For those who have commented on past chapters, I am trying
to integrate your suggestions, but it takes time.
Disclaimer: ...won't save me from the hoard of fanboys once
the full story on one character (and the... adaptations I
made) gets out. Time to find a new asbestos suit (the
revengefics kinda ruined my old one).
Ranma's Bane
Chapter 8: Revelations.
The attacker vanished before Ranma could get a good look at
him. Kasumi and Zelgadis finished off the last hounds
before joining Ranma near Susan's twitching form.
"What can we do?" Ranma asked as Zelgadis knelt on the
ground.
"I don't know," the stone-man replied, slowly waving a
glowing hand over Susan's body. "She's alive, and isn't in
any danger of dying, I can tell you that much. But I can't
tell what's wrong, or what that collar is doing."
The collar was blacker than pitch, and seemed to pulse even
darker. Occasional sparks of black lighting emerged from
the collar to play over the prone woman's form.
"Why not just rrrip it off?" Ranma asked.
Kasumi shook her head. "It might make things worse."
"Shit," Ranma spat.
*******
Ahriman's gaze swept over three figures, two of which were
sweating. Xelloss was the only one that seemed calm. Then
again, being one of Ahriman's avatars, and a useful one at
that, meant that he was safe from minor problems like this.
The other two, on the other hand, were not so lucky. The
first one, Tofu, was one of Ahriman's greater doppelgangers,
and had served for close to two hundred years. Greater
Doppelgangers were one of Ahriman's creations. More
powerful than the doppelganger warlords that other
Nightlords used occasionally, Greaters were closer to
Nightprinces in power, and made excellent scientists and
generals.
The third figure was a recent recruit. *A mortal, and human
at that,* Ahriman though, suppressing a grimace. But the
human had his uses, and served loyally in return for Tofu
teaching him basic sorcery.
Ahriman slowly removed the cigarette from his mouth. It was
an illusion, but the Nightlord found that his current
appearance, cigarette included, was more intimidating than
any suit of black armor.
Ahriman stopped pacing in front of the human. "What was your
name again?"
"G-gosunkugi, sir."
"That's right. You were the one that let her escape."
Gosunkugi gulped nervously. "I did what I was ordered, and
put the collar around her neck. But it seemed to
malfunction, and I was spotted."
"So you came back here. Why?"
Gosunkugi shrugged. "Where could I go if I wanted to get
away from you? And I figured that since it didn't work, you
would want to know."
Ahriman nodded. The boy was smart, though the growing dark
patch on his trousers told everyone in the room that the boy
needed to work on his backbone.
"What went wrong with the collar?" Ahriman directed the
question to Tofu.
The doctor shrugged. "Unknown, though I suspect that it
wasn't powerful enough. Whoever designed the collar, and
whoever's been running the project lately, forgot that we
are not just dealing with a psionic human."
"I will have to have a talk with Washu about that," Ahriman
muttered.
"If it helps," Tofu continued, "I know where they are
going."
Xelloss, who had remained silent up to this point, chuckled.
"That little rebellion that's planned? Maybe we'll be lucky
and they'll kill Magog while they're at it."
*******
Ranma thought she was imagining it, but there appeared to be
a faint light coming from Susan's eyelids. It vanished an
instant before her eyes snapped open.
Ranma blink a few times, then rubbed her eyes. She could
see that Kasumi and Zelgadis were also staring in
disbelief. To Ranma, it appeared that Susan's eyes had
changed color, from a dark brown to a deep crimson.
With a grunt, Susan reached up and pulled at the collar. It
came away with a quiet snap, and was quickly discarded.
"That," she said, "is not something I want to repeat. Ever."
"Uh, Susan?" Ranma ventured. "Arrre you feeling alrrright?"
"I'm fine," Susan replied. Glancing at the others, she did
a double take, then her eyes suddenly widened. In a blink
she had leaped over Ranma's head and spun around, her staff
out and ready.
