Chapter 8:
When Ends Meet
The door slammed shut behind them. The sound resonated through Akane's apartment with the gasps of their labored breathing. They had escaped Ranma's little armory through one of the cabinets. Behind the unembellished doors was a portal to the outside world. Akane hadn't had time to analyze the lack of heat and visible sky before racing to her long-abandoned home. She did now, though. Her eyes traveled to a window. It was midday, and the sky was a wash of shades of gray.
She felt the urge to laugh and bit it back down. Nervous laughter would betray her. She took a glance at Ranma. He stood beside her, his chest heaving with each sharp intake of breath. His eyes turned to her suddenly, as if he had felt her questioning gaze on him. She took a deep breath and glanced around the room. It was as she had left it. As silent and cluttered as an ancient tomb.
"Now what?"
His frown was almost imperceptible. He raised a gloved finger to his lips in a gesture for silence. She didn't understand his reasons. She didn't have to. She trusted him.
He crossed the room in measured steps. His boots were silent against the floorboards. He gestured for her to follow, and they crept across the room, stopping at her desk.
The phone was cold in her hand. She slid it off the receiver carefully, the number engraved in her memory. Filtered ringing was fed into her ear before it was abruptly cut off and replaced by a clipped business tone.
"Hello, you've reached the Nerima Police Department. How can I help you?"
She didn't recognize the distant voice, warped by its travel. It didn't matter.
"This is Akane Tendou, Inspector- division six. I need you to put Soun on. Tell him I'm at home and… I have Zero, but I need some help."
Zero. The codename for Ranma's case-file. She could no longer connect the two in her mind.
"I doubt I'll have time to hold so – "
The dead silence at the end of the line was her first clue that something was not right. The circular mouth of a gun pressed against her back. The phone fell from her limp fingers and she raised her hands shakily, barely daring to move. She was afraid. And she hated it.
She expected she would die soon. And so would Ranma. So, as they were both prodded out the door, surrounded by faceless soldiers, she could only feel a sense of sickening relief. Death had been warded off, for the time being.
The time had passed when she could look passively into her own demise. She had changed, but isn't that what happens when ends meet?
They were alone. In a room, eerily silent and spotless like an alien landscape. Behind them were the closed doors they had stumbled through. Before them was a stretch of gray flooring, a desk without clutter, a great leather chair facing the wall across from them. So… perhaps they were not alone.
Akane's eyes wandered to Ranma. He was staring at the walls, a look of rapt fascination and unspeakable horror growing on his face. She followed his gaze.
The smiling face of Xian stared back at her.
It was a photo, framed and hanging from the wall. She looked out at Akane, a perfect replication of her memory, but for the myriad of crooked lines across the photo's glossy surface. It had been torn many times, and put back together to hang on the wall of this room. Just like the rest of the pictures. Pictures of the dead. They would never smile again, but they were smiling now.
There were many of these faces. Ranma was only seeing one. His expression had gone slack, only his eyes betrayed a harsh acceptance. And the cause; a photo of a woman with auburn hair braided and held back by a decorated comb. She looked across the room at them with soft blue eyes, and a knowing smile and delicate features.
"That's… my mother…"
"So it is… she was quite lovely, wouldn't you say?"
The chair didn't turn. Ranma's fists clenched at his sides.
"Shut up…"
His voice was a bitter hiss. Akane could see his hand straying beneath his jacket.
"Don't you even want to know my name before you kill me? Just so you can curse it?"
The voice was mocking. Baiting.
"I don't care…"
Two shots sped through the black leather.
"…about your name."
He lowered the hand with the weapon slowly.
"You don't? That's too bad. I think I'll tell you anyway."
The gun was raised again in a heartbeat. The chair whirled and they were met with the sight if a withered old man, a pair of holes in the chair where any average person's head would have been. His was far below that, due to his shrunken stature. He was only an old man. He smirked.
"Call me Happy."
Akane couldn't help staring.
"H-Happy?"
