Disclaimer: I don't own the Ranma 1/2 casts but I do own the fanfic. This
fanfic is a little dark and it's serious, contain violence and blood shed. If you
can't handle that, please do NOT read this. Also, please don't say I didn't
warn ya! ^_^
And now, the sizzling conclusion to Night Owl! (When I say sizzling, it
could either mean sizzling as hot, or as burned out. You choose. ^_^)

Night Owl
Part Three
By: Silver Star


Ranma watched from his futon as the arms of the clock reached
midnight, his eyes wide, half expecting something to crash into his room.
He's wearing his blue Chinese shirt and his usual black pants. His shoes
were on the floor, ready for him to slip in quickly. He sighed softly, looked
back at the ceiling with his arms tucked under his head.

He knew something's going to happen. The problem is, he doesn't
know when and where. How he knew about it in the first place was a
mystery.

Shampoo is sleeping in the only other spare room in the house, one
that was usually reserved for the students, but since there IS no student, it is
now used as a guestroom. Cologn, fortunately, is still staying at Neko-
hanten, to take care of the restaurant and to keep Mousse from running over
and tried to disrupt the date, which Shampoo insisted the dinner and the
night called.

Ranma waited silently, as the arms of the clock ticked on until five
minutes have passed. He sighed again.
He thought. Part of him was hoping against hope that nothing is going to
happen, and yet, another part of him wished almost to the point of obsession
that whoever that was hurting his friends could show up so he could finally
teach a lesson to him or her...or it.

Ranma sat up abruptly. He looked over to the door of his room
sharply, but then, he looked away from the door and let them roamed over
the room, his trained eyes not missing a thing.

What was that? Ranma frowned slightly as he tried to make out a low
sound coming from...

Akane's room.

A sudden unspeakable fear grasped its strong grip over his heart.
Could it somehow attacked Akane instead of Shampoo, as he had first
thought? Ranma couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except
listening to the low and muffled gasps that passed through the walls and into
his ears.

And suddenly, he could move again.

Ranma jumped up from his futon and ran to the door, wrenching it
open to the point that it almost fell from its hinges. His footsteps made no
sound as he moved through the shadows to Akane's door. He put his hand
on the doorknob and then paused, fearing what he might find on the other
side of the door.

Ranma hardened his expression, pushing down the fear that was
surging up his throat, and flung open the door.

The first thing he noticed is the window, or the lack of it, anyway.
Shards of broken glass gleamed under the full moon light as it traveled into
the dark room. Ranma noticed through all his confusion and fear that there
were barely any broken glass at all. How can that be if a person shattered
the glass to get in? Wouldn't the broken glass be inside?

The answer is, no one is trying to get in; someone is trying to get
*out*.

Ranma stood there, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness that came
from the moon. And that's when he noticed the state the room is under.

The room looked as if it had been torn then put back together inside
out. Broken pieces of jagged wood littered the floor. The desk was no
longer a desk; in fact, the desk is no where to be seen. A closer look at the
wood pieces on the floor proven that those were once Akane's desk.

Torn pieces of what once had been Akane's favorite blanket draped
over what was left of the mattress. The bookcase was on its side with books
littered around it. Akane's bulletin board where she put some of her favorite
pictures, including the one at Togenkyo, was lying on the floor. A picture of
the Tendo family smiled up at the ceiling.

Ranma took it all in with a sinking feeling. Suddenly, he caught
something move at the corner of his eyes. He turned toward it, and finally
realized that what he took as a ball of rolled up sheets was actually a person.

Akane.

"Akane!" He shouted out, wanting to hold her, to at least go over to
her, but something held him back. Something evil.

At the sound of his voice, a head snapped up, and Akane's pained and
tearstained face stared at him. Her hair was all messed up, and a clomp of it
draped over her left eye. Her eyes were wide, scared, and looked as though
expecting someone or some*thing* pouncing on her as soon as she looked
up.

She opened her mouth but whatever she tried to say was interrupted
by a deafening crash from the down the hall.

"Sh-Shampoo..." She whispered, almost as she couldn't manage
anything louder. Ranma looked down the hall to Shampoo's room, then
turned back to Akane, a panicked expression on his face. "G-go to h-er.
Don't wo-worry about m-e." She stopped, panting from exhaustion. She
closed her eyes and finally caught her breath.

"I-Akane, don't move. I'll be right back." Ranma gave her one last
almost panicked look and sped down the hall toward Shampoo's room.
Akane stared at his retreating form with hope and longing. Then, she threw
back her head and screamed.

It never reached the hall.




Another crash shook the house.

Ranma didn't know what's going on. He doesn't want to know either,
but he had to in order to make sure his family and friends were safe.

Shampoo, no matter what she had done to him, she is a friend. He
never had any permanent friends before, not like Shampoo, Ukyo, or Ryoga,
even though Shampoo is chasing after him and Ryoga is always racing
around to kill him for one reason or another. Even if all of them want to
make his life miserable, they are still his friends, and if somebody hurt his
friends, that somebody is going to pay.

Big time.

And it's going to pay double if it had hurt Akane.

No matter how much he tried to push her away, how much he tried
deny it, he had developed feelings for the kawaiikunee tomboy and will
always have those feelings, even if she is quick to conclusion and always
misunderstanding him one way or another.

Ranma stopped running when he reached the door that led to
Shampoo's room.

