Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections of Ruin ❯ Through a Glass, Darkly ( Chapter 5 )

The sky was clear, and the sun was warm as Akane Tendo walked to Furinkan high school with her fiancé that morning. Somehow, he'd managed to avoid getting splashed thus far today and was still male; he was currently walking along the fence overlooking the canal, with his customary smirk on his handsome face. The sunlight on the water cast shadowed ripples visible on the canal walls, and the air smelled faintly of cherry blossoms.

 

She was irritated with him. She couldn't remember why. Probably he had said some damn fool thing to her earlier. Anyways, he deserved a little anger for all that he'd put her through since he'd gotten here. “Just don't talk to me at school today, Ranma,” Akane said.

 

Ranma rolled his eyes. “Feh. Whatever you say, Tomboy. I wouldn't want to talk to you, anyways.”

 

Akane stopped in her tracks and glared up at Ranma. “What is that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

 

Ranma sneered down at her. “What, ya don't speak Japanese? It means `who would want to talk to an unsexy tomboy like you?' Ain't no mystery there. You're built like a stick, your face makes me sick. Your thighs are too thick. You can't even kick. You're dumb as a brick. You talk like a hick. Your hair's a cowlick, and you itch like a tick!”

 

Rage. Burning, uncontrollable rage. “RANMA NO BAKA!” Akane shrieked. Before she even realized what was happening, her mallet had been pulled out of subspace and was flying towards Ranma like a thunderbolt. There was a terrible crack and a peal of thunder; Ranma fell into the canal, and as he hit the water, he simply dissolved. No sign of him remained. The daylight failed; it became suddenly dark, and storm clouds loomed overhead, full of the promise of heaven's wrath.

 

“WAIT!” Akane cried, scrambling up the fence and over into the canal after her dissolved fiancé. “Ranma, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!” She hit the water with a terrific splash; it was freezing cold, and there was a faint whiff of corruption about it, like an animal's body that had been left on the road for too long. She was up to her waist in cold water now, but there was no sign of Ranma. She waded about, searching for the pig-tailed boy.

 

Nothing.

 

“RANMA!” she yelled, beating her fists impotently against the surface of the water. The water splashed against her fists, and ripples flowed out from the point of impact and then were stilled.

 

Nothing.

 

That was when the bottom fell out of the canal. One moment she was standing in waist deep water, the next she was in well over her head, and the surface was rapidly fading away. She couldn't swim! In a panic, she kicked and thrashed, trying to make it to the surface, but all that she did only made her sink faster. She inhaled water, and much to her amazement, discovered she was able to breathe it without difficulty. It tasted awful, and she gagged.

 

Akane continued to sink. Down, down, down she went. Deeper and deeper, until it seemed as though she had sunk to the very heart of the world, and at last she reached a place of utmost darkness.

 

“Where am I?” she asked aloud, trying to see through the gloom.

 

Nothing. It was warm. She could feel the water pressing down on her from all sides. It was utterly dark.

 

“Hello? Ranma? Are you there?” Her voice echoed strangely in the darkness, bouncing off of unexpected and unseen obstacles.

 

Then a voice that was definitely not Ranma's replied to her cries, deep and terrible as the very roots of the mountains, “I AM HERE.”

 

A grotesque thrill of horror shot through Akane's heart, and she shook her head in denial. “No,” she insisted, ”Not you. Not you. I'm looking for Ranma. Where is he?”

 

There was a flash of imagery. In the midst of that dark abyss, Akane beheld a brief vision of a young girl, maybe thirteen years old, with dark, shoulder length hair and purple eyes, dressed all in black.

 

Another flash, and the same girl was dressed as a Sailor Senshi, with a dark purple skirt and a dark red ribbon, holding a terrible glaive in her hands.

 

“I don't understand...” Akane said, beginning to cry. “Please, I just want to find Ranma.”

 

The darkness *shifted* before her. There was a peculiar sense of what she could only describe as `impending clarity,' and the thought of it filled her with dread.

 

Light flared, and she saw IT: a huge, horrific *thing* floating in the darkness in front of her, globular yet writhing, with vast seeking tentacles flailing about its body. A single great eye opened in the very center of the globular mass, bathing her in a malevolent red glow.

