Author's Notes:

Well I've been kicking this idea around for a while and finally decided to sit down and write it. I hope you enjoy it please R&R.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Planescape: Torment

Ranma's PoV

I wince as pain surges through my body, my back feels like I'm been laying on a bed of glass for far too long, chest hurts too but not so bad. I start to think back to what could have caused this pain. Last thing I remember is Akane punting me through the roof with that damn mallet of hers for choking on her food and she assumed I was making fun of it. Well that might account for the head ache but not the pain in my back and chest, hell I'm just in pain. The next question is, where the hell am I?

Heh... I sound like Ryoga. I try to open my eyes and look around but find that to be a very bad idea, as a wave of nausea washes over me. I can tell I'm on something cold, hard and clearly metallic and it smells of blood and rot. Also I'm pretty sure I'm being moved. I hear soft moaning and footsteps and it sound like one foot is dragging, I feel whatever I'm on vibrating and bouncing like its on wheels being run across a rough tile floor. Then I feel it stop and what ever was pushing it walking and shuffling away.

"Come on Ranma." I think to myself "You've got to force yourself to get up. Stop being a girl." I scold myself lightly. I stay where I lay for a moment longer before gritting my teeth and forcing my eyes open. The ceiling is black and rather bleak looking, I sit up and swing my legs around on the slab I have been laying on and force myself to stand...

Normal PoV

Ranma swings his legs off the slab and stands wobbling a few times and braces himself on the slab and winces from the pain shooting through his body, He looks around slowly trying to see if he recognizes where he is, his musing is cut short by a voice behind him.

"Hey, chief. You okay? You playing corpse or you putting the blinds on the Dusties? I thought you were a deader for sure."

Ranma turns around and to his shock there is a floating skull in front of him.
"Wh.. Who are you?" he asks in a rather shocked voice.

" Uh.. Who am ‘I’? How about ‘you’ start? Who're you?" The skull asks in a dismissive manor.
Ranma stares at the skull and suddenly feels irritated and replies.
"I asked ‘you’ first skull."

The skull seems taken back by the change in Ranma's tone but none the less presses on " Yeah, 'an I asked you ‘second.’ what’s your name?"

Ranma growls “You first, skull. It's the last time I'll ask."

The skull sighs and says “Tchhhh... you're tighter than a wet rope. All right, ‘I'll’ be the nice guy here. Name's Morte. Who're you?"

Ranma thinks for a moment then starts to answer “I... I'm...My name is..." suddenly he feels a wave of nausea washes over him and he sways for a moment. He feels his memories jumble and he can't seem to think strait much less remember anything at all.

Morte rolls his eye around and seems rather amused “Can’t remember your name chief... Wel-" the skull starts to say but is cut off.

“My name is Ranma." Ranma says with a strained voice. As he feels the few memories he can grasp onto finally settle in his mind. He feels odd at the fact that it feels like there is much more that he can't seem to remember. Like a life or great many lives after the point that he can remember up to.

Morte seems rather taken back and very surprised. "Well 'least you ‘remember’ your name. Heh. Well, NEXT time you spend a night in this berg, go easy on the bub. Anyway I'm trapped in here too." The skull says seeming to be trying to change the subject.

Ranma looks around and then back at Morte before saying "Trapped?"

"Yeah, since you haven't had time to get your legs yet here's the chant: I've tried all the doors, and this place is locked tighter than a chastity belt." The skull says with an amused chuckle.

Ranma looks around again the nausea and unsteadiness dulling then he says "We're locked in... where? What is this place?"

Morte sighs and rolls his eyes again "It's called the 'Mortuary'... it's a big black structure with all the architectural charm of a pregnant spider."
Ranma's eyes widen he knew that name; a mortuary is a place for dead people.

“ ‘The Mortuary?’ What... am I dead?" He asks in a more than worried tone.

Morte shakes his skull and replies “Not from where I'm standing..." Ranma gives him a blank stair “Okay... floating. You got scars a-plenty though... looks like some berk painted you with a knife. All the more reason to give this place the laugh before whoever carved you up comes back to finish the job."

