There's a slight problem with attempting to bend an entire dimension to your 
will.  Unless you really, really know what you're doing, more often than not 
you'll end up destroying it.

Witness the case of a world where one Rebecca Petulia Anderson once resided.  It 
had been destroyed, remade, normalized, unstabilized, frozen permanently into a 
state of constant Tuesdays, and other similar nonsense.

But all that was about to take its toll.  The end was near.

They just didn't know it yet.

******************************************************
Girls With Guns 65: Warping Reality for Fun and Profit

Begun by the incomparable David Kelk

Continued by the uncategorizable Kate Malloy
******************************************************

Actually, the end of the world was the farthest thing from Becky's mind at the 
moment.  Right now she was trying to figure out how to restore Aika's memory.  
That is, if this "Akai" girl actually was Aika.  They certainly looked alike, 
though Becky couldn't recall Aika ever wearing a fuku like this one.  Not that 
she really minded.

To make matters worse, she was currently receiving some odd "signals" from her 
other personalities.  Both of them seemed agitated about something, but neither 
wanted to give her a straight answer.

Becky sighed and wondered exactly what had gone wrong.  If she didn't know 
better, she'd swear that all her recent misadventures were the fault of some 
sort of higher beings who just loved to torment her.

At any rate, Akai was staring at her with the sort of expression usually 
reserved for when there's a swarm of wasps nearby.  (You really want to get out 
of there, but you're afraid of what will happen if you move.)

"Come on, Aika," Becky said.  "I think I know somebody who might be able to 
help."

Akai nodded timidly and followed Becky, too scared to do anything else.

*****

Meanwhile, Lina Inverse was *very* unhappy.  She wasn't God, she was wearing a 
ridiculously fanservicey fuku, and she'd just been stared at by a very Obscure 
Cultural Reference.

Now normally, when Lina wasn't happy she just Dragon Slaved the heck out of her 
surroundings until she started to feel better, then went off and had a nice big 
meal.  Or two.  Or ten.  However, not only was she lacking in God power, all of 
her magic seemed to be gone as well. *All* of the magic seemed to be gone.  This 
was Very Not Good.

Thus, she was understandably a little tense when a rather nondescript man walked 
up and tapped her on the shoulder.  Luckily she managed not to permanently 
damage him.

She crossed her arms and glared at him as he managed to clamber back out of the 
four-foot deep depression she'd created when she threw him.

"I'm sorry," the man said.  "Miss Lina Inverse, I presume?"

Lina nodded curtly.

"Oh, good," the man replied.  "We need your help.  You see, the world's going to 
end soon, and-"

"Whoa!" Lina interrupted him.  "First of all, I'm *not* God anymore.  I don't 
know how it happened, but I'm not the all-powerful, all-knowing-"

"We *know* that," the man interrupted back.  "If you were God, I wouldn't have 
been able to sneak up on you like that.  We don't need God, anyway.  We need 
Lina Inverse."

"Well, you don't really have her either," Lina answered.  "My magic's gone, too.  
Look, there's absolutely nothing I can do for you."

The man sighed.  "I know that, too.  The prophecies predicted it."

"Huh?"

"What day is today?" the man asked.

Lina thought for a moment.  "It's Thursday," she stated.

"Not Tuesday," the man pointed out.  "The prophecies stated that when it ceased 
to be Tuesday, the world would end, and only a few people would be able to save 
it."

"What?" Lina shook her head in confusion.  "This makes absolutely no sense."

"Did it ever?"

"Whose prophecies?"

"*The* prophecies!" the man yelled, waving his arms.  "It doesn't matter who 
makes the prophecies!  They just *are*!"

Lina blinked once.  Then she shrugged.  "Okay, I'll come look at your 
prophecies, if..."

"If?"

"First, a change of clothes.  Then, dinner."

The man gulped.

*****

The doorbell rang at the Villyn household.  Aki sighed and got up to answer it 
while Lavos paused the tape and ate another spoonful of peppermint ice cream.

Aki opened the door and blinked at the nondescript man standing on the other 
side.  "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Aki Villyn.  I need your help to stop the world from ending," the man stated.

"Me?" Aki repeated, very startled.

Lavos walked up behind Aki.  "What's all this about?" she inquired.

The man gulped visibly.  "La...Lavos?"

"Should I know you?" Lavos questioned.

"Weren't you supposed to end the world on January 23, 1999?" he asked.

Lavos shrugged.  "What, a lady can't change her mind?"

"N...not a problem.  We're quite relieved, actually.  That simplified our job by 
a significant amount.  You know, not having to find a group of heroes to try and 
stop your evil reign and all that."

Aki tapped her foot impatiently.  "So, what about saving the world?"

"Oh, right, that.  Well, come on!"  The man grabbed Aki's arm and dragged her 
away.

Lavos blinked and watched them go.  She then shut the door, walked back inside, 
unpaused the tape, and resumed eating her ice cream.

"They always go...in the end..." she sighed.

*****

"Are we there yet?" Akai asked.

Becky groaned.  If it weren't for the possibility that this girl just might be 
Aika, she would have left her behind long ago.  Every five minutes, she needed 
to stop and rest, or started asking really annoying questions, or complained 
about the weather, or...

"Are we there yet?" Akai asked again.

Both Agent BA-3 and Sailor Rapture were leaning heavily towards throttling Akai 
right then and there.

Just then, a nondescript man walked up to them.

*****

What?  Look, it's late.  I'm tired.  I'm allowed to use a plot device or two.  
Now shoo.

*****

"Rebecca Petulia Anderson?" the man asked.

"Yes?" Becky answered cautiously.

"And...wait, this isn't Aika," the man realized.

"She's not?" Becky exclaimed at the same time Akai said, "I'm not?"

The man shook his head.  "No, she's not the one we want.  She's the Aika of 
another dimension.  How'd she get here?"

Becky attempted to explain the normalizing wave, but the man interrupted her 
with a curt nod.

"That explains everything.  Something tried to 'normalize' this dimension by 
superimposing an entirely different dimension onto it.  It only half-worked.  
Among other things, it must have switched your Aika with this girl here.  And 
the imposition of that being's will on this dimension...that's why the world is 
going to end."

Becky looked at Akai.  "It's WHAT?!" they chorused.

The man ignored them.  "But if she's not the correct Aika...how will the world 
be stopped from ending?"

Becky pulled out a Very Large Gun(tm).  "I think you'd better explain this," she 
said, calmly pointing it at the man.

He nodded.  "Yes, I suppose I should.  We'll have to wait until we get back to 
headquarters, though.  Aki and Lina need to hear this as well."

*****

WHO IS THIS NONDESCRIPT MAN?  WHO DOES HE WORK FOR?  CAN THEY GET THE RIGHT AIKA 
BACK?  CAN BECKY, AIKA, AKI, AND LINA SAVE THE WORLD?  OR DOES "STOPPING THE 
WORLD FROM ENDING" HAVE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANING FROM "SAVING THE WORLD?"

Dunno, really.  It's chibi-impro, so we might never know. ;P

*****

Author's Notes:

Wai!  Chrono Trigger references! ^_^  The Chrono Cross soundtrack rules, by the 
way.

And I need sleep. ^^;

Not my best work ever, but basically I took an idea that I had and ran with it.  
No, it's not a terribly funny chapter.  I'm sorry.  Hopefully you smiled at some 
of it.  ^_^  Besides, Ominously Mysterious Prophecies of Doom are always fun.

Thanks to Roe for being understanding about extensions and ELRutt for looking 
over a bit of this.  It's all in your hands now, man.  Good luck. ^_~