Balance of Power

by Mr. Clark

Ranma and the rest of the cast are thrown into a novel-length fic that spans the globe. The explosive prelude to "Until the End" comes an amazing story of sacrifice and strength. (Complete)

36. The End of a War

Semper Fi Chapter 4 The End of a War

The Politburo holds meetings at regular intervals. When there is nothing to discuss other than how their days went, they would probably wait at least a week or so before holding a meeting. But if there was a national emergency, such as a war, they would hold meetings every day, usually running hours in length.

Ever since China had pulled out of Taiwan, the Politburo had been holding meetings at least twice a day.

The news on the Chinese defeat was being contained by the media. Every television and radio station was monitored for any kind of activity that could leak the news to the greater population. This was something that they could control.

What they couldn't control was how the public viewed the war.

The Chinese government had originally stated that Taiwan had attempted to send soldiers onto Chinese soil, thinking that China had been the nation that arranged for the assassination attempt on their leader.

The citizens of China had lived through a lot of events in their lifetime. Some of them had even lived through World War II and the Korean War. Those who had lived through the Korean War still had the memories of what the Americans did to them, and they certainly did not wish to go to war with them again.

At the first stages of the war, Chinese protestors had appeared, in such masses that hadn't been seen since the Tiananmen Square incident. The Politburo had sent soldiers and policemen armed with tear gas and rubber bullets to deal with the crowd. There had been no other protest.

The head of the PLA, Wei Liang, had decided that the best way to solve the problem they had encountered when first invading Taiwan was that they had not used enough man force. This decided, he sent out orders stating that the number of people being conscripted be tripled.

The Secretary of Defense, Mai Zhisheng, ordered that half of the men conscripted to be put into the defense of the country from American forces that had already begun operations on the shores of China, even almost reaching Shanghai.

The great powers in China were preparing to put out a second front, another attack against Taiwan, and this time they would be sending enough troops to cover every single square foot of land.

===============

But the United States of America had its own plan being set in motion.

The planes needed to deliver the bombs that would end the lives of all the members of the Politburo were now located on the aircraft carrier Nimitz. The pilots were en route to the Nimitz.

The International team of soldiers that would be attacking China's nuclear warheads had already finished forming. One team from Canada's Strike team, one team of Green Berets from the United States, one team of Russian Spetznaz soldiers, and one team of British SAS troops were inside Russia, ready for the helicopter ride that would inevitably take them to the Chinese nuclear warhead municipality's area.

It was now a race between which side of the war could put their troops on the ground the fastest.

If America were able to assassinate the Politburo, and eliminate China's nuclear capabilities, they would be able to rock the enemy on their heels and go in for the killing blow.

But if China were able to send its massive troop force back into Taiwan, there could not be any opposition to such great numbers. Taiwan would fall and China would have control over the Pacific.

===============

The mission of the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion had been completed. The defense China had put up along its own borders had proved inadequate to defend against American troops. The roads were now open for a far greater number of attacks against the Chinese then had previously been possible.

There had been no victory party for the troops though. The news of the murdered POW's had sent a very somber mood throughout the battalion.

The commander of the 82nd, Colonel Parker, had been denied in his request to retrieve the bodies of the POW's that had died while in captivity.

On 3 December, the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion left Chinese soil and sailed back to the United States.

===============

The outskirts of Shanghai had been made into the headquarters for Chinese infantry troops returning from the front line. Nearby houses had been turned into field hospitals and the fields were now littered with graves of fallen soldiers.

A small infantry platoon that had been in charge of the POW's the Chinese had captured from the first attack against the Americans arrived at the infantry headquarters early in the morning of November 30. They had been brought in by an infantry division that had gone out to check the prison out when reports of heavy explosions had been heard.

The infantry platoon had brought with them seventeen extra bodies then had previously been expected. The extra men had quickly been placed within a field hospital. Most of the men were suffering from gunshot wounds to the arms and legs. One soldier in particular had some burns over his body as well as a gunshot wound to his leg. There were scars on his chest, indicating that he had received another bullet wound awhile back.

The seventeen extra soldiers were the only surviving POW's the infantry platoon had. The commander of the infantry platoon explained to the commander of the base that once the Americans had started coming in, he had ordered the execution of half the POW's. The seventeen men they had brought with them had survived the attempted execution.

The commander of the base decided to give the seventeen surviving POW's the highest priorities of all medical orderlies on the base.

Once the situation had been explained to all the doctors and nurses, the commander of the temporary base headquarters contacted the head of the PLA.

Wei Liang, after hearing the story of the POW's, ordered the base commander to immediately turn over the POW's once they were capable of being moved. The base commander asked Wei Liang if he was going to announce the survival of the seventeen POW's, and received a reprimand for his troubles.

The base commander explained that sixteen of the soldiers could be moved out of the area today, but the one soldier with the burns and the gunshot wound would have to stay on the base for at least two more days.

Wei Liang asked for the names of all seventeen POW's and received sixteen. When he asked what the last one's name was, the base commander replied that the soldier had no identification on him; even the name patch on his tunic had been removed. The POW had no dog tags on him either.

===============

Major Ryan Ward watched skeptically as the plans for the bombing of the Politburo was shown to him and the seventeen other pilots.

The plan outlined the exact route each bomber would need to take to arrive at the location of their assigned target. Dedicated SAM sights were located along the coast that they would enter from, making for a very hairy entrance into China and an even hairier exit.

Major Ward and a Lieutenant Colonel Matthews were assigned the target of the Defense Minister, Mai Zhisheng.

The B-2 Spirit bomber would be the aircraft of choice for the mission, the aircraft's unique design and its stealth capability was more than enough to edge it out ahead of the other bomber aircraft that were available to them.

The operation had been dubbed Operation Monte Cristo, making reference to the name of an attempt to rescue American POW's during the Vietnam War.

The pilots learned of the other half of the operation, involving the international Special Forces teams and the plan to attack China's nuclear warhead facility. The pilots and other people involved with the latter half of Monte Cristo were all agreed upon the fact that the Special Forces teams would be doing something infinitely more dangerous than what Major Ward and the other pilots were doing, for if they screwed up, it could mean the start of a nuclear war.

It would take two days for Nimitz to make the trek across the sea towards China and get close enough for the bombers to depart and also make it back.

===============

Ranma had asked that he be sent back to Japan as soon as possible. A small Sikorsky helicopter was commandeered and Ranma had been flown back to Japan, arriving at a small airstrip in Hokkaido. He was then flown into Tokyo by a civilian airliner.

Ranma did not call ahead to the Dojo or their home, nor did he allow Phillip or Ishii to release anything on his return. He decided to simply walk from the airport to the Tendo Dojo, declining Ishii's offer for a ride. Ishii said he would be back in a couple of days. Ranma didn't blame Ishii for not wanting to be in Tokyo when news of Ryoga's passing was delivered.

Phillip had offered to come along as well, saying that he had regrettably had much experience in the delivery of news about someone's passing. Ranma had thanked him for the offer but declined, saying that this was something that he would have to do himself, and that Ryoga would want it to be him that broke the news to Akari.

