[Ranma][Fanfic] Childhood of a Modern Dynasty - Chapter 29: Birth Pains and Stormy Reunions ======================================================================= Childhood of a Modern Dynasty Chapter 29: Birth Pains and Stormy Reunions Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission Childhood of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and copyright 1998-2000 by Jim Lazar An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime. "Speech text in double quotes is spoken as Japanese unless otherwise specified as English or Mandarin." E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: jim [at] animeprime.com Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for all released CMD stories, graphics files, and other information: http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md ======================================================================= December 19-23, 1999 - Southern Florida, USA "This is where the bus driver said those two kids disappeared a couple days ago," a middle-aged man remarked with a thick southern accent. He was dressed in a Florida State Trooper uniform, which was already covered with splashes of mud from trudging through the swamp. The sun was low in the western sky as he looked back at his young partner and laughed at the sight of seeing him covered from head to toe with mud. "Shut up!" The young trooper, who looked like he was just out of his teens, wiped some more mud off his face, but didn't really make any noticeable impact on the mud. "Dammit... we've been looking for hours! This is pointless. If they aren't back by now, the 'gators must have got them." "I hope not." "Well, no one's heard from them since they ran from the bus and none of the other searches have turned up anything." "You really have to learn to be less fatalistic. I mean, they could just have run off and are happily jumping each other's bones somewhere." "Maybe, but... erk..." The young trooper tripped over something and fell into the muddy water. He splashed around for a few moments before rising to the surface. "Dammit..." The older trooper started to laugh at his partner's predicament, but went silent when something caught his eye through the thick fog. His jaw dropped open. The young man swore again and pulled on the object he had tripped on. He went white when he saw the skeleton emerge from the water. He shuddered and dropped the ribcage he had been holding. "Shit!! That... that was human!!" He looked at his partner. "Vern, call... what's wrong, Vern?" The older man held a shaky hand up and pointed behind the young trooper. The young trooper looked behind him and then backpedaled away, tripping into the mud once again. He bobbed to the surface and reached for his radio. "This is squad fifty-one in the Everglades, south-west off route forty-one at mile marker ten. Come in dispatch!" "Go ahead, fifty-one." "We've got... something going on down here. Get everything you can spare into the area. Boats, helicopters... TANKS, everything!" "What's the nature of the emergency, fifty-one?" The young man opened his mouth to reply, but found he was at a loss for words. "I have no idea..." he said softly. "Please repeat that, fifty-one?" "We found... a tall, black, rectangular... monolith. And there's all kinds of black lightning flashing around it." He peered into the swamp that lay between him and the monolith. He frowned when he thought he saw something move in front of him. "What?!" "You heard me... get some people out here fast!!" The young officer looked at this partner and gasped. "Vern!! Get out of the way of..." He searched for words to describe what he saw, but could only find one. "The blackness!!" -C- -M- -D- "Vern!! Get out of the way of... the blackness!!" The dispatcher threw down her headset as a loud piercing scream was heard and then the transmission ended with a loud warbling burst of static. "Shit..." Her supervisor walked over. "What's the problem, Marlene?" Marlene rubbed her ear. "Fifty-one said they found something in the Everglades and then their transmission went all haywire." Her supervisor bent down and checked her board. "Odd. What did they find?" Marlene hesitated. "Um... well, he said a tall, black monolith." "Like in that old movie? Gee, those guys are in a lot of trouble. I expect these kind of jokes from the public as the millennium approaches, but not state troopers and especially not on *MY* watch." He took a last look at the board. "Log it and keep trying to raise them every fifteen minutes." "But what if it's not a joke?" Her supervisor sighed. "Trust me, Marlene, despite what all the doomsayers say, the world isn't going to end on December thirty-first." -C- -M- -D- The next morning, a helicopter flew low over the everglades towards the last known location of the troopers. "No sign of the troopers yet." A pause. "Or the big bad monolith, for that matter." "Can the humor, Air Four, the troopers may or may nor have been playing a joke, but they are missing. It was too foggy to mount a full search last night, so keep a sharp eye out for them," was the dispatcher's non-amused response. "Roger. It's still pretty foggy out here, but we'll do our best." The pilot and co-pilot scanned the fog-shrouded swamp below them for any sign of the troopers. "Where could they be? They found the squad car last night, but no sign of the troopers," the co-pilot asked as he scanned the swamp. "This had better not be a joke, I was supposed to be going..." The pilot peered ahead. "What the hell is..." The black lightning bolt he had just seen hit the helicopter before he could finish his question. "Damn!!" He wrestled with the controls, trying to stay airborne. The co-pilot hit the radio switch. "This is Air Four, have spotted a tall black monolith shooting black lightning bolts. It must be two or three hundred feet tall and..." -C- -M- -D- "It must be two or three hundred feet tall and..." The transmission dissolved into static. The dispatcher keyed her mike. "Say again, Air Four?" There was no response. The dispatcher looked over her shoulder. "Sir!!" -C- -M- -D- "Angela Rodriguez, Miami Herald. Colonel, what is the Army doing here?" the reporter shoved a tape recorder in the Army officer's face. She was in her forties, well built with both curves and muscles spread out across her nicely proportioned body. Her face showed the signs of a long career finding the story at the expense of sleep and time at the beauty parlor. Despite a somewhat haggard look, her eyes radiated intelligence and beauty. Colonel Short stepped off his Humvee and waved her away. "No comment." He tucked in an errant shirttail and straightened his Army-issue baseball cap over his crew-cut hair. His shirt was just a tad too small to hide his large gut developed during his time behind a desk. The reporter pressed her attack. "But there must be some reason for this huge deployment." Angela gestured to the rows and rows of Army trucks and Humvees. "It's just a simple training exercise." Just then, a crew threw off the tarps on a couple large flatbed trucks and revealed two large tanks underneath. "Do you normally train in the swamp with tanks?" The colonel hesitated. "Yes..." "Aren't they too heavy?" "They perform support roles at the edge during swamp operations. As I said, this is just a training exercise." "Does this have anything to do with the reports of the missing people in this part of the Everglades?" The colonel's face fell and he turned away. "Corporal, get this woman out of here!!" Angela thought. "What are you hiding in the swamp, Colonel?" "Hiding? Nonsense. It's just a simple..." "... training exercise," Angela completed the sentence. "Save me the cover story. We've heard that several people were reported missing in this area including two state troopers and a search helicopter. And now the Army comes in here with all this hardware. What's going on, Colonel?" "Corporal!" -C- -M- -D- Two squads of soldiers held their M16 rifles over their heads as they waded through the chest high water. They scanned the area in front of them as they closed in on the target. The squad's leader, Sergeant Reeves, spoke into his headset. "Four hundred meters to target, no activity." His blue eyes scanned the area in front of his men. "Stay sharp, men. We've already lost three helicopters and the first squad never reported back." The newest member of the squad caused ripples in the water as his body trembled. He snapped his head to the side suddenly. "Sergeant!" Sergeant Reeves looked at the private. "What is it?" The private frowned. "Um... I thought I saw something to the left." Heads snapped to the left and scanned the area. Seeing nothing but gentle ripples on the water's surface, the Sergeant looked ahead again. "It's just your nerves, kid. Keep going." "I could have..." The private's words were cut off when a black mass appeared around him. "What the fuck is that!!" a corporal behind him screamed as he saw the black form appear out of nowhere and wrap its tentacles around the private. Heads snapped around, but the Buyierfei had already submerged beneath the water, leaving only the churning water to mark the private's previous existence. "Corporal, where's Johnston?" the Sergeant asked, scanning the area. The corporal who was behind the private pointed at the water which was settling down. "Some big black thing appeared and dragged him under the water!!" "An alligator?" "No... it had tentacles." "An octopus in the Everglades?" one of the other soldiers remarked. "No..." The corporal's eyes went wide. "What then?" "That!!" The corporal shouted and pointed behind the sergeant. The sergeant just had time to turn around before a tentacle was thrust through his chest. He thrashed about before being thrown across the clearing by the Buyierfei. As its tentacle lost contact with the sergeant, the creature vanished save for the ripples it caused in the water. The other soldiers watched their leader fly away from them and then looked back at the ripples in the water. Looking closely, they could just make out areas in the water that were not filled with water, as if something they couldn't see was displacing the water. And those areas were quickly closing in on the soldiers. The corporal swore. "Damn! They're invisible!! Open fire!!" The soldier's readied their weapons, but still looked around. "At what?!" "Anything you don't see!!" At first, no one opened fire, so the corporal started firing blindly at the ripples where the sergeant had been standing. Several small black bloodspots appeared in mid air, which were moving fast towards the corporal. "I said open fire, dammit!!" Dozens of rifles opened fire simultaneously. -C- -M- -D- "This is Bravo squad!! We are under attack by unfriendlies!!" Back at the field H.Q., the radio operator replied to the shouted transmission. "Say again, Bravo?" "Some sort of invisible creatures!!" Gunshots could be heard in the background. "Bullets don't seem to affect them!! We can see wounds appear, but they just keep coming!!" A loud scream was heard. "Jose, behind you!!" Colonel Short grabbed the mike from the radio operator. "Corporal, fall back and regroup." "Fall back to where? They're all around us!!" A rapid series of gunshots were heard before a last muffled scream. Then silence. The radio operator retrieved the mike and started to try and contact the squad. "Bravo squad, come in." Silence. "Bravo squad, come in." The colonel frowned and looked around. "Major!" An officer scurried up and saluted. "Yes, sir?" "Send four companies in and have them spread out along a two-kilometer radius from the anomaly." "Sir?" "So