This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Ranma, and Kunihiku Ikuhara who created Sailor Moon from the work of Naoko Takeuchi.

This story's main home is ranmafics。ru/fanfics/your_destiny_is_annulled/english .

(シーンブレイク)

Your Destiny Is Annulled v1.5

Arc Two
Dive into the Unknown

Chapter 8
Up the Creek without a Paddle.

(シーンブレイク)

Akane was awoken to consciousness by a trembling of earth and a long, rolling rumble. An earthquake! She jerked frantically, not yet fully aware of who she was, where she was... Her consciousness was returning slowly, sluggishly. Her brain felt like it was wrung out then hung in the sun to dry. She shut her eyes tightly then blinked a few times trying to clear blinding haze out. Lifting off the ground awkwardly on one elbow, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. It was bright and cold here... Or hot? Or both at the same time? What was this strange place? How did she get here? She dimly remembered a blinding flash, but after that...?

She remembered the battle and it made her jump to her feet. Or try to. Her coordination haven't returned yet, she fell onto her side. There was a strange chill in her entire body, reminding of times of sickness. The last she remembered was Usagi... No, Princess Serenity smiting the enemy with her incredible power... Did they win? Or...?

The realization that she is laying naked on the cold and wet rocks hit her like a bucket of ice water. However muddled her mind was, she remembered the fate of their set of spare winter clothing clearly. They prepared it for exactly such an occasion — but it burned down. Panicking, Akane jumped to her feet. She fell, rose back on all fours... And froze in confusion. Her eyes were growing accustomed to the light revealing a familiar panorama: the snowy tops of the ridge, the black pyramid in the central sector of the gash made by Saturn... A sea of green behind it all... Something was terribly wrong with this picture. And why did her back feel so hot? She tried again to stand up, slowly and carefully. After a couple tries she succeeded. Swaying unsteadily she took a stupefied look around.

The snow-covered slope stretched left and right for several hundred meters. Then it ended abruptly, and further away there was only green, as far as eye could see. She almost fell a couple times, then her sense of balance returned and she realized what was so wrong. The slope wasn't a slope anymore, it became horizontal! Akane turned to and from looking around. It seemed that a chunk of the mountain ridge, from the tops to approximately the bottom, has been uprooted and then deposited somewhere among forested hills. The ground trembled again, a column of dust rising at the edge of the former mountainside. A wave of deep, rolling rumbling washed over her. Still in stupefaction, Akane flexed her shoulders and stared into the bright blue sky shielding her eyes with a palm from the hot tropical sun. So they were whisked away together with a chunk of... They!

"Ranmaaa! Guys!"

She panicked looking around frantically for her comrades. She didn't see anybody and her heart fell... Then her mind freed itself, at last, from that murk. She noticed not far away a nude girl body with a mane of red hair sprawled among some rags.

"Ranma‼!" Akane rushed to him, still unsteady on her feet. She didn't even notice how she got there, falling to her knees in haste beside him, feeling for the pulse... Was he alive? He was‼! Shedding tears of relief she started shaking the other girl. Finally Ranma mumbled unintelligibly blinking owlishly.

"Nngh... What..."

"Are you all right? Oh, what a relief! You're alive!"

"Akane?" recognition slowly appeared in the redhead's eyes. "What happened... And why are you naked...? And..." She looked at the sun in zenith squinting and covering her eyes awkwardly with one hand. "And why can't I feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"Sun..." Ranma frowned rubbing at her temples. "Feels like all my magical senses went deaf."

Akane listened to herself. She realized suddenly that it was the same for her. It was like a part of her ability to see and feel just disappeared.

"It's probably an anti-magic zone like the one in Tokyo... Listen, we were transferred to some tropical land together with the whole mountain. We have to find the others!"

"The others?" the redhead perked up finally shaking cobwebs from her mind. "Right. Princess, the guys..." She took her first good look around. "What the hell...?" She froze for a moment, dumbfounded. "We really got transferred..." Her eyes caught on something, making her smile in joy. "Hey, it's my shirt! The one that disappeared back in Tokyo!" She grabbed her red Chinese silk shirt from the ground quickly putting it on. "And my boxers! And my pants! And my henshin pen...?"