The feeling that Ryoga couldn't be dead still lingered with Ranma, and there was nothing more that he would like to do than walk into the house they had all shared with Ryoga by his side. The few days he had spent in China after being rescues had been spent with him in a daze. Phillip had given him morphine not as much to quell the pain then so Ranma couldn't do anything stupid.

Ranma blamed himself for Ryoga's passing. Everyone else told him he was being foolish but Ranma knew better. If he had just not allowed the Chinese infantrymen to take Ryoga from his arms, then Ryoga would still be alive. The thought that if Ranma had instead handed Ryoga over to one of the POW's in front of him and he instead gone around the side of the barn with the doomed POW's, then he could have easily escaped.

As Ranma walked the streets of Tokyo he became more and more saddened. His hand mindlessly rubbed the scars that adorned his chest. His wounds had been healed, and he was now back to one hundred percent health. The only glaring issue was that he had absolutely no desire to run around and do great leaps and bounds. He walked the streets like any other man, his hands inside the packets of the military tunic and pants he had neglected to change out of. He received odd stares from most of the people walking the streets, but Ranma ignored them.

As he entered the familiar streets of Nerima, Ranma began to think of ways he would try and break the news to Akari.

There was no way that he could try and be blunt, just walk in and say, 'Hey Akari, Ryoga wont be coming back because the Chinese infantry decided that he was taking up too much of their food and medical supplies.'

Breaking it to her softly would not work either. Akari, despite the appearances of a simple cute girl, was also extremely brilliant. She would pick up on what Ranma was saying after the first words out of his mouth. Ranma wanted desperately for something that could help him deliver the news.

Akane would be a great help, she and Akari were now best friends. Ranma immediately quelled the thoughts of Akane from his mind. He had no right to think of such a thing when he was on his way to deliver the news of someone's passing, let alone his best friend.

Ranma stopped and looked around, he was a block away from the Tendo Dojo. He sighed and continued on his way, his head hung down low.

He had gone another five feet when he heard someone calling his name.

Ranma raised his head and peered over his own shoulder. Mousse was standing on the other side of the street. He was dressed in his typical robes and was looking at Ranma with infinite surprise on his face.

Ranma crossed the street and approached Mousse. He smiled artificially.

"Hi Mousse," he greeted.

Mousse's surprise did not vanish. "My god it is you," he whispered. He looked like he had the moment's decision between wanting to hug Ranma and shaking his hand. He gave into emotion and hugged Ranma briefly.

"Did you just get back?" Mousse asked.

"Yeah," Ranma answered, his voice betraying the sadness he felt.

"Well, we've all been listening to news of the war every day; I heard that the 82nd is out of China now, congratulations."

Ranma was framing a reply when Mousse spoke again.

"Where's Ryoga? Did he get lost again?" Mousse asked, the last part meant as a joke. When he saw the look of agony cross Ranma's face, he knew he had said the wrong thing.

"Ranma, what's wrong?"

Ranma bit down on his tongue, hard. But he couldn't stop the tears that rolled down his cheeks. He tried to take a breath but a sob stopped his from continuing.

"R-Ryoga isn't going to be coming back Mousse," Ranma said shakily. "He was killed while we were over there."

"What?" Mousse said in disbelief. "Oh god!" he said and it was a wail.

Ranma stared straight at the ground, his body tense.

Mousse shook his head. "H-how did it happen?"

Ranma took another deep shuddering breath before replying.

"His tank was hit by enemy fire and I went out to get him, once I got him outside the tank, the Chinese soldiers we were fighting surrounded us and took us to where they were holding a bunch of American POW's. We were kept there for a week before news of an American Task Force heading in the direction of the camp. After that they took half of the POW's, including Ryoga, and stood them up against the wall. Four soldiers then opened fire on them."

Mousse's face was a mixture of emotions. He was deeply saddened by the news of Ryoga's passing, and he was also disgusted over how his fellow countrymen were acting. Mousse was Chinese, but he had never really connected with the sort of people that were now fighting the war. Nevertheless, he still didn't like the fact that people might compare him to those that would commit such horrible deeds.

Ranma looked up at Mousse with sad eyes.

"Look Mousse, I'm going to have to break the news to Akari soon, so I'd better get going."

"Alright," Mousse said, blankly. "Do you want me to tell Shampoo and Cologne?"

"Sure, that would be nice of you," Ranma said and turned around.

He was outside the front gates of the Tendo home before he could really think of a way to tell Akari what happened to Ryoga. Ranma realized that no matter what sort of speech he may be able to come up with, the outcome would still be the same, Akari would cry and he would feel horrible.

He walked up the front walk and stepped up to the door. He idly wondered if Akari and Akane would in fact be here and not inside their home.

Pushing that thought aside Ranma knocked on the door twice. He attempted to steel himself but failed.

"Just a moment!" a voice from inside called out.

The door slid open and Ranma found himself face to face with Akari.

Any sort of speech he had planned out in his mind quickly vanished when he saw her face.

"Ranma?" Akari asked in disbelief. She quickly let out a cry of joy and threw her arms around him.

Once Akari hugged him, Ranma noticed that there was something different about her. She seemed to be rounder, and a little heavier.

As Akari drew back from the hug she saw Ranma's eyes move down to her stomach. She quickly put her hands over her already slightly bulging stomach. She blushed a little.

"You're pregnant?" Ranma asked, disbelief in his voice.

Akari smiled a little. "Yeah, you can thank that pig-headed Ryoga for this. Our first time and he goes and gets me pregnant."

Akari saw the sad look on Ranma's face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, and then decided to try some humor. "Don't worry, Akane's not pregnant too."

The attempt at humor did nothing to change the sad expression on Ranma's face.

Akari decided to ask Ryoga what was wrong with him when she noticed her fiancées absence.

"Um, Ranma, where's Ryoga?"

Ranma looked very much like he was going to cry. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Akari.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispered into her ear as he began crying.

Fear started to creep into Akari's heart. Does he mean.

Before she could finish her thought, the sound of someone gasping behind her occurred.

Akari twisted in Ranma's embrace and saw Kasumi standing in the doorway. She was wearing a look of utter shock on her face.

"Ranma?" Kasumi said in disbelief.

Ranma, his voice still emotional, said, "I've got to talk with Akari for a bit Kasumi."

Kasumi obviously could hear the sad tone of Ranma's voice and walked back into the house, closing the front door behind her.

Ranma attempted to get his voice back under control; he cleared his throat as he held Akari in his embrace.

"Akari, I've got to tell you something, and I want you to know how sorry I am," Ranma said, waiting a second before continuing. "Ryoga isn't hear, he was murdered in China."

Akari felt a wave of nausea sweep over her. A part of her mind told her that it couldn't be true, while another part told her that it was.