far everything we've sent from the air has either been destroyed or attacked at about two kilometers from it. The ground troops can get a little closer, but I'm not sending more men in that close until we can get more information. Have the teams observe the anomaly from the two kilometer mark." The colonel pointed at a satellite photo showing the large black monolith surrounded by a thousand-meter wide area of brown foliage. "Yes, sir. Anything else, sir?" "Not for you." The colonel watched the major rush away and then turned towards the radio operator. "Get me the south artillery unit on the radio." "Yes, sir!" -C- -M- -D- Two large missiles cut through the air above the Everglades heading straight for the black monolith that towered above the trees. They hit the black surface and exploded. A huge fireball engulfed the monolith and rolled across the already dead area around it. When the flames died down, they left the monolith unscathed in a deep, blackened crater. The foliage at the edge of the crater smoldered and sent smoke into the Florida sky. The water from the swamp slowly refilled the blackened crater. "This is Foxtrot company, the scorpions have impacted. No change in the anomaly. Repeat, no change in the anomaly." The same report was radioed in from the other companies. A dozen more missiles were fired in two more salvos and produced the same results as the first two: nothing. Colonel Short threw down the headphone in disgust after the last attack. "Damn, what else can go wrong?" "Colonel! We've just received word passed through Division that there's another anomaly in Tokyo!!" "I shouldn't have asked," Colonel Short muttered. He looked up and saw his intelligence officer. "Are they being attacked by these... things too?" The intelligence officer shook his head. "No, sir. There was mention of possible activity when it first appeared, but nothing confirmed by the local authorities. It's been quiet for the past three days." "Three days? It must be hidden like this one was then?" "No, sir, it appeared in the middle of a schoolyard right after classes let out." "And it wasn't in the news right away?" The officer shook his head. "It still isn't. Apparently, the local police and newspapers are considering it a hoax." The colonel blinked loudly twice. "I'd better talk to the general." -C- -M- -D- Angela frowned as she listened to the audiotape. "Anomaly?" She made some notes in her notebook and then lowered the headphones. "There's something out there in the swamp that they are trying to destroy... but what?" She pulled the tape out of her walkman and looked at it again, as if there would suddenly be some clue as to where it came from that she had missed the first half-dozen times she had listened to it. She had found it in her mail slot when she returned home that evening. She stood up and pulled off her sweater and dropped onto the bed in just a T-shirt and panties. Lying on her stomach, she scanned the map she had laid out earlier. She traced the locations she had recorded earlier. "The Army mobile H.Q. is here. They are firing missiles from the mobile artillery unit stationed here." She indicated a spot about twenty miles to the southwest. "And they have taken over and shutdown the small airport here." She drew imaginary lines between all the spots with her fingers and made a circle in the center of them. "This 'anomaly' has to be in the middle here somewhere." She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "Time to find a way into that swamp, I think. I can't get in from the air, the FAA has restricted all air travel in the area. Even commercial flights are being diverted. Maybe Serg..." "Mommy?" a little boy interrupted from the doorway. He was about ten years old and wiped the sleep out of a pair of green eyes. Angela smiled at her son. "Yes, Bobby?" "I can't sleep. I had a bad dream." "Awww... come here." Angela held out her hands. Her son bounced over and she embraced him. "Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of." -C- -M- -D- "Are you sure you can get around the Army?" Angela shouted above the din made by the hovercraft's large fan. "No, problem, Miss," Sergio responded from the seat just in front of her. When she had hired the large Cuban alligator hunter, he had assured her that he knew the swamp better than anyone and could get her into the area the Army had cordoned off. "But, Sergio, they're sure to see this thing!" She looked around the dark swamp, expecting to collide with some unseen object at any moment. "Or at least hear us!!" "Yes, they would, but we won't be using it the whole way." "Then what?" The tall man smiled and looked down at the air tanks strapped to the side of the hovercraft. Angela gulped. She shook her head to clear it of the happy memory. -C- -M- -D- An hour later, Angela rose to the surface and gasped for air. It was more from an instinctive need to breathe normally than needing oxygen since the air tanks had worked flawlessly. She watched Sergio surface and crawl onto the shore. "Now what?" "We wait here until dawn." Angela shrugged the air tank off her shoulders. "Why?" "Only fools travel on foot in the swamp at night. We wait here until we can see where we're going." Inside, he had other reasons. She looked around. "Is it safe to just sit here?" Sergio's response didn't exactly reassure Angela. "Sure, we just let the 'gators come to us. They're easier to kill that way." -C- -M- -D- In the morning, Angela followed closely behind Sergio as they made their way slowly through the swamp. "You could have left the hide behind," she commented, glancing at the remains of the alligator he had draped over his shoulders. Sergio smiled and patted his trophy. "Are you kidding? This will fetch me a fortune on the black market." Mentally noting to research the current market for alligator skins for a possible future story, Angela followed close behind him. She tried to look brave, but her darting eyes betrayed her nervousness. "How much further?" "Hard to say, but we are inside the Army's perimeter, so it shouldn't be far now." As Sergio said that, his eyes went wide. "Miss, look!" Angela followed his gesture and gasped. She took several photos of the crashed helicopter and then walked toward it. "Hmmmmmm... Well, that's one part of the rumors confirmed." She looked inside the smashed cockpit, but couldn't see any sign of any bodies. "No one inside." She frowned as she pulled her hand away from the edge of the doorframe and saw that her fingers were covered in some kind of black substance. She rubbed her fingers and noticed a fine black powder fall off. She shrugged and looked around. "Let's keep going." Sergio nodded and started walking. After several minutes, they reached a large blackened mound of earth. "Whaaaa..." Sergio frowned. "This wasn't here the last time I came through this part of the Everglades." Angela scanned the large hill, which was riddled with pieces of trees and scorched vegetation. "This must be from the missiles the Army was firing. We're close, I can feel it." Sergio nodded. "Let's climb to the top and get a look at the area." Angela nodded and started climbing. They were about twenty feet apart by the time they reached the top. They gasped in unison when they saw the vast area of decaying vegetation and black burn marks spread out before them. "Holy crap!!" Sergio exclaimed and crossed himself. And then there was the sight of the tall black monolith in the middle of the clearing, of course. Angela's jaw dropped. It took several seconds for her to regain some of her wits before she started taking pictures. "That has to be the 'anomaly' they are so interested in." She took dozens of pictures of the towering black monolith in the center of the large clearing and then paused to reload. "I don't blame them." "We should leave now..." Sergio started backing up. Angela snapped her camera's back shut and looked at him. "We just got here." She slipped the exposed roll of film into her bra and started taking pictures again. "Damn, this is going to be on the front page for sure!" "Please, Miss, that's enough. I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but if that thing's here then the stories of people being killed may be true." Angela finished going though another roll and was changing it when she noticed the water around the monolith seemed to be rippling in an odd pattern. She couldn't pinpoint it, but the ripples didn't seem to be caused by anything that she could see. She slapped the back of her camera closed and took a few pictures of the ripples. "Odd, what could be..." She went silent when she saw a black form flash into existence as it jumped onto Sergio. The creature wrapped its long tentacles around the man and they tumbled down the side of the mound locked together in a ball of limbs and tentacles. When they hit the water, Sergio tried to grab a branch to keep from being pulled under, but several more tentacles rose from the water and helped the first creature drag him under the water's surface. It had all happened so fast, that Angela hadn't had time to react at all. She didn't take any pictures, run in terror, or try to hide. It was only after she saw the ripples start to move in her direction that her feet started backpedaling. "Shit... time to go, Angela." As she turned around, she felt something cold and oily touch her bare arms. She jumped forward instinctively and ended up tumbling down the side of the huge mound of earth. She was bruised and battered when she hit the bottom. She got shakily to her feet and took off running blindly through the swamp. She could hear something crashing through the swamp behind her, but she dared not look back. In her mad dash, she lost track of time and direction as she fled from her pursuers. When she spotted the soldiers that she had taken such extreme steps to avoid the night before, she cried out and waved her hands to attract their attention. "Help me!! There's something after me!!" The soldiers snapped alert at her shout. One of the privates called into his headset. "Sergeant, we have a civilian at position thirty-two!" The Sergeant replied. "Turn him around like the others." "Sir, it's a woman and she's coming FROM the anomaly!!" "What?" By the time the Sergeant had rushed to the area, Angela had just reached the row of soldiers. "Run!! There's something behind me!!" Angela spat, running right past the private. The private reached out and managed to grab her wrist. "Hold it there, ma'am." Angela turned around and tried to get out of his grip. "Let me go!!" Her eyes went wide as she saw the bushes rustle a few yards back. "They're coming!" She pointed with her free hand. The private looked back and saw dozens of bushes moving, but not what was moving them. "Shit. Another attack!" He released her arm and lifted his gun. Bullets screamed into the swamp, producing small hovering wounds that continued forwards without any hesitation. The nearby solders started firing with their weapons. Besides producing more floating wounds, the additional bullets didn't help much. In fact, they ended up making the soldiers more terrified as they were now able to tell how many creatures were attacking them. The Sergeant saw what was happening and turned to his radioman. "Washington, call H.Q. and tell them that we're under attack again by the invisible unfriendlies!" He scanned his men, trying to determine where the enemy was. He barked out a loud order to his men. "Grenades! Throw them at the floating wounds! Maxwell, get that girl and take her to H.Q.! " "Yes, Sarge!!" Private Maxwell replied and took off after Angela. The other