Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters. This is simply a what-if situation. What if this had happened? Also, I would like to apologize to those that are waiting on me to work on "Evil Kasumi Returns" or "Ranma and the Outers" and "Primal Ranma." I am working on them, though progress is slow. Between work, friends demanding I leave the house occasionally and a multitude of unfinished works, things just keep proceeding slowly.

Also, if anyone is interested, I post my stories to Zorch's Blog-o-Rama as well as to the yahoo groups Fan Fics R Us and Anime-Fiction-ML to be pre-read and such before they are released.

And now: Heartache

Um… Mistress…" The small ninja known as Sasuke said softly as he tried to rouse Kodachi from her slumber.

"Ummm…."

"Mistress… I have the information you asked for… about Ranma…"

Instantly the slumbering Black Rose was awake. "Tell me!"

Picking himself up off the floor from where he had fallen to after her awakening, the Ninja placed several documents in front of her on the bed. "Um… I'm not sure how this is possible, but Ranma Saotome does not exist."

"Explain…" Kodachi said as she tried to read the various legal documents though she had just awakened.

"Well, this is his birth certificate, but this one is from when he died… at birth just as you stated."

"I… I see."

Pointing to another one he told her, "Yes and here is where his mother arranged for him to be buried." As he showed her this, the gymnast's eyes went wide.

"This is it; this is where we were yesterday!"

"Ah… yes and since that time there have been no adoption paperwork and according to the registers office, there is no longer a Saotome Ranma on the Saotome family register."

"This… this cannot be… then who…"

"I don't know, and the register doesn't either." He then handed her another sheet this one was the supposed wedding paperwork that Ranma's father tried to file several times, only to have it rejected. "Every time Mr. Saotome tried to file the marriage certificate of Ranma to the Tendo girl, it was rejected."

"But… the wedding… we… I mean…" Needless to say, Kodachi was beside herself with all this information.

"These certificates his father tried to push though several times, only to have it rejected. I can only guess that he thought a public wedding would make it go though…"

He did not have to say that the public wedding was a failure, as she already knew this. But to see it in writing was causing chills to go up her spine. "So there is no Ranma… so who is he?"

"I do not know mistress; do you wish me to keep looking for this information?"

"Yes… and Sasuke…"

"Yes Mistress?"

"Thanks."

He blinked at that and then smiled. "It has been an honor."

Kodachi then leaned back in her bed and decided not to go to school.

However, in another part of town, a young girl was wishing she could stay home. "But Kasumi! I don't want to go to school!"

"Oh my, but Akane, it's a school day," the eldest Tendo daughter said sounding slightly disappointed.

"I… but…" Akane stammered then sighed. "Fine… but where's Mr. Saotome?"

Kasumi blinked at the way her sister called him that. "I believe that uncle Saotome is sleeping."

"That jerk…" her insult caused Kasumi to stop what she was doing as most of Akane's insults were directed at Ranma and not his father, but before she could bring it up, the youngest Tendo continued her rant. "How could he do this to us? He had to of known about his "son"! But he tried to pass him … a total stranger … off on us like that! Just when I was starting to like the jerk… this happens!"

"Oh my, but wasn't Ranma adopted?"

That caused Akane to stop her rant and think for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air. "I don't know, but if Ranma died at birth, then why did they name … him … Ranma too?"

"Oh … Oh my … I never thought about that."

"And another thing, why does he keep telling us that Ranma is 'his' son, when Ranma is adopted?"

"I … I don't know."

Akane lost the anger that she had built up as her shoulders suddenly slumped. "I just don't know what to think anymore big-sister … I … I mean Ranma's not really Ranma… and… and what do I do now?"

Seeing her sisters shoulders begin to tremble, Kasumi moved quickly, while wrapping her arms around her little sister, she pulled the girl towards herself. However, for the life of her, she was not sure what to say about this situation.

For her part, Akane accepted the embrace and held onto her sister as her tears began to fall. There were not many times in her life when she felt this lost, and confused. The first was when she lost her mother, and then again when the Saotome's showed up. And ever since they arrived, she has felt she was on an out of control ride. Unfortunately, this has put her in an unexpected loop and she wasn't sure what she should hold onto for support.

'I'm so sorry Akane,' Kasumi thought as Akane finally let her tears fall. However, the ringing of the phone interrupted the quiet reprieve. At first Kasumi wanted to ignore the phone, but when Akane moved away, she reluctantly went to answer it.

For the youngest Tendo, she tried to get her emotions back under control as well as dry up her tears while her sister was on the phone. 'Kami this is so messed up,' she thought before letting out a tired sigh.

"Akane…"

"Yeah Kasumi," she responded before looking up to see a strange look on Kasumi's face. "What's wrong?"

"I… I just got off the phone with Kodachi…"

This gave her pause, as she had never heard of the insane gymnast ever using the phone. "And?"

"She… she asked for you to meet her at Ukyo's café this morning."

"Is she feeling alright?"

Kasumi hesitated a moment before speaking, "I don't know, but she sounded very serious."

"Her? Serious?"

"Yes, she sounded very serious."

This began to sound questionable to Akane, and right now, all she wanted to do was go somewhere private and think. "Was she laughing?"

"No, she sounded… solemn." Kasumi herself looked a little confused, but she had been asked, and asked nicely, to relay the message so she was a bit out of sorts considering who was asking this.

"That's strange… so is Kuno-baka going to be there?"

The eldest daughter tilted her head in thought, "I believe she said that he will be in school today."

"Well as long as I don't have to put up with him," Akane mumbled and got her things ready to leave.

"Oh and Akane…"

"Yes?"

Remembering that the fathers had gone out drinking hard all night, she made a hasty decision. "I will make sure that father and uncle stay away from the sake until you are ready to talk to them."

"Ok, thanks… and tell Nabiki when she comes down that I'd like to talk to her," Akane told her sister as she left quickly.

Unfortunately, she left before Kasumi could tell her that neither Ranma nor Nabiki came home last night. "Oh my, I hope she does not get too upset with them."

The Tendo's had not been the only ones to receive an early morning call. The Amazon's as well as Ukyo received one as well, and it had been Ukyo who suggested using her place as it would be unlikely that Mousse, Kuno or anyone else would look for the four of them at her restaurant. Soon enough Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane were sitting at a table in the middle of the dining area with Kodachi handing them a series of papers and explaining them.

In the mountains quite some distance from Nerima, a young mother was preparing lunch for two adventuring teens. However, ever few steps, she would stop and grin almost insanely before schooling her features and continuing with her preparations. The reason for her grin was simple. When she had awaken this morning, she had found Nabiki curled up close, and even sharing a blanket with her adopted son, and both of them were sleeping with peaceful smiles on their faces. "And once they awoke…" she said with a smile and a wistful expression on her face.

The morning and the day had been an exercise in awkwardness, at least for said teens. Waking up in each other's arms was bad enough; but having to eat breakfast, and get dressed all the while being constantly reminded of it by a winking mother was making them both too embarrassed for words.

For Ranma it was an effort to keep from blushing all the time. He'd had a wonderful nights sleep, and was not rudely awakened by being tossed out a window, or splashed with cold water, or any other ways… he had woke up feeling relaxed, refreshed, and above all comfortable. Or at least he was until he noticed Nabiki using him for a pillow.

Nabiki prided herself on being able to stay so close to the chaos that was all around Ranma and not wind up in the center of it. For a brief time she was engaged to him and after nearly being killed, she had sworn to not get that close again. And yet she was sleeping curled up against him! And the worst part was that she enjoyed it… immensely.

So waking up, and breakfast had been trying, but right now, the hardest thing was keeping her mind on what was going on around her and not freaking out. 'I'm not scared of the dark… I'm not scared of being in a cave… I'm not scared…' she kept mentally repeating as she squeezed Ranma's hand.

Meanwhile, he was regretting offering to let her hold his hand as they explored the cave he supposedly was found in. When they had approached the cave with a set of flashlights, she began to act nervous. After going only 30 feet into the cave, he noticed she was trembling, but she refused to leave. So he offered to let her hold his hand not to calm her, but to help guide her. 'Yeah right,' he said mentally. 'If I would've said here hold my hand so you'll stop being scared she would've hit me harder than Akane does.'

Looking back at the still trembling Tendo, he could not help but feel bad for even pushing her into coming into the cave with him. 'But she said she wanted to see it, and… and… I don't think I could've gone in by myself…' he finally said, at least mentally.

"H-How m-mu…" she stopped and cleared her throat. "The air's too musty in here… I had something in my throat," she stated simply though her grip seemed to tighten on his hand as if daring him to argue with her. "How much further is it?"

Ranma just smiled at her. "Not far…" he said and brought up his hand… still being held by hers and activated a scanner of some sort from the bracer. The scanner resembled a flat opaque monitor that seemed to hover before them pointing the direction to go. "I think we'll be there in the next thirty minutes or so."

"T-thirty minutes?"

Ten minutes later in the absolute darkness of the cave, Nabiki was almost plastered to his side, and not ten minutes later, she was clinging to him with both hands. "I'm not scared of the dark… I'm not scared of enclosed spaces…" she kept mumbling not realizing that in their extreme closeness and with no other sounds than their breathing and heartbeats he would have no trouble hearing her.

Not only was Ranma able to hear her, he was able to hear it as though she were shouting it at him and it made him feel horrible for bringing her into the place. 'I'm sorry…' he told her mentally. 'I didn't know you'd be scared of a cave… but I guess you've never been in one to know either,' he said mentally and wished he was not such a chicken and could actually say something to her, anything to help calm her down.

After an eternity to Nabiki, they finally found what they were looking for. A small side tunnel that had a number of the crystal shards around. "I think this is it."

"Oooo…kkk… I… I mean g-good… I…" Nabiki was almost beside herself in terror, as even facing his fiancée's was not as bad as this. Here she could see nothing, at least with them she had some control some ability to see and plan.

"It's really musty here… I'm gonna see if I can find what we came for, ok?"

"O-ok…" Nabiki said and kept shaking.

However, after several long agonizing minutes that seemed like hours, he'd made no progress. "There's too many rocks… We should leave and…"

"N-no… we're not coming back… just… just hit it with something and let's get out of here."

"Um… ok. I can hit it with my ki or something."

"J-just do it!"

Nodding quickly Ranma began using small bursts of his ki to break apart the rocks as he only had use of one hand. His other was in danger of being crushed by her still. When the rock was cleared away, Ranma saw what he was after, a large black egg that was roughly about 20 to 30 centimeters tall and almost half that wide. Reaching in for it he smiled as he pulled it out. "Alright I… oh KUSO!"

Before Nabiki had even had a chance to see the thing, something was forced into her hands a moment before she was grabbed by Ranma, and forced down on the floor. And then everything went dark followed by a loud rumbling noise. "OH KAMI! Ranma! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! Get me outta here!" Nabiki, the normally calm, collected and mercenary of Furinkan screamed as tears fell from here eyes.

For several long moments all Ranma could hear was the rumbling of rocks falling, which was almost drowned out by Nabiki's horrified screaming. And even after the rocks stopped falling, Nabiki continued to scream out for Ranma to save her. "Nabiki…. Nabiki!" He tried calling but she was too far gone in her panic. He knew she was right below him; he could feel her moving as well as feel her breath as she screamed and cried out that she didn't want to die. For Ranma he was almost panicking as well. Being in the total darkness for so long reminded him so much of his training with the neko-ken. But because Nabiki was there, he knew he had to protect her… he had to survive this. He had to… he would not let her down.

Straining to keep the rocks that had fallen from the ceiling and were now resting on his back from hurting her, he shifted the weight as much as he could so that he could touch her arm. Finally, after several minutes of not only listening to the girl whimper despite his assurances and keeping the weight on his back from crushing them, he was able to touch her hand. "Nabiki… I'm here... you're ok!" Though he neglected to tell her he was not sure for how long.

"Ranma… Ranma!" The girl shouted and clung to his arm. "Please don't let me die… please… get me outta here!"

"I will I will…" However, in the complete darkness with the rocks digging into his back his own mind was fighting to stay sane. 'I will not give in… I will not give in!' he told himself as he tried to think of something, anything to get them out of here. "Ah… Nabiki… by my leg is the flashlight," He told her and kept the strain out of his voice.

"Ok…" Slowly, she let go of his hand and let her hand travel up his arm… down his side to his leg where she strained to reach the flashlight. Upon grabbing it, she quickly turned it on and was relieved to be able to see… even if the only thing she could see was him less than an arms width between their chests. "W-what h-happened?"

He just grinned weakly. "I think when I broke that big rock, it um well…" Seeing her nod at his comment he let out a soft sigh.

"We…. We've not gonna make it… are we?"

"What?"

"We're not going to live… we… we're going to die here…" he could see the panic begin to take hold in her eyes and he had to admit he was scared too, but he was not going to give up.

"No. We're not gonna die here!"

"But… but we're going to be crushed! We're going to die!" Her eyes frantically flicked from one side of his arms to the other and all she could see other than him was rocks. They were completely covered in them and they were going to die here.

"We're… not… gonna… die…" he told her but his muscles were beginning to hurt.

"I don't wanna die! Please kami! Anyone! Save me!" Nabiki began to yell out in panic.

"Oh gods…" Ranma mumbled as the weight was becoming too much and he felt himself being forced down on her. "No… I will not…" He closed his eyes and tried to force his body to fight against the fatigue. But he soon felt her body under his.

"We're gonna die… we're gonna die!" Nabiki kept wailing especially as Ranma's body began to touch hers. She knew all that was between her and death was him, and even he could not hold up a mountain.

"Nabiki…" he groaned out. "I'll save you… I promise… I'll find a way…" he told her though their space was quickly running out.

Nabiki felt his forehead touch hers so she opened her eyes. And there, in front of here, was Ranma. Trying to keep her alive, even though she knew they were as good as dead. In that moment, she felt her mind clear and she made up her mind. If she was going to die, then she was going to do so on her terms. Tilting her head to the side, she pressed her lips to his.

Ranma's eyes snapped open as her lips touched his and he almost lost his strength. But as he looked into her eyes, he could tell she wanted this. Her eyes pleaded with his until he started to kiss back. And then the two of them closed their eyes. Just seconds later the two felt as though they were floating up towards the sky, but they did not open their eyes. If this was how they were going to go into the after life, then so be it.

In the kitchen of a small shrine not far from the two teens, Nodoka was almost done preparing lunch when panic seized her. For several long moments, she felt as though ice was flowing though her veins. "Kami no… not again…"

Dropping everything, she rushed out of the small home and ran towards the entrance of the cave.

Many miles from there, a young woman was cooking lunch for her father and his friend when she suddenly fell to her knees. "Oh my… what… Nabiki!" she suddenly shouted as she felt a weight pressing down on her heart.

To be Continued…