Ranma's arms tightened around her. "We were captured by the Chinese and Ryoga was already hurt, so we couldn't escape. They took us to some base out near Shanghai and they kept us there for a week with some American soldiers that had also been captured. After a week the 82nd came to rescue us and the Chinese took half of the captured soldiers behind the barn house we were being kept in and killed them. They took Ryoga from me, they were going to shoot us both if I refused, and carried him around back with the other soldiers and he was with them when the Chinese opened fire."

Akari listened intently to Ranma's story before breaking down and crying. Her whole body shook in Ranma's embrace as sobs emanated from her. She took note that Ranma was shaking as well.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Ranma kept saying as he cried.

===============

Akari was very dazed when Ranma brought her into the house. She couldn't stop crying as Ranma picked her up into his arms and carried her into Akane's old room. Akane heard Akari's sobs and walked out of the kitchen as Ranma walked by. She was about to ask Ranma what happened when she noticed that neither Ryoga nor Ishii were with him. She took off up the stairs and found the door to her old room open.

Inside the room Ranma had set Akari down on the bed that was inside and had hit a shiatsu sleep spot on her neck. He wiped the tears from his face when he saw Akane in the room.

She approached cautiously, her mind telling her that something terrible must have happened if Ranma was reduced to crying.

"Ranma?" Akane asked cautiously. "What's wrong?"

Ranma sighed. "Ryoga's gone Akane; he was killed while we were in China."

Akane studied Ranma's face and saw that he was dead serious.

"Oh god!" Akane wailed.

Ranma quickly got to his feet and wrapped his arms around Akane. As her tears wet his tunic, Ranma had the moments guilty thought that he was glad that Akane would not be reduced to the state Akari was in.

The sudden realization that he had not told Akari that she would not ever see Ryoga again occurred to him. Ryoga's body had been buried by the POW farmhouse.

It couldn't get much worse than it was, Ranma thought.

===============

Sixteen of the seventeen POW's that had survived in the prison camp were sent west, to a prison camp just outside of Chengdu.

The head of the PLA, Wei Liang, ordered that the POW's be kept there for the immediate future, and that the presence of the POW's not to be announced to anyone.

The one remaining POW in the camp outside of Shanghai was greatly regaining his health. The field doctors and medical personnel were amazed when the POW had regained consciousness only after three hours of having his wounds stitched up. But once the POW's health became that less of a problem, another problem arose.

Two days after the POW arrived in the camp, he managed to render three soldiers unconscious and make it fifty feet out of the camp before he collapsed. It was quickly decided upon by the doctors and other military commanders that the POW should be kept on morphine and only allowed to be conscious when there was at least fifteen guards around the area.

Once it was reported that the POW was now healthy enough to travel to the prison camp outside of Chengdu, Wei Liang asked that the POW remain in the base until he could see him personally.

Wei Liang arrived the next day.

===============

Ryoga felt very groggy. His body was sore, so much that he was sure that he must have ran an eighty mile marathon. His head was heavy and it took all his concentration just to open his eyes. His vision was blurred but he could tell that he was facing someone. Whoever he was facing was calling out something in English.

"Wake up; I need to talk to you," the person said in heavily accented English. He had a Chinese accent.

"I don't understand," Ryoga replied in Japanese. He noted that his reply made the person sharply say something to someone Ryoga couldn't see in Chinese.

The person turned back to Ryoga and spoke again softly, this time in Japanese.

"You are Japanese?" the person asked.

"Yes," Ryoga replied. He wondered why this person seemed so interested in him.

"Are you a Japanese citizen?"

"I'm from Tokyo," Ryoga replied.

The person didn't speak for a long moment.

"How did you come to be involved with the American tank battalion that was attacking Chinese forces inside China?"

Ryoga explained groggily that he knew the American battalion commander and he and two others had gone with the division disguised as officers in the American army so they could retrieve the body of some man that the Politburo were holding.

The person quickly barked off some more orders in Chinese and smiled at Ryoga.

"Thank you young man, you have been most helpful."

===============

Wei Liang quickly put a phone call through to the Premier and explained to him everything that he had just learned from the Japanese civilian.

Now that they knew exactly why the man wearing the American officer's uniform was not an officer, let alone not even American, they could use the information to seriously hit their enemy.

China could now go public with the news that America had enlisted the help of Japanese civilians to try and attack China. The use of civilians from one's country was incredibly incriminating for a country to do during a war, and the use of another country's civilians would be far more damaging to a country's cause than if they had lost a war.

America would then have to answer to Japan, and also have to come up with some kind of explanation to the United Nations committee as to why they were employing the use of a foreign nation's civilians to help them fight a war.

This bit of news could greatly turn the tide of the war towards China's favor.

===============

As Wei Liang arrived at Beijing International Airport, he realized that he would have to wait until the next morning's meeting with the other members of the Politburo before they could decide on how they were going to go about dealing with the situation with the Japanese civilian now in their hands.

Before he got into his staff car he noticed that the night sky was clear.

===============

Operation Monte Cristo was started at 2200 hours 7 December just eighty miles off the coast of China. Twelve American B-2 Spirit bombers departed from the USS Nimitz and headed towards Beijing.

The International Special Forces team departed Russian airspace and entered Chinese air space aboard fifteen Sikorsky helicopters.

Major Ward quickly checked his altimeter and noticed that he was much lower than Lieutenant Colonel Matthews was. He did not rise up though, for the commanders of Monte Cristo had already explained that the lower the pilots could take the B-2 Spirit the better.

Ward quickly looked behind his plane and saw the vastly disappearing USS Nimitz.

"All right boys," Ward said into the radio. "Let's finish this war."

No other pilots replied because none of them could think of anything to say.

===============

The Chinese Politburo had been discussing for almost an entire month the issue of their nuclear weapons. Because of this, the twenty-one nuclear warheads that were located just north of Xi'an had been receiving a lot more attention than they would have previously had.

As the four Sikorsky helicopters carrying the four Special Forces teams began their descent over the area that held China's nuclear warheads, the barracks that housed over two hundred soldiers located ten miles away from the silo's was active and heard the drone of the helicopter's engines and rotors.

But the men that planned this aspect of Monte Cristo had taken into account the idea that there might very well be a barracks nearby with soldiers inside and had added a part to the mission to deal with it.

The small add-on for Monte Cristo called for two Apache helicopters to be dispatched along with the Sikorsky's. Their job was to eliminate any type of ground forces that the Chinese happened to have near and in their missile silos.

This said, when the Chinese soldiers and other men located in the barracks were awoken by the drone of the helicopters, they were up like a shot. They had been running drills for the past few weeks and they had the whole operation burned into their memories.

The problem that the Chinese soldiers encountered was their defense plans did not call for the attacking force to know where they were and to have something that would deal with them.

The problem that the American Apache pilots faced was the long distance they were forced to travel. Plus the fact that they had no chance of landing anywhere in China without either getting captured by the Chinese soldiers or getting lost in the Chinese wilderness.

The Apache pilots solved their problem by traveling the long distance with far less weight than the manuals called for. The only weapons they carried were cannon rounds and 2.75-inch rockets. Traveling with only that much weight allowed them the proper amount of fuel to fly from a small military base located on the southern Russian border all the way into China and back again.

