Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Smoke and Wind ❯ Wrapping Up Some Loose Ends ( Chapter 6 )

The Disclaimer is in the Prolouge.

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In her small artificer workshop in her home, Tanya continued to etch runes of protection onto the polished bone with a small, polished piece of obsidian shaped into a point at one end.

Though she was only allowed to make lesser golems, Tanya did realize one thing. Golems are, more or less considered greater weapons. She could legally take the time to make more 'normal' weapons', since they would be considered on a lower scale than the lesser golems, and be, more or less, within Tanya's range of allowed creations.

And since her husband would be a far better fighter than the golems she could make for home protection, it would be more than likely that Ranma would have to fight if they couldn't get away. "So best to arm him with something to protect himself."

Sighing with her work, Tanya had finished etching the spell of protection on one side of the bone. This would reinforce the material, making it less likely to break under impact. Turning the bone around, Tanya prepared her etching runes again on the other side, only this time, the spell was more designed for the offensive.

As she etched the new series of runes onto the bone, Tanya couldn't help but consider herself lucky she had this material to work with. Living in a desert literally left one with few resources to work with, and even less when Tanya was restricted by the Sanctuary with what she could use. Fortunately, a month back, a Bulette, a 'Sandshark" had appeared in the Seer's Desert. A large one too. Ninteen and a half feet long from snout to the tip of it's tail. The Bulette worried the people of Seer's Hamlet as it was a big one, and it had chosen the trading trails as its hunting grounds.

Tanya sighed. Ranma had worried her when he said he was going to deal with the Sandshark. Even the Edge Guard were having trouble putting that thing down. "But somehow, Ranma did it... And had earned the respect, trust, and admiration of the people of Seer's Hamelt..."

Letting herself smile, Tanya was happy that she was married to Ranma. Between the bandit beatings, the Sandshark slaying, the fact he had beeaten G'Nolga, AND that he had fought the Armsmaster to a stand-still, Tanya knew that Ranma was becoming a modern legend in Jade.

Sighing in relief, Tanya saw as the Bulette bone was finished. It was ground down at the ends and polished into a rather nice and sturdy staff. And even better, Tanya could sense that the runes she had scratched onto the surface of the staff were taking and that the magic would soon set in fully. "And while it does that, I'll make the next part of the weapon..." Tanya thought to herself.

Turning to the large pile of shell pieces, bones, and teeth of the Bulette, as well as the smaller pile of obsidian that Ranma had gathered earlier for Tanya, the Kryn went to work, tyring to sculpt these materials into useful weapons for her husband.

********

Ranma was in the backyard, beating on a practice dummy to keep in shape. He knew his wife was busy, and training was one of the best ways he knew of to pass the time, besides spending his time in the arms of his wife.

With a quick series of punches and kicks, Ranma quickly decimated the dummy into a pile of rubble. It had taken time, but Ranma had gotten used to using larger rocks for training. Just wrap a matres around them so he wouldn't break his hands, and he'd be all set.

With a small grumble of his stomach, and the placement of the sun, Ranma realized that it was getting close to dinner time. He was about to start heading inside when The back door opened and Tanya stepped out, carrying a bundle. "Hey, Tanya, what you got there?"

Tanya smiled brightly. Stopping before Ranma, Tanya said, "I have something for you to protect yourself with!"

Ranma raised an eyebrow to that. "Oh? What did you make?"

Placing the bundle on the ground, Tanya unravelled it and showed off the bone staff and a few smaller weapons made from ivory and/or obsidian. Ranma frowned at this. He appreciated the handiwork of his wife, but he didn't want her to get in trouble because of him. "Tanya... I don't think you're allowed to work with this sort of stuff. The Sanctuary might not take this lightly, you know..."

"Don't worry about the Sanctuary getting angry with me, Ranma." Tanya said, sounding pretty sure of herself. "What I made you is a 'merciful weapon'. All damage this staff can cause on its own is subdual. This ability can be suppressed on command until commanded to resume."

Ranma blinked at his wife. "Subdual?"

