Broken Things
"You know, Cologne, somehow it's funny," said Ranma in a
conversational tone, belieing the cold fire that burned in his
eyes, "how your superior knowledge of ancient shiatsu techniques
proved to be your weak spot in the end."
"What have you done?" asked the crone.
Ranma made a 'shush!' gesture and continued, ignoring the old
amazon's question. "You failed to grasp the possibilities in
modern science and medicine. They have developed their own
'pressure spots' quite far. It was a simple throwing star, laced
with a chemical that I couldn't even spell, that led to your
current position. No, don't try to strain yourself - the
paralyzation drug is *quite* potent, as I know from my run-ins
with Kodachi. It takes away all muscle control below the neck,
while leaving you conscious and feeling."
"W-what do you want?"
"Now, Cologne, really. Are you reading from a B-movie script?
What a clicheed question to ask." Suddenly his features were
shrouded by a darkness, that must have been very close to the
surface all the time. "You know quite well, *why* I have you
here, paralyzed and fully conscious. With some imagination, you
might even get a picture what I have planned, now."
The fear, that was already present in the old woman's eyes,
deepened. She did not utter a sound.
"You really thought you had broken me, didn't you?"
Silence.
"DIDN'T YOU?!"
"Yes. I never thought you would recover, let alone attack me."
"And you certainly didn't think I'd succeed, if I tried. You made
a mistake there. I don't know how you could believe that I was
still the same reckless, stupid boy, that I had been, when you
went back to China with Shampoo. What *happened* that made you
seek revenge in this way?"
"You have certainly changed during my absence - I can see that
now. You were not this perceptive back in the old days. Shampoo
and Mousse married; But that was just the beginning. It was one
aggravation after the other: I was attacked for our failure, then
declared unfit for the post of an elder warrior. Then Shampoo and
her *husband* detailed our exploits in Japan. The little beast
knew exactly that some of our deeds were direct violations of the
amazon code - the very law we had set out to keep. I was
practically outcast."
Listening to the bitter narration of the crone, Ranma seemed
thoughtful. "Shampoo and Mousse married. That's pretty good
news. I would tell you to remind me to congratulate them..." he
smiled a cruel little smile "But then, I wouldn't want to give
you any undue hopes."
Ranma sat down on the table next to Cologne's prone form. "That
shows me, that Shampoo was the stronger one of you two, in a way.
You had *lost* - and she was strong enough to accept it. *She*
didn't come back for revenge. Cologne," he leaned very near,
almost speaking into her ear. "thinking you had broken me was
your *second* mistake. The first one was to touch Akane."
He got up again. Cologne knew better than to say anything - this
was his scene, and he would not tolerate any interruption of his
soliloquy. Also, there was the chance - miniscule, but existent -
that he would lose himself, talking.
"When you killed my wife - my *pregnant* wife - I knew that I
could break. All the pain would stop, if I lost my mind, or just
went numb or anything like that. But I knew, if I did that, I
would hear your cackle at the back of my mind for the rest of my
life. So I chose to *keep* the pain; Use it to stoke the flames
of anger that powered the steam engine of my revenge."
He laughed. "Heh, I'm talking in bad metaphors. You really bring
out the worst in me. Anyway, I *played* the numb zombie pretty
well, I think. I'm sure you must have monitored me, to wallow in
your perceived victory."
A sad, bitter smile spread on his face. "It was Akane who taught
me patience. One would not think she could have, the way she
tended to explode in our younger years. But she did. She taught
me that patience can be a weapon, if used right, and I rather
think I did." There was a hint of tears in his eyes, as he spoke
of his late wife. "It was the memory that *she* gave me patience,
that enabled me to keep the facade up, while working on my
revenge. It took me so *long* to think up a plan to get you, and
even longer to get my hands on the right drugs and have this room
set up for our 'meeting'. But the memory of Akane helped me
whenever my patience threatened to run out. For her sake, I would
not - *could* not - break."
Ranma changed tones, and sounded almost conversational again.
"You know, while I was surreptitiously collecting information
about all the various poisons I could use to paralyze you, I felt
a little reminded of biology class, back in school. I didn't
learn much, back then; I didn't have the patience for it - yet.
But I remember that I was quite astonished once, when we were
talking about the human anatomy. We were examining the bone
structure, and I distinctly remember that I was very surprised
about the nuber of *bones* in the human *foot*. A strange thing
to remember, isn't it? I don't even remember how many there were,
I just know that they were *lots* more than I would have thought."
Suddenly he brightened up, as if having a sudden idea. Cologne
would have shuddered, if she could, for she saw the malicious fire
burning in his eyes.
"How about if we *find out* together how many they are?"
<SNAP>
"One..."
<SNAP>
"Two..."
<CRICK!>
Ranma knew that the room they were in was well soundproofed, and
nothing could be heard outside, but he was content, knowing that
*he* could hear the screams. The screams of someone being broken.
End.
Bleh, I feel pretty sick.
That was without question the *ugliest* story I ever wrote, but I
was in the middle of re-reading Kun-chan's latest fic "A Mother's
Love" and I was overcome by a powerful fit of Cologne-hate.
I wanted to show Cologne that Ranma would not be broken if she
killed Akane - If anything, it would give him the resolve he
needed to beat her.
Anyway, I hope this will prove to be an only child, and the dark
side of my psyche will crawl back where it belongs. :)
Sebastian (funnyfic person, normally)