A Child of Light Born of Darkness Prologue[Ranma][SM][xover]
Rini, she still thought of herself as Rini, even though everyone,
including her parents, now called her Black lady, let out a low cry of
shock as she surveyed the results of the home pregnancy test she had
snuck out to buy. How could she be pregnant?! She had just been
curious, and Diamond had said that she didn't have to worry about
protection her first time. But now...a baby?! She wasn't even ten
years old, despite her appearance and personality, how could she
possibly raise a child? And now, with the war raging, and the silence
coming, she couldn't afford to be handicapped by a pregnancy.
Alone in her lavish quarters within the Black Fortress, Rini curled up
on her huge pink and black, satin sheeted bed and sobbed. She'd always
dreamt of having bunches and bunches of little babies, all with cute
little golden crescents on their brow, running around the palace. But
what would her child look like now? With a mother infused to the brim
with negative energy and a father exposed to that same energy for so
long that he wasn't really even human, chances were that her first
born child would be a monster. No doubt hideous, it would most likely
have great power, power that Wise Man would use as he used everything,
to bring the silence. She couldn't bare the thought of her child, no
matter how twisted, being turned to the darkness like she had. She
wanted a better life for it.

Of course she could always abort the still undeveloped fetus, with
little trauma to herself. For someone with her power, she wouldn't
even have to seek medical assistance. She could simply teleport, but
leave the fetus behind. The thought made Rini sob harder. What that
the kind of monster had she become, that she could destroy such a
young life for no other reason than that it was inconvenient? No, she
would keep her child. Her child. As she slowly repeated the phrase in
her mind, Rini gradually calmed down. Her child. Yes, it was hers.
Hers. No one could take it from her. Certainly not Diamond, his power
was nothing compared to what she now had with access to the dark
crystal, and if Wise Man wanted to test her he would be in for an
unpleasant suprise. Wise Man, unnatural being that he was, may have
more power than her, it was too close to tell, but she had a few
advantages. In giving her such complete access to the dark crystal,
Wise Man had, in part, given her control over his life. He should
never have linked his life-force with the crystal. She couldn't kill
him with that link, but she could serious damage and weaken him. Yes,
she would keep her child, and raise it like she had always meant to.
Rini could just imagine all the first moments she would share with her
child. Girl or boy, it didn't matter. It's first steps, first word,
first kill, all these she would cherish, even if her child was a
monster.

Decision made, Rini dried her eyes and rushed to the house sized walk-
in closet that housed her numerous pairs of black high heeled shoes
and black velvet dresses. They certainly wouldn't do. With a wave of
her hand, dark energy flowed through a rack of dresses and shoes. When
the shadows receded, there were several outfits, all in pink and
black, and a pair of black sneakers. Much better. She summoned Luna-P
with a thought and converted the little magical multi-purpose cat
balloon into a cute little kitty backpack. Quickly she changed into
one of the new outfits, a pair of short black shorts and a pink
tanktop, then stuffed all the extras into Luna-Pack, completely
ignoring the fact that over three times more matter went into the pack
than should have been possible. Regretfully, she used another dark
energy construct to destroy nearly three feet of her hair. She let the
odongos down out of her hair, they would only serve to draw unwanted
attention. There was little that she could do about her hair color
since the pigment was magical in nature, and uneffected by any type of
dye or known spell.

When she was done, Rini surveyed herself in a large three way mirror.
Her bangs easily hid the Black Moon crescent that had replaced the
golden one she had inherited from her mother. Her hot pink hair barely
passed her shoulders, but Rini was suprised at just how much her
appearance was altered by a simple new hair style. Donning her Luna-
Pack, Rini slipped through the empty halls of the Black Fortress into
the Time Chamber. The room was centered on the main energy nexus of
the dark crystal in order to provide enough power for a time jump. If
Rini's plan worked, no one would notice the sudden drain on the
crystal's power. All she would have to do was return at the same
moment she left and replace the used energy with her own. It would
leave her mostly drained for weeks, but the price was worth it.

Rini punched both the temporal coordinates and destination into the
holographic touch panel that appeared in front of her when she stepped
into the cramped chamber. The obsidian crystal surrounded her on all
sides, but there was no time to grow claustrophobic, for as soon as
the proper instructions had been entered, a low humming buzz filled
the room, then with a flash of darkness, Rini no longer existed. ****

Rini appeared within a secluded cospe of trees, deep inside of Juuban
Park. It was also eighteen years into the past. Rini hadn't really
planned much past this point. She had no fear of going hungry or
living in anything but the most comfortable of conditions. Luna-P
could easily produce however much yen she needed, not to mention that
she could just steal whatever she needed, but Rini didn't want to draw
any kind of attention that could possibly leave records of her time
spent in the past.

The following months were trouble free and Rini found that her
pregnancy was far from ordinary. No other child had ever grown to full
term in three months, at least none that she knew off. She never left
her small apartment so no one could see her rapidly advancing
pregnancy. She was sitting in front of the tv watching a cheesy robot
anime and eating a plate of peanutbutter and pickles, when her water
broke. Rini had prepared for this moment so she didn't panic, much

She made her way into the bathroom and ran a tub full of warm water.
This was going to be tricky. To make sure that little Serenity or
Endymion, her magic couldn't tell what the gender of her child was so
she had chosen a name for each possible outcome, didn't hit the hard
ceramic bottom of the tub, she padded it with several soft towels.
Rini stripped off the bath robe she had been wearing and climbed into
the water. Once Rini was seated comfortably, she carefully began to
manipulate strands of dark energy within her womb. She destroyed the
umbilical cord only a moment before teleporting onto the floor outside
the tub. She ignored the wrenching pain in her abdomen and hurriedly
pulled her little boy, her little Endymion from beneath the slightly
pinkened water. Crying tears of joy, Rini cleared the mucus from the
baby's throat and slapped his bottom, forcing him to take his first
breath of air as he let loose with an ear spltting howl of a cry.

Rini clutched the crying baby to her chest and let herself cry. ****

Rini pushed back the midnight black bangs of her son from his face
revealing the black crescent they had hidden. He was so beautiful, so
perfect. Oh Kami-sama, how was she going to leave him?! As much as it
would hurt her to do it, Rini had to return to the future and complete
her mission. Endymion would be in terrible danger in the Black
Fortress. Emerald would surely take out her anger on her child when
she learned that Diamond was the father.

She snugged the soft baby blanket around Endymion and made sure for
the fifth time that the small crystal pendant of condensed negative
energy hung around his neck. It would be her only way to track
Endymion when she returned to the past to reclaim him. Sobbing once
again, Rini laid her son down on the doorstep of the Mission and
knocked loudly. Unlike the return trip, where she could choose the
exact time of her arrival within the Time Chamber, Rini would only be
able to jump back in time with an accuracy of a month before or month
after the designated date.

Racked with sobs, Rini ran from down the steps and jumped into a
portal of swirling darkness. ****

Genma knew that he was in serious trouble now. This was the kind of
trouble that he expected Nodoka to castrate him for getting himself
into. He didn't want to die!!!

"Where are they?" he demanded of the clerk at the desk.

"I'm sorry sir, but they left no forwarding adress," the old man
answered.

"But, but, I must know where to find them! They have my son!" Genma
exclaimed.

The old man looked concerned, but kept calm."Do you mean that they
kidnapped your son?"

Of course Genma couldn't tell the man the truth, that he had traded
his son for a bag of peanuts, but he also couldn't tell the man that
Ranma had been kidnapped. There would be inquiries, and eventually the
truth would come to light, then he would die."No, no, nevermind. False
alarm, heh heh."

Genma nervously left the hotel's office. He was sinking further and
further into despair. Sure he had used his infant son for food a few
dozen times, but a ten month old child doesn't really care about
things like that. He had always managed to steal his boy back from his
benefactors, but this time he had failed. They were gone. His life was
forfit. Maybe if he just ran away and never returned...nah, Nodoka
would find him, and then it would be even worse.

Walking dejectedly down the sidewalk, Genma's attention was drawn by
the cry of a baby. He allowed himself to hope. Maybe the couple had
decided they didn't want Ranma afterall. Suddenly full of energy,
Genma jumped over the iron bar fence and ran over to the steps of a
large, old stone building. He reached down and grabbed the baby
without actually looking at him.

He ran for ten blocks before stopping on the roof of a small bakery.
Genma's stomach produced a roar almost like a clap of thunder when he
caught a wiff of the wonderful aroma of baking bread, but he
controlled himself and unwrapped the blanket from the now quiet child.


The resembalance was amazing. His hair was practically the same length
and color, and his little cherub-like features only differed slightly
from Ranma's. The kami were surely smiling on him this day. He noticed
a strange black mark on his forehead, but that could be easily
explained away. Even the slight difference in appearance could be
passed off to Nodoka as her son growing older. All he had to do was
stay away from home a few months longer than he had planned.

Genma held the child up in the air, just to make sure that he had all
the proper appendages. Indeed he did. He also had a small gold chain
around his neck holding a small chunk of black glass. Hmmm, maybe the
day hadn't been a waste afterall. ****

"Damnit Oyaji, when I get my hands on you..." Ranma left the threat
hanging since his father wasn't present to hear it. Somehow the
bastard had found his stash of yen he'd saved from working at the
Nekohaten on weekends. He needed that money to finance his training
trip this summer.

Ranma continued digging through his father's belongings, but didn't
find so much as a yen coin. Finally, near the point of hunting the man
down, Ranma spied his Genma's old backpack in the closet in their
room. He shrugged. It was worth a try. He carried the old canvas bag
over to his futon and emptied its contents onto the floor. It was
mostly a pile of tattered gis that the man had grown too fat for over
the years, but near the bottom, Ranma came across a small wooden box.
It wasn't locked, so Ranma had no trouble getting it open. Inside,
there were a few unused post cards, a nub of a pencil and a little
black, tear drop shaped crystal.

Damn, no money. It looked like there would be one seriously injured
panda in a few short minutes. Curiously, Ranma picked up the small
crystal. He felt almost drawn to it. Holding it in his hand, it felt
much heavier than it should have been with its small size. He stood up
and was about to pocket the oddity, but before he could even close his
hand on it, the crystal melted into a small, shimmering black puddle
in the palm of his hand.

