Book Four: Challenges
Part Ten: Elder Birth
Chapter One: First Born
Ranma raced down the twisting passages with a speed born of
desperation. Somewhere in the murky distance Akane was in trouble. He
didn't know how he knew, or even why, he just knew.
As he ran, in his hand his Ki Rod appeared and slowly shifted
in shape and color to an emerald katana. Somehow, he knew that a sword
would be the best in the situation that he was headed towards, despite
the fact that he was indifferent at best when it came to weapons
training. He also felt that there should have been a different hilt
nestled in his broad palm, but he just couldn't quite place why he
felt that way.
"AKANE!" He bellowed as he raced, darting down side passages
and up tunnels that he didn't quite know how he knew.
***********
Ranma's bellow echoed dimly into the hollow globe of a room
that held Akane and her mysterious companion in a wildly flickering
grasp of a fierce pyre. Akane heard but barely. And yet that distantly
stalwart voice wrapped its powerful wings protectively about her heart
as its owner raced ever closer to where she stood.
The very sound of his desperate voice soaring to her ears sent
her heart thrilling. He was coming. Tears poured down her streaked
face as she realized that he hadn't abandoned her. That he wouldn't
ever abandon her.
"Ranma!" she called back, though her voice sounded weak even
to her ears.
She felt so incredibly weak and helpless. It wasn't something
she was used to feeling. She had always felt that there was something
she could do, no matter what happened. She could always help somehow.
Even when she was mummified by contact with the key during the battle
with Saffron she had been able to defend Ranma.
Now, however, she couldn't do anything. She couldn't call him
to her. And perhaps worst of all, she couldn't run to him. Her knees
felt watery and no matter how fiercely she shoved against the sturdy
limbs that held her tight, she could not escape the man's embrace.
It was like her worst fears from when Ranma first appeared
come hurtling back to her anew. And they were all true. Here was a
man who could defeat her in combat, and unlike Ranma he held no
computations against using that strength against a girl.
When she looked timidly up into his face, her fears were
confirmed all too well. Gone was the gentle expression of a parent
that had drawn her to him at first. That which replaced it was more
dreadful than anything she had seen so far.
A lecherous smirk dominated his features so like Ranma's. His
dark eyes, not at all like the clear sapphire she so loved with Ranma,
were narrowed with evil intent. She let out a thin whimper of terror
as she began pummeling his chest ineffectively with her small fists in
yet another attempt at escape.
"Why do you seek to run, little one?" he asked, his once sweet
voice having tumbled into a darker, more sinister realm. He laughed
menacingly at her feeble attempts at evasion. "You know you desire
this."
Then his head darted down like a eagle descending on its prey
and captured her terrified scream with his mouth as he locked his lips
about hers. She struggled and pounded against him with all of her
strength, but he just laughed. She couldn't help but feel betrayed,
even though she knew it was not Ranma.
His dark laughter and a gout of guttering flame precluded
their decent to the slick surface of the ground covered in gleaming
coals. She cried out in pain as she felt the searing heat of the coals
burning through the thick wool of her red sweater into her back and
ravaging the bare skin of her legs under her denim skirt. Her hair
crackled and popped nauseatingly as it caught fire.
He smirked down at her tear-stained face and drug a callused
hand through the coals beside her head. Holding the coals up where
she could just barely see them through the coals, he slowly allowed
them to trickle through his fingers to strike the ground beside her
head and bounce back up to strike at her cheeks, leaving streaks of
flesh glistening with burned tissue.
"Enjoying yourself yet, little one?" He smirked at her
maliciously.
Then he swooped down upon her yet again, stealing her breath
away from her. One thick palm groped lustfully at her breasts through
her sweater even as his other hand slipped under her skirt and
squeezed hard at a place that no one had ever touched before. Tears
bubbled anew from her eyes, boiling with the extreme heat and
evaporating into steam before they could escape.
She screamed for Ranma with every ounce of her mind. She begged
with to come and save her. To destroy this beast that sought to steal
her most precious belonging. Her most precious gift.
