Girl's Bravo was written by Mario Kaneda and published as the anime by AIC (Anime International Company).

Ranma was written by Takahashi Rumiko and published as an anime by Kitty Films - Fuji TV and Viz Communications, Inc.

Sailor Moon was published as an anime by Toei Animation and Geneon Entertainment

They own their own characters and other such trademarks, only Characters that I make are owned by me.

- Also Special thanks goes to my pre reader Cheb from fukufics dot com

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C 18 - Collapse

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It had been three days since the fight, and people started returning home. The state of the once beautiful castle and cities was crushing to everyone. Especially Ranma, although a boy, or rather tomboy at the moment, and preferring to not refer to most things as such, it still clawed at his soul.

Currently Ranma was in female form staring at her reflection in a mirror in her private bathroom. A quick splash of warm water on her hand and boy type was looking back into his eyes, then after yet another splash of cold girl type. He found himself doing this often recently when things were calm. Finally finished she transformed into princess form and left to give yet another speech to invigorate the crowds.

Leaving the facilities she pointedly ignored the honor guard, all of them knew if there was a threat to her life the best they could hope to accomplish was to die giving her seconds to counter attack. Otherwise they would be able to handle it, assuming it got that close. She didn't want that, but nobody listened to that desire.

As she walked down the hall she passed a room with Uranus and Neptune standing guard outside. Pausing a moment she asked, "How is she."

A tired and exhausted Uranus looked up at her and bit back an angry retort; she was forcing herself to remember that on this moon Ranma was the princess, worse yet she still had people that followed her. It was a realization that she came to in the last few days, and something that all her soul wanted to fight. All the senshi but this short red haired girl before her princesses of dead civilizations, she still had hers. Right now here on Siren her word was essentially law, especially now, especially with, "She is asleep, finally, I didn't think it was possible to cry that much without dehydrating and passing out."

Not looking thrilled herself Ranma nodded, "I found that out myself, it's our healing that does it. I assume that the others are in there with her?"

Neptune tilted her head and seemed little better off then Uranus, "Some are, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are, Mercury was with Dekiko last I saw, but I couldn't understand what they were saying, I think they were headed to the library. Saturn is on Earth right now with your family, why I don't know, but I think it makes her feel helpful. She will probably get more rest there then the rest of us here." She sighed and shook her head, "Pluto, well she could be anywhere, but my guess is the gates."

Ranma nodded, inside she knew that the gates was meaning the Time Gates, however the last while every strength the senshi had had been proven vulnerable so they referred to some things in reference and code, the idea is its obvious if you know, but confusing if you don't. And the walls had ears right now. Besides according to Pluto even Galaxia would have a hard time finding the gates, but who knew when it came to Chaos, so better refer to them in vague terms, if she knew they were there, there was no helping the fact, if she didn't, well no sense tipping her off to something they could use later.

Refocusing on where she was going she started walking again only to briefly pause and look over her shoulder, "I'll be back later. I gotta get the survivors to shake their fears and focus on rebuilding. We have enough problems as it is without people rioting."

Uranus smiled before briefly grinning, "Think you can handle it?"

Nodding the red head replied back, "I got lots of practice on keeping people from going nuts just from keeping my friends from killing each other back in Nerima. I should be able to keep people who don't have it out for each other focused." She turned back and kept walking, still Uranus heard her final statement, "Fear is still going to be a problem, all that I can do is to keep them busy for now."

---

Ranma walked into the throne room with her advisors and guards in tow. After collapsing on to the oversized raised chair she tried to calm herself. Channeling emotions was always easier as a girl in the past, otherwise she would be sulking in male form in her room. Yet she could feel the wounded castle trying to ease her burden, by reminding her of happier times in the Silver Millennium. She knew she had been allowing the constant danger to dictate when she was male way too much, but there was precious little that could be done. Once the current crisis was over she was going to go back to earth as a guy and challenge every dojo in Japan that time allowed. She knew she really needed her male time, and a few seconds here and there weren't helping.

Looking up she decided to get this over with, "Report, what are the status of the cities?"

Dekiko glanced at the papers in her hand and winced, "As much as I hate to say it, most of the cities will take decades to rebuild, not to mention repopulate. The least damaged was the one with most of our spiritual connections, and temples." She paused, "Still there was some damage. Daisy Valley is still intact enough that we should be able to move most of the population there without much trouble, however, the main temples were attacked directly."