Ranma stared at his hand in shock. What in hell was it? He was
furthered troubled when the puddle instantly evaporated into a small
black cloud that floated above his palm. This was getting really
freaky. Before Ranma could destroy it with a burst of hastily gathered
chi, the cloud dispersed. Oh well, just another thing to add to the
weird list.

Still having not found his money, Ranma descended the stairs in search
of his fahter."Hey Oyaji," he called out once he reached the
bottom,"where are you at?"

Ranma didn't wait for an answer. He had a pretty good idea where to
find the man. He passed Kasumi in the hall, but paid her no immediate
attention besides a simple greeting. His attention was too focused on
the unpleasant things he could do to his father in order to get the
stolen yen back to notice Kasumi gasp and say,"Oh my."

Sure enough, Genma and Soun were in the parlor playing a game of
shogi."Oyaji, where's my money?" Ranma demanded harshly. ****

Genma looked up at his son, a lie already formulating in his mind, but
when he actually saw Ranma's face, and the black crescent on his
forehead, all color drained from his own face and he began stammering
in shock. That thing had faded away only a few weeks after he had
found Ranma's replacement, Ranma! Why was it back?! Oh Kami-sama,
Nodoka was going to be pissed! ****

Across Tokyo, in a small ice cream shop, Usagi Tsuniko and her friends
were gorging themselves on ice cream when Rini, Usagi's energetic
daughter from the future, clutched her head in pain and screamed.
Needless to say, she had a half dozen girls very upset and worried
when she stopped screaming. She was crying now. She sometimes
remembered fragments of her life as Black Lady when she had been
brainwashed by Wise Man, but never had she experienced one with such
clarity.

"Little Endymion, I'm so sorry. I forgot all about you," she
whispered.

Unfortunately she whispered too loud. Everyone at the table heard
her."You mean Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked around a spoonful of ice cream.
She was assuming that Rini was talking about her father. There weren't
that many other Endymion's in the future.

Rini looked around at the other girls. She shook her head and
said,"No, Endymion, my son."

Both Usagi and Minako chose this time to faint. All the other girls
yelled,"What?!" in unison. ****

Author's Notes:Yeah yeah, I know I have way too many fics going, but
when I get an idea I have to put it in words or it bothers me and
interferes with writing my other fics. Anyway, tell me what you think
of this. Chances are that I'm gonna continue this, along with most of
my other fics, since I've been getting a lot of encouraging e-mails
about all the fics I released last week. I had no idea that people
would like them as much as they did. It's kinda overwhelming, but I do
have some ideas for them, so I'm gonna give them a chance.

dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

Child of Light Born of Darkness Chapter 1[Ranma][SM][xover]
"Wh-what money, s-son?" Genma stammered. Why had it come back after so
long?
"Don't play games with me, Oyaji," Ranma growled."I know that you
stole it. No one else is stupid enough, not even Nabiki, to go into my
room and take my hard earned money. Now where is it?" Ranma punctuated
each word of the question with a flair of his battle aura. At least
that's what he meant to do. Instead of silvery blue, the energy he
emittied was dark, like a shadow. It pooled around his feet and ran up
and down his arms in thick streams. Ranma didn't even notice the
difference.

Genma and Soun did though. Soun scrambled backwards until he collided
with the wall behind him. Genma remained seated, to frightened to
move. Ranma's eyes had gone black. Completely black, even down to the
whites. For the older man it was like gazing into two cold black
spheres of ice. Genma's agitated mind didn't even bother to associate
the return of the black crescent with Ranma's change in appearance."R-
Ranma, I don't know hwat you're talking about." He couldn't give the
boy the money back now. He needed it himself to get away from Nodoka.

Ranma walked closer, and prepared to kick his father through the wall,
but at the last possible second he stopped. A strange sensation,
almost like being detached from his own body had passed over Ranma,
but it went as quickly as it had come. With the feeling gone, Ranma no
longer saw the world in the normal vibrant colors he was accustommed
to. His vision was tinted, like a pair of shades, but more pronounced.
He looked down at his hands and discovered that he couldn't even see
them. They were hidden by a black aura of chi energy so powerful that
Ranma could barely penetrate it with his well-honed senses. A quick
survey revealed to Ranma that his entire body was shrouded in the
aura.

His father momentarily forgotten, Ranma left the room in search of a
mirror. He vaguely heard two grown men gibbering in terror as he left
the room. Ranma paid them no attention. He had to find out what was
wrong with him and fast, before something happened to stop him. The
short walk to the bathroom felt extremely odd, like he was half
floating, half-sliding. Ranma entered the bathroom and shut the door
behind himself. The mirror showed a distorted, though much clearer
picture of himself to Ranma. The black aura only partially outlined
his form, making him seem like a walking shadow. The face, his face,
was a featureless mask with two shining orbs that glowed bright silver
even to Ranma's hampered vision.

That crystal he had found in his father's pack, that had to be the
cause. Great, another fine mess he was in because of his Oyaji. Now
what was he supposed to do? There would be no help from Genma. The man
probably couldn't talk right then if his life depended on it. Cologne
could help, but there would almost certainly be a price. And getting
to the Nekohaten when he resembled a creature from someone's
nightmares was going to be difficult, at least until nightfall.

Ranma only had one option, at least for now. He would have to attmept
to handle the situation on his own. He went to the dojo before
attempting anything dangerous so as not to damage the Tendo's home
encase of an accident. The short trip brought to Ranma the same
awkward feeling of sliding across jello. By the time he reached the
dojo, Ranma knew why his steps felt that way. It was because his feet
were never even touching the ground. The aura was all encomposing,
adding an inch to his height and throwing his balance slightly off. No
wonder, he was walking on a cushion of energy.

Seating himself in the far corner, Ranma attempted to dispel the aura
that surrounded him by manifesting his own battle aura. Slowly at
first to gauge the black aura's reaction, Ranma increased the power he
was pouring into his aura when there was no visible change. Just when
he was using enough chi that he would have started to visibly show his
aura, the black aura shifted. He felt a surge of elation for an
instant, but when nothing else happened Ranma settled himself in for a
long struggle. Unfortunately, Ranma found that the more chi he used
the sharper the black aura became.

He could clearly see his muscles sculpted in the aura. Even the folds
of his baggy pants were easily discernable. This was getting him
nowhere. Ranma saw that he was only worsening his situation and
tightly clenched his chi, folding it back within himself, and removing
the black aura's alternative power source. Or so he thought. But as
soon as he no longer radiated chi, Ranma experienced the same detached
sensation he had felt while looking down at his cowering father. To
Ranma's amazement, the black aura was gone, and his sight was restored
to normal. What in hell was going on?!

As an experiment, Ranma slowly lessened the restraints over his chi.
Sure enough, the black aura returned, complete with shaded vision and
detached feeling. For several minutes, Ranma alternated between
unleashing his chi force and reigning it back in. When he finally
stopped he was certain that he could control the black aura like his
normal battle aura. The detached sensation that could cost him
precious seconds was also gone, replaced by something very close to
its opposite. Now when the black aura shrouded Ranma his senses became
sharper, more defined. This was still very new to Ranma. Whatever the
blackness was, it didn't seem to be harmful, but if it came every time
he used his chi, there could be problems.

He climbed to his feet began a vigorous kata that few in the world
besides himself could hope to accomplish. It was his own creation.
Based on absolute speed, the movements were performed while in the
enhanced state caused by using the katsu tenshin amaguriken to infuse
himself with chi. As Ranma moved through the kata, his black aura
became opaque in most places, or at least slightly grey, but his hands
and feet gathered more darkness around them until they seemed to caste
shadows. The kata carried him near to a half demolished wooden dummy
that Akane hadn't removed after her last practice session. He was
still more than two feet away from it when it fell to the floor,
neatly sliced into dozens of small hunks off wood. The sound of wood
clattering to the floor of the dojo drew Ranma from his kata. He felt
barely winded, even though he had maintained a full amaguriken for
over a minute. He looked to the source of the sound and saw the
remains of the dummy. Wisps of his black aura were still floating into
the air and disappearing.

How had he done that? Determined to find out, Ranma cupped his hands
and gathered a small amount of chi. Sure enough, the energy was
midnight black, but the black aura had not returned. That was
interesting. As long as he kept from applying his chi directly to
himself he didn't turn black.

"Moko Takabisha," he called out softly, aiming into the wooden debris.
The black sphere of energy rocketed from his hand, leaving a smoky
comet's tail of energy in its wake. The sphere struck the debris, and
much to Ranma's dismay, exploded much more violently than it should
have with the amount of energy he had given it. Thankfully there was
no damage to the dojo's flooring.

"Ranma, where are you?" Akane shouted from the house.

He would have to clean up the mess he had made later. ****

"What do you want, Akane?" Ranma asked when he confronted her in the
house.

"What did you do to my daddy?!" she screamed. She looked to be only
moments away from summoning her mallet.

"What are you talking about? I haven't done anything to your dad."
Ranma was, however, going to do something to his father. He seriously
doubted that the man was going to enjoy it either.

Akane didn't believe him for a moment."Well what's wrong with him
then, huh?! He can't stop crying and calling out your name!" Akane's
mallet appeared in her hand. She brandished the faintly glowing weapon
like a mace and demanded,"You jerk, you better tell me what you did to
him!"

"I didn't do anything to crybaby father, you stupid tomboy!" Ranma
shouted in response. He shoved his way past Akane and walked into the
parlor. Soun was indeed wailing like a baby in one corner of the room,
and Genma was still seated where Ranma left him. The fat man was
nearly as pale as his sweat soaked gi and was trembling violently."All
right, hand it over!" Ranma ordered.

Genma's head jerked up at the sound of Ranma's voice. Shakily, he
reached into his gi and retrieved a large wad of yen bills. Ranma
snatched them from his hand. His hands blurred as he counted the
money. It was all there, all seventy-five thousand yen. Ranma ignored
Soun's wailing even as it grew louder and asked,"That little black
crystal in your old pack, what was it?"

Ranma's question only seemed to worsen Genma's condition. He tried to
say something, but the words were garbled. Then, before Ranma could
even smack the bastard, Genma's eyes rolled back into his head and he
passed out.

"Damn," Ranma muttered. He had to find out what was wrong with his
aura. It looked like it was time to visit the Nekohaten. ****

Rini shrank from Usagi's intense, questioning gaze. They were at Rei's
temple now since it was the closest place they could talk privately
and none of the girls wanted to try to carry Usagi or Minako very far.
They were a lot heavier that they looked.

