The Cost of Necessity

to choose amidst uncertainty...

Disclaimer: I am not Rumiko Takahashi or Naoko Takeuchi, nor do I own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon.

Two Months after the events of 'Someday You Will Look at Me'.

Ryoga could only watch sadly as Akane slowly walked down the aisle. Yes, he had given up on winning her heart, but that was only because he had seen that Ranma had won that particular battle. After his big victory over Ranma two months ago, he had finally taken a long-overdue step and confessed to Akane, both his love and the fact that he was her pet pig P-chan. Although she had been furious about him being her pet pig, she had been mollified by him telling her that the reason he had been so afraid to tell her was that he was in love with her and desperately feared that, if he did, she would hate him. Also, the reason that he had kept pretending to be P-chan was because it made him feel that he had her love, even if it was as his pet pig.

Akane had spent several days thinking it over before responding. In her response, while she hadn't said something painful like she loved him, but as a sister loves a brother or like a friend, she had told him that she was sorry but she wanted to marry Ranma. As such, he was here today watching her prepare to marry Ranma, Akari at his side watching him.

It was an odd wedding; Ryoga had, in his many unintended travels, come across several different weddings. They all seemed to have a certain unique aura to them, but none of them had quite the aura this one had. The feel was that of a combination of both a celebration and a powder keg waiting to blow. For once, the feel of something bad waiting to happen wasn't because of the expectation of someone disrupting the ceremony, but rather from the ceremony itself.

As he continued to muse as to what this could mean, he noticed Akari's sigh as she seemed to steel herself for something. He braced herself as she opened her mouth and spoke, quietly, but with determination.

"Ryoga, I think we need to talk."

Now, Ryoga, even after having had dated her for several months, still wasn't the brightest bulb when it came to dealing with women, but this was a line that even he knew normally meant bad things. As such, the eternally lost boy gulped as he led Akari a bit away from the rest of the attendees, although he made sure they could still see the bride and groom. Ryoga then said, with great trepidation while trying to sound nonchalant, "What would you like to talk about then Akari?"

Akari looked sadly at the floor and, forlornly, said in a small voice, "I heard about what you said to Akane Tendo a couple of months ago, both of your confessions..."

Ryoga found the floor to be quite interesting as he waited for his girlfriend to continue talking as she turned her face so that it wasn't visible to her and she stared out into space. Akari then continued.

"...I always knew that you had feelings for the Tendo girl, and that you had risked your life in the battles at Jusendo trying to save her, but hearing about your confession of love to Akane got me thinking. I am your girlfriend and have been dating you for several months now, but you still wanted her so much that, even though it seemed that her marrying Ranma was inevitable, you confessed your feelings and your curse to her. It made me wonder, 'Will I always be second best? If Akane were to leave Ranma for some reason and confess her love for you, would you dump me for her?'; I found that I really didn't want to think about the answer."

Ryoga wanted to deny that he would dump Akari if Akane suddenly returned his affections for her, but an image of her doing so stopped his voice in his throat. Akari, turning her face towards him, saw him with his mouth open, trying to say something. He saw the tears in her eyes but still couldn't deny what she had said, although he wanted to just to make her feel better. The Unryu girl then said sorrowfully, "I am sorry Ryoga, but, as much as I love you, I can't be with you always knowing that, in the end, I am only a consolation prize to you. This is goodbye."

She kissed Ryoga one last time, chastely, and then walked away from him and the wedding. Ryoga wanted to chase after her, but couldn't because he was still unsure if she was right or not.

As Akari broke up with the lost boy, a green haired woman stared desperately through a gate as the future depicted in it, one of a gleaming city of crystal ruled by a beautiful king and queen with eight lovely warriors protecting it, slowly grew more and more cloudy. She said calmly, if worriedly, "This is not good"

Ukyo stared at the groom with a feeling of dread coursing through her. 'Oh Ranchan, why did you do it? I knew you loved her, but why did you suddenly have to marry her? You told me that you were having doubts two months ago; why did you decide to marry her all of a sudden then?' The girl was puzzled about these questions as, to her eyes, while Ranma was looking at Akane walking down the aisle with love in his eyes, she could see the uncertainty in his eyes, even if it was tempered with determination.

As she watched the ceremony continue, a ceremony with an aura of disquiet, one that made her hair stand on end, she remembered the moment that Ranma had said that he had decided to marry Akane.

Flashback One Month Ago:

Ukyo stood in her restaurant, which she had just closed for the night, thinking. After the wedding, Ranma had at first seemed to be avoiding her and Shampoo, but after that day where they had carried him home, he had suddenly changed how he was acting around them. Instead of being uneasy at best and avoiding them frequently, he had started spending time with them. She didn't know about Shampoo, but suddenly, Ukyo's relationship with Ranma had become better than it had at any point since he had left her all those years ago; they had started talking as if they were the friends that they always claimed they were and laughed and joked around. Ranma had told her of his time traveling with Genma, as well as his adventures she had missed by simply not being there at the time.

