"Speech"

'Thought'

X x x x x x

As a storm raged overhead, the rain thankfully holding off, Ranma struggled to keep his skiff in sync with the one piloted by Angela in front. Wherever they had ended up, it was night, and the weather was not being very cooperative.

"I've never seen a storm like this." Angela called over the roar of waves.

"Where are we?" Elisa asked as a tall cliff face rose up

"It's home." Goliath announced from the bow of Angela's skiff. "My home." Two flashes of lightning illuminated the sheer cliff face in response to Goliath's words.

Rising up and down as the sea heaved, the two small skiffs started to spin, facing sideways into a large wave that crashed over them. Shaking his head clear of water, he regained control of the rudder and pulled hard to help point the skiffs towards the shore.

"Make for the cave on the left!" Goliath yelled back.

"Easy for him to say." He said through a mouthful of salt water.

Underneath them, a large swell picked up, and their speed increased, surfing in through the mouth of the cave. The rope holding the two skiffs together, finally gave way, allowing Ranma to maneuver his up along side the other. Their boats slowed drastically with the water growing calm deep in the cave. Coming to rest on a sandy beach, Bronx immediately rose up, and with a few whimpers, looked around skeptically.

"Now that was an E-ticket ride." Elisa joked, jumping out of the other skiff.

"Perhaps we should wait out the storm in here?" Angela suggested.

"When the tide comes in, this cavern will be underwater. We must move to higher ground." Goliath answered. In response, lightning flashed above, and rain began to fall down to them.

"Looks like we'll be wet either way." Elisa joked.

"Second time traveling with gargoyles, second time I get stuck in the rain." Ranma groaned, hopping out of his boat.

"Come." Goliath ignored his comment, and purposely started up a path.

Following up the slick path, with Elisa in front of him, Bronx behind, and Angela up next to Goliath. The detective in front of him slipped once, and he nearly went to help her, but she recovered and slowed her ascent. Ranma wasn't really sure on how she was walking up the slick rock with shoes on. The path twisted back around towards the cliff, entering into a real cave, before opening up into a ledge about halfway up.

"Look there!" Goliath pointed upwards. "Castle Wyvern stood atop this cliff." Without waiting, he jumped up on to the rock, and began to climb. "Come, you must see the sight of our ancestral home."

"Does he seem weird to you?" He asked Elisa, Goliath struck him as someone who thought about things, but here he was ignoring everything for a single goal.

"A little, I guess he's just excited to be home." The woman shrugged. "Um, you mind helping me up?"

"Oh, sure I guess." Letting Elisa drape over his shoulders, he started to climb upwards with Bronx and Angela joining in a moment later.

"I admit I'm excited to see our clans former home, but isn't it more important for us to find shelter?" Angela asked.

"It is." He replied, not wanting to be back here himself, and not expecting Goliath to remain excited. At the top, Elisa released her hold on his neck, and he crossed his arms, watching the woman approach Goliath. When another bolt of lightning lip up the sky, Goliath gasped, taking a single step back.

"Goliath? What did you see?" Angela asked.

"Nothing, just- shadows." The large gargoyle answered slowly. "Come." Without looking back, Goliath headed off towards the cliff, where Castle Wyvern once stood.

"Aren't you coming Ranma?" Angela asked, minorly excited over where they were.

"I don't like it here." Raising a wing over his head like an umbrella, he added. "And I'd rather be out of the rain."

"But this is where the clan used to live." She pleaded and grabbed his arm to pull him towards the large hole in the cliff.

"I'm not from your clan." He explained, pulling his arm away. "And I'm not really a gargoyle, I'm this way because of magic."

"I- don't understand." Angela's brow furrowed in concentration.

"This was a curse." He motioned to himself. "I'm really human."

Angela stared at him, trying to comprehend what he had just told her. Concepts like transformational magic were beyond her expeirence, Angela had lived all her life, sheltered on Avalon. It had been a major kick to his system when he first took a dip in Jusenkyo, and he had been traveling the world and seeing many oddities.

"In the morning, I'll change to a human, what I was born as." He tried to explain.

"Angela." Elisa joined in their conversation. "It's true. Demona is the reverse, a gargoyle who becomes human during the day."

"How did it happen?" Angela asked with intense curiousity.

"Angela!" Goliath suddenly shouted. "Come here."

Reluctantly the gargoyle headed off to where Goliath stood. "Yes Goliath?"

Shrugging, both he and Elisa followed. Goliath was standing over a circular pit, at the far end was a cave entrance. At one point it might have been more defined, but now everything was eroded and overgrown by plants. And while the cave entrance may have lead somewhere before, it had long since collapsed.

"This was the rookery, I was hatched here with my brothers and sisters." Goliath explained, jumping down into the pit, Angela following a moment later. "Angela, you and the other children were but eggs when the Princess and Magus took you from this place. It was here, that I knew your guardian Tom, when he was but a lad."

"Goliath." Demona's voice suddenly filled the air as lightning flashed overhead. Ranma and Goliath both gasped, looking around for the source of the voice. From his spot, Bronx suddenly raised his head, and let off a long mournful howl. "Come to me."

"What's wrong?" Elisa asked and a bolt of lightning came down to strike the lone tree on the hill, a gnarled piece of dead timber, sitting over top of the cave. The wood burst into flame and exploded, sending large chunks of debris down around them. In sync, the wind and rain increased their ferocity, and Ranma had to stop using his wing for an umbrella, the wind blowing the material around too much to be of any use.

"We can't stay here." Angela panicked at the ferocity of the weather.

"Didn't you tell me once that there were caves around here?" Elisa asked, using her red jacket to shield herself.

"Yes, of course." Goliath said absently, still disturbed by the ghostly voice of Demona. "This way."

Ranma lagged behind, eying the half circle hole where Castle Wyvern used to sit. Something was tickling his senses in a way he had never dealt with before. Understanding what he was being told by them, was out of reach. But what he could guess well enough though, this place was bad.

The caves were not close, and they had to walk across a wide open plain to get to any kind of cover. If Ranma remembered correctly, there should have been a forest past the initial field. When he had asked about this, Goliath indicated that the forest was chopped down as the human inhabitants of Castle Wyvern had grown, their need for farm land having increased.

Comparing the large cave to the raging storm, Ranma didn't know which was worse. The former location of Castle Wyvern had felt off, the cave felt like he was back looking at Demona's mansion after their fight. Apparently he was the only one visibily unnerved by the place, because the rest of the group filed inside without a thought.

Deeper inside the cave, the floor glowed with a pale green light, a magic spell that must have been put in place centuries ago. "Not exactly homey." Elisa commented.

"In the labyrinth below, the Archmage made what we though was his final stand." Goliath explained, noticing something in the floor, he bent down and pulled a half buried spiked mace from the dirt. Ranma noticed that the weapon was the same kind that Demona liked to use. "The Vikings camped here, the night they attacked our home, and shattered my clan." Goliath threw the weapon to the side and turned away from them.

"On the other side of the cave there is a cliff. There, I had to decide whether to have my revenge, or to save Princess Katherine." Turning back, specifically to look at Angela, Goliath continued. "Hakon and the Captain of the Guard fell to their deaths, but not at my hands."

"You chose correctly Goliath, if you hadn't saved the Princess, I and my rookery kin would never have been hatched." Angela put a positive spin on the confession.

"Still, I wanted- still want, revenge." Goliath growled.

"They're dead Goliath." Ranma butted in. "Nothing can change how." His mind flashed back to Jusenkyo, and he questioned whether he should have tried to change the events that happened there. Or even trying to go back and stop Demona from using the stone by night curse.

Goliath didn't seem to hear him, looking around wildly, and running off a few meters. "Princess!"

Ranma started to hear laughter, and looked around nervously. Bronx gave his own concerned growl, and a loud roar of thunder echoed through the cave, startling everyone.

"Man this place is creepier than the morgue at midnight." Elisa pulled her jacket tighter around her.

"We're not alone here." He glared at a pair of small glowing clouds, hovering in the air next to a doorway further into the cave, the doorway carved into the rock. Bronx padded over to stand next to his legs, growling at the small clouds.

"Ranma, what do you see?" Elisa came up next to him, trying to see what he was looking at.

"Next to that creepy gate, two mist things." He explained, not moving his eyes, he didn't know how a glowing ball of mist could look at things, but Ranma got the distinct feeling that they were looking right at him. Especially after he had pointed them out.

"But there's nothing there." Angela told him, and as if on cue, the clouds pulled back and disappeared into the arch itself.

"We should leave." He narrowed his eyes, trying to settle himself. His entire body was tense, prepared to fight at a moments notice. Something magical was going on here, he could feel it in his bones.

"I agree, the storm seems to be dying down, and if this place is making you upset, we shouldn't stay." Elisa took Goliath's hand in her own, trying to pull him towards the entrance.

"Maybe you're right, it seems that too much of the past is still alive here." Goliath sighed.

"Is there a town or something nearby?" Angela asked excited at the prospect of seeing something new.

"Yes- um- to the south, several miles." Goliath answered.

"Well if there isn't any more lightning we could fly there pretty quick." Ranma left the cave in a hurry, happy to be away from the two mist things. "I wonder if they have any good food?" Licking his lips, he was really hungry.

Goliath's roar, stopped him from going on about what kinds of food he wanted to get. A large puple fist impacted his face, drove him to the ground, and before he could even recover from the shock, another punch nearly broke his nose. Roughly grabbed by the front of his shirt, Ranma was hoisted into the air, and thrown against a wall, to be held aloft.

"Lemme go." He grunted, struggling against Goliath's hold, the other gargoyle tightened his grip. "Don't make me hurt you old man." He gasped out, preparing to put Goliath down painfully if necessary.

"Goliath! Let him go!" Elisa pulled on Goliath's arm in a futile attempt to get him released.

"Goliath stop it!" Angela added, only to be grabbed by the front of her dress and pinned to the wall as well.

Ranma was released before he could make an actual effort to free himself, when Bronx tackled Goliath from the side. Falling awkwardly on his backside, Ranma rubbed at his chest, where one of Goliath's claws had been digging in.

"What was that for?" He hollered over Bronx's snarling, his tail lashing angrily at his rough treatment. "If you want to fight, we can do it later." Glaring at the lavender gargoyle, his anger fizzled at the confused look on Goliath's face. Wiping at some blood leaking from his nose, he was happy Goliath at least used his fist, rather than claws.

"Why did you attack Ranma?" Elisa asked, crouching down next to Goliath.

"I don't know, I saw-." Goliath's eyes focused back on Ranma.

