Disclaimer: I own neither Hellsing nor Ranma or any other series that may appear and make no monetary profit from this fanfiction whatsoever. This is done for pleasure, pure and simple.

R-Kives: Hello everyone. Well, as I said in the last chapter, we're going to go see how things have turned out back in Nerima.

Arcee: Except this chapter is mostly flashback.

R-Kives: Yeah well, people wanted to know more about what happened to send Ranma and Kasumi on the run to England so this chapter deals with what happened between Akane, Nabiki, Ranma and Kasumi.

Arcee: Some readers might not like how this chapter turns out though, especially with how rough Akane gets it.

R-Kives: True, Akane lovers may get pretty mad but let me just say this in my defense. Yes, Akane gets a real bad hand in this fic but I have plans for Akane which calls for a tragic past for her. I have plans for a spin-off fanfic starring Akane and saying anything more would spoil it.

Arcee: That and you haven't done much work on it yet.

R-Kives: cough um yes, there's that too...moving along...the next chapter, I'm hoping to concentrate more on Nabiki and more current events so Nabiki fans can relax, Nabiki will be getting more screen time soon. Now I think that's everything I wanted to say...

Arcee: cough timing cough

R-Kives: Oh right, right. The way I broke up the weeks has been nagging at me and I think I got the timing of the events a little off so if anyone notices this and can explain to me just why, I'd appreciate it. This chapter was a little too angsty for me and somehow I don't think I'm that good at writing angst. At least I wasn't really comfortable with writing it but it was necessary for the story... Anyway, I've rambled long enough so thank you for taking the time to listen to me, please enjoy this new chapter of 'To Fly Free in Shadows'

Arcee: Now can you let me go, boss? I promise to be good! Really, I do! (we can now see that Arcee is tied up and wrapped in glowing chains)

R-Kives: (glares at the bound assistant) After that business with the Ranma of MMSS, I'm not quite inclined to believe you.

Arcee: I'm really, really sorry! It'll never happen again! I swear!

R-Kives: You almost ruined the whole story! Not to mention the fact that you tried to slip Ranma a Zord! Just how the hell do you think you were going to sneak THAT by me?

Arcee: (Performs the 'Crouch of the Grovelling Worm') I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry

R-Kives: Silence! (lighting flashes dramatically) I will consider releasing you...AFTER I finish working on the next chapter of MMSS. Now...let us begin the chapter! This, I command!

---Nerima, Tendo Dojo---

A week ago the Tendo home was considered the centre of any chaos that happened to occur in Nerima. No matter what caused it to begin with, somehow, someway, it would eventually involve the Tendo home. To be more specific, it would eventually involve a certain guest of the Tendo home. Many of Nerima's inhabitants didn't really blame the boy. They could see it wasn't his fault most of the time although he caused some of the chaos occasionally. They did blame the boy's father though. Since Nabiki made quite a profit on selling information about the pig-tailed martial artist and neighbors are naturally curious when the home next door regularly erupts into screaming, shouting and airborne people being sent flying into the horizon, the people of the district knew more about Ranma's life than they did about their own.

Now the house was silent. In her room, Akane Tendo sat silently on her bed. She has just returned from school. She was still dressed in her school uniform. Her school bag lay on the floor unheeded. Its contents spilled out onto the floor, books and papers spread out messily. Her usual activity at this time would be breaking bricks, that is, training in the dojo. She hasn't done this for a week now. Not since her birthday. Akane simply sits and stares at a yellow dress that hangs from a clothes hanger on her wardrobe door. The dress is quite beautiful; even from a distance one could see that it was exceptionally well made. The material of the dress is the finest silk, quite expensive for this household. The design is original, the dress was custom made for one person. It's never been worn. Akane sits and stares at the dress...and remembers…

---One month ago---

Akane closed the door of her home and took off her shoes, placing them in their proper place. She was home later than usual today. She had spent some time with her friends after school. They had wandered around the shops while talking about various subjects. She hadn't bothered to announce that she was home, she hadn't felt like it. She wondered about why the house seemed quiet as she made her way to the kitchen. Her father and Mr. Saotome must have been out, probably drinking at some bar, and Nabiki was likely doing some business somewhere. Unless Ranma had been involved in some stupid challenge again, he'd be home now but she couldn't hear any signs of him training in the dojo. Kasumi would be home and in the kitchen of course, she always was.

