KrayZi: So here it is my first Ranma fic, first crossover fic AND my first fic!.
Kao: So? What's the big deal?
KrayZi: Nothing much, just that this is my first story posted.
Kao: 'Kay, anyways, we wrote this and never bothered to bring it out a long time ago. Also, we sorta prefer crossover fics a bit more so this is our first fiction.
KrayZi: I don't own anything in Ranma 1/2 or Rockman. EXE or any other series being used in this fanfiction. But I do own the Kao that's beside me right now!
Kao: LIE!!
Prologue: The Beginning
The day started out like every other day in Ranma Saotome's life. He woke up wet and female outside in the Koi Pond after his father threw him.
"Ranma m'boy you're getting soft!" He said as he threw him out the window.
"Argh! Stupid Panda! Can't I ever get a good night's sleep? I haven't slept well since that Jusendo Incident!" Shouted out Ranma.
It was a few weeks after the Jusendo incident; unfortunately, it still felt like yesterday to Ranma.
"No! Now defend yourself!"
After the usual sparring of Ranma knocking his father into the pond, he walked back over to the house to pick up the kettle of hot water waiting for him and sat down at the table to eat breakfast.
At the table, once again his father started to attack him by trying to steal his food since his mother wasn't around. Getting annoyed at this, he slapped his father's chopsticks down and grabbed his father's hand and threw him into the pond again.
Suddenly Akane got up picked up her bag and tugged on Ranma's ear and pulled him out of the house.
"Come one Ranma! We're going to be late!" she said as she started walking faster.
"Couldn't it wait until I finish my food?"
"No now come on!"
As they walked quickly towards Furinkana High with Ranma walking on the fence of course, they saw a surprise, the Hentai Horde waiting for them.
"Back again to the old stuff I see." Growled Akane.
As Akane started to rush at them, Ranma stopped her with an arm. She looked down at the arm, at the mass of boys and then back at Ranma.
"Why did you stop me?"
"I don't think they're after you this time, they're set on killing this time."
"What? Killing?"
"The evil fiend is correct, Akane," Said Kuno appearing from behind a tree.
"We are after him, not you my fierce tigress."
"Ranma Saotome! The time for you to pay for your devilish actions has come! I cannot just stand by and see the fierce Akane be ensnared by your evil ways for any longer!"
"So you want to fight again?"
"That I must! For you have used your evil powers to bring Akane from the dead! Even though I am glad to have her back, she no doubt has been turned into your personal slave! For this crime, I must make you disappear from existence!"
"Sounds like Kuno heard what happened at Jusendo."
"But how?"
"Someone must've told him."
Suddenly Kuno let out a battle cry and all the boys surged forth holding their chosen weapon tightly.
"Akane, get out of here, you might get hurt."
"No! I'm going to help you fight them!"
"I said go!" As he picked her up and threw her towards her homeroom window.
When she reached the window, she quickly grabbed onto the sides and slipped herself into the room.
"When she looked back, she saw Ranma in the middle of the entire group fighting back. Obviously Ranma was winning. He took out a few guys when he picked someone up and threw him at a group. He picked up another and started to swing him around.
When Ranma finished with the group which took no more than around a minute, Kuno finally came and pointed at him.
"No doubt you have used your vile trickery to be victorious of these numbers. Now you must fight the Noble Samurai! Kuno Tatewaki the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!" he said with the usual flash of thunder behind him.
"Heh, I'd like to see you even try to touch me."
Instead of charging straight at them with his usual battle cry, he somehow was able to stay calm. At once, Ranma noticed that Kuno didn't have his usual boken on his side, instead, he held his hand toward the tree and a hand suddenly came out of it with an item and handed it to Kuno.
Easily, Ranma deduced that the tree was in fact, Sasuke. Looking at the item that had been handed to Kuno, he saw it was a long thin package. Looking closer he realized that it seemed familiar.
Suddenly Ranma remembered where he had seen it. He had seen his mother hold a package that looked just like the one Kuno was holding on many occasions. Kuno took off the covering. As Ranma had thought, it was a sword.
Realizing that this time, Kuno was completely serious and was about to show it, he got ready for him. As the Tatewaki put the sheath on his side, he kept the sword in its sheath and put his right hand ready to pull it out as soon as he needed it.
