There is one thing about this fic that I should have mentioned a long time ago. Everything in this story involving the Wheel of Time comes from BEFORE half way through book 4. While this Chapter takes place long before and during the first book(so all you who don't understand aren't TOO far behind.) I have never read past the fourth though I do plan on it soon. So almost everything past there you have to forget… ok? I probably do not plan to do so until I have finished this fic. I'm afraid I'll find something that is incredibly wrong with the fic, based on the books settings but the further in I read the more it limits me you know?
Ok. Lesse. I guess this is the part where I continue the fic right? Right. Ok. On with the show! Start of this chapter is a little bit different. You like? I know all you people who don't know what the Karaethon Cycle is are going to be griping at me but it will be explained enough to keep you as informed as those who have read the book. (More than likely in the next chapter.) (Plus I think prophesies are down right cool! And Robert Jordan damn well does em' right!) The first prophecy is all Jordan's making (save for one addition). The second is mine.
And it shall come to pass
that what men made shall be shattered, and the Shadow shall lie across
the Pattern of the Age, and the Dark One shall once more lay his hand
upon the world of man. Women shall weep and men quail as the nations of
the earth are rent like rotting cloth. Neither shall anything stand nor
abide…
Yet one shall be born to face the Shadow, born once more as he was born
before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be
Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his
rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people, and he
shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that
bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet
shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his
blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the
world. Weep for your salvation.
The ways of the worlds are connected…
From The Karaethon Cycle:
The Prophecies of the Dragon,
As translated by Ellaine Maise'idin Alshinn,
Chief Librarian at the Court of Arafel,
In the Year of Grace 231
of the new era, The Third Age.
And
in the other world it shall come to pass that what men made shall be
shattered, and the Shadow shall lie across the Pattern of the Age, and
the Dark One shall once more lay his hand upon that world of man. Women
shall weep and men quail as the nations of the earth are rent like
rotting cloth. Neither shall anything stand nor abide…
The one born of the mountain shall fall as naught. He will destroy the
power of the dark one and yet be turned to break that world and then
himself as has been done before and will be done again, time without
end. Only when She who Dances the Flames shall come to his aid, will
the turning of the wheel cease. The coming of She who Dances the
Flames, She not bound by the wheel, will hail the destruction of that
world and Salvation of the people. And the people of that world shall
cry out for the Dragon and for She who Dances the Flames saying,
Finally, we are freed, sheltered by the arms of The Lord of the Dawn
and The Lady who Dances the Flames. The Wheel shall be broken. And
finally, shall not the Dragon be reborn. Finally shall he rest from the
winds of time. And here, home, her memory lead the people of both
worlds for the rest of eternity. The Child of the Moon shall be her
heir and time shall be stripped of it's looking glass. O ye people of
the worlds, your salvation is come.
The ways of the worlds are connected…
From The Karaethon Cycle:
The Prophecies of She who Dances the Flames
As translated by Eve El'fera
Chief Librarian in the Halls of England
In the Year 1407
Of the English Empire
Chapter 4: The Birth of Black Wind
"I didn't mean it! I.. it. It wasn't my fault it… it was a mistake! An… accident! I…" Akane's sobbed. Her stuttering broke into nothing but incomprehensible babbling.
"Oh my." Usagi thought. It wasn't exactly new to her to deal with death. But that was death by fighting, at the hands of demons. This was entirely new to her. Murder? She had unlocked Akane's memory of herself committing a murder? She was reminded of an American movie… Secret… Window? But she cast the thought from her mind.
"I'm really sorry. But it isn't good to delude yourself into believe something that isn't true. The Senshi fight for peace and justice. We don't kidnap people. I'm… sorry Akane Tendo." She said in a motherly voice. She had become quite good at it and was getting better with time.
Akane was sobbing wordlessly. Usagi had embraced her in a hug at some point, giving her a shoulder to cry on.
Ryoga watched from a few feet away. He didn't know what to think. He had started with denials. How could his flower of innocence possible destroy another living being? Even if it WAS Ranma?
'Akane… killed Ranma? How… no. Ranma wouldn't let Akane kill him. Or… would he?' Ryoga thought.
"AKANE I LOVE YOU!" Ryoga recalled Ranma's shout on Mount Saffron. Even if Ranma himself said he couldn't remember what he had said, Ryoga did.
"Akane…" He sighed lowly. He lowered his head and shook it side to side. He still loved her but somehow the thought of her being cruel enough to kill someone, even if it was Ranma, had finally gotten to him She wasn't the perfect girl he had thought she was. He threatened the action every day but… she actually killed him? If her sobbing was any indication…
Suddenly a moan echoed across the clearing. Sailor Mars, laying on her back among rubble and uprooted grass from Ryoga's Bakusai Tenketsu, squirmed at her predicament. She was immobilized. Moving any part of her body felt like the meteor-like rocks were stabbing her again.
The unharmed scouts, save for Moon, ran to her aid.
Ryoga stood and watched. Slowly he turned. It was the only thing he could do. He fled, shouting a loud, "I'm sorry" before he fazed from existence as always.
Akane was aware of his departure. She could sympathize with it though. She couldn't imagine any other option that he would have chosen.
"How? How could I do something so… horrible?" She thought as she slowly recovered and let go of Sailor Moon.
"Are you alright now? From what Pluto told me, you fragmented your memory. I've repaired it. I hope you've learned. Please don't make the same mistake." Moon said, still using the motherly tone. "Due to Pluto's instructions, I am to give you pardon for this act against us and not ask you to turn yourself in to the authorities."
"I…" Akane couldn't answer. Tears still trailed down her cheeks. It made no sense to her. Pardon? NO! PARDON! She killed someone! RANMA! The man she thought she'd… she'd…
She didn't think she deserved pardon. But what choice did she have if her sister was involved? What would she do… now that he was gone?
Moon stood and walked to Mars's side. She healed Mars and Jupiter. When she had turned around Akane was gone.
"So your name is Ranma." Machin said. "How did you get here?"
Ranma didn't understand a word that he said. She looked at him questioningly.
He pointed to her. "You." He said. Then he pointed to the stone ground and said, "Here." Then he held his hands out, palms up, and cocked his head to the right. "How?"
Ranma was pleased. It appeared that hand gestures seemed to be basically the same between their cultures. She shrugged hoping to get a good reaction. "I don't know." She said.
Machin Shin deciphered the phrase to mean something like what it was. This language didn't seem too hard at all. "Our gestures are the same. She can't be from too far away. So much power though." He thought. "I can hardly believe she is human."
