Act 2, Quest 4

The Arcane Sanctuary

With a shake of head, Cologne rejoined the group. "The wounds are not serious, he'll live."

"What did it to him?" Ranma asked.

"It's the same creature that attacked Ryoga," Cologne said. "And according to Kuno, it took out most of his royal guard as well."

"The vile cur," Kuno said standing up and joining them. "I will smite him from my…" He suddenly collapsed to the floor. Cologne stood behind him with her staff.

"He still need to recover," Cologne said, lowering her staff. "And you will need to rid the castle of this fiend yourselves. Something about this… it does not feel right. But then, things have not felt right since we left the Rogue encampment. I feel as if we are being watched all the time."

"Is in great grandmother head," Shampoo said. "No one watch. Shampoo would have caught."

"Of course, my dear," Cologne said. "But…"

Akane and Ukyo burst into the tent. "Okay, we managed to keep everyone clear of the palace. Mousse is standing guard."

"Then let's go."

The assembled group turned and saw Ryoga dressed in full battle regalia, holding his huge axe.

"Ah, Ryoga man," Ranma said walking over to him. "I think you should probably sit this one…" Ranma trailed off under the glowering gaze of the barbarian.

"I have a score to settle," Ryoga said. "And you are not getting in my way." Ranma's aura started to flicker red and all signs pointed to a brawl.

But thankfully Akane stepped in between them. "That's good Ryoga," she said turning to him and getting his attention away from Ranma. "Why don't you and I pair up and you can cover me when I cast spells."

Ryoga's anger suddenly faded and he was left looking at her. "Ah… ah… yeah, Akane that would be great."

Ranma wanted to say something but he knew that Akane had really just saved them all from a bad situation. So instead he turned back to Shampoo. "Okay, it's you and me, Shampoo. And Ukyo'll guard Mousse."

"Great," Ukyo said drolly.

"Is okay with Shampoo," she said with a smile.

Akane glared over at Ranma and you could almost feel the lightning bolts flash between their eyes. But she just shrugged and grabbed Ryoga's arm. "Come on, let's get going Ryoga."

* * *

Mousse watched the crowd as best he could (they were pretty much a blur from here). Suddenly, he saw a small figure break from the crowd. He stuck his foot out.

"Woah there," Mousse said, catching the small child on his leg. "Where do you think you're going?"

The boy looked up and him and suddenly realized who had caught him. "Woah, you're a Necromancer, aren't you?"

Mousse did his best to look menacing and ghostly. "I am."

"Cool!" The kid said. It felt like he wanted to say more but his mother suddenly appeared and scooped him up.

"Get away from him," she cried. "Don't you know that Necromancers are merely mindless zombies that follow their shadow masters and do as they are commanded."

"That's not even…" Mousse said.

"Mousse!" His head snapped around and he could make out a purple haired amazon headed his way.

"Shampoo!" he said, slowly moving away from his post and heading right towards her. As soon as he reached her, he quickly fell into place behind her.

"Mousse keep people back and open door."

"Anything you desire," he said.

Mousse walked over to the palace and opened the main door, letting the group in. As he went to close to door, he swore he could almost make out that mother standing with her hands on her hips, telling her son "I told you so."

* * *

The harem was in complete disarray. Carefully, Ranma moved forward with Shampoo closely behind. They carefully pushed at the mangled bodies, looking for any survivors but finding none. Considering the walls were almost red with blood, it was hardly a surprise.

"They didn't stand a chance," Ranma said.

"Shampoo no understand," she said. "Why kill no fighting girls?"

Suddenly, he heard the sound of jingling bells. Turning around quickly, he could almost make out a small woman in veils passing by the hallway door. Looking over to Shampoo he saw her nod slowly. Yes, she had seen that too.

Ranma looked around and pointed to a side entrance. He motioned that to Shampoo and she nodded, heading off to the side. Ranma drew his sword and carefully stepped towards the hall.

Cautiously he stuck his head out of the door, looking down the hall. He saw no sign of danger or the girl to the right but when he turned his head to the left, he saw her and heard her sweet laughter as it danced down the hall.

Now any sensible man would have realized that the sole survivor of a massacre would probably not be running around the scene of the crime, let alone laughing. But as countless bad horror movies have proven, common sense is rarely an issue in a situation like this.

Therefore Ranma followed the sound, increasing his pace and leaving most of his caution in the wind. Soon one hallway branched into several and even if he tried Ranma would not be able to find his way back now. All he could do was follow the girl's trail.

After several minutes of running, Ranma had to stop to catch his breath. He put his hands on his knees and kept watch on the hallway in front of him, hoping the girl would double back.

Instead, he heard a noise behind him and though he turned around as quickly as he could, all he could glimpse was the vanishing form of the mystery girl. Wait a minute, he thought to himself, how did she behind me?

He walked away from where he had just seen her to the corner of the hallway he had originally been heading for. As he made the right turn, he saw that the hallway ended in a dead end.

Ranma's brows lowered. Something very odd was going on. He turned and ran, down the hall towards the place he had last seen the girl. As he rounded the corner there was a resounding clash of steal that sent Ranma reeling backwards.

When he finally regained his sense, Ranma realized what he had just run into. "Shampoo!"

"Ranma!" she said at the same time. "Shampoo thought you strange girl. Ranma see strange girl come this way?"

"No," Ranma said. "And I have a feeling we wont be finding her."

"I'm right here."

Turning, they saw a small girl dressed in veils, long hair in a high ponytail. She holding something in her hands and before Ranma could do anything, she threw it at them.

A sopping Ranma-chan turned to the girl with anger. "What didya do that for?" she demanded. But the little girl just smiled.

Then Ranma-chan heard it. A soft sound that she wished she couldn't hear but that penetrated the core of her soul. Carefully she started to turn around, stuttering as she did. "Ca..ca…ca…"

* * *

Ryoga and Akane walked down the halls, on alert as they held onto their weapons tightly in their hands.

"I don't see why we split up," Akane said as they walked. "I mean, it would make so much more sense to stay together and attacked this as a group."

"We didn't know where it was," Ryoga replied. "It would take three times as long to search the place if we didn't split up."

Akane nodded but managed to continue pouting. She didn't like this idea at all. If this creature had managed to defeat both Ryoga and Kuno's army then two people were hardly going to be able to stand up to it. Stupid Ranma, this was his fault. He probably just wanted to be alone with that purple-haired bimbo. Not that Akane cared. Really, why would she care if that dumb…

"Akane!" Ryoga called out as he leaned against the wall. But he was too tired and his voice didn't penetrate her internal thinking. She continued down the hall and disappeared around a corner.

Ryoga sighed and tried to catch his breath. Maybe Ranma had been right. Maybe he should have stayed back in the tent. He snorted. Like Ranma would ever be right about anything. There was nothing in this place that Ryoga couldn't ha…

"Hello again."

Ryoga looked down and suddenly pushed back into the wall as hard as he could, almost trying to melt into it. It was the same little boy from outside the palace.

"Go… go away," Ryoga said, trying to wield his axe in a menacing way.

The little boy laughed, the sound echoing down the hall. Ryoga grimaced at the noise.

"Ryoga? Are you there?"

Ryoga's eyes widened. Akane. Akane was coming back this way. Suddenly any fear he had for himself was replaced with what might happen to her. Turning back to the small boy, he gripped his axe and got ready to strike.

But the boy shook his head and before Ryoga could reach, threw a gourd of cold water on him. Ryoga felt his body shrink and revert to pig form. He quickly nosed his way out of the clothes. He saw the little boy staring at him, smacking his lips hungrily.

Realizing he was about to be a pork sandwich, P-chan bolted running down the hallway and, ultimately, right into Akane's arms.

"P-chan! What are you doing here?"

"Can I have my pet back?" the little boy said as he ran up to meet them.

Akane paused and looked at the boy in front of her. The image swirled and suddenly Akane saw him for what he really was. "Stay back," she said holding out her staff.

Ryoga looked up at her, glad she had seen through the disguise. What Ryoga didn't realize was that Akane was not seeing the same little innocent boy that he saw, but rather the creature's true form.

"But, please…" the little boy whimpered. Tears started to form around his eyes.

"Don't bother with the act," Akane said. "I can see you for what you are."

The boy frowned. Suddenly, his form melted away and Mint appeared in his human form. "What do you see?"

Akane gripped her wand tighter. For her, he hadn't changed at all. "A demon, with claws and sharp teeth. But you don't scare me."

Mint smiled. "You're the one then. Herb mentioned that he managed to get to one of you. I guess the side effect of us being able to see things through your eyes is that you can see us for what we are."

Akane's resolve wavered. "See through my…" Then it suddenly made sense. The way the bad guys always seemed to know where they were. How they knew what to offer Mousse to make him play along. The reason why Cologne and Kin were always so ill at ease around her. They had been watching everything through her since the day she cast that spell.

"Oh no," she said softly. Her wand dropping. P-chan squealed, trying to get her attention again. But Akane was starting to cry. "I'm the reason…"

"That's right," Mint said walking slowly towards her. "You betrayed them all. We know everything about them. What they want and desire. What they fear. And we can kill them off.

"Who are you?" Akane demanded, though her voice cracked under her tears.

Mint smiled. "Diablo," he said, his voice taking on a terrifying tone as it boomed through the halls. He smiled. "And now that we know what we need, we really have no need for you."

He lunged forward, the last bit of his human form faded as his demon self came into view. Akane was too stunned to move but lucky for her, P-Chan leaped into action. He launched himself forward, landed on the demon's face. He quickly moved his little hooves, doing his best to make a distraction. He tried to squeal to tell Akane to run but she was frozen.

The demon Mint got a hand on his tiny aggressor and threw him to the wall. P-chan couldn't react and hit the wall with a dull thud. He landed on the ground, shaken but not hurt too badly. He looked up and saw the demon headed right towards Akane.

He started to move but the demon moved quicker, lashing out an arm and sending her spinning into the wall. There was a huge crack as Akane's helmet shattered like glass and she fell to the ground unconscious. The demon advanced, ready to finish the job, the claws in his arm looking as if they grew several inches in length.

P-chan squealed and charged, knowing he would be too late. In his quickness to attack, he never saw the movement at the other end of the hallway and suddenly ran smack into neko-Shampoo.

Neko-Shampoo shook her head and looked at P-chan. It looked like she was half scared to death! P-chan tried to ask her what happened but all that came out were squeals. Her responses were all meows. So she turned around and pointed with a paw to the scene that was unfolded behind them.

The demon was falling back, desperately trying to fend off something that was attacking him. It moved so quickly he couldn't retaliate and as each second passed he was taking more damage. After several minutes of this, the demon Mint fell to the ground, unconsciously.

A small form crawled from under his side and perched on his side. P-chan realized it was Ranma-chan. He ran over to her, to tell her about Akane but halfway there he realized something was wrong. Ranma-chan was sitting on all four and carefully coating her right hand with saliva before she ran it across her face.

P-chan stopped, taking in the gross scene. He turned to neko-Shampoo who nodded her little cat head. Oh yes, she saw it and agreed that it was weird.

"Ranma-honey?!"

"Shampoo!!"

P-chan turned and listened. It sounded like Mousse and Ukyo were close. It sounded like they were running.

Sure enough a second later, they reached the group. "Ranma-honey!" Ukyo called out as she reached Ranma-chan. But the red-head didn't pay attention to her. "Ranma?"

Mousse stopped and looked at P-chan. "Shampoo? Is that you? Did you change into a cat??"

P-chan sighed and shook his head. And then promptly used a hoof to hit Mousse in the nose just as neko-Shampoo hit him in the arm.

"Ow!" Mousse said. He shook his head and looked down at the real neko- Shampoo. "Sorry," he said, lowering his arm so she could climb onto his shoulder. He reached down and picked up P-chan.

"Ranma?" Ukyo asked again. Ranma-chan suddenly hissed at her. Ukyo backed off quickly. And then she saw Akane.

"Mousse!" she called out. Mousse turned quickly. "Oh man, I think Akane's hurt."

Mousse ran over to where Ukyo was just as Ranma-chan turned towards Ukyo. The feral look in her eyes suddenly faded. "Akane?" she said.

"Help me get this off," Mousse said as he deposited P-chan on the ground. The little pig crawled up to Akane's lap and sat down, looking her. Carefully Mousse and Ukyo removed the fragments of the helmet from Akane's head.

"Akane?" Ranma-chan said as he joined them. She looked at Akane's face, looking for a sign of injury but found none. It just looked like Akane was sleeping peacefully.

Mousse tentatively lifted her head and looked for any wounds. He shook his head. "The helmet took all the damage but I think she's fainted."

"We have to get out of here," Ranma-chan said, leaning forward and lifting Akane into her arms. But it was very difficult in her female form. "Crap, do you have any hot water?"

Mousse shook his head. "No, not here. How did you get wet?"

"That damn little girl threw water on Shampoo and me," Ranma-chan said. "I don't know what she was trying to do."

"Put you in a weaker state," Ukyo said. "Let's face it, it would be easier to pick you off it you were in cursed forms."

"Well at least you got it," Mousse said, pointing to the crumpled form of the demon.

Ranma-chan nodded. "We'll just go to the surface, get some hot water, make sure Akane is okay and then come back down."

But before she could even start to move, they heard a low rumble coming from down the hall. "Ah," Ukyo said, "I thought you said you took care of the monster."

The group looked over and sure enough the demon was still crumpled on the ground. "What the…" Ranma-chan said.

Suddenly a second demon came tearing down the hall. "RUN!" Ukyo yelled picking up P-chan as she started to run. They started to put some distance between themselves and the demon but Ranma-chan was having a hard time keeping up. Soon, he started to fall behind.

Ukyo doubled back, putting P-chan on her shoulder, and went behind Ranma- chan and Akane and began to push, helping to move them along.

"There's a stairway down near here," Mousse said, turning the corner and seeing the opening in the wall nearby.

"Ukyo, take Akane and run!" Ranma-chan said, realizing that they were slowing down the group too much.

"No!" Ukyo said, giving Ranma-chan one final push and then turned to face the demon. "Keep going, I'll hold them off for a while."

Ranma-chan wanted to stop but she knew Ukyo was right. Without another word, she quickly followed Mousse down the stairs. Ukyo looked up at P- chan perched on her shoulder.

"Better run for it pig boy," she said. P-chan jumped off her shoulder and landed on the ground next to her. He dug his hooves into the ground and lowered his head. Ukyo smiled. "Thanks," she said softly just as the demon rounded the corner.

* * *

Mousse and Ranma-chan continued to run, passing through what looked like dungeons and down three more flights of stairs to the cellars.

Mousse stopped as soon as they reached the landing. "I think we should be safe."

Ranma-chan carefully put Akane on the ground. "Did we have to go this far down?" she demanded.

Mousse nodded. "You saw the way that thing moved. It would have caught us in no time. We needed to lose it and I think we've gotten far enough so that it won't be able to find us."

"But what about Ukyo," Ranma-chan cried. "We left her up there."

Mousse was silent as he sat down. "She made her choice."

"I'm going back to get her," Ranma-chan said. But he took one look around and realized she was completely lost. "Dammit," she said, kicking the ground. She looked angrily over at Mousse.

"Well now what?" Ranma-chan demanded. "Do have any idea of where we are?"

But Mousse was silent. After a while, even neko-Shampoo got a bit worried. She meowed softly in his ear to rouse him. It worked because suddenly Mousse was on his feet.

"It's not possible," he said softly.

Ranma-chan looked over at him with confusion. "What's not possible."

Carefully Mousse walked forward and touched the wall. "It's here. This is the lock!!"

"The lock?" Ranma-chan said walking over to where he was. Looking carefully, Ranma could see a groove in the wall. "How did you see that?"

Mousse shook his head. "I didn't. I felt something… something drawing me to the wall." He reached into his robes and pulled out the Horadric staff. Carefully he placed it on the wall.

Suddenly the floor light up as two poles came out of the ground and snapped together. There was a moment of silence and suddenly the room was filled with light. Mousse and Ranma-chan ducked, covering their faces.

The light faded and slowly, they both looked towards the source of the confusion. There was a blue glow coming from it. Mousse moved in closer to get a good look at it.

"It's a portal," he said.

"Where does it go?" Ranma-chan asked.

Mousse shook his head. "I don't know…"

"Well, I say leave it be and go find Uk…"

"RUN!!!" Ukyo said as she came sprinting into the room, with P-chan in close pursuit. Even before she had finished yelled they could hear the demon coming barreling down the stairs.

Ukyo didn't wait. She saw the blue glow and just leapt through it, hoping it was a Town Portal. P-chan followed quickly. Ranma-chan barely had time to grab Akane.

"Where does it…" she tried to ask again.

"Just go!" Mousse said, taking her by the arm and shoving Ranma-chan and Akane through it. They disappeared quickly from view. Neko-Shampoo clawed lightly on Mousse's shoulder, telling him it was time to go.

Mousse nodded and quickly cast a bone wall around the portal just as the demon came through. It screamed in fury as it hit the wall full on. It started to tear it apart, sending bone fragments into the air.

Realizing what he would have to do, Mousse quickly conjured up a bone spear and aimed it past the wall, past the demon to where the staff was embedded in. As soon as it was cast, he stepped backwards, letting it shattered and destroy the Horadric staff.

Just as the demon made it through, the blue light faded. It tried to jump through but the two poles came crashing down and it jumped through the air. It screamed in anger and started to rip at the ground, trying to make the portal reappear.

"It's not use." The demon stopped and looked up in the air, hearing it's master's voice. The demon shimmered and Lime reappeared in its place. "They've closed the door but… we still have our spy. And she'll give us all the information we need." Lime bowed to the nothingness. "Now go get Mint and return to camp. We must prepare to raid the seven tombs the moment we know."