Ranma ½ belongs To Rumiko Takahashi, Viz video and others. Any other works belong to their respective people as well. I don't own any of this so just sit back and enjoy the tale, oh and don't sue me please that would be bad.
Note: Where Necessary our Ranma will once again be referred to as Ranko so as to keep confusion to a minimum.
Chapter 14 – Battles
The next morning found Eudial and Ranma were lying in bed. Tensions and frustrations at the sailor senshi had been taken away in a frenzy of activity a few moments ago, and the two were calmer and more sedate now. "Mhmm, I do believe we should send Tellu and Villuy after those sailor girls or perhaps Cyprine and Ptiliol."
"Hmm, that could be a good Idea Eudi-chan, we send Tellu and Villuy out and if they are defeated we use their heart crystals to power ourselves up."
"What about Master Pharaoh 90, Kaolinite, Dr. Tomoe and the others?"
"What about them? The Master is still trapped away, Kaolinite has lost much of her powers and a hand, meanwhile Dr. Tomoe does mad things in the basement. Telling Tellu and Villuy that the Master orders them to steal heart crystals openly in Juuban will be a cinch and then when they are each destroyed we will make off with their collections. We will give the collected crystals to the Master and those from Tellu and Villuy for our own use. As for Cyprine and Ptiliol the two simpering idiots will follow any orders that come from the 'master'."
"But what about the Talismans?"
"You, my dear," he said stroking her inner thigh, "will create a program using the dark energy from one of the heart crystals we keep. That program will find the pure heart crystals that hold the talismans, and we will take them from their bearers. Once we collect the talismans we will destroy Mistress Nine, summon the master to this world, and I shall be his messiah." The naked pig tailed boy laughed an evil laugh while Eudial shivered with pleasure.
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Later in the day, Tellu took her new orders to heart at a well-sponsored gardening convention. She readied her special plants and went around infecting other plants with a special serum. "Soon, my pretties, you will collect heart crystals for me, but not until later today. Later when the school children are here on their Biology trip, that is when you will strike. Wait until then my darlings." All of the plants settled down listening to their mistress and waiting for the right time to strike.
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Ryouga and the rest of the Inner Senshi were at the convention listening to their biology teacher drone on about the living plants all around them and the techniques that were being used. Usagi had already fallen over twice from falling asleep, but the lecture and tour seemed endless. Finally, they were in the middle of the convention at a judge's platform and next to the platform was largest plant they had seen yet. At the podium, a man stood in a green tuxedo and held onto a microphone saying, "The judges have decided; the winner of best in show goes to Akiko Morizuni for her purple hybrid morning glory!" Suddenly the stage trembled and shook. A green haired girl appeared next the plant and said, "I, Tellu, command you all to attack. The time has come!" The giant plant next to the platform became alive and full of motion and began to steal the heart crystals the many people nearby who had gathered to hear the announcement.
Ryouga and the Inner Senshi barely escaped the area with their heart crystals intact, but the entire convention center was awash with chaos as smaller plants came to life and started stealing heart crystals, bringing them to the large plant.
Ryouga pulled out his lightsabre and started cutting into plants left and right as the rest of the senshi transformed and joined in the attack. Sap and other plant juices spread all over the room as the senshi and Ryouga destroyed plant after plant in an attempt to get back to the main one. Once they arrived they saw a Tall green haired girl directing the evil plant and its minions. "Garden shows are places or beauty and wonder, not hurt and despair. In the name of the Moon we shall punish you!"
Sailor Moon attacked and Ryouga looked at Jupiter asking, "Does she always do that? Well, I guess I can't complain about it after years of shouting 'Ranma Prepare to Die!' I guess a bit of a speech before a fight is almost normal." Then he too attacked the evil plant.
The sailors slammed the plant with their attacks and Ryouga hacked at it with his lightsabre. They were doing significant damage to the large plant, but then Villuy commanded, "Come my pretties! Destroy them all." At that, numerous tiny plants came into the area and attacked all those gathered in the room, trying to kill them or steal their heart crystals. Sailor Moon and the rest of the combantants were covered with plants until Tuxedo Mask arrived and pulled her out. Then he said with the reassurance, "You can do it Sailor Moon!"
