[Episode 243786] [Episode 243786]“You said she was dead.”
Church responded to Nabiki, “Tendo, it was a covert operation. We had no way to contact her.”
Ranma was impressed by the image of the woman speaking to her former bosses. Nabiki was all business. It had already been about twenty minutes and she wasn’t letting that issue drop. Every time they brought up something else, she quickly dealt with it and mentioned, once more, “You said she was dead.”
“Fine. We lied; we had an operation to keep under wraps,” Walker finally said.
“No, not fine. After I came in command of Antaeus you should have told me. Instead you continued to play games with me.”
“If you thought there was any chance of her being alive, what would you have done?”
That brought Nabiki up short; first for it being a question she couldn’t answer right away, second for it coming from Ranma and not Church or Walker. “I… I don’t know.”
“That’s why they didn’t tell you. In your place, I would have searched everywhere for someone as important to me as your sisters were to you, Nabiki.”
There was a painful silence as everyone digested that. One artificially preserved personality coming to terms with herself, one man respectfully keeping his silence, and two trying to maintain the temporary verbal truce while fighting their own consciences.
Of course, respect for others can only keep one silent for so long. “Just to let you all know, Antaeus has completed the scan of Akane. The results are troubling to say the least, but it confirms what I’ve learned about that stone in the last few hours.” Ranma moved to his chair and sat down, looking at the three monitors that displayed the faces of those he was talking to. “First, her genetic structure has been massively altered. The ship figures she has the genes of her original self, this artificial flesh, and about twenty different variations of hybridization to keep it from killing her.”
“So they didn’t simply graft this onto her?” Church inquired.
“No. They made it so it’s now a part of her. The original genetics are mostly just the nervous system, but the other sets are just as much part of her now as her eyes. If she cuts herself, it will grow back to how it looks now.” Ranma looked particularly disgusted with this. This wasn’t right. “The biggest changes are reproductive.”
“What do you mean?”
Ranma looked up, choking down the bile that threatened to come up as he continued to speak. “She makes those crystals and assemblers now."
______________
It was supposed to be a simple undercover mission.
Akane, looking about fifty but fully human, is on a helicopter as it is landing at an airfield.
It was supposed to be like a dozen others I had done before.
She steps off the chopper, looks back at the pilot, and gives a quick wave.
My team was to already be here. We knew each other’s faces and would meet in a week.
She runs to the nearby bunker to get out from the wash of the blades. Stepping inside, she turns to give a curt thanks to a guard.
They already had my team.
She is struck on the back of the head and all goes black.
I remember the pain.
A flash showing Akane screaming in agony.
Constant pain.
Another flash and Akane’s leg can be seen. It is cut open above the knee in a foot long gash. Something bright red and fleshy is nestled inside the wound.
They didn’t stop.
Another flash. Her chest cavity is cracked open as if an autopsy were being performed. Similar growths to the one on her leg have been placed over her lungs, heart, and various abdominal organs. She seems conscious, if not aware.
I wasn’t the only one, either.
A flash showing two more tables to her left with women on them as well with similar wounds but the growths are much larger, more enveloping.
I just wanted them to stop. I wanted to leave.
Akane is now floating in a tank, wires and tubes attached to her body. The other two women are in adjacent tanks as well. They are now unconscious.
I just wanted to get out. Dreamed that Ranma get me out.
Memories of her childhood flash, of the many times Ranma saved her from one peril or another.
But can he save me from what they made me?
Akane now sits against a wall of a strong room in the carrier similar to where the crystal is kept. She has her legs drawn up in the foetal position and she has her arms clutched around her knees.
I was Akane Tendo, but what am I now?
See other episodes by AMWOOD co
(Posted Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:05)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.