[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 11:
Green Fire Part 4 of 4

Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1/2, Neon Genesis Evangelion,
Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these stories.  And I'll
put them back when I've finished with them.

C&C , MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
Searching in Town
>From the Journal of Ayanami Rei
     The lessons continue what Nabiki had taught us before we arrived
at the Coral Sea.  I also note that she tries to get Roku-kun interested in
the lessons.  He used a word he'd learned from her Japanese: iie [No].
     The next day, bored by the inactivity, Ranma offers Roku-kun and
the Second Children lessons.  They tell him in English to 'Go pound sand.'
He angrily stomped off.  I do not believe that is what they meant.
     Several of the bandits wanted to see some trick shooting by the
pair of gunmen, the Second urged me to keep my capability hidden,
ironically similar to my warning to Nabiki-kun.  Roku-kun's accuracy, 'Is
just frightening,' Monacon comments.  The Second Children's quick draw is
faster than Roku-kun's, or any of the bandits.  The Second Children brags
that no one can outdraw her.
     I have been using the time they had the bandit group distracted,
to mark off the distance Monacon and his lieutenant could have walked
during the time they were gone.  This will limit the area the treasures
could be hidden in.  I have coordinated with Roku-kun and the Second
Children about searching these areas.
     Now I know who is in charge, they command jointly.  I wonder how
they developed their close rapport, as close as the Meliorist and the
Scholarly Dragon.  It is an interesting parallel.
----------------------------------------
     Nabiki rushed through the dusty streets to keep up with him.
Ranma was frustrated, "I've had enough!  If she's so good, let her prove
it!" Ranma shouted.
     "Ranma, don't!" Nabiki urged him, "Don't do this!"
     Ranma shook her off, and pointed at Shinji, then Asuka.  Shinji
translated the challenge to the redhead.  She smiled at him, and tipped her
hat.
     Ranma watched in disgust as the bandits let out a shout, most were
already drunk before noon.  Ranma listen as Rei announced something loudly
in English, she was clearly unused to shouting, and marched off.  Probably
denouncing the whole affair, Ranma thought, What does she know about honor
anyway?
     Ranma followed as Asuka led the entire hollering mass out into the
field where she and Raccoon had their trick shooting exhibition the day
before.  He loosened the throwing knives that were part of his `costume`.
     Ranma couldn't understand what Raccoon was doing, walking out
between him and Asuka.  Ranma ignored the murmurs of the bandits, he also
ignored Nabiki's glare at him, he looked away, not wanting to be
distracted.  He also wanted to know what the heck - Oh, the target.
     Raccoon faced him, held a bottle over his head, drew his own
pistol.  Ranma waited for the signal, Raccoon fired into the ground.
     Ranma's throw was fast, nearly as fast as his own body, I'll have
to learn this.
     The bottle exploded, showering Raccoon with glass, he seemed a bit
shocked.
     Almost as shocked as I am that he'd risk it, he waited for the
congratulations for beating Asuka.  "Well?" he shouted, and waited on
Shinji for a translation. Maybe Nabiki has a point about the languages.
     He was disgusted with the bandit's disappointment, they'd clearly
expected blood.
     "The knife was in the air, thrown with all his skill before the
bullet hit."  Shinji paused, waited for the rest of Raccoon's statement,
"At that point, you both died, at least."  Shinji struggled to the end of
the translation.  For the frown on Asuka's face, Ranma hardly needed a
translation, neither one of them was satisfied by _that_ outcome, a draw.
     Shinji translated the rest of what Raccoon said as Asuka marched
away.  "Who won would depend on range, longer range favors Asuka, shorter
range favors Ranma."
     "Fine," Ranma told the other pilots, "You tell Raccoon that I want
to see if he's as good as he thinks he is."
     Shinji opened his mouth to protest, shook his head and shrugged.
The bandits let out a whoop and a holler at the prospect of more free
entertainment.  Ranma frowned at that, he was trying to see who the best
was, And that pack of morons just wants blood.
