"... Reborn... Revolution," she whispered, the finality of the words
sending a shock of power that stole that thing she valued most from her,
leaving her to fall limp. In her last fleeting moments of control before
her world faded away, she smiled wanly at Ranma, standing nearby.
"And so it ends," Saffron intoned.
-----------------------------
End of Elimination -- Take Two
Disclaimer: The primary colors in this story are from Takahashi, Viz
(Ranma 1/2), Pioneer (Tenchi Muyo!), and Kitty Films, Naoko Takeuchi
(Sailor Moon).
Archival notes: Please do not archive.
Notes: You know the drill.
-----------------------------
Ranma straightened, turning away from where Hotaru had fallen to lie
prone. "What now?" he asked tonelessly, staring out at the slowly
advancing tide of reavers. "This is how it was meant to be?"
Saffron rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and after a moment -- as though the
charging reavers were of no consequence -- asked, "Are you okay?"
Gritting his teeth, Ranma glared at the god. "I will fight to the bitter
end," he swore.
Saffron smirked. "The path lies before you. Like sunshine on a cloudy day."
"I will resist!"
The reavers halted suddenly, some paces away from the trio, and formed
perfect concentric rings, standing motionless for the moment. "I do not
want to see you like this," Saffron declared. "Do not make me sad anymore!"
But try as Ranma might, the power was irresistible. Saffron had already
fallen sway, and he doubted he had much longer to fight. As he watched,
a strange, unearthly music began to build up, low and echoing. On cue
with the music, each reaver raised one claw, and then another, and
linked it with the nearest partner.
"No," Ranma groaned, feeling his resistance wear thin. Tokimi was calling
to him, beckoning to him. He felt the red robes he ware shift,
tightening, and reshaping themselves, as the reavers began to spin in
their circles, slowly at first, but with increasing speed as the
unearthly music began to increase in volume.
But it was too late -- the reavers continued their mad dancing,
celebrating Ranma as the lord of it all. "Why did you have to use the
Dance Reborn Revolution," he pleaded to Hotaru's departed spirit, unable
to stop himself from stomping.
-----------------------------
That's right, folks, the new off-Broadway hit, Reaverdance, due to a
planet near you... never. We hope.
Well, since you've suffered though that remarkably trite piece of swill,
I do have some good news. Chapters 14 and 15 of PoE are complete (14 is
with The Refuge at the moment, but won't be posted until it's been
revised, and 15 is in super-rougdraftiayanjin form at the moment), and
progress on the revisions of prior chapters is still going on. If
somewhat slowly.
Larry F has completed preparing the HTML versions of the current
(somewhat readable, but probably-not-quite-really-final-yet) polished
drafts if anyone wants to read them, and I expect to have sent him 11-13
before I post 14 to the list. If you don't want to read the incomplete
and non-finished versions of the fic, then you can safely place me on
your e-mail client's ignore list and just check the RAAC. Unless your
e-mail client is your newsgroup client, too. Hmm.
So, yeah, I'm still alive, and the fic is still being worked on.... Thank
you very much for your time and patience. ^_^;