Prologue

Ranma was desperate.

He was suspended in the air high above the Quinha Providence, held aloft by the winds of the biggest whirlwind he had ever created, a whirlwind fueled by the raging fires of the opponent before him. Saffron. He was a Demi-god, a phoenix, immortal, and a damn prick to boot. Time was running short for Akane – the entirety of her body's water had evaporated, shrinking her to the size of a doll. She was slowly dying - her eyes were closing, and if they closed completely she would perish. The battle with Saffron kept getting longer. Ranma held Akane's diminutive form clutched protectively in his shirt, with him incase he could get some magic Jusendo water. Ranma needed the Jusendo water to reverse Akane's condition, and hopefully keep her alive. Saffron seemed to know this, and purposefully kept the battle away from the source of Ranma's hopes, the wellsprings of Jusendo.

Ranma's eyes widened as Saffron began to build a HUGE blast in his palms. He doubted he could dodge this one, considering the last one had leveled a mountain. Ranma began pulling as much cold ki into his body as he could, amplifying his powers by using the Getsukajya he held in his had. Saffron released his blast, huge and terrifying, blocking Ranma's entire field of vision in all planes.

Ranma sensed, more than anything else, Akane flying from his shirt, directly into the huge fireball before him. She flew straight at Saffron, burrowing through the fireball until she reached the demi-god. The heat couldn't damage her anymore, but her passing created a small hole. It was enough. Ranma could see a channel in the plasma before him, straight to Saffron. He struck, releasing all the stored cold ki, channeling it into a tightly controlled spear. His revised Dragon Ascension blast ripped through the fire, sizzling as the super cooled air interacted with the super heated plasma that surrounded it. The blast snaked through the hole Akane had created, hitting Saffron in the chest, tearing the Demi-God to shreds as the diametrically opposed forces interacted with each other.

Just before the Saffron was destroyed, Ranma thought he saw him smile and whisper, "it begins."

The dream shifted. It was completely black. Ranma felt a cold that penetrated instantly to his core, threatening to stop his heart with the shock. Ranma threw his hands out, palms forward as he stumbled in the dark, only to have them hit a solid wall of cold. His palms and fingers started to go numb, and he tried to pull his hands away, only to realize they were stuck. He frantically began to throw his weight backwards, away from the trap that held his hands. With a mighty heave, he succeeded in freeing his extremities, at the cost of a couple layers of skin. Ranma felt his palms begin to bleed.

He looked at his hands, and for the first time realized he could see them. A faint glow was permeating his surrounds, just enough to make out the walls that confined him. Injuries forgotten for the moment, he looked around, taking in the surroundings.

He was near the wall of a large spherical cavern that could easily hold an entire soccer pitch. It was made completely of ice, with icy walls that were endlessly deep and tall, stretching up to meet in the blackness above. The glow seemed to be coming from inside the walls, and it seemed to get stronger over in the far end of the cavern, opposite Ranma. Throughout the cavern, plinths of ice stuck out randomly in from the floor, breaking up the faint light by casting eerie shadows .

Ranma took a step towards the source of the illumination. Or he tried at least. He looked down at his feet, and noticed they were completely encased in ice. He tried to free himself by lifting his feet, but to no avail. Frustrated, he made a fist and punched at the ground, wincing as his bloody palms protested at the violence.

The ice holding him in place cracked eventually, at the cost of tearing the skin from his knuckles. Once free, he quickly made his way over towards the glow, dodge around and through the icicle formations that obstructed his path. He couldn't see clearly, but he thought he could make out forms trapped in the ice.

The glow became brighter when he neared the far wall. He drew close, attempting to peer into the thickness of the ice, his vision obscured by the cracks and fissures that riddled the wall. He looked up towards the ceiling, his eyes following the walls as they sloped in and up, stretching above him.

Ranma caught a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye and quickly glanced in the general direction. There was something about the wall in front of him that both fascinated and terrified him. He let his eyes wander over the wall, stopping them when he noticed an interesting oval shape nearly ten meters above the floor. It was about as wide across as he was tall, and nearly half that high. It seemed to be buried in the wall, part of some larger formation that he couldn't make out. He stared at it for a second. Ranma screamed when it opened to reveal a monstrous eye, staring back at him.

Ranma shot up screaming, instantly awake. His body was covered in a cold sweat and he could hear the blood pounding in his ears. Panting, he threw the covers off himself and swung his legs off the bed. He covered his face with his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. The air felt cool on his naked, sweaty flesh. His palms felt tender, and his knuckles ached as well. Behind him, he felt the bed shift as a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

Wait. Bed? Arms? Who's arms?

Ranma dropped his hands, and turned to look behind him. Akane was there, naked and only partially covered by the covers. Everything came back to him quickly. It had been nearly a year since the Saffron incident, and yet, those dreams seemed so real, so real…

"You had that dream again?"

Ranma nodded.

"Come here." Akane drew back, and patted the bedside in front of her. Ranma laid down next to her, looking up at the ceiling in the darkness. Akane propped herself up on an elbow and watched his face as she began to slowly caress his chest with her other hand.

"It didn't change any?"

"No."

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

Ranma shook his head.

"Are you sure?"

Again, Ranma shook his head. He could feel himself calming down. His breathing was slowing, and his heartbeat was slowing down. He could feel Akane's hands resting on his stomach, slowly tracing circles around his belly button with her index finger.

"Ranma?"

"Mmm?"

"What time is it?"

He turned his head to look at the clock on the wall. "Hmm… about 23:00.. .Why?"

"Oh..." Akane paused. "I was just wondering if..."

Ranma smiled as he felt Akane's hand sliptowards his crotch as a way of reply. She gently caressed him for a while slowly kissing her way down his exposed chest. He let out a low moan as he felt Akane replace her hand with her lips. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensations for a bit. This was still so new for the two of them. It was only recently that they had moved their relationship to this level of physical intimacy, and even still they had to hide what they were doing. They had taking to checking into love hotels after losing the various pursuers that tailed them, using the time to explore this new component of their growing bond.

They still had a lot of rocky spots in their relationship, and they still argued a lot. But it was getting better. The very fact that they were here together, doing this…

Ranma groaned with disappointment as Akane stopped what she had been doing. He felt her weight shift in the bed as she suddenly straddled him.

Akane asked, "We still have this room for another two hours, right?" Ranma nodded. Thoughts fled in the union that followed.

Later Ranma watched Akane's reflection in the mirror as she freshened up in the bathroom to leave. She noticed he was watching and smiled shyly in the mirror. With a wink, she blew a kiss to him in the mirror before she closed the door with her leg.

Ranma smiled. He mumbled, "It has begun." His smile faltered a bit. He looked down at his fists, and realized they were clenched.