Sailor Moon stood up and transformed again; the transformation put her into a beautiful white dress and gave her feathery wings. She then chanted, "Eternal Moon Plant Destruction!" The spell withered and killed all of the plants in the room except for the gigantic one next to Tellu. The giant plant had healed itself and was menacing the entire group with its numerous appendages. Sailor Moon tried her new attack again, but it failed to affect the giant plant. Meanwhile, the other sailors attacked, but the giant plant now seemed to be immune to all magical attacks. Ryouga, however continued to hack at it again and again with his blade, this affected the plant and made it bleed a greenish goo.
The plant then turned its damaged side away from Ryouga's energy blade and tried to keep him occupied by wrapping him up with its smaller roots and branches. However, when the giant plant turned, its collection of heart crystals was visible for all to see. In the center, the plant was beginning to form what looked like a black star. Tuxedo Mask threw his rose at the star and sent the crystals tumbling to the ground. He rushed to grab them, but Tellu beat him to it and grabbed them all. This sealed her fate as the plant also tried to grab the heart crystals. Tellu was then placed in a battle against herself because her own energy was powering the plant. Each time she fired a blast at the plant she drained her own energy and each time the plant attacked her it drained her energy. Finally Tellu ended up killing the plant with one of her attacks, but soon afterwards she fell to the ground dead, completely drained of energy.
The group of Sailor Senshi had watched the entire battle and its inevitable end with some trepidation. It was only when the battle was done that anyone dared to get between Tellu and the plant. Sailor Moon stood there and started to gather heart crystals with the rest of the group quickly following her example. They dispersed and gave out the crystals, but there were not enough. Fully half of the people in the convention center were without their heart crystals. When the group came back to the podium, they found the dead plant, but no sign of the witch Tellu except for a single plain white card. Upon opening the card, Sailor Moon saw a Wild Black horse trampling a moon under its feet printed inside. Written in a scrawling and barely legible hand was, "Thanks, we couldn't have gotten her heart crystal and the others without you."
Ami said, "I don't understand it. How were the heart crystals stolen? I understand that it is possible that Tellu's crystal could be stolen when we left her here, but we saw the whole battle between Tellu and the plant; Usagi picked up the crystals afterward. At no time did we see another person at all."
"Umi Sen Ken."
The group looked at Ryouga who continued, "It's one of the Saotome style techniques; it used to be a forbidden technique of the school, but I've been training in it and the sister style the Yama Sen Ken. I don't know much about the Umi Sen Ken yet, but it can mask your presence from other people. It covers your life energy and makes you almost undetectable."
Mercury pulled out her computer and said, "So essentially you claim that this Ranma person knows a martial arts cloaking technique?"
Ryouga snickered and said, "It's funny you say that, because the technique does actually require a cloak. Well, at least it does for beginners like me. Here, let me see if I can show you." He walked towards Tuxedo Mask grabbed his cape and said, "I'll give this right back okay?" Then he was gone. A few moments later he re-appeared saying, "It takes a bit more practice to do it for longer and it's especially taxing when you have high chi levels."
Before Ryouga could give Tuxedo Mask his cape back Mercury said, "Wait! Would you do that again Ryouga?" She held out her computer as Ryouga performed the maneuver again, this time reappearing even sooner that the previous time. "Thank you Ryouga; that was a great help."
"What Was?"
The Senshi piled in towards Ami with a "Let me see," "Hey don't push," "Get off my foot meatball head!" and similar cries.
Finally, they were all able to see the screen as Ami showed them her recording. On the screen Ryouga disappeared for a brief moment, but in addition, the computer noted that the area he was in had no life energy at all, whereas even the surroundings did have some life energy. There wasn't a large difference, but it was enough for the Mercury computer to detect.
The senshi cheered and Usagi said, "This is wonderful Mercury; now let's go celebrate with ice cream!"