She smiled at him gaily, and he flushed. He was definitely human. Albeit cursed to eat only the soul energy of others, he was a good person. If you could get past the fact that he usually killed or drove people insane upon meeting them. It wasn't his fault anyway. But this girl hadn't even FELT his soul drain.
In all honesty Machin didn't think that was possible. Or at least hadn't thought that was possible.
Ranma jumped up, leaving the blanket on the ground, unintentionally giving Machin a horribly good view of every part of her body. Back when he had lived a normal life, if something like this happened, Machin would be severely beaten by the offended woman. If not that then harshly scolded at the least whether it was his own fault or not. So her standing up while naked came as a surprise to him.
He jumped himself, though in a completely different manner. Surprise and embarrassment crossed the poor soul leech's face. He turned quickly and dared not open his eyes. Somehow, after his thousand or so years of loneliness inside the ways, he had managed to keep his modesty. This girl… this Ranma, did not appear so lucky.
"Don't you have any modesty!" He cried. Ranma looked at him, curiously. Her wide blue eyes boring into the back of his head with confusion. "Why is he acting so odd?" she thought.
She walked up to him inched her head around his shoulder and looked at his tightly clamped eyes from the side.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
He began to twitch as her breast rubbed against his right shoulder.
He opened his eyes, bounded up and around her, grabbed the blanket, and finally, draped it over Ranma covering her once more as fast as he possibly could. Then he sighed in relief.
Ranma, who was at an all time emotional high due to her freedom, burst into laughter.
After a while, he joined her.
"I don't mind." She told him. "It's been… far to long for me to care."
He did not understand truly but he had a decent idea of what she meant with her first phrase at least. "It's ok." was his guess. However, the way her voice drifted into depression during her second comment confused him completely. Never in his long life had he heard of a girl becoming depressed at a man covering her exposed body. Especially a stranger.
Ranma woke slowly. She felt the warm embrace of the old tattered blanket touching her skin and bathed in the beauty of the morning candlelight. She opened her book and looked again through Akane's eyes to make sure that it actually WAS morning. It was impossible to tell within this place.
Though looking in her book also appeared useless. The poor girl's sight was still brimmed with tears, even in her sleep.
Akane's arrival at home had been interesting to say the least, and downright mollifying to say the most.
She came into the door, tears in her eyes, almost bawling on the doorstep, attracting the entire family's attention.
Kasumi came forward to console the girl at her not entirely unexpected failure.
Akane surprised her elder sister by rising, not accepting Kasumi's embrace, but running to Nabiki instead!
Nabiki was surprised only for a moment. She quickly accepted the embrace, letting Akane soak her shoulder with unhindered tears. The close observer would have noticed one tear drop down Nabiki's face. Fortunately for Nabiki, there had been no close observers and Akane's eye's had been covered by Nabiki's shoulder so she didn't see it either.
Genma and Soun comforted Akane by patting her on the back, thinking only that she had failed to defeat the Senshi.
Kasumi, on the other hand, was furious. So furious, in fact, that she managed to frown. She was the comforter! She was the one to aid her sisters during troubled times so why in the world had Akane run to Nabiki?
At least, that was what Ranma had guessed. She had become expert at reading tiny facial expressions. This was just another.
Ranma jumped up to her feet, leaving herself exposed once again. She had decided that Machin had better either get used to her apparel, or lack thereof, or get rid of her.
She seriously doubted he would get rid of her leaving him only one option.
She had found the day before that Machin was in the "forgetting" stage. The loneliest point of solitary confinement. The point where he began to forget what was once his everyday life. Forget the things and people that were most important to him.
She thought back to the events of the day before as they had rolled out and found them somewhat funny. It was very difficult to translate life stories through such different languages. They were both very thankful for the similarities in their gestures, whether they thought about it or not.
Ranma had drawn the image of a clock by scratching the image into a floor in order to ask how long he had been in this dark, dank, place where he lived.
It, however, did nothing but confuse him even more. He had never seen a clock so Ranma decided to go about it a different way. She drew the Sun and the Moon with an arrow pointing from and to both of them in a circle. Fortunately, this did help the words "time" and "day" click into Machin's brain. He understood the word and it's meaning.
He described the amount of time by putting a rock on the drawing and following the circular arrows three hundred and fifty six times and by holding up fingers until hit five with 1 hand and then let her count. He stopped when he hit three hundred and sixty five, or one year and then explained the word year to her. It was odd that they were the same amount of time between years.
Ranma comprehended this quickly. She was never much of a language expert but she was fluent in Spanish and was somewhat knowledgeable in English, and was good at learning a language with the learning disability such as incomprehension. One person who's life she had seen through had learned these languages so well that it had seemed like he was born in Mexico or England, by simply staying there.
Then Machin started a different motion of poking holes and counted the year number he had been in this place. They had had a lot of time so counting out almost a thousand years had been quick and easy.
Machin had been curious as to how long she had been alone. He was no expert but he could tell that the girl had been in solitary confinement much like himself for some time now. Her pale skin and the aged looking eyes that made her seem far more than she appeared, gave him all the clues he needed. He almost thought she had been Aes Sedai when she had first met him. But the elderly have that same look in their eyes just as the Aes Sedai did where he was from.
Ranma had been disappointed. She had done all that work to escape from her prison, only to find herself inside another one. Granted it was much larger gave more freedom but… It still wasn't freedom.
Machin Shin had named the place, "The Ways." It seemed that the intricate bridges were nothing more than connectors between great cities on his home world. Though it ran far deeper then just that, considering where she had come from.
Ranma took the rock and drew something else. Little stick figures, poorly drawn, but standing side by side in order to represent a family.
Machin looked at the drawing and quickly turned away, trying to hide a tear.
"What's wrong?" Ranma had asked. She could understand his sadness she supposed, but she had to make sure her speculation was correct. After a bit of prodding and using her "cute" face to cheer him up, at least a little, he pointed to his head and then shrugged. Then he shook his head left to right in a depressed manner.
Ranma understood. He was losing his memory but was still clinging to vague images. The same had happened to Ranma but it had occurred far later with herself due to the book, which at that time, had been a mirror.
Machin shin calmed down and his face brightened. He, too, was happy to finally have someone to talk to. Someone who wouldn't die or go insane upon nearing him.
Ranma was glad that she and Machin were making progress in breaking down the language barrier but she simply wished that they knew how to speak to one another quickly. At this rate it would be five years before they completely understood each other.
Now Ranma stood, awake in the morning darkness and strode out of the stone cottage that she had found, had been built into the bottom of one of the bridges. She lobbed herself to the top, onto the bridge and decide it was time to train. She couldn't let herself slacken.