"What?" He asked, taking a step back to prepare to defend himself if Goliath attempted to attack him again.

Goliath rose to his feet, pushing Elisa away, he ran past Ranma's side. "Stay away!" Running deeper into the cave he called back. "You're in danger from me!"

X x x x x x

Barely making out the steps in front of him, Goliath plunged into the darkness. He could hear footsteps behind him, but he dared not look back, lest he see more visions. Cursing to himself, he couldn't believe how little control he had shown. The thought that he might attack Elisa kept him going. He had already hurt Ranma and Angela, how would he be able to live with himself if he hurt her? The other two were warriors and gargoyles, they could take abuse, but Elisa was just a human, and he would have ripped her in half accidentally.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, he arrived at the lair of the Archmage. The entire hall was still magically lit by a soft blue light. Staggering past the Archmage's alter, a platform with a large skull formed from rock leering out at him. To the other side, was a deep chasm, and over a thousand years ago, it was where the sorcerer was thought to have perished.

"Goliath." A familiar female voice called to him. "Join me in the dark." Demona's voice pleaded.

"No! Leave me alone!" He cried back into the darkness.

"Goliath, don't abandon us!" The voice called again.

"Goliath!" Elisa called out, and he spun around, finding all of his traveling companions arriving at the bottom of the steps.

Holding out a hand in warning, he called to them. "Stay back! I don't want to hurt you."

"You would hurt your friends? Your clan?" Angela appealed to him.

"I can't trust what I see!" Clutching his head, he took off running again, heedless of the danger. He followed the curving path next to the chasm, the walkway barely large enough to move on. Hearing the patter of rapid footsteps behind him, he yelled back. "Watch out! You might fall!"

Rounding a corner, he slid to a stop, ahead down the path, was the glowing form of Hakon, the Viking leader. Staring, he was unprepared when Hakon shot towards him at high speed, and he fell backwards to avoid him. By avoiding the apparition, the ground beneath his feet gave way, and he fell into the chasm below.

X x x x x x

"Gotcha!" Ranma exclaimed, Goliath hanging into the void below, the only thing keeping him from falling to his doom, being Ranma's grip on the large gargoyles wrist. "Gah you're heavy! How do fly?" Struggling to pull Goliath up, his knees started to slide across the slick rock, the only thing stopping him were the small upward pointing spikes below his knee cap. Letting go with one hand, he plunged his talons into the rock to get a firm hold. "Come on you big idiot, quit playing around." (1)

Goliath fumbled to try and help, but seemed mentally out of it. "Fine." Ranma pulled Goliath back up over the edge with a powerful heave, and letting him fall heavily to the walkway. "But if I have to drag you out of this place, you're going to owe me- big time."

"Thank you Ranma." Goliath shifted to sit against the cave wall a safe distance from the edge.

"Yea yea, let's just go." He waved off the thanks, and stood up, eager to leave this place. Goliath stood up as well, wavering on his feet, but looking like he would be able to follow him out.

"Goliath are you alright?" The two female members of their party asked, having been far more careful about following that he had been.

Goliath turned to look at the pair, immediately gaining the same expression he had earlier when looking at him. "Stay away!" The big gargoyle yelled, taking off down the path again. He didn't get two steps before he had fallen over the edge again, only this time Ranma wasn't able to catch him.

"No!" Angela yelled, Elisa joining in a half second later as several loud crashing noises echoed up. Finally a loud thump ended all the noise, and there was a tense moment of silence between all of them.

"What can we do?" Angela broke the silence, rapidly looking for a way down.

"We climb down and get him." Elisa said resolutely, twisting around, and beginning to climb down backwards. Angela a moment later started down face first, and keeping close to Elisa.

Ranma watched the woman descend down into the black chasm, but he couldn't figure out if she was being brave or stupid. Elisa wasn't very strong or tough, not like he was as a human, and climbing down a vertical wall in a dark cave? What was she thinking? Better yet, why was Elisa doing so much for Goliath? Why would a normal human risk so much for a gargoyle?

"That'll take too long." He told himself, and jumped over the edge to plunge feet first into the abyss.

Realizing almost instantly the kind of stupid move he had just made, he shot his hands and feets out, making contact with the walls. The harsh squealing noise of his claws against the wall assaulted his ears, and he stopped a moment later. "Phew." The gorge had narrowed far too quickly for his taste. "I don't know what's dumber, Goliath for falling, those two for climbing, or me for deciding to jump in."

"Ranma! Are you alright?" Angela called down to him.

"Yea I'm fine!" He called back, switching his left hand and foot to grasp the other side of the wall, to begin climbing down at a slower pace.

The walls opened up slowly, and he was beginning to wonder when it would end, as well as how he would find Goliath. Ranma didn't think he'd be able to haul the big gargoyle out from the pit without him at least holding on to his neck. The wall was crumbling away beneath his talons, throw on even more weight, and he'd never get out.

Releasing his holds, he dropped down on top of a downward sloping ledge, and then made another further drop to a ledge below that was flat and extended further out. Behind him was another passageway with some steps leading upwards. Peering over the side, he saw the bottom finally. Hearing strange noises echo from the passageway, he briefly examined the floor, before calling up to the other two.

"Goliath isn't here! But there's another cave that he must have went into!"

"We'll be down in a few minutes!" Angela called back.

Turning back to the passage, he started up the up the steps, the stone curving to the right. He slowed, feeling the strange energy of the cave become incredibly focused up ahead. But he couldn't turn back, now that he was in such a narrow passage, he could smell where Goliath had passed. After traveling about a hundred steps, he came to the top of them, the hallway suddenly opening up into a vast cavern.

Looking around at all the shrap stalagmites and stalagtites, he saw a large structure in the center of the cavern. It was glowing a pale blue, barely illuminating the entire visible area. Standing top of a pyramid like base, were four square columns, with a copy of the base on top, leaving the pyramid unfinished.

Taking one step forward, one of the mist balls appeared to his right, and circled quickly around him several times, before coming to a stop in front of him. "Hey, what are you?" He asked, reaching with a finger to try and touch the cloud. It moved quickly out of the way, and took off in the direction of the middle structure. "Stop!" He called, running after it.

He was so engrossed in finding out the mist's origin that he nearly missed Goliath examining the strange writing the covering one of the four columns. When the mist vanished into the stone, they both finally noticed each other.

Goliath turned to look back at him, his hand briefly brushing over the ten meter wide stone column. Before either of them could say anything, the hieroglyphics up to Goliath's height, lit up with a bright purple light, and the entire area started to shake like they were expeirencing an earth quake. From the ceiling, rock rained down outside of the structure, and Ranma watched as the fallen rock started to combine, shaping itself into dozens of gargoyle forms.

"What the hell?" Looking around, the forms started to walk towards them, each one growling hatefully.

"Betrayer!" The entire group of rock gargoyles said at once in a wavering voice, and pointed at Ranma.

"Huh?" He asked, surprised over their choice of words.

"Betrayer to the Vikings!" They called again.

"I think we should be going now." Ranma told Goliath uneasily, turning to find the larger gargoyle glaring angrily. "What?"

With a roar, Goliath charged at him, and unlike the previous time, Ranma jumped backwards, flaring his wings to land lazily on the ground near the base of the pedastal. "What was that for?" He demanded, only to be pushed from behind by a stone gargoyle.

"This time, I'll kill you with my bare hands!" Goliath shouted, leaping forward with his right fist cocked back, his claws prepared to strike.

"Eeek." Diving to the side, he rolled once, letting Goliath's attack slam harmlessly into the ground. Popping to his feet, he had to fend off several clumsy grabs from the stone gargoyles.

"This time Robert, there will be no escape!" Goliath stalked forward slowly, claws prepared to strike.

"Ranma! Not Robert!" With a congregation of stone gargoyles around him, he had no where to go, so he stepped forward at the last moment, and caught Goliath's wrists, to hold the clan leader in place.

"Ranma?" Goliath's eyes returned to their normal color for a moment. "No! I won't be fooled again!"

Ranma wasn't ready for the sudden strength of Goliath, and was forced backwards to slam heavily into the group of stone gargoyles, smashing them to pieces. Unnoticed by either of them, more hieroglyphics on the columns lit up, the glow around the area becoming more intense.

"Enough old man!" Ranma released Goliath's left wrist, and punched him square in the jaw, making him stagger back. Ranma winced, feeling the scratches on his palm open up again. His act of retaliation made the number of glowing hieroglyphics increased, until they were all lit from the floor to the ceiling.

With speed belying his great size, Goliath tackled him to the ground. Tumbling over each other, they struck a stalagmite, and broke apart. Dizzily getting to his feet, Ranma smiled, feeling like an impromptu spar was just what he needed to feel better.

"Goliath." Demona's voice called out, making both of them turn to see said gargoyle in stone form, standing at the center of a break in the wall of stone figures. "After all these centuries we meet again."

"Demona?" Goliath asked, shaking his head, and looking from the stone figure to Ranma. "This is wrong, she was not caught in the massacre. You fled before the attack and escaped with her life. None of this is real, none of you are real!"

"No!" Demona screamed, raising her right arm, her fist shifting to that of a spiked mace. She charged forward at Goliath, who caught, and threw her to break apart several stone gargoyles.

"I'm sorry Ranma, I was not myself." Goliath apologized, the rest of the stone figures falling apart to lay in piles on the ground.

"Forget about it, I think we have bigger problems." Ranma pointed to where the two clouds of mist were hovering above the floor, their color having changed to a glowing yellow.

"So he finally figured it out, eh?" A gruff man's voice echoed through the cavern.

"Hakon." Goliath growled, the two mists expanding and taking on human forms.

When they finished, in their place were a fit man with long blond hair, and beard. The other, a stout older man Ranma remembered seeing when he had traveled back in time, with long light brown hair, and a white mustache. They were both transparent, neither making the subtle motions of life, creating an air of deathly stillness to them.

"Neither of you will live this cave alive, or dead for that matter!" Hakon laughed, glaring hatefully at both of them.

"But the two of you fell to your doom the night of the raid!" Goliath said with disbelief.

"Aye, and for ten times a hundred years, our spirits have languished in this stinkin hole." Robert walked up to them calmly. "Perhaps it was the magic in this place, or maybe just the strength of our hatred that kept us here." The man turned to look directly at him, his eyes losing some of their intensity. "Too bad that you had to show up, I- respected your ancestor."

"As much as we hated each other, we hated you a thousand times more." Hakon sneered. "And now you'll both help us live again." Pointing a finger at the columns, the magical energy spiked again, the words glowing flashing and sparking.

