Until the End
Chapter 25
Free
As Ryoga stirred on the bedding, Ranma got up from his place on the wall and walked quickly to the side of the bed. It had seemed like a never- ending game for the past three hours. Ryoga would seem like he was about to wake, and then he would simply stop moving, his breathing dangerously shallow. The guards had come by three times since he had been locked in here, but each time Ranma had managed to stare the guards down. They seemed to be especially afraid when Ranma looked first at Ryoga and then at them, for every time Ranma saw the scars on his back it filled him with a murderous rage, and the guards were the source.
For the first time, Ryoga began to slowly turn over onto his side. Ranma wasn't sure if he had woken up yet, and leaned in to get a good look at Ryoga's face.
Ryoga's eyes were indeed open, and he was now looking not three inches away from Ranma's face.
"Ahhh!" Ryoga shouted and shot off to the side away from Ranma. "Who the hell are you!?" he demanded.
Ranma had to make a valiant effort not to start crying. "Ryoga, it's me. It's Ranma."
"Ranma," Ryoga said softly, almost to himself. He stared at his face for a moment before a smile spread across his features and he started to laugh. "Oh great, I'm hallucinating again," Ryoga said around his laughter. His voice sounded so different to Ranma that he thought maybe he had made a mistake.
"Ryoga," Ranma said slowly. "There's no dream here, I'm Ranma Saotome."
Ryoga stopped laughing and took a hard look at Ranma and then his clothes. He snorted. "Yeah right, and I suppose your wearing a Japanese soldier's uniform for a reason then right?"
Without realizing what he was doing, Ranma started to laugh. "Goddamnit you're as pig-headed as ever Ryoga. What the hell do you want me to do to reassure you that I am Ranma?"
Ryoga thought for a moment. "Tell me how Akari's doing," he said, his voice now very serious.
"She's fine Ryoga," Ranma said, deciding that the topic of Ryoga's child would best be brought up at a latter date. "And she's missed you very much, but she never gave up hope that you would come back, and neither did Akane."
Ryoga looked at Ranma for a long moment. "It's you isn't it? My god, I never thought I would make it out of here."
Ranma closed the gap between him and Ryoga very quickly and enveloped the disheveled man in a hug. "I've missed you a lot buddy," Ranma whispered as he lost control of his voice.
"F-for four years I kept hoping that someone would come and get me, but, I'd just about given up hope. The others in this prison gave up a long time ago, but I kept thinking that maybe we would be rescued and I could get back to Akari."
Ryoga leaned back and looked at Ranma's face. "I wanted to die Ranma; I didn't want to go on with the pain, the pain of having nothing but hope. But it didn't come, every time I thought of causing a scene, my body wouldn't react, like it wouldn't let me die."
Ranma nodded his head slightly. "You've always been a stubborn guy Ryoga, even in a hopeless situation you'll never give up."
For the first time, an actual smile came to Ryoga's lips. "Yeah, and I guess the gods have finally answered my prayers, and sent they're messenger to get me out of here. So I take it that the guards in this place are already taken care of right?"
Ranma's smile faded slightly. "Um, no, you see it's uh, it's kind of a long story."
===============
"Alright, now that you've been told exactly what you'll be doing, is there anyone that would rather stay behind?" General Parker asked the assembled audience.
Not a single hand was raised. The room was very quiet as Parker scanned the room.
"Okay, one final note, our primary goal is to get all of the American POW's out of the prison, but, there are also Japanese POW's, and I don't know about you but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I decided to leave them there. If we do manage to rescue them, they will be remanded to our custody-"
A soldier in the front row raised his hand and cut Parker off.
"So essentially they're going from being a Chinese POW to a Russian and American POW?"
Parker smiled. "That's right, but I will be sure to point out that we follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, and it's been a long time since a POW has died in American care. If they do refuse to come with us, we simply tell them that they will then be on their own for maneuvering through China and to swim across the China Sea back to Japan."
Some light chuckles escaped the crowd.
"Alright, that said, your all dismissed. I expect you all out on Runway B at 0300 tomorrow morning."
Parker waited until all the soldiers had left the briefing room before walking over and slumping into one of the chairs. He let out a sigh and placed his head in his hands.
"Something the matter?" a voice asked from the side of the room.
Parker's head snapped up quickly and located the man on the wall.
"No, I guess I'm just a little nervous is all," Parker said.
Gogol pushed off of the wall and took a seat a few chairs away from Parker. "You really should be worried. I don't like the way this thing has been set up." Parker looked over at him. "It's just that it seems like we could be doing more, like having air support or something, instead of going in all alone on aircraft that won't even be able to fly back out. Were depending on too many ifs, and I'm wondering just how that's going to affect the operation."
"I didn't see your hand when I asked before Gregory," Parker commented somewhat nastily.
Gogol looked at him in annoyance. "I will go on this operation, there is no doubt about that, but is it not customary for one to go through the operation in their head beforehand and poke a few holes in it. In this case, a lot of holes."
Parker nodded. "Yes, and I owe you an apology, it's just that I've been torturing myself with this operation for nights. I'm going to need some sleeping pills tonight or I'll be up all night."
"I can understand that you're a little nervous, but you shouldn't be worrying needlessly, from what you've told me of this Ranma fellow, he's incredibly resourceful, so if he hasn't escaped from the POW camp yet then he should be alright when the time comes for us to go pay him a visit," Gogol said listlessly.
Parker smiled. "Yeah, you're right, if there's anybody that can escape from a prisoner-of-war camp then it would be Ranma."
===============
Akane shifted restlessly on her bed. For the first time in almost three months, she and Akari had gone to visit their children, who were stationed at Nodoka and Genma's place for the time-being. It was always hard to leave Kagome when they finally left. Being without Ranma and having to avoid her own daughter was hard, as she had always been surrounded by loved ones for most of her life.
