Though I was planning on waiting to relase this until it was revised,
I realized I'll be reposting Part I&II later, so I might as well post
the final copy of this then. Plus, I can get some more feed back,
since my pre-readers are dragging their feet.
What? So what if I sent it to you guys late? ^_^
C&C, MST's, Flames, Rants, any sort of indication that you've noticed
my existence is most welcome.
=======================
Michael Won <skeezy5@mit.edu>
=======================
God Emperor 1 / 2 - Part III
by Skeezy5
=======================
Characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi
Dune Chronicles belong to Frank Herbert
Various ideas ripped off from other fan-fics belong to the
respective authors.
=======================
"Once, in exasperation, my
mother said that it would take
a miracle for me and Akane to
ever get married.
Akane had been extremely
upset at that - she went so far
as to yell at mother. I was not
there, but that is what Ucchan
told me. Later that night, when
I went to talk to her, Akane was
still angry, very angry.
I quoted to her from an old,
old book, back from when Terra
still bore life...
'They say that modern science
disallows for miracles.
In each human coupling,
millions of sperm vie for a single
egg. Multiply those odds against
countless generations against the
odds of your ancestors being alive,
meeting, siring this precise son,
that exact daughter...
Until it was You, only You,
that emerged. To distill such a
specific a form from that chaos of
improbability... That I am here
speaking to You is miracle enough
for me.'
That was the happiest day of
my life, when Akane consented to
marry me... That was also the day
that I consigned myself to my
millennia of suffering. Truly, it
is amazing what man will do in the
name of love...
Even lie to our loved ones.
Even lie to ourselves."
-The Stolen Journals
Shiro looks with triumph, "So, maybe I was wrong. Maybe a part of
you still retains a trace of humanity."
"Shiro... Shiro... Leave her out of this! What did she ever do
to you?" I scream out at my... my... my *daughter*. Never, never in
my life have I felt so revolted at that word. "For the love of God!
Let her go Shiro! If you only had one drop of pity in your heart for
your whole life, use it now. If you ever loved me even a bit, let her
go! Shiro, please, I'm begging you!"
"Are you afraid, *father*? Afraid that your precious God Emperor
will go to her? Jealous, *father*? Your whole life, people loved you,
but you did not return that love, because you loved another. Do you
fear that the Tyrant will abandon you, all of you, for her? It would
only be just that such a thing happened to you!"
"Shiro..." I fall silent, unable to respond to her.
@->-
"I guess I should have warned you, Kaneda." Ranma-sama says as
she finally stops laughing.
"I don't see the humor in this situation, my lord." I grimace,
hurt that she finds my situation so humorous.
"Kaneda. Women have always been falling in love with older men.
She grew up, respecting you and looking up to you. Now that she is a
young woman, it is only natural that she feels that way about you."
"But sir, she is my daughter!" Once again, the sense of revulsion
shudders down my back.
"Not by birth, but by adoption. In fact, if you look at the
records, she is not even that, but your ward." Ranma-sama shakes her
head. "Poor Kaneda. If you'd taken my advice and gotten married, you
wouldn't be having these problems."
"My lord, I couldn't..."
She cuts me off with a hint of exasperation in her voice. "Why
not? Shinobu still loves you. After all this time, she still does!
When you are away on assignment, it is she that comes and takes care of
your wards. When you were wounded at Sirius, she nursed you back to
health. I ask you once again, why not?!"
Her voice wakes up the guilt within me again. Though I know that
I have no right to, I grow angry. "My lord, why couldn't you have just
told me of this so that I could have taken steps to forestall it?"
"Kaneda!" Her eyes suddenly flash with anger. "Would you have
the oracle run your life?! If you want me to, I can tell you how your
life will unfold from this moment on to your death! Is that what you
wish? All of you always ask why I didn't tell you. Do you wish me to
look into the future and see the deaths of the people I care about? To
know when, where, how, and why they will die, and not be able to stop it
because my prescience is what locked them into that path? Do you truly
wish that I do that to myself?"
