Forever Bound
11 (b) Into a Princess

Author's Notes: Okay, when I wrote this I was thinking about the story A day In the Heart Of Ukyo. I guess you can call this a sidestory to chapter 11, although it is a humongous spoiler to my future chapters. You might still want to read my story, but not after this. I wrote this for those fans out there that can't wait for my story to finfish so I wrapped most of it up in a nice package for them. You will want to keep reading my story though, there is more to the story then what is said in this chapter . Well all comments and critism goes to silverflame_maiden@hotmail.com.

Disclaimers: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does. So why do I have to keep reminding myself this with these disclaimers?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
I watch the bars that surround me into this little cage and I wonder. I wonder what am I doing here, after all I have enough strength and power to escape, why then am I still here. Then I remember. I remember *him* the one that put me here. Why do I even bother to think of him, that cold-blooded monster...but he's not...you see...cold-blooded. He had feelings, but I pushed him over the limit. Oh, your probably wondering, what in the world I'm talking about? Well, I'll tell you. I'll make you understand, *my* side of things. The side of the crazy princess.

I always knew I was the Fire Princess, you see. I always knew what power I held and what stength I controlled. My parents were the only ones stronger then me...so when they died...and the temple people of the garden took me in, they didn't tell me. No one spoke to me because they were afraid, all of them...afraid of what I could do to them...me the Fire Princess. I was alone...no friends...no rivals...all alone. Suddenly, one day *he* came. Ranma. He came with this little rat-tailed boy he said was his son. I knew better, the rat-tailed brat, Keichii wasn't his son. I can read auras and Keichii's aura, although strong, isn't one bit like Ranma's. While Ranma's aura was a strong blue, his was a mixture of violet and grey.

I decided not to tell Ranma, after all it wasn't any of my buisness. He was looking for the cure to a Jusynkuo curse, Nynnichuan...I think. Too bad the crystal was stolen years ago. The temple people saw his strength...he was the only one they came across that had more strength and power then me. So, naturally they gave me to him, to "protect" the Fire Princess, they said, but I knew better. I knew they just wanted to get rid of me...their ticking time bomb...to someone that could control me.

I was very angry, but what was I to do but obey them and follow him as he left. I tried being as annoying and hard to live with as possible so that he would tell me to leave. That planned just backfired in my face, since Ranma had a strong sense of honor. I don't know how it happened, so don't ask, but somehow...through some strange way...I fell in love with him. With Ranma. I tried everything I could for him to love me back and it all failed. I tried being sweet and demure, but it didn't work. I tried being aggresive and independent, but he didn't care. I tried being nice to Keichii, but that didn't last long, the kid could see right through me. Heck, I even tried climbing into his tent naked in the middle of the night, but he just kept his stony gaze and told me to get out. When I refused, he picked up his sleeping bag and went into his sons tent.

After all my efforts, I came to one conclusion, he was still in love with his dead Amazon wife, Xian Pu or Shan Pu or whatever. So, my next instinct was to defile whatever good judgement he had of her. Oh, so you say I'm the cold evil one now, huh? I'm not going to lie and excuse my actions, but all I have to say is that others have done worst. Now, back to my story.

His wife was obviously a very pretty purple-haired Amazon from a portrait Keichii gave me. I couldn't compare with looks so what I did was ruin his good image of her, I told him Keichii wasn't his son. Ha! That, like my other plans backfired in my face. He told me he already knew, Keichii knew too. Keichii's father was some other Amazon by the name of Mu Tsu. I asked him how he knew this and he said besides the fact that Keichii looked nothing like him and his wife told him before she died...he never once slept with his wife during their whole marriage!

If he didn't love his wife...then maybe he loves me, I reasoned. So, three days later I sat him down, by the fire and asked him. I asked him if he loved me and he said with his expressionless face, "No, never." I asked him how he knew he didn't love me if he didn't even know what love was.

He looked at me then and asked, "Well, one result of love is needing the person so much that it is almost painful, right? That you can not even think of parting with the person and parting with them would bring so much pain, that you wish you could die?"

