Author: Leopold Goenitz Email: Leopold_Goenitz@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own a thing. If did, I wouldn't be writing this stuff.

Warnings: This story could be dark; it just depends on the viewer…and on
the mood I'm in when I'm writing.

And special thanks goes to Richard Sienkewicz for being my pre-reader for
this chapter.

Please inform me of any grammar and typing errors via email. Write only
your opinions and other messages to me on this fic at the review page.
Thank you.

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Ranma found himself standing in the middle of a large feudal age citadel
there were fires everywhere; the City was slowly burning to the ground
around him.

As he stood there amongst the carnage he could almost feel the flames
licking at his skin, desperately trying to close his eyes so he could block
the images he was seeing.

Hundreds upon hundreds of mangled corpses, people and monsters alike,
some were huge creatures with ivory skins that he somehow recognised
as trolls, all scattered around him in messy piles, their blood pooling on
the ground.

He couldn't close his eyes, no matter how much he fought to do so. He
quickly realized that he had no control over his own actions as his right
hand raised itself before his field of vision, bloodied but undamaged.

"Useless, so utterly useless…" he spoke, with a voice and words that was
not his own. "To think that this is all that you were capable of, and while I
must say I am a bit disappointed, this was exactly what I had been
expecting from mere mortals."

Then he turned around facing the looming darkness ahead, the burning
citadel casting his shadow across a small dirt road leading out from the
palace grounds with a long trail of corpses paving the path before him.

And that was when he woke up.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

"Waaaaaah!!" Ranma jumped to his feet and clutched his chest, quickly
taking in his surroundings. There were trees, lots of them, and his father
was sleeping soundly right next to the extinguished campfire. No burning
citadels, no corpses, and it was still night.

Still clutching his chest the boy slowly settled back into the sleeping bag
that he had just jumped out of, silently thanking the gods that the vision
had been just a dream. Looked up into the dark night sky he noticed the
large pale moon shining down on him from the heavens. He wasn't sure
why, but for some reason it gave him a strange sense of foreboding that
made him shiver.

But since there was very little he could do about it, Ranma just shrugged
and tried to relax he would need some more sleep before he had to get up
in the morning. He could only hope that he wasn't going to see a replay of
the same nightmare.

As he lay there wide-awake he realised that it was going to be a long
night…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++ A Ranma alternative multi-crossover universe ++++
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+++ Sorcerer's Rage – The Darkness Returns +++
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++ Chapter 1 – The Awakening ++
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It had been early in the morning when Ranma and his father had left the
Jusenkyo valley lead by the local guide, he had promised to take them to
a village that might have a cure or at least more knowledge of the curses.
And now after almost three hours of walking they finally came to the
village gates, if you could call them that.

From Ranma's point of view it looked like a crude fort, surrounded by high
wooden walls with the majority of farming fields placed within the
compound. There were several guards, armed with spears, swords, and
similar old-fashioned weapons, but it wasn't those that caught the two
Saotome's attentions. No, it was the fact that all the guards were women.

"Oi, what's the deal here," Ranma suddenly quipped to the guide while
grabbing the large man by his shoulder stopping him from moving. "Why
are all these guards women?" he asked while giving a sweeping gaze at
some of them before adding, "And why are they staring at us?"

"This an amazon village honourable customer," the guide explained
proudly, "It is the women's duty to protect village and their families, that
is why there be so many."

"Yeah, but I still don't get it why are they staring at me?"

The guide blinked at this and took a quick look at some of the younger
amazons, and realized that they were indeed staring at the younger
customer rather intently. "Maybe curious, not many visitors come here
often," he offered obliviously.

Ranma wasn't so sure about that but let it be and soon followed the guide
along with his transformed father, who despite his appearances wasn't
nearly as much attention as he was, if at all. "Something's funny with this
place and I don't like it…"

Genma ignored his son's random mumblings and just gazed lazily ahead
while following the guide, not particularly confident that they would find a
cure for their curses here. Luck had rarely been part of his life and he
didn't have much confidence that it would make its appearance so easily.
And thus did not share the guides enthusiasm as neither did his son, who
was probably the least troubled by his curse, at least from his point of
view. Ranma was still a human while he had to become a panda whenever
it rained.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

As the guide and his two wards neared the centre of the village, each of
them took notice of the large amount of people gathered there, around a
large wooden stage built from three large tree trunks that must have
require most of the villagers to build.

Ranma wasn't as much interested in the people as he was on the fight
that was taking place on the log. Two women were locked in a vicious
looking duel with the larger one trying to bash the smaller using a wicked
looking mace that was attached to the end of a pole she was holding into.
The smaller and much prettier representative, Ranma noted to himself,
was wielding two round smooth surfaced maces and was doing pretty
good job in either blocking or evading her opponent's strikes. "That girl's
got some serious strength there…" he noted.

The guide nodded and smiled, it was extremely rare for an outsider to see
events like this. "Yes, we very lucky, they hold tournament today. Winning
fight bring big honor here, very important to amazons."

Genma wasn't bothering himself with such trivial details and instead was
right now wandering towards a large dining table with small wooden sign
standing in front of it, something he coulden't read written on it in
Chinese. "Ah, food just for me," the animal thought with almost giddy glee
before sitting itself at the table and starting to devour its content with
both paws throwing the food into his gaping maw.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Meanwhile as Ranma and the Jusenkyo guide stood watching the duel, not
noticing the absence of the third member of their party, someone among
the masses that were watching the fight had felt their presence since the
moment they stepped on the village grounds.

