Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½, Palladium Books' Rifts or Sailor Moon.
"Dialogue"
((Thoughts))
"Telepathy"
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Silver Millennium…
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He paced through the hallway of the palace with a frown marring his face. His long black hair reached between his shoulder blades and he wore a white shirt with matching pants and shoes. The servants and minor court officials made way for him as soon as they saw his angry expression, almost jumping to the side when he passed them. He hoped that his plan would work, otherwise this whole system would be history. What he saw in the time gates couldn't be allowed to happen.
Arriving at his destination, he swung open the huge double doors and entered the extravagant ballroom. Currently it was filled with several dozen nobles, who were busy with dancing, eating, talking and various other activities. His mother sat on her throne on the other end of the room, his sister had her place right next to their parent and the senshi were lining the wall to their right and left. All except Princess Saturn who stayed normally in her castle on Saturn.
He didn't care about any of that, "Mother!"
The music, talking and dancing stopped almost immediately. The attention of everyone was directed at him, the people on the dance floor hurriedly parted and made way for him. He quickly walked up to the throne, stopping just a few meters in front of it. He looked Serenity right into the eyes. The intensity of his look was quite easily comparable to the one of his father.
The queen was surprised and happy at the same time, "Son?! You are back from your journey!"
"Yes, I am. And I can't believe what I saw out there!" he said with disgust
She was shocked at the hatred in his voice, "What do you mean?"
"I mean this whole kingdom, the whole Silver Millennium!"
A collective gasp sounded throughout the room and the surprised look on Serenity's face vanished and was replaced by a hardened expression that made mother and son frighteningly look the same.
"Explain yourself."
"When was actually the last time you checked on the people living in this system? And I don't mean the citizens of the capitals!" he didn't let her come to word though, "Not once! At least not in the last five hundred years. Most people live in poverty; they can't even feed their own children!"
"That is not…"
"It is true, mother! These people live in run-down huts that make a doghouse look like this palace! And what are you all doing?! Dance and glutton yourselves on these idiotic parties!" then he turned to the assembled senshi, "And what about you? You are the damn princesses of your planets, go home and look after your subjects!"
"Elyon, you are going too far." warned the queen, "They are here to protect your sister."
"Then you should have chosen other people as her bodyguards! The senshi exist to guard their planets and not the moon princess! Their duty to protect their worlds and people precedes the one about guarding my sister."
"Son, this is not the place…"
"It is the right place! This should be the audience chamber of the palace and not a damn ballroom of all things!" Elyon replied fiercely, "Even the so called servants… or better yet slaves… in this kingdom are treated and live better than most of the free men! Do you even understand this? The Splugorth slaves lead better lives than our own people!"
Serenity's hands were clenched to fists and her whole body was shaking with anger, there were even silver arcs of energy running down her arms. The senshi watched this with worried expressions on their faces, they were probably about to witness their queen kill her first-born child.
"And you know what? The people still love you."
She calmed down a little after hearing that. He gritted his teeth at what he said next.
"God knows, I would have already staged a riot if I had to live like them."
A torrent of silver energy washed over him, hurling the prince right into the double doors on the other end of the room, which were a little over twenty meters away. Elyon fell to the floor but stood right back up, his clothes and his skin were still smoking.
He grinned, "What is it? Can't accept the truth?"
Another energy blast crushed into this body, but this time he stood his ground. He didn't move an inch.
"Please stop it, mother!" begged the younger Serenity
"Was that everything you got, mother?" he said weakly, everyone knew at first glance that he was bluffing, "Really fitting, weak power for a weak queen. No wonder you need the senshi to protect…"
Another wave of energy and he still didn't budge. Queen Serenity shined like a miniature sun at the moment, her anger completely clouding her judgment.
He coughed up blood, "Even Splynncryth treats his own subjects better than you do."
The next energy blast caused him to fall to his knees. For a short moment, the crescent moon on his forehead flickered and was replaced by another symbol, no one could actually see what it was though.
"Come on, kill me! Otherwise I won't stop and you will see that I'm not an opponent to be trifled with!"
The following attack almost robbed him of his consciousness.
"Senshi, listen to me! Go guard your planets as it is your true duty! Help your people, since the moon won't help them!"
The last blast was the most powerful one yet, leaving Elyon inside a crater with most of his clothes and skin burned away. The prince and heir to the throne was dead. The light around Serenity died down immediately as she realized what she just did. She fell to her knees, her eyes empty and tears of grief flowing down her cheeks.
She didn't even notice the movement to her side. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto walked away from their posts and went to the dead body of their prince. Showing their last respects, they kneeled down before him, as they usually would before their queen. They stood back up and were about to leave.
