Chapter 9: Shattered Trust
One of the few loyal servants of Captain Kiima sneaked around the castle, with a bag of goodies in his hands, as he made his way down to the dungeons. He stopped at every corner to make sure no one was following him. He took a deep breath before running down the hall that would lead him to the entrance of the dungeon his captain was being held captive in. Lucky for him, the guards were away as he had suspected they would be, as it was dinner time in the Phoenix castle. As soon as he arrived at the door, he jumped to see through the window and saw her lying on the floor. "Psst! Captain, are you OK?"
She did not respond. "Dammit! Hold on!"
Masara used all his strength to push open the door and closed it behind him when he went inside. Once he was certain it was safe to move about, he ran towards the Captain and pulled her up. "Cap, wake up. I can't stay for long."
The Captain groggily sat with her back resting on the wall, not sure what was transpiring around her. "Who are you?"
"It's me, Masara! I've brought you some supplies," he said as he poured the contents of his bag on the floor, "but hurry! Lord Saffron would kill me if he found out I'm here without permission."
His blunt confession forced her to regain almost complete consciousness in an instant. "Don't risk your life for me! Go away!"
"Not until I can help you. Here, drink this," he said as he helped her drink an entire bottle of water. He then proceeded to hand her bread, a bowl of rice and tea filled with herbal defenses for the infection she had already developed. As she got busy eating the food, he began rubbing balms made of medicinal herbs on her cuts and bruises. Some of the injuries were very infected, but he trusted the herbs he was rubbing onto her and the ones she was drinking would reverse any adverse effects the infection had caused in her.
"Masara, this is delicious," she said as she ate the last of her aliments. "Thank you so much."
"I made it myself," he proudly stated.
She closed her eyes with a smile, and allowed the soldier to continue cleaning the wounds her Lord had given her. "Whatever did you do to our Lord? He is very mad at you. You should've stuck with the plan, Kiima."
The Captain shrugged. "I know, but something is telling me what we're doing is wrong. I still can't believe that man was able to defeat our Lord. I could hold my own against the landling, but I could not hold my own against Lord Saffron."
"You should see what the landling is able to do when he is pushed to the limit. He did everything he could to bring back that girl of his."
The Captain arched a brow and opened her eyes. "What did he do?"
"You know, bested Lord Saffron and made him be reborn, again."
"On his own?"
"On his own. He really wanted to save that poor girl."
"What happened to her?"
"She died, remember?" he replied back instantly, almost mechanically. "Dammit, I didn't bring enough herbs. I got the main injuries but I'll have to bring some more to get the smaller ones."
The Captain reached out to him and held his arm. "Don't come back, OK? I'm extremely grateful for you doing this for me, but I can't expect you to risk your life for me again."
Masara lowered his head and began putting away what was left of the items he had brought with him. "If the landling risked his life for the one he loved, why can't I do the same, Cap?"
"Masara, I…"
The soldier waved at her, dismissing her comment. "Forget about it, I know."
After Masara cleaned after himself, he quickly left the room, hoping no one would see him leave the cell he had visited without permission. The Captain could already feel the relief of the food, water and medicine Masara had brought for her. She rested her back on the wall and rested. After her Lord had left her –beat her, unconscious, she had had many more of those weird memories return to her. She began questioning the validity of the stories her Lord and soldiers had told her about her life before her accident. What if she were not the person they had told her she had been? What if the memories were trying to tell her the truth about her past?
She remembered hearing once to believe only "half of what was heard, and half of what was witnessed," but in this case, she inclined to believe nothing she was told or shown had been true, and to believe everything she learned from the flashbacks she kept having was closer to her actual reality.
A particular memory kept returning to her, even in her waking hours. The memory had come to her when she returned to the castle after the incident with Ranma at the cave, and it had not left her memory since. If this flashback had indeed belonged to her, and not to the person she had been cursed with, then everything she thought she knew was a lie. She hoped it had been a lie. If it was, then she had a chance at being happy; being happy with him.
