Carmilla flew across Nerima that night, observing the rangers as they slept.
The last window she past belonged to Ranma.
"Ranma, if only you were like me. I wouldn't have to destroy you like the others."
Suddenly, Ranma began to toss and turn in his sleep, eventually delivering several hard kicks to the fat panda that slept beside him.
The Panda immediately woke up and tossed Ranma out of the wind into the pond below. As the panda returned to bed, Carmilla noticed that it held a sign reading: I should start tying that boy down.
Carmilla laughed quietly to herself as she watched a confused and angry girl jump out from the pond.
"Sleep well rangers," said Carmilla as she flew away into the night.
The next morning, Akane and Ranma were sparring with each other.
Ranma easily blocked Akane's punches.
"Faster," he said.
Akane ducked down and attemped to kick Ranma's legs out from under him.
"Harder," said Ranma as she blocked Akane's kick and pushed her away.
Akane was breathing a little heavily now but she wasn't about to give up. She charged Ranma, prepairing for a jump kick.
Ranma got ready to counter when Akane quickly pulled her leg in and twisted her body around to backhand him with her fist.
However, Ranma quickly changed his stance and easily caught Akane's arm.
"Nice try. Next time do it better," said Ranma.
Akane at that point had had it with Ranma's comments.
"Shut it Ranma," she screamed. Akane quickly broke from Ranma's grip and charged him with a punch filled with all her reaming strength.
As soon as she was within centimeters of Ranma, he disappeared. Then Akane felt a strong kick to her back that sent her tumbling to the ground.
Akane looked up to see Ranma standing over her with his hand extended. She was very hesitant to take it.
"Hey, remember you wanted me to train you Tomboy. And one of the first rules of combat is, lose your temper, lose the fight."
"Or get a face full of fiery pollen. Still, you could have just told me that from the beginning," said Akane.
"It wouldn't have stuck. Sometimes you don't learn until something bad happens."
Akane nodded hating when Ranma was right. Then she took his hand and got up.
"Hey, Konatsu, can you go make a delivery," asked Ukyo as she handed Konatsu a warm to-go box.
Konatsu nodded as he took the box from Ukyo. He was only a few feet outside the door when he was run over by Shampoo's bike.
"What you doing in street," asked Shampoo.
Ukyo ran out shouting, "Hey, I know that we both run competing restaurants but I'd appreciate it if you didn't run over my only employee."
Shampoo turned away saying "Shampoo no have time to argue with Ukyo. Have delivery to make."
As she was about to speed away, a strong wind blew her off her bike.
"Where did that come from?" asked Konatsu as he got up.
Then a shadow flew over them. "It's a lovely weekend morning. Do you know where your fiancé is?"
Shampoo, Konatsu and Ukyo looked up to see the King Sphinx decending from the sky.
"But we destroyed you," said Shampoo.
"We'll I'm back and I've got a score to settle," said the Sphinx.
Shampoo, Ukyo and Konatsu quickly leapt into battle without a second thought.
As Cologne washed the dishes, she looked at the clock on the wall.
"That's strange, Shampoo should have been back by now," she said.
Mousse was there in an instant, "Please, allow me to go look for her."
"Alright fine. But put on your glasses first."
Mousse did as he was told and the first thing he saw was, "Fish jerky."
The vein on Cologne's head almost burst as she wacked Mousse over the head.
"Get going you blind fool," shouted Cologne.
Mousse hurried out only to run into Ryoga.
"Watch where you going," said Mousse.
"Hey, you ran into me," shouted Ryoga. Ryoga then checked his map, "So this isn't Akari's farm."
"Lost again I take it?"
Then a barrage of energy bolts knocked the boys off their feet.
"We meet again rangers," laughed Bones as he leapt in front of them, brandishing his rapier.
"Not his guy again," said Ryoga.
Tofu sat alone in his empty office. Cologne let him borrow the Chronicler and he was currently flipping through it. Just as turned another page, he felt the temperature in the room drop.
"Himm, I wonder what's wrong with the air-conditioning."
Tofu walked to the thermostat to see that it was currently 68 degrees in the office and getting colder. Naturally, he cranked up the heat and returned to the book. The page he left off on was a description of Mousse and Shampoo's fight against a witch who had control over the elements.
