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.

To the Heavens, Chapter 7: Just... Heavenly...

Nabiki felt his forehead touch hers so she opened her eyes. And there, in front of her, was Ranma. Trying to keep her alive, even though she knew they were as good as dead. In that moment, she felt her thoughts 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, even 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 afterlife, 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.

Hearing his daughter scream, Soun Tendo looked up from the game board and turned towards the kitchen door. Using this distraction a portly bald martial artist decided to move the game pieces around since he was loosing, badly.

So far the two of them had only been playing for a few minutes, and both were rather sluggish from the amount of alcohol still in their system from last night's drinking. All morning Soun felt something terrible in his bones. He had felt like something was going to happen, and it wasn't good. So hearing Kasumi scream out, he began to worry and hope that she was just excited over something else entirely. 'It's not like Nabiki would ever get hurt…' he said mentally, but upon hearing his eldest daughter crying, even though a closed door, he made up his mind.

"Something wrong Tendo?" Genma has asked, but his request fell on deaf ears as his friend quickly stood up and literally ran to the kitchen. "Must need a drink… oh well, now to move these around a little…" he mumbled as he made sure there was no way he could lose this game.

"Kasumi?" Soun called as he almost ripped the door off its hinges. Quickly he scanned the kitchen but he did not see his daughter, but he could hear her. Stepping around a table and moving towards the counter, he saw her. "Kasumi…" he gasped out.

His firstborn daughter was on the floor leaning against the counter, her arms holding her legs tightly against her chest as she rocked back and forth crying uncontrollably. "Kasumi?"

"She… she's gone…" she muttered quietly as her voice was near non-existent.

"What?"

"She's gone daddy… she's gone…"

"Who's gone?" Soun asked though already his eyes were filling with tears. That horrible feeling he's had all morning was getting much, much worse. Stumbling towards her, he knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"She's gone! I know she is… it hurts daddy…"

"Shhh… I'm here now…" he told her, though he did wonder who the she was, he hoped it wasn't what he felt it was.

"She's gone…" Kasumi whispered. "Nabiki… she… she's gone…"

Soun felt as though what was still alive inside him had just died. "Kami no… please…" Inwardly Soun was begging the kami to take him and return his daughter. 'Please… no… not that… anything but that… I don't want to loose anyone else… please!'

After having set the game board just right, Genma waited, and waited. Then he waited some more. He could hear noises from the kitchen, but he wasn't very sure what it was. Finally able to stand mo more, he stood up and stomped towards the kitchen. Yet even he was not prepared for what he saw. Seeing father and daughter clutching each other tightly and crying was not normal. 'Kasumi… crying… this… this isn't right. She never cries,' he told himself then set about trying to get help as there was not a thing he could do in this instance. "Where is that ungrateful boy of mine?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE DOSEN"T EXIST?" Akane shouted at the top of her lungs after having listened to what Kodachi had to say.

Kodachi sighed and looked at the assembled group. Since finding out from Sasuke about Ranma this morning, she had contacted Ranma's other fiancées and the four of them were now sitting at a table in Ukyo's café. "I can't explain it any better than this…" she pointed to the birth and death certificates. "Saotome Ranma died on the day he was born." She then pointed to the paperwork showing where he was buried. "And his mother signed the paperwork to have Ranma buried. There is no adoption paperwork… there is nothing to suggest that they ever adopted a child."

"But then… who was it… who did that fat ass engage me too? Who the hell ran off with my dowry? If it's not Ranma… and it's not someone they adopted, then who the hell was it?" Ukyo was fast loosing her patience. Nevertheless, she could not argue the facts that Kodachi was pointing out.

"Shampoo too too confused…"

The others could not help but agree to that themselves. "I do not know, for all we know Genma stole him from another family, or they never filed the proper paperwork for the adoption."

"STOLE A CHILD?" Akane shouted. "I know the jerk sold Ranma several times, but you think that he kidnapped a baby from someone and has been lying to him all this time?"

"It's entirely possible. I have gone through the records that Sasuke brought to me. Several times papers were sent in to take custody of… well… Ranma, away from his father. But since Ranma did not exist, then everything was denied."

"But this doesn't make sense at all!" Ukyo told them. "Look, if the jack-ass kidnapped a boy, named him Ranma after his own son died… why in the hell did he think just putting his son's name on a wedding certificate would suddenly make everything legal?"

"I am not sure he cares about legal," Kodachi told them and massaged her forehead. Right now, she had the mother of all headaches just contemplating this mess that had been her beloved's life.

"You got that right… stealing my dowry and then leaving me on the side of the road like that… and then trying to force a total stranger on Akane like that."

"Right," Akane stated.

"I mean I know her father is stupid enough to fall for it, but…"

"HEY!"

