The ancient woman he called grandmother sat looking at him her eyes were sad. She said, "Taking you into my clan was my choice to make. Had I known you were in fact male before it all came to pass I would not change that choice."
He looked down at himself and she touched his shoulder, "Do not feel any less for being a male despite what our society is like and do not feel any less for being female despite what the Japanese and your father are like."
He shook his head. "That's not…it isn't what I want to say."
Cologne nodded and said, "You wish to know if you are ready to face what will come and I wish that I could come with you, but my chi is full of power for your enemies there. We know I cannot come with you and must trust that what you have learned will see you through."
Her other arm embraced the young martial artist and the ancient Amazon said, "Come back to me."
The hug ended and Ranma left the room. Shampoo stayed a few minutes more and then she too exited. The two girls nodded to each other in unspoken agreement and met the Senshi outside the restaurant in an alleyway.
Ranma shook off the memory as the group appeared in the cold desolate wastes. She turned first and then the group did as an angry yell came from the fading portal behind them. Ranma growled angrily as Herb landed on the densely packed snow and ice.
That was when the youma attacked. The battle was pitched, but she kept moving using punches and kicks as well as magical bolts to down the enemy. Shampoo was behind her with her deadly blade slicing creatures apart and the Senshi blasted away with their own powers.
Even so the young prince of the Musk dynasty tried to fight the creatures. His life drained slowly away and Ranma had to literally stand in his way so that their enemies wouldn't drain him. By the time the battle was over the Prince was barely able to stand and even then he was saying, "They must pay for this crime. They must!"
Ranma looked to the Senshi and said, "we have to send him back he's arrogant, egotistical and…"
"He's unconscious." Ranma looked to Shampoo and sighed at her proclamation. Then he looked down at the unconscious man and shrugged his shoulders.
Mercury looked at him and said, "Well we'll probably need a portal back. Why don't I stay with him and begin work on that."
Ranma nodded and said, "Shampoo keep Mercury safe." She looked to the others and said, "We'll need at least one other out here."
The Purple haired girl nodded and said, "I'll stay. The rest of you go and stop Beryl."
With that the conversation was over and the group was heading out further into the snow and towards a strange structure. It was not long before they made it inside and were once again fighting through numerous Youma.
Beryl watched from her space in Ranma's mind. The youma were amazingly powerful and deadly and yet the young man was wading through them with precision and ease. Near death talon strikes were redirected and even shoved into another Youma to kill them instead. It was the height of artistry and skill, but it hadn't quite been enough as suddenly everything was black.
She knew the body must have been knocked out, but didn't understand how. Then she reviewed her last memory again and remembered a pure white mane of hair. Kunzite it must have been his spell.
Whatever he had cast had knocked Ranma out but left Beryl conscious. The same as when the young martial artist was asleep and she noted similar images were running through Ranma's mind. She tried waking him by entering the dreams, but that did not work. She looked towards the blackness and fear of the cage and could not bring herself to open it or even get near. The fear was just too much.
She sighed softly knowing that there was a choice left to her. Take control and work from there to unravel the spell using Ranma's own mana to power it. She had done this one time and wanted it more than anything and yet she worried that taking over would be too much. It could be the first taste of power that would corrupt her.
She looked back at the cage encasing the Cat fist and its associated fear and tried again to step towards it to get closer to the black fear and darkness that held the creature. It was fear and logic that made her turn back a second time. She could wake it and it would wreak devastation on the Youma, but it was not fully sentient and it would not be able to undo the spell. Plus once exposed to it she herself would black out. Could she truly risk it?
Decision made she opened her eyes. The body was on the floor under a pile of youma and it was wet from snow and ice. It was her own body and yet as she brushed herself off she realized that the body was vastly different from what she remembered. She felt powerful and energetic and her mana stores were immense. Pushing the Youma bodies away made her realize just how much stronger she was now.
It was her original body and yet it was not. Ranma had fine turned it into a weapon. Taking her thoughts away from that she looked around the fight scene. Kunzite was dead, his body still smoldering from an attack from Mars. She continued looking and noted that Nephrite and Jupiter were both dead down the hallway each impaled on the other's blade.
She walked past the scene and began concentrating on the sleep spell inflicted on Ranma by Kunzite. It was deep and anchored in his chi she pondered it and walked at the same time. Finally coming upon another portal and Jadeite's dead body along with and unconscious Mars and Venus.
She gathered herself and stepped through. As she did she saw a large chamber with a gigantic cocoon in it. Not far from her entrance point she saw Endymion touching some type of box that Moon was holding. Suddenly the boy said, "Usagi!"
She moved closer and noticed her doppelganger using her magic to slam a rock spear into his back. Blood spilled everywhere, but somehow he had pushed Moon away. Even so the young girl was obviously unconscious. That was probably a good thing though as facing two copies of Beryl might have been too much for her anyway.
Beryl began to step towards her enemy and then she stopped and looked back at the Tiara lying on the ground next to Moon. She picked it up and the expected reaction slammed through her, but she did not cry out from the pain. She simply dropped the magical device and moved closer. The red haired woman looked back at her from her position in front of the cocoon.
She could feel Ranma beginning to wake up from the shock of Moon's Tiara and waited behind the fallen rocks as her doppelganger screeched with delight or perhaps pain, but it did not matter which really as the scream was simply a prelude for a shattering sound as the cocoon fell to pieces. The essence of Queen Metallia absorbed the body of the doppelganger Queen Beryl as she departed the cocoon and she grew even larger. That was when she noticed the other Beryl and it was also when Ranma finally got his bearings and she ceded control back to him.
