Beach City was no stranger to travelers. After all, the small community that made the idyllic seaside town their home lived and breathed by its tourism trade. When your permanent population is only about fifteen people you must attract some out of town money.

But this sunny little town had something about it that set it apart from most cities around the world. It was an unknowing member of a small group of cities and districts from all over the globe that were united by one single aspect. Places such as Gravity Falls, Oregon; Azubu-Juban, Tokyo; Nerima Tokyo; Okayama, Japan, one small town in rural Australia, a group of villages in Wales, and a small number of others.

That aspect was how strange nearly everything that happened there ended up being.

Those who lived in these communities were a hardy bunch. They lived with breathtaking events going on around them every day and it had simply gotten to the point where it didn't affect them anymore. They had seen too much.

It was because of this that the soaking wet Japanese woman with bright red hair sat on top of a street light didn't so much as get a second glance, for the most part.

Her life had been… eventful. A ten-year training trip with her father, an arranged marriage sprung out of nowhere, an intense year of near constant fighting, almost getting married several times over, the list went on.

Ranma, Master of the Anything Goes school of martial arts, had spent her entire life training to be the best martial artist in the world. Ever since she was six her life revolved nearly entirely around it. Day in and day out she lived and breathed the Art.

Years of challenges had forged a fighter beyond compare. Masters of the martial arts, Chinese Amazons, half-dragons and even a demigod, all had been bested.

But it turned out that martial arts wasn't the be all and end all of life. There were things that her focused upbringing were unable to prepare her for, things about the world that she just couldn't understand.

One of which was a certain uncute tomboy she had suddenly found herself engaged to.

And now, all these years later, she was here on the east coast of America, still running away from her problems.

She sighed heavily as she looked out over the picturesque beach, a light surf lapping against the sands. It wasn't as if it were all bad. She'd travelled the globe, learned from countless temples and masters, seen the great landmarks of the world, she had done it all. She was stronger now than she had ever been.

But she was tired, so very tired. She didn't want to live like this forever. She wanted to live her life as she chose it, not to still be bound by narrow-minded expectations.

Well, not as if she could do anything about that now.

Beach City, Delaware was an idyllic seaside town, with none of the hustle and bustle of the bigger cities Ranma had spent time in.

The entire town was situated on a small peninsula on the US east coast, with the town itself set between the cliff at one end and the continent proper on the other. There was a warm sea breeze blowing salt-tinged air in Ranma's face, all the while the noon-day sun shone warmly. All told, it was shaping up to be a wonderful day.

And all Ranma could do was wait for the other shoe to drop.

A distressingly familiar flash-click combo of a camera from below her drew her immediate displeasure.

She shot a glare at the camera's owner, an overweight teen in a bad shirt and shorts. "Hey! Don't ya know it's rude to take pictures without asking, porky?" She growled.

The teen immediately quailed under the strange woman's glare. "I-I-I… Blog…" He stammered, unable to articulate anything in the face of the woman's displeasure.

Realising she probably wasn't going to be getting a proper answer any time soon, Ranma scoffed. Wimp. A blog? Who had those anymore?

She stood easily on the thin metal bar, stretching briefly and shaking the last drops of water that she could from her hair. Then without any fanfare she jumped, landing easily in front of him without so much as a grunt.

Flashing a condescending glance at the chubby paparazzi, she turned and strode away.

An overreaction, to be sure. She could admit that. But Ranma really didn't like people taking pictures of her without asking.

One Tendo Nabiki in her life was enough, thank-you-very-much.

As she wandered in a random direction, Ranma sighed to herself. She'd heard rumours that there were powerful fighters living in this coastal town, some even saying they were super powered women who fought monsters. That was the only reason she was here, aside from the fact she had nowhere else pressing she needed to be. The life of a wandering Martial Artist was fraught with peril.

And listless boredom apparently.

She hardly noticed when the ground started to rise beneath her feet as she mindlessly followed the pathway up the Cliffside towards the lighthouse at its peak. She'd been in town for about half an hour now, just enough to wander towards the boardwalk, get soaked by an errant hose, be apologised to by its friendly beach-bum owner and get annoyed by teenagers.

Blasted teenagers…

Not enough time to hear anything about why she was here.

She mentally shrugged her shoulders. She'd find out eventually. If anything weird was going on it would find her in the end. If there was one iron-clad rule in her life, it was that.

She reached the lighthouse at the hill-top in short order. Without really thinking about it she simply jumped from the base to the light's railing in one massive leap. Barely touching down, she jumped again, this time to the top of the dome that housed the light itself.

As she landed she got her first look clear look at the ocean, her eyes widened in surprise. She could honestly say she hadn't expected that.

Just out of sight from the rest of the town, a truly massive statue of a many armed woman was sat against the cliff face. Who the woman was she had no idea, but she clearly wasn't human. Ranma hadn't seen anything like it before, and she'd been in pretty much every of the famous (and most not-so-famous) temples still standing.

Whatever it was, the statue was beautiful and most assuredly ancient. How it had escaped the attention most relics left over from bygone ages had gained eluded her at the moment, but Ranma was suddenly quite determined to find out.

