The Best of Times
By Ozzallos
A Fukufics (dotcom) Production
Epilogue X2
A
flattened three and a half foot long silver oval sat peacefully atop the eight
story high power converter recently vacated by those whose sole goal was to
destroy it and the source of power floating above—an 8,000 pure heart crystal
reactor feeding humanities destruction. The manufacturing facility it supplied
hadn’t come fully on line yet, but when it did, it would be capable of
producing over fifteen thousand youma a day, more than enough to send a tide of
destruction marching across the Earth.
The silver device sat unaware of the battle waging around it as
its main processor measured time in discreet electrical pulses that flashed
across a monofilament nervous system. Since the unit’s activation, it had
measured two hundred and thirty nine of these pulses, which in themselves were
nothing special.
Pulse two hundred and forty, however, was a notable exception.
The pulse hit the main processor and tripped a special flag in
the software, causing dormant systems to come online and power up. The Elerium
core at the center of the device came to life and power began to funnel into
the five anti-matter capacitors surrounding it. In another sixty pulses, those
capacitors would dump their full potential into the core, initiating a catalyst
that would turn over two thousand miles of space into super heated plasma…
…or annihilate one pocket universe.
Pulse number two hundred and forty was noted and marked by the
weapon’s processor as it completed its journey through the maze of circuitry,
activating another protocol.
“Warning... Option to countermand has expired.” The bomb
spoke with ineffable calm. “Countdown, time minus one minute until
detonation.”
“Point of no return!” Mercury called out, one kilometer down range from the
last nuke of the Silver Millennium. “One minute!”
Ranma Saotome, heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts
considered his rapidly dwindling options as the remainder of their strike team
filed through the temporal gate held open by Sailor Pluto. With well over ten
thousand youma pressing their lines, he was going to have to come up something
fast, and that something would have to be nothing short of a martial arts
weapon of mass destruction. Ranma ran down the list of his own techniques and
came up short, his most devastating special technique being a ki borne tornado
when she really needed a hurricane. In fact, the only one that came close to
having the power they needed to stay the demonic advance was in Saturn, and
they really weren’t looking to destroy the pocket universe with all of them
inside.
Options… options… Beyond Sailor Pluto was Mercury, Jupiter and
Saturn, the final combatants chosen to hold the line until a safe- hell, any
–retreat through Setsuna’s gate could be organized… But they had cut their
force to the bone, evacuating everybody they could spare without being overrun
in the process, and now the girls were fighting just to maintain parity with
the opposing army. They were deadlocked and the clock was running down.
The pig-tailed martial artist was the best of her generation,
and part of that ability came from her from a brain that could devise tactics
on the fly and under any situation. It was an ability that had saved him and
her friends more times than they would care to admit, and now that formidable
intellect chewed on the current dilemma at terrifying speed, weighing the
opposing force, firepower needed to dispose of them, tools at her disposal,
time remaining and the necessary physics to pull off what was almost certain to
be a suicide move. She spared a moment, staring at the two staves in her hands,
one the embodiment of fire, the other ice. They were elements she had all too
much familiarity with, and Sailor Nova new exactly what to do with them.
Sailor Nova fused the Gekkaja and Kinjakan back together and
stepped to the center of the defensive ring around the wormhole, feeding power
into the newly reformed staff. Ki flowed in a circle from her, to it and
back,as she twirled it wildly in preperation for the ultimate technique that
existed only in her minds eye, up until now.
“Hiryu...”
The razor ring snapped away, igniting as it took flight. The
Staff of Ascension continued to twirl in her hands, and the guided ring
spiraled outward, trailing super-heated air.
“Shoten...”
The spiral continued to expand out beyond their lines, and over
the youma horde. The staff spun and Ranma focused every ounce of ki into the
technique. If it worked, it'd give Pluto and herself the need breathing room to
retreat themselves. If not... Well, they'd both buy it in a spectacular
fashion.
“Ha...”
The twisting stopped and Ranma flipped the staff around, its
crescent blade facing downward. With a might heave, she shoved the blade into
the ground, turning it to ice for hundreds of meters.
“ASCENSION!”
The shock wave ripped out from the staff and along the
super-heated line of atmosphere, uncoiling like the dragon Ranma had unleashed
so many times before. But now, those dragons seemed like fence lizards compared
to the one she had now loosed. Air pressure and ki ripped outward beyond Nova ,
Pluto, and into the waiting army of youma where it crushed them mercilessly.
The shock wave followed the heated spiral to the end and became self
sustaining, forming into a tempest the likes of which few had ever seen. Saturn
jumped through the portal, followed quickly by Mercury and Jupiter. Nova held
onto the ice embedded staff for dear life as the winds threatened to rip her
arms out of their sockets.
Ranma had known from the moment she felt the power build she
was more than likely a dead woman. There was no chance for her to bridge the
high pressure gap of super sonic wind separating her from salvation. She
managed a tear strew look and caught sight of Pluto through the vapor and fog,
seemingly standing against the tempest from within her own bubble of serenity.
Her impassive face said it all.
There would be no salvation for the martial artist and she
could easily see the Senshi would make no move to help her. Apparently the
time-bitch would keep her word, and the only question now was which would kill
her first—The raging ki driven storm around her or the nuclear fireball waiting
to be unleashed one kilometer away. The gale redoubled its efforts to tear her
apart, and she tightened her slipping grip on the staff.
No, if she was going down, it was gonna take the blast from an
ancient one gigaton super-weapon to do it.
Atop the plateau of the PHC converter, the ancient
super weapon in question sat peacefully, reflecting the pink light of a
construct that represented the slaughter of eight thousand people. This fact
was lost on the Elerium weapon of mass destruction, whose central processor was
preoccupied with counting the timing pulses that measured its remaining
function in seconds. Another specially flagged pulse flashed across its
monofilament circuitry, and the CPU made final preparations to end its life.
“Time minus ten seconds until detonation.” The silver
orb advised. “Elerium core primed. Terminal Protocols engaged. Final
safeties released. Executing Defense of the Realm in five… four… three…”
The Senshi-Nermian team that had driven the tip of the spear home across two
worlds watched the Pluto’s dimentional gate from Earth, just outside the
Five seconds.
Ami tore her eyes from the Mercury link and stared desperately
into the shimmering blue mass that represented a pathway to another world. They
had to make it back. Had to. They were the good guys. The good guys always win.
Even when they lose, they win. Setsuna herself was damn near immortal while
Yumei was a cast iron, bullet proof bitch, even if she was a guy half the time.
They just had to---
PHoooMMP!
The porthole flashed and energy crackled away from it wildly,
as unrestrained lighning bolts skittered across the earth. The gateway
maintained its shape for a moment, then shuddered, twisting in upon itself.
Another pulse of light and the Pluto’s gateway glowed neon red before loosing
cohesion entirely and wavered out of existence. The only evidence that it had
ever existed was the black scoring across the ground and their memories.
A continues keening tone marked the event, causing the others
to look to Mercury for answers. The Senshi raised the protesting PDA-like
device and stared at the screen in mounting horror. Across it read the words
“transmission lost”. Even as the Sailors turned to her for answers, a soft gasp
tore Moon’s attention from the shock-stricken Mercury and found Rei’s eyes
riveted on Chibi.
“No…” Small Lady clutched her head, rocking slowly back and
forth. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way!”
Usagi blinked. Chibi was fading in and out of reality, as if
she were a mirage. “Chibi, what’s happening to you!” She rushed forward to
anchor the pink haired girl, only to find her hand pass clean through her
shoulder. “Mercury, what the hell!”
“Temporal distortion!” Mercury replied, panic creeping back
into her voice as she interpreted the new readings. “I can’t even get a
time-space lock on her, Moon!”
“Chibi, stay with us!” Usagi pleaded, kneeling next to her
ghostly visage. Her subsequent attempts to grab at her ended the same way the
first had.
“It’s all gone…!” The pink haired princess gasped, as if the
act of drawing a breath was becoming supremely hard. “I can’t remember…!”
Haruka spun around on Ami “Mercury, what the hell is happening
here!”
Sailor Mercury’s fingers stabbed into the link, their speed
fuelled by desperation. “I told you, it’s like she not even there! Her phase
readings are jumping all over the place!”
Moon turned back, facing Mercury with steeled blue eyes. The
Princess had arrived in full force. “I don’t care what it take, but you get her
back—“ The air shuddered softly, causing Usagi to turn back to Chibi who now
stood before her absolutely solid in form. She couldn’t hold the surprised
gasp. “Mercury--!”
“I didn’t do it.” The Senshi cut her off abruptly. “I don’t
know how the hell it happened, but she just popped back into phase suddenly.”
Cologne hopped into the circle of Senshi, trying to discern
what had happened to the young girl with her three hundred years of human
physiology expertise as a baseline. “Young Lady, are you alright...?”
Her eyes were wide, stareing into the distance without truly
seeing anything. A single tear rolled down her face. “No, I’m not.” Her voice
whispered in muted shock. “It’s never going to be okay again…”
“Twelve dormant readings, one alpha.” Sailor
Mercury reported as she interpreted the Mercury link’s sensor readings. The
target of those readings lay in the tree line, and with that information,
Sailor Moon arrayed her forces accordingly.