My heart cringes, listening to her voice fill with pain. She once
told me of her early prescient searches, how she was beset with the
choice of following her Golden Path and letting Akane be murdered, or to
abandon that path to extend Akane's life. I stare at the floor in
shame. "I'm... I'm sorry, my lord."
"Do not apologize to me, Kaneda. I am not the one you should be
sorry to. It should be Shinobu." She lifts my chin up. "You came here
to ask me for my advice?"
"..." I stare into her blue eyes.
"Even if you feel that you are living a lie, is it not worth it if
you fulfill the happiness of others? Even if your actions and your
feelings do battle, can you not sacrifice for the sake of another?
Kaneda, the members of House Kuonji have always stood by what they
believed, and followed what they felt to be right. Twice, in the past,
I asked a Kuonji to do what they felt was not right. I will make it a
third time now. Will you do it for me, Kaneda? Will you marry
Shinobu?"
"Yes, my lord, as you command."
"It is not a command, Kaneda." Her eyes are gentle, full of pity.
"It is a request, from one friend to another."
"Yes, Ranma-sama, I will."
@->-
"Shiro. What do you want?" His voice cuts through the silence.
Was he really going to consider her offer?
"The terms I offer you are generous, Tyrant. Exile, for you and
Akane, after you take the cure. You two can live out your lives
wherever it is you choose to go. I will not bother you."
"That is all that you ask?" Ranma-sama asks with a slight touch
of bitterness. "And who will take care of the Empire, you?"
"No, Tyrant. Nobody will. There will be no more Empire. Do not
mock me, I know the course that your Golden Path will take as well as
you do. No one, no single person will ever hold all the reigns in his
hands after you. You assured that with your Golden Path."
"Excellent, child. You are truly my masterpiece." He smiles
sadly. "And if I don't?"
"She will die." The coldness in her voice breaks my heart over
and over. How did I bring up such a child? "Here. Now. In front of
your eyes. And you will only have yourself to blame."
With that, Shiro throws the vial at Ranma-sama. It slowly spins
through its flight, arcing through the air towards Ranma-sama. Ranma-
sama, who makes no move to catch it.
@->-
"My lord, the rebellion has been quelled on Asagi Prime." I kneel
before Ranma-sama.
She looks at me for a while and then turns back to the miniature
garden she is tending to. I wait for her to say something, but she
remains silent.
"My lord?" At my prompting, she once again turns and looks at me.
"Yes, Kaneda? What do you want?" She looks at me questioningly.
"I..." Why is she asking me what I wanted? I was merely
reporting to her as she had instructed.
"Do you want a pat on the back, Kaneda? Thanks for a job well
done?" The sarcasm in her voice stabs at my heart.
"My lord! I was merely..."
"I know Kaneda, I know. I'm sorry I lashed out at you..." She
puts down the rake she was shaping the rock bed with. "Do you know how
many people have been killed in my name?"
"My lord, they were all unbelievers. They..."
"Seven hundred forty six billion, eight hundred five million, four
hundred twenty two thousand, and sixty eight people to date. Never has
that many people been killed for a single cause, and by the time I'm
through, it'll be so great that it will never be matched." The hate in
her voice is clear, as is who that hate is directed against. "I am a
monster! Do you understand? A monster!"
"My lord..."
"I do not devour mere villages or cities. I devour planets! Do
you understand, Kaneda? I am the greatest killer ever!" She falls
silent again, and this time, I do not interrupt her. She turns back to
her garden and stares at it for a long time. "Kaneda... Have you had
your fill in blood?"
"My lord, I do not understand."
"Is your blood thirst satisfied, Kaneda? That is what I'm asking.
Have you killed enough to satisfy yourself?"
"I..." I remember a face, the face of a young man, barely out of
his teens. I remember the fear and pain in his face as my battle axe
cleaved through his neck, ending his too brief existence. I remember a
hundred such faces and choke, bile rising in my throat.
"You see Kaneda? You have fought for me for these ten years, and
you are revolted by the actions you have committed. I have lived for
three thousand years and have killed many, many more than you ever have!
And I am not done killing! Do you understand now, Kaneda?"
I steady myself on the ground, not daring to stand. The revulsion
that is shaking my body is barely contained. All those lives, all those
lives that I ended...