soldiers in the area tossed grenades into the swamp. A series of explosions followed. Before the soldier's startled eyes, pieces of Buyierfei flashed into existence and gave them their first good view of the Buyierfei. And their last. -C- -M- -D- "Stuart, hold the front page!" Angela shouted into her cell phone. As she talked on her cell phone, she was making some notes on an old battered laptop and trying to keep the car on the road as she raced towards Miami. "Yes, the front page. I've got a huge story about what the Army is hiding in the Everglades. There is some sort of huge monolith in the swamp and some kind of creatures that are preventing the Army from getting close to it. I'm not sure exactly, but some sort of mutant octopuses is my best guess at this point." She listened for a bit. "Yes, I've got proof! They took my camera when they detained me at their H.Q., but didn't find my film before I managed to escape after the sun set." She slipped her fingers into her bra and made sure the two rolls were still there. They were. "They'll knock your socks off." She was talking about the film, of course. She listened to her editor, rolling her eyes. "Fine... I'll write the article as you check the pictures out, but I'm telling you this is big!" -C- -M- -D- The moonless night sky cast no light onto Angela as she raced into her apartment after a long night at the newspaper office. "Bobby! Bobby, where are you?" She grabbed the cordless phone off its stand on her way through the living room. The room wasn't filthy, but it showed signs of not being cleaned for several days. The dirt and lack of makeup on Angela's face showed that she hadn't had time to clean herself up either. "Mommy?" a small voice called out from another room. "I'll be right in, dear." Reassured that he was there, Angela started to dial the phone. After an eternity, someone picked up. "Is Mr. Davidson there?" A pause. "I know it's late, just get him on the phone please." Another pause. "I don't have time for this, Rachel! Get my god-dammed ex-husband on the phone! NOW!!" As she heard the frightened housekeeper scurry away, Angela drummed her fingers. A man's voice came from the earpiece. "Yes, what is it now, Angel?" Angela cringed at hearing him use the pet name that he had always used for her. "Mike, I need to send Bobby to stay with you for a while." "After you insisted on keeping him for New Years? Why?" "I'm sure the New York papers will pick up the story and you can read all about it in the morning." "What is it?" "That's not important. I just want Bobby to be safely away from here." "Fine... I'll have two plane tickets waiting at American Airline's counter at the Miami Airport. What time can you get there?" "Just one ticket." "Huh?" "I have a story to cover." "Your job always did come before your family, didn't it?" Angela exhaled, but that didn't help her keep her temper under control. "I'm making sure my family is safe first, asshole!!" "And what about you?" The concern in his voice was evident to everyone except Angela. "I have a job to do. This is the big one." "Fine. Far be it from me to get in the way of your big story." Angela ignored the sarcasm in his voice. "I'll be at the airport within an hour." "I'll have two tickets waiting." "Mike..." Angela growled. "Just in case you change your mind, Angel." "Whatever..." Angela put down the phone gently and clutched her chest. She made her way into her son's bedroom and smiled. "How's my big boy?" The small ten-year-old boy rose from the bed, rubbing his eyes. "Mommy, what's going on?" "Where's Esquella?" Angela asked as she pushed some of her son's clothes into a duffel bag. The little boy shrugged his shoulders. Angela sighed and decided that she'd need to get yet another new babysitter when things calmed down. "Come on, Bobby, we have to get you to the airport so you can go see your daddy." Bobby's eyes' brightened. "Yeaaa!! We're going to Yorkie for Christmas!!" Angela smiled and brushed the hair out of her son's eyes. "Just you, Mommy has to do some work." Bobby's crestfallen look practically caused Angela's heart to jump out of her chest. *********************************************************************** >Excerpt from the Miami Herald, December 24th, 1999 Morning Edition Army Hiding Giant Monolith in Everglades By Angela Rodriguez (staff reporter) What started out as a search in the Everglades for two lost teenagers--who had disappeared into the Everglades from a bus traveling south on Highway 41 on December 16th of this year--has turned into a massive deployment of troops and equipment by the Army units stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia. Since December 20th, the Army has been conducting 'training exercises' in the area according to Colonel Short of the Twenty-fourth Infantry Division. Those training exercises include several tanks, artillery units, and the taking over of a civilian airstrip in the area surrounding the northern part of the Everglades. Since the so-called training exercises have begun, the Army has been restricting access to the area. Although said to be just to protect civilians during the exercises, this reporter has discovered their presence is to hide an object discovered during the search for the two missing teenagers. In the normally peaceful swamps of the Everglades now stands a large black rectangular monolith. Rising at least two hundred and fifty feet above the swamp's surface, a large ring of dead and decaying plant and animal life surrounds it. As the accompanying photos show, the Army has obviously been trying to destroy it. The area around the monolith shows signs of explosions and the remains of at least one helicopter that crashed about a half mile from the monolith. An informant who asked not to be identified has told this reporter that the Army has already sent several squads of soldiers into the swamps, but those approaching the monolith closer than a mile have never returned. Although unverified, reports of attacks on the soldiers by some unknown force have filtered out of the tight security surrounding the Army's operations. This reporter has personally witnessed an attack on a Mr. Sergio Lopez by a large black animal with long black tentacles. The animal grabbed Mr. Lopez and with the help of another animal dragged him under water. Sadly, I presume he was killed. Some unseen animals also attacked me, but I was able to flee from the area to bring you the story. The soldiers that rescued me as I fled the area confiscated my camera and film, but I was able to hide the rolls containing the accompanying photos and leave the area. When questioned by this reporter at the Army's H.Q. along Highway 41, Colonel Short had no comment. >End excerpt *********************************************************************** >From the personal journal of James Davidson: October 30, 2057 "Honey, are you ready?" Hanaki asked as she poked her head into our hotel room. I looked up from my palmtop's holo-display and smiled when I saw Hanaki, Jaki, and Akane in the doorway. "Ah... yeah. I was just going over my grandmother's notes and rereading her article that revealed the First to the world." "I'm insulted." Jaki crossed her arms over her chest and feigned being miffed. "Here you have a chance to be with three hot chicks-" I saw Akane smile slightly at that point. "-and you'd rather work." I sighed. "No, but I had to do something to keep my mind off how stunning you three would look." Jaki smiled broadly. "Damn, you're a slick one." Hanaki giggled as she came over and gave me a quick kiss. "Shall we go?" I nodded and avoided Jaki's attempts to kiss me. She wasn't exactly loose, but she did have a flirtatious side that was a little alarming at times. "We really need to get you a boyfriend, Jaki." "Feh, I'd just kill a guy with this body." Akane and I rolled our eyes. "Okay, we'll find you a girlfriend then." Hanaki quickly ducked the playful swing from Jaki. "So, find anything interesting in your grandmother's notes?" Akane asked suddenly. "Sort of. I've read them many times before, but with the information you, Kasumi, and my mom have given me recently I've seen them in a whole new light." Akane nodded. "Well, she was the first person to break the news about the Buyierfei to the world. I sometimes wonder if we should have told the Japanese government what we knew after the first attack on our house by Tomu. It could have saved some lives." "I'm not so sure. The Japanese government insisted the Nerima monolith was a millennium hoax for the first few days before..." Akane stiffened. "Before they came after my little Daiji." I nodded. "And the U.S. government did their best to hide the First from the public. Without any proof, they would have probably just written your warnings off as the ravings of a mad woman and done nothing to prepare." Akane smiled as we walked out into the hallway and towards the elevators. "Thanks for saying that, James. Maybe you're right, we had no proof that the Buyierfei existed at that point. Just all the black dust they leave behind when they die." "In my grandmother's journal she does indicate she was worried that she might cause a panic by revealing the monolith's existence." "But in the end, she might have helped save a lot of lives." "I like to think so. One of the great joys of reporting is when you can make a difference." Akane smiled slightly. "Sometimes that's the only thing that keeps me going." "Huh?" "The knowledge that my family and I have helped make a difference is the only thing that keeps me fighting. There have been times when I've wanted to give up and let someone else fight the battle." "I can't image you doing that." "I wasn't always this strong. There were times I couldn't see anything but how things affected me and my family." "Well, you were at the center of things when the Three Harbingers appeared." Akane smirked. "You could say that. Hearing about your grandmother helps remind me that a lot of people's lives were radically changed at that time." "From what I know of it, yours was too." Akane nodded. "For better or worse." -C- -M- -D- We picked up Yohachi, Sanma, and the rest of the Task Force members that had come with us to New York and then made our way to the restaurant we had picked out for our dinner party. My mom, Mary, and all of my friends and family who lived in the New York area met us there for a night of celebration. Actually, my uncle Herb came all the way from New Orleans when he heard about the dinner party. I think he may still have a thing for 'The Matriarch'. Like a lot of boys growing up during the Black Wars, he had a crush on Akane. Of course, there were also those who had crushes on Ranko and/or Sanma. Those people will be in for quite a shock when I publish Childhood, since the splits and their original gender were not public knowledge yet. Things were a little awkward at first, since my friends and family seemed to a little awed by Akane and the others. That's to be expected, I guess. I sometimes wonder how Akane handles all the attention she receives from people outside her family. But things loosened up after Hanaki and I dropped our big news. Later after the party broke up, my mom, Mary, Hanaki, Akane, and Yohachi walked into my mom's townhouse with me. Oh... and Sanma, who was riding in Akane's cleavage as usual. It took me a while to get my family to understand why Akane was married to a frog, but I think they understood by the time the party ended. "Well, that went well. I'm glad we could finally make up for our rushed wedding with a nice dinner party for my family," I said as I sat down in the