This individual happened to be a small shrunken woman, barely three feet
tall and carrying a staff that towered over her by an extra two feet. Her
most notable feature was her hair, which was long and silvery grey,
reaching all the way to the ground. At the moment she was staring out of
the surrounding crowd and at the two men who were watching at the
proceedings.

She recognized the guide, one could say he was a small time celebrity
that everyone knew but everyone ignored when he made an appearance.
The boy, however, she did not recognize.

He was obviously Japanese, judging from appearance. His steady stance
hinted of martial arts upbringing and didn't seem to be all that bad looking
either. For a moment she almost considered trying pair him up with her
great granddaughter who had been as yet unable to find a worthy
husband for herself, but then dropped that line of thought when she
detected something odd about the boy.

It was his aura, still dormant and thus mostly hidden, but undeniably
strong. But what really caught her attention was that it was evil, dark and
foreboding to someone who as emphatically sensitive as she was.

A frown appeared on the old woman's face as she considered the possible
reasons for his presence. She kept herself from calling the guards to
throw the boy out, as he did not seem to be all that interested in anything
other than the fight where her great granddaughter Shampoo was fighting
for the village championship.

She couldn't leave the matter unattended however, and soon began to
make her way towards the two men, taking the long route around the
crowds where she could approach them from behind.

But as she came closer to them, the boy whom she had been so curious
about stopped talking to the guide and turned to look at her before she
even managed to come closer than ten feet.

"Most interesting…" she thought to herself and decided to drop the façade
by introducing herself.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

The sudden sensation of a powerful presence brought an abrupt halt to
the small talk he had been sharing with the Jusenkyo guide, but all that
he could see when he turned around, was a wrinkled old crone with a
equally old looking gnarled staff in her hands.

For a short instant he was going to just ignore her, but something
powerful urged him to keep eye contact with her, even though he couldn't
help but wonder why he was feeling that all was not as it seemed with the
harmless looking woman. But then again, one of his father's oldest
teachings was not to judge a person by their looks alone.

The old woman stepped closer to him, thus gaining the Jusenkyo guide's
attention also, and then she spoke. "Welcome stranger, I am called
Cologne, the matriarch of this village and would like to inquire what has
brought you to us." She spoke in fluent Japanese, which was quite a
surprise for Ranma who certainly hadn't been expecting it.

"Uh, well…we kinda came here to ask you about a cure for…" Ranma
began to explain, but was interrupted by the abrupt feminine scream of
anger and the loud sound of something breaking under extreme psychical
force.

"What the…?!" was all that the boy managed before he saw the familiar
form of his father's transformed body, sitting near the now broken table
with various feast items laying scattered about thanks to the large mace
that was buried among the wreckage that had once been a large table. At
the other end of the mace was the new champion of the village, namely
the pretty looking girl that Ranma had been looking at during the fight. It
was quite obvious from her facial expression that she wasn't pleased to
see that over half of her winning prize had been eaten by a giant panda.

With some effort Ranma restrained himself from slapping his hand across
his face to hide the shame he felt towards his father, he couldn't believe
the fat fool had done it again. "Damn it old man, do you do this on
purpose, or are you just so bloody stupid that you don't even realize what
you're doing sometimes?"

Cologne didn't need to hear his thoughts to realize the connection
between the panda and the boy. "Is that your pet?" she asked evenly, not
sounding too happy but neither was she as upset as she could have been.
"If it is, I would suggest that you find a way to compensate for the prize it
ate or my great granddaughter will make a fur coat out of him."

"He's not my pet," Ranma spoke evenly, but his tightly clenching jaw and
fists betrayed the barely restrained anger inside him. "Since my old man
brought this on himself alone, I'll also let him handle it alone. I'm not
going to let that bastard drag me into another mess just because of he
couldn't use his brains."

"…" For a moment Cologne just looked at the boy, not saying a word as
she slowly digested what he had said and what it was that she was
missing here. Then it hit her. "Jusenkyo!" the old woman gasped as she
turned to look at the panda that was uncharacteristically moving away
from her great granddaughter with a most human like mannerism. She
mentally slapped herself for not having realized it when she saw the
guide, he rarely left his post and when he did it usually meant that he was
accompanying some unfortunate visitors of the valley he worked to
maintain.

"Huh? So you know about the place?" Ranma asked, suddenly more
interested on the old woman than on his father's fate. "You wouldn't
happen to know if there's a cure to those curses, now would you?"

"No, I'm afraid not," the old woman sighed and motioned to one of the
guards to come closer to her, she spoke in Chinese to the pink haired girl
and sent her off to stop the fight that was about to break out between the
panda and her great granddaughter.

After that she turned back to the boy and chose to ignore the first
impression she had gotten from him. "And don't bother going to look for it
elsewhere either. We amazons have occupied this area for more than
three thousands years and it has been our duty to ensure that the
Jusenkyo valley stays secure and undisturbed. But despite our best
efforts, fate has always managed to guide some unfortunate souls to that
area, and so we chose to ignore it and let nature take its course. And trust
me on this when I say that there is no cure, if there had ever been one,
we would have already found it."

