Ranma, Sailor Moon 1. Prologue and Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine!

-Prologue-

Most people believe that Sailor Pluto is the only person who can manipulate time and space, but this is not actually true. Case in point the Mugen Gakuen where Kaolinite was helping Mistress 9 revive Master Pharaoh 90 and hoping to join him. She had manipulated time and space, she had defeated many of the sailors and now she was next to Mistress 9 that power was held in check, but still there waiting to assist the master. She could see it now the ultimate triumph over the Senshi and then she heard three simple words, "she is no longer needed."

A blast of electricity arced into her and her power went wild, to the world she had been in she may as well have been vaporized on the other hand the world she ended up might have wished that had been her ultimate fate.

The red haired woman shook her head and examined her location. It was certainly Earth of that she was sure, but it took much longer to discern where on Earth she was and what time frame she was in. Even so discovery of such facts was in her nature as much as designing Daimons and helping to bring forth her master Pharaoh 90.

Some years after being sent back in time Kaolinite was standing near her mistress Queen Beryl as the Queen sat by a multitude of pools each with a small pole and each with its own tragic story. Kaolinite had worked hard to be here; she had toadied, and skived, stolen, cheated, and maimed people to become this close to the Queen. The red haired woman looked at all of the cursed pools and wondered how she herself could have ended here. Kaolinite tried to keep her gorge from rising as the woman wailed and cried, then became docile once again. It was truly a silly affair all about a boy the young prince of earth Endymion and Beryl had truly loved him with all of her heart. It hadn't been enough, she was too rough, too much of a trained military girl and apparently not enough of the fragile flower for him. He was in love with Princess Serenity the daughter of the Queen of the Moon kingdom and so despite Beryl's own crown and despite her training with her battle sisters not far from this place she was going to lose the man she loved.

The entire thing sickened Kaolinite and so she approached her queen and with a soft voice spoke to her saying, "Why so sad my Queen?"

Beryl pulled her gun and then quickly placed it back in its holster with an apology, "I am sorry Kaolinite I must have been far gone into reminiscing if I did not hear you near."

The other red haired woman said, "No need to apologize my queen. We all know how much this hurts you, how much he meant to you. What will you do now?"

Beryl sighed and said, "You have been a good counsel to me ever since you came so many years ago Kaolinite, but I cannot follow through on my plan of revenge. I cannot in good conscience contact Metallia and use her powers to bring down the Moon Kingdom. Unleashing her could change me; possibly even cause great strife and war. No, it is best to allow my heart to bear this burden instead of the lives of my people."

Kaolinite stepped closer to Beryl and put a hand on her shoulder as if for comfort and then moments later her Red hair was choking the life out of the other woman. "Oh wrong answer my queen! Very wrong answer and now you must die."

The hair encompassed her totally and so it was not long until Queen Beryl was unconscious and then the hair moved and Beryl was thrown into one of the pools where she drown. Standing with her hair waving on its own Kaolinite frowned and then pulled out a Daimon egg carefully crafted just for this purpose, and then swallowed it. Soon after that a very different Queen Beryl was walking back to her palace where she would begin contacts with Metallia and the process that would inevitably destroy the ancient moon kingdom and hopefully bring her own master into the world as well.

Indeed, it was not long before "Queen Beryl" was launching a surprise attack on the moon kingdom. Not long before the glorious days of wonder, beauty, and happiness that had once betokened the near Utopia became horrific destruction and fighting. Youma and Daimons rushed about the Moon killing everything in their path. The Inner Senshi fell and the red haired woman calling herself Beryl presented the princes of the moon with the dying body of her former love, "Is he not everything you dreamed?"

It was then that she saw the Uranus, Neptune and Pluto converging on her spot, then that all she had worked for must assuredly come to pass. Right there she made her first betrayal of Metallia and so three blasts of power removed the three Senshi's heart crystals and she gathered them in her hands to begin forming the grail, but she hadn't counted on Sailor Venus showing up as well. She hadn't counted on the sword that took off her hand and scattered the crystals to the ground. She tried to strike back, but it was a weak strike and Venus parried the blast and sliced her weapon in half. Indeed, Venus was a mad woman pushing Beryl back and then back again until she met up directly with Queen Serenity who banished her into the dimension of Metallia. She had long eons in that great creature's presence plotting her vengeance, the return of Metallia and a union between that Spirit and her own beloved Master Pharaoh 90.

-Chapter 1-

Ranma Saotome was female and she was very angry as she stared into her camp fire and cursed, "Stupid ol man!"

Mentally she cursed him again, for the training trip, for the lack of money that led to too few supplies in this deep jungle, and of course the current female form that she was wearing along with its own added 'voice' possibly even the voice of the woman who had originally drown in the pool. Ranma didn't want to hear her, didn't want anything to do with her or Genma Saotome and yet here she was in camp waiting to see if her father had found any food.

A Black and white bear form approached munching on a stalk of bamboo and then gesticulating wildly. Ranma nearly shouted as she said, "I can't eat bamboo old man."

The bear gesticulated again and began taking the camp apart; Ranma moaned and sighed as she realized he hadn't found anything more than a new place to camp. Soon enough they were ensconced in a new spot and Ranma was heating some water over a fire. Just as steam began to form above the water the Panda took the pot and upended it on itself. Ranma looked at him and said, "What was that for!"

"I needed it more than you did boy. Take it like a Man, martial arts isn't for the weak"

His words continued and Ranma just tuned him out, tuned the man out and stared off into the jungle while her stomach gnawed at her with hunger. She needed food soon or she would begin to lose muscle tissue. That was not an option and so, she stood up and said, "I'm going to find myself some grub."

"Find something for me too boy!" The balding man said and she just ignored it like everything else he had been saying. She walked off barely listening to him and wondering just why she had ever done so in the first place. Scenes of her life came unbidden to her mind, training, torture, hunger and more. Few if any of the moments were warm or kind. None of it was easy and she could hear that voice again saying, _"You poor child. You have never felt love or compassion at all have you? Your honor is worn to its very nubs and nothing at all is left."_

Ranma stopped and looked around knowing she wouldn't see anything. She sighed softly and tried to ignore the voice, but it was hard to do on her own. Especially hard to do when the voice was repeating her own litany of annoyances from her father and then she heard it. It was definitely sounds of a battle being wages somewhere up the hillside. Ranma walked towards the sounds hesitantly and with care and then came upon a truly amazing sight. A banquet of food arrayed on a table and two women fighting on a log.

The temptation to walk over and take that food was greater than most any temptation she had and then a like a shot across the bow she heard the voice saying, _"Like your father would do."_

That single statement changed Ranma's course, instead of walking over and taking the food she slowly came into the village and announced her presence to some of the guards. The two women who should have been guarding the gate stared at her with annoyance and spoke in rapid Chinese. She didn't understand, but the gist seemed clear. Stay put, watch the fight and someone who could understand her might get around to talking to her later.

It was a very long wait and challengers came and went. Ranma's mind analyzed each fight quickly and aptly surmised the outcome of each fight correctly nearly ninety percent of the time. Her inner voice sounded impressed by his predictive skill and by the time the final match was happening Ranma was having an internal dialogue finding out many things about the woman who had drowned in the waters of Jusenkyou before him and wondering if perhaps she was somewhat insane. Even so the voice suggested a method by which she could gain entry to the village, a method by which she might honorably request food and so after the final fight was over and a very old lady was standing near her speaking in Japanese and asking her how she had come here Ranma, by now coached by her voice, said carefully, "Honorable elder, I am Ranma Saotome an outsider seeking refuge in your village and a chance to prove my worth to you."

The older woman who called herself Cologne said, "Very well young Saotome. If you prove yourself decent enough a fighter to hold out against young Shampoo for a minute we will accept this proposal."

A ring was formed and Ranma stood across from the Purple haired girl she had seen fight before. A minute would be relatively easy enough and indeed she was rather sure that she would win this confrontation. Shampoo rushed her with bonbori blazing and she sent a kick into the other girl that sent her flying across the makeshift ring. If they had been on that log the purple haired girl would be out and done with and even without it she was obviously dazed.

Ranma waited for the girl to recover and this time the purple haired girl was much more cautious. Probing Ranma's defenses and actually making the young redhead block some of the attacks. The frustrated girl shouted in Chinese and Ranma knew she wanted her to go on the offensive. It was a hard decision to make, but she knew the other girl's honor was on the line as well and if Ranma just played with her it would be an insult and so she whipped out some punches and finally another spectacular kick that sent the purple haired girl flying once again, this time out of the circular ring.

The purple haired girl's eyes bored into her own blue ones and Ranma walked over bowed to the purple haired girl and extended a hand to help her up. Shampoo looked at her at first with anger and then she took the hand and allowed herself to be helped to her feet. She said something in rapid Chinese that Ranma missed and then flung her to the ground with a grin.

Ranma saw the dagger approaching her throat, no way to escape and then it was gone and a hand was helping her up and the voice was saying in poor Japanese, "We even now."

Ranma nodded with sweat covering her face and then the elder came to them both and announced something loudly in Chinese and then translated, "You have proven great worth to us and will be given refuge, more to the point your skill is great enough that I believe you should be given a place in our village as Shampoo's shield sister."

Cheering went up around the village and then the feast came. Food, free food honorably gained crossed Ranma's lips and a feeling of camaraderie suffused the table. Strangely enough this was the happiest Ranma had been in a very, very long time.

Weeks passed and Ranma slowly learned Chinese through immersion and Amazon ways and customs as well. So much so that the young girl knew that she did not want to become male in front of the villagers now that she had been accepted. Such a curse would be a betrayal and yet she felt she should tell them. These were all slowly becoming her friends now and she was hiding something from them.

She took a long walk to gather supplies and was about to begin a longer talk with the voice who she had found was named Beryl. The two were just beginning to talk when Ranma ran right into a balding old martial artist. The yelling began immediately, where had she been, and what was she thinking was she a man or a woman!

Ranma took pains to calm her father down and explained about the village and potential martial arts techniques that she could learn and add to her style. The promise of more power for Ranma mollified her father down and the provisions she had brought along for the hike cemented it. _"Now, tell him to go visit that town not far from here. The one you saw before going to the pools."_

Ranma nodded to herself in agreement with the voice and suggested that her father would be more comfortable in a nearby village while she trained with the Amazons. The addition of what was left of her food and some miscellaneous treasures convinced the man to settle in town and live there for a time.

Back with Ranma, life in the Amazon village had a simple pecking order. The best fighters were at the top and the rest were not. Anyone could challenge you for your right to be where you were at any time and all insults to your honor or station were to be put down without mercy. Even so the best fighters were expected and even encouraged to help the younger girls learn form and technique while they themselves were taught by their respective village elder.

This put Shampoo and Ranma at the very top of their age group and in charge of training a number of other girls as well as learning from Cologne each day. Numerous pressure points and other techniques were taught to the two. They were true friends and along with that friendship Ranma was slowly allowing herself to speak more with her inner voice. Doing this allowed her to find out more about the strange entity that had once been a Queen.

"_Yes, I was a Queen on Earth mine was much smaller than the, at the time, well known Earth Kingdom. We called ourselves the Terra and I was Queen Beryl the first of that name." _

Beryl proceeded to provide Ranma the history of the Moon Kingdom and her role as a small Queen outside of the Solar System spanning Moon Kingdom. She heard about great ships, magical powers, and more. It was a tale that inevitably ended with her heartbreak at losing out to Princess Serenity and then her betrayal by her once good friend Kaolinite for deciding not to get revenge simply for petty jealousy.

When the tale was over Ranma pondered it and then said, _"What happened?"_

Beryl thought about it and said, _"I must assume that Kaolinite must have followed through on my plot for revenge. Somehow managing to destroy the Moon Kingdom and destroy whatever technology the Kingdoms of Earth and Terra had."_

It was a harsh though for a beautiful day and Ranma set it aside for a time. Determined to follow her own quest to learn more techniques Ranma and Shampoo continued to train together and bond. It was not long before they were each taught the Amiguriken technique. The only issue between them was Ranma's continued refusal to bathe at the same time as her good friend.

Indeed, months went by with close quarters and many females around, but even so Ranma avoided taking baths or even seeing any of the other girls naked. The worst possible moment of her time was when elder Cologne had to give her a lesson about certain times of the month and feminine hygiene. By the time that lesson was over the savvy elder had figured it out of course, "You are not in your normal form are you Ranma?"

Ranma sadly shook her head and said, "No….Jusenkyou…." her face was red with shame and embarrassment as well. Cologne just touched her arm and said, "No matter you are Ranma Saotome in whatever form and I would be proud to call you my granddaughter or my grandson."

It was a moment of acceptance that Ranma had not had in so very long. A moment when she felt she truly had a family and someone who cared. She hugged her new grandmother and if she cried no one would have faulted her for it. As she walked off the older lady said, "You will tell my granddaughter soon."

Ranma nodded her acceptance and said, "After we learn the Hiryu Shouten Ha grandmother."

Cologne nodded as well and the conversation was done. Training proceeded apace while Ranma's visit to her father had been delayed by four weeks by then. Unfortunately on the day that Ranma and Shampoo would learn the technique there was an accident at the granary where Ranma had just begun training her group of young Amazons in some simpler techniques.

One of the younger girls had said simply, "We should see Karu-chan's litter while we are here."

The rest of the group agreed and asked their mentor if would be all right to just peek inside. Not realizing the danger Ranma had nodded her assent and let the children look inside the granary. Not long after that each one had a demon in their hands. A small furry demon unleashed from Hell itself and they were moving towards her with them. Ranma backed away in sheer terror, backed directly into the door to the granary and stepped on mother Karu-chan's tail. After that, for Ranma, everything went dark.

An unknown amount of time later Ranma's eyes opened and he lashed out sending his father flying into a metal wall with a loud clang. The battle began in true earnest from there as she realized she was on a ship. Genma was rather unprepared for this new level of skill that Ranma presented, but was in luck as it had not quite transferred completely over to Ranma's male form which the young boy had not worn for eight months now. Thus Genma was able to guard enough to speak, "Foolish boy we must be leaving now. It is a matter of honor!"

Ranma stood down and stared at Genma, despite being male he still heard Beryl's voice saying, _"Be wary he is not to be trusted."_

Ranma snorted relaying that Beryl had not told him something he didn't already know. "What sort of honor old man?"

"The Saotome family honor and you will find out once we arrive in Tokyo." Ranma narrowed his eyes at Genma, but relented as he did not wish to swim the Sea of China again and he could always find another boat back once they arrived in Tokyo.

Not long after that they were in Tokyo and it was raining. The combat between the two was nearly the same as it would be in any number of alternate universes. The young girl fought well and would have defeated her foe had said foe not pulled up a street sign and slammed it on her head when she foolishly turned her back.

Some short period of time later and yet another remarkable scene was played out in the Tendo training hall. A girl and her panda arrived and an old man named Soun Tendo cried tears of joy, then tears of sadness as it was revealed that Ranma seemed to be a girl. An offer of friendship later and Akane Tendo stood across the dojo from Ranma Saotome. A very different young woman from the one she might have met. A woman with no compunctions about putting uppity females in their place for daring to believe they were better than her. This was a young woman who had been living and breathing Amazon skills and societal norms for eight months. The battle was over in moments, Akane Tendo had barely seen the girl move and then suddenly her arm was being hyper extended behind her back and quite painfully at that. In calculating voice the Redhead behind her said simply, "Yield."

Akane yielded saying, "Wow, you're quite good. I'm glad you're not a boy I'd hate to be beaten by a boy."

Ranma looked at her once and said, "Too late for that." Then she walked out of the Dojo and was sent upstairs to take a bath. The inevitable comedy of errors occurred and soon enough Ranma and Genma were making a poor show of explaining their curses. Still it was not long before Soun Tendo intervened and placed the boy in front of his daughters and asked him to choose one.

The elder daughters stepped back and presented the youngest as the perfect candidate, but this Ranma looked at the girl and said, "No"

That single word it resounded through the house and left silence in its wake. Ranma spoke again carefully choosing his words with assistance from his inner voice. "If this is truly a matter of family honor, then we should not be so hasty. I will decide upon a girl to marry based not on a few minutes of interaction, but instead upon mutual compatibility."

The room stayed silent and at least one of the sisters re-evaluated their opinion of the martial artist boy standing before them. Ranma continued looking at Soun and his father and saying, "I do not like this and feel that I ought to return to my tribe sisters in China, but I will stay for a time and determine if one of your daughters will indeed be compatible with me."

Chaos reigned again as Genma yelled and Soun cried tears of enjoyment utterly ignoring any portion of Ranma's statement that suggested the boy might choose anything other than one of his daughters. Even so order was eventually restored to the house and in at least one universe a table was not slammed over Ranma's head at this meeting.

Morning came and the Tendo household found Ranma assisting Kasumi with the meal before he was suddenly extricated by his father and taken into the backyard to be berated for his "Un-manly" behavior. Not too long after that the younger boy decided he had enough and beating the stuffing out of his father in their backyard sending him flying into the pond with a splash and a growf of displeasure from the newly formed Panda. Once that was done Ranma wandered into the kitchen and began once again to assist Kasumi as best as he was able.

In this case of helping the best Ranma was really able to manage was setting out the dishes and previously some chipping and dicing. The stove in the Tendo household was a far cry from the small wood burning equipment Ranma had learned on in the Amazon village.

A panda wandered back into the Tendo home, took a hot bath, and came down as Genma Saotome in more than enough time to scarf a large amount of food and then declare that Ranma was going to school. Ranma ended up agreeing with the idea without too much of a fight due to the fact that in addition to learning martial skills the Amazons also had their own small school. So, not long after Ranma was walking along a fence as Akane went to the school. "We don't know each other!"

Ranma looked around and then realized she was speaking to him. The first thoughts to cross his mind were insults, but his inner voice helped him refrain. Besides, she had already proven herself in combat. This Akane was no threat to her…his…Ranma shuddered…station.

Akane was looking at him as if awaiting a response and so he said, "You are right we don't know each other." Then he allowed her to continue past him as he pondered exactly what had just happened. He jumped down to the sidewalk and considered if he was male. No need to check body parts his appearance was male, but he had thought of himself as female for a moment there despite his current body. Did that mean his father was right? Was he truly less of a man?

His voice cut in and said, _"Ranma, you are you. Remember what grandmother Cologne said. Remember that it does not matter what your form is because you will always be Ranma Saotome."_

The voice said,_ "Besides, it certainly wasn't me who was looking at Shampoo with my jaw dropped that day we saw her nude"_ That little reminder made him somewhat aroused and then sent him running towards the school trying to forget about this problem.

Ranma arrived at the school in time to see Akane punt some guy in a blue hakama into a wall and walk into school in an obviously foul mood. Ranma followed behind and saw the rest of the destruction in Akane's wake and wondered exactly what he had missed with all these boys laying about and that other boy being taken to the nurse's office by one Nabiki Tendo.

Ranma saw that and decided to assist picking up two other boys and following behind the other Tendo girl. While walking next to her he said, "So, what happened?"

Nabiki explained that it happened every morning because the boy with the blue hakama who he helped put into a bed had declared that no one could date Akane without defeating her in combat. While this made some strange sense to Ranma who noted the Amazon laws, it was still very odd because in such a melee there could be no clear winner and Akane could not marry them all.

Ranma shrugged and left Nabiki with the boy named Tatewaki Kuno who she apparently charged for his escort to the Nurse. The young martial artist then began to head out to assist anymore unconscious young men, but decided against it when he saw that it was raining. He had been willing to help the stupid males, but not if it meant triggering his curse in front of them.

Sometime later Ranma was in the hall due to his tardiness and back to contemplating his inner self and appropriate gender pronouns. She had been an Amazon for eight months only, while he had been a male martial artist for nearly sixteen years. Of course Beryl had apparently been a Queen for nearly twenty years and so the Amazon and female part felt just as appropriate as the Martial artist and male. It was a complex tangle of emotions, feelings, and wants. One that was not helped by an overbearing father who apparently despised any hint of what Genma termed "unmanly" behavior.

Ranma sighed and then suddenly dodged desperately out of the way as Kuno ran down the hall yelling about Ranma's engagement to Akane, then attacked with his wooden boken. To a Ranma with eight months of Amazon training the blow might as well have been delivered by post and so he avoided the blow easily and in return slipped directly behind the other boy and slammed a fist into the back of his head. The blow sent Kuno staggering, but amazingly to Ranma's eyes not into unconsciousness.

The boy with a boken staggered to his feet and swung again, so Ranma decided to take the fight outside so as to avoid destroying too much of the school's property. A dash, a quick turn and a jump out the window to a perfect landing outside is what he had planned on. The school pool being directly in their line of descent was not. A sploosh into the pool later and Ranma was desperately trying to swim off, but Kuno caught up to her and grabbed her breast.

In her righteous anger Ranma thought quickly and decided on the perfect course of action using the Technique taught to her by Cologne high in the snowy mountains she thought to herself, _"Fist of the Ice Bear revised Shark Fist!" _

A blast of high pressure water slammed into Kuno, blasted him across the pool and flung him out onto the ground. A red haired girl followed after it and slammed a foot into his head for good measure and then ran off.

Not long after that Ranma was back in classes and listening to his teacher while attempting to avoid the wild mass guessing and questioning that he was receiving from the other students. Thankfully the school day ended and he walked back to the Tendo domicile on his own.

Once he was at the Tendo home Ranma, prodded by Beryl, pulled out his books and began the pieces of homework that had been assigned. It did not take long and he finished as Nabiki came home. Nabiki looked at him putting his books away and said, "Homework Saotome, I wouldn't have guessed it about you."

Ranma pondered the statement and shrugged. She was probably right he wouldn't have done his homework before his trip into Jusenkyo and the Amazon village, but that had been a different time and place. He looked at her and just shrugged having no real response that he wanted to voice.

Nabiki was still standing there so he decided to take a gamble on a hunch and said, "So, how did Kuno get the idea that I was engaged to Akane?"

Nabiki looked back at him and said, "It's all around school ever since you said you were staying here at The Tendo house. I guess people just got the wrong idea."

Nabki's eyes were cool and she was giving off barely anything which might suggest she was being anything but honest. Truly Ranma wouldn't have thought she was lying, but his good friend and body companion said, _"She is lying of course."_

Ranma nodded to himself and said, "Oh, well I did try to correct the misapprehension a few times telling people that our fathers arranged myself and one of the Tendo daughters. In addition I told them that it was not a definite happening as I have not chosen one of you and may not do so."

Nabiki smiled a little secretive smile and said, "Well be careful of Kuno he hates to lose."

As Nabiki walked off Ranma just laughed. The young Kuno boy might as well have been a toddler for all that he could challenge Ranma's skills. Thousands of years of Chinese Amazon history would not fall to the likes of some mere Japanese male.

Ranma's thoughts were proven the very next day. Akane ran into the school fighting the horde of young men and Ranma stood back wondering if he should ask her if she wanted help and deciding against it. It was quite obvious that the girl did not like him and so he would be better served staying out of her way. Kuno on the other hand waited and allowed the girl to pass him by deciding to instead focus on Ranma. The battle was entirely one sided and young Kuno ended up unconscious again.

A pattern began to establish itself into Ranma's life for the next few weeks. Wake and help Kasumi with breakfast, spar with his father, go to school and fight Kuno at least once, avoid Akane, have some form of verbal spar with Nabiki, help with dinner, spar with his father again, and sleep.

There was not as joy and warmth in this new pattern in Ranma's life. Yes, the eldest Tendo was a nice person, yes sparring was indeed fun, but Ranma missed Shampoo and her tribe sisters. Ranma missed the challenges Grandmother Cologne would hand out. His father seemed to be slacking off as if training was less important now. All that seemed to matter to the elder Saotome was the engagement and it was causing an obvious divide because Ranma wouldn't commit to any of the sisters and was rather obviously avoiding at least one of them. This was especially the case after the last dinner fiasco.

Kasumi had been out with some of her friends and Ranma was about to begin cooking in her stead so the young boy walked into the kitchen only to find Akane already there. The other girl was rushing to and fro asking one item not to burn and slathering some unknown substance on some other item. Ranma couldn't think of a nice way to speak to the girl and seeing the damage she was causing didn't really feel like it. The red haired girl's voice rose in a stern tone as she said, "What are you doing?"

Akane turned and said, "What does it look like. I'm making dinner of course, not that you would know anything about it." The girl hmphed and continued her task as Ranma processed the statement.

Words utterly failed the red haired girl for a few moments until Beryl came to the fore and added her specific comments saying, "No, you are not making anything that might conceivably be called dinner. Indeed, my grandmother would take you out back and punish you for the utter horror that you are performing in this space. However, if you will merely step aside I can possibly salvage something here and begin making an actual dinner."

Akane turned beet red and threw a sauce pan directly at Ranma, but the red haired girl was already in motion. Moments later Akane was unconscious and set on a couch in the living room while Ranma cleaned up the mess and began again. By the time she was done and food was on the table the story had gotten to the two so called adults in the house who proceeded to berate Ranma for her actions. While a fuming Akane tossed in her own insults and looked on.

Having enough of that treatment Ranma left the room and went for a long walk. By the time he had come home the house was quiet and the young man slipped into bed unnoticed until the next morning whereupon he continued his daily activities unabated except for the simple smile and whispered "thank you" from Kasumi who he was helping with breakfast.

Soon after that Ranma's pattern was again broken when he approached school only to hear a new voice shout, "Ranma Saotome prepare to die!"

After the shout a young boy with black hair and fangs attacked him with a large umbrella. Ranma easily sidestepped the attack and sent his nemesis flying. The other boy was made of sterner stuff than Kuno though and came back with a vengeance. Ranma dodged the strikes and said, "Do I know you?"

That phrase just made the young man angrier as he shouted, "Curse you for forgetting me, Ryouga Hibiki. For that and for making my life hell you will die!"

More useless swipes of the large umbrella later and Ranma with Beryl's help had finally dug up the old memory, "Oh, you're that Ryouga, how've you been?" Ranma paused and then said, "Oh no, wait that's right your life is hell now because of me. I would have thought that some bread and you being late for our duel would ruin your life. I don't suppose you'd like to explain would ya?"

Ryouga did not seem inclined to explain instead opting for more attacks with his umbrella which Ranma easily avoided. "Maybe a hint Ryouga?" Ranma said as he dodged another blow in their running battle. Sadly an answer would not be forthcoming as young Ryouga had taken a left when Ranma had taken a right and now the yellow bandana clad boy was nowhere to be seen.

Ranma sighed and walked back to school as Beryl spoke saying, _"Well that was certainly odd. From your memories I would expect hostility, but not nearly at that level. Is it possible he's been possessed by a youma?"_

Ranma shrugged having heard about these youma and their effects from Beryl and her time in the ancient Terran Kingdom, but never actually having seen one he couldn't be sure. It was a bothering idea and so he headed home to begin working with Beryl on ways in which he might remove the youma without killing Ryouga.