“Venus, Jupiter, right flank.” She directed in a tone that
meant she was all business. The two women nodded and took their positions
thirty meters off to her right, setting up for a lethal ambush. Her fire team
was in position.
Moon glaced sidelong to Mercury and nodded. The cobalt haired
girl returned it and keyed her fuku’s imbedded communications array. “Mars,
now.”
A fireball roared from a building behind the pair and into the
tree line, blowing it and several meters of earth apart in a spectacular
display of pyrotechnics. Another fireball streaked in, pulverizing the razed
mound revealed by the first detonation. A plume of violent flame gouged the
earth once again, showering the area with fiery debris.
Moon’s second in command smiled with internal satisfaction as
the readings within the hive began to shift sporadically. Yeah, that rattled
the bastards. “They’re coming out.” Moon nodded once more and stared into what
was left of the burning tree line. Six months ago the Sailor Senshi had
eliminated a major threat to the Earth, that being a massive youma incursion
from a pocket universe. While they had succeeded in eliminating that threat,
there were still loose ends left wandering around, and those loose ends had
seen fit to entrench themselves in an attempt to multiply.
Sailor Moon was dealing with one of those loose ends right now.
The first youma climbed out of the smoldering underground hive
and the blond smiled. This is what the threat to their world had been reduced
to—Small masses of youma hiding beneath the ground, fighting pre-programmed
guerilla campaign against them. She sniffed with contempt. Against the old
Senshi, they might have done so effectively. Sure, they would have still lost,
but the damage would have been extensive. Against the new Senshi, however…
“Venus, Jupiter, hold up.” Mercury advised, predicting Moon’s
own thoughts exactly. “Wait for the main group.” Sure enough, more youma boiled
struggled out of the carnage that had once been their makeshift base of
operations. The battered demons looked around through the smoke and ash,
attempting to find their tormenters. Sailor Moon and Mercury were the first
people they found, standing out in the open of the park grounds. Of course,
there was only one course of action that could be taken.
“RROOOOoooOWWL!”
The cry went up in unison and a group of eight youma charged
Moon and Mercury. The cobalt blue-haired Senshi sighed, almost bored, while
Moon appeared to be examining her nails, oblivious to the threat in front of
her.
“Now?”
Usagi arched an eye brow and considered Ami’s question for a
few precious moments while the mob advanced on them. “Give them a few more
seconds.” Mercury shrugged, and watched the short platoon rush closer, claws
and jaws snapping in hurried time.
“Let’s not grandstand too much, your Highness.” She advised as
their line drew within fifty meters. “Still got the big one to take care of.”
Usagi sighed. After a pocket universe full of monsters worse
than this, it almost seemed anti-climatic. “Now.”
“Waste ‘em.”
The response to Mercury’s order was instantaneous. There was no
call to attack. No fancy dances or sounding out special techniques. One moment
there was peace and silence along the youma’s right flank, then there was a
Venus Love Me Chain ripping through it, tearing into it like a golden buzz saw.
Three of the demons were cut down instantly and the advance faltered as the
survivors desperately tried to find the source of the ambush. The chaos created
by Venus was so complete that the remaining force failed to see the ball of
compressed thunder fall into their ranks, detonating with cataclysmic results.
Another two youma at ground zero were crushed into a fine paste as the
over-compressed shockwave swallowed them up and proceeded to maim the
survivors. Two more were savaged, leaving one combat functional demon alone
amidst the destruction. The golden chain of death descended upon it and the
platoon of youma ceased to exist.
The orange and green fuku’d women affected an unhurried stroll
past the carnage they had wrought seconds before, joining Moon and Mercury.
“Well that was weak.” Venus commented, looking at the pair.
“Don’t tell me Mars managed to take out the others when she opened up?”
Mercury shook her head. “Don’t worry. Three more left.” Jupiter
squinted into the ruined tree line, and the lifeless cratered mound therein.
“They’re still digging themselves out. In fact, they should be surfacing right
about…”
“BWWRAAaaaaWWLL!”
“…Now.” Mercury smiled, tapping on the link like clockwork.
“Uh, guys…” Jupiter took a step back as the three youma dug
themselves from the wreckage of their former hive. It wasn’t the two ugly pink
youma with tails and horns that caused her to take a double take. She instinctively
knew they would go down like wet tissue paper. It was the three story tall mass
of fangs and scales that had her attention.
“Huh.” Ami stated blandly, coaxing more data out of the PDA.
“Didn’t see that one coming.”
“’It’s freaking huge’ is what you mean!” Venus protested. Even
as it marched forward, one of its surviving brethren strayed to close to it and
was squashed beneath a giant pink hoof.
Moon winced. “Ouch.”
The monster youma before them took a step forward and they took
a step back. Mercury clicked the clamshelled link closed and prepped for
battle. “It’s one of the siege youma. Energy blasts, super strength, the whole
nine yards.”
“Right.” Sailor Moon replied, her memory sufficiently jogged.
They had named the monstrously large youma from the other dimension ‘seige
youma’, as their primary purpose seemed to be to anchor any youma incursion
with its massive firepower and strength. In fact, she was loathing the fact
that they didn’t have a Mishma Heavy Industries gunship handy to deal with it.
“Semi-circle, on me. Don’t bunch up.” She paused, opening a channel to Mars.
“Rei, light it up so we can get in close.”
“With pleasure.” The disembodied voice replied, and the top of
a building two blocks away flashed to life. From it, the third fireball since
the start of the engagement tore in and smacked into the Siege youma like a
flaming hammer. The explosion incinerated the last remaining youma regular and
stuck to its larger cousin like napalm. Its advance halted with the howl of
pain just as another bolt tagged it, causing it to thrash around furiously.
“NOW!”
All four Senshi were in motion, attacking the monster from
different direction simultaneously. Moon’s golden tiara cut through one of four
arms while Jupiter’s Supreme thunder attempted to punch a hole through it’s
backbone armor. Venus stepped in and her Love Me Chain raked its hooved leg. A
horizontal pillar of water followed the attack courtesy of Mercury, freezing
the leg in place within a jagged icy block. Mars’ flaming attacks died out and the
beast seemed to regain some composure, sending a bright blue energy bolt after
Venus. The blast missed, but the shockwave hammered her into the ground as a
plume of supernatural fire rose into the mid-day sky. Moon’s attention was
diverted just long enough to miss the next energy blast with her name on it.
The monsters other free arm extended and the bolt seem to reach out and grab
her, plunging her consciousness into a world of pain. The blast slammed her
into the earth and used her face to create a trench thirty meters long, before
coming to a smoldering stop.
Moon pushed herself up, only to find the Siege Youma having
broken free of Mercury’s ice trap and shambling towards her. The other Sailors
were all around it, doing damage, but not fast enough to deter the beast from
it’s single minded focus on ripping her apart. All four arms seemed to glow,
and if she didn’t know any better, the youma’s face produced a fanged-filled
smile.
“Oh shit…”
Huge blue balls of power coalesced in each hand and the youma
wound-up, readying the energy torrent to launch. Usagi knew what was going to
happen next, and it was going to hurt. The arms came back and—
“Dead Scream.”
A pink ball of energy tore through the siege youma, taking with
it a large chunk of flesh, bone and other vital organs. The blue energy in its
hands disappeared abruptly and the demon fell to its spiked knees in agony.
“Dead scream?” Sailor Moon mouthed. There was only one Senshi
she knew of that would use that attack, and if she was alive, then it meant…
Her eyes found her savior balanced lightly atop a telephone pole, and her
thought process halted abruptly. She recognized the black and white fuku
immediately. Everything after that, however, crushed reality as she knew it.
The woman was a far cry from Pluto’s five foot seven height,
barely topping five two herself. Instead of the flowing green hair, an
impossibly bright red mane floated with the daytime breeze. No. No way. No way
in hell could that be… The new Senshi appeared not to notice her or the
other Sailors gaping as she flipped gracefully off the pole and landed within a
few meters of the siege youma, who was trying to recover from having a quarter
of its mass forcibly removed. The woman stepped in and waited for the massive
creature to notice her. After a few seconds, a beady, sunken eyeball finally
found her and raised a huge claw in response, ready to shred the source of its
anguish. The massive fist of flesh came down and was intercepted by the point
of her staff; a half moon blade that promptly turned the youma’s entire arm to
ice on contact. Its beady little eyes mirrored Moon’s own expression, widening
as she flipped the weapon around almost lazily and removed the appendage; the
opposite ringed blade tip cutting through the ice. A violent geyser of steam
accompanied the act, and the arm fell to the earth where it promptly shattered
into a few thousand pieces.
A state of shock existed within the monster’s limited thought
process, allowing the redhead a moment to admire her handiwork before looking
back up into the youma’s eyes, waiting for its next move. The Senshi didn’t
have long to wait. The demon had three remaining arms and it put them all to
work in a simultaneous strike that was sure to hit her. At least that’s what it
thought. The Sailors too.
