"So, where to next?" Nandus asked his guest.

"No matter where, but make sure that it isn't too hot OR too cold... and make it a calm, quiet place."

"Then I have the right thing for you," Nandus grinned. "Michiru's Ocean of Tranquility. And if we're lucky, you'll be able to meet my buddy Swafnir."

"Well, the sea sounds nice," Ami smiled. "Is there also a warm beach?"

"Anything the lady desires," Nandus winked while giving her a short bow. Ami giggled. The young godling seemed to get more comfortable in her presence. In the beginning, he always was a bit stiff and well-spoken, as if she was his actual mother. Well, in a way she was, but she wouldn't be a mother for several thousand years, so it's natural that she'd act differently towards him. Maybe now he saw her as the fellow teenager she was... even though she didn't know how many years a god's puberty lasts.

"Well, the entrance to her ocean is on the other side of the citadel... maybe it's best if we take the shortcut across the middle courtyard."

"It's your home, lead the way," Ami smiled.

Soon enough, their platform floated through a wide archway, which brought them into an ample courtyard, with a marvelous fountain in its middle. Magnificent trees, as big as redwoods, were growing in the rich soil between the paved footways, and golden lanterns were hanging in the air, casting a pleasant light at the nightly scene.

As calm as the courtyard may seem, it was a place of bustling activity. Floating lights, sprites with butterfly wings, cloaked figures and hunchbacked dwarves were lounging around, hastening from one end of the yard to another, chatted with each other excitedly or simply took a walk around the majestic trees.

"All those are either souls that are waiting to be accepted in one of the gods' paradises, or servants."

"Servants?" Ami wondered. "The gods need servants?"

"Not necessarily, but it's a bit easier to have someone who takes care of the most bothersome jobs around the citadel, such as weeding the garden, sweeping the corridors or cooking the meals... although the cooks have a free day when the goddesses Kasumi or Makoto find the time to cook. And that's always a reason to celebrate.

Ami smirked. "I always knew Mako-chan was a good cook. I take it the cyclopes in Rei's forge are servants as well?"

"Indeed, every goddess has her own servants for her own domain. My mother, for instance, has legions of archivists who take care of the library for her, sort the books, make sure that borrowed books are returned in time and, of course, dust the shelves."

"Must be hard work," Ami assumed.

"Not really, most of the servants love their profession. In addition, they are allowed to use supernatural powers to do their job. They are not as powerful as even a godling as myself, but it's enough for them to get their jobs done."

Suddenly, an enormous shadow fell upon the courtyard. Several of the smaller creatures on the ground scrambled away when they saw the huge, winged creature that was landing next to the fountain.

Ami boggled when she saw the giant dragon in front of her. The scales were mostly as dark as ebony, but blood red on its belly. The wings almost reached from one side of the courtyard to the other, and Ami was surprised that they didn't get entangled in the trees. With intelligent eyes, the creature looked at them.

And then it spoke in a familiar voice: "Well, if it isn't young Ami from the past! Your older self already told me you would be coming. Welcome to Alveran!"

"M-M-MAMORU??" Ami gasped.

The dragon smirked. "I knew you'd be surprised. You haven't told her about me and my fellow dragons yet, have you, Nandus?"

"No, sir, I plead guilty," Nandus chuckled. "I still wanted to tell her, but there were so many things I had to explain..."

"I understand," the black dragon nodded. "Well, now that I'm here, I guess I can take the time to explain it myself." He cleared his throat. "Well, you might have guessed it already, but the twelve gods of Alveran are all female. It's a rule that has always been followed. Still, there had to be some sort of position for me, I thought. And since I was an immortal, too, I received the offer to be one of the six High Dragons that protect Alveran. My powers are not quite as great as those of the goddesses, but I'm still considered a deity. Originally, there have been twelve Dragon Gods, but several eons ago, there had been a struggle of power between them, and in the end, the goddesses ended the struggle and demoted the dragons to lesser deities. A contract was made, stating that one half would stay here in Alveran as the High Dragons, while the remaining six descended to Aurius, watching the mortals from down there as the so-called Ancient Dragons. All of this has happened long before I became one of them, so I can't tell you all the details... but I'm sure there are several books in the library about it."