This was the first most people in the room heard of this so whispering went around before Dekiko continued, "There were no survivors that we could find, however, in the current crisis they may simply still be in hiding in a cellar or lost in the masses. High Priestess Senna was confirmed dead though." The last statement lead the room to silence before Ranma sighed tiredly.

"Alright, I guess we have little choice, whatever city is second to least damaged over all will be our priority. We will focus more on housing and basic needs. Once people have roofs over their heads and full stomachs we will worry about other things then. Let Daisy Valley's people know we are not abandoning them because of this in any way you can think of, but we need a second city for all the homeless outside, and the old cities are too wreaked to just let them go back as yet. Prepare the cities for defenses, have walls built, they should help coral any stray demons that appear, and if the enemy is anywhere near as smart as I think they are they left surprises."

As everyone except Siren left the room she sat on her throne pondering how far her life has come since this all started, she reached forward and looked at her hand, briefly smiled at something that she was unsure of herself before frowning. After about a minute she sighed loudly, "Are you just going to lean against the back of my throne all day?"

Pluto then stepped around it and smiled, "Was just wondering if you noticed I was here?" She paused a moment, "So when are you going to tell them."

Ranma looked genuinely confused, "Tell who what?"

Pluto looked at her from behind her own seemingly ancient piercing red eyes, and clearly through Ranma's own blue eyes, "Are you sure you don't know. You can't keep it secret for long. Secrets always cause trouble in the long run, you should know this well. Perhaps you are even keeping secrets from yourself?"

A wave of unidentified emotion seemed to waved through her face before she returned the look to the green haired woman, "These last few days have been worse than you can imagine." She inclined her head, "When you look at me who do you see?"

Realization dawned on Pluto, "So that's the problem, you remembered that?"

Glaring with intense hatred at her verbal nemesis, "Of course I did, you know full well how I did too."

"The Castle."

Nodding the princess of Siren looked hard at Pluto, "All of us have castles, and our castles are a gift from our once noble blood." The irony Ranma felt was obvious with the word noble. "I also remember some things that don't add up."

"You were told once that your family was using selective breeding to bring about your resurrection correct?" seeing the nod Pluto continued, "You were not the only one." Ranma's eyes widened, "only Ami, Rei, and Minako did not come about artificially, the others all had families or other factors that pulled what yours did, unfortunately what they did when they did that was to alter fate. I will tell you this now because you need to hear this, I have looked ahead and our trials are only going to get worse. I cannot be accurate because of factors that I can not reveal just yet, however fate is a cruel mistress, one that I am bound to obey. You see Usagi's mother had a falling out with her parents over her marriage, I won't bore you with irrelevant, private, and unnecessary details, but the result was Usagi was born a generation too early. Keep in mind that time is not linear, as such balance needed to be kept. This caused a chain reaction causing, well… I hesitate to use the word chaos as it would be confused our current enemy. However random elements were created that tweaked various events. I could go into details for every senshi but let's stick to you and your family."

Seeing the girl interested she continued, "Let's start with the big question that has been bothering you for the last month or so, and has been worse since Sailor Terra attacked. You are in this life born a boy yet still transform into a Sailor Senshi right? There for if you cured your Jusenkyo curse you can't be one because as Sailor Terra said only girls can be Sailor Senshi. Well as with all things this is true but it's also false. You see since Jusenkyo did happen it allowed you be a girl and thus be a Sailor Senshi. Now before we argue semantics of what ifs I will tell you that there are a number of ways that a gender change can happen, so Jusenkyo is far from alone. It possible that your powers alone might have done it, even I cannot see that in the gate. When it comes to information like that it's not all that useful. However there are two things you need to know. Mamoru was every bit as powerful as Sailor Moon, when at his full strength, so having our planetary connections as males does not make us weaker. The ultimate truth is that being a Sailor Senshi is a title, our princess forms are all far stronger, yet we only have two awake princess. This should lead to your next question."

Looking unsure Ranma shuddered inwardly almost not wanting to ask this, but did any way, "Why do I need to become a girl?"

Pluto shook her head, "Close but not quite."

Ranma was even more confused but tried again, "If I need or should be a girl now why was I born a boy?"

Nodding, "Close enough, and the answer is Jusenkyo"

"Jusenkyo?"

"Yes the perfect place to hide our enemies base of operations, however, one that you identified because you had been there. Your life was what fate used to balance the sins of those who came before to create you." Ranma was about to say something but Pluto cut her off with a wave of her am, "I know what you are going to say so save it, your eyes tell it all. You are right you shouldn't have to have no choice in this, it's your life. However fate is dominated by people making decisions and for good or ill there can be no light without darkness."