"Who are you," she bit out, eyes burning with anger, "and
what have you done to my companions."
Kasumi and Ranma both sighed while shifting to their normal
forms. "We're the same people that you met last night,"
Kasumi explain, with more patience than Ranma had even on a
good day. "It's the same with all psychics. When they try
to read a Nightbane, they see darkness in the aura, but not
evil. Unfortunately, only experienced ones can tell the
difference."
Susan stared for a moment, anger slowly fading to shock.
"I... I believe you," she finally said, collapsing her
staff. "I'll explain everything else on the plane."
Replacing the pen-sized staff under her jacket, she began
walking away.
"Hey, Susan," Ranma called, jogging toward the woman. "Wait
up."
Susan stopped and stood under a street lamp. In the pool of
light, Ranma could see that her hair had changed color also,
becoming a dark green.
"I guess I should be honest with you," she said, her voice
lacking any emotion. "My name isn't Susan, it's just one I
came up with on the fly. My real name is Setsuna."
*******
At the airport, Susan - *Setsuna* Ranma told himself - used
her powers to get all four of them past security without any
scrutiny. This was a great relief, since getting on the
plane with several large metal objects would be tricky at
best (and explaining Zelgadis' appearance would be rather
difficult). The discarded plan was for Zelgadis to use his
magic to transport the questionable material (and himself
for that matter) past security, but Setsuna's plan worked
better.
They did not relax until the plane was in the air, and even
then only slightly. All four were in the coach section.
Kasumi and Ranma shared a pair of seats by a window, while
Zelgadis was sitting against the rear bulkhead, and Setsuna
was a few rows forward.
*We're safe,* Setsuna's voice said into Ranma's head. Ranma
was about to object to the invasion when he saw Kasumi put
restraining hand on his arm.
*I've established a link between the four of us,* Setsuna
continued. To Ranma, even her mental voice seemed flat. *It
should allow us to talk privately. Just because you
Nightbane can't develop psionics doesn't mean that you're
immune to then.*
*What about eavesdroppers?* Zelgadis asked.
*I would know about it the instant it happens, and give them
a nasty surprise.*
*Nice* Ranma sent. *So why did you over-react back there?*
*I didn't over-react. I just never saw the darkness
before.*
*How can that be?* Kasumi asked.
There was a definite pause. *I think it would be an
understatement to say that my mind has been messed with.
There were a lot of mental blocks, and some hidden
programming that the collar earlier was supposed to
exploit.*
*Who would do this? And why?*
Ranma could have sworn that the mental voice shrugged.
*Those Nightlords you talked about, I'm guessing. I'm
trying to figure out what all that manipulation was supposed
to accomplish, but so far I don't have any idea.*
*How did you break through them?* Zelgadis asked.
*It wasn't me. It was the staff.*
*You're kidding,* Ranma sent, *right?*
*It's sentient. And it is the one that destroyed my mental
blocks by refocusing the collar's power. My hair and eyes
were a side effect of the process. I suppose it needed to
use the collar so I wasn't lobotomized when it removed the
blocks.*
*Are you getting anything from it now?* Zelgadis asked.
*No. It doesn't communicate that way. Even when I
initially found it, there was no real communication, more
like a sharing of desires. There isn't much more I can
say.*
*Wait,* Ranma tried to ask, *what about-*
*I'm terminating the link. It takes a great deal of effort
to maintain, and just because people can't eavesdrop doesn't
mean they can't detect it.*
A slight pressure was gone from Ranma's mind. He quickly
noted the sensation and filed it away as an indicator of
mental contact.
"Interesting," Kasumi said.
"Very," Ranma replied. "And she never let me ask my
question."
"About what?"
"How or why she keeps bouncing between trust and hostility."
"Worrying about it won't help. She'll tell us, when she is
ready."
"How can you be sure of that?"
Kasumi just looked at him.