"Explain," Usagi said simply. Her voice held none of the exuberance it
normally bubbled with. Rini remembered hearing her mother use that
same tone of voice back home in the future when she was discussing
matters of state. It gave away nothing.

Rini, her head hung low began,"I just remembered in the ice cream
place." She paused and collected her wits."When I was Black Lady,
well...I guess I slept with Prince Diamond one time. I can't remember
it, thankfully." In truth she could remember every exquisite detail,
but she didn't want to embarass herself in front of everyone."I found
out that I was pregnant and snuck into the past to have the baby where
he would be safe from Wise Man and the others of the Dark Moon Family.
I can't remember much of the time I spent there, but I remember
leaving Endymion, that's what I named him, at an old Christian
Mission. I was going to return after we won, the Dark Moon family I
mean, and get him back, but then you fixed my memory and we killed
wise man...and I forgot." Rini's eyes teared up and emotions that the
little eleven year old girl wasn't prepared to handle rose to the
surface."I forgot about my little boy!" she cried, breaking down into
small sobs of pain and despair.

Everyone, including Setsuna was more or less in shock. It seemed
impossible that Rini, Usagi's daughter from the future that everyone
treated like a little sister, could have had a child. Usagi appeared
to be least effected by the revelation. She sat down next to her
quasi-daughter and hugged her fiercely, letting the girls tears fall
into her lap."Shhh, it's all right, shhh. We'll find him for you
Rini,a nd everything will be all better." Usagi was amazed at how calm
she was. It was like all the foolishness in her head that she normally
passed off as thought vanished, leaving an almost differnt person
behind. She knew how to comfort her daughter, and what to say.

When Rini stopped crying Ami handed her a hankie. Rini blew her nose
while Ami was asking her a question so she had to ask her to repeat it
again."I just wanted to know what year you traveled to for the birth."

"1982," she answered between sniffles."He was born on October 19,
1982."

"Today is April 30, 2000, so that would make Ranma seventeen years
old," Ami said."He's older than we are!" Ami gasped softly.

"He'll be so big..." Rini whispered softly."He won't even know me."
She broke down in another crying fit.

Taking the initiative, Ami silently pulled her computer from subspace
and keyed into it a search pattern that should eventually identify any
blended Silver Millenium, Dark Moon energy patterns. There was no way
to tell how long the search would take, so Ami said nothing, not
wanting to get Rini's hopes up.

Greatly disturbed by this turn of events, Setsuna opened a portal to
the time gate and stepped through. She had much to do, and amazingly
enough, little time to do it. ****

"Old Ghoul, hey Old Ghoul!" Ranma shouted once he had entered the
restaurant.

"What can I do for you Son-in-law?" Cologne asked from behind him.

Ranma slowly turned around to face the aged Amazon. This time he had
actually felt her approach. Ranma pushed his bangs to the side,
revealing his newest feature. He hadn't even noticed it until he went
to clean himself up a bit in the bathroom. Apparently it came with the
black aura."My aura is pitch black now and I have this thing on my
head. Any ideas why?"

Cologne motioned for Ranma to have a seat."I honestly have no clue,
Son-in-law. Have you partcipated in any unusaul rituals lately, or
been exposed to an unknown magical artifact?" It was worth asking him.
You could never rule out the paranormal where Ranma was concerned.

Ranma decided not to include trying to eat Akane's cooking in the
unusual ritual category, and explained in detail the black crystal he
had found in his father's pack.

"And it disappeared completely?" Cologne asked."None of it was
absorbed into your skin?"

"All of it disappeared, I'm certain."

Cologne was quiet for a minute before saying,"I've never heard of such
an experience, therefore I can not in good conscience, give you a
course of action to follow. Could you show me the aura, maybe that
will give me some clue as to your affliction?"

Ranma nodded and turned loose his chi. It filled his body with warmth
while shrouding him in darkness. He felt himself rise out of the chair
slightly as the aura fully enclosed him.

Cologne's eyes widened as she noticed the density and cohesion of
Ranma's battle aura. The chi wasn't even being expended. Instead it
flowed smoothly around Ranma's form, all the while drawing in light
and heat. Incredible! Ranma had somehow gained access to a never
ending supply of energy."That is enough, Son-in-law." There was no
magic in Ranma's aura besides the normal traces that lingered of
Jusenkyo when he wasn't in his cursed form, so this wasn't a bad
thing.

"Figure anything out?" Ranma asked.

"Ranma, your new aura is essentially a suit of armor. The chi that
composes it is so dense that I seriously doubt anything less than a
high-powered weapon or extremely focused chi blast could penetrate it.
Add to that the fact that it gathers energy instead of expending it
and I believe that you have stumbled across the Holy Grail of martial
arts." If only she could have gotten her hands on that crystal!

Ranma didn't know what the Holy Grail was, but Cologne sounded almost
excited. That meant that he wasn't going to die in the next few hours
at least."Well thanks for your time Old Ghoul, I guess."

"Thank nothing of it Son-in-law. I'm glad to have been of assistance."
****

Ami was stunned at the speed with which her computer had found
Endymion. The readings indicated that Endymion was eminating massive
amounts of some unknown energy form that closely resembled both Silver
Millenium and Dark Moon patterns, but differed in several minor ways.
She was also reading a high energy drain from the same coordiantes.
Amazing! Endymion was absorbing almost all the energy that he spent
and adding to it with the ambient energy from his surroundings. If not
for the advanced multi-dimensional sensors built into her computer,
Ami would never have been able to detect the energy readings. She
couldn't wait to meet Endymion. He promised to be a most interesting
aquaintence.

Before Ami could tell any of the others the good news, the readings
fell off and disappeared completely before she could get a lock. The
complete halt of all power output was amazing in of itself. Ami nearly
set the computer to auto scan the area again and alert her when
Endymion once again used his power, but a small discrepancy in the
numbers displayed on the bottome readout caused her to take a second
look at the power readings. She almost slapped herself for missing it.
Even though Endymion was no longer giving off energy, he was still
pulling in a small amount. It was barely registering to even her
computer, but it was there, and it was traceable. ****

Akane had mostly forgot about Ranma's mistreatment of her father in
favor of dwelling upon his mistreatment of her. He had shoved her!
Like she were a child, he had pushed her out of his way without even a
simple apology. Not that she had expected one from the jerk, but it
was the principle of the matter. And now he had disappeared, nowhere
to be found. It couldn't be a coincidence that he would vanish right
before she punished him for shoving her. The pervert was probably
messing around with one of his other fiances.

Well, if that was how he wanted to play it, then fine. He had to come
home eventually, and when he did he was going to get the beating of
his life. ****

Ranma entered through the back gate as quietly as possible and
immediately regretted it when the rusty hinges on the door made a loud
creaking noise. Why hadn't he just jumped over the wall? Too late for
that.

"Raaanmaaaaa!"

Ranma looked up to see Akane charging at him with her crimson glowing
mallet and instinctively let his chi free. There was the now familiar
sharpening of the senses and shaded vision that accompanied his black
aura. The mallet's momentum carried it forward into Ranma's head even
though Akane, suprised by Ranma's sudden change in appearance, had
tried to stop it.

Not only did the mallet strike have no effect on Ranma, but Ranma
barely even felt the impact. Nor did he feel the impact of hundreds of
wooden splinters as the head of the mallet exploded an instant after
coming on contact with his aura.

Akane had a couple of splinters in her hands and a bleeding cut on her
forehead near her hairline, but other that that escaped relatively
uninjured. Luckily none of the splinters had pierced her eyes. Ranma
reigned the aura in and said,"Come on Akane, let's go have Kasumi look
at that cut."

Akane flinched at Ranma's touch but allowed him to lead her into the
kitchen where they found Kasumi. Akane remained speechless even as her
older sister dabbed peroxide on the wound and stuck a large band-aid
over it. ****

Ranma was already gone when Kasumi asked what happened."I was going to
mallet Ranma for whatever he did to daddy to scare him so bad and for
disappearing earlier, but before I could hit him he made some kind of
aura. It was pure black, Kasumi, and his eyes turned silver. He looked
like a monster! Then when my mallet hit him he didn't even budge. It
was like he hadn't even flet it. That's when it exploded. The whole
end just exploded, without Ranma even doing anything."

Kasumi patted her sister on the shoulder and said,"I'm sure that Ranma
just made up a new technique. You know how he is about those kinds of
things. You know that he's not really a monster."

Akane nodded absentmindedly, her mind occupied by two glowing silver
orbs. ****

"I've found him, you guys," Ami announced to the crowd of girls in
Rei's room. The Outers had left shortly after Setsuna, so there was no
problem with space for them to lounge around. Rini and Usagi were
almost back to their old selves, arguing over one of Rei's manga.

Rini let go of the manga causing Usagi to fall gracelessly back onto
the floor. She rushed over to Ami and asked,"Really, you found
Endymion?" She squealed in delight when Ami answered yes. There were
so many things she wanted to tell her son. Of course she would tell
him about her idenity and his heritage. She couldn't wait to tell
Endymion about him being a prince.

"Hey Usagi, is that a gray hair?" Rei asked Usagi as she examined her
prostrate friend's head."It is!" she shouted in mock horror."Usagi is
going gray!"

"I am not going gray!" Usagi screamed in true horror."Waaaahhhh," she
began crying."You're such a meenie, Rei! Waaahhhhhh!"

"Well you are a grandmother now Usagi, so it is to be expected,"
Makoto added.

"Waaaaahhhhhh! I'm turning into an old woman! Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
****

Author's Notes: Okay, you asked for it and here it is. I know that
Rini is sorta OOC, but I had to make some changes and it's better to
do small personality changes along the way than to have a person
magically become a completely different person between heartbeats.
Send me C&C so that I can get an idea of what I need to change about
the fic.

dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

Child of Light Born of Darkness Chapter 2[Ranma][SM][xover]
"Calm down Usagi, it was just a joke," Rei snapped as the group of
girls got off the subway train.
Usagi was still meticulously examining each hair with a small pocket
mirror."Leave me alone," Usagi snapped back."I'm suprised that you
would even want to be seen in public with an old hag like me," Usagi
said after a few minutes of walking.