Ranma groaned in pain along with Goliath, a soft blue glow developing around them, and he could literally feel his life being drained out of him.

"The magic will drain your lifeforce, and transfer it to us." Robert explained, both him and Hakon became less and less transparent.

X x x x x x

Slipping, Elisa found a hand hold and caught herself from slipping into the dark abyss. Clutching on to the stone, she breathed heavily through her mouth, and felt her heart rapidly hammering in her chest. 'Who's stupid idea was it to climb down into a pit in the middle of a cave again?'

"Elisa are you alright?" Angela asked protectively, her hands and feet ripping into the rock, as she climbed closer.

"Just fine." She answered, feeling anything but.

"I think I see a ledge." Angela swung herself from head first to feet first. "I should be able to carry you down to it."

"That might be for the best." Taking an offered hand from Angela, she climbed on to the gargoyles back.

"Hold on tight." Angela released her holds, and they plummeted down into the darkness. Elisa held on tightly, feeling the female gargoyles wings spread, and catch the air. Immediately their descent slowed, and the next moment, they landed on a ledge. "You can let go now." Angela joked, kneeling down. Bronx came quickly crunching down the wall, and hopped down from the stone.

"Thanks." She rubbed at her hands, noticing several cuts that she had gained on the climb. "Guess this is what Ranma yelled up to us." She noted, looking up the long stair case, and finding a bright blue light flickering down the corridor. "I don't know if I like that though."

X x x x x x

Ranma's fist was caught easily by Hakon, the blond man laughing cruelly, before elbowing him in the face. Staggering back, he tripped over a wing tip, and fell to the floor. Hakon dodged another attack from Goliath, grabbed the gargoyles arm, and threw him to slam face first into the ground next to Ranma.

Struggling back to his feet, he didn't even have the energy to raise his wings up to stop them from dragging on the floor. Seeing Hakon draw back a fist, he tried to dodge, but could do nothing to stop the fist from hitting him in the face. He was surprised when Hakon stumbled off balance, and passed right through him. Spinning in place, his foot slipped, forcing him into a wide stance, his arms and wings hanging limply.

Hakon laughed loudly, looking between him and Goliath. "It's almost complete, and then you two can rot in this pit till the end of time." Goliath roared and attemped to tackle Hakon, only to pass through the man, and fall to the ground once again.

'Guess I gotta try that again.' Ranma looked down at his fingers, trying to figure out how he had done the neko-ken attack against the Archmage. Weakly raising his right arm above his head, his action causing Hakon to turn, and laugh at him.

"And what are you going to do boy? Wave at me?"

"Just this." He slashed with as much force as he could, trying to do the attack. The only thing that happened, was that he threw himself off balance, causing him to fall forward on to his side.

"HA!" Hakon kicked some dust at him. "You're funny boy."

Ranma wanted to get up and continue trying to take out the blond man, but found the last of his energy draining away. There would be no last second save for him this time. The mysterious power that had saved him against the Archmage, had refused to appear. So this was how it ended, life sucked out by a pair of ghosts in the pit of a cave.

"Hey, Goliath." He looked at his traveling companion. "Next time you make trouble in the past, don't bring it back with you." He joked, rolling to lay on his back.

X x x x x x

Goliath shifted his eyes to look at the human turned gargoyle. Laboring to gain breath, and finding that each one gave progressively less air, he struggled to turn himself towards the former Captain of the Guard. On the human's face was a look of indecision, and sorrow. Proof it seemed that there was still good left in the man.

"What good- is life, without honor?" Goliath implored to Robert, repeating one of the many life lessons the human had imparted upon him.

His question had the desired effect, and Robert's eyes gained a determined look. "You're right, I can't let this happen again." Charging forward, the older man grabbed Hakon around the waist, and pushed him through the wall of light and wind that had surrounded the magical columns.

"What are you doing you fool?" Hakon struggled against the Captain's grasp as he was pushed to stand at the center of the platform. "You broke the circle!" Around the pair, magical lightning shot between the columns, occasionally wrapping around the two human forms at the center.

Instantly, Goliath felt his strength return, and he regained his feet. Checking, he found that Ranma had also stood up, his body losing it's transparency rapidly. Glancing down at his hands, they resumed their normal form, and consistency.

"Goliath!" Elisa's voice called out over the rapid sparks of magical electricty.

"You two are alright!" Angela added, the trio consisting of her, Elisa, and Bronx running up to Goliath and Ranma.

"We should be going." Ranma drew their attention. "Now!" In response to the boy's words, the wind which had so far only swirled around the monument, became a hurricane force torrent around the cavern.

"Agreed." Shielding Elisa with his body, they ran back towards the entrance, and turned to watch the magical activities.

"We've hated Goliath for a thousand years!" Hakon's voice was magically carried over the wind.

"Nay!" Robert's answered. "I've hated myself for betraying him! And now I've been given a chance to atone!"

A blinding light erupted from where the two forms were still struggling, a beam of pure energy shot upwards from the base, obliterating the roof of the monument. The stone gave way, and they broke into pieces, tumbling to the ground along with a large chunk of the ceiling. With rock and stone now resting on the floor, the light died off, leaving them to peer through the darkness and settling dust.

"There were two men in there." Angela said worriedly, blinking her eyes to clear them.

"They were already." Ranma started to say that they were already dead, before Goliath put a hand on the boy's shoulder, and shook his head. He did not want Angela to learn who the blond man had been. The destroyer of his clan should be lost to the passage of time. He deserved to be erased.

Curious over a small glowing section of rock, he approached to find out if there was still any remnants of Robert left. He figured that the power which had allow the two spirits to play with his mind before, and then make an attempt to steal his very life, was now gone with the destruction of the monument.

"Did you know them Goliath?" Elisa asked.

"I did." He drew in a deep breath through is nose. "One enemy, and one friend."

Rising up slowly from the dimly glowing rock was a pure white mist, it swirled briefly, before corralescing into the ghostly form of Robert. The man standing resolutely on the rock, looking down at him with contentment.

"Thank you Goliath, for helping me remember who I was, and for freeing me from the hatred and guilt that held me here. Farewell, old friend." Robert once more dissolved into a mist, and gathered into a tight ball, before shooting skywards, to disappear into the ceiling.

"I got a feeling this has a long story behind it." Elisa commented.

"Centuries long." Giving one last look at the spot where his old friend had last stood. Spinning, he walked purposely away, finding Ranma having remained near the entrance, looking upwards now at the ceiling.

"He was the one wasn't he? The one who killed everyone at Castle Wyvern." Ranma asked.

"Yes, it was him." He answered, still angry over not being able to kill the man with his own hands.

"It's good to know that he suffered for what he did." Ranma caped his wings, and left him.

Narrowing his eyes to watch the retreating form through the darkness, Goliath couldn't help but superimpose Demona's form on to Ranma's. Firming his jaw, he would have to try and direct Ranma down a different path, so that he wouldn't follow in Demona's footsteps.

X x x x x x

Ranma had never felt so happy to see the sky, than he was now. The clouds had cleared except for a few lingering spots off in the distance, and the rest of it was a brightening shade of blue. Crossing his arms, he waited for the others to catch up. Goliath had been busy explaining what had gone on as best he could, and Ranma was only passively listening.

"Doesn't look like we'll be getting back today." Ranma said to the group exiting the cave, the sun threatening to peak over the mountains in the distance.

"I guess we'll have to return to Avalon tomorrow." Angela noted.

"Until tonight." Goliath knelt down on one knee, the sun finally raised up, causing the trio of born gargoyles to turn to stone, and for him to change back into human form.

"Man, there are times I wish I could do that." Ranma straightened out his shirt, and sat down against the wall next to the cave entrance. Now that the monument had been destroyed, the area no longer made him feel uneasy. Brushing some dirt off the bottoms of his feet, he noticed Elisa taking a seat against Goliath.

"So what didn't he tell us?" She asked, pulling her leather jacket tighter around her body.

"Nothing important." He answered, getting back up. "I'm going to go get some firewood, do you have a lighter or something?"

"Can't say I do." Elisa made a show of searching her jacket pockets.

"Alright, well- how about you go look for some good rocks to strike together so I can get it started?"

"I can do that." Elisa nodded as he headed off for the tree line across the rocky slope.

When he returned a half hour later with his arms loaded with wood, he found that Elisa had piled a fairly sizable mound of stones to choose from. Dropping his load unceremoniously on the ground, he hurriedly brushed off the rock that had been poking into his toe for the entire walk back. "Awww, that's better!"

"You need some shoes." Elisa noted casually.

"I think they're back at Xanatos'." He replied, digging through the rocks, and knocking them together, looking for something that might make a spark.

"I'd like to help, but I'm a city girl." Elisa knelt down next to where he was busy trying to create a fire.

"Never too late to learn, here, blow on this when I make a spark."

An hour later, he had gotten a nice fire going to help stave off the cold. This part of Scotland didn't seem to get much snow, and that rain last night had washed away what little there was. That however didn't stop it from being dreadfully cold.

"Ranma." Elisa started from across the fire. "You have a family right? In Japan?"

"Of course." He answered, wiggling his toes next to the warmth.

"You were in New York for a while, why didn't you go back to them?"

"It's complicated." He crossed his arms, and hugged himself.

"The gargoyle thing?" She supplied sadly.

"Actually, at first it was because I didn't have any money." He smiled, gazing into the fire. "Then it was- the human thing."

"Human- thing?"

"I didn't want to go back, just to have him do what he already did." Sighing, he wondered what his old man would think of him now.

"What did he do?"

"Just drop it." He snapped angrily, causing Elisa to jump in shock. "Sorry."

"No, I should be apologizing." Elisa waved off his outburst. "I must be thinking of my brother Derek, or I guess his name is Talon now."

"You want to explain that one?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.

"In a way he's like you, Xanatos used him as an experiment to create gargoyles."

"Mr. Xanatos did what?" He asked in disbelief.

"Mr. Xanatos." Elisa replied hatefully. "Used genetic modification to turn him into a creature like a gargoyle. There's no possiblity that he'll ever change back, and I was worried for the longest time that when our parents met him again, they would react- unfavorably. But they didn't, they saw past what he had become, and saw the real him." Elisa wiped away some tears that were falling.

"Yea, well my old man, after gaining a curse to become a panda, let me walk away with Demona, without saying a word. So I'm not expecting much." He said in response to her confession.

"That's a very Demona like answer." Elisa said after a minute of silence.

"And she wasn't wrong about everything." He sniped back.

