Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ City of Dreams ❯ Final ( Chapter 15 )

“All right, I want people here, here, and here,” Ranma said pointing at a large map that was unrolled on a table. That the geography of the map changed from second to second mattered little to the various dreams and nightmares gathered around the impromptu war room.

 

“If we can get control of those energy depots we'll be able to mount a proper offensive against Morpheus' troops,” Zeke added with a grunt, “We'll focus at these nodes while Ranma slips into Hathor's dreamscape to rescue the goddess. Once she's safe, we'll be able to attack without Morpheus using her as a hostage.”

 

Ranma was about to speak again when there was a sound of commotion from outside followed by a couple of dreams being thrown aside like stuffed animals (The fact one of them looked like a care bear was incidental). Neru, the small Japanese kami, stopped in front of Ranma, panting heavily.

 

“Oh *huff* I am so going to need *pant pant* a nap when this is over!” a look of relief came over her when she saw Ranma before her, “Lord Ranma, thank the Dreaming I found you!”

 

“Neru? What are you doing here?”

 

“I just came from your mother's...”

 

“My mother? How is she? Is she safe?” Ranma bombarded the poor spirit with questions.

 

Neru relayed everything she could about Hathor's captivity then told Ranma what the Goddess of Dreams had told her to tell him. “My Lord, she said that `Dreams are only as powerful as the Dreamer.' Do you know what she meant?”

 

Ranma sat back on a chair that hadn't been there a moment ago to think. His puzzled expression changed to one of realization as it became clear to him.

 

“I understand! Zeke, new plan. Continue to concentrate on those dream nodes, we'll need them to coordinate everything. Find all the dreams and nightmares we can trust and have them start bringing the dreamers in.”

 

Neru gasped. “My lord! We can't do that! We've never allowed that many dreamers into the dreaming! There's no way we could control that many at once!”

 

Zeke nodded but didn't seem happy. “It'll be difficult. Outside of their own dreamscapes that many dreamers will be beyond our control ya know. As long as they stay on our side there's nothing we can't beat. We'll win this war hands down for sure. But it's an extreme risk. The very fabric of the dreaming could be torn apart if they were to turn on us. Ya sure about this Ranma? The cure could be worse than the disease.”

 

“It's just going to be one time. We might get some return visitors out of the bunch but most of them will wake up thinking it was just a dream and go back to their lives. Besides, from what I've heard, we used to have visitors from the blind all the time in the old days,” Ranma argued.

 

Joe shook his head. “I be thinkin' we don't `ave much of a choice `ere. I agree wit Zeke though `dat we be needin' ta be cautious.”

 

Ranma sighed. “All right, we have our missions then. Neru, you're with me. I want you to show me the back way you took into Hathor's palace. Let's do this people!”

 

Everyone cheered and began to split up into their various factions.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Akane looked up at the clock. It was nearly four A.M. and both her and Nodoka had been talking ever since the incident in the Dreaming had awoken both of them.

 

“Since magic does exist, I wonder if I could learn some. Not the stage stuff but the real thing,” Akane mused.

 

The dialogue had veered off course from the original subject of the Dreaming. But in the process Ranma's real mother and the youngest Tendo had become good friends.

 

“Hmmm, but where would you find anyone to teach you?” Nodoka answered before taking a sip of her tea.

 

It was apparent that neither of them would be getting any more sleep that night.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Dreams spread out across the entire ever-changing terrain of the Dreaming entering the personal dreamscapes of men, women, and children who were asleep all across Asia, India, and even the Eastern edge of Africa and Europe. Everywhere they talked to the people dreaming, trying to convince them to answer the call of arms and defend the Dreaming from the nightmares.

 

In a small tent, in a forest somewhere in Hokkaido, a man slept. The tiger striped bandana he wore collected the sweat on his forehead as he tossed and turned in his sleep. As he dreamed he knew this was somehow someone else's fault.

 

A young girl dreamt of her friend from her youth, a friend who she was to marry until she found out about his catatonic state. He was helping her with her Okonomiyaki restaurant as their children ran and played out in the dining area. When her love turned to her and asked for her help to save the dimension of dreams she didn't hesitate to agree.

 

Nabiki and Kasumi both were willing to come to the aid of Ranma and his friends, if nothing else than to help their sister.

 

In China a young woman with purple hair dreamed of one day finding the man who was strong enough to defeat her in battle thus sweeping her off her feet to spend a night filled with carnal pleasures. When she was interrupted, she was mildly annoyed yet and Amazon never turned down a challenge.

 

The young woman's great great grandmother was approached by one of the ancestors of her tribe. She was asked to provide aid as the threat to the Dreaming was greater than had ever existed before. Khu Lon agreed even though she had not been to the Dreaming in over two hundred years. She wondered at the stories of the mortal son of the goddess of dreams and wondered if maybe a trip to Nerima, Japan was in order once this crisis was passed. After all her great great granddaughter was about the same age. It could be a fine match.