But for now, it was the absolute perfect place to meditate for the afternoon. It'd been much too long since the last time, it wouldn't do for her to get rusty.

She leapt easily off the lighthouse roof, flipping lazily down to land in a crouch atop the statue's massive head. She settled herself down in the Lotus position and slowed her breathing, pressing her fists together before her.

Meditation was something that she had picked up in a Chinese monastery during her wandering years. Living her life as a plaything for the whims of chaos had left her out of balance, unfocused in mind and spirit. Or at least that's what the monks there had said.

Meditation gave her the chance to stop. Brief moments of calm snatched in the storm.

In, out.

In, out.

As Ranma settled herself down she didn't notice the small house at the statue's base and the young boy within it that would set even her chaotic life on its head.

A few hours later:

Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst and Steven had been having a very interesting Sunday. In the morning they'd had to deal with those little centipeetle things infesting Steven's room. A relatively easy but time consuming and tedious job.

After that, something amazing had happened. Steven had managed to summon his mother's shield for the first time in his life. He was at last coming into his powers as a Gem. Now they were trying to help him summon it consciously.

But right that second, the fully realised Gems couldn't help but think that they were on the wrong track.

The four could only watch in amazement as Steven's shield ricocheted lightning fast off of nearly every surface in the house before finally coming to a halt buried in his TV.

Amethyst of course hunched over in glee, laughing her butt off.

"That's it! I summon my weapon by eating ice-cream!" Steven shouted in triumph, holding his cookie-cat icecream sandwich high.

Pearl meanwhile was busy examining a cookie-cat wrapper. "What's in these things…?" She muttered to herself.

"That can't be right." Garnet said. "But we have an idea at least."

"That's right. It must be something else, but just what that is escapes me." Pearl agreed.

Out of nowhere a deep rumbling in the ground shook the house, and a piercing screech had them all flinching.

A massive shadow passed over the window, a very large shadow.

"What was that?" Steven asked.

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." Garnet said. "Gems, let's go."

The other two nodded, following her as she rushed out of the door.

On top of the massive statue's head, roused from her meditation, Ranma's eyes snapped open. A massive centipede looking creature scaled the cliff behind her, roaring a challenge to the sky above, before being kicked away by what looked like….

A very tall woman?

Huh. Looked like she was in the right place after all.

This… wasn't going as planned.

He'd just wanted to help! Of course, he still believed that Cookie-cats were his way to summon his weapon.

So when Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst had gone to do something about the massive matriarch of the centipeetles, Steven had run inside to "gear up" as it were. He rushed out of the house with a freezer and a will.

Only to find out that no, cookie-cats were most certainly not the way he summoned his weapon. On the plus side, he managed to get the creature's attention, distracting it with a thrown rock.

On the downside, he now had the beast's attention.

He shouted as the centipeetle's jaws clamped shut on air exactly where he used to be. This had turned out to be a horrible idea!

"Oh what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?!" he shouted to himself. He could vaguely hear the other Gems yelling at him to get away but he was too busy to really listen right that second.

In a mad dash to dodge a spray of acid his foot caught on a rock, and he went down hard on his face. Panicking, he rolled to the side, expecting to have the last thing he saw be the jaws or acid of the centipeetle.

What happened instead was the most awesome thing he'd ever seen.

Ranma had watched in mild amusement, somehow still having not been noticed, as the three obvious magical girls danced around the massive centipede monster, whatever attacks they were throwing proving utterly useless. They were getting their butts absolutely handed to them.

Then again, these three seemed to have a fair bit more skill than pretty much every other Magical Girl team she'd come across so far. These ones actually looked like they could fight! That was new.

After a few more moments, the acid-spitting creature had the three pinned down behind a stone hand, spraying a constant stream of acid that was slowly eating its way through their temporary refuge.

Well, well. Looks like she'd have to step in after all.

Just as she was about to launch herself off the statue and into the battle below, movement caught her eye.

Ranma's eyes shot open in surprise as a small chubby child with a freezer rushed onto the beach, before planting the thing in the sand like some kind of electric battle standard.

Wait, was he eating? What was this kid doing? He was going to get himself killed!

Then the kid had to go and do something even more stupid, tossing a rock at the thing. He just had to go and piss it off didn't he?

Looks like watching wasn't going to be an option any longer.

As the kid turned, ran and fell flat on his face she'd already started moving. Pumping ki into her legs she launched herself at top speed from the lighthouse roof, becoming little more than a blur.

She landed heavily on the sand and kicked off hard, rushing full tilt towards the fallen child. Just as the creature launched a torrent of acid at the kid she was on him, gathering him in her arms and diving out of the way of the deadly spray.

She skidded along the beach, bleeding off the momentum of her mad dash, keeping the kid firmly in her arms. The creature rounded on her screaming at the robbery of her prey before launching another deadly torrent.

With a contemptuous look at the massive ugly thing trying its best to roast her skin off, Ranma simply lifted a hand. Around both her and Steven a shimmering dome of silver energy flared into being. The acid splashed harmlessly against it, weathering the torrent for a solid minute before the thing eventually let off.