"Hey dumpling head—it might not be so useful in combat."
"Waaah! Don't pick on me."
"She's right don't hatch your chickens before you count."
"Isn't that don't count your chickens before they hatch?"
"Don't bother Ryo-chan she never gets those things right." The brown haired senshi then held her arm out and said, "Come on—let's go do something together." The two then walked off to be alone for a while. The rest of the senshi, after some bickering and other friendly foolishness, finally decided that ice cream was more important.
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Later that afternoon, Ranko and her two friends were having a relaxing lunch at the Tendo apartment after some sparring. Sakura was sitting in her wheel chair with them and giving thanks for all their hard work. When lunch was finished, Hotaru fell asleep on the couch and Sakura covered her with a blanket and looked over her as Beryl took out the gems and showed them to Ranko saying, "This is it, these are my generals. Terribly sorry to have put you through so much trouble Ranko."
The red haired elfin girl said, "Feh, it's no problem. I tell you though Beryl I gotta get more control of Sailor Sun."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that when I transform and even sometimes beforehand it's almost like I am Taya or that Taya takes over for me. I don' like that; I don't like not being in control. Take yesterday fer instance—you were in trouble and I woulda transformed if it looked real bad, but Taya just took over transforming me and putting me in touch with levels of power that I'm almost afraid of okay? What woulda happened had Taya decided to take out all the senshi right then and there? With the power I felt in my hands it coulda easily meant the destruction of half the city. I can't let myself destroy half the city just cause my past life hates some people you know what I mean?"
Beryl nodded and Ranma continued, "It's like why can't I get over this? Just because these girls killed me or Taya or whatever in the past does that mean I gotta hate and despise them now? Just cause we got some bad blood it don't mean we gotta be enemies you know?"
"You actually believe that, don't you Ranko?"
"Yeah I do—why?"
"What if what happened was so bad you can't forgive them? What then Ranko, could you forgive people even if they stole your true love away and consigned you to almost an eternity of nothingness?"
"I don't know Beryl, I guess if they changed and were tryin' to make amends I might have to forgive them. Maybe there's something out there that someone could do ta me to make me never forgive 'em, but I haven't seen it yet. Then again, I have killed people fer doin the wrong thing and doing evil things. So maybe I'm wrong, but I sure do hope not."
Beryl just looked at Ranko and then she kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I've never really met anyone like you Ranko." Just then, the phone rang Sakura picked it up with a "Yes." There was a long pause and then, "I understand Nabiki." Then Sakura gasped and said, "Yes, I've got it all. I'll tell them to hurry to you right away." She looked to Ranko and Beryl and then said, "You must help. Furinkan High school has been overrun by strange little robots and a girl with blue hair is directing them."
Ranko stood up and Beryl followed suit. They were about to go when Ranko said, "Wait, what about Hotaru?"
"She will be safe here with me, I promise. When you get to the school, go to the girls' locker room. There you will find my daughter Nabiki. She has a cell phone and if anything happens I'll call you okay?"
Ranko nodded and ran out the door. "Please hurry, those machines have already hurt that Kunou boy and I'm afraid that Akane might hurt herself as well!" The two teens didn't hear the last part of the message, because they had already transformed and teleported to the school.
Sailor Sol and the newly rechristened Sailor Beryl appeared at Furinkan High school at the school were hundreds of little robots taking peoples heart crystals. The two girls destroyed all the robots they could see with two or three attacks and then walked into the school destroying robots as they went along. They reached the locker room door, but it had been barricaded from the other side. "Stand aside Sailor B, I'll open it."
"Sailor B?" The grayish pink haired senshi looked at Sol with a confused expression.
"Yeah, well I figured you didn't want to go by Moon and it probably wouldn't be best if you used your real name, eh?"
Sailor B moved out of the way and Sol was about to kick the door in when Beryl said, "Maybe we should just ask them to move the barricade before you destroy it?"
Sol looked sheepish and called out, "Uh, to anyone in there! We are Sailor Sol and Sailor B here to rescue you!"
