Love

by MisatoKitty

Oh dear, Ranma's dead. But wait, that's the end of the story. How does he get there? What the heck has been going on? Read on! Rating lowered because, really, this wouldn't get an R in cinemas even with the occasional violence :P

14. Love 14

DISCLAIMER: Relatively standard stuff. Existing characters are properties of the people who made them up. Mitsuki, and several other characters are mine, and so's the story, hence ownership and copyright of them belongs to me. Contact me at misato_98@yahoo.com if you want permission to use anything I've written for whatnot purposes.

NOTE: This chapter has some bad langauge, adult themes, and sexual references. No sex, though.

LOVE

By

Raymond Cooper

Chapter 14

** ... Or We Fall Together **

Yamazaki continued to watch from a distance. Extreme animalistic telescopic vision let him see the action, the carnage, as it progressed in downtown Tokyo, and it cheered him no end to see the people of the city burnt, vapourised, squished, and suffer many other interesting deaths. They'd beaten him too many times for him to care, insulted him, used him, abused him. He now only wanted to see them all dead.

And dead they shortly would be, he knew. Raijin was a few steps short of his goal now, the Tokyo Tower. It was within his grasp. The only reason he hadn't reached out yet -

- Raijin was having fun. Serious fun. The magical people of Tokyo and its surrounds were even now buzzing about his head like flies. Moments before, a giant girl in a jester's outfit had laid into Raijin with a funny-looking staff, but that hadn't done much to slow him down. He'd demolished a building, just seconds ago, and Yamazaki had caught sight of one of the senshi powering down into the rubble as it collapsed - he'd watched Ranma Saotome, Yoshihiro's current lead enemy, fall under the debris, so he guessed she was on her way to save him. It wouldn't do much, though; that was several thousand tonnes of concrete and steel, possibly much more than that.

He reported to Yoshihiro, who paused, probably as he passed on the information to Umiko, before he felt his Master's eyes once more in his head, watching what he was watching.

******

Sailor Moon didn't spare much more than a moment glancing at where the building had just been standing. Another one down. No doubt Nemesis got to Ranma before he was covered, but there were other people down there. The ultimate hardhitters in the people assembled to fight this monster in sailor suits, and the senshi weren't having much luck. They were already two members down - five, if she counted the recently-absent Neptune, Uranus and Pluto - and with Ranma gone...

She realised she'd been coming to rely on his leadership rather than her own - not a good sign in a future leader of people. So she did what she could to take over - raised her wand, pointed it at the monster, and yelled, "Hey, you!" An eyeball as large as a bus swivelled down to stare at her. "Yeah, you! I don't know what you're doing here, but I know you're evil, and this is MY home town... Dark Kingdom clown, give up now or prepare to be punished! For I am Sailor Moon, and -"

It rumbled, deep in its throat, and for a moment, Sailor Moon didn't realise it had just spoken. "Indeed?" it had said. And in her surprise, she almost forgot to dodge the powerspike that lashed out towards her. The top of a building behind her exploded. More rubble falling to the streets below to create dangers for the fleeing civilians. Sailor Moon recovered her composure, and continued.

"And in the name of truth, love and justice, we, the Pretty Sailor Soldiers, will punish you!" She pointed, but the grave impact of her words and tone was momentarily voided by the tip of the tail that caught her full in the chest. She'd have bounced further away if an angel hadn't caught her and delivered her to a nearby rooftop, where she regained her balance. The senshi gathered around her in a protective formation, firing off attacks at the monster.

Powerful magics combined with focussed martial arts techniques warped the air between the senshi and the beast, and yes, it did indeed roar in pain and anger. And as the senshi renewed their attack, pushing for all they could against it, it swung around towards them.

"Do you insignificant insects actually WANT to die?" it rumbled through a window-shaking roar. Blistering, coruscating energies rippled over the monster's hide, smouldering through scales. Damage, finally, blissful damage. Sailor Moon almost sagged to her knees, but she couldn't, no, not now. An injury to the creature would have to be capitalised on, regardless of the sharp stabbing, tearing pains in her chest. She'd heal. She'd just have to. But for the moment, she wasn't going to be doing much yelling or moving of her arms. Damn.

The monster turned to face them, turning the injured flank away from the senshi. That move brought the injured site in the arcs of an emotionless woman in purple and grey, and with a flash, she leapt inwards, pummelling her fists into the creature's side, ichor spurting forth around her fists. She ignored the bolts of energy that coursed up her arms from the senshi's attacks, until they were too strong, too energetic many after-effects that snaked around her body, jolting her systems. She split apart into two small girls, both shocked into momentary unconsciousness, dropping towards the streets below. A man in a black suit and a top hat threw himself to their rescue, launching multiple roses through the air towards them. Lines trailed out below, and as roses hit nearby walls, they bounced back, the lines tangling into a mesh netting. The girls hit the netting, before Tuxedo Kamen grabbed them and leapt for safety as a wayward claw sliced through the wiring.

"Is this the best you can do?" the monster snorted, regaining his composure. As the young girl in the jester costume, the monster's size again, charged from behind, he raked out backwards with his hindclaws, catching her across her stomach and tearing the denser costume material to shreds before they continued through soft flesh. She screamed, loud enough to break windows, before vanishing again to the streets below as she shrank.

Sailor Moon leaned forward, cupping herself, trying to take the pressure off her chest. Then, Saturn was there, left hand on the elder senshi, and Sailor Moon felt her ribs shift inside, re-knit, and the pain in her lungs settle down. She straightened, and nodded a quick thanks at Saturn, who was twirling the Silence Glaive around in her right hand. It took Sailor Moon a moment to recognise one of the training patterns Ranma had taught her.

"Shall we try again?" Saturn asked, eyes locked on the monster, as it presented its injured side again as it turned back from dispatching another group of heroes.

Sailor Moon nodded. "Did you really think such a cowardly and simple attack would deter true justice from being dealt?" she yelled again, readying her wand. A rush of power through her hands indictaed it was ready to be used again. She gestured with the wand, just a slight raising of the tip, but that was enough for the senshi to understand to unload everything they had at the monster's injured point again. "Get ready to scatter," she muttered under her breath.

"And then?" Mars queried.

"I don't know, form up in our training pairs and try to beat the living shit out of it?" Sailor Moon opined. With that, she dropped the wand back down to the horizontal, and began the offensive anew.

******

Darkness.

Dank.

Dusty.

They were just some of the 'D' words that sprang to Ranma's mind as he opened his eyes and took a shuddering breath. Returning to consciousness wasn't easy, especially after whatever wringer he'd just been put through, and he could feel injuries healing as he lay there, motionless. He tried to stretch, and found something on top of him, pressing down on him lightly. To his sides, one hand was trapped in rubble, and it felt like fingers were broken or sprained - either way, painful, immobile, and currently irretrievable. To the other, his hand encountered a lot of painful, pointed things. Like rubble. Painful rocks. Painful shafts of iron. Come to think of it, his back had things digging into it, as well. He shifted his free right hand as best he could, contorting in what little range of movement he had, to touch the back of his head.

His fingers came away sticky. Blood. Yeah, he could smell that distinct coppery reek. So he was injured more. What happened, though? His head ached, he couldn't remember much for the moment, but it was coming back. The monster on television, the mad scramble to get from Kawagawa, Nemesis leaping out through the windows and starting the fight a little earlier than expected... the fight, the deaths. How many people had died in the streets already? Ranma had just watched thousands die in flame and molten death, charred beyond recognition as living creatures in a split second. And no doubt, the monster out there wanted to do that to the rest of Tokyo... he remembered his new determination, this would not be so, and he remembered the kiss.

And he remembered, with a sharp, shooting pain through his head, the building falling on him.

Oh.

So he was stuck, alone, under some thousands of tonnes of rubble, with not enough room to move himself into a position he could perhaps safely escape from the debris. Damn.

He tried to shift his legs, and found his body and legs wedged in pretty tightly, something soft and yet unyielding at the same time trapping him. And that was when he began to panic.

It was his first few panted gasps, breathing in the free-floating dust, that set him coughing. His head spasmed, jerked upwards, and smashed into something. *That* was hard. Concrete?

No. It shifted, and moaned. "Do you mind... not hitting me?"

"Nemesis?"

"No, Tetsuya. For the moment." Ranma's eyes had begun to adapt to the almost complete darkness, and he had to admit, there was something different about Nemesis' face. And her voice. Almost like it wasn't... oh heck.

"You're not Mitsuki."

Nemesis made to shake her head, but then her eyes darted to the side, noting what was resting on it. "Not for the moment. Mitsuki's..." Her voice altered further, changing from the warm, almost masculine tone it had been into a slightly nasally twang. "Havin' a rest," she completed.

Personalities. And as Ranma could just make out Nemesis' face in the darkness, he watched expressions change fleetingly as one personality vied for dominance, then another, and so forth and so forth, until they settled down again.

"Don't mind Taki," Tetsuya said again. "He's not dangerous. He wants as much control as the rest of the pantheon he supports, but is fairly harmless. Especially in a situation like this."