The two combatants stood there waiting for the other to strike for a few minutes. The whole student body was watching through the windows and on the roof. The teachers were much too scared to try and stop the two from fighting so they settled on trying to calm the students down or just watch the fight.
Getting impatient, Kuno took to the offensive, he charged straight at Ranma while pulling out his sword. He held the sword high as he slashed at Ranma as the sword flashed in the sunlight.
"Heh, you still haven't gotten any better Kuno, you still can't touch me!" smirked Ranma.
"Hold still! For I shall smite thee!" yelled Kuno.
Deciding to end the match, Ranma dashed through Kuno's attacks and punched him deeply in the stomach to knock him out. As expected, he was knocked out. Looking distastefully at the sword, he picked it up and took its sheath from Kuno.
Putting the sword back into the sheath, he held it horizontally above his knee and quickly brought it down and his knee up successful breaking the sword and sheath. After breaking them, he threw them as far as he could.
Another scene...
Meanwhile in another part of Japan, Ryoga was still wandering lost in the forest. Suddenly he heard a few birds screeching, he turned towards the sound and heard a quiet sound. Suddenly he sensed danger and quickly jumped to the side.
Just as he jumped, something landed where he just was. Looking at it, he noticed that it was the top half of a sword inside its sheath. Then he heard another sound. He looked up and something came down and onto his head.
Rubbing his face and looking down at where the item had fallen, he saw that it was the other half. Looking up at the skies, he yelled out the one phrase that we all know and love.
"Ranma! This is all your fault!!"
Back to School
When the bell that signaled the end of school rang, Ranma ran on the fence till he reached the Tendo Dojo. Upon arrival, he decided that he would go onto the roof and just relax and maybe do a something people usually thought he never did, think.
Ranma laid down on roof of the dojo and thought of his life. Firstly, he tried to list everything that he had enjoyed lately. He closed his eyes and tried to think of one thing. He tried for a while, as long as possible. When he finally came up with one, he opened his eyes and saw an angry Akane looking down at him. Looking at her, he instantly realized that he was in trouble.
"Ranma! I've been looking all over the house for you and calling you! When I finally find you, you're sitting there with your eyes closed and ignoring me! Probably thinking about one of those girls you always flirt with! You Pervert!"
Which, as usual, ended with the usual, take out the mallet, get it ready, and then punt Ranma up into the air as hard as possible with it. With Ranma spiraling into the sky, Akane turned away and climbed down the dojo and walked back to the house.
As Ranma was up in the sky, he tried to remember what that one thing he liked in his life was. He forgot. Deciding to give up thinking of things he liked, he thought of things he disliked. Instantly, everything came into mind.
Akane's mallet, Akane's anger, Akane's attitude, the way Akane didn't ever listen to him. His father, his father's attitude, and the way his father always tried to push him and Akane together….. Somehow through a great twist of fate, Ranma was able to list every single thing about his life that he hated before he landed. As soon as he finished listing it all…
"Argh! Now I'm all wet!" Ranma took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.
"I wonder where I am this time…" he said as he wandered off wet and female to ask someone where Nerima was.
As Ranma trudged off, there was someone watching him the whole way. Interesting… he thought as he was about to swirl his cloak and suddenly and mysteriously disappear.
Suddenly his vision was blocked by Ranma's face.
"Hey, could you point me towards Nerima?"
"Eh?" How did she get so close to me…? I saw her go off in the opposite direction…
"I think it was that way." He said as he pointed west.
"Thanks." Ranma said as she ran off in the direction he pointed in.
Whoa, she's fast thought the man as he started to swirl his cloak around to disappear. Now I wonder what neckrama's are.
3 days later…
Ranma trudged up tiredly a hill and was finally rewarded with the sight of Nerima. He walked down the hill towards the city while cursing people in cloaks. Fortunately, he had gotten his hands on some hot water and turned back male; the guy at the shop was pretty surprised to see a girl turn into a guy.
As he reached the Tendo House, the door burst open with Genma and Soun both shouting at him about his whereabouts the last few days.
"Waaaaaah!! Ranma's going to run away!" cried Soun.
"Where have you been boy? Have you no honor!? Abandoning your dear fiancée like that!" shouted his father.
"For your information that Uncute Tomboy hit me again all the way to Juuban, then this guy pointed me off towards the opposite direction! It's all her fault!" retorted Ranma.