She closed her eyes and relaxed as the memory in question came back to her.
Ranma pulled to the side of a cave inside Saffron's lair, with Akane's doll in between his arms. He stared at her and felt guilt rising in his chest. "Akane, I'm sorry about this, but I will fix it, OK? I'll fix it, somehow. Just trust me."
The doll did not move, but Ranma hoped that she was somehow able to hear him. "Listen, Akane. If anything happens to me out there…and you're able to run, I want you to run, you listen to me? I want you to forget about anything else, including my sorry ass, and run."
The doll's stance did not change. Ranma sighed.
"Kiima, she tried to trick me into thinking she was you. I can't let that happen again. Next time she can try to trick you, posing as me, and if she touches you…I'll…" he shook his head free of the less than honorable thoughts he had about how to end Kiima's life if she dared to hurt Akane again.
"If you can hear me, I want you to remember this: whenever we see each other again, we need to check it is really us, OK? So…uhm…"
He heard the battle cries coming closer to him. He needed to think of something, and fast. "Dammit! Uhm…something that just you and I will know."
He racked his brain, thinking of something no one would ever think they would say to each other. He thought of all the things they had done together, attempting to come with something they could use. It finally hit him.
"Romeo and Juliet. That's it! I'm your Romeo, you're my Juliet! No one would ever think of that! OK, remember that Akane: Romeo and Juliet."
Ranma glanced at the doll one last time as a flashback of their failed attempt at the Shakespeare play flooded his mind. "We'll get the chance; I promise."
The Captain's cheeks were wet when her face opened again. Every time she saw the memory in her mind, it brought her down to tears. The look of desperation on his face was too much for her to bear. The way he had looked at her in the memory was the same way he had stared at her when they first met at the tour guide's cabin. His eyes, filled with hope to see her again haunted her now. How could she take part in hurting a man as he? All he wanted was to save her; he just wanted to be able to take her back with him, back home. Was she the person of whom he spoke so highly?
"I wish someone loved me like he loved her."
Maybe someone did. She thought about Masara but she knew that she would never see him as more than a friend. Even after all this time of his wooing attempts, the lad was still so much younger than she was –or so she had been told, though that had never stopped him from trying to persuade her into becoming his wife.
"Could I be somehow connected to this Akane person?"
With that thought in mind, she closed her eyes again as she recalled a partial memory she had explored this morning. She wished she would remember it all, but something seemed to be blocking the rest of it, as if remembering it all would cause her harm.
"Do you ever wonder about how this is going to end, Ranma?" she asked him.
"What is?"
Akane pointed to the both of them. When he did not immediately respond, she fidgeted and found something to do. She picked up a rock and attempted to make it jump just as Ranma did, but once more, she was unsuccessful. After chuckling at her failed attempt and then showing off that he could do the rock-water trick she had just failed on, he spoke.
"I don't like to think about that. Whatever happens, happens."
Akane had the deepest frown he had ever seen on her. He sighed in exasperation at her quick temper and decided to elaborate more.
"What I meant to say is…"
"I know what you meant! I'm just wasting my time with you!"
Ranma shook his head. "No Akane, listen…"
"This might only be a phase –an obstacle, for you because of your ridiculous amount of fiancées you have around, but some of us had other plans that are on hold because of you."
It was Ranma's turn to frown. Akane huffed and made her way to stand up but he quickly reacted and pulled her down with him. She was so determined to leave that when he pulled her down she lost her balance. She ended up falling on his lap and blushing furiously at their position.
"Ranma, let me go."
"No."
Akane raised her hand the same way she did right before she pulled out her mallet but hesitated when she saw his eyes. He had that look. The look she had only seen a handful of times in their lives together. A look that said to her that whatever he was about to say, was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so helped him God.