 

She began to scream.

 

“NO!!!!!!” Akane screamed at the top of her lungs as she sat up in bed, suddenly very wide awake. She was covered in sweat, and on her forehead, a black star flickered fitfully before fading away. She panted for breath. It was hot under the blankets. She threw off her covers.

 

Footsteps echoed in the hall, and a moment later, Kasumi came in, shutting the door behind her. She was wearing her nightgown with a robe over it. “Akane, are you all right?” she asked.

 

Akane looked up at her sister, and then nodded faintly. “... It was just a nightmare, Kasumi... just a bad dream.”

 

Kasumi's expression softened, and she looked compassionately at Akane. “Do you want me to stay with you for a while?” she asked.

 

There was a long pause. Akane smiled gratefully. “Would you?”

 

Kasumi sat down next to Akane and put an arm around her. “Everything's all right now, Akane. Everything's going to be just fine.”

 

The night was cold, and her sweat had cooled on her skin. Akane shivered, unable to get the horrifying image of the thing out of her mind. Nor was she able to forget the name that was on the tip of her tongue when she saw the girl in her dream: Hotaru Tomoe.

 

-----------------

 

Reflections of Ruin

by P.H. Wise

A Ranma/Sailor Moon/Cthulhu Mythos Crossover Fukufic

 

Chapter 5 - Through a Glass, Darkly

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailor Moon. Please don't sue me. I'm not doing this for profit.

 

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The summer heat had finally broken, ushering in the first taste of cool autumnal weather. The sky was partially cloudy, but it hadn't rained yet. A typhoon had formed to the south, and was due to hit Japan in a few days, and preparations were being made, though it was not expected to hit Tokyo.

 

None of that really mattered to Ranma Saotome as she danced her fighter's dance in the park near the Hikawa Shrine. Cherry trees grew all around her, and though it was nowhere near the season for them to be in bloom, they were a lovely sight nonetheless. Lovelier still was her own self, though she did not realize it. Many a passer-by stopped and stared for a few minutes before moving on as she went through her kata, her movements like poetry in motion. It was in these moments that Ranma felt most fully herself: practicing the art that had defined her life.

 

She went on like that for a full two hours before she finally wound the kata to a close, took a centering breath, and looked around. The leaves were only just beginning to change colour and fall from the trees. There was a sense of winding down in the air; the earth knew that the season of growth had ended. So winter follows spring. So spring follows winter, again and again through the cycle of the years. Something about the fall had always made her feel at ease. The annual dying of the world was beautiful in its own way. Death, and rebirth. Ruin and renewal. That was the way it should be.

 

It was with such uncharacteristically philosophical ponderings fresh in her mind that Ranma suddenly perceived a faint tremor in the Earth's ki just below her. She leaped clear just in time to avoid the explosion of dirt and rock that announced the arrival of Ryouga Hibiki.

 

“WHERE ON EARTH AM I NOW?” he cried as he emerged from his earthy womb. His handsome features were concealed beneath a thick layer of dirt, but he wasn't bothered. He look around, for the moment, utterly bewildered.

 

Ranma landed easily on a low hanging tree branch, and sat there, looking down at the Lost Boy. “Hey P-Chan, I was wond'rin' when you'd show up.”

 

Ryouga looked up, and immediately clenched his fist. “Ranma! How dare you run away from our fight! Because of you, I've been lost underground for three days!”

 

Ranma raised an eyebrow. “Three days?” she asked. “I never asked you to follow me here, ya know.” She dropped out of the tree and fell into a fighting stance.

 

“Don't patronize me. You have no idea of the depth of my suffering!” Ryouga drew back his fist, and prepared to charge.

 

Ranma raised an eyebrow. “Akari yelled at you again, huh?”

 

Ryouga deflated. He lowered his fist and grimaced. “Shut up,” he said.

 

“Ryouga, if you really wanna fight, that's fine, but this random attack crap is really annoying.”

 

Ryouga smirked ever so slightly. “Ah, you're just chicken. A real martial artist is prepared to fight at any moment.”

 

“Yeah, whatever.” Ranma relaxed from her fighting stance - which either meant that now she was *really* ready to fight, or that she wasn't interested anymore.

