Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. I own a Laptop, but frankly if you try to sue for that I'll use the Saotome secret technique.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-mama

Chapter 18

The color green filled Ranma's senses as he fought the waves of heavy, depression laden female ki to hold onto the struggling form of Ukyo. She was still growling, still spitting, but Ranma wasn't going to give up that easily.

Although the ki he was absorbing made him want to.

"Damn it Ukyo, I'm not going to loose you to the damn cat! DON'T JUST GIVE UP ON ME!" Ranma yelled over the roar of the key explosion. He fought one hand up the chef's back, pulling the struggling cat girl by her hair so he could look into her eyes.

What he saw didn't inspire him with confidence. All he saw through the windows of her soul were feral rage and hunger. He felt his heart shatter as he realized she wasn't coming back, his resistance to the depression laden ki of the terror induced state slacking. His sapphire eyes filled with a despair that he realized were mirrored in her own.

'Wait, despair?' The pigtailed warrior thought to him self through the pain of the girls exploding aura and the heavy horror that had almost shattered his heart. He knew the cat; it didn't feel anything as complicated as despair! Fear and sad, yes, but not outright despair. 'She's still in there!'

"Ukyo! Ucchan! Come on!"

The girl just snarled in return, struggling like the cat she so resembled in personality at that moment. She was unaffected by her own savagely expanding aura and it was all the Saotome Heir could do to hold her to him…he gasped as one of her ki-claws dug into his shoulder.

"There's got to be a way!" He yelled, as if to push off the affects of her own depression laden ki. That's when it hit him.

"I hope this works!" he muttered… releasing the cat girl with one arm, the other arm holding on for dear life. He groaned with the pain of moving the bleeding appendage towards his own neck.

"Ranma! No!" Colognes voice barely penetrated the barrier created by Ukyo's power unleashed. "You're a…. Male ki… Explosion!" Not a lot of information, but enough. Fortunately Ranma saw a solution…

And gave the cat girl an opening to attack him. Ukyo took it and drove her six inch claws of pure energy into the pigtailed boy's shoulders, Ranma shifting just in time to avoid loosing the use of his arms.

His right arm continued to his neck.

The left arm drove through the already damaged wooden barrier between him and the still very wet concrete.

"This is probably going to suck." Ranma-chan muttered, wrapping her legs around the other girl just as she tapped the second Yang point of his life. Right at the base of her swan like, feminine neck.

AAAAAA

Cologne gasped and grabbed hold of both Stephanie and Nadoka, her own ki aura expanding into a shield of "heavy ki" just as her ersatz Son-In-Law's aura exploded with the power she could only compare to tiny super-nova. The bubble of energy she'd formed slammed through the fences surrounding the work site and plowed deeply into a parked car before the matriarch was forced to release the powerful, and exhausting, technique.

"How'd you do that?" Stephanie demanded in shock, forgetting for the moment the drama in the construction yard.

"A thousand years of Amazon history doesn't go to waste girl. Trust me." Cologne said, groaning as she regained her feet.

Nadoka had already stood, but dared move no closer to the swirling green and blue aurora that nearly blinded her to look at. "What did he do?"

"SHE, luckily for us, released her Yang point. I don't know why though!" Cologne looked on in awe. She knew Ranma had a reason, and he was usually right when it came down the wire like this, but she didn't know WHAT he had thought of.

Then the aura's shifted colors. Green turned to a shade of red, then to pink, turning the on looker's shadows purple. Then both auras's winked out.

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" The American asked.

Ukyo's voice, quavering but audible drifted out of the rubble. "Someone… someone help… he's… bleeding…."

Stephanie and Nadoka dove through the damaged fence without hesitation, along with several braver construction workers. Cologne just stared in shock.

"A good thing…" The matriarch said softly to her self. "A very good thing."

BBBBBB

"My head feels like Ryoga drop kicked me, but I'm fine." Ranma said a few days later. "Thanks for asking."