"So you are saying that Beryl escaped when she did, all those battles I was unaware of happened because Usagi was born early, that all that horror is because she was too much potential good and needed evil to beat her down?"

"Yes, and in a way I think she understands this. Recall if you can that the senshi 'erased that time line' and 'forgot' their powers. There was peace and no big and real evil then. And all their other trials came due to some other problem, the dark moon was self made, Ail and Ann were here because their tree needed to be purified, even if they didn't know at the time. Ironic with them that they were practically the same as us."

Ranma furrowed her brows in confusion, "What do you mean… No you are not serious."

Pluto nodded, "Though I am unsure how Yggdrasil will respond to Sailor Terra, likely it will reject her. She is already on borrowed time. She obviously has a Sailor Crystal but that means little in the long run. Also do not tell the others about their trees, they have more problems than they can handle now as it is."

Deciding she left enough for the redhead to chew on she got up to leave but was stopped by Ranma saying her name.

"Who or what am I really?"

"Others have already tried their hands at answering that. Now it's up to you. However, don't take too long. Doors that are open now may close later, and even if new ones open you may not like them." With that she faded from sight in a short ranged teleport. She was still unable to reach earth directly from Siren, but the time she could again was getting closer.

Looking at her hand once again Ranma became lost in thought, "I need to find out why I have to be girl to be a senshi, otherwise…" Ranma shook her head. Her powers may be balanced now to let her become male anytime she isn't a Sailor Senshi, but she still felt like she was losing something and she couldn't figure out what.

---

Ranma was in male form for the first time staying any length of time, sitting with the other Sailor Senshi, all in civilian forms; except Pluto and Saturn who remained at the time gates and Ranma's family home respectively. Usagi's eyes were still red but nobody was faulting her, what happened to Mamoru was the final straw for the over stressed girl. She looked around her and nodded at Minako.

The other blond spoke up after all eyes were on her, "We need to attack, if we let them keep building Kimera then we will be pressed harder and someone else may be next. We need to stop their production of Kimera."

Ranma's eyes hardened, "So we are hitting Jusenkyo."

More than a few of the others grinned in satisfaction at the prospect of hitting them back now. While they must have used most of their forces. Makoto then asked a question that suddenly bothered her, "Who is going?"

Ami spoke up, "Usagi is refusing to sit this one out plus Ranma has to stay near her and knows the area, so they are in. Rei is in because she was there and also knows the area. I have to go in case something comes up and we need to cover an escape. Michiru and Haruka will stay at Ranma's family's home, with Hotaru as protectors there and reinforcements we may need. This leaves Makoto and Minako to stay here and guard the survivors from any stray Youma. And as per usual Pluto is at the gates."

Haruka was the first to respond beating out Makoto, "Why are we sitting on the side lines?"

Ami sighed, "While you, Michiru and Hotaru would be ideal for this type of attack, we also have to accept that the enemy have made a habit of constantly blindsiding us. There is also more. Remember the false Senshi we had to face? The ones that Chaos used when she possessed Galaxia? Rei and Setsuna identified the one making the Kimera as…" she paused and looked apologizing with her eyes for this, "as Sailor Aluminum Siren"

Usagi collected herself and spoke up, "We do not know how she is alive again, or how she reclaimed the stolen powers of Sailor Mermaid. But we need to attack her, and stop her at any cost." She closed her eyes and looked away, unable to meet the eyes of Ami and Makoto.

Ranma who was silent spoke up, "Why is she using my name?"

His answer came from Ami, "Probably because this moon was a secret project, thus few knew of it out of the planets we were in contact with back during the Silver Millennium. When she chose her name she didn't want to just take the name of the one she killed to take their powers. Perhaps it was even given to her, I can only guess but I doubt it was intentional."

Makoto found a pause to interject so that Ranma couldn't find a reason to sulk again, like both he/she and Usagi had been doing for the last few days, "It doesn't matter, we have an enemy before us, we can either stand and fight or run, but if we run the innocent die."

Rei shook her head, "There is no choice, we fight, and if we eliminate the Kimera factory then we can deal with the Youma and Chaos."

Ranma nodded along with the others, "Two questions, first is don't I need to stay to anchor this place, and second when do we attack?"

The Senshi of Mercury responded, "To answer the first no we think you and Usagi being here is causing the Siren Moon to drift further out of position, this is due to Usagi not being able to fully link with the Silver Moon. Further if my calculations are correct the ideal situation is both of you being in Japan or another node that links to Siren, which only exists on Earth. Thus its ideal for both of you to return now."