The first attempts in his male body failed to produce anything more than ruined items and so Ranma switched to her female form. This change gave her better feeling for the instructions Beryl was giving and allowed her to work small magics as well. Many days later Ranma was now in her female body, in tune with the magics as Beryl instructed and able to work with as many components as she could scrounge up and this had allowed her to make a crude youma detector. Ranma sighed as she finished the work and thought, _"Of course after using this if Ryouga actually turns out to be possessed we'll still have to figure out how to get that thing out of him without killing him"_

Beryl sighed internally as well and said, _"We would need access to much higher priced equipment for that purpose. If it is the case that young Ryouga is possessed we may need to speak with Nabiki again about posing for pictures."_

Ranma gritted her teeth, _"For Kuno to letch on me some more. That's a pretty high price to pay Beryl. I know you really liked that prince Endymion and he was a poet too, but I'm sorry I don't see anything to appreciate in that or in Kuno."_

Beryl found herself agreeing with Ranma and realizing that Endymion had been something of a dreamer and a romantic. He had been good to look at, but perhaps not as useful material for marriage as she had thought, now that Shampoo she had a lovely body and lustrous hair and young Kasumi was pleasant and warm and very good looking. Beryl stopped her thought process wondering where that had come from she wasn't attracted to women….was she?

While Beryl had been thinking to herself in Ranma's mindscape she found herself once again close to the dark box. It was solid black metal fitted with dark chains and it scared her greatly. She stepped slowly away knowing that this was a bad place to be a source for nightmares with biting claws and fangs. She quickly moved away from the area and back towards Ranma's conscious mind where she said, _"I agree Ranma young Kuno has little to appreciate and perhaps Endymion was not right for me after all. Even so we will need money if we wish to purchase items to make what we need"_

Ranma shook her head and sighed knowing that Beryl was probably right as getting a job, attending school; practicing, and helping around the house would not all be possible. Little did she realize that events would make doing all those items at the same time seem simplistic indeed.

Nabiki, of course, had been watching the young Saotome boy and then girl work on her project and began to see him as a definite treasure. Whatever he was doing was obviously very technological and as far as history suggested he had been living in the wilderness most of his life. This wasn't just any martial arts jock he was a puzzle to be solved. So, with that in mind young Nabiki approached Ranma as he finished with his device and said, "So, what is it Saotome?"

Ranma pointed the crude looking device's sensor at Nabiki and took a reading. "Hmm, well it seems to be working and I don't think it's none a your business Nabiki."

Nabiki smirked and said, "Au contraire Ranma when my fiancé is out here doing who knows what I should take an interest right? After all maybe it's something I might be interested in and thus make us finally understand each other and fall in love."

Ranma snorted at that and Nabiki added, "Also, I could tell your father you are done and you've actually made something and mister 'That's unmanly' would be out here breaking it into tiny pieces."

Ranma knew Nabiki was right, after all as a boy he had had to fight her father on numerous occasions just to be out here and then finally when he was a girl she had just taken to calling it practice and sneaking the components in for after she was done with the practice. With a sigh Ranma said, "It's a youma detector."

Nabiki blinked twice and then looked at Ranma closely. The boy certainly believed what he was saying, but the very idea seemed preposterous. Then again so did a boy who turned into a girl with a splash of cold water. With that in mind Nabiki said, "Can you demonstrate?"

"I already did, it says you're human." Ranma replied.

Nabiki recalled that he had pointed it at her earlier or at least the dish part at her. "Okay, so what do you plan to do with it?"

"I'm going to use it on Ryouga when he shows up; I think he was way too angry to be a regular human."

Nabiki chuckled and said, "Did you ever consider that he was just insane?"

Ranma shrugged and said, "Well better safe than sorry right?"

The two parted ways after a few more comments, but the young Saotome had become newly valuable in Nabki's eyes.

Later that night Ryouga found the Tendo Dojo and attacked Ranma in bed. The young Saotome smashed him through a window and outside into the rain. Ranma then rushed out transforming in mid leap and shouting, "I have had just about enough of you!"

Ryouga barely avoided the kick and said, "You know nothing of my pain Ranma I followed you after you failed to show up! I followed you all the way to China!"

Ranma dodged kicks and punches after that revelation suddenly realizing exactly what had happened. Beryl too remembered and said, _"He is the boy accidentally you knocked into the spring when we were chasing Genma." _

Above the sound of rain Ranma said, "Ah man, I'm really sorry Ryouga, I didn't mean to knock you into a spring."

The words did not help matters as Ryouga shouted, "You! You were the one! Die Ranma; die for making my life hell!"

The blows were easy to avoid and so Ranma did, maneuvering herself to where she had stashed the youma detector and pointing it at Ryouga. The reading was negative and so the young Saotome ended the fight with a few well placed punches. Once Ryouga fell unconscious into a mud puddle a small black pig took his place and at that point the detector made a strange sound.

Ranma pulled the device out and pointed it at the small pig. The screen simply said, "Cursed Human". Ranma looked at it again and then pointed it at herself the screen read, "Class M Human"

By now she was wondering if she had constructed it correctly when Beryl said, _"The device is not working as well as I had hoped. Young Ryouga should have shown up as cursed before now, but it did not trigger until the transformation. Then again Jusenkyou's magic may be more difficult to detect when in ones natural state than I had previously thought."_

"_Okay, but what about me?"_ Ranma queried his live in spirit and mentor.

"_Apparently it does not show Jusenkyo as a curse on you and is instead classifying you as a Class M Human. This would normally be reserved for someone who had magical powers like myself, Queen Serenity, an earth guardian, or one of the guardians of the Moon Kingdom."_

Ranma took the unconscious pig into the house along with his few belongings and clothes questioning Beryl as she walked, _"So I'm magically enhanced, but not cursed?"_

Beryl pondered the question and said, _"I believe that is an accurate statement. It is possible that the work we have done with magic has changed your body so that this form is also your natural state. Instead of a curse you are magically enhanced with the ability to become a girl and a magic user"_

Ranma looked sad a moment and then turned it aside. So she was stuck now or she supposed that it was more accurate to say, "Blessed with suck" She would handle it and return to the village as soon as she could honorably say she had given the Tendo girls a chance.

By now Ranma was inside the house, transformed into a boy, and drying off. He looked to the little piglet and said, "So what am I going to do with you?"

The piglet roused itself and rushed to the attack. A spwak of Ranma's hand later and the creature was unconscious again. Ranma sighed and looked about the house for a small cage. Not finding one he decided to go with the hamper, upended it and put it on the pig with a note to Kasumi saying that Ranma would clean up the mess in the morning.

By the time Ranma woke up to clean the mess in the morning Ryouga and all of his things were gone. Somehow the boy had woken up, pushed the hamper off himself, washed up and then gotten lost on his way to kill his foe. It would be pathetically hilarious. . . Ranma laughed and realized that it was hilarious in a way. Wiping the tears of laughter off his face the young Saotome went down to help Kasumi with breakfast.

After school that day Ranma was being berated by his father in the living room while Nabiki watched the news. "Ranma you aren't even trying!"

Ranma looked at him and said, "That ain't true it's just that we have so little in common."

"Boy! You spend quite a bit of time with Kasumi in the kitchen she would be a perfect match for you!" Genma yelled.

Ranma shrugged and it might be true, she was rather beautiful, but the problem there was the age difference. He was relatively sure that Kasumi saw him more like a younger brother than a potential mate and taking her out of the running meant he wasn't interested in the other two girls. With these thoughts in his head Ranma missed quite a bit more of Genma's rant and then as usual it proceeded towards violence. While the bout was longer than usual Ranma was able to use his hard won knowledge from the Amazons and took Genma down using a variation of the splitting cat hairs technique.

Walking back inside Ranma glimpsed the TV screen and then did a double take as Beryl shouted, _"It's her!"_

Looking at the "her" in this case Ranma saw a blonde haired girl wearing a distressingly short skirt and apparently outfitted something like a female sailor might look. Beryl identified her as Princess Serenity as Ranma watched her trip and fall to the ground, somehow avoiding by sheer luck a swipe from what was obviously a youma. A black haired girl outfitted in a similar outfit as the blonde, but with red trim shouted, "Lookout meatball head!" and proceeded to toss a pile of flames into the youma's mouth. The burning monster screamed for a moment and then was hit by another attack from outside of the Camera's view.

As the scene faded away the reporter was saying, "That was the scene in Juuban today where the group calling themselves the Sailor Senshi fought yet another of these strange creatures and defeated it. So far police have no leads on the creatures or the Sailor girls."

Beryl identified the other girls they had seen as the Senshi of Mars and Venus respectively while the news continued onto other stories and Ranma sat in a couch wondering how girls from Beryl's ancient past could possibly still be alive. Ranma was not alone in his wondering, because Beryl was as well. She was desperate to know what happened after she had died and to be honest so was Ranma. The only problem was that now there were actually youma running about and attacking people. _"I can handle them Beryl really I can."_ Ranma thought to his inner visitor.

Beryl said, carefully, _"Ranma, remember what I said. They eat life energy. Touching them at all with your hands will sap your strength just as assuredly as if they hit you and they can drain energy from afar. We need magical protection before you even think of trying to go find the Princess and her allies."_

Ranma didn't' like that idea at all he was one of the best Martial Artists around and these were just some demon things. Beryl cut him off saying, _"Please Ranma, if you won't think about making protection at least take a weapon."_

Nabiki, who had also been watching the news, was now looking at Ranma. She smiled and said, "So Ranma why were you so interested in that pretty girl? Not planning on cheating on your marriage arrangements are you?"

She had obviously chosen the moment perfectly because Kasumi and Akane had both been walking into the room at that moment. Akane just frowned and said, "He was just looking at her skirt that pervert!"

Ranma declined to defend himself from the statement and so Akane humphed and said, "Well stay away from my sisters you pervert!"

Again Ranma declined to comment and so the youngest Tendo sat there fuming while her older sister looked on with a curious expression saying, "I don't know. Why don't you tell us more Ranma?"

Possession by an ancient Queen and a story of a Moon Kingdom were preposterous by nearly any standards and so Ranma said, "Well I learned about youma some time ago and I thought Ryouga had been one ya know. Then I took time ta build a detector like my uh . . . mentor had instructed."

He was scrambling to find words now and finished quickly by saying, "He wasn't a youma though, but seein one made fer real me want ta watch what was happening on TV."

Beryl shuddered as in the face of three women and a huge bout of nerves the boy totally lost every bit of poise and dictation that she had been trying to instill for months now. Even so it seemed that they might be buying the story which was true to a certain degree. Beryl corrected her assessment Kasumi was buying the story, while Akane obviously thought it was some front for perversion and Nabiki was probably digesting it to determine how much he was lying by omission.

Even so none of the girls was asking for more clarification and so Ranma was able to excuse himself and walk back out to the Dojo where he examined a number of the weapons. Once done, selecting a simple staff, he went back inside and began helping Kasumi with the evening meal. Working with the older woman Ranma realized that while they often exchanged pleasantries and had been working together for nearly a month now he didn't know much about her at all other than the fact that she was pretty, very nice, and went out with her friends on Wednesdays.

Still it wasn't much less than he knew quite about the other two girls. Nabiki was a pretty girl, cunning, and obviously out for herself and probably a name in the world. She was the consummate capitalist with a small, possibly minute, space in her heart for her family above anyone else. Akane was also a pretty girl when she wasn't angry, she was impatient, rather selfish, and obviously spoiled.

Even so Ranma found himself wondering what Kasumi wanted out of life, where she was going with her life and if he wanted to be a part of that. His heart thumped in his chest at that idea Kasumi was so different from Shampoo. Shampoo had been her shield sister, her best friend for eight months, and a source for some terribly erotic dreams. Kasumi was gentle and kind, a lovely young lady who would make anyone a perfect wife. Yeah there was that Doctor Tofu guy he had met briefly, but that seemed as one way as her relationship with Ranma.

Ranma sighed as he realized one again that any feeling he might have for Kasumi must assuredly be one way and that Shampoo was a vast distance away and he had never gotten the chance to tell her about the curse.

By the time dinner was served that night Ranma was in a full on depression. He was silent and just going through the motions. By the time he was in bed Ranma couldn't sleep. So, to take his mind off his current depressive thoughts the young man grabbed his makeshift youma detector, his staff, and went to the train station.

Once in the Juuban area Ranma pulled out his detector and realized that it wasn't functioning at all. He tapped it a few times and nothing. He frowned slightly and then Beryl suggested a transformation via cold water. One transformation later and bingo the detector was working fine in her hands although it was only detecting humans at that moment.

Ranma grumbled slightly as she walked around and Beryl explained that the detector was meant to work with people who could use magic and as with the construction process when he couldn't do any magic in his male form it was now very clear that only the female form had any magical ability. It wasn't exactly a new concept for Ranma, who had been getting more used to his gender switching and the possibility that it might be permanent, but it was still annoying. The red haired girl grumbled some more for good measure and continued her walking about with the detector knowing that it was a long shot, but certainly better than being depressed and staring at the ceiling at the Tendo place.

Despite the odds Ranma's detector pinged and gave a warning. Standing in rags and holding out a cup was an elderly gentleman begging for yen. Ranma walked closer and realized that this was not a human at all, it was a monster under its coat and hat and it was just barely wearing a wrinkled human face. As Ranma approached she could feel the drain on her chi, she tried to rein it in, but the trickle continued. To make matters worse the creature had seen her and was moving closer speaking in a dark voice it said, "Oh delicious, come closer little one. You will feed me and give me great honor when I return to Queen Beryl."

Ranma suddenly had a thousand questions, but they were all put aside as she had to dodge the creature's sudden attack. A giant black claw struck out and she barely dodged to the side, even worse the drain on her chi was increasing. Dodging another attack she panted with near exhaustion and quickly ran towards the creature with staff in hand slamming it across the street and into a wall.

The creature got up a mangled and broken head on its body began to slowly re-knit itself and the drain continued. She had a minute at most and then she would be done. But, she was an Amazon trained by the best and she would not be defeated by an energy sucking leech. Barely dodging another claw she thrust her staff into the creature's front hundreds of times a second using the Amaguriken technique. The creature was blasted into another wall, but Ranma continued with it thrusting and thrusting at high speeds with an Amazon battle cry until she was literally covered with the creature's blood and gore and then it turned to dust.

Ranma fell to her knees in pure exhaustion the price of this battle had been nearly all of her reserves. She was working on spit and sheer determination by the end, but she had won. Slowly she stood up and using the staff to help support herself she slowly walked back to the train station. By the time she got back to the Tendo house and collapsed into her bed all thoughts about her previous depression were entirely gone.

Author's Notes: Don't know if I'll get back to Baba Yaga, but this idea has been demanding I write it for some time. The words flew onto the page and I feel like I can take this out for some real action. Special thanks to Ozzallos and "Bits of China" without which this story wouldn't exist.


	2. Chapter 2

-Chapter 2-

In the deep of the night Beryl sat up in Ranma's mindscape watching with interest as the boy dreamt with chaotic swirling images. Brief glances of someone labeled 'mother' other moments in the wilderness being yelled at by Genma Saotome, "Be a man boy!" and other such epithets warred with images of young women listening to Ranma as she trained them, girls who looked up to her as a Tribe Sister and teacher. Days and weeks of grueling training and her honor as one of the Tribe's top warriors fought against years with his father on the road being scolded for being a 'girl' for being 'weak' and then stealing. In dreams Ranma was stealing from stores, from carts, and even people walking along the street. He was committing crimes, losing his honor with each petty theft and what was more losing respect for his father whose ideas of training were too often mistakes that without his vast ability to learn would have left Ranma crippled or worse.

The boy's mind was warring with his self image, with who he was and his own sexual identity. Was she a warrior woman high in standing and honor in her tribe bringing new techniques and ways to learn to her sisters or was he a young man the best martial artist in his generation, but adrift and trying to find his honor.

Beryl watched and wished she could guide him to a place of ease, but she knew her presence in these dreams would not be helpful. Indeed Beryl represented training in magical powers that Ranma could only use in his female form. It was another rock that slammed into his self image and made the poor boy wonder if he was actually a she. Beryl watched and wanted to help, but she had her own issues to deal with tonight, her own nightmares that were even now beginning to consume her.

The ancient Queen of Terra screamed as she was killed by her trusted advisor Kaolinite literally stabbed in the back again and again. Then she was awake and someone else was controlling her body, someone else was rushing away from a pool of water filled with rage and anger at a Panda or 'Stupid ol Man!' Desperately she tried to move her own limbs, but they would not obey, she shouted and screamed begging it all to stop and then she was shoved away. She was pushed into a dark recess and ignored forever.

She woke with a mental scream and disrupted Ranma's nightmares as well waking the boy up. Ranma stood and shivered with fear of something and then slowly walked to the bathroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror. There were dark circles under his eyes and his voice sounded wistful as he said, "Who am I?"

Beryl didn't have an answer for him; indeed she hardly had an answer for herself. Once she had been Queen of Terra and in love with a young and handsome prince and now she was a phantom in her own body and despite herself she was in love with two very different women, much like Ranma himself was.

Beryl could feel fear washing over Ranma as he said, _"Do you want to try walking Beryl san?"_

Trepidation filled her as well, he must have heard her thoughts or felt her sadness at being unable to control her own body and so he was offering her a chance. He was offering her a chance to allow him lose himself and run away. She realized that if she took control at this moment Ranma would retreat and despite her own needs and wants she had grown to love this young man and couldn't let him do that to himself. She couldn't let him give up or lose, Ranma Saotome didn't lose. So she said,_ "No thank you Ranma and why don't you practice in that form this morning."_

Ranma nodded and went off to his practice and sparring with his father. The crisis was averted and his outer shell of confidence was back. She sighed to herself and wished that instead of taking another class in fighting tactics in the academy that she had instead taken the course in psychology.

Despite his own internal war between man and woman Ranma continued to spend time in his female form learning magic from Beryl and working on a device that would prevent him from being drained by youma. "This is a complete piece of junk!" Ranma tossed a shirt with a battery, an old circuit board, and miscellaneous components sewn into it to the ground. The device sparked with electricity which set off a chain reaction in the magical signatures and started to burn. Ranma hastily put the fire out and frowned, learning magic from Beryl had been hard, but with something so useful and potentially adaptable to martial arts Ranma spent the time and learned them. In fact she may have neglected her school homework for the magical lessons, but in this case Beryl hadn't complained.

With her training Ranma could now use small magics in her female form and write runic instructions and forms into cloth and circuits, however it just wasn't enough to create a functioning outfit that would protect her from being drained and potentially even access her magical core while a male.

She was relatively certain she could erect a magical barrier that would keep herself from being drained, but it would last about twenty seconds at the moment which might or might not be enough time to take out a youma of the same caliber she had last faced. Also, that path wouldn't give Ranma the ability to use magic while male. So, she was left with waiting until she could erect a longer standing magical barrier which might take months and wouldn't be what Ranma really needed or she could build an outfit.

The results of the attempt to build an outfit were in charred remains at her feet and so Ranma was frustrated. That was when Beryl spoke up saying, _"If the components were better we could make something better Ranma. Just one or two of the best computer models we saw in those magazines would be more than enough spare parts."_

Ranma snorted, those things were expensive and she wasn't going to turn her back on her honor and again to become a thief like her father. Approaching Nabiki with that picture idea was sounding more and more worthwhile. Ranma sighed, picked up the ruined shirt and device, threw them into the trash and walked inside. It was after dinner so the middle sister would be in her room most likely listening to J-pop and planning some scheme or other much like the one she had when Ryouga returned last time.

Stopping by the bathroom for some warm water Ranma now paused at the door ruefully remembering the poor lost boy thinking he had half a chance in battle because of a bottle of aspirin. Ranma had ended up literally dodging a telephone pole, but even so he took Ryouga down yet again. Nabiki had probably profited off that fight and here he was about to knock on the girl's door. He clenched his teeth and finally struggled through his annoyance to knock on the door.

Moments later the door opened and Nabiki smiled with a predatory gleam in her eye, "Why Ranma what brings you to my room this late at night. Surely you aren't intending on anything indecent?"

Ranma just shook his head and said, "I need some money."

Nabiki looked at him and said, "Did our fathers put you up to taking us each out on a date again?"

"No," Ranma replied remembering that little fiasco. He'd tried a movie with Akane and dinner, but the girl just stormed out of the theatre soon after they sat down basically telling him to go to hell for thinking she would allow herself to be groped by him in the dark. The date with Nabiki had been easier, but there was no spark. It was just her trying to pull as much money out of him and their fathers as she could. The final date with Kasumi might have been good, but it didn't get farther than Akane attacking him for taking her sister to the movies to grope her. After that they had to take the unconscious form of the youngest Tendo girl back home, which was probably better in Ranma's mind. He really didn't want Kasumi to know his feelings for her, didn't want her to feel sorry for him.

"Okay so what is it then?" Nabiki asked pulling Ranma out of his reverie.

Ranma hesitated and then said, "I'm working on a project like the last one. Something based off what my mentor taught me."

Nabiki smirked and said, "You know Mr. Saotome doesn't recall ever bringing you to a teacher who knew about technology or who would have taught you such things."

Ranma sighed and with Beryl's assistance in wording he said, "I'd like to do something about the youma problem in Juuban. It's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak."

Nabiki snorted at what she must have felt was his outdated sense of morality, but she said, "All right Saotome this will cost you a favor in return, now how much?"

Ranma looked back at her and said, "I need 100,000 yen."

Nabiki looked at him and said, "Cute Saotome, real cute. I can't help you with that, not even if you were interested in posing for some pictures for Kuno."

Ranma saw that by her body language she was now annoyed with him so he nodded and said, "My apologies for taking your time." Then he walked off. Hearing Nabki's door shut he sighed and walked back to his room. It had been a long shot, but he had to try. He sighed in his bedroll, looked up at the ceiling and said, "I guess I'll just have to wait two months then."

Beryl sighed as well in his mind and wished she could help him gain the money or learn the skills even faster. Then she realized that while she couldn't someone else certainly could and so she said, _"We could contact Grandmother Cologne, she might be willing to help."_

Beryl winced internally even after she had said that. Ranma was still having issues with his conflicting sexes and life in addition to guilt for having deceived people in the Amazon village. He wanted to contact Cologne and yet at the same time knew that doing so would hasten his/her admission to any village sisters that she was actually a male. Ranma sighed and said, _"You're right actually. I'll send her a letter telling her that I am well and in Japan. I'll explain the youma situation and ask if she can help me with funds."_

Beryl was proud of the boy turned girl. Not only, was he facing up against his difficulties in this life but also, despite the seemingly minor progress with magic Ranma had actually done what had once been thought impossible. No one in the history of the kingdom of Terra had mastered the small magics, Ranma now knew, in less than a year's time. If he continued learning at that rate he'd be able to generate a defense field against youma draining in a month, maybe even less.

Even so, Beryl really wanted him to be able to make this suit so that he could access his magical core while in male form and meeting with Princess Serenity. If that suit could be finished then Ranma would be able to use his/her magical core for offense without worrying about draining or defense against magic without the magical garments he/she, would not be as prepared or defended. Beryl desperately hoped that Cologne could send some money and prayed for a miracle.

A few days later Ranma was closer to the goal by a small margin. He was actually pondering that fact while at the ice skating rink nominally with Akane. The fathers had once again foisted time to get to know each sister on Ranma and Akane and so here he was eating fish cakes and being somewhat bored when Akane ran towards him in a panic, "Ranma have you see P-chan?"

Ranma sighed, not even wanting to begin contemplating where Ryouga could have gotten himself lost to and because the entire situation was ludicrous. Akane had seen Ranma smash the piglet into a wall and decided right then and there to protect the creature from him and adopted it for her own. Ranma's first inclination at the time had been to simply tell Akane the news and so he had walked into her room and said, "Akane I think you should know something about that pig."

Akane had just screamed, called him a pervert and said she didn't want to hear anything he had to say against a poor defenseless piglet. So, here he was watching her gesticulate wildly about losing her pet while he was thinking of a way to say, "You idiot it's Ryouga!"

As he was about to say exactly that another young girl with long flowing brown hair and a cute pink outfit flounced into the eating area with the piglet in her arms. Ranma simply pointed and said, "Is it that piglet?"

Akane turned to the other girl and practically screamed, "Give me back my P-chan."

"Oh no you must be mistaken this is Azusa's little Charlotte."

"No it's my P-chan. You can't have him."

The claims went back and forth until a young gentleman in a fancy outfit came up to the two, took the piglet from Azusa's hand and gave it to Akane explaining that his partner was basically a kleptomaniac. Akane smiled at him and murmured a thank you when the young gentleman swept her up and as an apparent repayment for rescuing her piglet he kissed her on the lips. Ranma winced at that and knew the outcome even as it happened and Akane smashed her fist into the young boy's head and implanted him into the floor. This gave Azusa enough time to put a small pink ribbon around P-chan's neck and declare that 'Charlotte' was hers.

Akane argued the fact and somehow the two of them ended up agreeing to a skating competition to determine who 'Charlotte' would belong to. Ranma just rubbed his face and walked out of the rink not wanting to be any part of another failure of Akane's.

Beryl cut in as he walked off saying, _"You know she wasn't all that bad in that match against Kodachi."_

"_Not with any help from me except when she nearly tripped on that ball. That near win of hers was all Ryouga"_

"_Yes but, I don't think Ryouga will be able to help her unless he wants to choke himself to death on that collar."_

Ranma sighed and agreed with Beryl that he would try to help Akane win her match against Azusa. This soon led to Ranma getting on the ice and falling on his butt. Akane laughed at him and asked how he would train her if he didn't even know how to skate. Ranma ignored the provocation and said, "Give me a couple days to learn this part and come back."

Akane left the building laughing, but Ranma just stood up and started over. He fell numerous times and so by the time he was done for the day it was a red haired girl who was sodden wet and just barely able to skate who was nearly toppled by Azusa and then rescued by one Mikado Sanzenain. Beryl recognized his attempt to kiss her and warned Ranma who quickly responded before lip contact with a fist directly into Mikado's face. The boy toppled onto the ice nearly taking the girl in his arms with him, but Ranma easily slipped out of his unconscious grasp and skated off.

A day later had Ranma once again at the skating rink with Akane and her pet pig attempting to show the other girl a few possibilities for combat on the ice. Akane began to listen at first, but soon enough Ranma's mouth got him in trouble despite Beryl's best efforts he seemed incapable of not insulting the girl as if she turned on his antagonism meter or something.

Ranma finally stalked off determined to just let Akane lose the match. The only flaw in that plan was that young Ryouga would end up stuck as a pig in Azusa Shiratori's house and with that collar on the poor boy would not be able to transform. However, the solution to that problem hit Ranma as he arrived at the dojo and transformed into a girl to begin working on her magic and sorting through various components. She grabbed the wire cutters that were in her tools and ran back to the skating rink.

Once at the rink Ranma found P-chan, snipped his collar and brought the piglet into the bathroom when she transformed him back into a boy. Ryouga proceeded to attack, but Ranma easily blocked them and said, "Look I don't have time for this pork brain. If you don't want to end up as a trophy you best stop attackin me and get down there to help Akane."

