~**~

The boy himself, however, would not have liked it if he had known that his blue-haired Fey, as he sometimes privately called her, related him to wind. To him, the wind represented liveliness, freedom, curiosity, frivolity. True, he did have some measures of all of these qualities, but he also had other, unseen qualities. He was mildly responsibly, though he detested how mildly. He had always wanted to be a trust worthy, dependable kind of guy. However, he was his father’s son. And until he could completely rectify this grievance, he would play the shallow fool. For even as Akane Tendo was a hidden Fey, Ranma Soatome was not as he seemed. There were hidden, very well hidden, depths to the boy that were carefully, oh so carefully, hidden from his farther. If the old man had known, steps to shallowing these depths would have been taken. And Ranma would have been the fool he pretended to be. This could never be. For even though the father had partially fouled his son, the boy had a well earned protector. A being so powerful that Genma Soatome wouldn’t have even dared to dream of talking to it. Ranma knew, very deeply felt, that this protector was out there. And now was the time to find it.

~**~

Ranma traveled with his father in tow for two weeks. Though he always persisted in the same direction, he never knew quite why, and couldn’t answer his father on that account when he asked. However blind this journey was, however, Ranma refused to be persuaded by his father to stray from the invisible path which summoned him, eventually, to a towering rock face. Genma began to complain immediately.
"Look what you’ve done, boy! You’ve gotten us lost; led us to a mountain! You bring shame to your family! Walking and walking and never getting anywhere important is a shameful thing! To think of all the training you wasted by walking for so long! Look what you’ve done to us!" And so the tired, grumpy old man continued to berate his son, going around and around in his scolding, never pausing to take notice that his boy was scrutinizing the rock face, looking for something. When he paused to take a breath for his fifth battery of comments, his son broke in.
"Look, Pop! I found somethin’! C’mere!" Muttering all the way, Genma made his way over to Ranma. When he looked at what the boy pointed out, he gasped. There was a whole in the mountain! More than a whole, a doorway! So unused that it was covered in a curtain of silken webs. Not hesitating a moment after his father had seen the doorway, Ranma picked up a stick, pulled down all the webs, hurled the wed encrusted stick, and stepped into the unknown. Ranma experienced a slight tingling feeling as he stepped past the threshold, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Looking around, Ranma whistled in admiration. Though the doorway was covered in the webs of spiders long gone, the inside was shrouded in a mixture of light and darkness. Peering cautiously, Ranma felt the slight tugging at his feet that he had felt all during his travels. This time, he was pulled towards an observable point: a small side-cave, much smaller than the other adjoining caves that he had spied. Noticing for the first time his father’s absence, Ranma called over his shoulder,
"Yo, Pop! What’s takin’ so long?" Hearing no response, Ranma turned in a huff, ready to yell at his father for his more-that-apparent lack of manners, when he realized that his father had answered, but his response could not be heard. Gazing in wonder and shock, Ranma approached the tingling threshold, and watched in awe as his father banged and heaved himself at the invisible barrier.
