Disclaimer: this is a FANfiction. Note the word fan. Yeah, I'm just a fan of these series and don't own them... why do I keep writing these disclaimers for the painfully obvious? Oh well.
AN- Hey, I'm back again! First and foremost, about this chapter. SPOILERISH-If you like Akane or feel I am being too harsh, please try to understand there were certain circumstances involved in this chaper.END. Now in case some of you haven't noticed, I have begun updating my profile. Still not much on it, but I have included a status update for chapters. With that all said, have fun (hopefully!). And for those who don't... please don't hurt me!
"DAMN IT NEPTUNE!" White Heart screamed and then winced in pain," You had one job, ONE JOB", wince," around here and you blew it!"
Purple Heart stared on in confusion for a second trying to understand what was going on. Ranma stepped in," We need ta hurry! The twins were the real target!"
At this everyone got ready to start heading when another bomb came hurtling in their midst. Ranma jumped back with a still unconscious Gust on her back. Unfortunately, Blanc was too injured to get out and was caught in the blast. She fell to the ground unconscious and out of HDD. Purple heart had been to confused to even notice the bomb in time and was now picking herself up out of a nearby wall. The road to Lowee now had a large crater.
"Sorry to ruin your plans," Said a familiar voice as the Nepgear imposter showed herself once more wielding a lead pipe with a mischievous grin," Ya know what? Nah I ain't sorry and I'm looking to pay you all back!"
"What is it you have to report?" Mina asked as Uni walked past them and handed the girls some hot chocolate with marshmallows. The soldier was highly agitated.
"We just got a report in from the southern gate Ma'am; there was a large explosion there and reports of both Lady Green Heart and Nepgear confronting Lady White Heart and those with her," the white dressed soldier of Lowee reported as she gave the oracle a salute. Shortly after the report began the twins had already fallen asleep. Mina guessed they had been more tired than she thought. At least this will make them easier to watch for now. She thought to herself. Neptune however seemed highly distressed.
Before Neptune could even asked what was on her mind, Mina answered," I'm pretty sure we have things taken care of here. Go ahead," Neptune was relieved as she went running past the other soldiers, out of the room, and down the hall before going HDD to fly down it. Hopefully she'll realize she can fly out of a window of balcony soon. Mina then went about tucking the sleeping twins into bed. As she was finishing this, noise of combat arose in the hallway. The soldiers poured out to aid the others. Mina was almost out of the door when she saw the Purple Sister in full HDD assaulting her troops. That was the last thing she saw before fell unconscious to a rifle butt from behind.
Uni stood over the woman as she put her gun away to pull out a pair of sleeping bags. As her beloved sister went about taking out the guards, she went about transferring the twins to warm, full body sleeping bags perfectly sized for them. Big sister truly was amazing. As Uni and Nepgear finished their respective jobs, Uni's cell phone received a text.
"How is everything my sweet little sisters?" is what it basically ready, but let's not get into the details of the various emoticons used.
"We have them and are just leaving big sis," was Uni's reply more or less. There were some emoticons as well but not many.
With that taken care of, Uni greeted her sister as she came into the room," Good job sis," a chaste kiss on the lips with a hug," Now let's get our little sisters out of here."
"Wait, that voice!" Purple said in mild surprise," Are you-"
"Yup, that's right! It's-" Nepgeo began as she grabbed her costume to rip it off anime style to reveal that it was-" Li-"
"Minion!" Purple Heart finished for her. Minion was pissed.
"Dammit I told you before it's not Minion! It's-" She began once more
"Yo Minion Lady, what's up? Decided to be Vert's minion or something after the love tap I gave you last time?" Ranma broke in with a grin. She caught on pretty quick on the best way to piss this chick off and a pissed off enemy was an easier one.
"Damn you red, don't know who you are bitch, but-" the lightly purple skinned girl started again only to be interrupted by the goddess of Planeptune tapping her shoulder," Dammit will you just-" she began again as she turned to the goddess only to find a black and purple katana blade at her throat.
"Where is my sister," the goddess asked calmly. Minion was starting to sweat.
"Oh her, well she's probably kidnapping those twin brats as we speak. If you hurry you might catch them," Before she had even finished, the goddess had flown off at top speed. Ranma had moved to Blanc during all of this and now had a girl over each shoulder. She was about to make a ran after Neptune but found herself blocked off by a lead pipe in the minion's grasp," Now where do you think you're going bitch?"
"What do you want with me? Still angry from the last time we met?" Ranma answered as she backed off to gently set the others down.
"There you go talking out of your ass again! I never saw ya before, but since you seem to know these goddesses, I thought I'd get some answers," the thug girl went on.