Ryouga nodded his assent and Ranma led the boy to the ice. Unfortunately Ryouga had the exact same problem as Ranma had originally and thus couldn't skate at all. Even so Ranma knew that Ryouga's weird grudge with him would provide all the impetus the other boy might need and so skated off saying, "Come an' get me bacon bits"

Ryouga rushed onto the ice after Ranma and was indeed able to stand and skate with rage giving him the impetus to do so. After about twenty minutes of avoiding Ryouga the young Saotome skated off the ice, looked at Akane and said, "I present Ryouga Hibiki your new skating instructor."

In stereo the two shouted at Ranma and tried to attack. Ranma avoided both and skated off saying, "You'll be perfect for each other."

Ranma spent the next few days avoiding Ryouga and Akane hoping that the cursed pig boy didn't accidentally get lost again. Unfortunately for Ryouga he did get lost and ended up with Azusa and her horrifying collection of pilfered and French named items. Luckily for the lost boy he was taken to the match by Azusa and shown as the prize.

Ranma sat in the stands not far from 'P-chan' and watched the battle down on the ice. Azusa clearly outmatched Akane in sheer skill, but the Tendo girl was a mountain of power and rage. Pirouettes and flips were lovely to watch and the girl's talent just spoke of someone who could be an Olympic star, but her punches and kicks just didn't quite have the power to take Akane down and unlike Kodachi Azusa couldn't make the rink move after throwing Akane into the air and then win that way.

It was simply a matter of time Azusa threw everything she had at Akane, but Akane had more than enough reserves to weather the storm. So when Azusa was finally too tired to move out of the way one of Akane's punches slammed into her and sent her under. With that Akane had won the match and rescued her little pig. She walked past Ranma on the way out and finally the boy said, "You know it's just Ryouga right?"

Akane stared at him tired and angry she said, "What do you mean Ranma?"

"Your pet pig is Ryouga, just like I turn into a girl he turns into that. I can't blame the guy for not telling ya and I'm glad ya rescued him, but before you went home to your room and undressed or something I thought I would tell ya."

Akane looked at Ranma and then down at her piglet. Finally she said, "We'll see if you're lying or not Ranma. But, somehow this has to be all your perverted fault!"

Ranma watched Akane stalk off with her pig in tow wondering why it was that he and she got along about as well as kerosene and matches. He shrugged to himself more determined to avoid the youngest Tendo girl and walked off to practice.

A day later Ranma was sitting next to his nominal friends in Furinkan and frowning slightly. Nabiki was still suggesting much too low a sum for any pictures of the Amazon goddess for Kuno and while Akane and Ryouga seemed to have hit it off after the skating match leaving him with one less potential fiancée it also seemed to have given him two rage induced psycho's who thought everything was his fault. While normally it would be good training for him to take the two of them out in battle it was seriously putting a damper on training in magic.

He pondered that last though a moment wondering if perhaps he should just add magical blasts to his next fight and then smiled to himself and took a bite from his sandwich. As he was chewing he wondered when he might get a letter from Grandmother Cologne, then suddenly there was an explosion from the wall next to him and he was in midair reflexes having taken over and thrown him away from the attack.

A figure stood in the dust and looked at him with clear anger in her eyes. "You, what have you done to my Tribe Sister?"

Ranma's mind boggled as he realized it was Shampoo her best friend in the village and so much more. Without hesitation he rushed forward to embrace her saying, "Shampoo. . ." only to come up short as a wicked blade swung towards him. Suddenly he realized the problem and then Shampoo was on the attack.

The blade barely missed his neck as Ranma dodged past Shampoo and headed out into the streets. Once outside he was on a desperate defense dodging Shampoo's blows as fast as he could. He wasn't quite fast enough and pain jolted down his arm as he missed a dodge and the blade sliced him this was not good. Not good at all, he had to stop her and quickly.

Unfortunately that was easier said than done as the battle with the purple haired girl raged on. She had been catching up with him in the village and she had probably had additional training from grandmother since Ranma had left. It was only with a combination of luck and skill that he was able to disarm her. But, that just meant an extension of the battle not necessarily a win. It was quite possible that sooner or later, even without her blade, Shampoo could hit him with something that might kill him. Seeing an opening he used it to kick off her approaching fist and disengage himself from the combat. The punch propelled jump sent him across the street where he shouted, "Wait Shampoo!"

The girl stared at him with anger clearly evident on her face, "I am waiting male. You tell me everything about what you have done to Ranma or you I kill."

She was deadly serious and Ranma couldn't quite blame her. If he thought someone had taken Shampoo he'd probably be out for blood too. His eyes desperately looked about the street and area for some water as he said, "Look Ranma's fine I swear. I'll even take you to her."

Shampoo growled low in her throat and said, "Very well, but if you think to trick me you is wrong."

After that the girl slowly approached him, picking up her deadly sword on her way. As Ranma walked off at sword point towards a cup of water he felt that this was not the way he wanted Shampoo to find out about his curse.

"Shampoo, I . . . look I'm sorry" Ranma Stammered

The girl just shoved her sword into his back and said, "March, show me sister male"

It was a long and slow walk as Ranma desperately though of some way to explain, to tell his best friend that he hadn't been tricking her and that . . . deep inside he loved her. But, there was no way to do that except to fight Shampoo and he didn't want to do that right now. Not for real, not to the death and so, despite his wants or desperate pleas he marched back to the school.

There at the school he found the table he had been sitting at. Despite the destruction of the wall and what must have been chaos in the room his drink was still sitting there. Its cool liquid seemed to be taunting him. It felt like the cup was saying this was his last chance, his last moment to change his life and it was ready to do so for the worse. Steeling his nerves as Shampoo jabbed him with her sword again he took the cup in his hands and said softly, "I'm sorry Shampoo, I should have told you earlier. . ." the water dumped over his head and he became a girl watching as the anger in his tribe sister's eyes faded and then turned into a look of sheer betrayal.

"Why. . ." the sword swung towards Ranma and she didn't even dodge. Even so the blade stopped right at her throat. She looked at Shampoo and the purple haired girl slowly took the sword away and with tears streaming down her eyes she said, "Were you ever my sister, ever my friend or were you just stupid male all that time!"

Ranma reached out her hand trying to explain how it had been, trying to undo the damage she had caused, but Shampoo was gone already running down the street after a barely heard Chinese statement, "goodbye forever"

The look of betrayal and sadness on Shampoo's face burned into Ranma's mind and he stood stock still. Shampoo's face and her final words slammed into the red haired girl like a truck. Goodbye to the girl who she had known so well for eight months, goodbye forever to her friend and ally, goodbye to the home she had known, forever goodbye. A soft voice nudged her out of the cycle and said, _"Ranma, go after her. You have to explain. . ."_

Beryl was right she had to find Shampoo, had to tell her that she was sorry for everything. She ran down the street as fast as she could desperately searching for her friend. She was desperately trying to find one of the women who was so dear to her heart. As she ran scenes from training rushed through her mind. Triumph at mastering the Amaguriken and her best friend next to her smiling happily, and then Shampoo re-dedicating and then mastering the move. Ranma had cheered happily as the purple haired girl also mastered the technique a week later. Pain as boulders smashed into her form, but a smile on her face nonetheless as Shampoo was right next to her being smashed as well. More memories of techniques, pressure points, training every day, and teaching young girls the art flashed through Ranma's memories and all of it was punctuated by Shampoo. She had always been there in the morning; she had always been there at night. All of those happy days with her friend flashed through her mind. All that time with her grandmother watching the two of them grow close and bond. Each day she would wake and plan to tell Shampoo the truth and each day she ended up not doing so. It had been perfect bliss to have such a friend and she hadn't wanted to ruin it.

Ranma searched for hours and hours wasting the entire day hoping she would find Shampoo and figure out what she could say to bring back her friend. Finally as the sun went down Ranma stood alone on the sidewalk she finally gave in to her emotions and cried. More accurately she bawled, curling up into a small ball and crying on the street desperately wishing for a miracle that would bring Shampoo back into her life.

When Ranma finally came back to the Tendo house she walked inside and up to Kasumi's room where the oldest Tendo girl would be reading a medical journal and listening to classical music. She rapped on the door and said, "I'm home, sorry I missed helping you with dinner Kasumi. There was. . . well an emergency."

With that pitiful explanation done Ranma walked back outside and stood in the darkness finally saying, _"Thank you for not saying 'I told you so'" _

Beryl who had been unsure how to comfort Ranma just whispered back, _"Oh Ranma, I wouldn't. I know what it is like to lose those you love. I know how it feels to have the one you love throw it back in your face. No, I wouldn't have said any such thing Ranma. I do not wish this sadness upon you. In all truth Ranma I love you."_

Ranma sat staring up at the stars, hoping that somehow this could be made right and smiling with a single tear running down her cheek. At least someone loved her, even if it was the voice in her head.

When Shampoo did not show up the next day, or the day after Ranma was sure the girl must have returned to the village in China. Slowly his spirits rose day by day and he went back to something of a routine. He became a girl every night and poured herself into learning more and more from Beryl and as a side effect her math class became one in which, as a boy, he started receiving A's.

After seven days Ranma was still somewhat glum, but the hard exterior of confidence and bravado was back. She had a clock on the wall and looking at that clock she went through a number of attacks, defenses, and such while keeping her magical shield up. Tossing a few mana bolts here and there was a difficult addition, but she was still able to keep the shield up for an entire minute. After that she could toss a few more mana bolts and then she was left with only her chi and all of her accumulated martial abilities associated with that. It seemed as if both of her reserves were refilled by resting and meditating, but that she could not increase one using the other.

Still, what she had was probably enough for a return trip to Juuban and hopefully a meeting with Princess Serenity and whatever remained of her court. Determined to get something right she went back into the house and began speaking to the eldest Tendo saying, "Kasumi I will need to be in Juuban tomorrow, so I can't help with dinner is that all right?"

Kasumi smiled that sweet and gentle smile of hers making Ranma's heart beat slightly faster and said, "Of course Ranma. Do you know what time we should expect you back?"

Ranma shook her head and said, "Not really, but I'll try not to be gone longer than four hours."

Kasumi nodded and went back to reading one of her books. Ranma contemplated the eldest Tendo's features one last time and walked to the bathroom for some hot water. After returning to his male body Ranma went to sleep.

Ranma didn't find anything the next day and not wanting to take every day away from the Kitchen and thus Kasumi's presence Ranma didn't go to Juuban again the day after that.

"_You should tell her you know?"_

Ranma sighed as Beryl spoke saying_, "What if she laughs?"_

"_She won't laugh."_

"_What if she doesn't feel the same way, but feels duty bound to follow through on our fathers' promise."_

Beryl didn't have an answer for that. She thought that she herself would have leapt at the chance to take Prince Endymion through a marriage contract. Then he couldn't have chosen princess Serenity he would have been hers and she wouldn't have burned with hatred anger and jealousy enough to actually consider a plan that would have destroyed the Moon Kingdom. She didn't fool herself anymore it was obvious that Kaolinite must have killed her and exacted the vengeance she had worked so hard to set up otherwise this world would not be so primitive.

The ancient bitterness, anger and betrayal subsided in her mind and she contemplated Ranma's question again. Finally she said, _"I think I would tell her anyway. I think I might be tempted to take the one I loved for my own despite how they felt about it."_

"_Really?"_

"_Yes, Ranma I would. I must admit that such does not make me a nice person."_

Ranma just said, _"You know what Beryl I don't think you would. I think you would let the person go."_

"_That was nice of you to say Ranma, but despite all the things I have told you about my past I don't think you know me very well."_

Ranma shrugged and walked off to help Kasumi in the kitchen. It was actually the next time Ranma was in Juuban, three days later, when it happened. Ranma was walking down the street when her detector pinged and she turned a corner to follow the signal.

There she saw a group of young girls in those skimpy outfits fighting a youma. A quick count and Beryl's assistance gave her Princess Serenity along her inner guards Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter.

Ranma rushed in with her magical field up and used her staff to rip the youma to shreds in mere moments. Once again the Amaguriken technique did the job and the lack of her chi being drained meant that the youma felt the technique at its maximum potential. When she was done Ranma turned to the sailor girls and gave them a jaunty wave saying, "Hi"

The said fuku clad females looked at Ranma as if she were their worst nightmare given form. The princess spoke first saying hesitantly, "Beryl, we have seen your youma and we know your plans to revive Metallia using the Ginzuishou, but we won't let you have it."

"_Ginzuishou?"_

"_The Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom one of Queen Serenity's more powerful artifacts."_

"_Right and Metallia is the one ya didn't contact cause you died."_

"_Yes, that's right."_

"_So why do they seem to think otherwise?"_

Beryl's response was, _"Look out!"_

Ranma dodged to the side of a golden disk and then had to continue dodging to avoid a bolt of lightning, a powerful beam of light, a blast of fire, a strange chain made of hearts, and then a blast of fog. The last wasn't so much a dodge away from as it was a dodge into. Moving into the fog gave her an opportunity to avoid the blasts of the sailor girls, but it gave the same girls a chance to re-arrange themselves and provide themselves good positioning for the next salvo.

The fog cleared and Ranma was millimeters away from another blast from Sailor Venus and then she felt the skin of her thigh blister even as she moved inches out of the way of magical flames produced by Mars, then she felt herself go airborne and all of her muscles try to lock up as nearly a thousand volts of electricity smashed into her. Despite all of that she was just able to get her body to move out of the way as a golden tiara blasted past her.

In pain and with her mana reserves exceedingly low after shielding her from those attacks Ranma did the one thing she had left screaming out, "Very well you have forced me to use my Ultimate technique!" The girls arrayed against her all blanched as she tensed herself, but when she shouted, "Fast Break!" then ran off down the street none of them were able to recover in time to catch her.

Thus Ranma was able to find a restroom use hot water and escape onto the streets again wondering how he was going to find out all the information he was going to need. He catalogued the questions with Beryl, _"Okay, so we need to know why they think you're or I in this case am the bad guy. Then, we need to know why you or uh she needs the Ginzuishou. After that we need to find out about Metallia and what sort of force that thing is. Then we need to convince the people who just tried to kill us that we aren't bad guys, and finally we need to hunt down the youma and whoever is pretending to be you and stop them."_

Softly Beryl said, "_Maybe it is me. . ."_

"_What? Why would you say that?"_

Sadness clear in her mental voice Beryl said, _"I said once that you didn't know me and it's true Ranma. I didn't tell you everything. I planned to destroy the Moon Kingdom, I planned to contact Metallia and perform the rituals that would grant me enough power to kill them all for taking Endymion away from me."_

"_But, you didn't do it. You were killed and betrayed by Kaolinte."_

"_It was still my plan, my responsibility."_

Ranma could feel Beryl's anguish, could feel the weight of responsibility that now consumed the Queen. _"It's not. . . you didn't. . ." _words failed him as he tried to tell her that she didn't do it, but he couldn't really know that. Not without finding the woman who was pretending to be Beryl and asking her.

The biggest problem with that plan was that if she went into Juuban then she would have both the sailor girls and the youma to deal with. The only way to avoid at least one of those issues would be to build the suit. With that Ranma could go into Juuban in his male form and attempt to get to know the Senshi and their plans.

As Ranma rode the train back from Nerima he realized that he was wrong. The biggest problem would be getting Beryl to come out of whatever depressive funk she had just fallen into. It was causing all sorts of issues and he really didn't want to start bawling on the train. Yeah he was having enough troubles figuring out who the hell he was without doing something as girly as bawling again.

So, he tried something new. He sat in the seat allowing the rhythm of the train to still his thoughts and he traveled into himself. There within his thoughts and essence he found Beryl she was cold and shivering as she cried. He tried to touch her, but it was just warmth no physical contact was possible. He tried again, this time keeping his hand at a small distance he ran it across and through her back sending a ripple of warmth and concern through the woman's spiritual essence and bringing her back from the abyss. Slowly he coaxed her forward, slowly she moved out of the recesses of his mind and back out to the harsh lights of the train. She blinked his eyes and touched the seat back she was there, she was him and he was behind her encouraging her to move.

Beryl stood up in Ranma's body it was strange, not balanced like she remembered and something was pinching her at the crotch causing a slight pain. She looked down and saw the body its lack of breasts and the source of her discomfort. The body had moved around in the chair and certain parts had gotten caught in the boxer shorts. She made the body stand and move hoping to fix the issue. Standing up made the boxer shorts shift and the pain was relieved. Beryl sighed happily at that lack of pain and then slowly, hesitantly, she took a step. Ranma's body crashed to the floor and suddenly she was back behind the boy, back away from the delicious sensations of touch and feel. Even so shifted away she could still feel things as Ranma moved towards the opening doors she could feel the cool bars of the handgrip as he let go and sense the feel of the ground on his feet as he walked towards the Tendo home.

It was late by the time Ranma arrived at the house and he didn't expect anyone to be up, so when he walked in and saw Kasumi Tendo sitting in a chair and drinking tea he stared at her for a few moments. She was wearing a long loose night robe of violet that made her brown eyes shine like chocolate with a hint of mint. Her hair was tied up for bed and she seemed the very vision of ethereal beauty. Kasumi smiled at him and said, "Oh Ranma you're back late. Is everything okay?"

Ranma walked past her and with his usual confident self said, "Yeah Kasumi everything's fine. Just have to get some rest is all."

He kept walking as her sounds followed behind him. She was at the bottom of the stairs as he reached the top and she said, "You know Ranma, anytime you want to talk about something I'm here for you."

He could hear the concern in her voice and it seemed to sound just like an older sister might sound. He couldn't bring himself to tell her what he was feeling towards her, but maybe, just maybe he could explain the rest. He looked over at Nabki's room listening carefully for any movement and then he carefully crept down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs he looked at the taller brown haired woman and said, "All right I'll tell you, but ya got ta promise not to tell anyone else."

Kasumi nodded and said, "I promise Ranma, let me make some tea and we will talk."

Soon enough Ranma was sitting across from Kasumi and telling her a wild tale about a martial arts trip, Chinese Amazons, an ancient Moon Kingdom and the Terra Queen who once loved a prince of Earth. Some parts were glossed over and other parts were avoided, but Kasumi understood the general idea of the tale and its main protagonists. When it was over Kasumi looked at Ranma and said, "what will you do now?'

That was the question and Ranma felt it ring through him. What would he do, he would find a way to win no matter the body, no matter the form, he was Ranma Saotome heir to the Anything Goes style and best martial artist of his generation, she was the shield sister of Shampoo one of the best warriors of her age and had thousands of years of Amazon history backing her up. The strange conjunction of those two lines of thought pulled Ranma to a standing position as he looked at Kasumi and said, "I'm going to win. Whatever it takes 'cause Ranma Saotome doesn't lose."

If the look Kasumi gave him as he stood there was somewhat less than sisterly Ranma missed it. Now that his mood was vastly improved the young martial artist gave his sincere thanks to Kasumi for listening and walked back up the stairs and into his room. The eldest Tendo cleared the two cups and went to bed as well.

Author's notes: Thanks to everyone who has read my stories, without you I'd be writing to myself, which while fun just wouldn't be the same as trying to produce for even a small audience.

Also, thanks to those who have taken time to give me praise and even those who have given time for criticism. For those who don't like the characterization or the "OOC" of certain characters, well my regrets, but I won't be pleasing you with this fanfic and that's okay. Thanks for the comments anyway.

For those who have given me suggestions on style and how to improve my writing I have to say those are true gems. Each time I see that I think about it and try my best to encompass it into my next chapter.

Finally apologies to the folks who are still waiting for Baba Yaga's curse to finish. This story has caught my mind and ambition at the moment, but sooner or later we'll find out what happens to Ranma, Hotaru, and yet another Beryl. Apparently I have something for bringing that lady to the side of light.

Anyway, I suppose people would rather read my stories instead of Author futzing, so I'll be done now.


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter 3-

"_Not quite there am I Beryl?"_

"_No, your mana reserves just aren't big enough to protect you from what the Senshi were dishing out."_

Ranma sighed and cooled down after her practice and training. She walked slowly toward the Tendo home when her danger sense pinged. She turned slowly scanning the area, nothing at all was there. She frowned and slowly walked back into the house.

Inside she ran directly into her father screaming, "Ranma do something about this boy!"

Ranma looked and shrugged, "It's Ryouga and Akane sittin together and doing homework what do you want me ta do?"

"She's your fiancée you have to do something!" His father yelled and Soun bawled in a corner asking why his daughters were so horrible to him.

Ranma just snorted and said, "Look old man Mr. Tendo has two other daughters and Akane and I get along about nothing. She's an uncute tomboy with about as much charisma as a gorilla."

Twin cries of, "What did you say!" echoed in the room and Ranma realized he had put his foot directly into his mouth again.

Sadly once in his mouth Ranma's foot wanted company and so he said, "I was just explainin to pops here that Akane and I ain't getting hitched on accounta the fact that she itches like a tick, her hair's a cowlick, and her face makes me sick."

Despite his vast skills Ranma was not able to dodge the much deserved blow from the two irate martial artists who had been studying together. Once airborne Ranma smoothed out his glide and landed on top of a telephone pole.

"_Why do you do that Ranma?"_

Ranma Shrugged, _"I don't know. She's not a bad person it's like a reflex or something. I see her or pork boy and I have this irresistible urge to insult them."_

"_Do you think you could keep it down?"_

"_Yeah, I guess so." _Ranma nagged at the thought a while and decided that he would indeed follow through. Maybe avoiding them and being nice would be best instead of antagonizing them. He pondered on it and realized that antagonism had been how he was trained by his father to insult and prod and get opponents angry and it did work in fights, but maybe it wasn't always the best option.

He sat up on the pole pondering once again how different his actions would be were he a female before and thus an Amazon. She would have left it alone her father's words were beneath notice and so were Akane and Ryouga's actions towards each other. Neither represented a threat to her status and nothing her father said held much merit.

Ranma sighed looking for another outlet to his thoughts. Something other than who he was and instead perhaps on the person he was sharing his body with. She had been in control once why didn't she try again. It bothered him and so he said, _"Beryl I know I let you try using my body that once, why haven't you ever asked about doing it again?"_

Beryl had been watching the whole thing awed for a moment by Ranma's inner reflections. She gave a wistful sigh in the back of his mind and said_, "Because I would want more. It feels like my body out there and you are controlling it not me. That makes me feel jealous and angry and yet at the same time I like you and don't want to hurt you so I get angry at myself for being jealous and angry at you."_

Ranma nodded and said, _"I would offer more often, but. . ."_

Beryl knew all too well where that statement should have finished off. Ranma liked the female form for its powers and abilities, liked it for the special times in the Amazon village that felt like home and family and yet at the same time Ranma was afraid that he would lose himself to it. That if he allowed too much of the 'Amazon' in he would cease to be Ranma Saotome.

Beryl knew all of that and it added to her own reasons to avoid trying to control the body. Something like that would be more than she felt this young martial artist could handle. If he had just been able to stay in the moment, just been able to stand and be happy with the dichotomy that was him, then she'd think about it. But from her vantage on Ranma's problems getting the boy/girl to fully come to grips with all of himself/herself would not be easy.

Beryl realized that they had been standing up on the pole silently for a while so she picked up and said, _"I understand Ranma, maybe someday you'll feel more able."_

"_Yeah, maybe Beryl maybe someday."_

The wind blew and he stood there staring out at the city. He still had so much to do, so many problems to conquer and he was just standing on a pole doing nothing. He sighed and turned hurtling into the air and landing on the sidewalk far below.

Arriving at the Tendo residence Ranma saw Kasumi sitting in the living room. The older girl was watching some nighttime drama about housewives or some such. Ranma came in, found his bag and set up in the area where Akane and Ryouga had been working some time back. The book was not his regular homework, but instead a more advanced mathematics text that Beryl had suggested he take from the school library. He worked on a few problems for a while, and then became frustrated tossing his pencil down and muttering lightly, "How does that even work?"

Kasumi looked over to what he was doing and said, "Ranma that looks like senior level math books. Perhaps you made a mistake when you brought it home?"

Ranma looked over at the brown haired girl, his heart pounded lightly in his chest and his breath caught. She was radiant just sitting there and he desperately wanted to tell her, wanted to say she was beautiful and more, but then it would cage her. She'd follow honor and tradition and marry him and he would have ruined her life. He pulled himself together and said, "Well it's hard to explain, but I kinda need to learn this."

Kasumi moved closer and Ranma smelled her, it was just a refreshing clean scent with a hint of lilac soap and conditioner, but it was deeply intoxicating just the same as when he moved close to her in the kitchen he ignored the scent like he did in the kitchen and hear her as she said, "Well if I remember my classes then you have to reduce this down like so."

She moved the pencil on his paper and he saw it the answer was clear and he could finish this page and continue progress in the book. "Thank you."

"It's no problem Ranma come to me anytime, you know I had these classes too not so long ago."

Ranma looked at her and said, "Oh, you're finished though right? Aren't you going to go on to university or something?"

Kasumi smiled and said, "Oh no, I think I'll just finish my correspondence courses, and then a year of practical work at a hospital and then I can be a nurse."

"Oh that's why you borrow those books from Doctor Tofu then."

"Yes, he's a nice man, but a little silly sometimes."

Ranma kicked himself as he spoke saying, "You know I think he likes you Kasumi. That's why he acts so silly."

The brown haired girl looked at him with a new understanding and said softly, "Well is that right? I didn't know. He's a few years older than I am though. Still. . ."

Ranma saw that Kasumi was mulling the idea over and Beryl was telling him to stop. She and his own self were saying he should quit torturing himself and tell the girl instead of just handing her over to some nice doctor. Still he persisted and said, "It's true, who knows maybe he'll ask you out sometime."

Kasumi sighed somewhat wistfully and said, "Thank you for saying so Ranma. I know you aren't interested in Akane does this mean you're not interested in me either?"

Ranma stared at her as his heart slammed into his rib cage. The question was unanswerable, unknowable. He was interested in her and Beryl sure thought the feeling was love, but he felt that way about Shampoo too despite everything that had happened. He stared at the brown haired girl and his mouth refused to move. Beryl shouted, _"SAY SOMETHING!"_

"Uh. . .well" words continued to fail and the girl had a frown on her face now. Finally he pulled it together and said, 'Well you know Kasumi, I just want you to be happy. I think you deserve that."

The frown disappeared and Kasumi smiled saying gently, "Why thank you Ranma. That was a very nice thing to say."

