The calm peacefulness of the Japanese countryside was once again temporarily disturbed by the roar of an engine as a blue Ferrari raced down the highway like the wind itself. Behind the wheel of this speed machine was a young driver reveling in the absolute thrill of this one person race. If someone were bold enough to actually ask if they were a man or a woman, their response would be to casually inquire why such a thing would matter. What never would be said, however, was what it took for them to actually come to this realization. At any rate, during this precise moment, she was feeling a bit more on the feminine side.

As she approached the small, seaside town and stopped at a red light, she took a moment to look at her reflection in the rear view mirror. No matter the amount of time that has passed, it seemed she would never truly get over the changes. As a point, she combed a hand through her sandy blond hair, thinking back to a time when she would have been horrified and furious at the thought of it ever being this short. Perhaps she should consider growing it out again, if for nothing else than to see the reactions of the others. That would be something for the future though.

She gave herself a wry smile in the mirror at another thing her old self never really bothered with. Dreams of the past. Dreams of the future. Dreams of others. So bun-head, what are you dreaming about right now?

"Hey there."

She didn't bother turning her head, instead shifting her eyes to glance at the young man in the next car over, who was lifting up his sunglasses and giving what he must have thought was pretty boy charm. She internally scoffed at the attempt. After all, she was quite experienced with what it took to give true pretty boy charm towards a young lady.

"Are you with anyone," continued the boy who for some reason thought he actually had a chance. "Maybe we could have a friendly little race and then go out for tea somewhere."

A smirk grew on her face as the light turned green and she shifted into gear. "Was that a challenge I hear? Well, I got some bad news for you. I don't lose," she declared as her foot hit the accelerator and her car roared ahead, leaving the would-be charmer in her dust.

Yes, even after all this time, it seems like there were still some things that would never change.

Getting into town, she parked outside of the CD store and went in, looking around for the person she was here to pick up. Finally she spotted her, the aquamarine-haired beauty who was currently holding a bouquet of white roses…and being cornered by some random guy.

"Oh wow, I have all your CDs! Do you live around here? Please let me shake your hand."

Heh, go figure. Fanboys, even all the way out here. She could tell, though, that while the other girl showed a calm expression, there was very much a tempest brewing underneath. She quickly walked up to diffuse the situation in her normal elegant manner.

"Ah, hello there! Thank you so much for buying all of her CDs. We really appreciate it," she said with a large painted on grin, grabbing the fan's hand and giving it a vigorous shake. As the fan stood there nursing his probably not actually broken fingers, she put a hand around the girl's shoulder while they walked away. "Hey, sorry for being late. Oh, pure white roses, huh? Did a fan give them to you?"

"Guess again," the girl said with a slight huff. "I bought them to celebrate the six month anniversary of our new life." She paused a moment before adding, "well, our newest life at any rate."

"Wow, six months already." She then eyed the bouquet with slight trepidation. "Didja really have to get roses though?"

"It's different when they're white," the aquamarine-haired girl asserted. "But I suppose I shouldn't expect a tomboy like you to understand."

"You really are never gonna let that go, are you?"

"Of course not. No matter how many lives we get to spend together."

As the couple continued to walk, sounds of recognition were heard all around them, which wasn't too surprising. They were quite well known after all, in some ways more than others.

The general public knew them as the Formula 1 champion race car driver Haruka Ten'ou and the world renowned concert violinist Michiru Kai'ou.

To a very select and important few, they were also known as the pretty guardians of love and justice Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune.

However, to just each other, they were known as something else. Something that no one else was aware of.

Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo.

The Wild Wind And The Scarlet Sea

By: Jaqui K

Chapter 1: Silent Dreams

Awaken.

Awaken!

The time has come…

The guiding light of the three talismans…

The dawn of destruction is at hand.

Too late. She was too late. That was the only thing going through her mind as she stood in the wreckage of the once majestic building. She should have been here, doing whatever she could, no matter how inconsequential it may have been. Instead she followed her orders and stayed at her post. And now, here she was, driven to come when it was too late to do anything but stand in the ruins looking at the bodies. Looking at her body.

The princess.

"No! It can't be!"

She turned to the source of the cry to find another woman. Another guardian, like herself. Tasked to remain ever vigilant against any threats from outside forces.