Realizing the futility of trying to acquire more sleep, Akane sat up against the headboard and pulled her knees up against her chest, resting her head on top. She sighed as she stared into the darkness of her room.
Earlier that evening, when Ishii had left to meet with Kimura, Akari had commented that she had seemed to be handling Ranma's absence with great poise. The remark had got Akane thinking, why wasn't she a wreck, crying all the time? The answer had come from a very unlikely source.
One of the things that Akane found most comforting to do, when the absence of her husband grew too much for her to try and push away, was to read some of her old journals from when Ranma and her had first been engaged. She had been reading those journals over the months with great interest, and in a passage that she had written just before Ranma and her parent's tried to stage a wedding, she found her answer.
Why is it that when I think about what would have happened if Ranma had failed to revive me after his battle with Saffron, I feel empty inside, like someone had reached inside of my body and taken away my very essence. Ranma is the reason that I am still in this world, and I know that he loves me. When I think about that, and about the look that was on his face when he held me just before he realized I was awake, I am filled with a sense of belonging, like I know why I am here today. Ranma and I were made for each other, and nothing, not his other fiancées, nor powerful gods, will ever change that. Ranma is my everything, and I will do everything in my power to make sure he feels that way about me.
First things first, I must get this out. I love Ranma, more than anything that I've loved before, more than my mother, my father, or my sisters, he is the one person that I want to spend my life with. If anyone were to say otherwise than they would be a fool. From the first moment I met him, I have felt intense feelings for him. I harbored them and hid them because I was afraid he wouldn't feel the same way about me, but I was wrong, and so was he, though he was a little more open with his feelings, and we missed out on a lot of wonderful things because of our pettiness.
But, I've come to understand that life with Ranma won't be easy, not that I expect him to not be a loving husband, but it's the chaos that comes with him. It is entirely likely that I will be in another position where my life could be in jeopardy, and that frightens me. Not that I might die, but that Ranma would blame himself. This is something I don't want him to ever go through.
I have to be strong, in everything that I do, and I will learn to become independent, though I am sure I will never totally be able to live without Ranma, as he is my everything. I will be strong, not allowing anyone, especially Ranma, to see me struggle.
It had to have been fate for Akane to read that exact passage on the night where her thoughts of Ranma came into question. She had cried after reading that passage, and Akari had come into her room and hugged her, slowly rocking her back and forth and crying as well.
Shaking her head, Akane leaned over and flicked her bedside light on; she slipped her pajamas off her body and dressed in her gi.
"I will be strong, and I won't let anyone change that," she said to herself as she left her room.
===============
"Red leader this is Six, we are entering enemy airspace, I recommend that all safety precautions are taken, no firing at enemy troops on the ground unless fired at, we want to do this as quickly and quietly as possible," General Parker spoke into his headset to the other helo's.
Another three hours until they hit the targets, Parker thought to himself. And after that, we have estimated the actual assault to take at least an hour and a half. The plan had been changed at the last moment, the team had been split in two, and Team Two, which consisted of mostly Russians, including Gogol, would hit the troop barracks just three miles away from the prison camp. This would cut down on the actual counterattack that they expected, but it would result in more loss of life on their side.
Parker looked down at the rifle in his hand and worked the action, making sure that a round was inside and ready for fire. The weapon was set on a three-round burst, and Parker flipped it down to a single shot option. Checking the sights, he laid the weapon back down to his lap and leaned against the door of the helicopter.
===============
The guards were at a loss over what they should do concerning two of the prisoners in the base. One of the soldiers was a new addition, one that had been sent over with the more recent dump of soldiers from Siberia, and the other one was a soldier that had been in the prison camp for almost four and a half years.
The problem they were facing was that, no guard had been able to enter the cell for more than a minute before succumbing to the large feeling of fear and fleeing the cell. When the guards consulted the base commander for assistance, he explained to them that they should send five or six guards in there and drag both men to the 'recreation' room and beat them. While it seemed a good plan, it created another problem. Not a single guard wished to be the one's given the job of carting the two prisoners off.
After a few unsuccessful screaming matches, the commander decided to draw sticks, and the guards with the six short sticks were given the job. Any guard that still did not wish to do his job would be taken to the 'recreation' room and shot.
The six short sticks were drawn, and the guards picked, and now it was time for the prisoners to be moved. The cell seemed very quiet, which was odd, the guards had heard continuous talking in Japanese for hours. No guard at the base spoke Japanese, so what the prisoners were talking about went by without knowledge of what was actually said.
Taking a deep breath the first guard unlatched the door and pushed it open, and stepped inside quickly, with the others piling in after him.
Almost all the guards that had been in the prison camp for an excess of a year were unable to move around, much less stand. This explains why the guards were very surprised to see the raggedy Japanese prisoner that had been in the camp for four and a half years, standing in the middle of the cell with his arms crossed across his chest and smiling.
Two guards approached slowly, not sure if the prisoner had gone crazy and was going to lunge at them. They came within a foot of the prisoner when his smile changed and he shouted something in Japanese. Not a moment later, the two guards were on the floor, and the other Japanese soldier was standing over them, facing the rest of the guards.
Taking a glance down at the two fallen men, the guards realized that their necks were twisted at a very odd angle, and a moment later, they realized they were very much dead.
That would be the last thing they would think of before the Japanese soldier descended on them with a speed that was inhuman.
===============
The second helicopter touched ground and the soldiers inside spilled out, rushing towards the barracks, weapons held at port arms, waiting for a target.
