The Doll
a Ranma 1/2 Alterniverse set within "The Bet" storyarc
   attempted darkfic
i don't own any Ranma 1/2 char,setting,etc. so don't
tell Takahashi-san!
--------------------
	Marller's interest wasn't really in this, but
she could see possibilities for mayhem and despair,
so she was game for it. A step not taken, a small
alteration in a timeline's thread, and how much of a
divergence could be brought forth.

	The result: Toltiir, a being from outside the
Yggdrasil system would give the winner of this little
contest enough power to make permanent the timeline.

	This had enormous appeal to Marller, demon
first class. The first temptation had been to go after
Belldandy and that insipid mortal she was hanging around
with. No, too obvious. The others were messing about
with this Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist, and after 
viewing the timestream decided to tweak one mind. An
idea could be the most dangerous weapon.
----------------------
	Nabiki arranged the passports for China, then
hesitated. Jusenkyo. The opportunities for mischief 
and profit represented by that place were incredible.

	Nabiki added her own name to the list of 
people going to China.
----------------------
	Weeks passed before a tired figure carrying
two large suitcases stopped in front of the Tendo-ke.

	"Might as well go in and face the music."

	Kasumi gasped upon seeing her sister. Nabiki
looked terrible, as if she'd aged years since they'd
left to deal with this Phoenix Mountain problem.

	"Where's Ranma and Akane?"

	Nabiki just waved her sister off. "Get everyone.
I'll tell you all at once. I...don't think I can do it
more than once."

	As Soun was the only other one present, it 
didn't take long at all.

	"So," Nabiki sat and stared at her tea. "Ranma
and the rest of them haven't gotten back yet."

	"Nabiki, you left them?"

	"Yeah," Nabiki sighed. "Yeah, sis. Let me tell
this though, without interrupting me. It's...not good."

	"Go ahead, daughter." Soun was ready to climb
the walls.

	"Ah." She hesitated. "We went to Jusenkyo, the
springs were dried up. We went to Phoenix Mountain where
the source of the springs were, where Saffron was. 
During the fight, Akane got involved."

	"Aaaaaaa! My baby's dead!"

	"Daddy, quiet. No interruptions, remember. 
Anyway there was some weird magic that supposedly
dehydrated her into a doll. Stuff and nonsense actually,
since if she'd dehydrated she'd more have resembled an
overlarge prune and had most of her weight intact. No,
this was some magical form of dehydration. Cologne said
that Akane would die unless she was rehydrated by these
magical waters. When I questioned her, she thought it
likely that any magical waters would do.

	"Saffron was STRONG. I mean, really strong, 
Daddy. The legendary Phoenix of Phoenix Mountain. Able
to blow away mountains with his chi. THAT good. I just
couldn't see Ranma winning this one. Against anything
even remotely human, no prob. Against THIS...

	"So I took Akane. I remembered her stories of
this legendary 'Spring Of Life' in Ryugenzawa. I stole
Akane away from Ranma and grabbed transport out of 
there. Did you know there is mining out there? They
have pilots, and the pilots can be bribed. I must have
broken some speed records going from the Tibet border
to Ryugenzawa. Did I mention that there was a time
limit before Akane's dehydrated form died?

	"I...immersed her in the waters of the Spring
Of Life. I figured if magical waters would do the 
trick, then these should especially fit the bill. No
Saffron or his bird-people to get in the damn way."

	"And?" Soun Tendo was shaking, ready to unleash
a flood of tears in typical fashion.

	"It worked...kinda." Nabiki reached into a
pocket.

	Akane stood on her sister's palm. "Hi Dad.
Uhm. Do you think we could get a bath now? It's been
a really long week."
--------------------------------
	Another day passed as the Tendo household tried
to move along.

	"No Kasumi, those 'Moga-chan' clothes are all
scratchy. That imported 'Barbie' stuff is even worse.
Can't you just make a few alterations on some more 
hankerchiefs?"

	"Well, I suppose, Akane, but it will take me
a little while to make them and your one outfit was
in pretty bad shape."

	"Can I at LEAST go with something besides the
'Vegas Showgirl Barbie' outfit? Honestly, no wonder it
was in the Bargain Bin..."

	"But Akane, you look so cute in it!"