She stood up as the show on the TVs credits rolled and went off to her room. Ranma watched her go wondering if the entire conversation had been a good thing or a bad one. He asked Beryl, but the former Queen of Terra shrugged her metaphysical shoulders and said, _"Sorry Ranma, but it seems that even women don't understand other women sometimes."_

Ranma sighed, worked on a few more math problems and read the next chapter in his book. Once he finished with that the young martial artist went to bed. During the night he dreamed

_A man stepped up to her dressed in flowing robes, "Your majesty if we can harness the mana of our planet the same way Queen Serenity's people have with the other planets we could have our own warrior."_

_She looks at him and says, "What about Prince Endymion of the Earth kingdom does he not already wield the powers of our planet?"_

_The man looks at her and nods, "Yes my Queen he does, but only a fragment. As you know mana is not as easy to channel for men. If he were to channel the full power of the planet it would destroy him, so the Earth Kingdom must have given him less."_

"_If we were to use the power what would happen to his?"_

"_He would lose his powers your majesty."_

_Anger coursed through her. How dare they even think to remove her love's powers? How could they? She towered over him with rage in her eyes, "Never speak to me of this again. I do not wish to know any more of this subject."_

_The man bowed and groveled leaving the room. She calmed down and walked away duty done and her Endymion's powers untouched. _

_Mists welled up and she was walking again with Kaolinite by her side. The other red haired woman was smiling and happy as she brought her to a room. "Look milady we have nearly completed the henshin. Soon we will have our own Senshi. She will be a protector of the Kingdom of Terra and the Kingdom of Earth."_

_Rage welled through her, magic came to her bidding and she lashed out with her most powerful spell. The room and its machines exploded around her and she smiled. This time for sure, this time no one would hurt her dearest love. _

_Mere hours later she was back amidst the rubble her mind awhirl. Endymion had spurned her and he was going to marry Princes Serenity. She would remove his powers and kill that hag, but the power of this planet wasn't enough. Metallia the demon queen of the un-heard lands she would give her power and youma minions. Preparations would begin right now and she would show them, she would show them all. _

Ranma woke in a cold sweat and stifled a scream. He stood quietly looking around for the source of anger, hatred, and evil. There was none, no danger seemed imminent outside of him and he realized that what he felt was coming from Beryl. She hadn't been lying to him at all. Beryl had delved deep into the inner darkness of hatred and vengeance. She had planned the destruction of an entire civilization just for her own petty jealousy. She had walked a deep path into the darkness until her very final moment when she looked back, somehow she looked back and saw the light, but then she was killed for it.

Beryl slowly roused in his mind her thoughts awash with shame and guilt, _"You see Ranma. The darkness is still within me, I still feel that anger and hatred and jealousy even though I know it is wrong. That path of darkness still tempts me, it tempts me every day."_

Ranma nodded slowly in the darkness, _"You're not alone Beryl we're together in this and I won't let it take you again. We'll stay with the light and we'll defeat whatever it was that killed you before you could realize your dreams."_

"_You're right Ranma. With you I have my dreams. You walk in the light and I can glide along the path behind you."_

Ranma smiled and slowly put his head back down on his pillow. He and Beryl fell asleep again, but this time their sleep was not interrupted by dreams.

Morning found Ranma looking through the advertisements in the paper trying to determine what he might afford in the way of computer hardware. As he was scanning the pages Beryl said, _"Wait that page just had the board for sale right?"_

Ranma nodded and his inner voice said, _"That's it we can buy only the parts we need, we don't need an entire computer just the chips and circuits inside." _

With that Ranma started looking at different advertisements that had just the parts, chips, mother boards, hard drives, and that sort of thing. With Beryl's help he started tallying a list of all the components they might need and then adding up the price. The final sum was much lower than the original price he had quoted Nabiki, but it was still beyond his current means.

Ranma looked over at the second eldest Tendo girl and shuddered slightly as he realized just what he was about to do. Waiting for her to begin her walk to school Ranma followed and caught up saying, "Nabiki, you know about those pictures."

"Ranma as I recall you asked for a truly incredible sum of yen. Kuno may seem like he's made of money, but not that much."

Ranma nodded, "Right, but how much could you get for some shots that weren't nude. I'm not getting naked, but maybe just some poses in a bikini or something?"

Nabiki stopped a moment and looked at him, "I suppose we could arrange something," she paused and then added, "You know Ranma with your looks we could even do a set of photos to send to one of those teen magazines."

Ranma was perplexed by the turn in the conversation as Nabiki continued and said, "I tell you what we split the profits from the sale to Kuno 30% for you and the rest for me and then I'm your agent for any modeling gigs you might get?"

"Wait, what?" Ranma blurted out.

"Come now Ranma, w both know you need money and as I said Kuno isn't actually made of money. If you want to keep yourself funded for this youma hunting project of yours you need a steady supply of income and unless you're willing to enter into some pit fights where the yakuza hang about, I think modeling is your best option."

Still unsure Ranma said, "Well I guess."

Nabiki smiled and began walking towards school again, "Excellent it's settled. Meet me at the dojo after school. You'll have to leave off helping with dinner, but I'm sure Kasumi won't mind."

Ranma watched Nabiki walk off and said, _"What just happened?"_

"_Trouble Ranma, definitely trouble."_

Ranma sighed and walked to school as well thinking that Beryl was probably right. By the time he got home, made his apologies to Kasumi, splashed himself, and entered the dojo as a girl he was absolutely sure Beryl had been right. Somehow Nabiki had arranged for a near photo studio full of equipment and a full rack of assorted clothes.

Ranma stared at the place and she said, "What the hell?"

Nabiki walked to her with a sheaf of papers and a tiny black dress, "Ranma, just in time. Now, just sign this and put the dress on and we'll be in business."

"Now wait just a minute here. What's going on Nabiki?" Ranma's danger sense was up, but not really telling her that there was more here than a shady business deal. Beryl was agreeing to that last part as well.

Nabiki smiled like a shark and said, "Well for some reason you really attract guys in that form. So, I figured that we could do up some head shots and publicity photos. We'll send them to some magazine people and if they bite I'm your agent with a 50% cut."

Ranma shook her head saying, "Now wait you're rooking me on the pictures to Kuno and that other cut doesn't sound right ta me," a brief consult with beryl and he added, "How about we split the Kuno pics fifty fifty and then if this modelin stuff works you can get 30% okay?"

Nabiki kept her grin made a few marks on the papers in hand and said, "Perfect, now let's get started"

Ranma looked through them with Beryl's assistance and finally sighed and signed them. "Right, let's go ahead and get this over with."

A few hours later and they were done and some of the students from the Photography club at school were picking up the equipment while the fashion club was picking up the outfits. Nabiki was talking to them about reductions of their debts to her and Ranma was back in his male form sitting near the koi pond silently.

As he sat there looking at the fish once again arguments washed through him. What he had just done was obviously feminine, but not dishonorable. There had been no nudity and most of the pictures would be sent o professionals while the others would go to Kuno. That was annoying, but he needed the money to find out more about the youma and sailor girls since there wasn't really a way to do so in his female form at the moment. Even so he sighed and looked at the fish.

The feeling of rightness in being a female Amazon wouldn't just go away even as he felt shame in it too. He was supposed to have been such a man or at least his father had always wanted him to be. He liked being Ranma Saotome male martial artist very much; it was just that being Ranma Saotome female Amazon was a good feeling too.

He sighed softly wishing in a way he could go back and yet realizing that if he did he would lose Beryl and his time in the village with Grandmother Cologne, Shampoo and all the others. He couldn't give up on that or his new quest just because it was a threat to what his father seemed to think a man should be. He stood up and went inside, still troubled, but continuing on anyway.

Not long after Ranma had taken his share of the money from the pictures sold to Kuno and was carefully working on a new project. This time it was a belt, she finished the last touches on the runic structures that interlaced with the multitude of circuits and chips, then she stood up. Taking the belt she put it around her waist and turned it on. A shield snapped into place around her and she nearly jumped for joy, but she wasn't quite done yet. She turned the shield off and then carefully poured hot water over her arms triggering the change. Once male he flicked the switch again and the shield sputtered slightly and then showed up. Grinning from ear to ear he spoke to Beryl, _"Okay this should give me three minutes right?"_

"_Yes, the crystal mana capsule holds three minutes. It will prevent drain from youma, but it could overload from a Senshi attack."_

Ranma nodded sagely knowing that an overload would be bad he said, _"Well we'll just have to be real diplomatic and avoid cold water."_

"_Let us hope we are lucky then." _Beryl said knowing that for some reason cold water seemed to seek the boy out at the worst possible times and there was no magic against it.

Soon enough Ranma was back in Juuban and using a slightly refined youma detector that was drawing off his female form's mana in a very, very slow trickle. Today the device pinged and he was off chasing down a street and coming upon the group of girls as the fought some strange admixture of a vendor's cart and a Honda. The creature seemed to be winning as it grabbed Princess Serenity in its car door hands and began to open its maw. Ranma rushed forward only to be brought up short as a rose stuck itself into the creature and embedded itself into one of its car door hands. The creature yelped in pain and dropped the princess while the guy wearing a tuxedo, cape, top hat, and mask spouted some poetry and then said, "Now Sailor Moon. Defeat it in the name of love and justice."

The princess proceeded to throw her tiara at the creature slamming it across the street where it was then pummeled by two other attacks. Despite that the creature continued moving, but by then Ranma was on site and hitting it with his staff. With his damage and another attack, this one lightning, the creature finally seemed to die and turned into dust.

The group of girls slowly and warily approached Ranma with the Tuxedo guy backing them up. Beryl was trying to place his name and face in her mind, but the outfit was so dissimilar that it took a few more moments before she said, _"I think, no it must be. It is Prince Endymion."_

Strangely enough love did not surge through Ranma for the man in the tuxedo. Indeed the rose throwing and poetry were so reminiscent of Kuno that even Beryl, who had once loved the man, was clearly turned off.

The group now surrounded Ranma still wary and Ranma could see why. Mercury was wearing an eye patch and Mars was missing three fingers. As they moved closer Ranma could see that Jupiter had a nasty scar along the inside of her right arm. Venus and the Princess didn't have obvious battle damage, but their wary approach and the instant attack the last time Ranma showed up was enough for him to realize that this group had been through very tough times. Mars finally spoke up and said, "Who are you?'

This was the important moment Ranma and Beryl had gone over it a few times and he needed to basically tell the truth or as much as was possible while still concealing his curse and Beryl's presence so he said, "I'm Ranma Saotome martial artist and youma fighter."

Despite her wariness Venus looked at him with lust in her eyes and whispered something about "Sempai" while Jupiter next to her just rolled her eyes. Mercury had a hand to her visor and said, "He's got some sort of primitive shield against draining up, but no silver millennium energies. He might be legit."

Ranma switched off his shield and said, "I am. I saw you guys on TV and thought I could help. My shield will keep me from being drained and I'm the best martial artist of my generation."

The group of girls looked at each other and had a quick discussion. Prince Endymion was already gone by the time they finished and Mars pointed at a nearby alley and said, "All right meet us there in three days and we'll let you know what our decision is. In the meantime try not to get yourself killed."

The group departed and Ranma went to the train station. Riding back Ranma analyzed the fight and thought to himself, _"They rely too much on their power and despite his corniness if Prince Endymion hadn't shown up in that ridiculous get up Princess Serenity would have been injured or possibly killed."_

"_I agree although they have probably increased their training some in light of their injuries."_

"_Not enough if Serenity was nearly killed like that and Endymion didn't stick around almost as if he's not with them or something. They need a lot more work on tactics and teamwork." _

Beryl gave a metaphysical nod and said, _"Yes, but we'll have to take it easy. So far we have a portion of trust and most likely in our next meeting we will gain some type of alliance. Although if that happens and they have a way to contact us when an attack occurs we will need a faster way to get to Juuban than this train."_

Ranma agreed with that assessment and gave it some thought as he walked to the Tendo home from the train station. He could run rather fast and even roof hop, but that would get him there in about 20 minutes which was actually worse than the train which took five minutes plus another three in travel time to and from each station. A car was out of the question due to expense and he didn't know how to drive. He pondered the idea of a motorcycle, but again the purchase price was too much for him, especially since he was sinking money into spare computer parts. Between Beryl and himself the best answer so far was a hope that the modeling thing actually came to fruition.

Ranma sighed as he realized that and walked in the door of the house. Once inside he went to the room he was sharing with his father, only to find the elder Saotome awake and apparently in a berating mood. Genma didn't scream, apparently out of some hidden well of respect for the Tendos, but even without yelling the dressing down was clear. Of course Ranma had no plans to give up his trips to Juuban or to attempt to forward a relationship with any of the Tendo girls. Akane was still too much inclined towards anger and she had Ryouga. Nabiki was too mercenary and selfish for Ranma's tastes and, of course, Kasumi was potentially something he wanted, but to explore that relationship in any way might as well have been an engraved wedding invitation. He wasn't sure he wanted that and he was quite sure that the eldest girl did not want to be with a younger man like himself. By the time he finally lay down it took an hour for him to center and clear his thoughts so that he could sleep.

It was the next day that Nabiki was walking home near him on the sidewalk while he was on the fence. The short haired girl was saying, "Well we have a nibble with Karinta, that's a jeans company. They want you to come in next week on Tuesday and do some test photos in their jeans. If they like you they will draw up a contract and set a time to shoot the actual advertisement photos."

Ranma was half listening and he said, "Okay what day?"

"Weren't you listening Ranma? I said Tuesday, lucky you I'm here to help you with this." Nabiki had a partially annoyed tone to her voice as she spoke, but Ranma missed it because something was telling him he was in danger.

Sure enough the metal rail for the fence sheared off as something whizzed by in a blur, but he was already airborne and away from the fence. He tossed his bag to Nabiki and said, "Go Nabiki this is trouble."

Nabiki moved off, but not so far that she couldn't watch. "Damn it Saotome can't you schedule these things so I can make better book off them? I swear I'm going to have to start carrying a camera around."

Ranma wasn't listening at all as a blurred form whizzed in and slammed past his defenses sending him flying. In the air he tumbled and righted himself just in time to block a full set of punches at high speeds. The form bounced back from his block and the two landed a few feet apart. Once that happened he knew who it was and said, "Grandmother, to what do I owe the honor of your presence."

From her vantage Nabiki goggled at the very idea that Ranma was giving respect to someone, especially some old and tiny lady. That old lady with long silver hair just balanced on a staff and smiled directly at her. Then, she looked to Ranma and said, "I do not recognize any grandson. I am looking for my granddaughter. When she is here she will explain to me her actions and whether or not she has honored our village with them."

Ranma swallowed hard and caught a thermos that was thrown to him by the old woman. He then carefully uncapped the thermos and poured the water over his arms triggering the change. Now, as a female she felt the rebuke even more strongly. A tribe elder was here to judge her actions and determine if her honor was true. Carefully she spoke in Chinese, "Honored elder I am ready to answer your questions."

Cologne moved forward stepping off her staff and walking she stood about a foot from Ranma, "Did you enter our village with the intent to deceive us?"

Ranma shook her head, "No, I did not intend to deceive. I had been recently cursed at the springs of Jusenkyo. Once I realized that I could not return to my male form without dishonor I avoided doing so."

Cologne nodded and said, "However, you did not tell your closest companion and Shield Sister why not?"

Ranma put her head down and said, "I thought doing so would hurt her, that she would think that my friendship with her was false. I placed myself into a corner and I wish now, that I had made the choice to tell her before I was taken away."

"Taken?" Cologne looked at the red haired girl carefully, "You did not leave on your own, but were taken away from us?"

"Yes, the one who would be my father found me after my lapse into the Neko Ken and brought me onto a ship."

Cologne noted that the way Ranma said that suggested that the young girl had no respect for Genma and no longer really wanted to consider the man as her father. The second part of the statement indicated that the elderly Amazon was correct about what had happened to Ranma on her last training session. "I hear your words granddaughter and you know what has happened due to your decision. Will you accept punishment to restore your honor within the tribe?"

Ranma nodded and said, "I will elder."

Cologne nodded and said, "Very well as punishment you will work every day for me, teach your shield sister the ways of this land, the ways of your schooling here. In addition you will cease to obey any guidance from the one formerly called your father."

Ranma and Beryl smiled happily at that, but then realized the last part was the most important part and Ranma said, "Genma Saotome has engaged Ranma to a family in this land. Should we keep to that agreement honored elder?"

Cologne looked at Ranma and said, "You should see if any hold interest for one year and if they do not we should return to the village."

The older woman smiled and stood back on her staff saying, "Now call me grandmother and we will find your shield sister." Then, she was off like a shot and Ranma was after her, first dropping next to Nabiki to take her school bag and then leaving the brown eyed girl far behind.

Ranma ran with abandon catching up to Cologne and then having to dodge and block attacks from the older woman's staff. "Not bad granddaughter, but you will have to try harder than that!"

From some inner reserve Cologne sped up again and Ranma had to push into her own chi to enhance her speed even more. A small Chinese Restaurant came into view and Ranma had to put on the breaks nearly as fast as she had sped up when the older lady went through an open door to the restaurant and then slammed it behind her. Ranma wasn't quite quick enough to stop herself, so to avoid a crash she jumped into the air and landed into the door with both legs out taking the impact that way. She pushed off the door and flipped into the air, then had to block as the door opened again and a purple blur whizzed out and tried to smash her in midair.

Ranma barely blocked the blow and then retaliated. Punches and kicks went back and forth between the pair as they circled in a spiral. Ranma smiled at the purple haired girl she was fighting and said, "I have you now."

Shampoo smiled back and said, "No shield sister Shampoo has you Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

Ranma woke up in a small bed looking up at Shampoo. The purple haired girl looked back at her and said, "Grandmother told me that you would not betray what we had Ranma. She said to prove it we would come and if you were false she would kill you, but if you were true she would bring you to me."

Ranma swallowed again as she realized once again what stakes had been at play with her conversation earlier. Gravely she said, "I am sorry Shampoo, I really never meant to hurt you."

Shampoo looked down at her and said, "We are even now."

The words harkened back to their very first fight when Ranma had defeated Shampoo and then the girl had surprised her and held a dagger to her throat. The same words had resonance with Ranma they were even now. The hurt from the fight would go away and the harm of the deception would fade with time. Once again they could be together and reforge their bond, this time without the flaws that had been there the first time.

Ranma smiled at Shampoo and said, "Yeah well you need to teach me that move."

Shampoo nodded and said, "Deal.

Author's Note: A Bit shorter than previous chapters, but I hope it is still good. Still trying to work on mys timing and such.


	4. Chapter 4

-Chapter 4-

Ranma sat near Cologne and Shampoo explaining everything that had happened to her since leaving the village. Cologne reacted to the idea of Beryl saying, "There are ancient Amazon scrolls speaking about this Queen, but they do not say much. I will send word to my sisters and see if they can find more information on her."

Cologne then said, "As for these youma and the ones who fight them you should be wary of both. I want you to take Shampoo with you when you meet them next and I think you should work on creating a shield for her as well. I will supply funds."

Ranma was ecstatic until Cologne said, "As we spoke earlier you will be assisting us here in the restaurant. I expect both you and Shampoo to be back from school in time for the dinner rush each day as it will be part of your training."

That would rearrange her usual schedule where she practiced in the morning, came home to do her schoolwork, assisted Kasumi with dinner and then practiced again. "Honored elder, if I could at least spend two days assisting with the meals at the Tendo house? As long as I am there I feel that honor requires me to help out."

Cologne nodded and said, "Yes that is acceptable and on the weekends as well. During the weekend you will train here during the day and then return later to assist at the Tendo house with meals. As I have said before your former father is an honorless cur, but your own honor should dictate that this engagement should be given a small chance. Just remember Ranma that you should not feel obligated to anything if you do not love any of them."

For Ranma, who wasn't sure of what he felt hearing this from a respected source helped a great deal in some ways. In other ways it was no help at all as the red haired girl looked at her shield sister and felt the same emotions as she did for the eldest Tendo girl. In both cases it seemed clear to Ranma that despite her or his feelings neither, Shampoo nor, Kasumi felt the same way.

The next morning Ranma stopped by the restaurant to show Shampoo the way to school. The young purple haired girl smiled at Ranma and said, "Where is my Shield Sister?"

"I'm right here Shampoo, kinda." Ranma looked sheepish.

Shampoo smiled and said, "Okay you can bring me to school like that, but we will train in other body okay?"

Ranma nodded and smiled at the perky girl. The two quickly raced to school in a mixture of a foot race and a martial arts contest. Once at the gates they ran into Ranma's least favorite student at the school. Kuno stared at him and said, "Forsooth dost thou think thy clever manipulations of the fair Akane and the Pig tailed girl will bear thee aught? Nay, Kuno will dispatch thee this time foul fiend!"

Ranma smashed through the other boy once again and looked to Shampoo saying, "I swear he's going ta make my skills a bit rust by standing there like that so often."

"The silly male needs to learn how to dodge."

Ranma nodded and the two went into the building. The gossip around the school was extraordinarily quick and soon enough Nabiki was visiting the pair during lunch, "So, Saotome people are telling me that this girl is your fiancée, but that can't be right can it?"

"No, Nabiki she's my shield sister. I met her in China when I trained with a group of Chinese Amazons." Ranma answered and then introduced the pair.

Nabiki smiled after the introductions and said smoothly, "She's the one you fought some time back and then she disappeared right? Everyone says that fight was a draw Saotome, so are you better or is she?"

Shampoo looked at Ranma and said, "I won our last match."

Ranma frowned and said, "I wasn't expecting the Hiryu Shouten Ha and shouldn't have been pumping out so much hot chi. Next time we have a match it will be different."

Shampoo smiled the smile of someone ready for a challenge and said, "We'll see tribe sister."

"Tribe sister?"

"Oh yes Ranma is my tribe sister and shield sister too. All members of the tribe are tribe sisters, but Grandmother Cologne has taken Ranma in, so she and I are shield sisters."

Nabiki looked at the obviously male Ranma and said, "You do realize that Ranma is a guy right?"

Shampoo shrugged and said, "Ranma will always be Shampoo's shield sister whether male or female, it doesn't matter Ranma is Ranma."

Ranma looked at Shampoo and was happy and at the same time sad. The girl next to him was lovely, compassionate, and had a bubbly personality. What he felt for the purple haired girl was more than what would be appropriate for one's sister. Even so, if it hadn't been obvious before, it was obvious now that the young Amazon had forgiven Ranma for his/her previous deceptions in full. While Ranma was trying to determine if he should be happy or sad Nabiki chuckled at Shampoo's statement and said, "Ranma you sure do have the most interesting relationships."

With that the middle Tendo girl left, most likely to sell 'official' information on Ranma and Shampoo and the two ate in relative peace. Once the school day was over they rushed back to the restaurant where Ranma changed genders, did her homework, and helped with the dinner rush. In this case help consisted of desperately catching thrown food and placing it at customer's tables. Often when she or Shampoo arrived back in the kitchen there was a quick sparring match with Cologne and then they were back out again. By the time the dinner rush was over Ranma felt near exhaustion and yet she stayed longer so that Cologne could begin teaching her the basics of what was required for the Hiryu Shouten Ha technique.

The next day Ranma came back to the Tendo house after school. There he completed his homework and assisted Kasumi with dinner preparations. After dinner he went outside and began to practice, only to find Shampoo and Genma in a heated argument. "Listen up girl, I don't know why you're here, but Ranma isn't going to marry you. He's engaged to one of the Tendo girls you hear me?"

Shampoo laughed, but she was obviously a bit upset as her speech patterns slipped, "Shampoo here to practice with Ranma, not marry her silly male."

"No, I won't have it. Whatever you did to the boy was more than enough. He's here in Nerima and I'll train him from now on."

Shampoo laughed in the angry man's face and said, "You are nothing compared to grandmother. Yes, you put down a good foundation, but Grandmother has ancient secrets from thousands of years of history."

Genma growled as Ranma came up to the pair and said, "Pops, stop bothering Shampoo. She's just here to practice. If you think you can keep up you're welcome to spar with me."

"Fine, I'll show you the error of your ways boy." Genma rushed in to combat Ranma. The two blurred and traded punches and kicks across the yard but, while it was true that Genma was a great martial artist in his own right with excellent form and skill, it was clear that his son now outclassed him.

Ten minutes after it began the fight was over and Ranma was the clear winner. He spoke to his father's semi conscious form, "Not bad Pops, but Shampoo and I have some real work to do."

After that Ranma and Shampoo were whizzing about the yard trading punches and kicks. The two were nearly evenly matched, but the spar ended with Ranma holding Shampoo's arm in a hyper extended lock, once that occurred the two disengaged. Shampoo bit her bottom lip and said, "Ranma not bad as male, but I think I'd prefer to train with you as a female from now on."

Ranma not noticing Shampoo's elevated heartbeat or the way she bit her lower lip nodded and splashed his arms with water from the koi pond. After that the two girls worked on some more basics of the Hiryu Shouten Ha and then they separated. Ranma worked on her magical abilities with Beryl and Shampoo ended up stopping her routine as the red haired girl tossed a mana bolt. "Ranma you said that you can do magic and I believed you, but that was like a chi blast. Not quite the same, but close. Can you teach me?"

Ranma wasn't sure at all, but Beryl simply said, _"We can try Ranma."_

Beryl was correct and so the first thing Ranma did was step close to Shampoo using an easy spell the red haired girl assessed her friend's potential to use mana. A moment later she found the answer and said, "All right Shampoo, from now on when you come here to train we will work on magic as well as martial arts. " The purple haired girl agreed and went home for the night.

With Shampoo gone Ranma walked back inside and sat in the Tendo living room. Once again the eldest Tendo daughter was in there watching a show. Ranma sat down and thought to start a conversation, but nothing came to mind.

Ranma sighed realizing that he had no clue about relationships and that despite her own history Beryl had little experience as well. He sat there wondering if e should say something, if he even wanted to say something, and even how to begin a conversation that didn't involve cooking dinner. He decided to start by asking her about her day.

The conversation was a short back and forth between the two of them each relating their day in brief snippets. As Ranma came to the end of his day Kasumi said, "So it's magic then Ranma?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah in my female form I have access to mana reserves and can use them to," he shrugged, "well cast spells I guess is the best word."

"You're teaching your friend Shampoo how to do that now?"

"Yeah I'm gonna need backup against Youma and she's my shield sister, so it makes the most sense."

Kasumi looked into Ranma's eyes with her deep brown ones. For a moment he was entranced and then it ended as she said, "Why are you doing this Ranma?"

Ranma looked off a moment and said, "Duty. . .honor. . .my friend. There are so many reasons to go out and stop Youma's, but the most important is I think the basic tenant of martial arts. We are the best we can be to protect other people."

Kasumi smiled and said, "I had heard it as a Martial artist's duty is to protect the weak. What you said sounds different."

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah I guess, but I've been thinking that saying other people who can't do martial arts are weak isn't exactly right you know. A friend of mine went through a lot and it got me to thinking about that. Maybe we all have our own strengths and it is most important to use those strengths as best we can for each other."

Beryl seethed with happiness at the idea. With her Ranma had walked even farther into the path of light, so far from where she had once been. Also she noted that Kasumi seemed to regard Ranma slightly differently for just a moment. Her gaze had stayed on the boy and lingered even as Ranma was looking away. Still, she kept it to herself so as not to get Ranma's hopes up falsely.

Kasumi, who had been gazing fondly at Ranma said, "You're right Ranma, but I hope you are careful anyway. There are people here who would be very upset if you were hurt."

Ranma nodded and said, "I will and remember I'll be at the Café tomorrow, so don't expect me until late." Kasumi nodded and the two said their goodnights.

