This story is VERY, VERY loosely based on the story of Rise of the Argonauts which, in turn, was VERY, VERY loosely based on the original Greek story of Jason and the Argonauts. So this story is based on Jason and the Argonauts only in the sense of having almost nothing to do with Jason and the Argonauts. HOORAY!
Chapter One: It Began With a Murder
A smell of death and horseweed drifted out the door to the Tendo kitchen, filling the family with dread. It was a night that would live in infamy, a night of horrors so unspeakable that even the courage of one Ranma Saotome found itself faltering. Truly, tonight would be a night of unimaginable evil, and not a soul around would be spared.
For tonight, it was Akane's turn to cook.
"Well, I tried," Nabiki offered the family, as she hung up the phone. "The Nekohanten's still closed down, and Shampoo's got everyone else scared to come near us. We are officially blackballed."
"What about Ucchan's?!" Ranma offered desperately.
"No luck. I think she's still upset about the incident with the noodles."
"That wasn't my fault! I thought it was a cat!"
"Either way," Nabiki looked Ranma dead in the eyes, "You're just going to have to take your poison."
"But I—"
"BOY," His father interjected. "It's time to be a man and swallow your swill like the rest of us!"
Ranma was about to argue, when the sound of his doom came bellowing out from the kitchen. "Okay, it's done!" Fear gripped the heart of the young martial artist, and he knew there would be no escape. Akane stepped out the door, carrying a tray full of pain coated in a thick, aromatic layer of malice. Ranma couldn't help but admit that she really was cute sometimes, especially the sweet, naïve smile she carried with her tray of death. But he also knew that beneath that cute and warm exterior lay a ferocious tiger, ready to pounce and tear his throat out at the first sign of trouble.
Shifting nervously in his seat, he swallowed hard and looked up to her. "It, um…it smells…really, really great," he offered.
"I'm glad to hear it. I worked really hard on this. I hope you like it." Setting the tray down at the table, Akane took her seat. A nervous tension filled the room, Ranma glaring at his own imminent demise while the rest of the family refused to budge. Soun pretended to be too distracted by his shogi game with the panda to notice there was food. Nabiki was on the phone, deliberately not looking at the table or its occupants. Kasumi, wisely, had taken the evening for herself, and was not home. She was the lucky one. "Well?!" Her voice took a crackling edge, that caught the whole family's attention. "I made enough for EVERYONE."
"What…what IS it?" Resting on the tray were several small, red bowls containing some horrid, yellow glop in the center. Ranma poked at it with a spoon, and he could swear the gelatinous mixture tried to pull it in.
"It's miso soup," Akane growled through bared teeth.
"Ranma," Soun didn't even turn from his game, "you should have the first go. Akane IS your fiancée." It was a game they played every night when Akane cooked, and Ranma knew it. First to try, first to cry, and Akane would be gone in a huff, sparing the family.
"Why do I hafta—" Ranma caught himself only a second too late, as Akane's hopeful smiled turned a venomous glare. Ranma could see her blue aura glowing lightly around her as she raged.
"If you don't want it, then you can STA—"
"Oh, WHERE AM I NOW?!"
Akane's rage was silenced by a cry of anguish from the yard. Immediately, she brightened up again. "Ryoga! Now THERE'S someone who can RESPECT good food, unlike SOME FAMILY I KNOW," she cast her hateful gaze across the room. Soun continued his game with the panda, both easily deflecting the blow with a shield of willful ignorance. Ranma only breathed a sigh of relief, that he wouldn't have to taste the foul slime.
"Ryoga! Ryoga, wait!" Akane was up and out the door, knowing that if Ryoga walked out the gate, it would be weeks, maybe even months before they saw him again. "Ryoga!"
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, for having been spared the pain of—
"Wow, this is REALLY GOOD!" Ranma blinked. How did THAT happen so fast? Ryoga was in the door, at the table swallowing down a bowl of Akane's fell miso beast. As soon as the bowl was empty, he was grinning up at Akane. "Can I have some more?"
"Sure, Ryoga," Akane glared daggers into Ranma's heart. "You can have all you want. It's not like anyone else is eating it."
"Hey, it's not MY fault Ryoga can eat—" Ranma stopped himself, suddenly realizing where he was going. But by then, it was too late.
"Can eat WHAT?" Akane snarled.
Around the room, the whole family had turned to listen to this. Nabiki was covering the phone speaker with one hand, her attention on the horror about to unfold. Soun sat in abject terror, silently willing Ranma to be silent. Even the panda was shaking his head, thinking to himself, 'Don't do it, boy.'
"…can eat...pig's slop?"