This seemed to deflate the boy's mood considerably, but even then it
seemed to be mild. That was also what made the old woman inquire about
the little detail that had just now started to bother her. "You wouldn't
happen to be cursed yourself?" she asked while eyeing at the boy
carefully.

"Huh?" Ranma muttered dumbly before turning back to the matriarch, he
had been momentarily distracted by the girl the old crone had sent down
to the area where his father was currently occupied. It seemed that the
villagers had formed a ring around Genma and thus were preventing him
from escaping yet. "Cursed? Uh, yeah, but mine's a bit screwy."

She blinked at that. "How so?"

Ranma scratched his head as he thought how to put it. "Well for starters, I
can't change back to how I looked like before, I used to have black hair
instead of this stupid red hair," and for emphasis pulled some of it down
for Cologne to see. "And when I was cursed, it felt like something was
trying to take control of me. I don't know how, but I also got this weird
ability to throw some kind of chi attacks when I got angry at my old man,
I almost killed him and the guide. I haven't been able to do it again since,
though and I'm not sure if I would even dare to try in case I lose control
again."

"Most unusual," the old woman commented, she turned and spoke the
guide in their native language for a moment. Ranma stood there in silence
not understanding a word, then she spoke to Ranma again "It seems that
you have fallen into uncursed spring without drowning in it, which alone
should be impossible as each unlabeled spring forcefully drowns its
victims, unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless the spring was already cursed but the present guide has been
unaware of its creation," she finished while turning a stern look towards
the guide, making the burly man flinch slightly, but then let it drop as she
continued. "But it seems more likely that the guide who witnessed its birth
just failed to name it, which brings us to the description you gave me of
its effects."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked carefully, not liking the studying gaze
he was being given.

"I'm not quite sure myself yet," the old woman admitted. "As far as our
knowledge tells us, only a few of the springs should affect mental or
psychical control over their victims, but never going as far as trying to
take control over the victims mind though."

Ranma wasn't sure if he liked how that had sounded. "So are you telling
me that this stupid curse of mine is trying to fight for control of my body,"
he asked in a slightly agitated tone.

To that Cologne could only shrug her shoulders. "I do not know, child.
Even though I am old and resourceful; I do not hold all the knowledge
that I would like. No matter how much I wished it weren't so."

Then they both turned to look at Genma who was lying unconscious on
the ground with a familiar looking mace planted on his head, he had been
turned back into a human by the girl that Cologne had sent to inform her
great granddaughter of the 'panda's' real form. It was quite clear which of
two had slammed the mace over his head, as it was the same person who
was now walking towards them.

The purple haired girl gave Ranma a quick glance, but then turned to
converse with her great grandmother and began to speak in Mandarin
again. Ranma wasn't sure what was being said, but it was quite clear to
him that the girl was slowly starting to eye at him with growing distaste.

The conversation didn't seem to be going too well as the pair started to
shout at each other. It didn't take genius to realize that the cause of their
dispute was himself, making him feel more and more compelled to leave
this place before the situation turned from bad to worse.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Cologne was having trouble with her great granddaughter. The girl was
insisting that she be allowed to challenge the boy because he had been
travelling with the panda-man and was thus obviously partially responsible
for the loss of her first prize.

"No, I forbid it Shampoo!" the matriarch of the amazon village
admonished her great granddaughter. "You will not challenge this boy just
because his father chose to act foolishly. It is his father that shall pay for
the crime he has committed, not his son!"

"Why are you defending him, great grandmother? He's just an outsider,
related to that…that thing that ate my prize, and a man too!" the purple
haired girl snapped back at the older woman, although controllably so.
She wasn't foolish enough to try anything stupid in the presence of the
matriarch, as she was perfectly aware of what the woman was capable of.

"Silence child!" Cologne snapped furiously. "You will not challenge him,
and that is final! I will not allow it! You know the consequences if you
choose to ignore my direct order, so I would suggest you choose your
actions wisely…" the old woman warned as her eyes narrowed into thin
lines.

Cologne knew she would be placing herself in a difficult situation by not
allowing her great granddaughter to challenge the boy. She knew she
would probably need to explain it before the council, but before she was
fully aware of the nature of the boy's curse, she could not jeopardize her
great granddaughter's future by letting the girl do something rash,
something she might regret later on.

The purple haired youth gave the boy one more disdainful look and turned
around with her nose held high, she couldn't understand why her great
grandmother was protecting that male filth but wasn't going to let it
bother her. She'd get her hands on him after he left the village…

All that Cologne could do was sigh and shake her head while hoping her
great granddaughter managed to keep her hands off the boy until she
could determine if he was safe or not.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

A small relief washed over Ranma as he saw the girl turn around and walk
away, but he couldn't help but feel that the dispute between the old
woman and the girl was far from over.

"What was that all about? You two didn't have a fight because of my old
man, now did you?" the boy asked tentatively, feeling more and more
encouraged to leave his father to fend for himself. Ranma had wanted to
get back home without any further incidents, but with the way things
seemed to go with his father around, he came to the decision that perhaps
he should just dump the old glutton and find back by himself.