"How... how deep are we down? Did you rescue me?"

Tetsuya looked embarrassed. "Actually, 'I' didn't. Kari... Kari did."

"Kari...?"

"From the same side as Taki. Anger, hatred, intolerance. Aggression, basically."

"Then... why did she save me?"

Tetsuya's expression distorted, grew hard. His voice also altered considerably, becoming playful, loud, with an underlying current of maliciousness and manipulation. Nemesis' body shifted against Ranma, and suddenly he was aware of her skirt lying up on his stomach, bare naked legs surrounding his hips, tensing, gripping him in a manner Ranma suspected was anything angry at all.

Agressive, yes, angry, no. A moment later, the soft thing above him, which he had realised was Nemesis' body, grow a pair of hard nubs, pushing into his chest. Ranma knew from experience those things only popped out if it was cold or something... stimulating was going on, and considering it was rather warm in the enclosed space...

"If you want the answers to that question, don't you think you should ask the source?" Kari smirked.

******

A dozen blocks from Tokyo Tower, a train from the outlying prefectures pulled into a station, to take as many people as possible out of the immediate danger zone. But a few people ran out of the carriages, sprinting for height. And upon rising to the top of a tall building, they stopped and stared.

"Oh my god," Ukyou gasped, hand raising involuntarily to her face. Ryoga's expression was set in stnoe, anger and irritation.

"I've fought against things this big before," he muttered, before readying several bandanas and his umbrella. A quick equipment check showed they were okay. Ukyou took the hint and gave her spatulas a quick once-over.

Beside them, Akane, Shampoo and Cologne stopped at the edge of the building, their mouths dropping open.

"Aiyah! Great-grandmother ever see this before?"

"No, Xian, I haven't," the matriach replied, trying to hide a lot of worry behind a mask of ponderings. "There is no record of such a thing happening to the tribe as well."

Next to her, a small man with a bag of borrowed lingerie slung over his back appeared from nowhere, waving a backscratcher with his free hand. "Wah ha! With this item of power, I can liberate as many giant monsters in Tokyo?" he said, mixing sentences as he opened his eyes.

Cologne didn't bother looking at him. "This is grave."

"I will fight," Ryoga said, before stepping up to the lip of the building and leaping. Ukyou, too, climbed up and launched herself into space wordlessly.

Shampoo gave her elder a worried look as she twirled her bonbori. "Great-grandmother?"

"Go. Help. But be careful." Shampoo gave her another, even more worried look, before launching herself. Cologne turned to the old man, not really wanting to. "Happo, I think it time we put aside our differences again."

"And fight that monster?" Happosai squeaked. He eyed Akane. "Maybe if a pretty young lady would go with me...?"

"Out of the question, perverted old man!" Akane growled, stomping Happosai into the roof and flouncing back down the stairwell, looking to find a closer vantage point. Something like this, Ranma would no doubt be around. And they had to talk.

Cologne shook her head. "I'll see my way to... giving you something of mi-"

"Wow!" Happosai crowed, leaning almost off the edge of the building, peering into the fray. "There are young girls there, ensnaring such delicate beauties on their bodies against their will! I wonder if they'd be grateful enough to help out an old man if I helped them...?" And then he too was gone.

Cologne sighed. The old fool had a one-track mind, and at least he hadn't heard her offer of her own underwear for his assistance. She hoped. She bounced towards the fight herself.

******

Above the city, a black slipgate opened, and Yoshihiro stepped into existance. Umiko stood beside him, Eyeing the ground far below. Yoshihiro had donned a cape, which swirled theatrically around them both. She shivered with the gusting winds around them, and allowed her altered form to slip through - with a fur coat, she'd be protected from the worst of it. Her Master, though, showed no such discomfort.

Speaking of her Master, his attention was fixed far below, where a giant beast rampaged through Tokyo. "Raijin seems to be having fun," he remarked.

"Is that all we came here to establish, Master?"

Yoshihiro shook his head. "No. I am here... just to observe firsthand. While Yamazaki carries out another mission for me."

"You didn't tell me he was being redeployed," Umiko said, aware she sounded childishly insulted as she spoke.

"I don't go through you for everything, my dear," Yoshihiro replied, a hand idly finding its way behind Umiko's ear and scratching softly. She purred. "Yet it is important to everything we're planning."

"The final offensive will begin as planned?"

"Yes. And the future of the Dark Kindgom... will be assured."

"Standing in the light instead of hiding in the dark?"

"Exactly." Yoshihiro's hand shifted to the top of Umiko's head. She pressed into his legs, slipped a tail around his legs. "You really are becoming more like a cat every time you change. It is funny, considering how much like a lizard you were."

Umiko shrugged. "I am what you need me to be, Master."

"There is much truth in what you say, more perhaps than you know."

"Natsumi's actions were planned by you, and ran to your timetable. I surmised much from that."

"Perhaps." Yoshihiro watched as Raijin below repelled yet another attack by the assembled heroes, who's ranks seemed to be swelling even as he watched. Another half-dozen people joined in, unsure of what they were doing, outclassed by the magical abilities of those already here, but brave warriors nonetheless. Soldiers he would be glad to command. He watched as they spread out, began helping survivors of strikes on buildings, helping them to safety. He could have told them, saved them the trouble: shortly, when Raijin had had his fun, no place in Tokyo was going to be safe from the devastation he would unleash. "But knowing any potential trouble could be controlled if it was directed by me and my designs... is a lot different to a thinking, uncontrolled, rational being that does not willingly side with me. Natsumi.. was weak. Ripe for the picking. She only had to be coerced until such time as she realised what power she now held could wreak on those who had caused her much misery and pain. Then she was mine for the moulding."

"She never knew. Yet I am much the same, Master. As her. I feel the stirrings of jealousy and ambition much as Natsumi Otohime did. Do you not feel any sense of danger from me?"

Yoshihiro shook his head. "I feel no such threat from you. You... are mine."

"As Sailor Saturn was?"

He felt a thrill of suppressed anger. "She was not supposed to be mine for long. Longer than she was, but not much longer. Her purpose would have been outdated once the senshi were destroyed. And with her life extinguished, the martial artist would also cease to be a credible threat."

"Or perhaps he would react... contrary to that idea?"

"Perhaps. Yet without the powers of the assembled senshi, Ranma Saotome is at best a small thorn in our side." He folded his arms and contemplated the battle below. Then he gathered himself, called up a slipgate. "Come. We have... other duties to carry out while the senshi host are occupied." Together, they teleported out.

******

Kari's thighs gripped Ranma as they lay in the enclosed space. He tried to shift one, but she shook her head slowly, a playful smile on her face. "Ah ah ah..." she sing-songed, "You don't really want to do that. Those knees, my elbows... they're all that's holding the building up. And you know, while I was hoping for some action to go no down here... there's not really so much room. And I can't move to prop anything up better, you know. So I wouldn't think of moving for a while."

"We've got to get out of here!" Ranma said.

"Mmmmm, perhaps. I think it's much cosier here." Kari relaxed a little, and Ranma felt her body sink further into his. "I mean, you're so hard... so strong... I just feel so safe here, with you..."

"But -"

"And someone'll dig us out. I mean, c'mon, those senshi girls, they're strong? But they're not exactly bright. So they'll get us out of here - eventually - because they're strong and they'll have to show off. You know how that is though, don't you?" Kari's face drifted down over one of Ranma's biceps, and she sniffed deeply. "You like showing off. Mitsuki won't admit it, but she watches you in training more than she watches her partners. Because, you know, she likes the way you move in your gi. How taut your muscles get. That thin sheen of sweat you build up across your body. The way you bounce in your pants. She's such an embarrassing relation."

"Relation?" squeaked Ranma. "What do you -"

Kari sighed, lifting her head until the back of it bumped against the low ceiling. "We're all like one big happy family in here. You know. What got her through her mother's death. She couldn't handle it, so we did. The aspects of her personality. Intelligence, compassion, aggression, imagination, greed, jealousy... we're all represented. She's the main one of us, you know, and we spin around her like planets around a star, all hoping for our time in the light. But some of us don't want that. She's weak, useless. She can't function. She can't act on her feelings for you. She doesn't want to. Thinks that'd be wrooong. She's just a sop. Hotaru's the same; we've got no respect for her. We did, once, and then she gets all guilty for trying to kill you. Pffft."

"She still feels for me. She just thinks I won' accept her again unless she gets punished." Ranma wished he could push Nemesis' hair from his face, as it was hanging directly down onto it, but he couldn't reach. While he could reach the back of his head with his uninjured right hand, he couldn't reach his face easily, and he couldn't reach the left side of his face, where the hair kept brushing. Kari apparently found it amusing to see him annoyed as she obviously knew he wanted it moved away but made no move to shift her head's position to where it wouldn't brush across him. "I don' feel that at all. I've seen enough of my friends mind-controlled inta trying ta kill me, and been mind-controlled enough m'self, that I don't care. She doesn't understand that, though."