Sounds of movement came from the room and the door opened. Inside were about ten to fifteen girls huddling together behind a Brown Haired girl with a pageboy haircut. "See girls? The cavalry has arrived." Then she stepped over to Sol handed her the phone and said, "Nice to see you Ranko, you want to help us out here or what?"
"How did you know?"
The brown haired girl smirked, "I keep a camera at the abandoned lot to capture all the fights that happen there. You and your friends have put on quite the show over the last few days. It should make me quite a tidy profit."
Ranko grabbed Nabiki and said, "You can't do that! People could be hurt."
"Relax sister, there's not going to be any footage that shows identities. Okay?"
Ranko nodded and said, "Alright let's get you all out of here. Follow us." They headed out of the school when they heard a voice say, "Nay Vile temptress you shall not slay the noble Akane Tendo! Not as long as I, the Black Thunder, stand in your way."
Ranko groaned and said, "Come Sailor B, it looks like we will have to save this pompous fool. The rest of you girls get out of here quickly!" Then she ran towards the voice.
They arrived at the school gym to find Villuy hitting Kunou with a Mosaic Buster the energy crashed into him and sent him down. Looking at the boy Ranko was sure he wouldn't get up again and yet somehow he forced his body to move. Standing on a broken leg and with one arm limp at his side the Kendo master looked at Villuy through his one good eye pulled his boken into the ready position. He coughed up some blood and declaimed, "to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." Then he attacked.
Villuy fired a Mosaic Buster at him and he would have died had Sailor Sol not snatched him from his peril. She rapped a fist on his head and said, "Go to sleep we'll take it from here." She then let him go and he slumped to the ground next to his beloved Akane.
Sailor Sol looked at Villuy with a cocky grin and said, "For the first time ever one of Kuno's statements actually made sense to me. I think I'll have to remember it after I take you down."
Villuy fired a Mosaic Buster, but Sol was no where near the spot and then Beryl smiled and fired her new and improved sugar hearts of death at Villuy. The witch was buffeted by hearts, but it was not enough to take her down. She escaped from the hearts only to be hit by a searing blade of pure plasma. She was able to put it out and scream "Robots attack!"
Sol and Beryl were attacked by hundreds of tiny Robots when Sol said, "Get Kunou and Akane outa here. I've got an idea."
Beryl grabbed Kunou and Akane and escaped from the room. Meanwhile Sailor Sol flew into the air and performed a spiral pattern as she avoided the robots. Villuy yelled up, "What are you doing dear? Did your friend leave? No matter I can kill you up there as well. Mosaic Buster!" Twin beams of energy fired at Ranko, but she avoided then and continued her spiral in the air. She flew to the center of the spiral and looked at Villuy saying, "Try this Hiryu Korin Dan Revised, Solar Winds."
As the funnel of Plasma was about to touch down Ranko realized that Villuy had been standing over a good number of heart crystals. She sped down with the funnel and grabbed the bag protecting it with her own body. The heat and energy seared into Sailor Sol overloading safeguards and cooking her. Villuy was also under Sailor Sol and saw the destruction that had been wrought in the Gym. Nothing was left untouched and small fires were burning everywhere. She threw the Sailor Girl off of her and fired another Mosaic Buster into her gut. Sol still held onto the heart crystals and tried to stand up.
Beryl arrived back into the gym and saw Ranko trying to get up. She ran to her and picked her up looking at Villuy with anger and hatred she said, "Sol destroyed your robots and now I will destroy you."
She felt deep within herself and sent a Rainbow Moon Heart Ache towards the witch. A voice next to her accompanied with a Plasma Blade.
The two attacks slammed into Villuy and knocked her down, but she was not out. She stood up again and fired her own attack at the two girls. Both were able to avoid it, but for Ranko it was a matter of mere inches. Her body was hurt and her reflexes were shot. Beryl said, "Sol, leave now, I will handle her." Then she ran in for some melee attacks. Sol sat back and watched as the two girls traded punches and kicks. Beryl had Villuy beat for speed, which made Ranko proud of her training techniques, but Villuy was just taking the damage without issue.