The second she began her first kata she felt something horrible. Her ki reserves… they were at an all time low. She should have been perfectly fine by this time, even after using all that energy to destroy the pedestal. Something was sapping her ki. Sapping her very soul. Fortunately, she still had ample time to recover, billions of times more ki, and the Ki flows seemed to be recovering naturally. Something had taken some of her energy, however, and it was not the Ki blast at the pedestal.
A name drifted vaguely atop her mind. "Ninomiya Hinako." But she quickly forgot it. Now wasn't the time to reminisce.
She jumped back down onto the lower bridge where Machin's home was and found Machin sleeping in the arm chair that he had carved from the stone bridge. She grabbed him by the neck to wake him up quickly.
"What's going on!" She shouted.
"Huh?" He replied in her language. "I don't understand!" back in his own language.
"My power!" Ranma shouted.
Machin drew another blank. Ranma growled with frustration. How in the world to you get mad at someone who can't understand what your saying?
She held out her palm and summon a ball of ki making it the size of a basketball.
Machin shin widened his eyes in awe. So this was the power with which he had drawn from! This was why she was so incredible. How she had manage to muster so much power was unknown to him. He quickly discerned that it was not Aes Sedai magic that she had been using. It was raw life force. A regular banquet to his person-starved curse.
Meanwhile, Ranma tried to explain. She made it the ball smaller, in order to try to explain that she had less then normal energy. But it turned out that wasn't needed.
She looked at her ki ball and found the problem. Ki was seeping from the ball in flowing, watery streams of light and directly to the body of Machin Shin.
She dissipated the ball and backed away from him.
"Wha… What are you?" She asked, almost frightened.
Machin recognized the fearful voice and look in her eyes. Once or twice before he had met with a powerful warrior who had had enough soul for him to live through Machin's draining. Only those few times, though.
Machin backed away and turned, dropping his head in shame.
"Curse." He muttered.
The word, fortunately for Ranma, was the same in her own language.
"Curse?" She questioned.
She strayed closer to him and realized that he was no longer seeping her ki, nor had he been at all the previous night.
He had turned and was facing the wall. "It's the reason, I'm so alone." He said.
Ranma didn't understand what made her do it but she embraced him suddenly, rubbing her chest against his back, her arms wrapped around his neck. She knew all about the terror's of curses, even though she could barely remember that her current form was once her curse.
He slowly turned to her and accepted her embrace, crying into her bare shoulder… so happy… so very happy for a companion.
The question of her nakedness, didn't even arise.
Ranma arose from the stone-carved bed and shucked off the blanked, exposing herself to the darkness of the ways. The room was only lit when Machin used the embers, as he called them, to create a fire in the fireplace above. It let light leak down into his home, as well as decent heat. She didn't know how he had kept a fire here for so long. All she did know was that the odd red lumps in the fire were what kept it going. Apparently they had served Machin well for a millennium, and well they would serve for a thousand more, or so Machin hoped.
She stood near the fire and lit it herself, memory of starting fires in ages past returning to her fingers helped her recall how to make the sparks that would ignite the lumps of red. The fire was lit and she was ready.
She began.
Machin awoke to the heat of the flames. He was startled horribly wondering what monstrosity could have possibly started his fire. But then he recalled his new companion and relaxed. He walked outside to find a sight so magnificent that he could barely believe it.
The girl whom he let sleep in his stone bed the night before, now stood dancing in the flames.
Ranma moved gracefully through one of the katas of her own making, jumping in and out of the fire fast enough to make her image dance in the flames. She had never done this before but a martial artist much like herself who's eyes through which she had seen had done something similar, though not quite as dramatic.
To Machin the girl seemed solid inside of the flames, dancing to the song of the crackling embers as they seemed to dance along with her. The flames followed her movements and seemed to envelop and swallow the girl in a clock of fire. He watched in awe of the spectacular performance.
Suddenly the girl in the flames disappeared and materialized beside them.
"Bodies roasting on an open fire." She thought. She was happy with her new technique. She had created it for the soul purpose of draining the fire to replenish her lost ki reserves due to Machin's curse. It worked like a charm.
Suddenly she noticed her host with a gaping hole in his face. His mouth hung open and he stood stock still.
She smiled at him but he made no movement. She had a funny feeling he might have fainted standing up though his eyes WERE still open.
"You can watch me if you want, hon." She said happily and took a stance, also of her own creation and began a much simpler kata.
He slowly nodded.
The weeks went by quickly. Ranma soon became accustomed to life with Machin. She had come to enjoy his company almost as much as life itself, even though the fights and arguing due to lack of comprehension were infuriating. She found herself peeking into her book less and less as time went by, and peeking at the man when he slept more and more.
Akane had left Nerima. Gone, she said, to the mountains of Tibet. Her true destination, however, had been Jusenkyo. She had not felt her punishment, or lack of punishment, had been adequate for her crime. She had felt she deserved something… some… thing to make up for what she had done. So she decided to bring at least some of the hell that had been Ranma's life upon herself.
Ranma was saddened at having to watch her take the punishment but still couldn't decide whether or not she deserved it. But when Akane made it to the springs, she didn't hesitate to dunk herself in spring of drowned man. She truly wished to atone, in Ranma's eyes.
She thought she would feel more resentment towards her killer but her journey for atonement did nothing but make Ranma pity her and hope to see her again. And still, even through all her time, love her.
But even that was lessening. She found that she would much rather speak with Machin and anger and frustration, then watch Akane sink further into her depression.
Even so, she still clung to Akane despite her growing feelings toward Machin. This was the woman she loved and had loved for a length of time that most people couldn't dream of. She would not give that up without a fight. And due to her apparent immortality, it would be a long fight indeed.
After two months they had almost perfectly worked out each other's stories, even though Ranma STILL would not tell her actual age. Something she had picked up from watching many women's lives was to never reveal her age.
Since hers was somewhere around eighteen thousand years, she assumed that it would make Machin uncomfortable to know that she was THAT much older then him. She thought about it for a long time and found that she was exactly eighteen thousand and thirty eight, with six months and seven days.
Getting bored with finding her age, which was far to old for her to care about, she decided to remind herself of Machin's history.
Machin's story was quite interesting for one who had the time to care. He had been a young farm boy in the kingdom of Andor, and the great city of Hai Caemlyn. One day, whilst working the fields the princess had come to him. Apparently his tall, decently muscular frame, edged and roughened by daily work, had attracted the girl to him and she had invited him into her room.
He could not turn the princess down, or she would have guards kill him. He could not let the queen find out about the secret or SHE would have guards kill him.