Sparing a moment from worrying about her spouse, Akane finally recognized these 'rags' were the clothing they wore before transforming. It has returned, even if scattered around. Realizing that she was walking around in her birthday suit, Akane hurried to the spot where she woke up. She was relieved to find all her clothing scattered around, even the parka and other winter articles. Her henshin pen was here too, as well as her communicator — both intact but unresponsive. Akane quickly got dressed lamenting that a wrap miniskirt and a designer blouse were far from an ideal attire for a rescue operation in the wilderness. But she had little to choose from. Despite the cold seeping from the rocky ground, she couldn't walk around in winter clothing: the sun here was positively scorching. After a thought she donned the warm boots: she didn't feel like walking bare-footed across the freezing-cold rocks.

They hastily combed the area finding Ami laying unconscious amidst her scattered clothing. There was also the Mercury computer and a lot of small appliances of which they recognized only a video camera. Surmising that Mercury kept it all in her subspace pocket, Ranma thoroughly turned away and hurried to comb further leaving Akane to dress the unconscious girl.

But they didn't find anyone else, only some disturbing anomalies. There were five small chunks of foreign landscape cut into the former mountain slope, ranging from a hole filled with tree branches to a miniature swamp. Approximately where they last saw their comrades in arms. And a huge circle of high grass, one and a half their height, with a half of some baobab at its edge, surrounded by a ring of crushed rock. It's where their Princess was.

"Don't have to wonder," Ranma said grimly as she kicked at a pile of dry sand. "They were scattered far and wide. And no clues how to get them back."

"Maybe Ami could figure something out?" suggested Akane. "I wonder where we are? I hope we're still on Earth? Or...?"

The first pterodactyl to fly by told them that 'or'.

They didn't talk about the invincible knight. But the very fact of his existence weighed heavily on them. If he survived, if he returns, they had nothing to oppose him. Leaving Akane to watch Ami until she wakes up, Ranma went exploring around the edge of their 'island' in search for cover. She didn't find anything of use there, only a sheer drop of fifty meters in average. Beyond it there was a sea of jungle stretching uniformly up to the horizon shrouded in a moist haze. She didn't risk getting down: the cliff edge was in perpetual collapsing causing small earthquakes. Get buried in such a landslide and not even Ryouga could dig you up. The rock avalanches were of impressive proportions, as if the whole rocky massif cracked during transition losing its integrity.

Jumping away timely as cracks snaked under her feet, Ranma walked back dusting her shirt from the dust the avalanche spat up at her. They could always take the risk of diving into the jungle, she decided. But better leave it as a last option. The snow was starting to melt where the haywire technique of Sailor Sol didn't get to it. Small streamlets gurgled between the rocks. Combing the whole 'island' Ranma didn't find anything of notice, only a broken assault rifle without a magazine inherited from Minako. She didn't risk getting close to the pyramid, leaving it to after Ami wakes up.

They spent half a hour waiting in tense silence: cold water didn't wake Ami up but they weren't willing to resort to more radical methods. Ranma meanwhile tied her hair back into her trademark pigtail. The enemy did not return and the two girls relaxed a bit although they still watched around. At last Ami regained her consciousness. They quickly brought her up to date with the recent events hoping she would think of a way to return their missing comrades. First thing Ami reached for the Mercury computer. But the magi-tech gadget refused to work. With rising frustration she went through all her appliances but these were either burned out or useless in regards to the problem at hand.

She examined the intrusions of alien landscape and her expression became grim. "If it took me that long to regain consciousness..." She poked at a mix of dirt and natant plants with a stick, revealing dirty water under this relatively thin layer. "Many of them could have already fallen victims to the environment... Or to predators... I'm letting everyone down, don't I?"

"Don't fret," Ranma reassured her. "They are seasoned gals, they won't die that easily. Let's check the pyramid for now, maybe we'll find something useful there."

(シーンブレイク)

Minako came to struggling in something stinky and sticky. With a sick, harrowing horror she realized that her nude body was being squeezed by something long and writhing‼! The deafening shriek of fear and outrage sent each bird for kilometers around flying. The hot-shot blond started thrashing like woman possessed, then she bit down on the disgusting tentacle growling and shaking her head from side to side like a bulldog.

The giant boa swam away in panic, traumatized for the rest of its life. It won't try hunting anything like that, ever! Crocodiles are much safer.

Minako was gulping air in big, shuddering breathes, hanging onto branches of a tree rising from the swamp. A tree with a straight, slippery trunk without a single branch for ten meters or so below her. "I wonder how did I get here?" she asked aloud. "And where's everyone?"

