This was written by Jason L. Langlois, author of 'Spiral' and the
upcoming 'Lost'. Comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.
Any sent to me, or posted to the FFML, will be forwarded to the
author.
-CW
/
____ ___ _ ___ /
| \ | \ /\ | | /\ /\ | \ / /\
| \ | \ . | \ | |. / \_/ \ | \ \ / \
| __ \ | _ \ | | | | | | | _ \ /\ \/ /
| | \ \ | | \ \ .| | | |.| | | | \ \ / \ \ /
| | / / | |__\ | | | \| | | |\ /| |.| |__\ |/ /\ \/
| | / / | | | |\ | |.| | | |.| | | |\ / \
| |/ / .| ___ |.| |.| |.| |.| | | | | ___ /\ \/ /
| |\ \ | | .| |.| |.| |.| |.| |.| |.| | ./ |\ /
| | \ \ .| | | |.| |..\ |.| |.| |.| | | | /| | \ /
|_|. \__\ |_|. .|_|.|_|...\/..|_|.|_|.|_|.|_|. \|_| \
/\ \ /
Written by Christopher Willmore. / \ \ /
4cw6@qlink.queensu.ca / / \/
Based on a story by Rumiko Takahashi and /
Developed by C. Michael Schumacher / /
[Kensu: cschumac@waun.tdsnet.com] \ /
R2096 pages: http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4cw6/ \/(Logo:Armakuni)
==========================================================================
NIGHT TERRORS
==========================================================================
A Ranma 2096 side-story by Jason L. 'Jai-kun' Langlois
<jasonllanglois@unn.unisys.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
R2096 characters and situations used with permission. Takahashi's aren't.
Please, Takahashi-sama, don't send Nodoka for my head! @.@;;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You- you don't belong here."
Akane winced at the words, words she had feared since she had met the
Gos descendant. *Skeride, let me-*
Skeride's face twisted in sadness and anger. "NO!" She screamed it
out of despair more than anything. "No, Tendo, you've tricked me long
enough! You DON'T belong here!!"
In a fluid motion borne from much practice, she pulled her P'ur-bu
from it's hidden sheath. Tears began to well in her eyes. "I trusted
you, Akane. I believed you were of the living. I thought of you as my
_friend_!" The dagger flowed in Skeride's hand, changing positions as
skilfully as any martial artist may have caused it to. With a scream of
rage and a fluid motion, Skeride lunged, swiping the blade across Akane's
belly.
Only her training saved her. As the living girl lunged, Akane jumped
back. Still, she felt the barest of scratches, and chanced a look down.
He dress was slit neatly, horizontally along her torso. A light green
line of ki was only now dissipating across the bare portion of her
stomach.
*Skeride. Please, don't do this...* Akane pleaded, not wanting to
face this confrontation. If only she had not tried to comfort the living
girl...
She had been walking, affording Ranma his sleep, and leaving Kim
carefully gripping a pencil in her ghostly fingers. Akane giggled,
remembering Kim's question before she left.
"He wouldn't wake up if I switched back, would he?"
In Akane's remembrance of his first curse, she had to answer 'No.'
She was walking in the park when she heard a sob. It sounded
familiar, but she attributed it to her own experience with tears. She had
shed many after Ranma died. Both living, and dead.
She stepped into the clearing, her curiosity having gotten the best of
her. She recognised the rising tear-streaked face of the girl too late.
"Oh, Rei- Akane!"
Akane was trying to back away, but was caught by the girl's stricken
voice. Despite all the warnings blaring in her mind, she stepped once
toward her. *Are you all right, Skeride?*
Skeride looked away. "I- I'm f-f-fine, Akane." Her trembling lip
told another story.
Akane again ignored her instincts. She stepped closer, and spoke
soothingly, *Do you want to talk about it?*
For a moment she thought Skeride was going to decline. But then tears
welled up in her eyes, and she began sobbing into her hands. "I- l-love
a... person... and he d-doesn't love me!"
Akane's heart went out to the girl. She remembered those feelings too
well. She had spent many a night feeling the same way about Ranma. She
made the one mistake she had avoided all this time.
Her hand went out and touched Skeride's shoulder.
Skeride jumped as if jolted with 10,000 volts. She looked at Akane,
her expression a mixture of awe, understanding, and... disappointment.
Then she said the words Akane had been dreading since she realised her
mistake...
"_YOU_DO_NOT_BELONG_HERE!_"
The scream tore Akane from her painful memory and forced her
concentration on the reluctant battle she was fighting. *Skeride, please,
calm down!*
Skeride's face was a mass of fury, her hair blowing in the building
wind. "Calm down? One of the people I thought of as friend, who I poured
my very soul out to, is unliving, and you want me to _calm_down_?" The
dagger's arc sliced ribbons between them. "Tendo Akane, you do _not_
belong! You have made a mockery of me _AND_ my quest! Prepare to end,
spirit!"
* * * * *
*C'mon, Kim, we gotta find her!*
Ranma floated impatiently beside a grumpy Kim Thompson. "Why in the
world did you have to wake up anyways, jock?"
