Chapter 9: Knight fall.
When Ranma caught up with the girls they were already ensconcing themselves into the living room. Cups of tea had appeared as if by magic and pillows were being Placed into laps.
"Girls" he said, approaching from the doorway, "first of all I would like to apologise. I had not forseen the effects that the souls-sight might have had on you. It was-"
"Ranma," Setsuna cut in, looking up from her clasped cup, "its okay. If there had been a demon hiding there in mortal form then the extra warning would have been useful." The other girls nodded their agreement.
"A tactical advantage" added Ami.
"Then what was the…" Ranma began but trailed off.
"The train?" Setsuna guessed, leaning into Michuru for support. Ranma nodded.
"The men in tat building they were more than just bad they were empty," Setsuna explained.
"I warned you that they might be," Ranma agreed, still puzzled.
"But that wasn't the problem was it" cued Michuru.
"No the problem was that we're just like them," Setsuna said in a quiet voice.
"No we are Not!" Exclaimed the infuriated girl beside her, "They are filth who have peddled in hate and despair. They sold their souls willingly to the demons for greed and power. We are nothing like-" She was stopped by Ami's gentle touch, but only just. In her eyes righteous indignation still flared.
"Hear her out," advised Ami, already suspecting the truth.
"Not like that" Setsuna agreed, weariness making her careless with her words, "but perhaps more than we know."
"Go on" prompted Michuru still tense as a coiled spring.
"They
were empty," Setsuna explained, "all they had left was the greed
and envy. It drove them and consumed them." Michuru nodded, willing
to let Setsuna explain. "At some point they put aside all else that
had ever been in their hearts and embraced the dark parts of their
soul."
"You fear we do the same" cut in Ranma, now seated to
one side. Setsuna nodded and continued.
"We used to fight for high ideals. For principles and romantic notions."
"And now we fight to win, to hurt those who hurt us" concluded Ami, causing the other girls to nod.
"Before the training, we were more than soldiers" Setsuna offered, "and more than-"
"We are now?" queried Michuru, anger in her voice. "I don't agree," she stated, eyes flashing, "We were naive, blundering around in the day unaware of the approach of night. Yes we are harder now, and perhaps darker, but we are who we have to be. Our childish belief in foolish notions cost us dear. Or have you forgotten that our friends lie cold in County? And now you accuse us of betraying their memory?" she finished with a tone between demanding and scathing.
"I have not forgotten anyone" Setsuna replied, her voice icy.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Michuru demanded, suddenly standing. "And how do you get off accusing Ranma of this, after all he has done for us! When we were lost he was the one who found us! Where were you?"
"Girls!" Ranma broke in, "Steady!" Setsuna, ducked her head, ashamed and after a brief moment so did Michuru. "Nobody was accusing anyone of anything."
"Hai" Michuru agreed, slumping visibly "Gomen" she offered to her oldest friend, "I'm on edge, I guess I'm just not really dealing with this as well as I thought, eh"
"Me too" Setsuna agreed reaching out to hold her friend again. When Setsuna looked up again it was to see Ami watching with teary eyes and a lost look she hadn't seen since the hospital. They pulled her into the embrace, and for a moment all was well.
O
O
Ranma slipped out over the back wall. He was angry. Not because of what the girls had said. Not even because they had instinctively excluded him. No he was angry because he had been hurt by the words and turned backs. He was angry with himself. He needed these girls to be hard, needed their unquestioned support and obedience. Hell was going to be worse than they could possibly imagine and any hesitation could surely kill them all. If their old styles re-surfaced on the mission then there was no way they would see clear skies again.
But now he had weakened, showed them some compassion. Understanding would follow, and then doubt. With doubt came hesitation and that led to failure; an unstoppable path to tragedy.
Then Ranma stopped, perched halfway into a leap from the roof of a restaurant, suddenly struck by a thought. He was wrong. He knew it. All this time he had been using the girls. They had been pawns in his quest for revenge. He had never really believed that their dear princess would be saveable, nor that they would even live to tell the tale.
As the heaven's opened above, and rain began to come down, Ranma's fists crushed the rail he held onto. All this time he had been lying, to himself, to the girls to them all. He jumped down onto the roof and paced over to the elevator top, mind spinning.
When had he made these decisions. Just when had he abandoned real hope. He sat, cross-legged on the wet roof, heedless of the rain. Mercilessly he tore through his own memories, searching for the truth. The pain was intense but that was hardly new.
There it was, a scar, an anomaly in his mind itself. Something he had blanked off for reasons unknown. But the question was, dare he open his mental equivalent of Pandora's box? Could he afford not to?
With a wrench he tore the bonds aside. Only much later did he ever consider that a slow peel might have been more conducive to his health. The sudden insight was blinding, intense and more than a little painful.
Suddenly Ranma found himself facing off against a dark double of himself. He only had brief heartbeats before the clawed parody charged in, murder shining in his eyes. The fight was outright vicious, and conducted at a furious speed. Claw, fist, foot, elbow and knee flashed around in a deadly dance of focussed aggression. It went on and on, with no sign of either tiring or stopping. Each seemed perfectly matched. Heartbeat by heartbeat the intensity continued to rise, fury and focus warring for supremacy.
Each drew on the dark energies that sustained them, pushing their limits way beyond that of ordinary mortals. And Ranma knew he was lost. The difference was miniscule but it was there none the less, the doppleganger was better at drawing the power.
Suddenly a block failed, a dodge got mistimed, and a claw hammered through. Ranma found himself spitted upon the claws of the dark version of himself.
"You are weak!" it rasped, twisting the claw. "You doubt!" Ranma responded only with a wordless grunt of pain.. "We will hurt them!"
"Who?" Ranma gasped, "who are you trying to hurt?"
"Eeeveryone" the apparition hissed hatefully. Ranma heard the words and knew who this was.
"You're who they wanted me to-"
"Yeeees" is hissed, "I am who you could be. Who you will be."
"No" Ranma gasped, strength failing.
"Yeeees" it hissed, as everything went dark.
O
O
O
"Bastard!" Ranma rasped jerking upright. He found himself still on the roof, but not alone, beside him knelt the soaked and concerned form of Urd Goddess of the past. She was wearing a white shirt and jeans. Oh and around her neck were locked both of Ranma's powerful hands.
"oops" he said, letting her go. She fell to her hands and knees, coughing, and he slumped back brain swirling. "I'm a complete bastard!" he swore quietly.
"Won't get any arguments from me!" Urd agreed through her sore throat, "I mean I come out here and worry about- Urk" she was cut off by a sudden hug. To say she was confused would have been one heck of an understatement.
"You saved me," he whispered into her ear in a breath that sent tingles all the way down her spine. Suddenly she was aware of just how close to naked she was in this all but transparent shirt, just how close his face was to hers, and just how damn fine that well toned body of his felt. She resisted the urge to devour him, but only just.
Ranma let her go, holding her instead at arm's length. For a moment he wondered at the strange expression on her face then dismissed it.
"What time is it?" he asked, in a hurry.
"Uh, just before midnight" Urd replied, confused by the sudden turnaround. She was even more confused when Ranma leapt up suddenly alarmed.
"Shit late!" he swore turning to run off, then stopping and turning back to her. "You see now I know I don't have to be," he said as if it explained something.
"Uh?" queried Urd.
"I had a plan" Ranma explained, "I was going to get my revenge."
"On who?" she asked caught up in the light that shined from him.
"Everyone, everything" Ranma answered, "I was going to be the demon Baltha-bastard wanted me to be, with nobs on. I didn't know it but I was and now I'm not."
"Huh?" she offered, more lost than ever.
"There is another way" he told her serious and happy at the same time. "I'll do both, and just maybe I can walk….No that's silly I won't but they will."
"Whoa!" she demanded, slapping a hand over his mouth. "Shut up for two seconds and then start at the beginning!"
"I was right, Setsuna was right" he said, very slowly, but no less intelligibly. "I am a bastard!"
"Uh-huh" she nodded, still feeling the throb in her neck.
"But so
were you" he went on in the same lecturing tone.
"Uh?" she
asked
"Hild's daughter?" he explained. She nodded a reply, starting to get the thread.
"So you thought that because you had hell-powers you were doomed to be a demon but now you know-"
"That all the plans I made on that assumption don't actually have to happen," Ranma agreed.
"And instead you can turn to the side of heaven," Urd prompted. Ranma just tilted his head back and barked a laugh.
"Hah! Fat chance" he said, "It's too late for that, and besides, I may not be as much of a bastard as I was going to be but I am still going to make them pay. And in the very worst way!"
"Ranma" Urd tried to interject.
"No" he cut her off, "They pay, all of them," his voice was pregnant with rage and violence, "and they don't ever stop paying. Ever!"
"Ranma no!" she wept, but it was too late he had turned and was already bounding away through the lessening rain. "Ranma" she whispered, "its not too…" but even she couldn't finish the words.
O
O
Ranma landed in the graveyard with an almost soundless cat-like crouch, his coat coming to rest around him a heartbeat later. His eyes shined dark in the cloudy night.
"I thought you weren't going to come!" grumped a very wet Mara.
"You were wrong" Ranma said in a tone that made the rack sound like a holiday camp. He flicked the rain from his hair, at the same time straightening and turning slowly towards the demoness. For a moment she caught his eyes and in that moment she was sure tat he was here to kill her. The colour drained from her face and her hands were already up in warding gestures by the time she noticed the expression was gone.
"Well?" he cued her.
"Well what?" she asked, swallowing the lump in her throat.
"Hild?" He prompted. Sher nodded and turned away, pretending to be gathering her energies when in fact all she was doing was gathering herself.
"Shit" she muttered, "that kid's an asshole."
O
O
"Shit That kid's an asshole!" Urd swore as she stepped into the shrine, wringing her hair out onto the floor.
"Urd!" Bell complained pointedly.
"Shi- I mean oops!" she conceded, and then smirked sheepishly at the floor.
"It doesn't matter" Bell said resignedly. "how was your night?"
"Really dull up until the end" Urd answered, flopping down into the couch.
"Oh?" Bell prompted, already mopping the floorboards.
"Yea, Carlo was a complete washout," Urd explained, turning around on the couch to face her sister, "no spine to him at all, one little gargle-blaster and he was flat."
"Urd, you know you aren't meant to give those to mortals," Bell chided.
"Yea but, well, you know," Urd mumbled, turning back, "But he wasn't the big news" she added, leadingly.
"No?" bell asked, squeezing the mop in the bucket.
"No that was Ranma" Urd answered, offhandedly.
"Ranma" bell echoed suddenly stock-still and white as a sheet.
"Yeah" agreed Urd, finger-coming her hair "Saotome Ranma, you remember him?"
"uh-huh" Bell replied, now seemingly unsteady on her feet she came and sat on the side of the couch. "Didn't Kami-sama say he was going to do…"
"hai" whispered Bell in a tiny voice.
"Weren't you…" Urd continued, but only the sound of her sister's door slamming answered the question. "Oh no…." she whispered
o
o
o
As the hell gate closed behind them Ranma found himself in Nifleheim for the very first time. Nifleheim was to Hell what the earth was to ancient theorists on the nature of the universe, a central core that defined all existence about it but, because of its unique nature, not actually a part of it.
"Welcome to our home" Mara offered in her best Dracula voice. An effect that was totally lost on Ranma who was desperately trying to reign in his temper. Around him he could see literally swarms of the vile creatures he had sworn to destroy and yet it was not the time, yet.
In front of them the crooked, brazen and bone-built towers of the Demon capital rose, in defiance of every law of gravity. Among its lofty, accursed spires figures flew, demons on the wing. The streets were paved with the bones and hardened flesh of the unworthy. The walls built out of their screaming faces. Here the souls of evil men came for their punishment, and here they rested in torment. The air was flavoured by their pain and rent by their continual screams. Everywhere he looked he could see pain and misery but at least here he knew it was not random, these souls were not random pickings but victims of their own evils, sentenced to spend a time here in penance for their worldly sins.
Still his fists clenched and a growl built deep within his chest.
"Whoa! Down boy!" Mara blurted, her fear returning, "think of the dolphins…er...say Goosphabah…oosa?" she tried, becoming more and more desperate.
"Mara" Ranma growled, "Hild!" he commanded, She swallowed and led him into the city, once again walking with that itchy feeling right between her shoulder blades.
They walked through the city, their path cleared by gawping demonlings. Even the lowliest of them could feel the roiling power that came off the male of the group, and the palpable fear that the female was projecting. Needless to say those demons who knew Mara by sight were even more awed.
"Here we are," Mara announced. They had stopped in front of the largest building of the city, a skyscraper that reached up into the roiling red skies above. Its face was as red as the clotted blood that lined the street, its crown all in deepest black and horned. Its very presence seemed to ooze malevolence, and imposing power.
Ranma's lip curled and he pushed through the doors, aching for a release, which is when he saw Giltaberntz, Balthazzar's favourite little imp. Mara heard his knuckles crack and just had time to wince before the violence started.