Author's notes: this is the first fanfiction I've ever written, and honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. So if the fic is terrible, let me know and I'll strive to do better next time. Now then. On with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or it's characters. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it would I?

Gekkaja's Hidden Power

Chapter one: The dream

It was a quite and peaceful day throughout the Nerima district of Tokyo.

The birds were chirping.

The leaves were blowing briskly in the wind.

"DIE YOU PERVERT!"

The overreacting tomboys were hitting people with mallets.

Well… the peace was nice while lasted.

"Grr. Stupid tomboy! Why'd she have to go an' hit me! AGAIN! Honestly, it's the same thing every time." A now soaking wet and female Ranma grumbled as she crawled out of the Tendo's Koi pond for what must have been the fifth time that week.

Nabiki looked at her from inside the house and smirked. "Come now Saotome, it's your fault for walking in on her while she's taking a bath. You really should have learned not to do that by now. Or maybe you actually like seeing my sister take a bath, hm?" She said as her smirk widened.

"Hey! She's the one who forgot to put the 'occupied' sign up, again! And anyway, Kasumi said it was my turn to take a bath.

At this, Kasumi came out of the kitchen and looked apologetically at Ranma. "I'm sorry Ranma", she said in her ever innocent voice. "I didn't know Akane was in there. She must have decided to take a bath without telling anyone."

At the shogi board, Soun Tendo was playing a game with Genma Saotome who was currently in his panda form. "I don't see what the big deal is. After all, they are fiancés. They'll be taking baths together all the time once they get married. Right, Saotome?"

"Growf!" The panda held up a sign that read: 'That's right!'

Now Ranma was fuming. "Shut up! There's no way I'm ever going to marry that macho chick! Besides, even if I wanted to, that tomboy would just hit me for no reason. Just like she always does."

"Just like WHO always does?" Ranma froze at the voice. The pig-tailed martial artist was almost afraid to turn around at hearing Akane's voice.

The look on the blue-haired girl's face was an all too familiar one to Ranma. She was furious. "If you really have no intention of marrying me, then why don't you leave and get out of our lives!"

The words cut deep, but Ranma refused to show it. "Whatever. I'm going to bed early. Goodnight."

Genma held up a sign. 'Ungrateful brat!' Flip. 'Show your fiancé some respect!' The words went unnoticed as the red-head 'girl' was already up the stairs.

The panda man turned back to the game of shogi to find some of his pieces have mysteriously vanished. 'Huh?'

Kasumi walked over to her youngest sister who was still looking at the stairs with an angry look on her face. "That jerk. He has some nerve."

The eldest Tendo sister looked at the fuming girl with a motherly expression on her face. "Akane, that was very rude of you." She scolded. "Ranma didn't do anything wrong."

"He walked in on me while I was taking a bath!" The blue-haired girl almost shouted back.

"I told him it was his turn for a bath. It was partially your fault for not telling anyone you were taking a bath. He didn't know you were in there." Kasumi replied. "You shouldn't have said those harsh things to him."

Kasumi's explanation calmed her down a little bit, but she still refused to except that she was the bad guy in this situation. "Whatever. He's still just an insensitive jerk. It's not like I hurt his feelings"

The look on the eldest Tendo girl's face now turned sympathetic for Ranma. "I think his feelings are hurt. He just has too much pride to show it. You should go apologize to him, Akane."

Akane's face softened slightly. "Alright. I'll go apologize, but that still doesn't mean I forgive him."

(meanwhile upstairs)

Ranma was walking to her room, too lost in thought to bother changing back to a man.

'Stupid Akane.' She thought. 'It's not like I don't love her, but ever since the wedding fiasco our relationship has gone downhill'

It had been two months since the failed wedding attempt between Ranma and Akane. After the fiancés and rivals came and trashed the wedding, almost everything had gone back to normal. Which wasn't exactly a good thing.