living room. "Oh please, you call your wedding rushed?" Yohachi leaned over and shushed his mother. I smiled at Akane. "Well, it was rushed enough for us." Akane smiled back at me. Hanaki gripped my hand as she sat down next to me. "I hope Jaki doesn't freak out your friend, she's a bit wild on dates." I laughed at the thought. After the dinner party broke up, Jaki and my friend John took off to hit the nightclubs. "I'm not so sure. John is quite a party animal himself, so he could give even Jaki a shock or two." My mom settled into her big chair and exhaled deeply. "It was nice to get out like that." I looked at my mom. "I hope it wasn't too tiring for you?" My mom shook her head. "No... no. It was a great way to tell all of us about my future grandchild." Hanaki blushed and unconsciously put her hand to her stomach. Akane nodded and smiled slightly. "It really was. I wish I could have told Ranma about Yohachi in as nice of a setting." She glanced at her son. Yohachi smirked. "I feel a story coming on." Akane nodded. "Not from me." Yohachi looked confused. So was I, for that matter. Akane looked at my mom. "Deedee, would you like to tell them what happened after you and Ranma got thrown into the First?" My mom nodded. *********************************************************************** Inside the Buyierfei Monolith Deedee awoke to the wonderful sensation of being wrapped in Ranma's arms. She looked up from Ranma's chest and at his face. She took a deep breath and inhaled his masculine scent. "Ah... it was just a nightmare." Then she rose and looked around. She saw a world filled with gray and black shadows, which drifted all around her. She couldn't tell if they were right in front of her face or a million miles away. "Huh?" The memories of her run through the swamp and being attacked by the awful black creatures flooded back into her conscious thoughts. She screamed. Loudly. Ranma awoke at the scream and saw Deedee looking around and screaming. "What's wrong?" "Ranma!! What's going on?!" Deedee threw herself back into his arms. "Where are we?" Ranma got his first good look around and swore. "Crap..." He jumped to his feet and pulled Deedee up to his side. "We're inside the monolith." He moved his right arm and winced. A quick glance at his shoulder confirmed that the alligator that bit into his shoulder had done enough damage to prevent him from using that arm to lift anything. He glanced around. He thought back to his first encounter with the Buyierfei. "What are you thinking?" Deedee's question shook Ranma out of his thoughts. "Oh, just that it's a good thing that we didn't get separated when we got thrown inside." "I feel the same way." Deedee snuggled up to his side. "Deedee..." Ranma scolded. "This isn't the time for that. We're in big trouble here." "Where's 'here'?" Ranma tried to explain it as fast as possible. "We're inside that monolith you stumbled across in the swamp. I've been in one before and managed to escape..." "Great!! Let's go to it then!" Ranma hesitated, knowing he couldn't do it alone. He wasn't about to tell Deedee that, though. "Well, it's not that simple. For now, just don't leave my side and keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual." Deedee looked around, absently tightening the straps on her small backpack. "Um... everything's unusual." "Okay, look for something familiar then." "It's hard to make out anything with all these shifting shadows." Ranma decided not to mention that the shadows were probably the Buyierfei. "Let's start walking. Maybe we can find a different way out." "What do you mean, can't we use the same way you got out before?" Ranma cringed at letting that slip. He was about to answer, but was saved at the last second when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He swung around to the side and kicked his foot out. A Buyierfei flashed into existence as his foot made contact with it and then vanished just as quickly when the kick sent it flying away. "Just like the last time, they don't seem to be attacking us directly." The first time they had been inside a monolith, he had tried to figure out why they didn't seem to attack directly, but never saw any tactical advantage to it. "Ranma... that... thing." "Yes, they are called the Buyierfei." "These shadows all around us are them, aren't they?" Deedee shuddered. Ranma could hear the terror in her voice. He put his arm around her shoulder to reassure her. "Yes... don't worry, we'll get out of this." An unseen assailant suddenly punched him savagely in the stomach. He backed up, trying to keep Deedee away from the Buyierfei he knew must be nearby. -C- -M- -D- A blue ball of chi burned through the shadows, causing the pieces to fall to the soft sponge-like floor. "Wow!!" Ranma sighed. "You don't have to say that every time I send out a blast." "But it's so cool that my boyfriend can do that!" "I'm not your boyfriend!" Deedee pouted. Ranma sighed. "Deedee, I like you as a friend and I'm going to get us out of this nightmare world somehow, but you've got to give up this fantasy." "Why?" Ranma was momentarily stuck for an answer and hesitated. "Um... I love another woman?" "Who's married to your sister!!" Ranma sighed and looked around. "Well, since we seem to have time on our hands, I'll tell you the story." -C- -M- -D- "Who the hell would believe that?!" Deedee shouted. Ranma rolled his eyes. "It's the truth. My sisters are me and I am my sisters. At least we were until the start of this year." "This is so bogus. I've heard of tall tales to dump a girl, but this..." Deedee suddenly clutched her arm as a cut appeared on it from an unseen assailant. "Ouch!!" Ranma swung her out of the way and shot a few small chi balls where she had been standing. A number of Buyierfei fell to pieces as the balls hit them. "Damn..." Deedee ended up on the ground a few meters away when Ranma had thrown her out of the way. "W..." Deedee shut her mouth before she could say wow again. "Why don't you just blast them all like that?" "Because I can't generate an infinite amount of chi blasts. If I try to blast too many at once I'll wear out and I might not have any strength when I really need it. My shoulder wound already has me at a disadvantage in here, I don't need to compound that by wearing myself out before I can figure out how to destroy the heart by myself." "How'd you get that wound anyway?" "I ran into an alligator when I was looking for you in the swamp." Deedee frowned and looked down at the ground. "Sorry." "Don't worry, I've been hurt worse." Ranma knew he wasn't exactly being truthful, but didn't want to worry Deedee any more than she obviously was already. Deedee got to her feet and looked around. "Ranma? Are you sure we can get out of here?" Ranma wasn't sure, but he could hear the dread in her voice. "Of course, I'm the world's greatest martial artist after all." Ranma's confidence seemed to lift Deedee's spirits a bit, but what hope she had vanished when Ranma was engulfed in a huge fireball. "Eeeek!!" "Urk!!" Ranma fell to the ground, smoke rising from his singed clothing. "Oh my god!" Deedee rushed to his side and tried to pat out the parts of his clothing that still seemed to be on fire. "Get away from him!!" Deedee looked over and saw a young woman rush up to then. She noticed that Ranma had been knocked out by the huge blast so she slid to the side to stay between him and the newcomer. "Why'd you hurt Ranma?!" "That's not Ranma. He's the leader of these creatures." The woman gestured at the shifting shadows with the giant spatula she held in her hand. "What's with the stupid spatula?" The woman faltered and glanced at the spatula. "It's a weapon. Now get way from that monster, so I can chop him up!" Deedee tensed and made a snap judgment about the woman. Her first instinct was to run, but then she saw the defenseless Ranma behind her. She took a deep breath and formed a barrier between the crazy woman and Ranma with her body. "Please don't hurt me or my boyfriend!!" Her outstretched arms trembled, betraying her fear. The woman blinked. "You must have been one of the pilgrims. He's not the Son of God, he's an inhuman monster!" "No, he's not!" "He is too!!" "Is not!" The woman grew tired of arguing with the girl and strode forward. "I'm sorry, little girl, but you've been deceived." "I'm sixteen!!" The woman looked at the girl and tried to figure out how to get her out of the way without killing her. "Listen... I know you think this guy's a god, but..." Deedee's chuckled. "A god? Hardly. He's got a pretty high opinion of himself, but he's hardly a god. The blue fire he makes is pretty impressive, but..." The woman frowned. "Blue? Not black?" "Nope... blue fireballs. He used them in the swamp in Florida and here." "Florida?" The woman looked closely at Ranma and gasped when she saw the red blood seeping out of his shoulder wound. "Damn... it is Ranma. How long have you known Ranma?" "Since August, we work at Disney World together." "How the hell did he end up there?" "He killed a dragon and had to repay Disney for it." The woman nodded and didn't seem to be surprised at that statement like most people would be. "And you're his girlfriend?" Deedee looked a little nervous suddenly. "Yeah..." The woman rolled her eyes. "Yup, only Ranma could end up with a girlfriend that fast." She paused to scold herself, since she found herself in a similar predicament. "Akane's going to freak for sure." Deedee looked closely at the woman and suddenly noticed the resemblance. "You... you're his sister, Ranko, right?" The woman smirked and flipped her red pigtail off her shoulder. "Close. I'm his sister Sanma." "Oh... yeah. The other lesbian." Sanma flinched. "I'm not a lesbian!! I'm a guy!" "Whatever." Deedee turned back to Ranma and noticed his shoulder was bleeding. "Damn... he's bleeding again." Sanma crouched down next to Ranma and helped Deedee bind the wound. "How did that happen?" Deedee looked down at the ground. "An alligator bit him." Sanma grimaced at getting a good look at the wound. "More than just bit him, it seems." -C- -M- -D- Deeod watched the shadows drift by. "Looks like it's just you and me, Rant. I don't see anyone else," she said in Mandarin. Rant straightened her sword and looked around. "Yeah, me neither." "I think you're taking me being dead a little too seriously, ladies." Deeod and Rant didn't respond to the voice and continued scanning the area. They didn't notice the young man in a robe standing by their side. Or to be more precise, they choose to not notice him. He was dead after all. "What do we do now?" Rant asked. "We find Sanma and Ukyo, together we may be able to destroy the monolith with two Hiryu Shoten Ha vortexes." Rant looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry I never managed to learn it." Deeod put a hand on Rant's shoulder. "There is no dishonor in not mastering all the ancient techniques, we each earn honor in our own way. My mother trained untold others in the cold wind and taught it to me before she joined our ancestors with honor." Rant smiled. "I will honor the Amazons and you in this battle." She looked around. "What if we can't find the others?" "We die with honor as we take out as much of the Blackness as we can," Deeod said stoically. Rant trembled. "We die with honor." Her voice trembled with her body, betraying her nervousness. Deeod looked at Rant and smiled. "Don't worry, I plan to die with honor, but only after we're old and gray." She leaned in and kissed Rant passionately. Mousse tolled his eyes. He waited for the kiss to end, but it wasn't a quick kiss any way you timed