"Why do you always jump to conclusions, 'kane? I never said whatever happened wouldn't have you in my life."
The Captain held back a sob. What had she done? She had helped in ruining this man's life. She should have probed more. She should have found out the entire story before she jumped at helping her Lord. Why was her Lord so mean to her? She had done everything she been told to do, and yet he still treated her like a pebble in his royal shoe.
She hastily wiped the new tears before inspecting her battered body. Her black eye was almost completely gone with the exception of small bruising on her eyelid. Her ankle did not hurt anymore as long as she did not place a lot of weight on it, but she figured it would always bother her from now since she had not properly cared for it after the injury. As for the other cuts and bruises, Masara had done a good job of patching her back, given the circumstances. She would make sure she repaid him for his time.
The Captain sighed in desperation. She knew Lord Saffron would return soon and would notice the minor improvements her friend had provided her. She tried her best to cover the signs that someone had been there to help her. He could not let Masara get hurt for helping her. She had already taken part in wasting enough people's lives; she had to do something to fix what she had broken.
"Maybe…maybe I'm not a Phoenix at all? Maybe I'm Akane? That would explain why I don't…"
"CAPTAIN, GET UP!"
Lord Saffron's screaming interrupted her thoughts. She stood up as she saw her Lord walk inside the room then up to her and yank her chains away from her with a sweep of his claws. "This is your last chance. The landling is heading this way. Go clean up and get what I need from him, got it?"
The Captain froze in place for a moment, wrapping her head around what Saffron had just said. Ranma was coming here to Mount Phoenix? Why? Was Lord Saffron going to kill him now? They were supposed to go to Nerima to do so…but…
"CAPTAIN!"
"My Lord, I'm sorry. I'm on my way."
The Captain tried her best to look worse than she looked to prevent Lord Saffron from finding out she had been given help just moments ago. She held onto the walls to aid herself all the way up to her room. She locked the door behind her and prayed to whichever god had blessed her enough to be able to go back to her room to clean.
She ran straight to the bathroom, throwing her clothes on the floor before jumping into the tub and turning on the faucet. The steamy water helped her relax her muscles as she scrubbed herself raw of wherever Saffron had lay a hand on her. She then washed her hair from all the dirt and grime it had accumulated in the past two weeks. She looked down at her clothes lying on the floor and realized she would have to burn the outfit altogether. She would definitely have to use a clean version of her Captain uniform today if she were to fool Ranma that nothing had happened to her in the past couple of weeks.
After she decided she could no longer keep her Lord waiting, she jumped out of the tub and began drying herself. She stared at her mirror and thought about which form she should use to meet Ranma. She noticed he was more recipient to her thoughts when she looked like Akane, but he was also more prone to getting the hell away from her when she looked like Kiima. After making her decision and putting on clean clothes and assuring herself she looked decent, she sped out of her room and headed to her Lord's quarters.
She stopped in front of the door and knocked loudly on it.
"It's Captain Kiima, my Lord."
The doors opened to reveal her Lord sitting on his throne. He waved his hand at a servant and he immediately ran to the Captain, providing her with an empty bucket.
"Don't fail me, Kiima," Lord Saffron said.
The Captain bowed to her Lord before leaving his quarters, made a beeline to the exit of the castle and headed to the path she knew Ranma would take to get here. She had never actually brought him when they toured around, but she had showed him the path to the castle in case he needed to stop by. She never believed he had to visit the castle, but she also thought she could get what she needed from him on the second or third time they met.
She ran as fast as she could to catch up to him before he got anywhere near Lord Saffron's castle. The farther away she was from her Lord, the easier this would be for her. After a couple of miles of running, she finally saw the man she was looking for. He was walking in what seemed like a nonchalant way for anyone who did not know him. Yet, to her, he was walking like a man on a mission. He took a few more steps before he stopped when he saw her. She stopped as well and tried to look without worry, but failed. He took a few small steps before turning them into sprinting, stopping only when he was standing in front of her.