"Usagi, Rei is older than you are," Ami pointed out helpfully.

"But I don't have granchildren!" Rei flared.

"I'm only sixteen and I'm already an old hag!" Usagi cried.

Makoto, being the tallest among them, couldn't help but notice the
strange looks they were getting from other pedestrians."Cut it out
Usagi, you're making a scene," Makoto hissed in her ear.

Usagi managed to stiffle her wailing, but she could not stop the small
sniffles that continued to plague her. Rei was so mean to her!

Rini walked silently behind the others. Ami said that Endymion was in
Nerima and that he was relatively stationary, so at least they didn't
have to chase after him, but this slow and easy pace was worse. If
they had had to run after him then at least her mind could be occupied
by something else besides her reunion with Endymion. The excitement
had quickly worn away, leaving apprehension and fear behind. How was
she supposed to treat her son? She couldn't treat him like a little
child and tell him what to do, he was older than her, and she was
still to much of a child for that any way. Like a big brother? That
could work, but how would Endymion react to an eleven year old little
girl being his mother? Would he even believe her?

Most likely not, not at first anyway. Her and the other senshi would
probably have to transform to convince him that they were being
truthful. Afterall, who wouldn't believe the famous Sailor Senshi?
Luna's angry rebuke drew Rini's attention.

"Usagi, stop this nonsense at once," the cat shouted from inside her
duffel bag."You don't have any gray hairs! Now stop swinging me around
and act your age!"

"But Luna," Usagi whined,"how do you know that I don't have any, you
can't even see out of the bag?"

"Owww, hey, don't take it out on me," Artemis cried out. The bag took
on a life of its own as the two cats fought for a minute.

"Sorry, just had to take care of something. Now Usagi, you can't
possibly have gray hair because your family never shows any of the
detrimental signs of aging. You'll live four or five millenia then
drop dead looking like a 25 year old," Luna said sounding much more
reasonable.

"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" Usagi enthused. She patted the bag
with the cats in it, earning a hiss when she accidentally hit Artemis'
head too hard. ****

"Shouldn't you be studying, Ranma?" Nabiki asked Ranma. She had
expected to find him in the dojo, and she hadn't been disappointed. It
was kind of unnerving to see Ranma going about his business looking
like something that had escaped from the bowels of hell. He turned
around to regard her with startling bright silver eyes.

Ranma pulled his chi back in, carrying the black aura and silver eyes
with it."Hey Nabiki. Is that a new kind of perfume your wearing?" he
asked as if he hadn't heard Nabiki's question. His senses were
starting to remain enhanced even after dropping the aura.

Nabiki's eyes narrowed as she studied Ranma. No, he wasn't joking."Why
yes it is Ranma, would you like some? I'm sure it would go well with
your girl form."

Emphatically, Ranma shook his head."Why would I be studying?" he
asked, finally acknowledging her earlier question.

"Well finals are in less than two weeks, and I figured that you would
want to pass your junior year. If I was mistaken I'm terribly sorry,"
answered Nabiki sarcastically.

Ranma shrugged and said,"I'll get around to it eventually. Right now
I'm more concerned with learning how to control my new...whatever it
is." To demonstrate Ranma held out his arm and loosened his chi
slightly, causing only the arm to take on the black aura."It's not
like a normal battle aura. There are some really weird properties to
it that I need to learn. I also need to figure out how to hide this
thing," Ranma pushed his bangs aside revealing the black crescent,"or
Kuno is going to have a field day calling me a foul sorceror and all
that."

Nabiki couldn't fault him on his logic. If she started looking like a
demon every time she used her art, the family would starve. In Ranma's
case there would just be more people trying to kill him."Well, I just
came to tell you that dinner is ready."

"Wow, thanks. Free of charge?" Ranma asked. Then he remembered who he
was talking to and quickly bolted, leaving a fuming Nabiki alone in
the dojo. He definitely couldn't afford to get on her bad side now,
not after getting his money back. Chances were that his father would
be at the meal too. He could find out what that crystal was and why it
had messed around with his chi.

All the food was laid out on the table when he entered the house. He
took his cutomary seat and waited for everyone else to arrive. Akane
came first. She glared at him hatefully while fingering the bandage on
her head. The fathers came next. They were walking sideways, the shogi
board held between them. As they took glances to make sure they didn't
run into anything, the other would rearrange the pieces to his
advantage. By the time they were at the table Nabiki too had taken her
seat. Genma and Soun appeared to be unable to decide what to do.
Whoever tried to sit down first would surely lose a number of valuable
pieces, but then again Kasumi's wonderful cooking was calling to both
men. The problem was solved when Kasumi came in carrying the final
dish. She set it down and smoothly lifted the game board from the
adults' grasp.

Deprived of the only obstacle between them and the table, Genma and
Soun sat down. Kasumi returned after carrying the board by to the
parlor and they had a normal, almost quiet and uneventful meal. Ranma
even forgot to steal all of his fahter's food in order to force him to
tell him about the crytal. ****

Usagi had complained loudly about being famished so they had stopped
at a nearby McDonald's and feasted on some of the world's unhealthiest
food. She was still loudly slurping on a massive ice cream cone that
was composed of no less than nine different kinds off ice cream when
they got off the bus in Nerima.

It was like walking into another world. Most of the buildings showed
signs of recent repairs, the roads were a mix of old and new asphault,
and every third building housed the main office of either a
construction company or a psychiatrist. Almost everyone they passed on
the street had a nervous, wild gleam to their eyes, like they were
expecting an armed invasion at any moment.

"This is creepy," Minako said."I thought all the stories about Nerima
were just myths, but...wow, is that a crater?" she finished, pointing
down a small side street. The street and the face of a small grocery
store were had a very large chunk of material missing from them.

"I haven't heard of any explosions in the news recently," Ami wondered
aloud."Do you think that the whole ward is really haunted like
everyone at schools says?"

Makoto answered,"I doubt it. I hear that there are a lot of really
good martial artists here, world-class even. Maybe we could stop by a
dojo and see if that's true. I would love to spar with one of the
best, just to see how I rank."

"We didn't come all this way to check out dojo's, Makoto," Rei
said."We're looking for Rini's son, that's it."

"I wish I could have got in touch with Mamo-chan. Nerima is a
dangerous place," Usagi said after inhaling the last of her snack.

"If there's anybody that should be scared, it's the idiots that make
this place dangerous. We are the Sailor Senshi afterall, so what do we
have to worry about?" Makoto asked no one in particular. She realized
just how loud she had said that and hurriedly spun around, making sure
that no one had heard that wasn't meant too.

Ami spoke up once again,"What are we going to tell Endymion once we
find him?" She led them down another street as she followed the small
map displayed on her computer.

"That Rini is his mother, of course," Usagi answered. What else could
they say to him?

Rei shook her head."Meatball head, you're hopeless. We can't just go
up to a boy, that's never met us, has no idea who we are, and tell him
that Rini is his mother. Did you even think that he may not know that
he was adopted?" She assumed that Endymion was adopted. There wasn't
much else that could be done for a little baby."We don't even know
what the name he goes by is."

"Yeah, we should just tell him that his mother isn't his real mother.
Once we manage to convince him of that, we can move on to the more
outrageous facts, like Rini being his mother and Usagi his
grandmother," Makoto added.

"Are we going to tell him our secret idenities?" Minako asked.

"We'll probably have to in order to convince him that we're telling
the truth," Rei said.

"Is that really a good idea? We don't know him as a person yet. He
oculd be untrustworthy." Makoto feared that they were getting their
hopes up. Endymion could turn out to be a car thief or a muderer or
something.

"We can trust Endymion, I know we can!" Rini shouted. What right did
they have to talk about her little boy like that?

"I'm sure we can Rini. From what my computer has picked up on of
Endymion's energy pattern, he is very powerful. I believe someone of
his abilities would have come to the attention of the authorities long
ago if he was a trouble maker."

They walked in silence after that until Ami said,"He should be near
the end of this block. Is everyone ready?"

They all answered yes, including the two cats they were carrying with
them. ****

Kasumi had just dried the last dish from supper when someone rang the
doorbell. Who could be visiting? It surely wasn't any of Ranma's
fiances or friends, they were always much more direct, always saving
her the trouble of greeting them by jumping over the wall into the
backyard or making their own entrances. She dried her hands and took
her apron off before answering the door.

"Yes, may I help you?" she asked as she opened the door. Oh dear.
There were five young woman, all very beautiful, and a cute little
girl with wonderful pink hair. She so hoped that they weren't more
fiances of Ranma's. He had so much trouble with the ones he already
had.

"We were looking for a young man that may live here. He'd be seventeen
years old, with black hair, and possibly have a small black crescent
shaped tattoo on his forehead," said a girl that looked so much like
Akane that Kasumi didn't believe she could have told them apart if not
for the slight difference in their hair styles and eye color.

"You must mean Ranma. He's in the dojo practicing now, but I'm sure he
wouldn't mind having visitors. If you would follow me?" Kasumi
motioned for them to enter and led them through the house and towards
the dojo."If I may ask, what are your intentions towards Ranma?"

"It's a personal matter," the nice girl with long black hair said.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Near the entrance to the dojo, Kasumi said,"Ranma may
be using a new technique that he learned recently, so don't be alarmed
by his appearance. He's perfectly human I assure you." ****

They all exchanged guarded looks. What was that last comment supposed
to mean? The polite woman that had greeted them at the door opened the
door of a traditional Japanese dojo. It became woefully clear what she
had meant as they followed her into the training hall.

Near the center of the dojo, a humanoid mass of blackness was darting
around three wooden dummies that looked like they had seen better days
and were set up in a triangular pattern. Every time it passed one of
the dummies, a small piece of the training equipment was torn away by
a blurring band of shadow.

"Ranma, you have visitors."

Ranma stopped moving and faced them. Now that he wasn't an
indistinguishable blur, they saw the shining silver eyes and sharply
defined physique of shadow. Every single one of them had to fight the
urge to pull out her henshin rod and transform, even Rini who knew
that she was possibly facing her son.

Ranma saw the girls all gawking at him and and nearly choked. No way!
There, were five of them, and a little girl. Please don't let them be
fiances. Please! Seeing that he was frightening them, Ranma releashed
his chi and tried to smile reassuringly.