     The first throws and shots were fairly routine, the difficulty
ratcheted up quickly.  Ranma was straining to keep up.  He idly wondered
why Raccoon seemed to be drawing this out, and where Rei had disappeared
to.
----------------------------------------
     Night fell, Nabiki was laying out the bedrolls for herself and
Raccoon, in their room.  The language gap prevented her from even joking
about sharing blankets, and every time she got close, he shied away.  She
didn't press, she didn't need to make him any angrier than he already was.
But she hated being 'tolerated'.  She wanted to scream 'What do you want
from me?!' at him, but she wouldn't be able to make him understand, I'd
just be a hysterical female.  That he was oh so polite, while in effect,
snubbing her, made it worse.  Ranma was acting the same way, staying away
from her, and she wasn't able to keep up with him.  She was seriously
rethinking this entire arrangement.  With Raccoon about Ranma, with
Belldandy about - everything. It isn't worth it.  I was always on the
outside back `home`, because of how cold I was.  Here I'm too emotional,
she sighed, Not emotional, angry.  Even our enemies are picking on me,
reminding me I'm not as smart as I think I am.  Not as in control as I
think I am, the one thing I've got total control over, I had to kill people
to get.  Asuka should be having the same problems, but she doesn't.  I
don't think Rei _has_ problems, just orders and duties.  Am I just
overthinking things, or just overreacting?
     Rei slipped in, made sure she wasn't being followed.  "I found the
treasures," Rei told her, after telling Raccoon.  He immediately perked up,
Nabiki resented that Rei turned to him first.
     Raccoon told Rei something, she translated for him, telling
Nabiki, "Wake up Shinji and be ready to fight or run."
     Rei and Raccoon left without waiting for her reply, Just expecting
me to comply, she yanked the door open to yell at them, a moment after
they'd left, there was nothing out there.  How did they do that? she fumed.
She walked out to find Shinji, and Ranma.
----------------------------------------
     Rei led Roku-kun straight to the root cellar where the chest was.
"Only Monacon and his lieutenant have been here," she pointed out the boot
prints.  Monacon's were distinctive, his lieutenant's were normal, but the
spacing was correct for the strongbox, they were also much deeper going in
than coming out.
     She was glad she didn't have to explain this to Roku-kun.  Like
Asuka and Anna, he took her word on faith, not questioning.  It was an odd
feeling, it felt good.
     Roku-kun's tools easily opened the locked door, they marched down
the stair into the cool hole, she was disturbed that her night vision was
lacking.  She was concerned that their bodies were `normal`, without any of
their enhancements.
     At the bottom, in the darkness, she lit a lamp.  A large chest was
concealed behind bags of meal.
     "It's too small for the sword," Roku-kun quickly picked the lock,
handing her the strongbox of jewelry, and struggled under the weight of the
gold, such a tiny package with such a weight.  Rei struggled to carry the
gold to a set of saddlebags, and divided the small ingots into the
saddlebags.  She scrambled out to hide the gold while Roku-kun reclosed the
empty chest, and started repacking the treasures into a small satchel.
Without the sword, she knew they were still going to have to continue
playing this game.
     She climbed a tree cautiously, to make no noise and draw no
attention to the hiding place, she hung the saddlebags among a heavily
leafed area, hidden from the ground.  She rejoined Roku-kun, who was
relocking the door after them.  He handed her a small satchel.
     "That's the treasures, I left Monacon a special surprise, and
erased all traces we where there," he told her.
     She didn't understand what he was implying, but she nodded.  She
heard shouts in Spanish.
     "They found Saotome," Roku-kun told her, "Get Nabiki and Shinji
out of here!" he urged, then headed towards where the shouting was taking
place.  Rei slipped away.