"What's going on, Ranma?"

Ranma whipped around and saw Nabiki, looking at him with barely
concealed fear and panic in her eyes.

Nabiki is afraid. Now that's a new one.

"I don't know." Ranma turned back to the door. Surprisingly, the
door was still intact and in place. There were cracks all over the wall and
door, but they didn't collapse from the crashes. Ranma turned the knob and
pushed the door.

It didn't budge.

Ranma pushed harder against the cracked door but it still didn't move.
By this time, the entire member of the family except Akane was present.

"It's stuck." Ranma said, pushing it again, but this time, almost using
all his strength. The door slowly opened an inch, and then another, and
another, until there's a foot of space between the door frame and the door
itself. Ranma give it one last push and the door gave away and collapsed.

"What- what happened!?" Soun cried.

The room was totally trashed. Everything that was previously inside
the room was turned into toothpicks. There isn't anything that's larger than a
slab of wood, and all those are piled over the door to block it. Opposite the
door, at the place where the window is supposed to be, is a gigantic hole.

Whoever had done this is powerful.

*Very* powerful.

"WWRRREEOOWWW!!" Everyone jumped at that inhuman scream
that filled the night. It sounded almost like a...like a...a cat...

Ranma swallowed at the scream, and then ran over to the hole.
Below, at the front yard of the Tendo Dojo, a bloodied and battered
Shampoo stood in a defensive position. It didn't seem to do her any good,
though. Opposite her, a black form crouched warily, waiting for the attack
that was sure to come.

And it did.

Shampoo jumped, raising her bonbori into the air. The black form
jumped also, meeting Shampoo with a powerful kick and a punch to the
stomach.

Ranma finally got a good look at the creature and he was stunned at
what he saw.

The face was familiar, it was a face that he saw just a few minutes
ago, a face that was filled with pain and fear, and perhaps even hope when
those eyes met his.

It was Akane's face.

"No..." Ranma whispered, wanting to deny what he was seeing. All
of a sudden, everything that had happened pieced them together and he
finally found the answer to every question that he had asked.

Why Akane was so cold to everyone, why he saw the flashes of cat
tooth and cat eyes, why she was so pale everyday, why she never ate her
food, those questions all have an answer now, an answer that he doesn't want
to accept but have to.

Akane is a monster.

Wait. There's one thing that doesn't fit in with the answer. Why is
Akane fighting Shampoo when she is still in her room? She couldn't have
possibly moved fast enough with the pain that she was showing. It only
took him a few seconds to get to Shampoo's door, and Akane couldn't have
gotten there before him. And besides, the attack happened when he was still
with Akane, so it couldn't be her.

Can it?

Everything became jumbled up again. It just doesn't make sense, now
that he looked at everything again. Unless...

Unless the creature is using Akane's face.

A scream tore him away from his thoughts.

Ranma jumped out just in time to catch Shampoo, who was sent
hurtling down by the creature. He landed softly with the bleeding girl in his
arms. Now that he's closer to her, he finally realized how deep those
wounds are. In fact, if he hadn't caught her before she slammed into the
ground, she could have died...

With shaking hands and barely concealed of what appears to be a
mixture of fear, hatred, anger, and sadness, he lowered Shampoo onto the
ground gently and stood up. He turned around slowly, fixing his piercing
gaze of hatred at the creature in front of him.

And in the bright moonlight, he saw, with both relieve and fear, that
the creature only resembles Akane, not the real her. But it also brought his
fear of cats to surface.

The creature was like a cat, stalking its prey silently, striking with
deadly precision. Its eyes were like those of cats, flashing green in the semi-
darkness. It crouched under the shadows, claws digging into the ground,
ready to dodge and avoid the attacks it anticipated.

Ranma swallowed, trying to push his fear of cats back, but failing
miserably. He can't fight under this circumstances, not when he's deathly
afraid of what the creature seemed to be. He can't even bluff it, if he does,
he'll just freeze in fear, leaving himself open for the cat-creature.

As he stared in fear at it, it seemed to smile with glee, almost as if it
knows that he's afraid of it. And with a feral yell, it jumped.

Ranma raised his arms in a desperate attempt to block, but he knew,
with those claws, it could shred his arms, and him, into ribbons.

He's going to die.

He knew it; he could taste it, a bitter taste in his mouth that won't
disappear. He failed. He failed his family, peoples that he cared beyond
himself. Genma, Nodoka, Soun, Kasumi, Nabiki, Shampoo, Ryoga,
Mousse, Cologne, and even Kuno, Kodachi, and Happosai. They trusted
him, and he failed them all.

And most importantly, Akane.

He failed her, he was suppose to be her fiancée, the one who was
supposed to protect her and love her. But he didn't do any of that. He
doesn't deserve to be her fiancée.

And as he watched the creature sailed toward him with the raised
claws, he knew he won't even have a chance to say sorry.



To be continued...

WAHAHAHAHAA!!!! Surprised that this is not the end? Don't be. I
decided while writing this to extend it to another part. Sorry to disappoint
you! ^_^

"I hate you, Ranma. Ever since you came, you made my life a living
hell. I don't know why I ever fell in love with you. You're a liar, a liar who
tells lies everywhere he goes. And I will kill you this night, Ranma, and
perhaps then, this world would finally be safe."

- Tendo Akane,
Night Owl Part Four