Rini and the others gasped as the blackness that surrounded Ranma
seemed to be drawn within him. When it was gone, there stood a young
man who's lack of a shirt revealed his wonderfully muscled chest and
abdomen. He smiled a small smile at them. The black crescent over his
brow was unmistkable

"I'll you all talk now," Kasumi said. She left the dojo and determined
that she needed to find Nabiki. She wasn't going to tell her sister
about Ranma's guests, she was instead going try to keep her curious
sister occupied so that Ranma could have some privacy.

"Um hi, I'm Ranma," he greeted them."Before we even start, none of you
are engaged to me are you?" Better to go ahead and get this part out
of the way.

"Engaged?!" everyone but Rini and Ami bellowed.

Ranma saw their reaction and knew immediately that this wasn't one of
those situations."Oh sorry, it's just that Pop has engaged me to so
many girls that I'm sorta cautious now."

Rini couldn't believe her ears. Endymion, correction, Ranma had just
said that the man who had raised him had engaged him to more than one
girl. That horrible man! When she got her hands on him...ooooo, she
was going to do something very not nice!

"You have more than one fiance?" Minako, the closet romantic asked.
The thought of talking to Ranma's father and maybe making arrangements
for herself flitted through her mind for an instant, but common sense
and the knowledge that Ranma was Rini's daughter stiffled her desire.
Damn he was sexy!

Ranma proceeded to towel himself off and then answered,"Three right
now, four if you look at it a certain way, but there were a couple
engagements that I managed to get out of."

Rini was really, really going to hurt that man!

"Okay, now you girls know one of the aspects of my screwed up life,
maybe you could tell me what you want," Ranma said. That girl that
looked like Akane was unnerving. He kept expecting her to scream
something about him being a pervert and attack him with a mallet, but
this girl had a totally different aura than his fiance.

Rei stepped forward and asked,"Did you know that you are adopted?"

Ranma laughed for a couple minutes. If only he could have been so
lucky. Hell, he could get out of three of the engagements just by
being adpoted. After he stopped laughing, Ranma saw that the girl was
being serious and scowling at him."You're not joking are you? I guess
you girls just made a mistake, sorry. I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome
school of Anything Goes martial arts, and I'm sure that I'm not
adopted."

Usagi made herself known, and impressed her friends once again with
how serious she could be when it was necessary, by saying,"Ranma, that
crescent on your head is a family birth mark, see?" Her brow furrowed
in concentration for a few seconds, then with a flash of golden light,
a golden crescent like Ranma's black one revealed itself.

Ranma approached Usagi and examined the golden crescent carefully,
making sure not to laugh at her ridiculous hair style. It really was
there, just like his except for much shinier. Still, that proved
nothing."That's a nice trick, probably good at parties too, but it
would take more than that to convince me that I'm adopted."

Usagi continued,"When you were a baby, your mother left a small black
crystal with you when she left. It was shaped like a tear drop and
attached to a gold chain."

Usagi's words had the desired effect. Ranma jerked like he had been
slapped. How big of a coincidence was that? It hadn't even been a day
since he had found the crystal in the first place and now a bunch of
girls, one with a similar mark on her forehead, came looking for him,
talking about that crystal. Ranma didn't say anything to the girls as
he walked out of the dojo. Genma had A LOT of explaining to do if that
girl was telling the truth.

Usagi led her little crew of adolescent and one pre-adolescent girls
after Ranma. This was what she was made for. Whenever there was major
trouble, Usagi took charge of the situation and never let her friends
down. This time it was her daughter and grandson that she had to help.
She wouldn't fail.

Ranma found his father just where he expected him. Genma was playing
checkers with Soun in the parlor and was in the process of prying his
way into a new bottle of saki. Ranma gave him no time to move. He
walked over to his father calmly, reached down and grabbed him by the
throat, and slammed him into the wall. His black aura coursed up his
arm and surrounded his hand for a moment. Ranma pulled his hand back,
but the black energy remained, holding Genma's struggling form against
the wall.

Genma saw all the girls arrayed in the doorway behind his son thought
that he was done for. He had hoped that none of the other girls he had
engaged Ranma too would show up, but five at once, he might as well
have told Nodoka the truth all those years ago. Ranma was going to
kill him, but he didn't have a nice sharp katana to do it with. Then
Genma caught sight of a golden crescent on one of the girls' forehead,
and he knew that death would be a blessing to what he would soon
endure. He was pretty sure that there was no escape, but that didn't
stop him from trying. His kicking and jerking at the wall was only
serving to put more force on his throat, though, and he eventually
ceased struggling.

Once the fat bastard had stilled, Ranma said,"Oyaji, if there's ever
been one time in your life where your life depends on how honest you
are, this is it, understand?"

Genma looked down to his son and croaked out a,"Yes." It would be a
lot easier if Ranma would at least let his feet touch the floor, then
he could talk halfway decently.

"This girl..." Ranma looked at the girl with the retarded hair.

"Usagi," Usagi answered the unspoken question.

"Usagi says that I'm adopted. I didn't believe her, but then she made
that little moon appear on her forehead. It looks a lot like mine,
don't you think?" Genma once again answered yes."Turns out that it's a
birthmark from her family. I still didn't believe her, but then she
mentioned a little black crystal that was supposed to have been left
with me when I was a baby. The way she describes it, it sounds just
like the one I found in your stuff earlier today. That crystal gave me
my little moon and screwed my chi up so that it's black and acts all
weird. Now, am I adopted?"

Soun had been silently gathering his courage and chose this time to
save his friends life. He bounded towards Ranma with suprising speed,
the unopened bottle of saki held in his hand like a club.
Unfortunately, Ranma's foot was faster. It impacted brutally with
Soun's face, creating a meaty SMACK and propelling him mercilessly
into the wall. Noiselessly, Soun's inert body slid down the wall and
crumpled into a heap of broken man.

Genma still hadn't said anything, so Ranma once again prompted
him."Are you my father?" he asked slowly.

Genma was almost too afraid to breathe, but he finally manage to pull
in a shaky bit of air. What could he tell him? The truth? No, never,
but what else was there to tell? He couldn't think of any plausible
lies that Ranma would believe. He just hung off the wall, trying to
breathe.

Ranma's ire was steadily building. Genma's silence was answering his
question as well as a written confession, but he wanted to hear the
words. More than that though, he wanted to hear an apology. An apology
for all the shit he had been put through, all the trouble his father
had caused, and most especially, all the damned fiances that he had
stuck him with.

Throughout this encounter, Usagi and the other girls remained silent.
Ranma had to find this out for himself. They were all slightly scared
of bothering him just then, too, but how could they not be a little
bothered by Ranma's display. They had barely even seen him move when
the other man had attacked him. The older man had just snapped back
when he came in contact with the blur that they assumed was Ranma, and
flown into the wall like he was a doll.

Rini was kinda proud of Ranma. He had grown up to be very handsome,
just like a prince should be, was an excellant fighter, so that he
could fight alongside her and her friends, and he really looked like
he was going to punish that horrible man who had raised him.

Genma looked helplessly at Ranma, and for the second time, saw his
color shifted aura appear. He couldn't bring himself to look into the
silver depths of Ranma's burning eyes, but he could feel them pressing
down on him, making it even harder to breathe.

"Damnit, answer me!" Ranma roared. The walls rattled with the force of
his demand. Ranma was pleased to see a yellow stain spreading from the
crotch of Genma's gi down to the bottom of the left leg.

Ranma's demand also drew the attention of the other inhabitants of the
house. Together, Kasumi and Nabiki came down the stairs and manuevered
their way into the room. Kasumi saw her father slumped against the
wall and rushed over to him. Nabiki remained silent, observing with a
keen eye all that happened.

Akane bulled her way through Usagi and her friend and shouted,"Ranma,
you pervert!"

Akane's claim followed only milliseconds after Genma's rasping
confession,"No, I'm not your father."

Ranma ignored Akane and allowed himself to smile under his aura. It
wasn't a happy kind of smile, the kind you get when you find out that
you've just won the lottery, or the sad kind of smile for someone
you're taking pity on. No, this smile was full of malice."Kiyaaa!"
along with the cry, Ranma relaxed the control over his chi much more
than was necessary to maintain the black aura. The results were
spectacular. The wall which Genma was pinned to was blown completely
away, carrying Genma into the yard with it, and Ranma's midnight
enshrouded form changed.

Ranma couldn't see the changes in his aura, but everyone else could.
It seemed to almost become blacker, if that were possible, but was in
fact drawing in light more rapidly than before, truly wrapping Ranma
in shadow for three feet in every direction. Along his back, arms, and
legs, the utter blackness of his aura formed numerous spines of
varying length, the longest being those on either forearm that
resembled wickedly curved swords. Most stunning, and frightening of
all, were the wings. They were both beautiful and horrifying,
appearing to be much like bat wings. The spaces where tightly
stretched membranes of skin would have been were instead filled in
with glowing planes of shining silver energy, the same energy that
formed the eyes of Ranma's black aura.

Ranma, his body encased in its demonic shell, stepped through the
space where the wall had once stood and glided towards his target.
Genma lay among the debris of the shattered wall, unmoving and
lifeless, except for an occasional groan of pain. ****

Author's Notes: I'm on a roll. This makes three in less than thirty
hours. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this and you can send C&C to me
at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

A Child of Light Born of Darkness Chapter 3[Ranma][SM][xover]
Ranma soon grew tired of kicking Genma around the yard like the human
beach ball that he was, but before he could give up he seemed to
notice his appearance for the first time. More specifically, Ranma
noticed the three foot blades extending from each of his arms. He
tested one's edge by tearing a long gash in the soil at his feet. The
dark blade passed through the hard packed dirt as if there were no
obstacle at all.
"Well Oyaji, it looks like we're having Genma fillet for dinner
tomorrow." Slowly, he drew the blades across the whimpering man's
chest. The gi he wore peeled away like air. A thick line of crimson
blood welled up from where Ranma had cut. Satisfied, Ranma went into a
blur of motion.
To everyone watching, Ranma's dark form was nearly impossible to see
clearly for more than the merest instant. Genma on the other hand was
looking like last week garbage. The remains from a slaughter house.
Ranma had completely stripped his 'father' of clothing and there were
hundreds upon hundreds of nicks and gashes covering the man's body.