it. -C- -M- -D- Ranma opened his eyes. "Uh?" He tried to get up and grimaced. "Ouch!!" "Take it easy, Ranma. Your wound could open up again." Ranma's eyes focused onto a red pigtail. "Huh? Ran... no... Sanma? What happened?" Sanma looked away awkwardly. "Well..." "Your sister blasted you with one of those fireballs," Deedee explained, trying to be helpful. Sanma looked away awkwardly, unable to look Ranma in his eyes. "Why the hell did you do that!!" "It's a long story. I'll tell you as we walk, since I don't want to stay in one place too long. I've already been 'hit and run' a few times since I arrived." Sanma indicated several cuts on her arms and legs. With Deedee's help, Ranma got to his feet. "How'd you get here?" "We got knocked into the monolith by Shuma." "We? Shuma?" "I think Ukyo, Mousse, and some Amazons might be here too since they were close to me when the monolith engulfed us, but I haven't seen anyone else since I woke up in this place." "Damn... well, at least now we have a chance of destroying the heart." "How'd you get to the Middle East from Florida anyway?" "Huh? The monolith is in Florida." "No, it's in a desert in the Middle East. Shuma and his followers had it hidden there." Ranma frowned. "Could there be two monoliths? And they're connected somehow?" Sanma gasped as he remembered something. "When we destroyed the first one in Australia, the Matriarch mentioned that the Monoliths are connected somehow, so I guess it's possible that the two monoliths both connect to this place." She gestured to the shadows. Ranma nodded. "What were you doing in the Middle East?" "Looking for you, but we found Shuma instead." "So who is this Shuma anyway?" "The Buyierfei's leader. He's a nasty sucker. I sliced off his head and arm, but they reattached themselves." Ranma frowned. "Their leader, huh? Must be one ugly bastard." "Only in his male form, his female form's a knockout." "Huh?" -C- -M- -D- Ranko hung naked in mid air, supported by dozens of long, black tentacles. "Where is the collector?!" a familiar, yet unfamiliar voice called out. Ranko tried to look around, but found herself paralyzed and unable to move. She couldn't even speak. "Where is the infant collector?!" A hand was placed on her stomach and Ranko found that she could suddenly move her head. She looked down at the source of the voice. "Ranma!! What the hell are you doing here? And where's Akane?!" Shuma glared down at Ranko. "The Un-cute-one is being attended to." "I wouldn't let her hear you say that." "Where is the infant collector?" "What do..." Ranko suddenly noticed that Shuma's pupils had gray shadows drifting through them. "Oh no! You're possessed, aren't you?! Fight it, Ranma!!" "You were carrying a collector last time... where is it?" "Carrying? My baby? What do you want Daiji for!" Shuma grinned menacingly. "The same reason we want you and the other collectors, for your ability to collect and store massive amounts of energy. Now where is the infant?!" Ranko struggled to get up, but only her head would move. "I don't care if you are my brother, if you hurt my child I'll kill you!!" "Doubtful. My minions are out searching for the others who have trespassed in our realm now. When they are found, I will drain you and the other collectors and discard the useless flesh that remains." "What others?" "That is unimportant. They may be invisible to my minions here, but eventually we will track them down." Ranko gasped. "Invisible?" She thought back to their first encounter with the Buyierfei in a monolith. "Now then..." Shuma squeezed one of her breasts hard enough to make Ranko grimace. "The seed that was planted allowed me to open a portal and bring you and the Un-cute-one here, but where is the infant?" "Dammit, Ranma, you can't let them control you like this!" "You collectors are all idiots, aren't you? The other female collector could not see the truth either. I'm am not the male collector, I am the key, the focus, and the bridge." "You're not Ranma?' "You may call me Shuma, if you wish. I am infinitely more powerful than you mere collectors." "We'll see about that." Ranko struggled and finally managed to move her arms, but only a few inches. "Impressive. You shouldn't be able to move at all, but your struggles are still fruitless. The limbs that hold you are tapped into your spinal cord and prevent you from controlling your body. You will never be able to overcome it, since the blocking just gets stronger the more you struggle. Now, where is the infant collector?" "Go to hell!!" Shuma put his hand around Ranko's neck and squeezed. "Tell me or I'll snap your neck." "I'd rather die than let you hurt my baby!!" Shuma sighed. "In time... but not until I drain you of all that marvelous energy you have inside you." Ranko spat at Shuma, hitting his face. Shuma wiped the spittle off his face. "Was that supposed to hurt me?" "No, but it made me feel better." Shuma casually grabbed Ranko's left arm and twisted it savagely. A sharp crack was heard. "Then that made me feel better." "Bastard." Ranko felt no pain from the broken arm because of her current state of paralysis. Shuma started to walk away. "Maybe the Un-cute-one will be more responsive. At the very least the collector she carries will be useful. It's not as pure as yours, but it will be useful." Ranko shuddered internally as she realized that Shuma was talking about Akane's child. "Don't you dare hurt my wife or our child!!" Ranko could feel her left arm hanging limply at the side, but still couldn't move anything except her head. "Akane!!" -C- -M- -D- Elsewhere, Akane hung naked above the floor. Like Ranko, she was held in place by a twisted assortment of black tentacles. She could have sworn she heard Ranko call out her name, but was unsure. She had no idea how long she had been hanging there paralyzed or if the occasional sounds she heard were real or imagined. Shuma walked up to her and put his arm on her pregnant belly. "Now then. Where is the infant collector?" Akane suddenly found that she could move her head and looked down. "Ranma? Thank goodness... get me out of here!" Shuma paused and decided to take another approach to the problem. "I'm trying..." He cupped her head tenderly. "Where is..." He recalled the name that Ranko had used. "Daiji?" Akane strained to move, but only her neck muscles showed that strain. "She's back in Nerima. Please... get me out of here!!" "Where?" "Probably at home. Come on, Ranma! Get these tentacles off me!!" "Yes... yes... of course." Shuma made to pull at the tentacles. "They won't move. You mean the home that the bitches guard, right? Daiji is at that home?" "Right... wait... how do you know Daiji's name? And why did you call the Amazons..." Akane's eyes went wide. "Who are you!!" Shuma smiled sweetly. "I'm Ranma." Akane shuddered. "You're possessed!! "You caught on faster than the others." Shuma looked away. "But I guess it doesn't matter, I have the information I need. The seed we planted earlier allowed us to open a portal and capture you; it will be no problem to use it again to send my legions out. The other infant collector will be mine just like this one is." He patted Akane's pregnant belly and then walked away. Dread filled Akane. She looked around frantically, but couldn't see anything but the black shifting shadows. "Leave my children alone, you monster!!" -C- -M- -D- Yukiko swore in Mandarin as the bottle of hot water spilled onto the soft, spongy floor. She looked at the pig. "Sorry." Ryoga squealed and leapt for the hot water, but it had already soaked into the ground. He snorted in disgust and then looked around the world of shadows they had woken up in. "Bweeee?" Yukiko sighed. "My plan didn't go exactly as I had hoped, but at least Daiji and the others should be safe." She paused and looked around trying to catch her bearings. "Hopefully..." She looked down at the pig. "According to Amazon legends, only the gods can get out of a monolith." The pig's chin sank. "But Ranko and Sanma did manage to destroy the heart in Australia." The pig's spirits brightened. "Too bad Sanma and Ranma are not in the Nerima monolith. Ranko is, but she can't destroy the heart by herself and I don't know if I can do their modified Hiryu Shoten Ha attack." The pig grew depressed. Yukiko opened her mouth, giving the pig some hope for a piece of good news, but she shut her mouth when she didn't have any. The pig grew more depressed. Yukiko started to remove the simple housedress she was wearing and revealed the golden armor of the First Matriarch underneath. She checked the blanket she had been carrying the pig in and confirmed that the small bag with Ryoga's things was still there, not that his clothes would fit him now. She looked down at the pig. "Let's go." The pig nodded and started trotting along beside Yukiko as she walked off into the shadows. -C- -M- -D- "Sanma!!" Ukyo called out for the thousandth time. Some might say counting would be a waste of time, but it was all that was keeping Ukyo sane at that moment. "Sanma!!" One thousand and one. Ukyo sighed, adjusted the bandage around a wound on her leg and looked around. "Sanma!" One thousand and two. -C- -M- -D- Yukiko dropped to the soft ground and sighed. "I'm exhausted. I don't even know if we're getting anywhere with all these shadows shifting around us." Ryoga sighed and plopped down by her side. "You want to try another blast?" The pig shook his snout. "Don't want to get too tired, huh?" The pig nodded. "That's okay, they don't seem to make much difference in the long run." Yukiko looked around and saw the same thing she had since they had entered the monolith: shadows, shadows, and more shadows. Gray or black and nothing in between. She didn't even know how long they had been inside. "It's odd how I have no sense of time passing at all. One moment I think we just got here and the next it feels like we've been here a month or two." Ryoga squealed his agreement. Yukiko looked down at the tired pig. "Awww..." She sat down, pulled him up into her lap, and wrapped him in the blanket. "Must be hard keeping up with those little hooves." The pig gave her an irritated look, but seemed to like being curled up in the blanket. "We'll find a way out... somehow." Shuma silently walked up to the huddled woman. "Ah, at last. Give me the baby!" Yukiko looked up and gasped at his sudden appearance. "Ranma? How..." Shuma exhaled. "Yes, I'm Ranma. Give me the baby." Something inside Yukiko sensed danger. "Why?" "I need it to save us all." Yukiko nodded and got up off the spongy ground. Glancing into the blanket and winking, she faced the man. Shuma reached for the blanket and was hit buy a huge surge of energy. The energy threw him backwards over fifty meters and started to burn the shadows all around him. The burning continued until an area the size of a football field was made. In the middle of the burned out area, Shuma lay in a pool of black goo, which was all that remained of the Buyierfei that were burned by Ryoga's blast. Now a woman, Shuma got shakily to her feet and shook the black goo off her body. "What power!! I was right about the infant collector!" Yukiko put down Ryoga. "I was right, Ranma's possessed." She noticed the now female Shuma rise from the pool of black liquid. "And has his curse back, apparently." The pig squealed his agreement and glared at Shuma, who was casually walking up to them. Ryoga started to concentrate on building up energy for another blast. Shuma paused when she got a good look at the pig. "Your children are quite different than your adult forms, aren't they?" She examined the black skin. "It's amazing that