Suddenly Tofu felt a pair of cold hands on his shoulders. Quickly, he leapt forward.
"Not many people can sneak up on me like that," said Tofu.
"I'm not technically a person," said Madam Woe.
Akane and Ranma walked along the bridge, wondering where everyone was that day.
"You think they might have just decided to leave us alone?" asked Akane.
"That doesn't sound like our friends," said Ranma.
Then Niseko came running up to them, "I was just on my way to see you. What's up?"
"Just wondering where everyone is," said Akane.
"Well then, I'll join you," said Niseko as she locked arms with Akane. "Ranma, come down off the fence and join us."
"I'm fine up here," said Ranma.
"To scared to walk arm in arm with your fiancé?"
The comment caused Ranma to trip and almost fall off the fence.
"Not funny Niseko," said Ranma as he clung to the fence with a huge blush on his face.
Niseko was quick to notice that Akane was also blushing. She smiled; they were too easy to mess with.
Then out of knowhere, the demon spider appeared and spit several webs at them.
"What is that thing?" shouted Niseko as she and Akane jumped out of the way.
"Something I thought we put down," said Ranma as he jumped to the street.
"Down but not out," said the Spider.
Then Carmilla appeared beside the Spider, "And here I thought a reunion with your old friends would be a happy experience."
"Guys, do you know her?" asked Niseko.
"I wish we didn't," said Akane. "Ranma, I think we should morph."
Ranma was quick to point out, "What about Niseko?"
"We'll just explain everything to her later."
"Explain what?" asked Niseko.
Then all eight rangers unknowingly grabbed their morphers and shouted, "Sheng Xiao! Power Up!" at the same time.
"You two are pathetic," laughed Bones as he fired energy bolts at the blue and black rangers.
"Ryoga, your umbrella," shouted Mousse.
"I'm on it," said Ryoga.
Ryoga opened his umbrella and easily started to deflect the energy bolts. Then he began charging forward.
Just as Ryoga was inches away from Bones, Mousse leaped out from behind the umbrella and jump kicked the skeleton.
Or at least that was the plan.
Unfortunately, Mousse passed right through the skeleton and crashed on the ground.
Tofu had taken his fight outside so he could keep his office/house in one piece.
"If anyone can hear me, I could use some help," said Tofu into his morpher.
"What's the matter violet ranger, scared of fighting alone," laughed Madam Woe.
Then the demon flew around Tofu and transformed its head into Kasumis'.
"What is it that you're afraid of," asked the demon with Kasumi's voice.
Tofu could feel his mind slipping away.
The fake Kasumi then used Woe's control over the elements to freeze Tofu inside a block of ice.
"Too easy," laughed the demon.
"Don't suppose either of you know what's going on?" said Ukyo
The white ranger swung her spatula several times, each swing passing through the sphinx.
"I think it's an illusion Miss Ukyo," said Konatsu.
The King Sphinx laughed and then fired several fireballs as the rangers, hitting them.
"That sure feels real," said Shampoo.
Then the Sphinx split into three.
One of the Sphinxes appeared infront of Konatsu and spoke in voice that he hoped not hear again.
"What do you think you're doing Konatsu?"
The Sphinx in front of Konatsu once again split into three and changed shape. Konatsu looked on in horror at his stepmother and ugly sisters.
Meanwhile the other two sphinxes each singled out Ukyo and Shampoo. One transformed into a pair of kindergarten-aged girls while the other transformed into Pink and Link.
"This life is too good for you," said Konatsus' stepmother, Kotetsu.
"Go get our dry cleaning you useless fool," said Koeda and Kome, his stepsisters.
Then due to years of conditioning, the green ranger followed orders and ran from the fight. His fake family then transformed back into sphinxes and gave chase.
Meanwhile Pink and Link set about planting seeds.
"You still have ugly husband Shampoo," said Link.
"What husband. Shampoo not married, please," said Pink
"She probably never marry please,"
"Shampoo be all alone forever please"
"Is not true," shouted Shampoo.
Then Pink poured a bucket of water over the seeds planted. Moments later, vines burst from the ground and wrapped around the pink ranger. The twins then transformed back into the King Sphinx.
"This isn't fair, I can't hit two little girls," said Ukyo
"Still an old maid Ukyo," said one of the girls.
