An Empire Reborn
Ch5: Not just Rhetoric
The fleshy sound of parries and blocks echoed throughout the richly decorated throne room of the long dead kingdom as Ranma fought his lieutenant. Grunts of exertion and genuine pain belied the non-lethal aspect of the fight between the monarch and his subordinate, which was even now occurring before the symbol of his power. Only the satisfied grins on both of the combatant's faces gave any hint that it was anything but an attempt on the king's life.
"I cannot believe you Ranma!" Although Serenities piercing voice was loud enough to clearly be heard over the sounds of combat, Ehri did not hear them. "You planned this all along, didn't you?" Serenities hissing voice was filled with a commanding presence that only came with great power and the expectation that her every command would be obeyed, it was hard to ignore or disregard such a tone. Only Ranma's confident smirk carefully directed at his challenger gave any hint that he had heard her though and hinted that he was amused by her outrage. His lack of reaction only served to fuel her anger, she was not used to being ignored.
It was a surprised tinged outrage of someone who had poured their soul out for years, sacrificed their dreams expecting nothing in return, only to find out that their only companion had conspired to gift them the very dreams they had sacrificed. Anyone would have been grateful for such a gift but when Ranma had allowed Serenity to find out his plans, he had dropped the bombshell as if it were of no consequence. Serenity had been angered that he had with held such an important secret from her, with held it for years without so much as hinting what he had planned.
It was inevitable when she found out that she had been so thoroughly fooled for so long. The first hint had come when he had given his speech to the Martian refugees, a speech she had disregarded as rhetoric – so sure that he spent all of his time and effort on martial arts and that he had no interest in anything else. It had been a challenge to keep such an enormous secret from someone that was so close to him but he had just shown that he had been spectacularly successful and that his speech was not just rhetoric.
The secret that he had kept for years was a secret that he should never have been able to keep from her. "I don't know how it is possible that you managed to hide this from me in my own palace for so long, a palace may I remind you that I lived in my entire life. My mother and her mother before her were raised in this very building. When I find out I will make you pay king Ranma," the way she dripped his suddenly acquired title with such deadly ire caused Ranma to flinch noticeably.
Even the most observant spectator would never have seen him flinch though as he spared, since he had out of necessity used the flinch in a viscous attack, such was the nature of the style with which he spared. Refined on mars over generations, it was what gave them their reputation as the most feared warriors in the kingdom or at least one of the reasons. In this style there was no room for defense, no counterattacking was allowed, if you were not on the offensive you were losing.
It was an incredible sight, both sides entirely on the offensive, attacking. Serenity had seen mock fights between practitioners of this particular style before but never taken to this level. It was incredibly brutal with even the slightest error being fully exploited and painfully exploited, only Serenity's displeasure at her ward prevented her from being impressed by the powerful display.
Ehri was winning the fight, which was to be expected when Ranma was restricted to a single style. He usually favored the combination of many styles but he wouldn't learn anything if he overwhelmed her with his usual array of styles and Ehri had practiced this style her entire life, "if you keep this up you're going to get hurt Ranma." Serenity's anger relented slightly after seeing Ranma cruelly punished for a slight over extension.
Although his technique was generally good, he had learnt the style from books and virtual reality demonstrations, Ehri was a master who had dedicated her life to its refinement and learnt from other masters so there was little comparison between their skills. Only Ranma's steep learning curve, extensive experience in the martial arts and phenomenal endurance had kept him going this long. There was a lot he could add to this fight even restricted to the long dead style. Even so, it was an incredibly effective way for Ranma to pick up the style and she expected him to spend phenomenal amounts of time in the training room perfecting it and incorporating it into his own style.
It had surprised and excited her when the Martian refugee's had appeared out of time. She had never expected or foreseen the opportunity to rebuild her kingdom using Ranma and the Martians as a firm foundation and was so exiting by the prospect that she had almost failed to recognize the significance of the speed in which the refugee's had been organized and integrated into the palace.
