Ranma 1/2

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On to Chapter 5, all characters not made up by me, belonging to the Ranma ½ cast, are not property of me. I do not own so I do not expect to gain in any way from using them in this story. This is just an innocent fan fiction. And now without further ado, the next chapter.

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Remembrance

Chapter 5 (v. 2)

She was not sure how long it had been since they hard started, she had been working so long and hard that days passed to quickly to count. She knew that it had been a while but she had ceased to thing about the time that past between their sessions. At present the two of them were sitting side by side and in deep concentration over something, their eyes closed and legs crossed in a lotus position on the floor. Ranma was glowing with a frost blue aura that seemed to engulf the surroundings with its touch. Nabiki on the other hand was only barely outlined by such an aura, though at least it had appeared, which was more than could previous attempts accomplished. The slight aura had appeared a couple days ago and she had since been working on solidifying it into something usable. She had no idea how long she had been at it, and this usually happened when the two of them practiced like this. She could feel the sweat running down her body from maintaining her aura for so long, and she knew that she would be hungry when they were done.

They had been coming to the park for days now and each time, Hitomi followed them and played with a black haired boy that seemed to be by himself a lot. Nabiki could feel her mind start to get hazy, proof that she would lose control of her aura soon. Before this happened, Ranma had said she had to hold it until control was nearly lost then attempt to form it into a ball in her hands. So concentrating with the last of her energy she formed the image of a ball in her hands and started to feel the energy around her flow down to her hand. Just before she lost all control she felt the start of the ball, not perfectly round but it was close enough that she was proud of herself.

"Good job," She heard Ranma say as she lost control fully and her aura faded, "You can hold it as long as me now, a little longer and I can work on getting it more powerful."

Nabiki sighed, "Thanks, we had better get Hitomi and get something to eat, I'm hungry and tired."

Ranma laughed, "Doing this for a while does tend to wear a person out, sit there and I'll get her for you."

Nabiki nodded, "Okay, you might have to carry me home too, just so you know."

"In that case we'll take a cab," Ranma said with a groan, "I'd probably just end up dropping you."

"Weakling," Nabiki snorted playfully, "go find Hitomi."

Of course all of this was said in the tone of someone who does not really mean it but Ranma secretly felt a blow to his pride. Of course sometimes his pride needed a good beat down because it got the better of him so he did not say anything of it. Silently he walked off and looked for the little girl with long strait brown hair that was probably playing with the same lonely boy of her age that she had been for the last few days they had come here. Walking through the park he spotted her doing what he had suspected she would be doing, with one exception. Next to the little boy stood two adults that he knew very well, though he would just as soon not have seen them right now.

Walking up to Hitomi he waved, "How's it going, you having fun?"

The girl looked up at him and shrugged, "Yeah."

"He Ranma," Ryouga said with a slightly unfriendly undertone that was lost on not one person there, "What a surprise."

The man with the braided ponytail nodded in response, "Ryouga, Akane, doing good I take it."

"Ranma, who was over there with you, that aura feels familiar," Akane asked in a quizzical tone.

"Well it should," The man said idly as he grabbed Hitomi's hand, "It's your sister's aura. Say goodbye, Hitomi, it's time to go."

"Bye," Hitomi said waving as she turned with the older man.

The young boy waved goodbye silently but it was interrupted by Akane, "Don't try to kid me, her aura isn't that strong. Who was it?"

"I told you, it's your sister's," Ranma said as he continued to walk away, "We've been practicing here for the last few days. I taught her how to manifest an aura, your father taught her well in everything else."

"Ranma!" Ryouga yelled, "Don't ignore us."

The man was even farther away now, "I'm not, we have to get back before we get too exhausted. Bye."

He walked off before the two of them could make any attempt to say anything else to him. The man was tired enough without having to deal with the two of them putting him through the ringer about things he had not part in. Besides, Nabiki would be waiting for him to get back so he had better hurry before she got mad. He walked through some trees and back to the clearing where the two of them had been practicing, only to find a surprise that was not pleasant in the least but he could not really say that it was all that surprising.

