Ranma ½: New Friends

Ranma ½: New Friends

Arrival of Venus Knight

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Chapter 4

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"So what's gonna happen?" Duo asked as Rei kneeled in front of a huge fire.

"Shh. You must be quiet. I'm going to ask the fire about your past. But you need to concentrate and keep your mind clear." Rei said and then began to chant and do the hand movements. After a moment, the fire flared up and showed a brief flash of a planet, Saturn by the look of the rings, and then it changed to a view of a small four person plane crashing, both engines on fire. Suddenly, the door on the side of the plane popped open and two figures were pushed out. One looked like a small boy, around five with brown hair half way down his back. The other was a seven years old girl with brown hair the same length as the boy. As they parachuted to the ground, the plane exploded in midair and the blast caught the boy's parachute, setting it on fire. The two children were separated as the boy began to fall faster and a wind carried the girl away. Just before the vision ended, the girl screamed, "Chris!"

The fire ended and Rei slumped to the over slightly. From behind her, Duo said, "Was it supposed to talk?"

"No. I've only ever had one other reading that spoke." Rei said shakily. Before either of them could say anything else, they heard people shouting outside. As one, they jumped to their feet and rushed outside.

"Girls, get out of here!" Ranma screamed as he threw a Moko Takabisha at a monster that held Quatre, the blond that had come with Duo and Wufei. "Are you ready Ryoga?"

"Lets go, Ranma." Ryoga said and charged at the rock monster. He touched one finger to its chest and yelled, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" As a part or the creature's chest exploded, the other three guys beside Ranma and Quatre, who had been knocked out, stared at him in shock, though you couldn't tell from looking at the tall one with strange hair and the slightly shorter one with the intense blue eyes. They just looked impassive.

Wufei on the other hand, looked like he was going to faint from shock. His skin was pale and his eyes were bulging, like they were going to pop right out of his head. He had never seen some one use their ki as much as these two boys were capable of. Most masters that he had heard of who used their ki could only do one attack like that before they collapsed from strain. But these guys were using their ki almost continually to speed themselves up, strengthen their bodies, make themselves slightly more powerful, and yet they were still throwing attacks like Ranma's Moko Takabisha.

They girls had disappeared to transform as now as they charged back to battle the monster, they saw that they might not have even bothered. The monster already was half blown away from numerous attacks from both Ranma and Ryoga, but still had a good grip around Quatre's neck.

Quatre was awake now and was struggling to get away but the grip on his neck was just to tight, so tight he could barely breath. With mounting horror, he watched as the monster suddenly regenerated the missing and crumbling remains of its body.

Generating a couple small boulders out of thin air, it started to throw them at the scouts. Sailor Venus ducked out of the way of one and directly into the path of another. It slammed into her stomach, throwing her backwards into a wall, where she slumped to the ground.

The creature chuckled as it generated a larger boulder and got ready to throw it. "No…" Quatre wheezed as he clutched at the hand around his throat. "Nonononono…NO!!!!" he suddenly screamed and a bright yellowish orange glow surrounded him. The glow threw the monster back, missing its arm, and gently put Quatre on the ground. Looking at him, everyone could see the symbol of Venus glowing brightly on his for head and a determined look in his eyes.

"I will not allow you to hurt my princess. Venus Knight Power!!" as the scouts watched in shock, a gray uniform like the Nega-verse Generals appeared, trimmed in yellow with an orange cape thrown over his shoulder and a yellow mask over his eyes. In his hands were two scimitars that glowed in the sunlight.

Without a word he charged towards the monster and slashed at it, carving huge chunks of rock/skin away each time. Finally when there was little more than half a chest and the head left, he jumped back, made his swords disappear and yelled "Venus Heat Crusher!" A bight orange ball shot from his hands, like Ranma's Moko Takabisha, and vaporized what remained.

There was complete silence for a moment before Duo let out a whoop as he rushed up to Venus Knight. "Quatre! This is so cool! I can't believe you're a super hero. It's just like Superman!"

Venus Knight just stood there for a moment, looking at Duo before suddenly slumping to the ground unconscious. His uniform flickered once before it disappeared, leaving him in his normal clothes.

Rei, who hadn't transformed because she was standing next to Duo the entire time, ordered Duo and Ryoga to bring him and Mina, who had detransformed after being knocked out, into the temple to her room. As she led the way, the other scouts slipped away and detransformed before joining them.

"So, I have a question." Duo said as he sat next to Quatre, who was on the floor on a mat.

"Yes?" Rei asked. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, where Mina was laying.