Unfortunately for Ranma, Akane had just gotten back from school and was standing right behind him when he said that. Akane started to glow bright red.
"Ranma…" started Akane.
"Ack! Akane! I didn't mean any of that! I-"
"Ni hao Ai ren! Shampoo make too too good ramen for Ranma!" said Shampoo as she came down from the sky on her bicycle and squishing Ranma under her bike.
Akane started to glow a dark red. As Ranma got Shampoo and her bike off him, his eyes widened as he saw Akane's aura swirling around her like a raging bonfire.
"I see Ranma, you've been of with that Chinese hussy haven't you!"
"Wait Akane!"
Yet again Ranma was sent up into the sky… and crashing down through the roof of Ucchan's. Unfortunately for him, he landed on the grill…
"Yeow!!" shouted Ranma rubbing his burned rear.
"Hi Ranchan, what brings you here today?"
"Can't talk Ucchan gotta run!"
Which led him out onto the streets to be seen coming out by Ryoga who like usual jumped to a stupid conclusion…
"Ranma, how dare you cheat on Akane!"
Which attracted the attention of Kuno and Mousse and closely after by everyone that either hated Ranma or loved Ranma that were near Nerima.
Meanwhile in an unknown place for now…
"Hey, I'm detecting an abnormal energy from one of the rips in the net."
"Great, is there any other energy from the other rip?"
"Nope, at least not yet, this one's pretty high though, higher than those other ones we brought from the first few rips."
"All right, let's make sure we analyze it first before we transport it over here. We don't want to bring in the wrong one again."
Back to Ranma
Ranma didn't know what to think. It seemed to him that everyday always had either Akane splashing him awake with a pail of cold water or his father tossing him out the window and into the koi pond. Always after that came all the disasters at school that always started with fighting Kuno who was always still injured from all the previous days. Usually during lunch time, Ryoga would once in a while find his way towards the school and attack him on sight.
After school usually came Shampoo glomping on to him followed by Mousse who yelled at him for stealing his Shampoo. Then he would fight him too and go home to be assaulted by the two parents and then he would stick his foot in his mouth and get punted up into the air by Akane.
Ranma laughed at himself. He imagined what it would be like to be someone else, laughing at his efforts to stay alive. He wondered what it would be like, to start a new life, not one inhibited by honor, fiancées, fathers, demented people and a messed up school. A life where he could be free and not have to bow down to the will of others. To be able to control his own life. That was it. He was never able to control his own life. It was always Ranma this and Ranma that. He wished he could be free. He wished he could become a new person. Ominous lightning and thunder slammed in the background and it started to rain hard making everything look more dramatic.
He was now angry at the world, how the world had used his own life, how everyone always used him for their own personal gain. In his fit of anger, he shot a massive Moko Takabisha at the crowd running after him, right in the middle of the street where there were plenty of people that could not protect themselves. The crowd split off, running away, hiding or standing their ground to fight. The ball of energy slammed into the road sending broken concrete everywhere hurting people everywhere. Ranma's mind was lost, in a confusion of thoughts and his anger, right now, all his mind could see was red, raw anger, anger that had to be vented out. Anger that had to be put out on the people that made his life hell. The people who stayed behind were; Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi, Ryoga, Kuno, Mousse and Happosai. They attacked, and found out that a Ranma whose mind was lost in anger, was a dangerous Ranma.
Akane came running up with her mallet swinging intent on punting Ranma up into the stratosphere. Ranma simply grabbed a piece of broken concrete and threw it at the handle of Akane's mallet and through it making the head fall to the ground. Akane froze in place looking at the now useless handle. Ranma ran quickly and swiftly up to Akane.
"Akane look out!" screamed Ryoga.
Akane looked up but it was already too late. Ranma was above her descending from the sky like a death angel. He grinned knowing that under him was the first target to vent his raw anger on. Ranma could have just punched her to the head and knocked her out. But he needed more that that, just knocking her out was not enough, he had to repay her of all the attacks she had done to him. He attacked Akane, first descending with a kick to the head and sweeping her off her feet as he landed on the broken ground.
As Akane started to fall, Ranma's fist lashed out and punched her in the stomach effectively stunning her.
"Akane!" screamed Ryoga now regretting that he thought Akane could deal with Ranma.
