Prologue - What the heck happened to me?

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was gently caressing the earth with its heat, but not causing it to become unbearable, either. The clouds were a puffy white without a hint of rain. Which was good, all things considered. The only thing marring the perfect day at Mt. Phoenix was the raging battle taking place, and given that one combatant was an actual Phoenix, and the other a Jusenkyo victim, it was really better for all involved.

Ranma breathed heavily as he watched, waiting for Saffron's next move.

Hold on Akane…

---
I knew the stakes were high right from the start
When she dealt the cards I dealt my heart
Now I just found a game that I can't play
And this is where the cowboy rides away

---

Akane was dying, Saffron between her and her cure. Ranma swore under his breath. Saffron's flames were surging again - and he still hadn't caught his breath. He closed his eyes and considered his dwindling ki as Saffron dive-bombed him. This was too important - Akane was too important - to leave this to chance. He had to stop Saffron, and he had to do it now.

And there was only way Ranma could conceive of to do it. As Saffron got closer, Ranma allowed himself a smirk. This one was in the bag.

Now all he had to do was worry about surviving his own move.

Three… two… one… NOW!

---
And my heart is sinking like the setting sun
Setting on the things I wish I'd done
It's time to say goodbye to yesterday
This is where the cowboy rides away

---

Ranma jumped straight at Saffron. Saffron wheeled to avoid a blow, but that wasn't what Ranma had in mind. Ranma managed to get a hold of Saffron's leg. He ignored the heat and the burns and just concentrated on holding on. As his own skin was about to go up in flames, relief came. Relief in the form of the Soul of Ice. Ranma pushed the cooling technique to its limits. He not only forced it to go colder than he had ever dared before, but he maneuvered the flow of it, not only encasing him self, but completely enclosing Saffron as well.

---
We've been in and out of love and in between
And now we play the final showdown scene
And as the credits role a sad song starts to play
This is where the cowboy rides away

---

No longer able to fly without the fire, Saffron and Ranma crashed into the mountainside. Ranma just kept clinging, refusing to give up either his hold or the Soul of Ice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father and Mr. Tendo reach Akane's body, and begin moving her away. Above him, Saffron clawed at Ranma's arms, trying to shake him loose, but each attempt was weaker than the last.

---
And my heart is sinking like the setting sun
Setting on the things I wish I'd done
Oh the last good bye's the hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away

---

He grinned as he saw Mr. Tendo lower Akane's body into the water. Only one thing left to do now. Ranma pushed the Soul of Ice harder, and it became colder still, ending the Phoenix's life. Ranma drew his ki back, in an attempt to keep enough left in him to live. But with the Soul of Ice completely surrounding Saffron, it also pulled in his fading ki as well.

Down below, Akane opened her eyes just in time to see Ranma explode into flame, bringing the already unstable mountain crashing down.

---
Oh the last good bye's the hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away

---
"RANMA!"

Akane attempted to climb towards the still burning flames, but was halted by the Amazon matriarch. "No, child! You can do nothing!"

Akane glared, and she tried to push past, despite her weakness. She was stopped easily once more. "There is nothing you can do! The boy is dead. And soon Saffron shall be reborn! I can feel it!"

At that, Soun Tendo seized his daughter around the waist, threw her over his shoulder, and started running. Genma was not far behind him.

Ryoga ground his teeth in frustration and sprinted after Soun, determined to watch after Akane. Damn you Ranma! How dare you die before we settled things!

His thoughts of aborted revenge plaguing him, he stepped the wrong way around a rock and appeared somewhere in the Sahara desert. He wasn't seen for quite some time after that.

Mouse, on the other hand, remained as calm as was possible. That is to say, he panicked. Coming out of it when Cologne bonked him oh the head with her staff, he nodded shortly to himself. Why is Shampoo just standing there?

With that thought, he grabbed a fallen tree and slung it over his shoulder running after the moving blurs he was sure were Genma and Soun.

He got it right for once. Who knew?

Shampoo on the other hand (the real one, not the log), ran as well, keeping up admirably. She grumbled a bit at the sight of him carrying the log and screaming "I'll save you Shampoo!" but deigned not to hit him - for now. Right now it was best just to get out before Saffron came back.

Cologne, as has often been suggested, was quite a bit more cunning than her great-granddaughter. She hopped on the end of the log and let Mouse carry her out.
An ocean away, a woman with red hair sat frowning, not believing the heat signature that had been coming off of the mountain had simply spiked and disappeared. She eyed the computer wondering if maybe a certain klutz had gotten inside and messed with things while she wasn't looking.

I mean, how the hell does that happen? The place wasn't even a volcano!

She sighed, then turned around suddenly as the computer began beeping again. She grinned as the heat signature was picked up again. She eyed the location, then pushed a few buttons to bring up her daughter on the communications frequency.

"Oooh Ryoookoooo!"
Ryoko was decidedly bored. There was absolutely nothing of interest going on at the moment. And what's worse, I seem to be the only person here who has a problem with it!

And this was more or less true. Sasami wasn't much of one for adventures, she never had been, and seemed perfectly content in her kitchen.

