Twins of Flame

Slayers and respective properties are possessions of H.
Kanzaka and R. Araizumi. Ranma 1/2 and respective properties
are possessions of R. Takahashi. The Frankenputer is mine. I
built it.

Prelude: What is Past is Prologue...


	The moon was high in the sky, illuminating the field about
the two adventurers. One of them is Gourry Gabriev, the
Hikari No Kenshin, who seemed to be just sitting near the
fire, polishing his armor. Not a thought seemed to intrude
those azure eyes as he whistled tunelessly, his hand working
over the metal.

	However, the other figure was curled up near the fire. She
was also the more infamous of the two. The Bandit Killer.
The Dragon Spooker. She Who Destroyed Shaburanigdo. A name
feared by men all over the world. But something was wrong.
Something was happening that nobody would have ever
suspected from the one of the most dangerous people in the
world.

	Lina Inverse, Enemy Of All Who Live, was crying.

	It was barely audible, but audible enough that, after a
full minute of trying to figure out exactly what that
strange sound was, Gourry could identify it. The warrior
looked over at Lina, concerned. "Lina? Lina, are you ok?"

	"Go away, Gourry." She whispered quietly, voice choked with
tears.

	Gourry ignored that and moved to her side. "Lina, what's
wrong?"

	Lina hesitantly looked up, her face streaked with tears.
"Nothing. Nothing you'd care about."

	Gourry cocked his head in confusion as Lina started to
mumble to herself. "Damn you, Luna.... why'd you take Lana
away?"

	The swordsman of Light looked at her. "Lana? Who's Lana?"

	Lina growled at her and rasped, "My twin sister. The one
Luna took from me." She says, before curling up, indulging
in her own misery.

	Gourry looked as concerned as he can, and asked, "How'd she
do that?"

----

	10 Years Before

	A six year old Lina Inverse walked into the laboratory,
followed by her somewhat shy sister, Lana. It was like
looking at mirror images of one another, the only
difference, perhaps being Lana's azure eyes differentiating
her from her sister's crimson ones. They knew they weren't
supposed to be there, but Lina was curious, and roped her
sister into joining her into a jaunt into Luna's laboratory.
All the magical trappings were neat, though she was
constantly frustrated by the spells she tried to learn. She
could maybe handle a healing spell if she were lucky, but
all the really neat spells the priestess would teach her
wouldn't work.

	The redeyed girl was curious, wanting to learn the magic,
but was becoming impatient and ready to drop the whole
thing. That is when she realized how much her older sister
knew. So after a long while of convincing her twin sibling
to come with her, she decided to confront Luna and ask her
to teach her.

	Said sorceress was busy performing some sort of ritual it
would seem, and seemed deep in concentration. So she had not
noticed her younger sisters enter the lab. Lana moved to
Lina's side and grabbed her shirt, saying, "Lina, we're not
supposed to be here... we're gonna get in trouble."

	Lina brushed off her sibling and yelled, "Luna!? Luna, when
are you gonna teach me magic?"

	This set off a violent chain of events. Luna's
concentration slipped at the piercing voice of her sister.
She turned, which caused her focus on the sphere of light
she was bringing into being to be disrupted. Said ball of
light was sent in the direction of her gaze, which skimmed
past the twins. It then proceeded to blaze past the two,
crashing into a rack of very rare chemicals and substances.
Some of those substances were violent explosive, which
shattered many of the jars. The contents of those jars
blending wildly. The combination of those mixtures and the
magic from both the sphere and the ambience of the room,
caused a massive detonation, blinding the occupants.

	While the two were blinded, however, the true catastrophe
occured, as a rip in reality was opened. It was a small rip
as they go, but large enough to consume things. And people.
Specifically one person.

	When the light dimmed so that everyone could see, Lina felt
a pain of loss tear through her as she realized, all that
was left of Lana inverse were a few scraps of charred cloth.

	Luna looked up dazedly, then her eyes widened and a gasp of
shock escaped her.

---

	"That's why I went into black magic. Luna said she wouldn't
bring my sister back. She sent my sister away, and woldn't
bring her back. So I began to learn, to try to make Luna
bring Lana back. I didn't realize until I was about twelve
that she meant that Lana was dead." Lina said in a listless
monotone.

	For once, Gourry hadn't fallen asleep during one of her
explanations. He was too horrified to say anything. "I'm
sorry, Lina. I didn't know."

	Lina looked up at the moon. "I wonder if she's out there
somewhere... watching over me."

	Gourry shrugged, not understanding what she means. Usually
dead means dead, right?

---

	Ranma Saotome slumped wearily into her futon, sighing a
little as the erzatz girl stared at the ceiling, water
dripping off her face. It had been three weeks since she had
arrived home from Jusendo, and things had remained the
status quo. Akane still didn't particularly care for her,
she was sure. One'd think she was almost relieved at the
destruction at the would be wedding. Her friends and foes
alike were still trying to marry her, kill her, or both.

	But to make it all worse, the emptiness in herself seemed
to grow. It had always been there, she began to realize. The
Art was able to conceal it for a while, but the events of
Jusendo and the sham wedding only brought it to the fore.
Her pride was falling away to the point where she could
barely even bring up the wherewithal to pull together a
Mouko Takabisha. Not that she would tell anybody that.

	She wasn't even sure if it mattered anymore. She wasn't
depressed. That she would have recognized easily enough. No,
she wasn't sure what it was. Except maybe an emptiness.
Something was missing. In retrospect, she realized that it
was this emptiness that drew her to Akane in the first
place. The offer to be a friend was, in a way, a method of
filling the hole within her. But the betrayal she felt at
Akane's fury turned it to ashes.

	Ranma sighed as she sat up, for a brief moment planning to
get some hot water to return her to her male form. Male
form... when did she start thinking of it like that? It was
always normal or natural form before. Or so she told
herself. But how natural was it? Between Genma's carping on
his masculinity, or Nodoka's pride in his 'manliness', his
manhood was becoming less and less appealing. A sudden,
disturbing thought occurred to her. Had it ever felt
appealing? Had it ever felt comfortable? Why was she so
eager to defend it? Because it was true, or because it was
expected of her? All the braggadocio and self-agrandizement
seemed as hollow to her as she felt. As she's always felt.

	Ranma's eyes became more haunted as the thoughts continued.
Her mind continued to wander back, looking over her past.
Even before her inadvertant jaunt into the Nyannichuan, she
had always felt empty. So it wasn't the curse, was it?
Right?