Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Project I: Zero Ranma ❯ Ranma's Past, Part 2 ( Chapter 8 )

-Previously on Project: Zero Ranma-

Picture of Ranma hugging a long brown haired girl with sapphire blue eyes... Ranma's love, Iris.

"I swear... I will never forget you..." Ranma said, tears flowing down his eyes and the gold orb in his hand...

Picture of Ranma, Zero and X fighting a large robot, which was the General of the Repliforce...

"YAHH!!!" Ranma shouted as he dove bravely and foolishly towards the robot's head, with his blade downward towards its neck.

Picture of Zero, X, and Ranma dashing towards the door... And we continue our story.

"Who could've taken control of a large secured military institute?" asked X while the three ran inside a corridor.

"I don't know," Zero said. "But whoever it is must be stopped. I can feel the station moving downwards..."

"Someone's landing it?" asked Ranma.

"No... I think someone's trying to crash it..." Zero said shortly. "And the size of this thing... It'll be destruction beyond everything to the earth..."

The hunters continued to go on until they met a fierce resistance of Repliforce robots which don't seem to even know what they are doing.

"Damn it!" X said as he shot a charged buster towards the flying robot. Zero and Ranma teamed up against a large and strong robot.

After disposing about ten robots, they entered the door which revealed 8 blue teleporters, and one gold one.

"Which one?" asked Ranma.

Zero looked carefully at the blue ones; they glowed while the gold one didn't. He jumped on the gold one, and nothing happened.

"I think we should go to the blue ones first..." Zero observed. He looked at his two friends which they nodded. Each took a separate blue teleporter.

"Good luck," said Ranma at his two friends as he disappeared.

-Omega X Present-

-Project: Zero Ranma-

-Chapter 8: Ranma's Past, Part 2 [I'm so so evil!!!]-

=Present day=

"It seems that the teleporters contained enemies we fought before..." X continued. "It was unfortunate for Ranma..."

"Why?" asked Sasami.

Zero looked at X, who just bowed his head. "Ranma fought an enemy he never wanted to face... a lion," he continued for X. "And he's scared of lions..."

Nodoka gasped. "You mean... when Ranma was put on the lions..." and she stopped.

Katsuhito glared at his daughter. "What do you mean `When Ranma was put in the lions'?"

Nodoka bowed her head. "Ranma told me what happened after he disappeared... he told me that Genma put him through... what was it called? Neko... neko something..."

Katsuhito stood up this time. "Neko-ken? THE Neko-ken?" he said in disgust.

Everyone looked at him. "You know what is this Neko-ken?" asked Washu.

Katsuhito just shook his head. "Genma... that idiot," and he faced them. "The Neko-ken is a powerful martial arts technique, using the natural energy of the person to form invisible external claws which can cut through steel, wood and almost any material... And to make it worse, it can extend to almost 5 meters if the energy is concentrated enough..."

"So?" asked Ukyou. "If it's so powerful, why is it bad?"

Katsuhito looked at her and frowned. "Well, to attain such ability, the person should be forced to face their greatest fear," and he paused. "The cats, and when the mind reaches the breaking point, the person acts like a cat... That's why the training is putting the student as a child into a pit of starving cats..."

Sasami covered her mouth.

"But I never knew that Genma was stupid enough to take it into a new level... using lions instead..."

Dr. Light suddenly stood up and his eyes were shining strangely. "Oh my goodness," he said. "I forgot..." and he ran towards the broom closet.

Everyone looked at him as he passed, but then, after that moment, put their focus on X who continued the story

=Ranma's mind=

Ranma's eye focused on the darkness. "Where am I?" he asked to no one. Suddeny, his eyes blinked as the room grew brighter, and he was taken aback as he saw a humungous lion in front of him. Fear began to rise out of him. He hastily backed away from the lion.

{No, father!!! Stop it!!!}

The lion roared as he dashed towards Ranma. Ranma's thoughts were shoved out of his head when his training and instinct came in as he jumped out of the way. The lion just looked at the back of his head, and did a front flip at Ranma's flying back, and two crescent energies came towards Ranma.

Ranma screamed as the two energies came crashing painfully in his back. He landed on the ground and his danger sense came alive again as the lion Maverick came dashing towards him.

It grabbed Ranma in the back of his neck and dragged him towards the wall and slammed Ranma's face to it repeatedly and threw him away.

Ranma stood up shakily, trying to get his fear out of his head. {Lions tearing his body...}

His mind flooded with the lion's cage, lions tearing him up, biting him. And the pain that his real body was taking was not helping him, as the Maverick found no resistance by Ranma and continued to pound on him.

In Ranma's mind, a lion slashed his face, and the maverick also slashed his face at the same time. Ranma flew off towards the wall.

