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"Autumn and Spring"
by Angus MacSpon

Based on "Ranma 1/2" created by Rumiko Takahashi.

C&C Welcome!

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- 15 -

"Hello?" Ranma called.  It was very cold, and there was an unpleasant
smell in the air.  The darkness was absolute.

"Ranma?"  It was Ukyou's voice, not far away.  Ranma realised where she
was now.  Back in the cavern.  But the light that had filled it before
was gone.

"Ranma," said another, weak voice.  After a moment she realised it was
Shampoo.

She cleared her throat nervously.  "Ucchan, I don't suppose you happened
to bring a torch down with you?"

There was a long pause.  Then Ukyou, showing remarkable restraint, said,
"There's one back in my flitter, I think.  I didn't get a chance to grab
it when I landed."

"Great.  All right, stay where you are.  Keep talking.  I'll find my way
to you."  Ranma began to grope her way through the darkness.  Trying to
ignore the knowledge of just how far underground she was.  Of just how
long it would take to get out.  Without a light.  Somewhere inside her
was a thread of panic that was trying to work its way loose, but she had
an idea that this was a bad time for it.

[Good.  Make jokes about it.  Don't give myself a chance to think about
it ...]

She crawled through the blackness, over rough, raw stone littered here
and there with tiny, sharp pebbles.  It seemed to take an eternity.  The
sound of her breathing was loud in her ears.  Then her hand bumped into
something, and she gasped.  For a moment the panic threatened to take
control.

The thing she had bumped, bumped her back.  She felt a hand on her arm,
and Ukyou said, "There you are."  She let out a long, shuddering breath,
grabbed Ukyou and held on for dear life.  It was amazing how comforting
another hand could be, alone in the dark.

They had only been a couple of metres apart.

"All right," Ranma said when she trusted her voice to remain steady once
more. "Shampoo now."

"I'm all turned around," Ukyou muttered.  "Shampoo, where are you?  Can
you talk?"

"Stupid ... spatula girl."  The voice was barely audible.

"Shit," Ukyou muttered.  "Ran-chan, that thing on her back might have
been all that was keeping her alive.  We have to hurry --"

"Right."  Hand in hand, they crawled.  It only took a few seconds.  Then
Ranma's hand touched something that was at once sticky, lumpy and stiff
-- later she realised it was Shampoo's hair -- and heard a faint sound,
something between a gasp and a moan.

"How should we do this?" she heard Ukyou ask.

Ranma thought for a moment.  "Best if I just carry her on my own," she
said at last.  "I'm stronger than you.  We don't want to try carrying
her between us, not in the dark like this.  If she gets too heavy we can
always swap for a while."

"All right.  Shampoo, can you move at all?  Ranma's going to pick you
up now."

There was no answer.  Ranma felt Ukyou's grip on her hand tighten.

She took a deep breath.  "Keep your hand on my shoulder," she said. "We
don't want to get separated again."  She fumbled around for a moment,
gauging the limits of the hollow and where Shampoo's body lay.  Then,
gingerly, she picked Shampoo up.  The body was shockingly light.
Lifting it was almost effortless.

"All right," she said after a moment.  "She's still breathing, at least.
Now ... the tunnel should be more or less behind us --"

"I know," said Ukyou.  "Better if we follow the wall, though.  I'll
guide you."

They started to make their way around the cavern.  Progress was slow at
first; it took a few minutes to find a rhythm, a way of walking so that
they did not keep on banging into each other.  Then, just as Ranma was
beginning to get the hang of it, she heard Ukyou gasp and cry out; and
suddenly she felt a wrench; Ukyou jerked forward, pulling her off-
balance and she was falling --

And all the secret terror, the fear of the dark that she had been
holding in, the dread and the horror of this silent black tomb, burst
out of her and she screamed as she fell --

She hit the ground and tried to roll, shielding Shampoo as best she
could.  She came to a halt against some unseen object, soft and
yielding.  When she thought she could speak again without screaming she
said, "Ucchan, is that you?"