"Would you like to stop, Kaneda? Give me the word, and I will
free you of your service."
"My lord..." I look up to see her gaze resting on me once again.
"My lord, I swore an oath. Until you no longer have need of my
services, I am yours, mind, body, and soul!"
"Yes, Kaneda, I know." She walks over and kneels in front of me.
"And I swore an oath too, to guide my Golden Path with my mind, body,
and soul. Do you know what the final step to ensure my Golden Path will
be?"
"No, my lord." The shaking in my body is finally lessening.
"It is almost ready, the Golden Path. In Shiro, I believe I have
finally completed all the requirements. I must test her to know for
sure, but I can feel it! I am so close!"
"That is wonderful news, my lord."
"No it is not, Kaneda, no it is not! What do you remember of your
birth, Kaneda?"
I am taken aback by the switch in topics. "My birth?"
"Birth. Birth is a trauma beyond all measure. You are removed
from the warm protection of your mother and thrust into this cold,
uncaring world. That final trauma is what puts the flame of life in
you. That sudden, unwanted realization that you are truly on your
own..."
"My lord, what does this have to do with the Golden Path?"
"For the final step, I must give birth to humanity. They will be
free of my Empire, of Ranma's Peace. And in that moment of shock, they
will turn on each other." The guilt in her voice tells me how much this
has been gnawing at her from within. "The number who will die in those
times will exceed those killed during my reign by tenfold. And it will
all be because I planned it to be that way!"
"Free of the Empire?" My mind is numbed by the thought. It is so
foreign for me to even think of Ranma-sama's Empire not existing...
"Yes, Kaneda. When the Empire dissolves, Humanity will experience
a birthing trauma that they will remember in their every cell for
millennia to come. It will be bloody, and all the blood will be on my
hands. So much blood..." She slowly stands up and turns towards her
garden. "I fear that day when the Empire must die more than anything."
@->-
"No!" The scream is closer to that produced by a rabid animal
than any sane human. Commander Hibiki's form blurs as the vial bounces
off of Ranma-sama's chest and begins to fall. In an eye blink, he
crosses to Akane's side and throws her towards Ranma-sama in one motion.
"Fool! What are you doing?!" The vial shatters on the ground.
Shiro turns and grabs Commander Hibiki by the front of his shirt, her
face filled with anger.
"You said he'd accept! You were so sure of it!"
"I guess I overestimated love." She lets go of Commander Hibiki
and turns to Ranma-sama. "I guess that even you're legendary love of
Akane is as much of a lie as the rest of your life!"
"No, Shiro. You merely underestimated love." Ranma-sama steadies
Akane in his arms and points at Commander Hibiki. "Ryouga has stood at
my side for all of my three thousand years. Every single ghola loved
her, just as the original did. You were foolish to discount that love."
"Ryouga, is that true?" Akane looks up in surprise at Commander
Hibiki. He merely looks away, his face aflame with the exposure of his
secret.
"Yes, Akane, it is. Every single ghola that has been delivered to
me, his first question is to know whatever happened to you. He always
blames me for letting you die. That is the seed of anger against me
that is always planted in his heart, the one that leads so many of them
to betray me."
@->-
"So the Bene Genryu say that the replacement is ready?" Ranma-
sama continues to keep her back turned to me, staring at the far wall.
"Yes, my lord. The new Commander Hibiki ghola will be delivered
at the end of the month." I avert my eyes as the Guardswomen clear out
the mangled body. "My lord?"
"Yes, Kaneda?"
"Why is it that you continue to bring back the gholas of Hibiki
Ryouga, even though so many of them turn against you?" I stare at the
damage done to the room again. Large chunks of the wall and ceiling
have been vaporized, and much rubble covers the floor.
"Do you know how they awaken his memory?"
"No, my lord."
"They make him try to kill me." The calm tone of her voice makes
me take a few moments before realizing the weight of her words.
"What do you mean?" I am shocked at the information. Kill Ranma-
sama? But how? The ghola's memory is restored on the Bene Genryu
homeworld...
