ways to Kuno, believing himself to be better

than everyone else.

"What the hell!!", Touji was saying as he found his free arm to be limp.

Ranma pushed him gently, Touji was sent flying into the wall crumpling on the floor.

"If you really want a fight than that’s fine with me but I would think twice about that if I were you"

Ranma said dangerously, he hoped that by showing the boy that he was not better than everybody

he would change his attitude.

Touji stared up at the boy, amazed by how easily he had been defeated.

Shiniji likewise was surprised by this as he rushed to his friends side, he had thought like everyone

else that Touji was the best fighter in the whole school, even though the boy looked a bit older that had never stopped Touji before as he had fought and won against boys several years older than him.

Ranma turned to leave the pair but not before quickly jabbing some pressure points on Touji arms

allowing for him to move it again.

"Wha...t???!!!", was all Touji could murmur.

Ranma walked home that evening feeling slightly unnerved, he felt as if things were about to change, change for the worse. He disregarded this feeling as a side effect from having met that boy at school,

even though all the way home the feeling was there in the back of his head.

----------------

Ritsuko walked up to the door of Gendo’s office and knocked, when she received permission to enter she opened the door and entered. the commander was sat behind his table hands clasped together looking directly at her.

"What is it Ritsuko?", the man asked without any trace of emotion.

The woman walked up to his desk placing a file before him,

"Here is the data you requested on to point of origin of the beam".

Gendo waited for her to continue as if there was nothing of relevance she would not have bothered to

hand him the report personally.

She opened the file and pulled out a photograph, on it show a sketchy image of a boy hands clasped in front of him and the golden yellow beam of energy seemed to be coming from his hands.

"What is this?", he asked very surprised by what had been represented to him.

"We don’t know but that is from the recording of the battle", she stated

"Who is he?", *or what is he?* Gendo thought.

"Well we think he’s around under 20 years old, that being the case we’ve started pulling up records pre-second impact. As you know records are sketchily so we won’t get a result for a few days, I’m having some people see if they can clear up the image".

"Very well continue with your work and keep me informed of your progress", He stated.

Ritsuko taking this as a dismissal left the room, still not believing that a apparent human let alone a child could have could produce such a huge amount of energy and still remain hidden from them. More energy than that which powered the whole of Tokyo-3 and perhaps Japan.

-----------

A week had passed with only one more angel attack occurring, in which Ranma had reluctantly not helped as by the time he had arrived the angel had self-destructed,

Ranma was busy trying to stay awake during class. He had only managed to not be thrown out of the class as Ranko had mind-spoke to him all the answers when the teacher questioned him.

Suddenly the sounds of three mobile phones went of simultaneously. The three Eva pilots answered

their phones and were immediately excused from class, leaving in a hurry. By now Ranma had learned about the three Eva pilots who were in their class, he was surprised that the boy he had

seen the other day was indeed one of those who had the fate of the world in their hands.

As he had not looked like a soldier but than again neither had the two other girls.

The teacher gestured for the rest of the students in the class to be evacuated to nearby shelters.

Ranma and Ranko followed the crowd not knowing what was happening, they met up with

Shori moments later.

"Hey hurry up", she said to them

"Why? what’s happening?", the redhead asked

"It’s another angel attack so hurry up", the Tendo girl answered, while increasing her pace.

"You mean another one of those giant monsters is going to attack?", Ranma asked.

"YES now move", She tried to pull them but could not budge them.

"You go on ahead Shori we’ll meet you there", Ranko said giving the girl a reassuring look.

"Umm.. ok but don’t wait to long", She replied noting the look in the pair’s face, it would be

pointless to argue.

She hurried off towards a shelter.

"Ranko please go with her", Ranma said concern evident in his voice.

"Uh uh you left me on that building the first time this time I’m coming with you" Giving him her

hardest most intense stare of determination.

".......alright but remember.....".

"yeah yeah watch out", she replied in a bored tone.