Ranma and Ehri had quickly separated them out according to skills and shown them to working and refurnished guest accommodations within the palace and she wouldn't have expected any less from a ward of hers. While his father had had a significant impact on his rearing she had a significantly greater impact. Genma's legacy had been mostly combative while her own had yet to bloom, only experience would sharpen the myriad of skills she had passed down which would be important in any leader.
She had been so caught up in considering potential challenges involved in rebuilding the destroyed kingdom and how Ranma's level of education and experience combined with the state of the palace would effect any planned expansion that she had paid less attention to what the refugee's were doing after that. She had always known that Ranma had been tinkering around the edges of the palace, rebuilding some area's that were useful for his training and exploring the vast libraries which were stored there. What she hadn't known was that he had been repairing considerably more than just suitable training areas and researching tomes that covered far wider subject matters than martial arts.
It never occurred to her that someone from this time would be able to understand systems so far advanced from his own technological development. Ranma's bias towards martial knowledge was well known to her, she was used to having to drive the importance of everything else she though it proper for him too know.
Mostly, or so it appeared to her, he had only acceded to her demands to learn because she said so and not because she had succeeded in convincing him of the importance of such knowledge. If she had known that he had been independently learning related topics she would have been thrilled and it would have allowed her to teach him some truly important topics she had neglected.
When the palace had started to come to life she had been startled. Surely thousands of years of neglect had done as much or more damage as Beryl had done in her invasion. Certainly when she had first explored the palace as it was a mere decade ago she had been so disappointed at its condition that she had given up her dream of ever rebuilding her kingdom with the technology that abounded on the moon. So much expertise, which would have been required to make use of the broken pieces of tech, had been lost to time with little chances of ever regaining it.
Even if Ranma had gained enough people together that he trusted, it was a distant hope that even with the library's store of knowledge enough of that expertise could have been recovered within their lifetime. Finding a team of people who could be trusted in this day and age was an insurmountable problem by itself.
That is why she had been so thrilled when Ranma had convinced the Martians to stay, though the refugee's were relatively few there were enough teachers and engineers to reignite her hope of gathering enough expertise to be able to rebuild her kingdom to greater height than she had achieved at the peak of her reign. So when the palace had first started to come to life she had reasoned that the engineers had worked a miracle by rebuilding a few key systems.
When the palace had continued coming to life she had investigated, only to find that much of the damage to key systems had been repaired, allowing for the rapid deployment of the palace as a center of operations. There was only one person who could have been responsible for such an action. She had thought he was exaggerating and using mere rhetoric to fire the Martian refugees to action when he had announced to the Martians that he had been rebuilding the palace, using it as a ploy to demonstrate that they would be an integral and much needed part of his new empire.
How he could have kept that large a secret from her for so long was a mystery that continued to anger her, more at herself than at her ward, had she taught Ranma too much or was she losing the skills she had gained through a lifetime of politics. Skills that she needed to pass on to Ranma in the days ahead if he were to be successful in his undertaking of rebuilding her shattered kingdom. Had she been so easily manipulated, Ranma would have had to been rebuilding for ten years or more – how could she have been so blind.
Whatever the case she needed to find out, rushing to confront Ranma she had found him sparing with Ehri in the throne room. The admiration and respect in the lieutenant's eyes were as easily noticeable as her satisfied grin. Ranma could have ended this fight a long time ago, even with Ehri's enhancements she was no match for the power of the crystal or his own training but he had restricted himself so as to better learn and understand the Martian style from a master of it.
In the process he had earned Ehri's loyalty, she may have been following him because of his position before but now… "Enough," Ranma panted looking no better than Ehri herself, "you are indeed a master of your style. Let's spar again sometime since there are still a few flaws I need to work out," Ranma's strength still had not quite recovered from Ehri's revival earlier and already he was pushing his limits. Serenity shook her head at her wards drive.
"So how much of the palace have you repaired Ranma?" Even though she was still angry at Ranma's deception, she was even angrier with herself. A boy much younger and more naive then had manipulated her. Her, the queen of an interplanetary empire, someone who was used to being the political top dog.. He was obviously much smarter than she had gaven him credit for and with his large amount of reading much more savvy, which made the future all the brighter for the moon kingdom she planned on rebuilding with Ranma's help. A strong leader was vital for the growth and flourishing of any community and their technologically advanced kingdom would be no different.
Serenity watched as Ehri bowed and left to check on the various projects that Ranma had set up after the refugees had been quartered. "We should be able to establish a skeleton government and have the palace running at eighty percent within the week. Any mining, infrastructure or terraforming projects need more resources than we currently have stored."
"Then there is the problem of manpower, there is only so much we can do with robotics and there remain too many old military bases and undestroyed outposts which have yet to be explored. Now you know what I have been planning I can make faster progress on the AI I have been developing based on the research recovered from the supercomputers. You were so close to a solution when you developed the timegates but so very far away from a workable program."
Serenity just stared, she knew better than anyone how well he could develop and hold onto masks. She had taught him all she knew when it came to dealing with people, but she had no idea that he had hidden behind a mask from even her, other people - but never her. How could he have stood the loneliness, at least she had Ranma to pass the time in this crystal bound purgatory but if he had been hiding behind a mask from her then he would have had no one to confide in over the years. His father was not someone he could have revealed his secret life to and he had made no permanent friends on his training trip.
The thought that he had done all of this for her was a sobering thought, how could she be angry after the magnitude of that sacrifice. How could she even know that it was the real Ranma that she was now seeing and not another mask? Before this revelation she was positive that she really knew him, his likes, his dislikes and what motivated him - now she was only filled with doubts.
"Then there is the matter of our defenses," Ranma's recital had begun to take on a clipped quality even as Serenity tried in vein to school her expression. It was ironic that even as she had introduced Ranma to statecraft and taught Ranma how to put on the masks of a ruler when she had no hope that he would ever be such, Ranma had become adept at seeing through her own masks.
He must have thought such a sacrifice; such a gift would have made her enormously happy. Seeing her empire budding again after it had been suddenly cut down, her anger and outrage, shock and confusion, the doubt she now felt towards her ward rather than the happiness he expected must be hurting him deeply. It must have made his sacrifice for his surrogate mother feel rather hollow.
Serenity doubted he remembered his birth mother, over the long training trip he never talked about her. It saddened her remembering the parting of such a young child from his mother under such a cloud. Serenity was unsure whether he was purposely blocking out a painful memory or whether he was genuinely too young to remember life before his extended training trip. While it filled her with pride that Ranma considered her the mother he didn't remember and had allowed her to take an active part in his raising she couldn't help but wonder what her daughter would have turned out.
Would she have been as driven, so eager to please her as Ranma was? Or would she have grown spoilt with all the trappings of the wealth and power her position would have provided. Thinking about her daughter, dead thousands of years now inevitably made her think about the young girls masquerading as the reborn moon kingdom court. They wouldn't be too much of a threat by themselves but whoever was manipulating them behind the scenes could be dangerous and then there was Beryl. Who would be the greater threat in the months and years ahead? What would Ranma do about the queen who was responsible for the destruction of her kingdom so long ago?
"Ranma," she interrupted, washing all the doubts she held about her ward away and letting the excitement of rebuilding her kingdom against the backdrop of all the inevitable challenges that would inevitably arise to come to the fore. Courtiers, rulers and even Ranma could never resist the smile she beamed him at the moment, "if we are to counter all the problems and make plans for any future threats then you will need your rest. These matters will wait one night. Thank you son."
It surprised her that her gratitude was so sincere, this must have been what she had needed for a long time. As if sensing that genuine gratitude Ranma's face relaxed, she never noticed how tense he constantly held himself. His replying smile was all the answer she could have hoped for and more. For once she believed she was seeing her son without any of the masks he had clung to all his life. "You're welcome mother," nothing more needed to be said.
Beryl sat on her throne considering the remains of her once vast army. Serenity's prediction, or curse, had come true. History had long since ground the truth of their conflict to dust. Not even a whisper of their kingdoms had survived long after the cataclysmic confrontation between the two rulers. A confrontation that had banished her to a pocket dimension which was far removed from the earth she had once ruled with an iron fist.
Her only comfort was that the remnants of her once massive war host had been banished with her. It had allowed her to partially rebuild her strength and consolidate her power base while plotting for an escape from the void in which she had been driven. For her and her troops a mere hundred years had passed before they had learned to manipulate the void around them creating a gateway to the world beyond, only to find that thousands of years had passed on the outside.
She could only laugh at the irony of the situation, Serenity had banished her not just as a punishment for the atrocities she had committed but in the hope that society would have a chance to rebuilt to its former glory, time enough to build enough power to withstand another military inclusion from the remnants of her troops backed by the power of Metalia. It had not been the case.
With Metalia's power which she had learned to wield a long time ago, one hundred years being trapped in this prison was but a blink of an eye for her and her troops. They would not die of natural causes as long as Metalia's power remained strong in their veins. Despite being forced into hibernation for the duration of their exile, the dread spirits power remained constant.
Beryl had been lucky or unlucky enough to have discovered the powerful spirit early in her reign and with Metalia's urgings had looked for ways to increase both of their power. For her it had meant increasing her already iron grip over the provinces of earth while for Metalia it had meant the harvesting of life energy from the dregs of her kingdom – living sacrifices to Metalia was a small price to pay for the power she granted.
Beryl had been young and full of herself and that had ultimately led to her down fall and eventual banishment. Like the moon kingdom led by the young Serenity, the kingdom of earth was flourishing under her rule. Using the power of Metalia allowed her to tighten her grip over the people resulting in a burst of productivity and military wonders while the weak queen of the moon used her wealth in frivolous pursuit of science and not even military science. Disgraceful.
Drunk on her own power and influence at Serenity's court, when the young prince Endymion caught her eye she had been instantly overcome with lust and a need to possess him. 'Any why shouldn't I?' she had asked herself. She was, in her mind, the most powerful person in the system and possibly the galaxy. However it was a lust, a need, which was not reciprocated by the young prince despite some powerful overtures.
Beryl instantly felt betrayed by the prince, how was it that anyone could refuse her – someone of her station and power, a power boosted by Metalia's, wrapping her with an even greater aura of deadliness and might. Was she lacking in power, wealth, position? Who had caught his eye that he could so easily ignore her own advances? When she had found out why she had been scorned she had become enraged with jealousy and envy.
The prince had been bound to Serenity's get, the pre-pubescent, untested, snotty little princess of the Lunar court. It was clear to her that the prince had scorned her on the basis of Serenity's power and position, after all, while she far out shone the young unproven princess her mother ruled an empire far greater than her own- but not more powerful. To her mind it could have been the only explanation, it still was the only explanation she could think of after so many years of pondering her fate.
With a simmering jealousy and anger fuelled by Metalia's whisperings she had fled court and immediately started to build upon her already great military. She knew that Endymion, the young foolish prince would not dare scorn her when faced by the knowledge that the Moon kingdom may be bigger and richer but it was by no means greater or more powerful.
It had taken her a mere twelve months to position her forces to attack, her warriors may not have been sufficient to stand up to a moon kingdom guard on an even footing but she out numbered their pitiful forces a thousand to one. The greatest threat to her plans was the Great War planet of mars.
If she overwhelmed mars then she held a straight road to the moon palace and none of the other defenders of Serenity's kingdom were as knowledgeable, skilled or brutally determined to win when it came to war. Serenity had shown that when she had been unable to breach the Martian defenses. She had through diplomacy not war gained a powerful ally in mars. Even so, an ambush may be needed to ensure victory.
The day Prince Endymion had scorned her, Beryl had sworn she would accomplish what Serenity had not been able to do even if it spent three quarters of her forces, she would prove her worth through war. Once Mars had been ground beneath the heel of her armies' boots, Endymion would have no choice but to accept her advances and see her worthiness as far above that of the young princess.
In the end it had only taken half of her massive host, Mars had not been expecting an attack or to be outnumbered by such a large factor, when her troops flooded the small planet and even though they had responded magnificently they had not managed to regain the initiative her ambush had stolen so effectively. Standing triumphant over the ruins of Mars she had confronted Prince Endymion, oh how bitter his words had been.
"Do you think that this monstrous action would earn my love or my loyalty, you have been twisted by that spirit you rely upon to give you power. I will be forever bound to the young princess nothing you do will alter that, especially such a heinous act."
Once again she had foolishly listened to Metalia's council, giving in to the rage she felt at his words. If the destruction of the warlike mars had not proven her worth then she would leave nothing of the kingdom behind, for surely once Serenity's power had been shattered he would have no alternative but to turn to her. She had always been envious of the Princesses power anyway and with Mars destroyed she had never felt more superior. Beryl alone would hold the power for life and death in the solar system and perhaps the galaxy.
It had been deceptively easy to crush the Senshi – Serenity's warrior guardians and their people. There had been few survivors and with the damage she had done to the colonies it was doubtful that the survivors would be able to hold off the inevitable climate changes which would turn the once habitable planets into wastelands. Beryl could not understand how the rulers of the lesser planets could bend knee to Serenity in the first place but with the help of Metalia she had ended their continued humiliation.
Her blitzkrieg attacks had led her forces to the gates of the moon palace itself, all of Serenity's cohorts had been killed and she had been looking forward to humbling the once powerful ruler in her own thrown room. For all of the rumors of her technological and magical might she had seen very little of it, even to save her own kingdom.
The rumors that Pluto held an artifact that could manipulate time proved to be an exaggeration just like the moon kingdoms perceived greatness. She had seen no evidence or emergence of war winning magical or technological interference, from Pluto or anywhere else. Pluto remained as barren as it always had, devoid of life or artifacts.
Still for all of her confidence and superiority she had ultimately underestimated the moon Queen. Even at the cost of Serenity's life she had been banished to this strange place. Forcing Metalia into hibernation for the duration, no life energy existed in this place and she was not willing to sacrifice what remained of her armies.
But even with all knowledge of their respective kingdoms having vanished from the hearts and minds of the people generations from when Beryl had invaded the Moon Kingdom, her drive for vengeance had been consistently thwarted. Somehow a group of school girls had found the Ginzuishou and taken it upon themselves to oppose her with their sickeningly sweet ideals, ideals which age, experience and Metalia had long since ripped out of her.
Oh she knew well that Metalia had manipulated her but they both gained enough from each other for the relationship to continue. Her only real worry was if she lost control over events enough for Metalia to dominate her. If that happened, the dread power was more likely to destroy the earth and all life on it than help her rule over it. Still, for the hundred years that Metalia had been hibernating Beryl had not been idle, now if only she could deal with those schoolgirls then she would rest easier.
For all their successes against her troops however it was the mysterious third party she was really concerned about. She had only felt slight brushes and probes into her business, but enough to know that someone or something powerful was out there and whoever it was found the struggle for dominance beneath their notice.
Why else would they not choose a side in the struggle for dominance and fight in the hope of finding favor with the victor? No, once she had dealt with scouts she would confront the power with Metalia and defeat them much like she had Serenity. She had plans for those girl scouts, her string of defeats were starting to frustrate her.
Nabiki looked curiously at Ranma and his older companion, Ranma and his father were both staying in their home for the foreseeable future and the woman never left Ranma's side, meaning she would most likely be staying for an extended period as well. It seemed strange that she only knew the boy her father was so set on for her or her sisters marrying through his father. Except for a brief appearance at lunch yesterday she had not seen any trace of him around the dojo. It was like he had business in Tokyo but Genma claimed that they had newly come to this area. Was he avoiding them? Did he even know about the engagement arrangement?
He had left so abruptly after having blatantly ignored any questions at mealtime that she had been unable to arrange a trace. His companion was even smoother at deflecting questions than he was, despite being grilled she was no nearer to knowing either of them. Sure his father had filled them in on background, skills and personality but even he admitted there was a lot he didn't know about his son and his activities. After all, Ranma had apparently spent a lot of time learning from other masters away from his father.
When he had suddenly and unexpectedly popped up this morning his father had been ready, sternly telling him that he would be attending the same school as Akane and her. All of them had been waiting for an objection, his distaste for anything non-martial was well established by his father the night before. He seemed from his fathers descriptions to all intensive purposes little better than an ignorant jock with his skills in martial arts adding to his overweening arrogance, Genma had tried to put Ranma in the best light but Nabiki was very good at reading between the lines. Yet Ranma just smiled, accepted the bag thrust at him and followed Nabiki out the door, Ehri as always shadowed him wherever he went.
"Mind telling me why you look so pleased going to school Ranma? I thought you hated school," it was true. Ranma was walking with relaxed gait and a pleased smile on his face and a distracted look in his eye as if he was thinking about something else. Nabiki glanced suspiciously at Ehri, his behavior didn't seem to match anything that Genma had told them about his son, was she responsible? What exactly was there relationship? She had to do this quick, they were already nearing Furikan and she needed information that was best gleaned from Ranma. What he said and what he didn't say would tell her a lot, almost as much as how he said it.
"Oh nothing that really concerns you or you family Nabiki, I wouldn't worry yourself." His relaxed manner was contagious, she found herself relaxing in turn and she almost left it at that, implicitly trusting him before her suspicious nature reasserted itself. How would he know what concerned her or her family? He knew even less about them than they knew about him.
"Really Saotome?" She replied archly, "and how would you know that." Nabiki had to suppress her amusement at the way Ehri's face stiffened, obviously biting off a retort. What was their relationship; it was a question that intrigued her. Ehri's response indicated…
"Nabiki, I understand that you just want to know who I am, who my father is and who Ehri is. We are imposing on your family and it is only fair that you know our intentions and how they will affect your family." Nabiki blinked at the hypnotic quality to his honey rich voice, Ranma had obviously done this before.
Only her own quick wit and experience in judging, reading and dealing with people allowed her to keep up with the silver tongued boy. There was little question that he was easily leading the conversation; it was an odd experience to have had the tables turned so easily. Where she would have relied on blackmail and wit, Ranma it seamed made exquisite use of body language and tone.
Genma had insinuated that he was a martial arts jock, the experienced diplomat she saw before her was not compatible with that image. Her confusion and doubt must have been easily readable on her face, further confirming that Ranma was an old hand at dealing with even more experienced manipulators than she. Nabiki had intended on their way to school to rope him into giving more information than he may have wanted to provide and now she almost felt that she would answer any question that he asked, it was very vexing but she couldn't seem to concentrate enough to gather her thoughts and defenses. "I will of course answer any questions after school but we have reached Furikan so it will have to wait."
His relaxed and measured pace never changed as the school walls appeared before them effectively ending their exchange, for which Nabiki was grateful. It was clear that Ranma was far more than she expected and their next exchange would need to be planned methodologically.
Today she had been unprepared for his smooth tongue and superior manner, next time she would not be. From what she had seen of Genma he would have been an easy mark to his son's mechanizations. Any information about his son from that particular source would need to be examined carefully and probably disregarded, he was not the reliable and independent source of information she hoped he would be.
Putting Ranma out of her mind she prepared for her dealings at school, they at least would let her regain some of the confidence she had lost by being soundly defeated in her own game by a martial arts jock. It surprised her then when Ranma shoved her into his companion roughly and jumped in front of the student body.
"Ehri," where his voice and manner were once relaxed and smooth it was now rich and commanding. His bearing matched the change as she was manhandled away from him. The sound of the crumbling stone wall which bordered the school combined with the shredding of the old oak which celebrated its founding, quickly changed her mind about objecting to Ranma's rough behavior followed by his companion's man handling.
All around him the ground exploded revealing small craters. His quick action had no doubt saved some deaths among the students early to arrive, even so Ranma had not escaped totally unscathed – blood adorned a side where something had viciously ripped through his shirt. Even so, Ranma showed no sign of pain or discomfort as he faced the horribly scared and heavily muscled young man who stalked out of the debris.
"Ranma, because of you I've seen Hell!" Nabiki shuddered knowing that she would have nightmares of that voice for weeks.