Michiru raised an eyebrow, "Meaning we were on a wild goose chase in moving these two around all this time?"

Ami shook her head, "No our guesses were logical, just lacked what we know now. However to answer Ranma's second question…"

Minako stood up, "We do this in a week. Their guard is weak now, but they would expect us to either wait for the next attack and defend, or attack now, waiting is a tactically weak idea normally, but now it will give us the element of surprise."

One by one each person in the room nodded in agreement. Worry was evident on everyone's faces, especially Ranma. Yet, none would call him on it. He had far more at stake than the others did, they may have been responsible for protecting the earth, but they did so on their own, they were only accountable to themselves for any decisions they made, Ranma had people that specifically were relying on their princess, on Sailor Siren to be their shield. However, now their protector needed to leave them to protect them from afar.

Usagi looked at Ranma seriously, "Ranma please take the next few days easy, we will need you at your best, not exhausted from trying to take on too much for yourself. I can tell you from personal expeiance it only leaves you feeling too weak and ashamed when your strength is truly needed."

Ranma looked a way not wanting to admit any weakness, but eventually nodded in acceptance.

Ami sighed, "Now that that's out of the way Ranma you should change back, I think we could all use some food."

Grinning at the thought of food both Ranma and Usagi got up followed by the others, Ranma changed with a splash of water in Usagi's bathroom sink, as she looked up into the mirror she sighed at the reflection in the dim lighting. Looking at the reflection once more she turned off the lights and left the room swearing to herself that once the people were safe she would tell them the truth. The only things to worry now was would they still want her or accept him for that matter, and if they could would they accept a prince instead of a princess.

---

Sailor Siren stood with the other senshi of the strike team on the cliff overlooking Jusenkyo, it was the same cliff that so long ago she had accidently knocked Ryoga off of what seemed a life time ago. Now she had returned, and despite knowing a cure was within her grasp she would have to ignore it, at least for now. There were more important problems to deal with right now. She glanced to the other senshi crouching around her and whispered a reminder that none of them truly needed, but she felt needed repeating anyway, "Remember what those pools are, I don't know if our magic is stronger or not so don't fall in."

Moon looked at Siren in concern, "Same goes for you."

Nodding the senshi faded back from the cliff and prepared to attack, a side attack might normally be a good idea but now it would mean jumping into Jusenkyo and nobody thought that was a good idea. The four trudged along in circles trying to get close to the enemy camp but there came a point they realized they needed help.

Mars looked at Mercury and Moon and stated, "We need Saturn, a few Silence glaive surprises should do the trick."

Moon looked pensive for a moment before looking at Siren. She closed her eyes and nodded, her family could still run to the castle on her moon if needed.

Sailor Moon lifted her communicator and pressed a button, "Saturn." She waited a moment then repeated, "Saturn." The four looked at each other in worry, suddenly Moons communicator beeped and displayed Neptune's symbol.

The four shared another look, the same thought ran through their heads, Not good, that was the signal for their reinforcements being busy.

---

Sailor Uranus cursed silently as she held a bleeding arm while Saturn healed it. She knew the attack should be starting about now but she had no way to help as Tokyo seemed to be a youma filled mad house. Well fun house seemed more accurate as it appeared that most of their opponents were illusions, they might not be able to do real damage to them but there was too much to cover. Fortunately by now most of Tokyo was damaged enough that an evacuation order went out and even Siren's family left for the moon.

Suddenly a sugary voice was heard from all around them, "Curious curious little toys, seeing you play will make my day."

Uranus gripped the space sword in her off hand as Saturn was still healing her main, "Show yourself coward."

The voice giggled as a number of Youma charged Neptune, however she had used the mirror's powers to divine the correct one and blasted it as the others shattered with it. "Round and Round we will go. After all you must pay

Another two Youma charged their position as Saturn finished healing the arm, Uranus wasted no time and nailed both Youma with a single attack only to see Saturn swing her glave towards her head. Beliving something wrong she ducked as what she thought was her daughter was a youma under an illusion to grant that appearance; fortunately the real one had bisected the fake.

Neptune landed next to the two and was worried she knew that although Youma were weak, they should not be this strong. She brought out her mirror to scry where the next attack would be coming from.

Uranus growled again as she heard the apparent leader's voice, "Mirror Mirror in thy hand. Where will you land?"

