A Ranma ½ Fanfic: Nightmares of the Heart.

Written by Lucious Coulter.

Disclaimer: I, of course do not own this or I would be a very happy person.

A/N. Wow. It's been more than a year. But finally I am out of school and have all of my college work done. I have had a major writing block, but hopefully, I can get back into the gist of things. Please review, but no flames please. I appreciate advice, but no hate mail. It is pointless and does not solve any problems. If you're mad, scream into your pillow or something. Anyway, enough chit chat, on to the fic.

Chapter 5: The Caves of Hatred Part Two.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"Tin…"

"Now?"

Kel sighed in annoyance and started to massage her head as if she had a migraine.

"For the last time Tin, we have done this many times before and you know the layout of this place, why don't you tell us if we're there yet?"

Tin smiled sweetly and answered,

"Because it's much more fun to watch you pretend to be cool and not angry. Ha ha!"

Kel's eyebrow twitched.

"That's it she's going to die." She said calmly and lunged at Tin. Ranma watched in amusement as Kel angrily chased a laughing Tin around the caverns. For the past few hours he had been walking a seemingly endless hallway of rock and soil, and it was refreshing to see something that reminded him of home. A little while earlier, they had stopped to rest, and surprisingly, while Kel could create water out of thin air, Tin could make some food. He was overjoyed at first, but it soon turned to anger as he realized that Tin had put Spicy pepper into his dish, which resulted in Ranma chasing Tin around again.

"Alright you two, knock it off. I need both of you if I'm going to survive down here."

They stopped their fight, Tin's hands trying to pry of Kel's, which were around her neck.

"Yeah Kel. Get a hold of yourself" Tin smirked as Kel glared at her but released her with a huff. It was only then that Ranma realized that there were more lights coming towards them. He recognized them as the sickly green ones that had insulted him before. Tin and Kel both immediately landed on Ranma's shoulders and glared at the lights.

"Ooh! Lookie lookie everyone! It's our favorite loser!"

The room surrounded with snickers and giggles as the lights flew around Ranma's head.

"Just ignore them Ranma. They lack the intelligence to do anything better with their time. Insignificant parasites." Kel whispered in his ear.

"I didn't understand half the words that Kel told you, but these guys are just a bunch of assholes. Don't listen to them." Tin said on the other side of him. Ranma sighed and used his spirit of ice. He then proceeded to walk down the hallway, the Will-o-wisps following after.

"Hee hee! Do you think he knows she's dead? 'Whispered' one of the wisps to another.

"No, I don't think so. Oh, poor dear, it would bweak his widdle heawt. Tee hee hee!"

"Think he knows that his quest is for nothing? What an idiot! He he he!"

"What an absolute fool! What an…. Uh oh!" The wisps immediately flew off. Ranma was really trying hard not to snap, when he realized that the voices stopped.

"Why did they run away?" He asked Kel in curiosity. She was silent for a moment and then pointed straight ahead. Ranma looked, and gulped. In front of them was a black door.

Akane woke up several hours later to find that her body was free from the crystal. She looked around and found herself sitting on a bed.

"Ah so sleeping beauty awakes!" Akane whirled around to see Orion standing there in the shadows, smile ever present on his face, half of which was hidden in darkness. Akane glared at him.

"S what now! Torture? Rape? Experiments? Because I tell you know if you touch me, I will beat the crap out of you!" She snarled at him. Orion smiled and made his way over to a chair and sat down.

"Your problem Akane is that you are incapable of understanding what is going on here. Yes the Emperor might have been a bit rough when he took you here, but it is all for the good of this world and yours." This was something new. Akane looked at him suspiciously.

"Just what exactly are you talking about?" Orion's smile faded a little, as if he thought of something painful, but then brightened up.

"You see Akane, here's the deal. As you know, your world of light and this world of twilight are in danger. Recently, there have been reports of portals ripping themselves open. You may not understand how dangerous this is, but imagine the twilight world all of a sudden opening up into an 11th century community in your world? There would be disastrous effects. Why do you think in your history there are so many ancient replicas of demons and monsters in art? Because for some reason the barriers that separated the worlds are starting to thin. That is why the Empire needs you Akane." Akane stared at him blankly for a few seconds and then whispered,

"Why me? What could I possibly do to prevent this? I...I'm no one special, just an ordinary high school girl." Orion sighed and answered her in a solemn voice.

"It is because you are the daughter of Earth, Akane. You are the only one who can help" If the Emperor can harness your power, he might be able to strengthen the barriers and prevent the worlds from colliding. Because when that happens……there will be nothing left." Akane stared at him as if he had rabbits popping out of his ears.

"Daughter of Earth?! Give me a break! There is no such thing as all of this mythology crap you're saying. And even if it were possible, it wouldn't be me. Earth is the symbol of the mother, and I am not very motherly. That would be Kasumi that you're thinking about. Not me." She ended in a sad tone of voice, and Orion wondered if this Kasumi person was Akane's mother.

"She's not my mother. She's my older sister. My mother died a long time ago." Orion stared at her in surprise and Akane looked surprised as well.

"How did you know what I was thinking Akane?" Orion asked with a small smirk on his face.

"I…I don't know, it was just like…I knew…and it rang out as if you were speaking in a normal tone of voice as well" She stared at him in wonder.

"Could it really be true?" She whispered to herself.

Orion got up and exited through the door. He knew she would need some time to think to herself. But she had better not take too long. 'After all,' Orion chuckled in his head. 'She will be meeting the Emperor in person in three days.'

Ranma and the fairies slowly approached the black door.

"Tell me girls, just what do you know about the thing on the other side of this door? Ranma asked quietly. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want to talk too loud.

"Well, all I know about it is its name. Coronus. As you can probably tell it uses fire as its primary weapon." Kel stated. Ranma waited for her to go on, but she didn't.

"Well? Don't you know anything else? Like what it looks like?" He asked desperately. He remembered the giant plant he had faced in the last area, and didn't want a surprise like that again.

"The reason we don't know, is because everyone has always either died, or chickened out by this point." Tin said in an obnoxious manner.

"Will you run away as well? Or will you fight with honor and pride," Tin said her voice seeming to swell with volume and body.

"You have come this far Ranma. Are you going to wimp out now and try to run home?! Or will you stand and fight to save the person that you came here to save?! An easier question would be, do you want to live? Or do you want to win?" Tin finished her pep talk and waited for his response. It didn't take long.

"I want to win." Grim determination was laced into every word as Ranma stepped forward and pushed at the door. The black gates slowly opened, and as they did, an incredible blast of hot air came toward them. Ranma braced himself for impact, but felt nothing. He opened his eyes to find Kel in front of him with her arms raised and a light blue barrier swirling around them.

"Don't worry Ranma. We got your back." Both Kel and Tin smiled and sat on either side of his shoulder as Ranma looked forward and stepped into the room.

The entire room was a large cavern like place, with bones and char marks littering the ground. Ranma stepped forward carefully and then saw something hanging from the wall. It was a man who was wrapped up in what looked like spider silk. He brushed his finger on the silk and quickly drew it back. There were blisters and burns covering his entire finger. Kel quickly touched the finger and the blisters went down.

"This isn't looking very promising." Kel stated.

"Aw leave it to me you guys! I'll punch its light out! I'll beat its brains in! I'll…"

At that moment there was a low rumbling growl from the ceiling, and something started to crawl down. It reached the ground and reared its head. It was the massive spider, Coronus. Its flesh pulsed with heat and its legs stomped holes in the ground as it came slowly toward the group. At this point, Tin was finished with her brave speech and was courageously hiding behind Ranma' head. Ranma looked at the thing with disgust just as he did before with the giant plant. Kel stared at the monster with determination set in her eyes and waited. Coronus stopped about 20 feet away and opened its one gargantuan eye and peered at them with yellow and red swirling in its depths. It then opened its mouth and hissed at them. It was soul wrenchingly evil, and its eyes shimmered with malice. Then, it attacked. It opened its mouth once again and sprayed a massive amount of silk at the group. Ranma easily dodged it, and leaped to the side of the behemoth. The silk quickly eroded through the floor, and molten metal started to flow from the spot where it hit.

"Maybe I can slide underneath it and attack its belly! That's where most things are vulnerable." Ranma stated, trying to form a battle strategy.

"No no no! You mustn't touch it!" Tin exclaimed in warning.

"Its surface body temperature it way too hot! You won't even be able to touch it without frying your hand off!" Tin yelled as they dodged another silk attack. By now, the entire floor was beginning to flood with molten metal, and Coronus was getting closer. They could see a large stinger protruding from its abdomen and was dripping with what seemed to be more molten metal.

"I can't h…hold the barrier anym…more!" Kel cried and the barrier fell, leaving them open to the brunt of the hot air emanating off of the metal. Both the fairies were exhauster, and Ranma could feel his shoes starting to bur, and that's when it came to him.

"The eye!! It's the eye!!!" And with that roaring battle cry, he leaped at the spider and punched lean through the eye. Coronus wailed and screamed, but the eye continued to leak the orange and red fluid from its eye. As it died, the ground and air began to cool, so the metal hardened and the temperature dropped. And with its final mewling and whimpering, Coronus burst into a black cloud and disappeared. And on the floor where it was, sat a black jewel. Ranma fell over exhausted ant squinted as the ceiling opened up to a beautiful blue sky.

Hey. Kel, Tin, the ceilings opened. You're finally free. Both of them awoke at once and sated at the sky. Tin had tears running down her face, and Kel had the warmest smile on.

"I almost forgot what the sky looked like…" Tin whispered through her tears.

"Over two centuries without seeing the sun." Kel said peacefully, then turned to look at Ranma.

"Nothing can ever express the amount of thanks I can express to you Ranma Saotome. You have given us our lives back, and for that, we are eternally grateful."

"Yeah, thanks Ranma, you're the coolest guy I've ever met!" Tin cheered and started doing a horrible impression of air ballet. Kel sweat dropped and sighed.

"Here Ranma, let me have a look at those burns." Ranma allowed her to smooth down all of the blisters and then looked at her.

"I just wanted to say thank you as well. Both of you. If you hadn't come along, I probably wouldn't have made it."

"Probably my ass! Admit it! You would have been absolutely helpless without us! Ha ha ha!" Ranma glared but then smirked.

"Sometimes Tin, you just remind me so much of a Will-o-wisp," Tin swelled with anger and started chasing him around until Kel called her over. The two sat whispering for a while, with a few pinches and punches here and there, and finally flew over to hover in front of Ranma's face.

"We have talked and negotiated…" Kel frowned as Tin whispered something that sounded suspiciously like 'negotiated my ass' and then continued.

"We will follow you through your journey and give our support where we can." Ranma stared at them and then broke into a wide grin.

"Great! I was hoping that I wouldn't have to wander around this madhouse alone! Thanks you guys!" Kel smiled while Tin blushed from the praise.

"Well then guys let's go save Akane!" And with Tin and Kel sitting on his shoulders, Ranma picked up the black jewel and vanished.

In the palace of dreams, the Emperor sat at his dark throne. A goblin like creature approached him.

"My lord, the boy that you 'invited' here has just destroyed Coronus. He is now heading for plains of sadness!" The Emperor looked down on the imp like creature and spoke in his chilling voice.

"Have you told anybody else about this?" the imp fervently shook its head.

"No master, I came straight to you!" The Emperor smiled.

"Excellent" and with a wave of his hand, the imp disintegrated into a pile of dust. The Emperor looked out upon his world thoughtfully. 'Perhaps this Ranma person really will make it to my palace.' A small smile appeared on his face. 'However, that does not mean I can't have a little fun in the meantime.' He quietly chuckled and the entire palace inhabitants shivered. They knew that He was up to something, and they wanted no part in it.

A/N.

Whew! I've got a major headache from looking at this bright white screen for nearly three hours. But that is beside the point because another chapter is complete. Hopefully I won't wait another year and a half to write the next one. Please read and review. I need your comments to encourage me and your 'constructive criticism' to help me make this story better. Hopefully you liked it. I think that the character I am most pleased with right now is Tin. I just had loads of fun writing her and her little squabbles with Kel. If you haven't guessed, Tin's favorite word is 'ass' so she will be saying it a lot. Don't ask me why, I just find that it suits her character. Anyway, till next time.

Sincerely,

Lucious Coulter.