So, stuck in the predicament he went along with the princess, who's name he had not told Ranma.
"Farm." and "Field" he explained by acting as if he were raking crops. Ranma comprehended quickly and also noted that apparently the place he was talking about was a third world country.
He slowly explained the words Andor, by drawing a world map, and then princess by drawing a crown. It seemed to him, somewhat annoying that he was forced to use sign-language to express words instead of the words themselves.
Ranma, meanwhile, decided that there was a good chance she was either FAR in the past, or possibly future, or on a different world. This map had absolutely no resemblance to her own world map.
He had been caught and, due to the queens advisor, been cursed as well by some form of magic that he had called Aes Sedai. Unfortunately, his curse had begun to affect the guards who watched his cell instead of only animals as was it's intention. When it was found that the curse could not be removed he was locked and warded into the ways where to that day he had remained, cursed to unwillingly leech souls every time one wandered into the ways. He had no need of water or food or drink. Only soul had taste to him now.
This was the basic story that had been conveyed to Ranma. She knew Machin would have tried to become FAR more detailed but they were still learning languages.
He had actually been hoping to die soon before he had met Ranma. He was nothing more than an innocent killer who was not innocent. He couldn't do anything about it. Every person he met he drained. He simply couldn't avoid it.
Ranma fortunately, had so much soul, that he had barely tapped the rim of her power to fill himself. Quite frankly he knew he should be afraid of her, but her playful, happy manner, no matter how dangerous, forced him to almost think of her as a child. She looked at everything new that she saw with a wonder and joy that only small children possessed. Her childish innocence almost drove him to lust over her at times but he always caught himself before he became too flustered by her looks, not to mention constant nakedness.
It had been a long time since he had seen anyone let alone a woman as beautiful as herself and he, unlike Ranma who never had one in the first place, still had a libido.
Two months gone by. Two months since Akane's battle with the Senshi. Four since Ranma's abduction, at least in the eyes of Genma Saotome. "Where is that boy? If he doesn't get home soon I'm going to be out of a home. What am I gonna do?" He thought frantically jumping from subject to subject in his mind. Aimlessly walking toward his room he accidentally bumped into someone he hadn't seen in quite some time.
Akane was just returning to her room from the restroom when Genma bumped her. She had been crying often lately thought no one really understood why. Nabiki seemed to, but beyond the first hung she had given Akane upon her arrival, she avoided Akane like plague. When the others tried to comfort the distraught girl she would turn them away and return to the confinement of her room.
Genma looked at the young girl before
him as she sat on the ground, disoriented from the hit. She slowly
stood and Genma couldn't help but notice something… odd about the girl.
Watching
her stomach he realized that something that was generally unheard of in
Nerima was occurring. Akane was getting… pudgy.
Considering all the action she had used to go through, and still went through in the dojo, that wasn't possible.
And this confused Genma. How was this girl getting to be so large?
No ideas came to mind so he walked on towards his room, after mumbling a sorry and helping the girl up.
Akane was amused by Genma's odd gaze. It seemed that he thought she was a puzzle or a great mystery that he couldn't figure out.
Personally she thought that his search was not unfounded. She was a murder case. She was evil, vile, and everything that made a bad person bad. She beat herself up during her sleep over this again and again, always waking, begging it not to be true. She was nauseous and drowsy when she awoke, or at least had been for the past three months. It appeared that she was over whatever it was that was causing her morning sickness, finally, though that still left one problem for her.
"Why am I getting fat?" She thought. She noticed it slowly, but it was definitely true. Her stomach had bulged recently. Just a little, but enough to be noticed as it appeared Genma had. She decided perhaps she was eating without thinking about it while watching the television, which she only did to make her forget about Ranma. It never seemed to work.
So she upped her training. From ten in the morning until ten at night she trained constantly, though why she decided to do this, she didn't know. Shampoo, her number one rival, had disappeared along with all other residents at the Nekohaunten. The place was closed and boards covered the windows.
Ukyo had somehow managed to befriend her in Ranma's absence. Akane felt horrible every minute she spent with the girl. Ukyo had given up on Ranma, wishing the two of them good luck, even if it had been the fake Ranma who had asked her to do it.
Which made her feel even worse.
Then she went and killed Ranma… What kind of payment is that?
The only time Akane had any respite from the pain, grief, and especially guilt of Ranma's murder was when she sparred with the "cute fiancée." Ukyo was good but however, no longer a match for her skill.
Suddenly she felt it again. The urge to go to the restroom yet again. It wasn't exactly scary but it was starting to become abnormal. Maybe she was sick? She had missed three periods now though she still couldn't discern why.
Two weeks into the last quarter of school. After this last quarter Akane would graduate. She sat in the room, as nervous as all the other students were for the first part on "Women" in this newly created class. For some reason, unknown to Akane, the class had been developed and had become required within her last semester.
It annoyed her terribly that she had to get rid of the Food and Nutrition IIII class from her schedule to make room for this. And it drove her insane that she was still able to care about making food… all it did was hurt people. People she didn't want hurt.
It wasn't like she didn't know how sex worked so why did she have to take Sex Education? She had been taking the class for two weeks now and the day before they had finished the unit on men… Akane was joyous for that occasion.
Due to the fact that all school is boring, the teacher had decided that the best way to start the class today, with a boring lecture about pregnancy.
To Akane, boring, was something she wished it would've turned out to be.
"Does anyone know the first sign that a girl might be pregnant?" The teacher asked. No hands raised but it was a question all of them knew the answer to.
The teacher sighed, exasperated. "Come on I know someone here knows the answer."
Akane
raised her hand. It was a simple question though questions in this room
often went unanswered due to embarrassment. Akane was determined not to
slip into depression and so, stayed actively participant in her
classes. Even if she felt like a puppet while doing it.
"Yes Akane?" The teacher asked.
"A missed period." She said. And suddenly it clicked.
The teacher watched as Akane's faced turned pale.
"Akane… is… something wrong?" The teacher asked.
"Uh… uh.. n-no sensei. Gomen… um… you were… saying?" Akane asked as she tried desperately to bring the color back into her face.
It convinced the teacher though her friends eyed her oddly.
She gulped. "I'm pregnant…I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant." The voice inside her head built.
"But I CAN'T be pregnant!" She thought back furiously. "I've NEVER.. I've… I've never done… THAT!"
The mantra began to repeat itself louder inside her head. "I'm pregnant…I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant."
"It's NOT POSSIBLE!" She thought angrily.
Three missed periods, and a forth coming up. Morning sickness, constant need to use the restroom. All the symptoms of pregnancy that she had easily known slipped right by her brain until now. They all fit.