"Can you hear me?" he asked calmly. His father’s mute terror was answer enough. Hesitantly, and fearful of the outcome, Ranma stretched his hand out to the door…and felt only an itchy tingle as his hand slid easily through it. Gasping in surprise, Genma stopped his pounding and Ranma withdrew his hand. Then an idea came to him. If he could enter this cave and his father could not…then maybe he could invite the old man in. Slowly and precisely Ranma reached his hand out to his father, grabbed him lightly by the shirt, and yanked him through the doorway. His father sailed past the translucent barrier and landed flatly on his face on the other side. He was up in a flash, eyes glowing with primordial fear, and he instantly, and loudly, demanded that his son take them both from this place at once, though not in so eloquent a way. Ranma sighed and ignored the demand, his focus now back on the small side cave that had attracted him before. Stepping up to it, he removed the hanging moss and saw, with not much shock, a round, bubble like coating over the door way. Quizzically, he stuck his hand through it, and followed suit with his entire body as his hand glided past. Looking back, he saw his father mimicking his movements, with no luck. As he prepared to assault this blockade, Ranma caught his eye, and whatever he saw there stopped him. Satisfied, Ranma continued forward. There, in the very back of the cave, was a minute waterfall. The waterfall seemed to be covering something, so Ranma stepped up to it. As he reached out, the water surged, making passage of even a hand a very bad idea. Annoyed, but not really bothered, Ranma did the only natural thing: he sent a mental nudge to the water with the though of Now, please. Hearing its master speak, the water meekly moved aside, revealing a large, untouched tablet. Hoisting the massive object up, Ranma thanked the water and walked away, pausing only then to ponder on why the water moved as it did. Surly…it didn’t…hear him? No, surly not. Having so resolved the oddity, Ranma walked swiftly out of the small cave, explained briefly to his father, leaving out the strange waterfall, what had happened, left the cave entirely, and made his way back to Nermia and the Tendo’s. All without letting go of the Tablet.

~**~

Now that he had carried the Tablet back to Nermia, Ranma didn’t know what to do with it. He obviously couldn’t read it, but neither could he just disregard it. The Tablet was an important part of something, that Ranma knew. But what? At that moment, Nabiki and Akane returned home. While the elder completely ignored the boy, the other smiled slightly at his homecoming. Ranma returned the smile half-heartedly and turned his attention back to Tablet. Huffing slightly at the boys apparent dismissal, Akane turned on her heal and marched up to her room to change. Noticing nothing, Ranma continued to pour over the piece of stone which hid its meaning so well. Half an hour later, Akane came back down stares and went to see what Ranma was doing. As she entered the room Ranma sighed miserably and turned away from the hunk of stone.
"I give up." He muttered as he rubbed his weary eyes. "That’s impossible to read!" Hearing his son’s remarks, Genma stood and said, rather self-righteously,
"Nothing’s impossible, boy! Admitting defeat is a sign of weakness and thus un-manly! Come on! It’s time to spar!" Ranma sighed again and stood up, saying,
"Oh, stuff it, old man. You’re not fooling anyone. You know as well as I do that reading that stone is impossible." Genma blinked twice and returned to his game after Soun hit him over the head with it. Ranma heard a gasp and turned to see Akane kneeling over the Tablet. Irritated at having Akane but into his business, again, Ranma walked brusquely over to her and demanded,
"What are you gasping about? It’s just a rock with a bunch of scribbles on it. Now go away. I was trying to figure out what it means." Akane didn’t move, just sat, immobile, staring at the rock. Suddenly, without moving her gaze from the Tablet, she addressed Ranma.
"Where did you get this?" she breathed. Ranma blinked.
"Where did I…? From a cave in the middle of nowhere. Why? What’s the matter with you?" Akane smiled softly at the Tablet and stroked it lightly. Finally, she thought, finally, I can be of use to him. Looking up at Ranma, her smile widened and she pointed at the Tablet.
"You got this in a cave?"
"Yea.."
"And you can’t read it?"
"No…" Her smile turned into a grin.
"What would you say if I told you that I had been taught by someone to read it?" Ranma gasped and fell on his knees so he could look at her on eye level.
"You can read this? You? Well, if you can read it, that means that the person who tough you must be even better than you! Who is he? Where is he? Can you get him today? Do you want me to go? What’s his name?"
Akane stared at him with wide eyes as Ranma continued gushing questions about where the guy was that could read the Tablet. An angry blush spread across Akane’s nose as she scowled at Ranma. "Humph"-ing at him, Akane turned away and crossed her arms over her chest. Stopping his barrage of questions, Ranma looked quizzically at Akane. Sighing, Ranma asked,
"There’s no such guy, is there? You really don’t know how to read this and so there isn’t any guy who can read this stuff?"
"Humph!" Ranma scowled at Akane and turned her towards him.
"Tell me! There is no guy, is there?"
