Crossover Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy ❯ Chapter 08c ( Chapter 17 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

PATH OF CHAOS

- By Lord Rance

Disclaimer: Seriously, I don't own any of the anime characters that appear in this entire fanfic, otherwise I'll just make sure you'll know if I do make new characters.

Author Notes: Hmm... probably two to three chapters more, and Arc 1's done.

This chapter will focus on what happened to Ranma's side quest on Planet Zi, as well as introduce a possible companion for him in the future. This is also Ranma's first encounter with some of the Divine Army's soldiers (I just thought up a name for Heaven's foot soldiers... go figure).

This is a Ranma/Teen Titans crossover. Yep, them... those teenagers who owned their own Tower that for me is really architecturally unsound (a giant T atop a small islet in the middle of the water? Come on... one earthquake and down it goes... been wondering for how long Slade's gonna figure THAT one out).

By the way, pardon me if I and my prereaders missed some misspelled words in the fic. I upgraded my OS to WinXP, and sadly I got the no-Office copy, meaning, I have no spell check. I'll try to do a spell check on the edit page of FF dot net instead, but don't get your hopes up too much.

Warning about the bit of violence in some parts. Take note that the violence level would pick up real quick as Ranma gets flung deeper into everything.

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose and St Longinus for pre-reading this stuff. Many thanks to HolyKnight70, Norethfir, Valor Phoenix, SSJ Guyver andSilver Bullet for exchanging ideas with me, as well as semi-prereading. Special thanks to Backslash, who's been my best friend for, heck, years. Anyway, he's a cartoon, comics and anime otaku as much as I am. Kudos to you, my friend!

C. Rose's email is still funky, by the way.

Ancient Language (used by gods and goddesses, Ancient Gods): "-Ranma-"

Thoughts and Telepathy: ((Ranma))

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: ""Ranma""

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CHAPTER 8C - THERE NEVER WAS AN EASY WAY

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"I just knew this was a bad idea..." Raven muttered loudly as she gazed on the pointy spears pointed towards her. Actually, the dark-blue cloaked gothic girl was with Ranma and Lenneth, who were being held at bay by a large group of Amazons.

They were currently near the gates of the Joketsuzoku village, just inside of the village proper.

Well, Lenneth was in fact revered in these parts, especially after that purple haired girl with them explained to one of those prune-like women on sticks on who Lenneth was. Apparently she was a divine being of some sort, not that Raven disputed it, but still...

Ranma just groaned as he felt a sense of deja vu all over again. He remembered his first meeting with the Amazons, especially their reactions when he won in that contest of theirs in girl form. Speaking of girl form, he hasn't been splashed lately, which added stress to his already high-strung nerves. He was already nervous about the full moon tonight, but this... this is just so...

"Well well well, son-in-law... we meet again. I heard a story about you being killed by Lord Herb, but seeing you here dispelled that thought, ne?" An familiar silver-haired woman approached them. She was all withered and wrinkly, much to everyone's distress she was smiling too. Ranma tensed slightly, a fact which Raven had noticed.

Ranma shook his head empathically. "I'm not your son-in-law, Cologne..." he hissed angrily, "Your Ranma is dead. I'm another Ranma from another dimension. Ask my companions if you don't believe me."

The old woman cackled, causing everyone to cringe slightly. "Of course I know that, son-in-law. Your aura is vastly different from our Ranma. Yet, a Ranma is a Ranma, and the Amazons are lucky to capture such a powerful version too!"

"Wow... she probably is secretly in love with you or something..." Raven whispered to Ranma, who glared back at her.

"If you think you're going to just take me into your village just like that, then you're dead wrong." Ranma growled out dangerously as his eyes shone behind his glasses.

The Amazons raised their spears menacingly, which was ignored by Ranma totally. Cologne snorted as she said, "You have no choice. You're trapped here and..."

"Am I?" Ranma said grimly, "I know you wouldn't believe me, but I can take you on, and your Amazons, and all your elders, and Saffron, and everyone else altogether. As I said earlier, I'm not YOUR Ranma."

The tension between the two groups was rising, and the Nerimians had yet to comment about their presence. Before anything could break out, Lenneth finally stepped forward and said in a steady voice, "We should all stand down and discuss this diplomatically." Turning to the irritated pigtailed young man, she pleaded, "Please, Ranma-sama."

Ranma huffed, but he turned away abruptly in disgust, saying, "Whatever. Just make them stay out of my face for a while. I may accidentally fire off something that could wipe them out." Looking up to the moon, he said softly, "It's gonna be bad tonight. I'm stressed."

Lenneth just nodded. She understood what Ranma meant, since she read his files before she went down from Heaven. The information regarding Saiyajins were apparently famous to the gods, since it always amazed them to watch these mortals change into something far more powerful than their original form. Even the gods would have a hard fight against these creatures.

"A Valkyrie..." Cologne said in awe, obviously just noticing Lenneth now, "How may this humble woman serve you?"

"You may start by calling off your... entourage, Amazon..." The Valkyrie replied in a calm tone.

The Matriarch of the Amazons nodded, before turning to her fellow Amazons and addressed them in Chinese, saying, ""Lower your weapons, better yet put them away to avoid accidents. You recognize this woman, don't you? She is Valkyrie, the Chooser of the Slain. The group with them are our guests as well. As for the boy... leave him to me.""

""You might want to change that thought, Amazon..."" The Valkyrie glared at the cowed woman. Cologne cursed silently as she had forgotten that they were dealing with someone akin to a goddess here. Translating languages were an easy feat for them.

The Amazon Matriarch further paled when Ranma's gruff voice spat out in an accented Chinese, ""Damn crazy old prune thinks she can take me? I'm gonna wait for that... heh. This is gonna be some major stress relief. I've been waiting for a chance to beat on her for a long time now. I haven't forgotten all her tricks on me.""

"What's happening?" Akane asked to no one in particular, watching the whole scene play out helplessly. She was terribly confused at the predicament she was in, especially after seeing her supposedly deceased fiancé living. Ranma, this Ranma anyway, had stressed his individuality from their Ranma, but Akane was hoping there was still a bit of the baka she met quite a few months ago. But as the time went on, she felt that this Ranma was superiorly separate from her Ranma. Sure, this man was still crass, a world-class jerk, and has an ego the size of Mars... but his ego was backed up with his words and indifference. The fact that pompous Phoenix God Saffron respected this Ranma was a clincher. But her heart was still hoping this was her Ranma, no matter how much she tried to deny it.

The youngest Tendo girl had been very lonesome these past few months, especially with the loss of her beloved pet P-chan. The revelation of Ryoga's unwitting betrayal of her trust dwindled down on her ability of trusting males. Her growing ire against men in general did nothing to help her, and that compounded on Ranma's death. She was just about to declare herself a lesbian, or better yet join a Christian nunnery or something. But then again, she wasn't about to abandon her Shinto beliefs just yet, but she was real close to it.

There was these two girls that arrived for Ranma, too. Akane didn't know whether to scream bloody pervert on Ranma or just suck it up like she's supposed to do. But the still fresh memories of her deceased fiance still lingered in her subconscious, almost making her pull out a blunt weapon somewhere and smack the young man. But she stopped herself, after seeing Ranma smash Saotome-san into the ground with a light tap on the back of the older man's head.

Seeing this Ranma interact with those other girls that arrived for him really grated on her nerves though. Even though she looked up to the super heroine called Raven, seeing the darkish girl hang around Ranma like that brought back memories. The other girl was just as bad, and was much more sultry and sexier than the girls back in Nerima. Akane felt superbly inadequate compared to these girls.

It was a good thing her sobered attitude had curbed a lot of her anger. Or else she would've been screaming her head off, if Ranma were to appear months before. She had to remind herself that this was not their Ranma, no matter how much they wanted him to be. This Ranma was almost the same, but was also miles apart with his counterpart here on this dimension as he put it. Not only in the physical sense, with the wings and tails and all, but also how they look at things in general.

This Ranma had genuine high intelligence that has been developed for many years. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as far as Akane was concerned.

Ryuu eyed Ranma with a respectful gaze. "This guy's good." Ryuu muttered audibly maintaining a bit of indifference about it, but he was quite worried how to act around this young man. He doesn't know Ranma at all personally, but the person called Ranma that he had met just a few hours ago was a very powerful and laid-back guy. He doesn't know how to classify him though, with Ranma's tail and the wings, but he figured as long as he's careful around Ranma and the girls 'guarding' him, Ryuu's in the green.

"Always causing trouble, you mean..." Ryoga grumbled to himself, but actually, deep inside his heart he felt quite impressed as to how this Ranma was standing up to the old woman. In his memories of their Ranma, he was pretty much the same, except that any further threats would make him crumble eventually.

But this Ranma was different, VERY different. He stood up to the Amazon 'til the end, and from what Ryoga could see, this Ranma actually believed he could beat the Amazons even if they ganged up on him. The lost boy wondered if the pigtailed boy was just blowing hot air, but a brief glance at that Valkyrie woman showed a brief flash of fear in her eyes. Ryoga wondered if it was for Ranma, or the Amazons. Seeing the imploring look the woman had when she asked Ranma to stand down, it must have been the latter. He STILL can't see beyond those damnable dark glasses that Ranma wore, so he can't read the pigtailed boy's emotions.

Oh yeah, Ranma also had a tail.

A furry, red tail.

Very different, indeed.

Ryoga still has no idea how to deal with this Ranma, since this version was vastly dissimilar from who he used to know. He was also quite leery of talking with Raven of the Teen Titans. His senses were telling him that there was something absolutely dark with the girl's aura, and it wasn't funny at all. The other girl, Lenneth, was obviously gaijin in looks, but her accent when she spoke Japanese was perfect. She spoke a more eloquent Japanese than Ranma!

Back to the pigtailed boy, Ryoga was actually tempted to renew his rivalry with him. But Genma got to Ranma first, when the fat fool mouthed off something about Ranma having to marry Akane now that he's resurrected from the dead. Before Akane could even comment about it, Ranma already smacked the spectacled man at the back of his head lightly. But weirdly enough, the force was enough to drive Genma's head a good few inches deep into the ground. It was clear how powerful this Ranma was, especially since Saffron willingly backed down from a fight with him. And Ryoga knew how much power Saffron has.

Mousse was no different, as he was trying to avoid conversing or even trying to make contact with this Ranma. His eyesight was really bad, but his ability to sense energy was a little above Ranma and Ryoga's level. This Ranma was a blaring sun compared to his own tiny spark. And Mousse knew Ranma was already trying his best to smother his aura, especially with those trinkets all over his body.

Not to mention those two other girls with him. The Teen Titan member, Raven, was like a black pool of energy in his eyes. He was sensing a lot of demonic energy in the girl's aura as well, and it scared him spitless. He could feel the girl's shadows writhing and trying to destroy everything it touched, only to be held at bay by what probably was the iron will of the girl. The other girl, the Chooser of the Slain, has an aura of opposite force from Raven's. If the dark-blue cloaked girl's aura was dark, the Chooser of the Slain's was light. Divine energy oozed from every pore of the girl's body, and power was leaking out from the scabbard of her sword. But they were following this Ranma, seemingly guarding him. But were they guarding him, or were they guarding everyone else from attacking him? Which was which, he still hasn't figured out.

Like Ryoga, Mousse was very tempted with the thought of bashing Ranma's head with a blunt object. But seeing as to how uncaring Ranma was of what they thought of him, he was severely off balanced.

He knew this wasn't the Ranma they knew, but it was hard to disassociate him with the home Ranma because they have the same face and the cocky attitude. But that was about it, since this Ranma has dark glasses that seemed to have a permanent placement on his face, as well as that red tail of his. Nobody has been courageous enough to ask about it, and Ranma wasn't about to tell them about it willingly just as well.

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It was still early in the night when the whole entourage comprised mostly of Japanese nationals found themselves around a big bonfire. They were in the middle of the Amazon village, where currently most of the Amazons sat around the fire as well. They had a special party for their guests, who were treated as honored visitors of their village.

As of now, Akane and her fellow Nerimians found themselves full to the brimming with food, their faces and stomachs stuffed with good meat as well as fine ale. The Amazons have been eternally grateful for the group's accomplishments as of late. Surviving the Phoenix King Saffron to tell the tale was a feat unto itself, and the Amazons respected them for it.

Not to mention the presence of the Chooser of the Slain herself, Lenneth Valkyrie. Although, the young woman would fry anyone's ass with a thundercry spell if ever she heard anyone speak of her being the One who guided warrior souls towards Valhalla. She also didn't fail to notice the Amazons' subtle 'sucking up' routine.

Raven was mostly undisturbed, but most of the Amazons eyed her weirdly. Most of the Amazons were trained to fight in physical battles, but some were trained for supernatural fights as well. Their spiritual senses were screaming 'Demon' at them as they looked at the young girl. But they left Raven unmolested, especially when Shampoo had explained to them of her status with the Teen Titans. World heroes were very much revered in the village, almost as much as Valkyries. It also helped that Raven was a female as well.

Ranma was mostly silent, since at the moment he was an unwanted male. The reputation of his analogue in this world was a bit of a blemish for the Amazons' glorious history. He had thought about it, and had surmised correctly that the lack of his analogue's defeat of Saffron robbed him of the respect he garnered in his own world. Speaking of that, he just allowed Ryoga, Mousse and Ryuu to get most of the credit in fighting and 'winning' against Saffron. He wasn't really that much interested in the fame anyway. And the three Nerimian males were sucking up the fame they hadn't earned without remorse, not that it was any of his concern.

With this setup, Ranma just wordlessly stood up from having finished his meal and strolled around the village, with his two 'bodyguards' at his side. Raven and Lenneth were quite adamant at pacing with him. The Amazons were quite alarmed at this, but Lenneth had explained that it was a necessity. The Valkyrie chose not to mention that it was for the world's protection that Ranma was to be guarded and not the other way around.

Eventually the night has deepened, and most of the people from the party went to sleep. Akane was offered a roof by Cologne, who was grateful for the services of hot water as well. Shampoo and Mousse already shared a home of their own, since they were already married anyhow. Ryoga and Ryuu were offered a different house, since they were mere males after all.

Lenneth and Raven declined the offer though, and stressed that they have to be at Ranma's side at all times. They also shot down the offer from the Amazons of taking turns in guarding the boy. Of course, the pigtailed boy was rather leery at accepting the Amazons' offer to use one of their straw homes, especially with those smiles on their faces. He knew enough of their ways to avoid resting near them, else he would find some unknown girl lying next to him.

Ranma ended up taking shelter high up on the branches of a very old tree just outside the village. The Valkyrie and the gothic girl took refuge at the roots of the tree. They have their respective blankets and some straw pillows, courtesy of the Amazons as well.

The Chooser of the Slain fell into a deep slumber rather easily, the events of the previous day seemed to have taken a huge toll on her godly nerves. Her sword, the Levantine, was firmly hugged into her chest as she slept, but her body was tense subconsciously to respond from any surprise attacks. Ranma could hear Lenneth snore quietly below him, making the pigtailed boy smile at the irony. Lenneth, the all powerful Valkyrie, sleeping like a baby just a few meters under his perch.

Shaking his head in amusement, he searched for his other bodyguard, but he didn't see her under the tree. He couldn't even feel her in the immediate vicinity, which made him a bit worried. Not that he was really feeling responsible about it... oh alright! So he was worried about the girl, and he could feel that he was partly responsible for her well-being. Seeing that this was a semi-hostile territory, he quickly tried to feel her presence within a wider scope, sending a slight burst of his ki that would act like a radar for him. Only those really sensitive in ki-probes could feel it, but this was a small emergency. He doesn't want that kid Robin getting on his case if his teammate got hurt.

His long distance ki probe finally pinged on something, just beyond the clump of trees between the path towards the Bayankala Mountains and his current position. It was a semi-dark void, and was quite tranquil for the moment. He shrugged as he shot to the air, glancing back at the sleeping form of Lenneth. He figured that no one would DARE to touch the woman, and he was just going to leave her for a short time.

Rising at an altitude much higher than the trees in the forest, he scanned the surroundings, and spied upon a calm lake just a few meters north of his position. That was where he also felt Raven, so without further adieu he sped forwards to the north, intent on finding the missing goth girl.

Speaking of the teen, Raven was sitting with her legs crossed under her as she floated a few inches off the ground, her eyes closed. She was a few inches off the coast of the lake, which reflected the face of a very full moon. On her lap clutched with both hands lay her mirror, the artifact that held her passport into her inner self. It was the portal which led to Nevermore.

The girl felt restless for some reason, and decided to break a way from her companions for a while to meditate upon her current situation. This was a ritual of hers daily, even back at the Teen Titans tower. Her emotions were starting to grow rampant once again, thus she needed this time to quell them back down, and bury them deep within her once again.

