Part 2:

The only people aboard the ship at the time were either Tatsuki or
Masaki. The Masaki had no reason to commit such an act of treachery,
given that one of them held the throne. Yohito found the idea of another
Tatsuki trying to kill his younger brother completely foreign, and that
led him to believe that one way or another the matter was far more
complex than he had wanted to consider.

Yep.

Yohito nodded, allowing Saryu-oh to take control, as the telltale blue
surges built up about his own ship. "Anything else I should know?" he
asked nervously.

"Be prepared for the mother of all headaches in the morning," Genoh
warned.

Heh. A bit late for that.

"Shift in the current," Genoh said over the connection, somehow clearer
than it had been only a minute before. "Bad timing, but good luck, all
things considered. Welcome to subspace, Tatsuki-san. Have a look around."

He did. It looked like Cleveland. "I'm in hell!" Tatsuki wailed.

"How? Jurai doesn't care to watch us, most often, Tatsuki-san. We're
scum, and ignoble porters. They're content to ignore us and pretend
we're a problem far removed from their world." He frowned across the
screen, and crossed his arms over his chest. "And I know what you're
asking -- why don't we stage a revolt, hmm?"

Well, the ships aren't that powerful from the sounds of things, and I doubt
they have that many people.

"I believe so," Yohito said, faltering. "I don't see how it works, but I
know what I am to do."

"Good enough. We'll to it

do it

Saryu-oh's request was met with approval, as the entire sail-structure
folded slightly, the interior bulging inwards and leaving it to resemble
a cone with hundreds of trailing Juraian -- no, Yohito corrected himself
-- Ginraii ships

Heh. Still hasn't been able to fully accept them yet.

Washuu grinned as the gurgling of Ranma's stomach betrayed him. "Tsunami
made it for you,," she assured him.

"Oh," Ranma said, brightening instantly. "That's different.

actually you think he'd be cautious. He has no idea of her culinary skills.

What do we

need to do on the hill later?"

"Cologne said that there was a ceremony that she wanted you to go through
-- she's agreed to let Tsunami and I take care of it." Washuu beckoned
Ranma to follow her, and began walking towards one of the lodges.

"Ceremony?" Ranma asked, balking.

"Just something Cologne asked to be done -- it's something that all
warriors are supposed to go through among her people.

Something about a battle orgy.

Tsunami's gentle instruction explained things to Hotaru, as the two set
about turning ingredients into food, and a few other cooks in the large
room added their own comments and idle chatter. Nuku tuned it out, for
the most part, save to record something that the two discussed about
Ranma. She could review it later, but for the present, it was warm, and
she felt like a nice nap.

She hung in that pleasant space between sleeping and wakefulness,

That all cats spent the majority of their lives in. Like the one that's
curled up in a ball in a chair across from me for the last three hours or
so.

Pei-Lin clicked her tongue, pulling a silk handkerchief from her sash,
and dabbing at tears of frustration that Rei hadn't even realized she
shed. "What goes before stays before," she said gently. "Sometimes,
dream of Kura-Wan long ago -- when Pei-Lin was her lover and Kura-Wan
was man. Pei-Lin does not like man, likes Kura-Wan."

Heh. Interesting.

"If no mistake, no next life. If old life, then mistake. Learn from
mistake, don't make mistake again. Understand?" She cocked her head to
one side, eyes slightly widened with concern.

Find new ones to make.

"I understand," Rei said quietly. "You're... you're right."

Pei-Lin straightened her head out and nodded. "Rei is a good girl," she
stated proudly. "Pei-Lin can not have child of her own, so for now, you
will be Pei-Lin's daughter, yes?"

That's a bit much, considering she only met Rei and isn't that much older.

"Hey, are you still carrying my handkerchief?" Ranma asked her.

Need a line break there, I think

"I just finished reprogramming the Ethos array with the information we've
gotten on the reavers," she said, smiling.

"What does that do?" he asked, frowning.

Ami: Kills reavers.

Yakumo: Works for me.

"Oh?" Yakumo frowned. "I'd been so busy thinking about things here that I
forgot about that. How is it going?"

"Not as well as it could, but far better than it might have," Ami said.
"The Galaxy Police and Marines that were sent there are working to keep
rioters in line, but it's not hard to imagine how upset all those people
are, after everything they've been through."

Give them a reaver to play with. They'll change their tune quickly.

"Let me think," Rei said, concentrating. "Makoto is with Ryu. The last
time I checked, Minako was still asleep, but Mousse-san was watching
over her in the healer's house. Haruka and Michiru are together
somewhere, Usagi is with Mamoru, and Hotaru is with Ranma, I think." She
frowned, considering that.

"Setsuna?" Ami prompted. "What about her?"

Rei: Bitchy, same as always.

"Rei!" Ami straightened up, allowing a pained grimace to cover her face
for a moment. "Yakumo's soul belongs to another girl, who's already left
this planet. As far as I can tell, she has his heart, too. I...." She
swallowed nervously, then blurted out, "I like Yakumo, Rei, but he's
already set on someone else."

Flinching, Rei's smirk faded into an expression apologetic worry. "Ah,"
she said quietly. "Then I guess it is the two of us. I'm sorry, Ami-chan."

Rei: Up for some hot lesbian sex?