It didn’t.
Her form blurred into a streak of red and the staff whirled
around, carving the arms off at their elbows. Two went down as blocks of ice
while the third in scorching flame. The blur subsided and the only evidence
that the Senshi had even moved was her settling red hair.
“Is that it?” She asked rhetorically and now it was the youma
who took a step back. “Nah, don’t think so.” She raised a hand it glowed with
power. “Moko Takabisha revised… Chrono Takabisha.”
A shivering blue ball floated from the outstretched hand and
into the armless youma. For a moment, nothing happened, then the youma itself
shuddered and screamed, hitting the ground and proceeded to twitch violently.
“What the hell did she hit him—“ Mercury was asking as she
pulled Moon up from her trench, when the entire three story tall youma began to
fold in upon itself. Its chest cavity crumbled as bone splintered, and with one
final waver of light, the demon was gone. The remaining Senshi gathered around
the redhead and stared in total disbelief while she gazed into the space the
monster had just been forcibly evicted.
“R-Ranma?” Sailor Moon asked with trepidation, reaching out to
touch the woman to ensure she actually did exist. Her probing fingers found the
shoulder solid and a smile broke out across her face. It was a smile of joy and
relief; however it failed to move Ranma, who continued to stare into space.
“If Ranma’s alive…” Rei began softly, coming to the only
logical conclusion available to her, minus any of the facts. It was the same
one that Usagi and the others came to. Ranma made it. So had Setsuna. Somehow,
against all odds…
“Setsuna is alive too…?” Ami forwarded the largely rhetorical
question. The answer was obvious. The good guys always—
“No.”
Time skipped a beat as the word was processed by the Senshi
surrounding Ranma. “But…”
Ranma turned to Usagi for the first time since their meeting,
confronting her directly. There was no emotion in her voice as she spoke her
next words. “Setsuna Meiou is dead.”
“Pluto is... Dead?” Makato repeated, as if unable to believe
the statement.
“No.” Ranma corrected in the same, emotionless voice. “Setsuna
is dead.”
“But…” Now everybody was confused and Usagi was getting a very
bad feeling about where all this was going.
“Setsuna didn’t make it,” She continued. “But I’m Ranma
Saotome, Guardian of Time and the last Princess of Pluto.”
Usagi stared at the girl sitting across from her,
and the words coming out of her mouth just didn’t make any sense. If being dead
wasn’t enough, there was no way she could have carried the mantle of Pluto.
While her Sailor Nova persona would always be fondly remembered, she was
neither a real sailor or reincarnated. Her fuku had been a costume, not real
armor. The only thing real about Nova was her martial arts ability and the
staff she bore, which was a relic from the Silver Millennium. Now here
she was in the shrine, not only alive, but claiming Setsuna was dead and she
had taken her place.
“Not buying it.” Haruka stated from across the room, staring
icy daggers into the red head. “In fact, we oughta beat you within an inch of
your miserable life for impersonating our friend.”
Ranma’s eyes slowly found Uranus and stared back, matching the
icy glare but saying nothing. Moon shivered. This wasn’t the Sailor Nova she
had met. No snappy comebacks. No issuance of challenge. Just silent, ominous threat.
“That dead scream she let loose was the real deal.” Ami
inserted. “Pulled the sensor log. Aside from the minor variations in quantum
flux the energy signatures match with a Senshi of Pluto.”
“A trick.” Michiru pointed out, though in a far less certain
tone than partner.
“You’d like a demonstration.” Ranma stated in calm voice,
finally turning her attention to the pair of outers. “Sailor Nova was a fake. I
can assure that this—“ She triggered the transformation and the pink glow
around her called the black and white fuku armor forth. “—is the real thing.”
She pulled the Staff of Ascension out of weapons space and
Usagi couldn’t help but to stare… That wasn’t the same weapon she remembered
Ranma wielding. The differences started at the crescent blade, its reverse edge
notched at precise angles. The shaft of the stave was also notched with
precise, angular teeth that prevented a smooth level down the first half of its
length. The end ring seemed unchanged, save the glowing, blood red crystal
floating at its center.
“And I had almost thought I’d never get a---“ Uranus’ words
were cut off abruptly as a subtle gust erupted around her, accompanied by the
ice cold feeling of steel at her neck. The Senshi of Uranus dared not move,
staring into the empty space Ranma had just occupied. It didn’t take a genius
to realize who was holding the blade to her neck now.
“Rematch, ‘Ruka-chan?” The low whisper tickled her ear. “I’d
drop you in a heartbeat if it weren’t for all the fond memories I have of you.”
At any other time, the situation might have been an extreme
turn on. A beautiful woman pressed to her back, whispering in her ear…That
might have even been the intention, but the cold edge that threatened to vent a
major artery kept Haruka firmly rooted to reality.
The remaining Senshi stared. Ranma hadn’t moved. They were
positive of that fact. Every single one of them knew that the martial artist was
pre-naturally quick, but this registered on an entirely different level. One
moment she had been there, the next, gone.
“Time stop.” Ami said, consulting her Mercury link. “No
movement recorded, but there are definite signs of temporal displacement.”
The blade lowered from Haruka’s throat and she bolted away,
spinning around. “You can’t do that! That’s a suicide move!” Ranma frowned. It
was probably the most emotion she had displayed since her arrival.
“For Setsuna, it was.”
Princess Pluto squinted across the twenty
foot distance that separated her from Ranma Saotome. Leaping the gap from the
ice imbedded staff to the porthole would be all but impossible, even for a
martial artist of Ranma’s caliber, and the only reason she herself hadn’t been
swept away by the mach two gale was the time space bubble she resided in.
“Sailor Nova” had no such respite, and the very tempest she unleashed was
battering her mercilessly. Pluto couldn’t help but to note the sickening irony.
After all the work she had put into removing the boy as a threat, he went and
removed himself.
…And saved all their asses in the process.
That particular fact didn’t sit well with the Senshi. She had
done a good many things in her life and lay through many sleepless nights
because of them, but she had developed a high tolerance to guilt. Her job was
to safeguard the Senshi and insure the survival of humanity in the process. All
in all, it was one hell of a rationalization that allowed her to do any number
of very nasty things in the name of love and justice. Part of her wanted to say
this was just another step down that bloody path. Ranma would go down by fire
or ice and Setsuna would go home, get blasted on sake and do it all over again
the next day. The other part of her… There was a quiet rebellion taking place
in Setsuna’s mind. What right did she have to take the life of somebody who so
willingly marched into the fire, knowing that there was a good chance that they
wouldn’t be coming back? A person who had the same mentality as she did—Doing
whatever it took to safe guard the future of the world she loved?
But instead of taking other peoples lives to do it, Ranma
Saotome, soon to be dead heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial had given
his own..
Could she really do it again? Could she murder another fellow
patriot so willingly? And what did that say about her? Would she do the same to
Ami? Maybe Rei? If it came down to it, would she remove one of her own team
from existence to secure the near impossible dream? The answer sickened her and
in that moment, Setsuna Meiou knew what she had to do. Oblivion reached out to
snatch the martial artist with a flash of light and Setsuna unsheathed the time
key one last time.
“Jikan yo Tomore.”
The hypervelocity storm raging around her ground to a halt, and
even the blast wave rushing for them froze in its ferocious expansion. Sailor
Pluto stepped from the safety provided by the gate's rift and into a universe
rapidly draining of color. She moved through the curtains of mist and vapor
over to Ranma, whose life and death struggle against the forces she wrought
were reduced to a single frame floating in time. Setsuna looked the fuku’d
warrior up and down, noting every painful line etched in her face, the strain
in her muscles against a phantom wind.
The Guardian of time nodded with approval. If she was to give
her life for another, then better it be to somebody who would fight until they
had breathed their last, and then some. Setsuna extended her staff once more,
noting the darkening reality around her. You can’t fight time forever, she
thought ruefully and touched the cursed martial artist with the heart tip.
Sailor Nova began to glow softly, gaining intensity with unnatural shimmer. Her
body was enveloped and the light peaked and vanished, leaving nothing behind
but the form of a martial artist that once was. The world around Setsuna
continued to darken and burn away like an over-exposed negative.
“Forgive me, Ranma-kun, it was the best I could do.” She
sighed, lowering the time key to her side. Time continued to crumble in upon
itself, dissolving into a mass of formless shadows until only a small space
around her person remained lit.
And it was there Setsuna Meiou, Guardian of Time and the Last
Princess of Pluto finally found her peace.
“To the time gates?” Usagi queried as Ranma powered down from Senshi mode and
back into the her civilian dress, which consisted of loose red slacks, a black
silk blouse and jacket, complementing the long unbound mane of bright red hair.
Ranma nodded, taking another sip of tea with the pause in their
discussion. “It was the only place she could send me, having frozen our
original escape route in time.”
“But shouldn’t you have just…” Ami asked tentatively, stepping
lightly across the subject of death, especially when it involved opening so
many old wounds for everyone involved.
“Died?” Ranma let a slight smile cross her face. Moon noticed
more emotion trickle back into her friend the longer she was around them.