Ranko watched and desperately tried to pull up some more reserves as Villuy blocked one of Beryl's blows and countered with a hard right cross. Then Villuy was able to grab one of Beryl's legs after a kick; she took the leg, put her knee on it and dropped. Ranko could hear the snap from where she lay. At that point, she knew for certain that Beryl was no match for Villuy and so she went towards the fight.
Beryl limped back on her broken leg as she saw Ranko coming closer to the fight. She realized that even the two of them might not be able to stop Villuy in their condition and then it came to her. She leapt backwards on her one good foot and pointed a Moon Healing Escalation at her friend.
Energy and health flowed into Ranko powering up her reserves of Chi and magic. Beryl was down after expending her energy, but Ranko was up, and back in batle. She bounded out of the way of a Mosaic Buster and landed with a flaming sword in her hands. She looked at Villuy, cracked her knuckles, smiled a cocky grin, and announced, "Round two begins now."
Villuy fired shot after shot at Ranko, but was unable to connect with her target. Then Ranko leaped high into the air and declared her attack to be a "Solar Storm Revised, Blinding Images." In the air bursts of super heated plasma appeared everywhere creating a blinding light. Villuy covered her eyes and tried to see where Ranko was, but it was to no avail. The storm of plasma abated and finally Villuy could see. Ranko was standing right next to her with her sword on the girl's neck. "You have lost; don't force me to kill you for all that you have done."
Villuy sneered and shouted, "Die!" She leapt back and fired multiple blasts of energy at Ranko, but once again missed her target completely. This time, Ranko almost casually avoided them all and stood next to Villuy. She swung her sword and stopped short again, but this time blood pooled around the sword at Villuy's neck. "Please don't! I beg of you."
Ranko put the sword down and then Villuy looked at her, gasped, and fell to the ground slowly dying. Ranko leapt back and looked for the assailant, but none was to be seen. Then she tapped into her Amazon technique and read the chi of the area; there in the distance was an anomaly a zone of null chi was leaving at high speed. She was about to follow when she realized that she still held a large quantity of heart crystals. "Damn!" She cursed and then she quickly gave Beryl a small chi healing and the two of them distributed heart crystals where they belonged.
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That night at the Tomoe residence Ranma returned with his cache of ill-gotten gains he smiled a cruel smile as he dropped off a large pile of crystals with Soichou Tomoe and then walked upstairs to the room he was sharing with Eudial. Once he arrived in the room Ranma handed Tellu's heart crystal to Eudial and said, "Okay now see what you can do with that talisman locator program of yours."
Eudial took the proffered crystal and set in into her computer. As Tellu's dark power crept into the machine it made a whining hum while the program that Eudial had created started to run. The program examined the heart crystal in front of it and then took the dark energy from the crystal to send small tendrils of energy around the world. Those tendrils of energy probed and prodded, examining each heart crystal that they came into contact. The heart crystal gave up its last iota of energy and dissolved into dust just as the program displayed the results of the search on the screen. The screen read in bright green letters, "Match found: Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh." Below that, the screen had yellow letters saying, "Fail: No match found for third talisman." Finally at the very bottom of the screen were bright red letters saying, "WARNING: Subjects Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh noted to have planetary links within heart crystals. Designate Haruka Tenoh is Sailor Uranus and Designate Michiru Kaioh is Sailor Neptune."
Ranma and Eudial finished looking at the screen. "Senshi, eh? Well Eudi-Chan, it looks like we will have to set a trap for our new friends?"
"Yes, and I know the perfect place to use."
Ranma smiled at her then grabbed Villuy's heart crystal and absorbed its energy. Dark and evil power roiled around him and he laughed an evil laugh as he said, "The perfect place, eh? I wonder if they will be expecting a new and improved Ranma Saotome."
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At about the same time that evening Beryl was sleeping from the day's exertion when Hotaru woke her up. Beryl looked into the girl's eyes and saw the dark energy of Mistress Nine. "Give me the heart crystals as we agreed."
Beryl looked confused and said, "What heart crystals?"