Then Ukyo recognized the girls as the ones who used to tease her about being dumped by Ranma.
"Her fiancé's always with another woman, it can't get any sadder than that," said the other girl.
"It's not true, Ranma loves only me," said Ukyo. The white ranger suddenly felt like she was in kindergarten again.
The girls laughed evilly as they merged once again with the King Sphinx, leaving only one.
Suddenly, a dark portal opened up beneath Ukyo and Shampoo. Dark hands emerged from in and pulled the girls into the darkness.
The King Sphinx disappeared soon after.
Ryoga and Mousse stood their ground as Bones lashed out with his sword.
"What are we gunna do," said Ryoga.
"I was hopeing you'd have a plan," said Mousse.
Then they saw Konatsu running towards them, followed by three sphinxes.
As Konatsu passed them, the Sphinxes and Bones unleashed an onslaught of fireballs at them, striking the rangers down. The Sphinx disappeared and merged with Bones soon after.
Mousse and Ryoga were the first to get up. However, Konatsu was too exhausted from running and could hardly move.
He ran towards bones, swinging his nunchucks wildly. Then the demon threw a cloud of darkness around Mousse. It was so thick, that Mousse couldn't see.
"Your weakness makes you a danger to your friends black ranger," laughed Bones. "How can you protect what you can't see?"
"Why don't you fight fair," said Ryoga as he ran over to pull Mousse out of the darkness.
"Why don't I tell Akane that you're P-Chan," said Bones with Ranma's voice.
Ryoga suddenly froze.
Then Bones appeared beside Mousse who was still trying to find his way out of the darkness. The skeleton got close and used Ranma's voice to say, "When you're gone, I'll have Shampoo all to myself."
"Leave Shampoo alone," shouted Mousse as he punched as hard as he could in the direction of the voice.
It was then that the darkness dissipated and Mousse found that he was too late to keep his fist from colliding with Ryoga, effectively knocking the blue ranger to the ground.
"I told you black ranger. Your lack of sight makes you weak and a danger," said Bones.
Then the demon unleashed a powerful wave of energy at the three rangers, knocking them out.
The dark portal opened and pulled the rangers into it.
"My mistress will be pleased," said Bones as he disappeared.
Ranma began to gather chi for his Moko Takabisha when the spider suddenly transformed into a hoard of cats.
"Oh no," muttered Akane as the cats targeted Ranma.
"Keep Ranma busy my pets. I want to handle the yellow ranger on my own," said Carmilla
The cats took off after Ranma who looked very silly running from them in ranger form.
"How did you know about Ranma's ailurophobia," shouted Akane.
"I have my ways. And these ways also helped me to find their weaknesses as well," said Carmilla.
A dark portal opened behind Carmilla and six large hands emerged, each of them holding an unconscious ranger. Madam Woe and Bones leapt out of the portal soon after.
Carmillla looked over at the two, "Good work, now come back to me."
The two demons nodded and became clouds of darkness that Carmilla reabsorbed.
"Akane, what should I be doing right now?" asked Niseko.
Akane and Carmilla had almost forgotten about her.
"What are you still doing here? You need to run," said Akane.
"But what about you?" said Niseko.
"I'll be fine, just please go before you get hurt."
"Fine, but I want a full explanation when this is over."
Then Niseko took off. Akane turned back, summoning her hammer, only to find that Carmilla was gone.
"Where are you?" asked Akane.
"Behind you," said Carmilla.
Akane quickly turned around, swinging her hammer and hitting nothing but air. Then Akane felt a presence beside her. She turned around just in time to block Carmilla's rapier.
"You're not as bad as I thought," said Carmilla.
"I could say the same thing about you," replied Akane.
Carmilla's eyes glowed and two dark fists emerged from the ground, which Akane barley avoided.
Akane countered with an uppercut that Carmilla easily blocked.
"You're no match for me yellow ranger," said Carmilla.
Then Carmilla swept Akane's legs out from under her. A pair of dark hands emerged from the ground and held Akane down.
As Akane struggled to get free, Carmilla hovered over her, "What is it that Ranma finds so special about you?
"What does that have to do with anything?" said Akane.
"I guess nothing at all. Such a shame really, I had hoped you would have put up more of a fight before I destroyed you."
