Nabiki didn't know for certain what had brought her into the dank looking shop. This sort of place was usually the meat and drink of Gosunkugi or the Kunos. It was a bleak looking, shadowed, dirty little antique store. She crinkled her nose in distaste and turned to leave. She allotted herself only a small allowance of what she made, and that went to her mangas.
She would have continued walking if she hadn't recognized the word Jusenkyo on one display. Nabiki paused and continued the wedding she had just recently helped to trash.
Certain sisters and might-as-well-be-brothers-marriage-or-not had been more than a little upset at that. It wasn't like she had intended for the last barrel of Jusenkyo water on the planet to be drunk by a passing old pervert. She just hadn't wanted to see them pushed to early into a marriage that would have been doomed to fail.
She glanced over the items to see if there was anything that could possible be used to make up for that last, inexcusable, lapse of planning on her part. She might find Ranma's girl form to be entertaining and profitable, but she had never intended to destroy his hopes for a cure. In reality, she hadn't, but she couldn't seem to shake the image that she had called everybody to the wedding.
"Waterproof soap," she said under her breath. "Nope, Instant Nannichuan, nada, Map to the Japanese Nannichuan, nix, map to the Kaisufuu, nil, map to the Chuisiton, bad idea...."
"Perhaps the lady is seeking a cure for a Jusenkyo curse?" an skinny old man near to her said. She blinked and glanced toward the man, wondering when he had gotten there.
"Perhaps," Nabiki said. "What do you have to offer besides the normal bilk stuff?"
"Well," he said. "I see you have some experience with Jusenkyo brand products."
"Some," she said.
"I think I might have something that would interest you," he said, gesturing for her to follow him.
Nabiki frowned and kept the door in sight as she followed the old man back to the counter and he pulled out a dusty box. Opening this box revealed a crystal vial full of a bright liquid that seemed to shift colors.
"This won't take care of all the problem," the man said. "But the books say it will stop the changes of a woman. You'd still attract water, however."
"It'll only work on a woman?" Nabiki said.
"This isn't your normal form?" he asked, looking up and down her body and taking in the very feminine clothes.
"I'm talking about my sister's fiancee," she said. "He turns into a rather cute red-headed girl."
"Ahh," he said. "Well, the book isn't clear exactly on how this works. It mentions about one, maybe two days of pain after which the foreign life-force is gone from the body."
"And if a man were to take this draft?" Nabiki asked, she frowned at the mention of pain.
"The book either does not say," the man said. "Or else that information was destroyed. This elixir was not originally meant to cure Jusenkyo, that was found on accident."
"What is it meant to do?" Nabiki asked. The old man shrugged.
"If the book ever said, the words were destroyed," the man said.
"Can I see this book?" Nabiki asked. The man presented a very old piece of parchment between to flat pieces of wood.
"Here it is," he said. Nabiki's eye twitched.
"That is a sheet of paper," she said. "Not a book."
"It is all that remains of the lore to go with this elixir," he said.
"And how much is this going to cost me?" she asked. She winced as the man named his price, but produced the money anyway, sighing at the last chance for those manga coming out this weekend.
Neither she, nor the old man recognized the "decorative" marks on the old box as a written language. Even if they could, they would never have been able to read the words "elixir of life."

*****

"Well," Nabiki said. "Let's see what this does." She sighed nervously as she looked into the vial.
The man had said their were two doses in it. She'd rather not test this on herself, but there was no way she'd let Shampoo hear about it. In less than no time the Amazon would have taken it and used it herself.
She took a small gulp and waited for several minutes for something to happen. Nothing, that she could see did. She had no way of knowing that the potion had proceeded to its secondary task having lacked the tools necessary to accomplish its primary task.