So deep was she into her meditations that she hasn't detected Ranma's form landing just beside her.

Ranma was actually a bit fascinated by the girl. He had seen her meditating as hard as she was doing right now, back in that Tower of theirs. He did not find any solace in meditating though, since he's more of an action-oriented person. Having to sit around and think of Nirvana would make him go crazy.

He had heard from that green-skinned boy, Beast Boy, that Raven has been meditating since he met her all those years ago. Why was she so adamant on keeping her feelings bottled up? Not only once did Ranma had ask himself this question in the short-term past. He was a closet mystery freak, something he might never accept in front of Nabiki. It was the same with the mysteries of Martial Arts moves. He can't stop deciphering them until he understood everything.

This girl was one of the mysteries he wanted to discover, since he couldn't bear seeing her suffer like this. Conditioning her body to ignore emotions was like evoking the Soul of Ice permanently.

Here he was, watching Raven's serene face as she concentrated on her meditation. Ranma spied upon the object clutched with her hands on her lap.

It was a mirror.

Curiosity got the better of Ranma's logic, as he floated closer to Raven's unmoving form. Hesitantly reaching out an arm, he deftly traced the mirror with his index finger, marveling at the other worldly beauty the object possessed. All of the sudden, a flux of power jolted Ranma out of his trance, causing him to float back a bit in shock. Too bad it was a little too late, as a black, clawed hand emerged from the mirror, grabbing Ranma's surprised form before it sucked itself in, and Ranma, into the mirror.

Immediately afterwards, Raven's eyes snapped open in shock, as she stared at the object in her hands.

"Oh no..." Raven whispered urgently, her anxiousness increasing as the mirror failed to follow any command given to it from her.

She was just deep in her trance when she met with her emotions inside Nevermore. She usually used her mirror as a conduit of transportation for her to that realm. Nevermore was a physical manifestation of her inner self. Each of her emotions have their own places inside the pocket dimension created by the mirror's magic.

Nevermore was her haven, her only refuge when her emotions get the better of her. Raven had to be sure that none of her emotions grow too much, for fear that something vile and evil might use the same emotions as a weak spot for her. Raven's father was the dreaded high demon Trigon the Terrible, known throughout the cosmos as a very powerful and versatile demon. He had survived countless of millennia, as well as thousands upon thousands of skilled demon hunters coming from every part of the Universe.

The sadistic bastard was quite proud of that, and also he physically forced Arella, Raven's mother, into procreating with him. And the result was Raven, the one prophesized to bring Doom to the Universe once Trigon managed to take control of her.

In other words, Raven was Trigon's emulator for his power, and his first conquest would be Earth if she faltered even for a bit. And she would be damned if she would give a quarter to her father's power!

Raven sought out her emotions earlier this evening once again, as she has always been doing since she was taught back in her home, Azarath.

She was actually conversing with her other persona inside the mirror of Nevermore when a sudden jolt of reality permeated the air of the dimension. It was vaguely familiar, something she had already felt back when... Cyborg... and Beast Boy...

((By Azar!)) Raven ignored the other facets of her personality as she stood shock still amidst the circle, staring at nothing in particular, ((Someone got into Nevermore again!!))

Speaking of which, Ranma was already used to being sucked into ominous wormholes. Another one wouldn't make much of a difference, and the trip was also rather short. Kinda like the slight disorientation he felt when he teleports himself all over the place. Blinking owlishly to shake off the slight dizziness he felt, Ranma blearily looked around.

He found himself in the middle of... space. He stood on a narrow rocky path that seemed to defy gravity as it floated without any pillars holding it upright. Ranma peered over the edge, and saw the seemingly bottomless pit of space.

"Hmmm..." Ranma mused to himself, "Now where have I seen this before...?"

But the pigtailed wonder had no time to ponder on the scenery, as at least a dozen of black birds appeared above him. They hovered over his head, cawing at him madly. He briefly wondered about the black birds' quadruple glowing red eyes, but he just shrugged them off as a quirk of the reality he was in.

Not bothering to think too much about the strange things around him, Ranma skipped down the stone pavement he was standing on. The path was quite straightforward, since it just led straight somewhere into the black space. He did see something shining from beyond the path, though.

The pesky, noisy birds kept circling over his head.

Anyway, he reached a small clearing, only noticing now that the path has gone wider somewhere back. He shrugged as he walked on, trying to catch anything through his senses. So far, only the supernatural feeling emanating from the birds above his head were the only things that bothered him at the moment.

And the whole scene kept Ranma on his toes.

Which was why he was caught flat-footed by the sight that greeted him when he took five steps more.

Oh, nothing much has changed from the scenery. The sky still has nothing except the darkened skies and the rocky pathway he was on, but the area was now noticeably brighter in hue and some... pink glittered all over. Oh, and also a pink-cloaked person of Raven's height and build standing beyond the cragged rocks that jutted out of the path. The cloaked person was sitting atop one of the miniature spires, looking directly towards him.

Okay, now that in itself wasn't the weird part... it's just that the person, in which Ranma has established to be female (anatomy, people... the person was wearing a leotard under her cloak for crying out loud), was wearing white of all things, and has this silly looking grin on her face under her cloak's cowl. In the short time he was with Raven, Ranma didn't see that same smile on her face, ever. And now that he does, it made him feel both happy and extremely nervous at the same time. The aura was the same Raven, since the girl wore the same face, and the built was the same, so it must be Raven. But somehow, the smile looked a bit off on her somehow.

Shrugging off his concerns for now, Ranma floated towards the smiling Raven, who had jumped off the stone and was now floating towards him as well.

"Well, hello there cutie!" The extremely excited girl bobbed in the air as she giggled. Ranma's senses were going haywire at the amount of weirdness he felt right now.

"Right... hello to you too..." Ranma drolled, ignoring the way how the girl's tight leotard stuck like a second skin, and with her bouncing like that...

The pink-cloaked Raven's grin widened, "Hey, you're staring at my chest. You like me, don't you?"

Ranma groaned as he face-faulted. ((This is going to be a long day... or is it night?))

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Outside of the world Ranma was in, Raven was currently pacing around the lake's shoreline, busily staring at the mirror in her hands. However, her face was reflecting a frown, and was looking at the object in her hands like it was very offensive.

Raven still shuddered at the memory of the first incident when Cyborg and Beast Boy had accidentally entered Nevermore. The two had played havoc inside Nevermore, and in turn has affected her physically. She even laughed at random intervals out of the blue.

Shaking her head to forget about the memories for now, she gazed at her mirror. The event of the first incident paled in comparison with this one now. Her mirror was glowing softly, and Raven could feel jolts of power emanating from it. That in itself was not normal, and the fact that it was Ranma that had entered made Raven feel nauseous.

Oh, now Raven was feeling a twitch coming to the fore, zeroed in on her lips. She almost giggled, but managed to choke it down to a mere smile and a whimper. She thanked her birth stars that there was nobody out there with her right now, or she will just die of embarrassment. And Raven also surmised correctly that Ranma had met up with her most annoying emotion yet, Happy.

Hmmm, now why did that elicit a sudden chill from her then?

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"I like you, Ranma! You're so much fun to be with!" Pink Raven gleefully commented as they traveled along the path of Nevermore.

Ranma just sighed and smacked his head, trying to quell the urge to just run away. Apparently, Pink Raven wasn't the only resident here.

A few meters away from where 'Happy' and Ranma met, they encountered another Raven, but this time, she was wearing a yellow cloak. She was holding a thick paperback book of some sort, its title was written in a language not familiar to him.

Ranma ignored the incomprehensible text and muttered, "Another Raven. Great."

The yellow-clad Raven's brow lifted as she gazed at him quizzically, "That's odd. Before it was Beast Boy and Cyborg, and now... you. I think we really need to install an anti-trespasser device at the portal of this place."

"Oh, come on Wisdom! Don't worry about this... it will be fun!" Happy gleefully commented.

Wisdom rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd say that. You're Happy."

"Argh! Whatever!" Ranma waved his hands in the air irritably, "I just wanna get out of this place!"

Happy quickly glided to Ranma and grabbed his hand, saying, "Don't worry, I'll guide you!"

Wisdom sighed and said, "Wait, I'll come with you two. With Happy's... disposition, it will take forever for you to get out of here."

And on the trio went. Wisdom was what her name stated, she was Raven's much more analytic side of her personality given flesh here in Nevermore. Wisdom was, literally, the brains of the operation. This however made her a bit haughtier than normal, since she knew she was the smart one.

All of which was ignored by Ranma, who was blissfully humming a tune.

This was halted, though, when they came upon another change of scenery. The area seemed to have grown a bit brighter. And no, Ranma did NOT just cringe. It was a... shudder of anticipation. Yeah, that's it.

Oh, is that a green-clad Raven wearing that infuriating smirk on her face? Ugh... it looked very familiar, the same smirk Ranma usually saw whenever he looked in a mirror. Still, this Raven was leaning against the pillar of rock that jutted out of the ground. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and was looking at them rather smugly.

"Well, if it isn't monkey-boy himself. How do you like Nevermore, huh Ranma?" The green-cloaked Raven asked, her right brow raised inquisitively.

Ranma answered all the same, "Just peachy."

Wisdom nodded towards the new-found Raven, saying, "Why hello, Brave. I hadn't realized we would arrive at your... place... rather early."

The green-cloaked Raven, Brave, muttered loudly, "Shut up, Wizzy. I got bored fighting those statues, so I went here to see Ranma for myself. I mean, Rude was watching me fight earlier, but she just disappeared just when I decided to meet you guys."

Happy immediately went to Brave's face, causing the green-clothed version of Raven to lean back a bit, "You saw Rude? Where is she? We should travel together!"

"Pipe down, pinky..." Brave deadpanned, pushing Happy's... happy face away from her, "You know how she is. Besides, she'll just make your little trip a whole lot worse than it is."

"I hate it when people talk behind my back..." A new voice interrupted them, causing Happy, Brave and Wisdom to turn towards the source. Ranma sighed and turned albeit a whole lot slower, not really appreciating the turn of events.

There was another Raven on the road onwards, her face etched a slight frown. Her eyes were half-closed and was bored, and her cloak was orange in hue. Her arms were crossed across her chest as well, and was looking at them in irritation.

"Ah, speak of the devil... hello Rude..." Brave snorted loudly.

"Can it, you overgrown bullheaded freak..." The orange-clad Raven named Rude spat back, her eyes glowing slightly towards Brave. She breathed in deeply as she closed her eyes to control herself, before opening them and snapping her gaze to Ranma, saying, "What the hell is HE doing here? Do you know what he's doing to us?!"

Wisdom smirked slightly. "Oh, so you felt it too, huh?"

"He's killing us!!" Rude whispered harshly, intensifying her glare towards the clueless Ranma, who just scratched his head nervously.

Happy scratched her own head thoughtfully, which for a moment seemed to be reciprocating Ranma's own confused expression, "That's funny... I don't feel bad. A little twitchy here and there since we met Ranma-cutey, but other than that, nothing really unpleasant."

"That's because you're an air head..." Rude ignored Happy's sudden hurt expression and turned to Ranma, "This... person is doing something to us, with or without his knowledge, and it seemed to be affecting our core personality directly."

"Why don't we go straight to the point, Rude..." Wisdom interjected, "Why don't you just say that, Ranma's presence made Raven feel---"

"That's irrelevant!" The orange clad girl growled out, cutting Wisdom's statement off.

Ranma sighed and floated a few inches above the ground, before falling unto his crossed legs and sat in a yoga position, still a few inches on the air. "I still have no idea what they're taking about..." he mumbled to himself.

"Neither do I..." Brave commented beside him, staring at the shouting match that has escalated from a simple banter a few moments ago, "But then again, thinking is never my strong point."

"I just don't understand anything... I just wanted to get outta here... where ever I am..." Ranma whined softly as he looked around him, his gaze snapping on some... prominent things that he neglected to notice since he entered the place.

The black birds were now perched on a tree just beyond them, their four eyes glaring at him hatefully. Beyond the horizon a dark mass was slowly approaching them in a rather slow and deliberate matter.

"Uhm, hey guys... what's with that dark thingie over there..." The pigtailed hybrid turned, only to come face to face with ANOTHER Raven, but this time, she wore a gray cloak. Her face almost had that fearful expression on her face as she tried to hide it inside her cowl. She stood in front of him shakily.

Ranma almost scratched his head once again, but he resisted as he asked, "Well, hello... I don't believe we've met before."

But the gray-cloaked Raven remained silent as she slowly stepped back away from him.

"Look everybody, it's Timid..." Wisdom's voice cut into Brave and Rude's quarrel. All of the other emotions stopped talking at once and faced the poor gray-clothed girl, who was trying to keep herself small in her place as much as she can.

Brave raised an eyebrow. "Well... would ya look at that? You turn for a minute and already another will try to take Ranma for herself!"

"Timid!" Happy's shrill voice reflected shock as she stared wide-eyed at the cringing gray-cloaked Timid, saying, "Shame on you... you have to share him with us too!"

Rude snorted indignantly, "Hey! Leave me out of your discussion!" But she could feel her face growing hot for some reason.

Wisdom eyed Rude slyly, "Right... as if you're serious about that."

Rude just ignored the jab.

Timid's hands flew to her cheeks as she looked down to the ground with embarrassment, "I-I-It's... not l-l-like t-t-that..." she stuttered softly.

"Oh, I SOOOO don't need this right now..." Ranma muttered as he stormed past the bickering personified emotions, only to be stopped by a popping noise and a puff of smoke that covered his range of vision in front of him.

The other personas even stopped as they heard the pop, and quickly prepared themselves if ever it was... IT. When the smoke cleared though, they were treated to a surprise as it was revealed that the one that appeared from the phenomenon was a small child.

Oh yeah, it was a small chibi-Raven wearing a dark purple cloak, one as to which Ranma groaned quite loudly as he smacked his head with his hand. The newly-appeared child Raven initially looked around in a dazed fashion, as if she was lost. But when the child saw Ranma, her expression turned into delight as she squealed and flew into the young man's arms, which were instinctively brought up to catch the miniature purple blur that went towards him.

The others quickly rounded upon the struggling Ranma, who still had the small ball of purple crawling all over him.

"Oh dear... this... this is..." Wisdom gasped as she finally resolved who the newcomer was.

Brave smirked and shook her head, "Hah... never thought she had it in her. It's been a long time since I've seen her... and she hasn't grown at all since then."

Timid just stared at the little Raven in shock.

Rude was a bit peeved. "You think this is good? Now that she's here... then HE'S going to have an angle of control against us!"

"Uhmm... hello? Can someone please help me?" Ranma noised weakly, as he ceased struggling when it was apparent that the girl wasn't to be budge that easily, even with his strength. Besides, he didn't want to hurt the girl, no matter how much he felt uncomfortable currently. It would seem that the girl was now concentrating on using his tail as a cuddle-toy, at the same time clutching around his neck as well.

Happy shouted, "Oh my! That's... that's... I've missed you so much... LOVE!!!!" and leapt into the fray, ignoring Ranma's whimper of protest.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Outside of Nevermore, Raven suddenly felt flush, as a slight noise that seemed to have supposed to be a giggle turned into a choking sound. She did NOT just do that! She can now feel a slight warm sensation just above her stomach, and it was making her a bit queasy.

Her emotions were in a huge disarray right now, and she can't even blame that stupid super powered not-really-a-kid Ranma! Wait... she can! It was him that's causing this... and she was left wondering what the heck he was doing in Nevermore anyway!

Not thinking about it any further, Raven took the mirror in her hands and growled at it softly. The glow earlier has receded to a soft shimmer now, but the power level emanating from the mirror remained the same. Any more power and it will tax out Nevermore. Not only that, her beloved mirror of emotions will most probably break down. She doesn't know what would actually happen if her mirror broke, but she doesn't want to find out!

Raven quickly muttered, "Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos..." and braced herself, as her mirror sucked her inside. The mirror, having its master inside itself, would activate its protocols of sucking its own essence inside the portal, thus the mirror materialized itself with her inside Nevermore.

Once she felt her own body stabilize, she opened her eyes and took a quick look around. She gasped, seeing the big cloud of darkness over the horizon, and the gigantic form of a red-skinned demon fighting some individuals at a distance. She clamped down the feeling of being impressed at the individuals, for some reason they had held out a whole lot longer than she would've thought they would. She froze, thinking as to why there were so many fighting the Demon in the first place. Wasn't it only Ranma that got inside her mirror? She quickly levitated and shot towards the battle scene, intent on finding the answers all by herself.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Contrary to what Raven had witnessed earlier, there was only one individual fighting against the red-skinned demon. All the other Ravens, all clad in different colors and one being different not only by her clothes' color but also by being a child version, the other personified emotions were dodging stray energy blasts and kept away from the fight.

