Akane walked over to where her father was sitting by the fire. It had been several hours since they had returned to the Rogue Encampments and they hadn't had a chance to talk yet. She sat down next to him with a smile, watching as his eyes lit as she did.

"How are you feeling?" Akane asked.

Soun shrugged. "It's better, knowing that at least you're okay."

"But Nabiki and Kasumi said they were teleporting out of there. They should be fine." She paused reading her father's face. "Shouldn't they?"

Soun sighed. "They're no longer in Tristram at least. But as I said, it's been some time since they tried to use their magic. I'm not sure where they managed to teleport. They could have ended up anywhere."

Akane's brow furrowed before she stood up. "We'll find them. I know we will. Kasumi will be with Nabiki and Nabiki has friends all over the world so one of them will know where she is. Either that or we find the closest source of money and she'll be there."

"Ah, you looking for money??" Akane and Soun looked up to see the Guide looking down at them. "I know good place to get money, power and immortality."

Soun and Akane looked at each other. "Sounds like heaven for Nabiki."

* * *

"We'll leave in the morning," Ranma said. "According to the Rogue leader, we just need to clear out the monastery on the edge of the land to clear up the roads." He looked down at his small group of fighters. His… because they were all, for one reason or another, following him now. "There's just one more problem to deal with."

Ryoga and Mousse looked over to where Shampoo was standing guard over the cloaked figure. Shampoo looked rather fierce with her spear but the other guy wasn't moving.

"Look, I don't know what you're problem with me is," Ranma said looking into the darkness of the hood, "but I ain't got time to fight you. So either tell me what I did wrong so I can apologize or just leave me alone."

The figured chuckled. "You don't recognize me do you??"

"Well the whole cloak thing kind of makes that hard," Ranma said. The figure paused and removed it with a quick motion of his hand. Or rather her hand. As soon as the cloak fell away, a beautiful young woman with long brown hair and a rather revealing black outfit appeared. Actually revealing wasn't the word. If Ranma tried hard enough, he could almost tell whether or not the body suit was painted on or…

Ryoga's nose burst forth blood. Mousse's eyes went cross (because with his vision he couldn't really make out the outfit at all). And out of nowhere, Akane appeared to whack Ranma over the head.

"Well," Akane said as she rejoined the group, "I'm glad to see that you're all doing such productive work. Who's the floozy?"

"Who are you calling floozy?" The woman said standing up.

"Careful Akane," Shampoo said, raising her spear. "You not want mess with Assassin. She very dangerous."

The Assassin bowed. Akane snickered. "Well, you seem to have put the boys out of commission. Nice outfit."

"I like yours too," the Assassin replied.

"You notice how all girls wear almost no clothes," Shampoo said. "Why that?" Akane and the Assassin looked at Shampoo and back at the boys, who were at the moment either drooling, bleeding or both. Shampoo nodded. "That answer question."

"So who are you anyway?" Akane demanded. "And why are you here?"

"Revenge," the Assassin said darkly. "Against him," she finished pointing at Ranma.

"Him?" Akane asked. "What on Earth could a second-rate Paladin have done to you?"

"HEY!" Ranma cried out, breaking from his semi-conscious state. "Who are you calling second-rate??"

"I have come to repay him for what he stole from me!"

"What he steal?" Shampoo asked.

"My innocence! My womanhood!!"

Both Akane and Shampoo balked. Before for he could protect himself, Ranma was faced with an all out assault.

"You pig!! How could you do that to her!" Akane cried.

"Bad man, you do thing with girl and leave?? Amazon way is death for man!"

"Stop it! I've never done anything of the sort!" Ranma cried. Akane and Shampoo stopped.

"Ranma no sleep with woman ever?" Shampoo asked in disbelief.

"No way!" he cried. Then he stopped and realized what he just said. "I mean… that's not what I mean…"

"Sleep with me?" the Assassin broke in. "He didn't sleep with me! The last time we saw each other we were only six years old!!"

Ranma paused and looked at the Assassin. "Ucchan??"

Ukyo nodded. "Yeah, it's mean, your dear friend Ucchan. The same girl you left behind all those years ago so that you could continue with your…"

"Girl?" Ranma asked.

Ukyo's speech faltered. She looked at Ranma. "What do you mean girl??"

"You're a girl??" Ranma said again.

"Boy," Mousse stated, "you must be blind."

"Duck boy like half dressed assassin?" Shampoo said walking over to him. "Duck boy can have dumb assassin," she finished whapping him over the head with her spear.

"Ucchan… you're really a girl. I didn't know!"

Ukyo stopped. "But then… then, why did your father agree to the engagement?"

"The WHAT?" Akane said.

