Prices paid, Chapter 12.
The news hit the girls like a bombshell. The assault had always been a distant aim, never hat imminent, it had seemed they always had time. Now the time was gone. The world seemed to shift under the three of them.
"Why now?" Setsuna asked, from her position cradling her teacher's head. In reply Ranma waived to a blood splattered letter on the floor by the wall. At Setsuna's nod Ami crossed the room and picked it up, ignoring the dark stain on the wall. The words were exquisitely written but had become smudged by the dark red blotches that covered the paper. She opened it out and began to read. Her face may have remained coldly analytical but her eyes grew harder with every word.
"Well?" Michuru prompted, one step from a demand, from her position at Ranma's side. Her impatience was new but her concern was old. She was all too aware how te past while had change her temperament but counted it small cost in comparison to that which her lover and child had paid.
"Its from Urd" Ami explained, "The timestream has been travelling exceptionally slowly in the area you will 'visit'" Ami said, reading the missive aloud, "But as of the fifteenth this will reverse," Ami looked up, into the eyes of her friends. "According to Skuld, as of midnight tomorrow every hour of our days will be a year of torment for our friends, and the rate of change will only increase form there," she explained, her face set cold and hard. Michuru let a small gasp escape her mouth, then looked at Ranma. He alone knew what this would mean and his determination spoke volumes.
For a long time silence seemed to reign, each person seemingly lost in the implications of the news. If they didn't go now then they were condemning the other senshi to worse torment. But to go meant the ultimate risks, their very souls would be on the line down there. To go before they were prepared could mean failure and that meant at best torment and torture. But not to go? To wait, perhaps just a few more weeks? From the look on Ranma's face every girl knew that was not an option.
"You have this evening and tomorrow morning to make your peace," Ranma rasped, through a throat that had known little other than fiery hate over the last few days. "Say the words you need to say, take your last breaths of good air. We will meet at the rowan tree in Juuban cemetery an hour before dusk." With that he fought his way to his feet, still shaky. "Bring everything you need." With that he began staggering off towards the back yard.
Ami looked at Michuru and the two of them looked at Setsuna. Reading their need she nodded and the two quickly left. She however just remained there, kneeling lost in thought and an internal battle. Finally she came to a decision.
O
O
She found Ranma knelt in the Dojo, facing the one thing he had apparently not wrecked in his temper, the family shrine. There, ensconced in the very centre, stood a new picture, Nodoka, the mother Ranma never knew. Peering forward she could see the picture was an old one, Nodoka was still in her prime, standing in an unnamed dojo, dressed in fighting gear and with sword in hand. It was a side of her that Setsuna had barely guessed at.
"She was the best" Ranma rasped from his position on the floor, "Before she gave it all up to have me she was the very best in the land." His face was locked on the picture, as if trying to extract some trace of the woman, some sign that she still lingered. "She never told me" he added, "I found the trophies stored away in the attic." Of course he didn't mention that he had found them during a flight of rage where he had been looking for still more things to smash.
"It wasn't demons" Setsuna said in a voice barely above a whisper. She knelt to one side of him, at an angle so that she could see his face without obscuring his view of the shrine. "She served her family with honour."
"She's gone to a better place?" Ranma sneered. But he relaxed at the end, a small sigh escaping her lips, "I hope so," he whispered.
"We can check" Setsuna said, reaching out a hand to the suddenly frail hero. He looked at her, lost and a little confused. "You have a goddess or two who seem crazy about doing you favours" she explained, returning his gaze with one of her own. The sudden brightness she saw reflected there reminded her all too much that this man had seen so very little of real life since he was a child.
Then it was gone and her sensei was back, determined sure and in charge. " I have time to see them today" he announced, standing and squaring his shoulders. "I should see if they have any last minute news anyway."
"I'll get your coat" Setsuna said, rising. At his silent enquiry she looked him straight in the eye and added, "I have nowhere else to go either."
O
O
The pair of them arrived at the Morisato house-shrine a little over half an hour later. At some point during the trip one or the other of them had clasped their companion's hand, offering comfort through the physical fact of their presence. As Setsuna went to ring the doorbell they finally dropped the handclasp but not the bond that it had built.
"Hello?" called a sweeter that pure voice from within. Moments later Belldandy opened the door to greet her visitors, only to be struck paler than any sheet. There standing in front of her once more was the living symbol of her darkest shame. Even from across the boundary of the sacred earth she could feel the muted sorrow that poured off the young man. The pain and suffering drove another nail into her heart.
"Excuse me" interrupted a green haired beauty next to the doorway. Bell turned to look at her, for a moment not recognising the hardened form that Setsuna now presented. "We were wondering if you could help us some more?" the hard eyes beauty continued. The irony was like icy daggers into Bell's chest.
"Oh" she replied ducking her head and trying to stem the press of tears that threatened. "How can I" she began, stumbling over the words.
"Ranma's mother was killed" Setsuna replied, not failing to notice the flinch Belldandy gave as the news stabbed into her, "and we were hoping to know something more of her."
"Oh my" Bell replied, guessing what they were asking, and knowing tat it was against the rules.
"We were going to ask Urd" Setsuna explained, studying the goddess who seemed unable to take her eyes from the mourning form of her mentor, "But perhaps you could…"
"Hai" replied the divinity in question, her mind made up, it was the least she could do. "Please come in" she offered, backing from the doorway. Only her guests didn't obey, she looked up to meet Setsuna's curious expression. Then she realised that holy ground was a bar to her former charge and another nail hit home. "I will" she began, her mind struggling to deal with the guilt and think of a way around the problem at the same time, "I will find what you need to know and meet you in the park" she told them, nodding towards a green area not far away. Setsuna looked at Ranma and then back at the goddess. She nodded.
"We will see you soon" the senshi leader replied, before turning at falling in beside her dark companion.
After the door shut the lone goddess placed her back against it and slid to the floor, her pretty face enclosed by her delicate hands. It took Bell much longer than she would have liked to stop the tears that were running down her face.
O
O
Meanwhile across town Michuru had returned to a spot she hadn't been since before she had met Ranma. She picked up her lover's unfeeling hand and squeezed it, fighting to remain strong.
"Anata" she whispered, feeling the need to explain, to expiate. "Tomorrow I'm going to hell." A wry smile crossed her face, one of the first things her lover had ever said to her had been an instruction to do just that. The very idea of being a magical girl had just rubbed Haruka in all the wrong ways. "I'm not sure how much of a chance we stand but I have to try." The water senshi continued, it was almost as if she could hear her lover's objections.
"I know that you would want me to think of myself, to move on to treasure what I have but I can't" Michuru's tears warred with the new steel in her soul. "You told me enough times when we were young and feeling morbid," Michuru continued in a simple parody of her soul-mate's voice "If I am gone you must find another," then, squeezing Haruka's hand and in her own voice she added "But you should have known I can't. Without you nothing is worth it."
"We'll be together one way or another" she promised, laying a kiss on Haruka's unfeeling lips. "One way or another."
O
O
Ami's reuninon had gone much better. She had managed to find the time during Ranma's training to send the occasional message to her remaining parent and the woman was more than happy to see her child. Not least of which because the girl seemed to have made a miracle recovery.
For the first few hours everything was grand, then Ami told her mother the things she never wanted to hear. That her little girl was going off to fight again, against the same people that had killed her friends and taken her sight.
Then the mother and doctor had screamed, commanded and wept in equal measure, but none of it had worked. Her baby had been born again hard and no amount of pleading would shift her from this course.
"I have to go mother" she explained in an even, almost toneless voice, "the others are counting on me. My princess is counting on me."
"No" Dr Mizuno sobbed "Not you, let somebody else.."
"There is nobody else" Ami offered in a softer tone, "it has to be done." She lifted her mother's chin and looked her straight in the reddened tearing eyes. "I must do this" she insisted and finally her mother understood.
Dr Mizuno pulled her daughter to her, clutching the young woman to her breast with all the love in her heart. "Go my sweet" she whispered, "and may the Kami keep you safe" she prayed.
Despite knowing full well she was relying on darker forces Ami didn't argue. Instead she returned the hug and then left, shutting the door as gently as she could on her way out.
It still sounded like a coffin to Dr Mizuno.
O
O
"Are we ready?" the green haired woman asked her companion. The two of them were, at her insistence, sat under a broad tree in the park. Ranma had resisted the idea, determined to use the time for practice instead but Setsuna had countered with another concern.
"It's not relevant" Ranma countered, ripping up a handful of grass.
"Explain" Setuna replied, catching his hand and turning him to face her.
"We've run out of time" he explained and she saw the source of his determination.
"You're concerned about Usagi" she surmised, "you know what the change I time means and you want to save her before it gets too severe." Ranma nodded. "So?" she prompted. He didn't immediately reply but she could see the flicker in his eyes. "Don't try and spare me" she insisted "anything we aren't ready for…"
"In the Marches at the edges of Hell time flows faster around greater concentrations of demonic power," Ranma explained his voice hard, his eyes boring into hers. Setsuna gasped a little, the implications hammering home.
"So-" she began
"Some dark power is rising in the area," Ranma confirmed, "the area your princess is in will become darker and nastier until the power is fully manifest. All the while they will be hurting her." Setsuna was all but stunned to hear the hint of fear in his voice.
"What did they do to you?" she muttered aloud. Her mind wondering what even a demon could do to put such a fear into a man that could do the things this one had done.
"Hope you never know" Ranma replied, his eyes closing, the windows to his mind shutting as she watched.
"Hello?" came a voice and the two companions turned, rising into ready stanes. In front of them stood a very contrite looking Goddess, one who was very startled by the sudden martial display.
"I found the news you needed" the goddess offered. Inside she was still hurting, her pain little assuaged by the gesture that she was doing. She had followed his dark shadow to the tree and there she had called before she had seen them. It was only when she spotted them that she had seen just how close they were. Once again it looked like she had denied young Saotome a chance at happiness.
"Thank-you" replied Ranma in his velvet and gravel voice. In Bell's heart light began to shine once more.
"This means a great deal to us" Setsuna added, only afterwards noticing the significant 'us.' She received a file enclosed in a brown folder, much like the one Ranma had received all that lifetime ago from Mara.
"I couldn't pull the whole file" Bell explained, eager to please. Setsuna momentarily mused over the word 'couldn't' but let it pass. She handed the file to Ranma and watched as he opened it.
She saw his face change from thoughtful and determined to the happiest she had ever seen it. His smile was all but radiant. Her answering one was nothing short.
Absentmindedly he passed the file to her and quickly she too scanned its contents. She re-read it more than once before passing the file back to the goddess.
"Thank you" she said in a voice straight form the heart.
The clouds over Bell's heart let a little more light in. She watched as the two of them clasped hands and shared a silent moment of happiness before walking off through the suddenly summery day.