"Grah... she's a useless sack of shit and you know it," Kari spat. "She won't do anything for you, not like I will. She won't go down on you, take you into her, make you feel just sooo good... she won't take you on a mystery tour of your body no other girl could hope to match." A wicked glint came into her eye. "She just can't make sex the mind-blowing experience I can."

"You... think it's all about sex?" Ranma asked in disbelief. "If it was that, we'd have... umm..." He could feel himself blushing, and knew he'd scored a point the way Kari's head jerked back into the ceiling. She gave a pained expression, and Ranma felt sorry for unknowingly hurting her, but he wouldn't apologise. Not to this personality.

"You... you asked her to?"

"She asked me, actually..."

"Ah yes. Mitsuki. The sop. Decided then and there she'd lost you to Hotaru." Kari snorted. "You know, it was her who gave her the condom."

"I'll... remember to give her my thanks next time I see her." Ranma half-smiled at the memory, Hotaru at his door, that uncertain expression as she held the packaging up. His own uncertainty, and then Hotaru's new determination. Holding hands and kissing. So much more innocent. So much more intimate. "Mitsuki is... responsible."

"For so much," Kari shot back without thinking. "All our pain, all our losses, all our time out of the spotlight... you know she takes drugs to regulate us? Of course you do."

"And I stopped her from taking them in the tower."

"Yeah. So you know, me being here? It's all your fault."

Ranma shrugged as best he could in the tight quarters. "Do you hear me complainin'? I think I needed to meet you guys. And I meant responsible as in she was thinking of Hotaru and me, not in any other way."

"You like that little slut! Why do you like her? After what she did to you?"

"Why would I like you after what you did to Shampoo?" Ranma replied without the fire Kari's voice contained. He could almost hear the sadness underlying it, the pain, the suffering. "And yet, I do. Mitsuki - her as a whole - is a good student. And a good friend."

"You were nicer when you were a kid," Kari sniffed, turning her head away. "I mean, you've forgotten, but I haven't."

"Neither had I. Just wasn't sure it was you. We were young then." Kari turned back to face him. "And you know, you were wrong then. About not relying on others. I remembered it recently, with Hotaru. An' with you guys. But... not relying on anyone... it means you're alone. And being alone... it sucks, Mitsuki."

"We're not alone!" Kari shouted, and the rubble above her shifted, groaned. She quickly lowered her voice and pushed herself painfully upwards to get off Ranma's chest again to where she had been earlier. "We have each other. And that's something Mitsuki doesn't get or understand. She doesn't see us like that! Just as little hers, to take over when she can't handle something." The bile with which Kari spoke belied the deep pain that ran through the words.

"But... you're all the same person."

"We're not the same personality!"

"You're all aspects of the one personality."

"We're all separate!"

"You need each other more than anyone needs another person."

"Our lives are ours, not hers!"

"Why did you save me, Kari?"

Silence reigned.

******

Pluto, slightly phased-shifted to the left.

Most of what remained of the Moon Kingdom lay here, a few square kilometres surrounding the Gate of Time. Here, with the chronotic energies gushing from the event horizon of the technologically-contained temporal incursion phasepoint, the flow of time often seemed disrupted. The region lay mixed inextricably with an equidistant point in the figurative Past of the mainstream Earth, where the senshi had been cast after the fall of the Moon Kingdom.

Pluto, Uranus and Neptune sat on a great stone plaza that extended towards the edge of the Kingdom, where it was cut off violently from normal space. Pluto had arranged chairs and a table, and all three women were quiet, deep in their oen thoughts. Uranus looked bored, Neptune lost in a private daydream with a slight smile on her face, Pluto annoyed.

Finally, the Guardian of the Gate couldn't sit still any longer, and she stood. "Something's coming." She spun her Garnet Rod into existance, and prepared. Uranus and Neptune also snapped to attention, pushing chairs back and standing, Uranus leaning forward ready to make the first strike. All three concentrated in the one direction, Pluto staring towards the growing disturbance, Neptune and Uranus following her lead.

"What is it?" Uranus asked.

Pluto shook her head. "I don't know. I would suggest it is one of the old Dark Kingdom battlecruisers, but all were destroyed when Queen Serenity sealed the Dark Kingdom. The power levels are similar, but I find it impossible to understand how -"

Impossible or not, it was a Dark Kingdom warship that pierced the dimensional walls and shimmered down into a recognisable construct. Cannons waved and picked targets before firing. The senshi were spared.

"NO!" Pluto roared. "Don't upset the balance of energies of this place! It exists purely because of the balance between Light and-" She didn't get to finish. Spacial dimensions warped around the senshi, the Kingdom fragment altering from looking normal to being warped into a toroidal structure. Pluto knew the phase-shift that kept the fragment of the realm wouldn't last much longer under this kind of pressure, and likewise knew that no matter what happened to the realm, the Gate would still stand. She grabbed at Uranus and Neptune, throwing them backwards from where the realm was starting to tear and dissolve. "Go! Go! Flee back to Earth! I must warn -"

Pluto leapt for the Gate, passing through. Neptune and Uranus similarly shimmered out of existance. The cruiser fired one more salvo, the Gate parted and a rush of temporal energies gushed through, then the cruiser departed for the docks at dark netherworlds attached to Earth's primary plane.

******

Onboard the bridge, Yoshihiro smiled, and patted the command console appreciatively. "Beryl's Generals had good foresight to place one of these safely into storage. Quite why they never used them before now, I'll never know."

"Likely not, Master, but perhaps it is because without the Moon Kingdom in existance, there is no use for them?" Umiko pondered. "The specifications read that these would not function in the primary plane, and thus at this phase of the war, would be completely useless."

"Perhaps. There must be something we can salvage for use, though."

Umiko tapped a master systems display monitor. "We can strip the crew quarters and give our forces better living accomodations than stolen sewage systems."

"Yes... but I was rather hoping for something a little more... dangerous..." Yoshihiro's eyes fell on the main computer systems. He leaned forward, entered a password, and glanced through the file structures to see what they contained. "Oh," he said, a little surprised. "This might work."

******

Sailor Moon noted the appearance of Ranma's friends from Nerima (using the term wryly, even in her head) in the streets below, helping move people. And a few who she assumed were his 'friends' as well, up on the buildings, helping out against the beast as best they could. And two incredibly old people who she first thought were rooftop gargoyles, until they unleashed powerful ki attacks, such as she'd seen Ranma loosen.

But no amount of chains, fire, oversized maracas, canes or blasts of multicoloured pyrotechnics did anything more than irritate the beast. Meanwhile, the other heroes, knowing what the gameplan was for the moment was, were attacking the injured side as and when they could. Chunks of soft matter exploded outwards from it every few minutes as someone scored a good direct hit, but it wasn't slowing the beast down fast enough. Claws would rake out, and the tail would snap, and someone would be injured.

Already, they were down three heroes. The Incredible Growing Jester Girl hadn't yet gotten up from the near-eviscerating kick she'd been dealt, the two girls Tuxedo Kamen had rescued hadn't yet rejoined up into the purple robot girl, and the oversized fire-breathing flying tiger had been smacked into a building and hadn't yet rejoined the battle. She assumed he was seeing to the safety of Jester Girl down below, as they and the angel flapping about firing off arrows appeared to be a team.

Sailor Moon suspected there were others missing, but she couldn't say for certain. Things were just moving too fast for her to keep an accurate track of who was doing what, and she was also worried about Ranma and Sailor Nemesis, neither of whom had dug their way out of the rubble below. She suspected both were too mean to die, but not having seen them appear yet was worrying - maybe they were stuck and needed help getting free? But she couldn't spare anyone at the moment. Not even Tuxedo Kamen, who was throwing roses with abandon when he wasn't assisting those knocked away or injured with the angel.

A flicker of pseudomotion whipped her head around, and Sailor Moon was just in time to catch the cut-off scream of someone who was about to die as jaws snapped shut around him. She didn't catch who it was, but she noted it wasn't one of the senshi. Damn. Down another warrior, and a death like that, so simple and obvious, would ruin morale more than it already was. Had it been a magical attack, the survivors could rebuild their confidence by pretending they could have survived it, but being eaten... that had a primal finality that affected everyone much worse, deep down.

This was getting worse. With the shock, people pulled back, hesitated. Wondering if they would be next. Sailor Moon paused herself, wondering if she was making a huge mistake with this battle - they were making such little progress, and the city's centre was almost deserted. They just HAD to be safe now; even if the beast wasn't defeated, what could it do? Surely Sailor Pluto would have shown up by now to warn them Crystal Tokyo's future was endangered if it was - the fact she hadn't this time was suggestive that whatever this monster could do wasn't enough to affect the path of destiny.

Should she pull her friends out? Her soldiers? The forces of good were flagging, tiring. The fight had only taken half an hour as yet, but everyone was overextended. Even Tuxedo Kamen, wherever he was at present, wasn't leaping with his usual grace. Jupiter had reverted to firing off whatever powerful attacks she could manage without any of the finesse she'd been learning in her morning training sessions. Saturn was distracted. And Sailor Moon's own body ached painfully as she continued to heal. If she pulled out, it would turn into a general retreat of the forces of good. It would give everyone a chance to recover, time to strategise, and organised a proper assault. Time for her to seek guidence from Luna, from Pluto. Have Mercury find some method in the histories of the Moon Kingdom of fighting huge monsters. Or something.