"Where are you going?!" shouted Venus, the leader of the senshi
"Guard our planets." replied Pluto coldly, a shiver ran down the spines of everyone at the emotionless voice
Just then, the body of Elyon started glowing, turning into pure energy that began to rise into the air. The energy sphere split up into four parts, three went to the Outer Senshi, while the fourth one shot through the roof of the palace and into space.
The three senshi reached out for the respective lights but as soon as they touched them, the light transformed into different items. For Uranus the Space Sword, for Neptune the Deep Sea Mirror, for Pluto the Garnet Orb and far away on Saturn, the Silence Glaive for the senshi of death.
"Thank you for listening to me…" whispered a ghostly voice that only they could hear
And for only one of them, "I'm sorry, my love…"
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Present…
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"What do you mean with 'you lost Ranma'?!" shouted Nodoka
"Well, I wanted to correct the mistakes I made when I taught him the neko-ken." mumbled Genma subdued
"And how exactly did you do that?" questioned Cologne
"This time I used more expensive fish to wrap him up!" replied the man, "This mushroom incident was the best thing that could ever happen to him. It's not my fault that he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light!"
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Somewhere else in Nerima…
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Ryoga Hibiki was afraid, he awoke this morning in an unfamiliar park and his parents were nowhere in sight. He only had a small bundle with him, the backpack that had been lying next to him back there too heavy for him to carry. The bandanna-clad child was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the portal opening on the pavement in front of him.
As Ryoga fell through though there was the indefinable urge to blame this on someone else rising up inside him, he just for the life of him couldn't remember who though.
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Rifts Earth, Splynn…
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Splynncryth wasn't quite sure what to think at the moment. All of a sudden, a small rift opened up in front of his slime pool and a human boy along with several dozen dead cats dropped out of it. Even weirder was that the child acted like a cat as well and after the dimensional portal closed again, he sat down on the floor and cleaned his 'paws' from the blood of the felines.
A few moments later the huge double door to the room burst open and about twenty Powerlords ran inside and towards the human, all of them were armed with particle beam rifles and were ready to fire them to protect their master. The alien intelligence had other plans though; this could prove to be an amusing past time.
"Stop it, don't kill him." ordered Splynncryth as he pulled himself out of the slime to see better
"But Lord Splynncryth! It could be an assassin!"
The Splugorth's eye twitched slightly at that, "That is a human child. He doesn't even have enough power to scratch me, much less kill me. Now go back to your posts, leave me alone."
"Very well, master." replied the leader of the guards and gave his men the new orders
Once they were all gone, Splynncryth turned his attention back to the boy, who has watched the whole exchange curiously, "Who are you, human?"
"Meow?" replied the boy, wondering why there was a voice inside his head.
The ruler of Atlantis sighed, the human didn't understand him. Remembering a past conversation with the god Thoth, he held one of his maw-less tentacles out to the boy in a calming motion. The cat-like child looked at the appendage in wonder and tried to bat it slightly with one of his hands. Seeing that it moved out of the way, he tried again and again.
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Ten minutes later…
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Ranma was chasing the tentacle throughout the whole room, all the while bouncing from wall to wall like a crazed ping-pong ball. Splynncryth was amazed at the speed at which the human could move though; normally it took a few spells or tattoos to increase the movements of a mortal like that. A few of his other tentacles were busy eating the dead cats that were strewn about near his pool; it wouldn't do to let them rot there.
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A short time after that…
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The boy was lying near to the slime pool, sleeping next to his new playmate. The Splugorth on the other hand was currently making plans for the future, he could need such a human in his service. He could win the trust of quite a few cities on Earth, if they saw that he had a human general or bodyguard. And trust was always a good starting point for business relationships.
Splynncryth was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Ranma awoke from his sleep. He shakily stood up and looked around, a confused look on his face. That was when he noticed the giant squid like being right next to him. Not really thinking clearly, the boy did the first thing that came to his mind.
"AHHHH!!!"
He yelled in shock and fell to the floor, his eyes wide with fear. This caught the attention of Splynncryth, who turned slightly around to look at Ranma, "Well, it seems that you are finally awake again."
Ranma blinked, surprised at hearing a voice in his head, "Who said that?"
"I did." replied the alien intelligence and raised one of his tentacles
"You? Who... what are you?"
"I am Splynncryth of the Splugorth race and the Lord of Atlantis."
"Splynn... cryth?" mouthed Ranma slowly, "Lord...? You are some kinda king then?"
"...You could say that."
"Wow." said Ranma with awe, this was the first time he ever met royalty. They looked more intimidating than he thought. "Umm... where am I... and where's my dad?"
"You are in my palace in Atlantis. I don't know where your father is, you arrived here along with a few dead cats."