“Setsuna was bound by that protocol, not I.”
“You changed Queen Serenity’s protocols?” Michiru
mouthed, eyes widening. Behind her, Haruka remained silent, but glaring, still
nursing her bruised ego.
“Not exactly.” She smiled warmly, and for a moment, the Senshi
of Neptune could have sworn it had come from Setsuna. “The Queen’s protocols
were specifically written for Setsuna Meiou. There’s no way she could have
foreseen somebody taking her post in the manner I did.”
“And how was that?” Haruka questioned, with a trace of
hostilitiy. Still it was magnitudes less than what had erupted earlier.
“The wish.”
The girls looked at Ranma with blank expressions, and the
redhead suppressed a sigh, knowing she was going to have to recount the entire
sordid tale. “About nine months ago, I came into possession of a sword that
granted wishes.”
“Sword?”
“Wishes?”
“No way.”
Ranma smirked and Usagi watched the tide of personality change
from something that resembled the mysterious Setsuna to the roguish Ranma. “Any
more impossible than a gender shifting martial artist?” That shut them all up.
“Anyway, I made a wish… To know why I could never get a moment’s peace. As it
turned out, Setsuna was behind that particular aspect of my life and I found
out far more than I ever wanted to know about her.”
“How much..?” It was a new voice and Ranma turned to find the
pink hair of Chibi Usa. Suddenly, the red head was at a loss for words as a
full head of emotion rushed to the forefront. Everybody in the room could see
it, and was wondering just how the child had affected her so. Whatever she was
feeling it obviously wasn’t pleasant.
“Everything.”
Moon glanced from Ranma to Chibi, wondering what the connection
was. With the presumed deaths of Ranma and Setsuna six months ago, the child
had lapsed into a depressive state that was totally at odds with her usual,
bubbly personality. Any assurances that everything would be okay died the
moment she began to fade from existence, and it was only through later
analysis- much of it Ami’s –did they realize the probable cause. It had
happened once before, and it meant that some key component had been removed
from the girl’s future. That component, Ami had figured, was Setsuna. Without
the Senshi to bring her back in time to them, Chibi became the focus of
a paradox- a concept Usagi herself barely understood –and began to fade from
existence. In fact, she was still at a loss to explain why Chibi was even still
alive.
What had become obvious was the source of the girl’s anxiety
and mounting depression… Whatever had happened, her entire future was built on
quicksand. Without a Sailor Pluto, she couldn’t go back to the parent she knew.
In fact, the world as she knew it no longer existed without the lynchpin named
Setsuna Meiou. Her parents. Family. Friends. Even her childhood had been erased
in favor of a new future.
“Puu?” It was a meek whisper, one mixed with hope, longing and
sadness in equal measure. It surprised everybody in the room to see Ranma kneel
down to her level and open her arms.
“Come, child.”
Small Lady needed no further prompting, and slammed into Ranma
like a freight train of tear, no longer holding back the emotion she had held
at bay for the past six months. “They’re gone, Puu, they’re gone! Every last
one of them!”
Ranma pulled the child tighter into her, stroking her hair as
she cried into her shoulder. “I know, Chibi… I know…”
The sobbing continued unabated. “Mom, Dad… ‘Kira-kun… Auntie
Setsuna … You… All gone!”
The Senshi watched the scene with morbid fascination as Chibi
Usa cried in Ranma’s arms as if she were a long time friend. Even more
surprising was Ranma’s unabashed acceptance of the child, as she tenderly
stroked the tearful pink haired girl.
“I won’t leave you, Chibi…” Ranma whispered into her ear, and
the sniffling girl seemed to regain some composure. “Not ever.”
She waited a moment longer as Chibi Usa took the promise to
heart, wiping the tears from her eyes. Ranma stood up, looking fondly down at
the girl one last time before turning back to the others, who stared with
questions radiating from their being, but were to polite to ask. She decided to
dispense with formalities.
“You all know what happened to Chibi six months ago.” She
began, and the group around her nodded. While the exact nature of temporal
mechanics remained a mystery to most of those present, the effects weren’t.
“When Setsuna stopped time to save me, she unwittingly created a paradox in
which Chibi here couldn’t have come back in time, since there was now literally
nobody to do it. She died and set into motion a temporal cascade that nearly removed
Chibi from time. Had I not acted, none of you would even remember she existed.”
“You acted?” Ami’s ears perked up. She had been one of the few
in the room who understood the full implications of Chibi’s paradox and was now
being offered an explanation as to why the girl didn’t disappear outright.
Ranma nodded. “I manipulated the Time Gates and anchored Chibi
to this timeline. It let her continue to exist, but the price was… high. She’s
now an independent element within the flow of time. As such, everything she
knew- her past and our future –is gone.” A sniffle from Chibi punctuated the
statement, and she clinged tighter to Ranma, who in turn let her hand flow
through the child’s pink hair.
Rei spoke up, raising a hand tentatively as if she were in class
and talking to the teacher, which was odd, since Ranma was carrying herself
like one. One of the better ones, she noted absently. Calm and patient. “But
can’t you just… Return her back to the future? Like Setsuna was going to?”
“No.” Ranma shook her head slowly. “With Setsuna’s death, the
future has been rewritten. If I were to return Chibi to the future, she would
find another in her place. While some of it might be similar, a lot has changed
with my predecessor’s death.”
“So you’re saying there’ll be two Chibi’s eventually?”
Michiru fidgeted with a strand of her luscious green hair. Her mind trying to
wrap itself around the new possibility.
Ranma cast a sidelong glance over to Usagi. “Assuming certain
outcomes come to pass, yes.” The blond instantly began to glow bright pink, her
eyes shifting around nervously.
“So you’re Setsuna now.” Haruka pressed, her voice laden with
disbelief. Miraculously, all traces of its former venom had vanished.
“No.” Ranma frowned. It was obviously not the most pleasant subject
for her to discuss. “As I said, the wish granted me knowledge as to why I could
never have a moment’s peace. The sword fulfilled that wish literally, giving me
awareness as to Setsuna and her plans regarding me. I thought that was the
extent of the wish. Simple awareness. I knew who Setsuna was, her Senshi
identity and a fair amount of minutiae.”
“I had no idea just how wrong I was.”
The void.
Ranma paced the void once again, casting a baleful glare at its
only other occupant, two huge, intricately carved double doors. What day was it
again? They had lost their names early on in her stay and had since been
regulated to numbers. Today’s day was number fifty eight. Maybe. There was no
day or night in the void, making it all but impossible to accurately measure
time.
“What time is it?” The doors considered the question and
responded in silence. Ranma fumed, mumbling something about the doors and their
questionable linage. Halfway through her litany of curses, Ranma stopped short,
realizing that she was holding a conversation with a door. Not good. Almost as
bad as that time when I sacked Egypt, she thought with amusement. The plague of
locus had been especially—
“AHHHHAAARRR!” the scream echoed across the endless night,
and the redhead fell to her knees. “Get out of my head!” Ranma sent a fist into
the insubstantial surface she was kneeling on, only to have it softly
intercepted by a counter force. The nullification of her attempt at physical
violence only fueled her anger, and she whipped around, glaring at the double
doors. “Oh, you just think this is SO funny, don’t you!” the doors remained
silent. “Fucking doors! Moko Takabisha!”
The ki shot covered the small distance at near light speeds,
flashing into the doors and ablating across their surface with a loud crack of
energy. Ranma glared at the structure. As usual, they had come through the
abuse absolutely unscathed. It pissed her off to no end. She pulled the Staff
of Ascension from weapons space and rushed them, wedging the crescent bladed
edge into the center seam. She shifted her leverage hard right and attempted
pry the double doors open with everything she had, an attempted that last only
ten minutes as neither the staff nor doors yielded to her pressure.
“Alright, fine.” The martial artist growled. He stepped away
from the doors, gaining distance. “If that’s the way you wanna play it, have it
your way! DEAD SCREAM!”
Silence greeted the technique and Ranma stood by in
incomprehension. That should have worked. She stared at her hands wondering why
a pink ball of death hadn’t erupted from them to smash the doors to smoldering
ash. She was about to reposition herself for another attempt when horrible
realization desended upon her.
The was her technique.
Ranma stared at her hands. “What the hell is happening to me!”
She gasped, alone in the night. “I ain’t her!” She took deep breaths and tried
to calm herself, settling into a crouch. If this was Setsuna’s idea of a
practical joke, it really wasn’t funny anymore. Not by a long shot. How long is
she going to keep her locked up? Years? Is this her solution to removing me as
a threat to Crystal Tokyo? Somehow, the answer came up as a negative for Ranma.
She was getting to know the green haired woman all to well and it didn’t strike
her as something Pluto would do. After all, these were the Time Gates. You
wouldn’t leave a potential advesary— Ranma’s thoughts paused again, staring at
the double doors and the staff imbedded in their seam.
So that’s what they are.
