Escaping the Inescapable (Re-Written)

by Studdevil

Honor the Passed (Part 1)

The young man slowly stood up. His jet black hair was drenched and his body was dripping with warm water. Each drop rolled down his body and flung off onto the ground, shattering the silence between him and the others. All eyes were on him, and him alone.

Embarrassment. Sadness. Shock. Awkwardness. Pain. Betrayal.

Betrayal..

After a minute the silence slowly became unnerving; his enemy stood up. The pigtailed boy looked over at the lost boy, then at the shocked girl, wondering what was going through her mind.

The boy fumbled with his the Chinese belt, undoing the gold clasp. "Here, Ryoga." Ranma said, holding out his removed pants. The boy slowly looked up at his enemy.

"Maybe he isn't my enemy.." He grabbed the silk pants lightly and put them on.

"These look just like pants anyways, right Akane?" Ranma asked, pointing down to his boxers. They reached his knees so he figured he'd be fine. "Akane..?" She was still sitting on the floor staring into his eyes, searching. Ryoga gulped. It was the look that made you feel all unsure of yourself inside. Like she was studying every detail of you. Studying your every movements to use them against you.

Even though he didn't want to hear Akane yell at him, and he was sure she would, he stepped forward to the bars. Still looking at the ground he bent his legs a tad. He sprung them up catapulting himself into the dark air, and began to come down. He extended his index finger forward and pointed it straight down.

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" He screamed as his finger made impact with the solid rock ground beneath him. The moment he touched the ground, it shook and exploded, sending pieces of rock all across the room. A rather large one flew at the cage across the room and woke up the sleeping Guide.

The bars also exploded but it was to the degree where the people inside all were screaming out in pain as they bounced off of them.

"Nice Ryoga. I wonder what those bars are made of anyways.. I couldn't break through them, eh Akane?"

It was obvious that he Ranma was trying to lighten up the mood, unfortunately it wasn't working. He could see why Akane wasn't responding. "Maybe if she wasn't so thick headed she woulda figured it out a long time ago."

A huge hole was blasted in the cage and at least one foot deep trench into the littered floor allowing Ranma and Akane to crawl out of their prison. Now standing up at eye level once again, the deathly silence continued.

Ryoga gulped and then took a small step to the silent girl, who was still searching through him trying to understand what it all meant. "Listen, Akane.." Ryoga started. "I wanted to.. I needed.. I'm so--"

Smack.

She landed a strong slap straight across his sweating face. The boy still stood there frozen, inhaling the pain forming on his face. The slap hurt. But more emotionally to him, for nothing hurts him too much anymore physically. The one he loved. The one that he wished would love him back. The one he wandered across the whole earth to find, just slapped him.

He continued to look straight into her eyes. She returned it. He couldn't sense how she was feeling, or what was going to happen. He braced himself for her to hit him again, but to his horror a small tear welled up in her eye and slowly trailed down her smooth cheek.

"Akane..." Ryoga tried again. "Please don't.. Don't cry." Ryoga begged, horrified at the sight.

"Ryoga. I trusted you.. I thought... I didn't think you, of all people would.. Betray me like this. You.. You perverted, sick, freak.." Akane said, filled with hate and disgust.

Ranma looked at the two standing in front of them. "Man, I should stay outta this." He looked at Ryoga. He sensed nothing inside of him.

Nothing living.

"I can't believe you would take advantage of me like this. Tricking me! I.. I never want to talk to you again!" Akane averted her eyes. It was like he wasn't even worth her gaze.

That did it. He had been trying his best not to cry, but seeing the one he loved so much talk to him in that way was just too much to handle. A tear left his eye, which he didn't even bother to wipe away.

"Akane. Please don't say that." Ranma finally had to step in. "You know Ryoga would never want to hurt you. Think of how many times he's helped me save ya, or been there for ya.." Akane turned her head and met his eyes. Her eyes were unnerving to look at. It wasn't hate.

"..." Akane was silent.

"Guys, we need to get outta here. Someone must've heard us by now." Ranma announced.

They slowly nodded and hurried around trying to help. Ryoga did the same to the other cage on the opposite side of the room and freed the others.

"Stupid kitchen wrecker girl mad at Ranma again?" Asked the cute amazon as she tackled Ranma sending them both flying onto the ground. It didn't make the mood any better.

"Shampoo! Stop that! Get offa me!" Ranma looked over to Akane, expecting her to be stomping over coming to kill him. She didn't. She stood still, not even facing him. "She doesn't...care..?"

After waking up the guide from Jusenkyo once again, the crew started looking for a way out. There was nothing in the room that could help them whatsoever.

"A burnt out fire, nope. Stupid old rug, nope. Water, HELL NO." "Guys. We're going out the front door." Ranma assessed.

All eyes turned to him and looked at him like he was crazy. "You all have a better idea?"

"Who cares.. We're all gonna die anyways, just like everyone else.." All eyes shifted to Akane and widened.

"Umm.. Akane? Are ya feeling all right..?"

"Pervert girl have strange sense of humor." Shampoo said aloud.

Ranma took a step towards Akane but froze when he felt incredible energy coming from her.

"Stay away from me Ranma!"Akane screamed. "Get back or I'll-- I'll.." "What's wrong with me? Why do I feel all weird?" The young girl fell to her knees and began to softly cry.

Ranma's eye twitched a few times. "S-stay a-away from y-you..?" His face looked hurt for a moment but he covered it up with confusion. "Are you... What'd I do to ya!" He blurted out loudly, surprising the whole room. "Man she's uncute!"

"What do you mean what did you do!" She was now gazing straight into his eyes. "You'd think that if someone was--"

A few thumping sounds came from above the crew and they all looked up. "Now might be a good time to get out of here, before they come and get us." The guide pointed out quietly.

Ranma took one look at Akane, but she was ignoring him with her arms crossed facing the other way.

"Grr.. Ok, let's go." Ranma motioned to the staircase at the side of the room that twisted up to the door. The all slowly made their way up the stone steps to the door. It was large but thin and also made of a thick gray stone. It had no handle and it looked like it would just push open.

Ranma slowly cracked it open. "Geez this thing must weigh a ton, maybe as much as Akane." He snickered at his joke and kept pushing it. It was open a good foot now and he peeked his head out and looked around. No one in sight. "That's good." There were doors lined across the wall their door was on and they all looked identical. There must have been at least ten, and if they were all prison rooms like the one they had been in then the whole castle must be huge, Ranma thought.

"Coast is clear guys, still be quiet though. Let's check all these doors and see if anyone else is left." They all made their way into the long hallway and stood in the center.

"I'll take the ones down on that end, Ryoga, you take the ones on that side" he said as he pointed, receiving a slow nod from the other boy. "Shampoo, you take the ones in the middle, and Akane.. You.. You can go with Shampoo."

"No want to be with pervert girl, I go with you Ranma." Shampoo argued.

"No Shampoo." He shook his head and looked at Ryoga and knew he wouldn't want to be paired with him. "Akane'll go with me and and Jusenkyo guide... Do you even have a name?"

"Just call me Mitchell." He replied with a serious, but goofy look in his face.

"So your name is Mitchell..?" Ranma asked in a confused tone.

"No, but I like that name." Ranma rolled his eyes and turned more serious.

"I'm not calling you Mitchell if it isn't your name!" The guide thought for a second and answered him again.

"Then call me Jordan." He smiled again.

"No!"

"Fine then, picky boy. Call me MJ." Ranma clenched his fists but gave up.

"Fine, MJ. You wait outside my doors and let me know if anyone comes, ok?"

"Yeah yeah.."

"Okay everyone, let's do it. If you find anyone, come find Ryoga and he'll get them out."

Everyone nodded their heads and left to there assigned rooms on their recovery mission. Ranma and Akane headed down the hall quietly and made it to their first door. He waited for Akane to catch up and he slowly slid the heavy door forwards and walked in.

They headed down a spiraling staircase and walked down rows of dark cages, carefully looking in each one. It looked pretty deserted and everything was silent.

"Anyone in here?" Ranma asked loud enough for someone to hear him. No answer. "Nope, I guess no one's here, lets go to the next one, okay Akane?"

They turned. "Akane..? Why're you mad at me?" Ranma asked.

The girl looked up at him like he was mentally disabled. "You knew about Ryoga and you never told me."

"I tried to.." He countered.

"But you never told me anything, I had no clue he had a Jusenkyo curse! I just thought that since we're well.. You know.. That you would have told me about something like this, I mean.. I don't know what to do, whether to feel sorry for Ryoga, or kill him. You won't believe how many things he saw that he shouldn't have seen.."

Ranma stopped walking and he looked at the ground,"Heh.. That's more than I needed to know Akane." The girl's jaw dropped and she stared at him evilly.

"That's not what I meant you pervert!" She yelled at him and promptly hit him on the head. They both resumed walking but at a quicker pace. Once out the heavy stone door they looked down the hall and everything seemed fine. "MJ" was still on guard, Shampoo had just entered another door to check out the next room. The two teenagers quietly and briskly walked to their next door on the side of the one they had just exited. Ranma used his muscles and push the heavy stone door open and let Akane walk in.

The room looked the same as all the other rooms they had been in. There were wooden crates stacked all around the large room. There was a very dim light coming from a dying candle in the center of the room. As they continued down the center of the room, they smelt something. It was a faint smell, but definitely noticeable and different from the previous rooms.

As the two got closer to the end of the hall, the smell intensified. Akane put her hand over her nose and mouth, not wanting to breathe it in. It wasn't that bad, but after being in the same place for so long, any new smell felt weird and gross. Especially the one they were inhaling.

Akane looked down at the ground and saw that there were little black things on the floor. They looked like dried up petals from a flower but they were thrown all over the ground. They were almost at the end of the pathway in between the bars of the prisons they heard a small noise from the back of the room. Ranma reached down and picked up the lamp that lay on the ground and slowly held it out in front of them. The smell was horrible now and neither wanted to continue, but they did.

"H-hello?" Akane choked out. She normally wasn't afraid of the dark, but now that she was in an unknown place she had never been it creeped her out.

Ranma asked again. "Anyone here?" They waited a minute longer. "I coulda sworn I heard something!"

A rustling sound came from the cage next to them and the teenagers quickly jumped away from the cage. Ranma quickly held up the lamp to the cage and saw two figures on the floor. One was trying to stand up, and the other one wasn't moving at all. It was just laying there.

"Who goes there! Have you vile creatures come back for me as well!" Ranma slumped. "Your kidding me.."

"That you Kuno?" Ranma asked, hoping it would be someone else.

"Saotome.." Ranma could already tell by his voice that he was shaken. He held the lamp closer to the bars and Kuno's face came into view. He had a pained expression on his face. His face was dirty, he had multiple cuts along the side of his face, and his eyes were all pink. It looked as if he had been crying.

"Kuno.. Who is..?" Akane asked quietly. His face twitched a little and he looked down. There were puddles of blood they hadn't noticed before drooling out from in between the thick bars.

"It was my sister." He said. Akane's eyes widened.

"We need to get her out, she could die from blood loss!" Akane said quickly, trying to help.

Kuno shook his head. "It's too late, she hasn't spoken for hours. I-I don't th-think she is.." He trailed off, not needing to finish.

"Kuno.. I'm so.. Sorry.." Akane said to the poor boy. Ranma just listened and nodded. He felt a little bad for Kuno, but could care less for Kodachi. She had poisoned him, chased him, and tried to feed him to her pet alligator countless times. What would he miss? It still was a little sad, even for Ranma.

"I'll go get Ryoga. Stay here with him Akane." Ranma said, and with a nod from Akane, he ran back down the stone path and through the heavy door.

Ranma looked down the long hallway and made sure "MJ" was still keeping a lookout for any Surota. The guide had sat down, crisscrossed his feet and looked to be dozing off on the floor. Ranma quickly walked over to him and gave him a quick kick in the side. His head shot straight up and he quickly got to his feet. He wobbled a little but still stood straight. "Don't even think about falling asleep again" Ranma growled, "Do you want us to get killed?" 'MJ' shook his head and Ranma glared but kept going.

"Wait boy. Did you find anyone?" The guide asked.

"Yeah. We found two. One's dead though."

"Oh.." And Ranma finally continued to get Ryoga.

"Oh, which one is Ryoga in?" Ranma asked, feeling stupid for not asking before.

"The pig boy? He was in that door I think." And pointed to the stone door four doors down.

"Thanks" Ranma quietly called as he ran down the long hallway.

Ranma pushed the door forward. "What were we thinking? There's no way they could of heard of through one of these!"

He quickly walked through and the door slowly slid back closed. "Yo, Ryoga? Ya in here?" Ranma heard someone jump then heard him call back.

"Yes. Did you find anyone?"

"Kuno's in one of the cages in another room. Kodachi is..well..gone." Ranma slowly said through his teeth.

"What! How'd she get out of the cage!"

"She didn't stupid. She's dead."

"Oh. Here, let's get Kuno out then."

To be continued in chapter 7

Studdevil