"And she pulled the same trick with Brooklyn, filled his head so full of half truths that Goliath nearly ended up a mindless slave!"

"When's the last time you had someone treat you like an animal huh?" Ranma stood up angrily. "When's the last time you had to hide because someone might see you? When's the last time you saw a paper or news report calling for you to be hunted down? Demona maybe wrong about how she did things, but she was right- humans can't be trusted."

Elisa stared at him, her brown eyes unreadable. "How can you say that? You're just as human as I am."

"If there's fate, that means I was supposed to become a gargoyle. Seems like being born human was a mistake." Sitting down roughly, he had effectively ended the conversation.

X x x x x x

"Did something happen while we were asleep?" Goliath asked, looking between Ranma and Elisa, a small fire dying between them. Ranma had the stern and calculating look that he remembered on Demona long ago. While Elisa was giving Ranma the cold shoulder.

"Just a long day." Elisa answered.

"Then we should get moving." He held out a hand for Elisa. "With the weather clear, we can fly back to the boats. Ranma, would you mind carrying Bronx?" Picking up the human with his right arm, he started to climb the wall next to the cave entrance.

"Yea I can do that." Ranma answered. "Come on you." He patted Bronx on the side, the two along with Angela started to scale the wall.

While flying back to the skiffs in the caves underneath the former Castle Wyvern, Elisa shifted in his arms, and brought her face closer to his ear. "I don't know if we can trust Ranma." She whispered.

"What do you mean?" He asked, careful to keep his voice too low for Ranma to hear.

"This morning, we were talking. I think that Demona really got to him."

"I know." He looked over at Angela who was trying to chat with Ranma. Goliath wasn't stupid, he could see that Angela was interested in the human turned gargoyle. For the moment though, it seemed one sided. Whether or not that was a good thing, he didn't know. But he could not let another be infected by Demona's ideals. Until he was sure on where Ranma stood, he would have to separate the two. "When we get back I'll talk to him."

X x x x x x

After a short trip to Avalon, where Ranma had received some food with the rest of his group, they set off once again to try and return to Manhattan. Only close to an hour had elapsed for those on Avalon, yet they had the majority of repairs completed to the castle. They certainly didn't stay long, since they didn't want to waste night, and be stuck waiting for the natural gargoyles to sleep.

He wasn't too sure about it, but he couldn't help but feel that Goliath was trying to distance him from everyone else. Which was fine by him, since at the moment he wanted a little solitude. So, here he was pushing his own boat forward with a long oar, while Angela, Elisa, Bronx, and Goliath occupied another.

"I probably should have asked this before, but what is this- Manhattan like?" Angela asked from her place at the front of the other skiff.

"Imagine an island several times the size of Avalon, and it is covered with an endless city." Goliath tried to communicate the concept.

"And what's a city?" She asked inquisitively.

"Well, it has roads stretching from one side of the island to the other. Towers of glass and steel that rise up higher than the clouds." Elisa stood up in the center of her boat and reached as high as she could. "And it's filled with millions of people."

"Wow!" Angela spun on her bench and looked across the water, to look at him. "Are you going to be living with us as well?"

"Me?" He asked, pushing the boat again with the oar. "I'm not sure what I'll do now. Guess I'll try and head back to Japan." Elisa gave him a suspicious glance, which he promptly ignored.

"Where's Japan? Is it close?"

"It's on the other side of the world Angela." Elisa said for him.

"Oh, so it's a little too far to fly."

"What will you do in Japan, Ranma?" Goliath asked him.

"Dunno, find my old man I guess. I guess I did tell him I would be back."

"And then what?" Angela asked innocently.

"No clue." None of his traveling companions for the moment, needed to know that he was going to find out the truth about his mother, and probably bounce his father around till he felt better. Glancing around, the fog they were in started to get thicker. "Does this stuff ever end?"

"It didn't take this long before." Elisa answered.

"Bring the boats closer together." Goliath commanded, and gave a few powerful strokes with his oar to try and bring the two skiffs together.

"If you stopped moving away, we wouldn't have to!" He called over to the lavender gargoyle and rapidly swung his oar. Finding with each stroke, that the two boats moved further and further away from each other. "Knock it off Goliath!" He yelled as the other skiff was swallowed up by the fog, and the last thing he heard was his name being called by the trio and a howl from Bronx.

"Fine time for a joke you big idiot!" He yelled, charging through the water, and finding no trace of the rest of his group. "Where did they go?" Looking around, he couldn't see anything through the thick fog, even the front of the skiff was hard to see.

The front of his skiff suddenly jumped upwards, and he was thrown to the floor. All the fog lifted in an instant, blinding him with a bright fluorescent light. When the skiff rocked to the side, he went tumbling off of it to fall face down on a tiled floor. Groaning, he got into a kneeling position, and tried to see past the spots in his vision.

"Now where am I?"

"Um excuse me." A soft feminine voice answered his question in Japanese, and he turned to find a girl a couple years his senior against the far side of a bath, her hands held in front of her to protect her modesty.

"Uh, listen, I'm not sure how I got in here, but there's an explanation." He tried to sound as friendly as possible, standing up and backing away.

"Tengu-san, could you please wait outside in the hall?"

"Oh, yea, sure sorry to intrude on your bath." Bowing his head he quickly exited the furo room into a changing room. 'Wait, what am I doing?' Out in the hall, he closed the door behind him. 'Looks like I'm back in Japan, did Avalon send me here?'

Out in the hall there was a doorway to the outside that was closed, and outside it was a heavy downpour of rain. 'Where you need to be.' He sat down, hoping that it would make him seem less intimidating to the poor girl he had dropped in on. Drawing little circles on the floor with his tail, he thought about the matter.

The sound of feet impacting the floor caught his ears, and he watched a girl his age walk around the corner. She had long dark blue hair, a cute enough face, and was wearing a long yellow dress. When she saw him, she stopped instantly, and blinked several times.

"Hi." He greeted lamely and waved a hand. The girls eyes looked down to his feet, and then slowly traveled upwards to his head, before going back down again. Staring ahead blankly, she turned and headed back around the corner. "That was weird." Scratching near his temple, he wondered why the girl hadn't done anything.

His question was answered a moment later, when an ear shattering scream echoed down the hall. "And here we go." Not that he could blame them for being weirded out over his sudden arrival in their home, but why was the initial response to his gargoyle form to point and scream? When the girl reappeared running around the corner, he revised that comment, she was going to try and kill him! Raised above the girls head was a heavy stone lantern.

Maneuvering in the small corner of the hall, he got to his feet, and dodged to the side at the last second, letting the girl break through the floor as she brought it down. "You're going to hurt somebody like that." He explained calmly, she was too slow to catch him, but she seemed pretty strong.

With another scream, she started to try and punch and kick him. "Whoa." Dancing out of the way of her strikes, he tried the door to the outside, and found it open. So he was able to escape outside into the rain. The girl didn't stop, charging out after him, and continuing to attack him. "I'm going to leave as soon as I can get my boat, just stop attacking me!

Leaping on top of the large wall surrounding the home, he was out of her reach long enough to shift his wings from around his shoulders to over his head to act as an umbrella. "What's your problem?" He asked and moved further down the wall when she was able to climb up on it herself.

"You did something terrible to Kasumi!"

"I didn't do anything." He replied, guessing that Kasumi was the girl in the furo.

"You were going to do something terrible!" She cried without missing a beat, clumsily storming across the top of the fence to reach him.

"Ranma is that you?"

Turning back to look at the door he had left the home through, he saw Genma and Nodoka, along with another girl, and an older man with a mustache. "Pop?" He asked just in time to be punched in the face.

Knocked from the wall, he rolled several times on the ground, before coming to a rest. "Ugh, you stupid tomboy." He mumbled, and got to his feet.

"Saotome-ojisama do you know this- demon?" The crazy girl asked.

"Well Ranma's under a curse too." Genma answered while nervously glancing at Nodoka. "Come inside boy, stop playing in the rain."

"Oh my what's going on here?" The Kasumi girl asked after coming out of the furo, dressed in a conservative night gown, and surveying the broken floor.

"Kasumi you're alright." The angry girl ran in and stood protectively in front of the elder.

"Perhaps we should hear an explanation Saotome-kun?" The mustached man asked Genma.

Narrowing his eyes, Ranma didn't know why Genma and Nodoka were here. 'Where you need to be.' He thought, finding Avalon's sense of humor to be rather poor. Caping his wings, he heading in out of the rain.

"I knew you'd come back!" Genma said cheerfully, and wrapped his arms around Ranma's shoulder, to direct him further into the home.

'This probably isn't the best form to make a first impression.' Entering into a living room, Genma wasted no time in shoving him to the floor. Sitting on his backside, he wondered what Genma had told this family. Better yet, why was Genma and Nodoka even here? From what little he remembered of the first time he had met his mother, this was not the same home.

He felt like a fish out of water surrounded by the group of humans. Genma was the only one who didn't look at him with a mix of shock and astonishment, and that was because he was too busy being nervous. The angry girl was still glaring at him, Nodoka alternated between shock and angry glares at Genma. The man with a mustache had a very strained smile on his face and alternating that with dark glances at Genma. The final occupant was a dark brown haired girl with a page boy haircut who was rapidly digging in a bag. She seemed to more excited than any other emotion.

"Here's a towel Tengu-san." The girl from the bath said pleasantly and handed him a towel, all the while smiling absently. Once he had got one, another was handed to the angry girl.

"Thanks, and it's Ranma." Opening up the towel, he started the task of getting rid of the water, which thankfully didn't stick to his wings.

"Son." Nodoka started. "How did this happen?"

"Same way Genma becomes a panda, Jusenkyo."

"So hot water will return you to normal?"

"Nope." Wiping off his face, he bought some time to figure out how to tell them. "My- curse, was changed so that I change at sunset and dawn." The bright flash of a camera stopped anything else he might have said, and all eyes turned to the girl with the page boy haircut, who took another picture. "Ya mind?" He glared at the girl.

"Not at all." She said excitedly and snapped off another picture.

"Nabiki that isn't nice." Kasumi admonished the girl, who reluctantly put her camera away, but made a motion with her hand like she was taking a picture, and mouth to him the word 'later.'

"So you won't change back until morning, how did that happen son?" Nodoka asked.

"Magic." He answered, earning a disapproving look from Nodoka. "What are you doing here?" He asked Genma.

"I suppose introductions are in order." The mustached man said happily distracting everyone from his question. "Seems your problem isn't so bad." Genma suddenly stopped the man and dragged him away to whisper rapidly in his ear. The two elder men finally broke from their huddle, and turned back to the rest.

