Whoever owns Ranma 1/2, The DC Animated, OMG!, or Sailor Moon, it certainly isn't me.
Chibi-Moon glared up at the howling bull-man-demon-thing as his claws scraped again and again across the shield she'd thrown up over herself and Hotaru. She really hoped that glare was hiding the fearful tremors running through her; the addition Puu had made to her moon rod — pink, heart-shaped crystal mounting on top, way too baby-ish but her parents refused to give her anything more mature — before her latest return to the past was holding, but she had no idea how long it would last. Once the shield fell — and it would fall, she could feel the rod beginning to quiver even now — she would have only her usual bag of tricks to protect them, and none of them were powerful enough to do all that much damage to an ordinary mortal, much less a demon lord ... she needed the presence of Mamo-chan or her Baka-mama to unlock the really powerful stuff. After all, what idiot would give a real weapon to a prepubescent without supervision?
And at the moment, she felt so very, very alone.
"Get away from her!"
A familiar golden wave of power tore across the lawn and hammered into the bull-demon, sending him skipping across the grass. Even as the torn-up chunks of sod and dirt were still falling, a thundering wave of water washed over him, rolling him further away.
"Yes!" Chibi-Moon twisted around, smiling broadly. "Aunt —" She froze, eyes widening at the sight of Aunt Neptune, Aunt Uranus, Puu ... but not her Aunt Neptune, Aunt Uranus, Puu. While all of the Senshi had told her tales of their youngest days, they had refused to tell her any that had involved her. And she'd found it intriguing that these three had told her fewer tales than any of the others.
Only it was instantly obvious that these weren't the three that had told her those few stories: Neptune's movements were awkward, uncertain; Uranus moved like she knew what she was doing, but was holding her Sword like it was a bat; and Puu ... actually, the only difference between this Pluto and her own was the costume that matched those of the rest of the Senshi, that none of them had worn in centuries.
Huh, this must be their origin story.
But that didn't mean nothing could go wrong, Puu had repeatedly warned her of how mutable history could be.
Another groan from the form huddled at her feet yanked Chibi-Moon's attention away from the incipient fight. Hotaru rolled and looked up. "Usagi?"
Chibi-Moon flinched. "You can rec ... uhh, who?"
Hotaru sat up and looked around, eyes widening. "The Senshi ... Usagi, you're with the Senshi!?" Then a roar of anger yanked her head around, to the soaked, muddy, furious bull-demon rising to his feet and she paled, then looked around wildly. "Momma!" Her eyes fell on the charred and smoking corpse and she froze. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
Chibi-Moon took her arm and began to slowly push away from the fight, sliding on her butt, using the unnatural strength her hero form gave her (for her age) to pull her friend along with her. "Come on, Hotaru, we can't stay here."
Hotaru allowed herself to be pulled along without resisting, her eyes never leaving her mother's body.
/\
Mars's last soaring leap carried her over the wall around the school grounds. She was already looking around frantically as her knees bent, absorbing the force of her landing. Chili-Moon was sitting by the gate, one hand holding out her moon rod, an unfamiliar glowing ball of energy surrounding her and the raven-haired girl about her own size, sitting in her lap and sobbing into her shoulder. Out on the blasted, ripped up, muddy lawn Pluto with her garnet-tipped staff and a massive bull-headed demon with glowing red energy-claws were furiously exchanging blows ... actually, Pluto was landing blow after blow with incredible ease while ducking and dodging every swing of the demon's claws. The emerald-haired Senshi abruptly leaped back and a massive jet of water hammered into the demon, knocking him back even as it engulfed him. The swirling ball of water lifted, bearing him up into the air and spinning him as if he was stuck in a washing machine. Mars tracked back along the stream still feeding into the ball to the upraised hand of a Neptune sitting on the lawn, her other arm across her stomach, her skirt and legs drenched with red. Next to her lay another unmoving facedown body in Senshi costume.
Mars was running before that body even fully registered, dropping to her knees beside Uranus. She carefully rolled her new teammate over, cursing the way her gloves interfered with getting a pulse, then sagged in relief when Uranus' chest rose and fell. She began gently running her hands along Uranus' body.
Neptune asked, "How is she?"
"Alive so she'll be all right. I can't find any broken bones but we won't want to move her until she's done healing or Moon gets here, in case she has internal injuries. Where is Moon, anyway?"
"In the school. I hope she gets here soon."
Mars' head shot up at the tight, strained sound of Neptune's voice registered, really focusing on her for the first time. A moment later she was summoning her communicator. When the hologram of Moon's head appeared in response to her emergency call, she barked, "Moon, we need you out here now!"
"Mars, I'm busy right now."
Mars was startled by the snarl in her leader's voice, then winced when Moon's appearance sank in — blood-streaked cheeks, cut by tear tracks. "Moon ... Neptune's trying to engage in a boss fight while holding in her guts with one arm."
" ... I'll be right there."
Moon's head vanished, and Mars returned her communicator to her 'bag of holding'. "Neptune, you heard that, stop trying to help until she get here and heals you. I'll help Pluto keep that thing —"
"Moloch."