"Hey generic evil guys sent by your master to capture the female I care about and make me bend to your will," Ranma said tiredly, "This will go a lot easier if you let her go you know."

"Sorry, Ranma," Nabiki said from her place tied up next to one of the henchmen, "I couldn't do anything."

The man shrugged and slid into a fighting stance, "Nothing to be sorry about, it happens to the best of them," he addressed the two men, "I'll say this one last time, let her go or I will be forced to deal with you myself."

The men were silent but one got into his own stance and matched Ranma's gaze with his own unnerving one. Before the martial artist could react, one of the men took off running with Nabiki while the other stayed and charged him. Torn between following and fighting, and being tired on top of it all, the man went on the defensive quickly. Then another unexpected turn came and the man lunged at the nearby Hitomi. Ranma jumped in front of her and felt something long and sharp pierce his body. A spray of blood shot out and at first he though it was paint until he looked down and saw a sword sticking out of his stomach. Then he coughed and tasted something slightly metallic in his mouth.

He lost his balance and felt his body hit the floor heavily, his vision was sideways, and he could see the horrified look on the little girl's face that he had protected. This was all wrong, he knew that it was wrong, something had to be fake about this, and he had to move. He had to do something, but he body refused to move and just as his vision faded he saw two pairs of legs run past him, then everything was black.

"So you got the girl," The voice of the old man said over the phone, "Good, bring her here. I have something special planned for her. And don't worry, even if he did die he will climb from the depths of hell to get to her, and then we will have him and a new weapon in one motion."

He slowly hung up the phone and a smile came to his mouth, a smile that slowly built into a fit of evil laughter that should probably have a trademark on it. Then he calmed down, despite being called evil he did not see it as evil, it was more like try to keep a business going. He was a working man and Saotome could ruin everything if he leaked the real intentions of the company. The woman would be experimented on, then her memory would be totally wiped, her cells cloned then she would be disposed of. She would take care of Saotome and he would gain in business. It was perfect, but he still did not want to jinx it by saying nothing could go wrong, he did not get where he was by being lax.

"I think he's coming around," It was a male voice that he heard then, "I'll make sure to restrain him if he tries something."

Another voice, female, came from some distance away, "Yes, he is in no condition to run off so hold him down. The patient is known to try and run off suddenly when excited."

He opened his eyes, they felt sticky, and his vision was tinted red, somehow he knew that this was blood. He remembered what happened, but why was there blood on his face? A man with black short hair wearing a mask was standing over him, his front stained thickly with blood. In the back of his head, the man registered that this was a doctor. In his hand was a scalpel that was also covered in blood.

"Nurse, get the gas, we have to put him to sleep before he recovers fully," The doctor said gravely, "Just relax, Mr. Saotome, we need to finish so you can recover from the wound. Truthfully, you should be glad you're not dead."

The man closed his eyes and nodded, he let the mask slip over his face and was gradually overcome by darkness. In the darkness he saw visions of peace that slowly turned to horror. Whether this was a vision of the future or not he did not know, but what he saw he certainly did not want to come to pass. It started out with a sun filled day, pleasant temperature, and birds singing. The usual happy day set up so to speak, then he saw Hitomi running and playing happily with other kids. Smiling he looked over at the woman at his side, but something was wrong. He saw Nabiki but she was different, he could not see how she was different because the image was blurry, but he knew something was not right. He closed his eyes and opened them but the same image greeted him, and extended a clawed hand towards his chest. Every attempt he made to stop it was thwarted and just before the claw pierced his heart, he awoke again.

"He has awoken again," A female voice said, "will it be okay to leave him."

The doctor nodded, "Yes, the surgery was a success and he is too sedated and has lost too much blood to be of any trouble."

Ranma tried to open his mouth but found the doctor was right, he was too weak to even form a coherent word. With an angry sigh he conceded to just lay there and let himself be overtaken by the sedative. When he woke some time later he found someone sitting over him and running their hands through his hair. The white ribbon gave away the identity of the person right away.

"Ran-chan, you're a mess," the woman said as she sighed, "I only wish that I was there to fight with you. This never would have happened."