Ranma hopped up from her crouch with renewed purpose, and
strode over to the doors. Her hand closed around the staff and pulled it from
the seam, returning it back to weapons space. Time Gates. Ranma knew she
shouldn’t have known that. Couldn’t have known that. But she did, and it
unnerved her. She ran a finger down the unmarred seam and across the intricate
carvings. The touch was accompanied by another flash of insight… the first time
she had laid eyes on them. The Queen was at her side, showing her… The martial
artist squeezed her eyes shut, and shook her head free of the vision. She broke
contact with the gates and stepped away from them as if they were a threat. She
knew they weren’t of course, but the visions… no, not visions, she decided.
Memories.
Setsuna’s memories.
It had taken over a month to come to that conclusion, but it
was the only one Ranma could come with. She had been seeing things through the
woman's eyes. Feeling them. And it was getting worse. With the familiar
surroundings, the memories had started to flow into her brain at a faster pace.
Coupled with the near total sensory deprivation of the time gate void, and the
brain was very receptive to input. How she was even still alive after over a
month without water was beyond the pigtailed girl, but that was the least of
her concerns at the moment. Keeping her sanity was, and was becoming
increasingly harder to separate her memories from Pluto’s.
“Ok, think…” Ranma prodded herself aloud. “Why the hell is
this happening…?” She had had plenty of time to think on the matter and there
was only one thing she could attribute the memories to… “That damn wish…” She
growled. The sword had evidentially taken her quite literally, not simply
identifying and knowing the source of her angst, but knowing everything about
her, right down to the woman’s life experiences… all three thousand, five
hundred and sixty three years of them. The normal human memory knew decay. Very
few people would recall their entire life experience, and even fewer over three
thousand years of it. Chunks of it would be reduced to vague impressions, fond
recollections and the like. Ranma’s wish knew no such limitations, however and
it was all getting squeezed into her brain like an over-stuffed package. Not
instantly, mind you, but just fast enough not to kill her outright.
Ranma’s mind found another unpleasant topic to dwell on… Like
how the hell she was going to get out before she went insane, between the
memories and near sensory deprivation. The void had no sound, no real light
save the glow of the doors. Nothing to feel, let alone taste. The redhead
stared at the Time Gates once again. She knew what they were. Now all she had
to do was get them to work before she broke.
No, she decided. Ranma Saotome, never loses.
“Three thousand…” Hotaru breathed, sitting on the edge of the sofa as Ranma
recounted the tale. Ranma nodded silently from her kneeling position on the
floor, Chibi Usa wrapped possessively around her as if the redhead herself were
a lifeline.
“I remember everything that she was.” Ranma spoke softly.
“Hell, I even remember bringing the lil Spore here back in time to you guys.”
Slight shock registered on Chibi’s face as she jerked up to look at Ranma,
finding a warm smile. A little smile pierced her cloudy depression and she
tightened her grip tightened around the redhead. “Make no mistake however, I am
not her. I battled long and hard with those memories. They threatened to
swallow me up… I mean, what is eighteen years as you versus three thousand as
somebody else? The line blurs.”
“I’m sure it does…” Ami whispered. Like Usagi next to her, she
had been watching as traces of Setsuna ripple across Ranma’s personality. But
she was right. There was an undeniable difference. She was neither the Ranma
they knew nor the Setsuna of old. This amalgam carried herself with confidence,
yet retained the cloak of calm mystery.
“…So you won’t have to worry about me sneaking up on you any
time soon, Princess.” The mischievous smile grew and Usagi readily identified
it as Ranma’s. “Now ‘Ruka and Michi-chan on the other hand…”
“You say that like you know us.” Haruka stated flatly while her
partner kept her expression neutral.
“That’s my point.” Ranma offered guilessly. “Everything Setsuna
knew about you, I know. Which is why I’ve tabled any feud we may have had in
the past. I… she remembers you both too fondly for me to hold that sort
of grudge.”
Haruka blinked. It was true… They had all been close friends,
but… Uranus further speculation on the matter was cut short by the click of the
front door and the entry of a lean woman with long black hair clad in a blue
happi and black tights. The leather bandolier and giant combat spatula slung
around her back identified her to the Senshi immediately.
“Tell me you saved some snacks for…” Ukyo’s voice trailed off
as her eyes fell upon Ranma, and her breath seemed sucked away by an invisible
force of nature. “…me…” She stood there for several long seconds before her
something close to a coherent thought formed in her mind. “...Ranma!”
Ranma’s eyes widened as she stood up slowly. She had known that
her child hood friend had been hanging out with the Senshi, but to have her
just suddenly appear… She recovered from her initial shock and Ukyo watched as
her face closed up into serene mystery, content, unrevealing in its nature.
“Hello, Uccha—OOF!”
A second train of tears ran headlong into her, nearly running
over Small Lady in order to get to the red headed Senshi. “You’re not dead? How
in the hell—no wait! I don’t care! I don’t give a damn! Just tell me
this isn’t a dream, Ran-chan!”
Ranma smiled and wrapped her arms around her oldest friend. “If
it’s a dream, it’s pretty sick and perverse. Either way, it’s... It’s good to
see you, Ucchcan.”
They held the embrace for several minutes before Ukyo untangled
herself from Ranma, looking her over for the first time since his death. Or her
death, she revised, taking in her friend and fiancées current fashion. More
telling was the hair, which was now an unbound mane of long red hair. She knew
the person across from her like the back of her hand, and several key pieces of
logic instantly snapped into place. First the hair. Ranma just didn’t let it
get that long unless it was part of some ruse. Second, the fashion. While it
wasn’t frilly, it was definitely feminine in nature and the styling left more
than enough room for combat mobility, she appraised. Finally, came the way she
held herself. Beyond the hair, it was the most striking change of all. The
other two elements could have been attributed to Ranma and the games that
tended to surround him, but the way she held herself now was totally un-Ranma.
She was confident, yet reserved. Even mysterious. It wasn’t the cocky stance
she had grown so used to seeing, no matter what form he wore.
The red headed Guardian of Time noticed Ukyo’s appraisal and
nodded. “Yes, there’s been a few changes.”
“The curse?” It wasn’t a question any of the Senshi had
bothered to ask given their lack of familiarity with Ranma’s daily life, but
Ukyo was seeking a reason for the change and it was the first most logical
question to ask.
“Unlocked.” Ranma kept her expression carefully neutral,
knowing what was coming next.
“Whew.” Ukyo relaxed. “I thought the change was permanent for a
moment there.“
“It is.” The Okanomiyaki master blinked. “It’s been a hard road
getting back here, Uuchan…”
Her mind processed the implications and everything that came
with it. Ranma’s guarded expression helped solidify the conclusion she came to.
He was a she and she was staying that way for a reason. It also meant the
engagement—all of them –were more than likely dead. Ukyo took a deep breath and
sighed, then settled on a smile that was totally at odds with what Ranma had
been expecting.
“That’s not important now.” She decided. “What is, is that
you’re alive to tell me all about it.”
“Pan left, eight degrees.” Ranma directed, and
the image in front of her rotated left at a lethargic pace. It was a rainy day
she was watching, and everyone was in black with matching umbrellas. Kinda
fitting, she mused. “Wide angle. Give me fifteen meters AGL. Z-minus five.” The
scene pulled out, allowing the view of the entire scene. She chuckled as Ryoga
Hibiki came into view. Ryoga in a suit and tie. It doesn’t get much better than
that. Shampoo was all decked out, while her grandmother was flanked by an
Amazon ceremonial honor guard. Nice touch. Even better was the wary glances
they were shooting at the Musk honor guard across the isle, with Herb as their
ambassador. Baby Saffron, Kira and the Phoenix were simply icing on the cake
after that. The redhead stifled another chuckle, as if they’d somehow be able
to hear her through the opened double doors.
All in all, it was pretty funny considering it was her funeral
they were all attending.
That, and the images she was watching play out were about three
months old, now. The martial artist watched for a few minutes longer, noting
that it wasn’t quite as good as Ceasar’s funeral. Now that was a—Ranma paused,
grinding her teeth in irritation. Not my memory, not my memory, mot my memory,
she clenched a fist, burning the mantra into her head. While it was a small
victory to have successfully caught the mental trespass, she knew for every
foreign memory she caught, five more normally slid past unnoticed. Of course,
unlike Ceasar, she was still alive, so he was welcome to the larger funeral.
Ranma shook her head and turned her attention back to the Time Gates. Speaking
of Setsuna…
“Date, April 11th, 1990. Time: 10:30am. 35 by 40 by 49 point
13 north, 139 by 43 by 43 point 27 east, execute.”
The scene she had been watching flashed away to a different
location thirteen miles south of Nerima, floating high above a small graveyard.
“Ten meters AGL at forty-five degrees, z-minus eight.” The gates obeyed the
command, dropping from aloft and settling in on another funeral, this one much
smaller than the last she visited. Eight girls stood around a single plot,
their dress varying wildly with each individual. Fortunately they had better
weather than the presumed dead martial artist laid to rest three days earlier.
Ranma cocked her head, studying the scene for maybe the tenth time since she
had stumbled acrossed it. It wasn’t the hero’s farwell she herself had
received, but that wasn’t what caused her pause.