He had also told her that he had heard her whole conversation with Shampoo the day that the two of them had carried him home after his defeat by Ryoga, much to her embarrassment. As she had gone red from her blush, he told her that the overheard conversation had gotten him thinking about his relationship with Akane. While Ukyo's jealous streak had sometimes played havoc with their talks about that topic, she had usually tried to help him as best as she could. Smiling, Ukyo decided that, all in all, although Ranma still clearly loved Akane, she could sometimes see in his eyes when he looked at her a spark of something that he had only previously shown when watching the Tendo fiancée.

Suddenly, Ranma walked into the restaurant, a cloudy expression on his face, tinged with not a small amount of desperation. Ukyo, concerned, ran over to him to ask what was the matter when he spoke.

"Ucchan...I'm sorry, but I need to ask you to do something for me that you probably won't like. I want you to drop the engagement so that I can marry Akane. The wedding will be taking place next month and I wanna get everything taken care of before that happens."

Ukyo could only stare at him in horror and slowly rising anger. She said, voice carefully under control, although only barely, "Ranchan, why all of a sudden; why do you want to marry her now of all times?"

Ranma looked out the door, clearly tense, and said, "Look, I just wanna marry her, I love her and that's all that matters. I know I told you that I was having doubts, but I really want to do this..."

End Flashback:

The two of them had then argued for nearly an hour before Ukyo, unsure of just what had made him change his mind, but knowing that he wanted this more than anything, had finally agreed to give up on the engagement unofficially, then tell her father about him marrying Akane after the wedding was over. Even though it had hurt, Ukyo decided that she wouldn't give up on their friendship even though he was marrying her rival and, despite the painful argument, their friendship was still as strong as or stronger than ever.

Ukyo however, wasn't thinking about the friendship, but rather the reason for Ranma's suddenly strange actions. 'Argh, I still don't get it, what made him suddenly make his decision like that? What made him decide to do it even though he was having those doubts?"

As Akane made it halfway down the aisle, Ukyo still kept pondering what the hell was going on.

"No...no...no..."

The green haired woman wearing the sailor fuku pled quietly with the gate as the picture of the future slowly became more and more impossible to see. Finally, as the gate went completely dark, no longer able to see the timeline it had been focused on, she said quietly, "This is very bad, it may be necessary to activate Sailor Earth..."

Shampoo looked at the ground at her feet as Akane slowly made her way over to Ranma, slowly, but just as inevitably as their relationship had seemed. 'And yet, just a month ago, it didn't seem quite so inevitable. He had stopped trying to push me off as soon as I held him and I had stopped glomping him quite so much. He even fought Mousse so that he would stop pursuing me once and for all. I thought I had detected a spark of jealousy whenever I mentioned Mousse's name as a matter of fact. He even allowed me to change the marriage to an official Japanese engagement without complaining.' She smiled slightly as she remembered that time, which had seemed like a dream.

She then frowned as she remembered the events a month ago. 'But suddenly everything changed. He then acted as if he had to marry the Tendo girl, the violent perverted kitchen destroyer right then, whatever the cost. I argued greatly, but he practically begged me until I had to acquiesce; it was so strange.'

As she mused, she saw Kodachi Kuno walk up to her. After the failed wedding attempt, Ranma had spoken to Cologne about her and her brother at length, wanting her to examine them. They had found that the entire Kuno suffered from a curse of insanity on account of the actions of one of their ancestors. Cologne, feeling sorry for them, had removed the curse from them using one of her magic items. Immediately, both of the Kuno children had changed overnight; Kodachi was no longer a laughing banshee of a woman, but rather just a girl who, while quite eccentric and overly formal still, had become quite personable and enjoyable to be around, especially as she stopped laughing in that particular way of hers that made everyone want to flee in terror.

"Greetings Shampoo. I hope that your heart doesn't ache from heavy thoughts today of all days. I know that you loved him more than even the girl in the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet did, but there will be others eventually."

Shampoo tried to smile. Kodachi, after losing her insanity, had found that her feelings for Ranma had partially been because of her previously insane self seeing in him a white knight to her princess. She had given up on him, much to the relief of both Ranma and her rivals. As such, she hadn't felt anything close to the pain that Shampoo was feeling now as she stood there, waiting for him to marry someone else. In the end, she quietly said to her formerly insane rival, lying but trying to placate her, "Shampoo heart aches, but maybe Ribbon Girl right. How Kendo Boy doing?"