"No."  Ucchan sounded very near.

"But ..."  She ran her hand over whatever she had landed against.  It
certainly felt like ...  "_Oh_.  It's me.  My ... other body."

"Really?  Then --"

Ranma felt another hand patting her face.  She took it once more with a
sigh of relief.

"All right," Ukyou said after a little.  Ranma could hear her breathing,
now.  It sounded like she was just as scared as Ranma was.  "We have
to keep going.  Have you still got Shampoo?"

"I -- yes, but ..."

"Do you need help?  We need to hurry --"

"Ucchan.  Wait."  Ranma could barely speak for sudden horror.  "There's
something wrong.  My other body.  It's not -- not breathing ..."

There was no reply for a few seconds.  Then Ukyou said, "Ranma, we don't
have time for this now.  We can talk about it later --"

"But it's _dead_!"

"I _know_!  Ran-chan, it was the only way!  Two bodies, one mind, she
said! The only thing I could do was get rid of one of the bodies!"

"But I, I thought you'd just knocked it ... knocked me out."

"I couldn't risk it!"  Ranma heard her take a deep breath.  "Look, we
can talk about this later," Ukyou said after a few moments.  "Right now
we have to move fast.  Shampoo needs help."

"But --"  Ranma broke off helplessly.  It felt like a betrayal.  She
wanted to shout, to rage, to trumpet her pain and horror to the world.
[That's _me_ lying there!  That's _me_ you killed!  Murderer!  You
killed me!  And now you want to leave me behind!]

Then another thought occurred to her.  [Isn't that what I did to her?
Twice now?  Killed her dreams and left her behind?]

Quietly she said, "All right.  Later."

She felt an answering squeeze on her hand.  To her surprise, it felt
good.  Comforting.  Not like a murderer's handshake; like a gesture of
reassurance from a friend.  After a moment, still confused, still
bewildered by the sudden shock but no longer furious, she squeezed back.

She passed Shampoo over to Ukyou, then followed.  Climbing over her own
dead body -- having to feel the cold skin -- was an unpleasant
experience, and one that would haunt her dreams for years to come.  But
in that darkness, she did not want to risk being separated from Ukyou
again.  She endured it, somehow, and sat shuddering for a few moments
when it was done.  Then, together, they continued on, stumbling through
the black.

A few minutes later Ukyou said, "I think we're in the tunnel.  The wall
isn't curving any more."

Ranma nodded, forgetting that Ukyou could not see her.  "Were there any
side-passages?" she asked doubtfully.  "I don't remember seeing any ..."

"If there are, we ignore them," Ukyou responded firmly.

"Fine with me."

They walked on.  It was easier going now; the walls of the tunnel were
nearly smooth, and they could move in an almost straight line.  Their
pace picked up, but Ranma knew they were still moving painfully slowly.
Shampoo's skin felt cold, almost icy.  She could not tell if she was
breathing or not.

She had a sudden thought and stopped.  "What's wrong?" Ukyou said
instantly.

"Take Shampoo for a moment."  Ranma passed the limp body over, and
quickly took off her shirt.  It was ragged and filthy after the battle,
but still better than nothing.  "Here.  Wrap this around her."

"What is it?  Oh, I see.  Good idea."  Ukyou removed her own top and
wrapped that around Shampoo too.

Ranma took Shampoo back and they resumed their journey.  After a little
Ranma said, "I wish we had some water."

"I'm thirsty too."

"No ... well, yes, I am thirsty, but I was thinking we could change
Shampoo.  She'd be easier to carry."

"Excuse me?  You _want_ to carry a cat?"

Ranma shuddered.  "No!  But you could take her.  And I think ... I could
tolerate an unconscious cat, anyway."

"Huh.  Of course, if we had any water we could have changed her back in
the cave and triggered your neko-ken.  It would have made things
simpler."

"Then you'd have to worry about waking me up again."

