Her War

by Materia-Blade

Two and a half years ago, Ranma Saotome died. The residents of Nerima moved on, somehow. Meanwhile, A civil war arose in China. And a prisoner made a vow of revenge that will change the world forever. Dark fic. Pure Ranma. Credit to Ryo-Wolf and Ozz.

14. From Battle's Edge

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few... sorry, many characters I add in. And the plot. That's mine too!

Her War

"My chest is always burning; I can't stop crying! Why? I didn't even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?"
— Saotome, Ranma

Chapter Thirteen
From Battle's Edge...

Looking back, I wonder if there was anything I could have done to stop what happened. I'm still quite sure there wasn't. The holes from nails still stung my feet. The feel of someone foreign using me as nothing more than a brood mother was as humiliating as it was painful, and as it was I had to have help to even walk. But... Sometimes I think if only I'd gone back. If only I had tried harder to reason with my father, perhaps...

I suppose it was better this way. Neither of these societies had much good to be said for them. Amazon's and their long-lived memories. Their training of men with the cages of Cyeed, was little different from what the Musk did to women. Less painful perhaps. A slower process which left a man's mind intact, instead convincing them that the Amazon way was the right way. Unlike the Musk, who broke the minds of their captives, usually in as little as a few short months.

So, maybe it was better that they were destr- No. No. Nothing good can be said about the death of a child. Even an unborn babe. Many times my father had killed his grandchildren before but it had never mattered then. Somehow, when it was Her child that died... I severed ties with my father that day. I wouldn't ever be a Musk again. And somehow that felt...

...wonderful.

---

Aktaya's feet crunched against the soft soil of this foreign land. Unaccustomed to the endless sea of sidewalks and concrete with which to use for balance, her feet found themselves more at home on grass, dirt, and the stumps beneath trees now. Her hand held aloft her massive broadsword, resting easily over her back shoulder in a battle stance made to convey lackadaisical diligence. Despite that, her mind was abuzz with information. And worse still, fear.

Of course, she'd grown very good at managing fear.

A leap from the school room two stories up had strained her muscles more than she would've expected. Only a few weeks, maybe a month, since the war had ended, and she was already slackening in the physical department. Still, she'd found herself uncomfortable with the comfort of peace in the past fortnight. She'd become used to spending her days in the trenches so to speak.

But now she had enemies again... Now she felt home. The taste had lost the bitter, and now only carried the sweet tang of the rush. The sun was cresting down into night, and the sound of falling bits of drywood and plaster from the wall she'd destroyed gave the evening an almost comely feel to Aktaya. Ah, the battlefield. Home at last... Warm sun. Rocky, unnaturally flat ground. Deadly opponents. Rubble shifting behind her. Perfect weather for a life or death battle.

"Shuuma." She said, staring forward into the eyes of a lithe looking fighter who stood at least a foot taller than she. Black hair shaved on the sides into a sharp mohawk, he had razor sharp red eyes with a narrow face and chin. His head was cocked and the darkened look of undaunted hatred that Aktaya had never really seen leave his face was plastered there, as always. He wore a white vest which showed off a chest that would have been very attractive to her, had the circumstances been... much different. Loose fitting pants and an obi that hung down over him with symbols of the phoenix etched down its slim coverings completed his outfit.

The man gave her a nod, and let the slightest hint of a smirk cross his face.

"Weiss." Her eyes turned to the other man, and her guard raised just a hair. The man, slimmer even than his partner, held one of those six foot spears the phoenix were so fond of jabbing in at sound barrier speeds. This man wore no shirt to speak of. A black mess of hair and unruly green eyes that seemed to see everything matched a pair of green pants and another obi similar to Shuuma's.

She knew both these men well. Neither looked young exactly, Shuuma looking maybe in his older thirties, while his brother was only a few years younger. Strong enemies they were, though bittersweet ones, in that they fought for a cause that Aktaya had trouble refuting. Enemies who didn't meet their end at the point of her broadsword tended to stick well in Aktaya's memory these days. Worse... these particular enemies would never stop hunting her. She could hardly begrudge them that after what she had done. But she would not let herself die at their hands...

...Even if she deserved it.

"I'd... hoped I would not see you again." Aktaya intoned gravely, staring at the black line scalding up Shuuma's left wing. A scar left by her broadsword. "After... after we last spoke, I thought maybe you had forgiven me." Echoes of her blade slicing through the feathered hides still wrung in her fingertips. Her sword would taste their blood again today. Their radiating anger pulsing around them was enough to prove that. But... maybe...?

Weiss snarled at her words but Shuuma seemed unaffected. "Quit playing games, Soldier." The red-eyed man stated. The words were half dead, spoken in a voice that wanted nothing more than to moan and weep in regret for lost days. But the man could not give up. As driven as Ranma had ever been, with a just cause, that he didn't wish to follow. "Today I have my vengeance." The words held little heat. Only cold hatred.

Aktaya stared at him. "We worked together once... can't I do anything to repay my debt? A thousand times over I regret that day. But I won't just let you kill me."

Shuuma grunted, his face taking on a haunted visage. "I've seen an unbelievable fighter in you, Soldier. Incredible talent for one so young... And honor too, is there within that cold heart of yours. An honorable man would do what is right, and fall on his spear. An honorable woman, would too."

A darkness crossed the horizon as it slowly went from field to battlefield. Opponents sizing up the grounds, the surroundings. Tasting the air for wind. Smelling the rage of the enemy, and predicting the attacks of the adversary. This was war. A fight that she knew she was, for once, on the wrong side of. Guilt was a far stronger enemy than these two... but she wouldn't let them kill her. Even if she deserved it. "I suppose I'm not so noble."

The words were a provocation, lifting the cork off the rage that seemed to be boiling off the younger man. Weiss rushed, his javelin loosed, cutting through the air as he leaped, wings propelling the faceted tip of his spear as it descended right behind the fletching on the back of the airborne javelin.

"Aktaya!" Came a shout from behind. Toya... the girl was going to be a liability soon. Inwardly, she prayed that the girl wouldn't get caught in their crossfire, but she'd seen too many atrocities now for her to trust any sort of deity to protect them.

Her eyes followed the javelin's flight with acute accuracy gleaned from eons of training. The throw, quick as light to be sure, seemed slow to her eyes. She who had faced the lord of the phoenix himself and lived to tell the tale? This was child's play. Almost carelessly, she batted the javelin aside, catching the metal tip with her sword four feet before it would have run her through. Three feet of wooden spike splintered at the impact, thudding broken and useless against one of the school lawn's many trees.

She twisted sideways, her body slipping around the oncoming thrust of Weiss's spear tip. One hand relinquished its grip on the soft leather of her obscenely large blade's hilt and snagged the spearman's forearm and wrenched it over her body to send him rolling away into the dirt. She grinned, temporarily safe seeing her fallen opponent, and noting that Shuuma had refrained from attacking.

"You've gotten slower, Weiss." It was a lie. The man's strike had been twice as fast as it once had been. It wouldn't do to let him know that though. "Or maybe I've gotten too fast for you."

Taunting Weiss was much easier. She owed Shuuma's younger brother nothing. He was a fighter, trying to kill her for Shuuma's reasons. It was not him she had wronged so terribly. Her entire style, learned from Ranma during their long treks in China had taught her to taunt. And for Weiss, she felt no guilt... Shuuma was another story.

Her eyes turned to the elder brother to find him darting towards her with a new speed that eclipsed Weiss by miles. She was faster still, her style based on speed despite her weapon choice. She planted the broadsword's point to the ground ducking behind it, and Shuuma's foot slammed into the flat side of her sword with a staggering clang.

Instantly she stood, withdrawing her blade from the ground and in an upward slash that sheered the thin layer of beard off the phoenix's chin. Her sword high, she wrapped it full circle, following the momentum, she twirled the blade for another shearing uppercut.

Shuuma recovered with a quick backstep, dodging both cuts narrowly before laying on the offensive once more. Caught with her sword held high, Aktaya was forced to backpedal as Shuuma and attacked again with a fierce determination. A flurry of punches and kicks rained down on her and she felt each of them reverberate across her, her blade fumbling in her grip. Her left arm blocked while her right tried to recover and prepare a counter chop with the blade still high. Her feet held firm to the ground below as a solid right hook clipped her shoulder and she winced. Another smashed her blocking arm purposefully. Her body slid back, her feet raking trenches in the concrete below at the force of the devastating blow, and her forearm burned. Her eyes watered in pain, but she refused to let it touch her. Pain was as much an enemy as the phoenix and Shuuma wasn't pulling his punches. Not at all.

Meanwhile, Weiss recovered from sprawl and took to the sky flapping his wings in a wild mesh of feathers. Taking high, the phoenix reached a point well over the trees while Aktaya warded off punches that could splinter steel. Aktaya was aware of these things. Senses honed from training endlessly with the greatest martial artist to have ever lived had taught her to know her surroundings as intimately as she knew her own body. But she was not perfect...

"Kyaaa!" The airborne warrior called before closing his wings and letting gravity take hold, beginning an intense dive, his long spear aimed for her heart once again.

The cry stalled her for a moment and she turned and rolled out of the way of the diving warrior. Successfully avoiding the dive, she ambled almost directly into the line of a heavy haymaker from Shuuma. The blast buffeted her backwards stripping her of breath. She gagged on air her stomach writhing as she landed on her back skidding along the trimmed grass, but the attack was not over. In desperation she rolled, scabbing her face along the dirt, and feeling the gust of pressure as Shuuma's follow up kick grafted a crater into the ground where her body had been seconds before.