"Yes and no, but that isn't important now. Come with me and I will try to
look for any information we might have on your curse," The old woman
sighed and motioned him to follow. "I have a feeling though, that there
will not be anything in our records, as all those who were locked in their
cursed forms were always in direct contact with the Musks, but there
hasn't been anything heard from them in over a hundred years. There are
few rare pools that have been known to affect personalities, but according
to what you told me this is something totally new for us."

"So…in other words I shouldn't get my hopes up, right?" Ranma asked
with his flat tone. He didn't bother to hide his lack of enthusiasm
anymore, something that the village matriarch could understand to some
extent.

"Maybe, we do not know yet. There might be something in our history
books that I may have overlooked in the past, but as I said, I can't make
any promises."

Ranma just nodded and followed the old woman, ignoring the events
among the crowd where his father was being hogtied and then carried
towards the village prison, from where he would not be released until his
punishment would have been decided.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

In short time, Ranma found himself being escorted to one of the main
buildings of the village, a massive stone house with three floors, which
was rather dark and somewhat brooding in his opinion.

Inside he was accompanied by only the matriarch, while the two female
guards whom she had ordered to come with them stayed outside the door
on guard for reasons he didn't wish to think right know. He wasn't sure,
but he had the feeling that not all the villagers saw the event his father
caused as something he had nothing to do with, since after all, the fat
glutton was his father. So it would only be natural if he took part of the
fault too, right?

He prayed it wasn't so, things had been going enough wrong lately and he
didn't want to end up fighting his way through an angry mob just because
of his father's greed and stupidity.

After entering what seemed to be an old and rather small library Cologne
moved to the darkest corner of the room and motioned the boy to stay
back. "Go and find someplace to sit, this might take a while. I doubt that
your curse is listed here, but there is a high possibility that there might be
records of some strange, or well known incidents in the past that have
taken place near the Jusenkyo valley."

Ranma just nodded but did not move from his spot as he let his gaze
roam around the old room and its many bookshelves. There weren't any
spider webs much to his surprise, but the ancient dust, that looked to be
older than some of the books there, did a decent job in making this room
look like a burial tomb on his opinion.

After the first fifteen minutes Ranma had begun to grow bored with just
watching the books that he couldn't read due to the foreign dialect. He
couldn't understand what Cologne was muttering time to time as she
paged through the large and thick leather covered books that held the
knowledge of this village's history and of the area that surrounded it. But
just as he was about to leave the room, something caught his eye.

"Huh?" the boy muttered to himself as he noticed the large cabinet at the
end of the room, its doors slightly ajar. There was something strange
about the cabinet and he knew this to be true as the feeling grew stronger
by each step he too towards it.

Taking quick glance over his shoulder Ranma made sure that the old
crone wasn't looking and then took a peek inside the cabinet.

There were several various objects inside the cabinet, mostly boxes of
varying sizes and some old tomes, if he was guessing right. Everything
inside the cabinet reeked of old age, ancient beyond his years and
possibly any living being on earth. "Wow, this is some really old stuff," he
thought in wonder as he let his fingers trace down some of the boxes,
drawing small lines into their dust covered sides. But then suddenly he
stopped. There had been a small tingle passing through her fingers when
she traced them across the old wooden box.

Letting his curiosity take a hold of his mind, Ranma slowly opened the
door, trying not to make too much noise while doing it. The extra light
that now shined into the cabinet's confines allowed him to see the box
more clearly and a hint of that which it held inside its confines.

Peering through one of the many cracks and small holes that the box had
he took a peek at what looked like a large glass ball of the size of a
football, lots of various dark colours inside it. It was fascinating to him to
see the strange figuration it had inside it, proving that it was a work of
true art, but that was until he realized that the dark colour patterns were
moving inside the ball.

That was also the moment when he realized that he had been discovered.

"Find anything interesting?" the old woman asked, standing right next to
the boy with no more than a one foot of empty space between them.

Jerking to the side from the surprise almost caused Ranma to stumble
down on the floor, but managed to take control of his balance before he
could embarrass himself any further. "Well, yeah…you could say that," he
replied with slightly annoyed look on his face. He knew he probably
shouldn't have gone digging through some else's things, but there was
just something in this cabinet that had drawn him to it.

The old woman smirked lightly and used her cane to prop at the wooden
box he had been examining. "I see the old 'Evil Eye' caught your
attention," she commented with a slightly more serious look falling on her
face, "It is no real threat without its original owner, but I still wouldn't
recommend even touching it due to its demonic origins."

"Demonic?"

"Yes, it belonged to a powerful sorcerer who was said to have been
possessed a soul of a high level demon. I can't quite remember his name
right now, but I do remember that he had claimed that it held part of his
soul and thus could not ever be used by anybody else unless he willed it
so."

"What happened to him?" Ranma inquired while peering at the box again,
"And what is this thing exactly? It looks like a glass ball but I doubt it's
just some decoration though."

Chuckling lightly at the description the old woman shook her head and
then sighed heavily as she moved closer to the box, laying her right hand
on top of its cover. "The sorcerer was slain not too far away from here by
a group of valiant warriors, grouped together from all over the world. But
the sorcerer didn't die, they knew that when they went against him, but
they did have the means to seal him away though. And in that they
succeeded, fortunately."