"That's Moloch? This is the boss fight, isn't it? I'll help Pluto distract him until you can rejoin us."
Neptune nodded and cut off her ongoing water blast, and Mars rose and dashed away— away from the two newest Senshi, and away from Chibi-Moon and the girl she was comforting. Once well away and with no one beyond a Moloch and Pluto once again furiously going after each other, she stopped and summoned her fire bow to hand. Careful now, she thought as she squinted through the flames leaping along the arrow she was aiming. Pluto isn't going to thank you if she spins into your shot. Wait for it ... wait for it...
Moloch stepped back away from the Senshi he simply couldn't land a blow on, and Mars released — just in time for her heart to leap into her mouth when Pluto side-stepped into the path of her blazing arrow. She started to shout a warning, just as Moloch turned to face his opponent, Pluto abruptly dropped to the ground — and Mars's shot plunged into Moloch's chest.
The bull-demon roared, grabbing at the arrow piercing between his ribs. Smoke rose from sizzling flesh of chest and hand, and Mars gaped as he yanked the arrow made of fire out and threw it away. He looked about for the source of the arrow as Pluto scrambled out from in front of him, and Mars blanched as his gaze met hers. He snarled and began lumbering toward her, only to roar again as Pluto plunged the butt-spike of her staff into his back. He whirled around, a large hunk of emerald hair floating away as his red glowing claws swiped through the space her head had occupied a split-second before.
Mars drew a shaky breath — she didn't care how powerful he was, no demon should have shrugged off that shot so easily! Unless he isn't a demon... She resummoned her communicator.
No holograph this time, just Mercury's tight voice: "A little busy here, Mars!"
"Mercury, have you scanned any of the things we're fighting?"
A short pause. "No, there's so many I didn't see the point. Give me a moment." A long pause. "Did you know we aren't fighting demons?"
"It didn't even occur to me that I wasn't sensing any demonic energy, I just assumed that's what we're facing; you too, apparently. But Moloch just shrugged off a fire arrow to the chest. Why aren't they demons? Raven said they're coming from Hell."
" ... She also said Moloch's summoning would make this his home dimension. Maybe the same applies to everyone coming through the portal? Maybe having this as their home dimension means they can't be demons."
Mars glanced up, then away from the eye-searing black portal hovering above the school. "And they're still coming through. Everyone needs to get back here and deal with Moloch so we can concentrate on sealing that portal. Who knows how many more are waiting to come through? The Justice League's own mystics might be working on that right now, but we can't count on it. And Pluto and I can't deal with Moloch alone —" She glanced over at the injured Senshi, to find Moon kneeling beside Neptune, her hands glowing as she healed their teammate. "— and Neptune and Uranus, as much help as they'll be when Moon gets done —" She paused as a new presence made itself felt, a truly demonic one this time, and a familiar one.
An inky-black circle was rapidly forming on the lawn not far away, and a moment later an immense bird-shaped shadow erupted from that circle before fading away to reveal Raven floating above the battle, the fabric of her costume shriveling away from the black flames encompassing her clenched fists and four red eyes blazing from under the hood of her cloak. "Moloch!"
/\
Raven snarled as she stared down at the burnt-red-skinned, bull-headed former god below her. She had awoken seconds earlier to Thought pecking her cheek, to find herself in the bedroom she had shared the last few nights with Rei. It hadn't been hard to figure out what had happened ... and how stupid she had been ... and she had rushed outside with her heart in her throat to find the void-dark portal hovering in the sky. Now she floated underneath that portal after the longest single-jump teleport in her life, one that would have been impossible if even through her raging guilt-fed anger she hadn't been able to sense Rei.
She hesitated for just a moment, yanking on the reins of her burning need to rend and destroy the monster that had engineered a child's serial rapes, ending in arranging for her to kill the mother that loved her. Pluto, dodging a swipe of the claws of red, glowing power around Moloch's meaty hands, leaping back to break contact; Moon ignoring her presence as the Senshi leader's hands glowed where they were pressed against a Neptune gaping up at Raven; Uranus beside them, beginning to stir; off to one side Mars also gaping up at her, holding a communicator to her ear; against the wall by the school gates a pink-haired tiny Senshi that had to be Chiba-Moon, her arms around a raven-haired child clutching her and sobbing —
Raven's control snapped like a too-tight wire and she dove straight at Moloch. Her fists stretched out in front of her, night-black power pouring out of those fists to wrap around her like a shroud, she aimed straight for the cauturized wound in the center of Moloch's chest ... and found herself skipping across the lawn.
She finally rolled to a stop, ears ringing, sight spangled with stars, covered in dirt and grass. Sitting up, she looked back along the line of divots carved out of the lawn where she had bounced to find Moloch clumping toward her — considering the ponderous inevitability as each massive hoof came down, the ground really should have been shaking with each step. "Run, little coward!" he bellowed as he approached. "Run, show the world what the Daimakaicho's granddaughter is made of!"