It was pandemonium in an instant. "FINE! IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY COOKING, YOU CAN EAT THIS!!!" The table was tossed, casting the tray and bowls across the room. Nabiki leapt from the couch to avoid the flight of the hellslime, while the panda and Soun covered their heads. In an instant, the table was brought back down on Ranma's head, crushing him to the floor. "I TRIED to do something NICE for you, and you act like THIS?! Ranma, YOU JERK!!!"
"Stupid uncute tomboy." Footsteps leading up the stairs told Ranma it was safe to come out, and the sound of sobs mixed with the gentle patter of tears hitting the wooden steps made him feel lower than Ryoga's sense of shame. It seemed like it was like this every week. Every week—
"RAAAANMAAA!!!" The table suddenly exploded in a burst of violence, as Ryoga's Bakusai Tenketsu shattered it in a spray of woodchips. "How DARE you treat Akane like that!"
It wasn't long until the boys were out the door at each other's throats. Soun sighed to himself. "He'll never learn."
********************
"STUPID RANMA. I HATE HIM!" Akane sobbed into her pillow. Deep down, she knew that wasn't true. He could be sweet, when the moment struck him. He could be noble, and he was definitely a gifted martial artist. "He's STILL a JERK! Stupid…" Looking up at her clock through tear-soaked eyes, Akane noted she'd been up here half an hour. The sounds of fighting were still going on outside, not that she cared. Ryoga could just kill Ranma for all she—
There's someone in the room. Just out the corner of her eye, she caught the presence of someone else. Anger immediately rippled through her body, whirling on the intruder, she—
"You? What are YOU doing in MY room?!"
The intruder didn't respond. Didn't speak a word. A punch suddenly lashed at her face, which she dodged to the side, blocking with her left wrist and falling out of bed and onto her feet with the skill of a martial artist. "DAD, RAN—" before she could get another word out, the attacker was through her defenses, wresting her right arm under the crook of their left and forcing her to the side, pulling the young Tendo offbalance before jamming a sharp, jagged piece of metal straight into her chest. Akane's voice choked out as the weapon pierced her body, and she suddenly found she couldn't move.
********************
"DAD, RAN—" Akane's voice echoed through the dojo. Soun, now lazing in the furo, was on his feet in an instant. Crashing through the door, he was down the hall and up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, but it was too late. The sound of glass breaking heralded Akane's departure from the house, and by the time he got to her room, the intruder was gone.
********************
"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!!!" Ranma dodged another finger, watching part of the Dojo's outer wall explode into chunks of cement. Falling down behind him, Ranma wrapped his right arm around Ryoga's neck, and pounded his left fist into the lost boy's spine a few dozen times in the space of a couple seconds. He knew from experience, it would take that kind of punishment to put his rival down, but—
"DAD, RAN—"
Both boys jerked up suddenly, their grievances lost in the sound of Akane's voice. "AKANE!" they spoke in unison, racing towards her room. Ranma leapt to the roof of the house and darted around to her window while Ryoga hopped up on what remained of the border wall, following suit. Ranma rounded the corner just in time to see Akane come crashing through her window, the glass shattering on her back and tearing gashes in her shirt before she skidded down the rafters and dropped to the ground. Ryoga was down quickly, catching Akane as she fell and setting her down gently in the grass.
Ranma dropped to the grass with Ryoga as the lost boy turned her over. "Is she okay?!" he demanded, but the answer was immediately obvious from the piece of jagged metal sticking out of chest. Triangular in shape, with three sides and a fourth as the base, the piece was as jet black and jagged in the middle, with a strange symbol pattern interlaid in green running down it. From the size of the spike's narrowing, it was likely embedded at least three or four inches into Akane. Blood stained her clothes around the point of entry, and consciousness had already abandoned her. "We need to get this out of her!" Ranma exclaimed as he grabbed at the jagged metal, but Ryoga stopped him.
"Trust me, if we take it out now, it might make it worse. She needs a doctor!" Ryoga had treated his own injuries a lot on his travels, and he knew quite a bit about it as a result. "If we take it out now, she'll bleed to death before she can get help. Ranma…."
"I'll take her." Scooping her up in his arms, he looked to Ryoga with a fierce gaze in his eyes. Both boys knew, if Ryoga tried to take Akane, she would die long before he ever found a hospital. Ranma hated to leave a fight, but Akane needed him more now. For just a moment, they could see themselves in each other's eyes, both reflecting the other's concern for Akane, before Ranma was gone, using the border wall as a stepping stone to get to the rooftops, and running as fast as his well-trained legs could carry him.
Ryoga was at the window immediately after Ranma took off, but it was much too late. The attacker was gone without a trace.
********************
Racing up the stairs, Nabiki found her father slumped down at Akane's window, Ryoga perched on the roof just outside. "What happened? Where's Akane?!" she demanded. Soun was nearly catatonic, tears welling in his eyes as he thought of what had transpired.
