Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ In Darkness In Fire ❯ The Red Fang ( Chapter 9 )

"Murderer." Ami spat, choosing now to take her chance. She threw her thin blanket at Pluto creating a curtain between them. Even as she threw the blanket she flung herself to the side, hoping that she was right in assuming the green haired woman would fire her shot when the distraction came at her. The horrifying wail behind her confirms it.

"Mercury Crystal Power, make up!" She shouted, the transformation going only for an instant before she emerged from it as Super Sailor Mercury. She dashed away from Pluto hoping to gain some distance to recover and formulate a battle strategy.

"Dead Scream!" The name of her spell preceded the banshee's wail. She could not believe the cunning of the girl, distracting her with such obvious technique. Now she would either have to abandon the girl here, or risk compromising her plan. She would be late if she delayed any further.

"Damn!" She growled in frustration as she twirled the staff, opening the gates of time long enough for her to slip through. The senshi would need reassurance as they neared the fruition of their plans.

Mercury was careening through the void, the shifting chaotic motion of what she guessed to be the housing area for the gates of time, somehow she'd find her way back, somehow she'd warn them. Somehow . . .

In Darkness In Fire

By: Xzero

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 9 - The Red Fang

Somewhere

Darkness and shifting color, nothing else fit into this dismal place. She had been going for hours, days, weeks, she could never be certain. Time was meaningless here, and until she found a way out, there would be no hope. The mercury computer answered her call, but according to it, the terrain around her did not exist.

"Null space. No temporal activity, except for that anomaly, which I can only assume to be the gate." She muttered to herself, hoping that actually hearing the problem would help her to solve it. The lack of distinguishing marks in the strange realm she was in had started to wear on her sanity. Sensory depravation was the only thing alike to this. There was no sound, her feet made no sound as she walked or ran. It was devoid of smell, yet oddly there was air. Everything blended together seamlessly, darkness and color shifting chaotically and endlessly. It was enough to make her ill, but still she fought it.

"Temporal activity, it's strained, but . . . " She snapped her fingers and her face lit up, exultant. "A minor sailor teleport might work." She knew it was risky. Her power was nowhere near enough to complete a long distance transit on her own. Only Saturn had that kind of power. Pluto could teleport as well, but the blue-haired senshi suspected that she was reliant on receding to the gate and then returning to a different point in time, making her staff a required part of her rapid movement.

"Or not." She recalled suddenly a time when she had seen Setsuna not wielding the staff, it had only been for a few minutes, and she had looked slightly mussed, as if it had taken a lot of energy to make that journey.

"That's it!" She realized it then, Setsuna used the staff as a focus for her power, allowing her to harness greater energy, just as all the outers, as well as Usagi used talismans to focus their power, the focusing ability of the item varied, as with all things. Perhaps she'd be able to do it after all. She was in Super Sailor form, if she used all her energy she would be able to make the jump, she hoped.

Akane

Her room was quiet. It was always quiet, she suddenly realized. She lay there on her bed, knees tucked against her chest with arms pulling them as close as she could. "Why?" She managed through her sobs. She had managed to keep everything from reaching her for a while, or at least, she had kept it inside, wanting to break down. It would've been so easy to give in. Her heart had ached, and her tears had leapt at the chance to spill, every moment Ranma wasn't looking at her was a moment that she had almost done so. But she realized it when she saw the look of broken hearted suffering on the young redhead's face, she, Ranma, was in pain beyond her own reckoning, and the grief that she had and did still feel was beyond measure. It wouldn't be right to break down when her own son had not.

"Baka." She whispered to the night, knowing in her heart that there was nothing she could do. Rage. It hurt her so very badly, being unable to help him. She wanted just once to be the one to help him, he had done so much for her, Saffron, Kirin, Toma, every time she stumbled and fell, he would be there for her, ready and willing to take the burden. She guessed that was what frustrated her the most about the pigtailed martial artist. He was so very incredible. It made her feel insignificant.