The Maverick grunted. It was easy. Too easy. And as he turned his back on him, he failed to notice Ranma standing up.

{I am Greiver...}{The spirit of a hunter}{Spirit of the lion}

Ranma's eyes opened, but his eyes, those blue eyes were not seen anymore. It showed nothing but red... and he roared.

The maverick looked back at his target. It was fully standing, hands cupped opened like he had claws. It roared as he turned completely around to Ranma and dashed towards him. Ranma faced him, and dashed on him as well...

-Outside the teleporter-

X and Zero were nervous as they waited for Ranma appeared.

"Damn it..." X said. "Are you sure, Zero, that you didn't meet the Slash Beast Maverick?"

"No... It seems that Ranma took it..." Zero replied quietly.

"He's scared of lions right? Can he survive? Can he escape?" X began to panic.

"I don't..." and he stopped as Ranma's silhouette appeared in the teleporter.

It was a sorry sight for X. His friend's black armor was torn to almost a critical state, and it was repairing slowly.

"I'm okay," Ranma said softly seeing their eyes. "I just need some energy capsules... Can you spare some?"

Zero just nodded and handed him a capsule glowing yellow. Ranma put it on a hole near his arm, and as he poured the liquid in, he felt a breeze of relief. His armor was repairing in a faster rate now. He checked his hands again, and saw the gold orb he left near the teleporter. He took it and put it in his chest as the armor closed around it. When he let go of the orb, the armor held the orb securely on his chest.

"Let's go..." Ranma said before both of them could speak. "It looks like the gold teleporter is working now..."

The three figures took turns as they jumped to the teleporter, Ranma first, X second and Zero last.

=Masaki's household=

"What happened?" asked Ayeka, speaking for the first time ever since they started telling about Ranma's story.

Zero shrugged. "We don't know... All we know is that he took a heavy beating and defeated his greatest fear..."

Ayeka slumped in silence, and Ryoko looked a bit horrified as the images of being thrown in a den of lions as a child. Tenchi looked at both figures with almost a sorry look in his face.

"Anyway, we got transported on a corridor with a fork with three paths. I took the left, Zero took the right, and Ranma took the center." X said as he continued his story.

=Back to Ranma's mind=

Ranma sped towards the corridor, and finally met a familiar purple door. He dashed towards it as the doors opened and locked behind him, and his sensors went array.

Chaos was in the air. "Who's there?" Ranma asked to the air.

Laughter. Terrible laughter filled the air, as a shadow appeared floating on top of Ranma.

"Ranma..." it said. "So, you arrived."

"Sigma..." Ranma said.

Sigma looked like the symbol of death. A dark torn cloak and glowing yellow eyes, and on his hand was a scythe held by a long handle. The blade was glowing with an eerie green energy.

"It seems that I meet you again," Sigma said. "Did you enjoy what I gave to your friend?" he said as he looked intently at the orb in Ranma's chest.

Ranma didn't look surprised, or confused by his words. "So, it was you who gave that energy orb to Iris..." he didn't sound angry. In fact, he sounded like nothing Sigma heard anyone speak like before.

"I hope your happy Sigma, because I swear," Ranma began to speak so slowly that every word shook with unseen power. "You're going to die."

"I expected nothing less..." Sigma said as he disappeared.

Ranma took a stance as his inner sensors went wild. Sigma's energy signature is spreading around the air. He adjusted it a bit, and found out that the energy is diluted in the surroundings, and then, it concentrated on a specific point. Ranma suddenly jumped towards the place, and slashed air.

His R-Saber hit the blade of Sigma's scythe, and they parried in midair. Ranma looked for an opening as they fought. He slashed down hard as he saw one, but Sigma disappeared. Ranma's danger sense rang so loud in his head he almost had a headache.

Ranma felt a powerful blow on his back as he was pushed to the ground. It either was luck or Ranma's training that helped him dodge the scythe slashing towards him. Ranma stood up hurriedly as he dodged another slash.

(His clothes...) Ranma observed, and it hit him.

It was an advanced cloaking device, which was experimented during the first Maverick war. (No wonder he could disappear...) he thought.

Ranma suddenly attacked. "RYUENJIN!!!" he said as he drove his sword upward, fire dancing as he passed through the air.

"RAAAGGGHHH!" Sigma screamed as the cloak caught on fire and spread so quickly that he took it off at once. "DAMN YOU!" he said as his face appeared. It was like still the same bald face with a line etched in his eyes, but the body had more mass than the last time Ranma fought with Sigma.

Ranma took a ready stance as Sigma [who's weapon was still a scythe] jumped in the air and threw the scythe, which flew, all over the place. Ranma parried the flying weapon with his own and threw the scythe back at Sigma, who caught it with ease.