"Are you one of those super heroes in the short skirts? I saw a picture a while ago of all nine of them and the only one that wasn't here to do was the one with the red skirt and the long black hair. Your eight friends also disappeared at the same time as the other fighters showed up so I'm also wondering if they're them. They all have the same hair styles as them and while that might not be much more than a coincidence, the girl with the long blond hair done up in meatballs is just to noticeable and unique. I've been all over the world and the colonies but I've never seen anyone else with that hair do, add that to the fact that the only two people I saw with it are in the same place, with one disappearing just as the other showed up is just about 99% impossible." He said and everyone who was awake in the room stared at him in shock.

"Duo actually solved one of the biggest mysteries in the world by putting things together logically?" Wufei said shocked.

"Yep! And guess what. I found out that my real name is Chris. That's what we found out in the reading. It seems that my parents and another kid, I think she was an older sister or something, were flying and the engines caught on fire. Our parents pushed us out and then the plane exploded which caught my shoot on fire and the wind carried the girl away. It would explain a lot because I woke up from a coma and was brought to L2 where my adoptive parents abandon me." Duo said and was silent after he finished. He was always quiet after talking about his past. But he had never revealed anything about his past to the other guys so this was quiet a shock to them.

As the scouts started protesting, there was another person in the room that was just as shocked but for a completely different reason. Lita starred at him, her eyes slowly filling with tears. "No…it's impossible." She whispered and Ami, who was sitting next to her turned to see what was wrong with her friend.

"Lita? What's impossible? What's wrong?"

Hearing Ami's question, all action senesced and all attention focused on the brown haired girl. "Ami, what's wrong with Lita?" Serena asked as she scrambled over to her friend and wrapped her arms around her. As Lita felt the arms wrap around her, she broke down and started sobbing into Serena's shoulder.

"I don't know. She said it's impossible and started crying." Ami said as she too tried to comfort her.

"Is she ok?" Duo asked as he approached them.

Hearing that, Lita started sobbing harder but she let go of Serena and lunged at Duo, wrapping her arms around the surprised boy. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her and started to rock her gently. After a few minutes, her tears slowed and she leaned away from him. "They told me you were dead."

"Huh?!"

"You're my brother Chris. When we got separated, I was so worried but when they never found you, they told me you were dead and sent me to our Aunt Alisa. I should have tried to find you, I shouldn't have given up!" she said and a few more tears slipped out.

"You were the girl the wind carried away!" Duo said in sudden realization. "Hey, could you tell me about them? Our parents I mean."

"Sure. I can't believe I've got my brother back!" she said and broke down again though she was smiling through her tears.

"Hump, weak woman, crying over Maxwell." Wufei said, maybe a little louder than he had meant to because Michiru slapped the back of his head and Ranma, Ryoga, Haruka, Sestuna, Hotaru, Rei, and Mina glared at him.

"Wufei, she is not weak just because she is crying. How would you react to seeing a family member after believing that they were dead foe the last ten years?" Trowa said calmly from where he was leaning against the wall. He was the teenager that had the weird bands that covered half his face. He and Heero, the one with the messy brown hair, had been introduced to everyone else after they had settled Quatre and Mina on the beds.

Wufei mumbled something and walked over to the window to stare out at the courtyard.

"So, are you guys the Sailor Scouts?" Duo suddenly asked, drawing everyone back to the topic they had been discussing before Lita had broken down.

"Yes, I'm Sailor Jupiter." Lita said and the other scouts looked at her in shock. Seeing their looks, she said, he's my brother. I never used to keep anything from him and I don't plan on starting just as soon as I got him back."

"I understand, but couldn't you have told him when his friends weren't here?" Michiru said and Lita looked over at the three guys that were staring at her like she had two heads. Duo didn't say anything but hugged her tightly.

Before anyone could say anything, both Mina and Quatre sat up straight in their beds, startling everyone. "Quatre? Are you ok man?" Duo asked and the blond looked at him for a moment before saying, "Yes, Duo. But my head hurts a bit."

"Your Venus Knight powers were woken up, and with them some of you memories from the Silver Millennium." Sestuna said and Quatre nodded, mentally going through his new memories. After a moment, his face went pale and his eyes almost bugged out of his head.

"Oh my Allah." He whispered.

"What's wrong?" Mina asked as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Standing up, she walked over to him and settled next to him on the mat.

"I have a hazy memory of training one some other planet with a golden sky with a bunch of other guys. The only people I could see clearly were two guys who were cuddling on the grass. They looked like Zechs Marquee and Treize Kushrenada."