 

Silence hung between them for a moment as Ryouga looked around. “So, this is Juuban, huh?” he asked.

 

“Yup.”

 

Silence.

 

“Seems nice,” Ryouga said.

 

Silence.

 

Ryouga glared at Ranma. “Damn you, Ranma, are you really going to force me to apologize?”

 

Ranma waited.

 

Ryouga seethed for a moment, grimaced, and then bit out, “Fine. I'm sorry. When Happosai said that you'd ran off like a coward without saying a word to anyone, I had to see it for myself. Then I saw you and Akane about to kiss, and,” he trailed off. “I know I'm with Akari now, but it seeing you about to kiss Akane...” He growled angrily at the memory of it. “It's bad enough you were leading her on when you were still a man, Ranma, but this? This is unforgivable.”

 

Ranma put up her hands. “Hey, I ain't leadin' anyone on.”

 

“You're not even a man anymore, Ranma! Don't be a cad. Let her go!”

 

Ranma gave Ryouga a cold, angry look. “Can it, Ryouga. I may be a girl now, but that doesn't change the way I feel about her.”

 

“And what is that?”

 

“I lo...” Ranma grimaced, and then tried again, “I, I love her. Got it?”

Ryouga grew visibly more angry, and for a moment, Ranma thought they might end up fighting after all, but then the Lost Boy's anger seemed to drain away, and he sighed dramatically. “Fine. But if you ever hurt her, so help me God, Ranma, I'll... I'll kill you where you stand!”

 

Ranma nodded. “Fine.”

 

Silence descended once more.

 

“So...”

 

“Yeah,” Ranma said.

 

“Uh...”

 

Ranma raised an eyebrow. This jerk still wanted something?

 

“How's Juuban?” Ryouga asked, somewhat awkwardly.

 

Understanding suddenly came to Ranma, and she smiled, amused. “You missed me,” she said.

 

Ryouga's eyes widened, and he shook his head fervently. “I did not,” he denied too quickly.

 

“You did. Admit it. You missed me.”

 

Ryouga snarled and pulled back a fist to strike at his rival/friend. “Damn you, Ranma! Mock me, will you?”

 

“Ryouga Hibiki missed me.” Ranma shook her head incredulously. “Juuban is fine, Ryouga.”

 

Ryouga's fist trembled with unreleased tension, and then he relaxed, and lowered his hand. “Well, what's it like compared to Nerima?”

 

`When did we become friends?' Ranma wondered, and then dismissed the thought from her mind. She held up a finger. “Well, there's way fewer martial artists,” she held up another finger, “No fiancées popping up all over the place,” She held up another finger, “And school is way harder,” she held up another finger, “There's hardly any one to spar with,” she held up her thumb, “And there's monster attacks, sometimes.”

 

Ryouga nodded. “Huh. Sounds boring.”

 

Ranma shrugged.

 

At that moment, a section of the stone wall dividing the park from the building next to it exploded outwards, and a green skinned, female monster apparently made of traffic cones burst out of the wall and took off running through the park, a glowing crystal in hand. A moment later, the Inner Senshi ran through the breach in close pursuit.

 

Ryouga sweatdropped and stared incredulously at the retreating monster.

 

Ranma smirked. “Welcome to Juuban,” she said casually.

 

Ryouga waited a beat, then glanced at Ranma, then back at the distant monster. “Shouldn't we help them?”

 

Ranma thought about it, then shrugged. “All right. Hang on a minute...”

 

But Ryouga had already taken off running after the monster.

 

“Damnit, Ryouga, wait!” Ranma called, and started running after the Lost Boy.

 

Two minutes later, Ryouga was nowhere to be seen, and Ranma's eye was twitching a little bit. “Stupid pig always has to run off on his own and get lost,” she muttered, shaking her head. She'd been stuck with nothing but girls for company for almost two weeks now, and it was starting to fray on her nerves. She rounded a corner, and nearly collided with Usagi. “Woah!” Ranma yelped, hopping backwards to avoid the collision.

 

Usagi, on the other hand, was not nearly so graceful. Startled by the near miss, she promptly lost her balance and fell on her butt.