Akane had reached the kitchen door and noticed that it wasn't fully closed. She was about to slide it open all the way as she wondered on the whereabouts of Ranma when she heard his voice coming from the kitchen. She froze as she heard Kasumi answer him. She couldn't make out what they were saying. When she realized that Ranma was alone in the kitchen with Kasumi when no one else was around, her anger quickly emerged. She stopped herself from giving in to her anger and stomping in to beat Ranma for flirting with her sister. 'Ranma may be a pervert but he'd never do anything to Kasumi.' Akane thought to herself. 'And Kasumi would never do anything with Ranma because he's my fiancé even though I don't like the pervert.'

Satisfied that nothing wrong was going on, Akane thought about why Ranma would be in the kitchen. 'Of course, that baka probably went in to ask Kasumi for something to eat.' She snorted silently to herself. 'Doesn't he realize that she must be busy with the housework? Honestly he's such an insensitive jerk. I wonder what he wanted Kasumi to make; I could make it for him. I'm just as good a cook as Kasumi is after all.' Akane crept closer to the door and tried to listen in on their conversation.

"Yeah, I worked it out with Nabiki." Ranma's voice drifted out from the kitchen. "She'll help us out and keep this a secret. I just need to do some jobs for her but at least I'm getting to keep some of the money for us."

"I see…how long will it take you to save up enough money?" Akane heard Kasumi ask Ranma.

"Well, there are a lot of jobs and they pay pretty good." Ranma replied. "Nabiki says I'd have enough after about a week or so."

"That'll give me enough time to plan everything then." Kasumi said after a moment of thoughtful silence. "We'll have to be careful not to let anyone else find out about it though. Especially Akane, it would ruin everything if she knew about this."

"Yeah, I know. Nabiki said she'd help with that too." Ranma said to Kasumi, sounding a little amused. "Our secret is safe with Nabiki."

Akane couldn't listen anymore and silently rushed to her room. She locked the door as she entered and dropped her things by her desk. She threw herself face down on the bed and began to sob into her pillow. Ranma WAS cheating on her like she always suspected. It just wasn't with anyone she thought it had been. Kasumi had stolen her fiancé from her behind her back and now they were planning on running away to elope! Ranma was earning the money they'd need and Kasumi was planning everything so they'd be able to get away with it before she could do anything about it! Nabiki knew about it and was even going to help them in their plan! Both her sisters had betrayed her!

Her tears had thoroughly soaked her pillow by now. Akane tried to think about what to do about her situation. No one would believe her if she told anyone. Not with Kasumi's reputation and Nabiki helping them. The other fiancés wouldn't believe her since Kasumi had fooled them just as well as she had fooled her. Nabiki might have been able to figure something out but her mercenary sister was already working for her backstabbing sister Akane thought to herself bitterly. 'How could she do that to me!' Akane thought as fresh tears flowed from her eyes. 'I always knew Ranma was a lying, two-timing jerk!'

The thought that she had been right all along did little to comfort her.

---Three weeks ago---

Ranma stumbled into the house after his last shift for the day. It was quite late and he was exhausted. He was thankful that tomorrow was his final day of work. 'Just one more day and I'll have earned enough money to buy it.' He thought to himself tiredly as he heard the sounds of soft footsteps. He looked up and saw Kasumi wearing her dressing gown and a concerned expression. 'She waited up for me again...I told her I'd be finished late so why didn't she just go to bed?' He knew why of course. Kasumi cared for him; she cared about what he did and what happened to him. The knowledge filled him with a warmth that had begun to become welcomingly familiar. She always waited for him to come home and she always had a light meal ready for him when he did.