"Akane's hurt," Ryoga answered. "Ranma's taking her to a doctor."
"MY POOR AKANE!!!" Soun bawled, doubling over from grief. Nabiki swallowed hard, looking down at her feet for a few moments before looking back at Ryoga. "Is she…did she look like—"
"It looked pretty bad. She wasn't moving." An awkward silence fell between them, the only sound the pained sobs coming from the Tendo father. Nabiki took a deep breath, then swallowed. Another deep breath, and her composure was back.
"He probably took her to see Dr. Tofu. I'm sure she'll be fine," Nabiki said quietly. "She's a tough girl, and Tofu's a good doctor. She'll be okay."
"Can I…" Ryoga started, but then stopped a moment. He feared he might have intruded enough, but he couldn't walk away now. "Can I wait here? If I leave, I might not ever see her again. I have to know if she's okay."
"Come in, Ryoga," Nabiki answered.
********************
"DR. TOFU! DR. TOFU, IT'S AN EMERGENCY!!!" Panicking, Ranma kicked the door in and shouldered his way inside. The lights were out and there was no sign of anyone inside the waiting room, so he pushed his way into the emergency room. "DR. TOFU, WHERE ARE—"
"Ah, Ranma! What have—oh, dear kami, what HAPPENED?!" Coming out of the bathroom, Dr. Tofu blanched at the sight of Akane in Ranma's arms. "Put her down, gently!" As Ranma set her down on the table, Dr. Tofu went straight to work, examining the piece of metal sticking out of her chest. Taking a set of pliers, he slowly removed the weapon, taking great care not to cause any further damage. Ranma kicked himself mentally; if Ryoga hadn't stopped him, he would have just jerked the thing out.
Setting it aside, Tofu examined the wound. "It doesn't look too bad, but…something's wrong. Ranma, hand me my stethoscope."
"Uh…" Ranma looked at the tools on Tofu's wall.
"The thing for hearing heartbeats."
"Oh!" Ranma grabbed it off the wall, pushing it into Tofu's hands. Setting it to his ears, he pressed the end to Akane's chest.
"I can hear a pulse, but…it isn't strong. Ranma, I'm going to need some time. Can you wait outside?"
********************
It was twenty minutes before Dr. Tofu came back out. Ranma had called the family, and they had arrived only recently. Ryoga came with them, to make sure he didn't get lost trying to find it. Soun bawled his eyes out in the waiting room while Nabiki sat close to the door, watching for news. She tried not to show it, but real, powerful concern for her sister was plain on her face. Even the Ice Queen of Furinkan High couldn't disguise the fear that gripped her heart as she waited for word. Kasumi was still out, which was for the best; bringing Kasumi would have consigned Akane to death. And Genma, still a panda, curled on the floor by the door, watching the family fall apart.
Ryoga paced relentlessly while Ranma sat across from Nabiki, eying the door carefully. "Can you stop that?" He muttered to Ryoga. "You're going to turn around and be in China."
"Shut up, Ranma, I don't need this from you right now!"
"And I don't need to listen to your footsteps all night!"
"Just like you didn't listen to Akane when she cried out for help?!"
"You're one to talk, if you hadn't picked that stupid fight, maybe I could have gotten there faster!"
"Yeah?! Well, if YOU hadn't insulted her cooking and chased her upstairs, maybe she'd still be ALIVE!"
"ENOUGH!!!" The waiting room echoed with the voice of authority, as both the boys suddenly straightened their spines and turned. Nabiki's cold, steely gaze was locked on them both. "Akane doesn't need this right now. She needs all the support she can get, and if you two are just going to fight and bicker then GET OUT."
"We're sorry."
"Yeah, sorry," Ryoga took a seat next to the panda.
********************
Inside the emergency room, Dr. Tofu sat on a stool, next to the table on which Akane Tendo rest. His head heavy in his arms, his eyes every now and then glancing to the weapon, lying on a small tray to the side. He wasn't an EMT. He was a family doctor, and this was definitely outside his usual scope. He knew what to do, and he'd done it to the letter, but…
Even if Ranma had taken her to a hospital, he realized, it would have been too late. That…that THING was designed to kill. With what he'd just discovered, there were no two ways about it. With a deep breath and a heavy heart, he stood and headed for the door. This was always the hardest part of the being a doctor, stepping out the door and seeing the terrified faces of the family, some still full of hope, others only dreading the next minute.
"Dr. Tofu!" Soun was on his feet immediately. "Is she…is she going to be…."
"I'm sorry." Those two words were all he could muster, before the strength left him. But they were enough.