 

Usagi's friends all tensed when Ranma suddenly rounded the corner, but relaxed when they recognized who it was. “Oh, Ranma-san!” Ami called. They were all there - Ami, Rei, Minako, Makoto, and... huh. Ranma didn't recognize the little girl with the pink hair who was with them, but she looked like she was probably related to Usagi.

When the little girl spotted Ranma, her eyes widened, and a look of recognition flashed across her face.

 

“Uh, sorry `bout that,” Ranma said, reaching down to help Usagi back to her feet.

 

Usagi rose to her feet ungracefully, nearly falling over twice in the attempt. “Ahehehehe! It's ok. I wasn't watching where...” she blinked. “Oh, Ranma!” she said, recognizing the pig-tailed girl at last.

 

“You girls didn't happen to see a guy with a yellow and black bandana come running by this way, did you?” Ranma asked.

 

The Inner Senshi all shook their heads.

 

“Uh, how about a monster being chased by a bunch of Sailor Senshi?”

 

The Inner Senshi all looked nervous at that, but shook their heads again.

 

Ranma sighed. “Great. It'll be days before I see pig-boy again.” She brightened up immediately. “Hey, yeah! It'll be days before I see pig-boy again!”

 

“Who's pig-boy?” Usagi asked, confused.

 

“Nobody you'd know.”

 

The little girl whispered something to Usagi.

 

Usagi shrugged, looked at her friends, then looked to Ranma. “Say, Ranma, we're going for ice-cream. Want to come with us?”

 

Ranma's expression brightened. “Ice-cream?” she asked.

 

-----------------

 

The glow of the computer screen cast a strange light across Akane's face as she sat at the terminal in one of Nerima's public libraries. Her hands flew across the keyboard as fast as she was able to make them. Which is to say, not very; Akane had never learned how to type, being more the martial artist type. So to speak. Thus her preferred method of typing was the tried and true `hunt and peck' technique. Still, she kept at it, and after a while, her effort began to pay off. Somewhat.

 

“Find anything?” Nabiki asked as she walked into the library's computer lab.

 

Akane looked up and shook her head. “Nothing on anyone named Hotaru Tomoe. The closest match I found was some scientist named Soichi Tomoe who almost died in a lab accident... um...” she looked at the article currently displayed on the computer screen, “About ten years ago.”

 

“Let me see,” Nabiki said, and walked up to the computer terminal to have a look. She studied the screen for a moment. “... That's weird.”

 

“What?”

“The accident at his lab.”

 

“What about it?” Akane asked.

 

“It happened on the same night Mom got sick.”

 

Akane's spirits sank. Any mention of her mother's death always made her depressed. But this time, there was something else as well. Something more than an old wound re-exposed. Hearing Nabiki say that, she felt a flash of... something. She wasn't sure.

 

“How about you?” Akane asked. “Find anything?”

 

Nabiki gave Akane a level look. “What's so important about Hotaru Tomoe, Akane?”

 

She didn't know. She didn't know why she needed to find out about this person. But ever since that dream, she hadn't been able to get that name out of her head. Hotaru Tomoe. It was important, somehow. She knew it was. “I...”

 

“Does this have something to do with the reason you've been having nightmares every night since you got back from Juuban? Or was Ranma really just that awful?”

 

Akane shook her head. “It's not Ranma. Ranma was...”

 

“A pervert? An idiot?”

 

“... perfect.”

 

Nabiki blinked. “Huh?”

 

Akane blushed. “She was a perfect gentleman.”

 

Nabiki blinked again, staring at Akane. “That doesn't sound like you. You're not brainwashed again, are you?”

 

“What? No! Geez, Nabiki! Can't I have a good date with my fiancé without the world coming to an end?”

 

Nabiki gave her a look. “What is it, then?”

 

Akane shook her head helplessly. “... I don't know. I know it's important. I don't know why, or how, but I have to find Hotaru Tomoe. Honestly, I don't know any more than that. Now are you going to help me, or aren't you?”

 

Nabiki studied Akane for a few seconds, and then nodded. “OK.” She produced a computer disk from her pocket and put it into the computer's floppy drive. A moment later, she brought up the file. The Tomoe family tree sprang to life in all its glory there on the screen.