He tried to speak again but only a mumble came out, "…"

"Heh, you were probably trying to say something comforting," The woman acknowledged, "The doctor said it would be a while before you gained full movement back. The cut was very precise, luckily, patching you up was very easy. He said you would be out in about a week or two. If you let yourself heal that is."

Ranma sighed, "…"

Ukyo smiled, "Yeah, we're all worried about her, the guy fighting you ran off when Ryouga and Akane showed up and even though Ryouga chased after them, they both escaped."

Many thoughts and feelings went through him but the most dominant was anger at himself. For him to be defeated that easily was inexcusable, he should never have been fooled by that trick. Granted he was weak but that is still no excuse for letting them taking Nabiki. He felt his face soften and he closed his eyes and accepted the oblivion that overtook him. Thoughts of revenge on his mind.

Waking up a while later he found two people in his view this time, one a woman with a short dark hair that went down to her neckline. The other was a man with long black hair that went down his back and gave him the distinct look of having a mullet, the yellow headband with black spots did not help this look in any way. They were both looking over him, he could only assume that the two kids by their side were their kids.

"Hey, Ranma," Ryouga said, "You look like crap man. Sorry I couldn't get Nabiki back for you. I guess I was just too slow."

Akane looked over at her husband and then back to him, "You really are a trouble magnet. Thanks for protecting Hitomi though, we'll continue to search for any clues while you're in the hospital. Just relax and get better."

Ranma groaned and this time managed to weakly utter, "Thanks for trying to help, both of you. I have shamed myself by letting this happen, take care of Hitomi while I'm here."

"You don't have to worry about her," Ryouga said with a chuckle, "She never stopped believing you would get better."

There was a pause before Ranma spoke again, "Hey, I just thought I would let you know that I got my memories back. Even if it was a weird way, thanks for helping me through the hard times. Both of you have helped me so much."

Akane placed a hand softly on his chest and said, "Ranma, we both knew the relationship was coming to an end. I still wanted, I still want to be friends with you even if I was angry at you for leaving. I want to have a nice talk with my sister when this is all over too."

"Yeah, I want you two to talk too," Ranma muttered before he closed his eyes once more, "I'm sorry to all of you."

Those were the last words before he again collapsed into a sleeping state brought on by the many pain killers and fluids draining into his body. He would not wake up again for a week and a half. When he did, no one came to see him but he did not have time to think about that. He was more worried about finding Nabiki and so he worked on rehabilitating his muscles and making everything move like it should have. Once he was released by the doctor he rushed out of the hospital and ran as fast as he could, which while not his peak was still incredibly fast, towards where Akane worked. He did not know were she lived so he would start by going to the police station and asking around. Still it proved harder than he thought to get the information out of the people who worked their, but he finally learned she lived very close to Nabiki. With this being the case it did not take long for him to find the house, but the reception was not expected on their part.

He knocked on the door without hesitation, impatience clear in every stick of his knuckles against the heavy grain door. They would have the best clue as to where to start looking, while they chased the two guys they should have left some sort of trail. He just needed to find out where the trail started so he could begin. He knocked again even louder, his mind not registering that it was late in the evening and the two of them were probably in bed by now. The second time he knocked he waited a while and finally the door opened to show a tired and very irritated looking Ryouga in a robe.

"Ranma, I know you want to find Nabiki but it's late," Ryouga said before he even had a chance to speak, "If you want you can sleep over, the couch is open, but don't think for a second we're going to drop everything to find Nabiki."

The man looked appropriately ashamed of his actions and sighed, "Sorry, I just got released. You're right, we need to form a plan and we can do that better tomorrow. Is Hitomi awake?"

The man shook his head, "She's probably asleep by now. I'll get a blanket and pillow for you."

The man entered the house, "Thanks."

"No problem," Ryouga responded, "Be back in a minute."

Ranma nodded and looked around at the house, it was not a very impressive set up, but then he supposed they probably did not make much money. They seemed happy enough, but the house was just so plain looking that it threw him off. He had been in training halls all his life and they were always grand and decorated brilliantly. In contrast the house was almost snug and had a feel of not suffocating but more like being cozy. It was a nice place in its own way but he would have expected them to be living in a slightly bigger place.