Ayeka seemed content to assist her sister in whatever housekeeping duty was necessary, when she wasn't watching soap operas. That was something Ryoko enjoyed as well, but weeks on end with nothing but that to do was her limit.

Mihoshi was off somewhere doing something, whatever her GP duties required Ryoko supposed. Doing something with Mihoshi might have been good for a lark, but police and space pirates don't really mix all that well.

Yosho seemed content to tend to his shrine, but that was no surprise, he'd been doing it for seven hundred years.

Even Tenchi seemed content with the lifestyle they'd settled into. She'd watched him working a few times, and found it boring. But Tenchi seemed to be enjoying himself, and come home each day with a small, content smile on his face.

Truth be told, Washu might be doing something interesting, but something interesting for Washu often held massive amounts of irritation for Ryoko mostly because they often became huge dangers for everyone else.

"Oooh Ryoookoooo!"

Ryoko groaned. Great. Speak of the devil. "What?!"

The face smirked. "Now, now, is that any way to speak to your mother?"

Ryoko growled. "What do you want?"

The smile became somewhat more normal. "Just a small favor, I promise. I need you to go to some coordinates in china and pick up a heat source I've discovered."

Ryoko raised an eyebrow. "What's so interesting about something that generates heat? Can't you just build one?"

Washu groaned. "Yes… but I'm curious as to what kind of earth technology could produce this kind of heat. It's more than a little unusual."

Ryoko sighed. At least it's something to do.
A few seconds later Ryoko appeared over Jusenkyo, looking at the boiling water. Great. It's in the water.
Ryoko flew down to the shore, and tested the water with a toe. It was hotter than she'd have liked, but not too hot to deal with. Still, I don't really feel like getting wet today…

Ryoko raised her shield and floated down, the water parting for her shield until she reached the bottom.

The 'heat source', if it could be called such, was small and ovoid. It would fit comfortably in two hands. Assuming I can even grab it, that is.

She sighed, and reached down for the egg with a finger. She flinched back at heat pouring off it, her finger burnt. The things I do to relieve boredom. She gathered herself to teleport, then snatched the object up quickly before it burned her too badly.
The instant Ryoko returned, Washu directed her over to a place to set the ovoid object. Washu grinned sadistically at the egg as Ryoko teleported out, probably to complain to Tenchi about the burns.

She stared at the egg in the anti-grav field. Then she smiled. "Hmm. I wonder just how much heat you produce. That's a good idea! I'll just store you until you run out of gas or I need you for something."

She glanced idly around the lab. "Hmm. But where to put you? I don't want the heat to tamper with the other experiments." Then she grinned. "I know!"

Washu built what was essentially a shower. It had four clear walls and a water faucet. Sealed with the egg inside, it began pumping cold water down onto it, before being drained out the bottom. She lost sight of the egg in the steam, but shrugged. The egg was in the far corner of the fourth sub-basement, and the other components wouldn't be affected all that much by temperature even if something or someone happened.

Even with something to do with the egg, Washu's mind craved a hands on science, not waiting around to observe an egg. Setting her computer to monitor things, she left it alone, instructing it to inform her when the egg finally ran out of juice.

With those procedures in place, she didn't notice a week later when Mihoshi accidentally changed the water tap for the chamber to hot.
Two years later.

If it had the programming to, the computer would have been a little worried about the egg in the glass chamber. With the hot water, the egg had started growing little by little, and now threatened to burst open the container. The water pressure from lack of space was enormous, but still the thing held, a testament to Washu's genius, and whatever the clear stuff was made of.

The egg seemed to have stopped growing for the moment, which was good. But the computer's monitoring had also revealed that the heat was getting erratic, spiking at odd moments.

KABOOOM!

The entire fourth sub-basement shook as the container burst open with a massive explosion of fire and superheated water. The computer did as it was programmed to in such situations. The doors sealed and the pipes clamped off revealing a flaming figure on the ground. The computer, without any real orders for something to do, merely recorded its observations, attempting to decided what had happened. It couldn't quite tell if the heat/power source was destroyed or mutated. The chamber had exploded, revealing the flaming figure huddling in the sprinklers. Eventually the flames faded, revealing nothing but smooth alabaster skin, though hair was growing on it.

The computer considered its protocols for a moment. The fire, now that it was put out, wasn't too much of an issue. That, and with a lab whose total floor space could cover the surface of several planets, is was really unrealistic to think that there wasn't something burning or exploding at any given time, experiments being experiments and all. So, the computer did what it was programmed to.

It placed the incident in the appropriate log file, refilled the results of the 'experiment' as 'inconclusive', and waited for the self repair systems to kick in.

All was right in its world.

That was when the figure burst into flame anew, and tossed a fireball at a nearby wall, releasing itself from the fourth subbasement, back into, well, the ironic thing was that the protocols for such a thing were to temporarily merge the tear in the walls with the real world, so that no one got lost in the space between pocket dimensions.

An explosion powerful enough to breach the wall was something it was required to inform Washu of, so it did that.

The flaming figure, on the other hand, sprouted wings, and began to fly off.