Ranma floated toward her. *I toldja it didn't have to be _that_ hot,
tomboy. You'd wake up too, if you'd nearly been boiled alive.*
Kim looked down at her red arm. She had forgotten for the umpteenth
time that they would switch places when the water hit . "But why do we
have to look for your fiancee, anyway?"
Ranma looked impatient, following his new-found senses. His night
with Akane, when they had consummated their engagement, left him with a
sense for her that had rivalled his awareness as a martial artist. He
could now feel her when she was near, even when he was flesh. He could
even feel a touch of her when she was away, but only as a ghost. Usually,
the feeling felt warm as the loving emotion brushed him, like a kiss, or
hot when he (still, after all these years) angered her.
Right now it felt cold with fear, so strong it was twisting _his_
stomach.
*Akane's in trouble.* He said it with such certainty that Kim felt no
more compunction to argue.
As they neared the park, they could here the sounds of a woman...
fighting. Ranma's face went pale as he felt Akane's emotions. *She's
close.*
"You're only making this harder on yourself, spirit!"
As they broke through the clearing, Kim saw Skeride wielding a
wickedly
sharp looking dagger in her right hand. Ranma's gasp told her Akane was
there as well.
"Skeride, don't!"
Ranma was already running toward them. He jumped into the dagger's
path, arms outspread, as it crashed toward Akane.
Lightning flashed, and it began to rain, heavily.
Skeride blinked, having barely stopped the knife's descent when she
saw the blur in her field of vision before the lightning blinded her. She
blinked twice as Kim Thompson stood before her, eyes shut, arms
outstretched before Akane, who had been knocked backwards by one of
Skeride's swipes.
Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "Kim, get out of my way."
Kim opened her eyes, looked briefly surprised, then shakily
strengthened her stance. *Skeride... C'mon, think things through.* Her
plan was dangerous, she knew, but she took the chance anyway. *_I_ saw
Akane, saw that you were going to hurt her. As far as you know, I can't
see ghosts, can I?*
Skeride blinked. It made sense. And this hunt was not as...
fulfilling as her others. But something wasn't quite right here. "Y- you
saw her?"
Kim looked behind her. Akane's eyes were wide, her hair stringing
down in her face from the rain. She was breathing hard, looking as
frightened as a rabbit in... wait. Her hair was wet?
As Kim began to put it together, so did Akane and Skeride. Akane,
having one hundred years' experience as a ghost, as well as advice from
Childra, almost automatically changed her hair to gradually get wet. Kim
didn't have that experience or advice.
Skeride reached out a hand and touched Kim's shoulder. "NO!" Her
anger and shock threatened to engulf her, and violet chi raged from her
body. "Not _you_! I cannot... I _will_ not... lose Reiraku to a spirit!"
Her knife flowed back ,and with a piercing screech, began it's deadly path
to Kim's heart.
A path interrupted by a strong hand on her tiny wrist. "I don't think
so."
Skeride struggled against Ranma's strong grip. "Let me _go_! They
don't belong!"
Her screeches hit Ranma's ears unheeded. He felt Akane's relief, and
tried to reach out for her with his own feelings. <It's OK, now, Akane.>
Perhaps it was Ranma's attempt to relax Akane, causing him to relax
his grip.
Perhaps it was Skeride's tiny wrists, or her frantic struggles.
Perhaps it was merely fate.
Whatever the reason, Skeride's had broke Ranma's grip and swung
wildly behind her.
A scream caught in Akane's throat as Kim's was torn wide open.
Kim looked at Ranma, dumbfounded, and her eyes widened as she faded
from existence.
Akane looked to Ranma, and was met with the most horrible sight she
could imagine.
Ranma was on his knees, clutching his gushing throat. He collapsed in
a pool of blood, his eyes wide in a look of horrified shock.
The memories of one hundred years ago played themselves back. Akane
knelt, weeping next to her Ranma, her iinazuke. As he breathed his last,
she slowly lifted his head to her lap.
*Ranma... no, please, don't leave me alone again...*
Ranma's hand reached toward her ki-wet face. It fell limp as his
dying breath gurgled from his wound.
Tendo Akane looked toward the darkened heavens, and screamed her loss
to the clouds.
* * * * *
*AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
Akane bolted upright from her position on the floor. A split second
later, a firm hand touched her shoulder.
She screamed again.
*Akane!*
She turned, shaking, and met the eyes of...
<Ranma!>
Her trembling hand slowly made its way to his worried face. She burst
into joyful tears when it connected.
*Oh, Ranma!*
Her sobs became more frantic, and she began to stroke Ranma's face in
earnest, as if to convince herself he was real.
Ranma, perplexed, could only hold her gently until her sobs subsided.
==========================================================================
FIN
==========================================================================
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
He of the maniacal chuckle
Man: "Nothing you ever said could ever make me stop loving you, Helga."
Woman: "Nothing?"
Man: "Nothing."
Woman: "I'm not Helga."
-From the movie, 'Mother Night'