Yes." Tanya said. "As in, it is more of an after-effect. And it really does fit your style of fighting, since fighting with a merciful weapon does more damage but it isn't lethal damage. That way, when you fight, it will allow for you to take people down fast."

Ranma continued to look at Tanya. He was genuinely intrigued now.

"Also, don't worry about it being too weak either ot useless since it's not meant for letal damage as it is. I made sure that this has Sure Striking..."

"Sure Striking?" Ranma repeated.

"Yes." Tanya said. "That ability allows for the weapon to hit any creature, even those immune to normal weapons. And it has the power to shock an opponent into submission."

"I don't know, Tanya..." Ranma said as he scratched the back of his head. "The staff looks good, but I don't want to have to hurt anyone too hard. My fists and my training are already good enough."

"Don't worry. Without the attachments, this is basically a magical stun-baton." Tanya explained.

Ranma nodded his head, being set more at ease. He then blinked his eyes. "Attachments?"

"Yes, Ranma!" Tanya said, motioning to the smaller items that were laid out on the cloth. "I made you these attachments for the end of the staff so you can change your fighting style to suit the situation. You could add this thin blade made from the Bulette fang for quick, striking and stasking attacks. This small lance made form obsidian is really good for striking. I also have this small mace made from some of the Bulette's bone and a four fangs for ivory spikes. And I made this small doube-sided axe from a large flat piece of obsidian, with teeth for a sharper ivory edge." Smiling sadly, Tanya said, "This way, if you have no choice but to fight G'Nolga... You will at least be able to have the advantage."

Ranma nodded his head. Tanya had done all this because she was worried for his safety. With a sigh, Ranma took his wife into his arms. "Thank you, love. It's nice to see that you care for my well-being..."

Tanya looked up into Ranma's eyes and smiled at him. "I do... I really do."

Smiling back, Ranma kissed his wife deeply and made a mental vow to himself. He would protect her. He would stop G'Nolga once she inevitably came for them. And he would stop this nightmare once and for all...

********

It wasn't much more than three-quarters of an hour before one of the Sanctuary sentinels felt a twinge in the fabric of the spells connecting the guard and observation bracelets. The sentinel yawned and took a moment to look at how the connections were being used.

Once it became obvious that the user wasn't trained in all the facets of the artifact's use, wasn't even a mage, it became more than a minor shift in the routine. This wasn't the first time somebody had stolen one of the guard bracelets to use for their own purposes.

"They're tracking Tanya Rey?" he repeated. "She's not even native to this realm, who would be tracking he..." And with that his mind supplied the answer and his next move was to contact the mage council.

********

G'Nolga paused as she felt...something...but then dismissed it. She had far to travel, if she understood what the bracelet was telling her.

Rook had placed his new headquarters far away from any of his old haunts...and thus far away from the most number of heroes. He was probably planning to build up for something big later...but she'd worry about that when it happened.

For now, she had travelling to do.

Of course, when she felt another...something...not long after, she grew worried. The third time, she stopped concentrating on Tanya, suddenly understanding the danger of the bracelet. She growled and looked back toward Rook's lair.

She couldn't go back to speak her mind on this betrayal. She needed to get out of the area...quickly. Before the mage council came for her. She'd access the bracelet again later, but for now she new the basic direction she needed to travel.

Meanwhile in Atlanta. . .

Brianna was standing in her closet, taking one last look at her weapons as well as counting them. "What the heck, where's Pee-Bri and Pee-Gina?"

"Brianna, are you in your closet? I need to ask you a question."

Brianna walked out of the closet, it took her well over twenty minutes to get out, to come face-to-face with Gina. "What's up sis?"

"I'm missing a piece of Beta-tech, I was wondering if you had it."

Brianna shook her head, "Nope, I've been putting all my weapons away until Britanny calms down. And I haven't had time to go and borrow anything from you."

"That's strange, you don't have it, I don't have it and I know Penny doesn't because she's out of town visiting relatives, so then who?"

Brianna frowned, "You don't think Brit does do you?"

"I don't think so, she never even comes to my lab unless someone's hurt and she wants to see how they're doing."

