Author's Note: Here's a redone version of chapter three, with some things (like Ranma's gender) fixed and some of the dialogue redone to make a little more sense and tone down Nabiki.

Chapter Three

Ranma glanced over when Nabiki tugged at his sleeve, and he realized that she wanted him to follow. "Where're we going?"

"I know a good ice-cream place here in Juuban." Nabiki grinned. "You're buying."

"I am?"

"Yes. Consider it your payment for dragging me around all day."

Ranma sighed. "All right. But Nabiki – she said the battle could happen any moment today. She said it's in Juuban, so the instant something goes wrong, I want you to head back to Nerima. Or, if the action's too close to the station, I want you to head over to Mom's place, lock the doors, and make sure she's got her katana."

"My, aren't we bossy today?" Nabiki smirked, but her expression softened at the genuine concern in his eyes. "All right. I'll stay out of danger, I promise."

"Okay, so let's go get some ice cream!" Ranma grinned, pulled a bottle of water from his sleeve, and upended it over his head, turning into Ranma-chan.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "You still have to do that every time you go eat ice cream? Come on, how many times do we have to explain it to you, there's nothing unmanly about eating ice cream. Really."

"I know. It just tastes better this way."

"And you get free ice cream."

Ranma-chan winked at her. "That, too."

Nabiki's favorite ice cream parlor in Juuban wasn't going to remain so for long. Which had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the ice cream, mind you, it was still as good from the first scoop as it had been the last. Rather, it had to do with the fact that by the time the two girls were done, the store would have to declare bankruptcy, caused by the counterboys who practically tumbled head over heels to serve the cute red-head and her sexy friend. Ranma discovered that, when properly motivated by competition, Nabiki apparently could turn up her considerable charm, as well, and between the two of them, they scored more than a few gallons of ice cream.

After the seventh double-fudge-triple-brownie-chocolate-mega-delight dish – a plate the store had had to create especially for Ranma-chan, which consisted of its namesake covering a good dozen scoops of ice-cream – Nabiki finally called it quits with a smirk. "After all," she said, "I want to be able to come back here. So no eating them out of home and house."

Reluctantly, Ranma had slowed down to properly enjoy the last of her ice cream. Nabiki had finished hers a long time ago, and had entertained herself by watching the shorter girl eat. When Ranma was finally on the last few spoonfuls of her ice cream, Nabiki finally changed the topic from the inane conversation they'd been making onto something more serious.

"Why didn't you fight?"

"What?" Ranma looked up from her ice cream.

"I could tell you wanted to fight that blonde woman. Usually you'd have taken her up on the challenge before anyone could yell 'challenge.' Why didn't you?" Nabiki's gaze was curious.

Ranma mumbled an answer.

"I didn't get that." Nabiki smirked.

"I said, I didn't want to get you involved. If I'd fought her, who knows what the others would've done. Worst case, it could have been eight on one, and you'd have been caught in the middle of it all. And," Ranma sighed, "I don't fight girls."

"You looked about ready to," Nabiki chuckled. "But it's nice to know you are so concerned about my safety."

"I know." Ranma shrugged. Ever since the battle with Saffron, she'd been thinking about a lot of things…the most dominant of which had been that he had to push himself further, to prevent future incidents from ever getting that far. That meant more training, and accepting that danger and enemies could come in any shape and sizes…even female. It was hard reconciling that – even when helped along by her mother – with the notions her father had drilled into her for more than a decade and a half.

"Don't think so hard, you'll break your wits."

"Wha-?" The pigtailed woman glanced up and noticed Nabiki's grin. The joke dawned on her, and she began to chuckle. They remained that way for a few moments, lapsing into silence.

"I don't trust her."

"Hmm?" Ranma blinked, then realized Nabiki had gone back into business mode.

"I don't trust her," Nabiki repeated. "She's too secretive. And that last one…it's too convenient, isn't it? I mean, an attack, where she's asking for your help, on the same day that the others told her off? And then she just vanishes…presumably to 'investigate' this threat."

"What're you saying? That she's setting this all up?"

"No – not yet, anyway. I don't know. Maybe. It doesn't make a lot of sense."

Ranma grinned. "When did my life ever make sense?"

"True," Nabiki had to chuckle at that. "But I do think she's got a hidden motive that we don't know about. It could be dangerous. Maybe she's trying to play the other Senshi against themselves, or maybe she's trying to play you against them. Just…be ready for anything. You should be careful when you're dealing with her; I've heard some rather disturbing things about Pluto."

"Like what?"

"According to rumors, she's got access to an artifact called the 'Gate of Time.' I'm pretty sure it's just a story, but considering you're involved, I wouldn't discount its existence right away. With it she's said to be able to control time, as in she can go to the past, and change it, or see the future."

Ranma nodded. "She told me something like that. That she's actually from the future, and that they didn't manage to defeat the invasion in time there."

"Do you believe her?"

"That she can travel in time?" Ranma shrugged. "I don't know. She's got no reason to lie."

"Then why didn't she predict that they were going to fail the first time? Why even bother going back in time to fix it after you fail when you can just do it before?"

"I don't know."

Nabiki frowned. "In fact, why bother coming to you at all? Why bother fighting enemies? With that kind of ability, she could just go back in time and destroy any threat before it becomes a threat. Not to mention that she'd know what her enemy was going to do before they did, which would make fighting her almost impossibly hard."

"You sound like you expect that I'll have to fight her sometime."

Nabiki sighed. "There's more. According to a few statements of theirs, we seem to be in a critical phase for humankind, that only they can lead us through. They seem to think that because of the ideals of their 'Silver Millennium' they are morally superior to everyone else. They didn't say it quite that bluntly, of course." NOTE: FIX NABIKI KNOWING ABOUT CRYSTAL TOKYO AND RANMA IN FEMALE FORM

"That's good, isn't it?" Ranma furrowed her brow.

"It would be, think about it. What would happen if you wanted to have everyone follow your morals?."

"I'd…try and convince them that they're good?"

Nabiki nodded. "Exactly. And what would you do if you knew someone was wrong?"

"Uh…beat them up?"

"Close enough." The brunette girl smirked. "Anyway, what if you had enough power to make everyone follow your morals? If you thought that it was in their best interest?" Nabiki didn't wait for Ranma to answer. "You force them to do what you think is best."

"That's…" Ranma blinked in search for the right word. "Not good."

"No. It's only a theory, but history is shown that it can and has happened. All the prerequisites are met." Nabiki's eyes were hard. "Ranma-kun, I want you to be careful, all right? Promise me."

The pigtailed martial artist nodded. "All right." They lapsed into comfortable silence for a moment, before she spoke again. "Nabiki?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

The middle Tendo daughter blinked in surprise at the question, before she realized what Ranma had meant. A small smile played around her lips, this one genuine. "You saved my sister's life, Ranma-kun," she said softly. It wasn't something she advertised publicly, but after finding out what exactly had happened at Jusendo, Nabiki had reevaluated her life, and discovered that she didn't like the direction she had been headed in. "You saved my sister, and my family."

"Aww, it was no big deal." Ranma shrugged. She saved Akane all the time, right?

"No, Ranma-kun, it is a big deal. It is because this time Akane almost died. She didn't, thanks to you. But when I found out that you'd killed Saffron…really killed someone to save my sister-" Nabiki shrugged. Might as well tell him now. "I was afraid, at first. You killed a demi-god, for crying out loud! Then I realized that it wasn't just then, at that moment, that you became so powerful – you had been all along. If you'd wanted to take your revenge on all of us, you could have easily done it. But you're not the kind of guy who goes around killing little girls for revenge." Nabiki smirked at her horrified look, before she realized the compliment.

"You just proved my point, Ranma-kun. You're the kind and honorable type, the kind whose word I know I can trust and believe in. I realized that despite everything we'd done to you, you were still willing to help us when we needed it. Like it or not, that makes you family in my book, and not just because you're engaged to my sister, but because Kasumi and I consider you our little brother. And family takes care of their own." Nabiki sighed. It had taken her a lot of soul searching in the weeks after Jusendo to come to that conclusion, but in the end, she was glad that she had.

"Wow." Ranma blinked. "I never knew you thought that way."

"Now you do." The brunette girl smirked. "Of course, if you ever tell anyone I said this, I'll make your life hell. Capiche?"

Ranma grinned. "There's the Nabiki I know."

She was about to say more when she abruptly sat up straight, her eyes staring off into the distance.

"What's wrong?"

"Something…" Ranma blinked, trying to pinpoint it. She extended her senses over the building, but the feeling was gone. She spread out his ki across the entire block, and finally found what she had felt a moment earlier.

"What," Nabiki joked, "did you feel a disturbance in the Force?"

"Nabiki." Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Get out of here. Get to the train station, and take the next train back home." She pulled the thermos out of her sleeve again, dumping steaming hot over over her and turning back into a guy.

"What's going on?"

As if to answer, a plume of black smoke erupted two blocks away, and a concussive shockwave rattled the windows. "The shit just hit the fan," Ranma commented dryly. He pulled Nabiki out of her chair and through the door. "I need to go help. You head back home."

"All right. Be careful, Ranma-kun."

Ranma nodded, and waited until Nabiki had run around the corner, before taking a last look the way she had gone. "And Nabiki…thanks."

He took off at a dead run towards the explosion.

Setsuna cursed her luck the instant she teleported to the Time Gate. She'd been right, the attack was happening now, and despite the fact that she fervently hoped that it was a random youma attack, it was the same vanguard force that had heralded Kaiser's invasion. Unfortunately, whereas she had been able to see this much, the Gate refused to show her anything more than the start of the battle.

Setsuna had a suspicion why – the chaos that shrouded Ranma was scrambling the probabilities for the future so badly that the Gates were unable to find any one most probably future. It was one of the things that had made tracking and defeating Ranma impossible in her timeline. That alone gave her hope, because it meant that the pigtailed martial artist was going to help them fight – the last time she'd witnessed this battle, she'd seen it play out before her through the Gate, but she had thought it inconsequential. The Senshi had been beaten back, and Mars badly injured, almost died, that first time around, until the Outers arrived to even the score. Still, they had only barely managed to beat the youma back into a retreat, and, weakened by its assault, they had let it get away – a fatal mistake that would come to haunt them later. In hindsight, that should have been their first clue that something was very, very wrong. Youma didn't retreat. They didn't use battle tactics.

She wasn't about to make this mistake again. The instant she felt she had a hold on the event, she teleported herself there. The scene was just as she remembered. The invading force was a single arachnoid youma, though it only had five appendages. Four were tipped in razor-sharp claws and wickedly hooked barbs and acted as legs, while the last one had a big pincer attached to it. Setsuna shuddered as she remembered one youma using it to snap a telephone pole in half and battering Uranus with it during a later battle.

It had come through a portal in the ground, crawling out of a pit where a ten-story office building had once stood. The magic release of the portal had annihilated the building, leaving a blackened crater; the creature was using its claws to scale the almost vertical walls. Venus had fallen into the crater during their first battle – the girl had had nightmares of the pit for weeks afterwards, of the broken bodies and body parts scattered around the bottom, which was so far down almost no light would reach. There was no way for humans to scale that pit, and the only reason they'd managed to get Venus out of there, was that Setsuna could teleport.

Three of the Senshi were already at the site, hurling energy blasts at the creature that was trying to pull itself out of the hole. Setsuna's blood froze when she realized that the same three people had come, the same three that had doomed her own past. Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. They were using the same tactics as they had back then, too, trying to cause the youma to loose its hold inside the pit and crash into the ground where it would be contained. Setsuna knew it was bound to fail. She tried to scream a warning, and wordlessly threw a Dead Scream at the spot she knew the youma would land.

The creature heaved under the constant barrage of attacks, curling its legs underneath its massive body, and leapt out of the pit, clearing the next set of attacks the Senshi had hurled at it, and angled to come down right on top of Mars.

Setsuna's attack intercepted the creature, and tiny cracks began to from in its armor as the blast of condensed temporal flux hit it, but it didn't manage to deflect its course. The youma slammed down on Mars hard, driving the girl to the ground in an attempt to dodge the clawed legs. The Senshi of time broke out into a sprint to reach Mars before the youma's legs would eventually find their target, knowing she only had a split second before one of its legs was going to come down and impale her fellow Senshi through the stomach.

She barrelled into the youma, the shoulder ram taking it completely off-guard, and her momentum enough to rock it sideways, just barely enough to cause its claw to glance off Rei's ribcage instead of passing straight through her body. Setsuna suppressed a wince of pain as she was thrown aside by another leg, her right leg and arm punctured by the barbs on the youma's appendage. Her back hit a parked car, bringing her flight to a violent halt as she broke halfway through it and causing her vision to swim.

Venus and Jupiter tracked the youma on its flight path, but just as their previous attempts, their spells continued to bounce off of its armor. Setsuna's charge gave them hope, but when the youma merely swatted the elder Senshi aside without taking further notice of her, they held their breath for the inevitable.

Mars's scream of pain had echoed around the battlefield, and when Venus and Jupiter heard it, they had expected the worst, and had dropped their steady barrage to rush to their comrade's side, just in time to see the black-haired girl crawling away from under the youma, which had redirected its attention to them. A clawed leg rose into the air, aimed at her exposed back as Mars convulsed with pain from the deep gash in her side.

"Oak Evolution!"

"Crescent Beam Shower!"

The two attacks rang out simultaneously, bombarding the youma's carapace with beams of energy and razor sharp leaves. To their horror, though, the attacks, even at point-blank range, merely ricocheted off the creature's armor, and the only effect it had was to enrage it further.

Setsuna's vision cleared the second the creature's leg went down on Mars's back, and Setsuna pressed her eyes shut, unable to bear to look at her fellow Senshi's death once more. What was I thinking, believing I could change history? The recrimination hit her harder than the blow from the youma – in her original timeline, Rei at least had survived her injuries. Now, by interfering, Setsuna had doomd her friend to death. Way to go 'Suna-chan, get your friends killed earlier.

The creature let out an ear-piercing shriek, and the a tremendous crack filled the air around them, followed by an angry shriek. Setsuna opened her eyes again, and stared in open-mouthed surprise as the youma futilely tried to impale or swat a black and red form zipping between its legs as it lured it away from the downed Rei. The second thing the Senshi of Pluto noticed was that the lower half of the youma's carapace was missing, and cracked and broken pieces of it were lying on the ground around Rei.

Hino Rei considered herself a veteran of this era's Sailor Senshi. While she didn't have her memories from the Silver Millennium, she and her fellow Inner Senshi nonetheless had lived through and won more battles against youma and evil maniacs who wanted to take over the world than she could count.

Sure, some of those times they'd come close to death – in some cases, they had even died, but they had always found a way to triumph over evil, always find a way to return victorious. Most importantly, they'd all managed to come back to life, some way or another. They'd given these battles their all, worked hard to get better at the job fate had settled them with, and Rei was proud of the fact that fighting was getting easier for them, all of them, even Usagi.

Youma that had almost killed them when they had started out now were nothing more than minor annoyances to them, and even more powerful foes, she was confident, they could take on, because of one simple fact: they had grown, not only in power, but also as a team. And Rei was damn proud of that fact.

So, when Setsuna announced that they needed help, the hot-headed Senshi of Mars had brushed it aside, and taken it as an affront to her abilities when the elder Senshi insisted that they were incapable of handling this new enemy that was supposedly coming. They had handled Galaxia, after all, and Metallia, and Beryl. After all, things had been quiet for almost a year, aside from the occasional youma attack. And those attacks were so pathetically easy to deal with that they more often than not only took one or two of the Senshi to handle.

When Setsuna had continued to proceed to enlist Ranma's help, Rei had been shocked; in one fell swoop, their oldest and wisest had violated two of her most cardinal rules: never tell anyone who their secret identities were, and never rely on someone else to deal with your problems. In fact, Setsuna had been acting so out of character since her sudden disappereance that Rei was tempted to agree with Haruka when the blonde had said that the Senshi of time had apparently lost it and was in dire need of a vacation.

After Setsuna's departure that day there had been a furious argument; Usagi, of course, was glad that they would have help – then again, their leader had never had a strong stomach for fighting, and Usagi was always glad for more help. But the Outers, Michiru and Haruka, as well as Rei and Makoto viewed things differently. They took pride in their accomplishments, and rightfully so – Setsuna had always warned them in time for a new attack, and, despite initial difficulties, they had always managed to triumph. That wasn't going to change now, especially not after they had reached the final and ultimate stage of their transformation, and Usagi had managed to tap into her power as the heir to the throne of Serenity.

Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury had taken longer to convince, but after Ami revealed that the two Setsuna had enlisted to help were normal humans who appeared to be unable to contribute to their firepower to any extent beyond that of conventional firearms – and those were exceedingly hard to come by in Japan – they, too, had joined the ranks of those who believed that they were better off dealing with this new threat alone…if it even existed.

Granted, Setsuna had never outright lied to them, but especially Ami's faith in Setsuna's infallibility had been shaken when the Senshi of Pluto had apparently been proved wrong. It wasn't that they distrusted her, Rei thought with a small amount of guilt, but more that they believed Setsuna was turning a mouse into an elephant, whether it was due to stress or some other unimaginable reason. And to be perfectly honest, that was fine with Rei. They were in a time of relative peace, and she was itching for a good fight, instead of youma that died the instant she threw a Burning Mandala at them.

The three of them were on their way to the mall when the explosion happened. Despite Setsuna's warning, they hadn't really expected the attack to happen so early, and initially they had thought that it was only a minor youma incursion. The aftermath of the explosion convinced them otherwise when an entire office building disappeared from Juuban's skyscape. Covered by the general panic that ensued, it was easy for the three of them to transform and cross the short distance to where the portal had opened.

The scene that greeted them caused Rei, Makoto, and Minako to stop in mute shock. Destruction of this magnitude hadn't been seen since Metallia. Even then, it had been the queens themselves – Metallia, Beryl, Galaxia – who had been the only ones powerful enough to cause this kind of devastation, not the individual youma.

A muted clicking sound drew their attention to the hole in the ground, and the first hairy, barbed, claw-tipped leg rose from the pit as the youma attempted to pull itself out. A second leg followed, the claws digging into the ground for purchase. As they heaved the massive torso out of the ground, Rei barely suppressed a gasp at the appeareance of the youma. The legs alone were at least ten feet in length, with two joints each, and a torso that would have dwarfed any tank the JSSDF could have thrown at it.

Her reflexes kicked in, honed by years of fighting similar creatures, but for some odd reason, as she screamed at her two teammates, "Open fire!" she felt a chill run down her spine. Their first barrage was encouraging as it ripped into the ground, and Mars watched with satisfaction as huge chunks of concrete and dirt exploded into the air. Besides her own Burning Mandala, Venus's Crescent Beam and Jupiter's Sparkling Wide Pressure hammered the youma as it attempted to climb over the edge, and sent the unprepared monster reeling.

When the monster caught itself, Venus shouted "Again!" and a second barrage slammed into the youma – this time, no dirt exploded around it, and all three could see to their horror at its thick, glistening black armor seemed to easily deflect their initial assault. This time, the youma seemed to have dug its claws deeper into the ground, and it didn't even move when the attacks hit it. Half of its torso was already out in the open when all three of the Senshi, frustrated by the lack of responde, cut loose with their signature attacks.

Rei thought she heard Setsuna's voice from the side for an instant, but before she could contemplate that further, their target had somehow curled its legs under itself and vaulted the massive body into the air. The raven-haired Senshi of Mars only had a split second to calculate its trajectory, and she came to a horrifying realization: it was headed straight for her. Despite the many battles she'd fought, and all the times she'd faced death alongside her friends, the sight of this huge creature angling down at her froze her for an instant, and reflected in the shiny black carapace she could see her own death.

Then Setsuna's muttered Dead Scream slammed into the creature, dispersing energy playing across its lower body armor, and for a crazy, hope-filled second, Rei believed that Pluto's attack had been successful where theirs had failed. The hope lasted only for a second, and before Rei could realize that its armor was cracked, the monstrosity was already on top of her. Rei only had time to shield her face and roll to the side. Barbed bristles on the youma's legs ripped open her fuku as she barely missed being impaled by a claw that dug a foot into the concrete where she'd been a moment ago. A second leg was already raised, and this time, Rei had no place to roll.

The monster on top of her suddenly rocked to the side, and the leg that had almost speared her flicked out to the side; from the corner of her eyes, Rei could barely make out Setsuna's green hair as the Senshi of time was catapulted away from the battle. Then her world exploded into pain, and she let out an anguished scream as she felt the claw tear into her side. Adrenaline coursing through her, Rei forced back the tears of pain into her eyes and, as some rational part of her brain realized that the monster was partially distracted with Setsuna, ordered her bleeding body to move.

Clutching her bleeding side, Rei crawled out from under the youma. She barely heard Jupiter and Venus attack it in the hope of diverting its attention yet again, but when she could go no more after a few feet, and slumped limply to the ground, she could hear the monster's angry hiss and caught a glimmer of its upraised claw. This is it, she thought. I'm gonna be skewered by a twenty feet youma like some piece of shishkabob.

Her last conscious thought as she surrendered to the blackness and pain was that they should have listened to Setsuna, after all.

Rei and Minako hadn't always seen eye to eye. Neither did Rei and Usagi, really, mostly when it came to school, boys, food, boys, fun, boys, manga, and, well, boys. That didn't mean they weren't friends. In fact, they were very good friends – after all, the strongest bonds are forged in hardship and adversity. They may argue and scream at each other, but ultimately, when it came down to it, they knew they could trust each other.

Minako and Makoto both had been a little reluctant to accept the others' viewpoint that Setsuna had been wrong this time, but when they reached the site of the explosion and saw the first youma crawling out of the hole and effectively shrugging off their more powerful attacks, they were the first to admit that Setsuna may have been right.

When the youma landed on top of Rei, both had instantly dropped their long-range fire on it and took off towards her. They had barely seen Setsuna's headlong charge, but when the green-haired Senshi of Pluto was swatted away, they knew they were Rei's only hope. Both of them gathered as much of their respective powers as they could and hurled the most powerful attacks they could muster at the youma, point-blank range.

Their hearts sank when, even at such a close distance, their magic did nothing but splay harmlessly over the youma's carapace. It was their last shot, and both had given it their all, knowing their friend's life was at stake. Failure hit them like a sledgehammer, and Makoto found herself fighting back tears of frustration, while Minako kept muttering prayers for the youma to drop dead, knowing that it wasn't going to happen.

And then an explosive crack and an angry, inhuman shriek filled the air, forcing both of them to open their eyes, just to have them widen in shocked surprise. Instead of finding the youma's bloody claw embedded in Rei's body, they found it howling in pain, its belly exposed, trying to chase down a black and red blur. They both realized something at the same time.

It's away from Rei, Minako realized.

We've got help, Makoto thought, a smile beginning to spread over her face. She didn't know yet who or what this help was – but at this point, she would gladly have accepted Beryl's help if she'd shown up and offered. Both of them reached Rei's side in record time, relieved to see their injured comrade groan in pain, indicating that she was still alive.

A far-away shout of "Look out!" turned their heads, in time to see a glittering claw bounce off a red shield around them. Setsuna brandished her Time Key as she erected a barrier, he face taught with the strain of putting up a shield this big.

"Get her out of here," the green-haired Senshi managed between gritted teeth. "I can't hold the barrier for long."

"What about-" Minako began, but a shout of "Deep Aqua Submerge!" cut her off, and she realized that reinforcements had arrived. Instead of finishing her sentence, she gave Setsuna a curt nod, and hauled Rei up, slinging one of the limp girl's arms over her shoulders. Across from her, Makoto similarly supported Rei's other side, and the two hurried away from the battle to find Usagi to help stabilize Rei. Neither of them missed Setsuna slipping past the youma, causing it to follow her, as she headed for the remaining creature that had homed in on the other fighter