Lines Of Destiny

   A Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2  Crossover

   By Louis-Philippe Giroux
   <Phoenix@upc.qc.ca>

    Thank you for all your comments, praise and death threats!  Keep'em coming!
    C&C is always welcome!!! (as well as plot ideas)

   Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko
Takahashi.  Please don't sue me.

   As I said, I don't know ditz about the Japanese school system, so I made
parallels to the North American system.   It's simpler that way.


Chapter 3

   Ranma and Akane had gotten off the train and were looking for the exit.
Akane
noted with some amusement that the young man who had been sitting across
them in the train was being hugged to death by a girl with uncannily long
meatball-type ponytails. She frowned when her subconscious decided to replace
the young man with Ranma and the girl with Shampoo.
   She blinked. *Get a grip on yourself, Akane!* she berated herself.  *Ranma's
married to you now.  There's nothing to fear from Shampoo.*
   She was quickly brought back to her senses by a growling monster that
appeared out of nowhere.

   Ranma was getting off the train and he was still thinking about the
article he'd
read on the Sailor Senshi.  According to the magazine, there had been a rash of
monsters in this part of Tokyo, but the Senshi usually took care of them.  What
he couldn't figure out, though, was why his mind wouldn't let go of the
Senshi's
images.  Why did they seem so familiar?
   He was rudely interrupted by a monster who made its presence known by
sending people screaming for their lives.  He stared blankly at the monster for
about half a second before he took a ready stance.
   "I thought I left that kind of crap in Nerima..." he muttered.  He quickly
shoved Akane towards a knot of girls to keep her out of danger.

   Akane quickly found herself shoved towards a group of girls.  She managed to
slow down before ramming into Minako. She turned around to see Ranma
approaching the monster.
   "What's he doing?!" shouted the girl she'd almost collided with.
   Akane let out a sigh.  "The baka's proabably going to try to fight it as
usual."
   A girl with strangely familiar purple eyes spoke up: "He... he can't
possibly
mean to fight it alone, can he?"
   Akane looked at the girl, then back at Ranma who had engaged the monster.
"You're right!"  After a second, she added: "I'm going to go help him.  I'm
tired of
sitting on the sidelines."
   Mamoru, Usagi, Minako, Ami and Hotaru and the two cats all took a step back
and could not help but stare in surprise when the girl pulled out a massive
hammer out of nowhere and walked back to the fight in progress.  They were all
so stunned that they never noticed that the sigil of Earth flickering
faintly on
Mamoru's forehead for a few seconds.