Ryoga ran to help her, as did everyone else there. Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi didn't like Akane all that much, but they couldn't stand to see her being beat up like this.
Ranma grinned seeing his other targets running towards him, he quickly finished Akane off by a upper cut, a kick to her side and a punch in a stomach that sent her towards the group that were trying to help her, she slammed into Ryoga. Akane landed on Ryoga on the ground, she was not that far out cold but was basically in shock seeing Ranma attacking her like that and grinning. Ryoga just laid there staring up at the unconscious girl on him.
The three remaining girls reached Ranma next. They didn't want to hurt him, but Ranma had to be stopped from wreaking more havoc and injuries to everything around him. Kodachi lashed out with her ribbon, attempting to tangle Ranma with it. Ukyo used her Noodle Lariat, the noodles she used to bind people in place. Kodachi's ribbon managed to snake around Ranma's left arm while Ukyo's noodles wrapped around his right.
Ranma the grabbed a hold of the ribbon and noodles and pulled them towards him. Not expecting Ranma to use his strength to overwhelm them, Ukyo and Kodachi were sent flying towards him. As the two girls were headed towards him, Ranma then let go off the ribbon and noodles and jumped into the air timing it. As he fell down back towards the ground, Ukyo and Kodachi flew under him. He slammed his arms into both of their stomachs and sent them all towards the ground.
As Ranma got up from the ground, he felt a large object fall on his head, knocking him back down towards the ground. Ranma turned looked over his shoulder and saw Shampoo holding her Bonbori. Ranma rolled onto his back while at the same time using his feet to kick Shampoo in the side and knocking her into Ukyo who lay beside him. He punched Shampoo in her stomach making her cough up a bit off blood, the punch's shock was sent through Shampoo and into Ukyo who lay under her.
Ranma turned to Kodachi, he inwardly laughed at her seeing as she was already out cold. He picked her up and threw her at her brother, Kuno. He then threw Shampoo off at Mousse effectively using her as a projectile and knocking Mousse off his feet.
As for Ukyo, he threw her off somewhere as to not trip him up. He grinned knowing that Ryoga and Mousse were going to be very angry when the got back onto their feet.
Kuno looked up at his sister with almost no sympathy.
"Perhaps that will teach you what a vile sorcerer that filthy Ranma is."
With that he got Kodachi off him and stood up. Ryoga finally snapped back to reality. His aura exploded with a ferocity never before seen. Mousse like Ryoga was very angry. He gently picked up Shampoo and placed her on the ground comfortably. He then looked over at the smirking Ranma. All three fighters held the same though in their heads. I shall wipe that stupid smirk off your face Ranma.
Ryoga threw a Shi Shi Hokudan at Ranma, Ranma jumped over it to meet Mousse in the air who threw a few daggers at him. Ranma twisted his body to avoid the daggers and landed on the ground to meet Kuno who immediately began to swing his Boken at him. Kuno repeatedly swung at Ranma as Ryoga came up with Kuno to attack him. Ranma smirked at their repeated attempts to subdue him.
Suddenly he felt some kind of danger heading towards his back. He jumped backwards to avoid the projectiles. With Ranma's body out of the way Ryoga and Kuno were able to see why Ranma had jumped away from them. They separated to avoid the shurinkens and looked around for Ranma.
Ranma was heading towards Mousse who had thrown the shurinkens. The Hidden Weapons fighter tried to keep Ranma away from his with no progress because Ranma just kept dodging his projectiles and jumping over them while at the same time running ever more so closely. As Ranma neared Mousse, he cocked his arm back to punch Mousse. Suddenly Ranma felt something slam into his back. It was a Shi Shi Hokudan that Ryoga had thrown at him.
The energy sent him flying towards Mousse. Seeing his enemy flying towards him, Mousse whipped out a club and waited for Ranma. Suddenly he swung the club like a baseball bat and at Ranma. Ranma was sent flying back towards Kuno.
As he was in the air, Ranma suddenly felt something long slam into his back causing him even more pain and bruises. He turned and saw Kuno lashing out at him. Knowing that Kuno would be an annoyance, Ranma turned in midair and slammed his leg hard into Kuno's side knocking the wind out of him. Using Kuno's body as an object, Ranma used the leg that he had kicked Kuno with to push off him and spin in midair to use his other leg to make a devastating kick towards Kuno's head making him fly back towards a brick wall and knock it down. Screams of people hiding inside building were heard but Ranma paid no attention of it.