"Welcome to my home Ranma, I'm Tendo Soun, and this is my family." Moving over behind the three girls, the old man smiled brightly. "This is Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane, pick whichever one OOF!" Soun stopped because Genma had elbowed him in the gut.

"Nice to meet you, sorry about barging in and all." He bowed his head politely.

"And we're here because of you son." Nodoka picked up on his question. "When you left last time, a fire was started. Thankfully, the Tendo's have agreed to let us stay here until our home can be rebuilt."

"Fire?" He gulped. "That didn't happen right after I left using the Gate did it?"

"It's alright son, our insurance covered everything. And Genma here was able to get most of our things out before the house was lost."

"Don't you mean your things dear?" Genma said, coughing lightly.

"Well if you had anything left at the home, you could have saved those too."

"Sorry, I've seen someone walk through the Phoenix flame before and they didn't get burned, so I thought it was just a light show." Scratching the back of his head, he had royally screwed up by using the Phoenix Gate inside.

"That's interesting and all, but what are you?" The angry girl demanded.

"Gargoyle." Nabiki answered, drawing his attention. "What?" the girl asked with a shrug. "One of my- associates, pays through the nose to get some tabloid from America that runs stories about a supposed group that lives in New York City."

"Heh heh, New York you say?" He laughed nervously. 'Oh man I hope there aren't any pictures of me floating around in some stupid paper.'

"Wait a minute." Nabiki leaned over the table in the center of the room to study him intently. "You look familiar for some reason. Have you ever been on tv?"

"No I haven't." He crossed his arms.

"Are you sure? No wait! It was a woman who looked just like you, same blue skin, brighter red hair though. You know that whole thing the media tried to pass off as mass hysteria two months ago. As a gargoyle do you know others? How about her?"

"Yes I know her, and I'd rather not talk about it." He answered gruffly, his answer eliciting Nabiki to raise an eyebrow. "I'm sorry to ask, but is there someplace I could get some rest? I haven't gotten much sleep in the past couple days."

"Right this way Ranma-san." Kasumi stood and held out a hand for the towel.

"Sure." Handing her the towel, Ranma followed the girl out of the family room, and to the left. Behind the angry girl followed, with the excited camera one shortly after. Passing a kitchen, and what he thought was the front door, she took him up some steps. At the top of the steps was a large room, that if the smell was any indication, Genma lived here.

"This is the room your parents are staying in."

"Thanks, and uh listen, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. All I know is that I was in the middle of this fog aboard that boat, and bam I'm hitting the side of your furo."

"It's alright Ranma-san, after all you're not human, so there's no harm." Continuing to smile obliviously, the girl spun on her heel and headed back down the steps, passing both of her sisters on the way.

"The furo?" Akane asked, speeding after her sister. "What do you mean the furo Kasumi?"

The only one who didn't leave him alone, was Nabiki, who remained smiling at him in a predatory manner. Turning towards the room, he glanced back long enough to see that she hadn't moved, before going inside the room and flicking on the light. Off to the side were two futons, one rolled up neatly, the other sloppily folded. 'Guess that's Genma's.'

"Ranma-kun." A lilting female voice called from the door.

"Yeah?" Giving the girl a tired glance, he setup the futon. "Nabiki is it?"

"Just wondering how long you plan to stay?" She asked.

"Don't worry, I'll be gone as soon as I get some sleep." Yawning, he wished that she would just go away and shut off the light.

"I'm sure dear old daddy will let you stay as long as you wish, so don't worry about that. But there is something else I'll talk to you about tomorrow. Night!" Flicking off the light, she left to go back down the steps, though she forgot to close the door.

"Whatever."

X x x x x x

"Saotome-kun, why did you stop me from telling him?" Soun asked his long time training partner and friend.

"He's already ran off twice, we shouldn't tempt fate." The bald martial artist next to him answered.

"But surely he wouldn't run out on an honorable obligation like uniting the schools?" He questioned.

"Before he met that crazy tengu woman, I would have agreed with you. But I think his cursed form has done things to his head."

"Really? If that's true, shouldn't we- look for a cure?" He asked, that demon form that Ranma had was certainly something that would throw the engagement in jeopardy. Although Nabiki did seem interested in the boy for some reason.

"The Guide said that no cures were known, and when we went through a village of fighting women, I never got to ask."

"But he's already changed the curse somehow, surely it wouldn't be that hard to have it removed, or even change how it changes him made into something that never happens." He theorized. If it could be changed from water to the motions of the sun, maybe it could be changed to something out of the way.

"Very true, I'll have to grill the boy and find out how he did it. Till then, let's wait to tell him about the engagement. I mean, you have three lovely daughters, I'm sure nature will take it's course."

"Quite right Saotome!"

"Of course Tendo-kun, I'm a genius afterall!"

X x x x x x

Waking up, Ranma felt someone dragging him by the back of his shirt. His mind flashed back to when Macbeth was attempting to kill him, and he acted in an instant. Planting his hands, he kicked out his attackers legs, and pushed off with his hands to jump up into the air. Reaching the apex of his jump, in time with his attacker starting to fall, he buried his elbow in their stomach, driving them to the floor. Bouncing away, he landed in a stance, prepared for any further attacks.

"Ouch boy." Genma wheezed from the floor. Ranma blinked several times and realized that he was still in the large room his parents had been staying in at the Tendos. Genma had apparently be dragging him towards an open window. Glancing out, he saw a moderately sized koi pond, and was able to put the two together.

"I prefer not to be thrown off things when I lack wings, actually, I don't like to be thrown off things period." He crossed his arms, and then smiled maliciously. A moment later, Genma landed in the pond, and Ranma felt like had just started the day off right. Even though it was still raining out.

Yawning, he considered trying to get more sleep, but his stomach growling ended that thought, which meant he would have to find food some other way. Considering he had no money, he would have to ask the Tendo's. Taking his time going downstairs, he wondered how he should handle this situation. His parents were mooching on this family, so it might be alright if he did as well, at least until he figured out what he wanted to do.

"It's so nice to see my manly son again." Nodoka said happily from the kitchen door, drawing him from his thoughts.

"Oh, uh good morning- Mother." He greeted hesitantly.

"I thought your father was going to wake you up?" She questioned.

"He decided to take a cool bath."

"Hopefully he doesn't track water through the house again. But enough about him, breakfast will be ready, please have a seat in the family room." Nodoka ducked back into the kitchen, leaving him alone.

That saved him from having to ask for food, and at the specified room, he found Soun sitting and reading a paper. Seeing Ranma arrive, the mustached man gave him a once over, before giving him a large grin. "Good morning Ranma, sleep well?"

"Good, thanks for not- freaking out over me last night. Humans never really have the best reaction to that form." He scratched at the base of his ponytail. "Usually they act like I'm some kind of monster." Laughing to himself, he took a seat at the table, as far from the man as possible. "Surprised the old man even bothered to say anything actually." Ranma half expected the panda cursed man to let that crazy girl attack him.

#You wound me boy!# Genma signed, waddling into the room as a panda. #And I bet you've been# Flip #Slacking off#

"Been busy with other things."

#What?# An urgently shooken sign appeared in his face.

"Just drop it old man." He smacked the sign out of his face.

"Good morning." Akane stopped in the door way, dressed in a blue school uniform, her eyes quickly finding him. "What's he doing here?" she asked slowly.

"Akane you should be nicer to our guest." Soun answered the girl, and she sat down with a cross look on her face.

"When are you going to get that boat out of the furo?" Akane asked angrily. "And how did you get it in there anyways?"

"Magic." He answered with a smile, causing the angry girls face to turn red. A sign impacting the back of his head, made him glare at Genma. "What was that for old man?"

#Be nice to your possible# Genma went to write something on the other side but stopped. #Just be nice!#

"Ya know Pop, I kind of like you as a panda, it means I don't have to listen to you whine, I can just not read those signs."

"Breakfast." Kasumi announced as she and Nodoka interrupted him from tearing into the panda. The two women came in and set down some food. "Oh my, is Nabiki not up yet? Akane could you go get her please?"

"Sure." Giving him one last glare, Akane left the room to retrieve her sister.

Ranma fidgeted while kneeling next to the table. He wasn't exactly threatened by the presence of so many humans, he just felt uncomfortable. Like an outsider sitting in, on a place that he shouldn't be. Forgetting that he had suddenly lost over a month of time, his life had become about avoiding humans. Even being up at this time of day was an oddity. Usually he went to sleep in the morning, and woke lunch to mid afternoon.

When Akane returned with Nabiki, the two were bickering about something. "Honestly Nabiki, I don't know what kind of game you're playing."

"Oh hush Akane, I can't get dressed in the morning?" Nabiki knelt down next to Soun, dressed in the same school uniform as Akane.

"Not when I know 'why' you're getting up early." Akane fumed.

"And why am I dear sister?" Nabiki propped herself on the table with an elbow.

"To- well- you just- oh shut up." Akane crossed her arms in a huff, choosing to glare angrily at him.

It felt like forever since the last time he had eaten a Japanese breakfast, and he thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. He did not miss how Nodoka watched him out of the corner of her eye, as she ate. Or how Soun would look at him with an excited gleam when he thought he wasn't looking.

"Ranma-kun." Nabiki drew his attention when he set down a bowl. "Would you mind walking with me to school today?"

Before Ranma could figured out a response, he found himself shoved out of the door with Nabiki, and a single large umbrella to share between them, by the two fathers. Blinking several times, the door closing loudly behind him, made him wonder if there was something he didn't know going on. "So what was that about?" He asked, trying to get ot the bottom of it.

"I'll explain on the way." Nabiki checked her brown leather book back, before taking several steps forward, nearly moving out of the protective range of the umbrella. "Well?" She asked expectantly.

"Oh." Shrugging, he walked beside her out the gate, and down the street. "So?"

"Actually it has to deal with what I wanted to talk to you about last night." Nabiki started casually. "Because apparently, before any of us were born, our father's made an honor pact for their children to get married."

"WHAT?" He yelled, spinning around to go give his old man a piece of his mind, and probably a healthy dose of his fist.

"Hold it!" Nabiki grabbed his shirt to stop him. "Don't just go rushing in yelling like an idiot."

"Hmm, you're right." He nodded, thinking that Nabiki had a Demona-like quality to her. "Just one more reason I'll leave tonight." He remarked, starting to walk with her again.

"Why? Stick around." Nabiki suggested.

"Why would I do that?"