"Well I was just wondering, because I'm missing Pee-Bri and Pee-Gina."

"Those two?" Gina smirked, "Pee-Bri must've seen a bird and tried to go and blow it up and Pee-Gina is probably tagging along to try and get it back here."

"Possibly, but I'd think we'd here explosions if there was any birds around." Then something dawned on Brianna. "Say, have you seen Brit in the last two hours?"

Gina shook her head, "Nope, I was wondering if you did?"

"Maybe we should try and find her? But where to look?"

They heard laughing coming from the aforementioned Werecheetah's room. "Her room." They said at the same time.

Racing to Britanny's room, they hoped to stop her from doing anything drastic.

In Brit's room. . .

Britanny grinned as she was fastening the missing piece of Beta-tech to Brianna's Peebos. "Heh, this way when I go to Jade next, I can blow Tanya to kingdom come. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Pee-Gina looked at Pee-Bri, "I think she's crazy." Pee-Bri could only agree.

Brianna and Gina burst into the room and saw Britanny duck-taping Beta-tech to Pee-Bri and Pee-Gina. "BRIT!! Put down the Beta-tech!"

"No, I'm going to blow that little tramp all to hell and then I'll blow her husband up too, heheheheheheheheheh."

Gina whispered to Brianna, "I think she snapped." Brianna could only nod, and crept up on Britanny while she was still trying to fasten the Beta-tech tighter to Pee-Gina. Waiting for the right moment, she snatched the Peebos and Beta-tech out of Britanny's hands and got back to the front of the door.

Brit pouted, "Aw, I just wanted to hurt her a little, nothing too serious."

Gina and Brianna shook their heads, Gina spoke up, "Nope, mom said we had to put all weapons and anything dangerous away until you calm down, which will be at least two months."

Britanny narrowed her eyes, a low growl formed in her throat, seeing this, her sisters gulped and started to back out of the room. "LET ME HAVE THOSE PEEBOS!!"

"NO WAY!" And both Brianna and Gina took off down the stairs. Normally Britanny would've caught them before they got too far, but she couldn't even run right now.

Growling Brit went over to her bed and lied down on it. "I'm going to find a way to get back at you Tanya."

********

Ranma was worried about his wife. After finishing his weapon, she'd been working non-stop on something else in her lab. Normally he wouldn't interrupt her when she was working, but he was getting very worried when she skipped two meals. . .

"Tanya?" he asked, stepping into the workshop. Looking at one wall, he saw the blast flower pods that they had gathered earlier soaking in some solution. He knew what she was planning to do with those - she was going to turn each one into a small, suicide golem. She apparently got the idea from when she spied on the Diggers family, something one of them had come up with.

But right now, his wife was at the far end of the room, working on something Ranma couldn't see.

"Tanya?" he called again, walking up to her this time.

Tanya gasped and spun around. "Ah!" Then, seeing her husband, calmed down. "Don't do that!"

"Tanya, honey, you skipped dinner. I was worried."

Tanya blinked. "Dinner? What happened to lunch?"

"You skipped that too. That's why I was worried."

Tanya blushed. "Oh. Sorry." Now that she was thinking about it... she was awfully hungry. "Well, I guess I should eat. Just let me finish something and I'll be out in a moment..."

"What are you working on, anyway?"

Tanya sighed. "Well, since I'm restricted to what kind of materials I can use, I'm working on something new." She waved her hand over a some humanoid figures. "I'm making a few standard golems, but since I can only use mud, clay, and wood for the primary body, G'Nolga will probably tear them apart as easy as paper. And you know about the blast golems, they might give her something to think about. But mainly, I'm working on this!" She held up a fist-sized red crystal ball.

Ranma recognized it. It was something he'd found when he'd taken out those bandits. Since no one had come forth to claim it, it was considered his, and he'd given it to his wife as a gift. "What are you going to do with that?"

"This is going to be the core of a new kind of golem. You see, if this works, this will be able to absorb any loose, non-living material around it to form a body. It will also be capable of learning and adapting! It's initial body will be made from the left-overs from making the other golems, as well as the remaining Bulette remains for a bit of 'spice.' If it gets wounded and repairs itself using stone or metal, though..." Tanya shrugged.

Ranma frowned. "I don't think the people at the sanctuary had this in mind when they allowed this. Are you sure this is all right?"

Tanya frowned herself. "I'm bending the rules a lot to make this one. But I don't care. Even as it is, all we could expect this one to do is maybe catch G'Nolga by surprise once or twice before she destroys it. But anything... anything I can do to give us an edge, I'm going to use!" She finished, tears streaming down her face.

Ranma embraced his wife, stroking her hair to soothe her. "Hey. Don't worry. We'll get through this somehow. I know it... it will be all right."

Tanya started openly weeping as her husband held her. "I... I'm so scared! I'm scared of her, scared for you..."

Ranma just held his wife, promising to himself that he wouldn't let G'Nolga get near her again.

Unnoticed by either, the crystal glowed for a moment, as if sensing the emotions of the couple.

********

In the West Continent of Jade, there were two great cities that were isolated in the Northern part of the continent. Both cities were to play a roll in what was to come.

The first was the Dwarven City. A Coal mining town where most of the Dwarven races of Jade had traveled to as to set up a city for their race. Many a people were either workers in the mines, or they were fighters. The Dwarven City also happened to have the most 'technology' of anywhere else on Jade, as they had VERY simplistic, yet still more 'modern' methods of tempering and purifying metals to sell and ship to other parts of Jade. As one could see from a distance, The Dwarven city was the only place in Jade with something close to being a 'factory'.

The second city virtually isolated in the North, because of the mountains was Durpan City. This city was more of a melting pot of races and cultures, when compared to the Dwarven City. It was also not only the Capital city of the West Continent, but it was also the city where the Conclave of Mages was formed. As such, this is where the main building of the Conclave resided on Jade. Of course, there was a branch office in Lrith City in the Eastern part of the West Continent, and three branch offices on the East Continent in Main Guard, Seer's Hamlet, and the Capital city of Tessa, but the Conclave of Durpan City was where it was all orchestrated from.

Still, what isolated these two cities is where we shift our focus for now. For there was quite a sight to behold. Almost completely isolating these two great cities were the Arbron's Spine Mountain Range. The Arbron's Spine Mountain Range was a long series of mountains, which held an incredibly high tower. The Twisted Peak. The Twisted Peak, was, itself, a magical construct made from the mountains. In reality the Twisted Peak was an observation tower, and home to one of the greatest Aura Mages in all of Jade. The same Aura Mage who had taught Dr. Theodore Diggers. Gneiss.

And currently, at the base of Twisted Peak, a small Teleportation Gate had opened up. Stepping out of it were the familiar forms of Nabiki Tendo and Ryoga Hibiki.

Taking a moment to look around, Ryoga made the comment of, "Damn, Nabiki. You weren't kidding when you said your teacher lived out in the middle of nowhere..."

Nabiki just nodded her head. The isolation was one of the things she hated, but there was really nowhere else she could have gone. When she had taken Happosai's scroll, she had done so in the hope of bringing Ranma back so he could pay for all that had happened to her home, her family, and Nerima. Instead, she ended up sending herself into another dimension.

Still it really was rather fortunate that when she was sent to Jade, she ended up in the Twisted Peak. That old man, Gneiss was rather impressed Nabiki was able to cast a spell of dimensional teleportation with no training whatsoever. "No kidding Ryoga." Nabiki said after the longest while. "Fortunately, Master Gneiss saw that I had a potential and has been training me as an aura mage practically ever since I got here. Not only has he given me room and board, but he's also been teaching me in his 'art'."

Ryoga snorted at the concept of magic as an art. From his experience, magic has proved to be nothing more than a pain in the ass, be it the stupid Jusenkyo curse, or that damned specialized teleportation spell that Happosai cast on him when he was trying to punish Ranma. "Whatever. Just what the hell are we doing at your Master's place, Nabiki?"

Smiling mischievously, Nabiki ignored Ryoga for a moment and concentrated her Ethereal Aura on the door, causing it to open. "Simple, Hibiki. Master Gneiss is away for a meeting at Durpan, and will be there for another three days."