   *God that thing is ugly,* thought Ranma absently.  *Even Pansuto's cursed
form is better-looking.*  The monster was about two meters tall, had two legs
and six arms, and looked particularly fast.  The head looked like that of an
insect, complete with a collection of eyes of various sizes.
   The monster, seeing Ranma wasn't running away, decided to rush him.  Ranma
neatly avoided all of the arms and managed to land a kick in the monster's
face.
The moster stumbled back a step and snarled.  It decided to immobilize its
target
by sending a stream of glue-like substance at its prey's feet.  Ranma easily
jumped over the stuff and landed on the monster's head.
   "Looking for someone?" he said conversationally, while rubbing his feet on
the monster's head.
   The monster responded by slicing the air over his head with four clawed
arms.  Of course, Ranma wasn't there anymore. Ranma landed in front of the
monster, his face turning serious.
   "All right, enough of this crap!  KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!!!"
   Ranma's fists blurred and the monster was violently thrown back against a
wall. It's body was covered in bruises but it didn't seem worse for wear.
*Mmmhh, that thing's tougher that it looks.  Might as well hit it with the
heavy
stuff.*  Suddenly, Akane ran up to him, hammer in hand.
   "Ranma, you baka!  I can fight too, you know!" she said testily.
   "Look, that thing ain't human, so why don't you step back and be careful,
okay?"  For a split second, Ranma switched his attention from the monster to
the group of girls he had pushed Akane towards, and saw Luna.  Ranma
immediately froze up.
   The monster saw this forced the arguing couple apart, sending Ranma
crashing against a brick wall while Akane jumped to safety.  Not seeing Luna
anymore, Ranma came back to his senses and was about to ki-blast the monster
into oblivion when he saw a train coming from the other side of the
station.  He
smirked.  *Time to hit two birds with one stone,* he thought.  *I can get
rid of
the monster and let Akane vent her anger on the thing.*
   "Akane!" he shouted, while evading the frustrated monters' claws.  "I'm
gonna
blast it over to you!  Aim for the the train!"
   Akane turned her head sideways and saw the train coming.  She turned to
Ranma and nodded, mallet at the ready.
   Ranma cupped his hands and gathered his ki.  "MOUKO TAKABISHA" he shouted
and a sphere of blue ki-energy blossomed forth from his hands and sent the
monster flying towards Akane, who used her ki-powered mallet to hit the
monster and send it sprawling on the track, a mere foot in front of the train,
which subsequently crushed it.  The monster quickly turned into dust.
   Ranma and Akane walked over to the track just in time to see the monster
being reduced to a pile of ashes.
   "Nice swing Akane," commented Ranma offhandedly while dusting himself.
   "It disappeared just like that?" wondered Akane out loud, before returning
her mallet to hammerspace. "What was that thing, anyway?"
   Ranma pulled out the magazine he'd been reading in the train and gave it to
Akane.  "I read about it in the train.  Apparently, monsters attack this
part of
Tokyo on a regular basis."  He sighed, then chuckled: "And I thought we were
done with this kind of stuff we moved out of Nerima."
   Akane frowned.  "I hope this doesn't happen too often.  Who usually
deals with
them?"
   Ranma flipped the pages of the magazine and pointed to a blurry picture in
which you could barely distinguish five young women in rather skimpy outfits.
"They do.  They call themselves the Sailor Senshi..."

   While Akane and Ranma were discussing the topic further, Minako, Usagi,
Ami and Mamoru were alternating between staring at Ranma and Akane and
giving each other nervous looks.  Hotaru was watching them intently, as if she
was trying to figure out a puzzle.
   "What the hell just happened, Ami?" asked a bewildered Minako.
   Ami soon found herself under close scrutiny when everyone turned towards
her.  "Why are you asking *me*?  I know as much about this as you do!"
   "Well, you *are* usually the one who comes up with an answer," replied
Usagi in a matter-of-fact tone.
   Luna looked clearly stunned.  She started scratching the Usagi's socks
to get
her attention.  Usagi looked down and quickly deduced from her guardian cat's
face that she wanted to speak as soon as possible.
   "They're leaving!" said Mamoru.
   In a rare moment of self-control, Usagi snapped out of it and started to run
towards the two.  "Come on!  We have to find out who they are!"
   The two teenagers had left through the exit, with Usagi close on their
steps.
When Usagi went through the gate, however, she was met with empty air.
"Where did they go?" she wondered out loud.

   Akane and Ranma finished their conversation when they noticed that the few
people who hadn't left the station in fear were staring at them.  Then the
whispers began.
   Ranma looked around him and decided it wouldn't be a good idea to stay here
for long.  He tugged Akane's sleeve.  "Akane, I think we'd better bail out
of here.
I think we may have made too much of an impression already and what's worse,
I think I saw a cat earlier.  I don't want to stay here if there is a cat
around," he
said nervously.
   Akane frowned and gave Ranma an annoyed look. *Again with his stupid fear of
cats!* she thought irritably  *He charges an unknown monster without a care
in the world and becomes a sniveling coward when he sees a cat.*  She then
looked around and saw that people were indeed starting to throw strange
looks at
them.  She heard mutters of "youmas", "monsters" and "Sailor Senshi."  She
nodded to Ranma, and as soon as they made their way out of the exit with their
luggage, they jumped up and kept themselves to the rooftops.

