Chapter 12

There in the sky over the Atlantic flew a strange craft. For millennia it had lain unused deep in the deepest trench on Earth. Before it could be used by its masters it was stolen, and was now crewed by some of Earth's finest.

Inside everything was pandemonium. Someone had started a chant and half the passengers were shouting "ALPHA UNDEFEATED!" at the top of their voice. However some were not.

At one helm station a psi-ops commando was frantically calling on a hastily modified alien comm. Device. "Vessel is Alpha Stallion, do not fire! Vessel is Alpha Stallion, do not fire!"

Gos was lain back clutching at his leg, a stray shot had all but severed it just below the knee and all the painkillers in the world didn't seem to be helping.

A captain, encrusted with dry ooze and blood, covered only in bandages, lay in the lap of the woman he loved and neither knew or cared about anything else.

And Ranma approached the woman he loved, as afraid as he had ever been in his entire life. Nabiki saw him coming and searched his face. She saw his soul written there, the pain, the fear of rejection, the desperate need for her approval and his fragile heart held out for her to dispose of as she pleased.

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a kiss. She put all her heart and soul into it and he soon returned it with every fibre of his being. At length she pushed him away. His hurt look was pure comedy, "Your armour is fucking freezing!" she laughed. He started pulling plates off.

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The vessel was escorted in and welcomed to a mass celebration at Okinawa HQ. The Hangar deck was flooded with staff: cheering, waving or just weeping silent tears. Slowly the Alphas and their rescuees walked out onto the flight deck. Jack O'Neil pushed his way through the crowd, his wife only one step behind.

And he was met by the nearly comical sight of a fidgeting Ranma, wearing only the waist and leg armour of a battle suit and his lady love wearing his rolled up plugsuit. Jack raised an eyebrow, Nabiki spoke "I was not meeting my public dressed only in goo."

Ranma just said "Cold."

The injured agents were hurried to the medbay, there was no shortage of volunteer orderlies. Ranma was going to take Nabiki there but she demurred.

"All I need right now is a bath, some food and these two arms," she said wrapping him around her again. He lifted her up and carried her to his room. As he lay her down on the bed she said "On second thoughts the first two can wait. Come here stud!" No sooner had she got comfortable with her head in his lap than she was asleep, and Ranma watched her till she woke.

Doctor Fraser came around some time later, and almost fled when Ranma's expression hit her as she entered. "I need to do some blood work." She said quietly. His face lost some of the defensive lion quality and he looked back down to his charge.

She quickly checked the sleeping girl out. Being careful while she did, lest she disturb Ranma's gentle hold and raise up the beast again.

"Nothing that a few days rest and some good food won't cure," the doctor pronounced. Ranma nodded and went back to stocking his anata's hair.

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When Nabiki woke up she was ravenous, she ate the massive meal Ranma provided at speeds that made even him wonder. She was sat on his lap, with his arms firmly wrapped around her waist. As she finished she leant back and stole a kiss. He made a big production of checking his nose was still there. She just stuck her tongue out.

Ranma picked her up and carried her into the shower, unwilling to even let her go, let alone out of his sight. As she stood there , under the spray, she leant into him and closed her eyes, and the dreams were still there, at the edge of the darkness. All Ranma knew was that she suddenly tensed, and all he could do was hold her. At length she stopped crying and lifted her face to his. For a long moment she stared into his eyes and then they kissed. The kisses turned into caresses and soon both of them were falling naked and wet onto the bed, with no intention of sleeping.

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For the two of them the next few days were a mess of debriefings and doctor's checks interspersed with intense life-affirming passion. The days were a blur and the nights full of sweat and energetic love-making. Gradually they became aware of the final dispositions of their fellow returnees.

Gos had proven resistant to Alien healing techniques and would never walk without a limp again. The Captain of Bravo commando would require extensive cloning therapy but was expected to be back on his feet soon afterwards. The rest of Alpha commando would come through nearly unscathed. Only one agent had been lost at Marinas City, and those others that were heavily injured were expected to make full recoveries.

The atmosphere at Okinawa base filtered down to all the others and even up to Cydonia, where they had been holding their breath until Nabiki's survival was confirmed.

It even found its way to the council of nations. The news was unequivocally well received. The Alien menace was over. No coherent force of Aliens remained in striking distance of Earth. And it was X-Com that had done it, and Alpha command in particular.

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Nabiki was sitting in the mess hall, Ranma's arm still wrapped tightly around her. Around them were all the people who had been on that last flight, including a wheelchair bound captain with a death-grip on Laura's hand and a prosthetic sporting Gos, who was still winging about ghost pains. The General had just walked in.

"Ladies and gents," the general started, "I have in my hand a letter from the top brass. The powers that are have decreed that you're all heroes." He lifted the paper and read out loud "invite them all to a special ceremony at the United Nations building, where they shall be honoured with the highest distinctions we can bestow." For a moment there was silence and then the cheering started.

"Alpha Undefeated!" they chanted, and then they broke into a rude song about what exactly X-Com did to the alien menace and its tender behind.

"Whassamatter hero?" Nabiki asked, seeing that Ranma wasn't joining in.

"Don't like medals" he grumbled.

"What, why not?" she asked.