He looked at her up and down, and then his eyes fixated on the bucket she was holding. She could not look at him in the eye and kept staring at the ground, thinking about she was expected to accomplish today. He opened his mouth several times but no sound came out. What was he supposed to say? Hi now, and bye now? He scratched his head thinking of the possibilities before he decided to say the first thing that came to mind.
"So, you've been busy carrying water up the hill, or something?"
The Captain furrowed and leaned in her head closer to his, as if she thought she had misheard him. After a few quick blinks, which reflected her brain working, she shook her head at him before asking for clarification on what he had just said.
"I meant…the bucket…you…water…ugh, never mind."
The Captain recalled his comment in her head and then stared at the empty bucket. "Oh! Oohh!" she said and began laughing. The comment itself had not been that funny, but her fit of laughter really came from being able to see him one more time.
Ranma could not help himself when his smile grew wider at hearing her laughter one more time. Her laughter died and so did his. Was this really the last time he was going to see the image of the woman he cared for so many years?
"We need to talk," they both said, earning each another chuckle.
"Where?"
The Captain looked behind her, knowing they were being followed at her Lord's request. "Let's find some shade over there," she said as she pointed to her right. She led Ranma deeper into the forest until they arrived at a riverbank. She sat under a huge tree that would hold them both sitting next to each other, and he mimicked her position next to her. They remained quiet for a while, admiring the view nature provided them, each lost in their own thoughts until Ranma broke the silence.
"I've missed you. Been too busy?"
She nodded. "Been practically tied to the castle," she joked, knowing its double meaning, and hoping he would not catch on.
"Your ankle OK?"
She looked down at it and moved her leg so that one of the bruises on her ankle was not as visible as it was right now. She decided to cross her legs to cover the rest of the scratches.
Ranma took a closer look at her and saw the bruises and scratches, while minor, were present all over her body. He crawled around her and kneeled in front of her. The Captain looked away, avoiding his eye contact but he lifted his hands and carefully forced her to face him.
She closed her eyes, unable to hold his stare. She felt his thumb caress the remnants of her black eye and she flinched. "Cap, what are you not telling me?"
She opened her eyes again and saw he had closed the distance between them. She saw his face stop a few inches from hers and his eyes scan every millimeter of her face. "Did someone hurt you?"
She laughed nervously. "Who would dare hurt the advisor of Lord Saffron?"
"Advisor? I thought you were the Captain?"
"I got a promotion, reason I've been so busy."
"Oh," was all he said before he let go of her and returned to his spot beside her. She stared at the river in front of them and it reminded her of the memory she had just had a few moments ago. She gave Ranma a side glance and saw he looked as conflicted as she felt.
"Did she have any family? Is it OK?"
Ranma swallowed hard. She did not have to say whom she was talking about; there was only one she they both knew about.
"Yup, they're fine. That's actually why I'm here," he said, seeing an opening to let her know what he was here for. "I was waiting for you to stop by, I wanted to say goodbye to you."
"Goodbye?"
"Yeah, I'm returning home. I've got some things to take care of over there."
"Oh," she said again. She knew he would eventually leave, and it had been part of Lord Saffron's plan all along that he be at Nerima in order for him to exert his revenge at his home. She did not want him to go because as soon as he did, Lord Saffron would follow. However, maybe making him leave would help her buy some time, the time she needed to carry on her plans.
"How did you do it?"
"Do what?" he asked.
She turned to face him to capture his reaction when she asked what she had been wondering about for quite some time. "How did you manage to kill my Lord?"
Ranma's head snapped towards her. He looked around, waiting for an army of angry Phoenix people to surround them, but all he heard were the birds chirping, and all he saw was the curiosity on her face.
"How long have you waiting to ask me that?"
"A long time," she admitted.
"A little bit of improvising, a technique I haven't showed you, and a whole lot of luck. It really helped your so-called Lord is a wimp."
