This is the end! All public or private C&C, MST3K, or other feedback is
welcomed and encouraged, etc. etc. Enjoy!



			     POOLS OF HORROR

			 A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction
			     by Gary Kleppe


			  PART FIVE: SACRIFICE


Lili drifted down towards the ocean floor, holding her breath
desperately, her arms and legs flailing wildly, randomly, in some vain
attempt to keep from drowning. This had happened before. Part of her
wanted to just let go and drown again; but she had no idea what kind of
hell she might wake up in next time. That thought made her panic even
more, which didn't seem to help her attempts at swimming.

It was no use. She had held out much longer this time, but her body's
demand for air was strong. Stronger than the will of a weak little girl.
The world around her was starting to fade, becoming unreal. She felt
something on her back. Was she moving? Or was the whole thing just a
dream...

***

Lili's limp body was pulled onto the shore. Nabiki rushed over, trying
to see what had saved the girl. It was P-chan! The black piglet shook
the water from himself vigorously, wetting Nabiki as she knelt down to
resuscitate the girl that he had pulled from the ocean.

Nabiki put her mouth over Lili's and breathed for her, in and out. It
would work; she would live. That was, assuming that any of them would
after the battle.

There had been hope when Lili's unexpected hit made Ashura take the
brunt of her own attack. Doctor Tofu then joined up with Ukyo and
Kuno-chan to try to pound Ashura while she was momentarily off-balance.
Then she struck back. It was as if she had been toying with them up to
that point and was now going to get serious. She spun in the air, and up
popped an enormous flaming whirlwind. Under her command her fire tornado
moved rapidly into the group attacking her, tossing them around like
bowling pins.

Now, things looked pretty hopeless. "Are there no little ones left to
challenge Ashura?" The demon hovered, smiling maliciously and
triumphantly. "Very well, Ashura will accept your surrender if you offer
her a sacrifice."

"Don't... listen to her, damn it... we're not beat yet," Ukyo said. Yeah
right, she thought to herself. Tough words from someone who was barely
managing to stand up. Ukyo suppressed a twinge of jealousy she got at
the sight of Nabiki giving mouth-to-mouth to Ran-chan. How can you think
about that at a time like this, she asked herself. It wasn't really
Ran-chan, anyway.

Tatewaki suddenly pulled himself from the ground and launched a
rapid-fire series of bokken strikes against Ashura. "Tatewaki Kuno
fights on!" he said. Ashura gestured. A vertical column of fire roared
up from the ground where Tatewaki stood, engulfing him. He cried out in
agony as he dove wildly into the water.

Lili was breathing on her own; she'd be all right. Nabiki turned her
full attention to Ashura, as Kasumi went to help Kuno-chan. "What do you
mean by 'sacrifice'?" she asked, to play for time if nothing else.

"One of you must die, for the glory of Ashura. The others will then be
allowed to live as her servants. A fitting penalty for the destruction
of one of her heads, yes? Except that the head will eventually be grown
back."

Nabiki's mind raced. She was being offered a chance to sell one of her
teammates down the river, to buy a chance for the rest of them to strike
back later. Which one? Kuno-chan, the useless idiot, maybe? Or his
insane sister?

"No deal, Ashura," she said, trying to put on her usual businesslike
manner. As inane as some of her friends were, Nabiki couldn't let them
die if there were still a chance for everyone to come out of this alive.
"I'm afraid your terms are unacceptable. None of us are going to give up
our lives, or each other's lives, to you without fighting you every inch
of the way; and we'll defeat you."

"Fools! Ashura is a force of nature. Ashura is entropy, unstoppable and
inevitable!"

"You were stopped before. Or did you just drown in that Jusenkyo pool by
accident?"

"Ashura's fellow gods had grown fearful of her power. They would have
destroyed her, had she not bargained with the power controlling that
place to have her essence stored away in secret. Now it is the other
gods who are no more. If you will not choose a sacrifice, then Ashura
shall. You!"

Nabiki gaped. "Kasumi! NO!!"

Ashura laughed evilly as she quickly built up a massive ki bolt. It was
perfect. None of them would be able to stop her before she annihilated
this one. She knew from her host's memories that this one was kind and
innocent, one that they all cared for. Her death would destroy the
others' morale utterly. She prepared to launch the attack.