(シーンブレイク)

"Stop worrying about them so much," Ranma tried to convince Ami for an umpteenth time. "They'll be fine! Let's check if there's a hidden door or something."

The black pyramid turned out to be a dead end and a complete disappointment. They approached it hopefully at first, watching the enormous sharp-pointed edifice warily. A good third of Tokyo Tower in height, it rested on a flat pillow of gravel. Alas, beyond the modest arched entrance the size of a good gate, there was only an empty hall. Granted, a perfect mirror floor looked impressive creating a dizzying kaleidoscopic effect as it reflected the faceted dome made of similar perfect mirrors. It took them some time to realize what this weird space was. But the novelty quickly wore off leaving them with an empty round hall some fifteen meters across. It was many times smaller than the base of the pyramid and it was useless for the only thing that mattered to them: getting their comrades back.

"There's nothing here," replied Ami with a patient sigh as she rapped methodically at one of flat mirrors that closed six out of seven arched depressions sunk into the half-spherical dome. "Not a slightest response, it feels solid."

"All these arches have to lead somewhere," Ranma insisted without much conviction or hope. They were arguing this over for a third or fourth time, their investigation going in circles.

"I can film this hall on the video camera if you want." The frustration in Ami's voice was starting to become apparent. "These mirrors reflect any sonic waves. If something gets through, it's below the resolution of the tools at hand. The same for light, at all wave lengths. And there are no weak points, you told it yourself."

Ranma had to agree. Wherever these blocked arches led — and there was enough room for dozens of such halls inside the pyramid — they had no way to know. Whatever these mirrors were made of, Ranma and Akane couldn't even scratch their perfect, unmarred surface. For ki senses the world ended at its surface, as if there was an infinite, silent void beyond the thin film of mirror. It was quite disconcerting and creepy to try feeling chi flows from inside the hall: the overall effect was a spiritual equivalent of a dead silence of a deep crypt.

And yet the pyramid was anything but a dead, passive object. During the transition of their rocky massif the former vertical tilted about thirty degrees. The humongous construct reoriented itself and stood now perfectly straight feigning inertness. But the ring of gravel surrounding it told otherwise. The solid rock had been ground to fine pieces by the motion of the pyramid's underground part. It could very well happen to be the strange knight's starship, especially considering the fact his armor was composed of similar invulnerable mirrors.

"I'm ready to start undermining it," Ranma muttered in a fit of temper. It was like grabbing at straws, actually: no one of them knew techniques allowing to dig through such a flowing substance as gravel with only their bare hands. The Crushing Point was useless here.

"What a sty!" Ranma kicked at the insurmountable mirror. "Ooff..." Doing that, purely out of frustration, wasn't the smartest thing. The mirror surfaces negated any effects of ki at the point of contact, resulting in an unprotected human flesh propelled by ki-reinforces muscles hitting an unyielding wall. One could really hurt himself here.

"I doubt that would help," said Ami not even noticing she began to turn into Captain Obvious.

"I know, I know," Ranma grumbled rubbing at her bruised hand. "We're like flies in a jar here, could only wait until someone comes and swats us."

Ami pulled out her computer renewing the hopeless attempts to resurrect it. The machine was nominally alive but displayed some boot error related to magic sensors. She closed the useless gadget in frustration. "I wish I just could open a portal to where my friends are!" The quiet girl felt like banging her head against a wall.

"Invalid coordinates," a melodic mechanical voice echoed through the hall startling all the three girls. "Repeat your input through your personal portable interactor or speak a voice formula aloud preceding it with your code phrase."

"What... What was that?" Akane asked with some fear glancing around.

"That's it!" Ranma snapped her fingers. "Ami got to be this, er, ahs-lord just like us! Hey, Akane, you're probably too! That's why the three of us remain here while the others are scattered around!"

"What ahs-lord?" Akane asked, confused.

"Well, remember what that bastard told us?" Ranma reminded her. "The system will not deign to reply to anyone but them! Ahs-seven Tkhachshchas Eet-suht, open the portal a kilometer above us!"

"Your command open portal is rejected," the mechanical voice replied her. "Safety condition seven. Unacceptable short distance to this transport node."

"Then..." Ranma didn't give up, inspired by her success. " Ahs-seven Tkhachshchas Eet-suht, open a portal to a point ten kilometers above us!"