The old crone turned to look at the boy beside her and narrowed her eyes
as if trying to remember something. "This happened about three hundred
years ago and I don't hold all the knowledge of what occurred. All I know
that after the sorcerer was sealed, his weapon, this 'glass ball' as you put
it, ceased all activities and became 'dead'. All attempts to discover its
secrets were fruitless or disastrous at best, so it was soon abandoned and
then forgotten."

Ranma felt slightly uncomfortable as he heard this. "Um…you said that the
ball was supposed to be dead, right? And does that mean that it shouldn't
be moving or anything?"

"Yes, why are you asking?"

"Well, eh…" the boy began as he backed away from the box as it suddenly
began to glow dimly, "…because it looks like its waking up again." He
pointed his finger at the box, making the old matriarch follow his line of
sight and jump away from the container as it suddenly exploded in
splinters. Both Ranma and Cologne remained unharmed though, but that
didn't lessen the feeling of foreboding they both had when they saw the
glass ball, hovering in the air unharmed.

"By the great gods!" Cologne gasped as she felt the wave of almost
nauseating negative energies pouring out from the object. This was the
first time she had ever seen the weapon in its activated state and could
now understand why its owner had called it the 'Evil Eye', as in the center
of the ball there was a distinctive shape of an eye, partially misshaped
thanks to the swirling colours that surrounded it from all sides.

For a moment the 'eye' seemed to be content on just hovering still, not
even bobbing up and down or anything, just staying still as if standing
upon an invisible pedestal. But that's when it turned towards Ranma, or at
least it seemed so, there was no way of telling though, as it seemed to
look the same from every direction.

Ranma began to feel very, very uncomfortable under the unnerving gaze
of the 'Evil Eye', and began to feel that something was about to happen,
something bad and something that would make his life even more
complicated than what it already was.

Then as if answering its cue, the eye began to drift towards the boy with a
ponytail, making the boy in question to take quick steps backward to keep
the distance the same. The eye, however, did not stop following and was
slowly driving Ranma towards the doorway with the old woman just
staring at the unfolding events.

"Hey! Don't just stare at there, do something!" Ranma shouted
indignantly while pointing at the approaching object. "How do you stop
this thing? And why is it following me in the first place? You said it was
supposed to be dead, didn't you?!"

Cologne didn't say anything and just kept staring, not at the eye though.
She was looking at Ranma and thinking about the aura she had felt
occupying his person, about the story she had just told him about the 'Evil
Eye' and its owner, and now the sudden activation of the named weapon.
"By the gods! Those idiotic fools sealed that sorcerer in Jusenkyo?!" she
gasped with scandalized tone.

That had to be it, nothing else could explain the curse the boy had and its
reluctance to let him change back into his original form, and the
reactivation of the eye. The demon sorcerer was back, but not in control
of the body he occupied now if the boy's reaction to the eye, and his
earlier explanation of having fought over the control of his body earlier on,
were anything to analyse from.

"Come on! Do something, can't you stop it somehow?!" Ranma shouted
once again as he moved further back from the floating object.

Narrowing old her eyes at the eye, Cologne began to wonder if there was
really anything at all that she could do to help the boy. There was no
other information of the Evil Eye other than that it had been a powerful
weapon in the sorcerer's hands, so she wasn't quite willing to risk a
complete disaster by simply attacking the eye straight out. But what else
could she do? Just watch, wait, and see?

But before she could make any decisions, the eye suddenly dove forward
with its form diminishing into complete blur as it sped towards Ranma like
shot from a cannon.

All that Ranma could do in a situation like this was try dodging, but with
the lack of space he ended up crashing against some of the furniture of
the living room, or whatever room it was then, and quickly found his face
mere inches away form the eye, its disturbing gaze seemingly boring right
into his soul as he laid there on the floor, totally helpless under the
captivating stare.

From the library doorway Cologne watched carefully at the proceedings,
feverishly trying to decide whether to risk attacking the eye or not. There
was so little she knew of the old demonic relic and she hadn't lived for
almost three hundred years by acting rashly. She needed to gauge the
situation before acting. And besides, it didn't look like to her that the eye
was intending to harm the boy. In fact it looked like it was just inspecting
him, which brought her earlier thoughts back into the surface.

"Could it really be that this boy has fallen into a spring that contained that
sorcerer's spirit? And if so, then what should I do? If the boy has all the
powers the sorcerer had, but none of the harmful memories and
personality of the spirit he carries, then he might be a prime husband
candidate to some of the younger amazons of our village…" the old
matriarch's thoughts were interrupted as she realized that something was
about to happen when there was a sudden build up of power right in front
of her.

It came from within the eye.

"No!" she gasped and tried to knock the eye away from the boy with her
staff, but all that it did was phase through it, leaving it unharmed.

In the meanwhile Ranma had tried to make a quick escape after he saw
the old woman making her move, but before he could even as much as
get up from the floor he was encased by an sickly green aura that was
sourcing into him from the now almost diabolical looking eye, the colours
around its center having turned into solid looking blood red haze the
quickly filled it without obscuring the eye itself from the view.

To his great surprise Ranma did not find himself feeling any pain, or even
feeling threatened by this new development. As while the energy pouring
from the eye was definitely negative, something even he could sense, it
was not trying to harm him as much as it was trying assimilating with
him.