Still coughing, catching her breath she rolled onto her back. Above her Shuuma stood, a malicious grin plastered across his face. His knee hovered in the air, his right foot already falling to pound her into the ground once again. She writhed, her lithe stomach snakily avoiding his foot. Weaving she dodged his follow up punch, smiling as his knuckles hit the ground. Dirt scattered through the air, and the grass beneath her broke into yet another solid circular crater at the impact.

A quick backflip, she leaped over Shuuma's follow up, leg sweep. Again she was on her feet, sword in hand once more. Her breath was almost returned to her as she faced her opponent once more, ready to engage...

"S-stop! What are you doing!" Came a shout from Toya. Aktaya couldn't help giving the short haired girl the slightest glance. It seemed she had apparently recovered from her shock and was just exiting the school's entrance in the distance.

High above Weiss was preparing for a second dive, hiding himself well in the light of the sun. But she felt him. His angry ki raged like a typhoon above her. Didn't these foolish phoenix understand subtlety? She could probably dodge the damn bastard blindfolded!

But this was no time for her to be cocky...

Shuuma had ceased his advance for a mere moment. Watching, he saw the flash of worry and the subtle glance Aktaya had given the other Japanese girl. Catching on far too quickly for a damn phoenix, the man smiled at her. She shivered.

"Don't you dare..." She hissed easing her grip on the blade in preparation for a run.

His smile turned malicious and he disengaged, dashing towards Aktaya's old friend.

Aktaya surged forward, her mind intent on keeping Toya safe at all costs. Her broadsword descended crashing down upon Shuuma's turned back. She would kill this man... then the guilt wouldn't plague her! Then she wouldn't have to worry every time Ranma dug at her horrid secret. Wouldn't have to fear him finding out what a monster she'd become!

But it wasn't to be. She halted mid-swing and leaped. Her legs whirled in a midair cartwheel as Weiss sailed beneath her, his second falcon-esque dive missing same as the first, taking back to the sky in fury. But the dive had distracted her for long enough. Shuuma's retreat covered, he'd been given the time and the head-start he'd needed.

"No!" Aktaya exclaimed, as she watched the man reach her young friend. "Toya!"

"Wh-what're you-? Stop!" Toya jerked away, sudden fear shaping her visage. Shuuma grabbed for her, and Toya swatted at his approaching hand.

Shuuma almost giggled as he caught her by the wrist, and pulled, entrapping both her arms as if she were a child. His left hand easily wrapped around the girl's wrists and lifted her bodily into the air, leaving her feet to dangle inches above the ground. "C-cut it out!" The girl screamed, while kicking her feet uselessly. "You jackass! I-!" Abruptly her voice was silenced by the touch of a hooked dagger sliding up against her throat.

Aktaya could only watch in mute horror, too slow to stop him.

"What'll it be, Soldier? You die. Or she dies. Your choice." Shuuma stated even as Weiss flapped down, his wings blowing dirt and dust around in a flurry beside his brother. A concerned look on his face as he stared at his brother, and the dagger pressed against the innocent girl's weak little neck.

"Shuuma...? This is..." Weiss slurred, his emotions warring between keeping his guard up from Aktaya, and wondering what his brother was doing. The younger brother's anger had faded to shock, as he watched Shuuma press the dagger's sharp edge closer to the innocent girl's neck.

"A-Aktaya...?" The terrified girl whimpered piteously, her eyes searching out the one-eyed girl pleadingly. "Wh-what is... a-aahh!" Her voice rose as the dagger ground more roughly into her throat.

Aktaya had lost before she had even begun.

'What would Ruby do...? Gods, what would Ranma do?' Aktaya's mind screamed but the conclusion had already been reached. The answer, given. Her mind reached back for a memory, long ago, when she was held in the very throne room of Tsingtao himself. Pregnant and strung up hanging by her arms, Ruby had been brought to her. Unbreakable, unbreakable Ruby... she'd taken the Musk collar that day. For Her. For Aktaya, the Ruby had broken. Now it had come full circle...

"Please... don't hurt her." Her sword fell to the ground with a clatter, and her dagger dropped from her hands, burying its blade in the dirt. The pleading she placed in her eyes disgusted her, but she couldn't let them kill Toya. If... if she truly had to die today...

The phoenix warrior's hand shook with rage. "You... ask me not to hurt one you care for? Yes?" The man hissed. His eyes blazed with rage, and his ears singed. "You have the nerve to ask...? After what you've done! After... after what happened in Shai Cang? You would let yourself die for her? Ha! As if I'd believe you have a heart. Never trust the Soldier..."

His hands were shaking. The snags and tears her sword had inflicted on his white vest gave him an almost mangy, insane look.

"Shuuma, you can't do this... You don't kill innocents bystanders. I... I've seen a good person in you! L-leave her out of this. Please... Look I..." She spoke. The words seemed to only further enrage him though, as his hand began to shake. Feathers fell from his taut wings and his eyes burned.

"You started this! You taunt us as if what happened in Shai Cang was a joke! Like it was a game... while I've lost everything! Well... well, I'd say it's about time I took something back! Its time you learn how it feels to lose someone!"

Even Weiss was looking edgily at his brother, now. The mania in his voice scared him. "Shuuma..."

"I know!" She screamed, her words stopping him from laying the blade further into the girl's neck. In the sparse second, she withdrew her own dagger and laid it to her own throat. "Please... you're hurting her."

Aktaya drowned in memory. Her guilt flowed. Never trust the Soldier. A phrase the phoenix had taken to heart when she had fought them. One heinous act that could not be forgotten. Shai Cang... Regret and guilt had accompanied her ever since, like a raincloud that never stopped drenching her. One act, committed in rage and a loss of self control that had destroyed the lives of hundreds... But now was not the time for old memories.

Toya let loose a scream as blood flowed red down her neck, but only a small stream. Shuuma's face tinged with mania, was not the sad anger she had seen so many times before. An older face seemed to lie there. A deader face... a face as drowned in memories as her own. Filled with hatred, hatred... only hatred. His hands shook, clearly with self hatred at what he was doing.

Aktaya fell to her knees, her hand outstretched, beckoning. "P-please..."

"She'll go... Do it Soldier. Cut with that knife of yours and she'll be safe... I want to see you bleed."

"A-Aktaya?" Toya whimpered. Oh sweet angel of innocence.

A whisper. A nightmare. Aktaya, the Soldier. Aktaya the highschool girl. Neither could stand to see the girl before her killed because of her. A tear of fear, and of regret at the cruel irony trailed her cheek, mimicking the red stream of blood just beginning to trickle down her own neck. "Alright..."

Abruptly Shuuma's wrist jerked away from Toya's bleeding neck. It snapped at an odd angle with the sound of a cracked bone accompanied by his guttural scream. The phoenix dropped the girl just as quickly, grabbing his wrist and holding it in shock, gritting his teeth. His brother stared down at him in surprise, and turned away from Aktaya to face something she couldn't see behind them. Aktaya watched a piece of wood clatter to the ground at the man's feet. A kendo stick? Had someone thrown a kendo stick... at Shuuma's wrist?

It didn't matter for the moment. At Shuuma's cry, Toya fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding neck; she was still breathing, and very much awake... 'Just a flesh wound.' Aktaya thought joyously, in the sparse milliseconds between noticing her chance to rescue the girl, and taking it.

The Soldier moved like lightning. Grabbing up her sword, she jetted across the expanse between them before Weiss could even blink. He only barely dodged the swing of her broadsword, instinct alone saving him from being cleaved in two.

Twisting, she placed herself between Shuuma and Toya, and pivoted to face the current threat of his brother. Using the momentum gained from her swing, Aktaya spun and raised the sword high. A distraction, that worked wonders as his eyes followed the dangerous metal, not noticing her other outstretched hand, relieved of the dagger and preparing... She concentrated, drawing the energy from her depths in moments and pushing it forth into her arm. It swirled within her, traveling through her like the touch of wind shivering down the whole of her body. The bliss of power unknown, channeled into a reckoning...

"Arc."

A static screech burst through the ears of all present, stopping the hearts of any in ear shot with the intimidation and terror the whip crack sound created. Arc was the name she'd given her attack, crafted on that battlefield at Kinagoda so long ago. A plain attack. A sharp burst of energy that could be used in an instant, it's boom a sound to make jet engines weep in envy.

The attack she'd used to slaughter children and...

"No!" She firmly told herself. Now was not the time to dwell on that...

The electric surge of blue power exploded like a plasmatic bomb. It was not enough to kill either of these two men, but she watched as they rocketed away like missiles. Shuuma slammed into the black iron bars of the school gate, permanently disfiguring them while Weiss bashed through a tree, and onward into the school building. The heap of rubble left behind from when she'd sliced out the wall of the second floor crumbled onto him.

Aktaya noticed the tree Weiss had smashed through falling, tumbling down atop her. A weight heavy enough to crush cars and buildings alike, falling like a giant tower. She listened to the cracking wood as the great thing gained momentum, about to crush her and Toya together.

And she judged it unworthy.

A swipe of her wrist and suddenly the tree- leaves, branches, and all -was hurtling towards Shuuma and the broken iron bars that he still lay entangled within. It bouldered into him, ripping the iron posts from the ground in a miasma of iron and wood, utterly destroying the once pristine gate.