"Attention, opening a portal in aperture five," the mechanical voice raised her hopes. "Warning, security condition forty three. Unacceptable atmospheric pressure difference."

"Idiot‼!" yelled Akane as she grabbed Ami and tore towards the exit. "It'll suck us in like a vacuum cleaner!"

"You think so?" Ranma asked nervously glancing round.

Akane didn't make it. The air rushed towards her like a resilient wall, its force pushing her across the slippery floor... The next instant it cut off, the entrance arch opening covered with a rainbow membrane similar in appearance to that of a soap bubble.

"Safety mechanisms employed according to protocol forty three," the mechanical voice noted dispassionately.

"You see? Everything's fine..." Ranma squeaked nervously as she backed away from her wife advancing on her like a storm cloud. "Look, it did open a portal!" She pointed at an arch behind her back where, beyond a similar membrane, one could see a deep blue sky, a faraway horizon and clouds floating far down below. Akane snorted like an angry bull releasing her rage in two puffs from her nostrils. But her curiosity proved stronger. She carefully approached the portal and took a look down, careful to not touch the opalescent barrier. Deep down there, below clouds, there was a sea of jungle looking dark blue from up here. She could even see the edge of their rocky 'island'.

"See? We broke through!" Ranma proclaimed triumphantly while poking at the opalescent membrane which yielded resiliently under her finger. "Now Ami will figure this system out in no time... Right, Ami?" She turned around to the girl in question. Distracted, she only had time to eep when the membrane gave under her finger jumping up her hand to the wrist. The atmospheric pressure difference did the rest, pulling suddenly at the redhead's hand, which made her suffer the shame of losing her balance. When her body touched the membrane she was ejected forcibly like a cork from an over-pressured bottle.

"Ranma-kun!" Ami gasped.

"Don't worry," Akane reassured her. "Ki works here, he'll be fine. This will teach him to think what he's doing next time!"

"Bugger," grumbled Ranma as she shielded her eyes with one arm against the freezing wind. "I just had to make such a fool of myself!" She rolled face up throwing her arms wide and enjoying the view of the deep blue stratospheric sky. "A blunder of lifetime... Now I have to fall for hell knows how long, to be ridiculed when I land." She pouted scringing from the cold. "What's most vexing, I asked for it!"

She quickly grew bored with falling so she flipped face down trying to get a good look around despite the onrushing air threatening to freeze her eyelids shut. There was nothing down there. No mountains at the horizon, no sea, no noticeable rivers — just the endless sea of jungle and the rough circle of rock with a black seed of the pyramid in its center.

It took a long time before she plunged through the cloud layer.

(シーンブレイク)

Sitting on the thin branches was uncomfortable. Various blood-sucking insects didn't give her time to grow bored either. At least her back was covered by that ungodly mess her waist-length hair turned into. Minako sadly had to give up the idea of braiding it before it caught on something. She needed two free hands and a more reliable perch for that.

Glancing around she finally noticed down below her parka sunk into the mess of rotting plants by her and boa's thrashing. The parka promised at least a partial respite from the mosquitoes pestering her so Minako started looking for a way to get down safely. She didn't want to jump from ten meters high into a swamp of unknown depth. Who knew what snags could be hidden under the surface?

Her plans were scratched out by a ridgy back parting the plant carpet lazily not that far from her tree.

"I'd better be eaten alive by mosquitoes rather than a crocodile," decided the blond as she slapped energetically at an another blood-sucker. "I'll endure it up here until our girls come to the rescue..." Her expression darkened as she remembered how many days it took for Ami to find Sol and Akane and build a working portal to Jadeite's world. "I'll die on this tree and crocodiles will have to settle for my dried up mummy! Waitaminute, did something glint down there?"

Her henshin pen floated there, almost completely hidden by leaves. Minako immediately perked up.

"Hah, here's my escape! Venus doesn't fear any crocodiles. Plus I'll be able to swing between the trees like Tarzan!" She began carefully climbing down scraping her hands and knees on the rough bark and barely holding. Roughly halfway down she lost her grip anyway, splashing down into the swamp back first. She barely managed to surface scrambling through the mess of floating plants. She began feeling around in panic blinking away the dirty swamp water until finally managed to find her henshin pen. She smirked at the approaching ridgy back. "You think breakfast is served? Wait and see who's the boss in this swamp!"