"No, that isn't it." She corrected herself internally, knowing what it was that sparked her ire toward the young man at first, something she was ashamed to admit. He was better than she was, and for a long time she was too blinded by her anger, genuinely jaded by rage to see the devotion that he showed to his art. That was why he was better, she too had been training in the art since the tender age of five, but never had her father pushed her into it. Ranma had known little of the world but the art. Sure he had been in school at times, and had proven by his passing marks at Furinkan that he had a level of intelligence that disagreed with his carefree and downright dopey demeanor. She had burned with rage at his disregard of her hard won skills.

But none of those rage-filled thoughts mattered, watching him suffer, something he had endlessly fought to keep her from. She was so very grateful to him, and now, when they were both free of the engagements, she could do nothing to help him, his soul weighted to the point of drowning in his own despair. But nothing fazed him now, he was at the least cold. She dreaded what might happen if he were to lose his humanity to this quest for vengeance.

"Oh Ranma."

Nabiki

The gentle click of an abacus was the only sound in the air. In a room that one might accredit to a Spartan a single woman lay on her bed, attempting to continue her calculations. Things were not going well, as the growl of frustration that escaped the brunette's throat might indicate. She tried in vain to focus her mind on the numbers and equations that would normally occupy her mind.

"Carry the two . . . argh dammit Ranma." It seems Nabiki too was worried. She grumbled mildly as she set her abacus aside, stretching herself across her bed with a frustrated sigh. Her analytical mind was racing, she had been a closet fan of the senshi for quite some time, and their betrayal was a blow that had been hard to get over. Especially when it was a member of her own extended family, who had been struck by their actions. All these things boiled under the surface, despair barely suppressed by the wall of ice she had constructed over her emotions long ago. Ranma, she realized had been hardest struck, Akane too, everyone was suffering from things. But she could only hope that whatever training Ranma had been doing, had made him strong enough to take the senshi, because as he was, she didn't think he could do it.

"What am I saying, of course he can, this is Ranma, he can do anything?" She said to herself, though the conviction was not strong in her statement. Her tears were held close in check and refused to spill for a long time, but as the daylight began to wane and falter, she could hold her tears no longer.

In the future, no one would notice nor care, but at that moment, she knew it. At seven forty-five that evening, Tendo "Ice Queen" Nabiki, died. In her place was the little girl that missed her mother, who needed to be strong but couldn't do it all on her own. It was then that her tears came in fountainous excess, the dam that held them finally gone.

Kasumi

A homemaker has many duties, and among them is seeing to the comfort and health of their charges. Kasumi sat in her room that night, unable to watch her dearest friend leave.

"Good luck Ranma-kun." She whispered beyond the tears that spilled down her cheeks, collecting in a salty pool on her knees. Occasionally a soft sniffle interrupted the wracking sobs. The dark night had come, in more ways than she could know. But in her heart she could feel the imbalance present in her home. She was disheartened by the feeling particularly in the dojo. It was so angry, but at the same time she could feel the pain and grief that emanated from the dojo. That had hurt her more than she could say, she had gone down there one night a few days ago, had gone to find Ranma weakened on the floor of the dojo. Tired no doubt after some incredible technique. It was unsurprising though that when she awakened him he had pushed his fatigue to the side and taken care of her needs, when she had been meaning to do the very opposite. She was supposed to take care of her family, all of her family, but in her impotence she was left with a despair that became palpable to her family, further discouraging the return to normal.

Soun and Genma

Sake was a marvelous drink, the two men thought, it could be taken cold or hot or even at room temperature and still have the profound effects that they sought. Each man could sit for hours grieving for his wife, but it was only when the sake stopped that they truly felt their pain. It was this feeling of hollow acceptance that led them to drink as much as they were now. Each night a borderline case of alcohol poisoning.

"Tendo . . . " The rest of his statement was lost to a drink induced stupor, unable was he to form words. Not that it stopped his long time friend and training partner from responding to the unspoken words.