Kodachi laughed a little, smiling kindly, then said happily, "It turns out that my dear brother's strength had been partially sapped by our little problem. Now that he is well again, his skills in both the way of the sword and of wooing women have increased significantly. Ironically, although he no longer tries so hard to make women fall for him, he is apparently becoming a new version of Ranma. Imagine my surprise when I found a fan club for him at my own school, St. Hebereke's."

Shampoo snorted, trying to picture the idea of Tatewaki Kuno actually becoming someone that women, other than that Mariko Konjo girl, actually found attractive and failing. Soon Kodachi left and Shampoo returned to her sad ponderings about just what had happened a month ago to cause Ranma to have to marry Akane all of a sudden. She noticed that Akane was almost to the altar and sighed once more.

As he stood in the back of the wedding party, an old, shriveled up man for once not in the act of stealing women's underwear thought carefully over his plans. 'While Cologne and I still have life left in us, I think it may be time for me to pass on our duty to the next generation. My heir in my school will also become the heir to my task; I just hope he is up to the challenge.'

He then considered something else, "I hope that, like me, he will not be one to regret his choice; either of them."

Akane smiled as she stood in front of Ranma, preparing to, once and for all, become his wife. She was still a little uncertain as the priest started speaking as part of the ceremony. She smiled fondly at her father and tried to ignore the unease she felt in the pit of her stomach. 'I wish it hadn't been necessary to do that. I do hope that Ranma will forgive me.'

She remembered how, a couple of months ago, no more than a couple of weeks after their first, failed wedding, Ranma had suddenly, out of the blue, forgiven her rivals while Ryoga had chosen to confess his love and secret to her. Akane had both forgiven and rejected Ryoga, only to find that he had started to become more and more interesting by the day it seemed. Confused at her own feelings, Akane watched as Ranma had grown closer and closer to both Shampoo and Ukyo by the day. Even though she was starting to become quite interested in Ryoga, she didn't want to just sit there as Ranma drifted further and further away.

One day, a little over a month ago, the two patriarchs had a talk with her in private.

Flashback a Month Plus a few Days Ago:

Akane sat in her room as Mr. Saotome told her of what he had seen his son up to, confirming her fears. Ranma had been spending a couple of hours each day at the Ucchan just talking to Ukyo, telling her about his journey while both teens bonded. Meanwhile, he had taken the time to chase Mousse away from Shampoo once and for all in a no-holds-barred challenge match. Even using grenades, Mousse hadn't been able to best him. Finally, her father spoke.

"Akane, I know that you are afraid of showing your feelings to Ranma, but know this, in a matter of days, Ranma will likely decide to give up on you for one of his other fiancées. After all, none of them are scared to show how they feel, they are both excellent cooks, and are very beautiful indeed. Even I may have had difficulty staying loyal to Kimiko if a woman like that had become interested in me. If you don't make him decide immediately, he will leave you and never come back."

As Akane, heart confused and filled with terror and jealousy towards the other girls competing for Ranma's heart, grappled with what her father had just told her, Genma spoke. "Indeed, if my son takes his time, the feelings growing in his heart for the other girls will soon overwhelm anything he feels for you. After all, neither of them are conflicted in any way, and his style of the martial arts emphasizes that in many a situation. My son is always determined."

Then they both said, "Make him decide now, or he will never choose you."

End Flashback:

Akane still shuddered as she remembered that talk. In the end, although her growing feelings for Ryoga caused her to feel some uncertainty, she had let her jealousy get the better of her and agreed to follow their plans for fear of losing Ranma before she could make a choice.

She kept smiling, in love with the man who was her groom, even with the doubts she felt. 'I do indeed love him, but I still wonder, 'Am I making the right decision?' She kept questioning herself while smiling even as she said "I do".

The green-haired woman explained the situation to her leader, a younger woman with blond pigtails that stretched far down her back, past her waist. In the end she said, "Sailor Earth, while quite strong, was the only member of the senshi never to be activated. This is because, once called upon, she is the herald of a great war; one that has never, nor will ever be equaled in the history of this world. However, it appears that, without her, the future that we have seen of Crystal Tokyo will never be, meaning that mankind will never know the future of peace that we plan to give it."

The blond woman looked down quietly and said, "I hoped that with Galaxia defeated that we would be at peace once more, at least until the ice comes, but you are right; if we don't do this, then it won't matter in the end. We will just have to hope that we will be able to defeat these foes."

She sighed and, as directed by the woman beside her, started the ritual with a crystal gleaming brightly silver. 'Setsuna, I hope this works...'

"I do."