"Okay, okay," Ranma said, dropping the subject.
"You should get some sleep," Kasumi advised.
"I can go two weeks without sleep."
"You once did, three years ago. You were a gibbering
wreck."
"I was? I don't remember that."
"You didn't seem to understand what you were doing or
saying, and your normal discipline was non-existent. Though
it was the first time you said that you loved me."
"Really? I guess I wasn't as out of it as you think."
Kasumi smiled. "Go to sleep, Ranma."
Ranma complied, tilting his seat back as far as it would go
(not much). Kasumi was often the voice of reason in his
life, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
*******
"We could interrupt the flight."
"No, that would cause too much trouble. Remember, we can't
take any overt action against them."
"So what are you going to do about it? No, wait, 'that is a
secret,' right?"
"Correct, old friend."
*******
A gentle poke on his shoulder woke Ranma up. Normally, such
an intrusion would have rather... extreme reactions from
him, usually to the woe of whoever woke him. Since he was
trying to maintain a low profile, the poke only caused Ranma
to snap his gaze to the offending person.
The poker in question was a flight attendant, passing out
the orange juice and pretzels that passed for breakfast on
the flight. Ranma managed to take them without too much
grumbling. Kasumi was slightly more cheerful upon waking,
though Ranma could never understand that.
"You should cheer up, Ranma, life is good."
Ranma cringed, then looked up. Sure enough, the flight
attendant had left, and in her place stood Xelloss, wearing
the male version of the airline's uniform.
"You shouldn't cringe so much, Ranma. After all, we're
going to be seeing each other quite a bit. I might even
travel with you from time to time."
"Why should we trust you enough for that?" Kasumi asked.
"Because your plans and my Master's are one and the same at
this point."
"Ah," Ranma objected, "but the reasons are not."
"You want to free the slaves in Typhoon, my Master want's
Magog dead. I would say that those objectives match."
The captain's voice informing the passengers that the plane
was descending broke up their argument. Xelloss gave a
smile and faded away before Ranma could voice any further
objections.
"What are we going to do about Zelgadis?" Kasumi asked.
"Worse," Ranma countered, "what do we do when Setsuna gets a
read on him?"
*******
Once off the plane, they immediately found themselves in the
line to the custom's stations. There was no sign of
Xelloss, for which Ranma was thankful. Neither Setsuna nor
Zelgadis were aware of the avatar's appearance on the plane,
and Ranma hoped to keep it that way.
"Where to?" Zelgadis asked.
"Can either of you transfer to the astral plane?" Kasumi
asked.
Zelgadis shook his head, "I've already told you I can't."
Setsuna nodded. "Dreamstream too," she said, much to
everyone else's confusion.
"I won't ask, yet," Ranma commented. "I guess this means we
have to go overland."
"Why not another flight?" Setsuna asked.
"Too expensive," Kasumi explained. "We have a moderate
amount of money in several banks around the world, but our
income is scarce and we try to conserve what we have."
"How do you make money?" Zelgadis asked.
"Since, unlike you, we haven't been alive long enough to
acquire any long-term investments-"
"You think I like having my friends and family be three
hundred years dead?"
"That is beside the point. We don't have the kind of
sources you claim to have, so we take odd jobs wherever we
can."
"Odd jobs?" Setsuna asked.
"Yes, Ranma teaches self-defense classes, I do some
tutoring..."
"And," Ranma interrupted, "we make sure the Nightlord
supporters don't contribute to their causes."
"Robbery," Setsuna accused.
"No," Ranma corrected, "this is a war, they are the enemy.
Nothing more."