What kind of name was that? He turned to her, the smirk turned to a sickly smile.
"Yes, my dear?"
"Don't look away from me."
Ranma's voice was low and dangerous. He held the gun steadily. The old man raised his brows.
"Ah, I suppose you'll want to kill me now."
"I've wanted to kill you long before this."
"But if I die… you'll kill again…"
His finger tightened on the trigger.
"I doubt it."
"Then you want to curse the rest of Japan?"
He stared at the old man. For a drawn-out moment they watched each other. Waiting, anticipating, calculating. Then Ranma spoke.
"Explain."
The old man smirked. He was a child with a new toy.
"I don't think I want to anymore."
A single shot sped into his head. Like the pictures, he was smiling, and like the pictures, he would never smile again. Ranma lowered his weapon mechanically.
"That's too bad."
The door burst open. An entire unit came into the room, their weapons searching hungrily for a target. In front of them was Soun.
"Akane! Where is he?"
She didn't have a chance to answer.
"I'm here."
His voice was a dull monotone. He let the gun fall to the floor, and raised his empty hands. There was no life in him.
"This is him?"
Soun voiced the question without turning to her, and had Ranma's lifeless form restrained without waiting for her to answer. Then he looked her way.
"Are you sure?"
She was going to say no.
"Even if I'm not who I claim to be, I still took this man's life."
He nodded to the corpse in the chair.
"That's worth something, isn't it?"
Akane met the dead blue of his eyes desperately. It was a sea of endless blue. As tranquil as a lake of still water. Then she knew; this was his real plan. It struck her hard. He wanted death. He wanted an end, now that all the rest had met.
He had changed, but that's what happens when ends meet.
A/N: This is probably off topic, but… there are ants in my bed! Really, I looked over (My comp. is next to my bed) and saw all these ants on my pillow. It's even worse in my bathroom. It's really annoying to have to stop typing to squish an ant that's crawling across your keyboard. It's even more annoying when they crawl underneath the keys and you can't get at them… I must have 100 ant corpses ground into my carpet and even more live ones crawling across it. The weird thing is, there's no food around here, so I have no clue what they are after. I hate ants!!
Ok, please excuse my ranting, on to more important things. I made Soun into Akane's superior. She doesn't have a past as far as you know soI just decided to place him in a more apparent position. He's not her father, he's her boss. If you were expecting a long epic battle, sorry. I don't see that happening in this fic. I was planning to make Happy the evil guy, and how hard can it be to kill an old man when he's not a martial arts master? The next chapter will be the last, and everything will be resolved! No loose ends this time! And I might get it out before Christmas! Ok, reviews(I'm not going to answer if all I can say is thanks):
Socchan: I get it! When you said there was a symbiotic relationship, I thought you meant people only reviewed because they can get something for it (Forgive me, I'm easily confused) I like to use suggestions whenever I can, I used the picture thing in this chap, but I wasn't having any other murderers in this story and I don't think Ranma would do that so… it came out like this. I still think its kind of creepy. I agree with you, though, being acknowledged by a writer you like is – for lack of a better term – cool. More than that, really. Even if they're just answering a review, I'm always excited to see my name in there. Woah… Am I one of your favorite writers then? And you think this is one of the best, too?? Wow… this one wasn't as popular as Half and Half, but it was definitely worth writing. Well, thanks for always taking the time to review! You're one of my favorite reviewers (Yeah, I am trying to guilt you into reviewing again)
Ka_chan: Speechless?? Ah… you're too nice to me… not that I mind or anything. Sorry for the slow update! I have no time on school weeks, but now it's winter vacation! I swear I'll get the next chapter out before Christmas!!
Kura-kun: It's okay to be confused… I'm kinda confused myself… But no it isn't the government. It's those darn terrorists! I didn't really specify what Happy's group is exactly, but… they are terrorists! Sadly, that's about all I know about them…
Kachie: I think a lot of people are confused by this fic. But I'm glad you can compare it to a movie, that is exactly what I was going for!! Thanks for reviewing!