     She headed towards Roku-kun and Nabiki-kun's `apartment`, she was
glad she found Shinji-kun was there with Nabiki-kun.  "We must go," she
urged, "Saotome has been captured.  I have the treasures."  She turned to
leave, and was glad that both followed her into the night.  She heard the
Second's shouting as they skirted around the horse corrals, the bandits had
picketed it, something they hadn't bothered with before.  She knew they
couldn't overcome so many, so she led Nabiki-kun and Shinji-kun out away
from the town and headed out into the desert surrounding the town on foot.
     "What are we going to do?" Shinji-kun asked.
     "I do not know," Rei told him, "If we are captured, all is lost."
     Shinji-kun and Nabiki-kun nodded.
     For the sixty-third time since this dream had started, she wished
she was just following orders, instead of operating without them.
----------------------------------------
Follow the Money
     Asuka felt the bruises and the rope biting into her wrists.  She,
Raccoon and Ranma had just gotten the crap beaten out of them.  The bandits
had been amusing themselves, instead of giving them a serious beating.
     "What's next?" she was pulled to a standing position, and led into
the stables, there she was  tied to a post.  The bandits chuckled, as they
tied up Ranma and Raccoon the same way in the stable.
     Once they were left alone, Raccoon spoke up, "Well, our `camp
followers` would probably get raped, so I sent them out ahead.  Langley,
you'll probably be treated as a warrior."
     "Thanks," she told him, with a mix of relief and sarcasm, it was
something she hadn't considered, and wasn't happy he'd reminded her.
     "Don't relax, all that means is that you'll be treated as we are,"
Raccoon said, "As weird as Monacon and his followers are, that may not be
absolute protection."
     Asuka swallowed, glared at him.  Then she realized that whatever
happened to her, would happen to Raccoon and Horseface too.  That worried
her.
     "Katana," Ranma said, "I, katana."
     She shook her head.  "Oh great," she sighed, "We got close to
first place, but it had to be Mr. Subtlety who found it."
     "Could be worse," Raccoon replied.  They fell silent as they heard
someone entering.
     "Gendo," Asuka said, looking at the Commander of NERV in period
costume, Monacon was walking with him.
     "I should have realized these would be hunters," Gendo told them.
Ranma, Asuka and Raccoon exchanged looks, they all understood him.
     "When I recognized the Crown Prince and the priestess as I
followed you, I knew you were mercenaries they'd hired.  Unfortunate you
interfered.  Japan should be pure again," he said with a gleam in his eyes,
"Closed off from the contamination of the outside world.  A place of beauty
and honor.  But the Mikado will never agree.  So, he is shamed by the
losses in a barbarian land, he will be removed.  Then we will return to the
old ways.  The Day of Redemption and Return is approaching."
     Asuka watched Ranma fume as he absorbed the message that was a
perversion of his own beliefs, and the trio considered the implications.
They waited in silence as Gendo and Monacon studied them, then the pair
left.
     "What now?" Asuka said, she realized the `mission` had been
betrayed from the start, Another lesson?  Like last night?  What is this,
remedial treachery class? "Where have I heard 'The Day of Redemption and
Return' before?" she asked, "And why did he mention it?"
     "They haven't killed us, so we're still alive," Raccoon said, "I
haven't heard it before.  But I read it somewhere, the details are sketchy,
but it is _not_ good news.  The Dragon said 'The stars weren't right,' I
would think that precludes the Day of Return."  Some moments later, he shed
his ropes, and started cutting her loose with a sharpened coin.  The pair
untied Ranma.  They slipped out of the stable.
     "Rei, Nabiki, Shinji," Raccoon told Ranma, "Katana doko." [Where
sword.]
     Ranma grimaced and headed out.
     "Weapons?" Asuka asked.
     "Weapons," Raccoon agreed.  The pair slipped into the darkness
     It worried her that Raccoon hadn't been acting normally, he hadn't
been treating this as a game, as she had, but as a purely military
exercise.  But he'd completely missed Gendo's inclusion.  She treated it
was a puzzle to be solved, even last night's dream was a puzzle.  You
accepted the insanity, and lived the best life you could within it.  He
seemed to be taking things far too seriously. What did you dream Raccoon.
