Chapter 8: Aftermath of Loss and Fire.

The battle ended abruptly but there was no time to celebrate. Ranma turned and ran to Soun's side as Akane quickly followed. "Old man! Hang in there!"

The sight that greeted her eyes was not one of hope. Even as Kasumi and Nadoka administered first aid it was clear Happosai had already lost too much blood from the large puncture marks across his body. He lay wrapped in bandages and blood as the last of his strength crumbled away.

Kneeling down with grief, Ranma joined his family as Happosai gasped for breath, turning to look at his successor with a brave smile.

"Had to… do something," he rasped. "Couldn't let you have all the glory."

"Old fool," Ranma muttered, distinctly aware of the taste of her own tears as they trailed down her cheek. "Thank you so much," she finished with a sob.

Happosai's mouth moved for a minute before he could summon the strength to utter words. "Please…. Remember me kindly, would you?"

"We will honor you as the master of our art for as long as we live," Soun said as all the warriors, Natsumi and Kurumi especially, nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." Happosai's small hand touched Ranma's leg. "You are a… fine successor m'boy. Be the man you want to be and make our… school even stronger." He gave a rattling cough but continued to smile. "Don't worry… about this foolish old man. It's high time I… retired anyways."

Unable to summon the words to reply, Ranma just continued to cry along with the rest of her family. She nodded, biting her lip. She thought about all the fights she and Happosai had gotten into since he'd arrived. More than anything she wanted the old lecher back. For so long she'd wanted him gone and now as he lay dying all she could think of wishing he could be healed and restored to health.

The fire continued to blaze in the background as the police and fire department showed up at last. The city's fire department brought the fire truck's hoses to bear on the scene in order to extinguish the fire raging in the dojo. The police weren't far behind and they immediately set about setting up a blockade around the house to keep the onlookers from getting too close.

A medical team rushed forward but Genma waved them off. The pair fell silent and looked down, knowing well the sound of a death rattle as Happosai closed his eyes for the last time. One of them offered up a soft prayer for the stranger's soul, bowing his head in respect.

"Soun, Genma," Happosai said as the two men leaned in close to hear his last words and wishes. "I leave you two as the head of our school… until Ranma's 18th birthday. We've had our differences, but there is no one else I would… rather trust."

"We will not fail you!" Genma vowed. "We promise."

"Then I am content," Happosai said closing his eyes for the last time. "I will live on through our school…"

So it was that the founder of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts took one last long breath and then fell silent forever more with a slight smile on his face, as if laughing at death as it claimed him.

In the background the fire fighters put out the moderate blaze, sending smoke rising high to accompany Happosai's spirit to the afterlife.

"At least he died as he would have wanted. In battle," Soun sobbed and clasped Genma's shoulder.

There was room for nothing but tears and grieving as the Saotome and Tendo families gathered around their fallen master while Ryoga, Shampoo, and the others stood a respectful distance away offering prayers and thanks to his departed spirit.

Ranma staggered over to Akane, wincing in pain as blood trickled from his chest and stomach. He'd passed up medical treatment until everyone else had been attended to. "You ok, Akane?"
Akane did not move from her sitting position though her expression showed that his words had snapped her out of whatever trance she'd been in while looking at the decimated dojo and house with a heartbreaking look that transcended physical pain. "Grandfather Happosai is gone. He died protecting me. I…" she suddenly stopped when tears threatened to spill down her cheeks anew. She took a deep, stabilizing breath. "Our wedding… everything is gone."

She looked up at him and the expression of hurt was so strong he couldn't bear to maintain her gaze. "Ranma… what do we do now?"

"We go on," he replied. "We can't let this stop us from healing and living on."

Tears burst into her eyes, falling onto the soft ground to mix with the soft grass. "I wanted to be your bride Ranma! I wanted to marry you but now the dojo's destroyed, the house is trashed and we're all too wounded and tired to think about anything but first aid. No, I'm not ok! They managed to hurt me far more than any physical attack ever could! And poor Happosai…."
Ranma slowly and gingerly dropped to his knees, pressing her head to his shoulder. "I was going to suggest we continue with the plans regardless, but I know we both don't want to remember our wedding day like this."

"There's no way now," she whispered, clinging to him. "No, not like this."

"We just need time," he soothed. "Time heals all wounds y'know?" He put two fingers under her chin and made her look up at him. "We will be married Akane, I... I do want to marry you. We'll just set up a new date is all. We've done it once before, we can do it again."
Akane turned to look at Ukyo as she cried on Ryoga's shoulder. Clearly, this ordeal was affecting her in much the same way. The Tendo's, Hibiki's, and Mr. Konji attended to their own children, offering what little aid and moral support they could. It was of little help. All their hearts had been broken and it would take time to properly heal.

"Just hold me Ranma."

It was a simple request and he did so, watching out of the corner of his eye as Happosai's body was carried off to the city morgue. He sighed and buried his face in her hair, pleading for the never ending nightmare to leave him in peace.

"Why do things like this keep happening to us Ryoga?" she whispered.

Tears found their way into Ryoga's eyes as well. He wished an answer would present itself because he had absolutely no way of answering her legitimate question. All he could do was hold onto her tightly and be thankful that she hadn't been seriously hurt in the battle

I will never forgive them!

His hand flexed into a tight fist and he found himself fervently wishing that Mint and Lime would come back…

Lime shook his head, slowly rising to his feet. He turned to Mint who was busy removing his face from the trunk of a large tree. The giant warrior clenched his fist tightly, snarling at no one in particular as he pondered the only question his mind would allow to float around his head. How, after all we've had suffered, after all the experiments, how did Ranma and his friends still come out on top? It just doesn't make sense! Where had that power come from?
He looked out at the city before him, sighing softly. That final blast of power must not have been quite as powerful as it felt, he mused. They had just barely cleared the city's outer limits.

"We may still be in business," Lime chuckled deep in his throat. "Perhaps our luck wasn't all bad after all."

Mint barked in question, turning his one good eye to gaze up at his partner.

"It isn't over Mint. If we hurry we can make it back to the dojo by late afternoon and resume the attack. They haven't beaten us yet, this is the beginning! Next time we'll be victorious! The last thing they'd expect is for us to come back!"

Mint woofed with pleasure at this development and spittle flung from his jaws. He wanted revenge for his eye and face and nothing short of a house full of corpses would suffice for payment.
"There will be no next time."
The two whirled around to see Emperor Herb walk into the clearing, black cape flapping wildly as if it he were the messenger of death. His normally bright eyes tightened with animosity. Bolts of energy zipped up and down his balled right fist and he stared at his former bodyguards as if they had become the scum of the earth.
Lime's blood went cold. Impossible! How did he track us so quickly?!

Herb brazenly walked towards the two, gesturing around him. "An odd place for a reunion, no?"

"Herb...what are you doing here?" Lime snarled in his native tongue. "Don't try to stop us from exacting revenge. We no longer serve you!"
Herb's eyes flashed dangerously "Impudent fool! You were both born in the Musk Dynasty. As such you still have to follow the rules of my land whether you are present or not. Both of you went behind my back and joined with the Communists. That is treason of the highest degree."

Lime prepared for battle. "You won't take us without a fight!"

Herb snorted and pointed at him. "Such grotesque bodies and you still failed to defeat Ranma and his friends. If you failed to defeat them, what makes you think you have a chance in hell against me?"

Herb sighed once and then the full force of his anger manifested itself. As his tone rose with fury energy started to roll off of his body in waves. "Do you two know how much you two have shamed me?! You destroyed Ranma Saotome's wedding and killed the master of his martial arts style. Your offenses are so grievous that I had to turn away from the dojo without them seeing to come handle the two of you first. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye! You both must pay for the suffering you caused! You've smeared my good name and the name of our dynasty!"

"To hell with your laws and the Musk Dynasty! You could never understand!" Lime snarled as he threw a rock shattering punch with all the speed he could muster. His attack flew true but the young emperor sidestepped the attack with graceful ease, crossing his arms crossed over his chest.
"Too slow, Lime. No matter what you've done to yourselves, neither of you will ever surpass me, Ranma, or his friends. All of your efforts were for nothing."
Mint rushed to assist his friend and dropped in low to attack his former master. Flipping backwards, Herb drove the heels of his boots into Mint's ribs, knocking the boy senseless and hurling his body into the ground. Lime pushed his fist outward, sending a torrent of orange power flowing from his hand. Herb raised his hand outward and diverted the energy to either side of his body, putting himself out of danger. He looked almost casual, as if his attack and defensive capabilities were of no consequence.
Grabbing Mint's leg, Herb threw the boy into Lime much the same as Ranma had done earlier then dove in close for a rib shattering attack on Lime's torso. The boy fell beside Mint on the ground, gurgling in in pain.

"I didn't want it to be this way." Herb stood over them, preparing a killing blow.

Mint shook his head as blood and spittle flaked from his open maw. He looked up, totally helpless and whimpering like a half starved dog as his energy sapped body refused to move.
Herb stood over them as his fist glowed with power. -You two have caused me a lot of pain, more so now then you now feel. You were truly the closest things I had to friends. We were almost brothers! But you had to crush that bond with your insane hatred over a fight one and a half years old. Fools! Every moment you live, you bring further disgrace to my empire."

Pointing his palm down toward's Mint, Herb unleashed a ki blast that vaporized the defeated boy and charred the grass underfoot. A final agonized howl trailed through the air and a moment later a breeze caught the ashes that had once been Mint and carried them off throughout the forest.