Contrary to what a lot of people thought, especially his rivals, Ranma was looking for a way out of his fiancé problems without actually marrying any of them. There wasn't really anyone he could ask for help. Everyone he knew had their own opinions on which girl he should marry and why. No one seemed to consider the possibility that he didn't WANT to marry any of them. He liked the girls; all of them, well except for Kodachi, the crazed gymnast had a laugh that sent chills down his spine. As far as Ranma was concerned, she was just a female copy of her brother, only without the bad poetry. He didn't want to hurt any of them if it were possible but that possibility kept growing slimmer and slimmer as time went on. He liked them…but he didn't love them.

Ukyou was the closest thing he had ever had to a best friend next to Ryoga. At least she used to be but now his best friend from childhood had been replaced by a fiancé who kept trying to guilt trip him into marrying her. He hadn't been responsible for what happened to her. He'd been used by Genma just as much as she had been. It didn't stop her from placing the responsibility for what happened onto his shoulders though. After the failed wedding, Ranma had been giving her the cold shoulder. Anything else just encouraged her, he realized, so instead of responding to anything she did, he simply acted as if she didn't exist. The heartbroken look she wore each time he did so kept tearing him up inside. It was only the Soul of Ice technique that stopped him from giving in to the urge to just forgive her for what she had done.

Shampoo got the same treatment as Ukyou. The Chinese Amazon was beautiful, skilled in the martial arts, knew how to cook and was as bubbly as Happosai was perverted. She was close to being his ideal fantasy girl. The problem lay in the fact that she turned into one of his worst nightmares as easily as he switched genders and that she was hell bent on turning him into a slave. Ranma had no illusions on how he'd be treated as her husband. He knew exactly how men were treated in her village, no matter how powerful or skilled they were, they were still men. He'd die a hundred times over before he'd submit to being anyone's slave.

As for Akane…he thought he loved her once. A few months after the failed wedding had slowly eroded whatever feelings of love he might have had for her. After the wedding fiasco, Ranma had tried to change. He wasn't always successful but he did try. He curbed his almost instinctive tendency to insult her. That hadn't stopped Akane from taking even the words 'Good Morning, Akane' as an insult to her and an excuse to hit him. He tried to take her as a Martial Artist seriously and offered to train her. That had gotten him another beating for 'insulting' her skills as a martial artist instead. No matter what he did, it seemed like it always resulted in a beating now.

There had been times in the past that he thought he could see a kinder, gentler side of Akane. Those times were gone now. Now he was weary of spending too much time with her anymore. He found excuses to spend time with Kasumi and Nabiki instead. At worst, Kasumi would only ask him to help with the household chores and Nabiki would…well, she normally ended up profiting off of him one way or another. At least Nabiki wasn't as bad about it as she used to be anymore. She was friendlier to him since the wedding disaster for some reason that he never really dwelled on. Of course this had ended up with him being attacked by Akane for 'flirting' with her sisters.

Ranma had tried to make the engagement work between him and Akane but that was the problem. He was the only one who did. Akane simply wouldn't change and with every beating he got for his efforts, his feelings for her lessened. This was his final attempt at salvaging the engagement. He didn't know just how much longer he'd be able to stop himself from doing what Akane did all the time, lose his temper and hit someone. Akane's birthday was next week and he was earning enough money to pay for the birthday present that he and Kasumi were going to give to her. Nabiki had found him high paying part time work on short notice. He'd earn the money they needed to buy the material and Kasumi was the one who'd actually make it though she had mentioned that he'd need to 'help' with the fitting. Ranma wasn't sure why the idea sent a small shiver down his spine but he was sure he wouldn't like it when he found out what exactly Kasumi meant by that. He was just glad that Akane seemed to have stopped paying attention to him over the past week.