something so beautiful can turn into something so ugly when it grows up." Yukiko blinked a few times. She readied her sword and watched Shuma carefully. "Ranma, we'll save you from the Blackness, but you have to fight it!!" "So, you're the head bitch," Shuma remarked, noticing the golden armor for the first time. To punctuate her statement, she sent a large black ball of chi at Yukiko. Yukiko dodged the ball by doing a quick flip to the side and landed in a noble pose. "Yes, I am the Matriarch of the noble Amazon tribe!" Her statement was punctuated with a series of blue chi balls thrown by Ryoga. Shuma escaped most of Ryoga's blasts, but a couple hit her and caused her to stagger backwards. Ryoga started to concentrate on a multitude of depressing thoughts and started to glow yellow. Shuma ran her hand though her black hair. "I must admit, I was surprised that you little sluts survived all these years, but as the key it is my pleasure to pay you back for all the bitches have done to us in the past." Yukiko frowned. "Key? The ancient scrolls speak of five parts to the Buyierfei... The key, the focus, the bridge..." Shuma nodded. "That is I." "The fourth is the body, but what about the fifth? The ancient scrolls never named it..." "The fifth is not your concern any longer." In one fast movement, Shuma thrust her arms out in front of her and started to form a large black chi ball. Ryoga's Shishi Houkou Dan blast enveloped her a split second before she could release the chi ball at Yukiko. While the blast engulfed Shuma and the shadows around her, Yukiko rushed to Ryoga's side. "Ryoga, he's not Ranma!" The pig looked up at Yukiko with a questioning look. "I don't know why he looks like Ranma, but there are five parts to the Buyierfei and if he is what he says he is, then he's their leader. Or at least that's the closest human term for him." Ryoga still looked confused. Yukiko sighed. "That means you don't have to hold back. FRY HIM!" Ryoga thought as he started to grow depressed that his most powerful attack seemed to only slowing down the Buyierfei's leader. This of course helped him gather more energy for another Shishi Houkou Dan blast. Shuma's skin was entirely black as she crawled out of the new lake of black goo. "You are correct, I am not the male collector. You may call me Shuma. But I cannot die." "That's not what the ancient scrolls say!" Yukiko said as she jumped at Shuma. Her sword sliced into Shuma's skin, but didn't go deep before she was pushed away by Shuma and crashed to ground. Shuma shook her head sadly. "You'll have to cut deeper than that if you want to make me take notice of you." She shot a black chi ball at the prone Yukiko. Yukiko instinctively put her hands up in front of her face as the chi ball hit her. As she knew it would, the movement saved her life by allowing the energy to dissipate over the golden robe she wore. "So, the barrier still exists. Well, don't get too confident, the first head bitch died in that thing." Before Yukiko could reply, Ryoga generated another Shishi Houkou Dan blast that engulfed him, Yukiko, and Shuma in a large fireball. The blast didn't hurt Ryoga too badly, since he was the source of the blast. Yukiko was protected by the First Matriarch's armor. Shuma wasn't as lucky. -C- -M- -D- Akane was staring at the shifting shadows like she had been since Shuma left her. Her shouts for help had gone unanswered and she had given up on counting to keep track of time after a couple thousand. For all she knew she had been there for a year already. She would occasionally close her eyes to keep from becoming nauseated from the endless shifting shadows, but she still felt compelled to watch from time to time just to assure herself that she really was trapped inside a monolith and not just having a bad nightmare. Suddenly the shadows stopped shifting and Akane's view became an unmoving patchwork of blank and gray splotches. Shortly after the shadows stopped moving, Akane felt the tentacles fall away from her naked body and she fell into someone's arms. Finding herself released, she put her hand to her pregnant belly and said a silent thanks that her baby seemed to be unharmed. While she was paralyzed, she couldn't feel anything below her neck and kept having horrible thoughts that the Buyierfei would do something to her or her baby. She looked up from her belly to her savor and swore. "You!!" She pushed away and kicked him in the groin. She followed up by thrusting a chi ball into his face. "Take that!!" "Akane, stop!!" Akane looked over and saw Sanma standing with a blond-haired girl. "Sanma?" She turned back and saw Shuma writhing in pain. But not enough pain for Akane. "Threaten my children, will you?" She charged up another chi ball. Sanma rushed over and deflected her arms, causing the blast to shoot off harmlessly into the distance. Well, harmlessly for Ranma at least, the Buyierfei who were vaporized by it were 'harmed' into tiny pieces. "Akane, don't! He's not Shuma. This is really Ranma." Akane couldn't believe Sanma would help the Buyierfei. "He's possessed by the Buyierfei!!" "No, he's not. Shuma is the name of the Buyierfei's leader and, for some reason, he looks like Ranma. Actually he can shift into a female form that looks like Ranko and me as well, only not quite as handsome as us." Akane looked down at Ranma and noticed the red blood on his wounded shoulder. "Oh my..." She reached out to him, but the blond-haired girl rushed past her and cradled him protectively in her arms. Deedee checked his shoulder wound and tenderly wiped his face off with a handkerchief. "You'll be okay, Ranma." She turned and glared at Akane. "How could you hurt him like that, you bitch!!" Akane stared at the newcomer; uneasy with the way the girl was holding Ranma. "Who are you?" "I'm his girlfriend," Deedee blurted. Akane's eye twitched. "What?" she growled. Sanma had taken off her long shirt, leaving her in just her pants and bra. She put the shirt over Akane's naked shoulders. She hugged Akane and spoke softly, trying to calm Akane down. "Relax, Akane, it's just a crush." "It's not!!" Akane looked between the three others and sighed. "Figures he'd go and get another girlfriend. What is it about you three being irresistible to women... and men for that matter?" she asked rhetorically, since she knew firsthand exactly how hard it was to not fall in love with the idiots. She relaxed and strode over to Ranma. Sanma suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Deedee still clung protectively to Ranma, while Akane carefully knelt down in front of him. "Ranma?" She touched his check tenderly. "Ranma, are you alright?" Ranma opened his eyes to a glorious sight. "Akane... I've missed you." Akane leaned in. "Me too, you idiot." Ignoring Deedee's protests, she gave him a long kiss. Ranma held a shaking hand up to her head and savored the touch of her skin. "I love you." "Me too." Ranma looked down and frowned suddenly. "How did Ranko get you pregnant?" Akane and Sanma's jaws dropped. After a stunned silence that lasted several seconds, they started to laugh. Akane pulled his hand and placed it on her stomach. "It's your child, silly." Ranma's eyes when through surprise, amazement, confusion, relief, and finally settled on happiness. "Oh... wow. I had no idea." Akane kissed him tenderly. "That's okay. At least you didn't think I was just fat." "Who'd be stupid enough to think that?" "Hey!! She wasn't as far along as she is now!!" Sanma blurted. Akane chuckled and got to her feet with the help of Sanma and Ranma. "It's great to have you two back, but how did you get into the monolith?" Sanma and Ranma exchanged glances. Ranma spoke. "Actually, there's two, One in Florida and one in the Middle East. Sanma and me figure they're connected somehow." Akane gasped. "What? Oh no... there's three then." "Three?" Ranma and Sanma asked in unison. Akane nodded. "Yes, one appeared in Nerima right after school... Oh no!! Ranko's in here somewhere!!" They all looked around for a brief moment until a small blue chi ball came out of nowhere and hit Ranma. "Get away from him, that's not Ranma!!" a naked Ranko screamed as she ran towards the group, charging up a larger chi ball with her right hand. Her left arm hung limply at her side and her buttocks were bruised from falling on them after the tentacles had released her. Sanma and Deedee got in front of Ranma to prevent Ranko from blasting him again. "Don't hurt my boyfriend!!" "Don't, Ranko! This is really Ranma and he's not possessed!!" "Ranko!!" Akane wobbled over to Ranko as fast as her pregnant body could carry her and hugged her husband. "I've been worried sick about you since I woke up here." Ranko had let the chi ball dissipate as Akane rushed to her. She returned the hug with her good arm, but didn't take her eyes off Ranma. "I'm telling you he's some sort of monster. He's after Daiji for some reason!" Akane shook her head. "No... this is really Ranma." Sanma nodded. "Yeah, the person we saw on that news show was the Buyierfei's leader, not Ranma. Ranma was in Florida for some reason." Ranko frowned. "Are you sure?" Everyone nodded except for Ranma, who just groaned at his compound injuries. "Who's the blond?" Akane sighed. "Ranma's girlfriend." Deedee smiled. "So you finally admit it!!" Akane glared at Deedee. Ranko relaxed a bit. "Okay, but if his eyes turn black or he does anything suspicious, I'll kill him." "At this rate, I'll die anyway!!" Ranma groaned as he got back to his feet. "When I find this Shuma bastard, I'll wipe my face off his head for good!" He wanted to punch his palm, but when he tried to move his right arm, he grimaced. "Not to worry, he's dead." Everyone looked over at the sound of the voice and saw Yukiko walk up with a bundle in her arms. Akane and Ranko's eyes went wide when they recognized the blanket's pattern. "Daiji!!" they shouted in unison and rushed over to their daughter and/or son. Ranko reached them first and pulled the blanket down to reveal a black snout. "Gaaahhhhh!!!" Akane saw the pig in the blanket and gasped. "What? No... she couldn't have a pig curse too!" Yukiko shook her head. "Don't worry, this is Ryoga. Your baby should be safe back in Japan." Akane relaxed and then noticed that the pig was pretty beaten up. "Is he okay?" "He's just exhausted. He generated a huge blast and killed Shuma." Yukiko stroked the pig gently and received a little contented squeal in response. Ranma eyed Yukiko suspiciously. "So... you're not going to attack me or anything, are you?" Yukiko frowned. "No, why would I hurt you?" Ranma glared at everyone else. "Hey! I never hurt you!" Deedee insisted, but hit his injured shoulder when she gestured with her arm. "Oops... sorry." -C- -M- -D- Mousse looked around at the static shadows. "I wonder what happened?" Rant looked at Deeod. "I wonder what happened?" Mousse sighed. He was really getting sick of being ignored. Even the Buyierfei seemed to have ignored him and only done their hit and run attacks on the two Amazon women. He pinched himself. "Yeouch!!" "I'm not sure, but it's a lot easier to see now." Deeod scanned the area. "We should try to find Ukyo and Sanma while the shadows aren't distorting our vision." "I'm right behind you, Leader." Deeod smiled. "Okay, we spread out and do a running search for anything except the shadows, but stay within twenty meters of each other." "Twenty? A standard running search dictates that searchers should stay within ten meters of each other." "I know, but with only two of us, twenty is the best we can do." Deeod looked Rant directly in her eyes. "We can just imagine that