Ripples of a Chaotic Pebble

Chapter 1

oOo

Enough was enough, the pigtailed boy decided. There were WAAAY too many problems in his life. And they all stemmed from that one event. The spectacularly explosive failure of a wedding his idiotic father and equally-idiotic father-in-law-to-be had planned.

It was just soo... stupid! Why would they possibly try a wedding? He was still in high-school and so was Akane! It was just pointless! Not to mention that the various fiancées, their various suitors, and all the other random crap running around Nerima were still very much active. It was like trying to kill a cockroach in a TNT shed with a flamethrower and then being surprised at the boom.

Sitting on the roof of the Tendou dojo, Ranma wished it had never happened. Wished the whole damned fiasco had been averted somehow. Illumination came not in a flash of light, but the flitting of a pervert over the property wall.

Ranma grinned: The Nanban Mirror! A surge of excitement translated thought to action, propelling the blue-eyed youth over the edge of the roof and into Happosai's room. With the old pervert out, it was a snap to grab the cracked mirror from it's resting place in his dwelling, leaving Ranma to escape to small area behind the dojo itself with an onion.

He could fix everything. Ranma grinned at his brilliance as he rubbed the onion in his eye, allowing the teardrop to fall from the corner of one cheek and land with a splash on the cracked reflection staring back up at him.

It wasn't until time and space began to warp around him that Ranma had second thoughts about the plan. It wasn't until he remembered all the trouble he and his father had had getting back home last time that he realized that the "plan" wasn't a plan at all but really was just another impetuous, foolish decision in a long string of many.

Then, staring up at the Earth, he knew he really needed to give that whole "stop and think" thing a real shot. He assumed he was on the Moon, based on the gray craters which extended as far as the eye could see. He dropped the onion with a dull thump, only realizing then that based on the fact he was standing in the middle of a well-tended garden, breathing, he was truly somewhere beyond weird.

"Oh crap," Ranma groaned, knowing that the words were vastly inadequate... and now wishing simply that his stupid brain had kept it's thoughts to itself.

oOo

Princess Serenity knew that to describe her mood as "agitated" would be a bit of a fib. She was downright furious. Her mother's rapidly waning health meant that the pressure to lead fell to her more and more often. That, combined with the dubious attention of various suitors, meant she had little time to spend with the few friends she had among the other nobility. She was only sixteen! It just wasn't fair!

She fumed as she paced through the gardens, beginning to list the litany of problems as she headed for the Cverlook, a spectacular view of the untouched lunar surface. There were youma problems, all of which were supposedly linked to the Earth and Beryl, but the links weren't yet proven... leaving the red-haired princess to smirk behind her sleeves. Then there were the rumors of border troubles out beyond the reaches of Pluto. Then there was the grumblings of the citizens about the first and second problems.

She huffed as she noticed the boy staring out blankly over HER Overlook. Great, just what she needed. On top of all her other problems, now some common citizen, judging by his clothes and hair, had managed to sneak into one of the most secure sections of the palace. Her anger boiled right over the curiosity of the cracked mirror in his hand and the onion at his feet.

The princess snapped open the personal communicator a second after manifesting it, hitting one of the buttons on it and waiting with growing impatience. She spoke before the man on the other end had time to articulate a greeting.

"I would love an explanation about why one of the supposedly clear sectors of the palace has some yokel running around in it," the princess said icily, ignoring the sputtering man on the other end. "I don't care what excuse you think is good enough, just get a security detail to the Outlook immediately."

The angry princess then stomped across the grass with a determined growl, pushing her long, unbound hair back over her shoulders. Her anger faded to momentary shock as the boy turned with a growl, his body glowing with a bright blue aura as he lunged at her. He'd covered half the distance of his lunge before she thought to coil her legs and leap.

Three quarters of the way through his lunge, as she leveled her scepter at him from above and gathered enough mana to vaporize him and a good chunk of the ground behind him, she noticed that his focus hadn't followed her up, but instead remained on where she'd been.

No, not on where she'd been.

On the shadow youma which had been sneaking up on her. The surprise of the monarch-to-be only increased when the creature was dispatched with one blow of the plainly-clad youth's fist. As she landed from her leap, she noted that his surprise matched her own. And he really did have the most amazing blue eyes.

oOo

Ranma blinked. Then blinked again. He tried it a third time. Yet no matter how much he blinked, it didn't change the fact his foe had just poofed into a spray of golden powder with a single attack. It didn't even make sense! He hadn't hit the thing that hard... on a scale of one to even-P-chan-would-feel-it he'd have only put the strike at a four or five at best.

Then he forgot all about it as a girl dropped down right in front of him, landing with a poise which went beyond merely graceful. He'd know, after all. He'd fought in a gown and high heels before, and even he'd been hard-pressed to do so successfully. This girl managed to make it look like the most natural thing in the world.