Not getting where Nabiki was going with this, Ryoga said, "So?"

"So, that's more than enough time for me to equip you with a project that Master Gneiss has left unfinished..." Nabiki said.

Raising an eyebrow, Ryoga asked, "What project?"

Still smiling, Nabiki lead Ryoga into the Twisted Peak. The bottom floor was a rather empty room, marble floor, four statues of people that were most likely wizards, and the staircase leading upstairs. Nabiki went over to the statue it the eastern corner of the tower and pulled down on its arm, causing a piece of the floor to slide back and reveal a staircase. "Follow me, Hibiki."

Whistling appreciatively, Ryoga asked, "A hidden passage? Where does it go?"

Smirking like the Cheshire Cat, Nabiki said, "You'll see..." And with that, Nabiki started heading down the staircase.

After ten minutes, Nabiki walked back up the stairs. "What are you waiting for, Hibiki?"

Ryoga, who was walking around the main room aimlessly, said, "I can't find the staircase!"

Growling in frustration, Nabiki grabbed Ryoga's arm roughly and dragged him to the secret passage, and down the staircase.

What Ryoga saw when they got there was rather interesting. The staircase lead into one large room, a laboratory. The walls were shelves that were covered with all sorts of small nick-knacks, both of magical nature and those of a more physical one.

However, in the center floor was what looked like a HUGE, somewhat-broken statue. One would swear it looked like Akuma from the 'Street Fighter' video game, only the whole thing was in a red color scheme, and it was more angular at edges as if it were carved. It was 24' tall, and 9'8" wide of pure magical/mechanical might! Sure, it was missing the lower half of it's left leg AND it had a huge hole in the center of the chest, but this statue did indeed look dangerous.

"Wow..." Ryoga managed to bring himself to say after many silent moments. "What the heck is this thing?"

"That, my dear muscle-headed friend, is how we are going to get our vengeance upon Ranma." Nabiki answered. "This is the Sentinel!"

"The Sentinel?" Ryoga asked. "What the heck's it supposed to do?"

Nabiki smiled wickedly. "This bad boy is an old project master Gneiss worked on a couple of years back. The Sentinel is a War Golem made from a strong, magically enhanced ruby-quartz. This creation was supposed to be the protector of the daughter of one of Gneiss's old students." Sighing, Nabiki said, "However, Master made it a bit too powerful and it had caused quite a bit of trouble until Master's old student was able to bring it down.

"I see..." Ryoga said. "So, how is it supposed to help us? It looks pretty broken to me!"

Nodding her head, Nabiki answered, "True. The Golem Construct is rather damaged at the moment, however, with the time we have, I believe I can repair this..."

Snorting, Ryoga said, "All fine and dandy, but I wanted to be the one to take Ranma's life."

"Don't worry. You will." Nabiki answered. Seeing Ryoga raise an eyebrow to that, Nabiki explained. "You see Ryoga, I know I cannot replicate the magical programming for this golem. I can repair and enhance the outer shell since I have a lot to work with, but I do not have the knowledge on how to program a golem." Before Ryoga could ask another question, she continued, "But I DO know that I could reconstruct this golem to act as an armor..."

Blinking his eyes in shock for a moment, Ryoga began to smile in a fashion that mimicked Nabiki's. "I see... So, you want to turn the Sentinel into a 'riding armor' of sorts for me to pilot, right?"

Chuckling, Nabiki said, "Now you're catching on..."

Smiling evilly, Ryoga said, "Well, Nabiki, you better start then. I want to be able to face Ranma as soon as possible!"

Nodding her head, Nabiki went to work. Yes, she would help Ryoga. After all, she did owe Ranma a lot. That boy had turned her family's world upside down, and when he had been forced to leave without fixing his problems, Nerima and her family had to suffer for it. So yes, this was all fair game. A punishment that Ranma would have to take. "Saotome, when I get through helping Ryoga, you better have your local funeral service ready..."

Meanwhile in Nerima. . .