"Well, if I manage to find them within a month..." Ami muttered.

Mamoru laughed. "Mortal sarcasm, always good for a laugh."

"Say, Mamoru..." Ami then asked. "Isn't it bothersome to be like this all the time? What would Usagi say? or is she also a..."

"A dragon?" Mamoru shook his head with a sigh. "No, but she didn't become one of the twelve goddesses either. To be honest... she's been missing for several centuries now. We've been trying to find her, even though our jobs keep us busy, but it's almost as if she has vanished from Aurius. We can't find her anywhere."

Ami gasped. Usagi... gone? She couldn't imagine an immortal life without her clumsy, warm-hearted friend...

"M-maybe she wanted to become a mortal again..." she muttered.

Nandus shook his head. "That's impossible. Every deity that wants to become a mortal again has to sign a special contract first... and she never did anything like that. As far as I see it, there are two possibilities: Either she has abandoned Aurius and decided to be a goddess in another world..."

"She would never do anything like that!" Mamoru shouted.

"Or, the more likely possibility, she has been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" Ami wondered. "Who could kidnap a goddess?"

"Another god, obviously," Mamoru grumbled. "Since there are several religions on Aurius, there are also many deities that are not part of our pantheon... and not all of them are friendly. I'd like to suspect Brazoragh, the ancient god of the orcs, but I don't think he's smart enough to do anything like that."

"Maybe he had help," Nandus assumed.

But Mamoru shook his head. "He's way too busy rallying his orcs for one war after another. Haruka just told me that her war monks are preparing for another assault of the orcish hordes. No, I believe we have to search for our culprit in the Nether Hells."

Nandus paled. "D-don't say that... there is no proof that the Arch Demons are to blame."

"Are you defending those monsters?" Mamoru almost roared.

"O-of course not, my lord!" Nandus stuttered. "It's just that, well... I wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone. Especially not Usagi-sama... she always was such a gentle person..."

"Yes, she was..." the High Dragon sighed. "Dang, I miss her..."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Mamoru," Ami said sadly. "Usagi is a friend of mine as well. If there's anything I can do to help..."

Mamoru shook his head with a smile. "You are not a goddess yet, Ami-chan... I doubt there's anything you could do. No, we just have to keep on searching... But I still haven't answered your question, right? Well, this is my current main body, but just like any other deity, I can change my appearance. When I choose to hang out with my friends, the former Senshi, I always take on my old, human appearance. But, since I'm on duty now..." He sighed. "Oh well, I better go back to my patrol flight... take care, Ami!"

"Bye, Mamoru..." Ami murmured and watched how the majestic dragon spread his wings and took off the ground.

"Poor Mamoru..." Ami said. She then looked at her future son reproachfully. "Why didn't you tell me that Usagi was missing?"

"I still wanted to," Nandus defended himself. "But my mother thought it would be best if you got a first impression of Alveran before we tell you the dire news. I just didn't expect to meet Lord Mamoru out here..."

Ami sighed. "It's okay, I guess I understand... but if he believes that Usagi was kidnapped by those demons, why don't you all just go and look?"

"Enter the Nether Hells?" Nandus laughed. "Only a person who's not native to Aurius can ask such a question. Because it's impossible. The entrance to the Nether Hells, the source of all evil on Aurius, lies in the Seventh Sphere, the outermost of all the planes of existence in this world. It is heavily guarded by horned demons, and the evil out there is so powerful that any god who would enter the Nether Hells would lose all of his or her powers in a second. And even when faced outside of their home realm, the Arch Demons are way too powerful. They represent the dark side of the twelve goddesses and are equal in power to each of them." He shook his head. "No, if one of them truly has kidnapped Usagi, there's not much that we can't do. I would never admit that to Lord Mamoru, but if she is trapped in the Nether Hells, then her soul is doomed."

He sighed when he saw the horrified expression on Ami's face. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you... but my mother always says it's better to tell the truth."

"She... she is right..." Ami murmured. "Let's... let's not talk about this any longer, okay?" It was warm in the courtyard, but all of a sudden, she felt cold.

Nandus just nodded, and their platform continued to drift across the courtyard, until they entered an archway on the other side.

Once again, they were floating along the endless corridors of the citadel of the gods.

"Nandus..." Ami then spoke up. "Is there a moon goddess? And do you even have a queen? I mean, now that Usagi is gone..."

Nandus sighed. "Well, that's difficult... officially, all of the twelve goddesses are equal in power and privileges... but there is one goddess that has always declared herself the queen of Alveran. Most of us don't really taking her serious when she says stuff like that... but still, she IS the Goddess of Leadership, among other things. As for the moon... well, Hotaru and Nabiki both are partly goddesses of the night, but... the moon itself is outside of our reach... because of Mada's sacrilege."

Ami blinked. "Mada? Who is Mada? And what did she do?"

"She, well... she was a godling from our school, and she has always been a friend of the mortals. She never liked it that the mortals have to endure everything the gods do and can't do anything about their fate. So she did something that nobody else would have ever done, because there was a reason why it was forbidden: She travelled up to the Sixth Sphere, which is the pure river of magical energy that is separating Alveran from the Nether Hells. It is the source of power for every supernatural being, may it be god or demon. She wanted to give part of that power to the mortals, so they could shape their own fate. But she was too weak and only damaged the Sixth Sphere, causing magical energy to leak out and onto the surface of Aurius. And from that day on, there have been mortals with the gift of magic. Rei repaired the Sixth Sphere as quick as she could, but she couldn't prevent the loss of magical energy that from that day on would flow freely through Aurius. Mada had done what no god had dared to do before her: She brought magic to the world!"

Ami was confused. "Back on Earth, we Senshi could use our magic every time we wanted... and nobody thought it was a sacrilege. Well, to be honest, I know nothing of the existence of gods on our world, but..."

"I admit, I don't know when this law was made," Nandus replied. "But I was raised with those laws and therefore was shocked when I heard that Mada did such a thing. The self-proclaimed 'queen' punished her by banning her spirit into a huge piece of rock and throwing that rock into the sky, so that she could look down at earth, seeing the results of her mistake for all eternity."

"And... where is this rock now?" Ami wondered.

Nandus looked out of a window they were passing... and pointed at the moon.

"There you can see her... Mada in her prison."

Ami wasn't able to say anything for a while.

"This... queen..." she finally said. "I'd like to meet her."

Nandus grimaced. "I knew you'd say that..." he grumbled. "Although I don't think it's a good idea..."

"I know. I still want to see her. What's her name?"

Before Nandus could answer, they heard a loud scream coming from ahead, and then, a winged body came stumbling through the air. It was a red-scaled dragon, a bit smaller than Mamoru, and he looked like someone had beat him up pretty bad.

"B-but let me explain... I wasn't seeing anything, I..."

"YOU DARE PEEK UPON THE QUEEN OF THE GODS WHILE SHE IS TAKING A SHOWER?" a deafening voice yelled. "RANMA, YOU PEEPING TOM!"

"Hey, it's not like I WANTED to look, okay? You're an even bigger tomboy than Akane... OOF!" The High Dragon grunted when out of nowhere, a golden crown came flying and slammed into his stomach.

And then, a huge, female figure came striding around the corner. She was surrounded by the most brilliant aura Ami had ever seen, and she had to raise her hand, that's how much the goddess blinded her. The woman was dressed in an elaborate, red and golden robe that was decorated with all kinds of complex patterns, and all kinds of golden jewelry was hanging from her body.

She also had a pair of yellow ribbons in her brown, shoulder-length hair.

Her eyes glared at the dragon like a pair of blazing suns.

Nandus grimaced. "Ami, meet High Dragon Ranma... and the Goddess of the Sun, Leadership and Light: Haruhi!"

The goddess glared at the demigod. "That's QUEEN Haruhi, you impudent twerp!"


Author's Note:

For those who haven't already guessed it: Haruhi is Haruhi Suzumiya, from the series of the same name.