The transformation phrase fell empty, devoid of power. The henshin-pen didn't respond turning out to be a dead, useless bauble.

"Or not..."

The crocodile was rapidly approaching.

(シーンブレイク)

Amortizing her fall with a ki blast fired at the ground the slightly chilly Ranma finished her ten-kilometer fall without any problems. To her immense relief Akane was together with Ami, fully concentrated on some thingy. It seemed there would be no ridiculing. Ranma approached quietly, trying not to attract attention.

"No, this button returns you back. For zooming in, use that one," Ami was explaining patiently. "They have the same effect only because your last action was zooming out."

"What do you have here?" the redhead asked the girls bent over an unknown object.

"Don't distract me!" Akane waved her away irritably. "So which one zooms out, you say?"

Ranma looked over her wife's shoulder. The thing turned to be a hybrid of a medallion and something akin to Mercury computer. A round brass-colored medallion the size of a palm with a massive hinge and a thick chain was opened revealing the bottom half stuffed with buttons while the top half glowed greenish color.

"This one," Ami repeated patiently touching a brass-colored button marked with black kanji so filigreed they were almost invisible. "It's even titled 'panorama scale'."

Akane looked closer. "You'd need a microscope to read all of this! What would I do if I have to work it while running...?! All right, moving on."

"This one," Ami continued poking at an another button, "moves your view across the map. It's proportional to the zoom scale, so you have to master using both modifiers to operate the map." She demonstrated this by pushing big buttons with arrows on them taking the edges of the circular keyboard. Ranma managed to glimpse a web of hair-thin black lines flickering on the glowing inner surface of the lid before the irate Akane punted her away, annoyed by her intruding presence.

"And here is the most important one," concluded Ami. "The cancellation button that reverts everything to the initial state. Remember it for a case when you lose your way through the functions or press a wrong button. Press it enough times and you'll return to the initial mode."

"It's labeled 'renunciation'," commented Akane with a sigh squinting at the barely discernible kanji. "I'd like to know who was the joker that... All right, open it!"

Ami took the medallion from her hands and started tapping something rapidly with two fingers, as deftly as she usually did using the Mercury computer.

"What' with you and stuff—" Ranma indignantly cut in as she returned from the point of her landing.

"Quiet, don't interfere!" hissed Akane silencing her.

Could it be she's simply mocking me subtly instead of ridiculing openly? thought Ranma.

One of the arches blazed with light opening with a quiet pop into some extremely well lit place. The mirror hall was instantly flooded with light and heat.

"Let's go!" Akane shouted at the redhead as she took the medallion from Ami's hands. "The portal won't stay open for long!"

"Don't worry," Ami tried to reassure her. "The limit is half a hour."

"Exactly!" retorted Akane with the same energy as she hastily exited the arch filled with light. "If we fail to fit in that limit, we'll be stuck there forever, cut off from everyone. R-r-ranma, are you coming or are you growing roots there?"

The redhead hastily followed her, jumping out of the portal to wherever it led. She found herself in a desert. A desert full of such a white and sparkly sand that her eyes hurt. The light was blinding. Her feet started baking through the thin soles of her kung-fu slippers. Well, she endured worse. Ranma shielded her eyes from the scorching sun with a palm, squinting. Akane was climbing up a dune so snow white it was painful to look at. She was casting glances at the medallion trying to poke there which almost made her lose her balance on the free-flowing slope.

"Where are you going?" the redhead avowed her concern. It was good for Akane in her warm winter boots, the heat couldn't reach through those easily.

"One of us is there." Akane gestured fiercely in the direction of the top of the dune the size of a small mountain range. "Five kilometers away. If we won't make it back in a half-hour, we're stuck here forever! Got that?"

"So you've found a way to find them?" Ranma exclaimed in joy rushing after her up the flowing sand that sucked her efforts like it would water. She instantly met an unpleasant surprise: ki here... Well, it worked somehow. But she would be barely able to jump two meters up. If she stood on a flat firm surface. She had to forget about scaling the mountain of sand in one go.

Akane was fiercely tearing up the endless slope showing no mercy to herself. It proved not so easy to catch up with her.

They both were huffing as they emerged on the crest of the ridge. The sweat wasn't rolling down, it kept drying up faster than it appeared. Akane without delay ran down the much gentler slope. The sand seemed more firm here. Ranma lingered to take a good look around shielding her eyes with a palm and squinting at the bright light. Just as she thought. She ran after Akane, it again took her some time to catch up with the other girl.