"A...ckk! D-damn you witch!" Weiss hissed from his place in the pile of rubble near the building. His voice halted and she watched fear cloud his eyes as she leveled her blade at him. In the background, the tree fell away from Shuuma showing a scathed, half dead body, wings barely fit for flight. The man was all but defeated. Defeated once again. Aktaya didn't have to look; his dwindling ki told her he was on the edge of consciousness.

Slowly, Aktaya backed away, suddenly aware of another presence beside her. A man clad in a blue kendo outfit, and holding a wooden katana, of all things. At first glance she thought he was an idiot, standing protectively near her and Toya, wielding a piece of wood, when bladed weapons were in play. But she'd heard the snap of Shuuma's wrist. He'd broken a fully fledged phoenix warrior's wrist by throwing one of those. His ki burned brightly. Perhaps not a warrior, but a man well versed in the ways of fighting at the very least. Maybe not so stupid after all...

"May you burn forever, Soldier." The younger phoenix spat, regaining his courage as he stood. Hobbling slowly to his brother, his spear never relaxed its point away from her. She let him walk, unhindered by anything but his busted limbs, to reach his brother, and rub at the half conscious man's shoulder. His glare for Aktaya never faltered. "I swear, I will kill you someday..." He hissed, kneeling defensively by his brother.

Grief was a sad emotion that cut like a dagger. It brought people to rage and hatred that they had never before known, and it had done so to these two. Good people they were; good men, driven insane by rage against a target that could not claim full blame. But they had stepped too far. And with a mere glance towards thin trail of blood flowing down Toya's neck, Aktaya knew what had to be done.

One learned to weep for the rabid dog. Mourned its passing with regret and remorse that only added to older guilts. But the weeping began only after it had been put down.

"No, Weiss." She stated calmly. "You won't."

Wiess's guard stiffened, and he gave a sneer, still shaking his brother. An edge of worry crept into his tongue, and she noticed the slightest flicker of his spearpoint. Unsteady. Unprepared. It was time.

"Three times I've bested you and your brother, Weiss." She spoke harshly, her tone cold. "What happened at Shai Cang was an accident. Three times, I've let you live when I could have killed you because of that. We worked together once... Today your brother crossed the line. You won't threaten the ones I love for a mistake I can't stop hating myself for."

With her words, Aktaya began her stride forward. Her blade phased around her, shimmering as she moved it with techniques of her own creation. She drew ki to her feet. To her arms and legs, and surged them into her weapon en masse. She felt rather than saw the aura of cold dedication she'd often shown.

Weiss eyes widened. But his spear only shook more, signaling how unready he was. They were unparalleled fighters. But few could face the Soldier without a measure of fear and awe. "Y-you can't-!"

"Goodbye, Weiss."

She blitzed, phasing out of his vision completely.

"NO-!"

His last word was silenced with a harsh scream and the sound of a soft slice as her blade sunk into his chest. Just as quickly she slid the great sword out from his body and sheathed it in Shuuma's broken form, drawing a spray of blood, which covered the remains of the black iron fence. The man jerked awake, a dazed sort of shocked vision. Anger blurred over his features. But... then a smile.

"I-I can see them! Oh... Gerin my boy! My... dear S-Seiika! I... I..." His words were muffled by the blood in his mouth.

Ever so slowly, his smile disturbingly rapturous, his eyes fluttered shut.

"We... could've been friends. But you went too far Shuuma." She murmured, not caring about the blood dampening her outfit, or the stares of her two companions. The dead were to be honored. "May your gods guide you; may your peace, forever be."

Aktaya embraced her ki once more, lifting the bent, bloody bars off Shuuma's body. Touching the ground, she carved from it two large patches of earth, as she had done so many times in the long course of the last year and a half. Kneeling down, she placed her arms under the bloodied body of Weiss, and carried him to the first pit, gently laying him in the earth as Toya and the unknown man watched her. She followed suit with Shuuma, no more caring for the blood now than she had been before. When it was all done, she again used her ki to scrape the broken earth back over them, turning the school yard into a grave.

She knelt before them, and closed her eyes. Offering a silent prayer atop her vocal one.

It was not long before two others slowly approached, and knelt beside her.

Aktaya tried but she couldn't hold them in. Tears leaked down her cheeks as she whispered. "I'm sorry Shuuma... I'm so, so sorry."

The sun set.

The wind blew on...

"Thank you... for rescuing Toya. If you hadn't arrived, more than one soul would've been stained today." Aktaya voiced to the unknown man, who still held his sword as if ready to use it.

He hesitated, glancing worriedly down at her. "I had assumed I was defending the weaker party; the innocent one." He said calmly after a moment of thought. "Now I am not so sure..."

"What... Who were they...?" Interrupted the girl to her left. The words were light. Fearful, but not afraid. Terrified, fighting terror. Toya shook even kneeling as she was beside Aktaya and turned to look at her, asking the question, with a goodly measure of fear for, and of, her old friend. The man to Aktaya's right remained silent, his eyes probing for the same answers, as to whether he'd done what was right, or defended the wrong party.

Perhaps he had.

"I... first met Shuuma and his brother Weiss..."

"...about a year and five months ago."

---

Tsingtao wanted to kill someone. This was rare in and of itself, as he didn't revel in death. No good Musk truly should enjoy ending a human life. However, one did what had to be done. Amazons were hardly human anyways, and they had to be destroyed. So far, his plan to eradicate them had been unsuccessful. The scouts had reported no sightings of the fire-haired Ruby. No ransom had been placed on his son, and so far his expectations had not panned out.

A frustrating and very, very rare experience. Tsingtao had a habit of knowing what people would do in a situation that wouldn't rise for years to come, and he knew Ruby. The girl was an open book, her emotions and every though splayed for the world to view. So, why hadn't the girl done as expected? Why had she remained in the Amazon village? The girl was a do-gooder. A right above all, and most importantly she was Japanese. The Japanese were a strange people, taken with beliefs in equality. Tsingtao had expected the girl to take offense to his son being captured. Especially since that same son had been the one who had let her go free.

He'd expected her to break the boy out. Or at least attempt to.

But she had not. Scouting falcons had reported sighting her far within the village, from their vantage high above, disguised with the magics of Jusenkyo. Tsingtao had but two hopes. Either the girl was waiting to have her child before attempting, or that she simply did not know the Amazons held Herb captive.

Either way, the wait was becoming far too long. He had great confidence in his youngest son, and knew the boy could hold out against harsh tortures, but no one was invincible. If he waited much longer it was likely that the boy would be a broken puppy, and it would be years before he would fully recover, especially with that damnable curse.

Striding through one of the long corridors in a palace owned by one of his lead advisers, Tsingtao pushed on a heavy brown oak door. The hinges broke with ease, and the door smashed into the room. A small squawk yelped from the other side, and Tsingtao smiled, satisfied. He had wanted to kill someone. Idle curiosity made him lift the door to see a once beautiful woman crushed between it and the wall inside the room.

"Muun Tsa." Tsingtao uttered, his voice gaining in temerity as he turned to look in on the rooms only living occupant.

"My King?" The reply was drawled as if the man was annoyed at being bothered. Well, it was rather late in the evening; late enough to be called early in fact, and most men didn't like their women being crushed by broken doors. Ah well. Perhaps this would ease the old sorcerer's mind.

"Gather your men. The armies march at dawn."

Muun Tsa looked an old man, a scruffy white beard covering the area just beneath his chin. He was tall, muscular, and surprisingly... active... for being two centuries old. Then again, his area of expertise did involve rituals and such, and women featured quite prominently in them. He now stood next to a chalkboard, writing ancient scribbles of the forgotten Tsoldied language. Potions bubbled and broiled in glass vials all about the room and the man had a couple of stains on his face. Over two hundred years old, Muun Tsa was descended from the owls. Wise, sometimes beyond even Tsingtao at four hundred years his senior, the man was never happy and never smiled.

But now he did.

"With pleasure... And do send young Tara to me before the sun rises? I was quite enjoying that girl before you killed her. Would not do for me to start my magics with an unsatisfied palette." The old man stated, hardly turning away from his writings.

The king smiled. The list of people who could tell him to do something and escape with their lives was a small one, but luckily this man made the cut. A friend since birth, Tsingtao had been the old man's Nearman. He had also killed the boy's schaat mother at a young age, and watched him grow into a man, and age till death neared. He'd been there when Muun had taken to sorcery, and encouraged his study of the deep magics.

Now he was old. Far from immortal, the man was on his last legs. Yet he would live. Another fifty years he could probably ring out of this short life. Tsingtao would feel a great sadness upon the man's death. Grief akin to the loss of his own son even. But still. The man's magics had proven useful. Disguising hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been Muun Tsa's doing. As had the great underground where his army spanned for mile after countless, countless mile…

Though, at being curtly told to send one of his own personal girls to the man's service, Tsingtao contemplated cutting off the man's arm. He didn't though. Threats had little effect one nearing death, and Tsingtao would do as this older looking man asked. After all, what were friends for? Only elder men gave him any form of friendship. Sorcery had never been his forte, but gathering into his heart those who could use the magics of olden days had been one of the first things Tsingtao had done. Muun Tsa was now the best sorcerer since Monk Effey.

"Return her in decent condition old man; she is quite pretty." Tsingtao said with a laugh. "Remember. Dawn."

The time for war was at hand. Thirty five hundred thousand men would march to the Amazon's heart. Then, he'd release his real army.

