FINALLY!!! CHAPTER # 4 IS UP!!! Sorry it took so long for those of you who are actually reading this. I had asked my brother to write a part for me and he never did and it took forever for me to finally just do it myself. I've even finished chapter 5 and 6. I'll get them up here after I check them for the thirtieth time each. I might upload this one with a better version later.

I warn you, this chapter is kinda weird, there is a fighting scene that sucks and an ending that also sucks. Feh, doesn't matter. I'll get better as I go. Hope its good enough though. Enjoy!

000

Chapter 4

File # 4

Live in the now, with whoever you can

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with

The same weapons of reason which

Today arm you against the present

-- Marcus Aurelius

"It's coming for you."

Ranma stood there stunned. He couldn't help but stare at this odd stranger. The man had said that twice and never explained what he meant. What was coming for him? Why? Suddenly, and for no reason, Ranma felt a strong feeling of loss and despair. He felt alone. Something was missing. But what? He looked at the people beside him. Would they help him if he needed them? What was missing? He wasn't sure of them. The women, they never did do anything good for him except when they were trying to win him over like some sort of prize. Did they really love him or was it just an obsession? And the men, the only reasons they would help him was because they wanted to be the ones to defeat him or for their own gain or to attract a girl or whatever other stupid and unfair reason. Nothing else. So, why should he trust them? Akane, why should he trust her? She hated men, didn't she? So why…?

His head went blank. There was nothing. Then… images of… people… sailed through his mind. He couldn't make them out. But they were there. He felt happy. He knew them but… who were they? There were four particular unrecognizable images that made him feel… whole.

There was a loud shrieking noise from behind them. The others turned around swiftly just as the people started to panic. Ranma never noticed. He was too focused on the images that kept coming into his head. Everything else was un-existent; the world went by in slow motion all around him. The images kept coming, faster and faster making him feel dizzy. Then they suddenly stopped on a particular one. This one had movement, the image was blurry but he could make out a body dressed in green moving towards a building, he saw something that resembled towers. Maybe a castle? The figure stopped and looked around and looked at Ranma or so it felt. The face was another blur yet the person's eyes were very clear, they were a deep blue, he could see so many emotions, stories, behind them. The image changed to another also moving, this time the body that he saw was dressed in black, it was moving fast on a motorcycle, it suddenly skidded to a stop and looked up at Ranma, the face was also a blur and this time it's eyes were a light greenish blue. These eyes also had so many things going on in them. The image changed again. This time, the body that he saw wore a reddish orange outfit, its movements gave Ranma the impression of someone training. It stopped and stood there with it's face down, after a short moment, it raised it's head and looked at him. Another blurred face, eyes black, but these eyes gave a direct feeling of kindness and strength yet so many things still hid themselves in them. Yet again, the image changed. The figure was sitting still on the steps of a huge place, it was dressed completely in black but a hint of green could be seen in the front, his shirt maybe? It seemed to be thinking. Finally it looked up at Ranma. Blurred face again, half blue and half green eyes looked at him calmly while the others had looked at him in question. There was so much turmoil in them. It looked at him longer than the rest, but after a while, the eyes closed and all went white.

"Wake up."

"What?"

"Your friends need you."

The whiteness disappeared, sound started to return and time was beginning to move normally. Ranma was once again aware of everything around him. He looked up at the place where the stranger was and noticed that he wasn't there anymore. He finally paid attention to the panicked screams that were behind him and turned to look at what the commotion was about. He couldn't stop the gasp that came out of him at the sight of what was right there in front of him. He had never seen anything like it. His friends or (so he called them) were all standing there stunned staring up at a creature that seemed to have come out of someone's nightmare. It was huge, it had glossy white skin, no eyes and it's mouth was stitched shut like a scare-crow's. It had a slim body, long legs and arms, with hands finishing in long pointy fingers. On it's back it had tentacles in place of wings and it was levitating.

"What the hell is that?!" Ryouga finally asked.

"SAOTOME!!!" the creature blasted into their minds.

"I don't know." Ranma answered "But the man was right. It's coming for me.

000

Genma ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop as fast as he could toward Furinkan High. He sensed something in that direction and it was nothing good. At this hour, Ranma and the other kids were not out of school yet, so Genma knew that whatever it was, had to be looking for his son. If his suspicions of what it was were correct, then Ranma was in incredible danger.

Genma had gone outside for a walk in the morning and ended up spending hours by the lake, looking into it but not really seeing. There was something wrong, he just knew it. Someone had warned him last night with the dream and it seemed to be happening right now. He decided that his bulk was making him go too slow, so he transformed. He had to hurry or something extremely bad was about to happen.

000

"Hurry, Soun!"

"I am, I am!"

Nodoka and Soun had run out of the house a few minutes ago and started running full speed towards Ranma and Akane's school. Nodoka had sensed something horrible there and she wasn't about to just sit there idly around waiting anxiously for something to happen. She was a warrior, she had to do something! Soun, knowing very well to trust Nodoka or Genma with this sort of thing, heeded her warning and set out with her to help. Although, he wasn't sure if he was going to be of much help.

"What - do you – think - it is?" Soun panted.

"I'm not sure!" Nodoka answered from ahead. She just hoped that her husband was there to help the kids.

000

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"SHIT!"

"ow"

"HELP MEEEEE!!!"

"Owwww…..I need a band aid"

"I need… someone… to… kill… me… NOW!"

It was not looking good for the Nerima Wrecking Crew. They were all on the floor with nasty wounds and bruises. The creature had attacked right after Ranma's statement with one ugly tentacle going towards him. The rest of the 'team' reacted instantly moving to attack it just as he got out of the creatures way in his usual catlike grace. The fight had barely started and the Nerima fighters were already losing. They had tried to attack it at the same time from different sides, but the thing was extremely fast and dodged every attack easily. Since then they had been going at it for 5 minutes.

Ranma got up from his position on the floor and jumped high into the creatures face and attacked it with his Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken (A/N Roasting Chestnuts in the Fire Fist attack). It seemed impossible that something so big could move in such speed, it dodged every one of his punches without breaking a sweat (or so to speak). The creature grabbed Ranma by one of his legs and lifted him up over it's head, preparing to slam him into the ground, but it's momentum was stopped by Ukyou's spatula hitting it blade first into it's middle. The creature screeched through it's stitches and dropped Ranma. He regained himself in mid air and fell on his feet just like a cat. He looked towards Ukyou and saw, to his surprise that she wasn't rushing towards him to see if he was okay. Instead she was glaring fiercely at the creature in front of them.

Meanwhile, the creature was fending off one of Mousse's huge metal balls attached to a chain that had been heading for its head while Kuno tried to crush one of its knees with his bocken, but was kicked with an incredible force and, taking Mousse with him, was slammed into the school's wall. Then it was Shampoo's turn to attack. She went towards its middle attempting to hit it with everything she had with her Bombori, she didn't hit it, instead she went souring past it and the creature used this opportunity to use one of its knees to hit her right in the stomach. She fell to the ground and writhed choking for air. Kodachi took her place and used her gymnastic ribbons to try and tie the creature down, but as you probably guessed, it didn't work. The thing easily ripped them apart and grabbed her by the waist then threw her at Akane who had rushed over to help Shampoo. Akane screamed when Kodachi fell on her. They recovered soon enough both rubbing their sore spots.

"It's no use! It's too strong!" Kodachi said exasperated.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?!!!" Kuno yelled at his sister as he dodged another tentacle.

All the others, recovered and determined, rushed at the creature at the same time hoping to over power it. It was no use, the creature easily fended them off hitting each one real hard. It was about to do something worse to one of them when suddenly there was a blast of red light hitting it on the face, the creature screeched in pain. Ryouga took the opportunity to run towards it and send a flying kick on its face. Arguably, the most effective attack that any had given it. But it still wasn't enough. Seconds later, the creature stood from where it had been thrown and started to hover above them.

000

On the sidelines, the cloaked man stood observing the fighter's progress. He especially observed Ranma. He was interested in seeing whether his doubts of the others would affect how he fought. And indeed they did. Ranma never bothered to protect the others like he would have before. He only wanted to kill the creature, save his own skin. The man also paid close attention to Ryouga. So far, he was the only one who had done any real damage to the thing. It was to be expected from someone like him. He protected the others. Even they protected each other.

The man watched as each fighter gave their own series of attacks, none being very successful. Finally Ranma decided to use his Moko Takabisha. It did something to it but not enough. He wasn't concentrating, obviously, or he would have done some more damage. Not a good idea to get distracted while some foul creature was trying to kill him. But, oh well, what could he do about it now.

"SAOTOME!!!"

Amazing how the creature could make so much noise while not saying a word. It was annoying. He felt the urge to fight, but he knew that he couldn't considering that he wasn't actually there. Besides, this was Ranma's fight not his. The man saw how the creature lifted Ranma, Mousse and Ryouga from one leg and then slam them on the ground. Ouch. That must have hurt. Good thing they had a hard heads. The creature then turned its full attention to Mousse and Ryouga who had fallen to in the same place. Well, he had a feeling this was going to end soon.

000

Ranma got up again shaking his head to clear the dizziness, when the creature attacked with one of its tentacles, yet it seemed a little bit of an offhand attack coming from it. As Ranma dodged, he noticed from the corner of his eye the creature's true focus. It was Ryouga and Mousse. They had fallen next to each other and where unsteadily getting up, unaware that the creature was looking towards them with two pointy tentacles in their direction. It was quite evident that the two would not dodge in time and judging by the incredible feel of killing intent, they would not survive the attack. As Ranma pondered this, the creature attacked. In that moment, Ranma's world seemed to slow. He saw as the tentacles were slowly advancing on the two and how the men were still oblivious to it. He saw that the other people who were fighting had noticed this and were yelling at them to get out of the way, some had started to run towards them or at the creature itself to stop it. Ryouga and Mousse slowly raised their heads and soon their faces turned from pain to horror.

Ranma stood there looking towards the scene with a mixture of not knowing what to do and not wanting to do anything. But then it hit him. Why was he NOT doing anything, they were his friends. The fact that Mousse desperately wanted to beat him was to get Shampoo to like him instead of Ranma, and quite frankly Ranma wasn't going to complain about it. That union made better sense to him than if he ended up with her. And, besides, Mousse hadn't really been a horrible person towards him. Actually, he felt kind of sorry for Mousse with all the misery he had to go through and all those disappointments. All the others weren't that bad either when in the rare but welcomed occasions they would forget their differences and fights and just hang out. Ryouga more specifically, was one who had changed becoming more his friend. True, they still fought a bit, but Ryouga had proven many times before, that he would risk his life for him. So had Ranma.

All this went through Ranma's head in a matter of seconds. As everything went back to normal and Ryouga and Mousse were about to see their last moments on earth, Ranma moved. He moved so fast that the others didn't realize what had happened until everything had settled down. Ranma had moved towards the 'line of fire' and pushed Mousse and Ryouga out of the way as the tentacles hit him instead. They went through between his chest and stomach and had impaled him against the tree behind him. They creature didn't have time to relish in his victory, because Ranma, with his last ounce of strength, had sent a powerful Moko Takabisha towards it. The creature had screeched in pain and had fallen dead on the ground.

The others were in shock. Yet it lasted only a moment as Akane's patronizing scream brought them back to their senses. They all looked to the reason of the scream and saw the most horrible scene any had ever witnessed. There, staked in between the tree and the creatures' still inserted tentacles, with his legs dangling, was Ranma. Blood covered his chest in where he had coughed it up and more was creating a red pool under him from the horrible wounds. He was still alive, but barely, trying to breathe in some air in painful gasps. Akane was running to him and so was Ryouga who had finally reacted and got up from the floor. The others soon did the same and ran towards Ranma. The students who had been hiding inside the school, noticing the fight was over, slowly made their way outside to look at the outcome. Ryouga reached Ranma first, and knowing that if he pulled the tentacles out from him would only kill him faster, instead used one of his bandanas, turning it solid and cutting the tentacles. Ranma still had part of them through him but Ryouga was now able to get him down. The student's gasped and some of the girls screamed when they noticed Ranma. Nabiki was running to them but stopped and stared in horror when she was close enough to see. The Nerima Wrecking Crew were around Ranma panicking. Ukyou started to frantically yell for someone to call an ambulance. Kodachi started sobbing uncontrollably . Kuno was staring, face white. Shampoo started to cry. Mousse was very white in the face and looked like he was about to faint. Akane was by Ranma's side crying loudly and Ryouga was holding Ranma, eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Gome…nasai." Ranma gasped out. "I wasn't… fast... enough"

"It's alright Ranma. Everything will be alright. Okay?" Ryouga was telling him trying to remain calm but failing slightly with his voice shaking. The others stood on the sidelines not knowing what to do. "Just hold on."

"I didn't… want you… to-to…gasp… d-die." Ranma tried to explain himself.

"I…" Ryouga swallowed not knowing what to say, "Why, Ranma? Why did you…" he choked.

"Why… not? Y-you…r… my… nakama."

"Nakama?" Ryouga sobbed faintly as he said it, a lone tear fell down his cheek. "You think of me as nakama?"

"H-hai…"

"R-Ranma, w-why…." Mousse said tears finally falling.

"H-Hey… M-Mousse."

"Ranma, don't talk. Save your strength, alright? Just hang on, the ambulance will be here soon." Ryouga said just as ambulance sirens could be heard coming down the street. "See? They're coming."

"RANMA!!!" a voice screamed from the entrance. It was Nodoka with Soun running towards them. She stopped and knelt beside her son next to Akane. "Ranma! No! Oh my God!"

"Hey mom…" Ranma whispered into the silence that had engulfed them all. His eyes starting to close. "I'm sorry… I wasn't… able to… spend… more time… with you."

"NO! NO! RANMA STAY WITH US!!!" Mousse yelled.

"THE AMBULANCE IS COMING!!!" Ukyou cried out frantically.

"DON'T DIE!!!" Shampoo added.

"C'MON RANMA!" said Kuno, finally using Ranma's name for the first time.

"PLEASE!" Kodachi begged.

"Ranma…" Akane choked. "Please stay with us. Please!"

"My son…" Nodoka sobbed caressing Ranma's hair.

"C'mon boy… hold on." Soun said sadly to him.

"Ranma, please?" Ryouga said still holding him.

Ranma smiled at them with his eyes closed glad to know they cared. With his last breath he said:

"Arigatou."

000

See, told ya the ending sucked and the fighting scene is no better. Well, anyway, tell me what you think. It's definitely going to get better from now on (let's hope) The plot will slowly thicken and become more interesting. R & R will ya?