The matter was dropped. Since each member of the group only
carried a small duffel bag, there had been not need to check
their baggage (not that they'd trust a suitcase after it was
out of sight for so long), and they passed through customs
in a similar way to before. However, since certain
documentation was needed for them to move around the country
(meeting the Nightlord-run National Security Bureau was
something they would prefer to avoid), Susan and Zelgadis
worked together to get the quartet through. Zelgadis used a
few minor illusions to disguise his skin (though, oddly
enough, it was difficult to do and didn't last nearly as
long as other such spells) and some of the more... unusual
items in their possession. Meanwhile, Susan was suppressing
the curiosity of the customs officials, so that they would
not notice anything unusual about the group (despite her
green hair, and Zelgadis' flickering illusions of normalcy).
"How many times have you been here?" Zelgadis asked as they
left the terminal.
Ranma shrugged. "Once or twice. We have a few friends in
the resistance, and most of its activity is here."
Susan, on the other hand, shook her head. "Never. My
parents were never into traveling. It once took a winter's
worth of begging to get a trip to the beach during a school
break."
"What about you, Zelgadis?" Kasumi asked.
Zelgadis' face acquired a distant look. "I first came over
when I was in my twenties, I had discovered that I was a
Nightbane ten years before, and spent the next decade
running to the ends of the Earth trying to escape what I
was. I met a sorcerer in Massachusetts, named Rezo, who
taught me the basics of magic. Problem is, as I was
leaving, he was abducted by the locals, and hanged a few
days later. One more witch dead in Salem."
"You were at the witch trials in Salem?" Susan asked
incredulously.
Zelgadis nodded. "Yes, I left the colonies after that."
"And you haven't been back since?" Ranma asked.
"Once or twice, for short periods."
"Oh it's much more than that. Isn't that right, Zel?"
Four figures froze and slowly turned to the offending
voice. About ten feet behind them (out of striking range,
so Zelgadis relaxed the grip on his sword) was Xelloss,
wearing a black business suit, with a tan shirt and purple
tie.
Ranma was trying to watch both figures at once. Xelloss was
relatively harmless, for the moment, but if Zelgadis blew
his top, there would be trouble.
"Not here, Zel," Ranma whispered.
"Oh, of course you wouldn't want to do anything here,"
Xelloss commented. "After all, that would attract too much
attention. And with the NSB being it's usual paranoid self,
and dear Setsuna's powers drained from misdirecting all that
attention in that airport, being noticed would not be good."
"What's your point, demon?" Zelgadis growled.
"Demon? I'm insulted. The legions of the night do not
consort with demons. It would be akin to humans conducting
business with monkeys."
"What's your point?" Kasumi asked.
"Simple, I'm going to be watching you from here on, and
dropping in every now and then." Xelloss' smile never
faltered, even when Zelgadis hoisted him up by the collar.
"You're what?" Zelgadis screamed.
"Temper, temper, Zel. Remember, we are in public, and we do
have that deal."
Zelgadis huffed, then dropped the Avatar. "Just stay away
from me."
"Something wrong?" Kasumi asked Setsuna, noticing that the
younger woman had been silent during the entire exchange.
"I couldn't get a reading on him," Setsuna whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"Something was blocking me. I didn't think that was
possible."
Xelloss smiled at the woman. "Don't trouble yourself. Some
things may become clear over time."
Ranma was about to comment, but instead threw his bag over
his shoulder and started walking in the general direction of
the train station. That answer fit Xelloss, and his love of
frustration.
"Planning to walk across the Golden Gate?" Zelgadis asked.
Ranma shrugged. "Why not? It's only a few miles to the
train station in Oakland."
Kasumi sighed, then pointed to a nearby bus station. "We
can get there much more quickly by not walking. Stop being
stubborn, Ranma."
"Well, I will see you around." Xelloss waved, then walked
away, fading away before he had taken a dozen steps.
"Let's go," Zelgadis growled, "before he comes back."
*******
It was late afternoon when they boarded the train to
Chicago's Union station.
"What time is it, anyway?" Setsuna asked.
"Well," Zelgadis replied, "Tokyo is about seven hours
behind, or fourteen hours ahead, depending on how you look
at it, of here. We boarded the plane at about six in the
morning here, and the flight was about eight hours..."