"A wimp?"
"Yeah! He may be immortal and all that shit, but he can't take a hit from a drunken guy at a bar fight. I bet that if you wanted to, you could beat the royal crap outta him if he tries to lay a hand on you again."
"How did you know?"
Ranma shrugged. "I didn't; I took a guess."
The Captain nodded. "He wasn't very happy that I ignored him for a couple of days."
"If by ignored he meant almost died in an earthquake, spent hours trapped in a dark cave with no water or food, and a twisted ankle, then yes, you definitely ignored him. Maybe I should keep my promise and go kill him again."
"NO!" she said a little bit too loudly. "I mean, he was just concerned. He's very protective of me."
"So am I."
The Captain looked away to hide her blush. This was the side of him she kept seeing in her dreams and flashbacks. The side he seemed to show Akane the most. The side she wanted to see every day if she could, but she knew his best chance of survival was for him to leave today.
"When are you leaving?"
"When you promise me you'll take care of yourself, and mean it. He may be your Master or whatever, but that doesn't give him the right to treat you like a dog."
"Bitch, the word you are looking for is bitch."
Ranma chuckled. "Yeah, don't be his bitch."
"Cap," he began again. "You don't have to stay here, you know? You could leave whenever you wanted. You could come to Nerima, with me."
The Captain smiled at him, hoping and wishing she could leave with him right now. She knew that as soon as she returned to the castle empty-handed, Lord Saffron would kill her for sure this time. She had to come up with a distraction to allow her just a few more days of life before she carried on her plan. She knew she would not be able to take on her Lord, but she was going to make sure she wiped some of her sins before she died.
She stared at his hopeful face and felt his hand rest on hers. She almost said yes but she remembered the reason why he stared at her like that. It was because she looked like Akane. He was not looking at her, the Captain of the Phoenix people, but at Akane, his dead fiancée. Would he be able to love her as he had loved the woman she was pretending to be? Would he be as kind and caring to her as he had seen him be to Akane in her dreams? She heard a rustle in the bushes behind her, and she knew one of Lord Saffron's spies was nearby.
She slid her hand from under his and stood up, taking the empty bucket with her. "I'm not her, you know? I bet your mind would change if you saw my other side."
Ranma stood up and faced her. Part of what she was saying was true, but he had also come to enjoy her company altogether. She was a great sparring partner, and a good friend. Even though they had fought in the past, and had tried to kill each other, that had been back then. They had both been given another chance, and they had chosen to take different paths this time around. Yes, she did not remember squat of the damage she caused him, and she would probably one day remember and turnaround on him. He was very aware of the possibility of backtracking and ending trying to kill each other again.
However, there was also the chance that she would not ever remember, and the chance that she would remember but chose to forgive and forget. What if, in the end, they went their separate ways, anyway? He did not care if they did. What he had learned from this entire ordeal was that he would rather regret what he did than regret what he did not do. He knew it too well now, as he regretted never taking control of his life, never telling Akane how he felt, never standing up to his father when he tried to teach him all those crazy techniques, never setting his foot down to his other so-called fiancées. His inaction had been much worse than any actions he had chosen to take.
"I know you aren't, you are you and that is who I'm talking to."
"And if you were talking to her, what would you tell her?"
"What does it matter?"
"Just tell me, please. What would you tell her?"
"Before or after?"
"After. If you had the chance to talk to her right now, through me. What would you tell her?"
What would he tell her? That he loved her? No. If she did not know by now if she had been watching him, she was denser than him. That he was sorry? Clearly, he was. If he only had one chance to talk to her, one chance ever to talk to her again, would he waste it with corny thoughts? Would he beg for forgiveness? No, he knew she did not blame him for what happened. She choose to give up her life for him, he knew that when he had seen her doll smile before she had closed her eyes.