"Zechs and Treize where in your memory?!" Wufei exclaimed as he spun away from the window to stare at Quatre in shock. The other guys that had arrived with them were also in shock and the rest of the people were surprised that they seemed to know the leader of Oz and the Specials MS pilot.

"I can't believe this. Our worst enemy and you used to know him!" Duo exclaimed and suddenly, all attention was focused on him again.

"What do you mean, 'Your worst enemy', Chris?" Lita asked, her arms still firmly around her brother.

"Umm, could you just call me Duo? That's the name I'm used to." Duo asked and she reluctantly nodded.

If any one had looked over at where Trowa and Heero were or looked at either Wufei or Quatre, they would have seen four extremely nervous guys staring at the braided guy who was about to blab their secret to eleven people that they didn't know.

"And as to your question, I guess it's only fair to tell you since you told us your big secret." Duo said and Heero's eyes narrowed and he tensed though only Trowa who was next to him noticed.

"See us five are the Gundam Pilots thats been fighting against Oz. I'm the pilot to Death Scythe Hell, or as they call me, 02." Duo said with a grin and suddenly Heero sprang to his feet and pulled his gun from where he kept it in all that spandex.

"That was very stupid Duo. They could be working with Oz and you just blew or cover. Now they all have to die. Omea o koroso."

Seeing the gun, Ranma jumped to his feet and threw himself at Heero, intending to knock the gun out of his hands. But what happened instead, Heero pulled the trigger and shot at the charging guy. Ranma dodged out of the way, but the bullet hit him in the side, throwing him off balance and into the wall right next him.

"Ranma!" Most of the girls exclaimed while Ryoga, Duo, and Haruka charged at Heero.

"Heero what are you doing?!" Duo shouted as he reached his friend and grabbed the gun away from the boy, who was slightly shocked because he didn't expect Oz soldiers to be so concerned about one of their own when they should be more concerned about stopping the threat.

"I take out all obstacles the mission." Heero snarled as he ducked under Ryoga's wild swing which then through the wall easily.

"You don't just shoot people because they find out about you!" Duo shouted as he pushed Heero backwards against the wall, blocking everyone's swings at the same time he was getting up in his face. "Now, I'm sure that being kidnapped when you were a kid and then trained to be an assassin ands then trained to be the perfect soldier would have messed with your head enough to think that anyone who found out about you would be then enemy but here's a news flash. Not everyone is the enemy! Do you remember how we met? I shoot you twice and then I saved you, and you still treated me like an enemy for the next five months. You almost killed me fifteen times within the first month of living together. Now you are going to say sorry to everyone and then you are going to help talk care of my sister's friend that you just shot. Do you understand?" Duo snarled and Heero glared at him before giving a sharp nod. Wufei, Quatre and Trowa who had surrounded them as soon as Haruka and Ryoga had backed off were shocked to hear Duo sounding so angry. He never got that angry towards them.

But as Heero and Duo and the rest turned towards Ranma, they saw Serena kneeling above the pigtailed boy with her crystal sending healing power into him. After a moment, the light stopped and Ranma sat up, completely healed of both the gunshot and the last remains of his spinal injury.

"Serena! Are you all right? You shouldn't have finished my back after you healed it from earlier today. It took to much energy out of you." He scolded and the other scouts nodded weakly.

"I know but I had to do it while I had the excuse of your gunshot wound." She said weakly and then slumped into unconsciousness.

"Put her on the bed. She just needs to rest for a little while." Rei said and Ranma stood up and picked up his cousin. Walking normally for the first time in over a year, he put her on the bed and covered her up.

Turning to the shocked Gundam pilots, he stalked up to Heero and punched him across the face. While Ranma may be physically weak, his ki enforced punch sent Heero flying backwards into the wall, where he slumped down KO.

"I don't believe it. The only time some has ever knocked him out was if they hit him in the head with a gun or a brick." Duo said as he bent down to check on him.

"Yeah well, ki can be used for a lot of things like strengthening a blow." Ranma said and turned away.

Lita approached Duo and asked, "Will you tell me what's happened to you since we were separated?"

"Ok." He said and they sat down on the floor and he began his story.

"After I woke up from the coma and was abandon on L2, I joined up with this gang that lived in the poorer section of the colony…"

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Flashback

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A little boy, recognizable as a young Duo, was sitting in the mouth of an alley, his face smudged with dirt and his clothes in tatters. "I'm so hungry." He whispered, burying his head in his arms, which rested against his upraised knees.

"Then why don't you do something about it?" a voice said from somewhere further into the alley. Jumping to his feet, the little boy spun around to see an older kid, probably around seven or eight, standing with two other kids behind him.