The instant it did, Ranma moved. One instant she was stood on the beach, meters away from the creature. The next, she was right in front of it. With a resounding kiai, she slammed a kick into the creature's belly, launching it into the air.

As the creature flew in a wild arc Ranma jumped away, landing neatly before the creature crashed back to earth.

She thrust her free hand out towards it, quickly aiming to where the monster would be in less than a second. "Moko Takabisha!" She yelled.

From her palm burst a massive ball of blue light, which rocketed down the beach at a speed few could follow with just their eyes. Just as the beast landed the energy blast impacted.

A massive explosion rocked the area as the blast detonated on contact, blowing the thing into the sky where it hung for a few seconds before landing with a massive thud and a scream of pain.

She huffed in annoyance. Low-yield it may have been, but one of her Mokos was usually enough to take down anything. This thing was surprisingly resilient.

The kid still tucked under one arm, she looked over at the Magical Girls, who were all just stood there staring at her, eyes wide and mouths near their feet.

Ranma scoffed, how utterly unprofessional. "Well, you're the Magical Girls! Kill it already!" She shouted at them, gesturing wildly at the centipeetle thing with her free hand.

That woke them up. The big one in the middle nodded. "Gems! Weapons!" She ordered.

Wait, did she say Gems? Where had she heard that before?

Oh boy. There it was. The Magical Girl flair. Each woman summoned a weapon from what looked like a stone embedded somewhere in their bodies, striking a fancy pose as they did.

At least they didn't make a speech. Instead they rushed forward and as one brought their weapons down on the stirring centipeetle.

Ranma covered her eyes as the beast detonated in a huge flash of green light. When it cleared only the three women were left on the beach. The tall one had a strange stone in a bubble of light held in her hands that vanished with a brief wave.

"That. Was. Awesome!"

Ranma blinked, before glancing at the kid who was still tucked protectively under her arm. He was staring up at her with literal stars in his eyes, full of awe and excitement.

"How did you do that! You were all zoom, hiyaaaa, boom!" He made the requisite sound effects, waving his arms around for emphasis.

Ranma shook her head at the kid's enthusiasm. There was something infectious about it, despite the situation.

"Thanks, I guess. But now that that's over…." She sighed.

She shifted her grip, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and lifting the boy up to her eye level with careless ease.

"Ow!" The boy cried as Ranma's fist thunked firmly into the top of his head.

"What the hell were you trying to do back there?" She asked expectantly.

The kid stopped rubbing the sore spot on his head, suddenly realising just how close a call that had been. He blushed, laughing nervously at her disapproving stare.

"I uh... I thought I could help?" He said.

"What could you possibly-?"

"Put Steven down this instant!"

"Yea lady, not cool!"

Oh, look who joined them. The three women were standing nearby, glaring at her. It didn't take long for Ranma to make the connection.
"Oh, is this yours?" She asked.

"Guys!" The now named kid shouted, answering for them.

Ranma just sighed, putting the kid down. "You might want to keep a better eye on him. If I hadn't been here… well. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?" She said with a shrug.

The strange trio nodded, relaxing considerably as Steven rushed over to them. As they all gathered around and started to fuss over the kid Ranma got her first real look at them.

They were unique, Ranma would give them that. One was tall, with an afro, dark skin and sunglasses. The second was in the middle height wise, with long slender limbs and a lithe build. She held herself with a dancer's grace, moving with a precision that Ranma didn't generally see outside of her Art.

The last couldn't be more different. She was short and fairly broad, long white hair trailing down her back in an unruly mess, with purple skin.

Weirdly, they all seemed to have gemstones embedded somewhere on their bodies. Tall had one in each hand, Thin had one in her forehead and Purple had one at the centre of her chest.

That was… new.

Oddly, Ranma couldn't sense them, even when they were stood so close. That wasn't necessarily new; lots of high-level martial artists could erase their presence, hiding their energy from normal detection. Ranma was squashing hers tightly down right that very second.

But magical girls never did so in Ranma's experience. Being a magical girl was all about the spectacle and the sheer annoying amount of power they threw around like it was going out of style. But these ones… were very different.

Ranma couldn't help herself. She simply had to know. She activated her ki sight, scanning the small group in front of her.

Normally, Ranma could use this to get a handle on the size of a person's ki and trace the pathways it followed as it flowed through the body. Every living being on the planet followed similar rules.

That wasn't the case here.

These three's bodies were entirely lacking in any form of ki. Save for four bright spots of energy where Ranma knew their strange stones to be. That simply shouldn't be possible!

But the strangest by far was the child. His ki pathways were normal at least, but he had about fifty times the normal amount for a kid his age. And that was discounting the truly titanic well of energy centred at his bellybutton.

There was something very strange going on here.

"What are you…?" Ranma muttered to herself.

That had the effect of bringing the three's attention sharply back to her. "Wow. Rude much?" The purple one muttered with a dismissive toss of her hair.

Ranma blinked, cutting off her ki sight abruptly. "Ah, Sorry about that. You surprised me is all. Your ki is… different. I've never seen anything like it before." She explained.