"No, Ranma! There is no guy!"
"You made it up!"
"I never said that!"
"But you said there’s no such guy!"
"There isn’t!"
"Well, which is it! Did you make it up or is there a guy?!"
"Neither!"
"So you do know someone who can read it?"
"Yes!"
"But you said there is no guy!"
"Exactly!"
"Then who reads this stuff?!"
"I read that stuff!"
"You already said that! Who taught you!?"
"My mother taught me! She said I’d need to know how one day!"
"Oh…so you know what the Tablet says?"
"Yes!"
"Great! Tell me!"
"No!"
"Why not?!"
"Because I’m not good enough!"
"What?! You can’t translate?! And the person who taught you is…oh, that’s just great!"
"That’s not what I meant!"
"Then what’d you mean! Stop being confusing!"
"I’m not confusing!"
"Yes, you are!"
"No, I’m not!
"What did you mean!"
"I’m not good enough for you! I never am! Whenever I can help you, I’m too clumsy, or to dumb, or not pretty enough, or not good enough! I don’t want to help you, because if you mess up it’ll be my imperfections that caused it and if you succeed in this it’ll be your glory! I’ll be forgotten and alone as you revel in how damn good you are! Again!" Unshed tears shown like stars in Akane’s eyes and she tuned away from Ranma. The boy blinked at her outburst and wondered at how all this had come from one little misunderstanding. About to make just this comment, something happened to Ranma and he realized, for the first time, that it was not this small incident that caused the blue-hared Fey to hurt. It was a combination of many small, and some not-so-small, incidents. Almost every time Ranma had ever been malted, this was the reason. Akane was feeling alone, left out, forgotten. After his coming, Akane had gone to from being Nermia’s greatest martial artist to the fiancée. The uncute, clumsy, unwanted fiancée. Ranma sighed. And, for once, he said the right thing.
"I’m sorry, Akane. I didn’t mean that you weren’t good enough, I’ve just been trying to figure that stupid thing out for so long. The idea that you could do what I couldn’t was kinda irritating, ya know? I know I’m not perfect. Heck, you point that fact out daily! Anyway. I really am sorry that you feel left out. It’s not your fault that I’m a martial artist and it’s not your fault that I’m so unsure of what I really can and can’t do that I’m a jerk. I don’t mean to be this way. I just am. I haven’t had many…um…opportunities to be around people and so my social skills are…ah…lacking. Believe it or not, I’m a lot better now than I was. Maybe you can see where I’m coming from? Just a little?" Akane faced Ranma and smiled that smile.
"Thank you, Ranma. I know your doing your best. I-I’m sorry I blew this out of proportion. I’m just as unsure as you are, and I don’t know where I fit in anymore. So I’ll have to try harder, too. Anyway. If you think I’m good enough, I’ll try to read this. OK?" Ranma smiled.
"OK." After a short pause, Akane turned to the Tablet and began tracing the characters with one of her fingers.
"See this one?" she traced one of the figures over and over to clear the dirt out and make sure Ranma could see it. The boy nodded. "This one means ‘Water.’ And this one," she pointed at another a few lines over, "means ‘Fire.’ And this is ‘Lightning.’ This last one here is ‘Wind.’ If I’m reading this correctly, and I think I am, this" she paused and blew on the Tablet, "reads something like, ‘The day will come when Apocalypse will come, and the..’ gee. There’s really no word for that. I guess a rough translation would be ‘the four chosen elemental gods,’ but that’s not right because there not really ‘gods’. This speaks of humans, mortals; not gods. Hmm. We’ll say that that means, for now, the Chosen. So this will be the sign for the ‘First,’ and these will mean ‘Second’, ‘Third’, and ‘Forth.’"
"Moving on?" Ranma prompted as Akane began to mutter to herself.