"Spit it out, Zel," Ranma demanded.
Zelgadis shot a glare at Ranma. "We arrived here at two
o'clock, local time. It's now five o'clock. Any
questions?"
"Just one," Setsuna replied. "How do you get rid of the
jet-lag?"
Ranma shrugged. "Sleep it off, mostly. Or stay up a full
day then sleep to synch your internal clock. That's why I
wanted to walk, to tire you three out."
"Ranma," Kasumi interrupted, "do you remember the last time
we were in San Francisco?"
Ranma though for a moment before his face darkened. "I
thought we agreed never to speak about that again."
Kasumi giggled. "Just checking. In any case, we have two
days on the train to recover."
"Assuming something doesn't happen," Zelgadis mumbled.
"Would it kill you to cheer up?" Ranma asked, once again
receiving a glare.
*******
The train ride was, to say the least, uncomfortable. Then
again, little better could be expected when four people are
seated around the same table for two days in a row. Sleep
came in occasional naps, and much of the rest of the time
was taken up by the four inventing new variants on such card
games as sevens, poker, blackjack, and bullshit. Of course,
Ranma's suggestion of livening up the game by playing strip
poker was met with a pair of slaps (one rather painful,
coming from a stone hand) and an elbow to his ribs.
Ranma placed a pair of cards on the pile. "Two eights."
Kasumi shrugged, then added three more. "Three nines."
"So," Zelgadis asked, placing his cards, "who are we meeting
when we get to the windy city? And two tens."
Ranma glanced at his own cards. "Bullshit, Zel." Zelgadis
flipped over the pair he had placed, revealing a pair of
tens. Ranma grumbled as he picked up the pile and began
reorganizing the cards in his hand to account for the new
additions. "And we're going to be meeting a friend in the
Resistance, calls himself Burgerface."
"Burgerface?" Setsuna asked. "Do I really want to know what
he looks like? Two jacks."
"Two queens."
Setsuna challenged Ranma's proclamation. "Bull."
Ranma swore as he picked up the pile. "Never play cards
against a psychic. We have got to remember that." *On the
other hand,* he didn't add, *it's nice to see she's
beginning to open up again.*
"You just don't know how to guard your thoughts," Kasumi
replied. "And no, Setsuna, you most likely don't want to
know what Burgerface looks like, but you'll find out. Three
Kings."
"Two Aces."
"Four Jokers!"
Four pairs of eyes snapped to Xelloss. Xelloss, appearing
out of nowhere, which was quickly becoming his standard
entrance, produced four cards and placed them face up,
revealing a picture of his smiling face, with the letter J
in the upper left and lower right corners.
"Shouldn't you be out killing children?" Zelgadis asked.
"Oh, no, not children. The screaming is rather irritating.
Though when gagged they are quite delicious."
Growls from four throats were directed at the black-suited
figure.
"Now, now, don't take it too seriously."
"How can we not?' Kasumi asked.
Xelloss leaned down to look Kasumi in ht eyes. "Ask yourself
something, please. Nightlords, Avatars and Nightprinces all
have to feed on life energy. When we feed, we often leave
the person alive because they can recover and feed us
again. Who are you to say we should starve to death?"
"Who are you to invade another's life and drain them?"
countered Kasumi.
"But do you feel the same about cattle? Or plants? You're
doing the same thing, except you consume their death, not
life."
"That's different," Zelgadis stated.
"Is it? You consume lower life forms, because you feel that
you are at the top of the food chain. Well, I hate to burst
your bubble, but you're not." Once again, Xelloss was
smiling long past the point when the rest of his image faded
away.
There was silence for several moments.
"What number were we on?" Ranma asked.
"Three two's," Susan said, placing a trio of cards on the
pile.
Xelloss was pushed from their minds in less time than it
took for his smile to fade from the air.
End Chapter 8