"C’mom Ranko you know what I mean, if anything were to happen to you....", he allowed the sentence

to trail off.

"Geeze don’t worry Ranma I ain’t leaving you", she said as she hugged him.

The pair ran outside, immediately Ranko concentrated attempting to sense the location of their

enemy.

"there", she said pointing towards the outskirts of the city.

"Well lets go then", Ranma sprinted off with the redhead close behind.

--------------

"Location of the target?", Gendo asked

"We can’t seem to lock onto it’s location all we know is that it’s 6miles from the geofront and approaching slowly", Ritsuko answered.

"Recon craft cannot get a visual lock there’s too much smoke", Maya shouted out.

The main screen showed what appeared to look like a dust cloud, several times they could she a

shape begin to form but only to disappear again.

"It doesn’t matter launch all Evas", Gendo ordered.

"Sir are you sure we should launch Eva 1 it was badly damaged in the last Eva encounter, it’s only

operating at 50%", Misato commented.

"Safety in numbers, unit 1 can pick off the angel with long range weapons if necessary", The commander stated simply.

"but sir....", Misato tried to say

"Launch all Evas" Gendo stated letting her know that the argument was lost.

She signed giving up and prayed in her mind.

"Launching ‘all’ Evas".

-------------------

As soon as all the Evas were launched, all three headed for a weapons bunker grabbing a long range weapon and closing onto the target for better accuracy.

"All right guys just keep your distance and keep firing", Misato said over the radio to all three pilots.

"Yeah I could take this Eva all on my own without help from wonder girl and wimp here" ,

Asuka shouted back, while firing into the approaching dust cloud.

"Just calm down Asuka", Ritsuko said.

"yeah whatever", Asuka replied.

The three Evas fired into the cloud where the angel was supposedly at, although it seemed as if they were hitting their target the approaching cloud did not stop or slow down.

-------------------

"So where is it I can’t see it?", Ranma asked while hovering in the air above the moving dust cloud,

far enough above to avoid being caught in the Eva’s barrage.

"There", Ranko shouted pointing to what seemed like a giant in the smoke.

"All right your mine!" he shouted using the same move on this angel as he did on the first one he

encountered. As a yellow golden beam of pure energy shot from his hands towards the monster.

-------------------

All three pilots ceased firing as soon as they was the beam of energy appear.

"What the hell is that??", Asuka shouted over her radio as a beam of energy shot towards the dust cloud. As the Beam travelled through the cloud the dust seemed to clear away from the golden energy.

"Whoaaa", was all Shinji said.

Rei remained silent but noted that it was the exact same beam of energy as the one she had seen before, even the dragon was in the centre of it.

-----------------

"SIR MAGI’s reading another energy spike, just like before".

"So it has returned..", Gendo murmured

"It appears to have originated inside the cloud but above where we suspect the angel to be", Maya shouted

----------------

Ranma watched as his blast entered the dust cloud and impacted against the angel. He was

greeted with a loud scream of agony that made him wince and then silence.

Ranma turned towards Ranko,

"See nothing to worry about", she said smugly.

"Well I gotta say.........".

Before she could finish her sentence a spear like tentacle shot out from the cloud, intent on

impaling Ranma through the back.

"Whoaaa" ,Ranma said as he just barely dodged the attack, unfortunately as the tentacle was

passing him it went rigid and came down on his chest hard.

"RANMAAAAA", Ranko shouted as she saw her love attacked and fall to the ground.

"Urrrgggg", was all Ranma said as he hit the ground hard creating a crater several feet wide.

Ranko was by his side a moment later, they had landed near the foot of unit two.

"urrgh man that hurt", Ranma said sitting up, by now they noticed that both they the Evas were consumed within the cloud.

"Ranma are you ok?", Ranko asked extremely concerned.

"Give me a moment and I’ll be fine", he grasped

Ranko noted the stiffness in his sides so guessed that he had a few broken ribs.

"I’ll take care of that thing" she said in an angry tone, Ranma wanting to stop her but knew he would not be able to stop her said

".....be careful please".