"Why not milk the situation for all it's worth? Daddy seems set on the whole thing, so if you play along, then you could probably get room and board till you're twenty."

"Nah." He replied, taking a moment to look at the buildings around him. There were some taller buildings in the area, but most were one to three stories. Certainly a boring landscape to go flying around. The center of Tokyo would be fun to explore though. "This place is no good for flying."

"So those wings aren't just for show." Nabiki surmised. "Ever take on passengers?"

"You want me to take you flying is that it?"

"Can you blame me for being curious?"

"I'll think about it." He answered, twisting his head around to see Akane hurrying up after them with an umbrella in hand.

"Honestly!" The girl exclaimed angrily. "What is wrong with them?"

"Don't you have your fanclub to deal with?" Nabiki asked, diverting the angry girl's attention. Akane's eyes narrowed at Nabiki, before she took off running.

"So what's that about?" He asked, watching the girl go.

"Actually, it's really funny. This idiot who goes to our school made this decree that the only way a boy could date my sister, is if they first beat her in combat. So she plows through about half of the guys in her class every morning."

"I'm actually not sure how I should feel about that." He commented, arriving close enough to what he assumed was the school, to see Akane beating up a group of untrained guys dressed in various athletic uniforms.

"Just ignore it, and try not to get involved." Nabiki stepped daintily over several downed forms. "Especially with Kuno, he's got issues."

"Halt!" A male voice yelled, stepping out from behind a tree was a tall boy dressed in kendo garb, and in his right hand was a wooden boken.

"Speaking of Kuno, here he is now." Nabiki said it as if the boy was a huge joke.

"Mercenary Nabiki, who is this knave that you have brought to these hallowed halls?" Kuno asked while advancing.

"This? This is just Ranma-kun, he was just escorting me to school." Nabiki answered.

"Hrm." Kuno took a moment to size him up. "I see, very well then, I shall allow you to escort the mercenary Nabiki unmolested."

"How lenient of you." Ranma replied, narrow his eyes at the older boy.

"You return my graciousness with sarcasm?" Kuno raised his voice and wooden sword.

"Hey! This is my fight, stay out of it." Akane growled at him, having finished with her attackers.

"Whatever you want." He answered. "See ya." Now that Nabiki was at school, he could leave this crazy school.

"Akane I would date with you!" Kuno yelled happily behind him. Shaking his head, Ranma really didn't want to know what was going on.

X x x x x x

Umbrella overhead, Ranma walked on top of a green chainlink fence bordering a canal. His feet were growing numb from touching the cool metal, but he didn't have any shoes, and felt no desire to return to the Tendo home. The knowledge of what his father was planning, weighed heavily on his mind. It certainly explained why Soun was being so nice to him. The man wasn't being nice out of the goodness of his heart, he wanted something from him.

Pausing, he listened to the rain patter against the polyester material. 'If either of them think they can control me like the sisters did, they have another thing coming.' He thought darkly, deciding that he would head back and tell Genma how things were going to be. Slipping for a moment, he amended that plan, he'd raid his old man for money. Coming to the end of the fence, he hopped down to continue on the concrete.

"Ranma!" A voice called from above, looking up Ranma found a form dropping down on top of him. Bouncing out of the way, the other boy landed heavily in a crouch, a red wooden umbrella raised above his head. "Still good at running I see."

"Do I know you?" He asked, scratching the side of his head. The face was vaguely familiar, as was the yellow bandana, but that was the limit to his recognition. "Wait a minute, now I remember you! You're um, that is to say, you're, ah man it's on the tip of my tongue. You were at my old high school."

"Before I kill you Ranma." The boy interrupted him. "Tell me, why did you run out on our duel?"

"Duel? Now I know who you are, you're Hibiki Ryoga." Throwing his umbrella upwards for a second, he smacked his right fist into his left palm, he had solved the mystery, before catching the umbrella again. "Long time no see, how ya been?"

"Answer my question!" Ryoga shouted.

"But Ryoga, I waited three days for you to show up."

"Yes and when I came on the fourth, you had already run away." Ryoga angrily exclaimed, stomping a foot.

"Yea, bout that, why did it take you four days to get there?" Ranma put his free hand in his pants pocket. "The lot was only like half a kilometer from your house."

"Bastard! Do you think I was out for a leisurely stroll those four days? I suffered to meet with you!" Ryoga growled at him.

Ranma just rolled his eyes, up until today, he had thought that the whole thing was done and over with. It wasn't like Ryoga could actually beat him in a fight. As tough and pig headed as the lost boy was, he just wasn't up to Ranma's level.

"So I take it you want to have another fight?" He asked.

"Fight? No, we're long past that Ranma. This is revenge!" Ryoga charged forward.

Ranma avoided a front kick by stepping to the side. "You mind waiting till it's not raining? I'd rather remain dry."

"Shut up Ranma! It's because of you that I have to fear the tiniest drop of water." Ryoga answered his question with a punch.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, unconcerned by Ryoga's rage, and jumping over a kick, allowing Ryoga's leg to pass harmlessly beneath him.

"Thanks to you, I've seen hell!" Ryoga kicked at him several times, to which he simply backed away, and avoided a follow up swing from Ryoga's umbrella before it was hastily raised back above his head.

"Hell?" Hopping up on to the green fence again, Ryoga followed.

"You think words can convey the depths of my suffering?" Ryoga bellowed and Ranma counter attacked with a foot to Ryoga's face, making the lost boy stagger back.

"You look fine to me." He landed back on the fence. Ryoga was obviously exaggerating, the guy had no clue what suffering meant. "And I'm done here." Rushing forward, he dodged a kick by jumping upwards and flipping over Ryoga. Before the other boy could react, Ranma had struck him in the face with a punch, sending Ryoga to crash into the concrete of the street below. "Nice to see you again." He waved as he bounded off, leaving Ryoga.

X x x x x x

"Let's see, from here to here." Ranma finished cutting a vertical slit in the back of a pair of slightly baggy jeans he had bought. The usually painful process of getting money from Genma was surprisingly easy, Nodoka had thrown in her opinion that he needed clothes, and Genma had fallen apart like a house of cards.

"I really wish you wouldn't cut up your clothing." Nodoka hovered over his shoulder worriedly.

"It's this or tearing them up when I change." He shrugged. At least he had found a place that sold the same kind of Chinese shirts that he had been wearing. Setting the jeans aside, he pulled out a black shirt, and started to create the holes that would allow his wings to go through.

"I guess."

Rolling his eyes, he ignored the fidgeting woman. It seemed that his initial opinion of Nodoka had been rather skewed. So long as she wasn't commenting on manliness, she was actually nice, distant and uptight, but nice. Actually it was probably how uptight she was that made him weary. Demona may have been cold and calculating, but underneath she was driven by emotions. Genma had always been a man ruled by his urges. Nodoka seemed scripted though, as if she had a programmed response for everything.

"Hmm, I wonder." Grabbing a red shirt, he split the back section.

"Why did you do that?" Nodoka asked.

"Just trying something. I noticed with the rest of my clothes that the back tends to go to one side or the other. Pretty much all the gargoyles I've met have something like this cut in the back."

"There are more?" Nodoka asked worriedly.

"Well yea, they're a species." He rolled his eyes.

"How many have you met?" His mother asked.

"Personally or if I was just be around them?"

"In total."

Dropping his current project, he had to think about that. "There were a few dozen at Castle Wyvern, about the same on Avalon, so about sixty. Why do you ask?"

"I admit I'm slighty curious. It's not everyday that you learn about a new species of intelligent creatures. So why haven't I heard of them outside of mythology?"

"Because humans have hunted gargoyles to extinction." He answered, letting a small amount of anger enter his voice, and remembering that Demona had said the same thing to him before.

"That doesn't sound right, I'm sure that there must be another reasonable explanation for it, if it even happened at all."

Ranma turned to look at Nodoka, hoping that she was actually joking about that. What he found was that she was off in her own little world, examining a the stitching on a shirt that he had modified. "Are you serious?" He asked.

"Well of course, humans aren't monsters." Nodoka answered calmly.

"Sounds like you're the expert." He gathered up all of his clothing, and sewing supplies borrowed from Kasumi, and went to go finish somewhere else, leaving a confused Nodoka in his wake.

X x x x x x

"What are you doing here?"

"Sitting." He answered, watching the rain fall outside. Ranma was sitting inside the Tendo dojo. There was nothing particularly special about the place, like a hundred or so other training halls that he had visited during his life. Earlier he had gotten in some practice time, trying to clear his head.

Why exactly had he been so worked up over Nodoka's questioning earlier? Nothing she had asked was any worse than the things he had asked Demona. Even with her short fuse, she hadn't really snapped at him like that. Something about being around people again, normal humans specifically, was grating on his nerves.

Which wasn't right, the Tendo's had been nice to him so far, even if Soun and Genma were plotting to marry him off to one of the three sisters. He should have more patience, they deserved that much for not freaking out when he showed up last night. They shouldn't be expected to know things that took him weeks and months to learn.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Akane all but screamed in his face.

"Eh, what do you want?" He asked, using a pinky to wipe imaginary gunk from his ear.

"How about a little match?" The Tendo girl asked sweetly, her eyes singing a different tune.

"Sure I guess." Shrugging, he rose to his feet, and faced off against the girl. Akane had arrived back at the home approximately ten minutes ago, and had changed into a white gi. He on the other hand, only had a pair of black pants and a gray tank top on.

"So you've been training on the road?" Akane asked, taking an aggressive stance.

"It's all I remember." He replied, standing calmly with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Then I bet you think you're pretty good?"

"I'm very good." He answered.

"Then let's find out!" Akane stepped forward and threw out a punch with her right hand.

Easily avoiding the blow, he stepped forward and to the outside of her arm. "Decent punch." He commented, Akane pulled back her arm and swung towards him with her opposing leg in an attempt to knee him. Taking a step to his left, Ranma watched Akane's attack fumble, and the girl stumbled trying to regain her balance.

"You're kind of clumsy aren't you?" He asked, earning a side kick from Akane, which he ducked under. Rolling to the side into a crouch, he avoided the youngest Tendo who had turned the side kick into an ax kick, attempting to bring her foot down on top of his head.

"Not bad, but you're way too slow."

"I'll show you slow!" Akane charged forward with a telegraphed kick. Rolling backwards into a hand stand, he picked up one hand just to increase the difficulty in remaining vertical. "What's the matter? Attack me!" Akane yelled and planted a foot in an attack he couldn't see. Tucking his legs in, he spun on his hand, and swept out Akane's feet, sending the girl crashing awkwardly to the floor.