"What's your name kid?"

"I don't know. I can't remember it." The little boy sniffled.

"Well, my name's is Solo. Until we can get a better name for you, we'll call you Duo, ok?" Solo, the older boy said and held out a hand to the newly dubbed Duo.

"Ok. What did you mean what am I going to do about it? I don't have any money for food."

"The first rule of living on the street is that you have to get what food you can from where you can. We just picked this one guy's pocket and got enough money to get a good dinner for the whole gang tonight but some times you just have to steal to survive." Solo said and Duo nodded in understanding. Standing up, he walked over and gave the older boy a hesitant hug. "Thank you, Solo."

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End Flashback

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"By the time I was seven, I was one of the best pick pockets in the gang and was next in charge after Solo. But then, a plaque swept through the colony and while they had medicine for it, they would never waste it on street rats like us." Duo said bitterly.

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Flashback

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"Duo, you need to break into the hospital and get the medicine for the rest of the gang." Solo said weakly as tried to sit up on his make shift bed, basically just a small tangle of thin blankets that most people wouldn't even use as cleaning rags.

"Solo, you need it too. Your just as sick as the others, if not more." Duo said as he supported his friend as the boy started coughing harshly. After Solo wiped his mouth, Duo could see a small smear of blood on the older boy's hand and lips.

"I know I'm sick, but we have to take care of the others first. You're the only one who's not sick so you have to get the stuff. If you sneak into the hospital and follow a nurse as she goes to get some for another patient, than you should be able to get the medicine. It's given be a syringe so you need to get about a dozen needles ok?" Solo said and Duo nodded.

Solo watched silently as Duo ran towards the hospital. Pencil thin and with hair that fell down to his waist in a tangled waterfall, Duo could have passed as a five year old girl and had been almost kidnapped the year before to be a corner kid. That's what everyone called children forced to be prostitutes.

'Good luck, Duo.' Solo thought as he started coughing again and he slumped back to his blankets. Around him were about ten other children, just as sick as he was. 'Hurry, they're counting on you.

Duo slipped into the hospital and followed a nurse as she led a boy about his age to a sick room. The nurse left after a moment and Duo silently followed her. After she left he entered the room and grabbed a couple big bottles like the one the nurse had just taken out and then grabbed a bunch of syringes. Stuffing the whole mess into his small pack, he was just closing it when the door opened and a doctor appeared in the doorway.

"Hey kid! What are you doing back here?!" the doctor shouted and lunged at Duo. Duo ducked under the man's extended arm and out the door. As he ran down the hallway, he could here the doctor shouting for some one to stop the kid and Duo ran even faster. A guard made a grab at him in succeeded in grabbing Duo's shirt but the flimsy material tore before the man could get a better grip on the struggling child. Free of the guard, Duo ran out of the hospital and was out of sight before anyone could catch up with him.

Fifteen minutes later, Duo was back with the gang, giving them the medicine. He had wanted to give Solo the medicine first, but the older kid had insisted that the younger kids be given it first. So Solo instructed Duo how to give the injections and soon all the other children had gotten the medicine.

Turning to Solo, Duo readied the last of the medicine and injected in to the older boy. There was enough for Duo also but since he wasn't sick in the least, he had decided that it didn't really matter.

"There, now you'll be better in no time." Duo said brightly but the next day, Solo wasn't better, he was worse. Some of the other children were already showing signs of improvement, but for Solo and a few others, it was to late. By the next evening, Duo held him in his arms as he took his last breaths. The others that hadn't improved, were already dead.

"Duo, I want you to take care of what's left of the gang. You are the best person to watch after them and remember, I'll always be here with you." Solo gasped and was still, his final breath drifting off into the cool night air.

Sniffing back his tears, Duo put his friend on the ground and turned to the few remaining gang members. "Let's get going." He said and led them away from the remains of their friends.

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End Flashback

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"After that, we survived for another year until we were caught stealing and sent to the Maxwell Church. All the others were adopted but every time, I was sent back. I lost track of the number of times that I was adopted after thirty. After a while no one bothered to even look at me." Duo said unemotionally and the others looked at him in shock.

After a moment of silence, he continued his story. "I stayed there till I was eleven. It was just after new years when a group of rebels took Father Maxwell and Sister Helen hostage. They were the priest and the nun that took care of me and the other war orphans they took in. Anyway, I made a deal with them that if I could get a mobile suit for them, they would let them go. I managed to get one for them, but by the time I got back, the Alliance had already destroyed the church to get the rebels…"

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Flashback

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Duo stood in the ruins of the Maxwell Church, blankly starring around at the smoldering remains and the bodies of the people he had loved and the people who had taken over the church.