Somewhere, a shy, beautiful girl (a Virgo with blood type A) said: No.

Ashura's attack fizzled.

This was distressing. Having a conscience was not a beneficial thing,
not for a warrior demon goddess. She would have to take measures later
to eradicate her host's personality completely.

Tofu took advantage of her hesitation. "KILL KASUMI??" His left hand
grabbed Ashura by two of her arms. He struck again and again with his
right, aiming for where her shiatsu points ought to be.

"Away, insect!" Ashura shouted, as her ki power blasted Tofu towards the
ocean. Her body felt strange. What had he done to her? She was having
trouble moving properly.

This was it, Nabiki thought. She had brought a little surprise for
Ashura. With her aim, though, she normally wouldn't have had much chance
of hitting her with it. Now, maybe she could. Nabiki hated getting
personally involved in fights; but in for a penny, in for a pound. She
only hoped she wouldn't be in for a pounding. She held up a cannister
and pulled the lever on it. Foam squirted over Ashura.

Ashura started to twirl around rapidly, centrifugal force flinging away
the fire foam. "ENOUGH!!" she said, sounding exasperated. "Feel Ashura's
power!" Another flaming tornado, this one larger than the previous one,
appeared instantly and tore through the ranks of the group.

A voice was heard, its tone insolent and mocking. "Hot and fast. That's
the way I like it, honey!"

Ashura turned to see Happosai. "Have you come to die for Ashura, old
one?" He answered by letting his battle aura expand, growing into a
colossal manifestation of himself.

"Ashura is not impressed, little man," the demon said. Her flaming aura
expanded, until she too was surrounded by a giant copy of herself.
Gigantic manifestations of Happosai and Ashura now faced each other.

Lili had recovered consciousness. She sat and watched, her attention
transfixed by the sight of the two giants staring each other down. It
was a battle of the gods, clearly something that mortals such as her
ought not to be allowed to witness; but still she could not take her
eyes off of it.

For seconds that seemed to stretch into hours, the stand-off persisted.
Then Ashura's aura expanded; her fire slowly but deliberately reached
out, surrounding the giant manifestation of Happosai. The giant little
old man struggled, but Ashura's fire was engulfing him, consuming him.
Moments later, the fiery giant faded, leaving only a broken down
Happosai and a triumphant Ashura.

As Ashura laughed over the defeated old man, an arrow suddenly whizzed
past her field of vision. All eyes turned to see Soun Tendo. He was
dressed in his samurai armor, armed with bow, sword, and mallet.

Ashura laughed even harder.

Lili could watch no more. She closed her eyes and silently wept. Mr.
Tendo would not fare any better than the others. If the old man with his
obvious great power had failed, who could be found to help them now?

Then she was hit from behind by water.

***

"Is this a joke?" Ashura cackled, looking at Soun.

"Dad!? Where have you been?" To Nabiki's ears it had sounded as if there
were a trace of exhaustion in the demon's multiple voices, but she knew
that that was probably just wishful thinking. Or maybe Ashura was
getting bored.

"I was getting some last-minute help," Soun replied, trying to sound
dignified.

"Who?" Nabiki asked.

A figure stepped out from behind Soun, a young girl. She held out a
small coin with one hand, and traced an imaginary circle in the air with
the other. "HAPPO GOEN SATSU!!"

***

Lili was disoriented. She felt as if she were in two places at once, had
two different existences. She was male and female, at the same time,
without being both.

She felt the presence of another mind. It called to her spirit,
summoning her to join it. Was it the old man? It had not the raw power
that she would have expected from his mind; but Lili could sense its
powerful emotion. What a feeling it was, this deep and strong emotion;
emotion of a depth she had never known in her life of running scared and
seeking nothing more than peace and security. Lili felt as if she had
never truly lived, never experienced the joy of what life is, until this
moment.

The other mind carried Lili away, away from this body that was never
hers. She was swept out, as helpless as a pebble in a tidal wave. Then
she was somewhere else.