 

The young hidden weapons master promised that he would follow her anywhere, into the very fires of hell if need be. Celeste the succubus giggled to herself at how easy it was to manipulate some of these mortals. She brushed her currently purple hair back and opened a door that would lead directly into the Dreaming. Mousse followed the Shampoo look alike towards his destiny.

 

Similar events happened all over the dark side of the Earth. From Japan, where people were less than an hour from getting up, to England, where some people had just turned in early for the coming night, people were following dreams into the Dreaming.

 

Zeke looked over the forming army and shuddered. Over a billion people had been recruited and were being given basic instruction on how the Dreaming worked. If even ten percent of them remembered how to get back here again then the whole face of the Dreaming would be forever altered. He watched as people began to change themselves into various superheroes or magical girls and martial artists. It was interesting to see how people viewed heroes in this day and age. Japanese television had had a major impact on the world's self image. As he was about to turn to another section he spotted someone he'd thought dead many years ago.

 

“Khu Lon! I thought you'd be dead now fool!” He shouted while puffing on his big cigar.

 

The young emerald haired warrior woman looked up at the clawed Marilyn Monroe and smiled. “Hello Zeke. You're looking good these days.”

 

Zeke looked stunned. “how'd you know it was me?”

 

“You can change your looks but you can't change your aura. You should know that.”

 

“Heh, never could fool you ya know. What're ya doin' still alive anyhow?” Zeke asked.

 

Khu Lon shrugged. “Healthy living I suppose. Although I don't look anywhere near this beautiful in the Blind anymore. I assume Morpheus has made his move for you to risk so many dreamers in the Dreaming.”

 

“You always were on the ball, even back then. How'd you know it was Morpheus?”

 

“I suspected he was the main reason so many of us were banished to our own dreamscapes so many years ago. Dreamers have a power here beyond even the dreams that inhabit the place. We were a threat to his power base and as such had to be eliminated. Ah, I see my great great granddaughter over there. Good luck to you Zeke, I know us dreamers have little to fear here unlike yourself.”

 

Zeke nodded solemnly. “Thank you, it was good to see you again. Maybe we can get together after this whole mess is over and catch up on old times.”

 

“I would like that,” Khu Lon replied.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Ranma followed Neru through a convoluted series of dreamscapes as they made their way to Hathor's rooms. Ranma hoped they could get in and out without being noticed but prepared for the worst.

 

They reached the final leg of their journey and came to a stop before a tree with a hole leading down between the roots.

 

“A rabbit hole? Aren't we getting all cliché today.” Ranma remarked.

 

Neru blushed. “I'm sorry my lord, Hathor herself created this backdoor and even though it's shielded like the rest of her dreamscape, the shields are weakest here.”

 

Ranma sighed. There was nothing to do about it then. “I'll set off any alarms the instant I break through. You wait here to get Hathor away as soon as she comes through. I may have to stay behind to delay any pursuers.”

 

Neru nodded and gathered her resolve. She would be brave like Lord Ranma and her mentor Hathor. She gulped nervously though and hoped she wouldn't have to fight.

 

Ranma gave Neru one of his patented smirks that made the small goddess' heart jump in her chest and plunged through the rabbit hole. Neru leaned back against the tree and sighed. She wondered if she would ever get the nerve to tell the young man how she felt about him.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Hathor was looking out over her garden when Ranma came falling through a hole that was suddenly in the roof. She was stunned to see her adopted son so soon but rushed over to hug him anyway.

 

“Hello mother, I missed you,” Ranma said as he returned the hug, “We have to get you out of here though. I've held open the way out of here so we'd better hurry before someone comes.”

 

“Too late for that boy,” came a voice from behind them. Ranma turned to see two large nightmares enter the room. They were made up to look like your standard winged demons with red skin and cloven hooves. Ranma looked past their appearances and found that his friend Joe was more powerful than these jokers. That meant someone more powerful had to be close to keep Hathor from escaping.

 

Ranma gestured towards the hole. “Go mother, Neru is waiting for you on the other side. She'll get you to the resistance.”

 

“What about you son?” Hathor asked as she stepped towards the exit.

 

“Heh, these guys are a joke. I'll delay any pursuit then follow you.”

 

Hathor nodded and jumped up through the hole as Ranma stepped between he and the two nightmares.

 

“Big mistake kid, Morpheus gave us orders to tear you apart,” one of the demons growled. It rushed forward and clawed at Ranma.

 

Ranma evaded the clumsy strike and reached forward into the chest of the demon. With a ripping sound he pulled a black pulsing heart from the open wound.