Ranma ran swiftly towards Ryoga and Mousse who were headed towards him. Ranma threw a Moko Takabisha at them but the blast landed short of them. But the ball like the beginning of the whole fight smashed into the concrete and rocks and dust were sent everywhere, blinding Ryoga's and Mousse's sight. Ranma took advantage of that and jumped off the ground and landed between the two fighters.
Hearing him land, the two other boys turned around to face Ranma which turned out to be a mistake. Ryoga met up with a fist that unleashed the Amagurinken on his face while Mousse ended up with a kick towards his face.
In that unknown place…
"Whoa! The energy pulse just sped up and was for a few seconds shooting of the charts!"
"How could that have happened??"
"I'm not sure but I'm working on it."
"Okay, let's make sure we don't loose this one, I have a feeling it will be the good one…"
"Right."
Ranma and his 'Friends'
Mousse was easily taken out by the kick because it ended with him flying through a couple of walls with bricks falling over his body. More screams from inside the buildings were heard. Ranma again ignored them but not as easily as before.
Ryoga hearing those screams grew even angrier at Ranma. As the Amagurinken ended, Ryoga jumped back and repeatedly threw Shi Shi Hokudans at Ranma. Ranma ran around Ryoga dodging all of the projectiles while Ryoga kept foolishly wasting his Ki. Soon enough, Ranma unleashed many more Amagurinkens on Ryoga's tired out body.
Suddenly Ranma was hit from behind by a small object. Ranma turned around to see Happosai with his pipe. Ranma began to attack the short master as the pervert jumped around. No contact was made.
Suddenly more objects were sent flying at Ranma. Ranma turned and saw the badly bruised and battered body of Mousse who had sent more daggers flying his way. Mousse threw out more weapons at Ranma keeping him on his toes.
After a few minutes, Ryoga managed to get the energy to crawl to his pack that he had dropped when he started to fight Ranma. He reached into the pack and brought a carefully wrapped object. He struggled to his feet with the object in his hand. He ran towards Ranma and managed to find the energy inside himself to carry on. He met up with Ranma and punched him hard towards Mousse.
Again, Mousse brought out his club and swung it at Ranma. Ranma not being one to fall for the same tricks in a fight more than once twisted in midair and his feet absorbed the shock of the club as Mousse swung it. Ranma then was launched face first towards Ryoga.
Ryoga then unwrapped the package to bring out a five inch mushroom, a magic mushroom, one that would change the age of whoever ate it. Ranma was surprised seeing Ryoga running towards to him, he had expected Ryoga to jump over him. Ryoga brought the fist containing the mushroom back and sent it forward at Ranma's face. As Ryoga's fist neared Ranma's face, he opened his fist so that the mushroom was in the open and he pushed the mushroom through Ranma's lips.
Ranma was very surprised not expecting that maneuver. He then felt something forced into his mouth, he tried to spit it out but Ryoga's hand kept it from coming out. Ryoga pinched Ranma's nose and kept his other hand in front of Ranma's mouth. He held Ranma in place until Ranma was forced to open his mouth to breathe. As soon as he did, Ryoga slapped Ranma on his back which sent the mushroom in his mouth to go down his throat. Ranma choked for a bit but soon calmed down.
Suddenly, Ranma's eyes widened again as he came to realize just what as in his mouth, knowing Ryoga wouldn't go through the trouble of just making him eat a normal mushroom, he realized it was those age changing mushrooms. As if to confirm his thinking, he felt a small tingle in his body and suddenly everything seemed to get bigger and bigger. When the shrinking finally stopped, Ranma was swamped in his own clothes.
Unknown place
"What the?!" said a startled man with brown hair and glasses.
"What is it now??"
"The energy signature just went down by at least 2/3!! It's now rapidly growing lower and lower!" answered the Scientist.
"What??? Transport it in now! We can't afford to lose this one! It has the strongest signature yet and we only have two more chances! Bring it in!"
The scientist prepared to press the button to start up the machine. When his finger came with a few inches of the button, his hand stopped. A few seconds later, it started trembling.
"Hurry up and press that button!"
"Sorry, I just can't do it."