Queen Metallia didn't bother with speeches or explanations she simply attacked with a wave of dark energy but Ranma easily dodged aside flinging a mana bolt into the woman with little effect. She dodged another blast and checked her communicator, but there was no signal.
Ranma moved again and got the update from Beryl, but it didn't help the female martial artist and as she dodged another blast of power she said, "Okay bad stuff happened, and now tell me how to defeat that thing."
Beryl mentally shrugged as Ranma hit Metallia with mana and chi and even her fists. None of it seemed to have the slightest effect. Even so the girl did not stop trying and dodged and moved with amazing skill and grace. They were back at the unconscious Sailor Moon when she saw it.
The gems had all been joined and the Ginzuishou was just sitting there for the use. The greatest artifact of the Moon Kingdom and she simply shivered with the temptation. She could take Ranma's body, she could hold the gem and she could remake all of reality….just like her doppelganger had done. Just like Queen Metallia was trying to do….
Ranma moved again grabbing Moon and vaulting into the air to avoid another blast. The crystal stayed in the young blond's hands as they moved and she made another decision. "Ranma you have to wake Moon and get her to take the crystal."
Ranma moved and juked as Beryl fed the words and gestures of a simple healing spell to her mentally. Ranma easily added those to her movements and soon enough Sailor Moon was awake again, but only barely.
Ranma dodged another powerful blast of power and looked at the teenage girl in her arms and said, "Look I know it's tough. People died today, people ya loved. I get it, but we don't have time here. You need to point that thing at Metallia and use it!"
Moon stuttered and said, "How…I…I don…don't know how….."
"Gods damn it!" Ranma screamed and set the girl down to focus on an offensive against Metallia despite knowing it wouldn't work. "She needs to concentrate on the crystal and pull it with her Mana. Focus on what she wants and demand that it will be done."
Ranma yelled the mental instructions across the room and was swatted aside by a giant clawed hand. Even so he flipped and shot back into the fray as looked at the blonde holding the gem and seeming to carefully follow instructions, but ignoring the danger as a blast of power nearly slammed into her.
Ranma was once again picking up the Blonde girl and shouting, "Damn it you need to dodge!"
"No…she needs to Stop, hold it up and face her." Ranma simply shook her head and said, "Try a different plan. If I stop moving she'll blast us".
The room was falling apart as Ranma dodged more blasts and gigantic clawed hands and then shot another bolt back. "What I really want is all that damn magical power she's putting out to be the same as angry chi!" Ranma called back as she dodged again.
"You have to set her down. Let her concentrate and focus on Metallia!" Ranma sighed and dropped the blonde girl off as she went back on the offensive trusting that Beryl knew what she was talking about. Even as Ranma attacked the entity looked at her and said, "Beryl you were so close at the end. You could have been in this spot instead of Kaolinite. You could have been the chosen vessel, but instead you will die."
Beryl said softly to Ranma, "Her slave…a slave to dark temptations. But, no more. Tell Sailor Moon to do it Ranma!"
Ranma called back to Sailor Moon who had finally gotten a hold of herself and said, "Moon! Now would be a good time!"
Usagi fully pulled on the power of the Ginzuishou and called out her prayer. "Please destroy her….please…bring my friends back….let us live normal lives!"
At the same time the dark creature raised a hand and this time the dark energy sphere grew to the size of a wall. Ranma was unable to dodge this time, but even so it was too late for Metallia. The cleansing power washed over her and she perished. The same healing light washed over Usagi and across Antarctica sending her and her friends home.
Ranma woke in the darkened chamber where the Battle had been…his…he mentally assessed, yes his head was on something warm and soft and a pleasant voice was saying, "Ranma what you do here? Sailor girls and Youma all disappear."
"What about Herb?" He said as he realized the soft thing he was on was Shampoo's lap.
The purple haired girl laughed lightly and said, "Gone too and everyone else. A white light came over the area and took them all away. My bracer flared up and then went black."
Beryl mentally chuckled and said to Ranma, "Yours too most likely. We created wards against the magic of the Senshi as well as Youma in them. I wouldn't have expected them to stand up against the Ginzuishou, but the spell was meant to kill dark creatures and just send the rest of you back to Japan. The bracers must have rejected the unwilling teleportation."
Ranma looked at her tribe sister and said, "Beryl says the bracelets protected us from the teleportation effect Sailor Moon created when she killed Metallia. So I guess we need to figure out how to get out of here."
Shampoo shrugged and said, "I think there's a base or something here, but how can we get there?"
As the purple haired girl was talking Ranma's eyes lit on the devices and items still left in the room. Artifacts created by Kaolinite in her quest to raise Metallia and take over the world. Those magical devices could probably fix their bracers and more….
He related the news to Shampoo and she said, "Oh well I was hoping we could go home live a happy life and never worry about Youma again."
Ranma nodded and said, "I hope so, but knowing my luck something else will turn up."
Beryl mentally sighed and said, "Can we see if there's some place to get a shower and sleep before we begin?"
Back in Tokyo Usagi and her friends were healthy and well as was the populace of the city. None of them remembering anything at all about Youma attacks and trying to live normal lives. Of course, at the same time a doctor looked to his assistant and said, "Kaolinite you seem different." The red haired woman with a charred eye simply stared back at him and said, "Oh don't worry about me doctor Tomoe it's just my eye. I had some Metallia in it, but she's gone now and I have a plan…."