"And I would answer you why?" Ranma asked defiantly.
"Oh, that's simple. 'Cause if you don't, you get to answer to my weapon here and if that's not enough I still get plenty more bombs to lob around," the minion girl answered sinisterly. Ranma nodded in acknowledgement of the threat. Fact was that while she was confident she could still beat her, she was not so confident about her ability to protect her friends while trying to fight this chick without any of her abilities say for pure skill," Good, now tell me where that bastard who dresses like you ran off to."
Now Ranma came to a realization. The last time she had fought her, she was a guy and this girl had never seen her curse or knew of it. Then a plan hatched in her mind. With this Ranma started to turn on a little of the old Ranko act," Oh my, him? Uh, you see, he went off on a training trip last I heard. I think there was something about going to Leanbox to swim? Not quite sure, but that's all I know minion lady."
That answer seemed to satisfy the minion as she turned to leave. After a few steps she took out a bomb," Oh, and before I forget, the name's LINDA, BITCH!" she yelled before tossing it at Ranma and continuing on her way. At the time Ranma did the only thing she could think of to protect the others, she leapt forward and kicked the bomb away while mentally cursing herself for the slip of tongue. Unfortunately, she was still caught in the blast and sent flying back toward her friends. The impact knocked her out.
Elsewhere sometime later, the twins woke up in an unfamiliar room to find Uni and Nepgear. The twins looked alarmed at first but were quickly calmed down when they found themselves in a group hug with the older candidates looking relieved.
"Thank goodness you two are ok!" Nepgear whispered.
"Yeah, with what happened, we had been worried you two might never wake up!" Uni added as she tightened her hug with tears rolling down her eyes. This brought the twins to worry a little.
"What… happened?" Rom began slowly.
"Yeah, what's going on, last I remember, we were being kept in our room!" Ram followed up. To this question, Nepgear and Uni each took a seat on both sides of the bed the twins had woke up in and pulled on of the twins to sit in their lap. Nepgear took Rom and Uni had Ram.
"The truth is that things have gone badly," Nepgear began slowly as fresh tears stained her eyes," Gamindustri has fallen into a war led by Lowee-"
Vert watched this little drama unfold on a tablet in a nearby room. Of her sisterly conquests, the twins would be the hardest to bring around. However, Vert had come up with a truly diabolical plan. It was based on Blanc's own character weaknesses. First was the fact that the girl was fairly inept at expressing herself to others unless she was angry. This meant that even her sisters were not likely to truly understand her. If she had to guess, they probably play pranks on her and do whatever it takes to get attention from the recluse. In fact, Nepgear had confirmed all she needed to on this matter. The second was the fact that Blanc is the goddess most prone to violence. That had lent itself handily to her needs. So it was that she had begun to weave a web of lies and had a week long plan designed to do several things. She would shake their view of their sister and slowly supplant that barbaric woman's place in their hearts. Then she would slowly implant ideas of sisterhood. The best part of the plan was that it would be Blanc herself to deal the final blow to their world view in one week from now. When that time finally arose, it would lead to her final conquest. Vert smiled sinisterly at the screen as she watched the twins struggle in their denials. Soon I'll have my vaunted throne as the sister of sisters!
Blanc woke up in her room and found that she had been healed. She checked a digital clock and founf it was morning. When she tapped the date display button, she found it had only been one day. She sighed as she got out of the bed and went to change into some clothes that were not scuffed up and dirty. As she left the room, she found a grim faced Mina walking down the hall. At the sight of her goddess up and well again, Mina seemed to relax a little, but the still seemed to be something forlorn within her eyes as she approached Blanc and gave a bow.
"It is good to see you are well Lady White Heart," She greeted formally as she came out of the bow. The greeting confused Blanc.
"Good to see you… What happened?" Blanc replied in an even tone. She could tell that things could not be going well. In all honesty, she was not too happy with herself. She had somehow failed to read her old rival correctly.
"My Lady, I have failed you… The twins are gone," Mina began and awaited a response from Blanc demanding more. All she got was for her goddess to dejected hang her head. Seeing no interruption to come, she went on," We were deceived. After Neptune left to aid you and attempt to save her sister, that very sister had somehow infiltrated the Basilicom and began an assault on the guards. Then… we were betrayed be Uni… I haven't contacted Noire yet because I've been so busy since my own recovery that I had forgotten."