"Turn to the left!" she shouted. "To the left, I tell you!"

"She is there!" Akane pointed stubbornly with her hand. "I got a good bearing!"

"And the next ridge is lower there!" Arguing while running full tilt was exhausting. "We'll lose less time!"

Akane finally troubled herself with looking where she was going as she shielded her eyes on the run. Without saying a word she turned a bit to the left.

"Conserve your strength," added the redhead. "Ki doesn't work here."

"I know, I'm not blind," Akane breathed out through her teeth. She glanced into the medallion and pushed faster, setting a totally exhausting pace. "Time."

There was nothing to counter that. If they get stuck in this desert, they'll most assuredly die. As far as Ranma could see from that top, the dunes stretched to the horizon.

They reached a saddle where the curved ends of two adjacent crescent-shaped dunes fused together. And again up a free-flowing slope escaping from under their feet. Akane tore upwards frantically trying to climb straight, trying at an angle — either way it was equally slow. But there was the top, at last. Akane almost made it when the sand under her feet slid down in a small avalanche dragging her down while rolling her from side to side and threatening to swallow. She cried out thrashing desperately until she managed to tear free and jump onto her feet after which she slid three more meters down. The redhead winced in sympathy: the sand was so hot it hurt to touch it, while her wife haven't bothered to change out of the mini-skirt into something more suitable for the desert. Now she also had sand in her boots and other wrong places.

Uttering a quiet curse Akane tore forward again. They climbed over the edge at the safe place that was already collapsed, and continued their extremal race under the direly scorching sun. The flat back slope transited into a hillocky plain of sand, then into a labyrinth of small crescent-shaped dunes. The girls had to either meander between these, or climb up their small but still exhaustingly steep faces. Despite the obstacles they quickly reached the next ridge of dunes. There was no united wall here so they only had to zig-zag between the ends of adjacent dunes curling towards them. Even across the sand the girls were running faster that most sprinters could across a racing track. But the cost... Ranma was thinking that a pace one third slower, without the pressing need to save a comrade, would make for a good endurance training. Ki this, ki that — you don't even notice as you get accustomed to rely on the spiritual force in everything. It's just that nobody before knew a way to suppress it so completely and uniformly. Hmm, here's an idea. If that zone in Tokyo doesn't resolve itself it would be possible to open a specialized doujo there. For the most advanced masters, to repeat the basics.

They passed the third ridge, and the fourth, and the fifth. The pain in their abused muscles alone would be enough to fell a common mortal. Both were rasping for air, their throats dry. Sun was burning them from above, its heat reflecting off the white sand below that burned their feet through the shoes. Akane was frowning more and more as she kept glancing at the tiny screen of the medallion. The sixth ridge was rising ahead, solid and even like a wall, with no discernible passes. They began climbing it. Akane growled in anger pushing herself mercilessly. Ranma kept even with her, she had a gut feeling that their fate hung on a rapidly thinning thread. They had yet to travel back, encumbered. The sand indifferently drank their efforts. The slope kept stretching forever.

Finally they were over the crest. Akane stopped for a second, rasping for air. She opened the medallion and started pressing buttons missing with her shaking fingers. Then she slammed it shut emitting a hiss of joy: they couldn't talk anymore. She rushed forward with a new strength, turning to the right. Ranma got it: they've made it! Now just grab the girl and—

Akane stumbled losing her balance in surprise and falling face first into the scorching-hot sand. With a brief hiss, she jumped onto her feet to just stand there looking left and right helplessly along a track of fuzzy, formless footprints.

Ranma looked closely, then gestured to their left. Akane croaked something unintelligible but clearly unflattering about their lost comrade: the tracks were leading further away! They ran like girls possessed. The sand ended, replaced by an uneven rocky plain. The dark ground was hotter than the white sand, there was a very dense heat haze rising above it. The rescuers separated without saying a word: this murk could hide an elephant a hundred steps away. They kept close but still barely saw each other as blurry, wavering spots. Despair stepped closer, clutching at their hearts: what if she fell and is lying down? They'd never spot her amidst the uneven terrain littered with rocks!

They were moving too slowly, straining their vision until their eyes hurt. Time was running out.

Akane rushed to the right with a croak of joy. Ranma ran after her, but her wife emerged out of the haze going back, subdued. She saw things. They returned, as much as they could tell, to their previous course. With each passing second their resolve to die but not give up was close to the reality as merciless as the sun here.