“Six, seven, eight…” Ranma counted of softly as Usagi and
the girls began laying single roses on Setsuna Mieou’s empty coffin, one by
one. “What’s wrong with this picture…?” The redhead whispered, leaning forward
in her sitting position before the gates. “Y plus thirty two, Z plus three.
Give me a tight angle.” The gates obeyed and swung her view up and around,
affording Ranma a close up of everybody present. She counted the girls off by
their planetary names this time and frowned when she got to the last one. “Now
where’d the lil’ Spore run off to?”
The answer was obvious. She simply wasn’t there. Ranma put a
finger to her lips. The question was why wasn’t she there? Puu was one of her
best friends, Ranma rationalized, not realizing she had adopted Chibi’s title
for Setsuna from memories that weren’t hers. There’s no way she’d miss this event.
She didn’t know their entire history, but the memories had been flowing
steadily. They were connected somehow and for some reason, the fact that she
wasn’t present filled Ranma with foreboding. In fact, she hadn’t been able to
find the little pink haired girl anywhere. Setsuna and Chibi… Something to do
with time tra—
Ranma bolted to her feet suddenly, panic firing through her
brain. “Scan timeline. Report last major paradox.” The fact that she even knew
what a paradox was a trip unto itself, she realized as the funeral faded from
view and was replaced by thick blackness. Blue lines began to appear in the
darkness, some intersecting while still more branched away. The main blue line
continued until it was interrupted by a pulsing red dot.
“Last major paradox at 15.3380Z.00001 by 132.900567AX0004.00
time-space.” The gates reported in a soft female voice, pausing over the red
dot. Ranma Saotome mentally converted the co ordinance with memories that
weren’t hers and swore. Not only was that the day Pluto sent her to this hell
hole, it was the day she died. And if she died, what would have happened to
Chibi Usagi? The redhead actively dug through Setsuna’s memories now, drawing a
blank. They were connected somehow and Chibi had paradoxed out when Setsuna
bought it.
“And I was just starting to like the little trouble-maker…”
Ranma frowned unhappily, also unaware that her memories were mixing with
Setsuna’s own affections for the girl. No, she decided. It wasn’t going to go
down like that. “Open gates to 15.3380Z.00001 by 132.900567AX0002.00 time
space.” She was going to fix this little—
“Operation restricted.” The gates’ disembodied voice chided.
“Your access is insufficient to perform the requested operation. Please
contact the Time Gate administrator for further assistance.”
Ranma fumed, glaring at the gates themselves. It wasn’t the
first time she had heard that message. “The administrator is DEAD, you piece of
junk! Let me OUT!”
The gates sat passively by, ignoring her orders.
Ranma began pacing, shooting daggers at the construct. She had
been here for three months and still had yet to find a way out. While Setsuna’s
memories had allowed her to use some of the gate’s lower functions, they were
still largely incomplete, and whatever magic she used to get the damn things to
work was still safely hidden behind the curtain that was leaking the memories
into her brain in the first place. If not for the current situation, she would
prefer it to remain that way, as they had begun to screw with her gender sense
in earnest. That night with Lancelot really stuck out in her mind. It was
quite—Ramma scowled, chopping that particular memory down at the source. It had
already led to more than enough trouble, taking her down roads she swore she’d
never visit in this particular body. Not that it hadn’t been entirely
unpleasant. In fact…
“AAHHHHaaaRR!” Ranma clutched her head with one hand,
pounding on it with the other. She stepped away from the gate and launched into
a blistering kata, attempting to clear her mind. Focus… focus… It was a
devilish situation to be trapped in, she realized. If she wanted out, she had
to accept Setsuna’s memories to find whatever would unlock the gates. At the
same time, they brought with them an unbelievable burden. Not only did they
creep in, muddying her own memories, but they were changing her and she woke up
every day, fighting for her own identity. If she just accepted those memories
outright, it was going to get worse sooner than it got better. Sure, she’d
probably find a way out, but at what cost?
But that was the price. Ranma fell out of her kata, considering
the dilemma. If she wanted out, she had to accept the memories. Not just pieces
of them, as the wish hadn’t afforded her that particular luxury. All of them.
Not only did she have to accept all of them, she had to retain her identity in
the process, since the last person she wanted to become was Setsuna Meiou. If
it was just her life, the decision would have been much harder for Ranma. But
it wasn’t. Chibi had paradoxed and the redhead felt an empty, saddening hole
where she had existed in her thoughts and memories. The kid deserved better.
Her course decided, Ranma Saotome settled in for the long haul,
none too pleased as to where that road would take her. Even as she accepted her
fate, there was one amusing thought that became her ever present companion…
The life of a martial artist was, without a doubt, filled with
peril.
“So you’re completely…” Ukyo asked softly, unable to finish the question that
was too alien to her view of Ranma.
“Three thousand years of her versus eighteen of little old me.”
The long haired redhead replied in an offhanded manner, then smiled. “Overall,
I’d say I faired pretty well.” She paused and the smile faded slightly. “But
there was no avoiding some of the sacrifices I had to make.”
Ukyo nodded somewhat solemnly, recognizing exactly what those
sacrifices were. Ranma, the man among men was all but gone. His core remained,
but a changed person had emerged from the Time Gates to save Chibi and himself…
Herself, she mentally revised. No man remained in the person named Ranma
Saotome, of that she was certain. Somewhere in the void, Ranma had crossed too
far over that particular line to return, and she had evidentially made peace
with herself concerning it. It was also something the chef would have to---
“Wait a minute…” Ukyo paused abruptly, interrupting her own
thoughts. “You made out with Sir Lancelot?”
The redhead didn’t even blush. “By proxy.” She stated evenly.
If Ukyo didn’t know better, she could have sworn there was even a slight smile
in there somewhere. “After all, it wasn’t my body.” Ranma didn’t feel it
necessary to mention the fact that while it hadn’t been her body, she
remembered every exquisite detail of that encounter quite vividly, let alone
the fact that she was probably the Earth’s foremost living authority on sex,
even if she was still technically a virgin herself.
“I didn’t realize that Set-chan got around so much.” Haruka
muttered to herself, a sentiment that was shared by most of the Senshi present.
The woman had been so mysterious that none of them knew anything of the time
she spent shepherding history along.
For her part, Ranma simply shrugged off the stares. “She had a
lot of time on her hands, go figure.” This revelation produced dumb nods from
her audience, as it pretty much said it all. Ami, however, was already doing
the math.
“Three thousand some years time, one guy per year…” She
mentally ticked through the numbers.
“At a minimum.” Ranma added off-handedly, causing Ukyo to
blush. Others simply gaped.
“And you… remember them all?” The Okanomiyaki master simply
couldn’t believe Ranma Saotome, manly man of men had fallen so far from that
ideal, let alone become so… worldly. It was a sharp contrast from the martial
artist she had known a mere six months ago, one that could barely stand to have
a girl hang on him let alone discuss matters of intimacy so openly. Ranma
simply nodded, keeping her peace on the subject. An uncomfortable silence
settled down on the group, while certain others marked Ranma as the go-to
person on matters of intimacy, should the matter arise.
Ukyo shifted away from the uncomfortable topic. “So does your
family know you’re alive?”
Ranma’s serene mask slipped noticeably and a hint of fear crept
across it. “No. Wasn’t planning on letting them know either.”
Ukyo Kuonji blinked. Then she blinked again. Usagi took up the
next obvious question; the one Ukyo was dying to ask. “But… why?”
“I’ve had about six months to think on it, and I agree with
Setsuna.” Ranma began sullenly. “I’ve taken over the mantle of Pluto. Everyone
I know will pass away. I don’t need that. They don’t need to watch me stay
young while they slowly die off…” With those words, it was the first time any
of them considered their impact on the world around them, beyond the theme of
love and justice. They would all live on even as their family and friends grew
old and died around them. “Since I’m already dead, I think I’ll let sleeping
dogs lie, y’know?”
“Oh no you will not, Ran-chan!” Ranma’s head jerked up from her
introspection, finding his best friend’s eyes locked solidly with hers. “A
little bit of Nerima died that day with you. Do you know how many times your
mother tried to commit seppuku?”
The answer came softly. “Yes.”
“Even the Tendo’s suffered after they heard about your death.”
Ukyo detailed the events of since her absence. "And Akane… She’s just not
the same. Her spark is gone. I never thought I’d say it, but I miss it.”
“I don’t know…”
“You should.” Ranma blinked. The voice came from the diminutive
pink haired girl wrapped around her. She stared up at the Princess of Pluto
with her big red eyes. “Enjoy them while you can.” A tear rolled out of one
eye, leaving a glistening trail down her cheek. One from Ranma herself soon
followed. Of all people, Small Lady would know, she thought, and given Ranma’s
unique circumstances, her words carried substantially weight with the martial
arts guardian of time, more so than her ex-fiancee. She looked from her, then
back to Ukyo, who simply nodded in agreement.
“Okay.”
Chibi smiled brightly and tightened her hug around the redhead.
Ukyo gave her a pat on the shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay, Ran-chan.”