As Ranma uttered those words, he had to stop himself from trying to take them back. He still loved Akane more than anyone, but those flaws in their relationship that he had heard Ukyo mention hadn't shown any signs of going away, even if he insulted her less and she hit him less. He had found himself starting to fall for both Ukyo and Shampoo over the month after the wedding. It had suddenly surprised him one day when he found himself getting angry as he saw Mousse trying to beg Shampoo for another date. When she had mentioned the possibility of challenging him to get him off of Shampoo's back, he hadn't been able to wait until the challenge match which, although one of the toughest he had ever endured when fighting Mousse, had still been a relatively easy victory.

'Ucchan too. I started noticing more and more why I found her to be my cute fiancée. Plus, I started to realize that, even though I considered her to be one of my best friends, that wasn't the only thing I could feel for her. I started to like spending time with her, and not just for eating her okonomiyaki. Maybe, if Akane hadn't made me choose then and there, I would have chosen her or Shampoo.'

He had to go into the 'soul of ice' for a couple of seconds as he remembered that incident.

Flashback a Month and a few Days ago:

Ranma was practicing in the dojo alone when Akane walked in with an aura of unease and uncertainty. He stopped and said, "Hey Akane, what's up?"

Akane, seeming to force herself, said quietly, "Ranma, I am sorry, but it is time for you to make a decision on the fiancée matter once and for all. I can't just stand here and wait for you to make your decision; you need to decide here and now which one of us you want. I love you, but you need to decide which of us you choose once and for all."

Ranma felt several emotions: happiness that Akane had finally told him she loved him, dread that she was going to make him decide between her and the others, and uncertainty over which one he would choose. While in the past, if he had to make a choice, he would have always ended up saying Akane, he was starting to grow unsure about that. He had started to really like the feelings he got when he was around them.

In the end, he settled for saying, "Akane, I want to make sure I make the right decision. I know it's hard, but I am sure that I will have my answer within a year at most. It's very important that I do this right you see."

Akane just looked at him before nearly snarling, anger building, "Ranma, I want you to decide here and now which one you will choose. If you aren't ready to make a decision today, I will give up on this engagement once and for all. I am tired of all the pressure put on me by my dad, your parents, and everyone else and, if you won't choose me today, I am giving up and this will be goodbye! If you choose me, I am going to marry you in a month; got it!? If you don't choose me... well, Ryoga confessed his love to me earlier this month. Maybe I would start going after him"

Ranma, stunned by her blunt declaration, was thrown into a quandary. He wasn't completely sure he wanted to choose Akane, but he certainly didn't want to lose her. He loved her for certain after all. While he was starting to have feelings for Shampoo and Ukyo and was starting to seriously consider them, he wasn't in love with them yet. If he didn't choose Akane today, he would never get a chance again. Most of all, he hated losing in anything, and losing Akane to Ryoga would really smart. As such, even though that voice of doubt he had started hearing ever since being carried home by Ukyo and Shampoo was blaring in his ear, he said quietly. "Okay Akane; if I gotta choose today, I will marry you."

She smiled at that, but Ranma couldn't help but see the same uncertainty on her face that he himself was feeling...

End Flashback:

He had hated forcing the others to give up on him and having to marry Akane while he was still plagued with so many doubts, but he had had no choice. He just hoped he wasn't making a big mistake by doing this.

"...You may kiss the bride."

With nothing else to do, Ranma kissed Akane on the lips, sealing their marriage vows, while trying to quiet that voice of doubt in the back of his mind as he did so; he utterly failed at that particular task.

As Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo were married and Usagi Tsukino completed the ritual that would activate Sailor Earth, the Portal of Time and Space cleared for a moment and, had anyone been there to witness it, they would have seen a world at war, the blood of millions being shed in a battle between two great forces while the planet was covered in smoke and fire...

Author's Note: This is the sequel to 'Someday You Will Look At Me', but it is also a prequel to the series I have decided to create following them. Obviously it is a crossover with post-Galaxia Sailor Moon. I will be putting up a summary of that particular fic on my profile in a matter of days, but, similar to the first two fics, it is not going to be a happy series. Even though Akane has married Ranma; it is not the end, but rather the end of the beginning.

Genma and Soun may have seemed out of character and cruel in their talk with Akane, but they know that, now that Ranma and Akane are both giving others a chance, if they don't have things settled quickly, the agreement will likely crumble soon as, even if neither actually decide on one of the others, the conflict will make it likely for Akane to, once again, say that she is calling off the engagement, but that time, Ranma won't try to get her to forgive him. They scared Akane who let her jealousy and fear get the better of her to the point that she found herself issuing an ultimatum to Ranma who, while greatly angered and uncertain about his choice, let his pride get the better of him and agreed. I hope that explains the events in the flashbacks.

The title of this is meant to indicate that it became necessary for the main characters to make a choice before they were ready to make the best possible choice. It may be that what was chosen in haste might have dire consequences…

This Fic is dedicated to my dog Shadow, who passed away yesterday. Kind and funny all of the days of his life, may he have a happier ending than this one...