 

“Nabiki, how did you get this?” Akane asked.

 

Nabiki smiled innocently. “A girl has to have a few secrets, doesn't she?”

 

Akane gave her sister a long-suffering look, then returned her attention to the screen. “There's Soichi,” she said, pointing to a name near the base of the computer model. “Let's see...” Her expression fell. “No children. His wife, Keiko, died the same day as the lab accident...”

 

Nabiki gave out a low whistle. “Check it out, Akane. This guy's from a Samurai family.” She pointed up near the top of the genealogy. The name `Tomoe Gozen' was written there, with her husband listed as `Minamoto no Yoshinaka.'

 

Akane looked impressed. “I don't see a Hotaru in the current generation, though,” she said. “I guess it's a dead end, for now.” She reached to eject the disk.

 

“Wait,” Nabiki said. “Look here.” She pointed to the entry for Keiko Tomoe. There was a small star indicating a footnote. She dragged the mouse over it and clicked on it. A smaller window popped up on which was displayed: `Tomoe Hotaru. Greatly missed, though never had. An angel passed us in the night.'

 

Akane frowned thoughtfully. Hmm. It might be worth it to pay this guy a visit.

 

------------

 

Ranma smiled blissfully as she took another bite of her super double chocolate fudge brownie ice cream sundae. This, she decided, was heaven.

 

“How do you like it, Ranma-san?” Usagi asked.

 

“Thn't thhk. Thcolate thliss,” Ranma said around a second spoonful if the absolutely sinfully rich ice cream. The best thing about it? ... Well, probably the state of chocolate bliss she was experiencing. But the *second* best thing about it was that it was free. Usagi's friends had paid for her.

 

Once Ranma had swallowed her helping, she smiled. “Thanks!”

 

“How long have you known Haruka-san and Michiru-san, Ranma-san?” Ami asked.

 

Ranma thought about it. “About a week. Uh, maybe two? I'm kinda new here. I met them on my first day at the new school.”

 

“Ah. Where did you move from?”

 

“Nerima.”

 

The Inner Senshi blanched at that. They'd heard rumors about *that* place. That was the place with all the crazy martial artists and the flying alien girls.

 

“Is it true what they say about that place?” Usagi asked. “That it's full of crazy martial artists who blow up buildings and alien girls who shoot people with lightning?”

 

Ranma thought about that, then nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”

 

Eyes widened all around. The rumors were *true?*

 

Ranma finished off her ice-cream and looked mournfully down at the empty bowl.

 

“That sounds awful. You must be glad to be away from there!”

 

Ranma had to think about that one, too, and when she didn't immediately respond with an agreement, the other girls all grew concerned. “I guess,” Ranma replied at length. “I mean, it was fun sometimes, but all the duels and fights and Chinese princes looking for brides got on my nerves after a while.”

 

The Senshi sweatdropped. “Ano,” Usagi said, “Chinese princes? Did anyone ever try to take you as a bride, Ranma-san?”

 

Ranma laughed out loud. “Me? I ain't the bridal type. Akane, though, seemed like she was gettin' kidnapped every other day.”

 

The pink-haired girl - Chibi-Usa, Ranma had heard her name was. Apparently some cousin of Usagi's who had just arrived in town - seemed to recognize that name, and got a sad look in her eyes.

 

Ranma glanced at the girl. “You know something I don't?”

 

Chibi-Usa seemed to panic for a moment, got her reaction under control, and then nodded. “Lots of things!” she said cheerfully. Then she leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially, “I know plenty of things Usagi doesn't know, too.”

 

Ranma raised a speculative eyebrow. “Really? Like what?”

 

Chibi-Usa leaned in closer still and whispered something into Ranma's ear.

 

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” She looked at Usagi, surprised. “I never figured her for the type.”

 

Usagi glared at Chibi-Usa. “CHIBI U-SA... what did you tell her?”

 

Chibi-Usa smiled innocently. “Nothing!”

 

“Tell me!”

 

Chibi-Usa got up out of her chair. “Nothing!” she called challengingly, and laughing out loud, rushed out of the ice-cream shop, with Usagi in hot pursuit.