"We both work normal jobs," Ryouga said as he walked in and noticed Ranma looking around, "well, moderately normal. I work as a fitness instructor and you already know what Akane works as."

The man chuckled and shook his head with amusement, "Yeah, can't really forget. It's a nice place, though not a training hall, but nice in its own way. I like it."

Ryouga let a half smile play across his face, "Thanks, we try. Here you go."

"Thanks, see you in the morning," Ranma turned and headed for the couch.

"Yeah, tomorrow we'll definitely find her," Ryouga said with determination, "Sleep well."

Sleeping was the only option Ranma's body would really allow, slowly his eyes closed and he drifted off into darkness. He dreamt again of the dream of a devil woman with razor claws coming for him and taking his life. Again she was familiar and again he could do nothing but watch in horror as he saw the claws move towards his heart. Then he woke at the last moment to see the light of morning assaulting his eyes with brightness contrary to the dark vision of his dream. He sat up with a groan and rotated his shoulder muscles to loosen them a little, drawing an unusually loud pop from the joint as he did so. Those guys he had fought had done a number on his body, besides running him through with the sword, he had a dislocated shoulder and some cracked ribs. It would take a while before his body was back up to par. Leaning forward and straitening his legs, Ranma grabbed the ends of his feet and felt his lower back stretch out. With this done he swung his legs around and let them hang off the side of the couch before bracing his hands on his knees and standing up.

Taking a large breath, he took the fresh air in and let his lungs take in the fresh clean air and circulate through his body before he let the breath out. Closing his eyes he let his senses relax themselves and he could hear everything around him, he felt the air caress his body he smelled the flowers, the trees, and even the early morning smell of breakfast. Walking towards the kitchen he found Ryouga standing over a stove and flipping what looked to be eggs on the grill and chopping them with speed and precision.

"Hey man, what're you doing?" The man asked as he looked at the concoction on the stove.

"Well I learned it while I traveled around," the man said as he continued to look at the stove, "They called it scrambled eggs. Tastes pretty good actually."

Ranma laughed, "So why this and not the traditional meal?"

"Because there's a lot of protein in these things," Ryouga said seriously, "You need that to help the tissue that was damaged heal right. Since I know you well enough to know that you won't stay inactive long enough for them to heal right."

The man with the pig-tail looked up at the ceiling, "You know as well as I do that I don't have that option. I don't know what they took Nabiki for but I know that it isn't good."

Ryouga nodded flipped the egg concoction into a pan from the flat grill and turned to him with the eggs in hand, "Even if she wasn't in trouble you couldn't let yourself heal. I seriously worried that one day you'll go too far."

"Feh, like that'll ever happen," Ranma said with a cocky smirk, "I'm still young enough to take a beating."

"That is not what I'm talking about," Ryouga said as he started to divide the meal up between three plates, "Forget it, I don't want to talk about this right now."

"Right, for now lets eat," Ranma said just as Akane came down, her dark hair still damp from bathing.

"Hey, you two, how's it going?" The woman asked as she saw the two hanging out in the kitchen.

"Morning, 'Kane," Ranma greeted easily, "How you feelin'?"

Ryouga raised an eyebrow at the casualness of the greeting, "That was a little too casual."

Akane was also taken back by the greeting, "I'm doing fine."

"Good, let's eat, we have some work to do and little time to do it," Ranma said quickly as he sat down at the table and waited for everyone else to sit down.

The meal went quickly and they spent the time afterwards cleaning up the table and discussing how the find where they had taken Nabiki. None of them had any clue to where they had taken the woman and there was no way as far as anyone knew to find out. The more they tried to figure out what to do the more they felt irritation and despair at their own lack of information. It was suggested that they go to the park where she had been captured and try to look for clues there but when it was found out that that had already been done it was thrown out the window.

"This can't be all, there has to be some kind of lead," Ranma let out an angry sigh, "What are we missing."

There was a nock on the door suddenly and when Akane answered she found the surprise of a lifetime standing there. A woman wearing a white ribbon in her long brown hair and an okonomiyaki chef's outfit was standing at the entrance. She looked like she was out of breath and there were a few cuts in her outfit. When the door answered she left no time for acknowledgement, she just grabbed the girl with short hair by the lapels of her dress as if her life depended on it.

