Dance in Sin City

Disclaimer: I own nothing here, tis a shame, the only thing I own is the plot.


Chapter 26

"Okay, can someone please explain why he didn't finish us off?!" Ryoga yelled as he looked at where Satanael had been a moment ago. "I don't have the best magic senses in the world and even I could tell just how insanely strong he is!"

"Because that's how he is." Nabiki's eyes were glowing blue as she knelt down next to Ranma to look him over. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." Ranma grumbled as he sat up, wincing in pain. "Good thing I got this." He pulled out a small vial and broke it before pouring its contents on his body. "I need to thank Ravel when I get home." He had a thoughtful look on his face. 'I wonder where I can get some of those candles that Ravel said she wanted to try out.'

Nabiki smirked at him. "Well, do what you need to do." Her smirk slid off of her face. "Anyway, if you're wondering why, I'm not completely sure. It had something to do with his transformation from a Fallen Angel into that thing." A dreary look came to her face. "His purpose is to wipe out the universe to prepare it for its rebirth. Usually he wakes up less than a thousand years before the heat death of the universe and then destroys everything."

"By that time, the universe would barely be able to support any life and most of the stars would have burned out." Ami pointed out and Nabiki nodded. "So what happens when he wakes up early?"

"This is the ninth time it's happened. Of the eight previous times, he actually lost five times and spared the universe. Twice he won, but decided not to destroy everything since he realized that the universe had a few trillion years left to go and made up some excuse of being impressed and deciding to leave."

"And the last one he destroyed everything early, didn't he?" Haruka asked and Nabiki nodded. "Oh, that's just lovely. And you just HAD to send him back in time, didn't you?"

"Haruka, please." Ami spoke up. "All things considered, since the older Satanael was posing as Mr. D the entire time, it's likely that this was a predestined paradox."

"...A what?"

Ami smiled at Usagi. "A predestined paradox. Where an event in the past is caused by a future event, but that future event is caused by the past event." Usagi still looked confused and Ami smiled. "Well, imagine if a future version of yourself showed up and gave you a book that helped you become incredibly wealthy. At some point in the future, you would return to the past to give your younger self the same book so that you could guarantee that you would become incredibly wealthy. In this case, Satanael being sent back in time was caused by Nabiki's actions, but because Satanael, the Light of Absolution, was the one in charge of the group and Satanael, the younger one, was part of that group, it was bound to happen regardless of Nabiki's actions."

"If not now, it would have happened eventually." Nabiki answered as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"If you sent him back in time, shouldn't it be an alternate past?" Ranma asked her and Nabiki gave him a sharp look. "Remember the future where Irina became a Fallen that we avoided simply because of your future self?"

"If it's what I think it is," Setsuna spoke up, "then it's because when you go back in time normally, you jump out of the time stream, like a fish swimming against the current, and land somewhere else, the splash causes changes that sends you to a different time. When you return, you're just jumping back to when you left. It's a bit weird. The Time Gates, however, work differently. They create a link between the past and the preset. Which is why no one should use them to time travel since it can create paradoxes and other problems."

"What about the future?" Michiru asked and Setsuna simply raised an eyebrow at the question.

"Time is relative. Depending on when you are, the future and the past can both be the present and the future and present can be the past."

"Or to put it in simpler terms," Ami spoke up, "our present is someone's past and someone's future."

"Bingo." Setsuna nodded at Ami's explanation. "Anyway, now that you understand that, I can't help but... She trailed off as three girls, all of whom had tanned skin and dark hair, walked up to the group. "Hello?"

"You're Nabiki Saotome, right?" One of them asked as she looked at Nabiki and the girls looked away. "We want to apologize. We're the reason that you and the others went through all that stuff."

Nabiki blinked before her eyes widened. "Oh! You're the ones who could shapeshift, couldn't you?" They nodded and the others instantly tensed up. "With your abilities, you could have fled anywhere, why come to me?"

"We..." The first one sighed and hung her head. "We went along with it, we didn't have anywhere else to go. Plus we were kind of scared of Satanael."

"Being orphans sucks." Another one said as she scratched the back of her head and in front of everyone her hair turned blue. "Though I do love this power I got after Lord Satanael turned us into Fallen Angels."