we have a third searcher in the middle." "Yes, leader."' Deeod took off running in a direction that, if asked, she would say was carefully chosen after examining the area and taking all factors into account. The truth of the matter was that she just picked a direction at random. "Amazons never die!!" Rant repeated the war cry and veered to the left of Deeod to put about twenty meters between them. Mousse smiled and ran between the two Amazons. They ran through the endless shadows for what Deeod reckoned was an hour. Another guess in other words. "Leader, three o'clock!!" Deeod reacted without hesitation to Rant's shout. She looked in the direction indicated and tensed. "Take his head!!" The three Amazons--well, two Amazons and a dead man--descended on their enemy with their weapons drawn. Two swords and two arm blades met where Ranma's neck had been just a second earlier. Ranma came down from his high leap and knocked the swords out of the two Amazon's hands. After he landed on the ground, he swept Mousse's legs out from under him. "Will you jerks stop attacking me!!" "Mousse!!" Sanma shouted and got between Mousse and Ranma since he was stall armed. "He's not Shuma, check his wound!!" Mousse looked at Ranma's shoulder and swore. "It's black!!" He readied his arm blades. Sanma looked back at Ranma and swore when he noticed the red blood had dried into black crusty flakes. "Um... it was red before." Ranko slid in front of Sanma. She was wearing a yellow shirt that Yukiko had brought for Ryoga to use after she transformed him back into a human with the hot water. The hot water she had spilled, that is. "He really isn't Shuma!" Her left arm was in a sling made up of half of Ryoga's pants. The other half of the pants were used to help bind Ranma's wound, which had begun to bleed again. "Prove it!" Deeod insisted in her rough Japanese. Ranko frowned. "How?" "Cut off head. If he die, he not key." Deeod appeared serious. "That's enough!!" Yukiko commanded in Mandarin as she strode over. "He is not Shuma." "Matriarch!!" Deeod and Rant each bowed to her. "Shampoo!" Yukiko nodded to Mousse and smiled. "Nabiki should be safe in Nerima." A warm feeling washed over Mousse. Yukiko looked at her warriors. "Have you been able to make contact with any of the enemy since they stopped moving?" Deeod stepped forward. "No, Matriarch. They always seem to be just out of reach." Yukiko nodded and looked at the others. "We've been trying to capture a Buyierfei-" She kissed her fingers and touched her forehead and the other Amazons followed suit. "-in order to get us out of here. We're running out of time fast." She glanced at Akane. Deeod shook her head. "Sorry, Matriarch, we have not seen any movement except you since the shadows froze." "I'm afraid we may have ended up trapping ourselves in here when Ryoga-" Yukiko looked at the little exhausted pig that Akane was cradling in her arms. "-destroyed Shuma with a powerful chi blast." "I cannot be destroyed," a voice boomed out in Japanese. Before they could look for the source of the voice, the shadows started to shift wildly around them in a dizzying array of mindless patterns. The group quickly became disoriented as their bodies tried to adjust to the perceived changes in what was up and what was down. Yukiko crashed into Mousse and they tumbled a few meters away. Deeod managed to stay upright until she saw Rant fall. She reached out to help her wife, but both Amazon warriors ended up tumbling to the ground. Sanma called on all her balance training to stay upright, but still couldn't find the source of the voice. "That voice..." Akane called out as she lost her battle to stay vertical and toppled over, just barely managing to get her hands out in front of her to keep her belly from hitting the ground. Unfortunately for Ryoga, she ended up dropping him in the process. "It's..." Ranko gasped before she tripped over the dropped pig. "My voice!!" Ranma blurted as he desperately tried to find the source of the voice in the madness that had enveloped them all. He looked around and swore when he saw a few glowing spatulas heading directly towards him. "I'm not..." His denial that he was not the Buyierfei's evil, but handsome, leader was only half out of his mouth when the spatulas hit. Ranma was very amazed when they didn't hit him. Thankful, but still amazed. Just as he was about to grab Akane and pull her away, the spatulas hit Shuma and exploded. He cried out loudly as the chi tore into his recently reformed flesh and he was thrown backwards by the force of the blasts. The shadows slowed and shuddered briefly before settling into their normal slow moving shifting. Well, as normal as anything inside the monoliths could be. Ranma looked at the source of the spatulas and smiled. "At last, someone didn't blast me!!" Ukyo gasped as she staggered into sight. "Oh... Ranma? Good thing I didn't notice you or I might have attacked you instead." Ranma muttered something, but went unheard as a series of blasts rang out after Ranko, Sanma, and even Akane sent balls of chi at Shuma. Ranma's blast was a little behind the rest, but it did impact Shuma's body and added to the damage inflicted by the others. Unfortunately, Shuma seemed to shrug of the first series of blasts. Sanma took the lead, more out of proximity than anything else. "Akane, get behind us! Take the blonde bimbo and the pig with you!" "How rude!" Deedee exclaimed, but picked up the exhausted pig and helped Akane away from the raging battle. She noticed Akane flinch. "Are you okay?" Akane nodded. "Yeah... just a twinge." Yukiko and the two Amazon women tried to circle around to get at Shuma's back, but stopped when Rant was grabbed by a long tentacle and pulled away. "Rant!!" Deeod shouted and slashed at the central mass of the Buyierfei that had appeared. The Buyierfei disintegrated and freed Rant, but Deeod soon found herself fighting more of the demons. Yukiko scanned the area all around them. She saw some movement out of the corner of her eye and threw a handful of darts in that direction. They impacted several Buyierfei and revealed their locations with bloodspots. "Stay sharp, there are Buyierfei closing in on us!!" She leapt at the nearest floating bloodspots and sliced a Buyierfei in two with her sword. Mouse sliced some Buyierfei in half with his arm blades and looked at Yukiko. "Why are they attacking us so directly now?" "I'm not sure, but it's probably because Shuma can see us, so as the focus, he can tell the others where to find us." Yukiko was a blur as she explained and hacked into the attacking creatures. Mousse thought it sounded logical and looked at the group that was fighting Shuma. "I hope they can deal with him." Ukyo landed by Sanma's side. "I'm glad I found you!" Sanma sent off a blast at Shuma and smiled at Ukyo. "I'm more glad. How'd you see Shuma in that mess?" "Just lucky, I guess." Ukyo kept her eyes on Shuma while she ran her hand up her bandoleer, counting her remaining spatulas as she did so. She wasn't happy with the low count, but she charged up one of them and sent it flying at Shuma. She swore when it missed him. "After wandering in this nightmare for a long time, I finally saw you and the others. I was running towards you all when the shadows went haywire. That was when I saw Shuma coming up from behind Akane. "Well, glad to be fighting alongside you again." Sanma flashed a dashing smile at Ukyo. Ukyo grinned knowingly. "Yeah, me to." She glanced back at Akane. "How'd everyone else get here?" "There are three monoliths. The others are in Florida and Nerima," Sanma quickly explained as she shot a chi ball at Shuma. He swore when he saw a black creature flicker and fall to pieces right in front of Shuma. "Shit, he's using his 'troops' as a shield. What kind of monster is he?!" Shuma grinned and answered Sanma's rhetorical question. "You were willing to cut off your own brother's head to save the woman, why is this different?" Ranma blinked. "What was that?" Sanma smiled awkwardly at Ranma. "Um... well, you see..." Ukyo tugged Sanma out of the way of a black chi ball Shuma had tossed at them. "Save that for later!" she shouted and slashed at some unseen Buyierfei with her giant spatula. They appeared right where she had thought they were and fell to the ground in pieces. The battle raged as the Buyierfei started to close in tighter and tighter on the hopelessly outnumbered group. Akane helped by sending small golf ball sized chi blasts into the surrounding area. Although small, her shots helped the Amazons to locate their attackers. Occasionally, Akane would send out a larger blast to clear the area of the attacking Buyierfei. But as much as she wanted to help defend the group, she knew she was in no condition to be fighting hand to hand with the creatures. Actually, she wasn't exactly sure she should even be doing the chi blasts so close to her due date, but she didn't have much choice in the current situation. She generated a large ball and sent it screaming into Shuma's chest. "Wow..." Deedee gasped at seeing the large blast engulf Shuma. Akane tried to ignore the blonde. The three Ranmas spent most of their time fighting Shuma. They took turns blasting him and so far had kept him from forming any of his black chi blasts. "Dammit!" Ranma swore after another of his blasts impacted Shuma's body, only causing the Buyierfei's leader to stumble back a few feet. The smug look on his face only made Ranma's angrier. "I am sick and tired of you using my face, asshole!!" He jumped forward and aimed a punch at Shuma's face. Shuma laughed. "Perhaps this is better then?" Suddenly, his body shrank and filled out the outfit she was wearing. The black shirt and pants were torn in several places, but was holding up well considering the number of chi blasts she had received already. Shuma grinned when Ranma's punch went over her head due to her change in size. Ranma swore when his punch missed Shuma, but recovered fast and spun around and landed a savage kick that would have probably broken the backbone of a normal human. Shuma just fell face forward onto the ground. "Shit..." Ranma wiped some blood off his lip. "He's cursed?" Sanma nodded. "Yeah... really annoys me that he can do it without water." Seeing an opening, Sanma rammed the blade of her spatula down on Shuma's leg, severing it. Not giving Shuma time to recover, Sanma spun the blade up and then brought it down on Shuma's neck. Or where Shuma's neck had been. Even without her leg, Shuma had rolled to the side as the blade descended towards her neck. As she rolled, she then sent a black, medium-sized chi ball at Sanma and Ranko who was right behind her sister. Sanma dove out of the way, pulling Ranko with her. A pair of pained cries rang out. The first was from Ranko as her broken arm impacted the ground. "Urrkkk!" The second was from Ukyo when the black chi ball hit the left side of her torso. "Arghhhhh!!!" She clutched her burned stomach and crumpled to the ground. Blood flowed from the burn and started to seep into the soft ground. "Ukyo!!" Sanma shouted and leapt towards Ukyo, forgetting about the battle. Ranko and Ranma swore when they saw Ukyo go down, but cringed when they heard Shuma behind them. "One down," Shuma casually commented as her leg finished reattaching itself. She smiled and transformed back into a man. The smiled vanished when two chi balls thrown by Ranma and Ranko hit him. Sanma dropped her spatula at Ukyo's side and lifted the wounded woman into her arms. "Ukyo! Hang in there!!" She started to fumble with what was left of Ukyo's shirt and swore when the wound was fully