Cologne noticed this too, her years of experience in the areas of
manipulating and controlling the flows of chi allowing her to have knack
towards things like this. There was a hint of worry on her face, as she
looked energy transfer between the boy and the eye. There was no telling
what consequences this event would have, the main reason why she
hadn't tried something more drastic yet, and all that she was going to do
now was to wait and see like she had originally intended.

The two guards who had been standing outside the main door had rushed
in and were now sharing the obscure even before them, but made no
move to interrupt whatever it was that was happening there. However, if
the matriarch gave the order, they would be ready to rush even into their
deaths if she so required.

Things on Ranma's view had turned from threatening to just weird. The
eye was obviously not harming him and he even went as far as standing
up, a motion that the eye imitated by hovering higher and keeping itself
on his eyelevel while pouring more of its energy into the boy. The energy
was not harmful, not on how Ranma felt it influence him. But he could not
shake away the feeling of familiarity that he was getting from staring at
the eye, that seemed to become more and more interesting by each
passing moment he spent gazing at it.

"What is this…?" he wondered out loud as he reached out to touch the
eye, no longer repulsed by its appearance as much as he had been when
he first saw it emerging from the blown up wooden box. "What is this
feeling I'm getting from this thing…?"

Cologne still remained silent, although vigilant as ever and ready to move
on moment's notice.

Ranma found the eye's surface surprisingly glass like, and solid despite
the way Cologne's staff had phased through it as it if it had been a mere
illusion. But then he pulled his hand away as he realized that the eye
wasn't pouring energy into his body anymore, and that its pupil, or
whatever it was, had expanded and was now starting to glow with eerie
lights while making the rest of the room seem darker by each passing
second. "What the hell is going on here?!" he exclaimed and tried to jump
away from the eye but only to have it follow him unheedingly of his
opinion.

And then the eye made its move.

A ball of energy, one that could have been described only as a large dark
red blob, shot out from the eye and launched itself straight towards the
helpless boy who didn't have the time to even exclaim his surprise before
he was completely covered by it.

From the other side the room Cologne had jumped on her feet and was
now frowning deeply at what was happening and obviously worried of the
boy's up coming fate. "I can still feel his chi, but it is changing and I'm not
sure if this…thing, is devouring his chi…or feeding it?" she thought with
her gaze hardening on the eye.

The possibility that the eye might be devouring the boy's spiritual essence
would have been catastrophic if the boy's life taken into consideration, but
so was also the possibility that it might be feeding him with something
harmful. However, either way, there was very little Cologne believed she
could do right now. She had already once attempted to attack the eye,
and only to fail miserably. "Is all that I can do right now just wait and
watch?!" she thought to herself with a frustrated growl escaping from her
throat.

Then abruptly as the blob had born, it also dispersed, like a soap bubble,
but this one looking like as if it had been made of blood. In the place of
the blob there came a bright flash and disorienting colours swirled around
the dark silhouette that stood among it, Cologne guessed it was Ranma,
or at least she hoped it to be.

As the lights subsided and the room became less tainted with the
abnormal darkness, the figure of the familiar young teenager could be
seen, but something was different. His clothing had changed, no longer
the traditional white martial arts gi that he had been wearing for years
now, but a large and regal looking dark red robes that had figurations of
black flames sewn around its hem and golden ones around the baggy
looking black sleeves. Even his skin had become more paler than what it
had been before he came, bordering near the colour of pure snow.

Then slowly Ranma raised his head from the bowing position he had kept
it in, and then looked straight into 'Evil Eye', something unreadable
flashing behind his eyes as he stretched his hand towards it once again.
"…I…this eye…" he spoke slowly while the eye flew quickly into his reach,
"…I know this…I do not know how, but I know… that this is mine, it is a
part of me…something that I have missed…"

It was as Cologne suspected, the demon sorcerer was back, but the only
question that she was interested right now was how this transformation,
or whatever it had been, had affected the boy's psyche, or had it
remained as it was. "How are you feeling?" she asked as neutrally as she
could. The two guards near her position were fidgeting nervously and she
was forced to hold her hand up to give them the sign to stay back, for
now. If he was not hostile, and if he truly possessed the legendary powers
of that demon sorcerer, then they could not afford to make him an enemy
of their tribe unless they could be sure to win.

At first Ranma did not seem to acknowledge the question he had been
represented, his attention glued to the eye that he was now holding in his
hands like a precious treasure he had long lost and now finally found after
seemingly endless time of separation. But then he answered, without
taking away his attention from the eye though. "I am fine…I think," he
held the eye between his hands and amazed how beautiful it was, at least
in his opinion.

"You think? You are unsure of this?"

The boy shook his head at this. "No, I am sure," he said and then held the
eye higher before letting it float again. It quickly moved behind his back
and positioned itself slightly above his right shoulder as if imitating a pet
bird of some sort, a real ugly one though. "In fact, I think I feel…" he
paused for a moment, searching for the right word. "Wonderful…no,
perfect. I can't remember a day I would have felt this…this complete."