Blanc remained speechless for a moment as she let the totality of her defeat sink in. Vert had actually outmaneuvered her. She must have somehow intercepted Uni in route and brainwashed her in record time. How the bitch had managed to pull it off was beyond her. This scenario was unbelievable as it was. Vert had never been this good at planning. Not unless it was one of her damn games… That was when she realized something she had overlooked. Vert was a hardcore gamer across multiple genres including strategy, date sims and visual novels of all kinds and is the leader of one of the top rated guilds in Four Goddesses Online. This meant Vert had the mental capacity. When the woman had finally snapped she must have lost sight of her perception of reality. She was now using all that gamer skill and knowledge with unbelievable results. As Blanc went over this on her mind, she stood silently. That when another thought occurred to her. She looked up in deep worry at her oracle and demanded," What happened to Ranma!?"
Mina did not answer at first. Her head was downcast as she contemplated the best way to deal with telling her goddess about that new set of developments…
Gust woke up to find she was in an unfamiliar room. By the looks of it, she would have to guess it belonged to someone pretty well of based on the furnishings and design of the room. She was still feeling a little sore from whatever had happened the previous day. She could still remember how Ranma had actually stood up for her and made friends with her. She blushed a little at this as it was a little embarrassing to remember that. The fact the Ranma had actually went along with being scam and figured her out had been quite a shock. This Nabiki person Ranma mentioned must have been even shrewder than she was for Ranma to have caught on. The real shocker though was that despite all of this, Ranma was still willing to be her friend. She smiled at the thought. Then she remembered what had happened before she woke up here. She frantically got out of the bed and rushed to the door and flung it open. As she ran out of it, she bumped into someone and fell back.
"Whoah there girl, cool your jets," the Lowee soldier ordered as she knelt down to help Gust back up," There, much better, now where's the fire?"
"Gust needs to find friend. Gust worried!" the bunny themed girl stated with obvious worry written on her face. The guard looked down at her with searching eyes before nodding.
"Tell me, this 'friend' of yours wouldn't happen to be the new goddess around here would she?" She ask to which Gust nodded vigorously," Well, if you promise no more funny business for now, I can take you to her."
"Gust stared at the guard in confusion for a bit before she realized the guard must know about her and her reputation. She then nodded once more and promised sincerely," Gust promise!"
The soldier smiled at that and led the way down some hall and up a few floors where they came across a heavily guarded room. There was a small exchange between the soldiers before Gust was waved in. When she entered the room, she saw Ranma lying in a bed still asleep. By the bed was a girl a little bigger than gust with purple hair that had been worriedly watching over Ranma and had a pile of empty pudding containers next to her. The girl was unmistakably the goddess of Planeptune itself.
Neptune looked over at the new arrival and stared for a moment as if trying to recall something. Then she remembered," Ah! It's Blanc's fellow harem member!"
"WHAT!?" Blanc demanded as her oracle pulled out this morning newspaper. On the front page was an article about the assault. She flipped to a page further in that showed the rest of the article that further detailed the events of yesterday. Along with it was a secondary article titled "New goddess of love?" along with a disturbing image. It showed her, Ranma, and Gust unconscious against a wall. That wasn't the disturbing part however. What was disturbing, however, was their positions. Blanc and Gust were both on either side of Ranma and resting their heads on her bosom with their respective hats having fallen beside them. As if to make it worse, Ranma had an arm draped over each girl and was resting her own head on Blanc. The goddess of Lowee was struck silent at this. She had no idea how to react to the embarrassing photo. After a moment of staring at the photo, Mina cleared her throat to get Blanc's attention.
"I'm afraid it get's worse. You're not going to like this but the article itself is the crux of the matter," Mina explained. Blanc then went to reading the article itself. What she found was utter idiocy. The story told of the brave heroics of the new goddess actually shielding her two friends with her body and with the last of her strength brought the two into an intimate hug. It stated that this touching scene however had a deeper meaning that was revealed by the arrival of Neptune who had returned to her normal self after it became known that they had failed. Upon her arrival at the scene, reporters who had arrived before her had been shocked to hear that the new goddess was in fact a master of harem making. At that moment, Blanc began to shake violently before ripping the paper in half.
"NEPTUNE!" She ferociously howled at the top of her lungs her voice cracking from the intensity of her rage. Mina had long since fled the scene.
Gust stood there in confusion at the girl's declaration before tilting her head to indicate her confusion," Gust don't follow. Gust is Ranma's friend. Not her lover."
"D'aw, how sweet! She's being bashful. That Ranma is sure some piece of work. She truly is the martial arts harem master! I mean seriously, she didn't just manage to entice you but somehow broke through to Blanc of all people! That's a true master alright!" Neptune ranted on as she completely ignored all of Gust's attempt to dispel this misunderstanding. That when Neptune produced a photo," I mean seriously you all make such a good group! It's adorable! Ah, you're blushing, see I knew loved her!"
Yes, Gust was blushing, but not quite for the reasons that Neptune was thinking. Gust felt embarrassed by the intimacy of the photo and the fact that not only had it been taken but that the photo was in someone else's possession. She began to flail her arms about desperately trying to get the picture while now babbling unintelligibly. She was completely flustered. Neptune was having fun playing keep away and teasing the poor girl.
"NEPTUNE!" came the shrill howl of rage that had such intensity as to promise death. Neptune paled and gulped when she realized she was a goner if she didn't get going quickly especially when she heard a thunderous crash. Unfortunately, it was at that time that Ranma awoke. It was most likely due to the yell and massive wave of killing intent that was now flooding the entirety of the basilicom. Ranma immediately sprung to life from her bed and began looking around in terrified confusion.
"Now look Akane, I-" she began before her brain caught up with the situation and remembered that there was no way for Akane to get here. Pig breath might be able to, but Ranma sorely doubted her rival could get that lost. As she looked around to assess the situation, she found Gust and Neptune staring at her with a bit of relief. That was when she noticed the photo in Neptune's hand. She didn't get a clear look at it but apparently the purplette didn't like the fact she noticed it. The girl began to pale again when she remembered her certain doom to come and was about to make a run for it through the closed window. Ranma was not about to let her go however if she had a suspicious photo. Ranma had been burned too many times in the past by such things. As such, Ranma managed to block off Neptune's escape route. The purple goddess began to break out in a sweat. That was when another booming crash came. This time it took out the ceiling and Neptune found herself buried in the rubble.
"Where is she?" demanded Blanc icily as she hefted her hammer. Her expression was far more terrifying than ever before. It was then that Ranma noticed the picture floating in the air and grabbed it. She did not like what she saw. That was when the whole situation triggered another ingrained response. Ranma began to back away in terror from Blanc and began to cower in a corner while babbling on about how this wasn't her fault. Blanc didn't even notice as she had found her target trying to escape from under the rubble. Neptune's torment followed soon after.
Gust on the other hand noticed Ranma's action and went to her side to try and bring her out of it. Ranma had been completely unresponsive. All she saw was Akane standing before her in righteous fury. Ranma had never felt this much terror in her presence before. The stress of Blanc's extreme presence had been too much for Ranma's mind. Eventually as the sounds of Neptune's furious beating and cries of pain rushed over her and drowning out all of Gust's efforts, Ranma blacked out.
Neptune had been taken away to be treated for her injuries when Blanc had finished with her. Now Blanc, Gust, and Mina watched over a newly unconscious Ranma in a new room. As they watched over the red head, Mina interrogated Gust on what happened. What she found out was not pleasant.
"I'm afraid that Ranma has even more mental trauma than I initially thought," the oracle of Lowee stated sadly.
"What do you mean be more? I thought you already expected something like this," Blanc demanded in confusion.
"The problem is I had originally made some assumptions. One of them was that Ranma's father was the cause of all if not most of the problems we'd find. However, what happened here does not add up with that assumption. This seemed to be a deeply ingrained fear response to a person, and from the way Ranma described her father, I doubt the man would ever be able to evoke this kind of response," Mina explained like the scholar she was," This opens the door to the possibility that more people were involved in abusing her."
Blanc was not happy about this latest development. She was actually worried for the unfortunate martial artist. She contemplated the situation for a moment," Mina, as your goddess I am making an order. With things as they are, we are treading on dangerous grounds with Ranma due to the Vert situation. As such I do not want Ranma to leave this room and I want you to find out the truth of Ranma's past. We have been making too many wrong assumptions as of late. Also, as much as I hate to do this… call off the search for the others and establish a perimeter. Vert seems to be using some form of brainwashing on her victims. I do not want to consider what could happen to Ranma if anything else was done to her mind."
Elsewhere another scream filled the halls of a Basilicom. This scream, however, was not one of rage. It was filled with pent up frustration. Chika stormed out of her office much to the surprise of her guards. They had never seen this bad off before. The problem was that the entirety of the current situation had never happened before. It was getting to be too much for her. Over THREE YEARS had passed during that horrid ordeal had begun and now, even though it had been solved, her beloved goddess still had yet to give her the attention she yearned so desperately for. It was all that Ranma's fault. First that person dared to seduce her Vert with the prospects of being both male and female. Then the dirty little thief had gone off to get the affections of Vert's long time former enemy. The shear insult that anyone could cast her lady aside for that underdeveloped slip of a girl was galling. Had it ended there, however, she might have forgiven Ranma as it would have meant the loss of a fierce competitor for Vert's affections. Instead, that person had to go and become a goddess and entice her lady with the promise of a sister that Vert had not so secretly desired after all this time and turned around to the same upstart girl. Vert had been so heart broken that it had driven her to madness. These offenses had truly become unforgiveable. Even then however, it was still a matter that could wait until her lady was back to normal. The last straw however had been the revelation of the bitch's true plan. She wasn't interested in just Blanc. Ranma was out to claim the affections of all the goddesses and had already begun to make a HAREM! Ranma had to have been playing hard to get for the sole purpose of driving Vert to this point in the hopes of bring her into this harem… Chika would make Ranma pay for stealing away her long awaited affections from her beloved goddess. She will deal with the vile temptress!
As the group watched over Ranma in Lowee, the emergency work laptops and two small desks were brought in so the goddess and her oracle could get back to work while maintaining their vigil. They had too many pressing matters that could no longer wait. They had years of paper work that had yet to fully be handled. Mina had done an admirable job of it, but she had to also care for the twins at that. This left a lot of it unfinished. Another issue, the more pressing one in Blanc's opinion, was sending e-mails and notifications to the various news hubs in Lowee to perform damage control for their latest scandal. Also, there was a number of fresh property damage reports to go through and handle. True as it may be that none of the attacks ever hit the city in the recent battles, but the shockwaves of attacks like the ones from her fight with Vert can cause some damage. This was no big deal as all that really needed to be done was make a call and scratch up the funds for the repairs. Lowee had the best construction companies in all of Gamindustri after all though Mina always seemed to frown whenever Blanc brought this fact up. As thoughts like these went through Blanc's head, her work laptop finished booting up. When it finished loading, she found hundreds of missed calls and messages from Noire. She sighed before turning her head to her oracle," Mina."
"Yes?" Mina answered as her system finally booted up as well. Before Blanc even said a word, Mina's face lit up in realization as she gazed at much the same from Kei. Then her face paled as she read the latest messages. This confused Blanc for a moment until a commotion arose outside in the hallway and a familiar voice filtered through.
"Let me through now! My sister has been tangled up in this mess and I demand to see Blanc about it!" Noire's voice filtered through. Blanc took a moment to glare at Mina and jerking her head toward the door. She was not dealing with anymore of this mess if she had to. Mina acknowledged the message and went to the door to clean up her own mess. She really should have made more of an effort to contact Lastation. As she opened the door and began to greet the foreign goddess, she was cut off by Noire noticing her and lodging an onslaught of demands and questions," What happened to my sister! Why was I not notified at all! Why have you discontinued the search!? I demand you take responsibility for thi-"
On and on the furious tirade went on with Mina unable to get a word in edgewise with the nearly hysterical Noire. Blanc began to groan as she massaged her temple. She really didn't need this right now," Shut the hell up and you might get some answers!" She yelled out. This actually managed to reign Noire in a little as she stopped to take a step past Mina to glare imperiously at her fellow goddess. Blanc did not like that look and decided to get some facts straight right now," First off, your sister was already caught be Vert before she even got here. She aided in the capture of MY sisters. Secondly, this likely would have never happened if you had actually come to our aid when we first requested it. As such you are just as responsible as anyone else for this if not more so on the exception of Vert. Also if you want to find the girls, send out your own forces! We can't afford to risk Ranma at the mo-"
Noire had actually had the common courtesy to look ashamed at this until toward the end. As soon as she found out, she HAD done precisely that. Speaking of which, she had yet to hear why she had not been notified sooner! The mention of Blanc's reasons for calling off the search was Ranma set her off," Are you telling me that crap about the harem is true!? Even for you, that's kind of low to use Ranma as a replacement for-" Before she could even finish that sentence, a loud smack sounded through the now silent room. Blanc stood before Noire with a dark expression as Noire recollected herself and touched the cheek that Blanc had just slapped. Silence held the room for a moment before it was finally broken.
"I would never do such a thing to my sisters," Blanc began as she looked up at Noire with tears beginning to well," If matters were so simple I would send everything I had out to hunt them down even if I had to do a full scale assault on Leanbox. I would," Blanc stopped for a moment to let that sink in as the tears finally began to spill," Unfortunately, I was left with a situation where I had to weigh someone suffering irreparable mental damage against their immediate safety. Whatever Vert has done to control her victims, it is clearly a form of brainwashing. Our sisters should be able to recover from that given time, but due to evidence of Ranma having severe mental trauma already, we have reasons to believe that whatever method Vert uses could very well break her mind forever. That is why I have been forced into such a defensive stance."
Noire finally understood the situation and nodded in understanding.