Raven snarled as she leaped to her feet, almost fell over again as she over-balanced on her hooves, then kicked up more if smaller divots in the lawn as she charged to meet him, ignoring the cries from the Senshi present. Just as they were about to collide an arrow of pure fire pierced Moloch's side and he stumbled, his swinging claws going wide, and their heat washed over Raven as she ducked to smash a fist into his gut and another into his groin and the huge swinging dick there just before she body-slammed into his legs. He tripped and fell, and she twisted around just in time to block a back-kicking hoof with crossed arms covered by her soul-field. The impact was still enough to send her skidding back.
The two shakily rose to their feet, Moloch thanks to the low blow and Raven still adjusting to her hooves and fighting for control, and she stared at him as he yanked out the arrow and cast it aside to lie burning on the lawn for a moment before it vanished. She was in trouble. They were in trouble. Now that the kick had knocked her out of her berserker rage and she was actually thinking again (though she could still feel it snarling and clawing in the back of her mind), she was frantically going over her options. Her preferred tactics as Raven weren't going to work — there was nothing around that she could throw at Moloch that he wouldn't laugh off; lifting him would last only as long as it took him to break free — not long, given his likely strength — and the mental backlash would be both painful and disorienting; engulfing him within her soul-self, a top-rank earth spirit even if newly-minted, would be even worse than lifting him off the ground; and while she could form shields — even armor — with her soul-self, she couldn't increase her own pitifully inadequate physical striking power and he'd already shrugged off her best shot. She could feel the new power her transformation into a full demon had unleashed, but she didn't know how to use it! Yes, she'd destroyed one of the rooms of Auntie Bell's home, but she'd been out of control and running on instinct — she had no idea how to repeat what she'd done and this was no time to experiment. Sure, as Ranma he had occasionally come up with a new technique in the middle of a fight, but he had also often gotten his head handed to him and had to retreat, regroup, and come back for a rematch, and that simply wasn't an option this time.
And Moloch was angry, as angry as she had been — he was literally burning with rage, the red energy he'd used to form his claws crawling up his arms and across his chest. She could feel the heat from yards away —
She froze as inspiration hit. It was stupid ... insane, even, given the disparity in their physical strength and toughness. But it could work, if she could not just control but suppress her new — or rather enhanced — nature. She backed up a little to give herself a bit more reaction time and cast her mind inward, seeking out the burning rage that had possessed her since her transformation, and ... was it giggling? Her Mama Mara had said that raging hate had a mind of its own, but ...
Deal with it later. She called out, "Everyone stay back, Moloch is mine!"
There were shouts of protest that she ignored, staying focused on her now laughing enemy. "You, deal with me?" he demanded when he caught his breath. "Alone? You're pitiful."
"Yeah, well, that shouldn't be a problem, considering little girls are your speed." She deliberately dropped her gaze to his crotch and the massive dick swinging there, bare to the breeze. "I'm surprised you didn't make yourself smaller, that just isn't going to fit anyone you'd actually want to play with. They won't want ta play with you, a'course, but then neither will any real women. I wonder how big a bribe you'd hafta pay ta get a real woman? I'm sure you don't hafta wonder, seein' how many demonesses you must'a had ta pay over the centuries."
She suppressed a wince as she taunted Moloch, both because she found herself falling back into Ranma's less-than-proper Japanese and because of how crude her jibes were — Ranma had been the master of the perfect taunt but she'd never really put in the practice needed even with the perfect tool that was her empathy, first because she would have been trying to taunt Mama Lind and that wouldn't have ended well, and then once she joined the Teen Titans she'd been too chronically depressed to bother.
But it seemed she didn't need Ranma's skill, as Moloch flushed with anger — really flushed, the bright red blossoming around his horns and flowing over his head and down his chest. He threw back his head, tossing his horns, and the rage burning in the back of her mind ... well, it wasn't really giggling, she didn't actually hear anything, but she felt like it was giggling and she couldn't help remembering how her mind had been fractured with each emotion getting its own existence and personality (of a one-dimensional sort).
Later. She took her worry that she was cracking again and put it in its own metaphorical box. She added her loathing for the monster she was facing; her guilt that she hadn't moved fast enough to stop him ... her nervousness about being reunited with Akan — uh, Rei, her delight that Rei had accepted her so readily, so completely; her loathing for her fathers, her love for her family, her delight in her friends, her occasional embarrassment at Starfire's over-the-top enthusiasm for, well, everything ... in went every emotion that haunted Raven for good or ill. And finally, the fire that had felt like it was trying to tear its way out of brain but now went willingly — eagerly — into the box after the rest, 'giggling' all the while.
Then Moloch was on top of her, all massive seven feet, and she was desperately back-pedaling, ducking, arms shadowed by her soul knocking aside the swipes of Moloch's burning red claws, more of her darkened soul a lighter sheath protecting the rest of her body from the heat radiating from the furious former demon.
And as she backed up, frost began radiating out across the grass from each backward step of her ice-coated hooves.