The purple one laughed and a smirk slipped onto her face. "Yea. We're sorta one of a kind." She said.

"Amethyst." The thin one said warningly before turning to Ranma herself. "I'm sorry you had to get involved in that." She said.

Amethyst huh?

"We'd have been fine." The tall one said simply.

"You might have been." Ranma said flatly.

Tall-fro frowned but nodded all the same.

"Anyway. What the heck was that anyway?" Ranma asked. "I've seen some crazy stuff in my life, but that was new even for me."

"Oh, uh..." The lanky one mumbled, before both she and short-purple looked to tall-fro for guidance. Tall-fro looked searchingly at Ranma for a moment, before clearly finding what she was looking for and nodding.

Having been given the go ahead, Lanky-pointy-nose continued.

"A Gem Monster. One of the more powerful ones I'll admit. They're not normally a problem." She explained with a concerned frown. She shook the pensive expression away and returned her gaze to Ranma "Thank you for that. I don't want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't been here."

"Yea you totally saved Ste-man here." Amethyst grinned, rubbing the kid's head affectionately. "He normally doesn't do anything that dumb."

"Speaking of which. Steven?"

The little boy flinched, before looking up at Tall-fro with a nervous smile. "Yea Garnet?"

"That was short-sighted and reckless. We could have lost you." She admonished.

"I'm sorry..." The boy said humbly, head drooping. "Thanks for saving me though!" He abruptly changed gears, smiling up at Ranma winningly.

"Heh, yea yea. No problems. Not like I was gonna let you get deep fried." Ranma replied, scratching the back of her head.

"Ok, now that that's all out of the way and all, that was awesome!" Amethyst cut in with a woop, suddenly right beside Ranma. "How did you do all that! I didn't even see you move! And you booted that thing half way across the beach! And that weird blue light thing! I didn't think humans could do anything like that!"

Wait, humans?

"Amethyst please! I'm sorry for her miss..." Lanky interrupted.

"Oh, right. Name's Ranma. Nice to meet ya...?" Ranma trailed off expectantly.

"Oh!" Lanky gasped, suddenly realising her gaff. "Oh, how rude of us! I'm so sorry. My name is Pearl and this is Garnet, Amethyst and Steven." She explained, waving her hand at each in turn.

"We're the Crystal Gems!" Steven finished enthusiastically, throwing his arms out wide in excitement. Ranma was beginning to think this child didn't do anything without it.

And there it was again, that flash of familiarity. She'd heard that name before, no question.

But where?

"Crystal Gems huh? Cool. So how long you all been doing the Magical Girl gig?" Ranma said, nothing of her inner questioning showing on her face.

"The uh... the what?" Pearl asked.

"The Magical Girl gig. Jumping around killing monsters 'n stuff, you know?"

The three women glanced at each other. "Does it matter?" Garnet asked.

Ranma blinked at that. "Huh. No, I guess not." She replied, scratching her head. "Ah well. So, what's a group of magical girls doing around these parts?"

"We live here dude. What are you doing here?" Amethyst shot back.

"Really? Here?" Ranma asked, incredulous.

"Hey, Beach City's amazing! We may be small, but everyone knows everyone and everyone's great!" Steven cut back into the conversation.

"I'm sure they are kiddo." Ranma said, smiling at the kid. "It just seems a little far out of the way is all."

"Which was kind of the point of it. Then again, the same can be said for you I might add." Pearl said. "What brings someone so clearly... capable to our town."

Ranma shrugged. "Honestly? You."

That caught them off guard. "Us?" Amethyst asked.

"Yup. I was in Keystone a few days ago, and heard about some interesting stuff going down out here. So, I came by to check it out. Basically."

"Wow. You really had nothin' better to do?"

"Nope." Ranma replied, popping the p with a nonchalant shrug.

"Heh. Cool man. Cool." Amethyst said with a smirk.

"Well. You found us. Now what?" Garnet interrupted, crossing her arms.

Ranma paused for a moment, before deflating a bit and rubbing the back of her neck. "Aha... About that. Honestly? No idea. I didn't really think anything interesting would be here..."

"Wait, so you came all the way out here, with... with no plan?" Pearl asked, utterly appalled.

"Pretty much. Don't really need one." Ranma said with another shrug, ignoring Pearls horrified gasp. "I guess if you hadn't been here id have just... walked down the coast I guess. Been a while since i've been to the seaside. But the trip was worth it just to see that."

She gestured widely to the massive statue guarding the beach.

"The Temple? Or my house?" Steven asked, following her gesture.

Ranma blinked, then took another look. Down near the base of the statue, tucked up against it was a small wooden house. She hadn't spotted it before. So much for being observant.

"Hah! I'm sure your house is nice, but I was talking about the- wait did you say temple? This was a temple?"

"Steven, I-" Pearl began, before the child in question talked over her.

"Yea! The Temple! The Gems have been here for thousands of years!" He said brightly, not noticing Pearl's flinching or Amethyst's facepalm.

Thousands of years eh? That sounded interesting...

"Oh really?" Was all Ranma said, cocking an eyebrow at the women behind Steven.

"Like I said. Does it matter?" Garnet suddenly spoke up, resolutely crossing her arms.

Ranma stared at her for a second, before shrugging expansively. "Eh. Like I said. Probably not. But..."

Ranma stretched her arms over her head, then cracked her neck side to side. "That does make me really want to see what ya got. My experience? Age only makes you a better fighter. So, that said..."

She lazily dropped from her stretch, clasping both hands behind her at the small of her back. "Want to spar?" She asked, a cocky smirk plastered on her face. "I'll go easy on ya."

There was silence for a moment, as the Gems just stared at Ranma, before Amethyst suddenly burst out laughing.

"Ha, yea right man!" She gasped in between gales of laughter. "We'd destroy you!"

"Oh yea?" Ranma replied, smirk still fully in place. "Who's the one who saved you not long ago again?"

Amethyst suddenly stopped laughing. "We were doing fine!" She hotly protested, glaring angrily at the woman in front of her.

"Really? Trapped behind a rock and getting hosed with acid is fine these days? Nearly letting a kid get killed is fine?"

Amethyst didn't respond, she just glared darkly back at her.

"Yea. That's what I thought."

"Now now, hold on everyone!" Pearl cut in, physically putting herself between Ranma and Amethyst. "There's no need for violence!"

"I dunno, i'm feeling a pretty big need right now..." Amethyst muttered.

Wisely ignoring that, Pearl continued. "I'm sure we've all had more than enough fighting today. How about- Huh?"

Garnet, halfway through Pearl's sentence had laid a hand on her shoulder, cutting her off quite effectively. "You're not going to go away until we do."

It was not a question.

"Nope." Ranma replied, lazily popping the p again. "Besides, it's not like i'm asking for a full-on fight. It's just one little spar. What could it hurt?"

Garnet frowned at her, but nodded after a moment. "Fine."

"Garnet! Is that really the best... idea?" Pearl said, trailing off as Garnet brushed past her to stand between the group and Ranma.

"Wait! You guys can't fight!" Steven cut in. He would have run over to them if Pearl hadn't grabbed the back of his shirt. "We're all good guys here!"

Ranma turned her head to him, smirk dropping away for the moment, replaced with an easy, reassuring smile. "Hey, don't worry kiddo. It's just a spar. Practice. No one's getting hurt, I promise." She said.

Steven looked suspicious, but was fully convinced when Garnet nodded. "All right then..." He said slowly. "But just 'cause you promised."

"On my honour as a martial artist." She said solemnly. "Hey, how 'bout this, why don't you referee for us? You can make sure things don't get out of hand. How's that sound?" She asked the boy.

Steven immediately brightened, now looking intensely excited. "Okay! That sounds much better!"

"Great!" Amethyst cut in. "Now that that's sorted, kick her butt Garnet!" She cheered, pumping a fist.

Ranma paused at that, raising an eyebrow at Amethyst. "Oh no. I think you misunderstood me. I didn't just mean her." She said, gesturing with her thumb at Garnet. "I meant all of you." She finished, the cocky smirk returning full force.

"What?! Absolutely not!" Pearl gasped. "No no no, that's not happening. Garnet is more than enough!"

"Yea, as much fun as it would be to kick your butt, the three of us is just overkill." Amethyst said.

Ranma shrugged exaggeratedly. "Okay... If you say so. Just so you know, offers on the table for when I beat your friend here. Jump in at any time." She said.

Garnet stood stoically and ignored Amethyst's irritated growl. "We'll just have to find out." She said, dropping into a combat stance.

Ranma turned her eyes back to the tallest woman, hands still resting behind her back. "Shall we then?"

Steven took his queue, clearly as excited as ever. "Alright, are the fighters ready?" He said, raising a hand above his head in preparation.

Both nodded. Garnet looking solemn, Ranma still smirking.

"Okay! Ready, set… Fight!" He dropped his hand down.

Garnet took the initiative immediately, dashing forward intent on ending this fight quickly. The woman had just handled the Centipeetle with relative ease, she couldn't be taken lightly. Ranma just watched her come, not moving an inch and with that same, infuriating smirk on her face.

Within a heartbeat she was right in front of Ranma, throwing a lightning fast right hand at the much shorter woman's face.

Imagine her surprise when her fist passed through empty air as Ranma simply, wasn't there anymore. She'd shifted her head the instant before Garnet had hit her, letting her opponent's strike pass by a millimetre in front of her face.

To her credit Garnet only hesitated for the briefest instant, quickly following up with a short flurry of blows, which were all dodged as easily as the first. It continued for a few more seconds, Garnet trying steadily harder to pin down the frustratingly agile Ranma.

"This it?" Ranma asked glibly. "Normally all the old ladies I fight are actually decent. Why are you breaking the streak? Disappointing…"

Garnet ignored her, refusing to rise to Ranma's bait. She'd seen the tactic before, getting under her skin to make her angry, making her start getting sloppy. Far worse had been said about her before by much more dangerous opponents.

Instead, she started focusing on reading the other woman, letting her future vision guide her. If she could read where the woman would be the fight would be over.