 

“I guess Morpheus didn't tell you anything about me. I'm not just some dream you can push around. I'm one of the dreamers and I eat guys like you for lunch.” Ranma gave the heart a squeeze causing the demon he'd pulled it from to scream in pain as it collapsed to the floor. The other demon turned white as fear crept up on its soul.

 

“Please, don't hurt him anymore! My brother has a wife!” the demon cried and it sank down next to the one writhing in pain. “We didn't know you were a dreamer. Sure, we'd heard rumors...” it trailed off looking pitiful.

 

Ranma shook his head. “Where's Morpheus? I know he wouldn't leave two low level nightmares like you in charge.”

 

“He was in Hathor's chambers. He was looking for something.”

 

“And it appears I have found it.”

 

Ranma looked up to see the dark cloaked form of Morpheus, lord of nightmares.

 

“You see, Hathor left a substantial amount of power in a gem. A dreamstone if you will. It was how she was able to keep you here in the Dreaming. Didn't you ever wonder why you could never wake up like other dreamers?”

 

Ranma shook his head, “It never mattered. Your plan won't succeed you know.”

 

“Oh, we'll see about that won't we? She left the stone in a very obvious place, yet I never thought about it before now. It's in you boy and you will give it to me. Once I have that stone, I will have control over the entirety of the Dreaming and you will be cast out just like your little girlfriend.”

 

Suddenly the whole of Hathor's dreamscape tilted and shifted. Morpheus seemed shocked, it was hard to tell beneath his hood.

 

“A dreamquake? What have you done boy?”

 

Ranma smirked. “A dream is only as powerful as the dreamer. You can't win against the dreamers Morpheus.”

 

“You fool! They will rip the Dreaming to shreds! You've doomed us all! Give me the stone and I might be able to stop this. Hurry boy!” Morpheus was shout dramatically.

 

“Even if I knew where it was I'd never give it to you,” Ranma shouted over the cacophony of another quake.

 

Morpheus leapt at Ranma, his hands morphing into claws as the rest of his body burst out of the dark robes to reveal a black scaly hide. Ranma dodged to his left and tossed the heart he'd been holding back to the demon on the ground. The demon put it back in its chest and quickly faded away with it's sibling.

 

“I have worked for centuries towards my rule of this domain and I will not be thwarted by you or anyone else in the Blind!” Morpheus continued to grow until he was a large black dragon. The room seemed to accommodate his size even though it hadn't grown at all. Such is the nature of dreams.

 

“Hah,” Ranma laughed as he leapt over a funnel of fire from the dragon's mouth, “I guess I'm just a monkey wrench in the works then. Mother always told me there was a reason I was named `Chaos Horse'.”

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

The attack had gone smoothly for all of five seconds. The instant some of the nightmares began to fight back against the dreamers, forcing them to awaken, was when the dreamquakes began. Some of the dreamers were forcing the reality of the Dreaming to conform to their will subconsciously to fight the nightmares. However there was little consensus as to the shape this reality should take, as a result the Dreaming shook as multiple wills struggled to remake the Dreaming in their own image.

 

Zeke wondered for the eighth time if he would survive the battle as nightmares were torn apart, their dream essence dispersing into the ether. The enemy lines broke almost immediately after the quakes began. It was because of the nightmares supporting Morpheus were in such disarray that the dreamers were still fighting. If Morpheus' army had simply retreated, Zeke was sure they could calm the dreamers down and get them back to their own dreadscapes.

 

Another quake hit, stronger than the last one. A tear formed in the sky above the battlefield showing the chaos that dwelled outside the Dreaming. Zeke was scared, not that he'd ever admit to such. It was beginning to look like their final gambit was going to destroy them all.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Morpheus roared in pain as Ranma clawed down his back. Hathor had been an Egyptian goddess in the old days, and as such, had been able to introduce Ranma to Bastet, the goddess of cats. Bastet had re-trained Ranma in the proper neko-ken years ago. A technique Ranma was using much to the detriment of Morpheus' back.

 

“You insufferable fool! Don't you realize that only Hathor's power united with mine can save the Dreaming now?”

 

“Even if that's true, I won't give you the power to rule.” Ranma yelled back as he jumped over a falling column. Hathor's dreamscape was crumbling around them and Ranma could only guess what the rest of the Dreaming looked like.

 

He thought about what Morpheus was telling him as he dodged another attack. Supposedly, he had a stone inside him that held most of Hathor's power. He needed to join that with Morpheus' power yet in such a way that Morpheus could not use it after the Dreaming was saved. There had to be something he could do.

 

As Ranma blocked a beam of energy from Morpheus' claws, the answer came to him. It was a technique taught to him by a man who claimed to be the founder of the Anything Goes school that Ranma practiced. The little man frequented the edge of the Dreaming and had taught Ranma many fascinating techniques, one of which he hoped would actually work here.

 

Ranma needed room to execute the attack so he burst through the window and into the garden. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the item that was crucial to the attack.

 

He turned and dodged a claw to the head and held up the five yen piece.

 

“Happo Go En Sattsu!”

 

Morpheus screamed in pain as his aura began flowing through the air, into the hole of the coin and into Ranma. Ranma gritted his teeth as the rush of power filled his entire being. He briefly wondered if he could survive draining a god's energy. He hoped so, he'd like to see Akane again someday.

 

“No! Stop, please! I'll give you anything you want! I'll let the girl come back to the dreaming! I'll take you as an apprentice! Anything!” Morpheus continued to yell as his form grew smaller and smaller. His robes appeared and he regained his human appearance. Finally he slumped to the ground, appearing to be nothing more than a pile of empty robes. Ranma hardly noticed though as the pain of holding so much energy at once was proving to be difficult.

 

He looked down to see he was literally glowing. He tried to bring it under control like he did with his own ki when he noticed a second energy resonating with Morpheus'. That had to be the dreamstone the Nightmare Lord had been referring to. As he focused on it, the stolen energy began to funnel into it. With a sigh of relief Ranma dropped to his knees to catch his breath.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Because Nodoka and Akane were downstairs, no one noticed Ranma's body lying on the futon in the guest room begin to glow then fade to normal.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Ranma looked up at the widening tears in the sky. He knew what had to be done now and the risks it entailed. He couldn't entrust it to anyone else. It had been him who suggested bringing the dreamers so it was his responsibility alone. He flew up so he could overlook the majority of the dreaming. He could feel the dreamers. Many were scared of what was happening while some others were reveling in their newfound power.

 

Tapping into the stone in his chest, Ranma reached out and gently pushed the dreamers out of the Dreaming and back into their own dreamscapes. As sweat formed on his brow from the concentration, Ranma knew this was the easy part. Once the dreamers were safe he turned his attention on the Dreaming itself. There were cracks and tears everywhere and Chaos was leaking in through many of them. Closing his eyes, Ranma brought the full power inside the gem to bear on the damaged realm around him.

 

Far below, Hathor with the help of Neru joined up with Zeke and the nightmare Joe. Hathor could feel the power Ranma was attempting to use.

 

“No Ranma! You'll only destroy yourself!” she cried, tears running down her face.

 

“Can't you do anything?” Neru asked.

 

“No, almost all my power was in that gem Ranma is using to seal the breaches in the Dreaming. There is nothing we can do except pray it doesn't kill my son.”

 

“There is something we can do,” Zeke said, “We can give him more energy to do the job.” He started yelling orders to the nearby dreams.

 

Ranma screamed as pain twice a bad as before tore through his being. He almost lost concentration more than once but held on by sheer will. His body glowed brighter and brighter as the tears began to close with an agonizing slowness. Ranma was certain he'd combust and part of his mind idly wondered why he was still alive. Then he felt it. Dream energy was flooding into him from below. Opening his eyes he could see beams of blue energy coming from the distribution nodes where dream energy was collected. `Good old Joe' he thought upon seeing the black tar monster below directing other dreams to the various machinery.

 

Refocusing on his task, Ranma willed the tears closed and watched as they began to seal faster than before. They were going to do it he thought.

 

He could feel himself run dry as the last tear closed. “Just a little more!” he said through gritted teeth. The final tear faded as the last of Ranma's energy spent itself. He could feel the dreamstone crack and shatter as he began to plummet to the ground below.

 

Various dreams and even some of the nightmares flew up to catch him only to watch in shock as his body faded away from the Dreaming.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

It was after six in the morning at the Tendo dojo and Nodoka was about to go begin breakfast preparations. She and Akane had spent the last couple of hours in a shared silence. Neither had wanted to speak but neither wanted to be alone right then. Akane's eyes were bloodshot, both from lack of sleep and from crying the previous night. Nodoka figured the poor girl would likely stay home from school today.

 

There was a stumbling sound from upstairs as someone could be heard coming towards the stairs. Akane assumed it was Nabiki since she was always half asleep and banging into things before she had her first cup of coffee. Nodoka sighed and decided she'd try to take a nap after breakfast.

 

The door to the sitting room slid open and both women looked up to see who had come downstairs.

 

“Mom? Akane? Where am I?”

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Author's Rant:

 

OMG! After almost two years I think I finished this thing! All that's left is an epilogue and I'm done. I don't plan for a sequel although it's open for one. This is what I had originally planned for this story so I'm more than happy. Now maybe I can draw strength from this completed fic and finish up one of my other outstanding stories. Let me know if there's one in particular that you want to see next and as long as it's not one of my abandoned fics (see my website to see what I'm referring to) I'll see what I can do.