The first helicopter continued on, though the eyes of everyone but the pilot were on the action down and behind them. It was only a few seconds later that the first sounds of gunfire were heard. The men in the copter were silent, as the cracks of rifles were slowly drowned out by the noise of the helicopter.
Parker peered out the side window and saw several explosions back at the base. He recalled that intelligence had said that the base might have been equipped with mortars. Leaning back, he told himself to keep his mind on the rest of the mission. Gogol and the other soldiers were capable of handling whatever they faced. Despite the encouraging words, Parker couldn't help but wish he was on the ground with them.
===============
"You alright there Ryoga?" Ranma asked as he shoved the guard's body inside the cell.
Ryoga was sitting down on the bed, his face covered with sweat, looking very much like he was about to pass out.
"Yeah, you go on ahead, get the others out of their cells, I'll be right behind you," Ryoga said as he took another wheezing breath.
Ranma looked worriedly at him but took off out of the cell. One of the guards had had a set of keys on his belt and he would use those to get the others out of their cells. Or at least he hoped he'd be able to; it wouldn't be long before the others decided to come check on what happened to the other guards, and he didn't want Ryoga to be sitting in that cell by himself when it happened.
===============
"How goes it Five?" Parker spoke into his radio set. The helicopter was shaking violently, a cause of the lack of fuel the pilot had told him and the others, and it was very hard to keep himself steady.
*I've got three men down, two critical, we've managed to take out the radio outpost but we've been cornered just outside the barracks. They've managed to zero us in and have our two lines of fire covered. Were sitting ducks here, but we might be able to break through the lines with a little bit of luck.*
It was Gogol, Parker thought. He sounded nervous, then again why shouldn't he, they were outnumbered, outgunned, and they were pinned down.
"Five, do not do anything risky," Parker said, as clearly as he could manage.
*We don't have much of a choice Six,* Gogol said back. Over the radio he could hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions. A particular close shell landed and a shout of surprise was heard.
The sound over the other end of the radio died out and Parker was met with silence.
"Shit," he said softly and set the radio down.
===============
"You sure this is going to work?" Yoshida asked as he watched a large group of guards come charging down the end of the hallway.
"Just trust me alright, when I give the signal, you dump the water over my head and I'll rush the guards, when they're confused, you let loose with that pistol," Ranma said as he double checked the distance away the guards were.
There had to be at least twenty guards, Yoshida thought to himself. Despite the amazing things he had seen Ranma do in the short while he had known him, taking out that many guards in a cramped hallway would be impossible.
"Alright, get ready Yoshida," Ranma said as he took up his position. Yoshida picked up the pail of water and held it up.
"Go!" Ranma shouted. The water was spilled over his head, triggering the effects of his Jusenkyo curse, as he felt his tunic fill out in the chest and his boots become loose, Ranma took off down the corridor.
The guards noticed him and a few were about to bring their weapons around to bear on him when Ranma ripped open her tunic.
"Get a load of these you bastards!" Ranma shouted. Being stuck in a dreary environment that they were in, the guards were rarely able to spend time with the opposite sex, so when they saw Ranma flashing her chest it stopped them dead in their tracks.
Ranma turned her head and looked at Yoshida. "Do it now!"
Yoshida, who had been as equally shocked over Ranma's change of sex, was snapped out of his daze and he sprang out into the corridor and began firing at the guards. This in turn snapped the guards from their revere, and they began firing at Yoshida. It wouldn't be until a few seconds later that they realized that the female was no longer in front of them.
===============
The sound of small gunfire was heard from the compound even in the air.
"Now what the fuck do you suppose that noise is?" a Russian captain asked Parker as they drew closer and closer to the prison camp.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Parker said as he looked out the side of the helicopter. He touched his headset. "Set this thing on the ground, it seems something's going on inside," he said to the pilot.
===============
It seemed like a good idea at the time, Ranma thought. Between them, Yoshida and Ranma were able to eliminate the twenty or so guards that had been in the corridors on the basement level of the compound, but as more and more POW's cells were opened, the more eerie it seemed that no other guards had come to confront them.
Almost all of the American prisoners were somewhat insane, and they tried to attack the Japanese soldiers that attempted to free them. Ranma ordered them restrained, for their own good and for the men that would be handling them. The few that were still in control of their mental facilities were crying.
Before he could make any other decisions, Ranma ran back to the cell he had left Ryoga in, and carried him to where the others were waiting, just outside the hallway that had the stairs that would lead them to the upper level of the facility. Despite the exhaustion he felt, Ryoga was otherwise okay, which relieved Ranma to a great extent.
Among the soldiers, eight had handguns, which had been taken from the corpses of the dead Chinese guards. It seemed like a small supply when it was entirely possible that when they went to the upper levels they would be facing armed soldiers.
Ranma propped Ryoga up against a wall and stepped away from him and faced the others.
"You hear anything up there?" Ranma asked Yoshida.
"No sir," Yoshida replied. "It would seem that they're either waiting for us to pop up or they've taken off to get some help. Personally I don't know which I'd prefer."
Ranma smiled. "The later of course, if they send people out here, than we have a chance to secure ourselves a truck to get us the hell out of here."
Looking around the group of American POW's, Ranma felt a stab of guilt. He had escaped from the Chinese four years ago, but these poor bastards were taken in as prisoners-of-war. Just in time, he noticed one of the POW's trying to get to his feet. Ranma first checked and saw that he had not been restrained earlier before helping him to his feet.
The American tanker saluted and coughed loudly. "Sir, requesting permission to go upstairs and check out the enemy positions."
"You speak Japanese soldier?" Ranma asked in surprise.
"Yes sir," the soldier replied and smiled a shaky smile.
"Request denied, you just sit down for now, I'll get you out of here as soon as possible," Ranma said gently as he set the man back down on the floor. He patted the man's face once more and got to his feet, walking over to Yoshida.
"I'm going to head up there Sergeant," Ranma informed. "If I spot anything than I'm going to head back down here in a hurry."
Yoshida nodded his understanding and motioned for the men guarding the corridor to make room for Ranma to get past.
Ranma turned one last time to Ryoga, the bandanna clad man smiled and winked. Ranma winked back and began to ascend the staircase.
===============
It was absolute silence as Ranma made his way up the stairs and he used all of his training to keep himself from making any noises. There were no doors that lead from the bottom floor to the top, which complicated things, since he would be easily spotted if he simply climbed the stairs. He considered going into the Umisen-ken, but decided against it, doing that took a lot out of him, and if they did indeed make it out alive, he would need all of his strength to get them the hell out of China.
It was probably empty, Ranma thought to himself. Considering that the guards must have heard the shooting in the lower floors, they would have gone for help, and if that was indeed the case, then they would have company coming very quickly.
It wasn't empty, but neither was it full of live Chinese guards. Instead, the room was full of dead Chinese guards, and a whole hell of a lot of soldiers, none of them looking very Asian.
Ranma spotted a particular soldier and leapt up into the room and ran across the room. The other soldiers were surprised, but when General Parker didn't react, other than to smile and laugh as the prisoner enveloped him a hug, they decided it was alright.
"I knew you would come for me you big bastard," Ranma proclaimed as he let go of Phil.
Parker nodded, but now grew serious. "We aren't that well off as you think Ranma," he said in Japanese, further confusing the other soldiers. "Our modes of transportation are now out of fuel, and since I doubt we will be able to find any, we'll have to wait three days until the Navy come to pick us up."
"That doesn't really matter," Ranma said. "We killed all the guards down below, and got all the POW's free, but we were at our wits end about what to do after that."
"We set another team down about a few miles off to take care of the barracks there, which held a few hundred soldiers that would have been on this place in a few minutes. The bad news is we lost contact with our team and all we get is static."
"Then we should probably get the hell out of here then," Ranma suggested as he ran back to the staircase and called for everybody to come on up. In a few moments the room was filled with soldiers and POW's. The other American and Russian soldiers looked in shock at the condition the American POW's were in. Ranma walked into the middle of them, and then came back supporting a man that was in the same condition as the other POW's.
Phil recognized the man even though it had been almost half a decade since he'd last seen him.
"Ryoga," Phil said in shock as he stared at the man's face. Ryoga looked at him without recognition for a moment before it clicked in his head.
"It sure took you long enough you big bastard, I was thinking that I would have to find my own way out of this place," Ryoga said, making the effort to smile.
Before anything else could be said an American Green Beret came rushing through the front doors.
"We've got a truck full of soldiers on its way down the road, they've got anti-tank weapons and mortars from the looks of it," he said in a calm voice that betrayed the severity of the news.
Parker held up his hand and now spoke in English. "Alright, load up the POW's and Japanese on the flatbed trucks outside. I want at least five armed soldiers on each truck and have grenades at the ready."
The soldiers immediately went about carrying out Phil's orders. The first of the POW's were put up into the trucks when the first mortar landed.
"Move it!" Parker shouted as he carried Ryoga in his arms towards a jeep that was inside the compound parking lot. Ranma followed close behind and hopped into the side seat. Ryoga was placed into the back and Phil hopped into the front seat. As he was starting the engine, another soldier hopped in. Ranma and Phil turned to look at who it was.
"Yoshida! You bastard what are you doing here?" Ranma demanded. "I gave you an order to go with the trucks!"
"No offence sir, but if all you have is a weapon you've never fired before, than you will need all the help you can get," Yoshida replied.
Ranma was set to argue some more when Phil spoke up.
"Can you drive?" Yoshida nodded. "Good, you get in the front seat and give Ranma your pistol."
They switched positions, and Yoshida had the engine running just as bullets began to whiz by. Not really caring where he went, as long as it was away from the Chinese, Yoshida pulled out of the parking lot and drove onto the unpaved road, noticing that the flatbed trucks were already half a mile ahead.
The sound of an assault rifle going off so close to him made Ranma jump. He looked back in his seat and saw Phil firing off short bursts at the soldiers behind them.
"Shit!" Parker exclaimed. "They're following us in the truck. He continued to fire, hoping to hit the driver, but the road was so uneven that he had a hard time centering his shots.
Ranma glanced back again. There were soldier in the back of the truck firing at the jeep, but the bullets were all going wide. Ranma was about to pass on the news to Yoshida when he saw a soldier standing with a long tube on his shoulder.
"Oh fuck!" Ranma yelled. "Yoshida step on the fucking gas they've got RPG's!"
The warning came too late, and the Chinese soldier fired. His shot missed the jeep itself, but it struck the ground directly left of the jeep and sent it flipping side over side into the heavy brush next to the road.
Phil was thrown from the vehicle and crashed at a blindingly speed into a tree. Ranma had foregone the expense of using his seatbelt, and he was catapulted out of the jeep on the first roll, only to have it come down and fall onto him. Yoshida was kept inside the vehicle, but he had been hit rather intensely by the grenade fragments that had come up and through the side of the jeep. Ryoga was thrown from the jeep as well, but landed only on the frozen ground.
Everything went black as the sound of more shots rang out.
===============
Author's Notes: Now that chapter took a long time to come out. I would apologize, though I didn't have much of a choice.
Well, there's not much more left in this story, and it will be ending soon, maybe even before the summer is up. As for a sequel, I find it not very likely; I hope that doesn't disappoint too many people.
Sorry for being so evil as to have everybody get rescued at the last minute and then having that happen right at the end.
Chapter 25
Free
As Ryoga stirred on the bedding, Ranma got up from his place on the wall and walked quickly to the side of the bed. It had seemed like a never- ending game for the past three hours. Ryoga would seem like he was about to wake, and then he would simply stop moving, his breathing dangerously shallow. The guards had come by three times since he had been locked in here, but each time Ranma had managed to stare the guards down. They seemed to be especially afraid when Ranma looked first at Ryoga and then at them, for every time Ranma saw the scars on his back it filled him with a murderous rage, and the guards were the source.
For the first time, Ryoga began to slowly turn over onto his side. Ranma wasn't sure if he had woken up yet, and leaned in to get a good look at Ryoga's face.
Ryoga's eyes were indeed open, and he was now looking not three inches away from Ranma's face.
"Ahhh!" Ryoga shouted and shot off to the side away from Ranma. "Who the hell are you!?" he demanded.
Ranma had to make a valiant effort not to start crying. "Ryoga, it's me. It's Ranma."
"Ranma," Ryoga said softly, almost to himself. He stared at his face for a moment before a smile spread across his features and he started to laugh. "Oh great, I'm hallucinating again," Ryoga said around his laughter. His voice sounded so different to Ranma that he thought maybe he had made a mistake.
"Ryoga," Ranma said slowly. "There's no dream here, I'm Ranma Saotome."
Ryoga stopped laughing and took a hard look at Ranma and then his clothes. He snorted. "Yeah right, and I suppose your wearing a Japanese soldier's uniform for a reason then right?"
Without realizing what he was doing, Ranma started to laugh. "Goddamnit you're as pig-headed as ever Ryoga. What the hell do you want me to do to reassure you that I am Ranma?"
Ryoga thought for a moment. "Tell me how Akari's doing," he said, his voice now very serious.
"She's fine Ryoga," Ranma said, deciding that the topic of Ryoga's child would best be brought up at a latter date. "And she's missed you very much, but she never gave up hope that you would come back, and neither did Akane."
Ryoga looked at Ranma for a long moment. "It's you isn't it? My god, I never thought I would make it out of here."
Ranma closed the gap between him and Ryoga very quickly and enveloped the disheveled man in a hug. "I've missed you a lot buddy," Ranma whispered as he lost control of his voice.
"F-for four years I kept hoping that someone would come and get me, but, I'd just about given up hope. The others in this prison gave up a long time ago, but I kept thinking that maybe we would be rescued and I could get back to Akari."
Ryoga leaned back and looked at Ranma's face. "I wanted to die Ranma; I didn't want to go on with the pain, the pain of having nothing but hope. But it didn't come, every time I thought of causing a scene, my body wouldn't react, like it wouldn't let me die."
Ranma nodded his head slightly. "You've always been a stubborn guy Ryoga, even in a hopeless situation you'll never give up."
For the first time, an actual smile came to Ryoga's lips. "Yeah, and I guess the gods have finally answered my prayers, and sent they're messenger to get me out of here. So I take it that the guards in this place are already taken care of right?"
Ranma's smile faded slightly. "Um, no, you see it's uh, it's kind of a long story."
===============
"Alright, now that you've been told exactly what you'll be doing, is there anyone that would rather stay behind?" General Parker asked the assembled audience.
Not a single hand was raised. The room was very quiet as Parker scanned the room.
"Okay, one final note, our primary goal is to get all of the American POW's out of the prison, but, there are also Japanese POW's, and I don't know about you but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I decided to leave them there. If we do manage to rescue them, they will be remanded to our custody-"
A soldier in the front row raised his hand and cut Parker off.
"So essentially they're going from being a Chinese POW to a Russian and American POW?"
Parker smiled. "That's right, but I will be sure to point out that we follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, and it's been a long time since a POW has died in American care. If they do refuse to come with us, we simply tell them that they will then be on their own for maneuvering through China and to swim across the China Sea back to Japan."
Some light chuckles escaped the crowd.
"Alright, that said, your all dismissed. I expect you all out on Runway B at 0300 tomorrow morning."
Parker waited until all the soldiers had left the briefing room before walking over and slumping into one of the chairs. He let out a sigh and placed his head in his hands.
"Something the matter?" a voice asked from the side of the room.
Parker's head snapped up quickly and located the man on the wall.
"No, I guess I'm just a little nervous is all," Parker said.
Gogol pushed off of the wall and took a seat a few chairs away from Parker. "You really should be worried. I don't like the way this thing has been set up." Parker looked over at him. "It's just that it seems like we could be doing more, like having air support or something, instead of going in all alone on aircraft that won't even be able to fly back out. Were depending on too many ifs, and I'm wondering just how that's going to affect the operation."
"I didn't see your hand when I asked before Gregory," Parker commented somewhat nastily.
Gogol looked at him in annoyance. "I will go on this operation, there is no doubt about that, but is it not customary for one to go through the operation in their head beforehand and poke a few holes in it. In this case, a lot of holes."
Parker nodded. "Yes, and I owe you an apology, it's just that I've been torturing myself with this operation for nights. I'm going to need some sleeping pills tonight or I'll be up all night."
"I can understand that you're a little nervous, but you shouldn't be worrying needlessly, from what you've told me of this Ranma fellow, he's incredibly resourceful, so if he hasn't escaped from the POW camp yet then he should be alright when the time comes for us to go pay him a visit," Gogol said listlessly.
Parker smiled. "Yeah, you're right, if there's anybody that can escape from a prisoner-of-war camp then it would be Ranma."
===============
Akane shifted restlessly on her bed. For the first time in almost three months, she and Akari had gone to visit their children, who were stationed at Nodoka and Genma's place for the time-being. It was always hard to leave Kagome when they finally left. Being without Ranma and having to avoid her own daughter was hard, as she had always been surrounded by loved ones for most of her life.
Realizing the futility of trying to acquire more sleep, Akane sat up against the headboard and pulled her knees up against her chest, resting her head on top. She sighed as she stared into the darkness of her room.
Earlier that evening, when Ishii had left to meet with Kimura, Akari had commented that she had seemed to be handling Ranma's absence with great poise. The remark had got Akane thinking, why wasn't she a wreck, crying all the time? The answer had come from a very unlikely source.
One of the things that Akane found most comforting to do, when the absence of her husband grew too much for her to try and push away, was to read some of her old journals from when Ranma and her had first been engaged. She had been reading those journals over the months with great interest, and in a passage that she had written just before Ranma and her parent's tried to stage a wedding, she found her answer.
Why is it that when I think about what would have happened if Ranma had failed to revive me after his battle with Saffron, I feel empty inside, like someone had reached inside of my body and taken away my very essence. Ranma is the reason that I am still in this world, and I know that he loves me. When I think about that, and about the look that was on his face when he held me just before he realized I was awake, I am filled with a sense of belonging, like I know why I am here today. Ranma and I were made for each other, and nothing, not his other fiancées, nor powerful gods, will ever change that. Ranma is my everything, and I will do everything in my power to make sure he feels that way about me.
First things first, I must get this out. I love Ranma, more than anything that I've loved before, more than my mother, my father, or my sisters, he is the one person that I want to spend my life with. If anyone were to say otherwise than they would be a fool. From the first moment I met him, I have felt intense feelings for him. I harbored them and hid them because I was afraid he wouldn't feel the same way about me, but I was wrong, and so was he, though he was a little more open with his feelings, and we missed out on a lot of wonderful things because of our pettiness.
But, I've come to understand that life with Ranma won't be easy, not that I expect him to not be a loving husband, but it's the chaos that comes with him. It is entirely likely that I will be in another position where my life could be in jeopardy, and that frightens me. Not that I might die, but that Ranma would blame himself. This is something I don't want him to ever go through.
I have to be strong, in everything that I do, and I will learn to become independent, though I am sure I will never totally be able to live without Ranma, as he is my everything. I will be strong, not allowing anyone, especially Ranma, to see me struggle.
It had to have been fate for Akane to read that exact passage on the night where her thoughts of Ranma came into question. She had cried after reading that passage, and Akari had come into her room and hugged her, slowly rocking her back and forth and crying as well.
Shaking her head, Akane leaned over and flicked her bedside light on; she slipped her pajamas off her body and dressed in her gi.
"I will be strong, and I won't let anyone change that," she said to herself as she left her room.
===============
"Red leader this is Six, we are entering enemy airspace, I recommend that all safety precautions are taken, no firing at enemy troops on the ground unless fired at, we want to do this as quickly and quietly as possible," General Parker spoke into his headset to the other helo's.
Another three hours until they hit the targets, Parker thought to himself. And after that, we have estimated the actual assault to take at least an hour and a half. The plan had been changed at the last moment, the team had been split in two, and Team Two, which consisted of mostly Russians, including Gogol, would hit the troop barracks just three miles away from the prison camp. This would cut down on the actual counterattack that they expected, but it would result in more loss of life on their side.
Parker looked down at the rifle in his hand and worked the action, making sure that a round was inside and ready for fire. The weapon was set on a three-round burst, and Parker flipped it down to a single shot option. Checking the sights, he laid the weapon back down to his lap and leaned against the door of the helicopter.
===============
The guards were at a loss over what they should do concerning two of the prisoners in the base. One of the soldiers was a new addition, one that had been sent over with the more recent dump of soldiers from Siberia, and the other one was a soldier that had been in the prison camp for almost four and a half years.
The problem they were facing was that, no guard had been able to enter the cell for more than a minute before succumbing to the large feeling of fear and fleeing the cell. When the guards consulted the base commander for assistance, he explained to them that they should send five or six guards in there and drag both men to the 'recreation' room and beat them. While it seemed a good plan, it created another problem. Not a single guard wished to be the one's given the job of carting the two prisoners off.
After a few unsuccessful screaming matches, the commander decided to draw sticks, and the guards with the six short sticks were given the job. Any guard that still did not wish to do his job would be taken to the 'recreation' room and shot.
The six short sticks were drawn, and the guards picked, and now it was time for the prisoners to be moved. The cell seemed very quiet, which was odd, the guards had heard continuous talking in Japanese for hours. No guard at the base spoke Japanese, so what the prisoners were talking about went by without knowledge of what was actually said.
Taking a deep breath the first guard unlatched the door and pushed it open, and stepped inside quickly, with the others piling in after him.
Almost all the guards that had been in the prison camp for an excess of a year were unable to move around, much less stand. This explains why the guards were very surprised to see the raggedy Japanese prisoner that had been in the camp for four and a half years, standing in the middle of the cell with his arms crossed across his chest and smiling.
Two guards approached slowly, not sure if the prisoner had gone crazy and was going to lunge at them. They came within a foot of the prisoner when his smile changed and he shouted something in Japanese. Not a moment later, the two guards were on the floor, and the other Japanese soldier was standing over them, facing the rest of the guards.
Taking a glance down at the two fallen men, the guards realized that their necks were twisted at a very odd angle, and a moment later, they realized they were very much dead.
That would be the last thing they would think of before the Japanese soldier descended on them with a speed that was inhuman.
===============
The second helicopter touched ground and the soldiers inside spilled out, rushing towards the barracks, weapons held at port arms, waiting for a target.
The first helicopter continued on, though the eyes of everyone but the pilot were on the action down and behind them. It was only a few seconds later that the first sounds of gunfire were heard. The men in the copter were silent, as the cracks of rifles were slowly drowned out by the noise of the helicopter.
Parker peered out the side window and saw several explosions back at the base. He recalled that intelligence had said that the base might have been equipped with mortars. Leaning back, he told himself to keep his mind on the rest of the mission. Gogol and the other soldiers were capable of handling whatever they faced. Despite the encouraging words, Parker couldn't help but wish he was on the ground with them.
===============
"You alright there Ryoga?" Ranma asked as he shoved the guard's body inside the cell.
Ryoga was sitting down on the bed, his face covered with sweat, looking very much like he was about to pass out.
"Yeah, you go on ahead, get the others out of their cells, I'll be right behind you," Ryoga said as he took another wheezing breath.
Ranma looked worriedly at him but took off out of the cell. One of the guards had had a set of keys on his belt and he would use those to get the others out of their cells. Or at least he hoped he'd be able to; it wouldn't be long before the others decided to come check on what happened to the other guards, and he didn't want Ryoga to be sitting in that cell by himself when it happened.
===============
"How goes it Five?" Parker spoke into his radio set. The helicopter was shaking violently, a cause of the lack of fuel the pilot had told him and the others, and it was very hard to keep himself steady.
*I've got three men down, two critical, we've managed to take out the radio outpost but we've been cornered just outside the barracks. They've managed to zero us in and have our two lines of fire covered. Were sitting ducks here, but we might be able to break through the lines with a little bit of luck.*
It was Gogol, Parker thought. He sounded nervous, then again why shouldn't he, they were outnumbered, outgunned, and they were pinned down.
"Five, do not do anything risky," Parker said, as clearly as he could manage.
*We don't have much of a choice Six,* Gogol said back. Over the radio he could hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions. A particular close shell landed and a shout of surprise was heard.
The sound over the other end of the radio died out and Parker was met with silence.
"Shit," he said softly and set the radio down.
===============
"You sure this is going to work?" Yoshida asked as he watched a large group of guards come charging down the end of the hallway.
"Just trust me alright, when I give the signal, you dump the water over my head and I'll rush the guards, when they're confused, you let loose with that pistol," Ranma said as he double checked the distance away the guards were.
There had to be at least twenty guards, Yoshida thought to himself. Despite the amazing things he had seen Ranma do in the short while he had known him, taking out that many guards in a cramped hallway would be impossible.
"Alright, get ready Yoshida," Ranma said as he took up his position. Yoshida picked up the pail of water and held it up.
"Go!" Ranma shouted. The water was spilled over his head, triggering the effects of his Jusenkyo curse, as he felt his tunic fill out in the chest and his boots become loose, Ranma took off down the corridor.
The guards noticed him and a few were about to bring their weapons around to bear on him when Ranma ripped open her tunic.
"Get a load of these you bastards!" Ranma shouted. Being stuck in a dreary environment that they were in, the guards were rarely able to spend time with the opposite sex, so when they saw Ranma flashing her chest it stopped them dead in their tracks.
Ranma turned her head and looked at Yoshida. "Do it now!"
Yoshida, who had been as equally shocked over Ranma's change of sex, was snapped out of his daze and he sprang out into the corridor and began firing at the guards. This in turn snapped the guards from their revere, and they began firing at Yoshida. It wouldn't be until a few seconds later that they realized that the female was no longer in front of them.
===============
The sound of small gunfire was heard from the compound even in the air.
"Now what the fuck do you suppose that noise is?" a Russian captain asked Parker as they drew closer and closer to the prison camp.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Parker said as he looked out the side of the helicopter. He touched his headset. "Set this thing on the ground, it seems something's going on inside," he said to the pilot.
===============
It seemed like a good idea at the time, Ranma thought. Between them, Yoshida and Ranma were able to eliminate the twenty or so guards that had been in the corridors on the basement level of the compound, but as more and more POW's cells were opened, the more eerie it seemed that no other guards had come to confront them.
Almost all of the American prisoners were somewhat insane, and they tried to attack the Japanese soldiers that attempted to free them. Ranma ordered them restrained, for their own good and for the men that would be handling them. The few that were still in control of their mental facilities were crying.
Before he could make any other decisions, Ranma ran back to the cell he had left Ryoga in, and carried him to where the others were waiting, just outside the hallway that had the stairs that would lead them to the upper level of the facility. Despite the exhaustion he felt, Ryoga was otherwise okay, which relieved Ranma to a great extent.
Among the soldiers, eight had handguns, which had been taken from the corpses of the dead Chinese guards. It seemed like a small supply when it was entirely possible that when they went to the upper levels they would be facing armed soldiers.
Ranma propped Ryoga up against a wall and stepped away from him and faced the others.
"You hear anything up there?" Ranma asked Yoshida.
"No sir," Yoshida replied. "It would seem that they're either waiting for us to pop up or they've taken off to get some help. Personally I don't know which I'd prefer."
Ranma smiled. "The later of course, if they send people out here, than we have a chance to secure ourselves a truck to get us the hell out of here."
Looking around the group of American POW's, Ranma felt a stab of guilt. He had escaped from the Chinese four years ago, but these poor bastards were taken in as prisoners-of-war. Just in time, he noticed one of the POW's trying to get to his feet. Ranma first checked and saw that he had not been restrained earlier before helping him to his feet.
The American tanker saluted and coughed loudly. "Sir, requesting permission to go upstairs and check out the enemy positions."
"You speak Japanese soldier?" Ranma asked in surprise.
"Yes sir," the soldier replied and smiled a shaky smile.
"Request denied, you just sit down for now, I'll get you out of here as soon as possible," Ranma said gently as he set the man back down on the floor. He patted the man's face once more and got to his feet, walking over to Yoshida.
"I'm going to head up there Sergeant," Ranma informed. "If I spot anything than I'm going to head back down here in a hurry."
Yoshida nodded his understanding and motioned for the men guarding the corridor to make room for Ranma to get past.
Ranma turned one last time to Ryoga, the bandanna clad man smiled and winked. Ranma winked back and began to ascend the staircase.
===============
It was absolute silence as Ranma made his way up the stairs and he used all of his training to keep himself from making any noises. There were no doors that lead from the bottom floor to the top, which complicated things, since he would be easily spotted if he simply climbed the stairs. He considered going into the Umisen-ken, but decided against it, doing that took a lot out of him, and if they did indeed make it out alive, he would need all of his strength to get them the hell out of China.
It was probably empty, Ranma thought to himself. Considering that the guards must have heard the shooting in the lower floors, they would have gone for help, and if that was indeed the case, then they would have company coming very quickly.
It wasn't empty, but neither was it full of live Chinese guards. Instead, the room was full of dead Chinese guards, and a whole hell of a lot of soldiers, none of them looking very Asian.
Ranma spotted a particular soldier and leapt up into the room and ran across the room. The other soldiers were surprised, but when General Parker didn't react, other than to smile and laugh as the prisoner enveloped him a hug, they decided it was alright.
"I knew you would come for me you big bastard," Ranma proclaimed as he let go of Phil.
Parker nodded, but now grew serious. "We aren't that well off as you think Ranma," he said in Japanese, further confusing the other soldiers. "Our modes of transportation are now out of fuel, and since I doubt we will be able to find any, we'll have to wait three days until the Navy come to pick us up."
"That doesn't really matter," Ranma said. "We killed all the guards down below, and got all the POW's free, but we were at our wits end about what to do after that."
"We set another team down about a few miles off to take care of the barracks there, which held a few hundred soldiers that would have been on this place in a few minutes. The bad news is we lost contact with our team and all we get is static."
"Then we should probably get the hell out of here then," Ranma suggested as he ran back to the staircase and called for everybody to come on up. In a few moments the room was filled with soldiers and POW's. The other American and Russian soldiers looked in shock at the condition the American POW's were in. Ranma walked into the middle of them, and then came back supporting a man that was in the same condition as the other POW's.
Phil recognized the man even though it had been almost half a decade since he'd last seen him.
"Ryoga," Phil said in shock as he stared at the man's face. Ryoga looked at him without recognition for a moment before it clicked in his head.
"It sure took you long enough you big bastard, I was thinking that I would have to find my own way out of this place," Ryoga said, making the effort to smile.
Before anything else could be said an American Green Beret came rushing through the front doors.
"We've got a truck full of soldiers on its way down the road, they've got anti-tank weapons and mortars from the looks of it," he said in a calm voice that betrayed the severity of the news.
Parker held up his hand and now spoke in English. "Alright, load up the POW's and Japanese on the flatbed trucks outside. I want at least five armed soldiers on each truck and have grenades at the ready."
The soldiers immediately went about carrying out Phil's orders. The first of the POW's were put up into the trucks when the first mortar landed.
"Move it!" Parker shouted as he carried Ryoga in his arms towards a jeep that was inside the compound parking lot. Ranma followed close behind and hopped into the side seat. Ryoga was placed into the back and Phil hopped into the front seat. As he was starting the engine, another soldier hopped in. Ranma and Phil turned to look at who it was.
"Yoshida! You bastard what are you doing here?" Ranma demanded. "I gave you an order to go with the trucks!"
"No offence sir, but if all you have is a weapon you've never fired before, than you will need all the help you can get," Yoshida replied.
Ranma was set to argue some more when Phil spoke up.
"Can you drive?" Yoshida nodded. "Good, you get in the front seat and give Ranma your pistol."
They switched positions, and Yoshida had the engine running just as bullets began to whiz by. Not really caring where he went, as long as it was away from the Chinese, Yoshida pulled out of the parking lot and drove onto the unpaved road, noticing that the flatbed trucks were already half a mile ahead.
The sound of an assault rifle going off so close to him made Ranma jump. He looked back in his seat and saw Phil firing off short bursts at the soldiers behind them.
"Shit!" Parker exclaimed. "They're following us in the truck. He continued to fire, hoping to hit the driver, but the road was so uneven that he had a hard time centering his shots.
Ranma glanced back again. There were soldier in the back of the truck firing at the jeep, but the bullets were all going wide. Ranma was about to pass on the news to Yoshida when he saw a soldier standing with a long tube on his shoulder.
"Oh fuck!" Ranma yelled. "Yoshida step on the fucking gas they've got RPG's!"
The warning came too late, and the Chinese soldier fired. His shot missed the jeep itself, but it struck the ground directly left of the jeep and sent it flipping side over side into the heavy brush next to the road.
Phil was thrown from the vehicle and crashed at a blindingly speed into a tree. Ranma had foregone the expense of using his seatbelt, and he was catapulted out of the jeep on the first roll, only to have it come down and fall onto him. Yoshida was kept inside the vehicle, but he had been hit rather intensely by the grenade fragments that had come up and through the side of the jeep. Ryoga was thrown from the jeep as well, but landed only on the frozen ground.
Everything went black as the sound of more shots rang out.
===============
Author's Notes: Now that chapter took a long time to come out. I would apologize, though I didn't have much of a choice.
Well, there's not much more left in this story, and it will be ending soon, maybe even before the summer is up. As for a sequel, I find it not very likely; I hope that doesn't disappoint too many people.
Sorry for being so evil as to have everybody get rescued at the last minute and then having that happen right at the end.