Ranma blinks and says “Scars? How bad are they?"

"Well... the carvings on your chest aren't TOO bad... but the ones on your back..." Morte pauses and looks carefully at Ranma's back "Say, looks like you've got a whole tattoo gallery on your back, Chief. Spells out something..."

Ranma tries to look over his shoulder to see the tattoos.
"Tattoos on my back? What do they say?"

Morte chuckles and says "Heh! Looks like you come with directions...” Morte clears his throat or makes a sound like it "Let's see... it starts with..."

' I know you feel like you've been drinking a few kegs of Styx wash, but you need to CENTER yourself. Among your possessions is a JOURNAL that'll shed some light on the dark of the matter. PHAROD can fill you in on the rest of the chant, if he's not in the dead-book already.'

Ranma looks very confused and says "Pharod...? Does it say anything else?"
"Yeah, there's a bit more..." Morte pauses before continuing. “Let’s see... it goes on...”

' Don't lose the journal or we'll be up the Styx again. And whatever you do, DO NOT tell anyone WHO you are or WHAT happens to you, or they'll put you on a quick pilgrimage to the crematorium. Do what I tell you: READ the journal, then FIND Pharod'

Ranma reaches behind him and lightly touches his back wincing again "No wonder my back hurts; there's a damn novel written there. As for the journal I'm supposed to have with me... was there one with me while I was laying here?"

Morte looks around and shakes his skull. “No... You were stripped to the skins when you arrived here. 'Sides looks like you got enough of a journal penned on your body."

"What about Pharod? Do you know him?"

"Nobody I know... but then again I don't know many people. Still, SOME berk's got to know where to find Pharod... uh, once we get out of here, that is."

Ranma eyes the floating skull for a moment then looks around again then back at the skull and asks.
"How ‘do’ we get out of here?"

"Well, all the doors are locked, so we'll need a key. Chances are, one of the walking corpses in this room has it."

"Walking corpses?" Ranma gaps slightly and then looks around the room again and notices that all the people in the room are indeed walking corpses. 'How did I miss that?' he thinks to himself.

"Yeah, the Mortuary keepers use dead bodies as cheap labor. The corpses are dumb as stones, but they're harmless, and won't attack you unless you attack first." Morte says rolling his eyes.

"Is there some other way? I don't want to hurt them just for a key."

"What, you think it's going to hurt their feelings? They're DEAD. But if you want a bright side to this: if you ‘kill’ them, at least they'll have a rest before their keepers raise them up to work again." The skull says seeming amused at Ranma's unwillingness to kill.

Ranma sighs and nods. "Well, alright... I'll take one of them down and get the key."

Morte clicks his teeth together and nods. "One last thing: Those corpses are slow as molasses, but getting punched by one is like kissing a battering ram. If they start getting an edge on you, remember you can RUN, and they can't."

Ranma chuckles and flashes a cocky smirk. "Thanks but I won't need to, I'm the best martial artist in the world."

The skull rolls its eyes again and says. “Whatever you say chief."

Ranma slowly starts to make his way around the room, his stiff joints loosening. He finds his way over to a work table with a polished steel platter with a scalpel on it, he moves the scalpel and looks at himself on the platter. What he sees is not the face he remembered, his skin is a sickly pale gray, his face is covered in thousands possibly hundreds of thousands of scars covering every inch of his face even his eyelids. The rest of his body is no better, covered in scars big and small not an inch with out one. His hair was tangled and matted with colored beads woven into his bangs and pigtail. The only thing that seemed unchanged were his eyes, still a stormy blue.

'Kami what happened to me?' he thinks to himself his thoughts are interrupted by Morte.

"Hey, I know you’re a real stunner Chief, but let’s find that key and give this place the laugh eh?"

Ranma nods and puts the platter down. "Yeah let’s go."

Linik: Well I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Torment. I promise there will be plenty of action in the next chapter. But for now my brain hurts so I'm going to go get a soda.

Linik: Well I decided to take a stab at cleaning it up a little.

Please R&R