"My son... I will not let you die. Don't be afraid. Your father will not let you die." Tsingtao murmured to himself as he began the long walk to his chambers.

Stepping out into the night sky, Tsingtao grinned, basking in the splendor of his creation. The sorcerer's palace, high on the tallest mountain gave a spectacular view of the Musk Valley. Seven cities filled to the brim with the best soldiers the world over. Watch towers loomed over every mountain, shining brightly against the moonlit background of the great Tower of Ceira, its top peeking out over the crests of two other mountains in the distance. Women, constantly bearing more and more soldiers for his masterpiece, addled below, still busy with their gardening even this late in the eve. A neverending army that had been growing for hundreds of years. Numbers almost uncountable resided in the valley and surrounding areas to the north and west, and even that was nothing compared to what lie beneath the valley.

But that was for another day.

The intense beam of a full moon glittered down on the spacious gardens between the sorcerer's palace hut and the kennels. Walking down the vast slope of the mountain was no difficulty for him, and he felt joy as he viewed the endless rows of plants grown even as frost licked the edges of his territory with their cold clutches, ensuring his army was well fed.

Nearing mid way down the mountain, Tsingtao detoured on a whim, entering the kennel Borage had once been master of. The salutes of the trio of guards at the doors invigorated him. As did the moans and wailing echoing up from the torture chambers as he walked passed.

He stopped, suddenly, at one particular door, motioning the guard to open it. The boy, not old by any means, had been awake and alert, and had reacted well to the presence of his kind, even though it was likely he'd never seen Tsingtao before.

He stepped inside the room, listening to the shuffle of prisoners as they scampered away, hoping to be ignored by whoever was entering. A filthy place. A necessary place. Straw wet with sweat and long hours of sleeping bodies littered the rooms and the stench of schaat waste brought a ting of disgust to Tsingtao's nose, but he bore it.

Striding inside, he stared down into one particular cell, ignoring the confused looks of the schaat now residing within.

"Ruby... Such an amazing soul." He murmured in awe, staring at the newly welded bars. Only short weeks ago this cell had been unusable. The bars had been sliced by a girl who had overcome the training power of eight shackles. The Musk had tried to imprison a goddess and the goddess had found Tsingtao's tethers wanting.

Not again. She wouldn't find herself underestimated again.

Perhaps he had been thinking wrongly, even with the dragon. Perhaps human was the most powerful species? Well... time would tell.

Turning away, Tsingtao left the room, this time moving for another. Borage's antechamber. He stopped in the small room, again flagging down attentive guards to gain access. He glance around staring at the many shelves dotting it which contained the trinkets of his sons. Ruby's Dragon Whisker hair-tie, a particular pair of Marjoram's clawed weapons, and several vials of poisons. A staff Herb was particularly fond of lay in the corner, collecting cobwebs. A few severed heads and ears clearly belong to Borage, were a small irony when one noticed the man's severed phallus laying in a jar on a shelf above them.

One particular object held his interest, though. One object valued greater than any he yet possessed. Standing before the gold crafted ornament pulled from the very annuls of history, he stroked the inscription on the sides of the golden cornet, reading their precious lines in awe. "The sky sings to my Melody."

Oh yes. The Amazons would fall... and his son would be rescued. If his initial plan did not work? Well. There was always another plan.

---

Ruby was worried. Hell Ruby was fucking terrified. And the biggest problem of all was that she was stressed. Unbelievably so.

"Waaaghghh!" Came the cry of the baby she'd been single handedly caring for the past two days. The scream was lightly tinged with anger and a slight bit of loneliness. That signified that the boy had probably dirtied the burlap diaper- again! -and of course, that he missed his mother.

Hell, she was starting to miss the girl too. She knew their fight had been bad. But the girl hadn't even shown her face for two days. Was she really this angry? It was good to know that she trusted Ranma with little Tir but...

'Where the hell is she?' Ruby thought abysmally as she lumbered her massive belly around to the young boy, and began to fiddle with his clothes, sniffing the air for the tell-tale signs that she would have to get her hands dirty again. Surprisingly they weren't there, and she had guessed wrongly. Honestly, she'd gotten pretty good at caring for the little tyke and pretty well knew his needs. Burping him. Feeding him. Changing him. They all came naturally after a while, and as the boy grew he became simultaneously easier and harder to handle.

Easier, because she was learning how to take care of him. How to... how to be... a mother she supposed.

Harder because her own child was on his way. The kicks were becoming almost constant, and she felt pangs of sympathy for her own mother, wondering if she had been anything like this on the woman called Nodoka Saotome. Frankly, the Chestnut Fist was easy. Killing Hornets without getting stung was easy. This shit was hard.

Every day she grew more tired, and yet more alive all at the same time. More... more aware! A life was inside her! A child with a future ahead of him... a child that was hers and hers alone. She could train him to be a great martial artist, or she could take him back to Japan... send him to schools, and make sure he wasn't a socially inept little bastard like she had been. He would grow... she could see herself training him. Watching him become rebellious... one day surpassing her as her age slowly began to wane away from 'young.'

She often started, finding herself grinning at nothing, stupidly staring into the future with blank eyes and hopeful dreams that left this wretched place behind. Old faces and childish battles haunted her dreams. Fighting Ryoga for the sheer joy of knowing who was better. Battling Genma because he had stolen her fucking pickle. Poking fun at Akane's cooking, and tasting Ukyo's okonomiaki... These things taunted her, and she ached for home. For a safe place to raise her still nameless boy.

But then she remembered her duty and her oath. No matter what it took... she would see the Musk destroyed. She had to.

That, and she could never forget Tir. He was just as much her son as her unborn child would be. And Aktaya... Aktaya was... was something.

Love? Was this love? If the ache in her heart at seeing the girl angry, or the utter terror slowly creeping up her spine at the thoughts that she had endangered herself were any indication... yes. Maybe she was in love. But she wasn't sure. She'd hardly ever known what a friend was, let alone a lover.

'Her lips. her luscious breasts... the way her fingers feel when she...!' Ruby snapped her train of thought away from that. Honestly, she'd been angry at the girl for some reason that had seemed direly important at the time. But the passing of a day had made her forget what their argument was even about, and by the second day she longed for her wayward companion.

So there was only one option.

She sighed a dismal sigh as she fitted herself into the jerkin and dress of an Amazon who was preparing to bring new life to this world. Glancing across herself, she snorted at the spectacle she looked now that her child had finally decided to start giving her the swollen look of a truly pregnant woman. Curse the boy. But she supposed it had to happen sooner or later.

Sighing tiredly, angrily, she finished dressing Tir in a tiny pair of surprisingly modern looking overalls. If overalls could be called modern at any rate. Then, steeling herself for what would be the third time she'd shown her face among the throng of Amazons of Joketsuzoku, she lifted the boy and walked out.

Shyly, almost curiously, she peeked out her cabin door. Then, she stepped out and onward, plodding down the steep slope of the last hill on the west side of Joketsuzoku.

The place was positively bustling. Carts and wagons rolled hither and to, and the cries of farmers trading their rice for ale or clothes or other niceties. The ever present clash of steel and wood hummed from a little to the north where training took place at all hours of the day and night. Periodically Ruby could hear the sharp thunks of arrows sliding into targets. Pained voices of fighters and women engaged in duel and dance echoed all around her.

Above bridges at all levels connected trees to each other in an endless series of pathways, spiral staircases and higher than ground level homes. Amazons used every feasible level for living, and packed themselves tight. Each tree had its own home built into the trunk somewhere near the top, with its own spiderweb of bridges leading away to other tress. Staircases left hanging from still higher branches, that spiraled down the tree's trunk were the only way up to most them. Commerce and life seemed to flow through every inch of this great forested city.

And it was only a time till that great throng of people noticed her. The whispers began.

"The Ruby..." Was the first recognition that had risen to touch her, but that grew. As she walked, her belly now seemingly massive compared to only a few short weeks ago, she felt surprise and shock from those who hadn't known she was with child beforehand.

Still more shock at seeing her carry her son in her arms.

"By god, the Ruby is with child!" One voice cried. A grin hovered on the face of a young bulky Amazon whom Ruby thought she'd spotted at the Battle of Kinagoda down behind the gate.

"You farmers and your rubbish!" Came the cry of a thin, lithe Joketsuzoku fighter. Beautiful, Ranma instantly classified her as a great fighter, based solely on the sheer number of weapons the girl concealed. Eighteen knives. And that was without the hidden weapons skill which most amazons knew.

"There is no way that she is the Ruby!" No discernible face could be put to the cutting phrase, but it was nowhere near the least insulting of their words.

"I tell you, sister! She is the Ruby! She fights... even now, when no other would. Do you see her skin, how it glows?" A voice asked melodramatically.

Abruptly, the glow beneath Ruby's skin gained an abundant amount of pink, showcasing her embarrassment for the world to see. A few of the watchers giggled and her cheeks flushed a bright crimson. Still she padded on through the work horses and wagons carrying crops, dead meat, wood, stone and other such things.

"Ruby! Forward the Amazon Dream!"

A cry arose at that and Ruby's cheeks flushed even further. Her pace quickened but the cheers of the people of Kinagoda grew louder as even Joketsuzoku folk joined in.

At least this time they were content to simply look at her. Rather than the strange half awed touching they had committed once before. It wasn't everyday that a hero arose among amazons. They were where heroes- well female heroes -were born and trained, and if everyone was strong, strength no longer impressed them.