***

Meanwhile, the now-adult Hinako and Ashura stood on opposite sides of a
circle drawn in the air, engaged in a metaphysical tug-of-war. Hinako
was trying to absorb Ashura's power. The demon goddess was resisting.
"She's weakening! This is our chance!" Soun said, charging in with his
samurai sword.

Two of Ashura's arms grabbed Soun, throwing him into Hinako. The two
crashed to the ground.

***

Ranma woke. Sleep was one of his favorite things, and he normally
begrudged its end.

But not this time! He was alive, and he was himself!

How had it happened? He remembered from when he was Lili, Happosai
saying that he had a way to transfer the curse to himself. Had someone
finally convinced the old man to do it?

He saw Ucchan attacking and being blasted by Ashura. There was no time
to think about how he'd been brought back.

"ASHURA!!"

All eyes turned. It was Lili, they thought. She found some hot water,
and was courageously trying to bluff Ashura again. But the boy's stance,
his determination, his eyes seemed to belie that explanation. Everyone
felt a glimmer of hope that they dared not voice.

Ranma picked up a large piece of debris, the roof from some army vehicle
that had been blown off during the earlier battle. He flung it into the
air like a discus, towards Ashura.

A fire blast reduced the thrown object to ashes. "This is supposed to
hurt Ashura, little man?"

No, Ranma said silently. This is. His feet slammed into one of Ashura's
heads. He had been behind the roof he had thrown, using it as cover to
gain an opening. He planted his feet onto the demon's first head, and
his fists struck the second in rapid-fire succession.

Ashura cried out in pain as she flung Ranma off of her. He landed in the
shallow part of the ocean. He stood, checking himself in the chest and
elsewhere. He was still male! His curse had been removed completely.
There was no time to think about how, though.

Sunlight shone through the clouds of the Tendo Dojo team's despair.
Ranma Saotome was back. Ranma Saotome was fighting on their side.

That meant that they could win.

Ashura spat an energy blast towards Ranma, but Ranma dodged expertly.
"You cannot keep this up forever, little one!" she said. But the trace
of weariness in Ashura's voice suggested that maybe she couldn't either.

Ranma picked up P-chan from where he lay on the shore. "Sorry to do
this, Mister P." He dipped the pig in the water where Ashura's heat
blast had just struck, pulling out a naked Ryoga.

"Will you be running from Ashura the entire fight, frightened one?" the
demon taunted. Then she was hit from the side by a familiar bonbori. It
was Shampoo.

"Ranma no run from you. We defeat you, Ashura!" she said.

Ranma began building a Moko Takabisha. "Shampoo? You're not a cat no
more?"

"Great-grandmother use transference water. Take curse instead of me!
Give up her life for mine!"

"Fools!" Ashura laughed. "Do you not know when you are beaten?"

Then IT rose.

It moved steadily toward Ashura. It was an undead thing, clothed in
tattered rags, a body covered from head to toe in skin so burned and
blistered that it should not hold together. It spoke:

"TATEWAKI... KUNO... FIGHTS... ON!!!"

Ashura gaped in disbelief. Was this mortal simply too stubborn to know
when he ought to be beaten or dead? Tatewaki's bokken struck rapidly.
Then he was flung away by a massive burst of fire energy.

Ranma saw his chance. He let loose his ki blast. It struck Ashura with
devastating force, sending her reeling back, seemingly stunned.

"Now's our chance!" Ranma leapt to one side of Ashura, joined by
Shampoo, Ryoga, and Ukyo. The combination of bonbori, spatula, and two
sets of fists slammed into the demon, knocking her into the water. The
enormous splash was followed by massive clouds of steam, as large
quantities of water boiled off due to Ashura's heat aura.

"Get her out of the water, quick!" Ranma said.

"Ryoga?" Shampoo said. "You no wearing clothes!" P-chan wondered why she
was telling him something so obvious.

Before any of them could move, something rose from the steam. Something
spinning in the air, something fiery, with two heads and six arms.
Ashura.

It hadn't worked.

"HAHAHAHA!!!" Ashura cackled gleefully. "Little fools!