   As the girls were leaving the station, the questions started flying
again.  "All
right, first things first," said an uncharacteristically serious Usagi. "Ami,
what exactly *was* that monster, anyway?  We haven't had one of those for a
long time, now."
   "According to my computer, it was a youma.  Probably a hidden reject from
the Dark Kingdom.  Frankly, I'm quite surprised to know that it survived this
long without being detected. It should've been spotted a long time ago,"
answered
Ami.
   "And now for the $5000 question: What do you have on the guy who trashed
it?" asked Minako.
   "He's quite human, if that's what you want to know.  I got a few readings on
him since I inadvertently left my computer opened when the youma attacked."
   "So let's hear it," said Luna.
   "Well, what you saw at the train station practically speaks for itself.
First of
all, he's incredibly fast and agile.  I'm passably sure his speed rivals
our own
in our Senshi forms.  He must have a great tolerance to injuries, too, since
being slammed in the wall merely stunned him for an instant."
   "What about that blurred punch he threw?" asked Mamoru.  "He yelled
something and then I couldn't even see his arms anymore."
   Ami consulted her computer and frowned.  When she stopped walking and stood
there frowning at he computer, the others stopped and looked at her strangely.
   "Masaka... there must have been a malfunction... he couldn't possibly have
thrown so many punches" they heard Ami mutter incredulously.
   "Ami-chan, what's wrong?" asked Usagi.
   "I have some trouble with what my computer tells me.  According to it, he
threw *at least* 120 punches in under 5 seconds, very probably more; the
computer wasn't calibrated to analyze something like that." said Ami in a
disbelieving tone.
   All the others stared at her incredulously.
   "What about the energy ball he threw?" asked Usagi.
   Ami sighed and started walking again.  "The computer didn't have enough time
to gather enough readings for that.  I'm sorry, Usagi."
   "I don't think we should forget what the girl did either.  How many girls do
you know pull out hammers out of nowhere and punt youmas around like
baseballs?" commented Usagi.
   Mamoru shook his head and Usagi noticed it.
   "What's wrong, Mamo-chan?" she asked in a worried voice.
   "They were in the train with me all this time; they were sitting straight in
front of me and I didn't notice a single thing..."  But Mamoru's voice had
taken
an uncertain tone by the end of the sentence.
   "Out with it, Mamoru", said Minako, noticing the change in tone.  "What is
it?"
   Mamoru took on a thoughtful look.  "It's probably nothing, but the guy
looked
very familiar for some reason.  I can't help wonder if I've seen him before
somewhere."
   Hotaru, who had been silent up to now, suddenly became aware of the
conversation.  "You too, Mamoru?!"
   Everyone stopped walking and looked at both of them.  Mamoru and Hotaru
were looking at each other.
   "Where do you think you know him from?" asked Hotaru first.
   "I've been having strange dreams for the past few days.  It's in the
days of the
Moon Kingdom.  I'm wearing my armor as Prince Endymion and this girl is
running towards me, but I never quite clearly see her face; only shadows.
When I saw that guy, I immediately started thinking about that girl."  He
passed
a hand through his hair.  "I don't really know why I should connect the both of
them in the first place."
   Hotaru looked at Mamoru with what looked like pity in her eyes.  "You don't
remember her, do you?"
   Mamoru felt a chill go through his spine.  "Remember who?"
   "I know who the guy reminds you of, Mamoru.  He looks exactly like what
your younger sister would've looked like had she been born a man."
   Mamoru froze in shock.  Sister?...  He had a *sister*? Was the girl in his
dream his sister?... "I had a sister?..." he said weakly.  He turned to Luna.
"Why was I never told I had a sister?!" he asked in a tone that was rapidly
rising towards that of anger.
   Luna found herself flinching under Mamoru's angry gaze.  The worst thing
was that for some reason, she now knew about Akana, something she knew she
hadn't known even yesterday.  It was quite disconcerting.  How was she supposed
to explain to Mamoru that she had just *now* remembered about his sister?
   Fortunately, Hotaru quickly came to Luna's rescue before the black cat
