Nightmares Become Reality

Writer : Alright this one is a sad one, so be prepared. However, I don't know if I'm killing anyone off, so stay! Hehehe, anyway I'll let you get to the story soon but I must thank Jeschura, Charbonne, and nikkidanielle14because they are nice, and if you're in the mood to read something sweet and nice that has romance and fighting then go and read "Challenging Love Skates" It's a good one lol, even though it's not complete yet.

Another thing is that I'm putting my sadness in it so don't be shocked if there is a lot of angst in it :; / (Do I sound cheesy or what?)

Okay I'll stop wasting your time (although I don't think many of you read this part 'cause I don't sometimes XD )

Akane : This Writer does not own anything!

Ps, my new beta reader is.. FrictionX42! Thanks a lot foe doing this for me =D

Again Ranma Saotome was standing back at Jusenkyo, seeing the water fading into the ground before his eyes, "No!" Ranma yelled, rushing forward. The moment he took a step, however, he found himself at the Jusendo Caves. Suddenly a figure appeared before him, blazing with a fiery light. Blinking against the sudden brightness, Ranma could make out the sillohuette of another body against the first. As Ranma blinked again, his vision cleared and he found he could see the figures much more easily.

The first figure was the Phoenix King himself. Saffron stood before him again.

"What the hell?" Ranma asked, but then he saw Akane in Saffron's arms, Akane was in a strange black cloak that was ripped and burned, her eyes were closed, her face dirty and bruised. It was obvious that she had been through something horrible. Ranma didn't even try to fight the surge of anger flowing through him. Sheer rage suffused his entire body, and Ranma felt ready and willing to do anything necessary to get Akane back.

"Saffron! You take your damned hands OFF HER!" Ranma roared as he charged. The subject of Ranma's ire let out an arrogant laugh that echoed thoughout the cave, and just as quickly as he'd appeared Saffron was gone!

"Where are you? Get back here you bastard!" Ranma yelled as he looked around. He saw no one. Ranma started to run, to look for Saffron and Akane, but suddenly it was like the ground had dropped out from beneath him and Ranma felt that he was falling. He had an odd, twisting sensation in the pit of his stomach.

As he looked down he saw someone running. The person was in the same black cloak he'd seen Akane in moments ago and the person was running... from Ranma? Ranma felt like he was watching his own life from above, as his body closed in on the person in the black cloak he had been chasing.

"Get BACK HERE! WHERE IS AKANE?" the Ranma doing the chasing demanded as he kicked at the cloaked stranger.

"What the Hell is going on?" the Ranma watching from above asked as he saw himself kick at the figure clad in dark shrouds. He watched, astonished as the target fell. The second Ranma stalked to the fallen body and ripped the hood off of the person that had just fallen, and revealed the face of Akane!

"No..." both Ranmas protested, unbelieving.

Then the vision of it all faded into blackness and Ranma took the place of his own body. He saw Akane laying on the ground before him, "Akane..? What's going on? " he asked, but she gave him no answer. She slowly rose to her feet and pulled the tattered shreds of the black cloak around herself again. Once done with that, she raised the hood over her head once more. Ranma could still see her face under the hood, however, and what he saw unnerved him more than anything he'd witnessed before.

Akane's face... It was almost lifeless, held no emotion, and was disturbingly pale.

"Akane?" he asked again, only to be ignored as she turned away from him and began to run faster then he had ever seen her run before.

"Akane!" Ranma yelled as he ran after her into the inky blackess. As he ran, Ranma noted that the air was getting heavier and felt wetter, somehow. Soon he was surrounded by fog, but could hear a dull, constant roar from somwhere nearby. He made his way towards the sound. "Akane!" he called out to the dark. Then he found her. near by was a waterfall. Akane's feet were still in the water. It looked to Ranma as if she had fallen from the top of the waterfall and somehow managed to drag herself almost all the way to the shore. She was laying on the ground and bleeding heavily from cuts and gashes all over her body. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall swept away the blood oozing from her lower legs, almost as if it was greedily sucking away her life force.

'No..'

Ranma shook his head to snap himself out of shock, "No!" he yelled as he rushed to her bloody body. He picked her up in his arms as he knelt down beside her, she was so pale, she was barely even breathing. Ranma's eyes began to blur with tears that he couldn't fight back no matter how hard he tried. "N-No.." he murmured.

"I'm … So … s.. orry" He heard Akane whisper. Her eyes did not open but somehow Ranma felt that she knew it was him.

"Sorry? Sorry for what? " he asked, but then the last of her breath died and Akane lay still in Ranma's arms. "Akane! Hold on!" he yelled, crushing the lifeless body to his chest in anguish and dispair.

Then he heard the chilling laughter again, mocking him from every direction.

"Where are you? What did you do!" he challenged the air around him.

More laughter met his demands. "Did you in all honesty think you could get rid of me thateasily?" the voice asked, cruel and vicious.

"What?" Ranma asked, taken aback by the unexpected question.

"Shame too... the poor stupid girl. Such a pity she was the one to suffer for your wrongs… and she was such a good fighter too... if only her heart did not belong to one such as you and she did not take your place…" the voice continued, slow and mocking as if to draw out every potential bit of pain in Ranma.