Ukyou hesitated.  "Well, perhaps it's for the best, after all ..."

Ranma snorted, then laughed.  It was a small thing, at first, but it
grew.  And grew --

It felt odd, laughing like that in the dark.  Out-of-place, somehow, and
the blackness seemed all the heavier for it.  But in the end it was only
darkness; and the darkness no longer mattered, because with that laugh,
the shadow that had been on her heart finally dissolved, the last of the
bitterness seemed to fly away.

That was not _her_, that cold flesh lying back there on the floor of the
cavern.  _She_ was right here.  Alive, and laughing.  And not alone.
That had been her greatest fear, when Akane had died: the idea of facing
her remaining years on her own.  But now --

She had been through a great ordeal, and it was not quite over yet.
There were still problems to solve, issues to confront.  There always
would be.  But she had a friend -- perhaps more than a friend -- who
would help her.  That made the whole thing possible.

                **********

Perhaps two hours later, they came to the mouth of the cave.  It was
night, and almost as dark in the pass as it had been in the tunnel, but
they could see the regular flash of the flitters' parking lights.

Ranma palm-keyed the police flitter.  It recognised her from before and
opened without demur.  The interior lights came on, blinding them both
for a minute or two.  Then Ranma could see to lower Shampoo's body
gently onto the rear seat.

"Ucchan, do you know anything about first aid?" she began.  "There ought
to be some kind of kit in here -- oh."  Ukyou was already busy with the
kit.  Ranma watched for a few moments, then took a hint from Ukyou's
irritated glances and got out of the way.

After a few moments she head Ukyou mutter something.  "What?" she said.

"I said, 'strong as an ox.'  She's alive, though only just.  Ran-chan,
we have to get her to a hospital as quickly as possible."

"Already on it," Ranma said, working at the nav computer.  Lanzhou had a
better hospital, but Xining was closer.  She decided that speed was more
important, and opted for the latter.  "Let me know when I can take off."

"Go!"

Ranma punched the controls.  Almost instantly, the familiar whine of the
engines filled the air, and the flitter lifted up, spun, and shot away
into the night.  Ranma had keyed for a minimum-time trip, and had
managed to override the speed governers as well.  Until they entered
Xining's traffic-control airspace they flew like a bat out of hell.

Nineteen and a half minutes after lift-off, they set down in the
hospital grounds.  Ranma had called ahead for an emergency team, and
they were waiting.  Shampoo was wheeled off on a stretcher.  Ranma
breathed a sigh of relief.  It was over at last.

She couldn't have been more wrong.  Then the questions started.

Ranma spoke no Chinese, so for a while Ukyou had to bear the brunt of
the questioning.  But it did not take long for the Xining police to find
an officer who spoke Japanese, and then both of them came under intense
scrutiny.  Especially until they managed to borrow shirts to replace the
ones they'd wrapped around Shampoo in the cave.

What were two half-naked women doing with a police flitter?  And a
Japanese one, at that?  They had both evidently been fighting.  With
whom?  And where?  The flitter logs showed they'd been near Jyusenkyo.
Did they know that that was a restricted, natural-hazard area?  Where
were their entry permits?  Who was the woman they'd brought to the
hospital?  What had happened to her?  Where had they found her?  And
the questions went on and on and on ...

Eventually, sometime after dawn, they were allowed to leave, though they
were strictly ordered to stay in Xining.  The police flitter was
confiscated, pending further investigation.  A young lieutenant drove
them to a nearby hotel.

The hotel was seedy-looking and none too clean, but both of them were
too tired to care.  They were also too tired to pick up the double
meaning when the registration clerk asked if they were together, and
thus they ended up in a single room with a large double bed.  Ranma
stopped short as they entered the room, goggling a little.  Ukyou simply
shrugged, collapsed on the bed and started snoring.  Moments later,
Ranma joined her.

- End of Part 15 -

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Angus MacSpon                                                Allen Gainsford
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/          http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/