*****

"What's this?" Ranma asked, staring at the crystal vial Nabiki had handed him. He didn't notice the little blue marks under her eyes and on her forehead, just barely becoming visible.
"This is my apology for the nannichuan," Nabiki said. Ranma's eyebrows crinkled in confusion before he realized what she was hinting at. Nabiki's hand over the bottle stopped him from drinking it immediately. "Before you do anything, listen to everything I say."
"Okay," Ranma said carefully.
"First," Nabiki said. "I don't know that this will work. The guy I bought from says it only works with women, so for all I know it could lock in girl form. Second, the cure apparently comes after a couple of days of pain, I don't know how bad. And finally, you'll still attract water. Understand the choice now?"
Ranma glanced at the bottle cautiously, taking into account all that Nabiki had said. He looked up, a determined look on his face.
"Think about it carefully, Saotome," Nabiki said. "If you have any doubts we can always just give the thing to Shampoo."
"It's worth a risk," Ranma said seriously.
"Is it?" Nabiki asked. "I know you don't really mind your girl side anymore."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "But I think Akane does." He unstoppered the vial and looked at it cautiously.
"You should probably talk to her about this first," Nabiki suggested. At this moment Ranma's head got shoved forward by a newcomer.
"RANMA!!!" Mousse shouted. "How dare you insult my darling Shampoo with this 'bill for damages!' DIE!!!"
Nabiki normally would have said "That was my letter actually," but at the moment she was staring at Ranma pulling up his head and swallowing nervously, after reflexively uppercutting Mousse through the roof.
"So much for choices," Ranma said nervously. "Anything happening?"
"Not yet," Nabiki said, watching Ranma nervously. For once her face clearly displayed shock.
"What is all that noise in hear!?" Akane demanded, coming into the room to find Nabiki and Ranma looking somewhat shell-shocked. "What's Nabiki doing in your room Ranma?!!"
The elixir meanwhile had set into motion all the changes to accomplish it's secondary task and had been on the verge of extinguishing when it encountered a way to accomplish it's primary task in the form of a bulge of chi that represented a life force imprint that did not belong to the drinker.
The magical liquid had no real intelligence, it was more or less a computer it did what it was programmed to do. It still couldn't accomplish it's task at the moment, but there was a twist in the drinker's ki that allowed it to proceed with its task, samples of two life forces and the appropriate tools. All it had to do was change the spell already there.
Ranma felt the change pass over him, starting, paradoxically, from inside for once. Akane's anger vanished in the face of Ranma spontaneously becoming a girl.
"AHHHHH!!!" Ranma gasped. "It...it...it changed me!!"
"What Ranma, what happened to you?" Akane asked, worried now.
"At least you're not feeling any pain," Nabiki said apologetically.
Akane shot her guilty looking sister a questioning look. Ranma stood up looking down at herself as if it was the first time she had seen her female body. Though, perhaps, it was rather that she was thinking that she'd never see her male body again.
"Akane, Nabiki," Ranma said nervously, hands moving to her stomach. "I'm feeling funny."
As Ranma's stomach started to visibly grow, Nabiki's rather surprised mind suddenly worked out whatexactly those couple of days of pain were. Akane and Ranma's eyes merely goggled in shock.
"Akane!" Nabiki gasped. She stood up and walked to the redhead "Get Kasumi!!" Akane nodded fervantly and rushed for the phone. "Ranma come on, before it starts let's get downstairs."
"What's happening, Nabiki," Ranma practically growled. "And I don't need help walking!" Nabiki nodded silently as she continued to walk along with the red-head.
"Nabiki, what is, oh my," Kasumi gasped as she saw Nabiki coming down the stairs with Ranma. "What happened?"
"A mistake with a potion," Nabiki said. "Kasumi, call the hospital because these are going to be the quickest three trimesters ever recorded."
"Right, of course," Kasumi said.
"Tri-mesters?!!" Akane roared from where she was coming up behind Kasumi. "What the hell did you do Ranma?!"
"It's not my fault!" Ranma protested.
"How can it not be your fault that you're pregnant!" Akane demanded, hefting her mallet. Nabiki quickly moved between Ranma and Akane.
"This isn't the time for that Akane!" Nabiki snapped.
"Pr..." the shock distracted Ranma from his stomach, which had stopped expanding now. "NABI...oww!"