"I will", she simply said before she flew upwards

-----------------

"Sir the Evas have stopped firing" , Misato shouted in shock.

"Is the angel dead?", Gendo asked

"Magi still confirms the angel is alive although it has stopped moving", Maya stated.

"It’s probably regenerating...", Misato said.

"Order units 00 through to 03 to continue firing", The man ordered

*obviously our helper had underestimated the angels*

In the background he heard Ritsuko call out the orders.

-------------

Asuka hearing the orders to fire and knowing the angel was not dead, told her Eva to pick up it’s rifle

it had dropped earlier in place of the now empty grenade launcher.

As her Eva went to pick up her gun, her viewer showed a familiar boy sitting near the right foot of her Eva, she could not clearly see his face due to the dust.

*Stupid idiot to get caught out here*, was the first thought that came to her mind,

*Probably from the media wanting to get some pictures of the battle*.

Knowing that this person had to be saved she ordered her Eva’s right had to grab the boy.

Rei and Shinji had already retrieved some weapons and were bombarding the area where they

suspected the Eva to be.

-------------

Ranma was concentrating on a healing spell, the angel had manage to surprise him and had a lot of

power behind that hit, which alone had cracked several of his ribs. He wanted to sit here and heal but

his worry for his fiancée got the better of him, he got up and began reciting the flying spell when at the last moment he felt something behind.

Acting on instinct he flipped out of the way landing and facing his opponent. Just before he was

about to attack the monster he noticed it was one of those robots which were suppose to be the good

guys.

"Oh damn", he said before he realised that he was no longer invisible.

*hope this smoke screen covered me*.

"Dimensional transport revised", he said before his body disappeared from view.

-----------------

Asuka was annoyed and surprised when the person she was trying to save suddenly leapt from her grasp at the last moment.

"baka I’m trying to save you", she shouted over the com

She was surprised even more when the boy whom she could not see clearly due to the cloud,

seemed to vanish from view. She did note that he had his black hair in a long pigtail.

*Wha....tt..!????*.

-----------------

Ranko flew up to face the angel, her anger intense to the point where the Eva’s barrage would

strike her invisible shield and do nothing except bounce off.

She got her first clear view of the creature that had harmed her fiancée, it had four horse-like legs.

the top half of it’s body was missing from where Ranma’s blast had hit it. She also saw that the

damaged parts of it’s body was regenerating.

"YOU HURT MY FIANCEE!!! ULTIMATE PHOENIX INFERNO ", Ranko shouted as a ring of fire

shot from her palms enlarging to surround the angel. Eventually engulfing it, the angel screamed in

pain this seemed to give Ranko some satisfaction. Then it suddenly stopped still for a moment,

and exploded.

-----------------

"What the hell is that", Shouted Ritsuko as the smoke had cleared to show an angel consumed in fire.

"Amazing", was all Gendo muttered, *now if only I can use this to my advantage*.

"The heat readings on that are 30,000 degrees sir, yet the area surrounding the angel remains unchanged!!", Misato shouted.

"Energy build-up detected from the angel", Maya said as everyone noted that the angel had ceased

struggling.

"Get the Evas out of there", Gendo ordered knowing the Angel would self destruct and damage the Evas if they were caught in the blast.

------------------

"Wow", Shinji said to no one in particular.

"What IS that?", Asuka asked fascinated like everyone else.

Even though Rei was fascinated by this attack, she was busy scanning the area for anomalies that might indicate the source of the attacks.

"Evacuate the area the angel is going to self-destruct" Ritsuko called over the radio.

The three pilots turned in unison and began to quickly make their way away from the now stationary

angel, knowing the damage that could be done to them if they were caught in the blast.

----------------

Ranko was hovering a short distance away from the angel,

*what’s it doing?*.

She felt a hand grab hers, already knowing who it was she turned around.

Her anger left her almost instantly when she gazed into Ranma’s crystal blue eyes.