Sorting through the eddies of the possible futures while simultaneously concentrating on what she was doing at the very moment was a task borne second nature by long practice. Duck, strike, backstep, elbow, leg sweep… there.

She took her chance, striking forward with a sudden burst of speed exactly where Ranma would be, unable to counter…

And caught an elbow to her face.

So off balance and outright shocked by her sight being trumped, she stumbled backwards and fell flat on her butt. Turning wide eyes, hidden by her sunglasses back to her opponent to find a very different expression on Ranma's face.

The other woman was smiling. Not a smirk, but a genuine smile. "You've been holding back on me." She said.

Garnet rose warily to her feet. "How did you do that? It shouldn't have been possible; the moment was perfect." She asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Oh yea it was good, anyone else this spar would be over. But you're not fighting just anyone." She said. "So... one point to me. You're not done yet are you?"

Garnet didn't outwardly respond, she instead dropped back into her stance before leaping back towards Ranma.

"Excellent!" Ranma laughed, finally dropping into a stance of her own and meeting her charge with a savage grin.

The remaining three gems watched on with wide eyes and jaws somewhere around their knees as Garnet and this mystery woman went toe to toe. They'd expected something interesting, but Garnet was the best combatant out of any of the Crystal Gems since Rose Quartz.

But here was a human, matching every single move that Garnet made and returning them in turn. Something had shifted after Garnet and Ranma re-engaged. Ranma was striking back now.

Ever so slowly, the fight had ramped up in speed and intensity. Ranma had clearly decided to take the kid-gloves off.

"Wow! Ranma's going great! Go Garnet! Go Ranma!" Steven cheered, honestly not caring about the outcome one bit.

"Woah, Ranma's really holding her own!" Amethyst said, genuinely impressed. Sure she was a bit of a jerk, but she was one hell of a fighter.

"No… Pearl said.

"What?" Amethyst whirled around to face Pearl. "What's that supposed to mean!"

"Can't you tell?" Pearl asked, gesturing back to where the two fighters were exchanging a flurry of blows, nearly faster than they could track.

Pearl, unlike Amethyst, wasn't a natural combatant. She'd had to study and practice for countless hours to become the fighter she was today.

She'd never trained in Martial Arts, not seriously at any rate. Only a decade or two, nothing for a Gem. It had never suited her. But she had learned enough to recognize a true master of the Art.

"Ranma's toying with her." She said simply.

A thought that was proven by a fist snaking inside Garnet's guard and slamming into her stomach, followed by a snap kick that sent her careening end over end a few meters down the beach.

"No way… but that's Garnet!" Amethyst tried to argue, as Garnet righted herself in the air, skidding to a halt and without any hesitation rushing back at the far shorter woman. "How can…"

"I have an idea…" Pearl replied. "But I've not seen anyone like her for some time. I'd honestly thought they'd died out."

"P, you're losing me dude. Make sense any time now." Amethyst said.

"Oh my gosh!"

Steven's shout interrupted her, pulling both Gem's attentions back to the spar, their conversation quickly forgotten.

"You're not half bad, I'll give you that."

Garnet grit her teeth, responding instead with a flurry of blows that were easily dealt with. For the last few minutes she'd been systematically dismantled by the tiny woman opposite her. Once Ranma had upped the ante and started striking back… Hitting her before had been like trying to punch smoke.

Now? Well, who knew smoke had a mean right cross.

She'd never admit it to anyone, but she'd stopped holding back a while ago, ever since Ranma had somehow managed to trump her future sight the first time. She delved into it as best she could, but every single time she nearly caught Ranma she'd somehow counter, and respond with savage precision. She was striking with her full speed and power, against a human!

Not that it had made a difference. She'd remained infuriatingly hard to touch. And the worst part of it was, Garnet was absolutely sure that Ranma knew that.

"Not any style I recognize, which is new." Ranma said casually, ducking under a blow and slamming three of her own lightning fast into Garnet's unprotected stomach. She easily avoided Garnet's retaliatory kick by leaping backwards, handspringing back to her feet and immediately dashing back to drive an axe kick down on her.

Garnet blocked with crossed arms over her head, surprised at the force behind the blow. She forced her arms apart, sending Ranma flying.

Or tried to at least. Ranma twisted unexpectedly, redirecting her momentum straight down. Landing in a crouch she surged upwards, smashing an uppercut into Garnet's totally unprepared jaw.

The Gem was sent flying, sailing ten metres down the beach and slamming into the ground, hard.

Even a Gem had to take a moment to get back up after a hit like that, but rise she did if shakily. Garnet wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, before dropping back into her stance. "That… That all you got?"

Ranma didn't reply immediately, she simply regarded the Gem with a searching stare. "Well, you're a stubborn one." She said after a moment. There was a small, enigmatic smile on her face and somehow Garnet knew it was the first true smile she'd seen on her.

All of a sudden, Ranma vanished. Before Garnet could register what was happening, she was flat on her back with a bright blue ball of energy a foot away from her nose.

For a brief heartbeat, there was only the sound of the wind and waves as the Gems registered what had just happened. Garnet, Garnet of all people, had lost.