Good things: Ukyo and Shampoo haven't been chasing after him as relentlessly as usual. They finally decided it was a better idea to give Ranma some space rather than to go out of their way to chase him.

Ryoga had finally given up on Akane and moved in with Akari. However, every time he drops by Nerima he'll attack Ranma for 'mistreating' Akane.

Bad things: Akane has gone back to treating Ranma like the rest of the 'perverted boys'. Before the situation at Mt Phoenix started, they were slowly getting closer together, but ever since the botched up wedding, their relationship had took a turn for the worse.

Ranma let out a sigh and laid down on her futon. She looked to her side to find the Gekkaja lying on the floor a few feet away. She had used the powerful weapon to defeat Saffron of the phoenix people.

After he was killed and reborn, the race of bird people allowed Ranma to take the crescent bladed weapon with him.

'There was no point in just leaving it there.' She thought. 'After all, the phoenix people don't need it and if some new crazy threat pops up it could come in handy. Heck, maybe I could use it to knock some sense into ol' Happosai.'

Her train of thought was cut short when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in." She replied.

The door to the guest room slid open to reveal Akane with a look on her face that seemed both concerned and agitated at the same time. Ranma's face took a slightly confused look at the unexpected guest. The confusion was quickly replaced with a look that seemed uncaring.

"What do you want? Are you here to yell at me some more?" The pig-tailed martial artist asked almost bitterly.

At the red-head's words, Akane's face turned slightly guilty. "No, Kasumi told me what happened and said I should come and apologize."

"Whatever." She replied flatly.

Now Akane got angry again. "You jerk! I'm trying to say sorry, but if your going to brush me off like that, I'll just leave."

"Fine." She said emotionlessly.

Akane was about to leave when she turned around and said, "I should've known better than to think you actually cared. You really are just an insensitive jerk." And with that, she left Ranma to her thoughts.

'I do care,' she thought. 'but I can't let her know that. I can't let people know how emotionally sensitive I really am.' And with that thought, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

(Later that night)

Genma slid open the door to the guest room he and Ranma shared. Him and Soun had played a couple dozen games of shogi before finally deciding it was late and calling it a night.

As he walked in, he saw his 'ungrateful son' sleeping on the futon, still in his girl form.

'The disrespectful brat!' He thought. 'What's he still doing in his weak girl form? I'll show him a lesson in the morning.' Whit that thought in mind, he went over to his futon.

He saw the crescent-bladed Gekkaja lying next to Ranma on the floor. He briefly thought of stealing it and selling it off to an antique dealer. But he quickly discarded that thought from his mind. Last time he tried that. Ranma gave him an extra hard beating, then he used the staff to freeze the man solid for three straight hours. Not only did the panda-cursed man get frostbite and several broken bones, but nobody left him any lunch either.

Genma shuddered at the memory. Needless to say, he didn't want to go through that experience again. So he simply ignored the weapon and walked over to his futon.

Just as he was about to lie down for some much needed rest, he saw something interesting. Ranma and the Gekkaja started glowing simultaneously.

The panda man had no rational explanation for what he was seeing, so he decided he was just going crazy and needed sleep. And with that, he laid down and went to bed.

(Meanwhile, in Ranma's head)

Ranma slowly opened his eyes. "Huh? Where am I?"

He looked down at himself to find he was still female. She stood up and looked at her surroundings. There wasn't much to see. It was nothing but an empty black void.

Curiously, she tapped the ground a couple of times. Seeing that she was actually on solid ground, the pig-tailed girl took a few steps forward. Then, something caught her eye. A few yards away from her. a white vortex of some sort was slowly forming on the ground.

"What the…?" she curiously stated aloud.

What came out of the vortex was even more interesting then the vortex itself. Out from it came the head of a large dragon. It's long silver body slowly snaking it's way out of the swirling vortex. When the end of the dragon's body made it's way out of the ground, the vortex closed up.

The dragon curled up it's body like a snake. Ranma had no idea what was going on. Although the large snake-like lizard had a fairly intimidating look, Ranma didn't feel scared or nervous in the slightest. In fact, she felt like she knew him from somewhere, even though Ranma was quite certain she had never seen him before.

On the dragon's forehead was the mark of the crescent moon. It was slightly bluish in contrast to the rest of his body, which was white as snow.

Ranma stared at him for awhile before finally speaking up. "Who are you?" She asked.

"I am the spirit of the Gekkaja." He replied, his deep voice echoing throughout the empty space.

Ranma's eyes widened. "You're the Gekkaja?"

"That is correct" He answered. "Due to your use of my power and the compatibility of your spirit, I was able to contact you in your dream."

Ranma was confused. "Use of your power? Compatibility? What are you talking about?" She asked, honestly not having a clue about what was going on.

"At Mt Phoenix, you used my power to defeat the being known as Saffron. That was when you first tapped into my power." Gekkaja replied. " And your spirit is compatible with mine because you have the spirit of a dragon."

The pieces were slowly starting to come together for Ranma. "So your able to communicate with me because my spirit is like a dragon?" Gekkaja nodded his head. "Okay, I get that, but why have you come into my dream to talk with me?" She asked.

The dragon stayed silent for a few moments before speaking. "Tell me, what is your goal?"

"Huh, my goal?" Ranma was a bit annoyed that the dragon didn't answer her question, but replied anyway. "I guess my goal is to be the best martial artist there is. Why do you ask?"

Once again, Gekkaja brushed off her question and asked his own. "Such a goal would require a great amount of power. What would you do with such power?"

Ranma temporarily forgot about her annoyed state and thought back to the fiasco that took place at Mt Phoenix. 'I almost lost Akane back then.' She thought. 'Saffron was so much stronger then me. If it weren't for Gekkaja's help and Akane's self-sacrifice to get me a clear shot at Saffron, both of us would be dead right now.'

Ranma strengthened her resolve and spoke. "I'd use that power to protect the people I care for, so that they won't be in danger like they were at Mt Phoenix ever again."

Gekkaja nodded his head. "In that case, I'll give you a fraction of my power to use whenever you desire. You also have my permission to use my blade in battle anytime you need it."

The dragon opened his great mouth and what looked like white flames shot out of it and hit Ranma. The pig-tailed martial artist was sure it was fire, but it felt cold. She could feel the flames surrounding her, soaking into her body. She felt a power she'd never felt before. Ranma was so rapped up in the great feeling that she couldn't speak or even form coherent thoughts. She was rather disappointed when the flames stopped coming.

After that, everything went black for Ranma.

(Meanwhile, thousands of miles away)

Two people were standing in a room. It was too dark to see any of their features.

"I have just received some interesting news from my spies." The first figure said. The voice was obviously male. "Saffron of the phoenix tribe has been defeated and slain."

The second figure was in slight shock at the news. "The phoenix king? Defeated? Who could have done it? An Amazon elder perhaps?" This voice was definitely female. "Was he in his ascended form? It would be easy to assassinate him if he was still in child form.

"According to the reports," The first guy replied, "He was in partial ascension. He had the power, but not the control. The one who did it was someone I believe you are familiar with. A man with black hair tied into a pig-tail who has a Jusenkyo curse to turn into a girl. That's what my spies described him as. He used the Gekkaja to defeat Saffron."

"Ranma." The girl replied quietly, then spoke up. "So what does have to do with me?" She asked.

"After he killed the phoenix, he took the Gekkaja back to Japan with him. I want you to go and retrieve it from him. If you succeed, you will be returned to your true form, If you fail, you know the consequences."

The girl stiffened slightly. Then she bowed and said, "Yes sir." She walked away without another word.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

Hooray! My first ever chapter has been written! Tell me if it's completely and totally awesome or completely and utterly terrible by reviewing.