I expect that kind of behavior from Wondergirl and Horseface, she thought,
The former didn't know any different, and the latter was a hardheaded
idiot.  But, you, old friend, you always defined flexible thinking.  She
spotted a group of bandits assembling outside the stable behind them.  She
pointed to them, drawing Raccoon's attention, he nodded.
     We're walking into a _huge_ ambush, she realized, The best way to
deal with an ambush is overwhelming firepower, the second it to ambush the
ambushers.
----------------------------------------
     Shinji ducked back into the shadows, hiding from a group of
Amerinds, Apaches, he guessed.  He glanced back, Rei and Nabiki had also
hidden themselves, it was the fourth or fifth such group.  Just three to
five men, but it was adding up to a very large number.  Most were armed
only with bows or spears, Shinji only saw one that had a gun.  From that
man's more elaborate clothing, Shinji guessed he was some kind of leader.
If he could have spoken their language, he might have considered talking to
them.  Finding out if they were here for a fight, or for the reward.
     Rei crept up behind him, "We must continue to avoid them."
     He nodded, and waited for Nabiki to rejoin them.  Then the group
of Apaches reversed their course when Nabiki broke cover.  They came
straight at the pilots.  Shinji stood and got ready to fight. Three against
three, he thought, he hoped Nabiki and Rei were as good fighters as they
thought.
     The fight was sharp, and short, Nabiki had taken out all three
before they had a chance to close with him and Rei.  Nabiki took the bow
and the quiver of arrows from one of the fallen braves.  Shinji and Rei
exchanged glances, silently asking 'What got into her?'
----------------------------------------
     "There they are," Asuka pointed to their guns, placed in the lap
of a guard with a knife in his belly, "Could they make their trap any more
obvious?"
     They scanned the plaza, there was forty feet of empty space
surrounding the corpse, eighty feet to cross to get the guns, and get back
under cover.  She watched Jeff assemble the derringer from the parts he'd
secreted in his clothes, but that was only two shots.
     "I think if we . . . " he started.
     She wasn't listening, she started a cartwheel, converted into a
low roll, long enough to get the two pistols, then to a series of front
flips to continue forward to cover across the plaza.  She heard the fire
aimed at her, and Raccoon's two covering shots.  When she was back under
cover, she flashed him a smile, holding up the two guns.
     He was emptying the derringer, he held up the two spent
cartridges.  She checked the pistols, both had been emptied. Damn! She'd
just captured two rather inferior clubs, the knife would have been a better
weapon.
     She shook her head, and moved off into the shadows.  She was
beginning to realize their opponent was smarter than she had been giving
him, her or it, credit for.  They'd have to take out the ambushers to get
ammunition, I should have hidden some, somewhere.  I'm getting as
complacent as Misato.
----------------------------------------
     Rei was on point.  Shinji was close behind her, Nabiki brought up
the rear.  They'd encountered a group of eight braves.  Nabiki had a better
bow, and three quivers of arrows from that.  Shinji had a heavy army rifle
and eight bullets.  Rei had a spear and her revolver.  And the next group
they came across gave _them_ a wide berth, which was the most welcome part.
     The bandits had arranged themselves around the town, but were
facing the wrong way when the pilots, or the Apaches, came up on them.
They heard war cries and gunfire, indicating more fighting going on, but
they hadn't seen the outcome of these battles.  Nabiki had just taken out
one of these guards, who had been shooting at something in the town.
Nabiki was so angry, Shinji hoped the man was just unconscious, then they
saw Saotome breaking cover.
     "I found the sword," he told them, "_I_ found the sword," he added
proudly.
     "Then why did you reveal yourself, and alert the guards?" Rei
asked, deflating Ranma's ego.