"Hmm? Ok, yes. Moving on. Ok, ‘The day will come…’blah blah blah…ah! Here we are. ‘…and the Chosen will be…’ hmm…we’ll say that’s ‘Challenged. After the Challenges are met, the Chosen will be finally…’ hmm… ‘Tested over the coarse of years. When the time is right, he who is Water will awaken. He is the First. Water will seek out elusive Fire, the Second. After the Second is revived, the First will seek the Third in the form of roving Lightning. Only after these Three are found will the Forth be found. The hidden Wind will be total opposite. Only after all are…’ um… ‘awoken will the this prophecy fulfilled and true evil be dispelled’ And then it ends." Ranma blinked.
"Water? First? Akane, why was I drawn to the Tablet? What does this have to do with me? Am I supposed to find this…this first?" Akane bit her lip.
"No…no, I think…I think…"
"You think?"
"I…think…I have a theory."
"And that would be…?"
"Well, I think my mom taught me to read this…whatever, because…I’m supposed to find Water. The First. Whatever you want to call him."
"Him? So it’s definitely a ‘he’?"
"Yes…this line here makes the signs for ‘Water’ and ‘First’ masculine. So this one is male. And…I think I know who he is…" Ranma lifted his head from where he had been studding the Tablet.
"Seriously? Who do you think it is?" Akane bit her lip again and studied an un-translated section of the Tablet. If she was right…then the next few moments of Ranma’s life were going to be very painful ones. Sighing, Akane turned to Ranma.
"Give me your hand, Ranma." The boy hesitantly obeyed.
"Why?" Another deep sigh.
"Because, if I’m right, this is going to hurt. I’ll be moral support. Here, use your other hand, the right one, to trace this big character. If you feel like saying anything, say it. It’ll be easier that way. Now, don’t be tense. I said don’t be tense! Ouch! Hey! Not so tight! Thank you. Now close your eyes, relax, and put your finger here. Not there, here! Good. Now, gently trace this, over and over. Good. Good. Now, I’m going to be quiet, just keep tracing, squeeze if it hurts, Ok? Good. That’s right…just keep tracing…" Obediently, Ranma traced. Again and again his finger traced the strange character. And then, slowly, his mind etched the symbol he was tracing onto his eyelids and he could see it. It was blue and shown like sapphires on a hot summer day. The sparkles shown furiously and broke free of the character. They grew and swirled and became a huge being. Ranma opened his minds eye and found the creature to be a giant dragon made of water.
"I know you…" Ranma breathed.
"Yes." the dragon thundered in its massive voice. "And I you. You have been patient and diligent in your training and I now recognize you as not only the First, but true Water. Come. Take my name as yours and enjoy the feeling of True Water." Ranma took a step towards the dragon and realized that something was wrong, terribly, horribly wrong. Suddenly, it hit him.
"Wait! I can’t be Water! My curse…Akane said the Water and First characters were male! Water changes my form from male to female! I can’t be Water and look like a girl!" The realization that he was close, so very, very close, to what he so desired was a soul wrenching experience. Ranma knew, however, that his curse would ruin whatever Destiny had in store for Fire, Lightning, and Wind, and so he was willing to let himself be only half made forever. He clinched his jaw.
"I may not be able to take my place in Fate, but that’s sure as hell not gonna stop me from helping the others. How do I find them? Tell me how!" The dragon through his head back and roared.
"If you desire that knowledge, ask me, boy! Ask me by name!"
"Tell me your name! Give me the power to help my comrades! Help me this once, and I’ll do whatever you want!"
"Give me my name! Tell me my name and I will do and tell you anything!"
"How can I give to you what I do not know! Tell me!"
"I need not tell you what you already know!"
"Tell me! Now!"
"My name! Give me my name!"
"I can’t!" The dragon let out a roar that made Ranma’s head ache. "Tell me your name!" The blackness that surrounded the boy and dragon vibrated with the power of the dragon. Ranma saw in his mind visions of the other three Chosen. He saw them fighting in battles, alone, without a leader, without the First. They fell, one by one. The Forth was the last to die and its passing put a hole through Ranma’s heart. That one was special, different, important. That one he had to save. Ranma’s fury pounded through him.