"To awaken the pre-ghola memory, it is necessary to create a
strong tension within the ghola. That tension is brought to a head and
stretched to the breaking point. In Ryouga's case, they condition him
to kill a shape-shifter who looks just like me. This conflicts with his
pre-ghola self's loyalty to me. The tension unlocks that memory from
within him, and he is restored."
"Does he ever..."
"Yes. Sometimes, the tension finds the jealousy he bore me about
Akane, and the ghola kills the shape-shifter."
"What happens to those gholas, my lord?"
"They are killed. I have no need for one who snapped under the
tension..." Ranma-sama seems to be about to turn towards me, but then
she stops. "Kaneda, leave me. Give me a few more moments to grieve
Ryouga's death."
I bow and turn away, troubled by what I have discovered. Reaching
the door, I realize something and turn around. "My lord, you have not
answered my question."
"I know Kaneda. I did not aim to."
@->-
"So Shiro, what will you do now?" Ranma-sama puts Akane gently
down on the ground.
"Need you ask? Should I rely on your mercy and ask you for
forgiveness?" Her face assumes a prideful sneer once more.
"Would you ask for it?" A smile of amusement adorns his lips.
"No." A matching smile grows on her face.
"Then I guess its a moot point." Ranma-sama frees the strap that
is holding his sword in place. He holds it out in his left hand by the
scabbard so that it is pointing downward. "I am saddened that it has
come down to this, Shiro. You are so close to completing the Golden
Path, so close. One last time I must ask, will you not acquiesce to my
will?"
"A Saotome will always do what she believes to be right." Shiro
hefts the war hammer which had been Ranma-sama's gift to her. "To my
death, and even afterwards."
"You are truly worthy of the name then." With that, Ranma-sama
springs in at Shiro. He is slow, much slower than I remember him being,
and I realize that is because it is *him*, not *her*. Though a master
martial artist, his male form is forty some years old, lacking the
youthful spring of his female form.
Shiro brings her hammer up to parry the scabbard of Ranma-sama's
sword. The look of confidence on her face disappears as the two weapons
meet, flinging hers away. Though lacking in speed, Ranma-sama is
channeling his ki into the weapon, increasing its striking power by
tenfold.
Recovering her footing before she falls, Shiro steadies her hammer
in a wide grip. "Heh, not bad for a decrepit old man."
"Not bad for a young pup." Ranma-sama attacks again, swinging the
sheathed sword in a wide arc again. Instead of meeting the blow, Shiro
slides back out of its path, then jumps in, hammer whistling through the
air.
The sound of metal meeting metal echoes throughout the courtyard
as the hammer bounces off of Ranma-sama's parry. His swing had been a
feint, and the hammer met the scabbard again in mid-blow. She slides
out of his reach again, however, before he can launch a counterattack.
The two of them circle eyeing each other carefully, having gauged
the other's relative fighting abilities. Though Ranma-sama has the
advantage in training and experience, Shiro has the strength and
endurance of youth. She is also the pinnacle of his breeding program,
and that three thousand years of careful selection in genes gives her an
incredible edge in reflexes and raw talent.
"Hiyaa!" With a loud cry, Shiro begins a series of quick but
powerful strikes, driving Ranma-sama back in a waterfall of blows. He
blocks each of them, but is forced to give ground. Finally, he jumps
back out of the way. "Had enough?"
"Not even close." Bringing the still sheathed sword in front of
him, Ranma-sama says, "You are to be congratulated, Shiro. For the
first time since I acquired it after defeating House Kuno, I am forced
to draw this blade. Beware! The Blue Thunder shall not go easy on
you!"
@->-
"Pathetic. The old Baron would have had him dismembered without
blinking for being such a simpering fool." Ranma-sama shuts off the
display that was showing the man.
"What shall I do with him, my lord?"
"Return him to Furinkan Prime. He is of no importance in any way.
To imagine, the once mighty House Kuno has degraded to that. Though it
would be kinder to end his existence, I cannot bring myself to raise my
hand against my kinsman."
"Kinsman, lord?" I am puzzled. Were not House Saotome and House
Kuno traditionally mortal enemies?
"Ah, yes... I forgot that you don't know of this." She barks a
short laugh. "Old Baron Kuno's father had dallied with beautiful women
during his youth. The Bene Niichieju saw that he had a trait which they
wanted, so they had one of their number seduce him. From her, a
daughter was born. They named her Nodoka."
"Nodoka?" That is the name of my unit, the Defenders of Nodoka.
"Wasn't she your..."
"Yes, my mother."
"But..."
"The trait was there, but not strong enough. They wanted to breed
it back into the line to strengthen it." Disgust fills her voice. "The
witches were afraid the trait would degrade with time, so they decided
that two cousins should marry in order to strengthen that trait."
"Cousins?"
"They had expected my mother to bear a daughter. The girl would
have been bred with her cousin, the first born of Baron Kuno. I wish I
could've seen the look on their faces when they discovered I was a boy."
She laughs again, though there is no mirth in her voice. "They tried to
rectify the situation by having me breed with the second child of Baron
Kuno, of course."
"What... Whatever happened to them?"
"I killed them. All of them. That was the least I could do to
avenge my father."
The matter of factness with which she utters that statement sends
a chill down my back.
@->-
The metal snake crawls out of its ancient home and glints in the
sun. For the first time in three millennia, the evil sword which ended
so many Saotome lives is freed from its prison. "I will give you the
chance to yield at first blood."
"And I shall not return such a courtesy to you." Shiro brings her
guard up again as Ranma-sama begins his onslaught. The exchange of
blows is furious, a battle between two masters. I look on with a hint
of pride in my heart, as my daughter matches my God, blow for blow.
Shiro slightly overextends herself on a swing, but that is all the
opening that Ranma-sama needs. The sword makes a long scratch along her
left forearm as she desperately dodges out of the way. Instead of
pursuing the advantage, however, Ranma-sama pulls back. "Do you yield?"
"NEVER!" Shiro strikes again, and Ranma-sama is put on the
defensive. His movement is not so fluid anymore, his endurance
beginning to wane. Shiro presses her advantage, using her superior
speed to keep him off balance. Finally, Ranma-sama brings his sword up
in a desperate block to a massive overhead swing. Though the blow is
deflected, the sword shatters into a thousand glittering pieces, the
shards of metal sparkling like glass.
"Most impressive, Shiro." Ranma-sama leaps back and smiles at my
daughter. "The time for games is up, however. I shall end this here
and now."
Shiro smiles back, watching Ranma-sama draw in his ki in, focusing
it. She drops her hammer to the ground and mirrors him, drawing her ki
in also. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge, and I feel the
air about the two combatants fill with the tremendous energy being drawn
in.
"MOUKO..."
"SHISHI..."
"...TAKABISHA!!!"
"...HOUKOU DAN!"
I watch the golden flash of the Mouko Takabisha as the huge ball
of ki boils through the air. The small black sphere of the Shishi
Houkou Dan is absorbed into it and disappears into its depths. The
supercharged mass pulsates in the air between the two combatants for a
moment, angry streaks of black crackling on the yellow surface. With a
thunderous noise, the combined ki ball shatters, sending a shock wave
across the courtyard. Though I am knocked back, I keep my eyes on the
dark ki, as it speeds towards its target once more.
*Dodge! Dodge out of the way, damn it! I know you can! Why give
up now! Why?!* I watch in horror as the Shishi Houkou Dan hits its
target. "NO!!!"
=======================
[Author's Notes]
Yes, I know I promised to end it with this part, but it was
getting too long. On the other hand, Part IV will come out soon, since
I've written most of it. Death speaches have a tendency to get drawn
out. The flashbacks ended up being longer than I thought they'd be,
which I'm sorry about, but hey, the story writes itself, not me.
Wondering what's going to happen? Hope you are. That's what
cliffhangers are supposed to do, after all. ^_^ Actually, with a
little bit of brain work, it should be pretty easy to figure out who
did which move.
Oh, people who figure out where I drew that quote from get a
smile from Hello Kitty (who has no mouth).
Thanks to all the wonderful people on the FFML who gave me lots
of advice about doing fight scenes. I tried to follow as many of
your suggestions as possible.