The demon, who was at least five stories high in height, had a vicious sneer etched upon his ugly face. He has four eyes, all of them glowing bright red as a reflection of what it was currently feeling towards the pests irritating him. He was dressed only in a modest brown loincloth, but that wasn't really the matter right now, as he tried to bash the irritating pigtailed boy that kept peppering him with those weird energy balls.

Earlier on, after the newest 'member' of their rag-tag group of fellow travelers has been introduced as Love, they continued on with their journey. Love was happily perched on Ranma's shoulders as they went, and it would seem that she was REALLY fond of the pigtailed hybrid. It was the main purpose of the group that Ranma was to be guided to Nevermore's exit actually, but they had warned him about encountering this one.

Anger was actually a strong emotion, and this large demon was wearing Raven's biological father's face. He was Raven's representation of her rage, her dark side. It was actually a tragic tale, since Raven's family was a tremendously dysfunctional one.

Her father, a higher demon named Trigon, had forced her mother into procreating, in attempts to create an heir for his conquests. A helper, so to speak, in destroying worlds, and making the universe bow to his feet. It was bad luck that it was Raven's mother that was chosen, but it was also good that there were still some people from her planet that despised Trigon. Most of the people in her planet were spiritualists, and eventually they managed to imprison Trigon, but to the cost of so many lives in return, particularly her mother, Arella. Raven was to be kept safe and well-away from Trigon's clutches, so Raven was sent far away from Azarath, her home planet, to avoid certain catastrophes.

The effects of being Trigon's daughter, was that she has a mental link with her father. That link could be the catalyst for a gate, where her father could be freed to wreak havoc. In other words, Raven was both vessel for Trigon, as well as the doorway for his conquest.

Not if Raven can help it, though. She has resolved herself into closing the door for her father, which was triggered mostly by her emotional state. Raven would easily be taken over then if she was weak in spirit. She focused herself everyday, since then, to become cold and unemotional, though a few giggles and tears here and there doesn't hurt.

Now, Anger took the form of her father, Trigon, and it was now wreaking havoc in Nevermore. Its real target for now was Ranma, since the demon felt great unrest in himself when Ranma flared his aura. While fighting, Trigon was probing Ranma intently, trying to find weak spot to exploit.

To the other emotions, they felt absolutely terrified of the gigantic monster, even though they represented none of that emotion. When Cyborg and Beast Boy confronted Trigon, they were actually not present in the fight as they were now. And watching Ranma fighting seemingly daunted odds proved to be taxing on their selves. Especially the newly discovered emotion, Love, who flinched every time Trigon managed to blast something towards Ranma. Her sparkling purple eyes though, were riveted on Ranma's form, her face shining in adoration and... love.

It's not really all that surprising for the other personified emotions, since it was blatantly obvious why Love appeared all of the sudden in the first place. The poor Chibi-Raven has been locked tight inside the depths of Raven's soul ever since that time when she first showed emotions for someone, which caused a whole lot of damage to the surroundings. There were feeling bittersweet at little Love's freedom, which spelled both good and bad things for all of them. And for some reason, Trigon was more powerful than he should have been, and it was quite relieving for them to see Ranma keeping up with the demon in battle.

The young man in question though, was actually enjoying the battle. He and Trigon started duking it out almost the minute they set eyes on each other. For some reason, he felt intense irritation at seeing the hulking form of the red-skinned demon, and he surmised that the demon felt the same. Ranma had to give it to the demon, since his size hid his actual speed. It was really gratifying fighting someone that could probably hit him, and Ranma could feel the immense energy emanating from the demon. He had been hit twice already, but he managed to shrug them off as the demon fired off a lot of fireballs towards his location.

Actually, Ranma had baited the demon away from the girls, after they had warned him of its recklessness in battle. Also, it seemed that the other Ravens were severely mortified at seeing this creature. To lessen their fears, he lured it away.

The pigtailed hybrid was seriously considering on making the battle a lengthy one, but he'd felt the space around them warp and distort for some reason. Also, Ranma saw that the girls' images were flickering, meaning, the demon must be gathering energy from everywhere that originated within this world, especially the girls.

But Ranma can never stop his mouth from running off. Even when he felt another presence appear out of nothing inside the null space he was in, or Nevermore, as Wisdom told him earlier.

"Eh... this is getting boring. You haven't hit me yet." Ranma commented warily as he idly dodged another ball of fire, which exploded on the ground he floated on earlier. He then slid to one side as the demon's massive hand crashed on his earlier position once again, creating a small cloud of dust.

The demon, Trigon as the Raven clones called him, snarled as he pulled his hand off the small crater his blow created on the ground, "IMPUDENT LITTLE WORM! I WILL DESTROY YOU!"

Ranma rolled his eyes, saying, "Yeah yeah, that's what they all say... guess what? I don't care. Just give it your best shot and I might show a little more enthusiasm than just dodging here and there."

"HELLFIRE!!!" The red being screamed, his hands glowing hotly. He released the ball and aimed it towards Ranma, but it was dodged just as easily as the other ones.

The pigtailed boy snapped his fingers, saying excitedly, "That's right! You kinda remind me of Saffron, I mean, well... the powers I guess. But the looks? Nah.. far from it... I mean, you're real ugly. Offense intended. Eh? What's with the look? You're angry? Cool."

Indeed, the great demon Trigon was PISSED. He was literally foaming lava on the mouth, and it was dripping down his red chin. With a loud bellow he attacked, almost catching Ranma off guard as Trigon's speed quadrupled because of his anger. But even so, Ranma managed to jump over the attack, sailing above the irate demon.

Ranma was smiling widely, as he watched the demon throwing a hissy fit bellow him. He was floating upside down, and was fingering the burnt part of his cloak that had been caught by some of the fiery heat from Trigon's hands. He knew he shouldn't be goading the beast, but he couldn't help it. Ranma knew by now that he had a manic look on his face, of someone who hungered for a good fight. With the short respite of the attacks, he dared to remove his sights from his opponent and glanced at the direction of the power surge he felt a bit earlier. He saw a speck of black blob that was moving at high speeds from the horizon, and it seemed to be keyed in to their position. Before he could formulate a hypothesis as to what it was, he was swatted from the air by Trigon's meaty hand, causing him to be drilled into the ground.

Trigon didn't let up his attack, as he followed up with a double fist smash unto Ranma's prone position. A loud sonic boom cracked into Nevermore, followed by a rhythmic beating that could only come from Trigon's fists pounding on Ranma. Rude, Wisdom, Brave, Happy and Timid flinched at each time the red beast's hands connected to the pigtailed boy's prone body. Love was openly crying, clutching at the edges of her cloak tightly.

The red beast snorted, saying, "I HAD THOUGHT FOR A MOMENT THAT YOU ARE A MATCH FOR ME. YOU ARE JUST LIKE THE REST!"

Just as the demon was about to pound Ranma once again, his fists were stopped by a pair of dainty hands, dainty compared to his own.

"That's enough..." were Ranma's words, as those same dainty hands shoved the larger, seemingly more powerful ones off. He allowed Trigon's fists to pass by him as he stood up, and kneed the off-balanced demon on its abdomen, causing Trigon to bellow in pain as he was flung back.

"HOW..." Trigon snarled as he stood up, clutching at his ruined abdomen, "HOW IN THE NINE PITS OF HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO STAND UP AFTER MY ASSAULT?! BY ALL RIGHTS, YOU SHOULD BE DUST BY NOW!"

"Well..." Ranma winced, as he popped his shoulder back into its socket, "I just do, really. I can't die... not just yet... not ever."

For some reason, Ranma felt he should say that, and it saddened him a bit somehow. His urge to return back to where he was from, where ever it was, became stronger. He didn't even know which he wanted to return to right now, whether it was to Vanilla and the others, or to Ryoko. But then again... he knew he could have both, just that it would take some time doing so. He mentally shrugged; time was something he has, and he would make full use of it. Right now, he has to discover a way to end this fight, without damaging Raven.

Yes, Ranma finally realized that he was in Raven's territory, especially with the other Ravens present. Everything in this world was connected to Raven, since the gloomy surroundings reminded him of Raven's personality.

Now, he was faced with a dilemma.

Trigon used the time Ranma used in reminiscing to rest a bit, and also to observe his enemy. The boy was phenomenal, but everything and everyone has a weakness. Even his own powerful daughter has a weakness, and he would be damned if he can't beat this runt. Trigon knew of the marks on the boy's forehead, those trio of multicolored gems that seemed to seep power as the boy moved.

The mark of the ancients have been a sign of power all throughout the universe, and defeating one as young as this would be a feat no other could've done. It was by pure luck Trigon has encountered an ancient who knew nothing of its powers. Suddenly, Trigon noticed the golden bands around the boy's arms, as energy gathered into them. He also noticed another circlet around Ranma's neck, and it was also gathering power inside it.

((Ah! The bands... they are his source of power!)) Trigon concluded, as his bloodied lip curled into a nasty smirk. His grin grew as he felt the presence of his own daughter, the original Raven, finally approaching their position in haste.

Ranma on the other hand was snapped out of his stupor when he heard a very familiar voice call out to him.

"You buffoon! What in Azar's name do you think you're doing?! Do you realize what you've done?!" A dark blue-cloaked Raven bellowed to him as she approached in mid air. Her eyes glowed red in anger as she approached.

Ranma didn't take his eyes off his opponent, but he did acknowledged Raven's arrival by a short nod. "Are you another one of those other Ravens?"

Raven flinched slightly as she cast a shadowy glance towards her personified emotions, and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the child-like version of herself. Shaking her head to concentrate on the matters at hand, she replied, "I'm the original Raven, you idiot. I came from outside the mirror, the one you entered without permission!"

"Hey!" The boy said indignantly, "I was dragged into this place! A lot of... you's... met with me here and there. I've been looking for a place to exit on when big, red and ugly over there suddenly appeared and tried to make me into a pancake!"

"You shouldn't be here!" Raven hissed dangerously.

"As if I don't know that!" Ranma shot back.

"HEH... WIDE OPEN." A loud voice said as Ranma was grabbed from behind by his wrists. He glanced behind him and saw that the one he's fighting has been able to sneak past him.

"Really now..." Ranma deadpanned as he pulled his arms forwards, snapping the grip around his wrists off easily. He turned and smirked at the demon, but it was short-lived when Ranma realized Trigon was actually looking at him in amusement.

Before Ranma could ask about it, Trigon had lifted his hands, and showed the pigtailed boy the remnants of his wrist bands, the limiters that were created by Washuu. Ranma choked as he quickly looked at his wrists, and sure enough, the bracers were gone. He just stared at his naked wrists and gaped.

"I DISCOVERED THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWERS..." Trigon explained conversationally, casually reaching out and grasping the catatonic Ranma around his neck. Another crack was heard, and Trigon pulled out remnants of the black choker around Ranma's neck earlier. "YOU HAVE NO MORE POWER SOURCE. YOU ARE AN ORDINARY HUMAN NOW. HMMM, HOW TO KILL YOU? I HAVE A LOT OF METHODS TO EMPLOY HERE..."

"No, Ranma!" Raven shouted, as she powered up her own powers, "Get away! I'll handle this... the demon is my problem!"

Trigon glared at Raven angrily, saying, "SILENCE, WENCH!" and threw a massive fireball towards her, one as to which she hastily dodged and floated a few feet away from. "YOU WILL BE NEXT!" Trigon continued.

But before the situation escalated, Ranma's soft voice was heard saying, "No... you... you destroyed... them..."

"GRAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The red beast guffawed, arrogantly eyeing the shell shocked Ranma, "DO YOU FEEL FEAR NOW? WITHOUT THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWERS, YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A PATHETIC MORTAL!"

"Power... source?" Ranma asked softly, slowly raising his head up to look at Raven in the eye. The girl was transfixed, as the gems on Ranma's forehead blazed in their appropriate colors, and his eyes glowed menacingly.

"R-Ranma?" Raven asked hesitantly, slowly drifting downwards, but she was stopped when Ranma said something that made her blood run cold.

"Run." Ranma simply said, still maintaining eye contact with the half-demoness, "Take the other girls and run... please!"

Raven was taken aback. "But... why? I can help you! Let me help you!"

"NO!" Ranma shouted, his jaws set as he gnashed them together, "You... you have to get them outta here. The bracers... my choker... they are not power sources. They are.... ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!"

Everyone watched as Ranma fell to his knees, his aura suddenly blossoming out of his body. His screams filled the entireness of Nevermore, and everyone who can hear it felt their life spans shorten a few thousand years because of it. The space near Ranma became bent and tormented as he screamed louder, clutching at his own body in anguish.

By now, Trigon's smirk of triumph was replaced by an expression that wasn't familiar to anyone who knew him: Fear. His face was paled a bit as he was buffeted by the strong winds generated by Ranma's power release. It was a miracle that he wasn't blown off the ground.

Raven wasted no time as she flew towards her immobile emotions, not sparing another glance at the new child-like personification in dark purple cloak as she grabbed them all and teleported them somewhere far away from the site. Little did she know that it's all moot point anyway.

Ranma, on the other hand, was in another world entirely. But it was a world filled with pain and confusing thoughts. In his mind, his primal instincts coming from several different angles of his DNA were fighting for dominance, but the Saiyajin trait was slowly gaining its advantage. And it wanted some blood, and a whole lot of destruction, death and to conquer.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Ranma screamed loudly, driving his head into the ground violently. He did it a few more times just to be certain, that the apocalyptic thoughts swirling inside his head were momentarily forgotten. His aura flared even brighter, as arcs of lightning lanced out from his body and destroyed anything it touches, causing Trigon to back away quickly from the hyperventilating teen. Ranma's tail waved wildly in the air, lashing out angrily and pummeling the ground. It created a small trench on the area it hit.

But Ranma's torment just began, as his back arched wildly when the re-forged Light Hawk Wings erupted from his back, showing everything around him with ki-feathers. The translucent wings flapped once, before settling around Ranma's thrashing form. His hair, which was raven-black initially, blazed into a fiery red color. The now bright red hair of his ruffled itself out of his pigtail, and exploded into a mass of spiky locks. It lengthened drastically, achieving a growth rate worth of two years as it reached down to his waist. As he snapped his head upwards, anyone could see that the gems on his forehead were now flashing frantically. His eyes were alternating on displaying his golden pupils or the flat blue-gray color of its entirety.

By now, Trigon was absolutely clueless as to what was happening, and he was quite aware of the helpless position Ranma was in right now. But for some reason, the demon can't bring himself to attack, as the waves of power kept on buffeting him with their intensity. His knees almost gave out as the energy waves almost overwhelmed him. And Ranma hasn't even touched him yet!

While Trigon stood frozen on a far side of the rocky path, Ranma continued with his slow and agonizing transformation, which was slowly coming to a close. Ranma's mouth opened up in a silent scream as a final burst of energy exploded, causing the spot he was on to crater and almost collapse into itself. His body shuddered once as his wings wrapped around him, and it was only then that he finally sagged in exhaustion. The silver aura around his body hasn't diminished though, as it continued to burn as bright as it was from before.

There was a heavy silence that took over the atmosphere of the place, and only the sound of heavy breathing from Ranma, as well as the rasps coming from Trigon, can be heard in the area.

Ranma took his time as he slowly straightened up from his slouch. His face, which was screwed in a grimace earlier during the transformation, was now expressionless. His eyes burned dark blue-gray as the marks on his face glowed bright green a bit. His wings quivered as arcs of lightning raced up and down his form while his aura blazed.

"Destruction..." Ranma muttered, but it was loud enough since Nevermore was so silent that time, "Conquer... urggh..." he shook his head as his pupils shone gold. "Ugh... resist... urges to... destroy..."

Ranma suddenly lurched forwards, catching himself just before he lost his balance. He gripped at his arms mercilessly, trying to stave off the pain of his transformation, as well as the primal forces threatening to erupt within him. Suddenly, a thought came unbidden into his mind; a technique used to generate cold aura, to emulate a force of nature. The Soul of Ice... the state of no emotions. But Ranma felt that the technique will not work as well as it did before when applied to his current situation right now, so he had to revise it...

"Soul of Ice... revision... the Soul of Absolute Zero." The name of the new technique came out of his mouth automatically, as he suddenly slammed all his emotions out of himself. His inner aura changed slightly, flickering from silver to bright blue. A sheet of ice exploded from his position, covering everything it touched within a 5 mile radius. Trigon was quick to react, as he forced himself to jump into the air, and opted to stay there.

Seeing the war of emotions on Ranma's face, Trigon successfully mustered enough strength to pursue his goal, which was to get rid of his obstacle. The red demon carefully gathered energy in his cupped hands without removing his eyes off Ranma.

However, Trigon only had to blink when all of the sudden, Ranma already stood in front of him. His golden pupils bore into Trigon as Ranma's wings erupted open, showering the area once again with ki-feathers. Without another word, Ranma lifted his right hand and grabbed at the gathering red energy in Trigon's hands. With a small smile on his otherwise expressionless face, Ranma closed his fist, causing the energy ball to pop like a balloon.

"A mask..." Ranma said softly, his gaze never leaving Trigon's fearful gaze. "You are... a mask. A pitiful representation of something that thinks he's powerful." Ranma's brow narrowed ever so slightly, "A link... you... leech power from Raven. You are nothing but a weakling."

"We-Weakling?!" Trigon screeched, wrenching his hands away from Ranma, as he hauled his massive body a bit further away from the still-emotionless boy. Frankly, Trigon's quite worried about the situation, especially how he can't get himself to take control of the situation. This was his world! He was supposed to have absolute control over it!

"Uhn..." The pigtailed boy only nodded, his waist-long, spiky red hair rustling against an imaginary wind. His tail lashed left and right behind his back, as his wings shuddered every now and then. "Destroying you would be easy... but that would probably take something precious off of Raven. So..."

Trigon's worry turned into panic as Ranma lifted a hand in the air, as an ominous sound of thunder echoed all over Nevermore. Did it become darker just now?

The beast's gaze turned to Ranma, as the pigtailed boy's hand glowed dark purple for a moment. And then...

And then... the demon screamed.

It was then that Raven decided to appear, along with her other personified emotions. Brave, Happy, Wisdom, Rude, Timid, and the new one called Love, appeared altogether with Raven at a distance from the battle site. They were quite shocked at how much damage the fight had produced.

Their gazes were attracted though, by the unfamiliar site from where the fight took place. There stood a different Ranma, with blazing unbound red hair fluttering against the wind, with twin semi-transparent wings jutting out of his back. His red tail was reflecting his mood clearly, since it was agitatedly swinging from side to side behind him. His face was a calm emotionless mask, a feat that Raven can actually respect. She, as well as her other emotions, were actually quite happy that Ranma was still alive. But her elation slowly turned into shock, as the site finally registered in her mind.

It was one of her greatest dreams, to see Trigon bent down on his knees as Raven was going to deliver the final blow. The demon, her father, had brought her unending torment and pain, causing her to splinter her own emotions and lock them in the mirror to be controlled manually by her, just to avoid having Trigon take leverage of her body. This dream has been turned into a reality, true that she wasn't the one holding Trigon on his knees and had him petrified of that glowing dark ball of energy in front of his face, but still...

The dark ball of energy that Ranma has procured was reacting to Nevermore. Everything inside Nevermore was an embodiment of Raven's inner self. To have something like this affecting her so much... it must NOT be good for her, or it would probably have results that she might not like. Besides, it would seem that Ranma was a whole lot different from before, since his demeanor had changed drastically. The floor around him was frozen solid in ice, and his aura was blazing bright silver. The mist of Nevermore were slowly gathering around Ranma, and that dark ball he was holding was starting to make her feel weird.

Not only that, but Wisdom has pointed out that it seemed the dark ball was absorbing something in the surroundings. Raven finally noticed that the ball formed a vacuum within itself, even the wisps of mist surrounding the area formed a miniature twister that lead into the ball.

It was starting to scare them, the original Raven in particular. It was like a black hole inside you, and it might eat up everything inside out, literally. Looking back to her counterparts, Raven nodded with them as they sought out to stop the progress of the ball. As they made their way to the battle site, they were dismayed when they figured they were too late. Violent winds came at them as they were pulled towards the area where Ranma and Trigon were, or at least, towards that same dark ball.

Ranma ignored everything else, other than the huge demon in front of him. Not that he actually cared for it or anything because of his newly revised technique to clamp down on his emotions, he still managed to think about what this might do to the owner of this world. Besides, if Raven really wanted this thing to be destroyed, she should've done so a long time ago, so it meant that this demon was what he thought of earlier. A mask, a representation of... something traumatic that was part of Raven herself. The more logical side of Ranma, which actually came from Chaos, dissected the information quicker than normal and he managed to reach a conclusion.

This demon was also part of Raven. And he also noticed that one of the more prominent emotions hasn't appeared yet. Yes, Ranma reached the conclusion that every girl he met... those Raven clones, were all parts of a whole. Raven's emotions were splintered badly, and Ranma was quite appalled by it.

Ranma didn't really know the reason why Raven locked her emotions up, but he knew the feeling. He had been deep into the Soul of Ice once or twice, but now that he developed the revised version, he knew he should feel a bit disgusted at feeling nothing. That's just the thing; he felt nothing, even now as he stared down this massive demon with a ball of pure vacuum poised in his hand. He just hoped this was a very toned down one, since it might have an adverse effect on Raven herself.

Ranma tried to smile grimly, but he only felt his mouth twitch as he released the ball, letting it hang in midair. He said softly, "Heh... Yami no Ha revised: Cleansing the Spirit."

Violent winds erupted above Ranma as the ball wreaked havoc, absorbing the dark environment of the area. He could see Trigon's face pale in horror as he screamed in panic. It was weird, Ranma finally surmised, as he watched the vacuum systematically split Trigon's skin apart, piece by piece, muscle by muscle. First, his red skin, then his muscles... finally, he was split open, exposing something that made Ranma's brow rise.

As the screaming Trigon was slowly stripped away, there was another form inside him. It was like licking towards the middle of those special lollipops that Nabiki loved, and it has something in the middle, only in fast forward motion. It was a person, who has a dark red cloak covering its body. Ranma had a sinking suspicion who this was, and he wasn't going to comment about it.

Ranma stared dispassionately at the quivering red-cloaked Raven on the floor, who was coughing weakly as she curled into a fetal position. Her four glowing red eyes slowly reverted into two, as the glow abated. Her normal dark-purple orbs remained, who were now transfixed at his face with a slight confusion in them. His gazed snapped to the east, where he could see several floating forms currently flying towards him. He knew that it was the other Ravens, and he hoped they could help with this predicament. He was at a loss at what to do.

His brows quirked once again as he saw the mass of floating Ravens falter, and one by one they dropped like flies. Good thing they were floating at a low altitude, or their forced descent would have been... painful. Nevertheless, he sighed and levitated into the air, but not before grabbing the writhing red-cloaked Raven by the back of her cape, and flew towards where the rest of them were. He felt something pull within his mind, but dismissed it for now.

The black hole Ranma had created remained, however, which continued to swamp the place with vacuum, absorbing everything in sight.

Raven, on the other hand, felt like hell. She could also see her other emotions squirming on the ground beside her, all of them agonized by something. She could see her own private world, her Nevermore, slowly dissolving into nothing. The rocks, the birds, the darkness... everything was going to be absorbed into that damnable trick created by that man, Ranma. Her own life bled in front of her as she watched her suffering emotions quiver. She knew her end was to be abrupt and could come at any moment, but she never thought it was supposed to be this easy.

Suddenly, a flash of memory erupted in her mind's eye. It was foreign, since it was an image of a very beautiful red-haired woman, who carried a long sword of some sort in her arms. She smiled at her, as she continued to sip her tea. Before Raven could contemplate on it, another image overlapped it. This time, it was a flower bed, with a woman sitting in the middle of the field. She was happily weaving something, and she turned to her and smiled. Another flash, and it was overlapped by a spiky cyan-haired girl, who had cat-like eyes and smiled at her in a sultry manner. Another flash, and a red-eyed cyan-haired girl looked at her evenly, before breaking a soft smile. A flash, and light green-haired woman with dark skin held her hand just above her heart as she smiled at her softly. A flash, and a woman with long light-cyan hair with some sort of golden halo over her head grinned at her. She held a staff and has red tattoos across her forehead and her chest, just above her breasts. Then, the images vanished, leaving Raven disoriented and confused.

As the images vanished in her mind, Raven blinked as a sudden gust of cold filled the area. She had to squint as a shadow covered her form, making her look up in askance. She knew she was almost choking on her own drool when she barely recognized a red-cloaked version of herself dangling from someone else's arm. Anger, Raven surmised, got her butt kicked. Out of all her emotions, Anger has been easily taken over by Trigon's influence. Seeing her beaten so thoroughly brought a slight smile on Raven's face. This brought her to look upon her savior, who in her eyes was an angel. He had wings made out of silver energy, as he floated just above her inert body. Raven tried to call out to him, but her throat was sore from her screams earlier. She had fallen on her back, though, when she recognized her angel. The pigtailed hair that hung down his back can only be found on one person she met earlier.

Ranma... yes... that was his name.

"A mask..." Raven heard her angel mutter, as he lowered Anger down on the ground. She hadn't heard his wings flutter, perhaps he doesn't need to flap them then?

"A mess..." Ranma had the sudden urge to admonish the mass of Ravens in front of him, who wore different color coded cloaks for identification. He especially took notice of the smallest one of all, the one in dark purple. His gaze then focused on what he thought to be the original Raven, the one in dark blue cloak.

"I see you've entered this realm you created..." Ranma commented as he squatted in front of Raven's prone form, "I would've hoped we've met at better circumstances but... well, that's life."

Not giving the gasping Raven time to answer, he continued, "You've done a terrible thing to yourself, Raven-san. Not only did you create an mockery of meditation, but you also made a great mockery of controlling your emotions. Simply put, to control your emotions, you transformed them into physical beings. That was a bad mistake."

Ranma shook his head. "Not that I know much about it, but I do know that this..." he gestured around them, "Is not the way at all. That's why you lost all your emotions in one swoop, and you blame it on that pitiful excuse of a demon that had a link on you. Which, by the way, is currently being severed."

He stood up as he looked around. "What a desolate place this is. Was this the world you want to live in? It should've been a reflection of your future desires, and yet here we were on a dry and barren land. It's... disturbing... to find you subconsciously wishing for this life of isolation."

Ranma started to walk around them, and Raven noticed that her other emotions had stopped trembling to listen to him. In the background, the black hole still raged on strongly.

"I need to fix this, just like how my problems with a failed training method has been solved. Believe it or not, I was deathly terrified of anything feline..." He nodded at Raven's incredulous stare, "Yeah... weird. But it's the truth, and it has haunted me for years, if not for a goddess fixing me up. It was a... painful realization, but that cat was a part of me. I had to accept it, and the rest went on as you see. And it would seem that the Neko-ken created a mind shield on its own in my mind, which I am eternally grateful for."

Ranma snorted slightly, "Never mind that though. The weird demon thing that kept pestering you in your dreams has been eliminated. The link with that thing has been dissolved as well. The only thing we need to do is to combine you with your emotions. Be warned, though... this will be painful for you. Being without your emotions for so long, you will have to bear them once again like a newborn taking its first steps."

"Now..." he said grimly, summoning a silver ball of energy, "There is no ifs or buts in this. We have to make you whole again, or this will keep on happening. Did you know, that you made yourself very vulnerable when you sliced your emotions up? It was like you made a buffet line for the demon to pick an emotion to control you. Slowly but surely, your meditation will become moot point, since the demon was just biding his time before he encompasses your will. We have to solve this, NOW."

"T-Trigon... will be g-gone?" Raven asked weakly, still struggling for air.

The red-tailed saiyajin nodded, "The demon? Actually, he was never here. He had a link with you though. You believed that Trigon was in you for so long that the link manifested into an emotion most prone to being uncontrollable even to you, which was Anger. The only enemy you've been fighting within you was Anger, and the link. Other than that, they're all in your head, so to speak. Now, are we gonna do this or what?"

The usually brooding member of the Teen Titans looked about her as best as she could, considering she's half-laid on the ground. She saw that Nevermore was slowly beginning to tear up because of the force unleashed by Ranma's earlier attack. Patches of light replaced the darkness that once encompassed the dimensional world of her inner self. She never knew this day would come, since she was so engrossed at caging her emotions up. She didn't know that she was being overly paranoid, and that her years of trying to stop something that would've made her more normal would have an adverse effect on her person. Now, whether she likes it or not, she has to live with the consequences.

Looking up to Ranma's cold golden pupils, Raven took a full minute of consideration and nodded. Seeing the girl agree to his proposal, Ranma just allowed his aura to blossom forth, bathing the whole area in silvery light. His wings erupted in bright lights, adding more energy into the silver ball held within Ranma's hands. The darkness of the revised Dark Ball launched by Ranma earlier slowly mingled with the light he has now summoned. Now, if Ranma could only balance each of the energies up...

Well, all things in the universe considering, no one was really perfect. Even with Ranma's intense concentration, he still managed to screw up, albeit a little.

Raven felt an intense pain before she lost her consciousness, her last vision was of an angelic Ranma, whose long unbound red hair fanned in the air. The blood red color contrasted with the surroundings, which accented his existence in her own private universe.

In that same instant, her empathic abilities worked overtime, granting her a limited glimpse of Ranma's own mind. The pigtailed hybrid was so focused on his work that his shields were working at full trying to fend off the darkness threatening to encompass his being. Raven was almost overwhelmed by the deluge of information coming from his mind.

A thousand thoughts... no... more than that. It was a mind full of complexity, at the same ironic time, it was so simple. All he wanted was to live as much as he could. and keep everyone around him happy. From what little Raven was able to see on Ranma's memories, he was a happy-go-lucky person who had the knack of making and breaking relationships. Girls followed him like a pack of wolves chasing a piece of meat, guys hated him for what he is, and Ranma was surprisingly gentle even to his worst enemies. He was a forgiving idiot, but it was also what endeared him to many.

Friendships... his family... his life... his battles... the betrayals... he was so full of it that Raven was aghast. His ascension from a normal 'human' into this being she has now experienced. The dark patch in his mind... the darkness in his person was evident as well, but it was controlled by his own willpower.

How was Ranma able to handle such stress and still be able to joke around about it?

An explosion... a shower of bright colorful lights... a whole reformed mass... splitting into two...

Finally... the beginning of a new world for her... the Big Bang... her Rebirth...

And then... and then... all she saw was Darkness...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In the world outside the crumbling Nevermore...

Morning has come with the sun already peeking over the horizon. The Chooser of the Slain, Lenneth Valkyrie, was currently awake looking for her erstwhile companions. She had awakened a bit earlier and was disturbed to find no trace of Ranma on top of the tree she slept under, and also Raven. Lenneth knew they haven't left yet, since she could still feel Ranma's ambient ki nearby. So she set off to find them, only to come upon a tranquil lake.

Lenneth was also disturbed to find some Amazons lurking nearby, who were apparently looking for something, or someone. She was also feeling quite weird, since there was something... wrong in the air, quite like a twisting mass of reality was being ripped apart. She had no time to ponder on it though, when the feeling of wrongness increased tenfold, until she could see a slight tear in the air. It was like a jagged cut in mid air, but it was glowing brightly. The cut suddenly upgraded into cracks, until it exploded right above the lake.

The Amazons who were earnestly searching the area were attracted by the explosion and arrived to investigate. They steered clear of the Valkyrie's path, but they hung around at the edge of the lake.

The crack in the dimension was slowly mending itself, but not before spitting something out of it. Lenneth had almost pulled her sword off its scabbard, but she regressed as she recognized the forms that emerged from the explosion.

"Ranma-sama?" Lenneth asked inquisitively as she lifted off in the air, leaving the mass of Amazons on the ground. Indeed, the figure who exited the rift was Ranma, but his look was vastly different.

The Valkyrie knew ever since she saw Ranma, that he had transformed into a Saiyajin's higher evolution state. But from what records they had of a Super Saiyajin, Ranma's form was completely different. Bloody red hair cascaded down his back, unbound without the restraints of the pigtail Ranma usually wore. His eyes, which were covered by dark-tinted glasses constantly, were now exposed for all the world to see. Blue-grey replaced a normal human's white, and his pupils shone golden against its dark back color. White translucent wings jutted out of his back, and his red furred tail was lashing agitatedly from side to side. His black body suit was now encompassed by dark-blue armor, but it was missing his golden bracers, as well as the black choker normally around his neck.

It was Ranma... only he could stand in the middle of chaos and be undaunted about it. The air around him still cackled with dark lightning, probably from the remnants of the world he was in before. His wings, those glorious legendary Light Hawk Wings he inherited from his mother, was wrapped around him like white silk. It was a magnificent sight to behold, even for someone who was used to divine beings like Lenneth.

He also carried someone in his arms, who was somehow covered in a white material. Lenneth also saw what may seem like small feathery wings from the bundle, not appropriate for flying, but wings nonetheless.

Speaking of wings, Ranma opened his slowly, revealing more of the person in his arms. His aura never wavered in its blaze.

Lenneth shivered involuntarily, as she could feel the coldness of Ranma's gaze. Not only that, the silver aura he emitted was laced with numbing ice cold force. The Amazons who watched from below became alert, grasping at their weapons firmly in preparation for whatever may come.

"Lenneth..." Ranma's soft voice came to her, but its effect was tremendous. Even though it seemed weak, the voice carried all over the area. The waters of the lake rippled widely at the baritone voice.

"Raven... Raven is fine..." Ranma assured Lenneth, glancing down at the girl he carried. Raven was unconscious, but her face was slack and relaxed. Gone was her pained expression, her cold demeanor melted because of what he did. But he knew it was never that easy, since he never got to finish the merge before Nevermore was demolished.

Ranma looked to where Lenneth was, only to find her at his face, glancing down at Raven as well.

Lenneth gaped at the girl in Ranma's arms, saying, "Oh my... is that her? What has happened? I thought dark colors were more of her choosing in clothing?"

Ranma deadpanned, "I made a mistake somewhere."

Their dialogue was halted, however, when a slight moan interrupted them. Both looked on the girl as her eyes fluttered open, her purple pupils looking at them blankly. As they gained focus, Raven's eyes widened when she saw Ranma's face, and immediately leapt out of his arms. For some reason, she floated in mid air, even with her small feather wings on her back virtually useless for flying.

Ranma and Lenneth took in Raven's appearance. Anyone who knew the girl would be surprised, and would probably have a hard time believing it was her. Raven's cloak was now white in color, her hood dangled down the back of her head instead of covering her. The back of her cloak was virtually destroyed, revealing the small wings that jutted out of her back. Her hair was still dark purple in color, but now its length was longer, reaching her lower back. The chakra gem located on her forehead, which was dark red in color before, was now dark blue. Her leotard was as white as her tattered cloak.

Ranma, whose emotions were still trapped inside him using the Soul of Absolute Zero, looked at the girl impassively. Lenneth on the other hand was quite surprised, especially when Raven spoke.

"M-Master R-Ranma... Miss Lenneth..." Raven said in a meek tone, ducking her head shamefully. Lenneth took upon her a look of confusion, while Ranma remained emotionless as he stared at the proceedings.

The white-clothed girl's wings fluttered quickly, probably some involuntary action from Raven since she didn't notice herself doing it. Nevertheless, the girl looked up hesitantly to Ranma, only to find herself gazing into his eyes. She stuttered, "I... I-I'm so sorry... Ranma-sama... I..."

"Why are you apologizing?" Lenneth had to ask, since it would seem Ranma wasn't really paying attention.

"The p-pain... the b-betrayals..." Raven's voice faltered when she saw Ranma's form twitch a bit, "I-I... a-accidentally saw s-some of h-his m-memories... I s-saw them w-without you p-permission..."

"Did you see?" Ranma's serious voice halted Raven's monologue as Lenneth turned to him inquisitively. He continued, "Did you see... Everything?"

"No!" Raven slapped her hands to her mouth and continued in a softer tone, "N-No... I... I saw your life... being tortured and trained... by your father..."

"Ah..." Ranma dismissed those memories casually, "That is good. I thought you saw the... Eternal Abyss."

Raven shivered violently, her tiny wings wrapping around her awkwardly, "I... I wouldn't dare. It was... ominous... just gazing at it. It was..."

"If you did, you would've lost your mind, Raven..." Ranma said blandly.

Lenneth raised an eyebrow, saying, "Ranma-sama? You don't mean... the memories of the Past?"

Ranma nodded slightly. "Yes... she wouldn't have handled the Knowledge, and would've probably destroyed her psyche."

The trio had a lot to talk about, indeed, but it was more or less interrupted permanently when a loud and urgent female voice called out, "What is the meaning of this?!"

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Cologne has been busy fixing the affairs on accepting the guests in their village for the time being when the huge wave of energy from Nevermore's demise reached her. She had accidentally crushed the feather quill she used to write on the parchment she was working on, and ink splattered at her ruined work. But that wasn't her main concern right now.

She quickly huddled out of her hut and started to the direction of the surge, followed by the Akane, Ryoga, Ryuu, Genma, Shampoo and Mousse. They had probably felt it as well.

The small group reached the lake where Raven had been meditating the night before, and found the place crawling with other Amazons. Cologne quickly took charge and went ahead of the group, only to stumble a bit when she spied upon the floating forms above the lake's surface.

Akane and the other Nerimians saw Cologne stop in her steps and stared at something, in which they followed with their own gazes. Their eyes widened in surprise when they recognized the figures.

Ranma, the Ranma that had claimed to be not their resident Ranma, sported long, unbound, spiky blood-red hair that fluttered against the wind. His clothes, rather his armor, were clearly not of this world. His red tail, the appendage they tried to ignore earlier, remained agitated as it wiggled down his backside. His face was a bit far away to be seen clearly, but they could surmise that the three gems on his forehead were glowing. He was also floating above the lake's surface, although these weren't really the facts that caught their attention.

There was a pair of translucent wings jutted out of his back, which really didn't flap to help him stay aloft in the air. They were presently spread carelessly in the air. His silver aura was blazing around his body as well. It seemed like Ranma was an angel descended from Heaven in their eyes.

Lenneth Valkyrie, the companion of this Ranma, was floating near him. She has no wings whatsoever, but according to her introduction and the Amazon's reactions to her presence, she didn't need one.

There was another person floating near the two, a girl in fact, and this one was quite vaguely familiar to them. Her long purple hair wove with the wind in mid-air. Her white cloak was nearing its end, as it was tattered almost to non-existence around her. Her short cloak failed to cover a pair of wings, not flapping as is with Ranma's, though hers was a lot smaller than the pigtailed boy's and was drooped downwards on her back. It was as if she was ashamed of something.

The three floating figures were speaking to one another, ignoring the mass of Amazons and their presence. The air around the area was biting cold, and the Nerimians could feel their teeth chatter because of it.

Cologne finally felt she had enough, though she was inwardly quaking in fear of the intensity of Ranma's energy, she called out, "What is the meaning of this?!"

The old Amazon almost faltered when she felt Ranma's unearthly eyes turn on her, steadily challenging her tone that she used on them earlier.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Ranma almost lost his cool, literally, as his Soul of Absolute Zero wavered a bit. His aura blasted outward for a moment, before shrinking into its original size from before. He turned a dispassionate gaze towards the unmoving elder of the Amazons, whom he hadn't noticed up until she spoke. He idly noted the various members of the Matriarchal community he had grown to loathe from his past life, and also the presence of the familiar Nerimians whom he had defended time and time again. He set his stare unto Cologne, who finally broke in slight sweat as he did so.

Finally Ranma spoke, his tone echoing all over the area, "This, as you've mentioned, does not concern you, Woman."

The Amazons bristled at the chauvinistic response from the floating boy, but a sudden flash of his aura quieted them down.

Lenneth quickly jumped into the conversation, eager to diffuse the growing ire of Ranma and the Amazons. She said, "I suggest you calm your warriors, Elder, before an accident might be considered a direct attack on Ranma-sama. Believe me, he will wipe you out if you do so..."

Cologne almost retorted at that. Almost... but she heeded one of her society's patrons. She breathed in deep, before turning to her over eager Amazons and ordered, "Stand down your weapons. We do not wish to provoke a fight right now." ((Especially with son-in-law agitated like that...)) she thought to herself.

"Amazing..." Ryuu Kumon commented, staring at Ranma in awe, "The amount of power he's giving out right now..."

Ryoga nodded beside him, "I know what you mean..."

Back in the slight confrontation above the lake, Raven in her angelic form was basically ignored. She glanced back and forth between Ranma in front of her and the old woman down below, and she could feel the intensity of her master's gaze. She almost choked at the thought. Her master? Where did that thought come from? Nevertheless, the thought was there, and she felt it was right. She can't even muster enough power to deny the idea, because she suddenly felt herself getting heavier. Funny, why was the world spinning anyway?

Raven found herself slowly tipping forward, her eyes closing without her consent.

Only to find herself lifted bride-style in mid-air, by none other than her Master Ranma...

The pigtailed boy blinked as he watched the new form of Raven sag in his arms. If he were in his usual persona, he would've panicked... a LOT. But since he has tiny to no emotions whatsoever at the moment, he just held Raven silently.

Lenneth shook her head, wondering how clueless Ranma was. The look Raven threw at him a while ago was a smoldering one, something only a woman in deep love would throw. In any case, she thought of whisking these two away from the area, especially as with the situation escalating to a bad conflict. But Ranma had beaten her on the punch, as he silently turned away from everyone and started floating away. Lenneth opted to just follow the guy, since he's technically the leader of the trio anyway.

As usual, there were those who just wouldn't let go, as angry voices called out for the three of them to stop from leaving quietly.

One voice in particular was one that Ranma was especially irritated of as of late, which caused him to halt in his advance and have him turn to glare at the offending individual.

"Where do you think you're going with those girls, you pervert?!" The voice said.

Akane paused in her angry tirade of her normal name-calling for Ranma, as the person turned to her with a glare. Now that she's concentrated on him, she could see those eyes of his boring into her. Not only that, but the golden glow of his pupils seem to flicker every now and then, to be encompassed by the blue glow of his eyes, which remained synchronized with the bursts of his aura. It continued this way until it stabilized itself into making Ranma's golden pupils visible once again, but they were still glaring at her.

"You do NOT want me angry at you, Tendo-san..." Ranma's voice was as cold as ice, causing everyone who heard it shiver involuntarily, "And I suggest you turn and go back where you came from, because unlike my counterpart here, I will not hesitate to snap your neck if ever I lose my control."

Let it be known that Ranma's newly developed technique, the one he just discovered a few hours prior to that statement, was still in its experimental stage. It was more of a desperation move for Ranma when he felt himself losing control over his energy when his limiters were removed by Trigon. He had heard the stories from Katsuhito about his first berserk mode, and how he managed to wreak a bit of havoc before he was finally subdued. It was only until Katsuhito managed to stab Ranma in the neck with the copy of the Tenchi-ken that he was finally taken into control.

Katsuhito wasn't present with him right now, so his mind immediately sought out a new technique to try and dampen his emotions, to prevent them from empowering his already out of control battle lust he was experiencing right now. A rendition of the Soul of Ice, the same technique he employed to control his aura and turn it from hot into cold, was some kind of a limiter for his emotions. But he knew he had to pull out all the stops and venture deeper into the technique, until his emotions have been totally pacified and were near non-existent. It was so his power wouldn't have anything left to feed on for fuel. The Soul of Absolute Zero was devised to prevent himself from feeling any emotions, apart from a few bits and pieces for brief moments here and there. So far, the technique has been partly successful, but not without any side effects.

The Soul of Ice drains hot aura and reversed it into cold, while the Soul of Absolute Zero ups the notch of the absorption. Not only did it manage to snuff out emotions and his hot aura up, but it also expunges Absolute Zero aura, more than twenty times the effect of the Soul of Ice had. If Ranma used this on Saffron, it would've been a Mother of All Storms he formed with it. He would've leveled most of the Asian Region with the typhoon he might've generated. These are only the outward obvious effects...

The most dramatic effects would be mental and emotional, since the Soul of Ice blocks extreme emotions from seeping out of him that could potentially generate hot aura. The Soul of Absolute Zero negates emotions, making Ranma an almost blank emotional state. His only possible emotional outbursts would be from ones that could enhance the cold aura he gives out, which would particularly mean that cold fury and indifference would be most appropriate. If ever anger was supposed to be felt, the emotion will be enhanced into a cold fury, while the rest were thrown into indifference.

Which is why in the state of Soul of Absolute Zero, Ranma is either numb, indifferent, or in the state of cold fury.

Speaking of which, the departing form of Ranma suddenly leaned to one side, allowing an errant arrow fly past his head. Everyone in the area ceased moving, as the lake below Ranma and his companions suddenly turned into ice. The frozen surface of the water cracked and popped when Ranma's powerful aura blossomed forth, before it was suddenly demolished into crushed ice.

Cologne, one of the highest ranked elders in her village, watched in morbid fascination and dismay as the situation turned sour on them. She had missed one of her overzealous Amazons firing the arrow without permission, and as she had expected, such an action would be considered as an attack by Ranma himself.

Said pigtailed boy now turned towards them, with aura ablaze unlike what Cologne had witnessed in the battle with Saffron. The Phoenix's aura paled in comparison with this one.

Ranma silently handed the unconscious form of Raven to Lenneth's arms, who in turn took it as a sign to back away. The Chooser of the Slain had seen his eyes, and she was aghast when his golden pupils were slowly fading. A pair of flat out blue-grey colored pupiless eyes greeted her, which made her suddenly feel so humbled that she followed his unvoiced commands without question. The yellow orbs battled to gain its existence in those eyes again, but Lenneth knew it was a losing battle. She backed away once Raven's smaller form was safely tucked in her arms, waiting to see what Ranma has in stored. She's also inclined to interfere if he did go overboard.

When assured that his precious cargo was in safe hands, Ranma turned his full attention to the Amazons, who were visibly quite unsure what to do. As of his mindset at the moment, Ranma doesn't care who fired the shot, it's all about principle. One of them shot an arrow at him, aiming to kill him and hurting Raven in the process. The Saiyajin blood flowing in his veins was screaming for the blood of everything moving below him, since they almost hurt the one he cared the most. His more rational side, his Chuushin Kami side he had inherited from his real mother, soothed the fiery Saiyajin blood and made it a bit more... calculating.

Ranma's wings suddenly snapped outwards, showering the whole area in translucent feathers. It was then that his aura intensified a lot more.

Ryoga's eyes widened when he saw the massive power up from Ranma. Catching Ryuu's gaze, he nodded and grabbed Akane by the arm. The girl didn't protest, since she was paralyzed by the sight of the seemingly angelic Ranma. Ryuu had garnered Shampoo and Mousse to flee as well, but Genma was a bit of a hard sell. The world's Saotome Patriarch was actually entranced by the sheer power the analog of his son expelled from his body. But upon seeing that most of the familiar faces he knew were nowhere to be seen, he ran as well, but not before flashing Ranma with a greedy look.

The women on the other hand snapped into action, readying their weapons as they prepared for anything. Even Cologne hesitantly took her own battle stance. Foolish or not, the attacking Amazons were still the old woman's brethren. They were her warrior-sisters; even if their own laws caused them to become rather old-fashioned and stubborn, they should be helped by her since she's an Amazon through and through. She just hoped she'd live through this though, even if it was just to apologize to the boy somehow.

Their serious expressions gave way to confusion though, when Ranma remained floating above the cracked surface of the frozen lake, with his wings spread wide in the air. The momentary confusion turned to curiosity though, when they noticed that the feathers that came from Ranma's wings never fell to the ground. The ki-feathers remained in mid-air, hovering above them for some reason.

With a voice devoid of anything other than the voice itself, Ranma said in Chinese, ""Bring it on, worms.""

With that declaration, a handful of the more violent Amazons fired their bows. The arrows whistled against the air resistance, their aim true towards Ranma's beating heart.

Too bad they didn't reach their target, as Ranma calmly swiped them all away with one hand. Another round of arrows, same result.

The pigtailed boy quickly grew tired of the useless attacks, as it has been established that he wasn't going to get any challenge at all. Finally, the fading golden pupils of his eyes faded totally, leaving only the blue-gray surface of his eyes. And with his more rational side completely encompassed by his battle lust, Ranma grinned ferally.

Still hovering safely above the battle site, Lenneth was surprised when Raven shivered violently. The dark purple haired girl's eyes snapped wide open, her purple pupils dilated in fear. Lenneth heard the poor girl mutter, "No... Ranma-sama... chaos... annihilation..." before Raven suddenly arched her back painfully. A bright light encompassed Raven's form, and Lenneth could feel a sudden shift in the girl's aura. When the light died down, Lenneth found herself flabbergasted when she saw Raven, whose form has been drastically changed once again.

Raven's formerly white tattered cloak was now black in color, as well as the tight-fitting leotard she usually wore. Her face was still ash-gray, and her hair was still the same long dark-purple one from before, but the small white wings that sported her back earlier has become black and leathery. In short, they became small, bat-like in appearance.

If Raven's earlier form was that of an angel, now the girl looked more like a demon.

With the transformation done, Raven relaxed into Lenneth's arms once again, who almost dropped the now-demonic girl in her arms. Lenneth sighed as she glanced up into the sky, muttering something about Chaos striking once again...

But all of the things happening above were ignored by those down below, since the people there had other things to worry about. The Amazons almost panicked when Ranma's form blurred and disappeared, causing them to look frantically around them. Loud screams of their sisters drew them to the right, though, just witnessing a loud explosion of dirt and dust as countless Amazon elite warriors were flung easily away from the site. As the dust settled, women lay bleeding in a wide scattered circle around the small crater that was formed when Ranma crashed into it. The red-tailed hybrid was on one knee in the middle of the crater, with his right fist punched lightly into the ruined ground under him. His silver aura still burned brightly around him, as his wings fluttered at his back.

The pigtailed warrior slowly stood upright, his maniacal grin never wavering from his face.

""No challenge..."" Ranma growled out, taking one step towards the edge of the crater. The Amazons backed away, clutching their weapons in their hands tightly.

Ranma blurred once again, not giving any of the women the chance to retaliate. Another explosion, another place, another crater... another mess of Amazons flying in the air, their bodies contorted into odd shapes as they fell to the ground. In the middle of the second crater, Ranma knelt on one knee once again, his long fiery red hair overshadowing his face. But somehow, the Amazons knew, that his face still had that devil's grin.

A devil with angel wings... that's how the Amazons saw Ranma that day.

Old Cologne wondered just how far this Ranma has come in terms of power. She knew that her own technique, the Splitting Cat Hair, was incomparable to this being's raw speed. She ruefully contemplated on surrendering, but in the presence of this many elite Amazons, she wouldn't dare raise the topic.

But the nagging doubt on her abilities was there, implanted in her very being, as she watched this... monster... systematically tear their village's finest apart like they were nothing. And the power... by all the kami presently watching them right now, Cologne was being overwhelmed tremendously. She was actually frozen in fear, unable to move her own feeble body, as she witnessed a third of those in the area lay wasted everywhere, while the monster remained fresh as a newly-blossomed daisy. And she knew, from the bottom of her heart, that Ranma was just starting.

The Nerimian group, unfortunately for them, haven't gotten far when Ranma struck. They have been stuck in the clearing since the attack began, and they wouldn't want to attempt attracting Ranma's attention. Ryoga and Ryuu stood in front of Akane to shield the girl, which caused her to fume a bit at the hidden meaning behind it.

"I'm a martial artist too, you know!" Akane whispered harshly, not taking her eyes away from the Ranma of another dimension. She didn't bother hiding her fear, as her knees were trembling right now uncontrollably.

Ryoga grunted as he replied, "Not in this situation you aren't, Akane-san."

Ryuu nodded wryly, "This isn't martial arts anymore... not really anyway. This is just plain massacre. This Ranma guy is VERY strong. He knows it, and he's not giving an ounce to the Amazons even if he knew the difference of power level..." The boy stressed on the word 'very', eyeing Akane at the corner of his eyes.

"Stop trying to decide my battles for me! I don't need your protection!" Akane shot back, but she DID held herself in check.

"Amazon sisters... they get hurt bad..." Shampoo said in dismay. She had wanted to join in defending the others, but Cologne forbade her with a sharp gaze from afar. Not only that, but her husband Mousse has been holding her back ever since.

Mousse sighed as he held his wife tightly, not giving any allowances that may allow Shampoo to rush into battle without thought. "Ranma has wings of an angel, but has the look of a demon with that smirk on his face. How ironic."

Akane hissed, "Why is he doing this?! I can't believe he's overreacting..."

"No..." Mousse shook his head, grimacing as he watched Ranma backhanding three advancing Amazons without batting an eyelash, "An Amazon attacked him dishonorably, while he had his back turned AND carrying an innocent person in his arms... it was inevitable."

"I just hope he won't turn against us..." Ryuu commented.

Mousse shook his head once again. "I doubt we'll have a choice on the matter. Anything moving in the area is considered an enemy. I think he's berserk."

"Hehe... amazing." Akane, Ryoga, Ryuu, Mousse and Shampoo all turned behind them, finally realizing that Genma was with them. The balding martial artist's beady eyes were riveted on the massacre, his face expressing a vapid greedy look that almost made the others curl in disgust.

Akane found her voice first, saying, "How can you say that?! He's... he's literally crippling all those women for life! How can you be so callous about it?!"

Genma finally lost his awe, as he turned to the youngest Tendo with a stony stare, "You wouldn't understand. Can't you see that he's become even more powerful? He's the epitome of martial arts! He's invincible! And it's all thanks to me!"

"You may have forgotten, Saotome-san..." Mousse sneered at the man, "That this Ranma isn't the native of this world."

"Details, details..." Genma waved their comments off, before adopting an eager look, "I just have to take him back! All the money he can give me on the pit fights... he's undefeatable!" And before anyone could stop him, Genma Saotome unleashed the supposed to be forbidden style he developed, the Umi-sen-ken, and disappeared with a flourish.

"He's going to be killed!" Mousse said urgently, "I don't think anyone can touch a berserk Ranma!"

They froze, though, when Ranma laughed out loud. Only then did they notice, that he was looking at them intently.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

The young man with the red tail felt great, quite frankly. His anger towards the ones who tried to hurt him and his passenger a while ago is being placated at the moment. At first he tried to resist that change, but he figured that it was useless. The darkness was part of him, as well as his more jovial side.

Nevertheless, he was going to punish these women, for trying to kill him. He knew, from his past experiences, that these women were nuisances to him. Their Elder, as well as one of their own warriors, tried to track him down and kill him. Now that he has the chance to even the score, he took it.

The screams of the women were like background noise to him. All he can actually hear was his blood flowing through his veins, as well as his breathing, not that he needed much of it. His aura now crackled all around him, and he could feel the fear from everyone in the area.

The old woman, Cologne, has been spotted. She was rooted unto her position since he had attacked. He hoped that she made her move soon, because these weaklings were too boring for him. Hmmm... those idiots who he met from his home dimension... they have stopped running away from him. They had the stench of fear in them, and... well, one of them was missing.

Oh goody. It was that fat idiot, the parallel of his idiotic foster father back in his home world.

Hmmm... a slight ki distortion was approaching him, but visually he can't see anything out of the ordinary. Ah! There it is again! And this time, a ripple can be seen from some spot nearing his position.

The Umi-sen-ken! Hah! So the fool thought that he didn't know about them. Of course, since the Genma of this world lost his biological son early, he hadn't taught those techniques to anyone, probably other than that Ryuu guy.

The pigtailed boy vaguely heard the long black haired man in white robes holding that purple haired nuisance of his saying, "He's going to be killed! I don't think anyone can touch a berserk Ranma!"

And with this statement, Ranma couldn't help but laugh loudly.

For the first time since he went primal on them, the pigtailed boy finally spoke, his deep voice seemingly echoing ominously, "Berserk? Is that what you think THIS is?"

"What?" Cologne breathed loudly, gaping at the coherent 'berserker'. She never knew any berserker capable of coherent speech before, so this new development just sucked for them. She finally gathered her resolve as she addressed the young man, "You're not berserk?"

Ranma snorted loudly, saying, "You must've misunderstood something. By way of 'berserk', what do you mean by that?" Seeing the blank looks of everyone still conscious around him, he continued, "I don't think anyone knows why people go berserk anyway. You see, there's a slight confusion here. My situation right now is called, 'downright pissed'. But I digress... a berserk is someone who lost his or her capacity to do logical things, and just lash out randomly. The question here is not if I'm berserk, but why."

The red-tailed hybrid shrugged as he continued, "After years of manipulating your native Ranma, have you ever paused to consider why you can't have a firm lock on him, Cologne? Potions... pills... magic... he managed to thwart them all quite nicely, if not cleanly. It's because he has mental discipline. Why do people go berserk anyway? It's really simple, but so many people get it wrong! Berserkers happen when people didn't want to accept their own inner demons. Like anger and pain, for an excellent example. They become conflicted within themselves, losing their coherent thoughts as they try to banish their primal instincts."

Glancing at Cologne, he asked, "You think that just because I've been attacking you indiscriminately, I'm berserk? You must be losing your edge, old woman."

Cologne swallowed silently as she responded, "We were under the impression you were, son-in-law. And besides, you don't usually do things like that..."

"And that's where the problem begins, right?" Ranma asked rhetorically, not bothering to wait any answers from his audience, "You just wish oh-so-much that I'm the same Ranma you have here. The same easily subdued, meek and honor-bound Ranma who just keeps on accepting the lumps from mistakes he didn't even commit." He glared lightly at the blue-haired girl behind Ryoga, who flinched slightly at the accusing tone.

"I'm not your Ranma, Cologne. I just want you to get that through your thick head..." Ranma told Cologne conversationally, but his aura flashed angrily when he said so, "And right now, I'm pissed. After living for so long with my emotions buried deep inside me, I'm rather feeling liberated as I beat up on one of the main irritations in my life. You see, you might've not known about it, but I, rather, Ranma, would've probably done the same thing I did. I buried all my resentment and anger deep in my soul and just hoped for the best in life. Can you imagine how much stress that garnered through the years? I mean... I'm even far worse than Raven when it came to concealing and burying emotions."

Ranma raised his hand in the air, his aura gathering into his arms as an outline of a long-bladed katana appeared in the air, "Now, I feel free to express what I think of your stupid laws, old woman. Since you didn't listen to me before, I'll bet you'll listen to violence. Oh, and it's pretty much too late to try and apologize. The deed's been done, trying to shoot me down while my back's turned, I mean. Now, it's just payback."

The outline became more solid, as the long bladed katana finally materialized in mid-air. The katana fell into Ranma's outstretched hand.

"This is the Masamune. This sword has been forged since the beginning of Everything. Not that it matters..." Ranma said seriously, gripping the Masamune tightly, "Berserk? I don't think so. Just... severely pissed. I have so much power right now, that it wouldn't be right not to release it. Too bad you're all there, ne?"

He lowered the blade slightly, gazing at everyone around him, "Been talking too much. Have to release all that pent up tension accumulated within years of being a pansy to most people, so you'll have to forgive my drabble. Now, we shall resume this battle... if you may call it one."

In a flash, Ranma had already waved his katana, as a black wave arched towards a small group of Amazons on his right. The women quickly jumped out of the way when the wave gouged a huge trench with its passing, showering them with dangerous shrapnel that cut all over their bodies. Most of them were left laying bleeding on the ground.

All of the sudden, Ranma just... stopped. Actually, he relaxed, standing upright with his hands at his sides. His sword's tip was lodged lightly into the ground in front of him, as he stared at the blue sky. His grin grew as he saw the discarded ki-feathers still hovering in mid-air, as if they were waiting for something.

Ranma mentally nudged one feather. It brought a chuckle to him when the feather darted to the left and stopped.

"Hmmm... new technique..." Ranma mumbled to himself. A name came unbidden in his head, amongst the mass confusion of thoughts swirling inside his skull.

Chaos... a musical number...

The pigtailed boy nodded to himself, saying aloud, "Ah... Chaotic Rhapsody..." before mentally commanding the ki-feathers to dart towards the unsuspecting Amazons like guided missiles. His efforts were rewarded by girls screaming Chinese curses as they dodged and twisted to avoid the feathery onslaught.

To Ranma's ears, however, their screams were like a musical number to him. Hence, the name of the technique.

Luckily, the Nerimians were a bit farther away from the target zone of the technique, since Ranma was still trying to get used to it. They were rather horrified seeing thousands of smaller but still extremely dangerous explosions rocking the area. Blood and torn clothing flew into the air as those Amazons left were torn anew by the newly developed technique.

Ryoga stiffened when he remembered something. A vague memory of how to slow Ranma down. He turned to Akane, who scowled at him. Ignoring her expression, he said excitedly, "Cats..."

If it was possible, Akane's frown deepened some more, "So what about them?"

"Don't you remember?" Ryoga asked exasperatedly, "Ranma's deathly afraid of cats. We can probably slow this one down using a cat."

They all turned to Shampoo, who hung her head in silent protest.

"Shampoo have no choice on matter, yes?" The purple-haired girl asked sadly, "To save peoples... Shampoo must become cat to scare bad Ranma away."

"It will not do any good."

The Nerimians jumped at the solemn voice coming from above them. As one they looked up, spying upon the form of the Valkyrie, who still had the newly transformed Raven in her arms. Some of them stared at the gothic Teen Titan a bit longer than the others, but they generally shrugged off the weirdness. After all, Nerima is one the centers of weirdness in the world.

"Chooser of the Slain..." Mousse said carefully, only to be interrupted by a slightly irritated Valkyrie.

"I have a name. Lenneth Valkyrie. Or Lenneth..." The Nordic woman said spitefully, causing the married Amazon couple to shiver in slight fear, "I would appreciate it if you used it."

"L-Lenneth-san..." Akane asked bashfully, "What... why did you say what you said?"

"Oh, about the cats, you mean?" Lenneth shrugged as she floated still in midair, "It is just is. Ranma-sama... this version, has been visited and blessed by the Goddess of Cats herself. The Lady Bastet has taken into herself to cure Ranma-sama of his... fear... of felines. He is cured now, and rather likes cats very much. His beloved partner has a feline appearance, after all..."

They all paused when all of the sudden, the limp form in Lenneth's arms bolted out of its confines. Raven quickly floated away from the calm Valkyrie, while surveying her surroundings for any potential threat.

Because of this, Lenneth and the others managed to make sure of the changes garnered on the Teen Titan member. The gem on her forehead, which was dark blue a while ago, was now dark purple. Her dark leotard was a contrast to the white one that decorated the half-demon a while ago, and the small bat wings cropping out of her back was very obvious. Her long dark purple hair was wild and unbound, and slightly elongated canines can be seen in her open mouth.

"Ugh... damn the headache. I had the strangest dream..." Raven began, but stopped when she realized her voice came out as a velvety purr, something that she thought she can never do because of her... condition.

"Daughter of Trigon..." Lenneth began, which earned her a slight glare from the dark girl, "Do you remember what has happened earlier?"

Raven scrunched her face a bit, saying absently, "Uhm... something happened in Nevermore... I saw... Trigon being beaten by Ranma... then it turned into one of my emotions, Anger... and then..." her eyes widened in shock, "By Azar... did he do it? I can't... I can't feel it anymore..."

"Feel what?" Ryoga asked curiously.

"The animosity... the dread... the sickening evil of... Him..." Raven spat out, "It's like... a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders." Gazing her dark purple eyes to Lenneth, she continued, "But now... I feel something weird. Something... primal... and quite pissed too, I must say."

"Perhaps..." Lenneth began, "It is Ranma-sama whom you feel."

"Ranma? Now why would I be able to... oh... shit!" Raven cursed as she smacked her head. She quickly pulled back and looked at her hands. Her fingers were long and a bit sharp. Looking at Lenneth imploringly, she asked, "What happened to me? I can feel Ranma-sama... damnit! Ranma! Why do I call him that? Why do I feel like... roasting... Amazons?"

Lenneth nodded wearily. "Now I understand... since a telepathic link such as yours have been maintained for years, it is impossible to destroy it without leaving you with so much mental damage. Ranma-sama has opted the next best thing..."

"Ranma-sa... Ranma... bonded me to himself..." Raven finished blandly, "Not only that, he also destroyed Nevermore..."

"Which probably has saved you the stress of trying to combine all your emotions. But that remains to be seen, however..." Lenneth hummed slightly as she thought of a way to explain a certain... problem to the now agitated Raven.

"But?" Raven prodded, idly noticing Ranma mowing down the women who were scattered below. Funny, though, he wasn't dealing them with killing blows.

"Hey, wasn't she wearing white a while ago?" Ryuu pointed out, "I mean... when she's in that guy's arms... she's wearing all white and her wings are feathery, ne?"

"Wings?!" Raven squeaked, quickly groping her back and stiffened when she was assured that a pair of leathery wings greeted her. Nevermind the fact that it was opposite of what the young man has pointed out... she has wings!!

Meanwhile, back in the battle...

Ranma was monitoring how the ki-feathers darted here and there when all of the sudden, a slight ripple of foreign ki from his own forced him to bend back in evasion. His gaze darted to the Nerimian group, and his suspicions were affirmed when Genma hasn't reappeared yet.

((So... the fool did try...)) The pigtailed warrior thought to himself, as the ki-feathers disappeared one after another, his concentration switching from the crippled Amazons to the new threat that tried to take his head off. His brow twitched as the same feeling returned, but this time it remained somewhere to his right. He effortlessly sped himself up and saw the vacuum blade coming straight at him. He sidestepped the attack and fed more ki into his body, causing his speed to triple more than normal. Everything went into slow motion in his point of view, and saw Genma's form getting out of the Shooting Star Cloth technique. Ranma smirked at the growing confusion that blossomed on the balding man's face, and zipped towards the unsuspecting Genma.

The Saotome Patriarch's eyes bulged when a dark voice echoed around him, saying, "You are getting old, Genma Saotome." He quickly turned behind him, but found no one to match the voice with.

"Looking for me?"

Genma turned to his right, and still found nothing.

"You've been a thorn in my side. Something I'd love to get rid off."

The old man started to get scared as he realized he couldn't even feel the ki of his opponent, even with his advanced senses.

"But my counterpart would've been angry at me for taking the privilege of gutting you."

Still nothing, Genma noted to himself.

"Even though he's been dead for a while, it still doesn't feel honorable to take it from him."

Genma snarled. ((I can't see him... how can I hit something I can't see?!)) His face suddenly lightened when he thought of something. ((Why didn't I think of that?))

Ranma, on the other hand, was floating right on top of Genma. Well, not exactly on top of the man's head, but he's just lazing around. Ranma almost chuckled to himself, almost giving himself away, at his analogue's father not thinking of looking above him. His face suddenly grew serious when Genma's frantic face melted into that manic grin of his. Ranma knew, from personal experience, that the fat man has something in mind that usually ended up some people hurt or angry. When Ranma saw the stance Genma took, his mind froze.

Was Genma crazy enough to use the Demon Gods Big Mad Dance?!

Biting back a curse, Ranma dropped from the sky, the Masamune poised for a decapitating blow as it was held with two hands just above his head. It wasn't an involuntary response, since at the state of mind he was in right now, he really has this sudden urge to slice Genma into pieces.

The old Saotome Patriarch stretched his left arm behind him, and his right arm bent around his chest. He concentrated his ki into his arms and shouted, "Behold the Forbidden Techniques I will unseal just for this occasion, Demon Gods Big Ma---" but it was cut off by a strong gust of wind that passed by him. A momentary flash of steel reflected on his glasses.

"Not if I can help it, moron." The pigtailed boy's cold voice hissed in Genma's ear as he stood frozen in mid spin. Without another word, Ranma straightened himself up and rested the long blade of the Masamune on his right shoulder, and backed away from the paralyzed Genma.

All of the sudden, Genma's arms sprayed blood just below the elbows, before falling off to the ground. The beady-eyed man stared beyond his blood-covered glasses as he stared at his decapitated arms, and screamed in anguish. When he tried to move, he stumbled forward, only learning that his left leg was now dismembered up to the lower knee as well, causing him to topple out of balance. He landed on the ground with a loud thud, spraying the ground with his red life-liquid. He was still screaming.

"S-Saotome-jiisan!!!" Akane shouted in horror, after gaining her ability to speak. She almost vomited at the sight of Genma squirming on the ground, without both arms and his left leg. The area he was on was already stained red so much that it made her sick.

Ryoga couldn't help himself anymore. Not that he respected the Ranma's father at all, he just couldn't stand watching this alternate Ranma mutilate Genma. His body glowed dark-green, as his depression reached its peak. With a loud growl he bellowed, "RANMAAAAA!!!! For preying on the weak, PREPARE TO DIEEEE!!!!" and jumped at the analogue of his nemesis.

"... you have got to be kidding me..." Ranma said wryly as he dodged Ryoga's punch. It only incensed the Lost Boy's anger, making his already bright green aura even brighter. Not that it would make any difference.

A slight angle to the left, a waist-deep duck, and a hop over from Ryoga's leg sweep kept Ranma's amusement occupied at least. Ranma surmised that Ryoga has become irritatingly slow for him, which he really can't do anything about. He absently slapped Ryoga's punches as if they were nothing, taking note that despite the current one-sided fight, Ryoga did improve a lot. Ranma concluded that the lost boy wasn't idle, and that he grew a bit stronger than the one in his former home world.

Nevertheless, Ranma IS stronger now. That fact still remained, and forever it will be written. Ryoga seemed not to care about that fact, for he still tried his best to hit the pigtailed warrior.

"Damn you! Stand still so I can hit you!" Ryoga bellowed, his fist glowed bright green far more than his aura did.

To everyone except Lenneth and Raven's surprise, Ranma complied with his 'request'. Ryoga's glowing fist smacked Ranma's face directly, a loud sonic boom kicked up the dirt and grime all over the place. Akane and the rest of the Nerimians and Amazons still standing covered their ears with their hands as a loud thundering sound rumbled.

After the thunderous sound passed, silence permeated the area. Only the heavy breathing of those present were heard, as they waited in baited breath as to what happened with Ranma. All of them knew that Ryoga was probably the strongest among the fighters there, at least on par or even stronger than Herb's bodyguard, Lime. It would be a miracle if Ranma even managed to stand up against the full-scale punch from him. Ryoga has given his all on that shot.

The dust finally thinned enough for them to see the outcome, and they saw Ryoga still poised with his strike. His punch was still connected to Ranma's face, who surprisingly stood against the brunt of the blow. Soon, their expecting stares turned into surprise when Ryoga started cursing up a storm, but he didn't move from his position. What they didn't know was that, Ryoga was already at the peak of his strength, his full power has been used on that one strike. And to his dread, Ranma managed to catch that same fully empowered chi strike in the face without moving from his position. He now stood paralyzed, unable to think of anything since his only hit on Ranma has fallen into failure.

The crowd's dismay grew when Ranma's shoulders shook in amusement, his soft chuckles replacing the ominous silence before.

"You're still pretty strong, Hibiki-san..." Ranma said genuinely, his voice a bit muffled because the lost boy's fist was still planted against his cheek, "If I were a normal man, my head would've been crushed like a watermelon being hit by a wrecking ball." Ranma removed his face from Ryoga's fist, and buried the long katana he was holding into the ground. He then focused his attention to the still form of the lost boy.

Ryoga had said nothing, since he's in no position to do otherwise when Ranma grabbed his face with his left hand. Lifting the weakly struggling bandanna-clad boy, Ranma commented, "I did as you asked. Was that what you wanted? Did it satisfy you? No, don't bother to answer. You've followed me for so long in my own home world to know how stubborn and stupid you are. I mean, you even followed me to Jusenkyo! Now that's plain dumb!"

Ranma felt Ryoga struggle in his grasp, if the lost boy slamming his fist against his arm was any indication. He ignored Ryoga's attempts to get free as he continued, "Now before you go harping me of honor, lemme remind you that I haven't betrayed your trust. I mean, you had me promise not to tell anyone about your curse, but we never mentioned anything about hinting it, ne?" Glancing at the slowly smoldering look Akane threw Ryoga, he chuckled, "Oh dear. Did Akane find out about it here? I guess that's one good point in this world. Oh well. Now where were we? Oh yes... my retaliation."

As Ryoga continued his struggles anew, Ranma smirked nastily as he cocked his right fist back. His face melted into a serious glare as he said, "How dare you presume that you have the kami-given right to TRY and kill me. Who died and made you kami, eh? You think you're so noble and honest? Get real, pig-boy. Now, don't sue me for this, but I'm gonna have to borrow a phrase you so LOVE to say every time we meet."

Bringing Ryoga's face closer to his, Ranma growled loudly, "Ryoga, prepare to die."

The beating that followed made everyone cringe when Ryoga's screams grew in intensity. To everyone watching, it seemed that Ranma's fist just disappeared, a testament of the unbound speed Ranma developed through the years. Cologne couldn't believe it, since Ranma has long discarded the use of the Amazon technique she taught him, in favor of his raw speed. The staccato beat that signified flesh meeting flesh produced shockwave after shockwave that shook the area violently. Ranma has already let go of Ryoga after the first hit, since his left arm was now lowered to his side. Only Ranma's speedy punches held Ryoga up in the air, as the lost boy's body contorted horribly in the air caused by thunderous hits.

Ranma finally grew tired of his private game. He turned his body to the flying form of Ryoga and waved his left hand. The Lost Boy's body stopped in mid air, before being flung backwards. Ryoga flew straight backwards and smashed against the trees in the outcrop of the lake area. He didn't even slow down as he continuously smashed against the foliage, until he disappeared in the horizon.

"Well, there he goes." Ryuu can't help but deadpan as he stared at the path where Ryoga went through.

Akane was livid with rage, but wouldn't dare attack Ranma while he was in this state. "You monster!"

Cocking his head towards the Nerimians, Ranma commented, "He'll live. He's been hurt worse than that..." and relaxed. He pulled the discarded katana from the ground and banished the Masamune back into his body. He stretched boredly, idly wondering why he felt more at ease than he was ever before, but he chalked it up as the effect of releasing his pent up emotions.

Ranma noted that Genma was able to crawl away from him, seeing that the trail of blood has led towards where the Nerimians were. Sure enough, he spied upon the balding man being tended by Cologne behind the group. He could here Genma's yelps of pain as Cologne tried to staunch the blood flow from his wounds.

Maybe he went too far... NOT.

Apparently, the others didn't think so.

Cologne finally managed to stop Genma from bleeding to death, as she pressed various shiatsu points all over his body. She carefully bandaged the stumps... or whatever was left of his arms and his leg.

"Now..." Cologne said carefully, not taking her eyes off the floating Ranma, "Would you please explain your actions, son-in-law?"

The old woman almost regretted ever speaking when Ranma's attentions was drawn into her. She tried not to look away from those eyes of his, and was partially successful.

Ranma snorted loudly, saying, "You can ask all you want, but as of right now I don't feel like saying anything. But just to remind you, I DID remember saying I'm not YOUR Ranma. But did anyone listen? Of course not. As always, Ranma Saotome is supposed to be ignored." He looked at Cologne lazily, "I know how your mind works, old woman, and guess what? I won't take any more crap from you or anyone in ANY world. Get it? I know you wanted strong blood in your already dying tribe. I know you're THAT desperate to get it. But you ain't gonna get it. I'm not some kind of THING to be fought over, or even taken. So, you can take your laws and your great history and shove it up your craphole. Dig?"

Ignoring Cologne and the Amazons' angry protests, Ranma turned to the other two floating females. One was dressed in a dark blue body armor that molded through her skin. Her hair was framed in her matching dark blue headgear, which has a pair of wings at the sides. Her sword, Levantine, was held around her waist.

Lenneth Valkyrie.

The other was... a surprise for Ranma. He remembered seeing her dressed in white a while ago, and now she was dressed in black. The small feathery wings jutting out of her back a while ago were now replaced by a pair of small dark bat wings. The gem on her forehead was dark blue before, but now it was dark purple.

Raven of Azarath.

"What the heck happened to you...?" Ranma blurted out, staring at Raven's drastically changed form. Oh, and she also had this very scary glare etched on her face.

If possible, Raven glowered deeper, stifling the urge to strangle this adorable pigtailed young man in front of her. And those muscles... not bulging, rather sculpted... those unearthly wings... that wonderful red tail of his... GAH!

The transformed girl mentally shook her head, focusing her ire on the confused young man. "That's what I'd like to know, you jerk!" she said blithely, smothering the tiny guilty feeling of being snappy at him.

But Ranma just shrugged off Raven's glare, as he replied coolly, "Hmm... I may have made a mistake earlier, although... it's better than nothing."

"Great..." groused the Raven, who was trying to melt Ranma with her sharp glare (still unsuccessful, not a scratch!), "You turned me into a true demon. Nice work, geniu-- augh..."

Ranma was about to retort on that, but his words were lost when Raven lurched forwards a bit, her eyes wide in confusion. A bright glow flashed from her body, momentarily blinding everyone who looked at her. Raven involuntarily twirled in her place as the changes set themselves into her body. When the light faded, Raven's other form emerged... wearing white leotard instead of black. The chakra gem on her forehead turned dark blue, and her black leathery wings turned into white feathery ones. Her eyes before were sharp and angry-looking, but now those purple pupils of hers were big and doleful.

Lenneth giggled slightly. "Oh my... this is such a huge mess of things."

The 'mortals' down below were more than skeptical right now. Their faces reflected shock, especially those who followed the superhero showbiz. Raven NEVER had this ability, nor displayed it before... EVER.

Sure enough, another change coursed through Raven's being. The goth girl could feel her emotions being muddled, and something meek and humble emerged into her frontal consciousness. She felt her posture change drastically, her head bowing down slightly, her face relaxing into a shy smile. She knew it was wrong, but she cannot control her body. It was like someone was speaking through her, but at the same time she felt it was her will that did this anyway. The thought left her confused.

Nevertheless, confusion was discarded for the moment to favor shyness, as Raven felt her master staring at her. It was only now that Raven felt something tugging in her mind, and at the end of it was a stronger pull that placated her soul. Even if it were just flutters of feelings she felt from her link with her telepathic mate, they were enough to keep her calm and collected, at least most of the time. At the moment, Ranma was too busy with the new sensations his powers gave him to notice Raven's mind probes on him, but his instinctive mental defenses were working perfectly.

"You don't see something like that everyday... an angel and a demon sharing one body..." Ranma mumbled loudly, his brow rising at the sudden change of demeanor in THIS Raven's posture.

The now-angelic girl suddenly blurted out, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, master! I'm... I've been a potty mouth and a naughty girl. It's really not your fault that I'm like this. In fact, I'm actually quite grateful, now I'm free from my own personal demons!"

"Amazing..." Lenneth surmised with a smile, looking at Raven speculatively, "I have never seen a rather acute version Split Personality. In all sense the Angelic and Demonic Raven are one and the same, but with different perspectives and point of views."

Raven blushed, causing several demons hiding in the vicinity to stammer and grow nervous. Looking at her now, she was glowing faintly, her radiant blush filling the entire field with joy.

"Is that... Raven-sama?" Akane asked hesitantly, eyeing Angelic Raven's form and compared it with the old one. Frankly speaking, they're totally different from each other.

Ryuu nodded, his arms crossed across his chest. "You see? I'm right... she changed into that demon thingie and back again to the angel thingie. Dunno why though..."

All the banters on the ground were lost to those who were floating in the air, as Ranma took in Raven's new situation. He felt a bit guilty at seeing the adoring look thrown to him by the bi-shifter, but he really couldn't help it if he made a slight miscalculation as to how the 'merging' of all her emotions would affect her. It was kinda low priority during the occurrence, since he was quite busy trying to balance his attention between the collapsing world of Nevermore, and trying to fix Raven's emotions up real good.

Paying no attention to everyone around them, Ranma addressed Raven, saying, "We need a private place to sort this out."

"Ah!" Raven blushed as her wings quickly wrapped halfway around her, the angel's body quivering in excitement, "R-Ranma-sama... l-like a-a DATE?!"

"Date?" Ranma cocked his head to one side, but because of his current mind's situation, his normal reaction was out of character, "Whatever. Anyway... I hear Mount Fuji's great this time of year."

"HEY! Quit ignoring us!" Akane bellowed from below, but it was moot point since the trio floating above them were lost in their own conversation. All she can do right now is fume, unless she can fly up to them... but she can't. Heh.

"A date with Ranma-sama..." Raven murmured happily, almost doing cartwheels in midair. But before she can continue her thoughts, her vision doubled momentarily as she felt her body shiver once again. She looked at Ranma with slight horror as she said, "Ranma-sama... I... I love---" but was cut off when she lurched forward, a bright flash of light encompassed her body. As the light faded, the demonic form of Raven was in the angel's place once again.

The demonic Raven grumbled as she continued, "---love to kick that angel's ass for making me say all those things! Ugh!" But her mouth contrasted what she was truly feeling, if the deep blush on her face wasn't proof enough of this. Vertigo attacked her senses though, since Raven wasn't used to the momentary abrupt transformations. Her eyes slowly shut as she fell from the air like a rag doll, but Ranma had already swooped down and caught her body in his arms. Lenneth had swooped down beside Ranma, looking worriedly at the unconscious Raven.

"She is exhausted..." Lenneth commented as she took in the other girl's form. The Teen Titan has been transforming back and forth since she appeared earlier, and the distinct character changes were rather seemingly independent from each other. But even though the angelic and demonic Ravens acted different from one another, they were still one person. They're just different perspectives of her personality.

The Chooser of the Slain has noticed that the angelic Raven was more open to show her emotions wantonly, as the angel's unending exuberance has shown earlier. Angelic Raven's smile was quite infectious, and her devotion to Ranma was clearly shown in her words and actions. Demonic Raven on the other hand was more into hiding her true thoughts and emotions. Rather than being 'girly' like her angelic counterpart, demonic Raven was more on aloofness and much more prone to being irritated quickly. But the same devotion to Ranma was evident, although Raven tried to wave it off casually.

The pigtailed saiyajin ruffled his wings as he blew back his red colored bangs with his breath, muttering something about bad omens. Why? Because the sky suddenly rumbled, and there were no clouds in sight.

Rather than think about it, he surmised that he should get going... or, THEY should get going. Turning to Lenneth, he said, "Well, we should get to Japan then, huh? I'm having a little bit of difficulty controlling my powers now, as you can see, and I need to sort this thing out with Raven." He gestured to the sleeping girl in his arms, but gently so as not to wake the sleeping half-demon.

Lenneth looked at Ranma thoughtfully, asking, "But why Japan though? Why not another much more private place?"

Ranma shrugged, replying, "Japan has been home to me for most of my current life. As I've said earlier, I'd love to scale the top of Mount Fuji. It's a nice place to relax and not think about controlling my powers too much there. My emotions are running the show earlier, with grim results as you have seen. Also, it's near my surrogate mother's counterpart's place."

"Ah..." Lenneth nodded empathically, "You have such a strong bond to your home land. I understand... somehow. I agree with you though, that we should get going, for I feel something ominous coming."

Ranma scowled mightily, growling, "You felt it too, huh?"