Ruby had, though. Word of her deeds was spreading. She didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

'What if they find out I'm not a girl?' She shivered at the thought, and put it out of her mind.

Her eyes were locked on a large emerald colored pavilion, behind which stood a massive tree. The tree had been hollowed out eons ago, and ladders, walkways, paths, and even whole houses had been carved into the sides of its momentous trunk, supported by poles and ropes and superior craftsmanship. The houses of elders.

At the lowest end of the tree and actually a good several paces to the left stood the home of Jai Alai. No elder, no matter who or what their status, lived without a home. If their home was destroyed, a lower Amazon would give up their house and build another. It was considered a great great honor to give ones house to an elder, and was capable of propelling the status of a lesser Amazon to one with a say in the ways of great things. A low end merchant might suddenly find her customers doubled or even tripled with the action. A scout would find herself receiving safe missions or if she preferred, more dangerous. Honor counted for much among the Amazons.

Jai Alai's particular house was a solid hut on the ground level, one of the few in fact. But since the old woman had trouble drawing forth much ki through her manacles she was unable to attempt the high leaps that most elders would do without thought. A ground-level home had been necessary.

Ignoring the whispers, Ruby ambled up to the door, fiddling with Tir and shuffling the sleeping boy into her left arm. Knocking thrice, she only waited a moment before a shuffling came from inside, along with the door cracking.

"Oh, Ruby!" The woman cried in delight as the door opened fully to reveal the old woman. "And young Tir!"

Ruby smiled at the woman and inclined her head slightly. "I... haven't really seen you since that day in the Healers Hut. I... figured I'd drop by."

The old woman laughed in a sardonic voice as she leaned back and gestured the redhead to walk in. "Don't be silly girl. Young people don't visit the old unless they want something. I know this as well as any elder. What is it? Training? Council about the newborn? Let this old woman hear your woes."

Ruby grinned. It was a good thing the elder was so straightforward. Quite the opposite of Ku Lon really. Jai Alai had the old woman's voice and almost no personality quirks that mirrored Xian Pu's great grandmother. Also, the woman was at least twice Ku Lon's height.

"I... am worried. But not about those things." Ruby replied as she took a seat in one of the plush armchairs crafted of leather wrapped hen feathers and woven straw.

"Well what troubles you my dear?" Jai Alai asked with a grandmotherly smile. God the old woman was good at those.

"I... Aktaya. She's been... she's been missing for almost two days now. And I don't know where she is. We got in a fight about... about something, and she left. I know she was mad at me, but I didn't think she would stay away for so long. I'm... just wondering if you might've spotted her?" Ruby asked. Her skin had faded to an almost natural looking off red color. One saved for the mixture of concern and love, tinged lightly with the deep blue of worry.

The old woman had a grin on her face at the request, and she did not let it go as she responded, despite the seriousness of Ruby's questioning.

"Ah. Love." Were the words she gave.

There was a time when Ruby would have felt embarrassed by the pretentious comment. That time had long passed.

"Yeah..." The redhead replied. It was awkward. The admission clumsy but no less true. "Yeah, I do."

"Well then..." The elder trailed, the smile drooping as she realized Ruby was truly serious. "You are in luck. As I was listening to one of elder Ku Lon's stories some days ago I spotted the girl talking to Chell."

Ruby's eyes narrowed and her skin suddenly blared a seething red. "Chell. God Dammit." She hissed scathingly.

"I heard. The poor girl came to me bawling. It seems it is quite difficult to stay in your good graces, my dear. Or perhaps I should say young man?" The woman replied with a bit of humor and only a hint of a question, as she watched Ruby stand, still holding Tir.

"I... No. Might as well stick with 'my dear.' I'm a woman among women now it seems." With a gesture that alluded to the shouts and cheers still raging lightly outside.

"Arrogant too. How quaint." Jai Alai barbed. The three manacles she wore clashing with Amazon bracelets echoed with the sounds of her laughter. Ruby felt guilty slightly about coming and leaving so quickly, but it seemed she had to talk to Chell.

"I... I'm sorry. Sorry to leave so fast but I have to-!"

"Oh don't be a fool, girl. Go on. Go on. I know I can't stop you... but if I may? Go easy on Chell. She wished for her words back with all her heart, and the greatest of people, both man and woman, have it in them to make mistakes. And to forgive." The elder intoned, finally showing the wisdom that elders seemed known for spouting. Ruby knew in her mind that the old woman was right. That Chell deserved a chance to remedy her words.

But Ruby couldn't help but recall the malice in that tone. The stench of betrayal on the green haired woman's tongue had stung her, and days later it still burned hotter than the chair she'd set aflame.

"I'll... try." That was the best she could give.

The old woman seemed to accept that, as Ruby stood and left, careful once more not to wake the sleeping boy. Again she walked the streets towards Chell's training ground. A crack of thunder peeled through the relative jabber of the regular folk. Far above the deep canopy of endless green trees she heard the tell tale claps of falling rain.

---

Aktaya had not been planning on getting lost when she'd left for Joketsuzoku. Frankly, while leaving the city the path had been perfectly clear. A wide road, a causeway breaking through the dense forest surrounding like a knife through butter. But slowly as she got further from the great tree city's heart, the path narrowed into one that was barely visible at times. Overgrown with grass and shrubs she'd discovered that the path was quite hard to detect.

Even so, she was not completely unfamiliar with the woods and detecting signs of a trail. She would've been fine if that had been the only problem.

Some hours into her journey, she came across a series of fallen trees, evidence of a large battle. They crisscrossed her path tenfold, blurring the trail beyond recognition. She'd followed what she had thought was the other . Now she was certain she'd followed the wrong path. If it had even been a path in the first place.

She'd retraced her steps and found that she couldn't find the section of the path covered by the trees.

'Well fuck me.' She thought glibly. 'I bet Ruby is going insane with worry. Now I wish I hadn't come. I hope Tir is okay.'

Silently she crept, inching forward with less sound than a spider. Her fingers gingerly rested on the hilt of her sword, carried on her back. Slower, more silent still, she inched herself forward. A few steps... just one!

The sharp thunk of her blade slicing off the neck of the poor deer who'd happened upon her, and the sound of her blade sinking into the forest floor below sent a flock of birds scattering from the trees above. Aktaya grinned. The sun was rising on her second day away from Joketsuzoku, and she was already hungry. This was supposed to be a short journey. So naturally she hadn't packed all that much food. Luckily, hunting had been a high focus to her early training. Admittedly most hunters used arrows but she had no aptitude for them. Instead she had to rely on pure and utter silence to catch her prey.

Her skills had served her well.

Some hours later, after the deer had been roasted on a self made spit and consumed, the remains left for some lucky traveler, she doused her fire and made her way back to the north where she'd thought she was. Walking had grown old, and jumping from treebranch to treebranch had lost its flavor some time ago as well.

She truly did feel like a character in a story whenever she did things like that. Who else could hop around like a squirrel? Certainly no one she'd once known. The first thing she would upon getting back to Japan? Yeah. Probably jump around joyously on rooftops.

But for now, she was stuck in the middle of a very mountainous terrain, with a vague sense that her home was North. Scouts constantly circled the city of Joketsuzoku but she had not witnessed any for some time. It was more than likely that there were a few watching her from the shadows but they wouldn't help her. Scouts wouldn't help her unless she fell unconscious, and even then they might not.

Currently, her feet led her straight down the side of a steep mountain. The footing was rough but she had been running on mountains for training for some time now. Besides, if she tripped, taking to the trees wasn't at all difficult.

Hours she seemed to walk. Down a mountain. Up another. Down. Up. An endless circle, before suddenly, the endless trees broke away. Aktaya was abruptly faced with a great cliff. A valley far below. An tens... hundreds of small, blue pools, each shimmering even now with the sky overcast and filled with endless clouds.

"Jusenkyo." She murmured. Assuredly. Somehow she'd passed the damn place. Now, on the south side of the valley she could see the path that wound down towards the pools, clear as day. How the heck had she gotten around this great valley?

"This is where her story began." The one-eyed girl mused.

Seeing no visible path, she spotted an outcropping. Probably twenty feet down. She gulped. Old Aktaya, the young school girl within her, told her in no uncertain terms that she'd become a mad, foolish, adrenaline junky. New Aktaya, the person she was now, couldn't help but agree with a maniacal grin.

"Well, there's no way I'm walking around to that path. That could take hours." Was her only thought before she jumped.

Falling down endlessly, she landed, and felt the outcropping crumble under her feet, dirt falling into the canyon below. But she had already left it, aiming for a still lower step.

Her ears popped and the rush of air sparked excitement within her. She was going to find out what had happened to Ruby. She was going to see Jusenkyo's curses with her own eyes. With any luck, she would be able to better understand Ruby. Maybe...

About two minutes of this cliff jumping skidding down the sides of an almost vertical wall, a smile on her face, she came to the bottom of the valley, amazed at the sheer number of pools.

Bamboo poles stuck up, some from the waters and some on the many patches of land, and she was wary of them. Unlike most travelers she'd been warned well of the dangers of this place. The pools wouldn't find her in any near proximity.

About a hundred paces away was the first pool. And she had a tester ready.

Setting down her bag, ignoring the writhing and shuffling of the folds of material within, she undid the burlap buttons and withdrew the small snake she'd found several hours ago. The creature had actually remained quite docile for most of the trip. She'd picked it up, and it had been content in her arms. If she didn't know better she almost would've said the thing had smiled to be placed in her bag.