Cologne frowned at the boy's slightly changed speech pattern, proving her
doubts that whatever the eye had done to him, it had definitely affected
his mind. "It seems to me that the spring you fell held the soul of the
demon sorcerer I told you about, boy. This would be the only logical
explanation to the reactivation of the 'Evil Eye' and its attachment to
you…"

A light frown came over the boy's face, but then he jus cocked his head to
the side and shrugged. "Oh well, not that it matters to me anymore," he
said with almost indifferent tone while flexing his right hand in front of his
face, his eyes examining at his fingernails that were now slightly longer
and sharper looking than before. Then as if reading the old matriarch's
thoughts he walked closer to her with his hands behind his back and said,
"If what you told me is true, that there is no cure, then there is very little
there can be done to my current situation, right?"

The old woman nodded, slowly, her mind working feverishly over the
possibility and fear that the demon spirit may have now taken over the
boy's body. Giving the order to the two guards to attack would probably
be for naught if she gave it, and she doubted she could make a difference
if her danger senses were anything to trust at. She might have been old,
but she wasn't completely senile yet.

Ranma was obviously not worried anymore of his curse, or the new
change he had just underwent, and even seemed to be slightly happier
and more pleased with something than when he first came into the
village.

Turning his gaze towards the doorway Ranma narrowed his eyes
threateningly at guards, as if wordlessly commanding them to step aside
as he began to stride towards them. For a moment they hesitated
between attacking and doing as their instincts told them, but it was the
later that came as the only option when they saw their matriarch giving
them subtle shake with her head. The boy was not to be provoked.

"Where are you going?" Cologne asked as she quickly moved after the
boy, wanting to keep close to him until he would leave the village. She
wasn't concerned of loosing the relic as much as she was of the safety of
the village. If the boy proved to be possessed, it would be much safer to
deal with him outside the village premises and with better preparations. If
not, then she would have other plans for him.

"Where do you think?" he snorted and stopped as he walked through the
doorway and to the outside once again. There he cast his gaze towards
the heavens, his eyes squinting slightly as they adjusted to the bright light
that made his purple irises shimmer. "I have no further use for you and
thus there is no reason for me to stay, now is there?"

Cologne narrowed her eyes at the boy as she caught the not so subtle
threat he had just given to her. The boy had definitely changed. He
possessed a more arrogant and confident air to him than what he had
when she first saw him. Even his aura had begun to turn into more active
state, washing her senses with sensation that made her bones shiver.
There had been few people alive that she had ever truly feared, and this
boy had just become a potential candidate to become one of them.

The villagers, who had stayed around the matriarch's house out of
curiosity, were all now staring at the outsider who had entered the house
along with their village matriarch, no longer clad in the same clothes as
when he had entered.

However, it was the glass like ball that hung in the air just barely a foot
above his right shoulder that drew the most attention, evoking feelings of
fear and doubt from each of them.

Ignoring the looks he was being given Ranma strode towards the center of
the village opening with Cologne right on his heels. After reaching his
destination he took a look around him and then turned towards the old
crone with light frown on his face. "I guess you have already guessed that
this is going to be the moment we say good bye, correct?" he asked while
crossing his arms, hiding them into the sleeves in the process.

Again Cologne nodded her slowly, never letting her eyes leave the red
haired youth's. "I had the feeling," she admitted. "But what about your
father? Aren't you going to wait for him?" she asked him, already guessing
the answer.

"Heh…you can keep him, I have no use for him either," the boy laughed
coldly but then seemed to frown as if having a inner conflict. And for a
moment Cologne could see his jaw clenching tightly, but then as quickly
as it had come, it was also gone. "That fool has ruined my life enough, I
think I can live without him from hereon…good bye." And after having said
that he turned towards the east and begin to walk with steady pace, the
villagers dispersing away from his path like a flock of birds.

A series of murmurs began to spread among the present villagers quicker
than a wildfire, all wondering what happened and what was the strange,
dark feeling they had felt when the boy passed them. Cologne could have
answered to those questions, at least to some extent, but she wasn't
willing to risk having some young and reckless yahoo going after the
outsider and possibly cause something that might jeopardize the existence
of their entire village.

This event would require the attention of the village council, but until that
she would have to have a little talk with the boy's father. She wanted to
let the idiot know what he has brought upon his son and possibly to all
those who would cross the boy's path in the near future. And there was a
nagging feeling in the back of her mind that there would be a lot of
trouble trailing after that boy.

"This cannot be ignored," she sighed to herself. She felt that she was
partially responsible for what had occurred, for letting the boy to enter the
house and for not having tried harder to stop the 'Evil Eye' from doing
whatever it did to the boy.

And so the ancient amazon went on and hurried onward to gather the
village council to determine what should be done to this matter.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

After having walked past the main gates of the village, and the gawking
guards who had clearly hesitated on whether to attack him or not due to
the disturbing object hovering right next to him. The fear, however, had
kept them back.

Ranma wasn't sure why he was feeling so good for having brought such
feelings from them. He also didn't know why he had abandoned his father
so easily, as even though he did mentally admit it that the words he had
said rang with truth, but it still didn't give him the excuse to act
dishonourably.

"…dishonour…" the boy quietly whispered to himself as he stopped
walking, his eyes cast down on the dirt road he had been walking right
after leaving the village, the tall wooden walls surrounding the village still
visible behind his back. He didn't turn around though and just continued
onward again.

"Screw with the old man!" he suddenly shouted with his face twisted in
anger. Even though he found it strange how strongly he suddenly felt
about the wrongdoings that his father had done towards him in the past,
he could not stop himself from feeling utterly disgusted to be even related
to that man.