The pair sat comforting Ranma for a few more moments until she
had recovered enough to field Michiru’s question, which was thankfully not
along the same vein as the last. She couldn’t have known that her particular
topic of conversation was a keg of high explosives waiting to be lit. Neptune
struck the match.
“So if you’re the new Senshi of Time, how is Crystal Tokyo looking?”
She forwarded. “Has the change-over disrupted those probabilities?”
“Yes.” The reply brought an instant hush over the other
Sailors.
“How…?” Usagi asked with trepidation. Was there another big
enemy they had to eliminate? “How bad is it?”
“There’s a zero point zero chance of Crystal Tokyo coming
about.” Ranma reported. The silence was deadening for a moment, then chaos
reigned.
“ZERO?” Haruka lurched forward in total disbelief.
“How in the world is that possible!” Ami’s eyes were wide in
similar disbelief. She pulled out the Mercury computer and began tapping in
variables.
“If Crystal Tokyo doesn’t exist…” Moon let the statement speak
for itself. If that future didn’t exist, then mankind was totally and
completely doomed. Not even the small remnant of man would survive. “It was
nearly one-hundred percent before we took the pocket universe out! What the
hell happened!”
“I happened.”
Ranma stood up from her seat and Chibi disentangled herself
from the redhead. Ukyo knew the look of ice that resided in the Saotome’s eyes
and mentally readied herself for what was about to occur. She had no idea what
Crystal Tokyo was, but if Ranma was about to lay some smack down, there would
be no question as to whose side she’d come down, regardless of how many youma
she had slain with the sailors. She stepped off to Ranma’s right flank, giving
them both combat room. It caused the redhead to smile slightly. Even after so
much change, it was nice to know some things never would.
“You what?” Haruka hissed, deadly venom leaking from her
voice.
“But Setsuna…!” Makoto practically squeeled and Ranma cut her
off sharply.
“Maybe I should reintroduce myself.” She bit testily. “I’m Ranma
Saotome, heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Guardian of Time
and Last Princess of Pluto. I am not Setsuna Meiou and I will not
let over nine billion people die on my watch.”
“Are you saying you will deny man its last hope of survival!”
Moon bolted upright, totally forgetting the cookies she had been munching on
contently.
“No.” Ranma burned a hard stare into Moon, who took a step
back. “I’m saying that I will not write off ninety-nine percent of the
world’s population on some idyllic post apocalyptic future. The lines may have
blurred while I was trapped in the Time Gates, but one thing that hasn’t is
that the first duty of a martial artist is to protect those who cannot protect
themselves, and I will fight to my last breath before that future comes
to pass.”
“And what do you think you can do to stop us from pursuing it?”
Michiru stepped up to Haruka, flanking Usagi. “In fact, what’s to stop us from
revoking your status as substitute Guardian of Time?”
Ukyo reached around her back, bringing the combat spatula to
bear. She took Ranma’s own over-confident grin as her own. “You’re welcome to
try, Sugar.”
Usagi’s wide eye stare matched those of the inners, who
obviously hadn’t been expecting any confrontation, let alone one that would
escalate so far out of control so quickly. That, and she couldn’t figure out
why there was a huge grin plastered across Chibi Usa’s face, who had yet to
leave the redhead’s side. Moon couldn’t believe it—One day as a real Senshi and
Ranma was staging her own mini rebellion! In that moment, all the sacrifices
they had made in the name of Crystal Tokyo came to the forefront and she did
the only thing she could.
“No!” She snapped. “I did not let billions die! You can’t just
come in and destroy everything we’ve worked so hard for in two hours time! As
the Princess of the Moon, I cannot allow that!”
“Two hours?” Ranma scoffed, putting her hand to her hips
defiantly. “I’ve had six months and three thousand years of fucking
memories to consider this, little girl. As I see it, you don’t have much of a
choice.”
Moon glared at the redhead. “Hmmf! I can always remove you as a
Senshi with this!” There was brief flash of light and the glowing crystalline
form of the Ginzuishou formed in her hand.
Ranma’s rolled her eyes. “Pah-lease. I have every memory
of you that Setsuna has. You can barely even use that stupid rock, let alone
remove my abilities before I can incapacitate you; and even if you managed to
accomplish that feat, I’m still the best martial artist in the world. You
wouldn’t last five seconds.”
Two pink flashes erupted at Moon’s side and Michiru and Haruka
processed their transformation to from civilian to Senshi, taking up attack
stances. “I think you’re over-estimating your odds, you redheaded bitch.”
“I don’t think so.”
Another flash of light perforated the room once more. Once it
faded, the Senshi froze in panic. Even the outers at Usagi’s side took a step
back. Ukyo simply stared. What had once been the little pink haired girl at
Ranma’s side was now a lithe, fully developed woman. ‘Goth’ was the first thing
that came to her mind as her eyes fell upon the woman clad in a pitch black
evening gown, wrapped in translucent of pink and black streamers. It was all
bound by a studded black collar. Her forehead was topped with a golden moon
symbol and Ukyo decided that somehow, the clash of cute and gothic worked for
the girl. That’s also when she noticed it absolutely wasn’t working for her
former friends.
Usagi was the first to find her voice. “Black lady!”
“How the hell did that happen!” Rei screeched and took several
steps back, while Haruka let a silent “oh shit” form at her mouth. Everybody
present remembered their last encounter with Chibi’s Wiseman-born alter ego, as
well as the ass-whooping that followed. Every Sailor in the room activated
their transformations simultaneously and took defensive positions off Sailor
Moon, who was holding the Ginzuishou like it was some warding symbol.
The pink haired woman laughed with contempt as she rejoined
Ranma’s side as she had in her smaller form, only now it seemed a far more
intimate gesture. If Ranma objected, it wasn’t written on her face or body
language.
“And what do you think you’re going to do with that?”
Her voice sounded like tiny daggers who had found amusement in the girl in
front of her.
“I’m going to use its power to return you to normal, Wicked
Lady!” Moon proclaimed, and began concentrating. The crystal glowed briefly,
flickered and died. She stared at the crystal, then Usa, then back to the
crystal and began to shake it as if it were a defective piece of electronics.
Usa sighed, clearly bored with the scene. “The catalyst for
that particular change was removed when my timeline was wiped.” She turned
slightly into the Senshi of Pluto next to her. “I spent nearly 900 years
trapped in that silly body …yet another thing I have to thank Ranma-chan for
correcting.” Even Ukyo arched an eyebrow at how close she had moved to Ranma.
She didn’t seem to be discouraging the pink haired goth, either.
Sailor Venus peered at the woman formerly known as Chibi Usa,
noting the gold moon on her forhead. “She doesn’t seem evil…”
“If I were evil, I would have blasted you all to glass by now.”
Usa remarked dryly, taking the others back. “As it is, I’m simply in agreement
with my Ranma-chan. I’ve been through the catastrophe once. I was assured it
was the only way then, and now, I will not allow it to happen again.”
The fact that she was refering to Ranma as her
Ranma-chan didn’t go unnoticed by Ukyo, who was already doing her best not to
tear the interloper slash ally away from Ranma’s personal space.
Sailor Uranus stepped forward in Moon’s silence, trying to
regain the upper hand in their standoff. “Somehow, I doubt that you can take
all of us and stand up to Saturn’s power as well.”
As if that were her cue, Sailor Saturn stepped up from the back
and past the Senshi, who immediately began to gape. Uranus cursed to herself as
Hotaru’s adult form walk past her to confront Ranma. Luscious, floor-length
black hair flowed behind her fully developed figure and Uranus swore again.
When the hell did that happen? It was just a fucking red letter day all
the way around. Off to her right, Mercury twitched. She had since recognized
the adult form as sort of an armament switch and was not looking forward to the
planet buster going live. A beautifully dressed planet bluster, clad in a
sleevless silk vest, pearls and a long, elegant dress, but a planet buster none
the less with Silence Glaive balanced lightly on he left shoulder.
“Hotaru.” Ranma managed the air of serene mystery about her
with ease, allowing a slight smile to escape the cloak. Saturn cocked her head,
studying the Guardian of Time momentarily before turning to Usa, whose dememor
was all but identical. She gave them both a nod and joined their right flank.
“Saturn, what are you doing!” Sailor Uranus hissed,
unable to believe the trespass that had just occurred.
The matured Saturn pursed her lips and cast a sidelong glance
over to Usa. “Joining my friends. Besides, I think I’d prefer the company of
those who haven’t been plotting my demise.”
The Outers gut turned to solid ice with those words.
Ukyo’s mind flew through the startling developments, trying to
make sense of the entire situation with only a limited amount of history at her
disposal. Somehow, Ranma had just rallied the two most powerful Senshi to her
cause. What that cause was, exactly, she wasn’t sure, but it was enough to
afford her a largely patronizing smile for the remaining Senshi, Uranus in
particular. “How are those odds looking now, Sugar?”