So when the soldiers in the small barracks set about to prepare to go stop whatever forces were trying to attack their country's nuclear warheads, they received the last surprise they would ever have.

As the soldiers spilled out of the barracks they were slightly surprised to hear the drone of enemy aircraft overhead. As the men inside the base began to move spotlights, searching for the aircraft, their came the sound of rockets being fired. A lot of rockets, and fired from high up in the air.

The 2.75-inch rockets that the Apaches had been equipped with quickly killed all the soldiers on the ground, and reduced the barracks to rubble.

Their mission finished, the Apaches headed back north for Russia.

===============

The Sikorsky helicopters were five miles ahead when they heard the report from the Apache commander that the last defense the Chinese had was gone.

The pilots did not let this allow how they were going to come into the area. They approached low-level and did one fly-over of the area before they slowly began to descend to the ground. The area was covered with thick vegetation which did not allow the Sikorsky helicopters to get more than twenty feet to the ground. From there the Special Forces teams would use zip lines to reach the ground.

Major Jack Grillo was onboard the Green Beret Sikorsky. He was the man leading the Green Berets, and that meant he would be the first man out the door. Quickly attaching his hook to the line at the top, Major Grillo jumped backwards out of the Sikorsky, applying pressure to the line when he was at least ten feet off the ground. Letting himself land to the ground, the Major quickly made room for the other Green Berets that were already heading down the line.

Once the team was on the ground, Major Grillo quickly gave the order that would make the men split into their already assigned teams and head off for their already assigned silos.

===============

The base command post was the best-protected structure on the entire post. It had been buried ten meters underground, and the ten meters was solid reinforced concrete, so as to survive a nuclear bomb's exploding within a hundred meters. Inside the command post was a staff of seventeen men, commanded by Lieutenant General Xian Qing-Nun. He had supervised the silos only three hours before and had carried out the orders from Beijing that had called for all thirteen CSC-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles to be fueled. The only explanation the base commander had been given was that the orders should be carried out right away. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that the fueling of his country's most important weapon had something to do with the was underway against America and Taiwan.

The base commander was, like all People's Liberation Army soldiers, a highly disciplined man, and always mindful of the fact that he had his country's most valuable weapons in his personal control. Someone had triggered the alarm, and his staff had switched on the surveillance cameras, the cameras were old and needed lights on too, so the lights were switched on as well.

A week ago if someone had come up to Xian and told him that he would have to defend his county's nuclear weapons against some unknown force, he would have scoffed at them. But now, with the alarm sounding and men rushing about, he realized that they were under attack.

===============

Major Grillo noticed the lights and made a quick order into his radio, which was built into his helmet, and watched as the lights were shot out. The shot itself wouldn't be difficult; the lights were only fifteen feet off the ground.

===============

General Xian quickly snatched the telephone from his NCO's hand.

"Get me Beijing!" he shouted at whatever operator was controlling the switchboards.

===============

The Russian Spetznaz team encountered no troubles as they raced into Silo #1. The demolitions expert on the team led the way and ran to the pipes that led to the top of the concrete box that marked the top of the silo. To each he stuck a block of plastic explosives, and into each block he stuck a blasting cap. Two other men knelt close by with their weapons ready for a response force that had yet to be seen.

"Run!" the demolitions expert yelled at the other men, running back to where the others stood. There he skidded to the ground and twisted the knob on his detonator. There was a resounding explosion as the pipes were blown up.

The teams had brought gas masks with them, though they didn't need them, as there were no vapors spewing from the broken pipes.

The Russian team now looked for the metal door that would serve as the maintenance entrance to the silo.

===============

"What did you say?" Wei Liang, the head of the PLA asked his phone.

"This is General Qing-Nun, I am the commander of our nuclear weapons base and we are under attack. Ground forces and helicopters are above us and are attempting to destroy our missiles. We cannot fight them off because our reaction force does not respond when we call; they have been killed by the attackers.

Wei Liang did not reply right away. He had just been getting ready for bed, feeling cheerful and deliberating over what he would do now that he was supposed to present the news that they had caught the Americans at something they shouldn't be doing, and he was not prepared to deal with something like this.

"Are your missiles fueled?" Liang asked.

"Yes!" the base commander replied.

Wei Liang paused for a moment.

"Then launch your missiles," he said, his voice betraying the panic he felt inside.

There was a long pause on the other end.

"Launch your fucking missiles!"

"Yes sir."

The line went dead.

===============

Major Grillo was about to ask what the damn hold-up was when he heard a huge explosion. The men must have finally gotten through the maintenance door, Grillo thought.

Just as he turned to congratulate his men, he saw them come running for their lives straight at him.

"What the hell!?" Grillo said as his men ran right past him.

"Run you fool!" the demolitions expert called back as they ran out of the silo, putting their masks to their faces.

Major Grillo caught up with them once they were one hundred yards away from the silo.

The demolitions expert quickly explained.

"The damn tanks are fueled Major, the explosion must have ruptured the upper tank, the fucking thing is going to blow!"

The color drained from Major Grillo's face. He spoke quickly into his radio.

"Everybody get the fuck away from those silos! There fueled and about to blow!"

===============

The proof of that came from Silo #4, off to the right of the Green Beret's location. The entire concrete structure that served as the roof to the silo was sent hurtling into the air as the mass of fire and smoke came roaring up from the destroyed missile. Silo #7, Grillo's, did the same.

===============

Over in the control bunker, the men inside were rushing about, turning keys and throwing switches.

The commanding general gave the order and then, finally turned his command key.

===============

The British SAS team was lucky, they had caught the tail end of Major Grillo's call and ran from the four silos they were assigned to, just before they exploded, sending solid white-yellow flame high into the air.

The Canadian Strike team would not be so fortunate.

From exhaust vents that were set front and behind silos #5 and #8, the two assigned to the Special Forces team, came two vertical fountains of white-yellow flame, and less than one second after that, the thick blunt shape of a missile's nosecone appeared.

The Strike team was able to detonate their explosives in silo #8 before the missile could clear the silo and succeeded in catching the end of the missile and causing it's fuel lines to rupture and explode, incinerating all the Strike team members that had been unfortunate enough to have been caught too close to the silo.

But the missile from silo #5 cleared the silo, and was now rising into the sky.

===============

The Apache helicopters were several miles away when they heard the radio messages between the soldiers on the ground. One missile was getting away, and it was beginning to lean towards east, obviously heading towards the United States.

"Oh shit," one of the Apache pilots said and suddenly banked his chopper to the right and turned it around and headed straight for the missile silos. He pulled collective to jerk his helicopter at the rising missile.

The gunner in the back called out that he had the missile in his sights. He selected his 30-mm cannon and suppressed the trigger. The gunner's rounds fell short, but he quickly adjusted his lead and walked them into the missile's upper half.