Usagi, previously paralyzed by a sort of sick fascination, finally
came to her senses. She couldn't let her grandson become a murderer,
which he was well on his way to achieving. There was no way she could
transform, not in front of so many civilians, but from what she had
seen of their treatment of Ranma's special abilitie, the Tendo family
appeared accustommed to the unsual. If there was a possiblity, she
knew she had to try. Power was close at hand with her own crescent
revealed and the masking magic gone. Usagi knew theoretically that she
should be able to throw around her magical energy while not in senshi
form, but how? Luna had never bothered to train her, and the whole
situation wasn't desperate enough for whatever programming she had
that took over and transformed her into her true eternal form to kick
in.

Genma was bleeding really badly now, Usagi saw. He couldn't take much
more abuse from Ranma and Ranma didn't look much like he was in the
mood to stop. Usagi began thinking of all the times where her friends
or her Mamo-chan, or her daughter had been in trouble. They had died
for her. She found a well of emotions that she had long kept hidden.
They had sacrificed themselves before for her sake, she should be able
to pull off a little trick, something, anything to save Genma if it
meant Ranma would keep what little of his innocence remained. Usagi's
crescent began to glow lightly, unnoticed by Ranma's audience. The
world went black around her. ****

Usagi opened her eyes and squealed in a mixture of fright and delight.
There were clouds everywhere, of all shapes, sizes, and colors. She
was floating lazily through the air on a soft cloud of sky blue mist.

"My daughter, you have grown into a beautiful woman," a voice from
behind Usagi said.

Usagi spun around and was confronted by her mother, the Queen of the
Moon Kingdom, Serenity."Mo-mother, what's going on?" she asked."Where
am I?"

Serenity stepped closer and embraced her daughter. There were silver
tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks as she stepped
back."This was always my favorite place when I was a child. It was
easier to bring you here than to talk to you directly."

"I don't understand, Mother. I've got to go back and help Ranma. He
doesn't know any better but he's going to kill his father, adopted
father I mean."

"Do not worry, Ranma and all the others will be exactly as they were
upon your return as when you left them. Actually this visit is mostly
for Ranma's sake. Listen closely, Ranma will need to know this if he
is to survive." Usagi nodded."The positive, or silver energy that we
of the Moon Kingdom used was not 'good' energy, it was simply what we
had access to. Positive energy comes more readily and in much higher
quantities when a person's intentions are pure, but in the wrong
hands, positive energy could be as deadly or even moreso than negative
energy. Negative energy is likewise neither 'good' or 'evil', it's
just that negative energy is more available to those with evil in
their hearts. For thousands of years our people harnessed these two
opposing forces, but terrible imbalances were created in parts of the
solar system and the neighboring star systems. You see, during
different time periods, one of the two energies was always the more
commonly used, negative for war and expansion, positive for peace and
healing." Serenity paused for a moment, lost in her memories, before
she continued.

"The countless shiftings between the two energies had destabilized
huge areas of open space. Many of the main shipping lanes were
effected because of the drive systems on the ships were powered by
either a silver or dark mage. It came to the attention of the Queen at
that time, my long dead ancestor, that steps had to be taken or
disaster would soon befall the kingdom. Scientists and mages were
gathered to discover a solution to the problem. Their efforts were
partially succesful when they created the Silver Imperium Crystal and
the Black Light Gem. Both acted as powerful magnifying devices for
their respective energies, and with proper management the imbalances
were removed. An act of sabotage by a group of political dissidents
seriously damaged the Black Light Gem's monitoring station and the out
of control Gem badly destablized the entire region. When rescue crews
arrived, the Gem was gone. It was assumed that the Gem was destroyed.
It wasn't, it infact emerged from a blackhole in another galaxy and
grew into the dark moon you know as Nemesis, but this is irrelevant to
the story. Now with only the Silver Imperium Crystal, the imbalances
were occuring more rapidly than ever and with much greater magnitude,
but the knowledge used to create the Black Light Gem had been lost."

"For over a century the condition worsened until finally two great
mages came forward with a solution. They were brothers, their names
lost in antiquity, but one was a Silver Mage and the other a Dark
Mage. They proposed altering the souls of specific people with high
magic indexes so that they constantly emitted either positive or
negative energy. These people would then be taught by mages of both
orders how to regulate their energy. House Serenity and House Beryl
were the only family with a strong enough bloodline and enough magic
to undergo the procedure. The Queen volunteered herself and the rest
of her family to undergo the process, as did Lord Garion, the then
current head of House Beryl. Our line was more suited for the positive
aspect while Garion's, though not evil, were best suited to the
negative. In the end the alterations were carried out and peace and
prosperity were restored for several millenia until High Lady Beryl
made her pact with Metallia, and you know what happened after that."

"The whole point of this narration is this: over the millenia, the
House of Serenity and the House of Beryl tried on numerous occasions
to mix the blood in order to create a soul capable of producing both
positive and negative energy, but they never succeeded. Never that is
until roughly a quarter century before the fall of the Moon Kingdom.
The girl born of my brother and Beryl's niece, possessed the positive
and negatives aspects of both Houses. Her power first manifested when
she was in her late teens, and it was a power to make the heavens
tremble. She was feared in much the same way as poor, sweet Saturn.
The girl had it within her power to request a favor of me as I was her
godmother, and it was a favor I was all too happy to grant. With the
Time Gates recently created and with an unlinked power conduit, it was
a simple matter to give her Setsuna her title as Sailor Pluto."

Usagi broke in,"You mean that Setsuna is that powerful?" Why hadn't
she used all that power in all the fights over the last two years?

Serenity nodded."Setsuna is very powerful, but her link to the Time
Gate neutralizes her power. Unfortunately the process was still too
unstable to reverse when Beryl and her forces attacked or I may have,
with her help, been able to repulse the invaders. Now Ranma has come
along, with his dual natured soul of Serenity Silver, and the Black
Light Gem's own negatively created Dark soul. He must learn to balance
the two energies within and without, or he will certainly destroy
himself, and possibly take the world with him." Serenity held her hand
out to Usagi. It contained a small blue crystal key."Give this to
Setsuna, she'll know what to do with it and tell her to train Ranma
and choose a successor for the mantle as Sailor Pluto."

As Usagi had listened to her mother, her own memories of what had been
spoken of slowly came back. She remembered sitting through dozens of
history classes now, all of them giving much longer and even more
boring lectures about the subject of the Great Balance as the act of
the two mage brothers was called.

"My time grows short," Serenity said. Her slowly began to lighten as
she spoke those few words, and her form became insubstantial.

"Wait! How do I stop Ranma?" Usagi asked desperately.

Serenity smiled and touched a finger to Usagi's crescent."You'll know
that and much more when you return. Bye now." Serenity's last act
before disappearing completely was to kiss Usagi lightly on the cheek.

Once again the world went dark. ****

Usagi opened her eyes to see the scene just as she had left it. Ranma
hadn't carved his initials in Genma at least. She tucked the small key
into her pocket and cupped her hands slightly below her breast. Soft
silver light began to gather in her hands, until an amorphous blob of
mercury-like energy slowly roiled in her grasp. Ranma may be powerful,
but he hadn't truly come into his power yet, but Usagi had been duking
it out with the most powerful entities in the known universe since she
was fourteen and she could throw around some serious energy when she
wanted to. Now that she actually knew how to use her own power-her
mother had somehow passed the knowledge to her-Usagi could act. The
mass of energy she had formed shot out of her hands and exploded in a
radiant burst of silver light at Ranma's feet.

It had been a construct, a magical spell that only very powerful or
very skillful people could create. Within it were four separate
spells. One stripped Ranma of his dark aura while another put him to
sleep. Genma got the mercy of a minor healing spell, not strong enough
to keep him from being a mass of scars, but enough to keep him alive,
and a mind altering spell that would make the smallest of lies that
passes beyond his lips be excrutiatingly painful.

The break in the action and Usagi's little light show tore everyone
from their little bloodfest.

"I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki said from the porch. She
spoke in a lighthearted manner, but internally she was scared nearly
breathless. What if she had ever pissed Ranma off enough to attack her
like he had just done to his own father? Admittedly, she didn't know
what the panda had done to deserve being skinned, but just the thought
that Ranma was capable of such cruelty was disquieting.

Akane was busy being violently sick behind a bush and Kasumi was
hugging her unconscious father protectively, her face as pale as milk
as she stared at Ranma's sleeping form.

"It was the negative energy inside of him that did that, not Ranma,"
Usagi said."He hasn't learned to control his power yet."

The senshi didn't know who to goggle at the most, Ranma or Usagi. On
the one hand, they had just seen some prime quality violence commited
to a man whom they had very little respect for by a cute boy who had
seemingly turned into a monster, and on the other there was Usagi, who
had not even transformed and had done some kind of new attack that not
only stopped Ranma from further savaging Genma, but had stopped all og
Genma wounds from bleeding and even closed up some of the really bad
ones.

Akane came from behind her bush, her face nearly as pale as Kasumi's,
and a glowing mallet in her hands."Raaaannnnmmmaaa!" She charged
towards her fallen fiance with the firm intent to severely punish
Ranma while he was still sleeping for hurting her father. Even Akane
had enough sense to know better than to beat on Ranma when he was
enraged to the point of killing.

Akane never made it to Ranma. Usagi waved at the girl and a sheet of
silver light flew from her hand. As it washed over Akane, the mallet
slipped through suddenly slack fingers and it fell to the ground
beside the now sleeping Akane.

"Hmm, if Ranma isn't really a Saotome, I wonder if he's still engaged
to my sister, or Ukyo for that matter?" Nabiki's question was
calculated. There were other money making opportunities that were much
safer than dealing with this new Ranma, and having him around wasn't
really her idea of fun anyway. The blonde girl also had Nabiki on
edge. She had casually taken Ranma down, an extraordianry feat that
she wouldn't have previously believed possible. The blonde also seemed
to share a mark similar to Ranma's on her forehead. She definitely
didn't want to get an over protective sister with magic powers upset
at her.

"Usagi, how are you doing all this stuff?" Makoto asked her friend
quietly.

"Mother showed me how," Usagi answered. Once again she was working
magic, this time in the palm of her upturned hand. A translucent ball
of shimmering energy was floating over her palm. In a dull flash of
light, Setsuna's face appeared in the globe. The green haired woman
couldn't have looked more unsuprised if someone had told her the sky
was blue."Um, Setsuna, this is really important. Could you open a
portal to the Time Gate for us?"