The next ever Ranma and Shampoo trained in the Nekohanten catching plates and spinning about. They clashed with each other and then the ancient Amazon in back all at Cologne's urging and signals. When it was over they went out in the back and for the first time Ranma was able to use the Hiryu Shouten Ha. Cologne easily flew up in its winds and slowly came down to rest on the ground there she said, "As you have seen and my granddaughter knows there is always a counter technique or escape. In order to remove the escape you will have to learn to tighten the spiral faster as for the counter."

Cologne stopped and Ranma said, "Your opponent sees it and rides the edges."

The ancient Amazon smiled and said, "Correct and so you must learn even more. Delve into that essence of the Soul of Ice and find more."

Ranma and Shampoo nodded and then Cologne added, "One more thing, I have been considering the magic you mentioned Ranma and we will be receiving copies of a few ancient books from the storehouse in the village. It is my hope that they will help you and my daughter."

The two girls goggled at the older woman because neither had told her that Shampoo was being trained. Cologne just laughed at their expressions and said, "I have my ways granddaughters."

"Wait, Grandmother how will we fit it all in?"

The elderly Amazon looked at Shampoo and said, "You'll have to figure it out, but I suppose I will have to take you off the schedule for another day during the week. While the training in here brings many customers I think using mana bolts or other magic would be a bit much. You will get an extra day off to train with Ranma and help her build any devices she needs to make." The two nodded and went their separate ways for the night.

Ranma nodded at that and began walking home she hadn't done much work on the belt for Shampoo yet and it would be needed for the next day's meeting with the Senshi. In addition she had yet to figure out how to spend the money Cologne had given her or how to get to Juuban faster than the train as she didn't want to spend all her current money on a motorcycle.

Luckily Beryl stepped in and said to her, _"The youma detector. If we could craft a few more there ought to be a way to put them around the Juuban area."_

Ranma nodded and mentally said, _"Yeah that's good, but it is still kinda far away. We are going to need faster reaction time if we're gonna do that."_

Beryl thought about it and then said, _"The delivery people for the Nekohanten have bikes do they not? If you were to acquire a similar mode of transport, while not as fast as a motorcycle, you could be in Juuban with Shampoo in a matter of a few minutes at most."_

It took most of the night for Ranma to finish the belt for Shampoo and so the next day Ranma was male and napping in an alleyway in Juuban while he waited for the Senshi to arrive. Shampoo was using all of her skills at stealth to remain well hidden, but not far away. Both of them were wearing the shield belts Ranma had built from Beryl's designs.

Soon enough the Senshi were at the alleyway and the team of girls were obviously very cautious as the warily stood on the street. Finally they slowly entered after Mercury made a hand signal and once in the alleyway Mars spoke first saying, "All right Ranma Saotome we've done a bit of searching on you and so far your story seems legit."

Ranma was about to say something, but Beryl mentally elbowed him and so he waited. Mars continued saying, "As much as we would prefer not to endanger you the fact remains that we can use extra help. An extra pair of hands could mean the difference between life and death and we can't afford the second option. If Queen Beryl succeeds in her goals our world could be destroyed."

It was somewhat against the grain, but Beryl urged him on as he said hesitantly, "So why not contact the authorities?"

This time it was Moon, who Ranma couldn't help but think of as Princess Serenity, "They don't have any protection against the draining attacks of the youma. I saw it once three officers with guns blazing died that day."

Ranma could feel the sadness oozing off of the girl as if she bore the weight of every death personally. He nodded and looked at her eyes seeing little happiness at all left in them and nearly no confidence at all. He looked at the entire group of girls and saw the same thing. He had to know why and he hoped that knowing why would help him raise these girl's spirits somehow. "Okay, well I think I need to know the whole story about you guys and Queen Beryl. Would you be willing ta tell me?"

Beryl silently congratulated him on his well chosen words and Mercury stepped closer. The blue haired girl in a blue outfit spoke clearly and directly, "We have already decided to tell you the tale. Queen Beryl knows most of the current information so if you are her agent you will learn nothing new. The most important thing that you must understand right now is that we can not reveal our civilian identities. We are not ready to trust you that far and so what I say will be somewhat modified."

From that beginning Mercury started the tale while the group of scouts kept watch. Luckily for Shampoo her hiding skills were much better than any of the Scouts detection capabilities and so she heard the tale as well.

The story Mercury told began out simple with Sailor Moon finding her advisor, the name and species of which was left out of the tale, soon after finding her advisor Tuxedo Mask showed up when she fought a youma. Despite his reluctance to specifically speak to her or stay after battles he was often there to assist in her quest to defeat Youma and one of Queen Beryl's Generals named Jadeite. At first Jadeite seemed to only be interested in stealing human energy and he was quite accomplished at it. In fact in their third meeting with the general Tuxedo mask was knocked unconscious and Sailor Moon nearly died from blood loss.

From that point on Moon's advisor suggested finding more allies and Moon agreed. The biggest problem with that strategy was that Jadeite and his youma were free to act while they searched. Thus the evil general's minions ended up draining people and killing them while Moon and her advisor spent time looking for and finding Mercury and Mars. The deaths of people without their help in the endeavor made sure that those three girls formed a bond and from there they began defeating Jadeite's schemes.

That was when they first met Queen Beryl. The red haired queen was waiting as the three defeated Jadeite's scheme at a gym where he had been draining the people who worked out there. The battle was a complete disaster and the three girls were barely able to escape with their lives. Mercury and Mars scars were a testament to that fact.

After that Beryl was not seen again, but Jadeite was never seen without a second general named Nephrite. The two argued often, but together were more than a match for the three girls and their Tuxedo clad assistant. The only good thing at that point was the arrival of Sailor Jupiter. With her help the group was able to be on the winning side once again.

That winning streak was a sham however, because the attacks by Nephrite and Jadeite were deceptions hiding the actions of a third General named Zoicite who was collecting rainbow crystals. These crystals, when combined could create the Ginzuishou which was an artifact of great power in the ancient Moon Kingdom. Of course, the only reason the girls found out about this deception was due to Sailor Venus who with her own advisor ended up facing Zoicite in a battle for the green crystal. Venus was successful in her battle and gained the green crystal. Afterwards Venus found the other girls and explained the plot.

From then on the group was more vigilant but, with three generals and Beryl about, the work was difficult. The next time Jadeite attacked only a portion of the group went while the rest attempted to find the second attack. The problem with that strategy was that all three generals were together and Jupiter was hurt badly enough to spend a few days in the hospital.

While Jupiter recovered the rest of the team lost the battle for the Blue crystal. By this time Mercury and the two advisors to the group determined that there were six crystals and that only the one they had and two others were not in Beryl's grip.

Mercury finished the tale and said, "That's about where you came in Ranma. We met up with Beryl again recently or at least someone who looked like her. There is some disagreement on that matter"

Mercury looked at Mars somewhat annoyed and Moon looked sheepish. While no actual words were spoken it was clear that at least two members of the group hadn't believed that Ranma's female form was actually Beryl. "In any case the Beryl look alike escaped us and since then we have been fighting Beryl's forces and trying to find the last two crystals. If we weren't so desperately in need of help we wouldn't be here telling you any of this."

Ranma slowly nodded as she realized the situation was far more dangerous than a few simple youma. The first question was obvious, "Would it be okay if I found other martial artists and outfitted them with the shields our family has developed?"

Mercury looked to the other scouts and Venus said, "In for a penny in for a duck."

Jupiter said, "I think that's in for a pound."

Mars looked at the two and rolled her eyes saying, "I think we get the idea and I agree. Despite major reservations we need help and this guy doesn't radiate any energy like the Generals or Beryl does right Mercury?"

Mercury nodded and so Mars said, "Good, so that leaves us with finding those crystals and the Princess. Since you are willing to help why don't you tell us how?"

Ranma looked at Sailor Moon with full knowledge that she was indeed the princess, but without any way to explain how he might know that information. So that left the red haired girl with the plan she and Beryl had come up with. "If you give me a few days I can use my family art to set up some Youma detectors in town. A friend of mine and I can be here in a few minutes after they go off."

Mercury looked up as he finished and said, "Good, in addition I do believe we can give you a communicator so that we can contact you."

She pulled one out and added, "As we said earlier we do not fully trust you yet, so you will be unable to contact us."

Ranma nodded and took the communicator. Moments later the Senshi were gone and she walked over to Shampoo's hiding spot saying, "What have I just gotten myself into?"

Shampoo stepped out of hiding and said, "It looks like we have a great deal to do Ranma. We should seek grandmother's guidance."

Ranma nodded and the two girls walked to the train station. Once back in Nerima they went to Cologne and explained the additional details of the story they had been given. The elderly Amazon said, "Well it seems we will need to train even harder. You have both mastered many powerful techniques, but you will need more. I will think about the best technique to teach you next and in the meantime I think you should both practice more magic."

Ranma nodded and then said, "Well at least it can't get much worse."

Unfortunately for the young Saotome he was quite wrong. In fact the very next day the school had a transfer student come in. "Ukyou Kuonji's the name and Okonomiyaki's the game."

Ranma watched his childhood friend toss Okonomiyaki to the rest of the class. His portion had a challenge written on it and the young martial artist sighed trying to think of what he had done to piss off this friend.

"_You seem to have this affect on people." _Beryl laughed

"_I don't get it we were great friends. I mean well sure we used to spar and when I won I'd get food from his dad." _

"_His dad Ranma?" _Beryl Questioned and then added, _"I note a distinct lack of a certain part of his neck and doesn't he seem a tad curvy?"_

Ranma looked over at Ukyou and realized Beryl was right. Somehow his childhood friend wasn't a boy, but was instead a girl. The solution for this was quite obvious to him and when lunch time came around and the two were on opposite sides of a giant griddle top ring Ranma tossed a cup of hot water at Ukyou.

"What the hell was that for?" Ukyou, still female and now angry, rushed in an attacked with her giant spatula.

Ranma easily evaded the attack and said, "Look I don't want to hurt you. Why don't you just tell me what I did wrong and we can work it out?"

The words seemed to bypass the young girl and she said, "You left me behind Ranma! For that and all of the insults to my clan you must pay."

More swings from the giant spatula along with small spatula shaped shuriken and a flour bomb went towards Ranma, but he easily evaded it all. He tried a few more times to engage Ukyou in some form of conversation, but mostly received, "Stand still and die already!"

After avoiding a bunch of sticky noodles Ranma simply rushed in and defeated his former friend with a few punches and a pressure point. Soon after the young girl began to wake and Ranma said, "Look I already have Kuno, Ryouga, and sometimes Akane after me along with a ton of other problems. Can't we just handle this some other way?"

The girl sobbed and said, "How will I gain my honor back now? You renounced our engagement and left me behind. All I had left was revenge and I can't even get that. So what can I do?"

"Wait engaged?" Wheels spun in Ranma's head as he realized that crying in front of him might just be a way to extract himself from the Tendo engagements and concentrate on issues in Juuban.

Ukyou nodded and explained her tale to Ranma. Shampoo, who had been watching and listening the whole time said, "Wow, that too bad. I think you should have a very personal **conversation** with Ranma's former father Genma don't you?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah, you know what maybe Shampoo and I can help you **talk** to pops."

The next day Genma Saotome woke up still stuffed in a trash can with nearly all of his limbs dislocated. However, despite the horrific scene of a certain Panda receiving just recompense for his actions, Ranma was unable to extract himself from the Tendo agreement at that time. In fact the only major change was that Ukyou decided to stay in town and open up her own Okonomiyaki shop so that she could be closer to her fiancé.

Ranma found himself talking to Beryl that night saying, _"A girl who actually seems interested in me and what is my problem? I can't see her as anything more than my old friend."_

He sighed and added, _"Why can't I just forget about Kasumi and Shampoo? One is my shield sister and there must be something wrong with that. The other is older than me and probably sees me as only some immature guy she might be stuck marrying."_

"_There's always Akane or Nabiki."_

"_Oh please Beryl, I'd rather cut off my foot or something. Not that I ain't appreciative of Nabiki helping us out with money and stuff, but still not so sure about that modeling thing. Really I don't think she's for me. As for Akane, well I'm kinda glad that she and Ryouga are together it keeps them both out of my hair for the most part."_

"_That's true Ranma very true and how do you feel about your female half?"_

Ranma sighed and shrugged, _"Same I don't know. It's really complicated and I'm sure you know what I mean what with wanting to use the body yourself and all."_

"_Yes, I suppose I do. In some ways I wish I had not ended up in anyone left in the pool for an eternity. Yet I am also glad that you found me. A mixture of admiration jealousy and love swell through me quite often with you Ranma."_

Ranma mentally nodded and said, _"I just feel bad for you and I want to help. Whatever this is I found it's a lot bigger than just a martial arts journey. Still I think we're up to it and we have Shampoo and Grandmother to help us as well."_

"_What about Ukyou, Akane, and Ryouga could they not help as well?"_

"_Maybe, but we just met up with Uk-chan again, and I really don't trust Akane and Ryouga's tempers in battle. No I think for now we'll keep it with me and Shampoo."_

"_All right Ranma, but we should consider making a belt for Grandmother as well." _Ranma nodded and then headed down for bed.

Author's Notes:

I'm still something of a beginning writer so bear with me on pacing and such, but I hope this chapter had a good pace and that you enjoyed it. Again, for any of you who didn't know my plan is to keep writing Fanfic until I believe that I can make a satisfying book with my own original material. Whether or not that second part ever happens who knows, but in the meantime I'll keep doing fanfic.

1) I'm trying to keep this in a First person Omniscient so basically we only see what Ranma sees or at least mostly. We get a few extra clues he might not get and are privy to Beryl's thoughts as well.

2) As you can see the Sailor Moon timeline has been vastly affected by Kaolinite's tampering. There are still a few crystals to go and quite a bit of battling.

3) Will this be a Fukufic? I'm not telling


	5. Chapter 5

"_Backup, we could really use backup!"_ Ranma thought as he slammed a creature that had once been a Honda Civic into a wall. Nearby Shampoo was fighting a creature that had been a Nisaan Kawasaki and amazingly enough what had once been a VW Bus was chasing down a group of tourists. He ran towards the creature and slammed his fist into its side three hundred times. It roared in pain and tried to backhand him, but he was gone out of the way and around to its other side where he gave it another set of three hundred dents.

He heard something break inside the creature, but it wasn't even close to down and the Honda Civic was pulling itself out of the wall and starting a run down the block. There was no way he could even begin to catch it while the VW Bus creature was in his way and who knew how many people it would drain while he was busy. Desperately he tried pulling on mana reserves, but there was nothing for him in this form. He dodged another punch from the Bus and slammed into its knee breaking it and sending the creature to the ground howling in pain.

Sparing a glance down the street he considered the Honda and was about to move when it was taken down by the Kawasaki creature slamming into it. Behind that a purple blur rocketed into the fray and he smiled with relief even as he dodged another blow from the monster he was fighting. He took out its other knee and it finally crashed to the ground presenting him its head. Moments later the creature was a pile of dust and he was running full speed down the block to help Shampoo.

The purple haired girl was literally wielding the Kawasaki creature like a giant club against the Honda and then it suddenly became dust in her hands and the Honda creature slammed into her with its full weight bringing her to the ground and beginning to crush her. Her fists buckled and dented the metal, but without Ranma's arrival she would have been crushed. As it was the young boy slammed a fist into the creature's head and knocked it off Shampoo. The two martial artists then proceeded to dismantle the creature and turn it to dust.

Panting in the street the two smiled at each other and embraced. Ranma couldn't help but savor the moment as her soft and yet powerful body pushed against his own. Despite the scent of car oil and rubber his nose ignored that and Lilac wafted from her hair teasing his senses. He let go of the hug before it could become embarrassing and pulled out the communicator given to him and said, "This would have worked a lot better if we could have called the Senshi to help us."

Shampoo nodded and said, "I agree. We should tell them the next time we meet."

Ranma looked at her and said, "Oh crap we never established a time to meet or anything. The next time we meet it will be an emergency!"

Shampoo pointed to the area around them along with a few dead bodies and paramedics on the scene taking away the hurt and injured, "Like this one yes?"

Ranma growled and shoved the communicator in his pocket saying, "Yeah like this one."

Taking one last look at the area he walked to his bicycle and slid onto the seat. A voice said, _"You did your best Ranma."_

He shook his head and looked at a body being zipped into a bag saying, _"Tell that to them."_

With that he zipped down the street Shampoo right behind him. They rode in silence all the way to the Nekohanten where Cologne sat waiting for them. Once inside Ranma stormed past the older woman even as she said, "Sit and tell me about it."

He didn't hear walking to a belt in the kitchen he came back and slammed it on the table looking at the device with pure anger and ignoring the world around him. A splash of water hit him and he felt his change wash over him. It wasn't that everything was different after that, but suddenly she felt clarity lessons that she easily forgot in her male form suddenly hit the forefront of her mind and she stopped what she was doing and looked to Cologne saying, "Apologies honored elder."

Cologne nodded in acceptance and said, "Now child tell me everything."

Her shield sister by her side Ranma told everything and then Shampoo repeated the details from her own point of view. When they were done Cologne said, "I know you feel you have failed because people have died, but without you there many more would have perished."

The two girls nodded accepting the Ancient Amazon's wisdom. Then Ranma looked up and said, "If you had been able to come it would not have been so. The belt here is exactly as the one I made for myself and Shampoo and yet it does not work for you Grandmother. For that I am sorry."

Cologne shook her head and said, "It is not your fault Ranma. My old body is highly infused with my chi and cannot channel any mana. I will be content that you and your shield sister are there and that my training will be put to good use."

Cologne talked for a time about ancient battles where her sisters had fallen while Ranma and Shampoo listened and learned gaining a perspective on their own fight earlier in the evening. When it was done Ranma stayed for the night waking early in the morning to go to the Tendo house and get his things, assist with breakfast, and spar with his father.

As Ranma began walking to school behind Akane and Ryouga a small figured spoke to the pair asking if one of them was Akane Tendo and when the girl answered in the affirmative the strange creature lodged itself into her bosom. This immediately led to an explosion of violence from Akane and Ryouga, but neither was able to even touch the strange creature.

Ranma watched the goings on with a hint of amusement. Once he was sure that the old shrunken man wasn't out to truly hurt the pair Ranma moved along to school. It may not have been his best idea, but he had finally determined that his best course of action was leaving those two alone and unless they were in real danger that was exactly what he was going to do.

Classes passed and lunch arrived with Ukyou sitting near him with a dreamy expression on her face. She wasn't in his arms, but she was close and she had shared her lunch of Okonomiyaki with him. Somehow she had gone from vengeance to seeking to wanting fulfill the marriage pact their fathers arranged and he wasn't sure how to proceed. It was an additional trouble he didn't want to deal with really. But, she wanted something he couldn't give her and Beryl was insisting that he should make it clear to her now.

He sighed softly and said, "Uk-chan this is nice and all, but we're just friends okay?"

The girl frowned and said, "But Ranchan what about the agreement?"

"It can't be Uk-chan I'm already trying to date the Tendo girls and that's just falling apart."

He didn't mention his feelings for Kasumi and Ukyou butted in saying, "But, that just means it wasn't meant to be. We were great friends Ranchan we can be great together."

"I don't….I mean you're my best friend, but I don't think I love you we haven't even seen each other for years."

"Well then why not give me a chance?" The girl pleaded and Ranma sighed.

He looked at her and thought about it. He hadn't known Shampoo or Kasumi and he felt things for them and this girl was pretty. Still every time he looked at her he saw his good buddy Uk-chan a guy who he used to play with, not a fiancée. Maybe that would change someday and maybe it wouldn't but it wasn't fair for her to tell her anything but the truth. The thoughts were his and Beryl's together but they made sense and finally he swallowed and said, "Look Uk-chan we are friends, why don't we just let it stay with that?"

Tears cascaded down her cheeks and she ran off crying without another word to him. He sighed softly to himself and watched her go, knowing he had done the right thing, but hurting for it nonetheless.

Not far from Ranma Shampoo had been watching the proceedings with a strange look on her face a cross between a smile and annoyance. She followed him into school after lunch sitting nearby looking at him from time to time and he wondered what was wrong.

By the time school was out though the purple haired girl was back to normal and they were racing towards the Nekohanten working to train and work the dinner rush with martial arts and spell slinging.

Part of the training was a point system for being able to spar with Cologne and take the prize amulet she held. As the bowls flew into the air she concentrated on her mana and tossed out three bolts shaping them with her chi and letting it encompass the bowls she had thrown them at. In the meantime she rushed toward Cologne and tried to grab that prize. The two were w whirl of arms and legs as the bowls gently levitated down to where they belonged.

As those bowls touched ground Cologne swept Ranma's feet from under her and tossed more bowls. Again she tossed her mana at them and tried for the prize, but this time was thrown across the establishment for her efforts. She landed on her feet as her bowls touched their spots and Cologne looked at her saying, "It's a good technique, but it takes too much of your concentration."

Ranma nodded at that and then watched as Shampoo came in at her grandmother twisting her hand with an inverted cold chi that the two of them had been working on. The horizontal blast of air seemed to slam into the elderly Amazon, but moments later Shampoo was the one being tossed across the room. The ancient woman smiled and said, "Oh very good try a new angle on the _Hiryu Shouten Ha_, but not one I had not considered."

The night went on in the same vein as Ranma and Shampoo tried with little success to gain the prize amulet. When they were done Cologne took them out to a small herb garden behind the restaurant. There she said, "The creatures you fight absorb the energy of living things and so we must use our chi for other purposes, speed and strength you have learned. You have begun to learn hot and cold and with that you have also learned the art of bringing forth the dragon."

Ranma and Shampoo nodded and listened as Cologne continued, "The dragon is the wind, sharp and deadly, when you can fully possess it but the manner of bringing it forth has its own power. The _Soul of Ice_ is more than just simple technique. Delving far into it can bring clarity and the most powerful of its users have been able to freeze the blood."

Cologne gestured and in her ancient hand ice crystals formed. "Learn this and you will go far." She stood and left the area leaving Ranma and Shampoo to practice delving into the technique she had shown them.

The two worked on that and Ranma helped Shampoo with her ability to form a mana bolt as well. Luckily the two worked together as the _Soul_ _of Ice_ seemed to bring Shampoo well into focus for channeling her mana and sending it out as a small bolt. Even so Ranma frowned lightly and said, _"She doesn't have nearly the reserves I do."_

"_She is human Ranma, while in my body and filled with the curse of Jusenkyo you are something more._

Ranma nodded at that and pulled on her own mana forming it into a thin disk and flinging it in the air. The bolt came down and sliced a blade of grass in twain and Ranma stared a moment then said, "Ryouga of course why didn't I think of it earlier."

Beryl had no answer but Shampoo said, "That's a very good idea. Iron cloth technique should work well against car creatures if we fight them again."

Ranma nodded and the two practiced some more before he finally went back to the Tendo house. There he found a practical war zone with Akane and Ryouga unconscious and that strange old man standing on a pile of panties and bras in the middle of the yard.

The young pigtailed boy looked at the scene and said, "This is exactly why I should spend more time at the Nekohanten."

Beryl mentally agreed with him as the old geezer looked at him and said, "Ranma my boy I've been looking for you."

Ranma just stared at the creature and then said, "Okay I give up why have you lookin for me? No wait…" He looked again the unconscious martial artists and the panties and said, "It has something to do with Genma Saotome doesn't it?"

The old man lit a pipe and took a deep drag. "That's right my boy. I'm Happosai founder of the Anything Goes School of martial arts and you are going to be my student."

The words, "Like hell I will" tumbled through his mind, but were stopped by Beryl's gentle touch and instead he said, "No offense Happosai, but I already have a teacher."

"Don't be an ingrate boy. This is an opportunity of a life time and these two pathetic specimens couldn't even begin to cut it." The old man pointed to Akane and Ryouga's unconscious forms.

Ranma shrugged and without thinking said, "Yeah well they ain't even in my league."

The old man smiled happily and Ranma was afraid for a moment. "Excellent indeed my dear boy lessons will begin first thing in the morning, now why don't you help an old man bring his lacy darlings in the house."

Ranma shook his head and said, "I ain't agreed to anything and I'm not sure why you're a cross dresser, but I think you can carry your own underwear."

The old man seemed to explode with anger and attacked saying, "I liberated these silky darlings from lovely ladies. I don't WEAR them."

Ranma barely avoided the first strikes dodging and blocking as best he could, but it was not quite enough. Somehow the old man slipped past his guard and slammed one of his arms with a pressure point. Ranma disengaged, but things were not looking good so far. Still the geezer was pumping out a whole lot of very angry chi and Ranma had an idea rushing towards him and saying, "So you're just a disgusting pervert then?"

"Ha! Like a young kid like you would understand." Happosai continued to attack Ranma and the younger martial artist guided the fight so that the two went into a spiral pattern. Block, dodge, get hit another time it was a strategy that would have paid off if only the old codger hadn't disappeared at the very final moment.

Ranma looked around for the old man and he was across the yard back on his pile of panties and bras. The coot smiled at him and said, "Amazon training eh boyo, well that's not too shabby, but I wouldn't want my silky darlings to get ruined."

With that he piled the undergarments into a bag and hopped into the window that led to the Tendo attic. By then Akane and Ryouga were getting up and Ranma wanted no part of whatever lingering anger the pair might still possess so he quickly went inside. Inside he found Nabiki at the window putting away a video camera, but he just walked past her and up to his room.

The girl caught up to him and said, "Hey Ranma we got you a gig for this Friday." She handed him a small note card with the details and then walked off adding a final, "Remember to meet me here after lunch in school you'll be skipping the rest of the day."

Ranma sighed and rubbed his forehead. Two days until the photo shoot, a crazy old man in the Tendo house, his father, Soun Tendo, Sailor girls that didn't trust him enough to let him call them when he found trouble, learning magic, not knowing how he really felt for Shampoo or Kasumi, and a dark and ominous threat to the city and maybe even the world. He lay in his bed and wondered how many other kids his age came close to dealing with any of that.

As he lay there Beryl said, _"You need to talk with them Ranma, tell them how you feel."_

The young boy shook his head, _"What can I say to them?"_

"_You love them each Ranma and you need to tell at least one before they are gone. Don't lose your chance like I did." _The spirit sighed in his mind.

"_He's still out there…"_

Ranma could feel her shaking her head as she said, _"No, Ranma he's not. That boy in the mask is no more my Endymion than that little girl is the Princess I hated so much. They are different people now changed by the reincarnation. I don't. . ."_

Beryl stopped herself, but Ranma knew she had been about to say something along the lines of not deserving any chance after what she had once planned. She had stopped herself this time and Ranma was happy about that hopeful that with time his friend would find a way to forgive herself.

While Beryl hadn't forgiven herself the next morning Ranma was still able to gain a new perspective on his question about other children his age who were dealing with many similar issues to his own. The answer to his question came that morning when he was on his way to school. His communicator went off and when he opened the device he saw Sailor Mars fighting at a Shinto Shrine. The girl was obviously upset and was yelling, "It's my grandfather. He has the Indigo crystal and Jadeite did something to him. Somehow those two are fighting each other and I'm taking on Nephrite and Zoicite along with about 10 youma. I need backup now!"

Ranma jumped onto his bike and zipped down the roadways, onto fence rails, and even up to the rooftops. He pushed chi into his legs and became a dervish of speed with a reckless abandon for life and limb. He arrived at the scene with Shampoo a few seconds' behinds him. The two of them surveyed the scene and together determined the best places in the battle that they could make a difference.

Moving quickly Ranma sped his bike directly into Jadeite even as the general slammed the strange, nearly oni looking Shinto priest into the ground. The general tried to grab the young martial artist, but missed entirely and wound up with a few hundred punches in his gut for the trouble. "Little worm! Who are you that dare to challenge Jadeite?"

Ranma just smiled and attacked again wishing that he could throw even one spell in his male form, but made due with a small chi bolt instead. Unfortunately for him in this case the dark General simply smiled and absorbed the energy saying, "How nice, you came to provide mistress Beryl with life energy."

The general suddenly moved behind him, or possibly teleported there, and Ranma missed a dodge to end up flying towards a wall. The young boy tumbled perfectly hitting the wall with his legs and rocketing back towards Jadeite. The blow landed across the man's face, but didn't even move him. Another teleport later and he was at Ranma's back again, but this time the young martial artist was ready and the general received a few hundred super fast punches directly into his gut. With those punches the breath whooshed out of Jadeite's body and he fell to the ground. Ranma didn't leave him to stand or even make the attempt rushing in to slam the man in the face again and again shattering some type of magical shield as the man slowly moved away and into the air.

With a bloody lip the General sneered at Ranma and sent a blast of magical energy straight towards him. The young boy easily dodged it and jumped into the air to confront Jadeite there. The general smirked again saying, "Fool boy I can fly with my magic how can you possibly think to win here."

Ranma's first punch was blocked, but the force directed him farther into the air where the boy just smiled and came down onto another block only to flip himself directly behind Jadeite and send a twisting pulse of super cooled air directly into the man's back sending him towards the ground.

Ranma followed Jadeite's descent to the ground and was about to send hundreds of punches into the man's back when the general teleported again. Quick reflexes on Ranma's part allowed him to drop to the ground and tumble out of the way as a magical bolt whizzed past.

Then Ranma was up again and once more and this time he used pressure points to disable one of Jadeite's legs. The general fell to the ground sending yet another blast of magical energy past Ranma's form and then Ranma was fully upon him. The battle was over seconds later and Jadeite was unconscious and bleeding on the ground.

The black haired boy spared a glance to ensure that Shampoo was doing well with a group of youma and then went to check on the oni creature. By this time the creature was in the form of an elderly Shinto priest, but seemed to be mostly healthy. Ranma stood next to him as the area around his shrine was blasted by ancient magical forces and Amazonian martial arts. Just as Ranma was about to join the battle and help Shampoo a red haired woman literally stepped out of thin air. Ranma gasped at the woman's appearance recognizing it for the same one he wore while in female form. She grabbed the priest by the neck and began to squeeze his throat while her hand quested towards his chest.

Ranma immediately attacked the woman, but slammed into a cylinder of pure force. The red haired woman smiled at him and said, "Pitiful boy, did you think your paltry physical attacks would stand any chance against the might of Queen Beryl?"

"Yeah, I kinda did!" He shouted rushing the barrier again desperately looking for its breaking point or anything else. His fists slammed uselessly against the barrier even as he had to dodge out of the way as a blast of flame licked at the false Beryl's feet. "Tsk, Mars you'll burn this poor man to a cinder is that what you want?"

The fiery Senshi landed next to Ranma and said, "Let him go!"

Beryl gave a sickeningly evil sort of smirk and shoved her hand into his chest where she retrieved a green gem. After that she dropped the man to the ground and said, "There you are I let him go."

The young Senshi of Mars fell to her knees at the sight while Ranma simply channeled his anger into trying to break through the shield and tear the false Beryl limb from limb. None of his attacks worked and he realized that he would need magic to combat magic and so called Shampoo's name.

The other girl departed from her battle with Nephrite leaving him for the Senshi to finish off and rushed to Ranma's side. There she nodded at Ranma's hasty orders and send a number of mana bolts into the red haired queen's barrier.

"Pitiful really, your magic is not quite even half of what these pitiful other girls can send against me."

The red haired woman smiled from behind her barrier and slowly walked towards the unconscious form of Jadeite. While she did so Shampoo, Mars, Moon, and Venus sent their attacks directly at her, but all of them seemed to reflect away.

In the meantime Nephrite and Zoicite were departing the field of battle and Mercury and Jupiter were now standing with the group confronting the red haired woman. She smiled at them as she picked up Jadeite and said, "The only person to ever defeat this shield was Queen Serenity herself and none of you are in her league. Now pack up and go home girls I have the gem and you won't win. Metallia will be freed and she will help me usher in the Silence."

As the other queen had been talking Ranma had been having a discussion with his Beryl who was explaining exactly how she thought the shield might work and how they might possibly bring it down. The only problem would be changing into his female form. Ranma glanced at the girls, looked at the dying form of the elderly Shinto priest and said, _"Let's do this."_

Quickly he said to Shampoo, "Shampoo I need you to be ready with a horizontal Hiryu Shouten Ha directed at her hand holding that gem. Mercury when I say now I want you to hit me with a direct blast of water."

The boy ran directly at the red haired woman's shield. She watched him moving with a smirk of confidence on her face and then he shouted, "Now Mercury!"

The blast of water hit him full force and the change washed over him. In her female body Ranma fully tapped into her mana reserves and combined them with her chi reserves. A single finger touched Beryl's shield muttering to herself, _"Baksai Tenket's revised Mana exploding point"_ and the shield exploded sending Ranma flying into the air. While the false Beryl and the Senshi gaped in surprise at the additional form of Beryl on the scene Shampoo was perfectly prepared and sent a blast of wind directly at Beryl's hand.

The freezing winds ripped the green gem from her hand even as the red haired woman pulled it away from the searing pain with a scream. Even as the evil woman started to recover Ranma was behind her in female form saying, "I don't know who you are lady, but it's time for you to stop degrading and poisoning the name and honor of the real Queen of Terra!"

With that she rushed in fists flying, but the other Beryl had apparently had enough and teleported away taking Jadeite with her. Ranma scowled at the spot she had been in while Shampoo walked over to the form of the elderly Shinto priest with the green gem in hand.

Mars snapped out of her confusion first and stepped to Shampoo taking the gem and holding it to the man's chest. He healed, but the gem stayed in Mars' hand. Even as Mars was healing the priest Ranma was walking towards the group. No one attacked her this time and Mercury said, "Who are you?"

The rest of the scouts looked on and waited for Ranma to answer.


	6. Chapter 6

-Chapter 6-

Ranma looked at the assembled Senshi around her and delayed a few moments and considered her options. Running off to think of a better plan was out because it would make the girls more suspicious of her and saying, "I'm Ranma Saotome sorry about this." just wouldn't cut it. So, she spoke gently and with Beryl's encouragement saying, "Well that's hard to explain really."

The girls were silent around her while Shampoo stood at her back ready to inflict damage on anyone who would threaten them. The current Queen of the Moon Kingdom, currently styling herself as Sailor Moon said, "Please Ranma try. We'd like to know."

Ranma nodded and said, "Well I am a martial artist as I said to you before, but there's more to it. You see there is a place in China called Jusenkyo and whatever falls into one of the springs and drowns is what the next creature that falls into it turns into. I fell into the girl spring. Now cold water makes me a girl and hot water makes me a boy."

The girls stood listening with rapt attention as Ranma went from truth to prevarication, "After falling in I kept getting dreams of an ancient Terran kingdom, magical spells, magical items and fighting against youma. In China I ran into some more training and then after running into a youma that nearly killed me I decided to put what I learned in my dreams to use so that my Chi wouldn't be leached out when I fought the creatures."

The girls nodded in understanding and Ranma continued saying, "After coming to Japan I saw a TV news broadcast with you guys fighting Youma and I thought I could help. My first attempt didn't go so well because you guys attacked me."

A few guilty looks pervaded the group and Ranma added, "Even so I felt it was important and when Shampoo here came to Japan from China with her Grandmother we thought that we should definitely defeat the youma and help you, but that it would be best not to do so in my female form."

Mars looked the most suspicious and pointed to Shampoo saying, "What's your story?"

Shampoo turned to the red haired girl and said, "I am Ranma's shield sister. She trained with my grandmother and me in my village until her father took her away."

Mercury looked bemused and said, "You said her, but I thought Ranma's main form was male?"

Shampoo shrugged and said, "Ranma is Ranma, but currently she is a girl so I user her."

Mercury nodded and finished her scan saying, "Well you register as Human with a small mana pool which, while uncommon, isn't unheard of."

Shampoo shrugged and the other Senshi nodded, then Mercury added, "Ranma here registers the same as Beryl does, class M type III, which is nearly the same as we are."

In Ranma's mind Beryl added, _"Except that they have powerful magic enhancing outfits and artifacts," _Beryl sighed and added, "_There is just no way would we be able to replicate that technology, but I'll see what I can think of."_

Ranma mentally nodded and added, _"Well they aren't our enemies, but whatever you can think of might be useful against whoever that lady is that thinks she's you…"_

Beryl mentally nodded as Mars looked at Mercury and said, "So what does that mean exactly and why does she look like Beryl?"

Ranma answered by saying, "Well whatever falls into the spring is what you come out as. I know someone who turns into a pig. At a guess maybe Beryl came into contact with the spring I fell into?"

Ranma heard Beryl snicker in the back of his mind as the girls mulled the idea over and Mercury said, "It seems unlikely that Beryl died in that spring since we know she was sealed a long time ago, but perhaps one of her relatives did or perhaps she fell in, but did not die."

Ranma shrugged and the rest of the girls seemed unsure until finally, Moon said, "Well I think she's been honest with us and she's still interested in helping us even though we attacked her."

Mercury nodded as did Jupiter and Venus. Mars stared at Ranma and Shampoo suspiciously for a few more moments and then said, "Fine…now let me check on my Grandfather."

She walked off obviously angry and after she was out of earshot Ranma said, "So, I don't suppose Mercury here can make our communicators be able to send to you guys?"

The blue haired Senshi nodded and quickly made the fix and Ranma asked one more question despite already knowing the answer, "Who was that guy in the Tuxedo and Mask?"

He was told that it was Tuxedo Kamen and that he had been helping Moon and the rest of the Senshi since she began fighting Youma. After that everyone departed the area. Once he and Shampoo were alone Ranma said, "Well that was a close one."

Shampoo shook her head and said, "No I think the short skirted warriors wanted an ally and we came at just the right time. Despite initial suspicions we have helped them and that is what they need most. So, I think they are willing to overlook any irregularities…"

Ranma nodded and Shampoo continued saying, "What I think hard part is going to be is the last crystal and then fighting the evil queen again. She is not one to accept defeat very well"

Ranma shook her head and said, "No I guess she isn't at that.

* * *

A loud crash signaled Happosai being slammed into the concrete wall and out for the count. Ranma smiled and flexed her arm looking at a shiny metallic bracer, _"Well score one for the thermo whathcamacallit and the soul of ice."_

"_Thermodynamic inversion Ranma taking into account your abilities with the soul of Ice we have laced the thermodynamic inversion spell into the bracer to be called up at a moment's notice without draining your mana pool. With that and your Amazon training you were able to call up the 'Dragon' in a mere moment."_

Ranma nodded and Beryl added, _"We will still need to test some of the other spell triggers and their uses and then if the prototype works we will then give the other bracer we created to Shampoo."_

Ranma nodded and then looked over at Nabiki who was saying, "Ranma if you're finished with the old pervert we need to be at that modeling session we scheduled for today."

"Right…" Ranma sighed and proceeded to follow Nabiki into a waiting taxi that drove them to the place where the photo shoot was happening. Once there Ranma was taken into wardrobe put into a jeans and blouse outfit and then directed to pose.

Ranma easily followed the directions given her and when it was over the photographer and director were raving. "You can just see her youth and vibrancy coming out. These pictures for Buena jeans will be excellent in the next _Teen Idol Pop_ magazine."

Ranma just changed back into her normal outfit while Nabiki gathered contacts and schmoozed. When they were done the two walked into a Taxi that began to take them to the Tendo house. "Not bad Ranma, I'm surprised it didn't take more for you to express yourself as a girl."

The now male martial artist shuddered slightly, but tried his best to ignore the feelings provided to him by years on the road with Genma. So he shrugged and said, "It's just following directions. Just like you would for a new Kata."

Nabiki chuckled and said, "Is everything Martial Arts with you Ranma?"

Ranma looked at her a quick answer on his lips, then pondered her question a moment more and said, "Not everything Nabiki, just some of the most important things. Besides thinking of things in terms of Martial Arts helps me figure them out."

The middle Tendo sister gave Ranma an appraising look and said, "Imagine my surprise Ranma."

The boy shrugged and exited the car as it came to a stop. He waited for Nabiki and then walked into the gates of the surrounding wall around the Tendo house. There before him lay a massive ruin of yard destruction and a weeping Soun Tendo. Ranma looked at Nabiki and said, "You ask him…I'm not sure I really want to know."

That was exactly when the elder Saotome came out and said, "Ungrateful boy is this how you treat your fiancée?"

Ranma looked at him with concern and said, "Is Kasumi okay?"

If the elder Saotome had been thinking more clearly a marriage would have been arranged on the spot, but in this case Soun's wailing and his desire to see Ranma with another martial artist prevailed and so he said, "Not Kasumi! Akane boy, now do your duty and go after the creature that kidnapped your fiancée" The older man practically screamed in Ranma's ear.

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'm sure Ryouga can handle it."

Genma stared at him aghast and said, "What are you thinking? The honor of our school the agreement between families is on the line and you sit there like a GIRL and say 'Ryouga can handle it'? No, this will not do. You will march out there and rescue your fiancée from the Bull creature that has stolen her."

Ranma blinked and wondering if it was a youma attack said, "Bull creature? What sort of bull creature?"

Genma, seeing his son's change in demeanor, said, "A terrible demonic creature came and stole her. It was too powerful for even Ryouga. You must save her before it's too late."

Ranma looked to Nabiki who had been speaking with her father. She looked back and said, "Well daddy says it was a Bull with wings and a strange tail. For what it's worth Ranma I think they might actually be telling the truth here."

Ranma nodded and took off running following the path of destruction as he pulled out his communicator and called for Shampoo's assistance. When the purple haired girl picked up Ranma said, "Shampoo, we have an issue at the Tendo place, I'm following the path of destruction out of the city."

He proceeded to give Shampoo directions and kept up a decent amount of speed until he was out of the urban areas and into a small forest. There he heard the crashing of trees and a gigantic splash, then a bwee as a piglet was launched off somewhere. A voice yelled, "Damn it you pig fool. Stop attacking and just bring Happosai to me!"

Ranma walked towards the sound and saw a very bishounen boy with pantyhose tied as a belt around his waist and Akane tied up in the same and on the ground next to him. "You don't look much like a bull monster that my pops and Mr. Tendo were raving about. Still kidnapping women is pretty low."

The black haired boy smirked and said, "You must be the old geezer's trainee right? He said I'd have to defeat you to get my new name. I figured you'd follow if I took your girl."

The boy spat and batted a small pig that shot at him from the woods slamming it into a tree and knocking it out. "I wasn't expecting the pig boy though I'll admit that. He's persistent, but not in my league."

Ranma sighed and decided not to explain his rather complicated relationship with Akane and just went with simplicity, "Okay, so the old freak says you beat me and you get a new name. How about when I beat you, then you go home and forget all this crap."

The boshounen boy grinned and said, "Deal."

"Hey by the way I'm Ranma Saotome who are you?"

"Taro….Awesome Taro." The boy said as he rushed in to attack Ranma.

Ranma easily avoided the blows and sent punches directly into openings in the other boy's defenses. After a few moments Taro was on the ground and Ranma was saying, "If I had known I wouldn't have asked Shampoo for backup sorry Shampoo."

The purple haired girl peeked up from some bushes she had been hiding in and said, "No worries Ranma it's a good idea to call for backup even if you are sure you won't need it."

Ranma chuckled having known she was there already, then nodded and walked closer to Taro, "Look man you know you can't win so why not just give up before I have to knock you out?"

The boy stood and backed up towards a pond with a grin. "Can't win? I haven't even begun this match."

With that he stepped into the small pond and transformed into a strange mixture of bull, crane, eel, and hairy humanoid. Ranma gawked a moment as the transformation occurred, but was moving as the thing's giant fist impacted the ground where he had been standing.

This time the battle was much harder for Ranma. Despite being able to dodge the creature's blows with near impunity all of Ranma's punches weren't even making a dent. He hopped to the side as another blow smashed through a tree and looked at the terrain realizing it was not good for summoning the dragon unless he was female and had access to his magic in that form.

He dodged some more attacks and pondered turning on his belt to see if it had enough to juice up his bracer and give him at least one thermodynamic inversion spell, but decided against it. The massive bull creature was obviously enraged as he dodged another strike and then another. Finally he realized a plan and jumped at the creature allowing it to hit his feet in a block and send him flying towards a small pine.

Quickly reversing his position Ranma hit the pine feet first and felt the tree pull way back hoping that it would not snap. He mentally sighed with relief as the tree stopped its reverse motion and then snapped him right back at Taro. The large minotaur like creature was utterly unprepared as Ranma slammed into it with a full force kick to the head.

Its giant head snapped back, but not quite far enough to drop the creature and he moved to attack Ranma again. The boy was away from his strike and up in the air again leaping from tree to tree and then finding another branch to spring him back at Taro. The giant creature blocked the blow this time, but was utterly surprised as instead of hitting him Ranma grabbed its arm and used the momentum of his jump and the readied block to throw the creature into a tree. Moments after Ranma slammed hundreds of punched directly into the creature's solar plexus sending the creature's breath out in a great whoosh.

Taro coughed and tried to stand and attack, but he was dazed and unprepared at the pig tailed martial artist slammed into him again and this time his head snapped back and he was unconscious. Ranma stood over its form as Shampoo walked closer and dumped a pot of steaming hot water on the large creature transforming it back into a young bishounen boy. Ranma looked at her and said, "Where did you get that?"

Shampoo smiled and said, "I put it on the fire when he transformed and used chi to help with the heating. It was ready after a minute of the fight."

"But we were fighting for at least five…." Ranma looked at her and frowned as the purple haired girl laughed. He realized that she was teasing him, but he took it in stride and walked over to Akane.

He untied her bonds and said, "Are you alright?"

The girl looked up at him anger warring with thankfulness and then finally settled for changing the subject instead of a thank you. "Ryouga he kept trying to save me. Is he okay?"

Ranma said, "Most likely. You know nothing can keep him down long."

Akane nodded and stood up. She looked for Ryouga while Ranma and Shampoo sat with Taro. The young bishounen boy woke up and said, "Well it looks like I lose Ranma. I guess I'll go."

Taro started to stand and Ranma said, "Wait what did Happosai do to you?"

Taro looked back and said, "When I was born he baptized me in Jusenkyo."

"So you want revenge for your curse then?"

"Feh! This so called curse is the best thing that has ever happened to me. No I was hoping to get Happosai to change my name."

Ranma shrugged and said, "I don't know Awesome Taro's not so bad…"

The other boy frowned and explained that Awesome wasn't actually his real name, but refused to say what his real name was. Ranma in a moment of simple insight said, "Knowing the old pervert it was Bra, Panties, or Pantyhose."

When Taro grimaced at the last name Ranma was tempted to tease the boy, but Beryl's whispers helped him decide that tormenting the young boy due to his name was probably just adding insult to injury since Ranma had already physically defeated him.

While Ranma was having his internal dialogue Shampoo looked at Taro and said, "I think you're very silly to try getting your name back this way. Why you not just get Happosai and make him change it?"

Taro shrugged and said, "I'll admit the old pervert is just too good. I was hoping his apprentice, Ranma here, was less skilled."

Shampoo smiled a devious little smile and said, "How about a caveat to the deal Ranma made to you. We give you Happosai to take away and then you don't come back?"

"You can do that?"

Ranma grinned at Shampoo and said, "Yes, we can."

Some hours later Taro was flying off with Happosai while everyone else watched with glee in their hearts. Unfortunately the moment was broken as Ranma and Shampoo's communicators started signaling.

The two opened them to see Sailor Moon injured and in an alleyway, "Emergency, I was following Tuxedo Kamen and he was ambushed. We need back up now. Please, I don't think we have much time."

The signal cut out as the image of Moon turned to fire her tiara into a group of advancing youma. Ranma grabbed his bike and Shampoo vaulted on behind him, then they were off at speeds that would rival some motorcycles.

Even so, by the time they arrived the rest of the Senshi were involved in a massive firefight with numerous Youma commanded by Zoicite who had apparently knocked out Tuxedo Kamen and was almost on top of an unconscious Sailor Moon. They immediately waded in to battle and began dismantling youma through sheer physical ability and pushing them back from Moon's comatose location.

With their help the Senshi were able to get Sailor Moon to safety, but the group was not able to make a push towards Kamen's position where Zoicite was apparently gloating to him about how he would kill him. Ranma silently thanked the kami that Zoicite was an utter idiot and used some youma to springboard himself to the position of the general. He was just in time to deflect a sword strike with his gauntlet.

The general growled, "You think you are something boy, but I have seen you fight and you are nothing compared to the Senshi," with those words he sent a massive jolt of magic through his sword and at Ranma. The boy's shield collapsed and he was sent hurtling into a nearby youma.

In the microseconds of his flight away from the general Ranma twisted in air and barely avoided sharp claws and razor sharp teeth. Even so he could feel his chi being drained by the creature and he desperately tried to bring his shield back up, but the general's blast had disrupted some magical connection between his normal form and that of his Jusenkyo cursed form.

Time slowly stretched out for him as he dodged a strike and his mind went through his options. He knew that he was avoiding that form, knew that there were still unresolved issues of sexual identity and his form especially after that modeling job. In fact those issues had been exactly why he had fought Taro as a male, why he hadn't changed despite the fact that being in his female form would have ended that fight much quicker.

A claw passed by his face and he dodged it with mere centimeters of clearance. He had to end this fight and just like his last fight with Beryl he knew it had to be in his other form. Decision made his hand moved to his waist and he pulled out a small canteen of water placing it directly into the way of the next claw strike. Water exploded from the container and drenched him and then he became.

A brilliant shield of protection snapped into place around the redhead and a single blast from her bracer along with a bit of cold chi drove a spike of super condensed air through the Youma's torso and ripped it apart. She turned back towards Zoicite to see her tribe sister using a Jian to block his strikes and keep Tuxedo Kamen safe. A quick glance at the other Senshi, minus the still comatose Moon, showed that they were slowly clearing through the youma and getting closer to the general's position, but it seemed that Shampoo needed the most help since she was hampered by protecting the unconscious man in a tuxedo and mask.

Ranma touched her bracer and muttered single word pulling on her mana pool and the stored spell to send her high into the air and then back down to the ground exactly behind Zoicite. Once she was behind the General Ranma proceeded to slam a fist directly through his force field and into his kidney. As the general grimaced with the pain and flinched Ranma was able to grab his sword arm and hyper extend it behind his back. The sword dropped from his nerveless fingers and Shampoo's Jian strike finished the job by lopping off the general's head.

Ranma let go of the man as the blood sprayed everywhere. In that moment she looked to Shampoo with the clear realization that they the two of them had just worked to kill a man. Not a youma or demonic creature, but a man. He didn't disintegrate into dust, but simply flopped to the ground dead with blood pouring from his neck while his head rolled slowly across the street.

Their shock at what they had just done kept them from noticing as another man with white blonde hair rushed toward them screaming with anger and hatred. A blast of magic from him sent the two flying and into unconsciousness. Their last vision a red haired woman taking Tuxedo Kamen, grabbing the white cloaked, white haired man that had blasted them and departing the scene as the Senshi finished off the last youma.

* * *

Ranma slowly opened her eyes and looked around her. Shampoo was lying next to her and they were both in a small alley. Moon was close by apparently having just cast some healing spell on them and the other Senshi were behind her. All of them were looking at Ranma and Shampoo with some trepidation and even a bit of awe.

While she began to gain her bearings Ranma's mind was a whirl of emotions and facets of what she had just done. Luckily for her she had been trained by Amazons for a day like this and her mentor and mental passenger had killed as well. Slowly she calmed and found her center taking the knowledge of her act and reconciling it with the people Zoicite would have killed if he had not been stopped. Once the young girl was feeling up to it she stood and walked to Shampoo, who was also stirring.

Next to the purple haired girl Ranma held her hand out and Shampoo clapped her own in it then used the extra leverage to rise to her feet and stand next to Ranma. After that the young Amazons walked over to Shampoo's sword and the purple haired girl picked up her blood covered Jian. Both, she and Ranma stared at the weapon a moment and then she pulled out a cloth. With slow and measured reverence Shampoo slowly wiped the weapon clean.

Afterwards Shampoo sheathed the Jian and both she and Ranma sighed as it slid home giving each other a look that communicated a thousand things about how they had gone from Martial Artists to Blooded Amazon warriors that day.

Ranma simply nodded to Shampoo in silent recognition and then realized they had both had an audience for the entire ritual. Looking at her audience Ranma said "So, what happened?"

Mercury spoke first saying, "From what I can tell Zoicite challenged Kamen to a duel for the rainbow crystals and he accepted. Sailor Moon found out and arrived at the site of the duel where Zoicite was clearly cheating and so she tried to save Kamen. That's when Zoicite called his youma and then she called us."

Ranma nodded and said, "Okay and after we killed Zoicite?"

The sailors blanched at his direct statement and it took a moment before Mercury could continue. "Well I played the footage back using the Mercury computer and it looks like Kunzite appeared from a gate along with Beryl. Kunzite attacked you and Shampoo while Beryl picked up Kamen, then she grabbed Kunzite and the two of them departed through some type of gate."

Ranma nodded and said, "So did he have the rainbow crystals on him then?"

Mercury shook her head and smiled saying, "No, in fact Moon has ours and Zoicite had two of Beryl's. That means we have the Indigo, Green, Blue, and Yellow crystals while Beryl is left with only the Orange while the Purple crystal still needs to be found."

Sailor Moon added, "Don't forget that Kamen and I learned who we are. I am the princess of the Moon and he was Prince Endymion of the Earth kingdom."

A voice from the side alley added, "Well it is a very tragic story and Luna and I remember it now. We can share if you like? But, perhaps in cleaner conditions?"

After a quick debate on revealing their civilian identities the group finally agreed to meet up elsewhere. Soon after that the Senshi were in their civilian guises at the Crown Arcade and in a small meeting/party room without windows. It was there that Ranma truly saw the moon cat advisors and utterly balked at walking into the room.

Shampoo physically moved him while Beryl mentally helped to prepare him, but it still took a few minutes before he was finally shoved into the room. Even after that he took a sear as far away from the talking cats as possible.

Once everyone was seated the Moon cats provided a summary of the history of the Moon Kingdom's rise and fall as well as the tragic history of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion. While the cats spoke of their version of ancient history Beryl mentally scoffed to Ranma at some of their descriptions of a utopian society happy to be ruled over by the wonderful and perfect Queen Serenity. Ranma herself agreed with Beryl's assessment that the history given by the cats was probably inaccurate.

Even with that inaccurate depiction and the unlikelihood that the Moon Kingdom/Empire was a utopian ideal Beryl did not dispute that her assistance and her doppelgangers actions towards said Kingdom and its people were utterly amoral. Ranma agreed that the actions were amoral, but once again had to soothe Beryl's mental fretting about how evil she had once been and again reminded her that she had specifically decided to turn away from that path when she was killed.

Finally the Cats finished what they remembered and the group dispersed. Ranma waited until she was sure the cats were gone and then departed on her bike with Shampoo holding on behind her. She dropped the young Amazon off at her house with some reluctance to end the impromptu hug she was given.

After dropping Shampoo off Ranma rode home and walked in the door only to be greeted by her father and yet another rant about her responsibilities as a Man. Suffice it to say said conversation was ended with an unconscious panda. Even so Ranma took a bath and sat in his room and stared at his meager possessions. He took note of how few there were and how he had been brought up and trained over the years. He marked in his father's favor that when he had arrived as a girl in the Amazon village the combat with the best warrior of his generation had gone to his favor despite the fact that he had been in his cursed form at the time. Even so, it had been a close match and even now he and Shampoo were not far from each other in skill levels.

Of course the simple fact of the matter was that the Amazons were just as hard on their trainees as Genma had been with Ranma except, of course, for some of the man's stupid blunders. That set the older Saotome apart. Ranma pulled off his shirt and looked at himself noting scars that were familiar to him and Beryl's soft voice said, _"You don't ask even yourself the important question Ranma."_

Ranma sighed and did not speak as Beryl continued saying, _"Cologne treats you like you are her granddaughter and Shampoo as a sister. Each is concerned for your well being and what YOU want Ranma, but can the same be said for Genma Saotome?"_

Ranma argued that at some point Genma was concerned for his health and well being. The only problem was that he and Beryl knew that while Genma may have had been concerned for Ranma alone at some point in the past somewhere along the line that concern disappeared. Over time and through Ranma's memories it became more obvious that Genma's actions and concern for Ranma was only to provide for the older man's own needs into the future.

Ranma sighed at his own and Beryl's harsh condemnation of Genma Saotome, but realized it for the truth that it was. As he pondered that truth he looked to the situation at the Tendo house. At the end of his stay there would only be one result, a marriage. With that in mind he added his own truths about Akane and Nabiki in that he would never pick either girl.

In the quiet of the night with only Beryl's thoughts to share with he still felt alone. Abandoned by his father's quest to create a perfect legacy to himself and provide for his old age. His mother's face was lost in the faded past. Although there was solace for him in Shampoo and Cologne and possibly even acceptance of his curse it seemed that for full acceptance into the rest of that tribe he would have to lose his masculinity.

Somehow, even after accepting his female half earlier in the day his life still seemed to balance on so many edges. Could he somehow be male and female, was there any way to balance the honor and dishonor of the engagements, could Shampoo or Kasumi feel about him the way he was feeling for them, who would live and who would die in the next fight against Beryl's apparent doppelganger.

Suffice it to say it was a long and mostly restless night for Ranma Saotome

* * *

The following few days were no better, but at least there was some progress on crafting a bracer for Shampoo. Ranma handed it to the other girl at lunch one day quietly saying, "I put three spells into this one and it has a mana store to help power them, but you'll still need your own Mana to activate the spells."

Shampoo nodded and said, "The enhanced spell to make the Hiryu Shouten Ha faster, the jump spell, and what?"

"An enhancement for your Jian or Chui the spell will increase their damage output."

Shampoo nodded and then looked up to see Ukyou sitting not too far away with a sad expression on her face. Ranma noticed it as well and was unclear as to why Shampoo noticed the girl and asked her to come closer and eat with them. Ukyou approached hesitantly as if Ranma would scrape her away at a moment's notice, but finally sat. After a few moments of eating in silence Shampoo said, "You are Ranma's friend from when he was younger yes?"

Ukyou nodded and the purple haired girl said, "Genma Saotome was the one who hurt you from what I hear. Ranma did not mean any harm to his long time ago friend."

The emphasis in Shampoo's words was on friendship and Ukyou nodded at that while Ranma was oblivious of any potential subtext. After nodding Ukyou said sadly, "Well at least we can be friends and have lunch like this. It may not be what I wanted, but at least it's something right Ranchan?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah Uk-chan, just like in the old days."

School that day ended with Ranma happier than he had been before if not fully on an even mental keel. Then, after school Ranma was practicing with Shampoo at the Nekohanten when a group of strange men came by. The two ceased practice as the listened to the leader of the men talking with Cologne about some type of magical tea kettle when their communicators went off.

Minako and Usagi had been at a hairdresser and were now transformed and in the middle of a fire fight. Ranma looked at Shampoo and said, "Well we'll have to ask Grandmother about this Herb guy and the magical pot at a later date. Let's go!"

With that the two of them were off and cycling towards the next danger arrayed against the Sailor Senshi.

AN: Just want to take a moment of silence and hope for the good people of Japan, without them and people like Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi this fic would not exist.

Q


	7. Chapter 7

-Chapter 7-

Ranma watched Shampoo slice her blade through a youma even as her own kick shattered one's head and propelled her towards the rest of the Senshi most of whom were arrayed in a circle around Moon and ripping their own trail of destruction while Jupiter fought the red haired Nephrite.

The battle seemed to be going quite well until a black rose speared Jupiter's arm and a voice said, "You dare attack thy betters; well I shall have none of it. I Endymion consort to lady Beryl shall defeat you!"

With that a tuxedo clad flicked his hands and sent a black rose hurtling towards Jupiter. The stem embedded itself into her arm and she screamed in pure agony. Still she managed to hold up her hands and began to shout, "Supreme Thund..." the last words were cut off by her piecing scream as her left arm was sliced off up to her elbow.

Ranma saw it all in extreme slow motion and she moved, poured on the speed and took a few blows from youma just to get closer. She arrived just in time to push Jupiter to the ground and out of the way of a final strike that would have removed her head. Then she had to keep moving as Endymion's sword sliced towards her and she deflected it with her bracer. She knew she couldn't stand here and fight the tuxedo clad man unless she wanted Jupiter to bleed out, but grabbing the girl and running away would give an enemy with high speed and a very sharp sword a chance at her back. Her options were limited until Shampoo arrived and blocked the next strike from Endymion with her Jian.

Ranma quickly picked the bleeding girl up and removed her to the edges of the battle, but as she moved a Youma grabbed her side and pulled. She had to twist away from the claws and then she punched her magic to send her far into the air. Once she landed with her injured burden she ripped her shirt and started binding the wound even as she said, "Shit, that damn Youma made me drop the rest of your arm."

Jupiter was unconscious from the shock and blood loss and so was unable to reply to that statement. Ranma looked back over the battlefield and spotted the lost limb even as Mars pointed at the group of youma it was near and called out her attack phrase. Flame lit them up and took them out of the battle, but it also removed any possibility for reattachment as the lost limb went up in flames.

Rama held the bleeding stump tight and whispered, "Damn…damn…damn…" even as Beryl told her what she needed to do. "_You'll have to cauterize it Ranma."_

"_I know that! I know…." _She mentally berated herself and then took two breaths to settle her nerves, then accessed her mana and whispered, "Flame Sniper"

The small bit of heat did its job and then Ranma turned to the battle. She looked to Shampoo and noted that her Amazon compatriot had her hands full in a high speed sword fight with Endymion, one that any amount of distraction could end her life. She looked to the rest of the group and saw that Mercury and Moon were hiding behind a downed wall while Mars was attempting to flame another group of Youma. The black haired girl was hit by a blast of power from Nephrite, who had been the one pinning Mercury and Moon down, and she was blasted across the street and into a fire hydrant.

The crunch of her head connecting with the metal was clear from Ranma's position and she had had enough. She clicked her spell to give her height and distance again and rushed into the fray. A foot struck a youma and even as its head caved she blasted another next to it with a mana bolt, and then called out, "Mercury, high pressure water on these two. Moon hit the two behind with your tiara."

She dodged a blast from Nephrite and punched her spell again rocketing her into the air. Below her Moon and Mercury were destroying the four youma as suggested, but the floating general sneered as she passed above him saying, "You missed little girl!"

Ranma smirked at him and then hit him with her magical and chi based instant inversion. The swirl of tightly packed air slammed into him and sent him to the ground. He landed on his back with a crack. Ranma landed next to him and as he stood he was looking into the red haired girl's face. He dodged her first punch only to be hit with a blast from Moon.

Even as he was being blasted Shampoo's Jian sliced into Endymion's his side and a punch crushed his nose. Moon seeing Shampoo slice into her love calling out with a pleading voice, "Please don't hurt Endymion he must be under a spell. I'll use my powers on him!"

Even as Moon spoke Nephrite was launched into the air by one of Ranma's punches and there he was hit in the face by a high pressure stream of water from Mercury. He paused there a moment hovering with a hand to his abused face and said, "We have lost this encounter, but we shall capture the crystals and the Princess. Now come Endymion we will leave today and plan for a victory on another day."

With that a portal appeared and he dropped through, then another appeared and whisked away the tuxedo clad boy. Ranma stared at that a moment and then said, "Okay I am getting really sick and tired of that. We really need to think about some way to act instead of react to these people."

The red haired girl stood for a moment as silence reigned as Venus clawed her way out of what had once been a house and walked to stand next to the rest of the group. As Venus came over Ranma said, "And what the hell was up with Tux boy? I thought he was on your side?"

Mercury finally spoke up saying, "I…I don't know…looking at the data now I think he was somehow brainwashed or magically turned to evil. I'm not sure."

Moon looked the most upset and said, "No he…I love…" then she broke down in tears.

Ranma looked at the two girls and said, "Well I'm sure. You see he cut off your friend's arm. I cauterized it and I think she might be stable, but she's never going to have a left hand again. You think about that the next time you ask my tribe sister not to kill him."

Moon and Mercury looked abashed even as Ranma snorted and walked over to Mars and looked at her. "I'm not sure of her either. Hell, I'm not a doctor; I just have some training in healing from martial arts. She might have something broken. We need to get her and Jupiter to a hospital."

Shampoo was over at Jupiter and said, "She's still in shock and I agree. They are needing a hospital for sure."

Moon rubbed an arm over her eyes clearing her tears and sniffled as she said, "Wait bring them both together I think I can heal them."

Shampoo brought Jupiter to Mars and the group watched even as sirens became louder in the distance. Moon looked at her two friends her eyes averting themselves from Jupiter's lost arm as she called out, "Moon Healing Escalation!"

It was pure white and everyone watching was blinded. As eyes cleared Moon was slumped on the ground and the other two Senshi were slowly standing. Mars put a hand to her head while Jupiter put her right hand on only half of her left hand. The magic had made her wounds go away and her arm had lengthened, but it had given out before she had anything more than her thumb and one finger the rest was gone as if sliced away down to her wrist. All she could do was stare at it in mute horror.

Rescue crews were on the scene by then and through sheer luck no one had been harmed except for the Senshi. Shampoo looked to Ranma and said, "Time to go for us to go now."

Ranma sighed and said, "Right but we need to have a meeting. This, " he pointed at the damage and Jupiter, "this has got to stop."

The group departed, meeting up at the Hino Shrine some time later. Moon had tried to heal Jupiter again, but even when the girl was back in her civilian form the healing magic didn't take. So, with a morose mood and hardly a second thought the group made additional introductions and then stood in their civilian forms while Ranma addressed them saying, "Okay we need to train all of you, not just have Shampoo and I help and we need to figure out a better strategy than we have. We need some way to get to these damn Generals and Beryl before they step through a damn portal who knows where."

Shampoo nodded and said, "Yes, they are choosing the time and place of attacks and thus are coming close to winning. I think we may just be getting lucky that they aren't better battle planners."

Beryl spoke to Ranma saying, _"She's right if it was me I would certainly never be so foolish." _

Ranma nodded mentally and then said, "We need to figure out how to stop those portals they make or find out where they come from."

Beryl then said, _"Wait Mercury was using a computer earlier today. It is most likely it is from the Moon Kingdom and probably the most powerful the mages could make. Really she has one of the most sophisticated computers from our time period with her and she only uses it to scan battles?"_

Beryl seemed affronted, "_I don't know why I didn't see if before, but we could use it to determine where these portals lead. More importantly we could use it to design additional magical tools and weapons taking into account the current technology levels…"_

Ranma stared at the blue haired girl desperate to mention everything that was passing through her brain, but settled for saying, "You had a computer right Mercury? I saw you using it to scan the battle or something. Can you use it to tell us where the portals lead?"

Ranma left out more details of Beryl's plans and ideas for uses of the Mercury computer deciding that doing so would present more problems than she would be able to explain, so she settled for thinking, _"Well Beryl as much as I'd like to do that we have a small issue because talking about all that stuff would be suspicious. Let me know when you figure out a way we can tell her without mentioning that I have the person they think is their most evil enemy residing in my skull."_

Beryl just chuckled in Ranma's mind realizing that she had gone overboard while Mercury said, "Maybe, let me see…"

She tapped a few keys and then frowned, "Looks like we have some data, but not enough to triangulate a position."

Mars said, "How do we get enough data?"

"We need to be here when they open or close another portal. That should give me enough data and potentially a way to either open or keep open a portal back to where they are coming from."

Jupiter looked up from her ruined hand and with venom in her voice said, "What about keeping a portal from opening where we are so that the bastards can't escape?"

Mercury shook her head and said, "It says here that we need a Tachyon Mana Transducer to do that."

Before Ranma could volunteer Beryl said, _"No, we'd need an elerium generator to make one. So, don't even bother suggesting that we could try."_

"_Why not just make an elerium generator?"_

Images of atomic explosions showed in Ranma's mind as Beryl said, _"Because without the safety protocols and magnetic fields we need it would explode."_

With an image of a nuclear explosion in his head Ranma mentally shivered and said, _"Okay no elerium generators."_

The conversation slowed to appointment times for training with Shampoo and Ranma, and then the group split up and went their separate ways. Unfortunately for Ranma his separate way was directly into yet another confrontation with his father.

"Why are you being so Stubborn Ranma? Accept the agreement; realize that our family honor is at stake and at least pick one of the girls."

Ranma looked back at Genma and said, "But Akane hates me and Nabiki, well she's good to look at and probably great with business, but we don't mesh."

"That still leaves Kasumi boy, speak to her. She'll follow family honor and do what's right." Genma looked saddened by his statement, but seemed more than willing to allow the pairing if it meant his future ability to live off his son's labor.

Ranma's mind was once again tossed into a whirlwind of emotions and feelings. Kasumi was kind, gentle, a wonderful cook and truly special. But, then Shampoo was athletic and bold his near martial equal. Of course, his mind reminded him; neither girl even knew about his feelings nor was he really going to tell them was he?

Genma's voice intruded on the chaos and said, "Well boy what will it be? At least talk to Kasumi and you'll see."

Ranma glared back at the man and decided that it was enough so he said, "Fine, I'll talk to her, but only if you and old man Tendo ain't around got it?"

Genma hastily nodded and said, "Yes, excellent idea take her out on another date. Speak to her alone. Tendo and I will not be anywhere nearby."

Ranma just stared at his father as the older man lied to him and said, "It will happen when it happens, now get out of my way I need to practice."

"Ha you've gotten soft boy…" Genma rushed to attack and was put down soon after. Ranma then transformed into his female form and began working on weaving some more complicated spells into her repertoire.

* * *

Ranma and Shampoo were practicing again later in the week and Ranma said, "All these attacks and still we haven't been on site when a portal opens and no generals have come through yet."

The purple haired girl blocked a mana bolt with her practice sword and said, "I find it strange that Moon and the other girls somehow went back in time and ended up in the Moon Kingdom. Then Kunzite attacked them. Even though they defeated him that was an odd strategy yes?"

Ranma shrugged and said, "Not much stranger than finding out that damn c-c-c..fur ball having the purple crystal."

Shampoo nodded saying, "Yes that was strange, " and then made some motions and shot a ball of fire at Ranma who dodged out of the way saying, "Nice version of the Fire Soul there…"

Shampoo shook her head as Ranma tossed a bolt of electricity her way, "No, that was not nearly as powerful as Mars can do and yours was not the same as Jupiter. The same thing happened when I used the Flame Sniper to heal Jupiter's arm."

Ranma nodded and made a gesture to end the practice for a few moments. They each grabbed a glass of water and Ranma said, "I don't get it we have the spell form right and the mana channeling, but when we use it the power is a lot reduced, it's basically better to just use a mana bolt."

_Beryl spoke in his head saying "It is their connection to their planetary mana pool and the devices of the Moon kingdom Ranma. While you may be able to copy their spells there is no way you can approach that power level."_

Ranma nodded and told Shampoo who said, "It makes some sense Ranma. Still, we have ways to combine what Grandma has been teaching us and the magic. Plus our skill so power is not everything yes?"

Ranma nodded again saying; "Yeah it isn't everything besides…" the red haired girl used the power of flame to heat her cup of water and dumped it over her head to transform "even without higher power these spells are useful."

Shampoo giggled at Ranma's use of her spell to change to a male and said, "Very funny Ranma. I'll see you tomorrow evening okay?"

Ranma shook his head and said, "No, I'm going to talk to Kasumi tomorrow evening. I figured if I don't tell anyone at the Tendo place it might be private."

Shampoo's expression became hard to read as she said, "So, what are you going to talk with Kasumi about?"

"I don't know, honor, fiancée's, that sort of thing." He said nervously.

By then Shampoo was very close. The purple haired girl hugged him, and then said, "Well you remember that you are an Amazon okay?"

The hug was soft and yet fierce Ranma wasn't sure what it meant, but his face turned crimson as his body began to respond to Shampoo's curves. When she let him go he looked at her utterly unable to say anything. In that silence he walked away unsure of what just happened and what it meant.

* * *

Ranma sat across from Kasumi in a booth and stared at her. She was radiant in her dress and smiled at him lightly with the same pleasant smile she always seemed to have. He blew on his bangs and moved his hair then was about to begin talking when the waitress came by for their order.

The two ordered and then sat in silence for a few more minutes before Ranma finally said, "So, I uh brought you here because well…uh…our parents."

He ran out of steam and lost his words, but Kasumi took over, "Yes, the arrangement and you aren't interested in either of my sisters right Ranma?"

Ranma nodded slowly and said, "Yeah and well you're nice and all. I think we're friends and we get along good, but marriage it's so…well…" he shrugged.

Kasumi let out a small chuckle at his consternation and said, "Yes I think I understand. You're only sixteen Ranma. I remember being that age it was only two years ago now, but marriage was far from my thoughts as well. Now we have this situation and it is all quite complicated."

Ranma nodded and was about to steel his nerves when the food came. His stomach grumbled and he ate slowly and with as many manners as he could remember. While he ate he watched Kasumi wondering how she truly felt and how he would feel if it didn't work out.

As he came to the end of his hunger he steeled himself again and said, "Kasumi look I understand if you don't think we're suitable. I know I'm sixteen and you're eighteen so if you say it can't work due to age or anything else I swear I'll support that. I don't want our parents to force you into this. Really I think you deserve to have a choice."

"Oh…." She sounded surprised as she heard him speak the words. Then she tilted her head to the side slightly her hair fluttering about her face she said, "But, what about you Ranma?"

He looked up at her and said, "I…uh…well," his mind whirled and he had to use the Soul of Ice and even then it shattered within moments his emotions too unstable to be reined in. "You see…well Kasumi I kinda well…"

She stared at him as he stuttered around his words, "I like you. I mean a lot; I don't know more than that, but being with you in the Kitchen making food makes me happy. When we're together I feel lighter and stuff."

She couldn't help but laugh as he ended with "and stuff", but quickly controlled her reaction as his face fell. "Ranma you are a fine young man, and I think we are friends. I honestly admit that I never considered that you would pick me and even when I did I have to admit I pushed it off. Still as the eldest daughter it is my responsibility to take up this engagement."

His emotions fell into despair and he said, "No, wait. Don't do that. Kasumi if you don't have feelings for me don't just accept this. You deserve more, better…"

"Ranma…" He stopped as she said that and looked at her, "You are sixteen, I'm eighteen we have a few years to decide the final outcome."

She smiled at him and then continued, "I'll take up the engagement and we'll take it slowly. I may not feel the same way for you that you might for me, but maybe that will change over time and if it doesn't, then we'll figure out what to do okay?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Okay Kasumi."

The check came and he escorted her home. What Kasumi had said made Ranma rather sure that the woman didn't share his feelings whatever they might be. Even so he realized that telling their parents he had decided on her would relieve lots of stress on him in the short term. That was something to consider.

So when they got home that is exactly what he did. Soun cried and Genma looked ready to find a priest right then and there, so he had to discourage that with a bit of physical violence.

When that was done he went to bed with a sigh and spoke with Beryl, _"Well now what?"_

"_I wish I knew Ranma. You have feelings for her, but she doesn't return them I think. Your tribe sister may or may not as well, but you'll never know unless you ask her."_

He sighed and realized that was true, if only he was sure what his feelings really were.

* * *

It was late at night in the Nekohanten when a knock came to the door. Ranma, in her female form, walked over and said, "Sorry we're closed."

The voice called back, "You are not closed for Herb, Prince of the Musk dynasty. Now open the door so that we may honor elder Cologne for the gift of the map."

Ranma looked to her grandmother who nodded and so she opened the door. A tall regal looking man with flowing blue hair stood there flanked by a large man in tiger striped armor and one wearing a wolf's pelt. He strode in past her without a second glance while his companions stared at her.

The larger of his companions with tiger striped armor stared at her chest and said, "Can I touch your breasts?"

The temptation to smash his face in was high, but Ranma controlled it and simply said, "No."

The regal looking man, however, smashed him over the head and said, "Lime, behave yourself."

With his large companion rubbing his head the regal one bowed to Cologne and said, "The Musk Dynasty thanks you for your assistance elder. We owe you a debt for the help you have given us and we will repay in any way you desire."

Cologne smiled her wise smile and said, "Anything I desire is a bit much Prince Herb, but I'll make you a deal. You stay here and train my daughters in Musk techniques and that will be all, except for the promise of continued peace between our people."

Herb nodded and said, "It will be done."

He turned to go and Lime looked to Shampoo about to say something when Herb smacked him and said, "Don't even think about it."

With that the three were gone. Cologne looked to the two girls still in the restaurant and said, "His chi reserves are very high, beyond anything I've seen for one so young. If he can teach you two how to gain that you will have more of an edge."

The two nodded and she said, "Now let's go practice."

* * *

It had been quiet for another week. The Senshi had trained twice at the shrine with Ranma and Shampoo and those two had trained every day with Herb, Lime, and Mint. That quiet and solitude was broken by an attack at the Nekohanten.

As Ranma dodged past Herb's strikes and hit his kidney a portal shimmered behind Lime and Mint who were eagerly watching Herb and Ranma. Shampoo was sitting a large distance away knowing that close contact meant unwanted advances and a need to use physical force to emphasize her point.

Jadeite and Nephrite stepped out of the portal and put collars around Lime and Mint's necks. As that happened Ranma and Herb broke off their sparring to run towards the two generals. Shampoo also stood and moved, but youma piled out of the portals and attacked.

Ranma flipped open her communicator and called for help even as she realized Herb was next to her as she began dismantling youma. "Herb, get away! Don't get close and don't use chi blasts. They will absorb them and your life energy and just get stronger."

Herb slammed a fist into a youma and felt the drain, but ignored Ranma. "I will not allow these creatures to attack my servants and get away with it."

Ranma watched as Herb ripped through three more youma and then began to slow down, while the youma just gained in strength. She looked at her bracer, looked at Herb and then moved. Taking her bracer off she pushed it onto Herb's hand as the man swung a fist at a youma. She then had to power the bracelet and her own shield.

The strain was high and her mana reserves were depleting at an astoundingly fast rate as she lagged behind Herb and Shampoo who were demolishing the youma between them and the two generals. By the time she arrived Shampoo was fighting Jadeite while Herb had used his chi to fly over and smash Nephrite across the face. The red haired man grabbed the arm that hit him and sneered. "Try this on for size little one."

Dark energy dripped from Nephrite's fingers and slid over Herb's arm, finally overpowering Ranma's shield on Herb and then it began absorbing his chi and feeding the power to Nephrite. Luckily for Herb a blast of lightning slammed into Nephrite and separated the two before Herb's chi could be entirely exhausted.

A blast of fire from a different direction sent Jadeite right into Shampoo's blade and he went down in a gurgle of blood as the Jian punctured his lung. Shampoo raised the blade, then screamed in pain and dropped her sword as a black rose embedded itself into hand.

By then Ranma was at Nephrite and smashing her fists into his sides at full speed. Even so he was hardly fazed and swung a fist at her. She juked around the blow and then he was smashed by Moon's tiara.

He frowned after the blast and rubbed his broken nose, then smiled and pulled on a chain that he had apparently linked to Mint and Lime while Ranma, Herb, and Shampoo were trying to get closer. He smiled at Ranma evilly and said, "Nice try girl, but despite whom you look like you can't measure up to the real thing."

With that he swung the chains and sent Mint and Lime hurtling in the air where a portal appeared to swallow them. The red haired martial artist smashed her foot into Nephrite's kneecap and broke it, then followed up with a fist into his throat. There was a crackle pop of small bones shattering and Nephrite looked surprised as he choked and fell to the ground in pain.

Ranma looked at the man and decided that he was no longer a threat. She looked away from Nephrite and at the rest of the battle. Endymion had Jadeite in a fireman's carry and was slipping into a portal before her eyes. That left Nephrite still at her feet still choking on his broken throat. She looked at the man then said, "Moon we need healing over here."

Moon was by her side by then and nodded calling out, "Moon Healing Escalation!"

The white light slammed into the general and he screamed. "Nooo!"

When it was over all that was left of him was a small crystal. Ranma looked at Moon and she said, "It only hurts Youma. I though because he was human he might…"

Ranma nodded, "Me too, I guess he was more monster than man."

The blonde haired girl nodded as Mercury came to the pair. The blue haired girl looked at the two and said, "I've got it. I have the coordinates and I think we can go there. We can follow them and rescue those people."

The group gathered around and Ranma said, "How quickly can you do it?"

Mercury looked to the red haired girl and then to Moon who nodded. With that nod she said, "Preparations shouldn't take more than two hours."

Ranma nodded and then looked to Moon and said, "Can you heal our other friend? He might be useful."

Herb remained unconscious after the healing and Ranma sighed, "I guess it doesn't replace your chi then." She then took the bracer off Herb and walked off to find her tools and fix damage done to the device by Nephrite.

An hour or so later Ranma was done fixing her bracer and the group was assembled and ready to go. Moon looked to the girls and seemed much more serene than she had been before. She sighed and said, "I know Mercury is ready, but we don't have to do this, nobody's making you come do this and anyone who wants to leave can."