((Dad is not here?)) thought Ranma surprised, ((Maybe... what did Ucchan call it... ah, yes! Vacation! Maybe I can take a small vacation!)) (1)
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Another dimension…
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"Do you really think that this was the right decision?" asked a voice with a weird stereo-like quality
"Of course I do. They are the best suited for this task."
"And not because one of them is your son?"
"Stop it, I think we should trust him." said another, emotionless sounding voice
"Of course…I'm sorry, my old friend."
"Don't worry about it."
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Thirteen years later…
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Ranma stood over the fallen forms of ten Powerlords and cracked his knuckles, a smirk appeared on his face, "Come on, was that everything?"
The aliens just groaned as they crawled away from him.
The pigtailed boy sighed, "Seems that it was... pathetic. Why did Lord Splynncryth even hire you?"
Not really caring about his defeated opponents, Ranma went to the other end of the training hall which lay deep under the palace. He walked into the teleportation circle, which has been set up in a large alcove in one of the walls. Flexing his internal energies a little, he activated the circle and it transported him to one of the rooms on the first floor.
The pigtailed boy wasn't quite sure what he should do, about a year ago the memories of his old life in Nerima returned. It was quite disconcerting to know that he was actually thirty years old and not nineteen. The other problem was that he has been a wimp in his former life, one hell of a martial artist but a real wimp. Ranma had to do everything in his power to subdue his old personality, but he wasn't quite sure how successful he had been.
The young man exited the chamber and went to the throne room, which was guarded by two of his fellow but less human Highlords that as usual allowed him to pass. His surrogate father was holding an audience with the demon lord Modeus, who was currently in his natural form. A giant mass of over a hundred tentacles and one huge eye, even a Splugorth seemed to be a top model compared to that ugly thing.
Both alien intelligences noticed his entry and turned their attention shortly towards him. After a second though, they dismissed his presence and went back to their conversation.
"You are quite lenient with your slaves, Lord Splynncryth." muttered Modeus disdainfully, "I would never allow mine to barge in like this."
"You misunderstand the situation, my dear Modeus." replied the Splugorth, "This is my general, Ranma Saotome. He is not a slave."
"A human general?" the demon would have raised an eyebrow if he had one, "That is unusual…"
"It doesn't matter now. Why did you want an audience with me?"
"Fifty of my slaves were killed by one of your Powerlord patrols at the market! I want refunds!"
"Really? What kind of slaves?"
"Fifty young males, human. Good for work and for their meat."
Splynncryth sighed, "Very well, I offer you 500.000 credits. That should be more than enough."
The demon quivered slightly, "I want gold, credits are worth nothing where I usually do my business!"
"Okay, then 50.000 gold coins."
"I can accept that." said Modeus and shook tentacles with Splynncryth
"I will advise my servants to give the money to your local agents."
"Very well, Lord Splynncryth. I have to go back to Hades now."
This said, the ruler of the hell dimension disappeared in a flash of light. Now the Lord of Atlantis turned his full attention to Ranma, who walked closer to the alien intelligence.
"My Lord." greeted Ranma with a respectful bow
"What do you want, Ranma? Did you finish your training already?"
"Of course, my Lord. Those Powerlords were weak; can't we hire a few greater demons?"
"I will think about it." replied Splynncryth, "But that's not the only reason you came here though, is it?"
"No, it's not. I want to visit my home dimension."
"Whatever for?"
He shrugged, "Maybe it's worth allying ourselves with it, or conquering it."
"You would try to conquer your own world?"
"Yeah." he replied simply
The Splugorth laughed, "Very well, you can go whenever you want!"
"Thank you, my Lord." said Ranma gratefully
The young man turned around to leave again but a tentacle on his shoulder stopped him, "One last question… do you have any other reasons to return home?"
Ranma was silent for a few moments but then answered, "I would like to meet my mother again… and maybe torture my father if I get my hands on him."
The tentacle let him go, "Good, now go."
Once he left and closed the doors to the throne room behind him, Ranma let out a relieved sigh. He hadn't been sure if Splynncryth would allow him to go. To his surprise, someone waited for him in the hallway. A female Raksasha demon, who was currently in her human form and one of his best friends. They met each other ten years ago, she and a few other cat-like creatures had been hired by Lord Splynncryth to try and cure him from his fear of cats.
It worked quite well, most normal cats didn't affect him anymore and the demonic ones sent only a shiver down his spine, the neko-ken technique was pretty much lost to him now though. About three years ago, their relationship changed slightly as well. They became lovers for a short while, but that only lasted a few months and they were back to friend status now.
"Hey, Katarina! How are you?"
"I'm fine; did you tell Lord Splynncryth about your plans?"