"Ashura delayed fighting with you until today for a reason, mortals! It
was so she had time to locate a certain artifact called the chishuitong,
and splash herself with water from it. She will not be changing into her
mortal form, now or ever! You have lost!"

Ashura began whirling around and around, faster and faster. Red and
black thunderclouds abruptly appeared in the sky, instantly blocking out
the sun. "It is time we ended this little game, little mortals. Feel
Ashura's Rain of Fire Attack!"

The sky was suddenly filled by streams of light. Streaks of white-hot
energy looking like tiny meteorites, or enormously giant fireflies, came
down everywhere, tearing unhindered through all obstacles, their touch
causing blistering agony.

Everyone screamed in pain. Nabiki dove for the water, to find it offered
little protection. Others followed. Ranma leapt towards Ashura, to try
to cut off the attack at its source. The fireballs were more numerous as
he got closer. He felt one of them pass through his leg, and he fell,
collapsing onto the unconscious Kodachi.

The attack ended. It had accomplished its purpose. Ashura floated in the
air triumphantly. Her opponents had been reduced to burned and bleeding
husks scattered on the ground. "Time... to end this," she said, panting
with exhaustion.

Ranma rolled off of Kodachi, his every movement a new adventure in pain.
By trying to get to the center of the storm, he had suffered the worst
of it. Get up, he told himself, you're not gonna let her win. But his
legs didn't want to listen.

Ashura raised her hands, and an incandescent ball of energy began
forming between them, glowing brighter and brighter until its brilliance
rivalled that of the sun. 

This is it, Ranma thought. She must be putting everything she has into
this attack. It would annihilate him and all of his friends. The whole
neighborhood would probably go with them. Damn it, there was nothing he
could do! He could barely move his legs, much less attack!

Ranma remembered what Akane had said. *If there's any of you left in
there that can hear me, I don't hate you. I love you!* No way was he
going to give up now!

He took one of Kodachi's razor hoops, being careful to grip it in the
right place. One last chance.

The miniature sun glowed to blinding brightness, as the last of Ashura's
remaining energy was put into it. "Time to die, little ones." The energy
globe began to descend.

Ranma flung the razor hoop.

The hoop flew through the air. Ashura did not even see it coming as it
sliced through one of her necks.

The globe of power fell, as it began to pulsate chaotically. It was no
longer constrained by its creator's will; Ashura no longer had the
strength. The sky filled with light. Everyone below shielded their eyes
as the energy ball fell into the body of the six-armed goddess. Ashura's
one remaining head screamed with terror as her body was consumed by the
fire, by the unstoppable, inevitable force of nature. The energy
dissolved Ashura into it. Ashura was entropy.

Then the fireball collapsed, imploding into itself. Suddenly the sky was
clear. Ashura was no more.

"WE WON!!" Ranma shouted. His triumphant shout was met by sighs of
relief from the others.

He planted his good leg on the ground and pulled himself up to look
around. His friends were groaning, in pain, but they were alive! It
looked like everybody had made it through the ordeal alive!

Happosai was there, unconscious. Had he done for Ranma what Cologne had
done for Shampoo? Taken the curse to himself, given up his life so that
Ranma could be himself again? Then why wasn't he a girl now?

He looked over to see Akane. She looked mostly unhurt, only a few marks;
she was probably only caught by the edge of Ashura's fire storm. "Akane!
We won!" he cheered as he hobbled over to her.

"R-Ranma, I..." Akane just looked at him. Something was wrong, very
wrong. Her half-smile and fearful, teary eyes said that she was happy
that they'd won, but that she had something to tell him, something
really bad. Ranma looked into the depth of those eyes...

... those eyes, those pools of horror...

... and someone else looked out. Someone who he had never met, but whose
presence he knew intimately.

Ranma put his head on the girl's shoulder and cried. "Oh no... Akane!!
Akane... you didn't have to... not for me! Akane! Oh, Akane..."

Lili, looking out from her new body, held Ranma in her arms. She didn't
know what else to do.

***

Morning. It was quiet around Nerima, as it had been every morning since
last month's battle against Ashura. Though everyone had been released
from the hospital, they all spent most of their times resting at their
respective homes.