There was an incredible explosion, which threw the Apache helicopter into a tail spin, then rolling it over on its back as the heat wave washed over the area. The pilot attempted to get the plane back under his command but all he could do was struggle valiantly with the controls of his helicopter as it crashed into the trees.

Once the missile from silo #5 had been destroyed, that meant that all the missiles were gone.

The first stage of Monte Cristo had been completed.

===============

The second, and final, stage of Monte Cristo was still underway.

As the B-2 Spirit bombers raced over Tianjin, just two hundred miles south of Beijing, they encountered the first bit of the Chinese air defenses.

Dedicated SAM (Surface to Air Missiles) sites were located in the base just north of Tianjin, making for a quite effective air defense for the capitol of China.

The only problem that faced the SAM site commanders was that none of them had ever fired on actual moving targets, capable of firing back. This was solved by the automatic locking capability of the surface to air missiles.

Major Ward, inside the bomber leading the strike force, noticed on his radar screen the blips indicating that the bombers were being targeted. He didn't bother issuing any countermeasures over his radio, all the men with him were as good a pilot as he was and were already deploying countermeasures.

Unlike with the sort of countermeasures that a submarine or carrier may deploy, aircraft depend on the heat-locking sensors of most missiles that are used in SAM sites. What will happen is the aircraft will eject a small box, and when the aircraft is at least fifty yards away from the small box, it will explode, causing the missile to get two distinct signals, one closer than the other. If luck is with the pilot, the missile will lock onto the explosion that had been caused by the countermeasures the pilot fired. Once this occurs the missile will pass right through the smoke and fire caused by the countermeasure and will lose control, sending it flying without anything controlling it, and eventually crashing to the ground, or in the case of the missiles fired by the SAM sites, into the nearby city of Tingshu.

The SAM site commanders quickly radioed to military bases in Beijing about the planes heading in their direction.

The military bases in Beijing quickly sent out the alert to all the nearest air force bases. Pilots and maintenance crews scrambled onto the runways and began to service their planes.

There was a sense of euphoria amongst the men as they moved their planes down the runway. The maintenance crews watched with a sense of helplessness as the planes disappeared from view.

===============

There had been many additions to the Monte Cristo plans. One of those additions to the plan was quite a stroke of brilliance. The add-on to the plan was to include four F-16C's with the bombers as they flew into Beijing, just in case the Chinese were able to send some fighter planes to intercept the American bombers.

This said, the four F-16C fighters ready and waiting as the Chinese J- 7D fighter jets came barreling down from the bombers left flank.

The J-7D pilots quickly deduced that they were outnumbered, but they would have faced an even worse possibility were they to turn around and fly back to the base.

The F-16C was a far superior fighter craft than the Chinese J-7D, making it possible for the American pilots to choose two Chinese aircraft targets at once and still are able to fly with at least two hundred pounds extra pressure on the pilots because of the speed they move.

Fighter pilots are often described as being 'hot-doggers' and as having very big egos. These thoughts are more often than not justified, as someone that is capable of flying at more than five hundred miles an hour and being able to observe all the ground troops from over ten thousand feet has the feeling of being better than the other people that are on the ground fighting.

The four F-16C pilots were 'hot-doggers', as in they felt most alive when they were pulling off maneuvers in their planes and showing off to other people.

The Chinese J-7D pilots were in a communist regime, with the sort of rules in their military that would make them suffer large penalties if they were caught doing the sort of things with aircraft that cost almost half a million dollars that the Americans were now doing.

Another force was working against the Chinese pilots. The other day they had been doing practice drills and the maintenance crews had neglected to notice that three of the seven aircraft taking off still had the white painting that indicated the missiles were practice missiles, and would have about as much explosive charge as a rock being thrown at the F-16C's.

The American F-16C's quickly shot down the seven Chinese J-7D planes, and roared off to catch up to the B-2 Spirit bombers that were already entering over Beijing.

===============

Major Ward watched as the downtown streets of Beijing raced by underneath his plane. It would take another three minutes until he reached his targets house.

===============

Wei Liang quickly picked up his phone and dialed the number for Premier Renyang's house. It rang twice before someone picked up the other end.

*Hello?*

"Comrade Premier, I have just received word that someone is attacking our nuclear weapons facility in the west," Liang spoke quickly.

*What?* Renyang asked, now sounding to be completely awake.

"Call an emergency meeting of the Politburo and I will explain everything else once I get there," he said and hung up.

Liang quickly threw off his robe and hastily dressed in some clothes. He was about to exit his home but he noticed that his television was on. As he approached to shut the infernal device off, he noticed that the channels were switching on its own.

"What on earth?" Liang asked the room before he heard the sound of jets screaming overhead.

Less than 0.34 seconds later, a bomb dropped from a B-2 Spirit bomber hit the front window of his flat, detonating and killing Wei Liang before he could finish his thought that the jets seemed to be flying far to low over the city.

===============

The Chinese Secretary of Defense, Mai Zhisheng, had been awoken by the call from the Premier. He had fallen asleep wearing his clothes while listening to some classical music, a fact that would save his life.

Zhisheng decided to drive to the meeting by himself and did not bother calling for a driver. He slipped his arms into his jacket and opened his front door. As he stepped down from his porch he heard the scream of engines in the distance and explosions as bombs were dropped on houses.

Zhisheng had a moments thought before he began sprinting to his car.

The Americans! There attacking!, his mind shouted.

He was just about to open his car door when the first bomb hit his house.

===============

Major Ward did not smile as he hit the button that dropped the bomb, which would end the life of the man inside. He tried to console himself by saying that this man was partly responsible in ending the lives of thousands because of him and his fellow minister's greedy thoughts.

Major Matthews dropped his bomb right after Major Ward, ensuring that if anyone had been inside the house they would have been killed instantly.

Without a word between the other pilots, all of the B-2 Spirit bombers and F-16C fighters banked to the right and began their trip back to the Nimitz.

===============

Zhisheng felt like he was falling. A second before he had inserted his key into the door of his car, there had been a brilliant flash, and then incredible heat. He had been lifted off the ground and thrown, hitting the pavement ten feet away.

His back was screaming with pain, a fact made more evident as he tried to move.

The stars in his eyes cleared and he could now look up at the night sky. Smoke was wafting in and he was forced to blink, a move that made his entire body shudder with pain.

As the squeal of sirens filled the night, Zhisheng had one clear thought.

The Americans were going to pay dearly for this.

===============

Mai Zhisheng was not the only member of the Politburo to survive the bombing raid by the B-2 Spirits.

The former Transportation Minister, Ma Jingshu, had not been at his home when the American planes dropped their bombs on it. He had been at a bar, wallowing in spite of the Politburo.

He had lost all his former power, he had been forced from the building and he had been striped of his title, which had been replaced by a man so awed by the men he sat with that he would do absolutely whatever they wanted him to.

Glancing at the bar clock, Jingshu decided that he had had enough to drink. He got up, leaving sufficient money for his bill and stumbled out of the bar. After walking around the building and discovering himself inside an alley, Jingshu decided that he was far drunker than he had previously thought.