Setsuna nodded without speaking, and moments later there was a
swirling gray portal leading to the Time Gate floating a few inches
above the ground three feet behind Usagi.

Usagi said,"Thanks," and allowed the globe to fade from
existance."Makoto, could you carry Ranma though?"

Within a minute all the senshi and Ranma were standing on a platform
floating in a formless gray mist. Rini rushed over to Ranma as soon as
Makoto set him down and hugged him as best she could with him lying on
his side asleep. He also came away from the encounter with a cheek
covered with small pink smudges from the lipstick that Minako had let
Rini borrow.

"Usagi, you're starting to freak me out," Minako declared.

Usagi chuckled weakly."Sorry guys, but my Mother, you know, Queen
Serenity, visited me in my head and told me about Ranma and some other
stuff. I really need to talk to Setsuna, I wish she would goon and do
her mysterious appearance so we can get this over with."

"Usagi, where are Luna and Artemis?" Ami asked as she looked around
for the cats' duffel bag.

"Oh no! I left them back there with those horrible people!" Usagi
shouted."Damnit Setsuna, get out here so I can go save my cat!" Usagi
demanded. It took a moment for her to realize what she had said, but
when she did Usagi turned bright red and clamped her hand over her
mouth.

"I'm here, Princess," Setsuna announced from behind the group.

Usagi pulled the crystal key that her mother had given her from her
pocket and gave it to Setsuna."Mother said for you to train Ranma to
use both sides of his soul and to choose a successor to be Sailor
Pluto."

For once since anyone of the girls had known her, Setsuna was clearly
shocked. Thunderstruck would have been a better description."Princess
I-

"She said that Ranma could destroy the planet if he doesn't learn to
control it," Usagi asserted.

"I understand. Leave Ranma here, everyone else step through the
portal." Setsuna pointed to empty space, but it soon grew a portal
like the one they had used to travel to the gate.

Rini ran over to Ranma and Screamed,"I just got him back, you can't
take him away!"

Usagi went to Rini and whispered,"Come on, you know that Ranma is
better off here until he gets control of himself. Look at what he did
to Genma, the man who raised him."

Rini shot back,"That man was mean, Ranma wouldn't hurt any of us!"

"Rini, you don't understand. Ranma is only using the bad magic in him
right now and since he doesn't know how to control it, it's making him
bad too. Setsuna can help him learn to control his magic because she
has the same kind of magic." Usagi hugged her daughter."Come on, we
need to go get Luna and Artemis before the fat man eats them."

Rini managed a small giggle at that."Diana wouldn't be very happy with
us if that happened, would she?" They had left Diana at home with a
severe case of the feline eqivalent to the common cold. ****

Author's Notes: I know it's a short chapter, but once again, this felt
like a good place to stop. Now for the good part. I'm pretty sure who
the new Pluto is gonna be, but if I get a worthy suggestion that could
work...well ya never know, right? So send me your suggestions or
guesses at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com. She should be attractive, smart,
and from the animeverse. If your choice isn't from one of the more
widely distributed animes that I may have not have seen yet, please
include a brief description. And all C&C except for grammatical
corrections is welcome.

P.S. Lots of people have asked why I used Rini as the name for Usagi's
daughter instead of Chibi-Usa. The answer is that I just like the name
more than Chibi-Usa, go figure ^_^
A Child of Light Born of Darkness Chapter 4[Ranma][SM][xover]
No one had moved at the Tendo residence when the senshi returned
through Setsuna's portal.
"You wouldn't happen to know where I could find my duffel bag, would
you?" Usagi asked Nabiki.

Nabiki shook her head slowly and asked,"Who are you people? What did
you do to Ranma? Where is Ranma?"

Kasumi, the only other Tendo conscious at the moment, left her
father's side and hurried off to the dojo. The blonde girl must have
left it in there.

"That's none of your concern," Rei snapped. She wanted to get as far
away from this place as possible.

"Oh no, I believe it is. You girls show up, Ranma goes berserk and
almost kills his father, and then you kidnap him. I'm sure the
authorities would love to ask you a few questions. Hmm, if you would
hold on just a moment." Nabiki pulled a small cell phone from her back
pocket and flipped open the cover.

"Why you?" Rei growled and made a lunge for Nabiki but Makoto caught
her by the arm and pulled her back.

Ami looked at her friends and asked,"Can we trust her?" Of course they
wouldn't mention anything relating to the senshi, that was an unspoken
agreement, but enough truth could sate Nabiki's curiousity. They all
eventually agreed, though it was with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Before Ami could tell Nabiki anything, Kasumi came walking through the
new garage-sized door in her home with the duffel bag that held Luna
and Artemis. She was holding the bag as away from her body as possible
to avoid whatever was inside of it that was hissing and screaming.

"Thank you!" Usagi said to Kasumi, then she casually punched the bag a
few times."Heheh, all better."

"I'm waiting," Nabiki said. She wasnted to know what in hell was going
on, but the sooner these girls left, the sooner she could call a
construction contractor.

"Oh my!" Kasumi saw Akane and rushed over to her.

"The simple truth of the matter is that Ranma is Usagi's grand son,"
Ami told Nabiki, pointing to Usagi who waved brightly in
acknowledgement."Rini," she indicated Rini who gave a shy nod,"is
Usagi's daughter, and Ranma's mother."

Nabiki looked from the ditzy looking blond to the little pink haired
girl and burst out laughing. After she calmed down, she asked
herself,"What has the jerk gotten himself into this time?" To Ami, she
asked,"And are you all super heroes too?" They all started shifting
nervously. Oh this was rich!

"I'm not asking you to believe me. In the future Usagi will give birth
to Rini. Rini is just visiting the past as a sort of educational
vacation. When Rini is older she will have Ranma during a war and
bring him into the past to keep him safe. This has already happened
and will continue to happen in a never ending cycle. Rini didn't count
on Genma stealing Endymion, which is his real name by the way, and
we've just now tracked him down." Finished, Ami breathed a sigh of
relief. She hadn't 'really' lied, just warped the truth in a couple of
places.

"Suuure, whatever you say." Nabiki raised the phone and prepared to
dial.

"Keep in mind what you saw Usagi do," Rei said."And the portal, where
did it come from? You're dealing with forces beyond your control or
understanding, so why not just save yourself the trouble of dying, and
leave us and Ranma along."

"You obviously haven't come through Nerima lately," Nabiki quipped."We
have people that can do magic visiting at least every two weeks. A
little less than a month ago we had a fight between Ranma, an ancient
war goddess, and a giant minotaur, so you can see how your little
threats wouldn't bother me."

"What about your family?" Rei asked nastily."How would you feel if you
woke up one morning and they were all dead? Nevermind that, we can
just go ahead and get rid of you now." Rei hoped that her friends knew
to go along with her."Who wants first shot?" she asked.

Usagi said,"I would, but I'm feeling a little tired, why don't you do
it Rei?" Wow, pretending to be evil was fun!

Rei grinned to herself. The meatball head did have a brain after
all."Oh well, guess you have to burn now." She held her hand out and
focussed all her concentration on the sacred flame back home at her
temple. Silently, Rei called out for its assistance, reminding it who
had kept it alive for the past decade.

No one had any idea what Rei was doing, but they weren't going to
spoil her performance by asking.

With an explosion of breath, Rei clenched her fist then reopened it.
Fire exploded into being, the miniature blaze roaring and throwing off
sparks."Don't worry, I won't kill your father, he didn't see anything,
but you and your sisters are another matter entirely."

Nabiki's calm exterior and icy expression of skepticism, began to get
some serious cracks in it when Rei's hand had caught fire. Ranma
wasn't here to protect them now, and she was outnumbered by a group of
witches. Just as Rei had her arm drawn back as if she were about to
through a baseball, Nabiki hurriedly said,"Okay, okay, you win, just
call off the firebrand!" She snapped her cell phone shut and pocketed
it."I won't tell anyone about Ranma. I'll even make sure that
everybody thinks he ran away or something, deal?" Nabiki had learned
the art of the bluff years ago, but you could only take a bluff so far
before you had to lay your cards on the table, and Nabiki's cards were
her's and her family's lives.

Rei let her hand fall to her side, the fire gone as soon as Nabiki had
spoken."Good. We'll be going now."

The girls were a block away from the Tendo home when they all dropped
their dire expressions and cracked up. Rei had tears in her eyes from
laughing so hard when she hugged Usagi,"You were great, meatball head!
Did you see how scared she was?" She started laughing again.

After everyone had regained their composure, Ami thought to ask,"Rei,
how did you do that? With the fire."

"I summoned part of the fire from the temple's sacred flame."

"I wish I could do something like that," Usagi whined.

Rei and all the other girls looked at her in confusion, then Rei
said,"Usagi, are you an idiot? You 'can' do stuff like that!"

Usagi was about to scream at Rei for insulting her again, but movement
in her bag alerted her to Luna and Artemis' return to consciousness.
She unzipped it and looked down to see both felines glaring up at her,
their heads each crowned by a huge lump.

"Usagi, have I ever told you that it's not polite to mistreat your
advisors?" Luna asked calmy. Before Usagi could answer, though, the
cat sprang out of the bag, followed by Artemis, and began a systematic
mauling of her princess. ****

Ranma regained consciousness a few hours after the Princess brought
him to her. Setsuna had spent the time aquanting herself with events
that had led up to the revelation of Ranma's true idenity, and
reviewing some of the more momentous events of his life. Who would
have thought Saffron, a pitiful fire elemental during the Silver
Millenium, would achieve such power?

As Setsuna had sat before the Time Gate watching Ranma's life fly by,
she couldn't help but curse herself for not dealing with many of the
super natural relics and entities of the Silver Millenium. They could
have been used against her fellow senshi and the Princess on numerous
occasions, but luckily their enemies had never thought to look for
such remnants. They appeared somehow drawn to Ranma, though. It was
nice to see that Queen Mercury's efforts to splice human DNA with that
of certain species of the Draconic race that had once inhabited her
planet were at least partially successful. The Musk Dynasty would be a
powerful ally in the future if the traits in their rulers continued to
breed true.