 

The Inner Senshi all looked at Ranma, their curiosity plain to see.

 

“What *did* she tell you, Ranma-san?” Rei asked.

 

Ranma grinned. “Nothing,” she said honestly.

 

The inners all began to giggle, and after a moment, Ranma joined them.

 

When the giggles subsided, Ranma spoke up again. “She seems nice. Usagi, I mean.”

 

Makoto nodded, but Rei looked at Ranma suspiciously.

 

“She's taken,” Rei announced.

 

Ranma blinked. “Huh?” Then it occurred to her what Rei meant. She panicked. “Wait, uh, I didn't mean... I'm not like th... well, I guess I'm like that, but I didn't mean it like, uh, I mean it's not what...”

 

Rei's severe look broke as the Inner Senshi went into another fit of giggles, and after a moment, Ranma realized she'd been had. She laughed.

 

-------------------

 

Ranma was still smiling as she roof-hopped home afterwards. She'd decided that she liked those girls. Yeah, they were girly, and hanging out with them wasn't the same as hanging out with Hiroshi and Daisuke, but it was fun. A very different experience, but fun. She covered a few more city blocks on the roof tops, and then hopped down onto the street.

 

She was home.

 

No one was there when she walked in, but there was a note on the fridge. `Ranma,' it read, `went to the Tendo's with your father. Be back late. Mom.'

 

Huh. She guessed she would see them when they got back, then.

 

Ranma went up to her room and sat down on her bed in front of the mirror on the wall. She undid her pigtail, letting her hair fall loosely around her neck, and looked into the mirror, studied her reflection. It still seemed strange to see that face looking back at her; to move his hand and watch *her* hand move in the looking glass. It didn't feel like *him*. She made faces at the mirror for a few minutes, trying to see *himself* in her.

 

He wasn't there. His black hair had become her dark red hair. His lean, muscled body had become hers. His handsome face had become her beautiful face. She was shorter. He'd always been a little bit vain, and though she would never admit it, it hurt her to see how different she was from him. The eyes, though. The eyes were his eyes. Her eyes. Their eyes. That, at least, hadn't changed.

 

There was some of him left in there after all. She smiled hopefully. This wasn't so bad. Maybe, just maybe, she could live with being a girl.

 

Ranma fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, until at last she drifted off to sleep.

 

*FLASH*

 

Ranma stood on the exposed deck of a great star-faring ship, with the vessel's oxygen shield the only barrier between her and the void. Far below, a blue-green world hung suspended in the darkness, its alien oceans and continents shimmering against the black. Above her, the stars shone more brightly and more clearly than she had ever seen, filling the heavens in such vast array that for a moment, she wondered if she were dreaming.

 

No. That would have been a mercy. While she had always dreaded this day, and had often had nightmares of its coming, this way no dream. Today, she had finally awoken to the power of Saturn. She had been training for this her whole life - ever since, as an infant, she had been identified as the Senshi of Ruin's reincarnation - and she had been dreading this her whole life, hoping against hope that her power would not be needed, that she could live a normal life as a normal girl. But her hopes had been dashed. Her normal life was never going to happen now.

 

A tall woman with green hair stood before her, smiling sadly. She wore a senshi fuku, and she carried a staff. Who...?

 

Oh.

 

Her.

 

Sailor Pluto was a sight not unfamiliar to her; affection rushed through her at the sight of the woman. Here was the woman who had raised her. Who had trained her. Who had loved her like a mother.

 

“I'm sorry it had to come to this,” Sailor Pluto said. “But if this Chaos-spawn is allowed to take root here, it will not just mean the end of this world - it will mean the end of the Silver Millennium. The infection will spread from planet to planet like a wildfire, devouring everything in its path, and in the end, everything will be taken up into that... *thing*.”

 

“Y'Gol...” Ranma started to say, and as she spoke, a sense of deadly, mortal danger grew around her.

 

“STOP!” Pluto all but yelled, interrupting the young woman before she could complete the phrase. “Don't speak that name. Don't even think it. Speaking that name aloud will give him power over you, Lady Saturn. Do you want to become one of his Possessed?”

 

Ranma shuddered, horrified at the thought of joining the Violator's ranks of the damned. “I didn't think...”

