History Fanfic / ReflectionsLostOnADarkRoad

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The entire InuYasha crew [[spoiler:in the Sengoku Jidai is revealed to be [[AllJustADream hallucinations created by Kagome and her mother]], both "Double A" psychics. Dozens of beloved characters are destroyed just to further villify the already-irredeemable alien threat, justify X-Com's increasingly Machiavellian policies and serve as a RedHerring for the insertion of the TeenTitans as possible alien dupes. The Higurashi women are locked up in an asylum on the Moon, the men are brainwashed into believing the women are traveling, and none of them]] are never mentioned again after chapter one.

* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: "Double A" psychics. X-Com-style psionics that can use their abilities without [[AmplifierArtifact psi-amps]]. That the aliens created but can't replicate in [[BossInMookClothing Ethereals]]. And let wander around freely until X-Com [[MutantDraftBoard hunts them down.]] [[HandWave Just go with it]], as it justifies them [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking the Titans on sight]]. [[Headscratchers/ReflectionsLostOnADarkRoad Or don't.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The entire InuYasha crew [[spoiler:in the Sengoku Jidai is revealed to be [[AllJustADream hallucinations created by Kagome and her mother]], who are super-psychics in an undisclosed alien project. Dozens of beloved characters are destroyed just to further villify the already-irredeemable alien threat, justify X-Com's increasingly Machiavellian policies and serve as a RedHerring for the insertion of the TeenTitans as possible alien dupes. The Higurashi women are locked up in an asylum on the Moon, the men are brainwashed into believing the women are traveling, and none of them]] are never mentioned again after chapter one.

* InterrogatedForNothing: Poor Starfire, of course it does seem to X-Com's SOP to assume guilt or complicity and torture until they find ''something''.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: As TRTC is having a plague of "Double A" psychics(delusional psionics who don't need {{Amplifier Artifact}}s), when the Titans show up, their world's first response to weirdos in spandex is to give one warning to SORENDOR PLEZ then attack with deadly force, and escalate from there. It's a ForegoneConclusion that X-Com wipes the floor with all four of them - did you really expect ThouShaltNotKill superheroes to win against {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s with SupernaturalMartialArts? What is surprising that X-Com ''didn't'' actually ''kill'' anyone. Though they did torture [[GenkiGirl Starfire]].[[hottip:*: Gonna let Trenchard!Tofu [[MoralEventHorizon rape Kasumi]] next, authors?]]

* CrackPairing: Mainly X-COM Nabiki/X-COM Ryouga, who are originally essentially each other's polar opposites. To a lesser extent Jinx/Ryouga.
* {{Crossover}}: Between ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' + ''RanmaOneHalf,'' {{Batman}}, {{Superman}}, The JusticeLeague, InuYasha, and ''{{X-COM}}''.
* CrossoverShip: Jinx/Ryouga, Raven/Ryouga, Starfire/Ryouga, with XCOM Ryouga lampshading that it starts to sound like TenchiMuyo, whereas he has a more realistic relationship.

* MoralEventHorizon: See above. The enemy is deliberately constructed in such a manner that justifies virtually every single aspect of what by real world standards translate as war-crime acts, and with every alternate angle covered, as such idealists are left with no other option but conform, and run over their lines of restraint. That said, in this type of unrealistic scenario, it would obviously be justified as no other option was left, but the narrative is still very (mis)leading.

* AmnesiacLover: Raven did some editing to Jinx's mind. Now she isn't in love with Ryouga, and doesn't remember ever being in love with him, despite remembering who he is.

* CentralTheme: Set from the beginning chapter with InuYasha, and being that we all have to wake up and not spend our lives in a coma, which is sympathetic in theory, but the early execution reads more like: "Wake up and smell the rotting corpses, burning ozone, absolute savagery, and infinite abyss of despair and entropy!", which is probably not the best approach. It turns much better on that front though.

* RelationshipResetButton: Ryouga ended up being paired off with Jinx, due to a combination of growing closer with Jinx and feeling too guilty to start a serious relationship with Raven. Then Raven went nuts, nearly {{Brainwashed}} him into being her [[PropertyOfLove love slave]], and erased Jinx's attraction to Ryouga. Now in Ryouga's eyes, he and Raven are "even", and Jinx isn't attracted to him anymore. Congratulations, Raven, you've just set everyone [[spoiler: except Starfire]] back to square one.

* TheArthurDent: Nabiki

** The "Road To Cydonia" counterparts of Ryoga and Ranma have been willing to kill armed, though extremely outmatched, non-superhuman opponents in battle.

* VillainProtagonist and TokenEvilTeammate: XCOM Shampoo. X-Com Nabiki appears comparatively HeelFaceTurn most of the time due to her near FateWorseThanDeath experience, but allegedly plans to start her own world-spanning war-profiteer and mercenaries-for-hire organisation, which would turn her much worse than DT Nabiki/[[CompleteMonster a more extreme version of]] [[BlackLagoon Balalaika]]). Jinx kind of qualifies to a degree, but she is genuinely improving, and was simply a burglar, not an assassin.

** Initially, in Titans and the Lost Boy, Ryouga (and by extension, the rest of the Ranma crew), as well as Starfire and Cyborg are all drastically reduced in strength. As the story progressed, the author has been slowly been bringing them back up to their levels displayed in the animated series source materials. Ryouga and Starfire are represented as close in strength as a concious choice by the author, as, although her greatest blatant feat of strength was far beneath manga Ryouga's, she was sometimes able to challenge Cyborg. Cyborg, whose top showing in the animated series include tearing up an office building and using it as a bludgeon, which matches Lime keeping open a closing ravine, is presented as an order of magnitude stronger than either of them.
** Since the author is using the Ranma anime and Titan's animated series as alpha canon (for observable combat feats, as opposed to trying to extrapolate from static page images), and the Ranma manga and Titans Go comic as Beta canon, quickly followed by the DCAU and other animated DC shows as third canon, followed finally by the actual DC comic lines for the lowest level of canon, this means that although the speed and skill feats for the Ranma crew are still superior to the Titan's cast, unlike the manga's supersonic speed and unearthly skill, it is not by an insurmountable level. Again, this was done as a balance issue, as the manga has showings far in excess of those shown in the anime, although Cyborg and Starfire were actually usually presented as far less physically extreme than their (much more compelling) animated series counterparts.

** As a reverse counterpoint, another notable case of this trope is Starfire's flight speed. Despite her ability to fly FTL, both in the animated show and in the comics, she has been dropped to sub relativistic speeds in regards to Reflections.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Initially, in Titans and the Lost Boy, Ryouga (and by extension, the rest of the Ranma crew), as well as Starfire and Cyborg are all drastically reduced in strength. As the story progressed, the author has been slowly been bringing them back up to their appropriate levels, as per showings in their respective anime and animated source materials. Ryouga and Starfire are represented as close in strength(a concious choice by the author, as she is alluded to be stronger than Cyborg in several cases, which is another case of powerseep_, with the later having a minor, but noticeable edge. Cyborg, who's top showing in the animated series include tearing up an office building and using it as a bludgeon, is an order of magnitude stronger than either of them.
Since the author is using the Ranma anime and Titan's animated series as alpha canon(for observable combat feats, as opposed to trying to extrapolate from static page images), and the Ranma manga and Titans Go comic as Beta canon, quickly followed by the DCAU and other animated DC shows as third canon, followed finally by the actual DC comic lines for the lowest level of canon, this means that the speed and skill feats for the Ranma crew are still superior to the Titan's cast, it is not by an insurmountable level. Again, this was done as a balance issue, and for fairness sake, as both manga and comics have showings far in excess of those shown in the animated formats.
Finally, a notable case of this trope is Starfire's flight speed. Despite her ability to fly FTL, both in the animated show and in the comics, she has been dropped to sub relativistic speeds in regards to Reflections.

* SuperStrength: Starfire and Cyborg are both significantly stronger than the [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Nerima Wrecking Crew]].

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Ryouga and the entire Ranma cast are severely depowered in strength, speed, precision, and generally skill, to greatly accommodate the Titans, especially Starfire. On the other hand, othervise even Akane would be able to take all of them out before they had a chance to react, but it is turning increasingly selectively favouring nevertheless. In Dark Titans Ryouga was portrayed as roughly even with Starfire in strength (as opposed to around 20 times stronger), but she is increasingly exceeding him. On the other hand anime-Cyborg actually was roughly as strong as Lime, but not nearly as swift or skilled obviously.

From Lathis and Cap'n Chryssalid comes a MegaCrossover between their own [[CrossOver crossover fics]], ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and ''FanFic/TheRoadToCydonia''. ''Reflections Lost on a Dark Road'' is canonical to both ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and ''FanFic/TheRoadToCydonia'' and looks like it will have lasting effects on both. This fic is still in progress and has been being released on a weekly basis for about half a year.

* CentralTheme: Set from the beginning chapter with InuYasha, and being that we all have to wake up and not spend our lives in a coma, which is a sympathetic in theory but the early execution reads more like: "Wake up and smell the rotting corpses, burning ozone, absolute savagery, and infinite abyss of despair and entropy!", which is probably not the best approach. It gets much better on that front though.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Shampoo seems to feel that this may be happening to her since the arrival of Yankee Squad. And she isn't happy about it. Every single psychic in X-COM when compared to Raven. She outdoes them, and doesn't need a psi-amp to do it.

* AntiHero: DT Ryouga, Raven, and Ranma are types II, but Raven is quickly marching downwards lately. Since arriving in the XCOM-verse, she's lost her telekinetic powers, but gained the ability to possess the enemy to turn them into kamikaze meat-puppets. X-Com Ryoga is a type III-IV. Shampoo is a Type IV.

* BrokenAesop: [[GenkiGirl Anime Starfire]] [[OutOfCharacter somehow rationalises]] restraint against non-superpowered opponents as a version of supremacism, and not in the "You should show restraint against the aliens as well" direction, but rather [[KillEmAll the other one]]. [[hottip:*: Possibly a very loose, some generations-removed, memetic leftover from the popular online or GTA style: "If you are willing to accept the unavoidable realities of eating animals, you have to be willing to murder, eat, and put anybody in a genocide camp, or you're a hypocrite, as benevolence has to include all or nothing, and as all is impossible per definition you should all become casual spree-killers, or you are all horrible people" rationale.]] This despite that her teammates would have preferred to use non-lethal force against the alien war-breeds as well, but they were conceptually designed to be impossible to use it against, and near impossible to even keep alive in confinement to boot. However, she also makes a valid point about that the term "[[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inhuman inhuman]]" is contradictory, as there will always be some human perfectly willing to commit any level of atrocity.

* OutOfCharacter: Absolutely excellent in TTATLB and DT, but: The "Road To Cydonia" counterparts of Ryoga and Ranma have been willing to kill armed, though likely outmatched, human opponents and alien enemies in battle. A much smaller issue is that Ryoga, whose entire point during the manga was that he liked Akane because he mistook her for a super-strong Kasumi with the same interests as him, was then paired off with a girl much closer to his/their actual ideal, sans the superhuman martial arts (Akari). In both the DT-verse and the X-COM-verse, Ryouga befriends and ends up in a relationship with a mischievous sociopath (Jinx)(Nabiki), although DT-verse Ryouga ended up attracted to Jinx initially because of mind-control.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Shampoo seems to feel that this may be happening to her since the arrival of Yankee Squad. And she isn't happy about it.
** Every single psychic in X-COM when compared to Raven. She outdoes them, and doesn't need a psi-amp to do it.

* PlayingWithSyringes: What X-COM does to [[spoiler: Trenchard Akari]].
** What the aliens tried to do to [[spoiler: Jinx]].

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Ryouga and the entire Ranma cast are severely depowered in strength, speed, precision, and generally skill, to greatly accommodate the Titans, especially Starfire. On the other hand, othervise even Akane would be able to take all of them out before they had a chance to react, but it is turning increasingly selectively favouring nevertheless.

* TheShrink: Psychiatrists are repeatedly mentioned throughout the story, and apparently all of X-COM regularly sees them. We even get to meet one in the form of Dr. Phillips.

* VillainProtagonist and TokenEvilTeammate: XCOM Shampoo. [[MoralEventHorizon She plays assassination-games with her prey for sexual gratification]], [[{{Bully}} including completely outmatched humans]]. X-Com Nabiki appears comparatively HeelFaceTurn most of the time due to her near FateWorseThanDeath experience, but allegedly plans to start her own world-spanning war-profiteer and mercenaries-for-hire organisation, which would turn her much worse than DT Nabiki/[[CompleteMonster a more extreme version of]] [[BlackLagoon Balalaika]]). Jinx kind of qualifies to a degree, but she is genuinely improving, and was simply a burglar, not an assassin.

* RelationshipResetButton: Ryouga ended up being paired off with Jinx, due to a combination of growing closer with Jinx and feeling too guilty to start a serious relationship with Raven. Then Raven went nuts, nearly {{Brainwashed}} him into being her [[PropertyOfLove love slave]], and erased Jinx's attraction to Ryouga. Now in Ryouga's eyes, he and Raven are "even", and Jinx isn't attracted to him anymore. Congratulations, Raven, you've just set everyone back to square one.

* {{Determinator}}: Pretty much all of the Teen Titans, India Squad, and Juliet Squad, but special notice goes to Jinx and [[spoiler: Akari]]. They go on a hundred kilometer dash to the nearest city through a snow filled forest while fighting off armed aliens, fending off mental attacks by an ethereal, and fending off large tracking monsters that were raised by [[spoiler: Akari]] herself, and all while dressed in a manner unsuited for the environment. Then, when [[spoiler: Akari's]] operation is sabotaged by X-COM Ryouga, Jinx immediately joins the Titans in a mission to hunt down and capture an etherial so that [[spoiler: they can replace the brain Ryouga destroyed,]] all on the off chance that the operation will save [[spoiler: Akari]]'s life [[spoiler: without returning her to the Mind's control.]]

* OutOfCharacter: Absolutely excellent in TTATLB and DT, but: The "Road To Cydonia" counterparts of Ryoga and Ranma have been perfectly willing to kill an awful lot of completely outmatched human opponents, even if not strictly necessary, which is one of the most defining qualities that the original characters would as good as ''[[BullyHunter never]]'' do. [[FriendToAllLivingThings Kasumi]] is here perfectly willing to participate in ColdBloodedTorture, and [[ExtremeDoormat Konatsu]], whose entire point was that he had no natural urge to kill whatsoever and had to be drugged by magic to get any, now hears voices in his head urging him to murder while constantly running dozens of graphic dismemberment scenarios in his head. Canon Konatsu would be running paralysis potion, and other disabling without permanent harm, scenarios. A much smaller issue is that Ryoga, whose entire point during the manga was that he liked Akane because he mistook her for a super-strong Kasumi with the same interests as him, and was then paired off with a girl much closer to his/their actual ideal, sans the superhuman martial arts. In both the DT-verse and the X-COM-verse, Ryouga is now mainly attracted to a mischievous sociopath, [[UnfortunateImplications one of which looks like a 12-year old]]. Although DT-verse Ryouga ended up attracted to Jinx initially because of mind-control.

* {{Determinator}}: Pretty much all of the Teen Titans, India Squad, and Juliet Squad, but special notice goes to Jinx and [[spoiler: Akari]]. They go on a hundred kilometer dash to the nearest city through a snow filled forest while fighting off armed aliens, fending off mental attacks by an etherial, and fending off large tracking monsters that were raised by [[spoiler: Akari]] herself, and all while dressed in a manner unsuited for the environment. Then, when [[spoiler: Akari's]] operation is sabotaged by X-COM Ryouga, Jinx immediately joins the Titans in a mission to hunt down and capture an etherial so that [[spoiler: they can replace the brain Ryouga destroyed,]] all on the off chance that the operation will save [[spoiler: Akari]]'s life [[spoiler: without returning her to the Mind's control.]]

* BrokenAesop: [[GenkiGirl Anime Starfire]] [[OutOfCharacter somehow rationalises]] restraint against non-superpowered opponents as a version of supremacism, and not in the "You should show restraint against the aliens as well" direction, but rather [[KillEmAll the other one]]. [[hottip:*: Possibly a very loose, some generations-removed, memetic leftover from the popular online or GTA style: "If you are willing to accept the unavoidable realities of eating animals, you have to be willing to murder, eat, and put anybody in a genocide camp, or you're a hypocrite, as benevolence has to include all or nothing, and as all is impossible per definition you should all become casual spree-killers, or you are all horrible people" rationale.]] This despite that her teammates would have preferred to use non-lethal force against the alien war-breeds as well, but they were conceptually designed to be impossible to use it against, and near impossible to even keep alive in confinement to boot. However, she also makes a valid point about that the term "inhuman" is contradictory, as there will always be some human perfectly willing to commit any level of atrocity, although the correct term is "[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inhumane inhumane]]".

* AntiHero: DT Ryouga, Raven, and Ranma are types II, but Raven is quickly marching downwards lately. Since arriving in the XCOM-verse, she's lost her telekinetic powers, but gained the ability to possess the enemy to turn them into kamikaze meat-puppets. X-Com Ryoga is a type III-IV. Shampoo is a Type V.

** Shampoo is also here portrayed as at least as extreme as [[PsychoForHire the Russian mercenaries that Starfire condemned]]. The psychologist that Starfire spoke to, here stating that UNETCO members who started to not find the act of murder unpleasant and actually greatly enjoyed it were sensibly weeded out of the organisation, yet Shampoo is still there without anybody batting an eyelash.

* SociopathicSoldier: Shampoo to extremes, and possibly Mousse.