I just had to do it.  I'm sure all the people who know me could tell you
why...^_-

After looking back at Love&War, I have to admit I wrote a rather dreary
ending for it.  So...

<insert standard disclaimer here>

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

	Ranma stared at the man standing before him.  There wasn't really
much to him at all, when Ranma thought about it.  The gaijin seemed almost
normal in an odd way.  The well defined muscles and ease with which he
carried himself was all too familiar to Ranma.  The typical sneer was
splayed across the face, seemingly saying, "I'm here to challenge you and
destroy you."  It reminded Ranma of Ryouga's old battle cry of, "die,
Ranma!"  A fond memory that seemed to haunt him more now than it did
before.
	Ranma smiled bitterly at the memory.
	"You here to challenge me?" Ranma asked for the hundredth time in
his life.
	The gaijin simply stared impassively at him.  The long sandy hair,
tied back in a ponytail waved in the strong breeze.  Dark beady eyes
peered out from a furrowed brow.
	"You gonna fight me or somethin'?" Ranma asked impatiently.
	The foreigner cocked his head to one side and then the other.
There was an audible popping noise from the joints.
	"Look, you gonna fight or what?" Ranma demanded.
	The man with the sandy hair simply lowered his head slightly,
touching his forehead with his right hand.  The fingers lightly touched
his forehead as if in silent meditation.
	"Are you Ranma Saotome?" the stranger asked in a heavily accented
voice.
	"Yeah, so?  I didn't do nuthin' to you or your family.  Let's get
the straight now," Ranma said evenly.  "It was probably my old man, so why
don you-"
	"You are Ranma Saotome, the one who fought in the Seventh Battle
of Balance?"
	"What are you talking about?  Seventh Battle of what?" Ranma asked
incredulously.
	The man sighed and frowned.
	"The war which was fought to determine the balance of power
between the Aspect of universal power - where the Fallen Avatar was lost
to our world," came the monotonous reply.
	Ranma stopped for a minute.
	"Oh yeah," he said with a chuckle.  "The one where everything was
really screwed up for a while?  I remember that.  It's where people killed
my friends and turned our lives into a nightmare," Ranma finished with a
grim smile.  He moved into a ready position.
	"And if you're one of those wackos from before, I'm more than
ready to take you on," Ranma concluded.
	"You were lucky the first time, boy," the man said as he took off
the grey shirt he wore.  "Fate was able to guide you before, but Fate
isn't here for you now.  We know who you are and we know the power you
possess."
	Ranma blinked.  The last thing he remembered was the Fate took
away his powers from before.  Why did this new guy think he still had
them?
	"We?" Ranma asked.
	"You haven't heard of us?  We've heard a great deal about you."
	"Uh, no," Ranma replied bluntly.  "You realted to Kuno?  You both
really talk funny."
	"Don't play dumb with me," the man said evenly as he moved into a
fighting stance as well.  "The last thing you see before we drain you of
the power of Doom will be the seven faces of sin, staring at you in the
face."
	"Sin?  You related to that sick chick that I beat before?  You
here for revenge?"
	"Far from it.  We're far more powerful than she ever was.  I can
already see you've lost to us," he said with a smirk.
	"Lost?  I haven't even stared," Ranma replied with a smirk of his
own.
	"You lost a long time ago, Ranma.  I guess I'll have to make that 
point clear."
	Ranma watched as the man closed his eyes and inhaled slowly,
forcefully.  He could barely believe his eyes when he watched the gaijin
grow in mass as the muscles seemed to bulge and grow.  A sick stretching
and tearing noise filled his ears, making Ranma take an instinctive step
back.  When it was over, the man opened his eyes, and two burning spheres
seared a simple message into the back of Ranma's brain - fear.
	
	
*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Ethan Tsai
1 N. College Street
Northfield, MN 55057

TSAIE@Gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu
http://public.carleton.edu/~tsaie/ethan.html

Quote of the day:
"You do not lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not
leadership." 
     --Dwight D. Eisenhower