Akane just nodded, still slightly disturbed by his unusually polite response. Cologne claimed it was a side effect from 'Son-in-law' getting in touch with his feminine side. Since it was the only one, and a more polite Ranma was a good thing, no one really pointed it out to him. The fact that he referred to Cologne by name and not as 'Old Ghoul' did freak people out a little the day after the fight with Ukyo.

This was mitigated by him kicking Happosai into orbit that same day for trying to 'Help Ranma' with the 'softer things' in life. A pervert, it seems, was still a pervert and Ranma was still Ranma.

"I know you say that Ranma, and you healed fast just like usual, but your shoulders are still pretty damaged along with that knife wound. Doctor Tofu said relax, so relax." The youngest Tendo daughter insisted, pushing Ranma back onto the couch. It was a testament to how hurt he actually was that she succeeded easily.

"Yeah, whatever. How's Ucchan doing?"

"Not bad, according to Tofu." Nabiki's response came from behind the pigtailed man, and he looked back with a slight wince at the tugging of stitches. Nabiki moved around front in a gesture of kindness with only a slight smirk. "Actually she remembers nothing from the day of the kidnapping, and she apparently doesn't even have a subconscious memory of the training. We had Shampoo walk into her room in cursed form and our favorite sister in law didn't bat an eye."

"How's that work?" Akane asked. "You'd think she'd be worse then Ranma or Himeko!"

"Cologne thinks that her mind just refused to allow her to remember anything, and Tofu agrees with her."

"It's possible. People have been known to develop localized memory losses from traumas and prove never to be able to recover the memories. If she did that she's lucky." Ranma nodded as he spoke. "What?"

The Tendo sisters just continued to stare for a moment. "That is still so weird. Maybe we SHOULDN'T have sent him to college." Nabiki muttered.

"Yeah, well… Seeing as he has three wives and a daughter, he does need a good job!" Akane grinned evilly. Strangely she'd gotten over the jealousy issues from Colognes announcement of the Amazon council's declaration of marriage. Of course part of that could come from the pained expressions on her 'husbands' face whenever anyone mentioned it.

All the 'Bride Brigade', as well as Nadoka and Himeko agreed that they were such cute little wrinkles around his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Can we go visit her now?"

"Actually we're moving her here." Nadoka, who'd entered just in time to see that cute expression, replied. "Tofu wants you to continue resting, but she'll be out by tomorrow, and ready to rest here. She's as bad a patient as you are apparently. However, there's another problem."

"What's that?"

"Stephanie checked the armor that Ukyo was wearing out today. She says it's identical to the guys she fought in America. We're bringing Maria over to Japan this weekend. It seems there's a conspiracy to create super powered girl martial artists, and we're hoping to work out why. I have to admit, the police haven't been much help."

"They don't have to be." Ranma growled while his blue eyes turned almost flint gray in rage. "Because if I ever meet the man responsible for this…. Let's just say Saffron will be impressed with the beating I give them."

CCCCCCCC

"Report Troika."

"My lord, the Kounji girl recovered both consciousness and her sanity and is reportedly healing from her injuries. Ranma Saotome is in slightly worse shape, but our spies suspect he'll be back in fighting form by the end of the week. I think we should strike now, and recover all three girls before that happens."

"No Troika. I think I have a better idea." The shadowy form of Lord Hakama turned in his chair, still never allowing the light to touch his face as he considered his lieutenant.

"Send an invitation. I would like to meet Mr. Saotome and this 'Nerima wrecking crew'."

AN: A cliff hanger, then a cliff that wasn't hanged with anything. Cologne was impressed though.

Next time: A few things revealed to get the plot rolling. I even, believe it or not, kind of know where this is going, though it might turn into a multiple book story since I'm reaching a good climax soon. But hey, those of you who read "When a Senshi's Away, the Cats will Play." Kind of know how I am about that.

Oh, and if you haven't and don't mind Sailor Moon (Or like cats) go read it. Shameless plug, but what the hell!

Speaking of which, time to write the Artemis vs. Gaki smack down event!