***********
Nearly a mile away, Ranma suddenly found the strength and
energy to burst into another madcap dash down a straightaway. He had
great endurance and physical stamina, but the past few weeks had
taken a lot out of him without allowing him to recoup the losses.
Racing through miles of twisting tunnels was beginning to wear heavily
upon him.
Yet he felt an inexplicable force driving him on. He had to
reach Akane. Before it was too late.
'Too late for what?' he wondered, even as he poured on another
burst of energy, drawing strength from some unknown fount of power.
He didn't know the answer but he kept pouring on the speed.
Soon he was going far to fast to have time to think about anything
else except control of his direction.
***********
Akane curled into a fetal ball on her side in the coals, her
clothing in tatters. She no longer felt the pain of their searing
heat. A much more fierce pain invaded every cell of her being. And
that pain began with a agonizing wave emanating from the place between
her legs.
She sobbed with the pain, even as her attacker stood braced
above her staring down at her from under black bangs that still
reminded her of Ranma. She curled away from that still lustful gaze
to the very extent of her being. Even though her muscles screamed at
her for taking that action.
Ranma. She longed for him to come and take her away. And
yet, at the same time, she didn't want him to see her. Didn't want
him to know what had happened.
She cried even harder at her confusion. She didn't know what
she wanted anymore. It just hurt so bad.
However, she also didn't want to see him at all. She was
absolutely terrified that somehow the sight of Ranma would always
bring back the horror and pain that this man had brought her. The
way they looked so alike frightened her.
She didn't want to think that Ranma, her gentle knight, could
be like that man. She didn't want to believe that he could be so rough
with her. Not when he was always so gentle and caring.
Maybe he was crude in speech and rough around the edges, but
that was a part of who Ranma was. And maybe he did insult her, which
hurt her feelings more than she wanted to admit, but he never
abandoned her. Never turned his back on her.
Except now. Now she was afraid that that was exactly what he
would do. She wasn't pure now. Nodoka would never accept her as a wife
for her proud man among men son. She was unbelievably terrified that
he would acquiesce to his mother's demands and set her aside.
She didn't want to be set aside. Not now. She just wanted him
to hold her in his arms like he had done after battling with Saffron
and tell her that everything would be alright. But she didn't want to
be near him either. And that hurt more than anything.
The thought that she wouldn't ever be able to stand the touch
of the man that she so dearly wanted to be with for the rest of her
life, the man she... she loved. That brought pains that didn't have
anything to do with the physical agony that yet wracked her body. She
knew that nothing would ever be the same after what had happened.
Yet, she didn't want his pity. She didn't want him to treat
her like an invalid. She just wanted him. Though she didn't want
him. She was so confused.
And the man that loomed over head leered down at her and
burst into a new bout of laughter as tears begin trickling down
her face again.
***********
Rapidly closing the distance between himself and her, Ranma
noticed suddenly that there was something wet upon his cheeks and his
vision was blurred. He recognized the signs, even as he dashed away
the marks with his arm. They were tears and he was crying.
He didn't cry much. He was a man among men after all. Things
had to be terribly wrong to cause him to loose it like that.
The last time he had felt tears upon his cheeks was when he
had held Akane so tenderly in his arms immediately after the fight
with Saffron. He had tried so hard. And yet, to all appearances, he
had failed her.
He had cried then. And no one had held it against him. He
had thought, he had honestly believed that Akane had died, and it
was all his fault. Because he was too slow. Because he hadn't fought
well enough. His fault.
Then she had opened her eyes and smiled upon him. And he
was brought back to earth with the gentle touch of her fingers upon
his cheek.
Yet, now he was crying again. And that brought fear to the
heart that had never known fear before. For he knew that the only
thing that could bring him to tears was Akane. And for her to be in
that much pain and trouble, he knew that it was his fault again.
He had left Nerima. He had left her. And yet, she was still
in danger. And it was all his fault
"AKANE!" he screamed, as he raced down the final tunnel
that would lead him invariably to the door where she waited.
***********
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you're wondering, I'm rating this higher than I
would normally. It's getting into rather adult themes now, don't
you think? And don't worry, there will be confrontation soon.
Oh. I was listening to Triumph for this chapter. Does anyone
think that this chapter is better than Part Nine?