The small creature's head swept from left to right, gathering its bearings.

Then it exploded.

Frantic, almost maddening, the creature slithered in a wild array of tangling coils, frantically squirming to free itself from her grip. It was short at only about two feet, but not at all dangerous. Aktaya had recognized the species immediately, curiously from knowledge gained in school back in Japan, rather than here under the elder's tutelage. The creature wasn't at all native to this area. Not native to China even. But Aktaya had just added its presence up to another of this regions unusual properties.

Now she scrambled to grasp the slithery body before it wriggled away. Her fingers jerked as the reptile bit her with impotent teeth. They had no venom, no fangs even, but the sharp bite still stung, and the snake was suddenly blasting away towards the cliffside, clearly hoping to climb up and out of the valley.

'But it was so docile before.' Aktaya thought almost sadly. Shrugging, still fingering her smarting hand, she leapt. She landed in front of the surprised snake lightly, grinning down at the creature. "No ya don't."

She grabbed it, and before it could squirm, lobbed it away. The snake flew, arcing through the air for almost ten meters before landing with a splash.

Aktaya did a small victory dance as she stared down the way, expectantly awaiting the appearance of some other creature. What she got was not at all what she'd expected.

A snake slithered out of the water. At first glance Aktaya's shoulders fell. Jusenkyo was a load of bullshit after all. A wives' tale made by... by...

The snake began to wiggle something other than its body. Not a snake... or not just a snake. Two wings now sprouted from the small creature's back. Draconic and batlike, they had a reptilian webbed look. Almost demonic, they spiked out with grey and black bones. A miniature dragon.

The wings flapped. Once... twice... and suddenly the creature lifted off. Taking to the sky, the world's first flying snake disappeared high above Aktaya's vision.

Aktaya could only blink. "Uhm... was that supposed to happen?" She asked the air stupidly. "There's no way in hell there is a spring of drowned flying snake. I refuse to believe it." She hissed, carefully approaching the water.

Without warning, the hair on the back of her neck stiffened. All her training, all her focusing and meditation practices from the weeks since she'd given birth told her of the danger lurking behind her. Danger that the school girl Aktaya would have been oblivious to.

She ducked, mere seconds before a long, menacing greenish-black tendril would have slithered around her stomach. Crouched, she spun, her knees scabbing on the dirt below. She weaved back away from her attacker in a series of backflips and rolls towards the looming pools. Wary of the watery curses behind her, she looked up to view what this strange new enemy was...

...and found herself staring into a creature pulled straight from nightmare.

Standing above her, twelve feet tall, a writhing creature, like the head of a beholder stood perched on a platform of its own million tendrils. Like some twisted parody of a child's sun drawing, the tentacles slithered in the wind.

As she took her stance, her sword sliding into her hands, the creature's monstrous maw quirked up in a grin.

The sky began to rain.

---

"Where did she go?" Was Ruby's opening question. She placed her eyes right in the other woman's face and glared. The surprised, green haired woman could only blink in surprise at Ruby's forward action but she quickly calmed herself.

Surprise at the closeness became surprise that Ruby was speaking to her at all. "R-Ruby! Why are you here?" She blurted, then cursed at the stupidity of the comment.

"Where is she?" Ruby enunciated slowly, her words mocking yet demanding.

"Who?" Chell asked, trying to understand what was being asked of her. She felt relieved, grateful even, that Ruby was deigning to speak with her. For days now she'd lamented the idiocy of her words but she dared not try to apologize. Ruby had lit her chair on fire. Clearly without even trying. It was... scary. And she felt too guilty, even now under the girl's pressing eyes.

"A few days ago, Aktaya found you, and spoke with you. She's been gone since then and I can't find her!" Ruby whined, her voice suddenly trailing to piteous beside the anger. It seemed all the girl could do to hold in rage. Blue worry and steaming red anger swirled together making her skin light an unusual purple.

Chell stuttered, unprepared for Ruby's accosting. Her throat was numbed with guilt but she managed to barely spit out a response as recollection returned to her. "I-I saw her. She... she mentioned the cursed springs I think, but-!"

"What!" Ranma burst. "No... no she wouldn't."

Abruptly their fight returned to Ruby, tearing through the haze of rage at Chell and the weariness of caring for Tir that had dulled her memory of the past two days. Aktaya had been angry about her uneasiness with being intimate in her cursed form. Her female form. Aktaya hadn't understood. There was no way she could understand! How strange it all was? How foreign? How she felt so inescapably 'wrong' whenever she touched the other girl? How terrified she was at the life growing inside her? Suckling Tir was downright taboo. The act nauseated her even as it warmed her.

How could she explain such a juxtaposed feeling? Right yet wrong? Indescribable content warring with ineffable discomfort? It simply could not be done. Unless...?

"Oh god." She whispered, her skin becoming the harsh black of fear and despair. "She did...!"

"What? Ruby, what is...?"

"I have to go to her!" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, as she turned, looking back over her shoulder. "She's gone to the springs! She's going to be cursed! I can't let that-Uuugh!" She moaned, as her stomach kicked. She wobbled precariously, as she turned, overstepping. Her grip on Tir never failed, but her feet were not so sure, and she slipped on damp pre-winter wood.

Chell caught her before she could even begin to tumble. Bags under her eyes from endless hours at Tir's bedside, mixed with the impending doom of childbirth possibly little more than weeks away... so very near. She probably looked as much a wreck as she felt, and that wasn't even mentioning her emotional state. All of this was still not enough to stop her from glaring at the woman.

"Let go of me!" She barked, righting herself as she shoved the older woman away. "God, I wish I'd left you in the kennels! You sexist... gahh!" Ruby couldn't come up with a proper insult, tiredness leeching her words, along with a good measure of self disgust.

Chell held her calm, though the words stung. Ruby cut her with words like knives, while her own had surely stabbed the red-head in the heart like a steaming poker. Guilt clogging in her throat even further, but she was able to hold back the tears her eyes had been threatening.

"Ruby. I... know you don't want to hear it," The green haired woman stated briskly as she stepped closer to the enraged red-head. "...but I am sorry. Let me go. Go to Grandmother's home and ask for help with Tir. I will go to the Springs of Sorrow and make certain Aktaya is safe. Please Ruby! You look about to fall apart!"

"I survived Marjoram." Ruby snapped. "I'll survive this..." She recoiled violently, again stepping away from the green haired woman's outstretched hand.

"But will your unborn babe?" Chell asked somberly. "Ruby. I... for five years I rotted in their prison. They broke me and tamed me, and showed me just how weak amazons could be. Then... then you came along. You stood where everyone else fell. You... you made me believe again!"

The words brought Ruby up short. She stood, poleaxed, with a mixture of curiosity and worry. Her hand, the one not holding Tir, traveled down to her belly and she felt pressure in response. As if her child knew... Foolish sentimentality she was sure, but...?

"Then when I found out you were cursed... I took it wrong. I thought it meant that women truly were destined to be ruled, as the Musk had trained me to think. I was spiteful. I thought you were just a hoax, not a true Amazon. A woman- a person! -to believe in... but you are! I don't care what you were. Only what you are! Right now..."

Ruby was unprepared this time for the arms that encircled her and the miraculously still sleeping Tir. Her skin flushed a dazzling array of sparkling colors, all bleeding haphazardly into the draining red of anger that had permeated her. She didn't know what to feel. She was angry at the betrayal Chell had wrought on her, flattered by the flowery words, and still horribly worried for Aktaya.

"I..." Ruby responded dumbly. Dimly she was aware that Chell was guiding her to a plush feather chair.

"I swear to you Ruby. I will bring Aktaya back. But she left two days ago... she's probably already been there and is on her way back even now. Don't worry though. Jusenkyo is safe, and Aktaya could handle any stray Musk she might run into in that direction. No Musk scout could stop her. She is strong, your girl. That she is."

Ruby sat, dazed. What the hell was going on...? Was...?

Her eyes began to fall closed just as she suddenly felt a small twinge in the back of her shoulder. Turning, she glanced, and saw the small point of a sharpened pine needle held between Chell's thumb and index poking her. A small stream of blood trailed down her shoulder.

"You would poison me...?" Ruby asked, her panic suddenly fleeing in a strange influx of calmness. Betrayal sharper than ever punched at her soul, along with a good deal of surprising loneliness, until the slender archer spoke.

"Ruby... I won't let you get yourself or your sons killed. Rest, dear Savior. Aktaya will be back when you wake."

Ruby's eyes fluttered. Flickering open and closed, she met the green-haired woman's eyes as she felt the arm that cradled her begin to lower her down into the softness of a very comfortable chair. Her emotions were dampened by the advance of sleep. Anger burned, but it was only a small kindle compared to her utter horror at the thought of Aktaya being cursed with her own fate. She would not let that happen, and the worry colored her words.

"Chell... Save her."

Chell gave a determined nod. "I will. I promise."

Ruby's eyes closed.

---

Aktaya screamed. Her leather armor, well hidden under her versatile clothes, had been pierced and deep gashes from the bullet-quick thrusts of tentacles marred the delicate skin beneath. A beast in name and deed, the creature's tendrils had seemed to come alive. Medusa's snakes, each striking with the swiftness of a viper.

Her sword was stained and sizzling with the green blood of the poisonous creature. A deep hiss echoed from its metal shaft that even the pouring rain could not cover. Every swing the great blade grew a bit more bloody, but the inhuman creature did not even seem to slow down.