There was a clear silence and after no one spoke up for two minutes he added, "Okay, Ranma and I talked and she's in charge. She and Shampoo know more battle tactics than we do and understand how to fight. If we listen to them I think we can do this. Okay?"

The girls nodded and Ranma spoke saying, "Okay when we get in Mercury will use her fog to conceal us and then we move forward. We take out what youma we can and try to triangulate on the life energy of Lime and Mint."

Everyone nodded and Ranma said, "Okay let's do this thing."

Everyone joined hands and Mercury set coordinates with her computer. One admixture of Senshi energy later and everyone was transported to a cold desolate wasteland.

AN: Herb as a friend and a liability. Herb dropped by the Nekohanten last chapter and was provided expedient service by Cologne. Ranma and Shampoo were out and battling youma, so all in all the original incident and insult stuff from the Ranma ½ manga didn't occur. Still I felt Herb would be grateful to Cologne for helping him and then realized how useful he and his two allies would be.

We get the kidnapping and use of Lime and Mint by the false beryl because let's face it their chi is basically a sign that says "all you can eat buffet". This turns three normally high powered martial artists into two victims and a third fighter, who despite his immense chi and skill is a huge hindrance in the battle.

The next chapter should be the end of the first Sailor Moon series, but we still have more Ranma timeline and Sailor Moon timeline.

Finally, Ranma as battle leader makes the most sense for these people. She has demonstrated skill and ability that none of the rest can come close to despite their power level.


	8. Chapter 8

_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…."


	9. Chapter 9

The Base in the Antarctic seemed strangely undamaged from all the fighting that had occurred. Indeed, with a full inspection it seemed more that it was just unused for centuries than battle scarred. The group was confused by this fact, but since there was a number of working Moon Kingdom devices inside along with spare parts they did not look the gift horse in the mouth. With that in addition to some ancient food packs Shampoo and Ranma were able to survive and begin building.

They started with their inactive bracers and worked up to full outfits which allowed them out into the cold of the Antarctic where they could hunt a few penguins and fish to expand their diets. With their food prospects increased the two began working on a teleportation device with Beryl's assistance.

"I still say there must be more artifacts that survived on the Moon and the other planets. " Beryl said as they were working once again on the teleportation device.

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah, but we haven't even calibrated this thing to work to Australia let alone the Moon or another planet in the solar system."

Shampoo working next to the red haired girl chuckled and said, "Would like to visit Niuechieju first before we become first to explore other worlds. Besides, I think we would need some better protection than this."

The purple haired girl gestured at her outfit which now consisted of fully integrated magical fibers wrapping around her assets much like very short black spandex. Ranma's eyes wandered over the sight for a moment before she tore her gaze away saying, "You can wear more clothes you know."

Shampoo sniffed and said, "The magic will keep me warm here Ranma but even that wouldn't help on the Moon yes?"

Ranma nodded and made a few more slight adjustments feeling her way using a generic magical probe. "No, we'd need something for air and against the sun glare. Nothing like we have on us here or back home."

Shampoo nodded and said, "Well maybe Beryl can help us make that too. These outfits are quite amazing." She stopped talking about her outfit and tapped the screen on her left bracer. "Oh I think its working my screen is showing telemetry data and targeting."

Ranma nodded and looked at her own bracer, "Mine too. So I guess we should test it out maybe just to the other end of the complex?"

Shampoo nodded and Beryl added her own good luck wish. Moments later Ranma and Shampoo had transported themselves to the opposite end of the room and back, then a few locations around the facility and back. After a number of tests they were back at the device cheering and hugging until Ranma blushed and moved away. In the meantime Beryl said, "So that's one big project finished do you think we can work on the mental connection device?"

Ranma chuckled and replied, "Tired of having me relay to Shampoo huh?"

"It would also serve you well in Battles Ranma."

The red haired girl nodded and then looked to Shampoo and said, "She wants me to work on the mental connection device next, but before that we should really check back in with Grandmother and everyone else. It's been almost four months."

After a quick addition of clothes by Shampoo on Ranma's insistence the two looked on their bracers, made the appropriate indications and were whisked off to Japan and in front of an abandoned building.

The two gasped and Shampoo said, "Aiyah! What happen to Nekohanten? Where is grandmother?"

Ranma was struck for a moment worried that the old woman had died when a voice said, "Ranma there's no sign up. Nothing on the windows to indicate the Nekohanten was even here. There's more to this…"

Ranma's head shot up as she looked closer and relayed information to Shampoo. The purple haired girl immediately went through the front door breaking a number of locks and the door as she did so. Once inside she said, "Beryl is right this is not the same interior at all."

Both looked at their bracers and checked the data. Sure enough they were in the Nerima district and this is where the Nekohanten had once stood. The two stared at the structure and their bracer displays a few more moments before Ranma finally said, "We should go to the Tendo place."

Shampoo nodded and the two set off at a brisk walk to ponder the recent events. They arrived an hour or so later at the Tendo residence and knocked on the door. Kasumi answered and said, "Oh hello if you are Akane's friends she's not here yet."

Ranma looked up at the brown haired girl who seemed not to recognize her at all. "Kasumi? It's me Ranma I know we've been gone for awhile, but surely you remember me right?"

The tall woman shook her head and said, "I'm sorry miss, but I think I'd remember a girl with red hair. Perhaps you could recheck the address?"

Ranma's heart was shredded on the spot. Sure she had been gone, but there had been some sort of bond there and now it was gone. Yet even as her breath hitched a hand touched her shoulder and she knew that she still had someone. That no matter what happened her tribe sister would be there for her. She looked up at Kasumi with a single tear making its way down her face and said, "Sorry you must be right. I do apologize for the intrusion."

Kasumi smiled that bright smile that could light up a room and said, "That's okay miss. It was no trouble at all."

Shampoo was the one who added, "You see Genma Saotome here by any chance?"

The Brown haired girl shook her head and said, "No I'm sorry I don't know who that is either."

"Thank you very much we will be going. You have a nice day okay?" The purple haired girl walked away with her hand on Ranma's shoulder. She had known the other girl felt something for Kasumi and was sad for her tribe sister and yet another part of her wondered if perhaps this was the beginning of something new. She cut that voice off and just consoled Ranma as they walked off to find better food than ancient Moon Kingdom ration packs, arctic chard, or penguin meat.

When they arrived at a place to eat the two of them were finally hit with the exact answer to their current dilemma. The newspaper vending machine was holding a copy of the day's paper with the date July 27, 1998. Beryl was the first to say, "I believe that paper must be out of date. It was March of 1999 when we left for the Antarctic and we've been gone for nearly four months."

Ranma mentally nodded and looked at Shampoo whose violet eyes were staring into his own cerulean depths. He said, "Shampoo uh Beryl thinks the paper might be out of date."

The purple haired girl began to nod as their gazes departed from one another. However the nod turned into a shake of her head as her eyes examined the window of a nearby eatery, "No, look someone inside that café is reading one."

Ranma looked in and saw that exact same thing then said, "Could the teleportation have sent us back in time?"

"Not possible Ranma only the time gates or an artifact capable of interacting with them could do that." Beryl spoke as she ruminated over the question. Then realized they had been at ground zero as an extraordinarily powerful artifact had been used, but the original bracers had somehow protected them from being teleported away. "Wait…what if the Ginzuishou didn't just send everybody home. What if it rewrote everything to its mistress' will?"

"Wait you're telling me that little gem Moon used affected everything in the world?" Ranma said with clear disbelief.

His purple haired companion looked at him as he said that and replied, "That explains what happened to us Ranma. Everyone else was affected, but not us."

It was Beryl who added in a slightly frightened voice, "No I think it might have been more. If the date here is correct then the Ginzuishou did more than change the world Ranma. It changed the entire universe because it changed the time stream."

Ranma pondered it and said, "Wait so if I understand you correctly this crystal somehow destroyed Metallia before she created the threat that we just ended?"

Shampoo heard that and lapsed into pidgin as she said, "Wait that can't be right. We collected many gems which become crystal and it was used to stop the threat we faced. If there no threat then the gems not be collected and there be no crystal."

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah that I mean it can't be possible can it?"

Beryl mentally shrugged and said, "It makes sense. The base was strangely less damaged than we thought it should be. My hypothesis at the time was that the Ginzuishou fixed it. I was correct up to a point. The crystal did more than fix the base it changed time so that the base was never damaged by our attack."

Ranma turned to Shampoo with an annoyed look on her face, "Beryl says that apparently it is possible."

The purple haired girl looked annoyed as well. She blew on one of her bangs and said, "Fine we eat and discuss our plans seeing as we've apparently arrived before we even left."

Ranma nodded and the two martial Artists stepped over to a vendor's cart and purchased some food.

-Break-

Meanwhile in the Qinghai province of China Genma Saotome was a rather confused panda. He was trapped in a small Amazon village, but his confusion was not a result of his entrapment. Instead it was due to his son's disappearance.

Indeed he mulled the scene over again in his mind. He and his son had been eating a fabulous feast and watching a martial arts competition. The young purple haired girl had defeated her challenger and walked towards them, eyes blazing with anger. The guide translated her words and Ranma had simply challenged the girl on the spot.

Genma watched as the Red haired girl faced off against her purple haired opponent and the battle began. Ranma dodged two attacks and flipped backwards, and then her foot struck out towards her opponent. When that deadly foot connected with the purple haired girl's jaw both combatants had disappeared.

In the chaos that resulted he slipped away from the village leaving his guide behind. Then he returned later that night and attempted to find his son. Soon however he was met by an Amazon patrol and quickly escorted out of town. Even so he had been returning again and again hoping that his son would be there somewhere.

Indeed he had spent the last few months returning to the village, the Jusenkyo springs, and surrounding area hoping some trace of Ranma could be found. He had not found the boy and apparently had been deemed a nuisance by the local Amazon village and thus imprisoned instead of simply being led out into the wilderness again.

He gave a great Panda sigh and wondered if it was time to escape again, but without any clear view of where to go he just sat back and began to shut his eyes.

His side was suddenly poked by a staff and he jumped up with a growf of annoyance. From the ground cam an old woman's voice speaking Japanese, "Give it a rest sonny."

He looked at the small old crone as she held out a small pot of hot water. "I think I have you figured out. I missed the end of the tournament, but some people did note a Panda there at the time."

Her old blue gray eyes stared up at him as if measuring his worth and then finding him failing in some way. "You could have changed and asked about, but instead you've been a nuisance and annoyance. Even so I'm going to use this," she gestured at the heated water, "and I'll free you after you answer a few questions. Understood?"

He nodded and was suddenly hit by a blast of hot water. He began to sputter in indignation, but that stopped when he was hit in the head by a bunch of clothes. He growled in annoyance again and put the clothes on fishing his glasses from the ground and looking at the old woman. "What do you want old bat?"

The old woman kept her disturbing gaze on him and said, "I am Elder Cologne of the Nuichieju Amazon tribe. I expect respect towards me and my position young man. I want answers to my questions. If I do not receive either of those things you will find that I can make room in my house for a Panda skin rug."

Genma gulped and nodded. She smiled slightly and said, "You were here with a young red haired girl who fought with my great granddaughter Shampoo yes?"

"If she was the purple haired girl I saw, then yes. My son challenged her to a duel for the food that we had eaten."

The old woman stared at him as he finished, "I see, so the red haired girl was your son then…."

She was lost in thought about that and then finally returned to speaking, "The two young women fought on the challenge log and when a blow that would most likely have been decisive against Shampoo landed both young women disappeared."

"Yes. I saw the same thing old woman." He was annoyed now.

The bald man was then poked again increasing his annoyance. "It was not a question and do remember it is either Elder Cologne or just Cologne understood?"

She smacked him with her staff and Genma nodded in understanding of the threat. Then, the old woman added, "So we have a mutual disappearance and two cursed individuals in yourself and your son, but the curses would be a periphery issue in this situation."

"and What situation is that?"

Cologne looked at him and said, "A member of our tribe is gone and is your son. They have been taken away by some mysterious magic. Your idiocy in returning here again and again without attempting to speak to us suggests to me that you are too dimwitted to be responsible for that."

"Hey!" Genma complained

Cologne ignored his protestations and continued, "So the curses are not important. Who may or may not have won that match is not important. What is important is finding my Great Granddaughter and your son and retrieving them."

Genma nodded and hopping to be let out of his cage said, "Maybe we could work together?"

Cologne shook her head and said, "No, but you will be allowed out and be given leave to go and find your son. Once you have left the village do not return again. Is that understood?"

"Ranma his name was Ranma Saotome." Replied the balding martial artist with thoughts of fleeing far away and searching elsewhere now that he knew, for sure that the Amazons did not have his son.

Cologne shrugged; she did not care for this boy or his father. She only cared about her granddaughter, but it seemed as if there was nothing more. Genma had been a clueless idiot and the village shamans could not make any clear determinations. The trail was cold and there were no more clues left…She sadly shook her head softly and watched Genma go. As the fat fool departed at high speed the ancient woman wondered if she would ever see her great granddaughter again.

-Break-

Ranma and Shampoo were back in their Antarctic base of operations calibrating yet another new device into their now heavily magical bracers. Indeed with the final calibrations Ranma still in her female and Mana capable form said, "Okay let's go through the full set of operating commands and items."

Shampoo nodded and pushed a button that dropped a lens over her eye from a simple barrette in her hair, "Okay Ranma. Youma and Dark Kingdom energy scanner is working and online detecting minor traces here from occupation by Beryl in the Silver Millennium."

Ranma nodded and said, "I'm getting the same. We won't be able to use the threat assessment and power level check until we meet up with something that we can actually measure. But, next up should be the mana switchers and power duplicators."

Shampoo nodded and tossed out some flames, water, ice, and electricity. She hit another button and said, "Well it's mostly working but I still can't seem to get the right frame of mind to copy the love aspects."

Ranma nodded, but didn't seem to have the same problem as she tossed out a chain of hearts then said, "We'll work on that some more. We should also try the healing too."

Shampoo walked closer to Ranma and they each held out an arm which she proceeded to slash with a knife. Moments later both wounds were healed and Ranma said, "Okay mana battery on mine is still at 90% and increasing as the recharger pulls off my power how is yours?"

"The same. I think we should attempt to exhaust the system and use the powers to their maximal threshold."

Ranma looked at the smiling girl and said, "All right you're on!"

A voice now in both of their heads said, "What about me. Aren't you going to test the newest neural transceiver?"

"Seems to be working fine to me" Ranma thought

Shampoo smiled and added, "I agree it is working fine" then, with that final thought still up she pushed mana and chi together to shoot herself across the room, but even so Ranma had dodged the blow and was attempting to counter attack. She shot a pillar of ice up from the floor in the path of the red haired girl's attack.

Ranma's fist smashed through the pillar, but the slowing of the blow allowed Shampoo to dodge out of the way and directly into a ball of electricity that had been placed there before Ranma had begun the attack. Her body spasmed with the jolt and she was unable to dodge the next blow, but she recovered soon enough and put a small fireball right into Ranma's chest.

Ranma dodged at the last second hitting the ground with her palms outstretched, flipping into a handstand and then back onto her feet in an offensive. Smashing the ice shards Shampoo was sending at her with high speed accurate strikes and moving back in to close quarters combat.

Shampoo was now blocking and dodging the other girl's blows and trying to regain the offensive by flash heating a bit of water and sending the steam into the Red haired girl's face. With the onslaught of the steam the girl changed into a boy, but he did not cease his attack. Instead, his leg had shot out and took her down. As she tried to get up he was already on her his arm locking one of her own and a finger pointing at her carotid.

She frowned slightly, but said, "You win this time Ranma."

He let go and said, "You tried that trick on me before you should have known it wouldn't work a second time."

Shampoo looked at the black haired youth next to her and allowed him to give her a hand up. Their fingers intertwined and she blushed slightly saying, "Yes Ranma cannot be beaten the same way twice. I should know this."

He looked at her and in another universe or time he might have bragged about being the best, but he was past that now saying instead, "Well we have to be better than our last match each time right?"

She nodded and said, "Yes, perhaps I will get you next time or use the hot water at a distance. You are somewhat less able to fight at full potential in your male form."

He shook his head and said, "Only if my mana battery is drained out and with these batteries it should take more than a full on sparring session to do that."

She shook her head and said, "That was my mistake then. I forgot that the new mana batteries hold a greater charge than the old ones. Without the advantage of you losing magic I estimate that my wins in our sparring sessions will lessen."

Ranma shrugged, "Now you're just trying to get me to let my guard down in our next session."

Shampoo smirked at him and said, "Did it work?"

"Not in the slightest" he replied with a chuckle.

She smiled and said, "Well we tested the bracers and our combat outfits again. Beryl were you able to track my thoughts during the entire sparring session?"

The ephermal voice replied, "Yes Shampoo I was able to hear your surface thoughts and could have relayed information to Ranma or yourself at need. However I felt that actually doing so would have negated your sparring session's goal."

Ranma proceeded to pull up a bit of cold water and splashed himself in the face reverting to a girl. The redhead then spoke through their connection saying, "So I guess we should go see the tribe now."

Shampoo felt the apprehension in Ranma and said, "You don't have to go Ranma."

She shook her head and said, "No I want to go. I want to know exactly what we left behind."

The purple haired girl took Ranma's hand in her own and said, "Okay we'll find out together."

"I have access to the teleportation commands. Are we ready to go?"

The two girls were still holding hands as they replied in the affirmative. Moments later the machine, working in concert with their bracers, teleported them to China not far from a place that they had both called home for a time.

-Break-

Genma frowned and decided himself on the exact lie he would tell in just a few moments. He knew that there was still work to do and that if his son was alive it would be very useful to gain Tendo's assistance in the disappearance matter. With that in mind, as well as perhaps spending a short amount of lazy time living off his friend, he knocked on the door glad that he had not done so the day before in the rain.

A tall brown haired girl opened the door and with a soft pleasing voice said, "Hello how can I help you?"

He smiled at her and said, "I'm Genma Saotome I sent a letter to Soun Tendo. He'll want to see me I'm sure."

She nodded and said, "Oh we thought you might be here yesterday, but do come in and make yourself at home."

With that she walked off to get her father while Genma came into the house. Not long after that he was met by his best friend Soun and the two began discussing the future once young Ranma was saved from whoever had kidnapped him. There was much alcohol consumption and a general festive atmosphere.

-Break-

Meanwhile in China two girls appeared not too far from the village and walked to the gates. The two women on guard examined them closely and then one spoke in Chinese saying, "Shampoo have you returned? Did this sorceress take you away?"

Shampoo replied, "No Chellu she did not take me. She is Ranma and I declare her to be my Shield Sister."

The guard gasped at Shampoo's audacity in claiming some outsider and yet the purple haired girl had been village champion. It would not be for Chellu to make such a decision. Instead it would be for the village elders and so she said, "I hear your words Shampoo and you may enter, but seek out the Village elders as is custom for such declarations."

Shampoo nodded Ranma stared at Chellu for a moment hoping for some hint or spark of recognition, but knowing it wouldn't happen. She had been here for such a short time and yet it had been her family and now she returned, but not as she was. These people saw her as a stranger in their midst and it hurt. She turned away from the guard and quickly caught up to Shampoo wishing that the Ginzuishou had never been created.

Beryl mentally assessed Ranma's condition and realized that the young girl/boy was definitely not well. She had lost her potential love interest with Kasumi and now she was losing what had once been her home even if it had caused her some additional gender dysphoria the Amazon village had been a piece of stability and it was no longer the same place. The only problem with recognizing all of this was that she had no idea how to help her friend in this situation.

As Beryl thought about Ranma the two girls ended up in the hall of elders. There they met up with a very surprised Cologne and the elder Shaman Silk and her friend/lover Satin the healer. The three elders had obviously been in a discussion when the two girls arrived. Shampoo and Ranma bowed their heads in a gesture of respect and Shampoo said, "I have returned to the village with a lost village sister and a tale of danger surpassed."

Silk stared at the two and said, "They radiate powerful magic."

Cologne nodded and said, "Shampoo's chi is greatly enhanced since we have seen her last as well."

Both of them turned to Satin who nodded and said, "I will have to examine you both before you begin this tale Shampoo."

Shampoo slowly shook her head and said, "I will not leave until the elders acknowledge Ranma as part of this tribe."

The red haired girl looked at Shampoo and a tear slid down her cheek. The purple haired girl was risking her own standing to vouch for her. She was risking punishment and dishonor simply because Ranma was her friend and it was a powerful feeling of love and devotion that rushed through Ranma. A feeling that she began to hope the other girl held for her as well.

Cologne stepped forward with a cup in hand. She threw the contents onto Ranma and she transformed into a black haired boy. Cologne stared at him a moment and then turned her frowning gaze on Shampoo and said, "Did you know about this transformation great granddaughter?"

Shampoo met that gaze and said, "I did. I knew of it and brought her here as a female because that is how she originally entered this village and how she originally became a member of our tribe."

Silk stepped forward and said, "We would remember allowing this to happen and yet we do not. What you say cannot be true and yet….."

Satin nodded her own aged head and said, "Yes I sense it too she is not lying or at least she thinks she is not. What do you think Cologne should we separate them and interrogate the red haired one? Perhaps she used this powerful magic to manipulate your grand daughter's memories?"

"No! I would never do that! Grandmother please," Ranma was holding Colognes hand and staring into her eyes now, "Please you have to know who I am. You…have to...please…"

Without wanting to Ranma broke into tears as the emotional strain finally became too much for him. He had lost a possible love in Kasumi, but in Cologne he had lost one of the first mother figures he had ever truly known and it was tearing him apart.

Even as he cried Shampoo gathered him in her arms and hugged him whispering that everything would be all right and that the elders would see the truth. Cologne looked at the pair and then said, "No Satin, this young man did not manipulate anything. I think we should grant my granddaughter's request and then we should let them rest. After we will examine them further and hear their tale."

The two were sent off with the agreement that Ranma would indeed be granted status as a lost tribe sister in the village. The ceremony would be completed after the two youngsters had rested and given their report to the elders of the tribe.

As they were walking off Ranma said, "I'm sorry Shampoo I don't know what came over me. Guys ain't supposed to cry like that."

The purple haired girl smiled lightly and hugged him again saying, "It's okay Ranma. You have lost more than I in this situation. You can cry and I will understand, but know that I am here for you as your shield sister and friend."

With her soft curves pressed against him yet again Ranma was not feeling as if Shampoo was his sister, but he returned the hug and said, "Thank you Shampoo. That means a lot to me." Then without thinking his face came closer to hers and his lips captured hers in a brief spark.

She didn't pull away and through her link with the two Beryl could feel that they were both feeling the same thing. The queen smiled to herself and said, "I approve. You two deserve each other and love each other very much."

The two blushed and broke the kiss after that. Then they departed to their separate beds and dreams of their kiss washed over them.

-Break-

A blaring klaxon woke her from her sleep. She rubbed her face and felt its smoothness and knew that the regeneration cycle was complete. Then she stepped from the chamber and felt the slight ache in her knee. The cycle wasn't complete. She quickly looked in a mirror and examined her face and hair. A small streak of grey washed down her viridian locks and she estimated her current age to be around 45 standard Terran years.

Still the klaxon blared and she knew it must be an emergency indeed, so she grabbed a robe and went to the computer control station. There on her monitor was the horrifying news. She read it again aloud, "Warning New Silver Millennium likelihood has decreased to less than 10 percent."

"No!" She screamed and looked at the screen again, then began typing furiously. The data came on the screen and she noted the beginning of the disturbance. As she did so she calmed down and activated the voice interface even as the data displayed a few facts. The Ginzuishou had been used recently and it had linked with the time gate to change the past.

She nodded and said, "Display date and temporal coordinates."

The screen complied showing that a year of time had been backtracked and then the crystal had destroyed a powerful entity. She quickly focused on the image and said, "Play surrounding ten minutes of temporal coordinates where the Ginzuishou interacted with the gates."

On the screen she saw the Demon Entity that was Metallia washed away and then an empty facility that had once belonged to Queen Beryl. She played the footage again and saw the same thing. She frowned and then said, "Expand display of the facility and increase time range to thirty minutes."

She saw sailor moon enter the room and confront queen Beryl and then another Queen Beryl came in and assisted in the fight against what seemed to be herself and Metallia. At the end of the fight Sailor Moon used the Ginzuishou and destroyed Metallia and the Ginzuishou backtracked time so that the demon entity was destroyed almost year before the actual date that Sailor Moon used the Ginzuishou.

The green haired woman frowned and said, "Locate Sailor moon"

"No data"

She sighed and said, "Locate Sailor mars"

"No Data"

She tried it again for all the inner scouts and received the same response. Then she cursed and said, "She must have accidentally used the Ginzuishou to erase her awakening. I'll need to wake her again. Computer locate advisor Luna."

"No Data"

"Hells!" The interjected and then said, "Locate Advisor Artemis!"

"No Data"

A hand nearly smashed the screen in front of her to bits as she seethed in anger and frowned. Slowly she gathered her patience and pondered the situation and then smiled and said, "Pluto outer scout protocols begin authorization Serenity Lambda Lambda Zeta Pluto Five Seven Seven Niner"

The computer processed and said, "Activation of outer scouts beginning and memory refresh cycle initiated starting with Uranus."

A cycle bar began showing the timing for the scout wakeup and Pluto held her hands tokether and stared at the screen hoping the next part would work, "Okay now, initiate Saturn skip matrix."

The computer processed and said, "Initiating skip Matrix….error…dark energy corruption"

She looked at the screen and frowned. The idly wrung her hands and then sighed as she made the decision, "Initiate Serenity Final Solution authorization Pluto five seven omega delta niner."

The gate opened a rift in space and time an immense wave of tachyon power built up and a small girl with dark hair playing in the yard in front of her house knew nothing at all about her potential demise. Energy powered up from within the time gates and a blast shot from the device and through the continuum and directly at the young child. Somehow through random chance or possible Senshi design the little girl tripped and fell to the ground. The blast of energy passed by her and struck the house behind. There was a brief flash of light and Hotaru Tomoe's parents died. Even as the grass and lawn burned, even as sirens rang out and a little girl cried a computerized voice spoke in its dull monotone, "Serenity Final Solution complete."

Pluto nodded and said, "Notify me when Sailor Uranus and Jupiter are online. We need to find Princess Serenity and restore the time lines."

With that she stood up and stalked off. The Rejuvenation chamber wouldn't be available for use for another fifty years which meant this time she'd have to deal with being ninety five before she could rejuvenate again. She frowned at that then decided that it wouldn't matter as long as Serenity's orders were fulfilled. The Silver Moon kingdom would rise again no matter what and she was determined to ensure it.

-Break-

Author's Notes: I know Ranma had a crying jag here, but I feel it was rather in character after loosing Kasumi and potentially Cologne. Whether or not he will ever get something back is still up in the air and as for the scouts and their former allies well Moon very clearly wanted to go back to their normal lives and the world as well. Perhaps handing a teenage girl the world's biggest wishing item just wasn't a great idea...

Also, a minor note this is not Setsuna as necessarily full on evil. It was simply doing her job...then again lots of bad things have happened because people were just following orders...


End file.