Shampoo sat in the Tendo dojo back yard, thinking to herself. She wasn't
sure whether she should be there. How would Ranma react if he saw her?
He was so depressed when they had been in the hospital, so sad about
losing Akane. He just lay in bed, speaking very little to anyone. He
even refused to eat the hospital food; he said it reminded him of her
cooking.

Contrary to what some people thought, Shampoo wasn't stupid; but she was
used to a simpler life. Life in her wonderful amazon home was always
clear-cut. Black and white. When you had a battle to fight, you fought
it. When you had a task to accomplish, you did everything you could to
accomplish it. Obstacles were to be removed. It was that simple.

Akane had been an obstacle to Shampoo's task of getting Ranma to marry
her. Many times Shampoo had wished her gone, and tried to remove her.
Now she had been removed, though not because of anything Shampoo did.
Shampoo should have been happy about this, but she could not help
regretting the loss of Akane, a girl whose tenacity and fiery spirit
could have qualified her as an amazon. Shampoo actually felt sorry about
having wished her rival dead, and that didn't make any sense to her.

Things were so complicated in this place, this place so far away from
home. Shampoo wanted Ranma to be her husband. She knew that she would be
a good wife, a wife who would make her husband happy. Now Shampoo
realized how very unhappy Ranma would have been if she *had* managed to
get rid of Akane. He would have hated her for it. Perhaps he hated her
now just for having wished Akane dead. She decided to go before...

"Yo, Shampoo."

"... Ranma?"

"Hey, it's good to see you. I thought you mighta gone back home or
somethin'."

"I stay to tell you I sorry, Ranma. Great-grandmother not plan this way.
Not expect this happen."

"Hey, I know that. Is she ...."

"Great-grandmother a cat now. She take curse to save Shampoo. I miss her
very much. She sometimes tell me do wrong thing, get me into trouble,
but Shampoo love her."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ranma said. He thought of his Pop, who he
had just been to visit at the local zoo, who he felt the same way about.
"Man, so many people are gone... Pop, Ryoga, Mousse too... all because
they fell in those damn pools! I oughtta go find that guide who runs
that place and --"

"Ranma, Shampoo's amazon sisters go look for Jusenkyo last week. It
gone! It vanished! They not can find cursed springs!"

"It figures, I guess. That place is a nightmare. One'a those things that
comes in the night when you're not ready for it. You don't find them,
they find you."

"You be okay now, Ranma?"

"I guess so. For a while it was like I didn't want to do anything except
lie there. But you gotta go on, y'know? I guess we all just gotta keep
goin' on. I'm really glad for the friends I got left. You, Ucchan, the
Tendos, even the Kunos. I'm sorry about Cologne, but I'm glad you're all
right now, and I'm really glad we didn't lose any more than we did."

"I glad for friends I have left too. Shampoo be seeing you, Ranma!" She
gave a warm smile and left through the gate, waving back at him. She
would be staying in Nerima, for a little while at least. Maybe a week or
a month from now, she would go back to her sisters; or maybe she would
go back to trying to get Ranma to marry her. But for now, she was going
to be a friend to Ranma, because right now Ranma needed her as a friend.
It was that simple.

***

Lili walked out, shutting the door behind her. She wore a light blue
flowered dress, the one that she had worn earlier in Ranma's body. She
carried a suitcase in one hand, with P-chan cradled in the other arm.

She couldn't stay here. She liked the Tendo family, and they would never
have forced her to leave, but she just couldn't stay with them. Not
while she wore the body of Akane. Every day of looking at her would be
another cruel reminder to them of what they had lost.

Ranma was outside. He saw the girl struggling with her suitcase, and
went over to her. "Here, lemme help you with that. Hey, y'know that
dress looks really good on you."

"Thank you," Lili said, a little uneasily. Her presence in Ranma's life
had brought him so much hardship and sorrow; she couldn't blame him if
he hated her. "I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble."

"So, looks like you're leavin', huh? Keep in touch, wherever you go, and
let us know if you ever need anything."

"Thank you. I spoke to the Tendos. I think they understand why I have to
go."

"Y'know, it was quite an experience," Ranma said. "Y'know, having your
body for a while. Uh, you know what I mean. I hated it at first, but
when I got a little used to it, it was... interesting... to find out
what it was like to be a girl." Lili laughed awkwardly.

"G'bye, widdle P-chan," Ranma told the pig, scratching him under the
chin. "You'll look after your mommy, and be there when she needs you,
right?" P-chan nodded in assent.

"G'bye. Lili," Ranma said. Lili smiled. It was a big, cute smile, one
that took Ranma back in time to when he first met Akane, to those rare
moments when they weren't arguing, and Akane would smile at him, and
he'd tell her that she was cute when she smiled. She was.

Ranma remembered the things Akane had that morning. The last time she
ever talked to him. *We never even said goodbye!* *If there's any of you
left in there that can hear me, I don't hate you. I love you!*

There was.

Ranma gazed deep into Lili's eyes, and spoke.

Suddenly, Lili's body was no longer under her control. Her arms moved
involuntarily, taking hold of Ranma.

She kissed him.

They held each other in a long, slow embrace. In that moment, time
stopped. The moment was all that had ever existed, and all that would
ever be. The feeling was back; emotion so strong, so deep, that Lili
knew once again what it was like to be alive. Somehow, someday she would
find the courage, the spirit, to feel this way about someone herself.

Lili's muscles were hers again. She gently broke off the embrace, and
left Ranma with a wave and a smile. Ranma just stood and watched her go,
the last words he had said to her echoing in his mind.

"I love you too, Akane. Goodbye."


			       EPILOGUE

Lili walked down the street, toward a certain estate. The thought of
being on her own, especially in this world, frightened her too much. She
needed a place to stay, and there was only one place to go.

Upperclassman Tatewaki Kuno opened his front door, only to see Akane
Tendo standing there. "Please," she said to him, "I need a place to
stay. Can you help me?"

Tatewaki kept his voice somber and sympathetic, as Akane was obviously
distraught over something. "The house of Kuno is open to you always. My
home is your home, and while in it you are under the protection of the
Blue Thunder."

"Thank you," she said with a smile, and entered. Then Tatewaki looked
into her eyes, and he saw. It had happened. He did not know how, but he
knew that somehow it had.

He had them both.

He had always known that he would.

				END

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was based on "Cursed" by Richard Lawson, and "Hello
Again" by Benjamin Franz, and it is dedicated to these authors with
gratitude and admiration for these fine works. Thanks to Richard for
giving me permission to do this sequel. Benjamin, I hope we'll see more
from you soon!

I originally got the idea for this sequel in January, when "Cursed" came
out. Because I had "Lost" and other projects to work on, this one got
put on the shelf. My interest in this got renewed by a bit of spam on
the fanfiction mailing list noting that there are many fics where Mousse
gets Shampoo, but none where Kuno gets Akane. I then challenged people
to write a believable Kuno gets Akane fic. As you've seen, this is (sort
of) a Kuno gets Akane fic. (It's not Akane's mind, you say? Picky
picky!) Moreover, the premise behind it was Benjamin's and Richard's, so
one can hardly accuse me of having contrived the whole fic just to get
those two together in the end.

In case anyone is wondering, Happosai did NOT take advantage of Akane in
the way that Nabiki thought he would in part 4. They went off together
simply so he could teach her how to use the transference water. Nabiki
was wrong. Hey, nobody's perfect!

Many people asked me about where the Musk Dynasty would be in this
alternate universe. Good question. Since in this universe the Jusenkyo
pools absorb and transmit entire personas, it would seem to me that any
given pool would only work once until someone else drowned in it. If
Herb and co. exist at all in this continuity, their story will be quite
different. The same for Saffron and friends. Kima could not have made an
Akane-niquan as in the original series, since this would have killed
Akane and put her consciousness into Kima. (Of course there is some
possibility of something along these lines happening AFTER the events of
this story, given how it ended...) So dealing with Herb, Saffron, etc.
was beyond the scope of this story. It might be material for a sequel to
this, though I probably won't write one.

Many thanks to Lawson-sensei and the Newbie Forum members for
pre-reading and encouragement, and thanks to everyone who commented on
the previous sections. That's what kept me going. Your comments are
welcome too!

Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics