Prices Paid Chapter 5: Pact, a ranma fanfic

Chapter 5: Pacts with Darkness.

The cold night air whipped around the quartet as they flew through the air above Tokyo. Suddenly isolated from the noises of the city and saved from the certain doom she had been resigned to Setsuna Meiou found herself relaxing. The gentle rhythmic thrumming of great wings lulled her towards some much needed sleep.

For Neptune the trip was something else entirely, she could feel the dark energies that flowed around them and for the first time in her life she craved the darkness. In her mind's eye she could see the power that their new 'benefactor' had wielded it and wanted that power. It meant being an aggressor not a victim, never being helpless again. In the darkness of night she clenched her fists and swore to get that power, whatever the cost.

Ami was scared, operating beyond rational thought. The unending darkness, the unfamiliar noises, and the smells, had combined with the certain knowledge of deadly peril to make this the second worst day of her life. Then there had come deliverance, in the form of this man, uniquely confident. A rock in the storm. Below her hand his bicep rippled again and she heard the beat of wings.

Ranma brought them down atop a darkened towerblock, with nothing between them and the starry sky. He set them down as gently as he could, trying to ignore the drumming of his heart, the pounding in his veins. It was always this way after a fight, the feeling was a drug to beat anything sold on the streets. Of course Ranma knew that a lot of the emotion beating against the walls of his mind was from the dragon's dream, to use its power was to let it into your essence and he had used it too much this night already.

"We have arrived," he growled from deep beyond the back of his throat. He took a few steps away from the trio and tried again to calm himself, letting out a long breath that steamed in the night.

The three girls sat, one confused and sleepy, another lost and reaching out for any contact, the third focussed and determined. Ami huddled into Setsuna's side feeling suddenly bereft, as if something important to her had suddenly gone leaving only an indescribable need.

"You are the Sailor Senshi of Juuban" Ranma said. "You defeated a power by the name of Mettalia and many more besides."

"We were," Ami said, bitterness and sorrow in her voice.

"Then something happened," Ranma concluded, "You met one you weren't prepared for and it went wrong."

"You were adults playing a child's game," Ranma concluded, "only your opponent didn't know the rules." Silent tears began running down Ami's face. "He hurt you, took something from you."

"Our friends, our family, died" Setsuna said, close to tears. "We just couldn't …"

"We weren't strong enough!" Michuru said with iron in her voice.

"Yet you came for the little angel" Ranma noted, "knowing the odds you still came."
"We couldn't just stand by. We had to do something" Ami sobbed.

"And you did," Ranma said with something akin to respect in his voice. Setsuna grimaced.

"If it hadn't been for you…" Setsuna said, "breaking free of the temporal halt."

"The demon's trap might of worked" Ranma concluded. "Lucky for us all that I met those Norns and developed some protection against them." He muttered to himself.

"Ranma-sama?" Michuru asked, having picked up the name from his argument with the goddess.

"There is something more you haven't told me" Ranma rounded on them, eyes shining.

"They took one of us," Setsuna said, "our heart."

"Our princess" Ami added. Suddenly Ranma was still. He sat, facing them.

"Tell me!" he commanded, suddenly focussed.

And so piece by piece they did. They told him of the end of a dream, of the dying of a entire future. They told him of the pain and fear and the loss. The dark hole they had fallen into and that they could see no light.

By the end of the tale the tears had stopped, the pain was muted, and a new resolve had taken root in their heart. For a long moment there was silence, the girls could feel a palpable aura of hard thought coming from the man.

"I need to see your friends" He concluded, standing.

"What? Why?" Michuru asked, suddenly confused.

"You have eternal souls, I felt them as you entered the room" Ranma explained. "Your friends may be suffering more than you think," He finished.

"No!" exclaimed Pluto.

"What?" demanded Ami, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.

"You have died before," Ranma began.

"Twice," Michuru stated, the steel back.

"And yet you're still here!" Ranma finished. "So something is different this time. The demon you describe is way too high up the pecking order to have been sent out on some random reaving. He was after something, and from what Gorkidas said I can only believe it was you."
"But he …" Michuru said, steel fading, "It could have…"

"Yes" Ranma agreed, compassion in his voice, "but this way hurt more. To a demon of his calibre that is the key."

"So he let us live" Ami said, having already guessed the truth, "to hurt us."

Ranma nodded and then remembering Ami said "hai."

"Bastard!" Ami swore.

"How is it you know so much about them?" Pluto asked, more interested than concerned.

"Because my father sold me to one" Ranma said evenly, "and I spent an age as their plaything."

"Then you…"

"Then from the pit I was in I found the strength to turn on them" Ranma said, fist clenching, "It cost me a price beyond measure, but I made them pay!"

"Now where are the bodies of your fallen friends?" Ranma said, standing.

"Wait," Setsuna commanded. "What's exactly on offer here?"

"I intend to turn you into the force I need to assault the very depths of hell!" Ranma told them, "We will find the souls of your friends, your captive princess and we will free them. By the time we are finished we will have shaked Hell's foundations and they will rue the day they dared to Target you and yours!"

The doorbell rang long. Ranma was less than happy about where he was but simply put it was the only way he could think of to do what needed to be done. So here he was, back at the Norn's temple.

"Hello" said the skinny boy who answered the door, a small tremor in his voice.

"I need to talk to Urd" Ranma intoned, trying to hide his frustration.

"I'll see if she's in," the boy said, bolting away inside, leaving the door flapping behind him.

Ranma waited, fists clenching and unclenching, barely resisting the temptation to leave. He was once again wearing his dark suit and long jacket combo, with gloves and shades to hide his 'darker' aspects. If she gloated just a bit then…. Suddenly from behind him to his left there was a none-too-polite cough. Ranma turned, already recognising the signature.

"Mara!" he growled and indeed there she stood, biker leathers and all. He pulled the shade from his eyes and prepeared to make good his promise.

"Whoa Big boy!" she said, raising her hands wardingly. "Pax romanis and all that!"

"Speak!" Ranma demanded.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew who you were dealing with," the demoness said. "What type of people you were dealing with."

"Go on," Ranma said, barely restraining the urge to tear this creature before him to pieces. Mara for her part saw the black burning of his aura matched in his eyes and bottled it.

"Er. Just read it okay," she said, throwing a manila folder at the figure in front of her. Then she 'ported' out as fast as her powers could carry her.

Back in the safety of her hang out she placed her back firmly against a wall and let out a long breath. "Damn but he's sexy when he's angry" she muttered trying to still her beating heart that was only partly fear.

"Bitch" Ranma growled, looking at the folder.

Ydraggsil mission report MMMCLIIVI. Saotome Ranma.

The words hit him like a thunderbolt.

"Ranma" interrupted a voice, Urd.

"What" he growled.

"Er, you tell me?" Urd said. She was standing at her door and looking at him with something like confusion on her face.

"Tell you what?" he demanded.

"Why you're here?" Urd suggested.

"Oh, yeah!" Ranma admitted, deflating a little. "I need your help!"

"Well if you put it like that" Urd said, irony dripping from her voice. Then she turned to leave.

"Wait!" Ranma ordered, but Urd did not turn back around. "It's not for me," he said, "its for the senshi."

"Go on" she said turning back slowly.

"I need you to locate a few things for me, I mean them," Ranma explained, anger all gone now, he reached into his jacket for a list.

"Why?" Urd asked, taking the list.

"Firepower" Ranma offered, "Can you do it?"

"Yes" Urd replied, scanning the list, "I think I can. But the question is" she said, looking back to Ranma, "what's in it for me?"

"Fucking goddesses!" Ranma growled in low demonic, completely forgetting Urd's peculiar origins.

"I was thinking dinner" Urd corrected, "but if you like…"

"What?" Ranma demanded confused.

"Dinner, Saturday, seven thirty, your treat" she said with a smile before leaving.

"Oneesan how could you?" demanded her littlest sister "After what he said to us-"

"Because" Urd said, and then went into her room without finishing the statement.

"Do you ever think with anything above the waist?" Skuld screamed at her sister's closing door.

Meanwhile, unobserved, Bell stood at the window of the living room, white as a sheet and biting her trembling lip. She had seen what Mara had given the demon touched man and now she was close to tears.

Ranma returned to his family home over the rooftops, mind spinning. As he touched down in the yard he could hear the sound of combat from the Dojo. He listened for a moment then strode over. Old habits forced him to bow to the shrine before entering but once inside things were very different from tradition.

Sailor Pluto was beating seven shades of heck out of Sailor Neptune. Both were armed with staff weapons from the dojo stores, and had obviously been practicing for some time.

"No teishi" Ranma interrupted, stopping the two of them. "You are not helping!" he said to Neptune. "Fight! And fight hard, she can take it! Now start again!" The two girls nodded and began again, a display of only slightly controlled aggression. Their staffs smacked off eqach other in a rapid staccato of focussed violence. Through it all Ranma paced around the sidelines, giving encouragement or correction wherever necessary, driving them harder and harder.

"Stop!" he called. "This is not working!" the girls looked at him shamefaced. "You are fighting like children again. The aim is not to make a nice noise it is to Kill your opponent." With that he strode into the stores, opening them with a wave of his hand. He returned moments later with two naginata. He threw one to each of the girls.

"Now try!" he commanded. The girls took one look at the razor sharp blades and began somewhat gingerly. Ranma meanwhile went and picked up a short hardwood baton.

"Holy shit!" Pluto swore as Michuru suddenly dropped to the floor, only to be cut off as Ranma smacked the baton across her face. "You think that hurts?" he demanded at the stunned, floored girls. "Think how much worse it hurts having demonic claws tear your soul out!"

"You friends are even as we speak being tortured in ways you cannot imagine! Yet you waste time! Get up and do it right, this is your only warning, from here on out, you do it wrong, you'll feel it! Now begin!"

It was harsh, very harsh but it worked. The two girls shared a look and then went at each other with barely controlled ferocity. Ranma nodded and began circling again, baton ready to correct any infraction.

"Higher!" smack

"Rotate the left!" smack

"Sloppy!" smack

"Faster!" smack

Then suddenly they hit their groove. If one senshi hit it before the other the difference was immaterial because all of a sudden the two shifted. All hesitation, all uncertainty disappeared to be replaced by that fluid grace of warriors perfectly in tune with their weapons.

Ranma stood back and for the first time that day… smiled.

Nodoka laid the last bowl down on the table and sat herself. The girls quickly blessed the food and soon all were loading their plates. "That's the last" she said.

"This food is fantastic!" Michuru complimented, "I haven't had home cooked food in days!" She was eating with difficulty, every stretch of her torso sent stabbing pains up her sides, and her right hand was already staring to swell.

"Mmmm" Ami agreed, eating her food with difficulty for an entirely different reason. Setsuna mumbled her agreement.

Unintentionally all eyes turned to Ranma, the last diner silent. They found him lost in thought, he looked up, saw their scrutiny and mumbled his agreement. Then turned to Ami.

"Have you had any luck tracking down an answer?" he asked.

"Not really," Ami admitted, "there are plenty of mentions of blind gods but very little mention of cured ones."

"Then perhaps we should look in different directions" he mused.

"Like?" Ami asked.

"I'm not sure," he admitted.

"Maybe we could heal the eyes?" Setsuna suggested with a grimace as her bruised jaw complained.

"They were destroyed by demonic energy," Ranma explained, shaking his head slightly, "We would need an item of incredible power to achieve anything in the time we've got."

"There are many stories of blind men having guides to help them" Nodoka offered.

"I would rather Ami did not have to rely on another," Ranma said, "but that may yet be our best answer.

"If magic can't provide the answer then perhaps science will," Nodoka mused.

"Any attempt to cure through…." Ranma began but trailed off.

"What?" Ami demanded, "You've thought of something haven't you?"

"When you couldn't use your computer what did you do?" he asked.
"I downloaded a voice recognition interface" Ami said.

"A new interface?" Setsuna guessed, "that's your answer?"

"It might just work," Ami whispered.