"Yeah, he gave me his consent." said Ranma happily
"Good for you. When are you going to leave?" asked the demonic female
"Today, I just have to pack up some of my stuff." replied the young fighter, "What are you doing here anyway? I didn't tell anyone that I would be here today."
"Not everything in the Megaverse revolves around you, Lord Splynncryth summoned me here."
He smiled sheepishly, "Oh, sorry. You shouldn't let him wait. I'll be going now."
Before he could leave though, he was on the receiving end of a hug and a kiss. His mind blanked for a second but then it was already over and Katarina rushed into the throne room. He just stood there for a few more moments but then shook his head and left.
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Some hours later…
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It was a warm, summer night in Nerima, the sky was free of any clouds, and a multitude of stars could be seen. A few cars were still driving on the streets; most of them were on their way home to join their families.
A little more than eighteen years have passed since Ranma Saotome has disappeared and many have searched for the pig-tailed martial artist but none of them found him. It seemed that he vanished from the face of Earth completely, and in a sense, this was true.
The residents of the town gave up on finding him and continued with their lives. About a year after he disappeared, Ryu Kumon came back to Nerima and stayed for a while at the Tendo dojo. Unfortunately, he visited a certain cursed valley in China on his training trip and now turned into a parrot when splashed with cold water.
During his stay at the dojo, he and Akane fell in love with each other and married one and a half years later. They now taught together in the dojo and Akane was pregnant with her second child. Kasumi married doctor Tofu and they both live now in Tofu's house/office. Kasumi also continued with her education and entered college along with Nabiki; she now works with her husband in his clinic.
Ukyo opened several restaurants in the other districts of Tokyo and earned quite a lot of money. Konatsu, who dressed like a man now after a wild night of sex with Ukyo, proposed to his former boss and they were now the proud parents of two daughters.
To the surprise of all, Shampoo stayed in Japan opposed to her great-grandmother Cologne and Mousse, who returned to their village to resolve an urgent matter. The Amazon Elder gave the Nekohanten to Shampoo.
Someone, who doesn't want to be named, finally committed the whole Kuno family to the psychiatry. He now lives alone in the Kuno estate and trains day in and day out his ninja skills.
Hinako Ninomiya got the job as the new principal of Furinkan and ruled the school with an iron fist. It seems that this was what the school needed all the time; people consider it as one of the best educational faculties in Japan.
Nodoka and Genma divorced a few months after Ranma disappeared. Surprisingly, Ranma's father searched for his son for at least another three years before he gave up. In this time, Nodoka also received the news that she was pregnant again. Now she has an eighteen-year-old daughter named Makoto.
Anyway, back to the main character, or better yet to the place where he would reappear again. All of a sudden, a translucent blue light illuminated the Saotome home as the energies of the ley lines supercharged in the area. Unexpectedly, a strong wind picked up and blew some leaves that laid on the ground away, as if on cue reality was thorn apart and a rift appeared just a few meters from the front door away.
Out of the dimensional portal walked a young man dressed in a red T-shirt, a blue jeans jacket and black leather pants, his feet were clad in black combat boots. He was about six feet tall and had long black hair that has been bound in a pigtail.
Once the gateway closed behind him, he let out a sigh, "Finally back home..."
Ranma took a good look around himself. The rebuilt Saotome residence was even more impressive than the old one; it even had a dojo now. While it wasn't as big as the one of the Tendos it was still respectable though. His gaze went back to the house and he noted with relieve that there was still light burning inside.
The young man shook his head clear of these thoughts and slowly raised his hand to knock at the door. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal his mother standing there with a shocked expression on her face. Time did not do much to change her beauty but she did have a strand of silver hair, as usual, she was wearing a kimono.
"R-Ranma?" the woman whispered disbelievingly
Ranma smiled and nodded, then he replied, "Uhm... Hello, mom!"
His eyes widened when she suddenly darted forward and gave him a hug that would make an Amazon Glomp or his father's Cradle of Hell technique seem like light taps on the shoulder. The pigtailed boy saw the world darken before his eyes as his mother's embrace not only pressed out all the air he had in his lungs but also squeezed some of his more important blood vessels shut.
"Need... ... ai..." too late, having the blood flow in your body disrupted is not good for someone's health, his body knew that and did the most likely thing in the situation. It shut down temporarily.
"My son is back!" cried Nodoka as she hugged her child for dear life. She almost gave up on him ever returning but now he was there and she wouldn't let him go again. That was the moment she felt him go limp in her arms and she staggered a little because she supported his whole weight now.
"Oh no! I killed my son!!" she exclaimed in horror
"Mom, who is that?" came her daughter's voice as she walked to the front door
"Come here quick, it's Ranma!"
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To be continued…
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(1) The mushrooms actually reset their memories back to when they were six years old.