For all the damned good it did.

"How? How could this have happened?" the woman lamented while clutching a glowing hand mirror up to her chest.

"We were deceived," replied a third guardian walking in. She was carrying a long, ornate staff that was shaped somewhat like a key with a glowing crystal at its top. "The threat hid itself from within and made its attack before anyone realized what was occurring. And now, there is nothing that we can do."

"Then what are we doing here?" As if in response to her question, the glow of the sword in her hand started to intensify, as did the objects held by the other two guardians.

The three walked up to each other, holding their respective talismans out in front of them. The glowing intensified until a bright beam of light shot up into the sky. They shielded their eyes from the glare and as it started to fade, a new figure appeared before them. A young looking girl, clad in an outfit similar to their own, holding onto a glaive taller than herself. Despair filled their hearts as, even though none of them have met this girl before, they instantly knew who she was.

The final guardian, the one that must never be allowed to awaken.

The goddess of death, under the protection of the planet of ruin.

The guardian of silence.

Sailor Saturn.

She uttered not a single word, didn't even acknowledge their presence. They could only look on, knowing the end had truly come, as she took up her silence glaive and slowly brought it down. And then, with a bright flash of light…

…everything was silent.

Ranma Saotome sat up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as the details of the nightmare started to fade. That itself was a bit worrying as the pigtailed martial artist tended to remember dreams with almost perfect clarity for better and, most of the time, for worse. For this dream, though, only a few details managed to remain, whispers on the edge of memory. An absolutely horrendous thing had occurred, Ranma was a girl in the dream, and those first two things were not actually related to each other.

It was that last one that she decided to focus on at the moment. In the past, more times than she could count, she had nightmares that would directly tie into being in her girl form, in one way or another. For the past few days, though, it seemed that every dream would involve her being in her girl form…being a girl. And being a girl was never actually an issue in those dreams.

Not to say that those dreams were always pleasant.

The red haired girl turned towards the window where the first hints of light were just starting to show. Still pretty early, but there was no way Ranma would be able to go back to sleep now. She carefully got up, taking great care not to disturb her mother sleeping in the cot next to hers while giving the panda sprawled out on the third cot a small kick to the side, and quietly headed downstairs. A good soak in the bath would help keep her mind off the part of the dream she was trying to ignore. At least she was pretty sure it wasn't that one where she was back at Jusendo and Akane's eyes stayed closed and-

Ranma very quickly shook off that thought as she sat down in the furo and started to clean up. No, from the remnants she could still recall, unfortunately this new one wasn't much better. Plus she couldn't shake the feeling that this time, it was more than just a dream. It felt almost like a warning of things to come, which made it all the more frustrating that almost the entirety of it had evaporated from her memories and blew away like smoke in the wind. As she poured the cool rinse water over her head and struggled to pull up any other details of importance, all that managed to come through was a single name drifting in from somewhere in the back of her mind.

"Saturn," she quietly muttered to herself. She wondered exactly why that would be so important to her, and why even uttering it aloud caused a shiver to run down her spine. There had to be-

All thoughts of the dream were immediately derailed, taking out any bystander thoughts along with them as Ranma got a look at her hair in the bathroom mirror. She leaned forward in disbelief, shaking her head rapidly and raking her hands through her fiery locks just to be sure. There it was though, right at the front of her bangs, a long streak of hair much lighter in color, most likely white. Which meant-

"No, no. No no no no no no NO! This is not happening. I'm barely seventeen. There is absolutely no way I am going gray right now!"

She leaned forward, carefully searching every single square centimeter of her face for any signs of wrinkles or blemishes. Only after three full scans was she fully satisfied that there was nothing else of note. She took one more examination to confirm the white streak in her hair and gave a final sigh of resignation. Her life definitely had a tendency to be more than a bit chaotic on occasion, but after the last few weeks she had, maybe she was lucky to just end up with this. Finally reuniting with her mother, moving out of the Tendo home, moving back into the Tendo home, the whole thing in China that she didn't really want to think about right now, that disaster of a wedding that she definitely didn't want to think about…

Maybe, possibly, kinda sorta, finally accepting that she really was a girl sometimes…

Thinking about how she was going to let everyone know that, especially a certain tomboy…

Yeah, it looked like she was going to need to start investing in hair dye really soon. Although, she now wondered how that would translate over when she switched forms. Maybe she could just dye her girl form's hair black, try and tie it in with explaining how she's both a boy and a girl now? Ugh, it was too early in the morning for thinking. Right now, she just wanted a good soak in the bath, worry about future crap later.