The Amazons of Jupiter, too, seemed to have found a home on earth, and
were keeping their martial tradition alive. It was as if the whole
valley of Jusendo had somehow weathered the storm of the downfall of
the Silver Millenium. The same magic that had cloaked it from her time
sense had obviously kept it hidden from Beryll's forces. Setsuna felt
sorry for Ranma. Almost every bad thing in the last two years that had
happened to him were because of the Silver Millenium, but the
struggles he had fought were also responsible for awakening his true
soul.

"Argh, what hit me?" Ranma groaned from his place on Setsuan's bed. He
sat up, resting his back against the carved headboard and surveyed his
surroundings. The walls weren't visible, draped as they were in black
and purple silk, the floor was a single unbroken slab of marble, and
the bed he was in was sheathed in dark purple like the walls. There
was also a tall, green-haired woman with a regal baring, sitting in a
leather chair against the wall."Who are you?"

"Setsuna, a friend of your mothers," Setsuna answered with an almost
imperceptible smile.

"She never mentioned you," Ranma said warily. He through back the
heavy comforter and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. His
slippers were waiting for him by the bed.

"Your 'real' mother, Ranma, not Nodoka Saotome," Setsuna corrected.

Ranma continued to sit on the bed."Oh, is she here?" Wherever here
was. Ranma remembered bits and pieces of his actions before passing
out and the image of Genma's bloody body froze in his mind."Setsuna,
do you know if I killed Oy-...Genma?"

"Luckily no, Usagi stopped you and healed most of his wounds. But
that's why you're here, to learn to control your new power."

Usagi had stopped him? Damn, beaten by a girl. Well, she did have the
crescent so she must have had some kind of power like his."I can't
believe I lost control like that," Ranma sighed.

"We will soon correct that problem, but now I need your help," Setsuna
hated asking for assistance from anyone, but this time there was no
helping it, she could not use the crystal key by herself."If you would
follow me?"

Ranma shrugged and followed Setsuna out through the break in the wall
hangings that served as a door. The long corridor that they travelled
down had no visible walls, obscured in the same way as the room they
had left, and the floor was still a single unbroken piece of smoothe
marble. They finally reached the end of the corridor and with it the
end of whatever building they were in.

Ranma found himself in a featureless landscape composed of a marble
floor and endless gray mist. He looked back towards the exit of the
corridor only to find that it was gone."What is this place?"

"This is no place. We are in a pocket of limbo where time does not
flow," Setsuna answered.

Ranma had no idea what limbo was, but decided to wait a while to ask.
For now he would simply observe. Perhaps a minute later the mists
began to part and Ranma saw the oldest structure in existance. Of
course he didn't know that, but he could feel the age practically
radiating from the simple hoop of gray metal.

"This device predates our universe, Ranma. Through it, the winds of
time are funnelled and and the endless strands of probability are
woven into a coherent destiny for creation."

"Whatever you say." Ranma wasn't about to call her a liar. For all he
knew she could be the goddess of twinkies, or just as easily some
loonie chick with magic powers, but she hadn't tried to kill or marry
him yet, so he went along with her.

Setsuna had never honestly believed that she would have to ever give
up her position as the Guardian of the Time Gate, but as the only one
of the senshi who could actually give her powers to another, the
possiblity had always been there, nestled deeply in the back of her
mind. Maybe it had been that small piece of knowledge that had driven
her to choose a favorite replacement for herself every generation, and
not just boredom like she had believed. The current favorite was a bit
on the elderly side, but the Time Gate could correct that."Stand away
from the Time Gate, Ranma," Setsuna ordered.

Ranma obeyed, taking several steps backwards. He watched Setsuna pull
a funny looking little stick from somewhere and hold it above her
head.

"Pluto Planet Power, Make Up!" she called out loudly.

To Ranma, Setsuna was enveloped in a column of energy for a fraction
of a second, but when the woman was once again visible, the black
slacks and green blouse she had worn were gone and in their place she
were a stylized school uniform, with too many bows and a shorter than
regulation skirt. In her hand she held an ornate staff that looked
something like a giant key.

Setsuna touched the Time Key to the edge of the gate and opened her
mind to the time stream. Once she had located her target, an image
flickered into existance within the metal hoop.

Further to Ranma's amazement, the image in the Time Gate thing was of
the interior of the Nekohaten. It was closed for the night and no one
was visible. At some ungiven signal, the picture shifted. First it
alighted on a duck sleeping in a small bamboo cage in the kitchen,
then on a familiar purple haired girl who was slowly brushing her long
purple hair and stairing at a poster sized picture of Ranma, and
finally, the image shifted once more to reveal the small form of
Cologne, meditating upon a tatami mat.

Cologne's eyes snapped open and she asked,"Who's there?"

The large garnet gem on the head of Setsuna's staff flashed with
blood-red light and Cologne disappeared from the picture in the loop
and reappeared, tatami mat and all, beside Setsuna.

Cologne didn't move, only eying Ranma and Setsuna evenly."Son-in-law,
I wouldn't have expected you to deal with dark forces."

"You mistake my intentions and my idenity, Cologne," Setsuna said."I
have brought you here merely in hopes of naming you my successor."

Cologne raised an eyebrow at the claim and asked,"Successor to what,
may I ask?"

"Why the Guardianship of the Time Gate of course," Setsuna answered.

Cologne's proportionately too-big eyes, grew a couple sizes larger,
but she controlled her obvious suprise, asking,"And what does the boy
have to do with this."

"His grandmother, my future queen and eventual ruler of the earth, has
commanded me to train him in the use of his powers. To do this I must
give up my position as guardian so that I may access my full powers."
There was no point in lying to Cologne. The woman would eventually
find out anyway.

"Grandmother? Queen? Ruler of earth?" Ranma spouted the questions
rapidly, unable to comprehend the information.

Setsuna, who for so many years had been without humor that she had
nearly forgotten what it was, the look of complete astonishment on
Ranma's face at her next words actually made her laugh."Oh yes Ranma,
one day you will be prince of the earth, and eventually king."

She spoke with such certainty that Ranma couldn't help but believe
her. With her laughter bubbling helplessly behind him, Ranma sat down
roughly on the cold marble floor and buried his face in his hands,
muttering,"Damn," repeatedly.

"So do you accept?"

"How could I not? The legends still speak of the Guardian who rides
the Winds of Time. This is an honor beyond all imagining, though I'm
afraid I won't hold the position for very many years." Cologne
chuckled slightly at her jest.

"Your youth will be returned to you in full when the mantle is passed
to you. Though I'm asking you to fill my place, there are restrictions
on your future actions that I must tell you about now. The future has
been planned in advance for over a thousand years. You will have to
carry out those plans exactly as given for the world to have any
lasting peace."

"What of my Amazons?"

"Until very recently they have been hidden from me by magic ancient
and powerful, therefore I do not know what the future holds for your
people, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that if you any in
way seek to interfere with their fate you will be placing the world in
grave danger and destroying thousands of years of careful work. Even
knowing this, do you still consent to the position?"

"I may be old, but I'm no fool. I could never put a single tribe of
Amazons over the welfare of the entire planet," Cologne answered
earnestly.

"I believe you, but still I must warn you. Misuse the power granted to
you and the Queen, Ranma, or myself, anyone of us, could destroy you
with a thought. It is the nature of our power that allows a bond
between a human and the Time Gate." Cologne nodded."Ranma, get up, I
need your help."

Ranma climbed to his feet. So much for a peaceful existance. At least
no one would try to kill him if he were a king.

Setsuna gave Ranma the blue crystal key and drew its twin from a long
silver necklace. She unclasped the necklace and held the key in her
hand."Okay Ranma, go to the other side of the Gate and find the little
black box with a key hole in it, then stick the key in." Setsuna
followed her own instructions but on the box on the other side of the
Gate. After Ranma was in position, she said,"On the count of three
turn it clockwise. 1...2...3."

As they turned the keys, the space inside the Time Gate became milky
and distorted. Setsuna released her key and beckoned for Cologne to
step forward."Cologne, take the key and once again when I count to
three you and Ranma turn them, but this time counter clockwise."

Cologne had to stand on the very tips of her shrunken little feet and
reach as high as she could to turn the key, but as Setsuna's count
reached three she turned the key as commanded and allowed herself to
relax.

"Is that it?" Ranma asked. From what he had heard from Setsuna there
were some major powers changing hands. Shouldn't there have been some
flashing lights or something?

"What did you expect, fireworks?" Setsuna asked. Ranma nodded."Nothing
actually happened that would case any energy to be released Ranma. All
that little ritual did was to split my bond so that Cologne is now
getting a trickle of the same power I get from the Time Gate." To
Cologne she said,"You won't be able to feel it for a while, but the
magic will begin to revitalize your body within a week. You must have
your affairs in order by then."

"I had best be getting back to the Nekohaten then, if you don't mind?"
Cologne asked, pointing a wrinkled finger at the Time Gate.

Setsuna placed the Time Key on the Time Gate and the image of
Cologne's room at the Nekohaten reappeared."Just step through."

As Cologne stepped through the portal, she said,"Thank you Guardian,
for my youth and the honor and trust you have given me. Farewell young
prince." ****

Setsuna led Ranma through the mists for a couple minutes until they
came to a normal looking wooden door. Beyond it was a small,
windowless apartment."Within the mists, I can control reality to a
degree. I've placed these rooms here for your comfort since until you
gain at least rudimentary control over your powers you can not return
to earth for fear of you losing control again."

"Can I go outside to practice?" Ranma asked. If the prospect of a
little peace didn't sound so appealling to Ranma he would have been
more than a little upset at being confined like an animal in the zoo.

"It's best that you didn't. You would become lost within the mists
easily. If you wish to practice your martial arts, go out the door in
the kitchen. There is a dojo there."

"Cool. How about telling me some stuff about this whole prince and
king business? And I wouldn't mind meeting my mother."

"All in good time, all in good time, but now with my bond to the Time
Gate diminished in power, my old powers are returning and the process
is exhausting me. I will return tomorrow and we will begin your
education." With a small wave, Setsuna, her face drawn and her red
eyes weary, left Ranma to himself. ****

Author's Notes: I was gonna use Nabiki, but the more I thought about
it the less I liked that idea. I honestly hadn't even thought about
Cologne as the new pluto until one of my readers sent in the idea.
Thanks whoever you are(too lazy to go back and check, but I'll put
your name in the next post). C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com