Just another bit of something I've decided to start on to break a mild case
of writer's block. It's a bit short, though subquesent chapters will be
longer.
C&C is always welcome.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Keep/5268/Fanfic/fanfic.html
Agreeable Komodo
He who bought it, supplied it.
Just say yes to prophylactics.
A wife lasts only for the length of the marriage, but an ex-wife is there
*for the rest of your life*.
-- Jim Samuels
<insert disclaimers here>
*******************
Somewhere outside a small town in the
Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A.
2026
Winter was coming. She could taste it in the air as she stood outside the
small cottage. Removing the dark sunglasses, she glanced over at the truck
parked nearby. Shaking her head, she stepped up on to the front porch and
took a key out of her pocket and inserted it into the lock. Surprisingly, she
was rewarded by the sound of the tumblers turning. 'He didn't have the lock
changed, amazing.'
Slipping off her shoes, she opened the door and stepped inside. The inside
air was stale and smelled of booze and cheap cigarettes.
"How the mighty have fallen," she said, adressing the empty air. "Is this
what you've been reduced to?" There was no answer. Setting her shoes on the
floor, she advanced further into the room. "I know you're here. Answer me,
damnit!" But silence was the only reply. Shaking her head sadly, she moved
over to the hearth. The mantle was bare save for a single framed picture. It
was a moment in time, a group of teenagers glaring at each other and a few
adults. "I remember this," she said, her finger tracing the jawline of her
much younger face in the photo. "Just barely, but yes, but I do remember."
Setting the photo back on the mantle, she moved back towards the couch when
her senses blared a warning, and she reacted instinctivly, spinning on one
leg as the other came up to deliver a heel kick to the head of whoever was
behind her. Her foot only met-and was stopped, by empty air. "So, she said
archly, you didn't drink yourself into a stupor already. Though then again,
it is only noon so I suppose you have some time still." Silence. "What's the
matter Saotome? No words for your wife?"
"Ex-wife," a male voice corrected from the empty air as it suddenly seemed to
blur and then crumble away, revealing a dark haired man, his face covered by
several days worth of beard and the hand not holding her heel held a
half-empty bottle of beer. "We got divorced when we came to our senses." He
let go of her heel and stepped back a ways.
"Don't you mean, 'when you came to your senses'?" She asked archly. Saotome
made a huffing noise and plopped into a old, stained chair.
"Whaddya want Kodachi?" He asked, taking a drink from the bottle.
"What? You don't want to play catch-up?" She asked with a smirk. Saotome
paused in mid-drink, his expression a glare. Kodachi only laughed.
"Oh Ranma. . ." she laughed and then her face took on an expression of
seriousness. "The chief wants to see you."
"See me?" Ranma snapped as he stood. "Nobody can see me, isn't that the point
of that stuff you shoved into my bloodstream?"
"That was an accident," Kodachi replied calmly.
"Bull!" Ranma snapped, jabbing his finger at Kodachi's nose. "With you,
nothing is an accident!" Kodachi took a firm grip on her temper before
replying. She didn't need a visit from . . .her.
"I didn't come here to discuss the past Ranma, I came here because the chief
wanted to see you."
"Tell that overgrown handbag that he can kiss my ass," Ranma replied. "I quit
the agency, and I aint goin back." Kodachi chose her next words carefully.
"Remember what Talph always said? 'In order to put the past behind you,
sometimes you must return to it.'"
"Don't talk to me about Talph!" Ranma shouted. "You didn't know him! You
weren't there. . .you weren't there. . ." He turned away from her, but not
before she caught sight of the tears on his cheeks.
"I know I wasn't," she said gently as she moved to stand next to him, gently
placing one arm around his shoulders. "And it's something I'll never forgive
myself for. We all lost people close to us that day." She pulled him to her
and held him as the only living master of the Anything Goes School of Martial
Arts cried tears that had been held back for far to long.