Spotting Sister Helen's form laying not to far away, he ran over to her and gently picked her head up and slid her head under it for a pillow. Her headpiece was missing and he blond hair spread out around her face in dirty waves. A small trail of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth as she weakly looked up.

"Duo…I'm so glad you're safe. Father…Maxwell was so proud of you till the end. God will watch over you now that we…can not." She gasped and Duo shook his head.

"There is no God. Only Shinigami."

"Oh, Duo…" she said and trailed of into a sigh as her last breath left her and she left for heaven and her God.

Duo was still holding her an hour later when rescue crews finally came to pick through the remains. Dragging him away, they began putting the bodies into bags. He went with them, to numb from shock to do more than to stare at the bag that they put Sister Helen in.

They took him into Alliance's custody, calling him Maxwell's Demon the entire time.

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End Flashback

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"I escaped from there a few days later and stowed away on a sweeper's ship. That was how I met Professor G and Howard. It was their ship. That was when I began the training to be a Gundam pilot and where I first took the names Duo Maxwell in honor of the Maxwell Church Massacre and the name Shinigami." Duo finished and looked up at his sister.

He had been looking at the ground for most of the story, which had taken a couple hours. He didn't want to look at his sister's face and see the disgust about what he was and what he had done. Now looking at her face, he was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?!" he asked as a few slipped down her cheeks.

"You had some many hard things happen to you and yet you're still so happy." She said and wrapped her arms around the shocked teenage boy.

"Well, I guess. You probably had a pretty hard life too, living alone or with the aunt and you seem so happy." He said and she shook her head.

"My life was nothing compare to yours. The only hard part besides living on my own, which wasn't so bad, was fighting monsters since I was fourteen." She said as she leaned back and wiped the tears from her face.

Suddenly, from behind them, Haruka asked quietly, "What does Shinigami mean?"

Hotaru answered before Duo could, saying, "God of Death. It means God of Death."

"You call yourself the God of Death?!" Serena exclaimed.

"Yes." Duo said and left it at that.

Haruka turned to Hotaru and asked, "How did you know what it meant?"

"I am the scout of Death and Rebirth. Everything concerning death, I know." She said and turned back towards Duo.(By the way, if that isn't here title, someone tell me and I'll correct this.) Something was bothering her, a half forgotten memory that was nagging her. Still looking at Duo she asked Sestuna quietly, he was a scout back in the Silver Millennium, wasn't he? From Saturn, right?"

Sestuna turned to her charge in surprise before saying softly, "Yes, he was. He was the Saturn Knight, also called Shinigami."

In Nerima, Ukyo was just closing her shop as Kasumi stepped into the restaurant. "Hi Kasumi. What can I do for you?" she asked warmly.

"Hello Ukyo. I just stopped by for a moment to ask you a question." Kasumi said as she sat down at the bar.

"Sure. What would you like to know?" Ukyo asked as she began to clean the grill.

"Why did you break off your engagement to Ranma?"

"What?! I never broke off my engagement to Ran-chan. Where did you get that idea?" Ukyo asked, shocked at the question from the oldest Tendo girl.

"Ranma told me on one of my many visits that you said it was just to painful for you to see him like that so you were left him." Kasumi said and Ukyo looked at her in shock.

"I meant that it was to hard to see him in the hospital like that so I was going on a training journey for a while and then I was going to avoid the hospital until he got out!" Ukyo exclaimed and Kasumi looked at her almost grimly for a moment before sighing.

"He believes that you, just like everyone else, like the rest of my family, abandon him. Right now, he is living with is aunt and uncle in Tokyo, the Jubaa district. (Someone please get me the correct spelling of that. Thanks.)

"Well, I'll just have to go explain things to him. Oh and Kasumi, can you tell how he is?" Ukyo asked and Kasumi nodded.

"He is 60% paralyzed from the waist down and is very bitter at the moment. He left yesterday with his Aunt Irene and her family. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there when he left." Kasumi said with another sigh as she stood up.

"Thank you for explaining this to me, but I really must be going. I still have to cook dinner. Good-by Ukyo." Kasumi said and left the resurant.

"Bye Kasumi and thanks for telling me what happened to Ranma." Ukyo said and waved as the other girl closed the door behind her. As she finished cleaning the grill, she came to a decision. "Tomorrow, I'm going to the Tendo Dojo and get the address from Kasumi. Then I'm going to get my Ran-chan."

Thanks for reading this and I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. And what do you think of the new name?

Shinigami-chan