Though that was the only natural-looking thing about her. For one thing, the white dress she wore seemed ethereal, as if it didn't belong in this world. It was really long, yet somehow it had managed to stay perfectly positioned throughout a standing vertical leap. The staff held in one deceptively slender hand also pulsed in Ranma's senses in a way that only a couple of magical items he'd ever seen had in the past. Then there was the hair. Impossible long, it was also the brightest silver he'd ever seen, bordering on platinum, and fell in place behind her without seeming to tangle in the least.

Then there was the golden moon glowing on her forehead. That rated right up there on Ranma's list of things that he was finding unnatural about this chick.

It was about the time that Ranma realized he still held his battle aura coursing over his skin that a dozen men and women with armor and swords, also pulsing with magical energy, arrived in a rush. They didn't look happy.

Ranma looked across to where the girl he'd just saved still held her magic in thrall. Normally not a quick thinker, Ranma's survival instincts screamed for him to move and he listened. Razor sharp beams of projected energy followed Ranma as he backflipped away from his attackers, seeking to put some distance between himself and his new foes. He landed, springing back once more.

"Hey, wait a minute! You're making a mistaaaaUUGH!" Ranma, normally not the most eloquent of individuals, found what little coherency he possessed abandoning him as his second round of dodging carried him over the edge of the cliff. His last vision before he turned his gaze to the approaching ground was worried silver eyes framed by silver hair watching him fall below the grassy edge.

oOo

Princess Serenity didn't bother to stifle her groan as she watched her savior fall. No doubt he'd survive the fall. Anyone capable of taking out a shadow youma in one shot certainly should have the endurance to survive a short fall like that. No, her worry was finding the boy again.

He'd intrigued her. He'd intrigued her very much.

"Princess Serenity? Did the intruder injure you?"

Serenity turned to face the squad leader of the security detail, fighting down her momentary anger at the interruption. Whatever might have rapidly developed, she'd reported an intruder on the grounds. This team of dedicated men and women had arrived in response to that report to find both her and the intruder facing one another in combat stances and their Princess primed with magical energy.

Their response was only natural.

"It's not what it appears, Captain," Serenity finally said, willing her scepter to fade. She walked to the edge of the cliff, but could see no sign of the young man. She pointed down. "Find that young man at all costs and bring him to me. He's to be treated as an honoured guest."

"Princess?" The captain asked, confused.

"He saved my life in the two minutes between my call and your arrival," Serenity explained with a shrug. She turned and walked away from the edge. "The least I can do is apologize for my people sending him over a cliff."

The captain froze, then wisely decided that there was nothing he could say in response.

oOo

Ranma closed his eyes as the ground rapidly approached. This was going to suck. He flinched, instinctly tucking his body to perhaps roll with the massive crunch. After a second or two, when he realized he wasn't in massive pain, he dared to open his eyes.

He was standing in a busy marketplace. Still on the Moon, if the Earth hanging high in the sky was any indication... but no longer falling and no longer being pursued. He raised the Nanban mirror, still held in one hand, to gaze at it in wonder.

Someone then tackled the pigtailed young man from behind, and Ranma could only watch in mute horror was the mirror slipped from his hands, tumbling through the air. He reached out as if the act could call the object back.

Instead, his only way home landed face down on the cobblestones and shattered.

oOo

Author's Notes:

Okay, perhaps a bit of a quick explanation here. Yes, I've currently got not one, not two, but three stories currently on the go... and here I am starting a fourth. I suppose to ask "What the heck are you thinking?" is a polite way of phrasing things.

Problem was, whenever I got a new idea I'd write out an outline so I could get back to it at some point and then try to turn my focus back to LH&R A Duet of Fists, or An Unforeseen Consequence. What it meant was I'd finish the outline, then stare at the open file for one of those three stories (sometimes all three!) and not get any writing done whatsoever.

At this point, two of my three stories have been inactive for months now, which has not done wonders for my output and the other is not in much better shape. I figure a new story is better than no story, for now.

So you get a Sailor Moon crossover. Funnily enough, I've never actually read much Sailor Moon. The extent of my watching it heralds back to the old YTV dubs they showed back before it was cool to do things like pay attention to the original story or character names. However strangely enough, some of the most enjoyable Ranma fanfiction I've read have been crosses with the series, so I thought I'd give one a go. We'll see how that part works out.

As you can obviously tell, I also decided to make this a time traveling story. Now, rather than worry about the paradoxes I'm going to be creating, I did my best to iron out the "Temporal Laws" for Ranma and Setsuna and did my best to work within those constraints. While I'm sure the most astute readers out there will no-doubt find a minor inconsistency or two, I should be able to avoid making any terribly blatant plot holes. Though for those wondering, no, I'm not chucking aside the rest of the Nerima cast for the SM cast. Everybody has their place in this tale.

-Gaming Ikari