Moon stared incredulously at the force now arrayed against her,
which easily eclipsed hers in both skill and power, if not numbers. The girl
she had considered her little sister for so long had matured into a stunning
woman with nearly nine-hundred years of experience her senior. She had joined
the side of not only the world’s premier martial artist, but the newly anointed
Senshi of Time with three thousand years of memories to call her own. If that
weren’t enough, their presence was now augmented by the recently matured and
slightly resentful Sailor Saturn. Words simply could describe the amount of
dread that particular bit of knowledge invoked. Finally, there was Ukyo, whose
own skill, if not power easily rivaled that of any of the Inners. All in all,
it was turning out to be a bad situation for Moon to be in, even with the
superiority she had in numbers.
Finally, the inevitable happened. Sailor Moon broke into tears.
“But... but why!” She sobbed with huge eyes. “I’m such a good
princess!”
Usa sighed and Ranma stepped forward with an unreadable mask
etched on her face. The redhead took the girl’s hand and looked into her eyes,
and it was as if that serene calm flowed into the blond, stabilizing her
emotional state somewhat. “Perhapse, but there is more to being a princess- or
a queen for that matter –than waving a crystal around, or a wand or running
around it a fuku.”
“But… Crystal Tokyo…” Moon sniffled and the Guardian of Time
sighed. She just wouldn’t let it go.
“The only reason Crystal Tokyo even seems like a remotely good
idea is because actually saving the world has far longer odds attached to it.”
She explained patiently as the rest of the Sailors listened in, never having
heard this particular aspect of the mission before. “It all comes down to doing
the smart thing or the right thing. The smart thing is to cut your losses and
wait for Crystal Tokyo. The right thing is to fight for every last man
woman and child on this planet, even if you or every single last one of us go
down in the attempt.”
“The path of a Magical Girl is fraught with peril.” Ukyo
quipped as she sheathed her combat spatula, earning a smile from her best
friend in the process.
Ranma nodded at the essence of her comment. “Are you a guardian
of love and justice?” Moon blinked. Of course I am, she thought as Ranma’s
stare bore into her. What kind of question—
“Then your path is clear.”
Sailor Moon blink at the enigmatic statement and watched as
Ranma Saotome, Heir of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Guardian of
Time and Last Princess of Pluto turned on heel and leave the room followed by
Dark Usa, heir Primus to the throne of Serenity, Sailor Saturn and Ukyo Kuonji,
Okanomiyaki master and Demon hunter extraordinaire.
“So have you thought about where you’re going to
stay?”
Ukyo asked as the four women stepped out into the open air of
the dusk sky. For the passers by they were quite a sight, being more than a bit
on the exotic side. For once, the chef and her combat spatula weren’t the ones
drawing the most attention. Of course, it didn’t help that all four of them
were absolutely gorgeous either. Frankly, Ukyo was having a hard time not
staring herself. Not only was her best friend alive… She was changed.
Granted, coming back from the dead might do that, she acknowledged, but the
amount of change was nothing short of staggering. In fact, none of the women
currently in her company had left that room unchanged.
Chibi Usa had transformed into a lithe, pink gothic fairy, and
held herself entirely too close to the now female Ranma to be construed as
anything but intimate. Worse still was the fact that Ranma had done nothing to
dissuade her presence. Ukyo took another, discreet glance over at the pair. The
way Usa had her arm subtly entwined with Ranma’s was nowhere near the glomps of
old, but they were infinitely more suggestive.
Then there was Hotaru, who still maintained her quiet, neutral
demeanor, but held it with an air of authority now. She too had undergone a
startling transformation. Gone was the self-conscious school girl in favor of a
full developed woman, with quite possibly the best figure of the four of them.
All in all, she was nothing more than a punctuation mark on an already well
written sentence concerning the stunning beauty they invoked.
Then there was the hair.
Ukyo simply couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t often that her waist
length black mane was eclipsed by the women around her, and now all three of
them had done exactly that. There was just so much of it. Ranma’s bright
red hair easily reached her calves, while Usa’s pink streamers did likewise. Of
course, none of it held a candle to Hotaru’s, whose luscious black tresses
somehow flowed along the ground, getting neither tangled or dirty.
The Okanomiyaki Master was getting a tad jealous, quite
frankly.
Ranma cocked her head thoughtfully. “I think that was enough
drama for one night, so Nerima’s out.” Her best friend silently agreed. The
Senshi standoff had been dramatic enough, let alone the chaos Ranma would
incite on her return to Nerima. Ranma looked at Hotaru and Usa, frowning slightly.
“And I did mange to get us all kicked out of our homes.” Usa smiled and gave
her arm a light squeeze while Hotaru merely shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to
find a hotel for the night.”
Ukyo smiled. “Come on, Ran-chan, you know my door is always.
It’ll be a tight fit for all of us, but…”
“I was thinking of the Imperial.” Ranma commented, causing Ukyo
to choke on her words.
“THE IMPERIAL!” She gasped, staring at her best friend as if
she had not only changed genders and become the Guardian of Time, but grown a
second head as well. “Uh, don’t know how to break it to you, Sugar, but the
Imperial rates thirty-thousand a night… Minimum.”
“No worries, Ucchan.” Ranma smiled gently. “It’s all taken care
of.”
“Taken care of…?”
“How do I put this…” The redhead put her finger to her lips,
only to have Usa preempt her explanation.
“Setsuna was loaded.”
“And now, so am I.” Ranma finished, and the two women smiled at
each other. There was an unspoken something that passed between them and it was
a something that was making Ukyo very uncomfortable. She turned back to the
chef. “Setsuna’s been collecting wealth for nearly three thousand years now,
secreting it in stashes world wide. A few million in a bank here, another
couple in a bank there. Priceless works of art. Precious stones from Atlantis.
I could buy the Imperial if wanted to out of my play money.”
“You could buy every five star hotel in Tokyo out of your play
money.” Usa teased, causing Ranma to smile.
“True.”
“So not only are you alive, a Senshi and retain three thousand
years of your predecessor’s memories,” Ukyo ticked off with her fingers.
“You’re also filthy, stinkin’ rich.”
Ranma’s smile widened. “That’s about right.”
The Okanomiyai master demon hunter sighed, totally exasperated.
“Even dead, the chaos sticks to you like glue.”
The laughter that comment incited lasted them all the way to
the Imperial, where upon Ranma checked them in under an account that instantly
earned them the staff’s undivided attention. Three deluxe suites on the
Imperial’s 16th floor ensured it stayed that way, and the uneven number of
rooms didn’t register with Ukyo until they stepped of the elevator. She found
her room and watched Ranma and Usa continue down the hall.
“Three rooms?” She asked, hesitantly, to which Ranma nodded with
a carefully neutral expression. Usa’s proximity was not lost on the chef. “And
where will you be sleeping?”
“We’ll be sleeping… together.”
Ukyo Kuonji’s mental process stumbled and plowed into a brick
wall with Usa’s words, who hadn’t so much as batted an eye. The pair was
entirely too calm and the implication was too obvious to ignore, especially
given the signs she had been seeing all day long. If Ranma was as rich as she
claimed, there was no doubt she could afford another suite if she so chose… Which
meant… No. No fucking way. There had to be another explanation.
“Um, Ran-chan?” She began tentatively. “Can I have a word with
you?” Her eyes flicked to the pink haired woman next to her, frowning. “Alone?”
Ranma nodded to Usa, who took the keycard from the redhead’s
hand and found the room only a few feet away. Ukyo remained silent until the
suite door clicked shut with the woman safely behind it.
“Ranma, what the hell is going on!” Ukyo spat sharply,
covering the distance to her friend easily. “Tell me that is not what I
think it is!”
“It’s exactly what you think it is.” Ranma sighed. Ukyo’s jaw
dropped, her train of thought promptly derailing in a massive wreck of twisted
metal. “I told you there were sacrifices. With those sacrifices came changes.
Lots of them.”
“But… but..!” Ukyo gibbered, desperate to form a coherent
thought. “But she’s a girl! You’re not a…!” Her thought process took another
stumble as Ukyo realized she didn’t know what the proper sexual orientation for
Ranma was anymore. He was a guy who changed into a girl, who preferred girls.
So what happens when you start preferring the girl’s body? Do you still prefer
other girls? How about guys? Did that make Ranma a homosexual or lesbian? Even
if the martial arts demon hunting chef had made it past that hurtle, she would
then have to consider the effects of three thousand years of female memories
being imposed on an eighteen year old male psyche.
The martial arts Senshi waited patiently for the shock to
expend itself before continuing. That unnerving aura of calmness surrounding
Ranma only served to reinforce Ukyo’s growing feelings toward the redhead. She
didn’t know her friend at all anymore.
“I’ve explained the memories and Setsuna’s… pastime.” Ranma
explained calmly, taking Ukyo’s hand. “What I haven’t explained is the
relationship between Usa and myself. Before the memories, I knew her as a cute
little trouble making child. After the memories, that view changed. Radically.
I now share quite a history with her, and probably know her better than anybody
alive. Likewise, she not only shares those experiences, but those of the
future. She has lived what could have been, and apparently both myself and
Setsuna featured prominently in that future.”
“That’s just…. Weird.” It was also a vast understatement, but
it was the best the shell shocked Ukyo could come up at the moment.
Ra