"C’mon Ranko let’s get out of here".

He said as he started to pull her away from the angel that was still surrounded by the magical

fire.

He suddenly tensed up, sensing the build-up of energy within the angel.

"Uhoh we’d better get out of here now".

"I think your right", Ranko replied only now sensing the energy building up as she had calmed down and her anger no longer getting the better of her.

Holding each others hands they attempted to fly away as quickly as possible from the angel,

Ranko saw Ranma struggling to keep up their pace, *he’s still injured*.

Before they could get any further the angel exploded in a blinding burst of light, sending shockwaves

towards them which carried them away.

-----------------

By the time the angel had exploded all the Evas were safely underground, all three pilots

rushed to the silent bridge of NERV. Asuka was still thinking about the boy she had seen by her

Unit 02 foot during their angel encounter.

*Hmm serves him right if he does get killed*, she thought as the angel exploded.

Causing the command room to shudder slightly.

As soon as the angel was gone, the room erupted in chaos.

"Where did that blast originate from?", Gendo called out to anyone in general.

"it was above and in front of the angel this time", called out Maya

"the reading on this blast show it was at least twice as powerful as the one before", Called out a

shocked Misato.

"Sir during the battle MAGI detected a human life reading for a short period of time nearby the angel".

This seemed to silence everyone in the room.

"What do you mean human? nobody was out there before the angel was there", Misato asked.

"Well MAGI registered the human for about a minute before it disappeared from out sensors again",

Maya replied with surprise in her voice.

"Do we have a visual on the human?", Gendo asked calmly although it was evident he was as

unnerved as everyone else in the room.

"Negative the cloud was too thick as well and the angel seemed to somehow jam many of our sensors.",

"I saw something....", Asuka deciding to speak up.

Everyone turned towards her waiting for her to continue.

"I only was the back of him".

"Him? are you sure it wasn’t just images from the dust being shifted around", Ritsuko asked

"Yes but not much else the rest is in the recorders of Unit 02 if you don’t believe me", she said with

anger at being questioned for her sanity.

"Misato review the flight recorder of all the Eva units", Gendo ordered

"I’ll get on it straight away!", she answered eagerly leaving the room, hoping to find the answer to this puzzle.

"Now tell me Asuka what exactly you saw", Gendo ordered.

Asuka told them about how she had seen a boy sitting on the ground near her Eva and how she had

attempted to grabbed him, and how he had suddenly disappeared.

"So our saviour has the ability to conceal himself", he said quietly *could he be working for SEELE*

he asked himself.

"Sir I find it hard to believe that someone could vanish off our scopes", Misato stated disbelieving, after all NERV was practically state of the art in terms of technology.

"This has happened TWICE already", Maya said.

The three pilots were told to leave the room all three were puzzled by what had happened.

------------------

Ranma and Ranko returned to the Tendo dojo, Ranma was slightly limping.

"I still think you should have done that Ranma", Ranko stated slightly angry, when they were

caught in the blast they were thrown to the ground at great speed Ranma had used his own body

to shield her from the impact.

"Yeah and let you get yourself killed", he stated seriously

"I can take care of myself Ranma, I’m not fragile", she stared at him hard.

Ranma knew the look, although she could indeed take care of herself he would always feel the

need to protect her even at his own life.

"Look...it’s just that I don’t want anything to happen to you..that’s all", he replied

"What about me you think I like seeing you get yourself killed over me?", She said pouting slightly.

"I can take care of myself", he replied defensively

"Yeah I can see that your real fine", she said sarcastically pointing to his limp.

"It’s nothing I can’t handle when we get back to the dojo".

"Ranma just promise me that you’ll be more careful in the future", She said stepping up to him and

kissing him.

"I don’t know what I would do without you..", she whispered.

"......All right I promise", he replied reluctantly giving her kiss in return.

Afterwards they hurried to the Tendo dojo.

(to be continued….)

C&C always welcome but flames will be ignored!