Mistress Nine slapped her and said, "The gemstones, the ones that you call your generals. Give them to me and I will be able to take this form for my own just as you have done."
Beryl looked at herself and realized the truth of Mistress Nine's words—she had taken this body from its rightful owner, just as Mistress Nine wished to do from Hotaru. "No, I will not give them to you!"
Mistress Nine sneered. "Why not? I can see the corruption in you. Why would you deny me what you already have? Perhaps you do not believe I will destroy the senshi for you?"
Beryl remembered putting heart crystals back into people's bodies and seeing them come back to life. She remembered the thanks and accolades as she and Sailor Sol left the building. There was warmth that had spread into her heart from those good deeds that made her shook her head and say in a quiet voice, "I don't think I want them destroyed anymore." Her body shuddered a bit as she started crying, "I was wrong, I realize that now after fighting against the evil witch today and seeing what she was doing I realized that it was wrong." Then she broke down completely as she sobbed and realized the enormity of all the wrongs she herself had done and how many people she had killed. It was too much for her.
Mistress Nine slapped beryl again. "Snap out of it you pathetic, simpering, whining fool! I thought you might be reasonable, but you are just as pathetic as my host is. Do you think I do not know what this is about? It is Ranko Hibiki who has changed your thinking. You have fallen in love with that worthless sex changing freak, just like my host."
Mistress Nine looked right into Beryl's eyes and said, "Do you think Ranma or Ranko or whatever the hell this person's real name is will love you back? Do you think she will appreciate the fact that you have stolen a body from a young innocent girl? What a fool you are if you think she will forgive your actions in any way, shape, or form!"
Beryl looked back at Mistress Nine and sadly said, "You are right, she may hate me for all that I have done and I deserve her rancor for those actions, but it doesn't change who I want to be or what I want to be like. It especially doesn't change the fact that I will not give you my generals so that you can take over that innocent girl's body."
Mistress Nine screamed in rage and attacked. In other circumstances little Hotaru's body would never have had a chance against Beryl, but in this case the former queen was still drained from her activities earlier in the day. Beryl stood up to defend herself and the pain from her broken leg brought her tumbling to the ground where Mistress Nine was then able to sit on top of her. Hotaru's hand reached for Beryl's heart and she said, "If you will not give me your generals I will instead take your heart crystal."
She pulled it out and examined it. "It's almost pure and untainted how is this possible?"
Beryl pushed her off and Mistress Nine went tumbling into a wall with the heart crystal in her hands. "You can move as well?" Mistress Nine was somewhat confused as she stood up and then said, "Ahh, I realize now, this is the heart crystal from the other soul in your body."
Beryl still could not stand on her leg as she realized that the former occupant of her body was still alive. The hope of redemption went through her as she said, "No don't do it! I'll give you my generals." That hope faded, as Mistress Nine consumed the pure heart crystal and transformed from a small girl into a tall lady with long black hair.
Ranko was practicing in his male form at the abandoned lot when he felt something. He extended his Amazon technique and noticed that the chi near the apartment complex was heavy and dark. He realized that something must be wrong and ran to the Tendo apartment as fast as he could. He arrived in the room just in time to see Hotaru absorb the energy from what he thought was Beryl's heart crystal and transform into Mistress Nine.
In a moment, he was a she and with a cry of, "Sol Eternal Makeup!" she became Sailor Sol. She was about to send a blast of deadly plasma at Mistress Nine when her arm was tugged aside. She looked over and saw that it was Beryl, standing on one leg and saying, "Wait, that is Hotaru!"
Sailor Sol boggled at this, trying to come to grips with the entire situation, as Mistress Nine blasted her with a ray of dark energy. She slammed into a wall and walked back cursing left and right as she tried to think up a plan of action. Nothing was coming to her and Mistress Nine was destroying the Tendo apartment.
Nabiki woke up and ran to find Akane. Then she remembered that the girl was at the Kunou mansion nursing her savior and so she ran to her mother's room and with Kasumi's help got Sakura into the wheel chair with the blasts of dark energy destroying walls and furniture as she was doing this. Then Sailor Sol landed next to her after being hit once again Nabiki just looked at her and said, "If you live you're going to pay us for the mess and repairs Ranko you hear me."