Bouncing back to his feet, he favored the girl with a disgusted look, and crossed his arms. Akane sat on the floor rubbing her backside, and completely open to any attack. "Man, I'd rather not train, than spar with you." Spinning on his heel, he wanted to go get something to drink.

"Why you!" Akane growled and he heard the rapid patter of heavy footsteps as she stormed up to him from behind.

Turning, he found her directing a hay maker at his face, so he started to bring his hand up to catch the punch. Power pooled at his fingertips, and he realized almost too late what was about to happen. Behind Akane, four slashes, a two meters long, broke cleanly through the building, and continued on to dig deeply into the wall surrounding the home.

"Oops."

"What was that?" A stunned Akane asked, turning to see the damage he had done to the wall.

"Phew that was close." Letting out a worried breath, the one good thing to come from that, was that he had finally found the trigger. "You alright?"

Akane's wide eyed gaze went from the wall, to him, and then to his hands. "I think- I'm going to go change my underpants now."

X x x x x x

"Man, what am I supposed to do with this thing?" Ranma scratched the side of his head and look at the long skiff he had arrived on. The rain outside had finally stopped, or at least gave a temporary reprieve from its downpour. Being bored as he was, he had pulled the boat from the furo, and placed it on the koi pond.

It also worked as a reminder. Avalon sent you where you needed to be, at least where it thought you needed to be. So why had it sent him here? Why to Scotland had become obvious within an hour. Was he supposed to do something for the people here? Or was this the direction his life was supposed to go?

"Ahh I hate this fate crap!" He growled. Was he supposed to stay? Or was he supposed to do something and then leave? Maybe a third option, Avalon was full of it and he should just do whatever he wanted.

Underneath the skiff, small bubbles spread out to cover the entire surface of the pond. Before he could grab the skiff, it sunk beneath the water, disappearing from sight. "Oh come on!" He shouted, prowling around the edge of the pond. "Now how am I supposed to get back to Avalon?"

"Is something wrong Son?"

"Urk." He jerked, skidding to a stop on a wet stone surrounding the pond.

"Did that boat just sink into the pond?" Nodoka asked from the doorway into the home.

"Yea." He answered, calming himself down. Getting angry wasn't going to get him anywhere. "Now I need to get it back." Taking a deep breath, he raised his right hand, with the palm facing the pond.

"Ex rege Avalonis, addo ut mihi a navis, sic transporto ut isle." He commanded, his words having a strange echo to them. The water bubbled and the front and rear posts of the skiff rose from the liquid. In a few short seconds, the skiff had returned, and sat obediently on the water, waiting for a passenger. "I wonder if that works on any water." He mused.

"Very impressive." Nodoka gave him several polite claps of her hands. "So is this why you went on your training trip without your father?"

"Well no it wasn't the reason, but I guess I fell into it." He answered, pulling the skiff off the pond, just in case the incantation wouldn't work later.

"Can you do anything else?" The Saotome woman asked. "Hopefully not that fire thing again though."

"No, or at least nothing that's useful." He lied, he could always travel to Avalon with a spell, and if he actually had the Grimorum or the Phoenix Gate he could do a lot more.

"Son, I want to continue our talk from before." Nodoka fidgeted slightly with her kimono sleeve.

"Sure, I guess." Actually with how Nodoka looked, she must have figured out why he was upset. He could see it in his mind, she apologizes, asks for more information, Nodoka shows that she is a person underneath, and he can start to get to know his birth mother.

"It wasn't very manly for you to run away like that."

"Huh?" He asked lamely.

"You should not have gotten upset like that and run away, it wasn't very manly." Nodoka reiterated and he continued to stare dumbfoundedly at the woman. "In the future, I expect you to do better. Do you understand?"

"Anything else?" He asked, his eyes flashing white for a moment.

"No, that's it."

"I understand." He answered, watching the woman retreat into the home, before turning back to the boat. 'I'll leave later, see if the others found their way back to New York, and then.' Well he didn't know what he would do after that.

X x x x x x

"What are you doing old man?" Ranma asked, entering in the large room he had slept in last night, and finding his father rifling through the few possessions he had bought.

"Er- nothing my boy." Genma straightened up and tried to look like he hadn't just been looking for valuables. "Just making sure you bought some good clothes with that money I gave you."

"If you were looking for the Phoenix Gate, I don't have it, and that bracelet is back in Manhattan last I knew." He explained, trying to stop any more attempts of theft.

"My own son thinks so lowly of his father!" Genma cried dramatically, even forcing several tears.

"Whatever." He snorted, having seen the display hundreds if not thousands of times.

"Worth a try." Genma shrugged and passed him to leave the room, stopping at the door way. "It's good to have you back boy."

"I won't be here for long." He answered, turning to his father.

"What are you talking about? You're not going to do that fire thing again are you?" Genma asked as a joke.

"Pop- I'm serious, and I'm not sure if I'll ever come back." Taking a deep breath, he watched Genma's face turn serious, the elder Saotome realizing the implications.

"Ranma, you have obligations. Honor that must be fulfilled."

"The engagement you didn't tell me about?" He asked, finding a strange satisfaction in Genma's surprise. "That seppuku pledge?"

"Honor still has to be maintained." Genma repeated, audibly gulping, the bald man hoping that he would fold at the mention of honor.

"Does this honor pact come on a piece of paper with more fingerprints from a baby?" He asked, shoving his clothes into the plastic bag he had hauled them here in, and then tied the top closed.

"It was made before you were born, a solemn pact to unite the two schools."

"Before I could even know about it then." He gave Genma an angry look, resolving to leave as soon as possible. "Just like the Archmage and those sisters." The look he gave Genma caused the man to take a step back. "Bye- Pop." Genma stepped to the side as he passed. Out in the yard, he threw the bag of clothes into the skiff, and pushed it until it sat half in, half out of the koi pond.

"Son, what are you doing?" Nodoka's voice asked him, the woman appearing next to him, a disapproving look on her face. "You shouldn't play in your boat, it looks like it will begin raining again soon."

"I'm leaving, not playing." He answered, not even turning to look at his mother.

"Another training trip?" She asked hopefully.

"No."

"Where then?"

"Somewhere away from here." He answered, pushing the boat fully into the water. Watching the skiff bounce off the far side and settle off to the left side, he closed his eyes, trying to figure out why this was being so difficult. He was hesitating, he could be gone ten times over by now, so what was he waiting for?

"Ranma!"

"Oh not again." He groaned, looking up to see Ryoga descending on his position once again, heavy red umbrella poised to splinter his skull. Ranma could easily move out of the way, except Nodoka was right next to him. "Damn." Gathering up Nodoka in his arms, he jumped clear of the landing zone, and deposited the woman next to the house. Back where he was, Ryoga slammed into the ground, burying his umbrella halfway into the ground.

"I found you." The lost boy sneered.

"Your timing sucks Ryoga, just like your sense of direction, and you almost hit someone else you idiot. What were you thinking?"

"Revenge doesn't wait." Ryoga ripped his umbrella from the ground.

"Revenge for what? Stealing bread that wasn't yours?"

"You think this is still about bread?" Ryoga laughed, reaching up and pulling several bandanas from his head. Ranma guessed at what Ryoga was going to do, and moved to the side, so that Nodoka, and now Genma and Soun, wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

"Then what is this about? I know your an obsessive idiot, but this is going too far. I've done nothin to you."

"You really don't know?" Ryoga's anger fizzled.

"How could I? The last time I saw you was before you missed our duel." Now they were getting somewhere.

"I'll tell you this, after you ran out on our duel." Ryoga started, and Ranma heard Nodoka say something about that being unmanly. "I followed you to China!"

"So?" Looking away absently, he didn't think that was a reason to try and get revenge on someone. "Er, you didn't go to Jusenkyo did you? Does that mean you got a curse?"

"Enough words Ranma! Time to die!" Ryoga spun the bandanas held in his right hand, and then threw them like shurikens at him. Weaving through the barrage, he turned in time to see a tree behind him get cut down by the attack.

'Those aren't ordinary bandanas, and I can't let this go on too long.' Jumping up over a kick from Ryoga, he could feel the sun beginning to go down, it wouldn't be long before he changed, and while changing he'd be helpless. Grabbing Ryoga's leg with one hand, he twisted in mid air, planting both feet into Ryoga's face. Ryoga flew backwards to skid across the wet grass on his back.

"Not now!" He groaned as he started to change. "I just need some more time." Falling to all fours, he tried to keep himself in a position where he could defend if Ryoga attacked.

"You changed without water?" Ryoga stared blankly at him, his hand halted in the motion of pulling off his belt.

Finishing up, he pushed off with his hands and spread his wings, letting loose a loud roar, his eyes lighting up from a surge of adrenaline. Coming back to himself, he relaxed his stance, and caped his wings. "So you did go to Jusenkyo." He noted, stretching his shoulders for a second.

"How do you do it? Ryoga demand, snapping out his hand holding the belt, the material turning rigid, making a sword.

"I traveled halfway around the world, made a deal with a magical creature, who tricked me into it. Interested? I could try summoning him for you. I'm sure he'd have a field day with you."

"Make light of me will you!" Ryoga charged forward, his belt poised to strike. Stepping forward, Ranma grabbed Ryoga's wrist, twisting the lost boys arm outwards, and causing the belt to go limp.

"Knock it off idiot before I hurt you." He growled, planting a fist in Ryoga's stomach, Ryoga collapsing to his knees as all breath was driven from him, but still supported by Ranma's hold on his wrist.

"Hurt me?" Ryoga laughed, his head down. "I'm the one who's going to hurt you." Ryoga jumped upwards, and caught him under the chin with an uppercut. Knocked into the air, partially from the force of the blow, and because he had jumped at the last instant. Ranma opened his wings and directed himself to land next to the koi pond. Even before his feet touched the stone, Ryoga was upon him, belt returned to its sword-like status, and held over his head.

"Why does no one listen to me?" He growled, waving a hand upwards, and purposely trying to release energy at Ryoga's belt. The belt seperating into four pieces, the material hanging in the air, and Ryoga's cry of pain acting as an exclamation to what he had just done. The lost boy fell forward to his knees, clutching his face.

"Oh no!" Instantly he was over at Ryoga's side. "I didn't meant to do that! Are you alright?" He asked worriedly.

"My face!" Ryoga screamed, pushing him away with a hand, and then gave a few clumsy punches in an attempt to hit him.

"You pig headed idiot, enough fighting. We should bandage up your face."

"Monster! You'll pay for this!" Ryoga continued to throw punches at him.

"You're the idiot who started this fight." Catching Ryoga's outstretched arm, he started to spin, when he had enough speed, he released Ryoga, throwing him up and over the wall. "Moron! Go off and fix yourself then!" He yelled after the other teen.

"Moron!" He yelled again, far more frustrated with his own lack of control. What had he been thinking? Using a new technique like that? Ranma could very easily have cut Ryoga's head off with it.

"When did you- learn to do that Ranma?" Genma asked him seriously, the bald martial artist keeping his distance.

Relaxing his body, he turned to see that the entire household had gathered. "About a day ago." He answered.

"And who was that boy, Son?" Nodoka asked. "While how you finished the fight was- a bit much, you were very manly."

"Oh my, I hope the food isn't burning." Kasumi left to go to the kitchen.

"Ranma-kun." Nabiki said sweetly, padding out of the house, and grabbing his right wrist. "Come inside, I want to get to know my new fiance better." Ranma allowed the girl to lead him towards the door, his brain not really catching up to what she had just said.

"Wa-wait wha- what did you say?" He jabbered as she pulled him inside the living room.

"I've decided to accept the engagement." The brown haired girl smiled brightly.

"Nabiki!" Akane yelled as if her sister had just committed some unthinkable sin.

"You- want to be engaged to me?" He asked, furrowing his brow in thought. What kind of game was she playing?

"Oh my son is so manly!" Nodoka cheered, clapping her hands together once. "I'm so happy for you son."

"But." He tried to protest.

"It's decided then, Ranma will marry Nabiki, oh my little girl's all grown up!" Soun started to cry tears of joy.

"Way to go boy, keep it up." Genma whispered to him.

"But." He sat down, looking around worriedly, the situation having changed so rapidly, he was unable to keep up.

Nabiki knelt next to him, taking one of his large hands in her own smaller ones, and looked into his eyes. "Am I- not good enough?" She asked, lower lip quivering.

"You? I mean, why would you want something like that, with me? I'm a-." He caught himself. "I mean, I'm not always human."

"I'll admit that it's different." She answered, gently stroking the palm of his hand. "But I'm an open minded girl, I think we could make it work."

Pulling his hand free from her, he shuffled himself away from her. "I need to think."

"What's there to think about?" Soun asked, pushing him back up against Nabiki.

"Yea boy, this is for family honor!" Genma added, glancing nervously at Nodoka, who's smile looked like she should have been in a straight jacket.

Nabiki took the opportunity to grab his arm, in a hug, and pull herself close to him. "Hmm." She purred. "Your skin feels nice." She commented, rubbing her face against his upper arm. "Like an incredibly soft leather."

"Nabiki!" Akane yelled. "Have you no shame?"

"What? Isn't it right that a girl should get to know her future husband?" Nabiki cuddled herself closer to him. "Intimately?" At this point Ranma froze up, his mind choosing to retreat from the world, rather than deal with the beautiful girl who was saying suggestive things about him.

When he came back to the world, Kasumi was busy placing trays of food on the table, and Nabiki was still comfortably pressed into his side, the girls soft form feeling strange against him. "Do you- you don't see me as some kind of monster?" He asked quietly, so that only she heard him.

"I admit you look a bit different like this, but I meant what I said."

"I don't know what to say." He admitted shyly, his face darkening as he blushed.

"Then don't say anything." She turned away from him, and fully leaned herself into his side.

Tentatively he let a wing dropped to lay across Nabiki's shoulders, and when she gave no resistence, he wrapped it around her form. His action made her wrap an arm possessively around his waist. This was the first bodily contact that he had received when in cursed form, and he was finding that he liked it. It felt good to touch someone else, and not be seen as a leper.

"If you two could stop molesting each other, it's dinner time." Akane sniped from her position across the table, the girl glaring angrily at him. Blushing fiercely, which was hard to do when your skin was blue, Ranma quickly scrambled away when the attention shifted to him.

'What am I doing?' He asked himself, trying to act like he hadn't just been hugging a pretty girl like Nabiki. 'Here I was, all ready to head off to Avalon to see how everyone else was doing, and now.' Sighing, he picked up a set of disposable chop sticks. 'Now I don't want to go.' Focusing past his mental conundrum, he found that his hands weren't able to properly grasp them.

"Well this never came up before." He pouted, frutrated over his inability to do the dexterous motions required.

"Something the matter Ranma-san?" Kasumi asked sweetly.

"Uh, no, I got it." He answered, figuring out the right way to hold them with talons.

"Hm, Ranma-kun." Nabiki drew his attention. "If you want, I can feed you." She questioned sweetly.

"Nabiki!" Akane said scandalously. "What is wrong with you? This isn't about that rich guy calling is it?"

"Rich guy?" He asked, glancing between the two sisters, Nabiki's face twisting into shock, then nervousness. Ranma even noticed that Genma started to sweat, a sure sign that the man knew something he didn't want to tell.

"Akane, shut up." Nabiki told her sister in a hushed tone.

"Yea some guy named- Xanaton, or something like that." Akane answered, giving Nabiki a cross look.

"No reason to concern yourself with that boy." Genma clapped him on the back.

"What aren't you telling me old man?" He narrowed his eyes.

"That reminds me, Nabiki, did you call him back last night? He asked if we could, if Ranma-san showed up." Kasumi supplied.

"He was just worried about you." Nabiki said quickly. "He said you disappeared over a month ago, just wanted to know if you were alright."

"Well that explains it, you just want money." Akane pointed out. "Have you no shame Nabiki?"

"Akane shut up!" Nabiki yelled.

"I think I should go." Ranma slowly stood up. He may not know what was going on, but he understood enough. Nabiki was using him for some goal, Xanatos was also involved for some strange reason, and she had gone behind his back to contact him. If Genma's reaction was any indication, then he was in on something as well.

"You can't go!" Soun protested, appearing before him. "You have to marry my little girl."

Grabbing the man roughly by the front of his gi, Ranma hauled him up off of his feet. "I don't do anything I don't want to!" He roared in the man's face, his eyes lighting up. Dropping the scared stiff Soun on to the floor, he stormed out towards the waiting skiff, his angry response having frozen the group.

"Stupid, no good humans." He growled, trying to vent his frustration. He wouldn't be someone's pawn again. Never would he let someone control his actions. Jumping on to the boat, he repeated the spell to take him to Avalon. "Vocate venti fortunate, ex rege Oberonis, et hic navis flugem regate, ad orae Avalonis "

In response to his angry words, the water around him exploded upwards in steam, obscuring the world around him. The steam settled into mist, and then fog, the boat starting to rock rhythmically, indicating that he was now out on open water. Sitting down heavily, he placed his head in his hands, wanting the world to just explode.

X x x x x x

Falling to his knees at the side of a river, Ryoga slowly pulled his hands away from his face. Across his face, starting at the lower right, and ending at the upper left, were three freely bleeding cuts. Slamming his fists into the dirt repeatedly, he screamed out his frustration. Ranma continued to take everything from him, first his humanity, and now his face. He couldn't even wash the blood off without turning into his cursed form.

Ranma would pay, him and anyone, and anything that would help him. Why hadn't he smashed the helpless Ranma when he first found him in cursed form? Mercy was his weakness. Without mercy he'd be a full human, he'd still have his face. From now on he would not be merciful. Pulling his head back, he shoved his face in the water. There was a brief moment where he wondered if the curse wouldn't activate, and the next it did.

X x x x x x

The next thing Ranma knew, he was coming back to himself after shattering out of a thin layer of stone, and roaring. Before he had realized what was going on, he started the change back to human. Falling over himself and into the water, having not expected the sudden change, he surfaced fully human, and found Elisa holding out a hand to him.

Spitting out some water, he took the offered hand. "What happened?" He asked, finding that he was back on Avalon, and it was night time. Goliath, Angela, and Bronx were getting out of the other boat.

"I'm hoping you can tell me." The woman answered, wading out of the water. "We showed up shortly after sunrise and they turned to stone. By the time I got the boat to shore, you drifted in, also turned to stone."

"I was stone? But I don't turn to stone anymore." He shook his head to get rid of some of the water. "Oh no, I flipped." He realized. "Now I'm going to be a gargoyle during the day."

"Ranma, is that you?" Goliath asked.

"Who else would I be?" He laughed to himself. "That idiot Puck set it up so I only change at sunrise and sunset, not inbetween." He explained, just in time for Bronx to tackle him to the ground, and start licking at his face. "Man you're heavy." He pushed the gargoyle beast off of himself.

"Is there a way to fix it?" Elisa asked.

"I think if Avalon sends me to some place during the day, then that'll do it." Petting Bronx, he felt immeasurably better for some reason. Not that he didn't feel bad, but the crushing weight he had been feeling before he was turned to stone for the day, was gone. "Otherwise I'll have to go ask Puck for help, and I really don't want to do that."

"It's certainly different." Angela bent down to inspect him. "I mean, you said you became human during the day, but I didn't really believe it."

"Yea, it's a real kick in the pants." Getting to his feet, he found that Angela was now taller than him, where before they had been basically the same height.

"So where did Avalon send you?" Goliath asked, also inspecting him from a respectable distance.

Pulling off his shirt, he wringed out some of the water. "To see my parents." He answered sadly.

"Really? What are they like?" Angela asked innocently.

"Just like how I remember them." He answered, putting his shirt back on.

"That doesn't sound too good." Elisa guessed and Bronx butted up against his leg. "Did something happen?"

"I told you so, doesn't really cover it." He answered, chewing on his lower lip.

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

(1) – Yes Ranma has little upward facing spikes on his knees and backwards facing ones on his elbows like Demona. I just haven't made a big point out of them. Since most of this is done in his perspective, he doesn't really go on and on about how he looks this way or that, he just is.

Author Notes:

"Ex rege Avalonis, addo ut mihi a navis, sic transporto ut isle."
From the shores of Avalon, bring to me a ship, so to travel to the isle.

Jan 3rd , 1996 - Ranma arrives in Nerima. At the same time, the rest of the group arrives on Queen Florence Island in Canada. There they encounter the Fae Raven, who is competing with another named Grandmother

Jan 4th – Ranma scars Ryoga across the face, and proceeds to leave Nerima to return to Avalon. Since he showed up on Avalon when it was morning as a gargoyle, he turned to stone, reversing his form schedule. On Queen Florence Island, Raven is defeated, allowing Grandmother to repair the damage he had been doing to the island, and the trio return to Avalon shortly before Ranma. (I did actually check when sunset would have been, 4:40 to be precise.)