Ukyo looked over at the other girl. "We gave Ranma and his father part of our business as a dowry. But they left the next day… with the business!!"

"What did you use to do?" Akane asked.

"We were chefs…"

Ranma paused suddenly remember the incident. "Wait! I remember we were on your cart, driving away. You were running after us." He paused. "We ate all the food on the cart and were violently ill for the next three weeks."

Ukyo snickered. "Did I mention that our specialty was poisoned okonomiyaki?" She paused at Ranma. "So you really didn't know?"

Ranma shook his head vehemently. "No way! You were my best friend! I wouldn't have done it to you on purpose."

Ukyo sighed. "I don't know… I'm still really mad…I mean I did give up becoming a normal woman to be come a world class assassin."

"Take it out on Pop!" Ranma cried. "It sounds like his fault anyway."

"Do that later," Akane said. "I have a lead on where Nabiki might be hiding. There's a tower somewhere in the Black Marsh that was once home to a countess who used to sacrifice virgins for their blood to make her immortal. She apparently had a huge army and a lot of gold. It's just the type of place Nabiki would go to."

"Let's go then," Ranma said standing up. He looked over at Shampoo waiting for her to challenge him. Shampoo's face broke into a small smile.

"Paladin better be more careful than usual," she sang before grabbing Mousse by the collar and dragging him off to Cologne to get some supplies.

* * *

"Stupid forest…. Stupid crows… Stupid NEST!"

The Crow's Nest exploded with impact as Ryoga's axe. He pushed pieces away from it. Ukyo looked over at him, pulling some remains from the blades on her hands.

"I told you there would be a nest," she said with a smile.

"Feh," he said. "I could have handled them."

"Of course," Ukyo said, rolling her eyes. "Everyone can take on an infinite number of Foul Crows." The two walked over to where Ranma and Mousse were finishing off the rest of the crows. "So what's the deal," she said as the joined up again.

Ranma sighed. "Nothing yet. Akane and Shampoo must still be looking." To answer him the sky to the north lit up with a fireball. Without a word, Ranma and the group started moving towards it. Upon arrival, they found Akane and Shampoo talking in front of a falling Tower.

"…telling you, magic is the way to. Imagine having a bit of a kick to that spear strike. I hear lightning is the way to go but that wasn't my concentration."

Shampoo pursed her lips. "Hear legend of Zerae but thought only legend." She looked up at the group as they arrived. "Found Tower," she said pointing behind her. "Look empty but door lead down."

"It looks like whatever the Countess was storing there," Akane continued, "managed to escape most of the structural damage. I think it will be safe to climb down to the lower levels."

* * *

"SAFE MY ASS!" Ranma yelled as he ran down the hall, quickly followed by Ryoga, Akane and Ukyo.

Akane moved quickly. "You make it sound like it's my fault!"

"Because it is!!" Ranma cried. "First level, there were ghosts, second level there were more ghosts and a few Skeletons for kicks. Third level…"

"All right already," Akane cried in return. "I thought it looked safe."

"Hey!" Ryoga broke in. "Any one notice we're short a couple of people?"

Ranma stopped and looked around. He suddenly stopped running. "I thought I gave the order to retreat!"

"I believe," Ukyo said, trying to catch her breath now that they had stopped running, "her exact words were 'Amazon no run from fight'."

Ranma grabbed unto his knees and stifled a curse. Without a word, he started to run back the way they had just came. Ukyo and Ryoga took after him but Akane was still catching her breath.

"Hey… guys… wait… for…ah forget it," she said as she saw them disappear around the corner.

She sat on the floor and decided that she was going to need to catch her breath before she tried to run back. This was so much harder than the training she had gone through. She used to enjoy running but this was a bit ridiculous.

There was some movement in the next room and Akane took a sharp breathe in. Maybe staying here by herself wasn't such a good idea.

* * *

"Hang on guys, we'll have you out in a minute," Ranma said as he looked at the interesting scene. Most of the monsters were dead, the remaining ones were being hunted down by Ukyo. But Ranma had a bigger problem to deal with at the moment.

"How did this happen again?" Ryoga asked.

"Stupid duck boy cast bone wall, but cast wall all around Shampoo and self!!!"

"I was just trying to protect my darling…"

"No need protection." Thwap. "Was doing fine on own." Thwap.

Ranma studied the bone wall for a few minutes longer before looking at Ryoga. "I guess we just hack away at it."

"Yeah," Ryoga agreed. "I don't think it's safe for them to be trapped in there, might run out of air."

"I'm more worried about Shampoo killing Mousse."

"But Shampoo, I love…" Thwap.