 

“No, clearly you did not. Do you have any idea the kind of disaster that would occur if *he* possessed the power of Saturn? It would mean far, far worse than the end of the Silver Millennium. Think on the meaning of these words, Saturn: “When his name is spoken or read, he comes forth to be worshipped or to feed and take on the shape and soul of those he feeds upon. For those who read of evil and search for its form within their minds call forth evil, and so may the Beast return to walk among men.”

 

“It won't happen again, Senshi Pluto,” Ranma said.

 

Pluto nodded. “I know. And I know that you will do you duty, Lady Saturn. I'm sorry we had to awaken you... but you knew what it would mean when we did.”

 

“I know. I just wish...”

 

“We all do,” Pluto said, smiling sadly. “It's not fair for a sixteen year old girl to have to give up her life to save her people. We're selfish to expect that kind of sacrifice from you, and from all of your previous incarnations throughout our history.”

 

Ranma embraced the older woman, and she suddenly realized that she was crying. “I was supposed to be married,” she whispered.

 

“I know.”

 

“How would it have gone?”

 

Pluto looked upon the girl fondly, and allowed her mind to skirt the edges of several nearby timelines. After a moment, she spoke. “The two of you would have been happy together. You would have given him three children - two girls and a boy. You would have died an old woman, and a great grandmother, surrounded by the people you loved.”

 

She wasn't crying anymore, but her eyes were still red. “Sounds nice,” she said sadly.

 

“I have to leave now. Good luck, Lady Saturn. All our prayers rest with you.”

 

Ranma turned to face her destiny.

 

With but a thought, her Senshi uniform sprang into being around her, and the Silence Glaive was in her hands. Protected by the power of her star seed, Sailor Saturn leaped from the ship's deck, quickly leaving the oxygen shield behind, and descended upon the forsaken planet like a falling star. Fire burned around her as she entered the planet's upper atmosphere, dropping like a rock as she fell towards the capital. The lights of the city grew brighter and the details more distinct as she continued her descent. Down, further and further, until...

 

Her landing was like the crack of doom unto that world. She rose to her feet and leaped easily out of the fifty some foot crater her landing had made in the cobbled streets of the capital city. The distinctive architectural style of Nemesis rose all around her, all sweeping arches, and towering spires, the stone wrought like flowing water.

 

The Violator, the Defiler, had sensed her presence upon the world almost instantly. No sooner had she caught her bearings than His children began to pour into the streets from every building, and even out of every the very rocks of the earth. Most were horribly misshapen, their heads now nearly swallowed by their chests, with gaping maws where the palms of their hands used to be. Some of them still clung to a semblance of humanity, but their eyes were empty, and their faces frozen in expressions of primal desire. Distant screams of anguish announced the presence of human survivors who had not yet been infected, but it was only a matter of time at this point. Y'Golonac, spawn of Chaos, had long been the god of perversion and depravity. Not merely human perversion and depravity, but any that could be conceived by any sentient being, sane or not. What these abominations had been doing before she arrived, Sailor Saturn did not want to imagine. Their reek filled the air.

 

They charged.

 

“SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!” she cried out, sweeping the deadly blade in a wide arc over the mob. A wave of pure destruction rolled out from her weapon, and those spawn of His that it touched were left for a moment as a kind of photo negative of themselves, and then they were simply gone.

 

Saturn ran on, fighting her way through the horribly mutated remnants of the planet's royal guard, fighting her way into the very palace itself. She didn't need to come here to destroy this world, but she had vowed to free Sailor Nemesis before the end.

 

The reek was strongest of all, here: the smell of inhuman sex mingled with corpse-rot, and Saturn nearly gagged as she stepped through the palace doors.

 

Focus. She had to focus. As she cut down the last of the infected Royal Guard, she achieved that focus. She forced herself not to see the victims, the mutilated bodies of both the dead and the living, the unspeakable atrocities that the Chaos-Spawn had brought down upon Nemesis.

 

This was the true nature of the Enemy. These were the foes the Senshi protected the Solar System against.

 

A painting of Princess Nemesis on the wall had been vandalized crudely, the master artist's brushstrokes now marred by the obscene hand of Y'Golonac's spawn. It was crude and stupid, almost senselessly juvenile. How could creatures capable of such horrific cruelty, such unspeakable acts... how could they also be the sort of beings to take the time to draw obscene illustrations on a painting?

 

But it was not only that painting. Every piece of the palace's artwork had been desecrated in some way, vandalized somehow. From the smallest statue to the grandest sculpture, it was all broken, desecrated in some way.

 

The double doors leading into the throne room were before her, and here she knew was the very heart of the corruption that had seized this place.

 

With anger burning brightly within her breast, Saturn stepped through the double doors. *He* was there, waiting for her.

 

“Hello, Nemesis,” she said coldly as she strode through the doors. *His* spawn crowded in behind her around the entrance, but did not press further. *He* would not allow it. Not yet. “It's good to see you again, one last time, before the end.”

 

Y'Golonac turned his bloated body to face her, and she was forced to repress a shudder. *He* had utterly corrupted Sailor Nemesis' body, forcing her once fair features into that twisted monstrosity, all the more terrible for how closely it resembled humanity. *He* was grotesquely fat, and upon his shoulders rested no head. His bloated, corpulent body was tapeworm-pale, and on the palms of his hands were horrific, many-jawed mouths full of terrible, drooling, seeking tongues. The reek was strongest of all, here, where *He* had done his work.

 

Sailor Saturn stood before the Great Old One, and her heart nearly failed her.

 

“SAILOR SATURN,” the creature intoned, though it had no mouth; its voice was an horrific parody of human warmth, “I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BECOME ONE WITH A SENSHI. NOW, I WONDER WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BECOME ONE WITH TWO.” It reached out one of its orificed hands towards her, longingly, needfully, and he put forth his might. “BECOME ONE WITH ME, BODY AND SOUL, AND I WILL SHOW YOU SUCH PLEASURES AS YOU HAVE NEVER DARED TO DREAM.”

 

Had she been an ordinary girl, she would have succumbed to his power, and been lost, for no mere mortal can stand before a Great Old One. But she was no ordinary girl: Sailor Saturn was the bearer of a True Star Seed, and was not accounted among the ranks of mortals. His power broke against her like waves against the cliff side. “I wasn't talking to you,” she said harshly. “Nemesis, be at peace. I have come to free you with this blade.” She hefted the Silence Glaive.

 

Y'Golonac began to laugh, and all his spawn swarmed into the room. Swarmed over her. Biting, gnawing, slashing, smothering...

 

She brought down the Silence Glaive. She brought it down straight through the beast that had possessed the body of Sailor Nemesis. In the instant before the planet exploded in a wave of entropic destruction, Saturn saw the bloated flesh of the beast melting away, and Sailor Nemesis' spectral form tearing free of the chains that had held her from the Afterlife. Saturn's world dissolved into white.

 

And the fifth planet, Nemesis, ceased.

 

*FLASH*

 

Ranma came back to wakefulness and sat up with a start. WHAT the *HELL* was *THAT?*

 

Her heart was racing, and her hair clung to her sweat-streaked face. She brushed it aside and shuddered. The house was silent. Someone had turned off the light in her room since she had dozed off, but it otherwise looked no different than it had before.

 

She took a number of deep breaths, trying to center herself. Trying to banish the feelings and the images of the dream. Y'Golonac's horrid stench. The sullied feeling his voice had left in her mind. The unspeakable atrocities that the beast and its spawn had committed. She shuddered a second time. That monster was lucky it was dead, because otherwise, she would have definitely killed it.

 

What *was* that? It felt too vivid to be a dream, and the memory wasn't fading as a dream would have. A memory? She shook her head. She had never wanted to marry a guy. Even the remembered feeling of love for the man she would have married filled her with disgust, now. She'd thought this power that she'd been given had been something offered from the outside. Was it possible it was something she had possessed all along? Who *WAS* she, anyways? She thought she was Ranma Saotome. She'd been sure of it before that dream, or memory, or whatever it was. But now...

 

Though the clock read 3:42 AM, Ranma did not go back to sleep. She stared into the darkened mirror until dawn, wondering who on earth it was that was looking back at her.

 

END CHAPTER 05