"Give me the power! Dragon! Give me what I need!"
"Give me my name!"
"My Dragon! DRACO !" Ranma’s world turned upside down. The last snake dragon, Draco, turned at the calling of his name and moved towards the boy who was Water. Moving at incredible speeds, Draco came up to Ranma and, never loosing an ounce of momentum, ran right through the boy. Ranma felt as if every fiber of his being was being pulled apart…slowly. The pain would have killed him, if not for a pressure…if not for some words…Words Ranma’s pain wracked mind thought, What words? What are words in so much pain? The other part of his mind brought the words, and a face, into focus. The face was lovely, with deep brown eyes and dark blue hair. Human? No. That’s not right…Fey! The Fey said something about…pain? Oh! So much pain! Fey! Make it stop! Help! I’m going to die… The pressure on his hand surged into his memory as the midsection of the dragon passed through him. It never ends…pain forever…Fey! Can you help me? What should I do? What is this pressure? It…helps…that’s it! It’s the Fey’s hand. Help me, Fey! Take only a little of the pain, and I’ll be all right…let me know you’re there. Outside, Akane squeezed Ranma’s hand. "Be all right. Oh, please, be all right!" Her words somehow made there way to Ranma and he remembered her fully. The Fey…Akane! I have to be strong…so Akane won’t be alone any more. Draco! Finish what you are doing quickly! A few moments later, the dragons tail passed through Ranma and it was over. Ranma went limp with relief.
"It is done." the dragon boomed. Turning around, Ranma saw what the dragon had been doing…and gasped. There, standing next to Draco, was Ranma’s female form, holding a cat. A cat which, surprising as it may have seemed at the time, held no terror for Ranma.
"Wh-what did you do?" The dragon looked at Ranma and then down at the red head, who disappeared, cat and all.
"I have removed your curses. You were right in saying that you could not be the First and be cursed as well. None of the Chosen may be cursed. And they are all cursed in some way." Ranma shuddered.
"Then…they have to go through that, too?"
"No. It will not be as severe for any of them. Your curses, triggered by water and cats, were deeply embedded in your physical and spiritual being. Therefore, they were harder to remove than any of their curses will be." Ranma sighed.
"Good. That’s very…good." Ranma walked over to the dragon and, sighing deeply, collapsed against him into a deep and restful slumber. The dragon regarded Water and curled around him, comforting him.
"Rest well and deeply, Water, for you have a mighty task in front of you."
After almost an hour, Ranma’s pillow started moving. Stirring slightly, he put his arms around it to stop the movement. Opening his eyes slightly, Ranma knew something was wrong. Blue? My pillow’s not blue. The last thing that I saw that was blue was Akane’s…skirt…oh, no. Looking up, Ranma found that he had wrapped his arms around Akane’s waist as he tried to encircle his pillow. Which had been Akane’s lap. "Oh, no" Leaping across the room, Ranma waived his hands and stammered an excuse.
"Listen, Akane, I didn’t, I mean I did, but, I didn’t mean to…um…" Akane moved towards Ranma, still on her hands and knees. Something in her eyes stopped Ranma from babbling.
"Ranma?" She whispered tentatively, "Are you ok?" Ranma nodded, and Akane’s eyes shown with tears. Slumping slightly, she covered her face with shaking hands as quiet sobs tore their way out of her quivering frame. Moving closer, Ranma called her name and put an arm around her. Clutching his shirt, Akane cried her terror out.
"Oh, Ranma!" she cried, "I thought you were dying, and I couldn’t do anything! I just sat there, and watched you twitch and cry out and all I could do was hold you!" Sobs overtook her again and Ranma just held her.