Though she had not felt any food cravings as was also a symptom she knew, all of these fit too evenly with her condition. The morning sicknesses had stopped recently, just as they were usually supposed to during pregnancy.
"I'm pregnant…I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant." The mantra grew louder until her own voice of reason stating that she couldn't be pregnant was almost drowned out.
"And does anyone know the second sign that a woman might be pregnant?" the teacher asked.
Another student, whom Akane didn't know well, raised her hand. "Morning Sickness."
"I'm pregnant…I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant… I'm pregnant." The mantra grew even louder to the point where she was about to explode.
"Correct, usually. Remember cases vary from woman to woman. Some may experience food cravings first or some may not experience food cravings at all."
"I'M PREGNANT! I'M PREGNANT! I'M PREGNANT! I'M PREGNANT!" The voice in her head drowned out all but everything else.
"Teacher, may I use the restroom?" Akane asked, agitated and edgy.
"Uh… yes.. Akane. Go ahead." "Arigato." Akane sighed and quickly jumped up.
Mrs. Ayoka was no expert at reading people. However she eyed Akane suspiciously as she bolted out of the door. Upon her exit a few giggles were heard.
"Class dismissed." The she called. "Do what you want until next hour."
A cheer arose from the class. Mrs. Ayoka however, left the room in order to follow Akane.
She found the girl in a stall, muttering to herself in a repeated mantra. She opened the stall, which Akane had casually tried to lock but failed.
Akane sat on a toilet, curled into a ball, face buried in her knees.
She didn't look at Mrs. Ayoka. She wrapped herself tighter. Mrs. Ayoka watched as tears trailed down the distraught girl's legs.
"Akane… is there something you wanna talk about?" She asked as she close the stall door and stood down beside Akane.
"I'm… pre…" came her muttered response.
"Akane… did you only just realize this?" She asked.
Akane's head moved up and down. "I.. But… I didn't do.. I… I didn't do anything… I swea…"
"Shhh. It's ok… It's ok." Ayoka soothed. She had dealt with a girl like this one before.
"How long has it been since your last period?" She asked. Akane gulped.
"Ff… four.. months." she stuttered.
Ayoka was surprised… this girl was apparently quite clueless, or at least somehow didn't grasp, or didn't want to grasp the fact.
"Come on…" She said in a soothing, motherly voice, "We need to get you home."
Akane slowly raised her head and forced her tears down. Then she nodded and followed the teacher out of the room.
They never saw the girl sitting in the next stall. The girl who's eyes were as wide as the full moon.
Ranma lay in Machin's former sleeping bed, drinking in the night. Or at least she thought it was the night. She didn't know. She didn't care. She had not risen from the bed in almost a week she assumed. He was gone…. He was GONE. Her one and only companion, gone. Taken and mutated by her own power into that sanity-stealing evil… thing…
Fourteen hundred years. Almost FOURTEEN HUNDRED long years had she and Machin Shin resided alone. They laughed, cried, danced, sang, taught and were taught by one another, wandered the ways for fifties and hundreds of years at a time, sparred, jumped, made up games, joked, and did every other possible thing that they could think of. But now that was over. If only she hadn't opened that wall again. It helped her once. She didn't need it to help her again. But this time it hadn't helped her. It left her alone.
She thought back to the events that led up to the insanity of her… of the… man… she…
She couldn't finish. Or hadn't been able to finish then. She simply couldn't l… lo… lo… like a man. She didn't understand why the thought made her so sick. She had been a man once she recalled though she had never told Machin. It had been SO long ago… so why couldn't she just give it up! Why couldn't she have just… given… up?
Now looking back she realized that she should have loved him. Given a second chance to see Machin she would jump his bones and steal him away, whether it made her sick to her stomach or not. She would force herself to love him… anything, ANYTHING he wanted, if just to see him again.
To see him… human again.
She hadn't had all the time in the world like she had thought. She should have taken the chance… but she stayed away. Distanced herself from him, clinging to her old love. And now he was gone. Now he was forever out of her reach.
She drifted into unconsciousness as her dreams began to replay both the joys, and horrors of her past.
Flash!
One year had gone by. She turned to her companion and smiled. He smiled back though he was obviously angry at something. She turned back to her project and continued creating her stone toy. She had developed a technique long ago for creating a ki, powered knife, originally intended for Pluto during her "revenge stage" as she had called it.
Now she sat on the ground, whittling at the stone figure trying to perfect her image of the person. She was making a person, she knew. Though she couldn't exactly remember the girl's name. Even so, she felt that this person deserved respect.
It was a peaceful, serene figurine of a girl in a long dress with an apron tied above it. She stood straight as if posing for a picture.
Ranma finished the final touch and finally held up the finished product. "YATTA! I'M DONE!" She cried.
Machin applauded her and then returned to his own, far less skilled, whittling.
She stood and walked over to her collection and placed the figure along with the others. A long haired girl with weapons that seemed like sticks with balls on the end. Another long haired girl with a spatula of all things. A man with short black hair and a bandana, holding a pig. A man holding a Kendo stick with a large question mark sticking out of his head, and finally another straight figurine of a short haired girl with dollar signs scratched into her eyes.
She knew who the last one had been. Nabiki. She also recalled Kuno was the one with the Kendo stick and vaguely remembered… Ryo… Ryo… someone… held the pig. The others she had forgotten though apparently her subconscious had not.
She stood and bent over her companion, standing between him and the light from the fire.
"Hello!" She said happily in his language.
"Hello!" He replied back in the same tone in hers. "Heh heh… hey what's up? Why are you so… bubbly today?" He asked.
"Because!" Ranma replied sarcastically. "Today… you… have master my language. I hear-by officially say that language training is OVER! THANK GOD!" She cried as she fell onto the stone floor with a hard "THUMP."
He smiled.
"Same to you." Then returned to his whittling.
Ranma couldn't help but be a little disappointed but she knew that when he was paying one thing attention he would forget all else.
Especially now that he was trying to out whittle her.
She wished him good luck, but he would never win. "Ranma Saotome never loses!" She thought giddily.
Flash!
"Ranma… I… Ranma, I think that I… lo… love… you." Machin said. The poor fellow had been trying to say it to Ranma for almost five minutes, stuttering and continuing about how pretty the fire embers were.
She frowned. "I… I'm sorry Machin… but I… I can't abandon… I…" She said slowly.
Machin looked down. "I… I understand." He quickly fled.