"No…no, she can't…." Soun sank to the floor, tears streaking down his face. "Not again. No, please, tell me there's a mistake. Don't do this to me again."
"That can't be!" Ranma screamed. "It was just a tiny piece of metal! YOU said it yourself, it didn't look that bad!"
Clearing his throat, Tofu spoke. "I found…there was a trace substance on the tip of the…." He swallowed hard, finding the courage to say it. "…the murder weapon." An uneasy silence fell upon the family, and he continued. "I believe it might be some kind of toxin. I'll need to study it more closely, but it looks like the tip of the weapon was designed to inject this substance into the victim. It'll take me a while to find a poison that acts this quickly, but I'm certain that the toxin, not the spike, is the cause of death."
"No…" Ranma covered his mouth, unable to believe what he was hearing. "No, you're wrong. You have to be. You're wrong!"
"RANMA!" Nabiki silenced him. He shot her a glare of hate, before he caught the look on her face. The Ice Queen had crumbled, and he could actually see the tears forming in her eyes. He softened immediately. "Not now. Please. Just…don't do this right now." Even her voice choked with the crack of swallowed teardrops, and he could tell she was fighting her hardest to keep from letting it show.
"I'm sorry." Two simple words. Two words that could have cleared up so many problems between him and Akane if he'd just learned how to say them. Two words that could have made everything right, maybe could have saved her life. "I'm so sorry." Feeling the warm nuzzle of the panda on his hand, his father trying what he could in his state to help, Ranma realized he couldn't be here. He couldn't do this in front of them. "I have to go…I'm sorry…I have to go."
"Ranma, wait!" Nabiki shouted, but he was gone, past Ryoga, catatonic on the floor, out the door and into the streets.
Ranma ran until he couldn't run any farther. He didn't know where he was going, and at this point, he didn't care. He just kept running for all his legs could give him. After ten minutes, he started to feel the drizzle of rain begin to fall, and as his curse took him, he couldn't find the strength to care. She found she actually wanted this; she could cry easier as a girl than she could as a man. Her father's "MANLY" training all but ensured it.
Slipping in a puddle as the rain came down, Ranma fell down an alley. She didn't have the strength to stand, so she just dragged herself down until her arms gave as well. Laying on her back, looking up at the rain falling down, she let the tears come and finally allowed herself to cry. "Akane…."
********************
"Well, isn't this something?" Ranma awoke to a start. He looked around desperately for the source of—wait, HE? He was a girl just a second ago. ….and now that he thought about it, he was certain he'd been wearing clothes.
He found himself floating in an empty void, illuminated only by a handful of colorful lights. A red, a blue, a green, and a yellow light all flickered around him. Before he could try to find an understanding, they spoke again. The yellow light flickering as a soft, male voice echoed. "It isn't his fault. He's in love. You can excuse a moment of compassion."
The red responded, a deep, burly voice. "Call it what it is: a moment of WEAKNESS. And I'll decide what I can excuse."
"Guys," a high, erratic voice interrupted from the green light. "I think he's awake!"
"What…where am I?"
"You have been done a grave injustice, Ranma Saotome." This time, the voice came from the blue light, and it had a firm, yet decidedly feminine quality to it.
"What occurred tonight was a terrible tragedy," the yellow light agreed.
Ranma blinked, as the lights buzzed closer. "Who are you?"
"That is not your concern," the red responded.
"Well, not YET," the green corrected. "We've been watching you, and we're VERY curious to see where you go from here."
"What do you mean, WATCHING me?!" Ranma demanded. "Who ARE you?!"
"What matters now is this," the blue started. "Something very terrible has happened here tonight. It seems the fate of great men to begin their journey with great tragedy. But do not allow yourself to sink into despair, Ranma Saotome. What is done can always be undone, so long as IT exists."
"Wait, what are you talking about? Undone? What can…you don't mean…."
The yellow flickered directly into his face to answer. "If you seek answers, Ranma Saotome, then seek the Island of Delphi. There, you will find all that you require, but be forewarned: what you discover may not be what you ever wanted to learn."
"What…I don't understand. What island? What are you talking about?!"
"The island," the green explained, "exists only for those who seek it. Follow your heart and it will guide you to Delphi. Or rot away here and always wonder!"
"Wonder what?"
It was the yellow's turn again. "If you could have saved her." Those words pierced Ranma's heart, and suddenly the lights had his full attention. The yellow continued. "Go to the Island of Delphi, and seek the Oracle of Apollo. She will have the answers to your questions."
"And the questions to your answers," the green piped in.
As the void faded, Ranma panicked. "Wait! Don't go! I still have questions! Who are you?! How do I get to the island?!" She was back, lying in the alley in the rain. "AND WHO THE HECK IS APOLLO?!"