"Nabiki, I found where she is," Ukyo said with urgency but still tired from whatever it was she had been doing, "She's in trouble, we have to hurry."

Akane broke free of the woman's grip and helped her over the couch to let her sit down, "You need to rest, tell us where she is."

"An old building on the edge of town near the pier, a warehouse," Ukyo tried to get up again but was gently restrained, "Get me a map."

Ryouga nodded and ran off as Ranma stared at the woman, "So how did you find out where she was? And why are you telling us for that matter?"

"I heard you got hurt and when I found out the story from Akane I wanted to help you," The woman said as she let herself sink into the couch, "I know it goes against myself, but then again, there's no real way I can get together with you anymore."

"Really," Ranma said, "So I just believe your story and get ambushed by the people who paid you off and swore they wouldn't hurt me, correct?"

The woman's face went pale at this as she stared wide eyed at him, "What?"

"I was hoping you would deny that," Ranma said as he sighed, "But judging by the look on your face I didn't get so lucky. Oh well."

Akane looked at Ukyo as if she was about to kill the girl, "So you would endanger my sister and our lives by doing this. All because you're still in love with a boy from childhood."

"No, I-."

Ranma interrupted her speech, "So the deal is that you lead us there and they capture me? How dumb can you be, these people are trying to kill me. They don't want me alive! So you put those rips in your cloths, scrape yourself up and come to me expecting some sympathy! You disgust me."

"That's not how it was," Ukyo felt desperate suddenly and she leaned forward on the couch, "I really tried to get her out by myself, but they caught me and said they would keep me alive as long as I went along with them, I was going to say no until they told me they would also kill Nabiki."

Ranma nodded, "Why should I believe you now?"

"Why would I lie to you, Ran-chan?" Ukyo was in tears now, "I wanted to help you I swear. You don't understand how powerful these people are."

Ryouga walked in the room with a map and laid it down on the table in front of the woman, "Here you go."

Ukyo looked up at the man and then at the map, she raised a finger and pointed to an area at the edge of the city, "Here, she's in that building, I'm telling the truth."

Ryouga blinked and looked at Ranma, "I missed something, didn't I."

The other male martial artist looked at the girl pointedly, "Look, I don't blame you, I was angry. We'll talk about this later, just relax here and catch your breath. Let's go, we have a lot of time to catch up on."

It took a few minutes for the three who were part of the rescue squad to prepare for the upcoming battle. It had been a while since they had tried to fight seriously, but they all still practiced whenever they could. Not like they had in the old days, that was when everything was a lot simpler to figure out and the pressure of growing up did not threaten them as it did now. When everyone was ready they all walked out the gate towards the place that was said to be holding the woman they were trying to rescue.

When they arrived the place was, for all intensive purposes, abandoned looking as it should have been. To those on the outside it would look like an abandoned factory, that was the ruse that had kept it a secret for so long. The downfall of this was that security had to be light in order to keep it a secret. Any guards roaming around the outside of the building would cause immediate suspicion to rise. Knowing this meant that you could walk right in through the front gate without anyone to stop you. Not that they really cared as there was nothing in the factory, in actuality it was all built underneath the factory as the three eventually found out. There was a few minutes were they thought they had been tricked until an accidental kick sent an old industrial shelf in the factory, all planks and metal struts, falling with a large dusty crash to the ground. This in turn flipped a piece of metal from another smaller shelf that got destroyed into a wall. This wall just happened to be where the secret switch that no one knew about was hidden and the floor slid open some distance in front of them, letting some of the debris fall into it and probably alert security if they had not been alerted already, and causing all who looked on to sweat in nervous amazement.

"Ryouga," Ranma said after some silence.

"Yeah."

Ranma turned stiffly to the man and said almost mechanically, "Never touch anything here again."

"But-."

"Never."

The man nodded, "Alright."

"We should probably be careful," Akane said to the two of them, "From here on out they most likely know we're here."
"Yeah, I agree," Ranma nodded his head at her words, "Now let's go."