When this battle had begun, the creature had been content to only seek to grab her, the lighting quick tentacles not aiming to kill. They grasped her, squeezing her and slithered all over her, before she'd even known what to think. Luckily, it had been unprepared for her power.

A burst of ki was all it had taken to gain her freedom, scalding a few of the endless tentacles for a few sparse seconds before it began to grab for her once more. But nothing she did seemed to hurt it. Even her ki blast had only served to anger the monster. She'd been dodging killing blows ever since.

A tentacle jabbed forward, followed by a flurry of four more, extending far beyond what their stubbed appearance should allow. She ducked the first, rolled her body to the left to dodge the second. A roll to the left, and another, served to keep her from the spear-like power the serpents held. Sensing a sweep coming from another of the hundreds of tentacles, intending to trip her during her roll, she placed the bladed end of her sword in front of her. The deadening squeal of fury that echoed through the valley as the tendril sliced itself on her greatsword's edge brought a twisted grin to her lips. The creature hissed and retreated slightly, its body writing a pile of snakes that had just been prodded with a burning poker.

"Sucker." She taunted, using the moment of freedom from the beast's ungodly barrage to stand to her full height. The rain weighed her down but not enough. Rushing, she raised her sword high and held it to the right, preparing for a cross-slash to cleave the creature's sickening six foot grin in two. Her sword gleamed silver and green with the blood of the creature, shining from the rain as it fell.

"Die!" She screamed with a rage

The monster... breathed.

"Gu..ah...ck!" Her sword swing halted mid-stride as she choked for the second time on the creature's horrid purple breath. She leaped back, abandoning her charge as quickly as she'd begun. Coughing a storm, her eyes stung with the breath. She gagged, dry retching as confusion and mania began to overtake her once more. She turned her eyes up, or at least which direction she thought was up, and opened her mouth to the onslaught of pouring rain, to clear the putrid poison from her eyes and breath.

Too slow. A tentacle's slithery form snapped tight around her, pinning her arms to her side in a taut cord at the elbows. Her sword fumbled, it's massive handle almost slipping from her grasp, but she tightened and held onto the blade. More tentacles were coming. She could see them through the dim haze of purple that the rain was still clearing from her eyes. More than once the creature had tried to breathe like that, but the rain snuffed out the intensity of the purple bog where gnats and maggots were born. Even now she was still wobbling with nausea, and only the tight hold of the tentacle kept her upright.

She felt her feet dragging along the ground as she was pulled closer. She tried to dig them in, but her confusion was so overpowering that she could hardly tell which way to push against. The rain was helping though. Her eyes were clearing. The crushing power of the tendril around her stung and she felt her bones contort under its dense pressure.

The hold of the tentacle tightened, like a fist cracking a walnut and she felt her bones pop. A scream sprung from her mouth, but she was determined. Turning, she met the eyeless gaze of the hideous monster. Her feet made small trenches along the ground as the tentacle reeled her in towards it, a fish lifeless on the line.

'Didn't I just escape death? What is this beast...?' Her thoughts were wild, but her mind was focused.

Concentrating she gathered the lifeforce she had so painstakingly honed in her captivity without even knowing. Holding it in her center, a bulb of red energy, she gathered her power. Nausea left her as the rudiments of a plan began to form on the edges of her mind.

"S-sick freak!" She taunted edgily. Her insides felt as fire and cannons. The power in her echoed, and the creature seemed unaware. "I won't let you have me!"

The blast of ki ruptured her body as it left her. Expanding from her every pore the heat blasted the tentacles once again, and showered the beast and herself in a flash of blinding light. In the blindness, she struggled to move in the moment of shock. Expecting easy freedom, her heart sank when she found the tentacle around her middle had no intention of letting her loose. Scalded and burned, the slimy thing only clung to her more tightly.

"God dammit!" She screamed.

Dropping her sword, she grabbed the tentacle as spots of color began to filter in; she realized dimly that she was still moving towards the gaping maw of the creature. She panicked. Her hands frantically pulled on the tentacle to no avail. Her flare of ki had knocked the other tendrils away but her dim vision could already see their torched forms slithering back through the air towards her.

The creature's great maw seemed to grow wider in anticipation of a sickening twisted meal that was to come.

"N-no!" She screamed, tugging restlessly on the tentacle. "Don't...! I don't!"

She dug her feet into the soil beneath her feet, feeling the slick mud of a permanently moist ground give way to the creature's dragging.

"Don't eat me!" She screamed in utter desperation. She was close now. The putrid breath of the creature stung her eyes. It's heavy stink permeated her mind and a mania took her as she scrambled in vain raking fingernails along the hard flesh of the tentacle to no avail. Her feet left the ground, the tentacle lifting her, even as more of the slithery things encircled her legs, touching her... Lifting her, pulling her down... down into a black abyss from which nothing could ever return.

She reached forward to hold herself from entering the great mouth before her, and her finger's grasped round a tooth bigger than her forearm. Panic numbed the cut that surged through her fingers as the tooth sliced into her palms.

'Ranma... please save me...!' She begged, tears of fear trailing her cheeks and mingling with the rain. She shut her eyes and prayed to every deity she knew, and used all the strength her weak arms had to keep herself from entering the creatures mouth. She'd never been so afraid...

---

A slithery body of greenish blue slid through the sky. High above, guilt warred with a determined hatred and revenge. The small body zoomed to the left and right, well aware that it probably had one and only one chance. Two fangs dotted its cheekbones, menacing but small. Wings unnatural to the strange form flapped keeping it airborne even during the heavy fall of rain from above.

Esthre had not cared when she had been cursed to the form of a snake. The form it seemed, was immune to the effects of the breath of the Malboro, the great poisonous demon. A curse from the springs was barely enough punishment for the likes of her ilk. Her cowardice...

But she'd been lifted by a stranger while she followed the road, hoping to return to the Amazon city for aide. The stranger, a woman and clearly an Amazon, had placed her inside a satchel and Esthre had been so relieved. She'd been so tired... so very tired, that she'd fallen asleep inside the traveler's satchel and had hardly moved since.

Then... then when she'd been abruptly woken, spilled out onto the grass by the traveler, she'd searched around, gathering her bearings...

...and had found herself back, once more in Jusenkyo! Back with the demon! Back with Borage of the Musk himself, in all his newfound power!

She'd scrambled in terror, horrified at the turn of events, and seeking only to leave this wretched place.

But it had not been meant to be. The traveler had caught her, and thrown her into yet another spring. Daze had only lasted a few moments before she had realized her new form and the wings she had received. A quick flap of limbs that shouldn't exist to test, and then she flew. As natural as slithering had first come to her upon leaving Jusenkyo the first time, she flew. Up! Up! Rejuvenated by the sleep in the traveler's satchel, she left Jusenkyo with haste that no other snake could match. Her wings took her far and high and away!

And as she flew, guilt set in once more.

Guilt... and fear. Not for herself, no, she was safe now. The traveler. The girl Amazon. She had not known what had awaited her. She had not known the dangers of the valley and the Malboro that now inhabited it.

"Ta'arva... I wish I could have been so brave for you..." Esthre thought. She was revived. She was filled with life, and she was an Amazon. A shameless Amazon. A fiend. But still an Amazon, and while she had breath she would not leave another to die a fate worse than even hers had been. She had veered back, her snake eyes seeking out and finding the dip in the land that was the springs of sorrow.

The scene she came upon was not one to inspire hope. The Malboro had indeed attacked, but the fact that the girl had not yet been devoured, or raped spoke of tremendous skill. But she was on the edge. Great tentacles pulled and prodded her, and blood trailed down the girl's hands, cuts from her palms holding onto teeth for dear life. The girl was screaming. Bits of useless ki were flaring off of her body in wild arcs that did nothing. Powerful, and uncontrolled ki.

'I'm going to regret this...' Esthre thought as she hovered. 'But I will not run in fear while I can do something...'

The winged snake dove. Like an arrow streaking from the sky her wings seemed to know exactly how to glide across the air currents. She probably only had one shot, and she had to make it count. The middle tendril pinning the girl's arms... if that one could be shaken the girl might get free...

Like an slithery, slick arrow, she sunk her four fangs into the flesh of the tentacle with a loud thunk. A spray of blood erupted in her mouth. The taste was disgusting but bearable in this form, and she grinned at the sight of the tentacle flailing. All of the tentacles flailing, including the one she was lodged within, wildly screaming, though in her snake body she could hear nothing. She could taste the anger and the sweet sweet pain on her tongue. She'd harmed him. And oh! Did it feel good...

The traveler fell to the ground with a thump of surprise, and just sat there stupidly for half a moment, trying to find her savior. Then she thought better of it, turning around and dashing back to pick up a huge sword.

Esthre let go of the beast and zipped away through the sky before any of the other tendrils could rub her off or grasp her, and turned her attention to the girl below. Her eyes widened, and had she been human she would almost have laughed. The sword she wielded might as well have been bigger than her! Were Joketsuzoku amazons all so stupid?

Then the girl hefted the thing and leveled it towards the beast, breathing heavily, blood trailing down her palms from the cut's the creature's teeth had inflicted. The hilt of the great sword soaked itself in blood, but didn't even seem to pain her, and the girl acted like the sword was a paper weight. Esthre's respect for the traveler upped by a notch.

"Again." She thought, meeting the traveler's gaze, her vision strange and awkward, seeing more through the taste of the wind on her tongue than with her eyes. But it was enough.