Both of them looked up to one direction in the endless sky, amidst the battle torn ground of East Joketsuzoku... where at least more than twenty Amazon warriors lay injured.

The sky replied not, as the ominous feeling of dread continued...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

More or less a good several hundred thousands of meters above the Earth's surface...

A large orbital space station revolved around the planet. It was called the Watch Tower, home to this world's mightiest group of super heroes, the Justice League. If the Teen Titans had the T-Tower, the Justice League had the Watch Tower.

Monitoring the Earth's surface for any disturbance, the super heroes inside this massive satellite protected the world from any kind of evil. Upholding justice and all that jazz, the Justice League were the good guys.

As of the moment, the Justice League members scurried about, preparing to descend upon the Earth's surface once again. Earlier they had encountered some weird divine beings, and one particularly weird boy turned man. The Valkyries, Asgardian female warriors who ferry heroes' souls to Valhalla, claimed to have been sent by The God to take the other newcomer, one Ranma Saotome, into their custody. Dead or Alive.

Ranma Saotome disapproved of such notion, and fought all five of the highest commanders of the Valkyries punch per punch. And won.

The Justice League has surmised that this Ranma Saotome was much more of a threat than they anticipated. Right now, they were preparing for the worst, like when they have to fight him.

They weren't particularly thrilled in fighting Ranma, all except Superman. The Kryptonian was rather incensed in wanting to battle with the boy, especially after he had witnessed Ranma's power. But he claimed that he wanted to fight Ranma because he might become a future problem.

Yeah right.

The Watch Tower was currently under high alert, as the sensors indicated a massive power build up in China. When they viewed the area with the tower's long range cameras, they witnessed a fight in the vicinity. More like a massacre, as the image of Ranma Saotome fighting a large group of women was focused.

With that, they had concluded that Ranma Saotome finally shown his true colors, and were now preparing to face him.

Oh boy...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In the Heavenly Realm, location unknown...

Certain members of the Greek pantheon of gods were viewing the scrying pool just outside the boundary limits of Mount Olympus. A lot of godlings came here to bet on some spare timelines, which allowed their experimentations on different scenarios to come forth. Right now, the Bets have been postponed, at least until the current situation regarding a certain dimension hopping pigtailed alien hybrid has been resolved.

Deimos and Phobos were only a few of those watching the scenarios of the scrying pool, as the elite group of Valkyries from their neighboring Asgardian pantheon counterparts were defeated by this Ranma character. Not only that, but the Valkyries' faiths were slowly deteriorating.

The situation was getting rather dangerous for them.

Being associated directly to Ares, their battle lusts were now running high. Seeing Ranma fighting made them want to fight him as well.

"We need to do something about this, Deimos..."

"Indeed we do, Phobos..."

"Heh... father will be so proud..."

Hmm...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

A few hundred light years away from the planet Earth...

A rather large battleship, which was shaped like a gigantic Earth mushroom, was in full tilt while traveling across subspace. Current bearing was straight for Earth, as one of its two passengers was getting impatient.

"How long, Washuu?" A tall woman with short light brown hair asked her companion. Her eyes were pupiless and flat blue in color, as she stared forlornly outside a small porthole window that showed the stars streaking as they traveled.

At the main console that controlled the ship, a red-haired woman with green eyes sighed dramatically. She swiveled her rotating chair to the direction of her traveling companion and replied, "Not for a few months, Tokimi. You have to learn to be patient..."

The taller woman, Tokimi, broke her staring contest with the ship's outside scenery and faced the redhead, saying, "This is my son we're talking about, Washuu!"

Washuu chuckled slightly, "Don't forget, Tokimi, that this young man is an analogue. He doesn't belong to this dimension, but in his point of origin, he IS your analogue's son."

Tokimi bowed her head in slight morose. "I know... but... the call of blood is strong. Even though he's not really my actual son, he still carried my blood in his veins. A Chuushin Kami, a male one at that... the first of his kind... and he's from my blood..."

The red-haired scientist said, "Yes, that's true. It's rather enlightening to see you act like this. I have forgotten how doting you can be, Tokimi."

The Goddess of Chaos faced the window once more, saying softly, "I just want to hold him, that's all..."

"Don't worry..." Washuu waved her hand, turning back to her console, "We'll arrive there soon."

"I understand. Thank you, Washuu." Tokimi replied warmly.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In a rather far away dimension...

A cyan colored, spiky haired young woman sighed as she continued her trek across the lands of the Rising Sun. She had thought her lost loved one was to appear in the most likely places, and his home land was it. But as five months of searching was for naught, her hope was slowly waning. But she found new strength, as she was constantly reminded of her loved one's bond to her.

The woman patted her stomach lovingly, which was slightly bigger than normal. Evidence that she was very much pregnant.

Hakubi Ryoko, former space pirate extraordinaire, currently retired for years after being trapped in a cave for two hundred years more or less. She was freed a few years ago by a wonderful but skittish young man, a very powerful alien hybrid.

It took her at least several months for her to get him used to her lecherous antics, but it was worth it. Five months earlier, she finally got him into making love to her, and boy was she sore afterwards. The young man had been enthusiastic in the act, after breaking through his shyness, of course.

But then a tragedy happened, as he was sucked into some sort of accident concerning her mother's own invention.

Lost in another dimension... sigh... how discomforting for her. She was half-tempted to follow her lover, but she was stopped by her guilty mother. Traveling dimensions with a child in her womb wasn't a bright idea, and as much as she wanted to argue, she can't really fault the logic.

The woman was comforted by the fact, though, that her lover has a very long life span, and she would think that he'd gladly return to her. So why the search? She's just getting a head start. Her child will definitely meet her father. Yes, a daughter... a scan was made courtesy of her mother.

Yes, she will continue finding him, even if it takes her forever.

Saotome Ranma is the only man for Hakubi Ryoko, after all.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In another dimension much further away from the former...

A certain sorceress was currently being hunted down by the elite soldiers of the magic guild. Since the trio of golden gems appeared on her forehead, her powers increased a hundred fold. This caused the sorceress to lose her hard earned control over the magic power she had trained on since she was young. She has been lecturing her sister about control, but now it seemed that the lectures were being thrown back at her, as a simple flare of anger caused the gems on her forehead to shine brightly, and her powers just explode out of proportion. She had tried casting a simple fire ball spell, but it turned into a mini Dragon Slave in the end.

She was currently staying at a friend's home, a certain golden dragon turned human girl.

The sorceress was Luna Inverse, the world famous and rumored to be the most powerful of all magic users. She was currently staying with her friend, the transformed golden dragon named Filia. It was a good thing too, since Filia was currently in the Dragon Spire, home to the various dragon races left in their world. And the libraries these creatures kept were like no other...

Lately, Luna has been reading a lot of ancient texts regarding the earlier gods of their world. Cepheid was a glorified god, of course, but lately her faith was not in top form. Her powers were continuously growing, and Luna was actually starting to fear what would happen to her. Luna's sister, Lina, would probably be thrilled by the power-up, but then again, her red-haired little sibling was quite power hungry. Not only that, but Lina wasn't known to think of the consequences of her actions.

Luna wasn't like her younger sister. Sure, she can be sadistic to her enemies once in a while, but she's always conscious of what her actions will entail. And this was such a time when she should think of what's happening to her.

She had come across some texts regarding some REALLY old myths, regarding the history of the Universe that were considered to be, 'Tall Tales'. They all pertain to some extent of the newer theories on how the universe was created the people of their world were taught. Everything has started from the Sea of Chaos, but in the texts, this was only described as The Abyss, or the Darkness. There was a lot of mention regarding the Lord of Nightmares, but none of Cepheid. If the texts were proven true, then the Lord of Nightmares, in fact, existed earlier than Cepheid did. And it wasn't only the Lord of Nightmares, but also the Lord of Order, as well as the Lord of Chaos. So, there wasn't only one being that preceded Cepheid and those other gods or demons mentioned in their world's newer historical records, but three earlier and much powerful gods existed, and the Lord of Nightmares was one of them!

Luna was coming close to the truth. She knew it, and she could feel the anticipation in her blood as she continued her research. The Mazoku and the Magic Guild Elite have been after her blood since the gems on her forehead appeared, and the hunt intensified as she manifested her enhanced powers. Xellos Metallium was particularly distressed, and he was hard bound on catching her. She wasn't afraid of him or anything, rather, it was the other way around.

Xellos has been rather jumpy when Luna's name was uttered, terrified beyond belief. What could possibly make one of the most powerful of the Monster Tribe afraid of someone like her? Why are the gems on her forehead affected the world so much lately?

Ah... now she found the texts regarding the pattern of how the gems were arranged. The Trinity... the Ancient Gods... the Old War... the battle for the Universe's Fate... such things are connected to her newfound power?

Luna felt herself shudder a bit, as revelation upon revelation slowly opened her eyes to the Truth. She can't do anything about it; she is evolving into something far more powerful than anyone in this world has anticipated upon, and it made the balance of power shift out of order.

Now, if only she could find out WHY she felt like she was waiting for someone...

And if Luna's intuition was correct, she would be in danger in the Dragon territories as well, especially when they learn about her current situation. She would be viewed as a rival in terms of power, and most dragons got jealous pretty easily. It's a good thing Filia was a good friend of hers.

She tugged at the bandanna wrapped around her forehead in askance, to further hide the golden orbs embedded within her skull.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

It all started with one little thing, and it bled into all directions of the multiverse.

His birth has been a phenomenon itself, his fate was never anchored at one place.

Slowly, he forged his own path, which opened a million more possibilities. Not only in his timeline, but unto the next dimensions as well.

Now, Chaos is fully realized, as he will surge on ahead to pave the way...

He will redefine the meaning of Free Will.

The change in fates started to wreak havoc in the multiverses, and there is no one that can stop it.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

To Be Continued...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

PREVIEW ON THE NEXT CHAPTER:

"Oh my god... what did he do to you, Raven!?"

"Friend Raven, do not worry! We will save you from the Sai-Yahn monstrosity!"

"Fire it now, Cyborg! We'll have to incapacitate Raven to help her!"

"Now Raven, this will hurt us more than it will hurt you."

"Master Ranma... is not evil. Oh Master Ranma... forgive me for being so weak and useless..."

"Planetary Destroyer Technique: CRASH AND BURN!!!"

"Touch one hair on this girl's head, and I will kill you all."

"M-Mother? My... mother?"

"My son! My baby boy!"

"Eww... reunion scene... sugary..."

"Chaos-sama... Ranma-sama... I have found you at last, darling."

"I declare Nifelheim's hunt for Ranma, officially... canceled."

"How dare you! After all these eons of protecting you, how dare you betray me!"

"Chaos will always be my love. I will never be with another. You should have known that, Deus. Now... I will be with him, whether you like it, or not."

"The war for universal supremacy... has begun."

Ranma, Raven and Lenneth against... everyone else?! Gods, demons, super heroes, super villains... they all want Ranma!

The pigtailed hybrid will not take this lying down... especially when misunderstandings spark a huge battle. Superman wants a fight with Ranma. The Teen Titans tries to take Raven back by force. Lenneth has her hands busy keeping certain divine beings at bay.

All this witness by Ranma, who grew angrier by the minute.

A wonderful reunion brought the world a whole lot of luck. But Heaven and Hell are going to have a massive revamp. Someone strays off the intended path, choosing heart over destiny.

The reunion between Ranma and his analogue genetic mother is emminent. This will strengthen Ranma's resolve to find a way back to his home world.

A cataclysmic betrayal destroys the balance between Order and Darkness. A new war for supremacy looms over the horizon. Add to that, enemies from the ancient past have successfully weakened the barrier of their prison, compounding the problems at hand.

You think the all the chaos of the past has been too much? Don't hold your breath, because the party is just getting started.

AUTHOR RANTS:

To those interested, the crossovers for this chapter are:

- Ranma 1/2 (Of course! Ranma is always there!)
- Teen Titans the animated series
- Justice League the animated series
- Tenchi Muyo: Rin-Ohki!
- Slayers Try!
- Ah! My Goddess!
- Valkyrie Profile

Right... okay. The story's shaping up pretty good. The main players in my little game called Ranma's life are now appearing.

Yes, Ryoko's pregnant. Yes, it's Ranma's, definitely. And yes, she was still a virgin when she and Ranma did 'it'. Don't ask me why, but she was all steam when she bragged about her sexual knowledge to everyone. She's just a virgin on it as Ranma was.

What happened to Raven? Ranma succeeded in merging most of her personalities, but he apparently ran out of time while he was doing so. And yes, Raven has a link with Ranma now. Why? Ranma cannot simply just 'destroy' a mind link, so he transferred it. But he has no idea he did just that. Come on, he's an amateur, so he did things without any plan whatsoever.

Trigon in Raven's psyche is actually her Anger. It is through this emotion that Trigon managed to control his daughter. Ranma 'almost' killed Anger, but he didn't. Which is good.

Why do the super heroes want to take Ranma down? Come on... they're just as trigger happy as anyone else. And also, Misunderstandings are strong catalysts to wars. And they apply ESPECIALLY to Ranma.

Yes, I was too brutal with Genma. So? Just allow me to indulge with this one. I didn't kill him, did I? I just gave Genma the ultimate punishment to avid fans of the martial arts world. And that is: Take the Art away from him.

Again, someone asked me for this. I hope this will help some who had trouble understanding where is where and when is when.

1. HOME DIMENSION

The Universe where Ranma came from. Volume 1 - 38 of the manga happened. It's a sort of continuation from the Canon, but of course some information has been revealed into light to suit my needs.

2. FUTURE HOME DIMENSION

Ranma reached this dimension when Happosai threw the artifact at him during the prologue. This is approximately 700 years ahead of the Home Dimension timeline. Earth has experienced a death and rebirth, via Evangelion's plot. Dragonball Z Universe emerged in the end, where Ranma has finally popped out. This was where Ranma's true heritage reawakened. This is the timeline that went on AFTER Ranma disappeared, but since he appeared, everything in the Home Dimension's future splintered. Sailor Pluto, eat your heart out!

3. PAST HOME DIMENSION - DIMENSION B

This Universe was reached when Ranma used the splintered Nanban Mirror. This WAS the past of the Home Dimension, until Ranma got into it. Upon appearing into the timeline, it has veered off its course towards the intended Home Dimension Timeline, creating a new path in itself. This will give Sailor Pluto all the migraine she needs. This was supposed to be approximately 500 years into the past, during the time of Yosho's time on Earth (Tenchi Muyo) and the time of the youkai, Sengoku Jidai (Inuyasha).

4. FUTURE DIMENSION B

An accident caused by Washuu's invention entrapped Ranma in a null vortex, which acted somewhat like 'cold sleep', except that Ranma's sense of time inside the vortex slowed to approximately 97.35 percent of 'real time'. Normally, nothing survives inside the null vortex, but Ranma is Ranma. Ryoko, in her throes of despair, had herself locked in her own Cold Sleep after 10 years of searching for Ranma all over the universe. The incident catapulted Ranma approximately 5000 years into the future of Dimension B, the splintered timeline. Earth suffered into its deterioration, with constant strife and war battering the planet. It turns out that the Earth was under the siege of Kagato, who was under the guise of one of the bigwigs in the Earth's government. He manipulated events to totally dominate the world. Ayeka, Tenchi and Yosho were killed, their essences entrapped inside a special container that was later developed into an effective power source. Sasami fled, to parts unknown to anyone. Without Ryoko to help Tenchi defend Earth, the Juraians were easily beaten. Ryoko, still in cold sleep, was easily taken and converted into 'energy' by Kagato, and was transformed into a power source similar to the fates of the Juraians.

The Planet Zi, Planet Terra-Two, Solaris Planet (tentative name made by the Solarians when they took control of the land) are few of the worlds Ranma encountered in this dimension. And certainly not the last.

5. SLAYERS UNIVERSE

Mentioned a few times, here resides one of those who bore the gems of Higher Power, but still doesn't know about it. Go figure.

But as time went on, it was revealed that another one who bore the gems of power was Luna Inverse.

6. DC UNIVERSE

An offshoot from the Future Dimension B, when Ranma visited one of the planets inside a magnetic storm in order to search for Hibiki Tokai. The planet he landed on was Planet Zi, and he was unwittingly submitted into a war that he didn't want. When he neared the Zoid Eve, a power source for Planet Zi's Zoids, he was pulled out from Dimension B into THIS dimension. Later on, Ranma found out that it wasn't the Zoid Eve's fault, but a failed summoning experiment of the Universe's resident villain, Slade.

There ya go! Enjoy!

Ja ne.

- Lord Rance

In case you need my email for some reason at all, here: lord_rance at yahoo dot com

For those who will send flames, well, I'll just douse it with my trusty bucket of cold water!

"I swear!! This ain't what it looks like!!!" - Ranma Saotome