Sailor Sol nodded and went back into the battle as the Tendos escaped. Then as she was dodging the dark energy from Mistress Nine, she thought about what her healing technique had done when Ryouga was corrupted by the dark side. Thinking about that and Beryl's healing technique in her sailor form made her dodge another attack and land next to Beryl. "Hey, why haven't you transformed yet? Never mind, just transform okay? I have an idea."
Beryl had been trying her best to avoid getting hit and letting Ranko take care of the fight when she heard Ranko's request and wondered if she really could transform. She had seen the other girl's heart crystal destroyed and without that connection to the moon kingdom could she really transform?
She pulled out the henshin rod and shouted the cursed transformation phrase, but nothing seemed to happen. Meanwhile, Sailor Sol was taking energy blasts and dodging left and right waiting for her to act. She knew she had to do something, but couldn't figure out what it might be when she heard a voice. It was the voices of her generals from within their gemstones! "My queen take our power. Use it to defend the planet as was originally designed. Become a true princess of earth."
Beryl placed the gemstones of here generals into the rod and as the words came to her, chanted "Terra Crystal Makeup!" Energy surrounded her and transformed her—she spun around and around as an outfit was created around her using the power of the earth. When the process was complete, she was wearing a light brown outfit that had green leaves growing all over it. Her inordinately short skirt was seemingly made entirely out of leaves as were her tiara and earrings. When she landed on fully healed legs she had a staff of pure brown oak in her hands.
Sol was quite surprised by the new transformation, but when it was over she quickly dodged another bolt of dark energy and said, "Okay on the count of three we rush in; I'm going to use my chi healing technique you use healing magic okay? You do have healing magic, right?" Beryl nodded as felt the healing power of the earth within her.
Mistress Nine blinked in amazement at the transformation and started to retreat, but as she reached the door she heard, "3!" Then her world was pain and agony. Hotaru felt the healing magic and chi within her. The power of the healing was tremendous her entire system was healed and she felt reserves of energy that she had never felt before. The feeling was warmth and loce combined with immense power. She took that power into herself and and was in utter extasy as she felt not only healing power, but also the feelings of love that Beryl and Ranko had given out as they gave her their healing energy. She rode that energy and the feelings as they cascaded throughout her system and then she brought it to bear on Mistress Nine.
Inside Hotaru's mind Mistress Nine tried to rally herself and fight for supremacy, but her mental attacks and corruption were useless against the healing power. She practically shivered in fear as she realized that the frail little girl she had once inhabited had now become a veritable godess of light and healing power. The only thing left for Mistress Nine to do was to run and hide, but there was no sickness, shadow or corruption left to hide in. It was only her dark and evil self against Hotaru and the pure cleansing magic.
Hotaru found what was left of Mistress Nine quivering in a corner of her mind trying vainly to fight back, but it was no use. Hotaru poured out healing energy and sent it into the dark heart of Mistress Nine obliterating her from existence.
When it was all over Hotaru was herself again and the Tendo apartment itself was even somewhat repaired—albeit with wood instead of plaster and steel. The new wooden walls and panneling were patterned with multiple symbols all of a beautiful garden with a brilliant sun rising above it.
Ranko looked at the place and said, "Ah man, we're going to owe Nabiki for the rest of our lives." Beryl and Hotaru laughed at that expression and gave the girl one gigantic hug. Ranko just looked embarrassed. Discussion about what had happened would come the next day.
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A knock sounded on the door. "Quickly! There is urgent news!"
Ranma opened the door and saw Kaolinite standing there in her night clothes. "What could be so urgent cripple?" He sneered at her handless arm.
Kaolinite did not react to the taunt and said, "Master Pharaoh 90 needs to speak with us all."
