Subject: [FF][Disney][Takahashi][3x3Eyes]Mermaid's Heart
From: Chris Willmore
Date: 8/27/1996, 12:56 AM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

	The Prince groaned, and flinched slightly as his eyes adjusted
to the light.  The last thing he remembered was... The battle.... Yes...
He had been leading his small group against the Mongols.  They had
lost.  After all, they were only a small, peaceful sea-side kingdom,
with no real army.  His contingent had been made of farmers, of fishermen.
They had been slaughtered, and he himself...
	Was dead, wasn't he?
	"You should not have died; it was not your battle." From his side
boomed a powerful, angelic voice.  It sounded... Sad... Regretful...
Was it A protective spirit, here to guide his soul to Paradise?
	"Am I in Heaven?"
	"No." 
	"Then where?"
	A weakly smiling face rose over his own, and the face had three 
eyes on it.
	The Sorceress. She'd come with the invaders, and had helped
admirably to repel them, firing bolts of magic, summoning monstrous
creatures to aid them...
	"Sorceress, I..."
	"Don't try to speak. You've only just recovered from your
wounds."
	"You healed me... Thank you... I would have surely died if-"
	"You are not alive."
	"I thought you said-"
	"Neither are you dead.  Your time had not yet come, and it 
was only because of my own rivalry with those men that you were
felled. To atone for my mistake, I merged your soul with my own. I am 
you and you are me. As long as I live, you will also, and you shall be 
immune from bodily harm, as are all my people."
	"Wait! My soul is in you? Then what am I left with? I-"
	Too late.  The Sanchian mage was surrounded by a brilliant 
golden flame, and once it had subsided, Prince Eric was alone.

========================================================================
			   MERMAID'S HEART
========================================================================
			by Christopher Willmore
	Ranma 1/2 and the Mermaid Saga created by Rumiko Takahashi
       The Little Mermaid created by Hans Christian Andersen, and 
		    adapted by the Disney company
		   3x3 Eyes created by Yuzo Takada
========================================================================
 AUTHOR'S NOTE: FROM THIS POINT ON, THIS STORY IS BEST READ *ALOUD*  :)
========================================================================

	Long ago, in a faraway kingdom, a mermaid fell in love with a 
man, and he with her.  After many trials in which they proved their 
affections, the half-girl's father, Triton the Sea-King, granted her
a pair of legs, and the two were wed.
	Their marriage was reasonably happy for a while, but several
imperfections blemished it.  First, the princess was still of the mer-
folk, and reverted to her natal form whenever she was fully immersed in
water.  This led many in the kingdom to shun her as a monster.  The
servants would obey her only with the politeness required by etiquette,
visitors to the palace would inconspicuously ignore her attempts to 
converse, and the looks from all the others were always cold and icy.  
All these things hurt Prince Eric deeply, for he loved her very much.
	That was not the worst, however.  The Prince spent many sleepless
nights upon their bed, his arm around the sleeping Ariel, thinking of
the day that they must part forever.  His heart beat faster and tears
filled his eyes, but he could do nothing.  At their death, he would go
to Paradise, while she merely to oblivion - for a mermaid has no soul.
	He could, and did, give her worldly riches of agate and gold
(no pearls - she thought them cruel), and built for her marble pavilions,
and marvellous gardens with plants from all the corners of the earth -
But the greatest treasure he possessed, he could not share with her.
	They managed by living each day in full.  Her inability to bear
heirs meant that the two could focus fully on each other,  and they
did.  Ignoring all the vicious gossip, they filled their days (and 
nights) with delights of Persian proportions.  They knew the shortcomings 
of their relationship, but worse, FAR worse, would be that they should 
be apart.
	And so, they lived in reasonable happiness.
	Until the Mongols came.  The barbarians brought war to a land
that had never known it, catching it unawares.  Destruction was swift -
most of the able men were killed within a week, including the Prince's
own division.  
	He alone remained unharmed. Some attributed it to the grace of
God upon him, while most thought it had been through a demonic pact that
he'd been saved; a pact that had been finished by the stamping of a 
mystic seal upon his forehead.  Had not winged monsters helped him win,
they asked?  When it was clear that the battle was lost, had he not
been miraculously rescued by the very spawn of Hell?
	Whatever the truth, Eric was never the same afterward.  Princess
Ariel saw him grow grim, and wander silently through darkened halls. He'd
stay awake at night, upon their bedroom balcony, looking to the East
and sometimes crying for no reason.  The light had gone out of his eyes,
and much though she would have it so, she could not cheer him with her
own - for a mermaid has no soul.
	Their promenades were joyless now.  The trees seemed dull in their
verdure, the birds seemed to chirp less happily, and even the food of
their Frankish chef seemed to have lost its flavour.
	She seemed to be losing him.  He was distant, and though his
body was beside her, his mind was elsewhere.  And then, one day, he left.
	Without a warning, before dawn, he took a horse and his most
trusted men (those few who had survived the failed invasion) and rode
towards the sunrise.
	Ariel was only told it by the chamber-maid when she missed him 
at her bedside, and went down-stairs for breakfast.  On receiving the 
news, she broke down weeping onto the floor.
	"O my husband! What have I done that you would leave me so?
Have I not been faithful, and have I not given up my family, my friends,
for YOU? What is it that I have not done? What more would you have me
be?"
	On saying that, she silenced, for she knew the answer all too
well.  Try as she might, she could not love him PERFECTLY - for a
mermaid has no soul.
	She wiped her tears and changed her night-shirt for her travelling
clothes - that very morning she began her greatest journey.
	The Princess did not TRULY know what it was that had driven her
groom from her side, but she would seek him, and find him, and whatever
had gone wrong she would strive to right, because his happiness was her
own.
	For months she tracked him, wandering alone and incognito from
town to town, asking for directions and information on the band.  
Invariably, she would arrive a day or two too late at each location, and 
would promptly set off on her way.
	She had no horse, but nonetheless was able to maintain a rapid
pace.  The waters welcomed her, and it was in her mermaid form that she
swam along rivers, using the currents to her advantage.  It was also
from the streams that she gathered nourishment, for she took with her
no supplies, and had no way to earn a living.
	Even this inexpensive travel was not without its perils - she
almost froze to death in Russia, and when she had reached China, she
had faced a double danger.  When a women, lascivious men sought her body
for their pleasure, while when a mermaid, wise women and enchanters vied
for it - for the flesh of the mermaid grants undying youth, and her heart
will resurrect the recent dead.
	Sometimes she called upon her friends of the water, other times
upon her speed, but somehow she always managed to elude her pursuers.
Her drive, you see, was fully focused on reunion with her Eric.  He was
her one, her all - he was her happiness, hers was his grief.  He was
all the spirit that she had - for a mermaid has no soul.
	Her wanderings continued for a very long time, and it was on
a hot midsummer's day that she at last caught up with him.
	While passing through another village, she'd heard rumours of
a nearby battle, between a tribe of females and a dynasty of warriors.
The white men, she'd been told, had joined the fray after hearing of the
cruel fates imposed upon those women who had been defeated.  Yes,
they answered Ariel, the foreign troop had indeed been led by a tall
and well-built man with short dark hair; one who bore the sign of the
Void upon his forehead.
	"What is that sign?" asked Ariel.
	"He has been stained as the soul-less," replied the wise woman,
and would say no more.
	The Princess fell in tears again, and tore her hair.
	"Alas!" cried she. "I knew it was my taint that had driven him
from my side!"
	She wept, and wept, and cursed her lot, for what had ended her
happiness was the one thing that she could not amend.
	Still, she would do her best and find the man she loved, to beg
his forgiveness for her imperfection and plead that he may yet accept
her blemished affections.  Whatever quest of purification he was on,
whatever task he had set upon himself, she would help him in it.
	With that resolution, she began anew to walk, stern in face and
firm in figure.
	When she arrived where she'd been told to go, the battle was 
over - no rivers led to the valley, even though it was dotted by pools,
and so she'd had to go the slower way - by foot.
	Warriors lay dead throughout the area, along with baser things.
The groups were so vicious in their combat that even the animals had not
been spared. Pigs, cats and even a panda or two numbered among the 
fallen.  Who would bring a panda into battle, she could not imagine, but
there it was, before her eyes.
	Her heart beating fast, the Princess rushed in.  She slipped
several times on the cool blood, and tripped over the bodies, but it did
not matter to her.  She had to find her Eric.  His soul was hers, and 
if he'd died, then... So would she.
	Eventually, she saw her husband and realised with horror that
she had been just too late.
	He was lying by the side of one of the pools, eyes closed
and his right arm draped across his chest. The Prince's gory sword
was still unsheathed beside him.
	Ariel collapsed and grabbed his head in he hands, covering
it with kisses and feeling his blood upon her skin.
	It was still warm.  On her approach, he had probably been
alive. He might have seen her coming towards him, might have known
that she had sought him out - or not.
	If only she had run faster or come sooner she might have helped
him in the fight, or tended to his wounds.  They could have died TOGETHER,
or at the very least she could have heard his final words...
	It was too late now.  Months of searching, months of hoping,
and when she finally caught up to him, there was nothing she could do.
	Nothing.
	His life had ended, and with it hers.
	Unless-
	Ariel looked at the pool, then at the Prince's sword.
	There was a way.
	It was final, and she would not come back, but what was her body?
Her spirit was with Eric.  A living corpse she was, and nothing more -
for a mermaid has no soul.
	Her resolution firm, she held her breath and stepped into the
water, letting it flow around her, sinking to her neck and feeling the
familiar changes... Her lower limbs fused together, starting at the
bottom.  Feet turned into fins, and a layer of fine scales covered her
skin.
	Ariel took a deep breath along with the sword.
	There was no time to waste.  Her husband's corpse was cooling,
but a mermaid's heart could resurrect the newly dead.
	She'd watched the fishmongers for long enough to know how it
was done.  With one swift motion, she lit her belly open from the
sternum to the navel.  Ignoring the pain, she reached inside and pulled 
out what she found in the middle of her chest - she pulled at it with
all her strength.  Every one of her faculties went into removing the 
lump of bloody flesh from her bosom and placing it on her beloved's lips.
	As darkness came upon her eyes, her lips curved upwards in a
smile, for even in the few seconds which she had left of her existence,
she could see a vapour form around her prince, and his wounds begin
to heal.
	Satisfied with the knowledge of a task accomplished, Ariel 
relaxed her muscles finally and waited for oblivion.
	It never came.
	Her fish-tail separated into legs, her scales turned back
to skin, and her blood spilled into the pool. She sank below the surface,
where her lungs filled with air, and she died a woman.
	For her sacrifice, the mermaid'd gained a soul.

				* * * * *

	Eric woke from yet another death.  How many more of these must
he go through, thought he, before he found the Sorceress? This one had 
been painful, with exotic jagged weapons digging into him and blood...
	Blood everywhere.
	Even...
	<On my lips?>
	He opened his eyes, and found what had been the cause of the
pressure on his mouth.
	<A heart... But...>
	He raised himself and tried to see in the dark of early
evening.  He fingered the flesh in his hand. Still warm. An enemy?
	His sword was next to him.  So he HAD done this... But...
Who to? Even when berserk, it wasn't his style to...
	There, drowned in the pool...  
	"Oh, God! ARIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!"
	His cry turned into a bestial shriek as he shed his last
claim on humanity.  Hard reptilian scales burst out from under
his once-soft skin, claws grew from his fingers and he morphed
into a green and deformed creature.  Even his eyes enlarged, and
the hair fell from his brow... Of the man that he had been, a
Prince and husband, friend and fighter, there was but one remainder-
	All that was left of him, was the Void.

			THE END

Interfector beluam Ecclesia Ryougis.
Custos tabula nomina Franka Ecclesia Azusis.
C.A.S.K.E.T. | http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4cw6
4cw6@qlink.queensu.ca  willmore@mail.idt.net