Disclaimer: All characters that are used belong to their respective creators. I do this for fun and do not take any money off of it. Please don't sue me. The stories are mine, so please don't use them without asking me.
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    Shivering slightly at the damp air, Nabiki was sitting with her back against a pylon that was holding up a bridge.  She looked across the river and saw small boats go by.

    *Where's Akane?  She should be here by now,* Nabiki thought, as she glanced around.

    A splashing sound caught her attention, and she turned towards the source.  Walking along the inside edge of the river, Akane was humming softly.  Nabiki narrowed here eyes at the damp condition of her sister's clothes.

    "What did you do, Akane?  Fall down?"

    Akane shook her head and asked, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

    Nabiki weighed the options that she had available to her.  She decided on the direct approach, since she wanted to clear the air between them as fast as possible.

    "Akane, when you spent the night in Kasumi's room, I saw Ranma come out of your ring, wearing a genie costume.  Please tell me what happened," Nabiki said while looking at the ground.

    The middle Tendo sister held up her hand to stop Akane from talking.  "But first, there are some things I want -- no -- need to tell you."

    "Like what?" Akane asked, wary.

    Nabiki took a deep breath and replied, "It's about your pet P-chan.  He's really Ryoga with a Jusenkyo curse."

    "You knew?!" Akane demanded, taking a step forward.

    Holding her hands before her and stepping back, Nabiki responded, "I followed Dad's lead in this.  Ryoga often changed back into a human while dad was taking a bath.  I thought he would do something about it, but I was wrong."

    Akane clenched her fists, realizing that her father did nothing to help out with her situation, and he knew of one of the problems.  Nabiki carefully eyed her sister as she started glowing.  The glow dimmed as Akane fought to regain her calm.

    Akane asked through clenched teeth, "How much is it going to cost to buy your silence?"

    Nabiki shook her head. "I don't want money from you.  I saw how much pain you were in, when Ranma called you 'master'.  I just want to help my little sister out.  And, eventually regain your trust."

    Akane looked down and quietly explained what had happened.  She figured that by giving her older sister all the information now,
that she would be less inclined to snoop and jeopardize her house's position.  Nabiki sat through the story in mute silence.  The pain and anger that Akane and Ranma went through made tears crawl down her face.

    Feeling the moisture, Nabiki thought, *I broke my vow.  My first tears since Mom died.*

    *I thought she couldn't cry,* Akane thought, as she noticed the tears.  "Please Nabiki, keep quiet about this."

    "Don't worry about that, Akane.  I'm going to try and help you clean up this mess that Dad and Mr. Saotome have put the two of you in.  Things have gotten way out of hand."

    Akane looked down at the river, not saying a word.

    "Akane, you'd better have Ranma train you has fast as hard as you can go.  The person who sent that ring will be coming and you can't rely on Ranma to defeat them," Nabiki said.

    "That is the first thing I'm going to do when I get home," Akane said, as she prepared to jump into the river.

    "Let me guess, you wished how to swim?"

    "Yes, but it went wrong.  I can now breathe underwater," Akane replied, as she jumped in.

    Nabiki put a hand on her face and shook her head.  *Well that's one way to avoid being followed.  I'd better get home myself.  I'm going to have to go through all those books of Bushido, just to figure a way out of this.*

    As the middle Tendo sister walked home, she was a bit frightened at this situation.

    *I have to be very careful now.  I have no wish to face an irate genie.  I wonder if Akane wished for me to help her.  No.  If she did, it would probably go wrong like her swimming wish.*

    Nabiki shuddered at the thought of an untrained genie.

    *Ranma's good at learning new attacks, but I wonder if he's any good at learning magic. I can just see a wish going wrong and the entire male student body of Furinkan becoming Happosai clones.*
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    A man gazed into a bowl of water, and muttered to himself.

    "Soon."

    He was about to say more, when he grabbed his head and opened his mouth in pain.  His eyes rolled back into his head as a feeling of giant clamps being closed on his head intensified.  The extreme feeling of pressure caused him to see black for a second.

    "Spare me the pain.  I am so close to restoring your former glory and more."

    The man stumbled over to a small teakettle, and picked it up.

    "This will help in obtaining the power.  That Musk prince would have been perfect, but his dragon blood caused him to die horribly.  But, at least I have this."
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    Looking up at the red sky of her world, Ranma sighed.

    "I'm stuck in a ring until Akane lets me out.  Well, at least I learned Pop's styles while waiting.  Maybe I should just go to sleep until Akane calls me out."

    Ranma shrugged as she plucked at her silk pants.

    "That was weird having Akane control me like that.  I wonder just how much control the ring gives over me.  I shouldn't really be surprised by that.  I am nothing more than a puppet anymore."

    Clenching her fist, the genie stared straight ahead.  A few seconds later, she relaxed her hand.

    "At least I'm Akane's puppet and I know she loves me.  Oh, heck with it.  I'm going to get some sleep.  I'm just depressing myself.  Being called out will wake me up."

    Ranma curled up and due to her connection to the ring, fell instantly asleep.  While sleeping, Ranma dreamed.
--
    Ranma looked around and saw two statues.  One of them was of his male form in standard dress and the other was his female form in genie costume.  He looked down and saw that his form was blank, white, and featureless.  Putting a hand to his face, he felt that his face had no nose, eyes, ears, or mouth.