Remembering that his home was less than four blocks away, Jingshu stumbled in the direction towards his home.

After falling to the ground twice, Jingshu stopped his drunken stumbling and forced himself to walk straight. This plan was working until he heard the noise made by multiple aircraft flying over a city. Scared by the noise, Jingshu tripped and hit the ground.

He glanced up in time to see the bombers fly by overhead. They dropped bombs on the location where his house was, and he could see more aircraft in the distance dropping bombs on locations that he remembered were the homes of his former coworkers.

Jingshu was instantly sobered and he got to his feet, running towards his now flaming house. Members of the Politburo were granted the right to a home with the protection that would make the Secret Service uncomfortable. Another right was for the members to be able to have a home that was completely secluded from other houses.

Jingshu had not taken the massive protection when it was offered to him, but he did opt for having his home secluded from others. This was the only reason no one had been killed when the Americans dropped their bombs on his home.

With the realization that the other members of the Politburo would have been killed, Jingshu immediately fished out his cell phone and began dialing numbers.

The country was in very unstable hands, but if he were able to play it right, he could become the ruler of the country, and maybe then China would become a nation that demanded respect.

===============

Upon returning to the Nimitz, the pilots and other crewman that participated in the attack on the Chinese leaders learned of the success of the ground forces in central China. They also learned of the losses suffered by the Special Forces teams and the Apache helicopters.

Despite the completion of a mission that would most likely end the war, the mood of the pilots was somber and thoughtful.

A debriefing followed shortly after the arrival of the B-2 Spirit and F-16C pilots, wherein they received the following report:

Monte Cristo Operation

To: All participants in the operation involving the attack on the leaders of China.

Congratulations, it has been decided that, upon completion of the second phase of Monte Cristo, all pilots and crewman will be debriefed and given the following information:

The President has decided that no official announcement of American involvement on the attacks on China will be made. After joint meetings with the other world leaders, it has been decided that Taiwan will be named the nation that attacked China's leaders, and that it was a joint-international operation undertaken by American, Canadian, Russian, British, and Taiwanese Special Forces groups that destroyed China's nuclear capabilities.

More information will be given upon arrival back in the United States.

===============

The funeral for Ryoga Hibiki was to be on the date of December 15.

Normally, the passing of a citizen is not brought before the notice of any world leaders, but, with involvement from an American Colonel and even an unofficial decoration of the fallen man, was enough for notice to be brought forth to the eyes of the Japanese Prime Minister.

As the Prime Minister's interest in Ryoga Hibiki grew, the more interest the rest of the world took.

The American President learned of Ryoga's actions in China and most of his life story through the Director of Central Intelligence, who knew the father of the American Colonel that was helping organize the funeral. The President also found out about the young man's fiancée, and that she was now pregnant, taking time from his usual hectic day, the President wrote a personal letter to the fiancée of Ryoga Hibiki, and asked that it be hand delivered to her.

Lieutenant Colonel Phillip S. Parker was given permission to unofficially decorate, posthumously, Ryoga Hibiki with the Combat Infantry Badge, the Prisoner of War Medal, and to be the first man to be decorated with the Chinese Service Medal, awarded to all men who served in the Pacific War.

The medals and decorations were delivered within the day of Parker's request for them.

The funeral for Ryoga Hibiki would be a day that would undoubtedly be remembered by many.

===============

Ranma shivered as the cold wind cut through his black suit. He turned his back to the wind and walked back into the Tendo Dojo. It had been decided that everyone would meet in the Dojo before making the long walk to the burial plot that had been designated for the final resting place for Ryoga Hibiki.

Akari had not yet left Akane's room ever since the news of Ryoga's passing was delivered. Only Akane had been allowed in to speak with her.

Finally, under Dr. Tofu's orders, she began to eat the food that they brought her. She did not eat the food for herself, but for the small child that she carried within her.

No one knew if Akari would actually come out of the room for Ryoga's funeral, which would start within the hour, but nobody said anything.

Ryoga's parents had been contacted about the funeral, but no word of acceptance of the news did they receive.

As he entered the Dojo, Ranma was stopped by Akane and dragged to a secluded corner of the Dojo.

"What is it Akane?" Ranma asked, his demeanor that of a small child.

"The funeral's starting in forty minutes and Akari still hasn't come out of her room, and I don't know what were going to do if she doesn't come out."

Ranma sighed. "All right Akane, I'll go see what I can do."

As he turned around, Akane threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely.

"Oh god, Ranma, I miss him so much," Akane whimpered into his chest.

Ranma wrapped one arm around Akane. "I know Akane, we all do."

Letting go of her, Ranma glanced briefly down at her. Akane was wearing a black dress, matching most of the other girls inside the Dojo.

As he walked out of the Dojo, Ranma idly wondered where Phillip and Ishii were. The large black colonel had said he had to go get a few things ready at the funeral site, but he had already been gone for almost two hours.

They had foregone the usual Shinto ceremony for Ryoga, Phillip had asked if that would be okay, stating that since Ryoga died as a soldier, it would be fitting for him to receive a soldier's funeral. In a rare moment, Akari had actually responded to someone other than Akane, and accepted Phillip's offer.

Ranma climbed the stairs leading to the upper floor of the Tendo home and walked over to Akane's old room. Knocking softly on the door, Ranma opened it and stepped inside.

Akari was not on the temporary bed that had been set up. She was standing in front of a mirror, dressed in a black dress, a black veil covering her face.

"Akari," Ranma said, almost a whisper. When she didn't even move, Ranma approached her. He reached out his hand. "Come on Akari, the funeral's starting soon."

Akari shook her head and continued to stare at the mirror.

"No Ranma, I can't go," she responded, her voice was so quiet that Ranma had to strain his ears to hear her.

"You have to go Akari," Ranma said, lowering his extended hand.

"I can't," Akari repeated. Her eyes were puffy, and it looked as if she wanted to cry, but couldn't.

Ranma stepped closer; he moved his hand to Akari's shoulder.

"I know you don't want to go Akari, but you can't just pretend that Ryoga isn't gone. He wouldn't want you to do that," Ranma said.

Akari turned from the mirror to face Ranma.

"I don't know if I can do this Ranma, not without him," Akari said, a sob escaping her throat. "I need him."

Ranma rubbed Akari's shoulder slightly.

"I know it will be hard to go on without him," Ranma said and then a small smile crossed his face. "Hell, even I don't like to think about my life without him. He was my best friend, my rival, and I liked to think of him like the brother I always wanted."

Akari's eyes shone with moisture.

Ranma continued. "You wont have to do this by yourself you know, Akane and I will always be here for you, and you can bet that everyone else down in the Dojo will feel exactly the way we do."

"But how can I do it Ranma?" Akari asked, her voice pleading.

Ranma smiled a very warm smile and laid his hand down on her stomach.

"Do it for him," Ranma whispered.

Akari sobbed and wrapped her arms around Ranma, weeping as she hugged him close to her. Ranma's arms encircled her, hugging her tightly against him.

After a long moment, Ranma spoke.

"Will you come down now?" he asked.

Akari didn't respond right away. For a moment, when she was hugging Ranma, her mind had tortured her with the brief thought that it was Ryoga's powerful arms that were around her, and it was his powerful chest that she was pressed up against, not Ranma's.

"Okay," Akari responded, her voice small.

Ranma gripped her hand and led her out of the room.

===============

The funeral procession was quick, limos had been acquired and a hearse led the procession, carrying the empty casket inside.

It was a cold morning, and everyone shivered as they got out of the cars.

As everyone climbed the hill that led to the funeral grounds, they quickly realized that this was definitely going to not be a traditional funeral.

A long column of soldiers, dressed in their pinks and greens, stood off to the right of the burial plot, holding rifles in standard present arms positions.

A trumpeter was there, playing army songs.

Phillip and Ishii were standing by the grave stone. On it was written:

Ryoga Hibiki

1979-1996

A Friend To All

Ranma, Mousse, Genma, Soun, Phillip, and Ishii were to be the pallbearers.

The Japanese flag was draped over Ryoga's casket, in true military fashion. They pulled the casket from the hearse and began to walk towards the burial plot. The trumpeter began to play. A podium had been set up, where Ranma would deliver the eulogy for Ryoga. After which, Phillip would read off Ryoga's decorations, whereupon he would march to where Akari stood and pin them to her dress.

The men carrying the casket set it down onto the ground in front of the grave.

Ranma had not written any speech for his eulogy, deciding that it would be better if he were to speak from his heart.

As he walked up to the podium, Phillip patted him on the back.

He set his hands down onto the podium and let his eyes fall onto the people assembled.

Everyone he had ever really known had come to Ryoga's funeral. Soun, Genma, Nodoka, Nabiki, Kasumi, Cologne, Shampoo, Mousse, Ukyo, Konatsu, Akane, and Akari. Ranma let his gaze rest upon Akari.

He cleared his throat and began.

"Everyone here today knew Ryoga, and everyone here liked him in some way, maybe even loved him. He was just the sort of man that would make you want to get to know him better."

"Ryoga was an extraordinary man. He was one of the greatest martial artists I've ever met, but he never used that strength to bully others. He was fiercely protective of his friends, and even more protective of those he loved. He would have given his life for anyone here today, and he would never think twice about it."

"It was my privilege to be able to call myself Ryoga's friend, even his best friend. We didn't get along all the time, mostly because we both loved to fight, and we were the closest to each others skill, but that didn't mean we wouldn't lay our lives down for each other."

"Ryoga touched everybody's lives, almost always for the better. I hope that everyone here will remember him in that respect. He was a fighter, but also a man that let his emotions control him, not his strength or his power."

Ranma didn't remove his eyes from Akari as he walked down from the podium and walk over to her.

Bending down, Ranma kissed Akari on the cheek and hugged her as Phillip took the podium.

Phillip cleared his throat and set his notes down.

"Ryoga Hibiki, awarded the Combat Infantry Badge for valor during an attack against enemy positions during an assault by the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion. In complete disregard for his own safety, Ryoga took over the position of gunner in his tank when the soldier operating it was killed. Even though Ryoga had never operated the weapon before, he destroyed three tanks and stopped enemy troops from advancing on the 82nd."

"Ryoga Hibiki, awarded the Prisoner of War Medal for incarceration in a small prison camp within enemy territories. Ryoga did not offer any information to the enemy, despite harsh consequences. Ryoga, inevitably was killed during his incarceration."

"Ryoga Hibiki, awarded the Chinese Service Medal for service with the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion in China. Ryoga had not been a member of the American armed forces, but he did not let that stop him from taking every opportunity to help the American unit that he was riding along with. It is with great honor that I decorate him with these medals."

Phillip stepped down from the podium and walked over to Akari. He stopped in front of her, and removed each decoration from its velvet box and pinned them to Akari's dress, directly above her breast.

He saluted her and did an about-face and marched back to his place beside the casket.

The casket began to slowly descend into the grave as the trumpeter began to play. Everyone's attention was brought to the soldiers standing off to the right of the grave when the head lieutenant began to bark out orders.

The soldier's raised their rifles to their shoulders, turned to the right, raised them to face the sky, and began to fire off a volley of shots.

It had been a soldier's funeral, somehow it felt that this would be the way Ryoga would have wished to be buried. Surrounded by friends and family.

===============

The procession moved back to the Tendo Dojo, where everyone would give their condolences to the family of Ryoga Hibiki. His parents had arrived in time for the funeral, and were now accepting the condolences of everyone that knew Ryoga.

Akari moved away from the crowd and walked out of the Tendo Dojo, she needed to get away from it all. The comforting words and apologies were getting to be far too overwhelming.

She leaned against the wall that surrounded the Tendo home and sighed. Her mind kept trying to memorize everything about Ryoga, so that she would never forget him.

The thing that stood out most in her mind was his voice. Deep, strong, but so very soothing. Her eyes began to tear up and she had to quickly produce a handkerchief before her makeup would run.

"Ms. Unryuu?" someone called softly.

Akari looked up and found herself looking into the face of a white American. He was dressed in an expensive suit and was carrying a briefcase.

"Yes," Akari said.

"I'm very sorry to hear of your fiancées passing, and I want you to know that if there is anything I can do, just ask. But first I have some business matters to attend to."

"Okay," Akari said, confused.

The man smiled at her and handed the briefcase over.

"Ryoga's will named you as the beneficiary for all of his stock in the investment banking company he and a few others own. He also added something in his will before he went to China, its inside that briefcase."

Akari couldn't reply and merely nodded to the man as he left.

The chill finally got to her and she walked into the house. She entered the living room and set the briefcase down on the table.

For the longest time she just stared at the briefcase. Her heart was telling her to open it, but she couldn't help but wonder what she would find inside.

The man had said that Ryoga had put this together before he went to China, which would mean Ryoga had already prepared in the event that he would die.

Her hands were sweating and shaking as she reached towards the clasping. She snapped it back and moved to the other, doing the same. Slowly, she opened the briefcase.

Inside the case was a large stack of documents, underneath was a small journal.

Akari glanced at the documents; they were all about transfer of Ryoga's stock ownership in Saotome, Hibiki, Inafune, and Porter, over to her. But the journal caught her eye. On it was a small note. It read: To my darling Akari.

The journal looked as if it had seen a lot of use in its days.

She opened it up.

"Oh Ryoga!" Akari exclaimed. It was Ryoga's diary.

The journal dated back to June 1994.

Tears threatened to escape her eyes but Akari fought them back. Finding herself under control, Akari began to read the diary.

===============

"Where's Akari?" Ranma asked Akane.

Akane shrugged and looked around the Dojo. "I don't know, I haven't seen her in a couple of hours."

"Okay," Ranma said, turning around and walking out the Dojo.

Part of his mind told him that something had to be wrong, Akari must have done something. His more rational part of his mind brushed that thought away, telling himself that she probably just went into the house for awhile. But the wonder was still there.

He walked around the yard in one full circle, checking to see if she had gone outside. Satisfied that she was not outside, Ranma walked into the house. He got as far as the hallway before he heard Akari's weeping.

Taking off at a full sprint, Ranma ran into the living room, ready for anything. He found Akari leaning her head on her hands weeping on the table, clutching a small journal in her hands.

Approaching cautiously, Ranma knelt down beside Akari.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked quietly.

Akari lifted her head from her hands and looked at Ranma; her expression was not one of profound sadness, but one of content. She handed Ranma the journal.

"This was Ryoga's," she explained. "Read the last entry."

Ranma flipped to the end of the journal, he found the entry Akari was speaking of.

It read:

To my darling Akari;

If you are reading this, then what I have most feared has happened. I am terribly sorry for putting you through this much grief, and I hope that you can forgive me.

First, I wish to apologize to you for not marrying you the first moment we met, something inside me tells me that it would have made things easier for you if I had done so.

Second, I want to apologize for being so indecisive when it came to my giving up whatever feelings I harbored for Akane for so long, and not doing the wise thing and switching my interests completely over to you.

And lastly, I want you to know that I never wanted you to have to face this world without me. I always wanted to grow old with you, and have children and watch them grow up as well. I apologize for that.

You are everything to me Akari, I will forever watch over you. I will wait for you in the next life, and I will want to know all about what has happened since I've been gone.

Now, before you devote your life to remembering this young fool, I want you to know that I want you to find someone else. This world is far too gloomy without having your wonderful cheeriness. I don't want to be responsible for robbing the world of that. You shouldn't have to face the world alone.

Do not worry about being alone; I'm sure by now you have already had a great amount of help from everyone there in Nerima. I bet that Ranma will be inviting you to stay with him and Akari very soon, it's just his way. Make sure you accept, as it will not only make him feel good, but it will do you some good as well.

I hope you will be okay my love, for I am not sure just what is awaiting me, but rest assured that I will always be watching over you, and I will always love you, that will never change.

I love you with all my heart,

Ryoga.

Ranma collapsed to his knees and hugged Akari to his chest.

"I knew he would do something like this," Ranma said. He began crying and set the journal down on the living room table.

"Oh god Ranma, he said he wants me to find someone else," Akari whispered. "I can't do something like that."

"It's okay," Ranma said, resting Akari's head on his chest. "Ryoga may not have been the smartest guy, but I'm sure he meant what he said. Your only seventeen years old Akari, you still have your entire life ahead of you."

"But I don't want to face it without him," Akari whimpered.

"It'll be okay," Ranma repeated, and hugged Akari to him.

===============

The last day of the Pacific War also marked the beginning of a second Cold War.

Mai Zhisheng, upon the news that all of China's nuclear tipped missiles had been destroyed by an attack from the Allies, created a blockade in the China seas, ordering all communications and trading with America to cease.

American ships pulled out of the Chinese sea, but stayed docked in Taiwan for the greater part of the year.

Ma Jingshu, attempting to regain the power he once had in the Politburo, was arrested under the orders of Mai Zhisheng, the new Premier of China, he was imprisoned under the facts that he was a traitor to the state. He was sentenced to fifty years.

Wei Liang, as well as all the other Politburo members except Zhisheng and Jingshu, perished during the attacks by the American B-2 Spirit bombers. Since he had yet to tell the other members of the Politburo about the Japanese civilian that was numbered among the POW's in possession, Zhisheng was not informed of the Japanese civilian numbered along with the American POW's.

When the prison camp commander contacted Premier Zhisheng about the POW's, he received the orders to keep all POW's in the prison camp and keep them alive until they had no more use for them.

The Japanese civilian was transferred to the prison camp outside of Chengdu. No official report of the move was made.

America agreed with creating a blockade against China. They removed all troops from the shores of China and moved their ships into Taiwan. The American President, when asked of his agreement to the blockade against China, responded that, "We have already lost too many lives fighting them; I will not have any more brave men die fighting a war that has no meaning."

As the Americans pulled out of China, a protest was made by Lieutenant Colonel Phillip S. Parker IV. His protest was outlined by the fact that America could not risk having China build up their nuclear weapons again. He described America's actions as simply letting their enemy recuperate until it was ready to lash out again. His protest was ignored.

This ended the Pacific War, and also marked the moment when the second Cold War began.

===============

Afterward

Isamu Kimura, assisting police, managed to bring down the Japanese Yakuza and arrest over three quarters of its members. He was given the Civilian medal of valor for his actions. One year after the end of the Pacific War, he married his fiancée Mariko Kimura.

Reports and documents on Monte Cristo were sent to the Pentagon where they have yet to be opened. The reports stating that Taiwan was the country that assassinated the Chinese leaders are still circulated within the press.

Ishii Inafune, working with the Japanese and American government, was able to get the remains of his father, Seiji Inafune, from China, which had been holding them until the fine for the action's the late Seiji Inafune had been charged with were paid. Ishii Inafune was successful in reclaiming the remains of his father without any sort of payment to the Chinese. The funeral for Seiji Inafune was on February 23, 1998. The late Inafune was buried in Washington D.C., beside the final resting place of his wife.

Colonel Phillip S. Parker IV (Brigadier General Designate) took over the position of Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Armed Forces on December 23, 1999. He is now presently heading the list for soldiers being considered for Vice Chief of Staff.

Dr. Antoinette Parker MD, graduated from John Hopkins University and is now presently the head resident at John Hopkins hospital. She and her husband reside in Washington D.C. though they make frequent visits to Tokyo, Japan.

Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo were married on the date of February 13, 1997. The wedding was of Western tradition. The Maid of Honor was named Akari Unryuu. The spot of Best Man was left empty, in an act of remembrance towards the groom's best friend, Ryoga Hibiki (deceased). Seven months later Akane Saotome gave birth to Kagome Saotome.

Akari Unryuu finished her high school with honors and great recommendations from all her teachers. She attended Wharton Business School in the United States for half a year, earning her degree in economics. She became the president of Saotome, Hibiki, Unryuu, Inafune, and Porter, in 1999. On the date of June 29, 1997, Akari Unryuu gave birth to Ryoga Unryuu Hibiki. He was named after his father, Ryoga Hibiki Sr.

An engagement between Ryoga Unryuu Hibiki and Kagome Saotome was decided upon, shortly after Kagome Saotome's birth.

John Clark, Washington D.C.

===============

Author's Notes: There you have it. It is now up to you, the readers, to decide if this story will have a sequel, or if I will have to wrap it up. Please write a review or send me an e-mail, I have no preference.

This is the final chapter, and either way, an epilogue will be written. After three or four days of the final chapter's release, I will check the reviews and responses I have received and, depending on what people say, I will release the epilogue that will shift things toward the sequel (Until the End) or I will release the epilogue that finishes off this story and puts to rest the Ranma ½ characters and the characters of my own creation.

It is up to you.