Hope sprang in me then and I nodded my head vigerously and said, "Yes! Yes!"

He smiled his empty cold smile then and said, "Well, you could walk out of my life this minute and not return and I wouldn't give a care."

I slapped him then, hard, and called him a bastard. I yelled that he was cold-blooded and unfeeling and insensitive. I finally said that he didn't have a heart. He looked at me then, his emotionless face gone. His eyes were burning with unshed tears and his face was so pale and pained that I felt a biting guilt I never felt before. He whispered, "Sometimes I wish I hadn't." Then, he ran from the fire.

I knew I shouldn't have followed him. I should have just stayed there or left, but I didn't. Now, that I think about it, if I had just left then and there I wouldn't be here now, but no, I had to follow him. I followed him back to his tent and looked in. Before anything else I noticed that his tent was filled with pictures and paintings...not of his wife. They were pictures of some girl with short blue-black hair. She wasn't even that beautiful. I noticed him then, and I felt pain rip at him, shredding my very soul.

Ranma was rocking back and forth holding a picture as he cried and sobbed. He whispered the name, "Akane...Akane...Akane..." over and over again as if he said it enough times the girl would appear. The picture he held was another portrait of *that* girl, it was a simple one where it only showed her tucking a strand of hair from her face. I could feel my own tears stinging my face and my spit choking me like cold wax in my throat. After awhile he stopped crying and reached into his bag to take out a shirt. I have never seen him wear that shirt. It was old, and although seeming as if never washed, clean too. Ranma hugged the shirt and portrait and laid down. After I was sure he was asleep I slipped away.

Ranma and Keichii left the next day without me, but I followed them anyways. They traveled for months before they took a plane to Japan. When I followed them to Japan and saw Ranma again, he was walking with a girl and for the first time since I met him, smiling a genuine smile. I knew who the girl next to him was, that face will forever burn in my memory. Although her hair was longer and her body more grown and well-formed I remembered. It was Ranma's precious Akane. I watched them sit on a bench and talk. After awhile I saw Keichii and another blond kid run up to them.

I gave a gasp then. How could it be? That blond girl, Belldandy, was Ranma's daughter. She had his girl side's face and his aura. Her aura was Ranma's blue and Akane's red mixed together to form a light violet. I knew what I had to do then to get Ranma back and get revenge.

I kidnapped Belldandy when her mother made the mistake of leaving her with that weak panda. I left the note to Ranma to come to my cave to get her back. Ranma arrived, but with that hussy. No problem, I made one blast of fire and tied her to the wall as I held Belldandy by the throat. I yelled at Ranma then asking him how he could love this insolent pathetic girl, but he remained calm as he always was and that frightened me. So I threatened the life of his daughter...ah...that was when his mask fell. Obviously, Ranma didn't know this blond girl was his daughter. Too bad.

Something happened then. Ranma, Akane, and Belldandy's aura grew and Belldandy's became so hot that I felt my skin burn and pulled my hand away. Belldandy turned to me then with tears in her eyes, but something else...determination. I finally realized it then, my one fatal mistake. My plan was so perfect except for one small, important detail that I forgot. Belldandy was Ranma Saotome's child and Ranma Saotome doesn't lose. Ranma Saotome may be defeated, but he doesn't lose. In every battle, he would always come out the winner and his daughter would also.

I saw Ranma and Akane's blue and red aura spiral together and shoot towards Belldandy who opened her small hands and mixed the blue-red with her violet aura. Before the shot hit me I saw something, that shook me to the very core. Three triangles appeared on Belldandy's forehead and next to her eyes. I didn't know if the others knew what that meant, but I did. I had lost before I even began.

The blast hit me straight in the chest and I felt as if my bones were ripped from their joints then jammed back together. I guess I fainted because when I woke up, I was here, this hospital for prisoners.

So we are back to the question, why don't I leave? I have enough power to. You know why, because I'm afraid. Behind these bars and walls, Ranma can't get me. Behind these walls I'm safe from Akane, Ukyo, and Ryoga...and behind these walls I am especially safe from Ranma Saotome and his daughter Belldandy Saotome.