I get the feeling people don't like me. I've only gotten emails from
Mei Neko (my prereader, remember?) recently. Does no one liiiiiiike me
anymore? *sniffles*

Er, right, I guess I'm a bit weepy, so sue me. I'm overly tired. Stayed
up way to late on Halloween, got up way to early yesterday, and ocne
again stayed up way to late last night. I figure it's just sleep
deprivation or something, and I'll be fine by Monday.

I've got all that Halloween candy to eat that'll help perk me up. And,
ignoring the fact that I am seventeen, I did go trick-or-treating; I
was a gypsy, since I kept stepping on me dress, and ripping it, I tied
the front up into a big huge knot, and therefore, looked like a gypsy.

Yes, I'm bored, if I'm typing this all out.

I should probably go type up Chapter Fifteen, or perhaps work on Shiva,
Egyptian Sands, or Dejitaru Legend. I've got to many things on me
plate...



True Identity
Chapter Fourteen - Pointlessness
Li Xiang



Kunzite padded after his Amazon guide, studiously ignoring the fact
that behind him Nephrite Rakhashann and Zoitcite Notikulachi were
bickering loudly. Jadeite Sumarial walked lightly alongside him, the
group of five navigating the twisting and turning passages of the cave.

As they stepped out of the mouth of the cave, Xian Phu turned back to
the entrance. Curious, the two arguing stopped and watched as she made
a series of motions with her hands, before a slab of rock flickered
into appearance over the cave's entrance.

"Why'd you do that?" the effeminate blonde wondered, only to get
slapped upside the head by Nephrite.

"Because, idiot, she obviously doesn't want people finding her
laboratory."

"How the hell was _I_ supposed to know that?!" Zoicite snapped back,
"It didn't look like any magical laboratory I've ever seen!"

The pair fell back into their comfortable bickering as the former
Amazon took the lead, picking through the brush. Annoyed with having to
listen to the blonde and brunette behind them; Jadeite turned to face
the eldest of them.

"So why hasn't out guide said anything?"

"Xian Phu is incapable of talking," was the tart response, "I was not
given a reason as to _why_, by Tsukiyono, before he had to leave."

"Ah..." Jadeite nodded in understanding, "Any guesses, though?"

"Have you looked at her throat?" the white haired man wondered,
"There's a scar running across it; I assumed that was the reason."

In front of them, Xian Phu glowered, gritting her teeth, as she
listened to the two blue-eyed men discuss her lack of speech. If she
didn't have to bring these four back to the House, she would have
beaten them all into a bloody pulp by now.

She still might.

She was getting _such_ a headache."

---

"You know, I've been wondering something."

"What?"

"Why don't you go to school?"

Ranma looked over at a sleepy Ken as the pair raided the kitchen for
breakfast materials. The younger male shrugged, returning to his
search, "Don't wanna go back to Furinkan."

Ken tilted his head in confusion as he moved the rice. It had been a
long night, most of the House not going to bed until after Rache had
slipped into sleep. However, Ranma and Ken had woken up a trifle early,
and had-- at Ken's insistence-- decided to make an American style
breakfast for everyone.

Pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

They'd had to go out and buy bacon-- and it was fairly expensive, as
this _was_ Japan-- but Xue Shi had paid for it. Now they were just
looking for the ingredients for the pancakes. Surprisingly, Ken knew
the recipe by heart.

"Well, you see," Ranma explained, pulling out the baking soda he'd
located "I'd have to deal with Nabiki everyday, deal with the True
Blunder, deal with Ucchan's endless 'endearments' meant to make sure I
'know' that I 'love' her, and I'd have to deal with the ki-vampire
Hinako!"

Ken flinched for a second, "Ki-vampire...? And anyways, why not
transfer to another school?"

"Principal Kunou refuses to let my transcripts go until the end of the
year. And a ki-vampire is a person who drains someone's battle aura to
sustain their own-- in Hinako's case, to keep her an adult instead of a
child."

Withdrawing various bowls and spoons from a cupboard, Ken frowned, "I
guess that _would_ be a problem. Do we have everything?"

"Dunno," Ranma shrugged, "I don't have a clue how to make pancakes,
Kenken."

"Don't call me that," the normal irritation wasn't in his voice--
either because he was still to tired for that, or because it was not
Schuldich using the asinine nickname-- and the nineteen year old
shuffled over to where Ranma had placed everything he'd picked up.
Looking it over, he nodded "Yeah, that's everything. We can start now."

Ranma licked his lips, "Good, I'm getting hungry."

---

Okay, so maybe it hadn't been her smartest move ever. So sue her! Hmph.

She readjusted the girl's position on her back as she bounced from
rooftop to rooftop. Where _was_ that stupid shop?!

Oh, wait. There it was! Gleefully, she touched down in front of the
door, taking the time to shuffle her comatose rider's weight as she
reached up to tap on the closed rear entrance.

The annoyed face of Mugoh Kojiro greeted her. Annoyance changed to
confusion, back to annoyance, clear through irritation to land on
officially pissed off, "Yuki."

"Hey, Kojiro-jiisan!" Yuki smiled broadly at the older man, "Is mom
'round these parts?"

Kojiro muttered something about a family of lunatics, but answered with
a, "No, Yuki."

"Oh," she looked a bit depressed, chewing at her lower lip, before
something occurred to her. She cheered up considerably and visibly,
"Well, when Mom comes by, tell her that I've kidnapped someone, and
Kritiker is trying to track me down to kill me, again."