"...While Fallen Angels can manipulate their appearance, they can't shapeshift as dramatically as you three can." Nabiki pointed out as the final girl made herself look like she was ten years old. "Why are you shapeshifting right now?"

"Ah, we're still not used to this." The first one said as she looked a bit embarrassed. "We can make ourselves look like anything or anyone, it's better than being our previous selves."

"I don't know, I think you're pretty in your normal forms." Gasper said while Minako and Makoto both let out little sounds of annoyance. "Huh?" He blinked as he looked at them. "What?"

"Nothing." They both muttered, knowing that they had no reason to even get upset while Gasper just blinked in confusion.

"Ooohkay..." Gasper blinked a few times. "And before you ask, I read Claire's mind before."

"Oh yeah!" The one who had blue hair pointed at him. "You groped my boobs too!"

Gasper gave her a flat stare. "Well, I could have sucked your blood if you'd rather me bite your neck." He opened his mouth to reveal a sharp set of teeth. "Being a half vampire has some quirks."

Claire opened her mouth and held up a finger before lowering it and blushing. "Well, I suppose it's better to have you grope my boobs than to bite me."

The other two looked at Claire and sweat-dropped.

"Anyway, my name is Mel," the one who looked like she was ten years old spoke up, "that's Claire and this is Brianna." Brianna, who still had dark hair, waved. "And, um, we were just wondering how it's possible for us to shapeshift then, we couldn't do it before."

Nabiki tilted her head and chuckled. "You three and lots of other people in South America have a common ancestor. An alien from a far off world ended up on this planet thousands of years ago. Their world was dying and their species wanted to survive, so they were launched into space. Your ancestor hit a worm hole, ended up in the distant past, shapeshifted to match the locals and had a rather large family."

"That happened so long ago that any shapeshifting powers were long gone, but reincarnating tends to jumpstart long-dead traits that should have died off." Ranma continued and Nabiki nodded. "Well, that explains that."

"Is that everything?" Nabiki asked and Brianna shook her head. "What?" She couldn't help the exhaustion that was creeping into her voice. "I would really like to go now, so unless you have something that needs to be taken care of right now?"

"No." They shook their heads.

"What about that doctor guy that was behind everything?" Ryoga asked. "I beat him up, but he might have escaped."

Nabiki closed her eyes and shook her head. "He's still out cold in the lab. I'm going to call Shemhazai," she opened her eyes to look at the three reincarnated Fallen Angels. "He'll be by shortly to help you three out. As for that doctor..." She looked at Usagi. "Can you leave him to us?" Usagi looked troubled and Nabiki sighed. "He'll be dealt with properly, but he might try to use your compassion against you."

"I understand." Usagi nodded. "Can we just... I don't know, go and rest?"

"We need to have you all looked at." A paramedic said. "It's just for everyone's sake so that we can all relax."

"It's a good idea." Setsuna said as she stretched her arms over her head. "After all of this, I need a few days off."

"Take however much time as you need. You three," Nabiki looked at the reincarnated Fallen Angels, "go with them to get checked out. If you're all clear to go, you're all welcome to the apartments above my casino." A magic circle then formed under her and Ranma. "I need to talk to my husband in private."

The others nodded and Nabiki and Ranma disappeared in a flash of light.

(-)

As soon as they appeared in her office, Nabiki hugged Ranma as tight as she could and started sobbing loudly into his chest. Ranma didn't say anything and wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back and rocking softly while she let loose heart-wrenching and soul-piercing wails of despair.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Nabiki sobbed out as she buried her face into his chest. "I didn't mean to, I was ra..."

"Shh, shh..." Ranma quieted her down as he rubbed her back. He could tell what she had gone through. His Sacred Gear gave him some hidden benefits that wasn't too well known and he could tell just what had happened to Nabiki without her telling him.

After bawling her eyes out Nabiki pulled her face away from Ranma's chest and he sighed before pulling a box of tissues out of nowhere. Nabiki nodded and took it to wipe her face before blowing her nose and throwing the tissues away. "Thank you." She looked away from him and pursed her lips together. "I hope you don't mind if I don't feel like being intimate for awhile."