*****

Across town in an old temple three other sisters felt...something. And then the sensation passed and they brushed it aside after a moment.

*****

"Where do you think you're going!?" Ranma snapped angrilly as Nabiki attempted to leave the operating room.
"Gah!" Nabiki gasped in surprise. "It isn't like you need me here!"
"It was your frigging potion that got me in this mess!!" Ranma growled, refusing to let go of Nabiki's arm.
"This is the father's job!" Nabiki said, nervous about what would happen to her arm if she stayed through the labor.
"Yeah," Ranma growled wearily. "But I'll settle for you."
"This job gets weirder every day," one of the staff said.
"What's with the little blue smudges on their faces?" another asked.

*****

"It isn't fair," Akane said. "I'm the one that should be in their with him, not her."
"Yes, Akane," Kasumi said. "But perhaps you should have thought about that before accusing him of sleeping with Ryouga."
"It was a panic-reaction!" Akane protested. "I know there's something weird about this...he wasn't pregnant this morning."
"Oh the tragedy!" Genma wailed. "My son giving birth!"
"Oh," Nodoka sighed. "My son is so manly that he has even impregnated himself."
Soun was merely wailing incoherently.
They all ignored the people staring at them (mostly Nodoka) strangely.

*****

Ranma lay back in bed exhausted and depressed. For the moment she was alone, the doctors deciding that she needed her rest. Nabiki was receiving treatment of her own. Apparently she had crushed Nabiki's arm.
Ranma grimaced at that thought, she hadn't wanted to really hurt Nabiki. After all, she had been planning on drinking it after all. She had just planned to let loose a little of the pain on the other girl.
Ranma was tired enough that she didn't even argue with the nurses that insisted on calling her a girl. They had her hooked up to an IV, apparently she was severelly depleted of both water and nutrients. She had been lectured about keeping up a good diet while pregnant. If they knew the pregnancy had lasted about three minutes before labor started, Ranma didn't want to know what they'd do.
She glanced down at her hands and tried to imagine what they used to look like. To her surprise, her hands grew and shifted along with the rest of her body to become HIS body.
Ranma blinked and recalled his female form. His body shifted back to it.
"What the hell?" she asked quietly.
She shifted back to male form again. She felt, if it was possible, more tired than she already had and only barely heard someone coming into her room. The nurse only saw the very tired teenager finally dropping off to sleep.

*****

"She's so cute," Akane said peering into the baby's face as they sat in the taxi the hospitals had insisted they call for them, the rest of the family was in another car. Then she frowned. "She's Chinese."
Akane looked up and frowned at Ranma suspiciously. Ranma sighed at the familiar look. It seemed at times like Akane would never trust her.
"I'm not locked," Ranma said to distract her before sshe could start an argument. Akane looked at her in surprise.
"What?" Akane asked.
"I'm not locked," Ranma repeated. "I can just sort of will it now."
"Then why are you still..."
"Akane," Nabiki said, recovering her own voice. She spoke low so the cab driver would not hear her. "Look at how many questions we had to answer about this situation as it is. If Ranma suddenly popped up as a guy..."
"Yeah, yeah," Akane said. "So why is your daughter half-Chinese?"
"Akane," Ranma sighed wearily.
"Give the inquisition a rest," Nabiki said. "Hear, Ranma, I'll hold Midori while you get some more sleep okay?"
"You're arm's broken," Ranma said. "Sides...I'm not that tired," Ranma then fell asleep still cradling the child carefully.
"So where was Shampoo during this?" Akane asked. Nabiki shrugged.
"I told you Akane," Nabiki said. "This has nothing to do with Shampoo. But I'll wager a bet that that girl is half-Chinese because whoever drowned in the pool is half-Chinese."
"What are you doing covering for him?" Akane asked. "And what are these marks on your faces for?"
"You just don't trust anybody, do you?" Nabiki asked.

((OOC: Note, I'm putting out a lot of stuff for which there is no foreseeable end of late...sorry...))