"Sure, Shaotomee, he'll be fine." The dark-haired man seemed to have accurately reached the conclusion that he'd seen, as Genma immediately broke into a fit of tears, his drunken sobs causing the cup in his hands to slosh and spill on the hardwood floor. It was moments later when he let out a single anguished moan, before becoming completely solemn for the barest of moments.

"The boy will avenge No-chan, but what will become of him. I don't think Nodoka would understand if he lost his soul to revenge." With those words his moment of clarity ended, his mind once again enveloped by the alcohol. His face curled into a saddened pout as he noticed his empty cup. The spilled beverage pooled beside him, and in his lap, driving him into empty tears.

Soun looked on at his friend, seeing a man shifting between the large panda and the portly man in white. It was odd how similar the two were, as if it were a reflection of his soul. The panda was a lethargic creature, seemingly stupid, until provoked. It was at that moment when the animal felt threatened that it could bring the awkward seeming mass to bare. His mouth seemed to speak these thoughts unbidden, and Genma's tears ended as abruptly as they had begun, a contemplative look graced his features momentarily, before once again integrity was stolen from him by his truest vice.

They drank long into the night before unconsciousness claimed them, a veritable mountain of bottles of sake forming a fortress of amber glass around them.

Minato Ward

"It is agreed then." Setsuna's voice came from within the shrine proper. "If any of you see the Dark Knight, they are to follow and call for backup, and under no circumstances are you to engage him on your own." She explained sternly, sending her cold glance directly at the sky senshi.

Haruka for her part seemed entirely unfazed by the arctic gaze. She turned her own gaze upon the eldest senshi.

"I don't see what the point is, from what I saw he's no match for us, after all, his mother couldn't stand against us, and she was the stronger of the two." Her logic was sound, but Setsuna was prepared for such a statement, knowing full and well that the sandy blonde was both prideful and obstinate.

"He is resourceful, and has more than likely done something that none of you has done in the last month, train himself to the best of his abilities." She explained in her usual demeaning monotone. "If there is nothing else, I have business to attend to." With that she was gone, off to only she knew where. They could all guess that she was going to her post at the gates of time, hoping to observe the actions of the knight, despite her admitted inability to see anything that regarded him personally. It was assumed that she spent her time waiting for him to encounter one of them, that she'd be able to join the fray the swiftest.

Minato Ward - Ruined Saotome Estate

The dark of night and the ruins of the dojo house remained untouched, Genma having yet to decide the course of action to take with the property.

"Just as well." Ranma thought to himself as he started through the rubble. He had come here for one reason, and this was it he knew as he felt the surge of energy reacting to his own.

"Red Fang." He vocalized in scant above a whisper. This was his mother's blade, and before his eyes the blade indeed did take the red sheen that was suggested in the scrolls. He supposed that it was true than, that the Red Fang would only take true form in the presence of an ascended Knight. He bent then to take up the blade, feeling the ancient power course through his body before returning to the blade. It seemed to thrum with unspent energy in his hand. A few quick swipes through the air with it and the visible red streaks left behind for mere moments before he continued was incredible. A wicked smile crossed his features, and in his single-minded pursuit of the blade he had not noticed the crimson and ebon aura that had enveloped him as he spoke. His clothes and hair were lifted and had begun to fly in the ki wind that he had caused. Eyes closed he exalted in his own power. The aura disappeared then, and his eyes snapped open as he slid the katana easily into its sheath.

"It begins."

To Be Continued...

A/N: Hear marks the beginning of the final section of IDIF. I truly do apologize for the delay, I have recently moved to Portola and have been unable to use the computer very much. I hope to set up my computer at some point, or if not, adjust my profile on this one enough to suit. Anyhow, please leave in-depth reviews, good or bad. I am enjoying this story immensely and am encouraged and gain a greater enthusiasm for writing it when I know that people enjoy reading. Well, as you may guess, the senshi will be hunting Ranma just as surely as he is hunting them. Only chaos can ensue when the two forces meet. See ya.