"Fine, come Eudi-Chan the master needs to speak with us." The two exited the room and followed Kaolinite down the stairs to the lab. There in the lab was Souichiro Tomoe with the heart crystals that Ranma had gathered earlier. Souichiro placed the heart crystals in a machine and a dark image entered the room the sounds it made could not be called speaking, but everyone assembled understood, "Mistress Nine's spirit has been destroyed." Then it continued, "You, Ranma, have been chosen to be my new messiah. Go collect the Talismans and bring me to your world. Do not fail in this task or you will be destroyed." The image disappeared and the remaining power from the assembled heart crystals was drained into its dimension.
Ranma looked at Eudial and smiled. His plan had come to fruition and without his involvement. He secretly praised the person who had destroyed Mistress Nine and then looked to Eudial and said, "Alright let's go bait our trap." The two of them went up to Eudial's room. There, Eudial called Michiru and said only, "I know where the Talismans are. Come to the Marine cathedral and you will find them."
Ranma then picked up the phone and dialed, "Ryouga Hibiki, remember me? I sure remember you. This is the overlord who killed you, Ranma Saotome. Anyway, why don't you tell your little Senshi friends that they can find the Talismans at the Aquarium? Yes, yes, I know I look forward to it."
Eudial looked at him and said, "What was that about?"
"It's time to bring all of the senshi and their allies into the trap. You take care of Uranus and Neptune and I'll keep the others busy fighting me."
"Aren't you forgetting Sailor Pluto?"
"No, I believe that she will come to save Neptune and Uranus; when she does, I will use my new powers to teleport to you, leaving Cyprine and Ptiliol at the aquarium to kill the senshi. Together the two of us will destroy Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto while Cyprine and Ptiliol destroy the sailor senshi. After that we will collect the talismans and combine them into the Holy Grail."
Eudial looked confused and said, "But we won't have all three talismans. We will only have two."
Ranma looked at her and said, "Considering that two of the Senshi have talismans, I'm making a guess that the third must belong to a Senshi as well. The odds are in our favor that one of the Senshi that we kill tomorrow will have the third piece."
Eudial smiled and kissed Ranma deeply. "You are a tactical genius. What are your plans for Sailor Sol and her helpers?"
"Leave them be for now, I don't want to face them until after we have the talismans. Once we combine them into the Holy Grail there will be nothing that they can do to stop us. The master will come and we will destroy all those who would stand against us. We will rule the entire world at our master's side" At that Ranma and Eudial smiled evil smiles and laughed heartily until Eudial tackled Ranma to the bed and they enjoyed themselves as they contemplated their dominion over the earth.
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At the gates of time Pluto was still searching for Small Lady. She had saved the Senshi and defeated Ranma Saotome once, but she was concerned about him and his actions. As she mused about her concerns she found the energy signature of Small Lady, it glowed brightly for a brief moment and then it was gone. She was about to cry out in grief when she looked again and saw an image in the gates: it was Chibi-Usa standing at the palace in a thriving Crystal Tokyo and hugging her mother. It was a brief flash in the chaos in front of her, then it was gone, vanishing back into the maelstrom of probabilities. Pluto became determined to make sure that it wasn't gone forever… She would find this Ranma Saotome and destroy him; then she would take care of Sailor Sol and her threat to the timeline as well…
Authors Notes: Well that's the end of this chapter. As you can see Beryl has had a change of heart and Mistress Nine is no more. In addition two more death busters are dead and yet it has all played into the hands on one Evil Saotome Ranma. Will his and Eudial's plan come to fruition? Will Ranko forgive Beryl for her past actions? So many questions and so little time. Stay tuned for the next chapter…
A very special thank you goes out to Isaac "Will it Work" Dansicker for pre-reading this. With his help I've cleared up confusion on which villain was fighting the Senshi and Ryouga and which was fighting Ranko at the school. Not to mention a few ideas for livening up the fight scenes and corrections of some really bad grammer. He also gets big kudos for noticing that in this universe Kunou is calling himself the Black Thunder. It's a minor detail, but I felt that his sister's death might affect that name change.
Again, Thanks so much! And thanks to everyone who reads this. As always I wouldn't do it without you.