    "What?  What's going on?"

    Walking towards the figures, he saw that each were not exactly like his two forms.  His male form had cat ears, whiskers, a tail, and long claws on his fingers.  Despite being a statue, the male Ranma figure appeared to have a feral glint in his eye, and appeared quite dangerous.

    Ranma shuddered at the animalistic version of himself and turned towards the female version.

    At first glance the female Ranma statue looked exactly like the real thing. A close inspection showed the differences.  Fine lines were wrapped around the waist and wrists, he also felt that there would be ones around the ankles.  A quick glance at the elbows confirmed Ranma's suspicions.  he spotted rings attached to the wrists, legs, and head of the female Ranma.

    "She's a marionette," Ranma mumbled.  "What is this supposed to mean?"

    The two figures turned away from him and started walking in opposite directions.  Ranma didn't know which to follow.  A tingling sensation went through him as the dream ended and Ranma was pulled out of the ring.
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    Using her staff to pogo along the top of a wall, Cologne was hunting for Akane.

    *Something big is going on, and I need to know what.  When Shampoo described what happened at school, I found it odd that Akane didn't attack Ranma.*

    She stopped for a second and felt a cold chill pass through her.  She looked around and wondered what caused it.

    *There's something nasty heading this way.  Not evil, but close enough.*

    Resolving to prepare for whatever was coming when she got home, she set off once more.  As she bounced along, she spotted Kasumi walking and humming to herself.  The ancient martial artist quickly hid and shadowed the eldest Tendo daughter.  She wondered about the choker and arm band that Kasumi was now wearing.  After a few minutes, Kasumi ducked down an alley.

    *What is she up to?*

    Cologne's answer came soon enough as Kasumi touched the hear on her choker.

    "Honey Flash!"

    The old Amazon watched in awe as Kasumi changed from her normal clothes to the combat form of Cutey Honey, wearing the red and blue spandex suit.  As she tailed the now transformed Kasumi, her thoughts whirled.

    *How did this happen?   Did Ranma have something to do with this?  I have the feeling this is connected to that old Kuno's arrival in the village.*

    Inwardly Cologne smiled.  *If she is now an android like the actual Cutey Honey, I have me a new student.  I won't have to try and abide by Amazon laws in this case.  Our laws don't cover machines learning our techniques.*

    Cologne carefully trailed Kasumi to a run-down looking house.  Before entering the house, Kasumi switched back to normal and entered the old building.  The old martial artist pogoed stealthily up to the house and eavesdropped.

    Kasumi's voice came to her. "Are you okay, Akane?"

    "I'm fine.  I had a chat with Nabiki today.  It turns out she knows about what happened."

    "I know.  I found out shortly after you left.  By the way, Akane.  The vet called and said that P-chan will be in the hospital until next Saturday."

    A long pause came from Akane.  "You don't know about P-chan?"

    "What about P-chan?"

    Cologne winced as she guessed that Akane must have figured out who her pet really was.  She was a bit curious as to what Nabiki knew.

    "It turns out P-chan is really Ryoga.  He has a Jusenkyo curse that turns him into a black piglet.  He's been using that to come between Ranma and me."

    "WHAT?!"

    Cologne could hear the shock and fury in Kasumi's voice.

    "It turns out that Nabiki and Daddy knew as well.  Nabiki told me this afternoon, but I had already found out earlier.  What I didn't know was that Daddy has been keeping quiet about this.  He wants Ranma to make a choice, but refuses to help out."

    Kasumi seethed, "I'll talk to Father when I get home."

    "I'd rather you didn't.  I want to save this piece of knowledge to use against him, when he tries to bring me home."

    Cologne counted out ten seconds, before Kasumi spoke again.  "I understand. I take it you found out from Ranma using... well, you know?"

    Akane's voice sounded sad, as she whispered, "Yes."

    *Using what?* the elderly woman thought.

    "Er, Akane.  Maybe you should let Ranma out."

    As she pogoed to a tree to get a view into the house, Cologne thought, *Now, what is going on?*

    Cologne watched as Akane rubbed the ring on her finger and red smoke poured out of it.  Her eyes narrowed a bit as she saw the smoke form into Ranma's female form.

    "What is your wish, master?" Ranma asked Akane.

    The ancient martial artist quickly left and headed to the Neko-hanten.  The look of pain that came across Akane's face actually made her wince.

    *This isn't good.  I'm not really sure what happened, but I know things have gotten very dangerous.  I am not telling Shampoo of this.  Wishing spirits are dangerous.  Judging by how long the feeling of unease I've had has lasted, I would say that Akane has been responsible in her use of the power that Ranma possesses.  Now, I just have to figure out how it was done. This type of magic is beyond me.*

    As Cologne bounced along, she thought wryly, *Well, Ranma.  It seems you found a new way to get out of the Amazon laws.  I can now argue that you are a threat to the tribe if we bring you back as you are.  As matter of fact, any conflict between our tribe and you or Akane would be bad for the tribe.  So, the two of you are safe.  At least, you provided me with a new student.*
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Tom Mathews a.k.a Disruptor

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