Sigma just jumped again in the air and threw it hard to Ranma, who jumped out of the way as the scythe landed neatly on the wall, and the energy spread all over the wall, like electricity. Sigma jumped towards the wall, and Ranma thought for a wild moment that he was going to take it, but as Sigma turned on Ranma, his eyes were glowing.

Ranma's eyes widened and jumped just in time before Sigma's laser eyes could hit him, as the lasers gazed the ground while Ranma hanged on the wall. Sigma turned his head and the laser followed his gaze as Ranma jumped away from the wall. He dived towards Sigma, blade out as a hilt, and did a move that he just discovered in the spur of the moment.

"Mid-air-Shippuuga!" he said as he dived downwards diagonally towards Sigma, blade in his side, and when there was a second before contact, he let out a powerful slash, which hit Sigma in the face and the scythe on the wall directly. Sigma screamed as the blade seemed to tear through his body and the scream suddenly came to halt, like pressing the mute button on the T.V. controller. Ranma looked around only to see nothing.

"You can't stop… me!!!" Sigma said, his voice echoing in the halls. "You will die!!!"

And the place gave an almighty lurch as the space station suddenly moved at a faster rate.

"Oh no…" Ranma said to himself.

"What's going on?" asked a voice behind him. Ranma turned around to face X and Zero.

"Zero, it's Sigma…" and Ranma saw him stiffen. "He… I don't know, he took over the space station… he's gonna crash it."

X looked horrified, but Zero's leadership attitude took control.

"Okay, we need to find a ship, preferably with a radio," he said.

"Use the escape ships about three meters ahead from this place," said another voice behind them. It was the General of the Repliforce.

Ranma and his two friends looked to each other. They all nodded. They ran towards the purple door in front of them. X entered first, then Zero, but Ranma looked back.

"Aren't you coming with us?" he asked the General.

"No… It's my responsibility for this whole predicament. I'll stay and see if there is anyway to prevent further damage…"

Ranma would've protested, but he saw it in the robot's eyes. (He decided) he thought.

Ranma just took a run towards the door, and dashed forward until he met Zero.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded.

"Sorry," Ranma said. "Wanted to say good-bye."

Zero just nodded as they both entered the escape pod, where they saw X talking towards the radio.

"He's talking to Dr. Light," Zero said, seeing the question in Ranma's face. "It might not be much, but he can call his friends and workers to all get to shelter."

Ranma nodded. Dr. Light's `friends' were important figures in the governments in most of the countries.

"Okay," X said, looking away from the radio to his left, where the control of the pod was situated in. "Let's get out of here!"

Ranma had something in his mind. "Zero," he said. "Can the earth survive such impact?"

Zero looked sad. "No… Such mass and velocity, the only thing left will be a chunk…"

Ranma looked down on his feet, and clutched the gold orb ion his chest.

As the escape pod left the station, the General had other things in mind. He held his arm out which concealed a red button. "You wont take us all so easily…" he said as he pushed the button.

=Back to the pod=

An explosion took place in the space station, which sent shockwaves towards the ship as it almost spun out of control and only X's piloting skills saved them from being blown away.

"What the hell…?!" X said as he tried to control it. "What happened to the space station?"

Zero looked out of the window. "The General self-destructed it," he said calmly.

Ranma took a look as well, and he sighed. It seems that the space station was blown to two halves, and each halve was going in around the earth, missing it. "It'll miss..." Ranma said as he saw the parts going away from the earth.

Quite suddenly, a part of the station came to life as boosters seemed to appear from it's sides. "Sigma..." Zero said quietly.

The three watched in horror as the part of the space station righted it's course to earth, and when it struck, the whole world would never be the same again.

=Masaki household=

"What happened?" asked Ukyou.

"The half of the station came to earth with a speed of 5 Kilometers per second," X said, his voice a bit shaking. "It hit the earth with tremendous impact..."

Zero just stared out of the window. "It destroyed nearly half of the population on earth... Reploids died, humans almost became instinct..."

"Just like Second Impact..." Nodoka said, remembering EVA.

"Yes, millions of people died," Zero continued. "But, there was still hope for survival. We thought Sigma died in the impact, but then, shortly after we landed, we detected his energy signatures..."

=Ranma's mind=

"Kami-sama... what monster are you?" asked Ranma at the screen in front of him. The Hunter H.Q. was destroyed by the impact, but spare equipments were used to reconnect to satellite imaging. In the crater of the impact, we can see a glow of purple light and high energy readings.

X and Zero stood right beside him. "Let's finish this..." Zero said to the two, and they nodded.

At the crash sight, a great battle took place as Sigma, who was only a head now, was so powerful that the three Maverick Hunters were at their limit in skills and power to defeat Sigma. It seems that Sigma took the power of the ship's core and the power he had was so intense that at the final moment...