"Shh. It’s all right, Akane. Holding me was all you could do, and it saved me. I thought I was dying, too. It hurt so bad, Akane. You’ll never know…I really thought I was done for at one point, but then I remembered you, and I could feel you holding me, and then I was ok. You saved me, Akane. You really did. You were there when I really needed you. It’s ok, Akane. It’s ok." Ranma held Akane until she was calm and then he dried her tears and smiled at her, and all was right with the world.

~**~

And then, as Akane and Ranma held each other, a camera flash signaled the end of all peace. Looking up, the boy and girl watched Nabiki walk away, swinging a camera and talking into a cell phone. Ranma stood up and offered a hand to Akane. Taking the hand, Akane was pulled up effortlessly as she wiped away what remained of her tears. Thanking Ranma, Akane turned to see Genma and Soun holding each other, crying.
"Look at that, Soatome! Soon our schools will be united!"
"Truly, Tendo, this is a happy day! Let’s go celebrate!" On his way out the door, Genma finally noticed what no one else had taken the time to. Peering at Ranma, he asked,
"Where’d you get those clothes, m’boy?" Looking down, Ranma saw for the first time that his clothing had changed. He no longer wore a red Chinese shirt with black pants. Rather, his shirt was a deep blue, and a snake dragon, exactly like Draco, rested it’s head over Ranma’s heart. The rest of the dragon circled Ranma’s torso and, somehow, continued down onto the right leg of Ranma black silken pants. Akane gasped and leapt back over to the Tablet. Pointing to a certain part, she exclaimed,
"Look! Right here! That’s what this means!" Ranma leaned over her shoulder.
"That’s what what means?"
"This!"
"’This’ what?"
"This right here! Can’t you read plain…OOPS." Blushing slightly, Akane translated. "‘When the Elements are remembered, their sign’s will manifest, to be seen by all, forever.’ I thought it meant a tattoo or something, but this is better. Don’t you agree?" She had turned and was now conversing with Ranma, who was turning, flipping, and generally testing the quality of the new clothing.
"I think it’s water resistant." He admitted finally to Akane. The girl’s eyes widened.
"Really?" she asked, "How do you know?" Ranma shrugged.
"It makes since."
"Ah." Soun and Genma looked at each other.
"Do you have any idea what their talking about, Tendo?"
"Not the slightest clue, Soatome."
"Why don’t we ask?"
"Excellent idea. You go first."
"Ok. Ranma! What are you going on about? Where did you get those clothes?" Ranma looked at his father, all news and excitement.
"Pop! Guess what! Ya know that tablet I found? How I couldn’t read it? Well, Akane can! She translated and there’s this big bad thing coming and there are four people who have been picked to beat the crap out of it and I’m the First!"
"The what?"
"The First." Akane interrupted. "The four Chosen are the First, Second, Third, and Forth. Each represents an element. The Second is Fire, the Third is Lightning, and the Forth is Wind."
"And…the first?" Genma prompted.
"And the First…" Akane turned to Ranma. "The First is Water." Ranma smiled. Genma and Soun looked at each other and burst out in gales of laughter.
"Are you trying to tell us that four people are going to save the world using elements and Ranma is the First, which is Water?" Soun asked.
"Basically."
Genma laughed and tossed a cup of water at Ranma, saying
"Prove it, boy."
And so Ranma did.
Putting his hand out, Ranma told the water to stop…and it did. Inches from his face, the water hovered. And waited for the next command. Flicking his hand slightly, Ranma sent to water to join the water in the Koi pond. But that was just the beginning. Turning to face the pond, Ranma beckoned to the water. Willingly, the water leapt out of the pond and started flowing towards Ranma, Koi fish and all. Looking at his father, Ranma grinned, and the water knew what to do. Swirling madly, the water rushed at Genma. He only had time to cry out once before the pond descended on him. Seconds later, the water retreated back to the pond, leaving a huge, completely dry panda in its wake. Genma looked up at his son and held out a sign,
< How did you > flip < do that, Boy? > Grinning secretively, Ranma turned to Akane.
"So, Akane, what can you tell me about the Second?"