As Ranma got in the bath and settled into the soothing hot water, he looked down at himself again. "Okay, no signs of sagging. That's good. Don't have to worry about-"

He blinked a few times, then shook his head before looking again and seeing that his chest was now flat. "Guess I am still a little tired." He tried to lean back and relax, but that question kept poking in the back of his mind, so he quickly hopped out of the bath and checked his hair in the mirror. To his pleasant surprise, that traitorous lock of white hair was now absent. Before he could start his celebration, he grabbed the showerhead and gave himself a quick spray of cold water. Watching closely, she could see her hair quickly lightening into a bright red, along with a patch that lightened even further. Eyes narrowing slightly, she switched the faucet to hot, feeling the now warm water pour over her and waiting for it to get hot enough. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the change occurred again and he could see all of the hair darkening again to a pitch black.

"So it's just my girl form that's aging early from all this crap that's been going on?" he wondered as he studied his reflection for a bit before finally just giving a shrug. Whatever, he was sure an answer would come along soon enough. Those things usually did, even if they could quite often be really annoying. In the meantime, he'd just stick with guy mode, at least until he could get his hands on some hair dye.

Akane Tendo lay in bed, trying her best to will herself just a little more sleep before she had to deal with the annoyances of the day ahead. The thoughts of the previous night's dreams swirling through her mind were unfortunately doing a stellar job at thwarting her attempts.

For reasons that she was unable to discern, she dreamt about the day that Ranma first came to her house. Everything started out the same, a redheaded girl being carried in on the shoulder of a giant panda, trying to cheer up the sad girl and offering to be her friend, sparring with the girl in the dojo, later on going to take a bath only to find…no. This time, when she opened the bathroom door, with only a small towel she was holding covering her body, what she found was the same redhead just stepping out of the hot bathwater, giving her a welcoming smile as steam surrounded her and the water glistened off her…

Akane immediately shoved those memories out of her window of consciousness. Okay, good. Now that those thoughts have been thoroughly defenestrated, she couldn't dwell on the dream that obviously had no important significance whatsoever!

She tried to relax and clear her mind. Unfortunately, that only allowed the recollections of her second dream to come flooding in, which ended up being rather appropriate.

She was back at Jusendo, a dried up husk of a lifeless doll being desperately held on to by Ranma. He fought so hard for her, doing all he could, finally able to perform the final blow to finish off Saffron. She wanted to give some indication of how proud she was of her fiancé, but she was just so tired. Too tired to keep her eyes open anymore. As they descended towards the ground, she heard a cry of desperation, the sound of wind, stone breaking apart and then smashing together, rushing water. Then she felt the ice cold water strike her from below. The Dragon Tap! Somehow it was shooting upwards to reach her! The water enveloped and revitalized her dehydrated body, returning her to normal. She still could not open her eyes though. She was still too tired. Perhaps once they landed on solid ground, she would finally get the chance to rest. So she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then realized they were not actually falling.

They were floating.

She managed to open her eyes and looked around. The Dragon Tap continued to pour out, flooding the valley, the waters rising above Jusendo, above the peak of Mount Ho'o in the distance. The waters surrounded her completely. Turning back, she saw her red haired savior looking back with relief and affection, right before the girl's body dissipated into sea foam. Panic gripped Akane's heart as she reached out, silently willing her fianceé from dissolving completely. And she didn't. Instead the red and black colored foam remained, moving around and surrounding her, embracing her, putting her at peace. As she floated there, feeling the gentle caress, allowing the sea to become a part of her and her a part of it, she casually noticed a warm glow occurring somewhere just above her eye line, and-

Lying in her bed, Akane blinked as she realized that same glow was now somewhere in her bedroom. She quickly sat up and looked over, noticing the sunlight that was now peeking through her window. She gave a sigh and managed to get herself out of bed. A good soak probably was what she needed right now. As she got her things and headed downstairs, her mind wandered to her third dream of the night. Even though she could recall almost nothing of it, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something important, something more than merely a dream. As she reached the changing room door, she looked down and furrowed her brow, a single name floating in from the back of her mind.