Ranma felt horrible after his departure. But she wasn't able to do anything when he was so sad like this. A: She was alone with just him around so they would talk it out anyways, eventually. B: She… simply couldn't abandon Akane. So long she had dreamed of holding the girl in her arms once more. So… very long.
She couldn't give up. She had told him how far she would go… how long she would wait to get back to her Akane.
If he thought ten little years could change that… he was coming much closer to being right. But it hadn't changed it yet… she hadn't changed yet, nor would she for some time.
She opened her book and looked in. Akane stood watching a pupil in her dojo. She resided deep within the mountains of China, seeking solitude and sometimes, wisdom from old elders.
She had become a legendary trainer, creating some of the worlds greatest fighters, so she heard. But she was so sad… every time Ranma opened the book he felt a sad flow from the twenty-eight year old woman.
And she was beginning to think that she always would.
Flash!
"DAMN You wench! Why! WHY WHY WHY! Why can't… Why can't you just LET HER GO? I've done nothing but loved you… tried and tried, again and again but you STILL push me away even after all this time! Eighty years after her time in your book ended!" Machin cried angrily.
"I don't WANT to!" She screamed back, hugging her book to her chest. "I Loved her! I still and always will love her and YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT!"
Machin backed away. Ranma hadn't never, in the close to one century they had been together, yelled at him like that.
Ranma slumped to the ground into a ball clutching the book like a lifeline, rocking herself back and fourth. "Ranma… I…"
"Leave me alone!" She cried. She fled as fast as she possibly could.
"RANMA! NO IF YOU GO OUT…! I'll never… see… you…" Machin watched the girls retreating form as it simply faded. She had slipped into her invisibility technique that she had named Umi-Sen-Ken, hiding from him.
"No…" He wailed. "No.. I'm… sorry… please… come back!" He screamed, begging her to hear him. If she wandered into the ways, he might never see her again.
"COME BACK! I'LL DO ANYTHING! JUST COME BACK!" He screamed as loud as he could.
Ranma heard. She had stayed near-by, knowing what would happen if she left his home. She could be forever lost from him… and she couldn't stand that. She couldn't take that loneliness again.
She let herself appear and he sighed in relief as he ran to, and hugged, his companion, crying softly into her shoulder.
"I thought… I thought you had left me… left me alone again…" He whispered.
"I'm sorry… I'm just not ready yet Machin… Please give me time. I still love her too much."
He sighed and slumped off her. "All the time you need." He said smiling, though tears still flowed down his fear covered eyes. "I just wish.. You had more love to give.. Then just to one."
He walked down into his home and lay in the most secluded spot there, only now trying to hide his shame.
Flash!
Ranma stood in the fire. Flames now flittered across her body but nothing they did could even touch a single cell of her ki-drunken skin. She danced within the fire, making herself look like an angel of flames. Her fiery red hair was covered in flames, though none harmed a single molecule of her being.
As she danced, the fire danced with her. Expanding, contracting, pushing up, or pulling down by her will. She had begun to form the fire into a circle of flame spiraling around her and then let it fall back down.
And as she danced, her ki increased, absorbing energy from the flames. Her maximum reserves increased and her ki that Machin took for his draining replenished.
She didn't often do anything but dance in the fire any longer. She kept her perfected form of martial arts as perfected as it was but spent more time building her ki. With her ki she made amazing light shows and awe filled looking fireworks to light up the lonely place that was the ways.
Machin watched her.
He always watched her, especially right after having drained her with his curse, ever since six hundred years previous when she had almost run away.
She stepped away from the fire and smiled at Machin. He smiled back. It was an old ritual among them but they still did it, if only for the fact that it was something to do.
Three hundred years previous Ranma had begun to teach Machin Martial arts. He was now quite godly himself though he still could not fathom how she managed to let flames envelop and not even be touched.
His favorite thing to do was to create thirteen or fourteen balls of light and twiddle them around in impressive formations, every now and then, exploding one upon his companion and laughing along with her.
"So… are you alright Ranma?" He asked happily.
"Of course. I always feel refreshed after dancing in the flames though I still don't understand why. Maybe it's my version of a shower, ne?" She asked.
He laughed. He, of course, had not known what a shower was before he met her, however her book had told him. "Ha. Maybe, but what does that make MY version of a shower?"
"Um… Twiddling your balls around?" She asked.
Machin couldn't help but burst into laughter at this completely innocent comment from his companion.
"What?" She asked impatiently.
Machin, unlike Ranma who remained naked, still wore his old tunic, cloak and worn pants, Therefore, Ranma didn't often see anything that would be considered perverted. She had long since stopped needing to use the bathroom, as had he. Advantages of not eating for almost nineteen millenniums. Or in his case, twelve hundred years.
"So?" He asked suddenly, finally free from his fit of laughter.
Suddenly she realized the perversion of her comment and glared at him. "Shut up! I was talking about Ki!" She cried.
He laughed and entered his home. She followed and upon entering the room asked. "So… getting pretty old now aren't ya? What is it now? Twelve hundred today? I'm impressed. So what are you hoping to get for your birthday little one?" She asked.
He hated when she called him that but she couldn't resist doing it on every birthday he had. He glared at her but the smiled.
"I was hoping for a girl… interestingly long and uncouth red hair, large breasts, and a large bottom to go with that." He joked.
She glared at him, this time angrily, though more depressed then angry somehow. "Machin.. Please… I." "Stop right there." He said firmly. "Just a joke. Just a joke…" He then soothed.
She smiled and pulled out her gift.
It appeared to be an ordinary walking stick. Actually, it was an extraordinary walking stick as far as the craftsmanship on it went. But the real treat of it was what it did.
"This… is a soul, holder." She said simply. "Huh?" He asked. He had loved it, considering how long she must had spent, A: Keeping it secret and B: Simply making it. But now he was confused by what she meant.
"I mean that next, and every time that you have to draw my ki from me, you won't have to. You can draw from this instead!" She stated proudly.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" He cried.
"Mmhmm! All I have to do is fill it with my Ki, or hell you could do it with your own ki before you feel the need to drain me, then just drain this of the ki in it, and I can refill it!" Ranma said.
Machin got teary-eyed again. "I… you… you don't know how much this means to me Ranma-san…"
"Yes.." She replied. "Yes I do."
Flash!
One thousand years from her own prison… one thousand years in her new one she wandered aimlessly. Hoping that his fire and home would pop up, just around the corner.
Two hundred years previous she had run again. This time, she had succeeded. And now she would do anything to be with her companion again.
She wandered from area to area, every now and then, finding a door that she could not open.
Suddenly she saw a figure. It was tall even next to Machin, who was no slouch in the height department. Her lit magic ember that she held in her hand laminated the figure as she came close.