Akane's heart was racing. Then she had an idea. Hopefully, the hunch she had about Carmilla was right.
"I think you're just mad because I have Ranma and you never will," said Akane.
Carmilla gasped, "How dare you. I was going to do this quick but now, you'll have to suffer."
Carmilla gathered her dark aura into the palms of her hands, forming a makeshift pair of claws.
Akane could tell she was mad.
"Hey Carmilla, lose your temper, lose the fight," taunted Akane.
"What's that supposed to mean," said Carmilla.
However, Carmilla's anger had distracted her and she wasn't able to sense a very large chi spike in time.
Suddenly, Ranma leaped out of nowhere with the swarm of cats right behind her. As the red ranger leaped over Carmilla, several large claw marks appeared on her mask.
With her concentration broken, the hands holding Akane and the other rangers disappeared, as did the swarm of cats.
"What kind of attack was that," said Carmilla.
Akane stood up with Ranma walking on all fours beside her, "A funny thing happens when Ranma's around cats too long. He goes into the nekoken state and when he's like this, he's invincible."
Ranma simply yowled as if to confirm what Akane said. Then he walked forward and stood protectively in front of Akane. Just then, the other rangers began to wake up.
"What happened?" said Tofu.
"It was like something out nightmare," said Ukyo.
"What's going on over there," said Ryoga.
The rangers looked over to see Ranma on all fours, staring down Carmilla. The demon took a large breath then dashed forward, her rapier reappearing.
Ranma quickly dodged to the side as Carmilla's sword swept across the sidewalk, leaving a large slash mark in the pavement.
Before Ranma could counter, Carmilla summoned five dark hands that sprang from the ground, trying to catch the red ranger.
Ranma hissed angrily and slashed through the hands with his ki claws like they were butter.
"Where did all this power come from," said Carmilla.
Then she looked up as the other seven rangers joined the fight.
"Haven't you people ever heard of overkill," said Carmilla as she took to the air.
However, before she could get too far, Shampoo and Ukyo leaped into the air and kicked her back down.
"No running away this time," said Shampoo.
Carmilla quickly pounded her hands on the ground and large burst of dark ki erupted from the ground, knocking the rangers away from her.
Tofu and Konatsu were the first to recover.
"Get her mask," said Konatsu.
"On it," said Tofu as he dashed forward, summoning his claws and slashing at Carmilla.
Carmilla quickly back away, avoiding the violet ranger. However, before she could counter his attacks, Konatsu leaped over him, slashing downward with his daggers.
Carmilla just barely moved out of the way in time. Quickly, she waved her hands and the spider demon appeared out of nowhere, spitting its webs at the rangers. Once the green and violet rangers were stuck to the ground, the spider disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
"How do you like my illusions rangers? They're very realistic aren't they," laughed Carmilla.
"Don't get to confident," shouted Mousse as his nunchucks wrapped around Carmillas' arms and pulled.
Carmilla was about to take to the air when Ryoga charged forward shouting, "Bakusai Tenketsu," and began to press spots on the ground. Suddenly, the ground before Ryoga erupted and hundreds of rocks flew towards Carmilla.
However, Carmilla was able to get her arms loose enough to grab the cord of Mousse's nunucks and pull the back ranger in front of her, using him as a shield against the rocks.
"What was that you were saying about overconfidence?" said Carmilla as she kicked Mousse into Ryoga.
However before Carmilla could gloat more, she had to dodge a strike from Akane's hammer.
"You people never quit do you," said Carmilla.
Akane didn't give a reply; she just kept swinging her hammer. Suddenly, a dark hand burst from the ground and grabbed Akane's legs.
"Let go," shouted Akane as she tried to get free.
Then the hand was suddenly shredded into ribbons, causing Akane to fall. She looked up to see Ranma running past her and up to Carmilla.
Carmilla quickly summoned the five fallen demons to protect her but Ranma simply swiped his ki claws a few times and the demons were gone, a large chunk of the surrounding area was shredded to pieces, and Carmilla looked as though she had just come out of a blender.
Carmilla slowly lifted her arms to attack but soon dropped them and fell down to her knees.
However as the eight rangers closed in on Carmilla, time seemed to stop.
Then a man appeared in front of Carmilla. The man's aura overflowed with darkness and each of the rangers instantly knew that this man was the Dark Warrior.