With that the three of them descended the steps to the secret base and left the now destroyed factory behind them. As they stepped down the stairs the three of them noticed that the stairs only took up about one fifth of the opening. Most likely it was used to transport in bigger objects, though what exactly those were was not indicated. Deeper in it was dimly lit with dusty corridors and walls made of cold metal that seemed as if they had not felt life in decades, maybe even millennia. It was long and with the dimness they could just barely see in front of them, Akane kept a tight hold on Ryouga because, even though he had gotten better about it, she was still concerned about him wondering off somewhere and starting trouble trying to find them again. They were silent the whole way, there was not much in the atmosphere to induce a need to converse. An undetermined amount of time, because nobody had an instrument to measure time, they emerged into a corridor that was well lit and seemed a little less lifeless.

"It feels like we're close," Ranma said quietly, "I don't know why but I just have this feeling."

Akane looked around, "This place is a maze, and there aren't even labels to mark the right path."

Ryouga shrugged and looked around for a second before he disappeared around a corner, much to his companions' surprise, and after a short sound of scuffling came back with what looked to be a guard. Ranma sighed and shook his head before shrugging and walking up to the man to give him a good talking to.

"Ryouga, what are you doing?"

"Getting information," The man said as he turned back to the frightened guard, "Now tell us where the woman is."

"What woman?"

The man responded by balling his hand into a fist and yelling in the man's face, "Don't play dumb with me, where did you take her."

"I don't know what you're talking about! Please don't hurt me."

Ranma place a hand on the bandana clad man's shoulder and spoke softly, "Maybe you should tell him who we're looking for before you yell at him.

"That's bull!" Ryouga yelled, causing everyone to look at him in uncomfortable silence, "He should be able to read my mind."

"Ryouga, are you feeling okay, man?" Ranma asked with concern.

The man paused and took a breath, "Yeah, I just let my anger get a hold of me, now you," he addressed the guard again, "Tell us where the woman, Nabiki Tendo, was taken."

The guard nodded in sudden understanding, "Oh, I don't know what her name is but I saw them bring an unconscious woman in earlier. She's being kept a little down the hall. Unfortunately the six inch steel door can not be opened by my access. Not that I would do so for you if I could."

"Just lead us to the door," Ranma said idly, "We'll do the rest, and if you don't lead us to the door, well, let's just say you won't be walking right for a while."

The guard let out a gulp and nodded, "Alright, follow me."

All three of them followed the guard, though with a sense of uneasiness about them, it had been way to easy so far. The metal walls, clean as they were, seemed to hide something evil just behind them. Whatever the feeling was all three of them were sure that they would have to continue on, it had already been too long since Nabiki had been captured and that alone was cause for concern. Now it was just too hard for them to take their time about this, they had no plan for getting in but there was no way around that. Right now the only thing they could do was find the woman they were looking for and free her from whatever she was going through. So they followed the guard towards the wall and knocked him out once they arrived.

"You ready?" Ranma asked as he turned to the other two.

Ryouga nodded, "Yeah, here I go."

With that he placed a single finger against the wall and with a flash it collapsed in a hole big enough for an elephant to walk through. There were surprised to find that there were no guards on the other side, and in front of them sat a tank with the woman they were looking for on the inside, naked. Ranma ran up to it and without hesitation used every ounce of strength he had to break the clear glass on the outside, causing a rush of green fluid to come rolling out. The man leapt up and caught the woman in his arms and gently landed on the ground with her in his arms.

"She's alive," The man said, "just unconscious. We had better get out of here before we draw attention."

Akane walked up to him, "We should cover her."

The pigtailed martial artist nodded and handed her to Ryouga while he removed his shirt, which still had bandages under it from his earlier wounds. The shirt was placed over the woman, as big as it was, it covered her like a short dress. Ranma took the woman from the bandana clad man and the three of them made their way out of the room. As they started down the last corridor, the woman suddenly stirred in the man's arms, causing him to look down in surprise. It was then her eyes shot opened and she leapt out free of his grasp.

"Nabiki!" Akane gasped.