"Fascinating!" He said suddenly. "Your holding fire in your hand and it isn't burning you? Are you Aes Sedai?"
She understood nothing of what the incredibly tall looking… thing had said to her. He was human-ish by most accounts.
"What are you?" She asked.
"Oh! You speak in that tongue." He said, suddenly, in a language she understood. "I'm terribly sorry. It's just been such a long time since I've had company.
"What are you?" She repeated. "I'm an ogier dear child, didn't your parent's tell you about us? And without one of us around how did you even get in here? It shouldn't be possible to do without an Ogier. Now… would you please let me see that little fire in your hand?" He asked motioning for her hand. She pulled away.
He sighed. "What is your name, child?" "Ranma." She said as she edged around him.
"Ranma? What an interesting name. You humans are so curious. Well. I am Fulen, son of Haren, son of Theode
"Pleasure.. To meet you…" Ranma muttered. She refused to act like the giddy little child she wanted to considering all of the interesting things the ogier carried with him.
"Why are you here?" She questioned.
"Well I'm lost, same as yourself correct? I was a fool and never learned how to read the direction's on the bridges. So I'm stuck wandering the ways till I meet the soul stealer or until I find my way out. Anyways, what are you thinking child? Why in the world are you naked? Come here come here I think I brought along some human clothes, though why I forget." He told her.
She knew there had been directions on the bridges though she had not been able to figure them out at all even in the thousand years she had been here.
She strayed forward to the peculiar monstrosity. It was odd that one so big would be so obsessed with books. It looked like he held ten books and fifteen pairs of clothing in his pack. He pulled out a pair of brown pants with a dark green shirt. They were nothing next to her silk of old, but they would do to keep herself from embarrassment. She quickly put them on and found them to be quite comfortable, much to her surprise.
"How long have you been here?" She asked.
"Oh about four years." He replied happily.
"That's ALL! You mean… you mean you've seen the out side! You've seen free air?" She clutched his collar. Without noticing she let her ki lift herself to the height of the ogier.
"What do you mean child? Surely you haven't been in here for too long. Why your nothing but a tiny lass, hardly able to marry, even by human standards!
She chuckled darkly as she fell back to the floor.
"I'm probably the oldest person you'll ever meet." she said in the same dark tone as her chuckle.
He felt sweaty suddenly, and almost a little afraid of the child.
"Right.." He said quickly. "Right, ok. Well. I suppose that you have had adequate food supply? After all if you've been in here for long enough not to remember the outside you must've been in here long enough to need a good meal?" He asked.
"I… I don't eat." She said.
"Oh really? Well here, try a bite of this." He said holding up a small square cracker.
"A cracker?" She asked.
"Mmhmm. Let's see if you like this at all.
She took the thing slowly and put it to her mouth with care. When it touch her lips she felt like she was in heaven. It was as if god himself had come down and touched her tongue. She gobbled the cracker up and begged the Man, ogier, whatever, for more.
"Settle there lass! It's like you've never ad' a cracker before!" He cried.
"I told you I haven't!" she replied as she desperately snatched the next cracker from his hands and inhaled it.
"Hmm…" He said. He held out another cracker and as she was about to snatch it she suddenly felt an enormous lurch in her abdomen. She fell over to her side and rasped. "You… poisoned me?" She asked.
"I did no such thing!" He cried.
He took the girl, and picked her up, placing her face up across his lap. He felt her stomach and was amazed by it's lack of… substance.
"You… really haven't eaten… in… a very, very long time have you?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"Well… it was that cracker. You are not able to eat much at all due to the fact that you have not eaten in a very long time and your stomach cannot take the pressure.
Suddenly he forced his hand onto her stomach. She coughed a little but was surprised when some how she vomited the cracker.
"Don't eat anything an just survive the same way you have been." He said.
Her stomach did feel better. "I… ok…" She couldn't help but desperately want some more of the godly tasting, crackers.
"So? Should we travel together?" He asked suddenly.
She slowly nodded. "I… yes… I think I would like… a friend?" She asked.
"A friend." He agreed.
For two days Ranma and Fulen traveled together. Though they spoke little. Fulen often was writing in a notebook. She was confused by how he carried so many items. The man had enough food to last for several years to come.
And suddenly she saw it. It was the house. It was Machin's house! She was HOME! After two HUNDRED years she was HOME!
"MACHIN!" She cried as she ran ahead.
"Ranma?" Fulen asked as he watched the girl suddenly seem to phase away. He noticed a slight blur moving towards the rickety under bridge and he assumed that that was Ranma.
"RANMA! YOU? YOUR.. YOU CAME HOME? You came home!" Fulen heard a man shout.
Ranma jumped into Machin's arms while he swung her around in circles before setting her gently on the ground.
"I… I thought I'd never see…" Suddenly he trailed off.
Ranma knew what was happening. His curse.
"Oh no… Machin, where is..?"
"In my room! On the bed!" He screamed. She ran to get the walking stick and ran back as fast as possible. Only to find something she truly wished to have never seen.
Machin stood, sucking the very soul away from Fulen.
"NO! Machin! Stop!" She cried.
She jumped in the way and tried to intercept the power of his curse with the walking stick, or even with herself but it was no use.
Fulen screamed long, loud, and painfully.
When it was over, he twittered. He lay, pale, ashen, and shocked. He slowly looked up, twitching the entire way, to find Ranma above him, concern and desperation on her face.
"I… I thought… we were… friends?" He asked.
And with that, he fell still.
Ranma's sobs for her short-term friend lasted long into the night.
Flash!
Ranma sat cross-legged, concentrating with all her might on the wall. She had broken it once before and upon doing so, amazing things had happened, such as her escape. She desperately wished to let her and Machin free of this prison.
She wished to go home. She wanted to be a normal person again. To remember the taste of salty crackers and chips. To recall the feeling of pizza burning her upper mouth. To taste an Okonomiyaki again. But tasting wasn't the only thing. She wanted to jump off a mountain with a string tied to her toe. She wanted to fly in an airplane and swim through an ocean. She wanted to see the White Tower that Machin described for her, and the great city of Caemlyn. She wanted… so much did she want.
The wall was breaking. This time the process was much faster. She broke it in the same place where she had originally broken the barrier between her and the shimmering light. But this time she would know what she was doing.
She didn't know how she mentally banged on the wall, but she did. Inside her head was her own self imaged forcing down this barrier. And it was working.
"Ranma." Machin muttered interrupting her efforts.
"Mmhmm?" She asked.
"The draining is coming up soon." He said quickly.