	Soun walked by, stopped, backed up and looked
up at the shelf where his youngest daughter was 
standing and wearing an outfit... A moment later he
shrugged and continued past, muttering something about
turning the dojo into a day care center.

	"He wouldn't?!" Akane shrank back, a moment of
horror as she pictured some little girl or boy getting
ahold of her as tiny as she was now.

	"Don't worry, Akane, it'll be okay. Look, 
P-chan is here!"

	"Bweee!"

	"P-chan!"

	<THUD!>

	"P-chan fainted? He must be exhausted, Kasumi,
could you take care of him?" 

	"Of course, Akane." Kasumi took the little
black pig into the kitchen, setting her younger sister
off on the kitchen table on her way.

	"Damn, this outfit is cold." Akane looked out
the door. "Ranma, where are you? You should have won by
now."
------------------
	It was afternoon when Ryouga showed up.

	"A-Akane! How?"

	"Ryouga! When did you get here?"

	Akane was wearing what had been a silk 
hankerchief before extensive rework by Kasumi. It now
looked rather more like silk pajamas.

	"Earlier today, ehm." Ryouga stared at Akane,
feeling like King Kong next to the tiny figure. "Was..."

	"Nabiki tried to help me. I'm alive, but there
were 'side effects' - so how's Ranma doing?" Akane tried
to keep the eagerness from her voice.

	"Not well," Ryouga sighed. "Everyone thought you
were dead. He went off for revenge against Saffron. He
didn't do too well..."

	"Why," Akane felt tears coming to her eyes. The
horror of her own life being put aside for the moment.
"What happened, Ryouga?!"

	"Ranma pulled a suicide attack on Saffron.
Saffron reverted to an egg, nobody's seen Ranma since
then. They decided that since Saffron's an ugly little
kid, that we won, so they let us go. Shampoo is still
looking for him, Mousse and Cologne have given up."

	"Ranma..." Akane felt tears come to her eyes and
wiped them away as best she could. Ryouga attempted to
hand her a bandana, but the size difference made the
gesture rather futile. "You baka..."

	Kasumi, at the door, nodded sadly and returned
to her work. Nabiki came down, still looking nearly as
depressed as Ryouga usually did, and was looking rather
worse as things were explained to her.

	The remainder of the facade of "Furinken's Ice 
Queen" broke the moment she made it back to her room.
----------------------
	There was a gentle knock on the door.

	Nabiki mumbled something that might have been
an interrogative.

	"Nabiki," Kasumi began.

	"Sis, I blew it. Big time. Ranma DID manage to
beat Saffron. It might have been just squeaking past the
time limit, but it could have made it. You know Ranma,
he's always just in the damn nick of time."

	"You couldn't have known," Kasumi sighed. "He's
won against all odds before, but as you've said there's
always a first time."

	Nabiki looked up. "Kasumi, who's watching after
Akane?"

	"P-chan...oh my."

	The two ran downstairs to hear a "P-chan 
HASSHIN!" in Akane's new little piping voice.

	"Damn you, Ryouga!" Nabiki ran for the gate,
but Ryouga was already lost. She'd suspected before, but
when she'd seen him at Jusenkyo, she'd known.

	"Where?" Kasumi felt bad about this, she should
have known that Akane would try something.

	"She's gone to find Ranma, of course." Nabiki
sighed. "Damn, and I just got back. Well, I've got to
go get the two, there's no telling what problems they'll
get into without me there."

	Kasumi looked back into the kitchen. "I'll leave
a note for father."

	Nabiki snorted. "Right, Kasumi, you going off on
an adventure. NOT! Kasumi, sis, I love you, you're 
family, but you'd just get in the way. It's a tough 
world out there."

	"I know, but..."

	"No, Kasumi, and that's final."
------------------
	Three days later, Nabiki crested the hill. "I
CANNOT believe this."

	Kasumi, parasol carried jauntily over one 
shoulder followed her immediately, a little smile on
her face. "Wasn't it nice, Nabiki, that we don't have
to carry all our equipment by ourselves?"

	Hiroshi and Daisuke, carrying size Huge 
backpacks, followed behind Kasumi. "How'd we get talked 
into this?"

	Yuka and Sayuri were next, wearing variations of
Ranma's costume. "It's because you thought you'd be
sharing a tent with us, you perverts."

	Yuka thought about it. "Maybe on the way back."

	"YUKA!" Sayuri looked scandalized, then realized
that Hiroshi and Daisuke had picked up their previously
lagging pace.

	"The heck if I'm gonna let that Amazon hussy
nurse my Ranchan back to health," Ukyou grumbled along
with her own backpack next.

	"It is not fitting that the noble Tatewaki Kuno
should have to walk so far." Carrying only his bokken
and the moneypouch, Kuno was quite an addition to this
expedition. An addition that everyone else would rather
have done without, except Kasumi who thought he was 
quite polite if a little violent.

	Finally, bringing up the rear, Sasuke and his
Obscenely Huge backpack didn't have enough breath to
say anything at all.

	At the head of this line, Nabiki continued to
swear. "Just a quick in and out operation, just by 
myself, nobody else having to get hurt. But 
Noooooooo..." <Grumble, grumble, grumble.>
-------------------------
	"P-chan? Where are we?" Akane looked around,
but from her vantage point on P-chan's back, everything
looked so different. It was a street, but where?

	"Bweee." P-chan looked a little confused as
well. It almost sounded like a 'weren't you the one
driving?' squeal. 
	
	"I swear, P-chan, you get lost almost as easy
as Ryouga sometimes..." Things started to go 'click'
in her mind, but no, she was imagining things surely.
Just way too much stress lately, that was all.

	"Bwee?!" P-chan sweated but the expected 
explosion didn't come.

	"Oh wow, a cute little dolly."

	Akane looked back, saw the huge children bearing
down on her and did the only sensible thing she could.
Panicked.

	"Warp factor seven, Mister P-chan!" 

	"Squueee?"

	"THATAWAY!"

	"Buki!"
----------------------
	Marller looked out at the writer. "HEY! Weren't
you supposed to be writing a darkfic? What do you mean
the characters keep going off into comedy subplots?
Arrrghhh. I bet this wouldn't be happening if SKJAM or
Kleppe were writing this." <grumble, grumble>
	"Well can you at least TRY to get back into
darkfic mode? Okay. Sheeesh."
----------------------
	Shampoo dug the scrap of black cloth out of 
the mud lining the banks of the flooded Jusenkyo. The
waters hadn't quite receded to normal.

	Moving to the Guide's hut she prepared some
hot water, then doused herself with cold. A quick sniff
with her cat form's enhanced olfactory sense confirmed 
it.

	Ranma's scent was on the cloth, which looked
like a strip of his pants. There was also the faint
presence of blood in a crease, somehow not washed away.

	"Airen," Shampoo began. If Cologne or anyone
from her village had been around, Shampoo would have 
been far too proud to cry. Since there wasn't, a geyser
worthy of Soun Tendo began to gush forth. "Shampoo no
get to tell you. Shampoo no tell you how much she love
you. Shampoo no...baka."

	Holding the scrap like a lifeline, Shampoo 
wailed her grief to the heavens.
---------------------
	"Oh no, P-chan. We've got to get out of here."
Akane looked up at the estate walls. "I don't know how
we got here, but we've got to leave now."

	"Bwee? Bweeeeee!"

	"Ohohohohohohoho. My goodness, Akane Tendo, I
don't know what happened to you, but we shall have SUCH
an amusing time."
------------------------

	NEXT: Ranma's dead. Ryouga's in the kitchen
with Dachi, Akane's a "girl in a gilded cage", and 
Shampoo's ready to join Ranma. 

hmmm, character X is heavily OOC and i should look at
 panel 3 page 47 of volumn 32? well, just so i don't 
 make that mistake, why don't you SEND ME a copy of
 all the translated manga and i'll take care of that
 problem just as soon as i receive it. thank you in
 advance for this wonderful gift you're about to bestow
 upon me. (don't bother sending the untranslated, i 
 have enough trouble figuring out what the hiragana or
 katakana is without the kanji.)

or better yet, write the story yourself so i can 
 concentrate on other projects.

in case you're wondering, i got heavily flamed over this
 story and am dropping it. If the teaser about Akane
 not being the one to carry on drew that much fire,
 then the planned scene where Kodachi has Akane in a
 tin birdcage and is using a bunsen burner to heat the
 floor of said cage would probably fill the mailbox. 

that escape would come by the end of the chapter would,
 of course, be beside the point.
mata ne.