had to
explain herself.  "Mamoru, there's no guarantee that she did know about Akana.
Her and Artemis' memories are a bit swiss-cheesed, remember?"
   Mamoru turned to her, his cold anger fading in the light of Hotaru's
argument.
"Then how is it *you* know?" he asked.
   "When I was reborn after the Pharaoh 90 incident, I grew up again extremely
fast, but I had all my memories of the Moon Kingdom."  Hotaru hesitated before
continuing.  "There's also the fact that your sister couldn't have been
reborn in
this time like us, Mamoru."  Seeing his questioning look, she went on: "Akana
and I became the Sailors Terra and Saturn on the same day; we were the last
Senshi to be nominated.  Akana was supposed to be the strongest Senshi next to
myself in term of raw power, but she mysteriously disappeared two days after
her nomination as Sailor Terra.  No one really knows what happened to her and
believe me, they *really* tried to find her."  Hotaru paused for an
instant, then
continued again.  "As for me, I was sent to train far away in the system
because
everyone had become afraid of me, of what I meant.  They were afraid of Saturn
the Destroyer.  They were all afraid, save Serenity, the Senshi and my
brother."  She gave a bitter smile. "The real irony of it all is that as it
turns
out, they sent me to train so far I couldn't come back in time to destroy
Metallia
when she launched her attack a few months later.  The Moon Kingdom passed
away because it was afraid of the one who was supposed to be its protector."
   Minako found her voice first, although Hotaru did not expect the question:
"You had a brother?"
   Hotaru looked sad for a moment.  "Yes, I had a brother.  His name was Kanma
and he was one of the rare people who didn't flinch when speaking to me after I
became Saturn.  That's the other thing I find strange in all of this: If I
didn't
know any better, I would swear that the girl was my reincarnated brother."
   "How could you be sure she's your reincarnated brother?" asked Luna.
   Hotaru looked down to Luna with a small smile for an instant: "You probably
wouldn't understand, but it has something to do with the way she handled that
hammer of hers.  Kanma was always using hammers; he used to say pounding
things made him relax.  She looked so much like he did... but I gave up hope of
my brother being reborn a long time ago." she finished with a sad look.
   "How can you be so sure?" asked Usagi, who had not taken her hand away from
Mamoru's shoulder since Hotaru's revelation.  "My mother managed to send a
lot of people to the future when she used the Ginzuishou to seal Metallia
away.
How can you be sure your brother wasn't one of them?"
   Sad purple eyes looked up at the sky.  "When I finally came back to the Moon
and found the Crystal Palace destroyed, I immediately rushed to where my old
home was and found nothing but ashes.  I later found out that my home had been
the among the first areas hit by massive youma strikes, which happened at
least a month before Metallia launched her final strike."
   Everyone was silent for a while, digesting the new information.

   Further along the way, Ranma and Akane got back down from the rooftops
after being sure nobody had followed them from the train station.
   "I hope you're not planning on doing this on a regular basis, Ranma.  I
really
wouldn't appreciate all the attention."
   "Kinda strange, isn't it?" Ranma replied over his shoulder. "In Nerima,
Ryoga and I destroyed a lot of things each time we fought and no one ever
looked
twice."
   "They did look twice," Akane replied. "They were just too afraid of doing
anything about it."
   Ranma raised an eyebrow, but let the matter drop.  They soon arrived in
front
of a Shinto Temple.
   "This is the place!" said Ranma.  He looked at Akane, took her hand and went
inside.

End Chapter 3

Author's note:  I go to the university full-time and also have a 25-hour/week
job starting tomorrow, so I may be quiet for the next few weeks.  But do not
despair!  I will not abandon this story!
   In the meantime, if people have plot ideas they'd wish to see, they're
welcome
to share them!  I'd like this story to be long-lived, if possible. (Thanks
Cynewulf!)

**********************
* The Phoenix Reborn *              Jordanite and Mystical
**********************                  Freak at Large

Louis-Philippe Giroux

Phoenix@upc.qc.ca
Phoenix@cmq.qc.ca