"Yes… that's true." She replied.
"I… I broke the walking stick you gave me Ranma. I'm… really sorry." He muttered as if trying to keep her from hearing.
She sighed. She didn't expect it to last for forever but it had lasted for a very long time. Seven hundred years was no small amount of time. Or at least… shouldn't be.
"Ok… Well. I'm almost done. I will make a new one after this." She said quickly returning to her mental exercises.
"Ok… um… if you wouldn't mind sparrin' um… for a little while." He muttered again. He had always hated asking her to spar because it made him feel so bad when he lost so easily to her. But he wanted to get better so he did it despite his pride.
She smiled, knowing this. "Sure thing… Machin…"
He smiled back and was about to leave when he suddenly felt something.
Ranma did it. "YATTA!" She cried. The wall broke and the light seeped through and into her. Suddenly the entire world seemed filled with color like she had never known. As if everything were coated in bonfire like she was when she danced. She felt so very ALIVE, and so powerful.
She moved the light that had welded itself onto her in a swaying pattern, forming lines, discerning them as air and earth.
The stones in the house began to pop in and out of the walls randomly. Wind swept up and hit Machin's face, surprising him too much for words. It had been a very long time since he had felt wind. He absorbed it, and melded with the wind. His eyes shut, like Ranma's and he drank in the power of the winds.
Ranma was in heaven. Completely unaware of what was happening outside of her closed eyes, she drew the lines of power that were workable within this place. Lines of Air and Earth were only ones that seemed possible. There was another type of lines but she was afraid to tamper them. They seemed too delicate to be moved, no matter the ecstasy it would cause her to move them.
Machin suddenly felt it. The light that was creating the wind came from Ranma. That all powerful loving tender glorious light. It gripped him. His eyes were open again, but this time they were not kind. They lusted for the power his companion held.
He came to her and began to drain her soul.
Ranma suddenly realized that something was wrong. She opened her eyes and found Machin was draining her soul. But it was thousands of times faster than usual. Her ki reserves were depleting rapidly. She felt powerless to his onslaught. But then she remembered the light. She took lines of air and wrapped them around him forcing him off herself, immobilizing him. He struggled desperately.
"The Light…" he moaned. "Must have… light."
"Machin?" Ranma stuttered staring at his power-hungry face.
"GIVE ME LIGHT!" He cried.
He struggled furiously against his bonds. And suddenly he broke free.
He absorbed her soul. And the light in her along with it, and then instantly halted in his actions. He held his head and began screaming.
"Raaaa… Raanm…. Ranma.. Run..! Run… away!" He wheezed though it was his voice.
"Ma…chin?" "RUN DAMNIT! GO!" He cried. Letting go of the magnificent feeling of the light, she turned and fled. Upon getting to where she could see his home clearly she noticed something.
She felt a breeze. She had not ever felt a breeze within this place before. It felt cold… tingly and almost, stinging.
She swore and stared at the little home built into the bridge.
And suddenly, a great black smoke arose from the house, dampening the firelight until the house was no longer visible.
She lit an ember that she had taken in her hand and it flared to life, showing her about a twenty foot radius.
And there before her, stood a tall shadowed figure. "Machin? Shin?" She asked.
"Taint… the light was tainted… evil… muck… scum…the wind… the power… the light and the taint… I am Machin Shin… I want… your light… your taint.. Is beautiful like you once were to my eyes."
He rambled on and on about things she didn't understand. How could something so wonderful as that light be tainted? How?
Suddenly the creature lunged for her.
She dodged into the air where she hovered. The action took effort due to her lack of energy. .
"Machin! Listen to me!" She cried.
But he no longer heard. Suddenly the form of the figure distorted and took the shape of a black husk, much like a cloud.
It encircled her and again she felt the drain.
"You give no light… give the light or I will take blood… sweet honey blood. Blood that drips all over… blood for light… blood for light…"
Ranma felt herself weakening. She did the only thing she could do.
She let herself sink into an old technique… a technique older then she herself.
"Soul of Ice." She muttered.
It was a variation technique that turned her ki from it's normal flowing form, into that of ice. The ki was stuck inside her body and she would not let it out. She, to the demon form of Machin Shin, had died.
Machin left her for dead on the ground, muttering incoherently about blood dripping. Hurriedly, he fled the scene having thought that he had sucked out all her remaining soul. It was obvious that, this was not a very smart Machin Shin. In his normal state, Machin would have known that she had far more energy then just that.
Ranma woke from her self induced coma several hours later. Machin was gone… and the fire was visible again.
"Machin… what have I done to you?" She asked herself.
She decided she would journey to find him. She packed up the fire embers, her book and a few of his personal belongings, and tools to remake the walking stick.
Dim…
She opened her eyes. She now lay at home, hoping against hope that it had all been just a dream. But that wasn't it. It was what had happened. What she had foolishly done. Somehow, right under her nose, she had created a monster.
The holy light which she used attracted him so she dared not use it any longer. She had found that out four weeks previous when he had come inches from completely sapping her soul. She had been forced to dance in the fire for almost a week to recover.
And it appeared that he no longer recognized her.
It had been two weeks since she had found home and stayed in it, and one week since she had been out of the stone bed. It had been a very short journey all in all. Machin could travel the ways at speeds even she dreamed of. Apparently he had taken the form of a wind. Of a dark wind. A black wind.
And the words that came from his mouth-less form were no less then those of insanity and madness.
And she was alone. All alone… again.
Tears freely flowed from her eyes. As she withdrew her book. It appeared that was all she had… now…
Pluto desperately searched the time streams. In every single one Ranma had not appeared. Nothing in the time stream's current path had been affected. Ranma, however, was simply gone. Ranma had created a rift in the dimension that Pluto herself, had created. She left through a portal and then the voided dimension collapsed, leaving nothing.
Ranma was either dead, or inside of a completely different universe.
Pluto was not worried. She was not worried…
She was downright terrified.
"If Ranma returns… I will kill him." She thought. "I will have no choice."
She began to prepare.
End Chapter
Well. I can't say this chapter was all that hard to write. However, I was forced to rewrite it about four times. Each time I felt that it didn't fit right. In the first three attempts I had Ranma freed. But I realized that that wasn't going to happen in this chapter. It was just too difficult.
The Show-Not-Tell Rule kicked me so very, very hard in the ass here. Each rewrite was bad due to this rule. I kept trying to tell the story through a narrative instead of as it was happening. But finally I found a way to show the events yet, skip through them fast enough to keep the story in line.
Whadja think? Whadja think! Tell me Tell me! Review me!
Until next chap. Lata!