The Captain walked closer to him and waved her hand on his face. He seemed to be giving it too much thought. All she was asking for was a phrase, something that would give her the final push to go through with her plans.
"Ranma?"
He looked up at her and saw her standing there with a confused look on her face. He extended his arm and pulled her in his arms before pressing his lips on her. She felt like someone had hit her head and the flashbacks came back to her, this time more vivid and lifelike than they had ever been. She saw Ranma below her swallowed by Lord Saffron. She saw the faucet she was running on and felt the effort in her hands it took to twist the tool.
She dropped the bucket she was holding and returned his embrace by raising her hands and placing them on his shoulders. She felt the heat of the Phoenix tool surrounding her and shrinking her until she felt crunched up inside the dehydrated doll she had become. With every touch of his hands and his lips, more memories came to her. She saw him holding onto her clothes. She remembered trying to scream that she was still inside, that he should be crying over her. She remembered his tears falling on her doll face.
They walked aimlessly until he was able to press her against the tree they had been resting on, pinning her to it as much as he could. His hands were all over her body, telling her –showing her, what he wanted to tell her if he had the chance. And he did, he had the chance just now, he just did not know. She opened her eyes to see his face, the tears that were forming and threatening to fall. Tears formed in her own eyes as she remembered the last intense memory she had before she forgot who she was. She could see him from above, and she could hear his voice, and hear his thoughts. She could see her body wrapped in his shirt, and surrounded by his tight grip.
"Dammit, Akane! Wake up!"
The pigtailed boy shook Akane by her shoulders; carefully at first as if afraid to hurt her; then fiercely in obvious desperation. He took off his shirt and placed it on top of her body to provide some comfort and decorum to her almost frozen body. There was no reason for her body to have lost its warmth. They had been splashed with hot water, and he had been told that if he did as instructed, Akane would come back to him just as before. Neither activity had provided the expected results yet.
"Look at me, Akane," Ranma whispered into her ear as soft as he possibly could but in the awkward silence that surrounded them, his words found their way to the bystanders. "Look at me, I said! I'm touching your bare body. Wake up and tell me I'm a perv! Wake up and mallet me to Nerima!"
There was no response other than the sobs and sniffs of the people in front of the betrothed couple. "You, you…tomboy! You are as uncute as ever! Talk to me and prove me wrong! Yell at me! Anything, please!"
"Why are you doing this to me again? First when I thought you had vanished…and now…" He held her even closer to him as he heard footsteps approaching them. He did not bother to look up, as he knew that whoever was coming to comfort him was also going to take her away from him. He was not ready. He was not going to let her go just yet. There were still things that needed to be done, words that needed to be said. Ranma Saotome, the heir of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts, began crying over his fiancée's pale face.
"The least you can do is come back to me, Akane! I think I deserve it after everything I did for you!" He insisted, attempting to mask his sadness with irritation.
Nothing.
She was as stubborn as he was, it seemed. However, in this battle, he would have no choice but to accept his loss.
He tried to deal with his sadness the best way he could: masquerading it with pure anger. He shook her once more, this time more intensely than the last time. He dug his nails into her skin, not truly attempting to hurt her but releasing his frustration of being unable to do anything else. "Why isn't she awake yet?"
One last look at her still body was all it took to break his façade, finally. How long had he been kneeling there, cold body in cradled in his arms? How long did it require a person to be declared departed of this world? He had just delivered the deadly blow that ended the life of the most powerful and feared man in these regions. Yet, no amount of strength he could conjure had prevented her from vanishing –from leaving his side. He repeated the instructions he had been given, repeatedly, in his head. Everything had gone according to plan. This was not the result he had expected.
He closed his eyes tightly and felt the blood drain from his hands. His knuckles were turning white on his closed fists; as white as the skin of the girl he held so protectively in his arms. He held a sob but wasn't able to hold the guttural sound that came from him when he spoke again.
"Come back to me, Akane." His tone of voice finally gave in to show his current true emotion. He was devastated. His memory skipped back to the moment he had parted from Nerima to come to China. The words he had so inconsiderately spoken as he left without saying goodbye to her, burned into his mind: "What's the dif? I mean, she's gonna be here when I get back, right?"
Ranma held her closer. How could he have been so dense? All those times he took her for granted and now…
"I said come back to me, Akane!" He yelled in a raspy but slightly broken voice. "Come back to me so I can tell you that I lo-"
Then she saw and heard the noise, she felt the hit. Her consciousness returned to her body, smoke covering everything in sight. She heard the voices, they were talking about her, they were saying they would take her, that he would come back for her. As rapidly as the noises had appeared, they had disappeared.
Air. She needed air. She could not breathe. Ranma was still kissing her as intensely as when he first pulled her towards him. She could not take it anymore. She had to stop him. She had to make him leave. There was no choice. They would take her again. They would try to kill him again, and his family. He could not let them. He had to go.
In desperation, she did the only thing she thought she could do: she pushed him. She pushed him off her, forcing him to fall on the ground before she screamed. "What the FUCK do you think you're doing, landling? Try that again and I will cut your throat."
Ranma was utterly confused. One moment she was responding to him and the next she was threatening to cut off important parts from him. He stood up and tried to walk closer to her but she backed away. "Go back home, human. My Lord is waiting for me."
With that, she ran away from him, and all he could do was stare. Maybe it was for the best. He never liked goodbyes, anyway. He fought the urge to run after her, but determined it did not make any sense to follow her. He had come here to say goodbye, and he had done so. His fingertips touched his lips before he scoffed.
"Great move, Ranma. Your first real kiss is with a former enemy of yours. Good job!"
He mentally slapped himself and sped up back to his cabin for the rest of the night. As soon as the sun rose tomorrow, Ranma Saotome would return to Nerima.
xxxXXXxxx
Akane Tendo ran back to the castle, at full speed. She saw Masara stare at her in shock when she pulled both of the guards at the entrance, twisted their necks and took their swords. She stopped for a brief second and spoke to him. "I know the truth. I will take him down. You better run, because I will show him the same mercy he has shown me."
When Masara did not say anything back to her, she wished him well and said goodbye to him before she continued her journey inside the castle, taking down servants and solders alike. Half of the castle was asleep, and she made sure they were trapped in their quarters by using combinations of the techniques Ranma had taught her. Who would have thought he had inadvertently trained her to save his life once more?
She knew who she was now, and she knew what she had to do. Ranma had suffered enough. He had made peace with her death, and she was not about to rattle his world again when he had just learned to move on. He would never know what she did for him, but she did not care. He would be gone in a few hours, and she knew that would be enough time to take Lord Saffron down with her.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha. That's how Ranma defeated Saffron."
She had never used the technique, but she had seen Ranma use it plenty of times. She could replicate it, she knew. Saffron would not expect her to know it. She doubted he knew to what extent Ranma had trained her for the last couple of months. She also doubted what Saffron had done when he had allowed her to learn Phoenix powers and magic. She was no longer the little girl that turned into a doll because she did not know any better.
No, she was a scorned woman, and she was going to aim her anger at the culprit.
By the time she reached his throne, he was already standing in the middle of the room, waiting for her.
"Why, Captain, you seem upset about something."
"Not as upset as you are going to be. I seemed to have misplaced the parcel you sent me to gather. How inconsiderate of me!"
Lord Saffron chuckled. "My, my! I would say you've spent too much time with the landling. You're starting to act like him."
"Cut the bullshit, Saffron."
"Talk like him, too."
Akane was not amused. "I know who I am, and I know what you did to me. I also know what you want, and you are not getting it. I saved Ranma's life before, and I will gladly do it again."
"Enough talking, human. Let me be the reason why you lose your life for him, again."
A/N: Yeah…see you next chapter?