Ami: Sure.

Herb's eyebrows rose, and he turned to regard Ami curiously. "Is that so?
Well, that's certainly interesting."

Queen of an entire planet. Delusional. He'd ditch her the first time an
opportunity presented itself.

The room's stone floor sloped slightly, a shelf near the higher end
holding bathing gear. Shaking his head, he removed his robes and folded
them, carefully stowing them on the shelf. Ran-oh-ki hopped from his
shoulder as he removed his robes, then sat atop them, curling up and
dozing off.

Nice touch.

"That was weird," he grumbled, rubbing at his temples and closing his

eyes.

"What was that, Ranma?" a voice asked him sweetly.

Ranma cracked one eye open, glancing to his left surreptitiously. As he
had almost expected, Tsunami was there, smiling at him sweetly, and
wearing absolutely nothing. Her body seemed to nearly glow in the
moonlight, sparkling drops of water outlining her even without his
vision being actively enhanced. His eye closed quickly. "Um, nothing,"
he mumbled. "What does this have to do with the ceremony, exactly?"

He's such a silly fool. You think he would be wary with her being naked as
well.

"For the first, you seemed to be lost in thought for nearly an hour after
we got here," Tsunami answered. "Is something wrong?"

My. That did take long.

Washuu spoke before Ranma could answer, "And for the second, if you would
prefer, we can go get Cologne instead, Ranma."

Ewww.

Further away, a trio of Musk warriors sat, two of them hulking brutes
stealing glances at the women, then staring guiltily into the fire. The
third was a small, quick boy, darting about and staring at everything as
though it was new to him.

Heh

"It's supposed to reduce you to the power that you would have before you
became Masu," she explained.

"Oh, then it worked about right,"

Yep.

Her meal largely untouched, Rei found herself completely at a loss as to
how she should act around Herb. The boy seemed to have a certain lack in
his awareness concerning members of the opposite sex, and Ami wasn't
being very helpful, seeming to enjoy Rei struggle.

She couldn't place what it was about him that attracted her to him,

Probably that he was good looking unattached male, and there were few of
those around.

"Oe Kintaro?" Ami asked, blinking at Yakumo in surprise. "But he's the
man on the Galaxy Police ship that I talked to about... um... about the
Ethos array."

He gets around.

The light continued long enough for Rei to finally identify the figures
in the sky, when they were less than a dozen meters away from the
village. In his red robes, arms crossed over his chest, both wrists
flaring with blue sparks of light, was Ranma. The other figure, with a
pair of wings that trailed fire, beating slowly against the night air,
and with one arm raised towards the heavens, was the man from her dream.
The one that, even in the vision, had seen her.

"No!" Rei gasped, drawing in breath to shriek. "NO!"

Heh. Now another piece of the dream comes true.

Herb grabbed her, spinning her about in his arms, and swiftly clamping a
hand over her mouth while she attempted -- futilely -- to yell about the
complete and utter wrongness of it. How could that man be here? They had
changed the future! They had changed what Serenity had shown them, and
made it something else -- how could it still end that way?

Because if it's really fate, you can't change it.

Once all of the attendees of the meeting were crowded in the abandoned
house that Setsuna had indicated, she scanned them all, and sighed. "I'm
not even going to ask who told you enough to know that I'd know about
that, Higurashi," she said, shaking her head and looking him in the eye.
"But I do want to know why you want to know."

Lot of 'know's in there. I'd change some.

Setsuna nodded, eyeing Saffron uneasily, then turning her attention back
to Ranma. "The project was called 'Silhouette'. That's not much to go
on, but there was no Senshi Saturn until after it was complete, so I
believe it's the key." Turning to address Saffron, she added, "I agree
to let you know about whatever we discover here because it may involve
you directly. If Rei's dream is at all accurate, you might be able to
help us stop it."

"Perhaps," Saffron murmured. Ami focused her eyes on her computer screen,
apparently tuning out the rest of the people in the room. "I have no
interest in seeing this world destroyed -- I cannot leave it."

Hmm. Interesting. That means he stays no matter what.

"No, that's not it," Ami said, shaking her head. "I... I'm the
administrator to the system. I can give myself access to it, it's
just... it's the only file on the entire system that I can't access
automatically."

That's bad.

"I see," Setsuna said, clearly disturbed. "I remember none of this. What
does this have to do with Senshi Saturn?"

It's where the tainted one ended up.

"Received what?" Washuu asked quietly, placing a gentle hand on Ami's
shoulder.

"She... she received the dark mirrors for all of the other crystals," Ami
concluded, biting her lip. "Amatera's hope was that Senshi Saturn's
energies could be manipulated in such a manner that the taint was
physical instead of spiritual, resulting in senshi who wouldn't live
long enough for their full powers to manifest,

My, how grim.

"That would be the clue, then," Ranma said, nodding. "I was told I
couldn't let her die on this planet. So I guess this means that if you
want to blow up the place because the reavers start to win more, or
something, Saffron, you're going to have to do it without her help."

True. Not like Saff was counting on her anyway.

Nice work.Things are moving into place for the final inevitable climax.
prose flowed well and quickly. DIdn't even find that many grammar mistakes.
Should get to the last few pieces in the next few days. Want to finish this
before moving on to something else.

D.B. Sommer




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