The woman did not seem to notice, she looked around quickly before fell to the floor and started to writhe around in what seemed to be a great amount of pain. Ranma was about to go forward to see what was wrong when she stood again and revealed something that nobody expected. Her once brown eyes were now yellow and cat-like, her hair had a slight red tint to it and there was a pair of horns, about six inches long and swooping forward on her head. A thin tail, tinted purple, swished back and forth behind her and her raised hands now had long thin claws, as did her bare feet.

"What the hell," Ryouga gasped, "This is screwed up right here."

Ranma was gritting his teeth, "Those bastards, what did they do to her.

"Nabiki!" Akane yelled, "Snap out of it, we're friends."

The woman howled like a beast, surely no human could emit such a sound from their throat, and rushed at Akane. The dark haired woman just managed to leap out of the way before a claw split her apart like an over ripe fruit. The newly formed demon woman howled again and charged, only to be stopped as Ranma leapt out in front of her and tackled her to the ground.

"I can't fight you Nabiki!" The man yelled, "You have got to control this before you hurt someone."

All he got in response was more thrashing, growling, and howling from the woman as she tried to free herself. With a sudden lurch she threw the martial artist into the air, leaping after him as she did so. He managed to block the next blow and lock her arms up so she could not move around, causing her to start thrashing again.

"What is it going to take to stop you?" Ranma yelled, "Give me some idea, I don't want you hurt, and I don't want you to hurt others."

Ryouga clenched his fist, "Forget it Ranma, you have to take her out before she hurts someone."

The martial arts shook his head, "I can't."

There was a moment then were he loosened his grip on the devil and she broke free once again. Ranma dodged her next kicking attack but would not bring himself to hit her, she was dangerous now but she was still the woman he loved somewhere under all of that. He tried to grab her again but she slipped away and this time he was unable to escape the next claw attack from her hand, though it just graze him, it was enough to send blood flying. The martial artist recoiled and put a hand to the wound on his chest to stop the flow of blood. When he looked up again he saw that the look on the woman's face had changed, the eyes were no longer yellow and cat like. He also noticed that some of his blood had gotten on her face and she had wiped some of it off and was staring at it with her brown eyes.

"Nabiki," He could hear the hope in his voice.

She looked up at him, "I… What's going on?"

Akane and Ryouga had been watching the whole thing and felt some of their tension fade away. Ryouga was glad that he had been wrong about her being able to change back. The two of them hesitantly walked towards where Ranma was standing to see if he was alright.

"I glad you came back to yourself," Ranma said in relief.

"What do you mean, Ranma," Nabiki looked at the blood on her clawed hand and back at the wound on the man's chest, "Did I hurt you? Ranma what happened?"

Ryouga held a hand up, "They did something to you, we don't know what it was but you were changed. Don't worry, you are changing back to normal as we speak."

Indeed her clawed hands had now changed back to normal along with her feet, and her tail was and horns were starting to disappear. Nabiki but her head in her hands as she felt tears form in her eyes. She had hurt the man she loved, and somehow not being in control of herself when it happened made it worse. Did they not realize that she could change into that creature at anytime and start to hurt people again.

"I can help you," Ranma said as he walked towards her, "I know you're scared, but you're also lucky that I trained you before you got captured. It will take developing the power of your will to gain control of the demon."

Nabiki looked at him not even trying to stop the tears, "But what if it doesn't work?"

Ranma chuckled, "Look at you with the questions. Don't worry, it will. Do you trust me?"

There was a moment where she just stared at him, the tears in her eyes finally drying, "Yes," she said at length.

"Good," Ranma said as he picked her up in his arms, "Don't worry, the wounds already healing, now let's go home."

"I would like that," The woman said as she felt weak suddenly and closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep against his shoulder.

With that the four of them walked off out of the base, unaware of a very angry evil-plotting-genius-that-messes-with-genetic-code watching over them. He had a few choice words that would make a biker cringe.

OMG, that took a long time. I have to admit I had a serious case of writers block for a while on this one. Inspirations came when I was playing Tekken 5, that does not mean that the Mishima Co. is in any way related to this story. I was more interested in the devil gene part. So no, this is not going to become a Tekken crossover, sorry fans of that game but I think it will be better without that crutch. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter.