Disclaim me do rey mi fa so la ti do. I don't own Ranma or Tenchi or any thing else that may be hinted at in here. So much fanfiction has been written that is guaranteed that anything I write is probably plagiarism of some sort.

Brief A/N:

Frodo and Mary Sue live!…in the Poconos.

If you haven't, please reread chapter 8. There was a major rewrite.

I will likely never put together a single story longer than about 40k words. I 'may' get better over time, but the brevity will still be there and stories may seem a little rushed. I could revisit some earlier chapters to revise-add to, but don't count on it. I ain't that dependable. Sorry.

A Horse and His Cabbit

Not Much Longer

RanmaRanmaRanmaRanmaRanmaRanma

The entity known as Kaine glared at the two huge, but still smaller, crystalline constructs facing him. The writhing blackness began to settle into a vaguely anthropomorphic form with white porcelain seeming, clawed hands. Ranma scanned the criminal and came up with nothing from any sensors on the whereabouts of the royals. He let his ki sense roam and saw them arranged in a diamond pattern in the torso of the monstrosity.

Ranma came about to face Kaine at a tangent to the planet's surface, no need for innocent casualties if it could be avoided. "Ryo-chan, Lin-chan, he has the advantage. The hostages are in his torso. Ryo-chan, try to take potshots at his head and limbs and don't shoot the prison crystals. He'll figure out quick enough that we won't shoot them and will, I hope, bring them out to use as a shield. That is what we need to see. I'll take him in close."

On board RyoOhki, she was passing Ranma's words to her passengers, Kiyone and Mihoshi. Seats and heads up displays formed on the bridge, which the two GP officers took. "Mihoshi. I'm giving you fire control because your link now gives limited access to my and Ranma's sensor arrays. Kiyone, I want you on tactical. Watch for any opening or weaknesses and keep an eye on the whole theater. Ryoko, hold yourself in reserve. You know what we need."

Ryoko said, "Sure thing…partner, I got you covered."

Kiyone gave the expected professional response, while Mihoshi made a purring sound at her excitement over the realization that she would be playing with 'real blasters' and not her usual popguns.

LinOhki had Cologne firmly wrapped up in her own chair and HUD, counting on their hybrid stealth mode to give them their one shot. Cologne thought, 'Ranma, be careful, that…thing's aura is so evil that I feel nothing but despair'.

'Don't worry, Cologne. Ranma knows what he is doing.' LinOhki interjected her thoughts into the Matriarch's mind.

Shampoo and Mousse could do nothing but watch and worry.

Ranma was talking, asking Washu for any ideas. "Nope, not a clue."

"Thanks Washu."

All of this occurred in a few seconds.

At that point the defenses of the planet down below had been made aware of the intrusions of the arch criminal Kaine and two cabbits, unannounced in local Juraian space.

Azusa was enraged. "I want every available ship to destroy them all! Goddess, what is going on."

Funaho came into the royal war chamber as he said this. "Azusa! You oaf! Don't you recognize that cabbit's signature! What if Sasami, Tenchi or Yosho are aboard?"

"Heh. Don't attack the cabbits. Open a line of communication instead."

"Sorry sir. Thirty three hundred and twenty-eight ships have already opened up a broadside salvo at the invaders."

The emperor felt a chill. Looking over at Funaho and Misaki, who had just arrived, he knew what was causing it.

In space, the adversaries had taken note of the more than one hundred thousand energy pulses coming.

Kaine raised an arm at the incoming weapons targeted at him and shot out a wide beam of blackness against which the initial weapons discharged, setting off any following beams or missiles. "Let the little cabbits waste their energy fending off this. What?"

Ranma's response was a harvest. Lightnings built up along the spires of the mighty ship, which began to glow like a new star over Jurai. Four ravening beams of annihilation speared out from the forward spires, joining into one kilometers from his location. A single great beam shot into the leading edge of the oncoming salvo, exploding into a sphere that encompassed everything from the satellite rings to near the fight. The globe then shrank to nothing, Leaving a void where a huge mass of missiles and two battleships had managed to intrude.

Kaine had weakened incrementally and was dumbfounded at seeing his own adversary half again as large as before the salvo.

Washu was belatedly opening a communication line to the royal court. Her relief was evident at getting Funaho. "Funaho! Don't fire on this battle. Kaine has Yosho, Ayeka, Tenchi and Sasami as hostages. Killing him will definitely kill them."

Funaho held an almost even look, like cracked ice, "If Sasami weren't hostage I would say that the sacrifice was necessary for the greater good of Jurai. You MUST get her back unharmed at any cost. I will see to my husband's 're-education' in the art of war as we pray for your success."

"Sure thing Funaho."

Washu looked toward Ranma's image, getting a nod.

Outside, the fight was heating up, literally. Inky blackness would fire from Kaine's hand and splash across Ranma's shielding, seeming to eat away at it. Ranma kept up his fire at any exposed part of the enemy, holding back out of fear for the captives.

RyoOhki seemed to be having better luck as nearly every shot fired from Mihoshi's station scored. To Ranma's chagrin, more than a couple had been bank shots off his own shielding.

After another hour of Kaine pounding Ranma but getting nowhere, the criminal headed out from Jurai toward the next planet out. "Ranma, watch him, he's going to do something really bad if he gets into a gravity well."

Kaine thought to himself. 'Wonderful now the tables will turn on the flying rat. They are stuck firing from a distance and those mountains will make it harder to hit me. He will just use up his energy and I'll finish him when he's weakened himself. Heh heh.'

Ranma had figured it out for himself and closed in, taking hits from the black plasma-like substance that the monster used for a weapon.

After one hit that destroyed three of Ranma's spires, the martial artist turned starship began to delve into the databanks for a counter. A few hundred million CPU cycles later an answer presented itself.

Washu gasped as the environmental dome and a portion of Ranma's self split away from the fight, taking them on a mad, dodging path away from the fight. Some deft manipulation of the console gave her some control of their flight and a look at what was happening as Ranma entered the planet's atmosphere while RyoOhki skimmed the higher levels, still taking potshots at Kaine.

Ranma's form began to change. A tall humanoid form was now falling to the surface after Kaine. It looked much like a samurai's armor made of violet and black crystal. A thin shield rested on one arm and a monstrous katana was held in the opposite hand.

Ranma touched down facing Kaine and stood in a deceptive stance towering above the valley floor at almost two hundred meters. His enemy was a giant humanoid silhouette with chagrin showing on the pasty mask of a face. A sword of blackness formed in one hand as a ball of writhing blackness floated above the other.

The titans first clash was a surprise to the criminal. His plasma ball just ricocheted into the mountainside and the sword clove through his own and his blade did not return to him, instead, turning to dust.

Ranma thought, 'Yes! Neutronium shield and edge to the blade rocks.' He leapt in a somersault that should have had the sword beheading Kaine, but the element of surprise had been lost. Instead he felt pain as one of his legs burned away to the knee as Kaine bathed it in black fire.

Ranma brought his shield to bear on his foe while he realized that his regeneration was slowed where that last attack hit. Kaine's corruption was interfering somehow.

He began to hack and slash at his enemy, closing in his defenses. He was taking smaller hits now, but they were crippling in their aggregation.

Kaine decided to use what was left of his hostages-power source as a shield to get a killing blow into his foe. Four crystals became exposed on the hilt of his black sword. He was pleased to see his enemy hesitate. He should have done this before now.

Kaine raised his weapon to slash the now scrabbling Ranma when a bright explosion rained a powder over both combatants.

Ranma rolled away and took a wary stance that looked to be 'waiting'. Kaine snarled and began to move on Ranma when the power coming from his 'gems' began to decline. Looking at them, their surfaces had dulled to an opaque silver finish. He saw Ranma's form undergoing the same evolution, except the powder vanished after covering him, absorbed.

When he was cut off from the gems, a beam was fired from a ship leaving stealth. It was LinOhki playing her 'holeshot'. The beam hit the crystals and appeared to ricochet through the mountain and out the other side before vanishing in a bright flash.

His hostages were gone.

Ranma and LinOhki began to fly out, away from Kaine.

"Cowards! I can still take you!" He began to fly up when a beam hit him forming a sphere that cut a chunk out of the landscape below where he had been. The ball imploded to a bright point and winked out.

RyoOhki mentally blew imaginary smoke from an imaginary gun, in her mind. "Case closed?" Asked Mihoshi.

The cabbit replied, "Oh, yeah. Kaine's in a black hole so small and tight that an electron would look like a gas giant to a BB. Here" A pedestal rose from the floor of the bridge with a crystal in the center. "The crystal is a holding matrix that is self powered by the black hole, all set to last for eternity. You and Kiyone can turn him in, Ranma said so." Ryoko sat back and hoped that her Tenchi and Ayeka were well.

Ranma rejoined himself and resumed his ship form, now only slightly larger than RyoOhki. "Okay! Everyone to RyoOhki." His passengers found themselves on the cabbit's bridge followed by Ranma in his cabbit form. "Washu? Do you think that you can get some more Masu? Kaine really took it out of me."

"Ranma!" He was engulfed by his mother's arms and squeezed to her chest. "My baby! Are you all right?"

Noboyuki watched the reunion comforted that his own would come.

The cabbit in her arms had gone crosseyed from the maternal glomp applied to his small form. 'Good thing I don't 'need' to breathe anymore.' "Mom. I love you, but could you ease up on the embrace?" His comfort level immediately rose.

"I'm sorry, my child. It's just that this has been just like one of those gaijin space operas and its so overwhelming."

At that moment a small woman, a brown cabbit and two short catgirls appeared on the bridge. KhoLun said, "My, I can't remember having so much fun in all my three hundred 'odd' years." Shampoo and Mousse glomped Ranma in Nodoka's arms, causing her to sit down with a thump on a couch that had appeared behind her. Ranma's gem glowed slightly and his and RyoOhki's holo images made an appearance on a short dais.

"I know you were able to save Sasami, Ayeka, Katsuhito, and Tenchi, but where are they?" asked Washu.

Ranma 'spoke', "Well that was Lin-chan's doing. He wanted a way to be certain that no one could trap one of us again," KhoLun and Washu simultaneously looked downcast, "aaand we have an emergency escape portal and recovery base on the moon that is being tied to all cabbits. Also included are cabbit passengers. It's the ultimate life raft. Lin-chan treated the crystals to make them part of 'us' and just activated the life raft portal. By the time we get home they should be ready to awaken. Washu-chan, why don't you use our telemetry to check on them."

"Yes! They are all okay, just a bit drained." She said from her holoconsole.

Funaho's face was on the monitor now. RyoOhki had provided a feed to the royal war room. "It seems that Jurai is forever indebted to your cabbits 'Lady' Washu."

"That's Washu-CHAN!"

The first empress smiled, "Very well, Washu-chan, the data packet we received tells me that we have a wedding to perform and you and the mother of the groom are invited to visit our shrine for the ceremony as soon as you restore the groom."

"Funaho-chan if you can have a ship swing by earth's moon to pick up your children and great grandson we can all be present." Washu loved it when everyone was happy, it made them less on their guard when the urge to experiment came upon her.

"Thank you, I am eager to see all our family together. We'll see each other again at the palace."

16JAN2006

Hey. Just reread this and realized that it needs work. Good C&C will help the revision to come. Thanks in advance.