"Look, lets face facts," The Okonomiyaki chef said tensely. "We don't know who Ranma really is, and if Ranma was never officially adopted into the Saotome Family then there is no joining of the schools, there is NO giri, and there certainly is NO DAMN ENGAGEMENT!" Breathing heavily Ukyo tried to get herself under control, as this also meant the same thing for her. If there was no Ranma, then her dowry was stolen by a con-man and she had been forced to spend the last ten years of her life trying to find someone that did not exist.

"Well if Ranma doesn't exist then…" Akane was about to say more, but she had just hit on a very sore issue.

"Don't you think I know that! I spent last night talking to my father telling him what we did know… and if he finds out that Ranma never existed… my life… the past ten years…" Tears began falling from her eyes as she felt the weight of everything settling on her. "My whole life… has been wasted…"

In the past forty-eight hours Kodachi had had one thought going through her mind. 'Things were much easier when I was insane… oh why can't I just slip back into that fantasy again?'

"Shampoo too too confused…" Out of the four girls, Shampoo actually had it the easiest. If Ranma existed, he was her husband… if he didn't and this was someone else… then he was her husband. Plain and simple. All this paperwork and other things that Kodachi was pointing out just made the young Amazon's head hurt.

Unfortunately, things did not get to go much beyond this as a phone ringing got everyone's attention. Stiffly Ukyo marched to the phone, plastering on a fake smile as she answered it.

"Hello Ukyo's…" She suddenly stopped and her smile changed to an angry scowl. "What the hell do you want?" She listened to the phone for a moment then quickly turned to Akane. "That jack-ass wants to talk to you."

"Um… ok…" Akane said and picked up the phone. Before she could ask what he needed, her eyes went wide. "What… Kasumi… I'll be right there!" Dropping the phone, the youngest Tendo ran out the door shouting. "Bye! See you later I have to get home!"

Kodachi blinked at the display. "That was odd."

"And finding out Ranma isn't who we think he is isn't odd?"

"Yeah, what she say," Shampoo seconded.

"True… but I wonder what was going on?"

Genma hung up the phone. After calling the school and finding out that Akane wasn't there, he called the only other places he could think of. Both having to do with food. Thankfully, he had found Akane on the first try after the school and he was hoping that the girl could fix what ever was wrong with his friend and Kasumi. 'I hope lunch isn't delayed…'

It didn't take long for Akane to make the run home. However, in her haste, she did not notice Ryoga... nor did she notice that she knocked him over into a puddle of water. This also meant that she missed seeing Ryoga turn into her pet P-chan.

"Bwee?" the little pig asked as it watched Akane running away at a high speed.

While Ryoga was just knocked over, there was another that received worse. Happosai, grandmaster of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts and all around pervert was enjoying himself. He would pilfer a bra or panties off a helpless pretty lady and then run away leaving behind a frustrated and annoyed string of women. That is, until he crossed Akane's path.

"Oh my head…" the aged master said as he looked up from the face shaped indentation in the hard concrete that Akane's foot had made with his face. Looking around him, he could see his silky darlings falling to the ground. His bag of stolen goods, having been knocked away from him, had flown up into the air where it had emptied its contents.

"Oh no! My silky darlings!" he cried and tried to grab them, thus failing to see the horde of angry women not only catch up to him. With his mind focused on the pilfered lingerie, he was easy prey to them as they proceeded to beat him with anything they could find. "Ouch…" he mumbled when they walked away many minutes later after having reclaimed all his stolen goods.

When Akane got home, she nearly pulled the doors off their hinges to get inside. "Kasumi!"

"Good you're here," Genma said as he tried to sound important. "Your father and sister are in the kitchen…" he blinked as she completely ignored him after that and ran into the kitchen. "Doesn't anyone respect their elders anymore?"

"Kasumi!" Akane called out as she entered the kitchen.

"Oh Akane! It's terrible!" Soun wailed.

"Nabiki…." Kasumi said weakly.

"What? What about Nabiki?"

Struggling, Kasumi told her little sister, "Something… horrible happened… I… I can feel it… it hurts…"

"No…" Akane said softly then shook her head defiantly. "No, I won't believe it. She's fine there's nothing wrong… I'll prove it!" So saying, the youngest Tendo rushed to the phone and dialed Nabiki's cell phone number. Even though the last dozen times she's tried to call her sister since she's been gone she's only received the recording that the number could not be located, Akane was going to make it work.

"Ha! It's ringing!" She crowed happily. When there was a weak, "Hello?" Akane knew Nabiki was fine. "Nabiki?"

"Yes?" Came the slow response.

"Are you ok? Everything's fine?"

"Um… yeah I'm… ok…" her sister said slowly.

"Good!" Akane said with a smile. "You sound tired, did I wake you up?"

"Um… I think so… or am I still dreaming?"

To Akane it sounded as though Nabiki was tired, and possibly confused. "Nabiki… have you slept in all morning!"