"Saturn."

"What did you just say?"

Akane looked up to find the door opened and the dark haired form of Ranma looking down at her. A scowl formed on her face as the anger built up at him walking in on her like that, both of which quickly dissolved as she remembered she was the one going into the furo and that they were both still fully clothed. "Um, good morning, Ranma."

The taller boy stared for a moment before turning his head away, a slight bit of red in his cheeks. "Oh, yeah. Morning, Akane."

The youngest Tendo found her face starting to flush as she also looked away. Ever since that failed wedding, the two of them had barely spoken more than a few sentences to each other. "So…you're up pretty early today, huh?"

"Yeah, guess so. You too?"

"Yeah, me too," Akane mumbled out. She'd probably feel a bit more at ease if he'd just lob a dumb insult her way so she could retort in kind, but lately it seemed that neither of them could bring themselves to that sort of thing when they were alone together. "Had some dreams. Couldn't get back to sleep."

"Oh. Same, kinda. So, uh, what did you dream about anyway?"

"Nothing important," Akane quickly responded. "I don't even remember them now."

"Yeah, me neither. So, 'bout that thing you said earlier…"

"Hey, do you mind stepping out of the way? I need to get in there to wash up."

"Oh, oh right." Ranma quickly moved to the side, allowing Akane to walk into the changing room. "Uh, talk to ya at breakfast then?"

"Sure, I'll see you later." Akane didn't turn around as Ranma stepped out of the room. The moment the door was closed, she brought a trembling fist up to her chest, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. At least she managed to avoid collapsing to her knees. After a few moments, she took a few deep breaths and shook her head before getting ready for a nice long soak she now needed even more.

Feeling refreshed, at the very least physically, Akane headed to the family room. Her father was sitting at the table, face as usual buried behind a newspaper. Next to him, the middle sister, Nabiki, held onto her coffee mug as though it held the elixir of life and was currently chatting with the eldest sister, Kasumi. Her also being there most likely meant that Ranma's mother decided to cook breakfast for everyone today. (Akane was still patiently waiting for it to be her turn. Very patiently. Honest.) That left two people that were still missing, one of which she actually cared about. "Hey, where's Ranma."

Her sisters turned towards her then simultaneously pointed to the yard. Looking out past the currently open sliding door, she didn't see anything at first. Then a flash of white came into view as Genma Saotome flew in backwards with his arms crossed in front of him, barely managing to keep his footing. A moment later there was another flash, this time of red and black as Ranma charged in with a flying kick, meeting and pushing his father further back, then immediately going after him again.

Akane blinked at the exchange. "I thought Mr. Saotome stopped doing the surprise morning training thing so we wouldn't accidentally wake up Auntie Nodoka." That was the excuse Genma gave anyway. The real truth was that Ranma had advanced so far by now that he could easily mop the floor with his father in seconds.

"He did," Nabiki responded. "This time it was Ranma who decided to start things. Said something about wanting to let off a little steam."

Akane stepped out onto the porch to get a better view. The two Saotomes were bouncing all over the yard. More specifically, Genma was constantly backpedaling, staying on defense the whole time and barely able to hang on as Ranma continuously charged forward with punches and kicks, never relenting in the slightest, but still holding back just enough as to not end the fight.

"Ranma?" Akane said quietly as she saw the look in the pigtailed martial artist's eyes. Apparently it wasn't that quiet and those eyes turned for just a moment to look back at her. That hesitation was just enough for Genma to take advantage of, and he grabbed onto Ranma's extended arm, managing to twist into a throw to send his son hurtling towards the ground right in front of the, at this point now koiless, pond.

As Akane was observing this, she knew Genma's actions would only give him a brief reprieve as all Ranma would need to do was right himself, take a simple hop, and then use the pond as a makeshift cushion to stop his momentum before charging right back again. Instead, something very different happened. Ranma did manage to get upright as he flew through the air. However, instead of taking that hop, he tried to stop altogether, flailing his arms around to keep balance. Genma showed his usual level of concern for his son's predicament by charging in and shoulder checking him. Ranma sailed over and past the pond, crashing hard against the wall of the Tendo compound.

"Ranma!" Akane quickly rushed over, taking just a moment to shove Genma into the pond, and checked on her fiancé. "Are you okay?"

Ranma gave out a small groan as he sat up. Looking over and seeing Akane, he quickly got to his feet and lightly brushed himself off. "Of course I am. Ya really dumb enough to think a little tap like that is gonna hurt me?"

"Well excuse me for trying to be concerned about you, you stupid jerk," Akane retorted. For some reason the insults were a lot easier to sling around when there were other people present.

"Yeah, well, I never asked for some uncute tomboy to be worried about me," Ranma said as he headed back to the house, an action which was greatly sped up thanks to a well placed kick from Akane.

As the two flopped down at their own spots at the table, Akane noticed a big smirk on Nabiki's face. "Well, that was most certainly an interesting display of skill there," the middle Tendo sister noted. "Especially that balancing act near the pond. Now, I'm fairly certain you can still kick panda butt quite easily as a redhead, so perhaps you could try and explain what, pray tell, was that about?"

"Yeah, well maybe I just didn't wanna get pond water in my hair right after I already took a bath," Ranma grumbled out. "Ya gotta problem with that?" Nabiki just gave a casual shrug as a response.

"I agree, Ranma. There is certainly nothing wrong with not wishing to become wet," Kasumi said with a serene smile on her face. "And I thank you for not dripping all over the clean floor," she continued, giving a lightning quick glance over to the soaked panda who froze at the edge of the doorway before turning to sit on the lawn. "Now Nabiki, I believe you were talking about one of your recent university visits?"

"Ah right," Nabiki said with a bit of a gleam in her eye. "As I was saying, this place is top-class, absolute elite, with the best of the best attending. And I haven't even gotten to the greatest part yet. It turns out they actually cover all grade levels, going from preschool all the way to graduate school. I'm thinking about getting a transfer over for my senior year."

"Yeah right," Ranma said. "If this place really has the best of the best, what makes you think you'll be getting in?"

"Oh please, Saotome," Nabiki scoffed. "Unlike certain people I could name, I actually use my head for things other than breaking through walls. If you really want, though, I could probably get you a nice recommendation for the preschool program."

Fortunately for Akane's current state of mind, any further bickering was stopped by Auntie Nodoka's announcement that breakfast was ready. Very quickly, the food was brought to the table and everyone started digging in. As Akane ate, her mind wandered to her own school situation. Very soon she'd be starting second year. She really hoped it would start better than how her first year ended. At the very least, with everything she had been through, she deserved to get a little rest. Maybe…maybe if things calmed down just a little, then perhaps…perhaps she and Ranma could try to-

"The dawn of destruction is at hand."

"Akane? You alright?"

She sat up and blinked, then looked over to see Ranma looking back with a concerned expression on his face. She was about to give a quick dismissive retort when she noticed that everyone else was also staring at her. "What? I'm fine."

"Akane," Nabiki said, pointing slightly down, "your hand."

"Huh?" She looked down and found that her palm was now covered in bits of splintered wood that used to be her chopsticks. "Oh."

Kasumi calmly went over and inspected Akane's hand carefully removing the splinters and making sure there were no cuts or punctures. "It's alright, Little Sister. It has been a rather stressful time recently. For both you and Ranma."

"W-what? No way, I'm great!" Ranma quickly retorted. "Yep, definitely no signs of stress on this body, no siree!" He then gave a laugh that sounded a bit high pitched.

Akane's father looked around and then cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I think it's quite clear that we can all use a bit of a break right now. So…" He clapped his hands and gave a huge grin. "How about we have a nice day at the beach!"

Akane started at her father and was about to make a comment about going to a beach in March when she remembered that beach also meant ocean. That thought caused the warmth to build up in her chest once again. "Oh, I think that's a great idea," she enthusiastically said. "This will be fun. Right, Ranma?" She gave a smile towards the pigtailed boy who had his forehead pressed up against the table for some reason.