Then as if for the first time, Ranma looked down at himself and his
clothes, his mind puzzling what exactly had happened in that house.
"What's happening to me? I know this isn't my usual behaviour…" he
muttered. He clutched his hands into fists as he realized they were
beginning to tremble from fear, the last feeling he was usually willing to
show.

"Damn!!" And without even realizing he was doing it, Ranma sent a dark
lighting bolt from his right hand, blowing it right towards the nearby grove
that exploded with loud roar and black flames that quickly licked
everything into ashes that was left on the blast area.

At first there was shock on the boy's face as he realized what he had just
done, but that quickly subsided into hard frown as he took a look at his
hands again, a single question passing through his mind as he clenched
them into fists. "What have I become?" And for a moment there was a
tear threatening to fall from his left eye but he quickly wiped it off,
unshed.

"Is this part of that weird attack I had after I got cursed?" he wondered
while gazing towards the heavens again, his eyes slowly tracing towards
the hovering eye beside him with mixed feelings filling his mind. He was
both disturbed by it, and yet at the same time he had this strong
compelling feeling to keep it around. After all, it did hold a part of his soul,
a fact that he did not know how he knew. It was just like saying that he
knew that the sky was blue without knowing exactly why. He just simply
knew.

Sighing heavily the boy shook his head and continued his walk, not really
knowing where he was going. "Man…I'd really like it if my life would stop
turning into more and more messed up than what it already is…" And with
those words he disappeared into the woods with the eye following him like
a loyal dog follows its master.

Ranma's mind was filled with doubt and uncertainty of what and how he
was now, as he was quite certain, that whatever he had once been before
his faithful trip to Jusenkyo, was over now and that there would be no
going back. Not anymore.

The threshold had been already crossed long ago. He wasn't just aware of
it completely, as a small part of his mind still wished and prayed that it
was not so.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

"He did WHAT!!?" Genma bellowed from inside the iron cage he was
imprisoned now, his hands trying to reach at the old woman through the
bars. She had just awakened him and told him that his son had already
left the village, saying that he no longer needed his father to run his life
for him.

"He left," Cologne repeated while looking a bit tired. "I know you may not
see it this way yet, but believe me when I say that this is perhaps for the
best, for all of us. Yes, even for you."

This made the man look at her bit crossly, which clearly hinted that he
had no idea what she was talking about.

Deciding that the man at least had the right know his son's fate, she
decided to give the quick and simple version of what has happened. This,
however, did little to his desire to go after his son.

"It doesn't matter even if the boy would be possessed by the devil
himself," the man insisted while growling in frustration, "He still has a
family honour to fulfil!" And his father's early retirement to secure, he
mentally added to himself. As how else he could get it done? Just thinking
about getting a real job sent shivers up his spine.

Cologne just shook her head tiredly, seeing that the man had the brains of
a monkey, greedy and single-minded. "Well it doesn't really matter how
'you' feel, since you're not going anywhere. You still have your crime to fit
here before you can leave, after that you are free to go wherever you
wish." And after that she walked away and turned towards the village
main building where the council would gather in less than half an hour.
She had already given the orders to gather all the elders of the village,
but was having a bad feeling that she had missed something.

"I wonder where Shampoo is?" she suddenly realized. She hadn't seen the
girl after their argument and was beginning to worry that her great
granddaughter was going to do something regrettable, just as she had
feared.

Shampoo was well versed in the amazon laws and knew that while the
village matriarch's orders were the highest commands possible, they did
not have any power behind them if the order concerned an outsider who
had already left the village area.

"May the gods watch over her…" the old woman sighed while shaking her
head. She didn't have the time to go looking for her wayward heir and
relative, and knew that all that she could do right now was to pray.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Somewhere in a other plane of existence, in a place where time had no
meaning, a single pair of worried red eyes was peering into the time
streams.

Setsuna Meiou, aka Sailor Pluto, was not happy.

For unaccountable time she had existed only to protect and ensure the
existence of the Moon Kingdom that had once fallen thousands of years
ago and was destined to rise once more on earth. The only problem was
that the future she had been planning wasn't in the time stream anymore,
which usually meant that something unpredictable, an event that
shouldn't have happened, had just occurred.

"What is causing this?!" she exclaimed with a frustrated growl while
gazing at the time streams. She had been searching for the source of the
disruption from all over Japan, but had not found it yet, which was just
the problem. The source of her current problem wasn't in Japan, not yet
at least. And whenever she took a look into the future, all that she could
see of the troublemaker was a vague blur of dark red haze.

In time to time when events like this occurred, they were always
connected to Japan, it was like a cosmic law.

Sailor Pluto was about to learn that fate and future, did not always go
hand in hand…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
End of chapter…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next time: Once upon a time in China…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Author notes: Sorry that the making of this chapter took so long again,
but I'm a busy person and got lots of work to do along with my school
works, and the looming military service that I have to attend to in less
than three months is coming an increasing headache too. But fear not, I
may become slower, but I still will be writing no matter what…unless I die
of course, so lets just hope that doesn't happen, mmmkay?

Anyways, I'll be working on the 'When Fates Collide' after this again,
found some inspiration yesterday and started to work on it. Hope I'm on
the mood for some speed writing again…

-Goenitz