Ranma had realized after the engagement had been switched to Nabiki that he didn't have to be engaged to Akane. The promise was to unite the families, no one was ever specified. He'd tried to make things work with Nabiki but she had sold him out then. She was different now but he didn't want to try being her fiancé again. He regarded her as a sister more than a potential wife, a scheming, older sister who liked to tease her little brother. So when the engagement had been switched back to Akane, he hadn't protested too much about it. At the time, he'd thought that it might actually work out between them.

Ranma had often wondered how things would have worked out if the engagement had been switched to Kasumi instead of Nabiki that day. Kasumi was beautiful, an excellent cook, gentle, kind, caring and she'd never hit him or accuse him of anything without proof. Though she wasn't the heir of the Tendo style of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Ranma knew she was at least equal to Ukyou in terms of skill though she did her best to hide it from everyone. The only thing that stopped him from seriously considering being engaged to her was that she didn't seem to be interested in him that way.

He did admit to himself that he had started to like Kasumi that way, especially after the failed wedding, partly due to the fact that he spent more time with her now than he did before. Sometimes he'd help her with chores or they would simply talk about nothing in particular when no one else was home. He learned a lot about Kasumi during those talks. He learned she had wanted to have a career in medicine when she was younger. He discovered, to his secret joy, that Kasumi only saw Dr. Tofu as a friend and couldn't seriously see herself in a relationship with a man who couldn't be serious about anything. He realized how lonely Kasumi was and did his best to cheer her up whenever he could. Even if they would ever only be friends, he'd do his best to make her happy.

Kasumi sat at the kitchen table, eating a little of the meal she had saved for Ranma while he sat across from her and ate the rest of it slowly, too tired to vacuum it as he normally did. She saw that he was even more tired tonight than ever and was absorbed in his thoughts as he ate. When Ranma had first arrived, she and Nabiki had pushed the poor, cursed boy onto Akane out of fear. As time had gone on, she began to regret her impulsive actions. She watched as the boy she'd turned away out of fear had actually turned out to be far different from what she had thought of him from her first impression of him. Ranma had seemed to be a rude, uncultured, immature, wild child at first.

Now she realized the truth. Ranma was uncultured, immature and wild but that had only been due to how he'd been raised. Genma was as far from a good role model for a child as she could think. Over time, Ranma had showed himself to be kind, caring, compassionate, occasionally thoughtless and possessed of a good heart. He also had a tendency to have his actions dictated by honor more than Kasumi considered healthy. She had seen Ranma get into more trouble than he would have otherwise if he hadn't been pressured by his view of honor. There had been many times that she had worried that his good heart and dedication to honor would result in his death.

When the engagement had been passed to Nabiki, she had secretly fantasized about what life would be like if it had been passed to her instead. After the failed wedding, Ranma had started spending more time with her. She's never act on her feelings for him though. Ranma was her little sister's fiancé and it wouldn't be proper for her to do anything about it. Although she would ever only be a big sister to him, Kasumi cherished the times they spent together. She had admitted to herself that she cared deeply for Ranma and wouldn't have minded being engaged to him. She had pushed away her fantasies since she knew that Ranma didn't feel that way about her.

Kasumi had noticed that Akane had seemed very depressed lately and it worried her. She avoided Ranma completely and when she tried to talk to Akane about it, Akane had snapped at her and walked away much to Kasumi's shock. She didn't know what was wrong but she hoped that her birthday would snap her out of it. Kasumi had finished the design she intended to use for the dress that she and Ranma would give her for her birthday. She already knew the measurements for it since she was the one who always fixed Akane's dresses. All she needed now was the material for it. Once Ranma bought the silk the two of them had decided on, she'd be able to start working on the dress. Since Ranma would be helping her with it, they should be able to have it finished before Akane's birthday next week.

---Two weeks ago---

Akane stormed into the house, an aura of rage surrounding her. She didn't bother closing the door or putting her shoes in their proper place. She simply kicked them off and stomped her way to her room and slammed the door close. She locked the door and threw her school bag onto the floor. Akane angrily changed into her yellow shirt and blue dress. Then all the energy seemed to get sucked out of her and she fell forwards onto her bed. She clutched her bed sheets tightly in her fists and began to sob silently into her pillow. Akane had been feeling furious all morning and it had all been because of last night. No, that wasn't accurate, not really. Last night had been a repeat of every night for the past week. That was what made her so angry.

Akane had bottled up or at least tried to bottle up her feelings for the past two weeks. Ever since she found out about Kasumi and Ranma's plans to elope, Akane had tried to think of what to do. There was no one she could turn to, no one she could trust. Ukyou, Shampoo and Kodachi would try to turn it to their advantage, that is, if they'd believe her in the first place. Nabiki was helping Ranma and Kasumi in their plans. Her father and uncle Saotome would just be overjoyed that Kasumi and Ranma were planning to elope. So would aunt Nodoka and even if she would have tried to help Akane, she was currently out of the country on family business. She couldn't talk about it to her friends either.

Memories came to her mind, unbidden, unwanted…

It had started after Ranma stopped going to his part time jobs. Akane had still been awake after crying into her pillow once again. It was about an hour after everyone else had gone to bed that Akane heard the slight grating noise of Kasumi's door being slowly opened. It had taken a second for Akane to realize what it was she had just heard. A few seconds later, she heard the door being eased shut. Akane wondered what was going on and seconds later, the images that her imagination conjured up threatened to send her into another crying fit. She stood up and padded to her door. She ever so slowly and carefully opened the door and stepped into the hallway. A part of her dreaded what she was about to confirm but another part of her pushed her into action. She just had to know the truth.

Akane crept to Kasumi's door and placed her ear up to the door. She could make out two distinct voices. They were muffled at first but she tried to concentrate on them and in the stillness of the night, she was able to make them out.

"Sorry I'm kinda late Kasumi." She heard the sound of Ranma's voice say. "I had to make sure pops was asleep and stayed that way."

"You used pressure points on him?" Akane heard Kasumi ask him in reply.

"Yeah, we don't have to worry about him waking up and seeing I aint there. He'll sleep till way past dawn."

"That's good. I don't want anyone interrupting us."

"Do you have…?" Ranma started to ask Kasumi before she interrupted him.

"Yes, I have it here. The thermos will keep the water hot enough for you to change back later." Even through the door, Akane could hear the happy tone of Kasumi's voice. A few seconds of silence later and Kasumi's voice turned playful and amused. "So what are you waiting for Ranma-kun? Take it off…this won't be as good if you keep your clothes on you know?"

Kasumi's words were followed by silence for a second before Akane heard the rustle of clothing. "There's no need to be shy Ranma…it's just the two of us here. Now come over here…"

That had been when Akane couldn't stand it any longer and crept back to her room. After that night, each night for the past week, Akane could hear the small sound of Kasumi's door being eased open and then shut. She couldn't bring herself to listen in on them anymore and simply cried herself to sleep, too heartbroken to become angry. Today was her birthday but she was feeling anything but happy right then. The sound of someone knocking on her door roused her out of her reminiscing state. Akane tried to ignore the knocking in the hopes that whoever it was would get the message and leave her alone.

"Akane?" Came the sound of Nabiki's voice. "Akane! C'mon downstairs, Ranma and Kasumi want to talk to you before your birthday party. Hurry up and come down!"

Akane felt her anger begin to build within her. So the two lovers wanted to talk to her did they? On her birthday, the two people who betrayed her the most wanted to talk to her? Akane got up from her bed and unlocked her door. She took a second to clean her face a little before she slowly walked downstairs and into the living room. She saw the two of them standing next to each other. Kasumi held a box in her hands while Ranma simply stood there, looking nervous. Akane glared at the two of them, growing angrier and seeing no hint of guilt in them. They had betrayed her behind her back and now they were about to give her a present for her birthday. How dare they? How DARE they!

"Happy Birthday, Akane." Kasumi said to her happily. "I know your party isn't until later but Ranma and I wanted to give you your present first. We hope you…"

That was as far as Kasumi got before Akane backhanded the box out of her hands to the surprise of everyone in the room. "How dare you!" She screamed at Kasumi's shocked face. "How dare you steal my fiancé from me and then think you can give me a present on my birthday!

"What do you think you're doing Akane?" Ranma said harshly as he stepped between Akane and Kasumi, who was still in shock.

Akane was incensed. He had the audacity to act as if she was in the wrong. Without warning, Akane suddenly drove her fist into Ranma's face and sent him flying towards the wall. Unfortunately Kasumi had still been behind him when Akane had caught him off guard with her fury driven punch. Kasumi impacted against the wall before Ranma slammed into her with a sickening thud. Nabiki stood stock still as her mind tried to process just what the hell had happened.

Genma and Soun, who were standing nearby, responded in their usual ways once the shock of what had just happened passed over them. Genma splashed himself with a glass of cold water that had been on the table and pulled out a sign that read 'I'm just a cute panda who has nothing to do with this!' while Soun burst into tears and began to cry out loud that Akane had lost her mind and now the schools would never be joined because his daughter was crazy.

Ranma looked at Akane with anger in his eyes before he remembered that Kasumi had been behind him. He turned around and gasped as he saw a trail of blood on the wall from where Kasumi's head had hit it. He gently pulled Kasumi into his lap and gently tilted her head forward. His agitation lowered a little when he noticed that her breathing was still regular though she seemed dazed. Ranma got to his feet while he cradled Kasumi protectively in his arms. His eyes were as hard as steel and everyone felt the temperature of the room begin to rise.

"Just what the hell were you thinking, Akane?" Ranma asked in a cold tone in contrast to the rising heat of his battle aura.

Akane was shaken out of her shock at the thought that she had just hurt Kasumi. She remembered why she had been angry and her own battle aura manifested itself. Without thinking about it, she answered with fury in her voice. "I was thinking that if my backstabbing bitch of a sister wants you so much, she can have you!" Akane's voice had steadily increased until she was finally screaming at Ranma. "Our engagement is over and if you think I'll ever take you back after you've cheated on me with that lying, two-faced, scheming slut; you're as stupid as your miserable, flea-bitten father!"

Ranma stepped forward as if he was about to attack Akane when Kasumi moaned painfully in his arms at the slight movement. He stopped and seemed to calm down though he still glared harshly at Akane. Without a word, he adjusted his grip on Kasumi and turned around and walked outside. Once he was outside, Ranma looked in the direction of Nerima Hospital and made a standing jump to the roof of the house that stood in the direction he wanted to go. He landed gently on the roof without aggravating whatever pain Kasumi might have been feeling. Seconds later, he and Kasumi were out of sight.

Back inside the house, Nabiki finally came to her senses. She walked up to Akane, grabbed her still blazing sister by her shoulder and turned Akane around to face her. "Are you insane? Have you finally lost it, Akane?" Nabiki asked her, seething, her anger overlaid by cold control. "Where the hell did you come up with that conclusion! What could have possibly made you believe, even for an instant, that Ranma cheated on you with Kasumi of all people!"

"As if you didn't know!" Akane replied angrily. "You were helping them! Do you know how I know? Well let me tell you!"

Minutes later, Akane had finished telling Nabiki, rather, screaming at Nabiki, what she had found out about Ranma and Kasumi's relationship over the past few weeks. The more Akane spoke, the angrier the expression on Nabiki's face became. When Akane stopped talking, Nabiki didn't do anything, out of guilt, Akane thought. That is until Nabiki suddenly slapped Akane hard on the cheek with enough force to knock Akane on her ass. Akane held her cheek painfully in surprise as Nabiki walked over to where the box Kasumi had been holding had landed. Nabiki picked up the box and walked back to where Akane still sat.

"You arrogant, self-centered bitch! Kasumi never stole Ranma from you! They weren't planning on running away to elope!" Nabiki said to Akane, anger seething in her voice as she tore open the box.

"I got Ranma those jobs so he could pay for the silk they were going to use to make your present!" Nabiki pulled out a beautiful, yellow, silk dress and held it up for Akane to see. "Ranma snuck into Kasumi's room so they could work on making your dress. He used his cursed form to model the dress for Kasumi. They never betrayed you!"

Nabiki threw the dress at the now pale faced Akane. "You, with your petty jealousies, you, with your eagerness to jump to conclusions, you, with your attitude that everything you do is right and that you can never be wrong about anything! The only one who betrayed anyone was you!"

Tears began to spill down Akane's face but Nabiki was relentless. Her anger had finally overwhelmed her ability to control it. "Kasumi has spent almost her entire life looking over us! She cared for us; she became more of a parent to us then our own father. She gave up her dreams and ambitions for us! And how do you repay her for her sacrifice? You accuse her of stealing Ranma away from you and knocking her almost through the wall! You could have killed her!"

Akane's choking sobs did little to deter Nabiki's tirade. "Ranma has never and would NEVER cheat on you! He has never deliberately tried to hurt you. Despite the fact that you beat him so much that a normal man would have died a hundred times from it, he stayed loyal to you. I found out from Mouse that he killed a GOD for you! Mouse told me just how much pain and heartbreak he saw on Ranma's face when he thought you died! And if a man whose half-blind could see just how much Ranma loved you, I wonder what that makes you!"

Nabiki stopped talking and looked down at Akane. Then she turned around and left the room. The two cowering fathers who had borne witness to Nabiki's anger saw the middle Tendo girl head towards the door leading outside, presumably to go to the hospital to check on Kasumi's condition.

---Back to present time---

That had been a week ago. A few days after Kasumi had been hurt, she and Ranma had disappeared. Nabiki was still trying to find out where the two of them had gone. She hadn't had much luck. Akane's door suddenly opened and startled Akane out of her thoughts. Nabiki took a few steps into Akane's room and looked at her, her expression unreadable. Then she spoke, her tone cold but Akane had gotten used to that ever since her birthday. Akane wanted to do something about it but every time she tried to apologize, the icy glare she got from Nabiki stopped her cold.

"I found Kasumi and Ranma." Nabiki told Akane, Nabiki's face still emotionless.

The light of hope dawned on Akane's face. Now that Nabiki had found them, Akane could try and make things right between them. Nabiki's next words were like an ice cold slap to the face.

"I'm going to London to pick up their bodies." Nabiki said and watched Akane freeze as the meaning of Nabiki's words hit her. "I've arranged the funeral for a week from now. That'll be how long it'll take me to get there, arrange for their release and then transport back here."

"I've contacted auntie Nodoka; she'll be back in Japan late tonight and then she'll come here tomorrow to help with…everything." Having said what she had come to say, Nabiki turned away and walked downstairs to break the news to her father and Genma.

Behind her, Akane had broken into heart wrenching sobs as she realized just what her attitude had cost her. The lives of a sister who had been a mother to her and a man who loved her despite all the cruelties and abuse she had given him. A breeze swept in through her open door and blew a paper around her room before settling in front of Akane. Akane stopped her crying for a moment, her attention drawn to the paper for some reason. It was her English Literature homework. It was an English poem written by some unknown writer. She was supposed to write an essay on it in English. Her eyes fell on the short poem and she read the words aloud.

A bitter truth now I realize

That all my facts

Were no more than lies

'I love you' and 'my thanks'

Were what I should have said

Now too late for my love is dead

Regret is all that is left to me

My redemption too far to see

When she finished speaking, Akane again broke down in tears.