All was still right in the computer's world, as it was a computer with very limited AI. It didn't know what a good or bad result was.
Washu had received the alarm at the dinner table and rushed for the lab without explanation.

The others glanced at each other, then were on their feet in an instant following. They followed Washu though the lab until they reached the sealed off section.

When the door opened, they were assaulted by heated steam. Washu activated the fans, and the scene became cleared as the charred remains were revealed.

Washu followed an indicator that showed a foreign presence in the lab over to just behind what was left of a battle mech. There, to the surprise of everyone was a small bunny. Washu sweat-dropped and teleported the bunny outside the lab. Glancing around, she noted the closing tear in the wall. "Well… that's not good."

Ryoko had a slight grin on her face. It wasn't often that it was Washu who messed up. She had to make the most of it. "Soo… what horror did you unwittingly unleash upon the world this time?"

Washu growled a moment, then sighed and shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. Just that it might as well be a living ball of fire, and powerful enough to rip through one of the lab's retaining walls. Something only you, Tenchi or Yosho could accomplish."

Ryoko shut up. This… might be bad. Just what the hell was that thing?
Saffron was angry!

Saffron was powerful!

Saffron was… well, if you wanted the honest to god truth; Saffron was more than a little tired. But he still wanted to put as much distance between himself and… whatever the hell that place had been, so he kept going.

He was over a forested area, so he settled down in a clearing. He would press on tomorrow. He would gather the Phoenix tribe. He would kill Saotome and all those he held dear. Then he would go after the other landlings, the Amazon and the Musk. He would have revenge for all that was done to him.

Saffron settled down, and began to sleep. Whether he liked it or not, breaking that wall had taken effort, and he would require sleep before revenge.
Unlike the aforementioned computer, all was most definitely not right in the world of Ranma Saotome.

Last thing he remembered, he was on the mountain fighting Saffron. He'd killed him, then collapsed. A moment later there was a blinding flash of pain, then… nothing. And this definitely ain't the mountain.

Well, he thought as he looked around, that isn't all true. This is definitely a mountain, just not Phoenix Mountain. As he looked down to make sure he was okay, he groaned, and started changing her pronouns.

'He' was most definitely a she at this point, but at least I seem to be okay otherwise… even if I'm buck naked. Oh well, I've fought people in the buff before, getting around will only be embarrassing, not painful.

Ranma paused then. He might have had no choice about his clothing (or lack there of), but didn't have to let people see him. Ranma sighed. He might have agreed with his father about sealing the Umi-Sen-Ken, it was simply too dishonorable to use, but this was a special circumstance. Besides, it wasn't like he was planning to steal anything. Nodding shortly to himself, his justification complete, Ranma slipped into the Umi-Sen-Ken, and slipped through the woods, still wondering in the back of his mind just what the hell had happened to him.

Ranma didn't know where he was, so he simply headed in a random direction through the trees, hoping that he wasn't developing Ryoga's directional problems in addition to everything else.
Two days later, with no signs whatsoever of the winged fire thing the security cameras had picked up, Tenchi and company decided to hope that maybe it wouldn't be coming back. Washu agreed that it might simply have something powerful but frightened by being in a strange place - the egg had been in there two years after all. It might just have been an isolated incident.

This morning, Tenchi and his grandfather were practicing the family sword art. Tenchi, as usual, was getting his ass handed to him. Tenchi managed to graze Katsuhiko a couple of times, and started getting confident. Until he realized his grandfather was only setting him up. This revelation came, unfortunately, only when the older man appeared behind him and knocked him into the woods.

That was Tenchi's cue to scream like a baby as he sailed through the air. "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

WHAM!

Tenchi smiled softly to himself. At least I landed on something soft…

"Get. Off."

Tenchi opened his eyes to find he was lying on a chest that rivaled Ryoko's. And the attached female was most definitely not as happy as Ryoko would be. Tenchi blushed and scrambled backwards. The red headed girl rolled back a little, then came forward, rolling onto her feet.

Tenchi developed a nosebleed from the movements. The girl nodded shortly to herself. The jerk had this coming to him. Tenchi blinked as his eye candy faded from sight.

"I certainly hope you enjoyed the show, pervert. 'Cause I'm gonna take the price out of your hide."

A second later he felt a breeze, then pain, then nothing.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, or Tenchi Muyo. I won't bother repeating this in every chapter of the story. So this is it.

Okay. You may have noticed that the first part of this is identical to the opening to Bladed Honor. That's deliberate. In fact, Dragonic Fate repeats those two scenes in its prologue as well, just so that it's clear that all three have the same starting point.

I posted this because the next chapter of Bladed Honor required knowledge of Phoenix Ascendant to work right, and avoid spoilers. And another chapter or two after that, there's a chapter of Bladed Honor that needs a little of Dragonic Fate to be started to work, so that's about when you'll see that one come out.

Bladed Honor is the 'main' fic of the three for right now. The other two are being developed as Bladed Honor requires it. Dragonic Fate simply because I need to be in the right mood in order to write it, and Phoenix Ascendant because I'm a little bastard and I like to see you beg and squirm.

Out.