They came together. An untrained girl couldn't have possibly went as far while they were running from the portal. Ranma wanted to ask why not determine the lost girl's position the same way they found it the first time? But she saw Akane clutching the medallion in her fist with impotent anger. She swallowed her words. Not that either of them could talk, but still.

They ran back, faster now, separating further so they could barely guess each other's position. Ranma saw something moving. She almost ignored it: everything was moving here. The oppressively sweltering air streamed and wavered, making even the horizon twist in a slow, viscous dance.

But still she turned to check. She felt an indescribable relief when a small figure finally materialized, clad in winter clothing. The lost one was trudging perpendicularly to her previous direction. The redhead quickly caught up with her. The girl was swaying like drunk, the long raven hair hanging on one side from under her hood looked gray, peppered with thin white dust. Ranma quickly grabbed Rei and ran back orienting somehow by the sun that hung almost in the zenith. The rescued one started thrashing at first, then she recognized Ranma and allowed herself to lose consciousness. Ranma just grunted in displeasure: it was suddenly harder to carry the limp girl. She threw her over her shoulder like a sack and ran with all her might. There was the sand, at last. Her feet started sinking deeply under the double weight, the desert didn't want to release its prey. And where's Akane?

Akane ran out of the haze-enshrouded rocky plain. She lost Ranma, she was disoriented and confused by the mockingly complex mechanism. Touching her own hair was painful, her dark blouse turned into a tool of torture. Not that her bare arms and legs fared better. She was about to dive back into the haze to search for Ranma when she noticed the redhead bearing someone slung over her shoulder running heavily up the flat slope of the sand mountain. They did it! Rasping and stumbling, Akane ran after them.

Ranma simply slid down. She'd prefer much faster rolling head over heels but she didn't want to hurt the unconscious girl. And again the exhausting run across the sand. And down again in a barely controlled slide. Her head was throbbing with heat, her vision swimming, her muscles protesting shrilly. How many sand ridges to go? She didn't even notice when Akane managed to sweep Rei from her arms, but running became a bit easier. Then she stumbled over a fallen Akane. She scooped Rei up and ran forward. She wished dearly to stop and help her wife up, but time, time! There was none. She had to convince herself that Akane will surely regain her strength and catch up to her. And she did, some indeterminable time later. Croaking something she pulled at Ranma's sleeve. Ranma looked around unsteadily, there was a red haze obscuring her vision. Ah, their own footprints. Must keep to. She turned a bit to the right. Why did this slope stretch so long.

Akane opened the medallion. She took one glance. Emitting a rasp of despair she fell down to her knees, limp and dispirited.

It was over.

Ranma continued running forward. Partly from stubbornness, partly because she became too dumb to realize it, as her brain was beginning to shutting down. Here's the crest. She plowed over it landing on her ass and sliding down in a heap of sand. The sensitive spot was hurting from the compound touch of the sand and her black pants that got too hot in the sun. But that was such a triviality. The portal at the base of the sand mountain looked weird, like a dark arch-shaped mirror. Ami was shouting something standing with one foot here and her other foot there. The mechanical voice was droning some warning. The redhead made the last dash sliding in the hot quagmire tearing free and sliding again. He didn't remember how he reached the portal. Putting Rei down he turned back, to get his wife. But Ami stopped him with a gesture. Akane was already there, sliding down, rolling from side to side and cussing hoarsely. So she regained her composure, after all.

As soon as the wrongly dressed dark-haired girl fell in through the portal Ami pulled her foot back. The portal closed instantly turning into a mirror. The hall darkened considerably.

Ranma and Akane fell down noisily inhaling the oh so cool air. Ami was telling them something, the mechanical voice droned something, but it went over them. They made it! They saved her!

Five to go.

They preferred not to think about the fate of Uranus. If the Outer forgotten in the heat of battle managed by some miracle to survive that blow, if she wasn't erased by the following cataclysm, then she'll be waiting for them home, on Earth. They hoped that her landing spot was far enough beyond·the edge of the transited chunk of landscape. If it wasn't... then thousands tons of rock have already become her tombstone.

(シーンブレイク)

Translated February 05, 2012. Last correction April 11, 2016.

Thanks for C&C to:
— Orphus users (11 bugs so far)
— gsteemso