Both turned to Neptune who had a look of pure shock as she looked down just in time for the ground under her to briefly collapse then in a flash of white light explode sending Saturn through three parked cars in a lot across the street causing them to fly into other cars causing a domino effect, where as Uranus was blown through two buildings and Neptune crashing into the ground harder than the others, after four bounces across pavement for half a kilometer she crashed into a marble statue shattering it.

The three had to quickly pull themselves together and regroup obviously far worse condition then they wished they were in moments ago.

Glancing at each other and the newest batch of Youma they all prepared themselves, Saturn started healing Neptune while Uranus who was in better condition took pot shots at the enemy. Most missed but there were a few lucky hits.

Of course their unseen opponent had to get in a comment, "Blast blast with all you have. Soon I'll turn you all to sand."

Uranus retorted, "That's the lamest line yet, you need better material."

The other voice seemed unaffected but did stop her rhyming briefly, "Doesn't matter anyway, when you die, you can't complain anymore."

Uranus was getting frustrated, and tired, this was going on too long, sooner or later one of them will make a mistake. She was alerted to a problem by the beeping of Saturn's communicator, followed by Moon's voice, after a pause and a second request Neptune sent the reply. There was nothing to do for them, the lines were drawn already, and the dice cast. It was all a matter of who would win on Moon's team now.

---

The battle was long and hard as they were surrounded the sailor suited warriors were all in eternal form and battled as hard as they could. However, the false Sailor Senshi had them penned in on all sides. Their only hope was to take her out then they could more easily finish off Kimera in the confusion. Sailor Siren knew that and Mars and Mercury both knew that Sailor Moon was the best choice to finish off this enemy of theirs. Even Sailor Moon knew all this, and she knew what was going to happen next, Siren had just opened a hole in the enemy lines with her shadow weapons which also kept that hole open.

"Mercury, Mars can you charge my weapons?"

Mars paused after an attack, "What? Why?"

Mercury had grasped one of the offered Katana and was charging it with her powers, "You won't have long with this, they are built to handle your powers not ours."

Siren nodded and looked at Mars, "One attack should be all I need, I'll hold them off, and you get to their leader."

Sailor Moon saw the look in her eyes, she saw that look before, and it was when Jupiter stayed behind to slow down the enemy on her way to Beryl. She wanted to speak, and protest, but in her heart she knew what needed to be done. She covered Mars as she took up her chance to charge the second weapon and Siren kept the door open, but it would not hold for long.

Just as Mars turned to Moon both nodded then Moon ordered Siren, "Don't die."

Siren smirked, merged her weapons, "Just be quick on your job, so you don't have to worry. With that the group split up the three managed to escape the narrowing hole in the enemies' defensive ring around them. They ran as fast as they could but it took them almost ten minutes to reach their enemy, Sailor Aluminum Siren.

She was not the same woman they remembered; she looked more fish like, far more grotesque. Sailor Moon and the false Siren stared at each other, Moon with a look of pure determination and her opponent one of madness, but still a gleam of intelligence. The false one looked at moon and smirked, "Now little girl where is that other girl that was with you, the one who shares my name?"

Mercury was more worried now, this was not their old enemy, this was something else. She scanned her with her computer and her eyes widened, even in her old records of the original showed that the bracers held some form of senshi power, even if she had no star seed or sailor crystal. But this twisted creature had something else, "Sailor Moon, She's a powered up Super Youma! We've been tricked."

The Super Youma smiled, "You are correct young girl, but remember we were more powerful in the Silver Millennium then you were. Yet how times change. Still…" She raised her arms showing the bracers, "Unlike normal Youma there is a reason we are special, unique. You might even live long enough to find out." Grinning madly and wider then a human face allowed, she almost seemed to salivate, "Provided you can escape me. And I thirst for your precious sailor crystals."

Both sides in the fight took their positions and prepared to do battle, Locking her eyes on to the target, Sailor Moon got into her usual pose and opted to mock her enemy , "For killing countless people, for creating an army of soulless demons…" As she was speaking sounds around them seemed to quiet except for a steadily picking up wind pulling in towards the direction they just came from. "For all the grief and sadness you have caused, In the name of the Moon…" It was clear to the others that she was not being affected by the near fifty kilometer per hour winds, she was shaking still, in a pure rage that they had never seen in their princess, they knew the loss of Mamoru hurt her they just didn't think it put her over the edge, " I'll tear you in two." As if to punctuate her statement a monster of a storm seemed to annihilate over half of the Kimera with what appeared to be a dragon rising into the sky being followed by a whirlwind which was quickly turning into a ground level typhoon of destruction.