But, as was the norm, Steven reacted first. He started cheering, loudly and enthusiastically. "We have a winner!" He shouted, rushing in the two's direction.

Ranma meanwhile let her Moko Takabisha dissipate, before offering Garnet a hand up. "Sorry about that shtick earlier. Force of habit. Didn't mean nothing by it. You're the best fight I've had in a long time." She said, earnestly.

Garnet regarded Ranma for a moment, before silently grasping the offered arm, letting Ranma help her up. "Apology accepted." She said with a nod.

It was at that point that Steven reached them.

"That was amazing!" He wooped, waving his arms for emphasis, before latching himself onto Garnet's leg like a highly enthusiastic koala.

"You know it," Ranma said smugly, before she kneeled to Steven's eye level. "But I think you have a job to finish mister."

Steven blinked, not taking Ranma's meaning for a moment before it kicked in. "Oh! Right!" He jumped away from Garnet and over to Ranma. He grabbed the woman's wrist and raised it as high as he could.

"With a once in a lifetime upset the winner is, Ranma!" He exclaimed as seriously as he could, before breaking down into giggles.

Ranma couldn't help laughing along. This kid was just too much.

By then they had been joined by Amethyst and Pearl. "That was frickin awesome!" Amethyst gushed, animosity seemingly forgotten.

"Language, Amethyst!" Pearl scolded.

The shorter woman merely waved her off. "Yea yea, sorry. But seriously, how did you do that!"

Ranma shrugged. "Training. Lots and lots of training." She said simply.

"I feel that's something of an understatement." Pearl said.

Ranma shrugged again. "Maybe so."

"Still, it is incredible." Pearl continued. "I had thought that your kind had died out. I'm glad that is not the case."

She surprised everyone by bowing, right fist pressed into her left palm. Honestly taken aback slightly, Ranma stood and returned the gesture. "You practice the Art?" She asked.

"No, not truly. I am far more comfortable with the sword. But I did lean it, enough to get by." She explained.

"P, what are you talking about?" Amethyst asked.

"Masters. True Masters." Pearl said simply. "Humans who have dedicated their entire lives to the Art. They could lift incredible weights, go faster than what should be possible, even harness their own life energy. It always fascinated Rose. But I had thought it stopped happening."

"Yea, most don't have that kind of dedication anymore." Ranma replied. "And it's not exactly like I was given a choice. But there are more of us than you would think, and I'm the best of 'em."

"The best?" Amethyst asked skeptically.

"The best." Ranma replied with her typical smirk. "No doubt about it."

It was at this point Steven noticed something. "Hey, why are all your clothes wet?"

The rest of the group paused in their conversation and Ranma patted herself down to find that yes, her clothes were still wet from earlier. "Huh. How about that." Ranma muttered. "Yea, the guy who runs the car wash wasn't watching where his hose went earlier. It's fine." She explained.

Steven's eyes widened in surprise. "That's my dad! Well, if he made a mistake, I'm going to have to help!" He announced imperially.

"That guy's your dad-Woah hey!"

Ranma was interrupted by Steven grabbing onto her wrist again, dragging her unexpectedly down the beach towards his house with a speed that surprised her, ignoring Pearls nervous calling. This boy had a grip!

Before Ranma could grasp what was happening she had been dragged up the stairs and into the house, a surprisingly roomy open plan kind of thing. Before she could comment on the odd cave looking thing in the back a fresh towel had been shoved into her hands, along with a bottle of shampoo and a spare tooth brush.

She'd then been bustled into the bathroom, the door firmly shut behind her with the command to leave her clothes in the hamper where they could be washed.

Damn. That kid didn't take no for an answer, did he?

In the end, Ranma just shrugged and decided to go along with it. It'd been far too long since she'd had a hot shower after all. Better take the chance when offered.

She quickly undressed, dropped her clothes in the hamper as ordered, undid her pigtail, turned the shower on nice and hot and gratefully stepped under the spray.

"Why did you bring her here!" Pearl whispered hotly.

The gems were standing by the kitchen while Steven started fixing up some food for himself and their new guest.

"She needed help. She would have caught a cold." Steven said simply.

"You've never had a cold in your life Steven. Besides, she'd have been fine! You didn't need to bring her here"

"Pearl. Calm down." Garnet interrupted, shutting down the other gem with ease. "She won't be here for long. Besides, she saved Steven. It's the least we can do.

"I- alright." Pearl sighed, sinking onto one of the stools. "I'm sorry. I'm being unreasonable, I know. It's just been a long day."

"That's okay Pearl." Steven said, patting one of her hands. "I get it."

"Wow, I really needed that." Ranma's voice cut in. "Hot water ran out near the end though."

The group turned to find Ranma, still drying her hair, padding towards them wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a red tank top which were most assuredly not Steven's and had not been on her person when she arrived.

"Uh, Ranma? Where did you get those clothes?" Pearl asked.

Ranma paused for a moment before she shrugged. "Oh right, about that. So I know a neat trick that…"

She trailed off, the towel in her hands dropping limply to the floor from suddenly slack fingers. Her breath hitched and eyes widened in shock as she finally noticed just what was hanging above the door.