"What? She - She - my wrongs? What did..? What did you do?" Ranma demanded angrily.

"Well .. Saotome ..? Where is that fire you had..? Why so weak now..? .. So .. Tell me Saotome, you thought you could get rid of me?" the voice asked again.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked, directing the question at the disembodied voice but unable to tear his eyes away from Akane. Tears sliding down his face, Ranma was just able to notice something forming above the water. It was a winged form, thin and lean with harsh eyes and an arrogant smile. His lips were curled back as it laughed the same laugh that had been haunting Ranma.

"Well, you were dead wrong!" yelled Saffron as he finished appearing before Ranma. He shot across the space between them, moving at inhuman speed, even faster than Ranma had ever been able to go, then …

"NOO!" screamed Ranma as he jumped out of his bed, sweat dripping from his face.

He put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart race through the thin material of his shirt. "Not again." he whispered, for once wishing his dad was there, if for nothing else other than to knock him out the window and into the koi pond, to wake him up and stop the nightmares early on.

Ever since their time at Jusenkyo, Genma had been sleeping elsewhere, and wasn't around to provide even his ridiculously minute amount of parental support.

Ranma sighed deeply as he lay awake. That was the fourth one this week! He'd been having nightmares ever since they all returned from Jusenkyo...many of them a lot alike, Akane dying or something. He counted himself blessed when he could forget his nightmares, but he always had a feeling in the bottom of his heart that perhaps the parts he forgot contained something important. He shivered, hoping as he did every time he awoke from horrid nightmares that it meant nothing-that it was just a dream like any other.

Ranma sighed as he recalled that his life was seldom so courteous. Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep until he did it again, Ranma hopped up to his feet and made his way to the window. He slid it open slowly so that it wouldn't make any sound and used it to hop out onto the roof. Walking on tiptoes, he silently made his way to Akane's window, hoping that she hadn't locked it that night.

Holding his breath, Ranma then slowly opened Akane's bedroom window, pushed aside her curtains, and to his great relief he saw the young girl in her bed, lightly snoring, her hands held cutely up near her face and her lips and cheeks light pink, in contrast to the stark death-like pallor of his nightmares.

He sighed in relief as he took a step onto her desk and then made his way down to the floor near her bed. He stared at her face, losing himself again in just watching her sleep as he knelt down beside her and took her small hand in his. The warmth almost shocked him. To think that her hand was once so cold… her lips light blue, her cheeks so pale and dirty, her eyes closed in permanent sleep... He loved her eyes - when happy or ecstatic they burned with an adorable fire but then to see them closed at Jusendo… to think about the fear he'd felt when he thought she had… when he thought he'd lost...

'Dear God please... don't let these damn dreams meananything', begged Ranma to whoever might be listening. He then turned to look at her beautiful face… No, Ranma vowed, he was not going to let her get hurt ever again. And if she ever got hurt again, so help the one who did it, because he was going to make sure that they suffered.

**~=+Else where+=~**

A harsh laugh echoed though out an elaborately bedecked hall. A figure shuffled along it, moving slowly towards the sound of the sardonic mirth.

"My Lord? What do you find amusing?" asked the figure, a hunched over old man with odd feathers on his back.

The laughter stopped abruptly and was replaced by an equally cruel voice, "Jeeves! How dare you interrupt me!" demanded a winged figure from behind a transparent drape.

"Oh please my lord! Forgive my insolence!" plead Jeeves as he fell to his knees and bowed deeply.

"*Humph* I should punish you but… seeing as I'm in the mood I'm in... I'll allow you to know of my newfound plan..." the voice said with an audible grin.

"Plan, my lord?" asked Jeeves.

"Yes. My plan to regain my full power, and to take my vengeance upon that boy"he spat out the last word as though it was poison to him.

"My lord! You have found a way to regain the Jusen water?" Jeeves asked hopefully.

"Yes. As you know that damned girl took some with her and with out it all I cannot gain my full power and become immortal..."

"Lord Saffron, how do you plan to regain the water? I thought it was impossible to take it back after it has been used."

"Yes, but you see Jeeves I am in no mood to wait over 100 years for the water to regenerate, so I have devised a plan…" explained Saffron.

An arrogant grin formed upon Saffron's lips as he got up from his bed and pulled the curtain aside. Before Jeeves stood Saffron. At the moment, he looked to be in his late teens rather than his full adult age, the effect of not having all the Jusen water.

"Go And fetch Kima!" demanded Saffron.

"Yes Lord Saffron!" Jeeves shouted as he got up and went to do as he was told.

*{+}*{+}*{+}*{+}*** {+}*{+}*{+}*{+}*

Writer : alright I know the Dream Ranma Had was hard to understand .. But it's kinda intended for ya to not understand, also it was hard because we all know how dreams don't make sense lol ,

(Also do you like the banner up there *{+}*** {+}* ? )

Okay another thing this part was to kinda' get ya into it , so to help again it's of Saffron and not in every Fanfic does it have that (Okay well not in any I have seen )

Please be nice, Please? Pretty Please? With Sugar on Top? And maybe a Cherry!

Alright another thing Hit that Button that Says 'Review' you Never know.. It may have a cookie, wait a Cookie? I want it! Mine!

Beta Reader: I want a cookie.