Lime opened one eye and weakly grabbed at Herb's foot. "Mint! No…."
Herb kicked his hand off. "Oh I won't kill you yet. We're going to have a conversation first. You will tell me everything that I want to know.

"I'm not going to tell you anything!" Lime snapped defiantly. "You are going to kill me anyways. So why should I cooperate?"

Herb nodded. "Oh yes, you are going to die. It is the only way to make amends for everything you've done. However how fast or slow you die depends on how well you cooperate. For example…"

A lance of energy stabbed down from Herb's finger and impaled Lime in the left side, right through his kidney. The boy howled in pain and Herb cut off the attack a moment later.

"You two would never have come up with the idea to betray me on your own. All your lives you two trained to serve as my guards. What I want to know is who convinced you to go rouge?"

Lime grit his teeth and did not answer. Herb clicked his teeth in annoyance and kicked his former guard hard in the stomach, forcing him into the air and catching him by the shirt in midair. Putting his finger against Lime's stomach, he shot out the sharp beam of energy again and cut deep into the muscle and organs.

"Arghh!" Bile and blood spewed from his mouth. This time Herb did not cut the attack off and started to slowly push the energy deeper into Lime's body.

"I'll ask again. Who is the traitor in my empire that convinced you two to turn traitor?"

He gave Lime incentive to talk by running the energy blade clear through to the other side before picking him up off the ground. "As I told you, we can do this the easy way or the painful way. It makes little difference to me."

Staring into Herb's powerful eyes, Lime had no doubt whatsoever that he was speaking the truth. The strength and power he displayed made it hard to believe that he'd been defeated less than a year ago by the Shadow Warrior. Perhaps, Lime mused as he tried to separate his mind from the pain, it was that battle that had awakened Herb's true potential.

"Alright! I'll tell you everything!" Lime said as the sharp pain grew so strong that the idea of a relatively painless and quick death was starting to look very attractive indeed.

Herb released his captive and watched dispassionately as Lime collapsed to the ground, clutching at his stomach and writhing in agony. Herb folded his arms and watched, giving the doomed warrior a chance to compose himself.

Lime's brain worked overtime as he recalled the past, trying to remember who had first approached them. He remembered the experiments and the welcoming hand of the Communist military and science corps, but try as he might, he couldn't recall who or what put the idea into his mind.

Herb was about to insert a new hole into Lime's body when suddenly the tiger-boy jerked. His eyes shot open and he looked up at Herb as all the fight fled from his body.

If Herb had been more observant he might have noticed that Lime's shadow writhed and flailed, and not in sync with his body.

"Amazons," Lime said in an unusually drawn out tone. "An Amazon agent that was working in the castle came to us and offered to help."

Herb cocked one white eyebrow. "The Amazons? I thought it was the Communists you went to for aid?"

Lime nodded as his eyes dimmed to near vacancy. "The Amazon's put us in touch with the Communists. They are building a partnership."

"To what end? Speak quickly!"

"For war," Lime moaned, thrashing on the ground like a marionette. "They brainwashed us. I only now just remembered due to…" he looked down at the hole in his gut from which blood trickled freely from.

Herb said nothing for a moment as he ran the confession through his mind. There was some validity to it, he decided. If the Amazon's had learned of the attack he'd been planning before the Shadow Warrior's attack, then it was clearly possible that they'd brainwashed and offered Mint and Lime up as guinea pigs to the Communist government in order to gain favor and support in order to land the first blow. Mint and Lime might very well have just been a distraction.

There was another very unpleasant bit of knowledge gained from the interrogation. If what Lime said was true then he and Mint had no willingly defected at all. That would make them mere pawns in a sadistic game. This line of thought made Herb feel sick to his stomach and guilty all at the same time. Neither of these sensations was welcomed.

"Who was the agent who brainwashed you two?"

Through his agonized moans, Lime gave a name. Herb wasn't familiar with the name which probably meant it was one of the Amazon defectors who'd arrived in the capitol some months before. While he wasn't entirely sold on the story it was enough for a solid investigation. If Lime was right then the offensive that had been put off would need to be reorganized with all possible speed.

Returning to himself, Herb looked down at the mortally wounded man and realized that regardless of whether he'd acted of his own volition or had been brainwashed, the only act of mercy that could yet be performed was a quick and painless death.

"Lime, I will now send you to the hereafter as a gesture of mercy. I shall try to remember the good times we had in our years of friendship. Farewell!"
Two strong beam of black energy consumed the man, incinerating his screaming body almost instantly. With his ghastly work completed, Herb turned around and walked back the way he came, back into the concealing forest and the solitude it offered. The morning wind blew away his hot tears as his form faded into the trees.
Agonized sobs followed his departure, but these sounds faded too, in time. Mint and Lime had already faded into nothing more than that of a bitter memory, one that would hopefully die in time.

Herb began his trek to the Tendo Dojo and the last bit of unfinished business.