He spoke in a manner that was very condescending, "I see you failed me Carmilla. I gave you one of the masks of darkness and let you siphon my powers for weeks and all you have to show me is failure."
"I'm sorry my lord but I underestimated them," said Carmilla.
However, the Dark Warrior's attention was diverted to the charging red ranger.
However, as Ranma got closer, the dark warriors' aura became stronger.
The Dark Warrior then unsheathed one of his katanas and struck Ranma with the blunt side as Ranma swung one of his ki claws.
Time seemed to slow down for a split second. Then Ranma flew back, knocking over Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo as they each tried to catch him. Ranma fainted soon after.
"So that was the cat fist. I'm not impressed," laughed Kage. However, something caught the dark warriors' eye.
"I should destroy you all right now but alas I will allow you some more in this world. Today just doesn't feel right," said Kage. Then he turned back to Carmilla. She winced when he hit the red ranger.
"As for you Carmilla, I do believe that I promised to take something you held dear."
The dark warrior then reached for Carmillas' mask.
"No, don't," screamed Carmilla.
But naturally, the dark warrior didn't listen. He tore the mask from Carmilla's face and it fell to splinters as soon as it was removed. The dark red outfit Carmilla wore suddenly disappeared and all that was left was a girl wearing a pale kimono.
However, the face behind the mask was instantly recognized.
"Niseko," gasped Ukyo.
The rangers each looked over to see that the girl who they each befriended over the past few months was their enemy all along.
"Well, it seems as there was almost no point to that. The mask was already damaged during the fight. Just as well, I can see that its power was wasted on a witch like you."
A dark portal opened and Kage walked through it. Niseko looked back only once with a tear in her eye and followed him. Kage wasn't lying when he said he'd take something from her. Only it was not the mask, it was her friends.
Once Kage was alone in his throne room, he looked over at his shoulder. He found three small scratch marks from when he fought Ranma.
"I'm not strong enough yet. I shouldn't have been wounded at all."
Kage sat back in his throne. He would have to change his goals for the time being. Once his slaves reentered the room, he immediately commanded, "Starting now, our priorities will shift away from the rangers. Now we will make it our goal to extract the negative feelings from people. With the power I get from them, the entire world will be under my control."
"As you wish lord Kage," shouted his slaves as the bowed down.
After the battle, the other rangers decided to go home without a word. All that was left was Akane and Ranma who had now recovered from the nekoken state. The two of them sat quietly in the park discussing the day's events.
"So you're saying Carmilla was really Niseko?" asked Ranma.
Akane was wrapping a bandage around his arm. When Ranma eventually woke up after the fight, he wasn't in the best of shape. Aside from Akane wrapping up his arm, Ranma also had a small bandage across his right cheek.
"Yeah, can you believe it?" replied Akane.
Ranma pounded his good arm on the ground, "I should have known."
"Hey, it's not your fault. She deceived us all."
"The worst part of it is that in the few months we've known her, she learned so much about all of us. And I'm pretty sure that whatever she knows, the dark warrior knows too."
Akane noticed Ranma clench his fist when he mentioned the dark warrior.
"Try not to think about it too much," said Akane. She rubbed his arm trying to sooth it and before she knew it, Ranma was starting to relax.
They sat in silence for a moment until Akane noticed that the sun was beginning to go down, "We should probably head home."
When Ranma didn't answer, she looked over to find that he was asleep.
"Dummy," said Akane, smiling. In the end, she couldn't blame him, it had been a long day for everyone. She nudged him to wake up but that only made Ranma fall over towards her.
Akane looked down nervously to see that Ranma was now using her lap as a pillow. Akane's every instinct told her to shove Ranma away for being a pervert. Nevertheless, she somehow managed to fight the urge.
As Akane stroked Ranma's hair, she sighed, both of them were going to be very embarrassed once he woke up. It was then that Akane realized that she was blushing.
"You two look comfortable," said Shampoo.
"So, are you two going to stay like that all night," said Ukyo.
Akane looked up, not even seeing where the girls came from. She felt like a deer caught in the headlights. She wanted to push Ranma away and deny that anything was happening but Ranma's head suddenly felt like it was ten thousand pounds.
As Shampoo and Ukyo got ready to attack Akane's only thought was, "Why me?"