Akane Tendo walked down the streets of Nerima thinking how boring everything had gotten since Ranma had left. Ryoga hadn't been seen since then either, but that was to be expected. Then Nabiki had disappeared two months later, only two days after Taro and Happosai ripped apart Nerima in their fight. Everyone in town wondered why the fight had escalated to the point of extreme destruction. "If only they knew." She mused to herself. No one, not even herself had seen how important Ranma was to keeping the peace in Nerima. "And here I thought he made things worse."

Shaking her head, she had to admit that she was in the wrong about many things, of course this had come after a heart-to-heart with Nodoka, at first she denied it, but when she saw how bad things were with Ranma's presence or rather lack of presence, it was easy to admit. Not to mention all the things that he had done to save her and her family from some serious problems.

Passing by the closed shop of Uchan's, she smiled sadly, when it came out three months ago that Happosai had used some sort of banishment scroll to remove Ranma, Happosai never mentioned Ryoga getting caught in the spells effects, nor did he mention Nabiki had used the scroll for what she wanted; Ukyou was heartbroken. It took the combined efforts of Konastu, Nodoka, and herself to get Ukyou out of her room and face the rest of the world. She could easily talk to others and be very friendly to them, but to those that knew her, she was seriously depressed.

Roughly three weeks ago she packed up and moved back home to tell her father why she couldn't marry Ranma. When asked the real reason she was leaving she shrugged and said, "It's time to move on, I'll never forget him, and I'll probably never see him again, but I'm not going to stay here and cry about it forever. I'll see him again someday. He'll find a way home, even if it's just to see his mother." And with that she left, Konastu and Tsubasa went with her. At least everyone assumed Tsubasa went with her, no one had seen a dinette set running around, or a mailbox spitting up letters, or trees grabbing people in the last three weeks.

Akane shook her head, it was fun, having all the crazy martial artists around, when they're not destroying half the city that is. Turning her head to the other store, she frowned and figured it was good riddance to bad rubbish. No Akane did not like those Chinese home wreckers. The Amazons had left three weeks after Ranma did and said they'd find a way to him personally. As far as Akane was concerned, those Amazons had been the cause of just too many problem in Nerima.

Of course the Kunos were still around being annoying, but then again, they were the Kunos. "Those three never learn." Kuno had gone and said that heaven itself had finally punished the foul demon Saotome. After the Fiancee Brigade had gotten through with him, it was lucky he wasn't in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Kodachi had cried about the loss of her 'Ranma-sama', she had gone to the police to ask them for help, but they couldn't help either. Kodachi had eventually gotten better, but still pined after her 'Ranma-sama.'

*********

As for the Amazons. . . .

The Amazon Trio, (no not the ones from Sailor Moon), had gone back to China to get out of Japan, and for Shampoo, to face possible punishment for failing to bring home her husband. When she pleaded her case to the council, she was pleasantly surprised and annoyed when they said they had dropped the kiss of marriage after the battle with Saffron. She had asked about it and they had said, that anyone who could defeat the God-King in battle was not someone they wished to bring into the village.

However Colonge and many of the other elders still wanted Ranma's blood for the tribe. While they wouldn't make him live in the village, he'd probably destroy everything to get out, none of them were adverse to using Shiatsu among other things to get him to bed a few choice females in the village and strengthen the blood-lines.

Colonge looked at the best seer mage the Amazons had, though compared to Jaden seer mages she was just a novice. "Any luck, Handsoap?"

Handsoap shook her head, "Nope, whatever He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named did, it was very thorough. I can't see what the God-slayer is doing right now."

Colonge nodded, she figured as much. Happosai was always an incredibly sneaky S.O.B. "So then we wait until Ranma returns to the this plane of existence."

Handsoap looked at Colonge, "Excuse me, elder, I mean no disrespect, but how can you be so sure that he will return?"

Colonge smirked, not a pretty site, "If anyone can return from another plane of existence Ranma can. He could probably be sent to purgatory and survive and come back alive.

Handsoap nodded, anyone who could beat the Amazon Matriarch, He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named, the leader of the Musk and the God-King of the Phoenix was not someone to take lightly, whether woman or man.