"What?" Questioned the older man.
"I can't do it, what if you're wrong, what if this one was like the last one, the one that killed my son?" argued the younger scientist.
"We'll worry about that later now hurry up and press it or we'll lose it!" Yelled the Boss.
"But what if this one is unstable, what if it destroys everything? Then everything we've done will be for nothing!" exclaimed the brown haired scientist.
"I Don't CARE!" Roared the second man,"We only have two more chances left and we have to use them if we're going to get rid of those rogue ones!"
"I can't bring myself to do this!"
"FINE! IF YOU won't do it I will!!" With that he pushed the younger man away and pushed the button to start up the transport machine.
A white clear thick tube behind then started to glow a deep gold and suddenly the golden light shot up into the sky making a hole into the roof. As soon as the Light reached the sky, it seemed like it suddenly hit an object an exploded outwards and suddenly it faded out.
Back to Ranma
When Ranma finished shrinking, he finally snapped out of his anger, he scrambled out of the now too big clothing and looked around to see all the destruction, the broken walls, the screams, all of it went to his head, he felt sick. Suddenly he heard someone laugh at him; he looked up into the laughing face of Ryoga. Suddenly the laughing turned into an angry face, anger that was directed at him. Realizing that, he also realized this. I'm screwed… Ranma's world then turned into a world of pain as he felt the rock hard blows of Ryoga and the sharp and blunt weapons of Mousse.
Suddenly the sky became very bright. Ryoga, Mousse, Happosai who was sitting somewhere near the scene and anyone else who could see it stopped what they were doing and looked up at the shining light.
One of those people were a Chinese Amazon Matriach, Cologne thought a few seconds before she closed the shop, locked it and bounced on her stick all the way to the source.
It also just so happened that the light was bright enough to wake everyone that was knocked unconscious by Ranma in his fit of rage. They too looked up at the light.
Ranma's sight was a bit blurry, his body was bruised and bleeding from the injuries he took from Mousse, Ryoga, and the pain he had taken in and hadn't noticed before. He looked at the light through his injured eyes and reached up with one hand to it.
It seemed like he was finally going to die, like an Angel dropping out of the sky to take him in its arms and carry him up to heaven. Surprisingly Ranma didn't feel disappointed in any way; he felt it was probably that he never really enjoyed his life like he should have. He had been training since he could remember to be the best Martial Artist in the world. Now that he thought about it, he never really wanted to become the greatest Martial Artist, which was what Genma had wanted. Genma, he had pounded the phrase 'you WILL be the strongest Martial Artist in the World!'
Maybe it's finally time to rest, he had heard the stories about heaven and hell before, he wondered where he would go, most likely hell because of Genma he thought bitterly. Genma….Genma…. why did he say his name like that? Usually he would say pop or something along those lines. Genma... He had ruined his life many times, more times then he could ever remember. At that moment he realized it, because Genma was treating him badly for so long, he didn't even come to think of him as his father anymore. Him being a father was a joke.
As he thought this, the light turned into a beam, a beam headed for Earth, a beam headed for him, Ranma, in his growing pool of blood and weak stature. If it were another enemy, then he would die. He knew he was too weak to move, much less fight.
The light intensified as it neared Ranma. It was then that Colonge reached the place where they all were. Soon the beam hit ground zero, meaning, Ranma. The light then became too bright for everyone to see except for Ranma, to him, it felt natural. Like it was part of him. Suddenly it felt wrong, felt like there was something inside of him being torn away from him. He screamed, he screamed as loud as he could he screamed so that everyone could hear his pain. Suddenly everything went white for everyone.
The light disappeared, all that was left there that had traces of Ranma, was his blood, he had still been swamped by his clothes a little so the light had taken that with him. Suddenly it dawned on them. Ranma was gone.
Kao: You know I hate you right?
KrayZi: Of course I do!
Kao: Now, we have a problem.
KrayZi: Yea, how do we get the Bold and Italics and symbols like stars and those squiggly signs in without using the Edit? Also, we can't get the thing to center properly. So to all you Authors out there willing to help someone new, please email us.
Kao: We can't seem to get that. Email us if you can help.
KrayZi: Anyways, thank you all you readers for coming and reading my little happy prologue here. Also, I also hate cliff hangers along with most of you readers. But it helps with the plot, so come back for more!