Anything.

Yet, she knew somehow if they stopped now, they'd never have another chance.

And more, she knew somehow if they stopped, they would all die.

The beast lashed out with its tail, swipping the top few floors off an adjacent building. The last few straggling human survivors below limped up the burning, broken streets towards perceived safety. It was then that Sailor Moon realised they had to hold firm. Her wand came up, centred along her body and face. She spun it around in a circle, gathering ambient energies from the environment around her, then loosened them with a throaty roar of anger and anguish. The energy attack impacted on the wounded flank, and the beast roared again, tail lashing at another building. The senshi took their lead from Sailor Moon, and the others from them, and the attack was renewed.

The line was drawn; would it hold?

******

It was still silent, save for the creaking of the shifting rubble above. Somewhere, Ranma could dimly hear a burst water main, and heard water dripping somewhere nearby. Damn. That'd be right, he reflected. No doubt it was uphill of where they were right now, too, and he'd get wet and then who know what Kari would get up to? What she might be encouraged to do? But it wasn't time to think of things like that. They were trapped, and regardless of Kari's refusal to get personal about the reasons she had saved his life - if she was as nasty as she thought she was - she wanted to survive as much as he did, and she wouldn't readily do anything to change that potential outcome.

It wasn't anger or aggression he sensed from her; it was loneliness, bitterness at being left alone. If he'd had to guess, Kari was the part of Mitsuki that hated her mother for dying and leaving her and her father alone - the Mitsuki he and his father had been introduced to a decade earlier. Violent, spiteful, contrary. But grown-up now. Possessing a powerful sexuality, whether she realised it or not (Ranma guessed she did), and existing to make others feel as she does.

So she wouldn't be alone anymore.

That was Ranma's theory, anyway, and for the moment, he was going to stick to it.

From above, there was a wave of heat through the rubble, and a blast of ki energy that raised the hair on the back of Ranma's neck and arms. It felt wrong. Tortured. Mutated. Almost like cancer of the soul, a darkness, a blight eating away at the best parts of onesself. The beast. Raijin, he knew instinctively. He heard and felt the roar through the chunks of concrete trapping his left hand. It sounded like pain, yet also anticipation: whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. He could feel it in his blood, everything within him starting to swirl and build. The climax of the event was coming, and Ranma felt he had to be out there when it rose.

He switched his attention back to Kari, eyes averted from his face, trying to use her hair as a veil. Ranma reached up and stroked it aside, bringing his hand down the side of her cheek. "We gotta get out of here," he said, quietly.

Her face twitched, flinching away from his touch, and yet seemingly returning to the caress. It wasn't a sexual manoeuvre, and she responded to it as it was intended. Comfort. The anger in her hard eyes faded, replaced with sadness. "Do you know... why I saved you?" she asked, eventually, distantly. Ranma shook his head. "I think maybe you can guess. We're... I am lonely. And you seem like... a nice body... warm... soft, but hard in all the right places... but you're not like that... I think I... we... would like you like that, but... it's really hard..."

"Then when you're ready," Ranma said, waving it aside. "We've got to get out of here now." He removed his hand, and her head tilted towards where it had been, the hurt in her eyes behind the anger now clearly visible to anyone really looking close up, but he dropped his hand to her shoulder. "Mitsuki, I promise I'll help you. When we get outta here, I'll help you get back together." His hand moved to rest lightly on the rubble above her now. "Now, I need your help. I'm going to move, and we're going to get outta here, but I need you to cover me, hold everything up, while I get ready to do this. Can you handle that?"

She paused, and made to settle against him for more comfort before realisation of their predicament registered again, and she nodded dumbly.

"Okay. I'm going to free my hand from this rubble, and then, I'm going ta push against you." Ranma spoke slowly and clearly as he gathered his concentration and power. He'd need everything he had to pull this off, and he'd need speed. He wouldn't be able to handle things as well if Kari didn't understand what he was doing and reated badly. "I'm sure you can take the stress and pain you'll be under. You've handled worse; this building toppling on ya, for example. But I'll push you up to get some room, and I want you ta hold that pose I leave you in. It'll give me some space to move in. Just keep that pose until I can charge up, an' we'll go out of here together. okay?"

Kari nodded again, then she ducked her head a little lower. For a moment, Ranma thought she was about to kiss his cheek; instead, she merely rested her cheek against his, her hair brushing over his face. "Okay," she said, sadly, softly, and she pulled back, looked into his eyes as if it would be the last time she'd ever see him. She braced herself against the rubble pressing into her back, and then Kari was gone.

Who was in her place, Ranma didn't know, but he or she knew what Ranma had planned and didn't move.

No more time to waste. The water sound was closer now. Ranma gritted his teeth, and yanked on his left arm with all the leverage he could manage in a position he couldn't move in. It shifted, but not enough. He pulled again, straining to move his limb. It would be so much easier if only he knew how deep down he was, how much rubble lay above them. If he knew, he might be able to chance a ki attack now, but there could be a support structure under there holding everything up, and he didn't know if Nemesis would be able to hold any possible more weight on her back. So he continued to pull.

It seemed to take forever, but in reality was likely only half a minute, but his hand started to be able to move. He felt pain, but focussed beyond that as he tried to increase his range of motion of the extremity, hoping to get it to an angle he could easily pull it out. He knew by now that if he could shift his torso over so he could continue to alter the angle of his wrist so it was nearly parallel with both his forearm and the wall of the cocoon of debris they lay on, he could almost slide his hand out freely. But not being able to get his hand around to that angle from where he was lying, he couldn't. unless...

He looked up at Nemesis, sweating now, pain in her eyes that was nothing to do with emotional stress and everything to do with possibly thousands of tonnes of concrete and steel above her back, and made the decision. While he held her gaze, he simply twisted his forearm and snapped his wrist. Then he forced his wrist to turn to be almost perpendicular to his forearm as he extended that out to the side of the area, and then yanked towards his feet. With a final tearing of soft flesh, his hand slid out of its entrapment.

Nemesis' eyes opened even wider at the sickening sound of Ranma's bones breaking, and they darted over to the side to see if she could see the damage. But her hair was in the way, and she couldn't clear it. Ranma just smiled comfortingly at her.

"Relax. I know what I'm doin'." Yes, it hurt. But his attention could be focussed beyond the pain, to block it out while he continued his work. He shifted his right hand under Nemesis, the palm finding its way past her breasts to rest on the bow just below her collarbone. A thigh shifted, and some judicious wiggling on Ranma's part got it under one of Nemesis' legs. When he started lifting with his hand, he'd be able to slide his shin up to lay across her crotch, hip and stomach, and get some real strength involved to push her up into a position that'd give him some room to manoeuvre.

He lifted, veins on his right arm almost popping out of his skin. Muscles corded as he pushed at Nemesis' chest, forcing her up away from him. Sweat beaded across his face and exposed skin. Nemesis, too, was helping as she could, her arms thusting down into the ground either side of Ranma's head, and as Ranma lifted her, she was raised into a position she could make the most of her legs. She strained, and lifted her hips off of Ranma. The debris around them both cracked and groaned, and as a dust jet blew into the hole for a few moments, Ranma thought the whole lot was going to come down on them. But the flow of dust stopped, and Ranma lifted his leg more, placed his shin so he could get the best leverage along Nemesis' underside until she was higher, and pushed again.

The senshi pushed the rubble up even more, and eventually, there was a space under her. Not yet quite enough for Ranma to spin around and stand up in, but close to it. Ranma shifted his leg again, bringing a foot to bear against her stomach. She gritted her teeth, tightened every muscle she had in her stomach that would respond to give Ranma something solid to push against, and pushed yet again.

And then, there was enough room. She opened her eyes, and gasped upon seeing Ranma's twisted and broken left hand, as he twisted underneath her and moved into a crouching position under her stomach. He came up underneath her, wrapping his good hand around the side of her hip, the other pressed up against the opposite side of her skirt. She could feel the exposed bones shift in wrong ways against the fabric and tried to think more about what was going to happen once they were out of the rubble rather than dwelling on Ranma's current injuries.

She heard water close by, and then as he pushed against her to try to link his hands behind her back, a gush of the liquid blasted the both of them. Great, a water pipe, Nemesis grimaced, feeling Ranma change against her. Comforting, though, in ways hugging a man wasn't. Yet it was also a bad thing, she reflected; she didn't know if Ranma's female form was as strong as his male. Particularly while injured. She heard Ranma mutter a "Oh, *great*," before trying to continue to worm his hands to meet behind her back. The newly-broken pipe continued to pour water upon them for a few seconds, then petered out, creating an ankle-deep puddle for them.

Ranma's hands met, and then Ranma pushed into Nemesis' body tightly, blowing his energies outside of him. Pain lanced through his broken wrist and mangled left hand as he grabbed it tighter with his right, and that threatened to destablise his concentration, so he just forced himself to stop feeling it, to think of his broken hand as simply something that hadn't been injured. It worked; his hand stopped sending shooting, stabbing pain up his forearm, and he could concentrate properly again. Around them, the structure groaned, and shifted; then it started to collapse. Ranma could hear slabs of concrete above accordian down onto successive slabs, heading down towards Nemesis and himself. If he didn't work fast, they'd both be squashed flat. He focussed, saw the patterns of his lifeforce spiralling around he and Mitsuki, reached out with a mental hand, and grabbed one. Twisted it into a new pattern. Did the same to half a dozen other strands of ki, shaping them into a protective and destructive shield, all in the space of a second.

Then he pushed out through his feet with ki, and launched himself and Nemesis into the air.

Well, it would have been the air, if they hadn't been surrounded by huge chunks of concrete and iron. His shield melted and burned away obstructions as they made for the surface. Nemesis, in his arms, sobbed, and Ranma blinked comfortingly at Mitsuki. "Shhh. Nearly there now."

And they were. A few more seconds, and there was light.

******

And it was good.

******

Raijin roared again, and powerspiked one of the little girls. In his previous life, he'd have loved to have stayed and played with them, dug through their insides and seen their pretty pretties. Ate them, devoured them, taken them into him, made them truly one with him in no way their sluttish behaviour could ever match. He was tempted to eat another right now, he was peckish again - that last snack had done little to fill his now-enormous stomach. And yet, a small part of his mind reminded him he had work to do.

The tower. It was barely two buildings over. A quick leap and he could take it down. But that wasn't what the Master wanted, oh no. What he wanted was worse: power. And for that, he needed the tower. So he had to move slower. But these idiotic people were slowing him down and starting to actually hurt him. He couldn't see it exactly, but judging by the fiery streaks of pain from his left thigh, he thought he had a fairly serious injury right there. Not life-threatening, no, but serious all the same. Anything that influenced his life negatively was threatening, and slowing him down, making him a larger target as it were, an easier one definitely, that counted as influencing his life negatively. One of the little girls leapt in front of him, smashing him in the snout with a burst of multicoloured light from a wand before jumping away to try again from another point. It did no damage, but Raijin briefly wondered what experiences a trollop like her could bring to his life: rotting in his stomach, becoming one with him, their minds linked... what would he see? What would he feel? He shook his head, he didn't have time to fantasize.

******

"He's slowing down!" Sailor Moon yelled to the others. "We've hurt him! now, everyone, ATTACK!"

******

Snapping Raijin out of his daydream were bursts of energy, magical attacks, kicks, punches, projectile weapons, explosives... he stopped bothering to classify them, and decided to show them just who really was boss here. He didn't need any of them to help him to get closer to completion, for they weren't pure of thought or soul - their dress and the fact they decided to side against him was evidence enough of that.

He swept out sideways with both forepaws, knocking three of the pretty girls flying. A snap of his tail from side to side was all that was needed to dispose of another five people, and that annoying flying flame lion... a quick snap of his jaws stopped that freak from trying to fight anymore. A gulp and a swallow, and Raijin listened to the echoing sound of its yell as it descended down through his throat to his stomach in his eardrums. Mmmm, good food. He burped, and blew the last remaining nearby windows out. The remaining costumed idiots paused, horrified, before renewing their attack. The little growing giant girl smashed him again from the rear with her staff, wings whipping it into a narrow sword that she brought down on Raijin's tail. Scale, flesh and bone parted under it, and he roared as the large section of tail smashed down to the ground below. He turned, and powerspiked the girl in the face. Tears the size of a bus flew from her eyes as she flew backwards, the tears smashing through the sides of buildings, the girl shrinking again and falling for the ground. Raijin raised his tailstump, gushing thick ichor, and fired upon it, cauterising the wound instantly, before turning back to face Tokyo Tower. There it was. Just ahead now. He decided to stop playing and get down to work.

Passed one building. Coming up to the second. And then -

- but what was that?

******

The ground, again. The top of the pile of rubble that was once a building housing twenty thousand workers before it had been evacuated that morning, and before it had been reduced to debris. There was a hole on the top of it now, and there two people stood. Two women. Both wore torn clothing, and the taller of the two was being held up by her companion.

Nemesis lifted a hand to Ranma's side. "Go," she said, simply, and then slid from his arms. Ranma's hands caught her she she went down, and guided her to a soft landing. He made her comfortable, best as he could in the circumstances, and then stood, a look of anger on his face so powerful, those close enough to see it involuntarily took a step back.

Saturn landed nearby, ran a few steps towards Nemesis to help her get back into the fight, and then she stopped dead. There was something wrong about the way Ranma looked. Something seriously wrong.

Was it his stance? No, she'd seen him angry before. Granted, not *this* angry, but it didn't look like anger. Was it the fact that his very obviously injured left wrist and hand seemed to be reassembling themselves as Saturn watched? No, she'd seen him heal before, just not this fast. She'd have thought another day or two for him to have healed from that kind of damage.

No. Ranma, in his female form, had bright red hair. Ranma, standing here, in his female form, had ebony black hair. Fingers curled into fists, and there was a tangible presence of power in the area. Ranma sank slightly into the rubble as if he'd just gotten heavier. His ki field stormed up around him, giving the imrpession of him standing alone in an inferno. Brighter and brighter, the power levels became, and still he powered himself up. There seemed to be a vacuum, sited right where Ranma stood, that sucked everything loose into it. Saturn watched dust fly towards him and burn up upon reaching his ki field.

And then she could feel her own power leeching away from her. She staggered a few steps forward before being able to stop herself, but more and more power flew from her. As her transformation dropped, Hotaru noted the other senshi were also having power drawn off from them. Tuxedo Kamen made it to safety before he, too, was drained. In one foul swoop, Ranma had just defeated the senshi and their support.

And not just them. The other heroes staggered and collapsed, and the monster even seemed to hesitate. She could feel something wrong with him, something powerfully wrong. And then she knew what it was.

******

Yoshihiro's head snapped up from the monitor he was reading, and without a word, he conjured up a slipgate and disappeared from the Moon Kingdom battlecruiser, reappearing above the ruins of Tokyo. There was incredible power here. And it was very familiar. Natsumi? Already?

But no, this wasn't her style. She wasn't the kind of person to make such a gesture, not without being in the game again. And she wasn't. No, this had to be someone else. Yamazaki would let him know when Natsumi was ready to operate again... and as he hadn't... no, this was definitely -

- Ranma. He could see him now, in his female form, below, standing on the rubble of the building. A fierce glow surrounded him, and no senshi or other heroes remained standing. Ranma's face was one of intense anger, and he headed directly for Raijin.

"Shit." Without wasting any more words, Yoshihiro gated back to the bridge of his new toy to await Yamazaki's report.

******

Dark General!

The words echoed through Ranma's mind, and yet he didn't feel evil. Not even particularly so. Angry, yes. A lot of people had died today because of this beast, an awful lot of people, and more could, and likely would, still die. He had to be stopped, and it looked like Ranma was the only one with the strength to pull it off. The others had apparently given up, because he saw Ami, Usagi, Rei, Makoto and Minako collapsed on building rooftops, gasping for breath. Mamoru also lay stretched out, and people Ranma didn't recognise, and then people he did.

The Nerima crowd. Figures. But they were as exhausted as everyone else. A glance back down at Mitsuki and Hotaru and... and both were weakened as well. Even Hotaru, who, moments ago as Saturn, had exuded power beyond Ranma's. Now, she was weak, hurting.

And then he realised. When he'd pulled at his reserves, he'd also grabbed from everyone else. He could hear them in his head, feel them in his heart, and knew it to be true. Damn. Damn damn damn. But no use worrying about it now, he decided. The monster, Raijin, had taken advantage of Ranma's momentary lack of attention, and sent a powerspike his way. With a flick of a forearm, though, Ranma deflected it into the air. It kept going. By then, another had been fired, and another, and another. Ranma deflected all three, snapkicking the last back back at Raijin himself.

Dark General, Ranma thought as he deflected the blasts. Natsumi's gift. That kiss, the one that had knocked her out. Whatever it had done... he felt it had helped. But... she'd said he tasted of... of what? Knowing what he did now, Ranma assumed she had been about to say, "Dark Kingdom," but that was impossible... wasn't it? His brain flicked back to something that had happened a couple of months ago now...

******

Nabiki opened her hand, and blew on her palm. Ranma noted glittering particles get swept up, and he jumped back to avoid them in case it was something creepy or poisonous. Yet, he couldn't avoid tem all, and inhaled some. He didn't feel any worse off a few moments later, and so he assumed it hadn't had any effect on him, and he turned back to Nabiki...

******

Had that been what Natsumi had been talking about? Had he already been turned into a Dark General and just hadn't known? No, not likely... probably turned into a monster, or started to have been turned into one. And Natsumi's kiss had done the rest. He was now strong, intensely so, and could feel power ripple through every finger, every toe, every strand of hair. His teeth crackled with electricity whenever he moved his jaw.

And then the powerspikes were gone, and Raijin - how Ranma knew his name, he didn't know, but he did - turned in slow motion, and made to step across to the Tokyo Tower. Whatever plan the beast had for the tower, Ranma didn't want to find out. A burst of ki through his legs, and he sped across and into Raijin's back, puncturing the scaled hide and splashing through his internal organs, burning everything shut as he passed through. For a scant moment, he passed through Raijin's stomach, and saw people there, and animals, some still alive. Ranma hoped they could get out by themselves now he'd made an exit, but for the moment, he didn't have the time to stop and rescue them. He continued out, and flew in an arc to face Raijin, eye to eye.

"This stops here, ya hear me?" he yelled. Raijin swiped at him, but Ranma dodged easily, only then realising -

- he wasn't aiming for the martial artist. His claws locked onto the tower, and he hauled himself upright again. Fluids gushed from his wounds, but he paid no heed. This was it, the endgame. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen now.

Ranma turned to the heroes, but found them still slumped. No help there. And while he suspected he was now stronger than this monster, Ranma had no wish to put that to the test, if that would chance some corrupting of his personality. He still felt like himself, but was that accurate? Was he still himself, or was he something dark, twisted and evil, and just didn't know it, couldn't see it? But for now, he had to shelve thought. Raijin snapped his jaws in Ranma's direction, and he shimmered, blurred, then reappeared just to the right of the locked teeth. The beast didn't hesitate, but snapped his jaws again and again, swinging Ranma around and away from the tower -

- as Raijin clamped a second claw down on the structure. It groaned under his weight, twisting and starting to pitch back. But Raijin only needed a second more. He snapped his head back around, threw it back and roared, pouring energies into the metal supports, which hummed and buzzed, great electrical bolts arcing from the girders to nearby buildings. Where they touched vanished into puffs of vapour, and Ranma saw with horror they were approaching where the fallen lay.

He attempted to punch Raijin, winding up and throwing his fist forward with all his ki behind it, all his strength. But the energy ball and physical impact didn't even touch the giant monster. The bolts grew ever closer to the senshi, who were nearer the tower when he'd drained them than the others, and Ranma had to make a choice: did he try to stop Raijin here, now, again, or did he save the lives of his friends?

It was no choice.

He sped for the closest senshi, Rei, and gathered her up in his arms in a blur of red and black, before grabbing Ami and slinging her over his other shoulder. He bounced away, stowing them safely before speeding back for the others. He managed to work just ahead of the arcing bolts as he gathered Mamoru, a pair of twin girls, an angel, a severely injured girl... the list grew with each trip. And there was Ryoga, and Mousse, and Shampoo, and Cologne, and even Happosai. He didn't recognise most of the people he gathered up and took to relative safety, but that didn't stop him from working feverishly. Hotaru had smiled sadly at him before she closed her eyes again, and Mitsuki's face was covered in tracks of dried tears, but most people were either still unconscious, or not reacting to what was going on around them.

Once they were safe from the immediate danger, he turned towards Raijin again. He'd end it this time.

******

Yamazaki, in his human guise, wandered the streets of Kanagawa. Even here, people were fleeing for their lives. Those from the city's centre had just reached this prefecture, and were still heading out. Yamazaki sighed. It had been too long since the last giant monster attack. Even he, old as he was, had trouble remembering when the last such onslaught had been. He suspected it had been Gojira, back in 1985 or so, but at his age, it was hard to remember sometimes.

For he wasn't as young as he looked. Outwardly, he appeared to be around 20 years of age. Inside, he'd just had his ninety-third birthday the previous week. The cost of his soul, of his life, to work with the Master? Youth. Eternal youth. He'd always be older than he looked. It was a price he could live with.

And here he was, in Kanagawa. People ran past him, camera crews set up on the hills surrounding the ward for better views of the battle in the city, and cars filled the roads. But none of this concerned him. He had his orders, and they were to ignore all these people.

No, there was one person he was interested in. And there she was. Standing near the bridge, her older sister talking to a young man in glasses who kept laughing nervously. That may have been due to the angry woman standing behind him, but she restrained herself for some reason. A closer look with his enhanced senses, and Yamazaki recognised that Keitaro Urashima that Natsumi had brought over to their side for a time, and he assumed therefore the angry girl was his love interest, whom he'd abused during his time as a soldier for the Kingdom. For the Master.

The girl he was to talk to still held her VR headset resting above her brow, dataglove clipped to the top of her skirt. She looked bored, and when her gaze passed over Yamazaki, there was no hint of recognition in it. She didn't remember him, nor her time as a General. Any other time, Yamazaki would have amused himself and played with her, but time was of the essence. The Master apparently thought the martial artist would resurrect himself and pose a greater threat than anyone else thought, and that the senshi might be able to stop Raijin from carrying out his mission, but Yamazaki didn't actually think this Ranma Saotome was much of a threat. After all, he hadn't yet been able to stop the Master, had he? No. Not even Natsumi Otohime had managed that, in her arrogant dreams of leading the last remaining forces of the Dark Kingdom.

But here she was now, bored, looking like she could use some adventure. Yamazaki decided to give her some.

He continued to head in Natsumi's direction, while her gaze drifted further from him. But once she caught him in her peripheral vision, heading directly for her, she turned back, curious to find his eyes locked directly on hers. She thought it strange, that after waking up in that Ranma's house, she hadn't been afraid like she had used to, before she'd blacked out for those months. Once, she'd flinched every time Watanabe had glanced in her direction, or walked within half a kilometre of her, but now, she fronted him up at school, forced him to back down when she felt like it. She didn't seem to be afraid of much. But right now, those old shivers started travelling along her spine, and some organ deep inside her shrivelled up and tried to hide behind her kidneys.

It wasn't that he looked weird. Quite the contrary, he was rather attractive for an older man. She herself was rather young still, and although he appeared to be Mutsumi's age, he was still too old for her to even think about in that sense. For her, anyway. She preferred boys her own age. Was it that he had his eyes locked on her, making her feel uncomfortable? No. She'd seen that needing expression from Watanabe lots of times. Except from him, it was the need to humiliate, the need to isolate, the need to destroy. This looked like a much more primal need. That was a little worrying, but even with Raijin in the city at the Master's behest, she wasn't worried about sexual predators while around Naru.

Hang on... Raijin? She racked her brain, but couldn't find any reference to what was in the city anywhere. Perhaps it had slipped out of that place in her brain where she suspected her missing actions had been stored, because she'd had several weird slips in her mind or speech over the last month or so since she'd woken up at the Ai Sou. But that wasn't what was scaring her.

With a start, she realised it was the way he was walking. That calm, self-assured gait did not sit well on young shoulders. There was something wrong here, very wrong, and she just couldn't place it. It was like something was yelling through a soundproof wall in the back of her mind. But her fingers moved by themselves, and found her headset, dropped it down over her eyes. With a blink, it started up an operating system Natsumi hadn't known existed in the system, and winked warning reticles over the young man. Before she could do much more than step back, though, he was in front of her, an arm clamping down on her shoulder. She struggled to pull back, and cried out in shock. Everyone turned, and Naru stepped forward, fist already up and moving. Keitaro's came from the other side of Natsumi, also heading for the young man's face.

Yet, he reached up lazily with one hand, deflected Naru's punch and then redirected Keitaro's into Naru. Keitaro, surprised, then allowed himself to be tossed backwards. The others were coming forward then, yelling something, and before Natsumi even had time to try to break away, blackness rose up and swallowed Yamazaki and herself.

******

They reappeared elsewhere, in a room that evidenced high-technology everywhere. Sculpted consoles that resembled dragon's claws rising up from beneath the floor grating, lights that looked like popped boils and monitors that looked like blisters. Her mind knew what this was, but she couldn't accept it, not right now. There was a shimmery sound, and a black portal opened in front of her. A blond-haired man dressed all in black stepped out, and smiled at Natsumi.

"We meet again," he smiled, before taking her from Yamazaki and walking her to something that looked more like a demon had wrenched down through the ceiling and let its hand be used as a command chair. "I'd like you to sit here."

Meeker than she had been for a while, she allowed herself to be placed in the chair. Something here seemed so very wrong, this man, whoever he was, shouldn't have been so nice to her. She felt he should have been trying to burn her, or poke her with sharp things, or other forms of torture she didn't want to elaborate on. Him being nice wasn't something that her body, the animal in her, thought he should be. As she stared up at him much as a baby rabbit stares up at a fox before being eaten, he smiled comfortingly and tapped her VR headgear.

"Fear not, little one, for this is all we need."

"O... oh?" she squeaked, and fumbled for the band to release it and hand it to him.

"Yes, just that." He smiled again, reached behind his back for something on a nearby pedestal, then stopped as if something had just occurred to him. "Oh, and a brain to run it."

His hand whipped out from behind his back, and he jammed the cable he'd been holding against the side of the headset. Like it was liquid, the end of the cable splattered, but then started digging into the materials of the set, as well as Natsumi's skull. She screamed, but no one present much cared.

******

Raijin's back arched, his form swollen with power. Tokyo Tower, likewise, crackled with mystical energies that swirled upwards into the sky. Dark clouds formed, swirling around in patterns that were almost recognisable and that chilled the blood to even glimpse them. Something bad was about to happen.

Ranma's pose was tense. The electrical arcing had stopped, and right now, he was ready to strike. But Raijin was preparing to do something, something bad, and Ranma wasn't sure what. Rushing in half-cocked didn't sound like such a good idea to him right now, especially considering what he didn't know about himself after these new changes, and so he waited for an opening in which he could safely attack Raijin without possibly exposing everyone else to a killing blow from the monster.

Beside him, Hotaru stirred, pushed herself upright, and held onto Ranma's leg. "Sempai?" she slurred.

"Shhh," Ranma said, not taking his eyes off the monster. Any moment now...

"Sempai? What... what happened...?"

"I dunno, Hotaru-chan," he answered truthfully. "But I think it had somethin' ta do with Nabiki and that Natsumi girl."

Hotaru's fingers dug into his leg a little more. "I'm sorry, Ranma," she said in a low, quiet voice.

It wasn't about this situation, and Ranma knew it. "Don't worry about it, Hotaru-chan," he replied, quiet and also warm. his hand reached down, stroked her cheek momentarily and then patted her head. "Rest now. I've got some monster ta kick into next week." Hotaru removed her hands, and slid down to where she could at least watch, and Ranma bounded away in a blur.

Someone slumped down next to her to watch. Hotaru's eyes shifted over. Akane Tendo. Hotaru wasn't sure what to say to her, especially with the tears that had stained her cheeks, so said nothing. They both watched as -

******

Ranma dove in towards the monster, just as Raijin's form looked as if it would explode. The beast roared suddenly, head thrown back as it poured all the energy it had absorbed from the surrounding buildings and consumed heroes into the tower. The tower crackled, and then a huge sphere of dark explosive fury burst from the structure and rapidly spread outwards. Watching earth and concrete get picked up and vapourised by the expanding field, Ranma paused, made another decision, and sped back to who he thought of as his friends and family.

******

Yoshihiro scanned the monitors, observing the obliteration. Rampant energies collected from Raijin's localised disintegration of the material universe expanded outwards in a sphere of negative energies, breaking apart the binding fields that held matter together. A few more moments, and the senshi would be destroyed... he reflected that, if Ranma Saotome survived, he'd have to thank him for weakening his largest opposing group just enough to let him destroy them. And without the survivors of the Moon Kingdom in evidence, he could happily rebuild the Dark Kingdom at leisure, first in the ruins of Tokyo, where the few survivors would be only too grateful for assistance in rebuilding, and then spreading across the globe like a cancer.

******

Unable to change time for risk of making things worse, Sailor Pluto found herself leaving the Hino shrine, leaving the Inner senshi to discuss what she'd just told them to do. To go to university. to leave this area. Go forth and learn new things that can help them become more powerful, more cunning, better tacticians and strategicians. For a moment, she turned back, almost ready to go inside and tell them to forget it, try some other way of curtailing the threat to the Kingdom's survivors without involving them. But Luna and Artemis stood there, looking a little tense, tails flicking back and forth in timed irritation.

Luna was the first to speak. "Sailor Pluto, what has brought this on?"

Artemis continued on. "Galaxia is defeated. Surely we can rest now, just for a while?"

Pluto stared back. "I've told the senshi their mission."

Not sensing that Pluto considered the discussion finished as she ran through what she had to do next to ensure things didn't get worse in the current future, Luna continued on with an icy glare. "But we've defeated the last -"

Didn't they get it? Didn't they understand yet? After all they'd seen in the Moon Kingdom, and here on Earth? Pluto was amazed. "There never is a 'last'," she spat. "There is always more. That is why there are still senshi, and no peace in the universe. Destroy one, more will spring up to take its place." True, very true. But perhaps not evil. Perhaps it was balance... after all... hadn't that been what Queen Serenity had been worried about, millennia ago? The balance on Earth being disrupted was the catalyst for the fall of the Moon Kingdom, and the rise of the Dark Kingdom to ascendancy... or rather, it would have if Serenity hadn't sealed the Dark Kingdom in the instant before death.

"But Pluto, we've had no indications of anything being spawned. You, yourself, haven't given us any warning of things dire from the future." Artemis again.

And Pluto, who's mind was elsewhere at the time, had no time to concentrate on what she was saying. For someone with some control over the flow of time, she was running out of it awfully fast. She was operating on a schedule here, and the feline advisors to the Princess and her personal guard were ruining it. "Because this current evil... the senshi cannot beat. They need to grow up. They need to learn new things. They have to learn how to get by with nothing but their wits."

"This is why you're sending them to Tokyo University?"

"Yes Luna. That's exactly why." Pluto stood straighter and folded her arms, preparing to leave. "They will learn, or they will die." And, at the moment, it looked like they would die. The sense she felt from the Gate on Pluto was diminished, but she could still travel. So the Gate was still in existance... just the pocket dimensional fragment and the Gate's physical housing had been destroyed, it seemed. Which still left Pluto with access to it, just not the amount of control she'd once enjoyed. In fact, it would likely now be somewhat unpredictable if she tried to carry out anything other than routine travel along a limited temporal vector, so she didn't want to try anything too fancy.

Unless it was completely necessary, that was.

But the cats didn't want to leave it at that. What explanation they'd received wasn't enough for them. While Pluto concentrated on calculating temporal co-ordinates the long, hard way - in her head, rather than making use of the Gate structure's translation systems - Artemis continued.

"University surely isn't that cutthroat..." He stepped forward, trying to engage the older senshi in discussion, to bring out what was really going on in her head at the moment, to find out what she knew rather than be left in the dark. But it didn't work.

Pluto looked up momentarily. "Artemis, there are things worse than study in this world. They will find that out soon enough." Then, she twirled the Garnet Rod, opened a passage to somewhen and somewhere else, and vanished, leaving two confused cats.

******

Hotaru blinked, watching the black wall approach almost in slow motion. She felt she should transform, maybe try destroying these city blocks rather than the planet to stop the black explosive bubble, but that would take energy she just didn't have. So she was resigned to watching her friends die horrible deaths, without being able to do anything about it, one way or the other. Which did indeed suck big time.

Beside her, Akane watched, not quite as exhausted as the youngest senshi was, but maybe that was because she'd not been so close to the heart of the maelstrom that had drained them all, Hotaru thought. Regardless, she now sat, and waited. Her fingers traced lines in the dust of the rubble they sat on as they watched their world end.

The black wall came ever closer - happening in a very few seconds rather than the hours it seemed to be taking to Hotaru.

And then, something was there -

******

Her next stop was uneventful. The girl was coming into her powers now, Pluto knew that much. And she'd suffered the loss of a parent. But there was something else. The man she had been manipulating the senshi into staying with... their teacher-to-be, she needed to know what he was like on a personal level. And the Gate wouldn't let her go near the 'current' time, where the battlecruiser had come from, so she had to pick her times carefully. Upon a little research, she found that, in what might be the future, she would be told that that this Ranma Saotome had seen her as a child, but had apparently considered her to be something of a dream. That would have to be the time she would visit him. Perhaps it was a dream in his recollection; now it wouldn't be.

There he was, in his sleeping bag, outside the ruined house that Nemesis had been spawned in. His father lay beside him, limbs sprawled much as his son's were. Both snored loudly. She stood behind Ranma, where if he woke up, he wouldn't see her. Where she could get away if she felt she had to. She gazed at the back of his head intently. What was it about him that would give the senshi a fighting chance against this new evil, this new Dark Lord? She wasn't sure. She'd only learn, she suspected, by dissecting him, and considering that she didn't have her laboratory anymore, and that his father was lying right next to him, that didn't appear to be a viable option.

Ranma rolled onto his back, still snoring after a slight pause and a snort. His face looked so soft, so innocent, so cheeky. Pluto realised, if he was awake right now, he would almost be staring right up her skirt. But his eyes were closed, and his breathing was still relaxed. He was asleep. She gave him a wan smile, and whispered, "Ranma Saotome, you do not yet realise how important you are to the future." She straightened, then, feeling someone watching her.

Ah, Nemesis. From the treeline, no doubt. Well, her work here was done. All she had to do now was to try and track down Uranus and Neptune and wait for the Gate to allow them to re-enter normal space-time to interact with the senshi. Although, she suspected in support of what she'd told the younger girls and the cats that the three outermost senshi likely wouldn't be able to participate in the coming conflict.

No matter. She tossed her hair, opened a portal, trusted the Gate of Time to take her wherever she was needed most, and stepped into it.

******

Ranma, blasting ki forward and out to the sides. A forcefield of some kind, Hotaru realised stupidly. Projecting as much power as he could to deflect the onrushing wave of dark energies that stripped the life from anything it touched, disassociating atomic bonds as it went. The initial shockwave hit, and Ranma's barrier held firm. Behind him, Hotaru grabbed Akane's arm, angry she couldn't help him. A glance at Akane showed she must have been feeling similar. Hotaru climbed unsteadily to her feet, and leaned on Ranma's back.

"Sempai, I can help," she said, fumbling for her henshin wand. It felt cool and heavy in her fingers, but also strangely reassuring. She pulled it out, and although she could feel Ranma's body telling her not to, her sense of responsibility overwhelmed that and told her she had to help save herself, her sempai, and her friends. She transformed into Sailor Saturn with a short wave of the wand, and placed her hands on Ranma's shoulders, focussing what energy she could muster through her arms and into him. The influx of power whipped at his clothes, the energies pushing him further into the rubble as it broke up beneath them. Dust whipped up, chunks of rock whirling up and away in the vortices taking shape behind the barrier as bioenergetic reactions played havoc with the local laws of physics.

But Ranma's barrier held. A second pair of hands touched his shoulders, and he felt more power. Akane, he recognised it as. He hadn't seen her before, but with the others from Nerima here, he should have known she wouldn't be too far away. Not with things as they had been left after the last 'visit' to the Tendo's. His field burst upwards, disrupting the patterns of the expanding blast wave and setting it on a path of self-destruction. It began to collapse in on itself, mostly harmless now, but Ranma still shielded those around him from the return path of the negative energies.

Raijin looked surprised, but almost fatally depleted of energy now. Ranma took that as the sign that the time had come, and pushed off towards the monster.

He reached him in a few leaps, a ki-charged fist punching through the beast's thick skull and sinking up to his elbow in grey goop Ranma assumed was brain matter. Raijin didn't collapse, although he staggered and slumped. And then, just as his claws were about to release Tokyo Tower -

******

"Now, Baku, rise again!" Yoshihiro shouted. The energy Raijin had channeled back to the battlecruiser fed its way through the ship's computing systems. As they had originally been bulit on mercury, before it's fall to the Dark Kingdom, they, like Natsumi's headset, were capable of almost magical abilities. And one in particular was being channeled now. The only problem was, it required a great deal of computing power, more than a simple head-mounted computer system could offer. But the battlecruiser's systems could take the strain.

Behind him, Umiko purred. She hadn't thought Raijin would succeed, and he hadn't in his primary mission: Tokyo still stood. Yet, he may have succeeded in his secondary purpose: the removal of the heroes from Tokyo, which would make Yoshihiro's plans progress that much faster. And as the energy streamed through long-dead conduits, bringing more and more computing power online, Yoshihiro leant down, and whispered in Natsumi's ear.

******

- something happened -

******

"Is the system running?" Yoshihiro snapped, without moving from Natsumi's ear. Umiko scrambled to check.

"System is at fifty percent capacity," she replied. "No errors in data transmission." She gestured knowingly at Natsumi's strained, but still, form. "How long do you plan to keep her this time?"

Yoshihiro shrugged. "She is only needed to monitor the situation. She can be kept disassociated from the world for as long as she is needed."

"Then do we kill her?"

The Master stared at Natsumi. In truth, he wasn't necessarily evil. His views and beliefs differed to those of the Moon Kingdom, and if killing innocents or civilians was a means to an end, he'd gladly do it. Yet, there was no need for Natsumi to die, for now at least. He shook his head. "No. She may be of use in the future. Leave her for now."

******

- and Raijin exploded, Ranma disappearing in the blast.

Saturn and Akane waited, waited until a breeze blew the clouds of dust and smoke and gore away, but there was nothing. Not even on the ground. Ranma Saotome was missing.

But he'd saved the lives of his friends, and his new family. Akane looked dumbly at Saturn; she'd been expecting to talk to Ranma when he came back, when things settled down, to tell him she had come to terms with Ranma's decision whether or not she agreed with it. She was going to be nice, and try to talk calmly and not lose her temper and ask if they could at least continue to be friends. She had had no doubt they would be, but she had to ask, make sure. She could live without Ranma, if she still saw him, could still talk to him, still share things with him. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Saturn took Akane by the elbow, led her back to the other senshi, not looking back. She didn't know where Ranma was, but she could still feel him. Somewhere. She felt Akane could, too. Both would know if he was dead, and... he didn't seem to be. Just missing.

"He'll turn up, you know," she said to Akane, who nodded dumbly in reply. "I don't think he'd go that easily."

"But... what happened?" Akane asked. "He was there, and we were there, and then... he was gone."

"I don't know," Saturn said, shaking her head. "But I assure you, we'll find out." Akane nodded again, still in a little bit of shock at the events of the last few minutes, and Saturn took the chance to glance over her shoulder at the remains of the tower. No Ranma. No cocky grin, no smart-assed comments. No casual appearance to make himself seem even more special than usual by blowing off the most dangerous fight he'd been involved in. Nothing. But he was there, she was sure of that. "We'll find him," she affirmed to herself, and then turned back to help her friends.

TO BE CONTINUED...

SAILOR MOON SAYS:

Weeeee.... huge fic. I haven't written one this long in years. I hope it holds together well; I think it does, and it covers a whole range of flashback-y type things that I was going to include in the future (I don't usually forget about threads I've left hanging) but have included now since so many people seem to think I've not had reasons for where the three eldest senshi have been, or what was going on in Truth with some of the chapters and stuff. I hope that explains a lot more than reading between the lines has done until now.

I originally had a huge 'rant' to go here to answer queries and points raised in a flame thread on a forum I got directed to a couple of months ago; I don't really feel like regurgitating the text there at 1AM, it was very long-winded and in-depth, giving a lot of detail about future chapters and the subtext of a number of previous chapters, so I'll address what I understood were people's major concerns (which have also shown up in ff.net reviews occasionally) in short: there have been a lot of cameos in this series since the very early days of Truth, lots of references to other shows (both anime and not-anime) and such... while I advertise this as a Ranma-Sailor Moon-Love Hina fic, in reality it was more inspired by some of the massed-series spamfics I've seen out there (go NXE!) in the method of how I've been handling crossover elements. In these last two chapters I've felt Tokyo needed Japan's answer to the Avengers: a group made up of the most powerful - or rediculous - heroes of the nation to protect the peoples of Japan from evil monsters. As everyone by now knows, the extra cameos that were to appear in this chapter were the Nerima crowd. I wanted to put them in chapter 13, but there wasn't enough room, and as they weren't terribly important at that point in time, I left them until this chapter.

In addition, I *do* know where the plot is going, and I haven't written myself into any corners yet - I haven't thought much about Justice yet, the third arc, but will be soon as I'm only a few chapters from the end of this arc, but the major events have been mapped out for two years already. A few changes have been made along the way of how to get to those points from time to time, such as Ranma and Hotaru matching up (I liked the two characters immensely, but Hotaru was supposed to be Shinobu - and Shinobu didn't get Keitaro - the readers who encouraged me to make that decision are to thank/blame for that ;) and while Natsumi was going to return in some fashion, originally it wasn't going to be this early in the piece. As to complaints Love is much darker than Truth... I went into writing this as wanting to write a novel. Truth was the setting up of the characters, Love is the middle section of the book, where the characters progress in skill and personality, and the conflicts that have only previously been hinted at or touched on ramp up to become real threats, and Justice is the end, with the climax and resolution. As the story evolves into something more serious, as the characters mature during the progress of their story arcs, the humour matures also. Not necessarily becoming more complicated, just shown in different ways. But with the more serious chapters, humour really jars. I've tried adding some in, and deleted the lines almost immediately as they just sound completely wrong.

On a different note, since I wrote chapter 13, I found a lot more Love Hina references (specifically, I got more manga ^^;;). The Hinata Sou is in Kanagawa Prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo 120 degress around from Nerima (around 30-40km in a straight line, according to the maps I have here). The Ai Sou is reasonably close to the Hinata Sou, so that explains why Hotaru's so exhausted when she gets to Furinken ;) Also why Ranma has plenty of time to think when he's on his way to confront Nabiki. Doesn't really change anything, but it's fun to know anyway. Even scarier is the fact that I didn't know in the manga that Mutsumi's family was shown in any detail, and it turns out her mother's name is Natsumi ^^; so Natsumi is named after her mother :P

I didn't mention it in the notes after the last chapter, but last September mum bought two toy poodle puppies to replace the toy that was poisoned last July. They're both beautiful, and (figuratively) deaf when called, and very friendly - and have a tendency to chase things across the road if tey see them. While writing the last chapter, both ran out on the road and one was bowled by a 4 wheel drive. Thankfully, if that term applies, it was the smaller of the two brothers, which meant rather than being killed, he was thrown a fair distance and received a fractured skull, but was otherwise fine. We're very lucky it wasn't one of the big trucks servicing the quarries in this area, but they nearly got hit the other day as well. So I'm back to dog-sitting, as well as having worked a few weeks in the pineapples again, which is why this chapter was later than I was planning (I've had it in various states of completion for the last month and keep thinking, one or two more scenes and it'll be done). I hope you enjoy it, and please excuse the fact this is a LOT later than I was intending on it being.

Next Chapter: Where's Ranma? And what exactly *did* happen with Natsumi?