"Um…"

"Never mind! Kasumi was worried that you were hurt, I have to go tell her everything is ok, see you, bye!"

After hanging up the phone, Akane went to go calm down her sister… and her father… and tell them that Nabiki was fine. However, it wasn't until much later that Akane thought to ask Nabiki about Ranma.

"That… was weird…" Nabiki said as she stared at the cell phone in her hand while her other one held the egg.

"Um yea… so… are we dead?" Ranma asked as the two of them looked around. Under their feet were white clouds, but all they could see in any direction was clouds and sunshine. No land, no trees, no people. Just Ranma, Nabiki, her cell phone and the egg.

Nabiki did not like being confused, but she guessed that being a ghost wouldn't give her any more answers. "I… I don't know… I mean we were in there… and now we're out here…"

Moving her in his arms so that his left arm supported her legs, and his right arm her back, effectively cradling her, Ranma just looked around and tried to figure out just how they had managed to get out of the cave, and up in the clouds. "Ya know… I thought being dead meant…"

He was interrupted as the phone rang again. "Hello?" Nabiki said as she answered it.

"Boss! Are you ok? We've been trying for days to reach you!"

Placing the egg on her stomach and next to Ranma, Nabiki rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Um… now's a bad time…"

Ignoring Nabiki's comment the voice asked, "Did you run off with Ranma? He's been missing too!"

The boy in question quietly chuckled while Nabiki groaned. "I'm with him AND his mother, nothing's going on, other than we're tying to find out a little more about his past."

"You're with his mother too!"

"Yes."

"Ah… if I was all alone with someone like him I'd…"

Nabiki's eye twitched and she cut that line off quickly. "What do you want?"

"Huh? Oh… people have been wondering and rumors are starting to spread that you and Ranma ran off to get married!"

"That's just what I need…" Nabiki groaned out though she did have to admit, that for being dead, Ranma sure felt nice to be cradled against.

"I know, I told them that so far nothing has been confirmed, so… you haven't married him… have you?"

"WHAT!"

"Sorry… sorry! I'll tell them nothing has happened… see you later boss!"

She stared at her phone for several long minutes. "Ranma…"

"Yeah?"

"Either I've gone one hell of a phone…"

"Or?"

"Or we're very much alive… But how can we be here if we're alive?"

Ranma thought about it for a minute then chuckled deeply. "I forgot I could do this…"

"Forgot what?"

"It's like walkin' ya know. Once ya get used to it, it's just normal…"

"What's normal?"

"This…" So saying, Ranma began moving them around as though he were flying without wings. For a few moments the stayed above the clouds, then Ranma began his decent… taking them lower. As he did, they discovered that the clouds were just barely over the top of the mountains, just enough to obscure them from view.

After passing though the clouds, Nabiki's breath caught in her throat as she saw the land below them. She's known that Ranma was capable of amazing acrobatic feats, but to actually be carried though the air like this left her truly unable to comprehend it all.

"Hey that's mom…" Ranma said and motioned towards where his mom was kneeling by the mouth of the cave with dust billowing out from it.

"I guess there really was a cave in…" Nabiki said as he landed, though she was reluctant to slip out of his arms.

Reluctantly Ranma put Nabiki back on her feet and turned to his mom, who was crying uncontrollably at the mouth of the cave. Moving towards her, he called out, "Mom?"

"Oh Ranma it's terrible! Ranma and Nabiki… they've… been crushed in a cave in! I've lost my son for a second time!"

"But mom… I'm right here…" Ranma said, then watched as she turned around. It almost made him cry to see the pain of loss on her face. "See mom… I'm… GAH!"

Nabiki giggled slightly as the Saotome matriarch tackled the boy to the ground in a crushing hug as she wept tears of joy.

"OH MY LITTLE BOY!" She cried out in joy.

"Um Auntie…"

"OH MY LITTLE BOY! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Um… Auntie… can you let go of Ranma?"

"I'll never let go again!"

"But… Auntie… he's turning blue…"

"Huh?"

"I don't think he can breathe…"

"Oh no Ranma!" Quickly Nodoka let go of her son who collapsed on the ground trying to suck air back into his compressed lungs.

Rushing to his side, Nabiki knelt beside him when his eyes snapped open and their eyes met.

Ranma was sure he was about to die… when suddenly the pain went away. Looking up at the clouds in the sky his eyes met the concerned brown eyes of what he thought was an angel. "Cute…" he said softly as he looked at the angel, though when she blushed and he heard someone else laughing he realized he had said that out loud. "Um…"

"Shhh…" Nabiki said with a grin as she looked down on him. "Let's call it even, you saved my life, and I saved yours."

"Anytime…" Ranma said in a daze as he looked at her smiling face. Slowly he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek.

"Ranma…"

"Shhh…" he said and pulled her towards him allowing their lips to meet for the second time.

To be Continued…