When Patty, Spar, Nina and the Nerima Wrecking Crew arrived at Mt. Rocko, the first thing they saw were two unconscious men lying on the ground.

"Looks like Bow was here already..." Nina sighed.

"Are they members of that Joker Gang?" Akane asked.

Nina nodded. "I would recognize those bandanas everywhere, Akane! After all, they were the ones that kidnapped my little sister and wanted to make me their boss's fiancee."

Akane grimaced. She knew how it was, being engaged to someone against her own will. Well, it turned out that she fell in love with Ranma afterwards, but that wasn't the point.

"Let's be careful, though," Spar spoke up. "Bow might have taken care of the guards here, but I doubt that he did this with every single member of the gang. As a hunter, he prefers the sneaky way."

"Are you sure that this was your friend?" Ukyo asked. "Maybe Ranma... Katt broke out of there by herself... or someone else did it."

Spar exchanged a smile with the princess of Windia. "Ukyo, we have travelled with Bow for a long time, and we know the way he acts... it was him, no doubt about that."

With a shrug, Ukyo decided not to say anything else, and together with Ryoga, Akane and Shampoo, she followed their new companions into the cave.

Only shortly afterwards, they noticed a person's shadow behind a corner, cast at the wall by one of the burning torches.

"Careful now!" Nina whispered. "We don't want to inform the whole gang that we're here. Let's wait and see if he goes away first..."

Akane frowned. "That takes far too long. Ryoga, Ukyo..."

Ukyo hefted her spatula with a grin. "Right behind you, sugar!"

And when the warriors of Nerima jumped out of their hiding place, Patty raised her hand in surprise. "Wait, let's not... oh boy!"

Loud shouts of surprise could be heard around the corner, followed by the sounds of someone smacking someone else with a blunt object.

"Never mind..." Patty groaned. "Do they always take care of problems like that?"

Shampoo grinned nervously and nodded. Yes, she used to do things that way too.

When Jack heard the commotion near his hideout's entrance, he assembled his best thieves and guards in his personal cave.

"What's going on out there?" he wanted to know. "Are we under attack?"

"I think it's the Woren's friends," one of his men said. "But there are also a few warriors we have no information about.

"Crud!" Jack grumbled. "I thought we would have some time before they arrive. Okay, hold them off as good as you can, while I take the prisoner to a 'safe place'." He grinned. "THis will be part of my revenge... she will suffer even more when we kill her friends... in front of her eyes."

When Bow snuck past a few more hoodlums, he could hear the commotion as well.

"Either Nina is using her more destructive spells or Katt's old friends are much more powerful than I thought..." he mumbled.

Well, as long as they distract the guards, it would make his job much more easier.

After a while, he finally reached the chamber in which Katt was imprisoned.

She raised her head. "Bow?" she asked in surprise when she recognized her friend.

"Don't worry, Katt!" the hunter said with a reassuring smile. "I'll get you out of there in no time."

Katt crossed her arms. "Well, good luck with that! This is a magical barrier, so I doubt your infamous lock pick would be much of a help."

"Dang..." Bow muttered. "And I was looking forward to a challenge... Oh well, looks like I'll have to do this with force..."

"You can't break that barrier with force, Bow," Katt said. "I already tried it... it won't break."

Bow smiled. "Don't worry, I have an idea."

"What do you have in mind? You wanna hit it with your crossbow until it breaks?"

Bow shook his head. "No, I'm going to do... this!"

He held up his arms, seemed to concentrate and trusted them forward with a firm gesture.

A small flame appeared in his hands and flew directly at the magical cage Katt was standing in. When it hit the barrier, it fizzled and disappeared.

Katt stared at him in disbelief. "That was a Spark spell. But how...?"

Bow smirked. "I know some magic, remember? And I always wanted to try some more offensive spells, so I asked Sten to teach me. Not bad, huh?"

She shook her head with a grin. "Oh, you never cease to surprise me, you silly dog..."

He grinned back. "Well, I'll do my best, kittycat!"

And without any warning, he drew her closer and gave her a kiss.

She was surprised at first and struggled against his grip a bit. "Bow... no... not here..." she protested weakly.

He grinned sheepishly when he released her. "Sorry 'bout that... but I'm just so glad nothing happened to you. And, you know... it has been a long time since I have seen you."

She smiled. "Yeah, you're right with that. Aw heck, whatever! Do it again, I missed you too. And if some Jokers barge in, I'll just knock 'em out."

And she gave him a big hug.

She sighed as she clung to her boyfriend. Back when she was Ranma, she would have never thought it possible to fall in love with a boy, but here she was, acting like a lovesick little schoolgirl...

"Ranma?"

Her eyes opened wide when she heard that voice. She gulped when she saw Akane entering the room, followed by her other friends.

Quickly, she let go of a surprised Bow. "A-akane... I... I can explain that..."

"No need..." Akane whispered. She sniffed. "Seems you were right after all... you are not the same person I knew anymore..."

And she turned around and stormed out of the room.

"Akane!" Katt shouted. "Damn, Akane, come back!"

"I'll talk to her," Ryoga said with a sigh. "You guys hurry and get out of here." He turned to leave, but then took another look at his former rival. He chuckled. "Man, you really have changed, have you?"

When he was gone, Bow spoke up: "Um... did I do anything wrong?"

"Not you, Bow..." Katt murmured. "But I have the feeling I don't know who I am anymore..."

Without any further interruptions, the group managed to get out of the thieves' den safely. Another group of hoodlums tried to stand in their way, but Katt's stick made short work of them.

When they came out of the cave entrance and stepped back into the woods that surrounded the mountain, Katt looked around carefully.

"Doesn't look like Akane or Ryoga are around..."

"I don't think they're still in there," Ukyo said. "But Ranma... sorry, I mean, Katt... damn, this is hard getting used to..." She sighed. "Don't you think it's about time you told us what's going on here? Why did you kiss that dog?"

"Hey!" Bow protested in an annoyed voice.

"Please do not insult him, Ucchan," Katt sighed. "He is... well, how do I put this...?"

"I think we shouldn't stay here for too long," Spar spoke up. "The Jokers aren't that much of a threat, but we wouldn't want them to get after us again, do we?"

Katt nodded. "Yeah, you're right. C'mon, I'll tell you while we go back to Windia..."

"And what about your other two friends?" Patty asked.

"They can take care of themselves, I'm sure," Ukyo said.

While they were walking through the forest, Katt scratched the back of her head uncomfortably. "Well... you already know how I arrived in this world. Bleu helped me to find a job, and only a few months afterwards, Ryu appeared at the Coliseum and saved me from the ploy of the manager, Augus. I agreed to come along on his search for a thief, so his best buddy wouldn't be framed for something he didn't do."

Bow and Patty looked at each other and chuckled nervously.

"These were the events that turned me into one of the 'Dragon Heroes', as the people now call us. We travelled the world and revealed a dark conspiracy, and that the church of 'St. Eva' was actually worshipping a powerful demon called Deathevan. After Ryu's mother sacrificed herself - sorry 'bout that, Patty..."

Patty nodded sadly. "Yeah, yeah, it's alright! My Mom had to do what she thought was the right thing to do. Just go on..."

"Well, we entered the underworld where the Dragon Clan has been sealed and the demons were living. To make a long story short, we managed to track down Deathevan and defeated him. In the end, Ryu sacrificed his humanity and turned into a Kaiser Dragon to seal off the entrance to the underworld... He has been asleep ever since..."

"Okay, I think I get it," Ukyo nodded. "But what does that have to do with you kissing that guy?"

"It happened just before we decided to sneak into the Grand Church of Eva," Katt explained. "We met with a band of rebels that were planning to infiltrate the Grand Church themselves. We came to an agreement and decided to help each other out. The only problem was... their leader fell in love with me."

Shampoo sighed. She could already see where this was going...

"His name was Tiga and he was a Woren like me. I could see that his infatuation with me wasn't really true love, but he couldn't accept my 'no' as an answer... he even went as far as challenging Ryu to a duel." She giggled. "Back then, I was mentally pretty much a guy, and this whole affair reminded me too much about my own troubles back in Nerima... But, as it turned out, Tiga didn't really love me. His true love was Claris, a resistance woman that was acting as a spy within the city of Evraim, where the Grand Church was situated. He realized it after we snuck into the church... and the High Priest of St. Eva, Habaruku, was going to sacrifice her to their 'god'... Tiga apologized to me, threw off his disguise, and in the end, Habaruku killed them both."

She grimaced as the painful memories came back. "Somehow, when I witnessed that true sign of love... I couldn't bear it anymore. I wanted to save the two, but someone held me back. I turned around... and I saw none other than Bow."

The ranger nodded at that. "Yes," he continued. "I never knew that she had been a boy before coming to this world, and I believe I have been falling in love with her long before we met Tiga and the other members of the resistance for the first time. When Tiga challenged Ryu to that duel, I almost stepped in, as I felt that it should be me he had to fight for her. And when Katt stepped towards Habaruku in the church... I couldn't let her go. I was afraid she would end up just like Tiga and Claris, so I stopped her."

Katt looked at her canine boyfriend. "I wanted to pound him so badly that day, but I stopped when he made it clear that we couldn't just charge at Habaruku like that. The others agreed, we needed a plan."

"You want to tell me that just because he held you back in that moment, you fell in love with him?" Ukyo asked in disbelief.

"No, of course not!" Katt protested. "After we left the church, I explained everything to him... I saw him as a good friend, nothing else. And I was still uncomfortable with the idea of having a boyfriend. I was getting used to the idea that I had to stay a girl forever, but... the idea was still to icky for me."

"I realized I shouldn't push her into something she didn't want," Bow said. ""And I let her be, as painful as it might have been for me."

"But that wasn't the end of it, right?" Ukyo asked.

Katt shook her head with a smile. "No, of course not. Over the days, even after we defeated Deathevan himself, I realized more and more that I would never be able to get back to who I was... at least that was what I told myself. And somehow... as soon as I accepted that, it was as if my soul and heart were changing alongside my body." She chuckled. "I know, it sounds corny, but... from that day on, I saw myself as a complete female, and for some reason, I managed to convince myself that I could also feel attracted to boys... especially if they are as sweet as Bow. So I returned to him and decided to give it a try."

"I was so happy that day that I kissed her right where we stood," Bow said with a wide grin. "Right in front of our friends. And over time, we grew closer and closer."

"Right!" Katt nodded. "And now I couldn't even imagine a life without him, even if he's away on ranger duty for a long time... But this is just one of my many changes who turned me into what I am today."

"I see..." Ukyo said sadly. "You really aren't Ranma anymore..."

"Not the Ranma you knew," Katt said with a sad smile. "But you'll see that there are still quite a few things that haven't changed about me. I might not use the original 'Anything Goes' style anymore, but I managed to carry over some of my Pops' teachings to my new fighting style, so it is still 'Anything Goes'. Also quite a few of the Old Ghouls teachings are there... the speed of the Amaguriken can help me, even if I fight with a weapon instead of my fists."

Suddenly, Ukyo had to chuckle. "And I believe you still eat as fast as I know you to, huh?"

"Like a horse, I tell ya!" Bow laughed as he ruffled his girlfriend's hair.

Katt grinned and gave him a playful whack on the head. She turned to Ukyo and Shampoo. "You know, while I'm not who I used to be... I'm still 'me', see? And... while I know that both of you wanted so much more than this... could we still be friends?"

Ukyo took a deep breath. For such a long time, she had longed to see her 'Ranchan' again, and now, her wish was fulfilled... only that now, her dream of growing old with him would never be fulfilled.

"Sure, Ran... Katt-chan! I think I can live with that." She gave her childhood friend an uncertain smile.

Katt smiled back and then turned to a certain, lavender-haired Amazon. "And you, Shampoo?"

'I wonder why she didn't say anything until now,' she thought.

Shampoo's hands trembled. She already knew that her affection with Ranma was never based on love... ever since that day he vanished and Kasumi fell into her coma, she realized the bitter truth. And ever since that day, she had only pleaded for forgiveness... and that Ranma was safe.

Now she threw herself at the surprised Woren's neck and started to sob bitterly.

"Shampoo?" Kat asked in surprise and carefully stroked the distraught Amazon's back.

"C-c-can you...?" Shampoo began to stutter. "C-can you... f-forgive... Shampoo?"

Ukyo gasped. "Shampoo" You spoke!"

Katt threw her a strange look. "Yeah, why wouldn't she?"

The chef sighed. "Katt, she hasn't spoken ever since that day you vanished."

Katt stared down at the Amazon girl. "Shampoo... is that true?"

"P-p-please... forgive me..." she said as she looked up the the feline's furry face with teary eyes.

Now that she realized that Ranma was still in that female, furry body, even if she underwent quite a few changes, she finally was able to express her feeling once again.

Katt smiled and stroked her head. "Of course I do, Shampoo. Kasumi is fine, I am fine... no harm done, huh?"

"Y-yeah..." Shampoo nodded, although she still was sniffling.

Katt lifted her face so they were able to look into each other's eyes. "So, what d'ya say... friends?"

Shampoo hugged her. Not as fiercely and affectionally as her infamous Amazon Glomps, but instead a gentle hug reserved for close friends.

"Friends..." she whispered and nodded. She then let go of Katt and looked at her face. "Sh-shampoo so glad R-ranma... no... K-katt is all right."

At the same time, Akane was storming through the forest, into an entirely different direction from where her friends were going. When a tree was standing in her way, she just smashed through it's thick, wooden trunk and kept on running.

Ryoga tried his best not to lose her. "Akane!" he shouted. "Akane, please stop! You'll get lost! We don't know what's in these woods!"

"Why should I care?" Akane yelled and came to a stop all of a sudden. "Why should I care what happens to me, now that Ranma is gone?"

"Akane, don't say that," Ryoga said firmly as he stepped up to her. "You are still my friend, and I don't want to see you hurt." He wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, but he still refrained from doing so. "Don't... don't you want to come back to the others?"

"But... but Ranma..." She sobbed. "I will never see him again... I thought I could have him back... but now that I see the person I was after isn't him anymore..."

"Akane, it's all right! You don't need Ranma..."

That was the wrong thing to say.

Not even thinking of pulling out her mallet, Akane struck out in blind rage. her fist struck Ryoga right in the chin and threw him back with the force of a dozens of Shi Shi Hokodans. Ryoga flew backwards, hit one of the trees with a force that made the tree break in half, and hit the ground hardly. He barely had time to roll away as one half of the tree came crashing down on him.

"Akane, I... I'm sorry..."

"GO AWAY!" she screamed while running away. "I don't want to see any of you EVER AGAIN!!"

Ryoga got to his feet and raised a hand while he watched her run through the dark forest. "Akane..."