"Yuki what are-- Yuki! Yuki get back here!!"

But she was already gone, vanishing over the next rooftop. Kojiro
groaned pitifully, trying to figure out just what he was supposed to
tell Yuki's mother.

Sometimes, it sucks to be a contact for the assassins Raven and
Kitsune.

---

"Stop stealing the bacon!"

"I paid for it!"

Omi awoke to Ken and Ranma's bickering, and groaned. He was regretting
for letting Rache talk him into a room beside the kitchen. He was
_always_ being woken up by someone mucking around in there.

"Tell 'em to shut up," said a grumble from his side, and he felt his
pillow go out from under his head. Sighing, the Knight crawled out of
his western-style bed. He trudged out of the room, leaving Nabiki
curled up with a pillow over her head to muffle the shouts.

As it had been so late when Rache had finally fallen under Somnus'
power, Nabiki had "decided" to remain at the House for the night. It
had absolutely nothing to do with the fact she'd passed out when she'd
sat down for a break.

It took a lot of energy to raise four people from the dead.

In any case, an Omi decked out in his favorite pajama bottoms-- blue
ones; that looked about to fall off-- and a pair of grey boxers poking
out of afore mentions pajama bottoms, trudged into the kitchen, and
gave his teammates a dirty scowl. Ranma and Ken blinked at him in
confusion-- Saotome with a piece of bacon in his mouth, and Ken,
half-phased through the table, in an attempt to catch the thief.

"Something wrong, Omi?"

"Would you two keep it quiet?" Omi hissed, "Some of us are trying to
_sleep_!"

Ranma snickered, and Ken blushed, "Oh, sorry, Omi. But breakfast is
almost ready. If only _Ranma_ would stop stealing it!"

Ranma grinned, waving empty hands as he swallowed the last of the bacon
he'd taken, "I was hungry, okay? I won't steal anymore," until
breakfast is on the table, he thought to himself, stormy eyes glinting
gleefully.

Omi scowled at them again, before moving out of the kitchen, and back
to his room. A few moments later, a sleepy Fei Li followed Fujimiya
into the kitchen, where he proceeded to crash at the table, falling
back into the comforting embrace of sleep. Aya, on the other hand,
stole his own piece of bacon, picked up the newspaper, and settled down
across from the now snoring Fei Li.

Ranma swung himself down into the chair beside the redhead, grumbling
about Ken forbidding him from eating anything more.

As the smell of food floated through the House, people began to crawl
out of their beds to retrieve there morning meal.

---

The senshi of Pluto, Meiou Setsuna, stood before the unresponsive Gates
of Time. She could see nothing-- not the future, not the past, and not
ever the present. She was left without something that had been there
for all the time she could remember.

"It must be Makoto and Ami's disappearances, and Apollo's capture," she
whispered to herself, sinking to the floor. Half of her hopes for

Crystal Tokyo's creation was destroyed... but Usagi was still there.

Usagi was...

Princess Serenity... she... she had the crystal!

Leaping to her feet once more, she prepared to enter the time stream
once more, "Usagi-hime can heal Apollo!"

---

The senshi were getting nervous. Ami had vanished just over a week
prior, there had been no attacks, so Pluto's plan couldn't be put into
action, and Rache had been a wreak, nearly as long.

When she'd been asked, she blamed it on a 'lack of memory' of
everything that had happened following receiving the all-call from
Mercury. The others could understand that-- they'd be frustrated as
well, if they couldn't remember an entire hour. That, on top of losing
her partner/best friend to the enemy had to hurt. But it had been a
week. She'd calmed down some.

The senshi were getting nervous, as previous stated. Normally, they
were attacked when they were having personal problems. Amun-Ra's
strategy was much different than any of their previous enemies-- in
fact, the senshi had yet to learn what Amun-Ra was after, and they'd
already lost three senshi to him.

It was time for another attack.

---

Nippy.

Very, very nippy.

Those were the thoughts of the esteemed duo of Horus and Bastet.
Standing on top of a building, with autumn fully set in and winter on
its way, wearing leather and bare skin was... ever so much _fun_. They
were freezing their arses off, they were.

Bastet watched with interest as Horus pulled out another of those
ancient Egyptian scrolls he used to summon the beasts. He'd taken a
liking to the hieroglyphs, and had actually been _learning_ how to read
and write in the dead language. It was practically what he had been
doing over the course of the past week.

With a dumb ass grin, Horus began to speak the summoning spell, without
even bothering with the translation gripped in one hand. While he
stumbled over some of the wards, it wasn't a need to speak them within
a certain time period-- only that they were spoken in the correct
order.

Bastet whistled as the latest member of Amun-Ra's cannon fodder
shimmered into existence below them.

It was purple.

And it stood about thirteen feet tall, but the most impressive factor
was that it was a thirteen foot tall _purple_ elephant. That stood on
its hind legs. It wore what appeared to be African ceremonial wres, a
fringed pair of gold shoulder guards, and a fringed gold collar. Not to
mention a fringed gold loincloth, with an ugly representation of itself
in green on the purple fabric attached to the gold.

It carried a curved blade in one hand, and the blade's hand guard was
decorated in orange fringe.

It would only be a matter of time before the senshi arrived. Horus
drifted into the shadows as Bastet stood at the highest point of the
building's roof, laughing gleefully, awaiting the forth coming battle.

And below, the elephant-like creature created havoc.

---

End Chapter