"cuz they're only pointless pieces of tin." He explained "I don't need anyone else to tell me I did a good job, and certainly not some suit who never so much as saw an alien. Besides are they gonna give Charles, Xian or Christian medals? Don't think so, yet they gave a lot more than I have!"

"Stud" she said, suddenly serious, "we'll make them give all of them medals."

"You mean it?" he asked

"Have I ever lied to you?" she asked with a mock innocent face

"I dunno let me think" he said teasingly, pretending to be lost in thought.

"Why you-" she started but was cut off with a deep kiss.

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During the next few days Nabiki called all of the contacts she had made during her apprenticeship on Earth. Ranma spent the time sitting in her room, going over security procedures for the event and trying desperately to write the speech he knew he would be asked to give.

What Nabiki was turning up however was more sinister still. Elements within the high council were planning to use the ceremony to announce the end of X-Com's mandate. Under the guise of a celebration of victory various world leaders were going to make a grab for X-Com's resources, especially the Cydonian Elerium stocks.

Nabiki called a council of war. Once again the lead elements in X-Com's operations gathered in O'Neil's briefing room. Every one of them knew that the Alien Menace was far from over. Even assuming only one of the two big alien sites had managed to send a message back to the Alien systems they were in for a world of trouble. As Nabiki lay out her findings the room became stiller and stiller.

"So that's what we know," she finished, "the question is, what are we going to do about it?" For the next three hours they came up with plan and counter plan, analysing the pros and cons of each. They came to one undeniable conclusion. They could not allow X-Com to be broken up, and no price was too high.

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Eighteen of the world's leaders were gathered in the ceremonial hall of the UN building in New York. Arrayed behind them were the flags of every nation that participated in the X-Com program, in front of them a round hundred of the agents and staff of X-Com real. Behind them stood nearly two hundred security-vetted relatives and family members of X-com employees living and dead.

The ceremony concentrated on the noble sacrifices that had been made by so many to achieve the eventual victory over the aliens. Every person who served with X-Com was awarded a unique medal depicting an iron glove guarding the Earth. Individual countries also honoured their own children, with medals unique to the country of origin.

On behalf of Alpha Commando, living and dead, Ranma accepted the highest honours ever given to a single unit in the history of mankind.

And behind the faces some of some key figures there flicked a moment of uncertainty, they were sure that there was something else that they had planned on doing but for the life of them they couldn't remember what.

X-Com's mandate was extended indefinitely and funding secured along with the right to secrecy for their newest developments.

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After the ceremony Nabiki took Ranma by the hand and went to see her father, her shining medals pinned to her breast. He was standing in the milling crowd with his youngest daughter. Kasumi was already hugging her husband, tears of happiness warring with a hundred other emotions. Occasionally she would stop, pull away and glare at him, he would quake like a man watching a mushroom cloud grow and then she would cry and kiss him some more.

As Nabiki and Ranma approached Soun burst into another round of tears. "WAAAHAHHHAAH" he wailed "MY Daughter's a Hero I'm SO PROUD!" Next to him Akane, on limited release from her bail conditions, quietly fumed. She was unable to understand how her wimpy sister had come to receive any medal let alone a share in the Kikka Sho, Chrysanthemum medal, Japan's highest order.

"How's jail working out for you sis?" Nabiki asked, unable to hide her smile.

"They're all afraid of me, think I'm some sort of perverted rapist" Akane replied, before she thought not to.

" I thought you beat that rap?" Nabiki said restraining laughter.

"Of course I did!" Akane exclaimed, "I was only showing her what Might happen if she wasn't prepared, its not as if I was actually going to –"

"Its okay sis" Nabiki said dripping false sincerity, "we believe you. No really we do. Honestly. Cross my heart." At this point she was interrupted by a full body glomp from her father.

"Ack can't breathe." Nabiki whispered.

"Tendo-san could you please let my fiancée go" Ranma asked.

"Fiancee?" three voices asked, Soun having dropped his daughter in shock. Ranma dropped to one knee, and pulled a small box out of a pocket that couldn't possibly have held it.

"That's if she'll have me" he said looking up at her with his soulful eyes. She picked the box out of his hands and popped the lid. Inside was a glorious band of gold with a crystal of purest Martian Elerium set in it.

"MMM," she said "Nice band, priceless stone. Not bad Saotome, but I expect the dinner and moonlight another time."

"Is that a yes?" he asked in a small voice. She placed the ring on her finger, took him by the hand and raised him up.

"Yes" she kissed him, "Yes" and again, "Yes" and they kissed for a looong time.

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There was dinner, there was dancing, Ranma didn't care, at one point he left the medals on a windowsill. Right now his universe could not be better. Every time he looked at the woman by his side, every time he caught her admiring the ring, every time he saw the love in her eyes another firework seemed to go off in his chest. They danced, they drank and they kissed. The rest of the world melted away, till it was only her and him in a universe of their own.

That night they were staying somewhere, Ranma neither knew nor cared. All that mattered to him was lying on the bed. Nabiki for hr part lay there wearing only the silk sheet and admired her man, the undisputed first hero of the species and slowly beckoned him to bed.

As he slipped into her arms she heard him whisper "Ashiteru Anata" and then there was only bliss.