Ukyo surveyed the scene a moment later before she took off down the hallway to hunt a stray Skeleton. As she wandered away, she could hear the distant sounds of bone being cracked. Looks like they'd all be ready to move soon enough. Well, except for Akane… where was that girl anyway?

Ukyo stopped, the trail of the Skeleton suddenly went cold. She looked around wildly before she realized that she surrounded.

* * *

"Ukyo! Akane!" Ranma called out. "Where did they go?"

"Akane!" Ryoga called out. "I don't see them anywhere."

Shampoo hit Mousse upside the head. "See what problem duck boy cause??"

Mousse looked at Shampoo with a hurt expression. "It's not my fault they got lost."

"Let's not blame anyone," Ranma said walking towards a dark hall. "Let's just find…OOF!!"

"Ranma okay?" Shampoo called out.

"Of all the places to put a well. I'm completely soaked!!"

"Was warm water then," Shampoo said. "No turn into girl."

There was a pause. "No… it was cold…"

"But why no turn to girl Ran…"

She stopped speaking and just stared. Ryoga stared. Mousse strained his eyes and then quickly fell backwards.

"Guys?" Ranma asked tentatively.

They all screamed. Ranma screamed back. They all screamed again and backed off. Ranma looked down and saw half of him was red. "Blood! I fell in a pool of cold blood! Get it off!!! Get IT OFF!!!" All four of them screamed.

Suddenly they were answered by a distinctly feminine voice. Everyone looked at Shampoo. "Not me," she said.

"It must be Akane or Ukyo," Ryoga said.

"Let's go!" Ranma said pointing forward, his hand flinging red liquid towards the group. Shampoo and Ryoga ducked but Mousse caught some on the lip. He looked horrified for a moment and then took in a deep breath.

"Wait a minute," he said. "This isn't blood. It's… it's jelly." He licked his lips. "Definitely strawberry."

"Why would someone keep a vat of strawberry jelly in the middle of a haunted tower?" Ranma asked. The voice screamed again. "Forget it, let's go get the girls!" he said, refraining from pointing and splattering everyone again.

They began to run towards the sounds, eventually reaching a staircase spiraling down into darkness. Ranma didn't pause and was half way down the staircase before he realized her was alone. "Hey!" he called up. "Where are you guys?"

"NO GO DOWN THERE!" Shampoo yelled down.

"What?"

"I have to agree," Mousse continued. "This is a bit too disturbing…"

Ranma tried to contain his anger as he walked up the stairs. When he reached them, he saw a group completely consumed by fear. "What?" Ranma demanded.

Ryoga point to the doorway. Ranma turned around with a sigh to see what could have felled three great warrior like…

He paused. He studied it. He reached up and grabbed the white netting from the edges of the cave. He examined it and let out a sigh.

"This isn't a spider web, it's just lace."

"That's what we're afraid of," Mousse said.

"Remind too much of story of…"

"Oh just knock it off," Ranma said. "I don't care what story you heard, we are going down there to rescue Akane and Ukyo right now." He grabbed Mousse and pulled him down the stairs. After a moment more hesitation, Shampoo and Ryoga followed behind.

The steps only took a few minutes to traverse and when they are arrived at the bottom, Ranma let out a laugh. "See, nothing to worry ab…OOF."

He pitched forward, expecting to land in more jelly but instead finding himself as herself instead. Ranma-chan stood up with a grimace.

"Of all the place to put a well," she said starting to ring out her shirt. Looking back at the others she found something most unexpected. Her splash had hit everyone and in place of fierce of warriors, there was a goose, a pig and a ca… ca…

"CAT!" Ranma-chan yelled before taking off. Neko-Shampoo meowed before running after him. P-chan and Muu-muu the duck looked at each other and began squawking/squealing at each other before they went off after neko- Shampoo and Ranma-chan.

Ranma in the meanwhile was making sure that she kept a very healthy distance away from neko-Shampoo. She was so caught up in looking behind herself that she barely realized she had entered what appeared to be the main chamber of tower.

"Ranma!"

Ranma-chan turned, hearing Akane's cry. She didn't know what to expect, this whole thing was so bizarre. And apparently it was about to get much stranger…

Akane was sitting a small table, with a tea cup on a small platter in front of her. She was wearing what appeared to be a pink frilly dress and had flowers in her hair. Her cheeks were painted with deep red circles. Her arms were bound up but it didn't really look like she was in that much danger.

Ukyo, on the other hand, was seating across from her and was strapped down to her chair with ropes with her mouth gagged. However if Ranma looked carefully he could swear she had a bib on top of her chest, a bonnet on her head and little booties on her feet.

"What the hell?" Ranma-chan asked.

"Ranma! Just RUN!" Akane cried out. "It's more horrible than you can imagine."

"What is more horrible then…"

"AH!! Jeanette!!!" Ranma-chan felt some latch on to her. When she looked down there was a bubbly deformed rogue holding her arm and jumping up and down. "Oh Jeanette," the girl said, "I am so glad you came! Now you can have tea with Claudia and baby Lulu."

"Who and who?" Ranma-chan said. "Wait, who the heck are you??"

The young girl smiled. "The most beautiful most pretty most cuddly countess Azusa Shi… OOOH… CHAROLETTE!!!"

"P-chan?" Akane said from her table.

"Oooh Charolette," Azusa said running towards P-chan. P-chan took in the situation, saw the girls and saw the monster running towards him. 'The stories were true!!' were the only things that managed to run through his little piggy mind as he began to flee.

Neko-Shampoo finally reached Ranma-chan and tried to tell him to calm down, that it was only here but it all come out as meows. Ranma-chan heard the noise looked down and started to panic. In a last attempt, neko-Shampoo leapt up and grabbed onto Ranma-chan's chest to try to make her point. But that only caused her eyes to roll back in her head.

Muu-muu realized all the distractions could allow him to easily slip up to the table and untie the other two girls. He flew over to Akane first and pecked away at the bond on her wrists until the came through. She quickly stood up and began to help Ukyo. She removed the mouth gag first and before she could do another thing, Ukyo looked at her savagely.

"Tell no one of what she did," Ukyo said in even tones. Akane nodded and slowly started to undo the body bond, trying not laugh too hard at the baby clothes that Ukyo had been forced into. It almost succeeded but as soon as Akane saw the diaper she began to laugh.

"It's not FUNNY!" Ukyo cried. She struggled against the bond. "Hurry up and untie these so I can pound you for laughing at ME!!"

Akane stopped and look at the angry assassin and then back at goose. Muu- muu shook his head vigorously and Akane had to agree. She picked up Muu- muu and walked away.

"Hey! Wait, come back, I won't pound you…" Ukyo said as they walked away. Akane didn't listen and instead made a bee line to where Ranma was standing.

"Ranma," she said reaching him. "We really need to… Ranma?" Akane examined the pig-tailed girl but couldn't see anything wrong with her. Still Ranma-chan was completely frozen. She reached out and carefully touched Ranma-chan, who decided at that moment to growl.

Akane stepped back and neko-Shampoo wisely leapt from Ranma-chan's chest to Akane's arms where she proceeded to hiss at Muu-muu. In the meantime, Ranma-chan was on all four feet and growling while arching her back.

Akane had finally managed to control the duck and the cat in her arms when P-chan came barreling into her arms. Loaded down with three animals she started to loose her balance just in time to have Azusa reach her. The three animal went berserk and Akane found herself twirling in circles, filling the air with fur and feathers, trying to keep them in her arms.

Azusa had stopped just sort of the show and was clapping enthusiastically. And then she suddenly heard the growling and hissing behind her. Before she could do anything else, a very feral Ranma-chan leapt up.

* * *

Many hours later…

"Hmmm… look over there Tendo, is that a Hell Bovine?"

Soun whipped around to look where Genma was pointing, prepared for a fight. As soon as his attention was away from the Shoji board, Genma switched a few pieces around. He sat back with a smile, waiting for Soun to turn back around and see the bad situation he was now in. But Soun was fixated on a point in the horizon. After a few moments, Genma's curiosity finally overpowered his desire not to have his cheating reversed and looked over to where he had pointed.

Coming through the main entrance was a site he never thought he would see. Akane was still wearing the frilly dress but it looked like it had almost been completely shredded. She was walking with a limp and he couldn't tell if she had taken a beating to the face or some very dark blush had seeped across her cheeks to her ears. She looked like she was carrying something on her back. Genma finally realized it was his son… his daughter… Ranma- chan. It looked like the red head had passed out after being in a monster of a fight.

Following behind the couple were a cat who was missing part of her coat, a duck who was missing several feathers from the top of its head and tail and who also had an unconscious pig strapped to it back, who appeared to be bleeding from the nose. Behind them came a familiar looking girl where a cloak around her body that was held in place with some rope. From the way she walked it looked like her arms were tied to her body.

"A…A..." Soun stuttered.

Akane looked at him. "Don't ask. Just don't ask."

Soun stared open eyed as they passed him by. Only the cloaked woman remained. She whistled at Akane and Akane stopped, trudged back and helped her with her bonds. As soon as the girl was free, Ukyo cracked her knuckles and looked at Genma.

"Genma Saotome, we have something to discuss…"