revealed. The burn went from her left thigh, covered half of her stomach, and burned through the bindings over her breasts. Ukyo's eyes were closed. A spasm shook her body and she coughed violently. Dark red blood flowed out of the side of her mouth. "Sanma?" she gasped. "I'm here." Sanma used Ukyo's shirt to bind the wound, stanching the flow of blood. "Sanma... I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help." "Don't say that! You helped a lot. We'll get out of here and get that little wound taken care of." Ukyo opened her eyes and looked at Sanma. "I... don't think so." Tears started to pool in Sanma's eyes. "Ukyo, don't you dare give up on me!! I won't let you die now that we've found each other!!" She bent down and kissed Ukyo, ignoring the blood. "I love you." Ukyo held a shaking hand to Sanma's face and smiled. "I love you too... but... but maybe it wasn't meant to be." Sanma shuddered. "Dammit, Ukyo!! We'll find happiness together!!" She screamed. "Just don't give up!!" Ukyo coughed. "I won't... I still have to..." She coughed again. "Marry you, don't I?" Sanma smiled. "Yes... as soon as we get out of here..." "Sanma?" Sanma cringed at hearing the troubled voice and looked over at Akane. "Akane... I..." A coughing fit from Ukyo distracted Sanma's attention and she looked down at her lover. "What... what is going on between you two?" Akane asked, unable to believe what was happening. Not to mention WHERE it was happening. Sanma looked between Ukyo and Akane, her heart tearing in half. "Akane... I never meant to hurt you. It just happened." Akane shuddered. "It just happened?!" An angry red battle aura appeared around Akane. Like most people would, Deedee flinched backwards when Akane started to glow and ended up falling on her back. "Eeekkk!!" Ranma turned at the cry and saw Akane's aura. "What's wrong?" Deedee looked at Ranma. "Apparently your sister--who is not a lesbian, but IS a man despite her breasts--is dumping your sister's wife--who is the mother of your child and is also not a lesbian despite being married to your sister--for this other girl." She pointed at Ukyo. "I don't know her real sex or sexual orientation." Ranma's jaw dropped. "What??" Mousse crashed to the ground after being hit by a Buyierfei. "Can you save this until after we get out of here?!" Ranma swore and returned his attention to Shuma, who had just lifted Ranko up by her neck. "Shit!!" Ranma shot a chi ball at Shuma's face and jumped at him at the same time. The chi ball exploded right on target and Ranma's feet impacted the side of Shuma's body a split second later. Ranma's kick sent Shuma flying away from them. Released from the strong grip, Ranko dropped to the ground and grunted. "Arghhh!" And then screamed when she tried to get up. She gripped her broken arm. "We've got to end this now!!" Ranma nodded. "Yes..." Sanma put Ukyo gently down on the ground and straightened the okonomiyaki chef's hair. "Hang in there Ukyo. I'll end this nightmare now..." She gave Ukyo a tender kiss, hoping it wouldn't be the last. Ukyo coughed. "Be careful." "I will." Sanma wrapped her hand around the handle of the giant spatula she had dropped at Ukyo's side. She paused and looked at Ukyo's other spatula lying a few feet away. She got to her feet and looked at Akane as she strode over and picked up the second combat spatula. "I'm sorry, Akane. We wanted to tell you... but... but..." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." Sanma glared at Shuma and started walking with a determined look on her face. Determined to kill. "We'll talk after I take care of this bastard." Akane was lost for words as she watched Sanma walk towards Shuma. She found herself unable to release her anger at anyone under the current situation. Ukyo was out of the question in her wounded state. Sanma and the others were in the middle of a life or death battle. She did glance briefly at Deedee, but decided getting angry with her wouldn't help in the current situation either. She could tell that there wasn't a real relationship between her and Ranma, it was just a crush, but with Ukyo and Sanma she could somehow sense that it was more than a simple crush. She looked over at someone she had considered her best friend and wondered if she could ever think of her that way again. "Ukyo..." Ukyo couldn't look at Akane. "I'm sorry, Akane, I never meant to hurt you..." She coughed violently. Akane looked down at the blanket that Ryoga was curled up in and paused, uncertain what to do. "Deedee..." The blond girl responded hesitantly. "Y... yes?" "Can you please put the blanket over Ukyo to keep her warm?" Akane turned away and looked at the battle. Deedee nodded. She picked up the blanket and walked over to Ukyo. She cringed a little at seeing all the blood and the burn marks. She pulled the pig out the blanket and put him down by Ukyo's uninjured side. The pig shivered, but curled up against the warm body. Deedee knelt down and covered the woman and pig with the blanket. "Um... do you need anything else?" Ukyo shook her head slightly. "No..." Elsewhere, Sanma strode stiffly up to Ranma and Ranko. "Back me up." Ranma shook his head. "No, we do this as a team!" Sanma glared at Ranma. "This is my fight!" Ranma could see the pain and concern in his sister's eyes. He stood aside and let Sanma pass. Ranko glared at Sanma. "How could you?" "I didn't mean to hurt Akane... it just happened." Sanma held a spatula in each hand and started to charge them up. The cloth wrapped around the handles kept the energy from burning her. Ranma and Ranko looked very surprised when they noticed the green energy flicker across the blades. "Wha..." Sanma shook off any further questions when he saw Shuma walk back out of the shadows where Ranma's kick had sent him. "Save the questions until I kill this bastard." She hefted the glowing spatulas in her hands and jumped towards Shuma. Shuma grinned as he sidestepped Sanma's attack. "You know, it's only a matter of time..." His current boast was cut off when Sanma smashed one glowing spatula across Shuma's face. "Urk..." The chi burned Shuma's face, leaving a mass of black and twisted flesh in it's wake. The other spatula cut a deep gash down Shuma's leg. Black blood oozed out of the wound. "I'm not listening to your damn boasts anymore. I'm here to kill you and stop this madness." Sanma swung a glowing spatula at Shuma's neck. "Once and for all!!" Shuma dodged the blade and lashed out with his foot. "You tried before and failed." His face was already starting to heal from Sanma's first blow, but was still visibly burned. Sanma grunted when Shuma's foot impacted her stomach. "Dammit." As she regained her balance, she felt one of her spatulas ripped out of her hands and tossed aside by Shuma. Shuma nonchalantly examined the burn on his hand that gripping the spatula had caused. "These burns will heal long before your death will heal." He advanced on Sanma. Ranma sent a couple chi balls into Shuma's body to buy Sanma some time. "Sanma, don't let your anger get out of control!!" Sanma smiled and sent some more energy into her single spatula. "It's not anger that drives me... it's love." She briefly glanced back at Ukyo and then jumped into the air, laying down a carefully positioned series of blasts to get Shuma into the right position. She landed by Shuma's side and lashed out with the handle of the spatula. Shuma avoided the handle's blow. He had expected that move because Sanma had used a similar attack during their first battle. But he didn't expect the leg sweep that Sanma followed up with. Shuma crashed to the ground and then saw the sharp blade descend towards his neck. Sanma's eyes glowed with hate, not love, as the blade neared her hated enemy's neck. Shuma grabbed the handle of the spatula just above the wide blade, stopping it just before it sliced off his head. The flesh of Shuma's hand sizzled as the energy from Sanma's spatula burned into his flesh. "Can you really kill your own offspring?" "Of course I..." Sanma's eyes went wide as Shuma's words sunk in. "What?!" Shuma sneered, ignoring the burning flesh of his hand. "I was created from the infant collector you carried when you first intruded into and unlocked our realm." Shuma tilted his head. "So, can you still kill me... Mother?" Sanma trembled. "No... you're trying to trick me." She pressed down on the handle, but Shuma's grip was firm and the blade didn't budge. "We had wanted to take the other infant collector too, but you broke the seal earlier than any mere cattle should have been able to." Ranko gasped and put her hand over her stomach and said one word. "Daiji." Sanma shuddered and dropped onto her knees, the spatula held tightly in her clenched fist. "No..." A scream rang out across the group. Sanma still stared at Shuma, unable to tear her eyes from her 'child'. Ranma looked over and saw Deedee supporting a very distressed Akane. "What's wrong?!" Ranma shouted. "Her... her water just broke." Deedee looked down at the ground, which was covered with glowing water. *********************************************************************** >From the personal journal of James Davidson: October 30, 2057 "Glowing?" I asked, glancing at Yohachi. Yohachi rolled his eyes. "Why does everyone always make a big deal out the fact that the water was glowing?" "Well... that's not normal." Yohachi puffed up his chest. "I'm a Saotome... nothing normal about us." I chuckled and looked at Akane. "What a place to go into labor." Akane sighed. "I can't think of anyplace worse." I wasn't sure how to bring this next question up, but I had to. "Was the Buyierfei's leader really Sanma's child?" Akane cringed and glanced at her husband, who was sitting in one of those fake stone waterfalls that were all the rage these days. Come to think of it, I gave my mom that one last Christmas. The frog nodded. "Some people are not going to like finding that out." Akane nodded. "I know. But it's time the world knew the full story. I did promise you the full truth when we started our interviews..." "In your own good time, of course." Akane nodded. "Well, I never said *WHEN* I'd tell you the truth." She looked at my mom. "I think maybe it's getting too late to continue tonight. We should go back to the hotel." My mom opened her weary eyes. "No... no... I'm fine." I could see she was pushing herself. "Well, I'm beat. And the mother of my child needs her rest." Hanaki understood what I was trying to do. "Yeah... I'm sleeping for two now." She patted her stomach and then stretched her arms. "You all have to work on your subtle coaxing," my mom commented, smiling. "But I appreciate the thought." [End - Chapter 29] Coming soon: Chapter 30: The Wedding in the Storm's Belly; Kiss Me Before I Die ======================================================================= The real author's (Jim Lazar) notes/ramblings: And the blackness hits the fan. Hang in there... things are bit rough in the next chapters. I'd like to thank my pre-readers David Johnson, EBJ, Thomas C. Kinnen, Jyh-I Lu, and Michael A. Chase for helping me find and fix problems with this story. FFML members Doug Whiddon, Defender of the Light, and Michael Gilson were also helpful in fine tuning this story. Thank you all. Of course in the end, any mistakes and botched characters are my fault. Revision 0.0 - Rough draft began (December 5, 1999) Revision 0.1 - Rough draft finished (December 17, 1999) Revision 0.3 - Pre-reader draft (January 23, 2000) Revision 0.4 - FFML draft (February 3, 2000) Revision 1.0 - Final version (February 23, 2000) Revision 1.1 - First RAAC posting (February 27, 2000)