"Ranma are you… all right?" Steven asked heasitantly. He followed the path of her eyes to the portrait of his mother hanging on the wall.

She was… well the only word for it in Steven's mind was rattled.

Which quite frankly, scared him a little. The woman who had just kicked a gem beast half way down the beach and beat Garnet in a fist-fight without breaking a sweat was seemingly floored by a picture of him mom.

"I knew it…"

Steven blinked. "Knew what?"

"I knew you were familiar!" Ranma suddenly shouted, rounding on the Crystal Gems, eyes alight. "You were with her! I've met you all before!"

"What!?" Pearl gasped. "No, no, no. There's no way that happened. We've hardly left the Temple in the last hundred years."

"But you did!" Ranma said. She jumped over to Amethyst and ignoring her protests lifted her up like she weighted nothing at all. "You were really small!"

The other two full-gems were taken aback by this. There's no way Ranma could have known that. Unless of course she was telling the truth.

"Okay, wait." Garnet interrupted. "Where was this?"

"Thailand! My dumbass pops got himself in hot water while we were there. 'Monster extermination' job he thought was just going to be a hoax so he took me along. It wasn't. But she," Ranma pointed at the portrait. "Saved us!"

Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst glanced between each other while a very confused Steven looked on.

"Wait, yea I remember that! The useless old dude in the bandanna!" Amethyst piped up.

"That's him!"

"But wait, wasn't that like… ages ago?" She asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Around fortyish years, yea." She explained matter-of-fact.

"Wait what!" Steven cut in here, jumping in between Ranma and the Gems. "You're super old?!" He asked, pointing an accusing finger at the woman.

"Hey! I'm not old! I know old, and I'm not it." Ranma shot back. "But yea, around your dad's age if I had to guess."

"Amazing..." Pearl breathed. "I had heard high-calibre martial artists could extend their life spans but this… You look only a little older than Greg when he first showed up."

"Yea well. The Art's got some perks what can I say?" Ranma said. "But enough about that, back to her." She pointed at the portrait again. "What's her name? Where is she? Can I talk to her?"

And just like that, the wind dropped from the Gem's sails. Every one slumped slightly and looked away.

Ranma froze. Message received. Her own shoulders fell. "Oh, god. She died, didn't she?"

The Gems nodded. "Pretty much. Having me." Steven said quietly.

Ranma immediately fell to her knees, grabbing Steven by the shoulder and drawing the boy into a hug. "I'm so sorry kid." She said quietly.

Steven instinctually leaned in to the hug, wrapping his arms around Ranma for a moment before letting go and moving back a step. "It's okay. Her name was Rose Quartz. I never knew her, but I keep hearing that she was amazing."

Ranma nodded, smiling sadly. "Yea. I can imagine. I only met her the once, but even that… I can honestly say I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't."

"Wow…" Steven whispered, awestruck.

"Wait a moment."

All eyes turned to Garnet, surprised at her unusual interjection. The stoic woman's stare was unreadable behind her sunglasses.

Ranma matched it with a raised eyebrow. "What can I do for ya Red?" She quipped.

"I remember this now." Garnet said succinctly. "I remember the man. And his son."

The room fell silent. Eventually Steven summed up the room's feeling to this revelation. "Wait, what?"

He turned a questioning gaze towards the older human and was a little shocked by what he found.

Ranma had turned very pale. Her eyes were as wide as they could go, jaw roughly floor level. After a brief second she started cursing viciously under her breath in her native Japanese.

Steven couldn't understand what Ranma was saying, fortunately for his innocence, but the venom in the words startled him.

Eventually she ran out of steam and slumped back onto her backside, resting her hands on her knees and shaking her head sadly.

"It always comes back to this doesn't it...?" She muttered to herself. She took a long, fortifying breath and turned her gaze back to the group.

"So. Looks like I've got some explaining to do. Have you ever heard of a place called Jusenkyo?"

Author's Note:

Heya guys! Welcome back to the Fractal show. Glad to finally have this goddamn story out of my head.

So i've been kicking around a Ranma1/2 and Steven Universe crossover for the longest time. I've even got more planned segments mapped out in my head than I do for Dragons, funnily enough.

But hoooly crap, did getting this chapter to page kick me in the gut. Even right now i'm not really happy with it. So much dialogue. So little time...

But hey, now it's here and I can move on, to the fun stuff. Not just this establishy wish-wash I struggled through.

Now just so people aren't going to be confused or expecting something that wont happen, i'll state it here and people can take it or leave it as they chose. No harm, no foul.

This is a Ranma-chan story. 100%, no takesies backsies. All girl all the time.

I hope that isn't too much of a problem. And if it is... well. The back button's right there.

So, moving forward. Look forward to a Dragons update soonish. Now that I've got some of this out of my brain I can focus a bit better and I'm so sorry about the wait. Writing's been... a struggle lately. But hopefully now that'll get better.

See you all next time! Reviews are always appreciated!

Yours in fiction,
Fractal.