"YAHHH!!!" Ranma shouted as he slashed downwards towards Sigma's head. Sigma just dodged the slash and threw a beam of energy towards Ranma, which hit his arm and almost destroyed it, if it wasn't for Ranma's fast reaction of pulling his hand out of the beam, like pulling your hand out of the flame. Ranma tried to attack again, but he noticed something. His R- Saber was melted, and was still liquid. Not wanting it to stick in his hand, he threw it away.

Meanwhile, Sigma found two new people to fight.

"DIE!!!" Sigma screamed, as his eyes fired an intense beam of energy which hit both X and Zero. The beam tore through X and Zero.

The last moment, Zero took out his Z-Saber, and threw it to Ranma. Ranma, catching it, saw that X and Zero were in no condition to fight. There was a hole in X's chest, and Zero was torn apart. Before he knew what he was doing, he took out the Colonel's keepsake. Ranma flared up with energy as he took the Z-saber in one hand, and the Colonel's sword on another.

Sigma looked back to Ranma, and he smiled and evil smile. "You still want to fight?" he asked, as he hovered through the air, towards Ranma. "Come on then!!!"

Ranma dashed and jumped high in the air, bringing down the Z-Saber on Sigma's head. When Sigma dodged it, Ranma just continued slashing, alternating from left to right hand. When the moment came, he slashed twice downwards, and Sigma disappeared.

Sigma reappeared in font of Ranma, and his eyes glowed purple.

(This is it...) Ranma thought, knowing that he couldn't recover fast enough to dodge the attack.

"DIE!!!" Sigma said as the purple beam flew towards Ranma, and something happened.

The gold orb of Iris, which was situated in Ranma's chest, glowed and as the beam came towards Ranma, X and Zero couldn't believe their eyes. A yellow aura covered Ranma and the beam hit Ranma, and nothing happened. Ranma still stood there, eyes wide open. A voice came over him, so deep and softly, that only he could hear it.

"Ranma..." said a voice. The voice of Iris. "Ranma..."

Ranma couldn't believe his ears, but it was there, her voice, her power, all around him.

"Yes..." Ranma found himself saying. "Let's finish this..."

Ranma dashed towards Sigma, who couldn't believe his eyes. And Ranma unleashed his ultimate move.

"ZERO-..." he began, and his aura turned from yellow to gold, "STRIKE!!!"

And he spiraled in the air, going towards Sigma at a fast rate, and before anyone knew what was happening, Ranma stood on the other side, his glow subsiding, two swords in his hand, and there was a pause.

Finally, Sigma screamed in pain as he glowed purple, and was going to explode. All three hunters covered their eyes as the light intensified and finally subsiding, with nothing left of Sigma.

=Masaki household=

"After that," Zero continued. "He asked if he could go back home. To meet his family."

Washu, who heard enough, stood up. "I got to go," she said. "I'll check on Dr. Light."

Silence reigned the living room, until Nodoka spoke.

"Does he hate me?" she asked. Everyone looked at her disbelieving. "I mean, if it wasn't me and this whole man among men bullshit I had in my mind before... Ranma wouldn't be put to such circumstances..."

Katsuhito stood up. "If he hated you, daughter, he wouldn't return."

"What if he knew the whole truth? That I wanted Genma to take him? To train him?"

Zero just looked at Nodoka. "There were times Ranma would say a lot of good things to you," he said, which made everyone stare at him. "He said he missed his mom, his best friend, Ucchan, as he calls him..."

Ukyou stood up. "I'm Ucchan..."

X looked confused. "But, Ucchan's a boy..."

Ukyou just sighed. "I'm a girl... Ranma thought I was a boy..."

Zero just nodded. "Ranma missed his family. He wanted to come home to live in peace, with his family. How would you feel, Nodoka-san, that even if Ranma suffered so bad, that he lost his love, still wanted to come home?"

Nodoka looked up quietly to the roof. Finally, she answered. "Happy..."

Zero just nodded. "And I don't know if he said this to you..."

"What?" asked Nodoka.

"Because of the Neko-ken, or whatever you call it, he can't have children..." Zero said sadly. "That was the biggest blow to him when he planned on marrying Iris."

Everyone just stared at Zero in horror.

=Washu's lab=

"What are you doing?" asked Washu to Dr. Light, who was typing something in her computer.

"Upgrading his armor," Dr. Light said. "After hearing the power of this Neko-ken, I thought I could create an armor to make Ranma access his special ability."

Washu just watched Dr. Light type. "Can I help?" she asked.

Dr. Light nodded.

To be continued...

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NEXT: Ranma wakes up, and his armor is done. What will be the fate of the Outers?

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