She jerked as she felt Ranma's arms around her midsection. "There's other ways to be intimate other than sex." She looked over her shoulder and gave him a weird look. "You forgot that Gabriel forced me to see a sex councilor, right?"

"...My mind is everywhere right now, I had forgotten." Nabiki muttered, thankful for her co-wife's forethought in the matter. "I... I'll need to talk to Lilith, because..."

"If you say you're filthy, I will spank you." Ranma growled in her ear and she shivered.

"Maybe I need a spanking?" Nabiki muttered and shivered as Ranma hugged her tighter. "Ranma?"

"What you need is to talk to someone who's more qualified to help you with this than me." Ranma told her and she nodded. "But I'll stay as long as you need me."

She smiled and relaxed, leaning against him. "Thanks."

There was a beeping sound and Nabiki looked to the side as the large television beeped and turned on, revealing Gabriel. "Hello, Nabiki, I hope I... Oh no, are you okay?"

"I was overwhelmed with emotion, but I'll be okay." Nabiki said, though she knew it would take a lot of time. "I doubt that one of Heaven's leaders would call just for chit-chat. What's wrong?" She fought the urge to sigh as Gabriel continued to look at her in concern. "Right now? I'm going through a lot, if you want to help me, come down here, if you want something, just tell me." She didn't mean to sound so snippy, but after everything that she had gone though, she doubted Gabriel would blame her.

"Very well." Gabriel nodded. "If you must know, for ten minutes, Heaven's system was at full power and there was a remote access to it, but when we looked, we could not find who used it. This is gravely concerning and we..."

"It was me." Nabiki answered her and Gabriel's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "I mastered my Sacred Gear, used it to remote access and gain the full power of Heaven's system to send Satanael into the past, accidentally creating a far greater enemy in the process and..."

"Do you have any idea what you did?" Gabriel interrupted, her face pale as she spoke in soft tones. "Heaven's system should not be accessed by anyone other than the leaders of Heaven. Do you..."

"I know the ramifications of doing so." Nabiki said with a tired look on her face. "I know."

"Then why?" Gabriel asked, pleading with her.

Nabiki closed her eyes and looked away. "In a way, I didn't have a choice. I had already sent him back into the past before this whole thing started."

"You didn't need to use Heaven's System for that!"

Nabiki snapped her head up. "I did. To use the Time Gates the way I did, not even their guardian can use them the way I did. And, yes..." She slumped and shook her head. "I know what the consequences are, Gabriel. I'll have to live with them for the rest of my life."

"What's going on?" Ranma asked as he looked between his two wives. "Nabiki, Gabriel, what are you two hinting at?"

Gabriel had a stern look on her face as she looked at Nabiki. "Father had a way to remotely access His system that only a few of His children could do. No one else was allowed to do so. There's a security system in place that if someone uses it..."

"Their life force gets burned up." Nabiki summarized for Ranma, who stared at her in shock. "I still have a few hundred years left. About four hundred more years from now I'll be dead though."

"But we can..." Ranma began but paused when both Gabriel and Nabiki shook their heads. "...You're serious?"

"If I had stayed connected for one more minute, I would be nothing but dust right now." Nabiki answered him. "I realized as soon as I did it, what would happen that is." Suddenly Ranma grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Huh?"

"YOU IDIOT!" Ranma yelled at her. "Why!?"

Nabiki smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you too." After taking a deep breath, she gently peeled his hands off of her and looked at Gabriel. "I may have some information for you later. I need time to process everything that I can see, but I saw something that will interest you at least." She rubbed her temples. "I am going to go to bed." Nabiki gave them a tired smile. "If either of you want to come and cuddle me, I won't say no."

After she left the room, Ranma looked at Gabriel. "How bad is it?"

"She should be dead." Gabriel answered him. "Please, look after her." Ranma nodded and Gabriel turned the screen off.

Ranma walked into Nabiki's bedroom and sat on the bed. The next thing he knew, Nabiki grabbed him, rolled over and pulled him onto the bed where she laid on top of him, trembling. Ranma said nothing more as he held her, kissing her forehead softly as he tried to help her relax.

It would be a long time before Nabiki finally fell asleep.

End Chapter 26