The Malboro had recovered, its mouth twisted in a furious snarl. Suddenly, a green glow spread out from the creature, wafting off it like an aura. Yet... not.

"Magic..." Esthre tried to seethe, but only hisses and snarls came from her fanged lips.

Without warning, a great boulder of ice seemed to materialize above the girl's head. Surprise crossed the girl's features for a moment before she dove out of the way. The great shard of ice slammed into the ground below, shattering into a hundred thousand pieces, hurtling in all directions to pelt the girl, and even Esthre with their hailstorm of fury.

Esthre shivered. Fear was tangible within her, and her wings subconsciously took her away, hiding from the battle higher in the sky. But one look at the traveler's scraped face, bloody hands, and determined eyes was enough to inject another small shred of confidence in her again.

The girl stood, facing oncoming tentacles with a bravery that Esthre only dreamed off. The sword flashed, and the creature roared as blood sprayed across the girl's face and tentacles fell severed by the dozens, shriveling and curling like dead spiders in the grass of the valley.

The girl put up a valiant effort but Esthre knew she would be overwhelmed without aid. It had to be done. There was no one else, and if it was in her power to help destroy this creature... she would do all she could.

She flew behind the creature, wary of the fact that it had no visible eyes, and hoping that it had not traced her trail, she saw her moment. The traveler was being pushed back towards the pools. Tentacles seemed to regrow from the creature and fling themselves in an endless kamikaze against the dark haired girl, meeting their doom to the severing slices of a blade that moved too fast for Esthre's snake eyes to follow. But still she would be taken.

Esthre dived, darting through the sea of writhing tendrils that littered the creatures back just as much as its front, she sunk her teeth into the putrid flesh of the back of its head.

The scream of pain the creature let loose would have shaken her to the core if she could have heard it. Only her tongue allowed her to taste the anger and rage of the creature. The tentacles flashed like a rake over leaves trying to dislodge her, but she held firm, noticing with her dim senses that the traveler had bounded up to one of the many poles that littered the valley.

Suddenly, she felt the creature let loose another cry. The beast jerked in her tongue as if hit by a club of some sort, jarring Esthre's fangs loose of their once tight grip on the creature's flesh. She refused to let go. The Malboro bellowed, thrashing even further, but she could not let go! To let go would mean death, mauled endlessly by a sea of green squirming grass the size of bludgeons. But within the burrow of the creatures skin the tentacles could not reach her small form, and she held on for dear life as the putrid blood filled her mouth and nostrils.

The beast shook with tremors, twitching, once... twice, thrice as if it were being punched but Esthre couldn't see. She could only shake and flail, wildly curling her body around the base of one of the creature's many appendages.

Fear blasted her as a small object lodged itself into the green flesh of the beast not centimeters away from her, and she let go in shock, her wings flapping with abandon as she realized what the tremors had been. Arrows! Someone was firing arrows! Haha!

Scrambling to freedom, her body slithered across the great beast's own as her wings fought for air to free her from the writhing tentacles above, she felt joy reach her as she escaped with nary a scratch, slipping between the creatures limbs with the goddess's own blessing. Flying away, she turned back with a victorious grin to the creature. Its mouth was twisted in a visage of horror and death. The shafts of arrows littered it's green body, and more were sinking into it even as Esthre watched. The tendrils were still scrambling wildly, but Esthre's eyes sought the traveler.

She found the brown haired Amazon just at the apex of a massive leap, just starting a descent. The girl fell like an eagle, cutting through the air her great sword trailing behind her, preparing a massive swing.

The girl screamed a silent battle cry and Esthre cheered in victory as she watched the slashing steel cut through green flesh in a gory menagerie of blood and rain.

The tentacles were still wriggling when the head fell splattering to the wet ground in a pool of mud.

---

"Aktaya!" Chell screamed in joy as she watched the girl's sword cut through the head of the great Malboro. She cheered at the triumph and leaped further down into the valley, her bow still ready with an arrow notched aiming for the maimed corpse. A Malboro! By the Goddess who would have fallen into the spring of the Poison Demon...?

The girl jerked, her eyes flashed towards Chell in surprise.

It was almost surreal. The girl had stood her ground against one of the most dangerous creatures the Amazon's had ever faced. Fought and survived, for how long only the goddess knew, against impossible odds...

...and all it took was one small yell.

Chell's warning did no good as the girl slipped backward, falling down into the depths of Jusenkyo's calling waters.

---

"Herb." The word was whispered as quietly as possible. Like the tiniest of mouse, Herb could only barely perceive it. Her eyes were blinded, not by darkness but by the damnable light, holding her unaware and terrified.

Her... her maidenhood burned with the onslaught of torture it had received. A pleasurable burn. A humiliating burn. Her breasts felt trampled, as if they'd been the berries crushed underfoot to make jam back in the old Musk gardens. Her heart stung with the shame, and her body could no more rage than Ruby's had. Helpless, the Amazon's had their own ways to hinder Herb's power.

She'd become a doll in the days, weeks, maybe months that she'd been held here. Rarely aloud to move, chained to a stone table as she was, she was beginning to break. Her mind was losing all sense of focus. She'd begged and pleaded but that had only brought more torture. These people did not want submission from her. No. She was a doll for them to inflict their revenge on.

And Ruby didn't care... Ranma. She was just as cold-hearted as the amazons. Had he not saved her? Had he not... tried...?

But no relief came. Morsels of some sort of bread were slipped into her mouth to sustain her, usually followed by the shafts of unknown men whom she could not even see, blinded by the damnable lights blinding her eyes. They didn't even bother to let her see anymore. They barely even bothered to talk...

"Herb!" The whisper was insistent.

Herb recognized that voice... Mint? Her old retainer? Back from her old life... a life that seemed so far away. The voice was warm. Comforting in its familiarity. But surely not. She was going mad. Her body had been used up. Her throat was dry as a cepitur leaf, and her ears surely caked in a month of dirt and grime. But... it sounded so-!

"Oh, Lord Herb..." This time, it was pitying. Shame filled her. Could this really be Mint, come to rescue her? Or was it some mirage of the elders? Was she doomed to face the sounds of friends that were not actually there now as well?

The light suddenly was lifted off her scorched retina's leaving her blinking in pain at the darkness that set in. Spots freckled her vision and she could barely make out the lines of a person standing before her. But those lines cut a figure that was familiar. A blush crawled up her cheeks. Shame filled her but it was not in her to keep her face straight as palpable relief overwhelmed her.

"Oh gods Mint, it really is you..." Were the words that came unbidden to her dry throat.

"What have they done to you?" Pity. The pity on Lime's tongue was almost palpable and it made Herb cringe. She had some small pride left. Some small pride. And her retainer's seeing her as the coward she was stung almost as much as the torturer's knife.

"They've afforded me the s-same courtesy the Musk afford our captives." Herb answered, and was proud to say she only stuttered a little. "How did you...?"

Lime interrupted the naked girl with a curt dismissal and a sharp clang as the metal shackles holding her to the table were suddenly broken. Then Lime turned to her. Through her blurry, light strewn vision she could almost make out apologetic features on the man's brawny face. "No time, prince Herb. We have to get you out of here. I don't know how long we have before an alarm goes-!"

"Well, well." A voice that made Herb's hairs stand on end crossed her ears the same was a pox might spread. Bumpy and wizened till the throat was raw with the onslaught of countless years, Herb shuddered. "What have we heere?"

Herb didn't need to be able to see to know that Lime and Mint were already captured. She didn't have to hear their struggles to know that they were already bound and gagged. They'd come for her. Captive still she was, but her retainer's had risked and sold their very lives away to try to rescue her. It meant more than words.

Even though no hope remained in her for freedom... Save the tiniest glimmer.

'Ranma... please save us... please.'

The torture began again.

---

The sun rose in Joketsuzoku with a cold air. The rain had finally ceased, and the only green that remained were in the magics of the trees of the city, and the evergreens which never lost their color. All else was bathed in the white of gently falling snow.

Atop one of the many trees that served as lookout towers for the greatest Amazon stronghold, an watchguard, a woman of no more than sixteen years spotted a small party approaching.

One sported a mane of green hair that could be seen even from the miles off that they were, and the watchguard recognized her. Chell, the stalwart. Chell Who Bides the Years. Chell the Survivor. The captured Amazon who had lived for five years in the Musk realm and lived to take up the mantle of Amazon once more. The story filled the young girl with hope. The other traveler though was indistinct. A very plain looking person... a man if she had to guess.

But the oddest thing...

Her eyes widened as she realized the brown haired man was dragging a head the size of a fully grown Lion, trailing green blood behind him as he walked through the falling snow...

End Chapter

Author's Notes: This chapter wasn't so much difficult. Moreso it was boring. I found myself bored with the narrative, the battles, and the plot almost ninety percent of the time spent writing it. I'm going to bet that its reflected in the quality. But dammit all it had to be done. One small arc closed and one cute little winged snake for the road! Me hopes you likee!

But congratulations kiddies. You've passed the filler. Next chapter your epic fix comes. Prepare o' brethren, for the great hunt and the heart of the depths is upon you. And Lo, you have come once more to the precipice of my epic.

If my writing is good enough the next chapter should chill your bones in a way no story before has. That's right. Even "Ever, We Stand" shall be dwarfed. I hope your anticipation is at its peak.

Fare the well and as always Leave a review!

Till Next!
MB