     Rei-san _really_ doesn't like Saotome, Shinji thought, I don't
think she hates him, but they are contentious.
     "Where is it?" Nabiki demanded, "Let's hope they didn't move it."
     Shinji watched Ranma wince from that.  Frankly, he wanted out of
this scenario, I think the others are getting tired of this as well, he
thought.
----------------------------------------
Overwatch
     Asuka moved quietly through the town.  Since they both had plenty
of ammunition now, the ambushers all had quite a lot, they'd separated to
get as many of the bandits as possible.  She spotted Spineless and company,
slipping through town, she picked off two of the bandits who were lining up
on them.  Then the other pilots slipped out of sight.  She'd have to move
out into the open to cover them directly, and she suspected that she and
Raccoon were the bandits' principal targets.  The two killers in their
hideout.
     Raccoon's behavior was really starting to worry her, he'd asked
her to leave Monacon to him, if possible, not if practical, not if it was
easy, if possible.  She was getting worried, Wondergirl she could
understand playing her part to the hilt, she always went overboard 'being a
good soldier', but she thought she knew Raccoon better, he didn't _do_
things like that.  He was the one always cautioning her to stay calm and
collected, 'Keep your mind on the mission.'  There were times she wanted to
scream at him for that.  She wondered if it was a side-effect of being
unconscious, poisoned by whatever the stuff the L.C.L. had turned into.
     She put the memory of that stuff out of her mind.  She had to stay
focused to stay alive, to keep all of them alive. If possible.
----------------------------------------
     A group of the bandits had cat and moused Jeff into emptying his
pistol's cylinder, and the two survivors weren't likely to give him time to
reload.  But, the LeMat has another name, he smiled as he set his trap.
     The two burst into the room where he waited.  The shotgun blast
killed both of them, Jeff carefully unscrewed the barrel extension off the
central barrel that gave the LeMat its other name: 'Grapeshot revolver',
replacing it in the detachable stock.  Then he laboriously reloaded the
nine pistol rounds, and the central shotgun barrel.  He was confused that
all the bullets from everyone's guns fit everyone elses.  It wasn't
reality, but it was a tiny mistake that made things a lot easier.  He set
off to find the others.
----------------------------------------
     Asuka caught up with the other pilots again, she noted when a
bandit had been drawing a bead on her, he fell to Raccoon's marksmanship.
Overwatch, she smiled, He isn't completely gone.
     Then the others came under fire, she couldn't see where the fire
was coming from.  She moved to where she could better support them.  She
saw Raccoon point at a building, while the others hid behind a wagon.  He
circled around to attack the building from behind.  Wondergirl saw Raccoon
too, she pushed the wagon as a mobile barricade, to catch the gunmen
between her group and Raccoon, while Asuka kept up a steady harassing fire.
     The gunshots after the wagon smashed into the building were all
the higher, sharper sound of Raccoon's LeMat, rather than the sounds like
her Colt.  Spineless and company scrambled out in one direction, Raccoon
moved off to be in a position to support them.
     Time to move, she'd been keeping track of her kills, she figured
Raccoon was doing as well as she was, that meant nearly half the band were
gone now. A lot of money, she joked as she moved off.
----------------------------------------
     Shinji followed Ranma as he led them to an otherwise nondescript
building.
     Shinji shot the lock off, and regretted it immediately. I don't
care if this is a dream, my shoulder _hurts_. He led the way down,
reloading the single-shot rifle as he walked down the stairs into the
cellar dug into the hard ground.  Ranma, Nabiki and Rei followed him.  They
got immediate proof the sword was still here, when Gendo nearly took his
head off with it.  Shinji barely got the rifle up to catch the blow, the
rifle discharged uselessly.
     "Father?!" Shinji could hardly believe it.  Again he barely got
the rifle barrel in the way of the sword.  He couldn't retreat, Ranma had
crowded in behind him, trying to take over the fight.  Except on the narrow
stairway, Shinji couldn't get out of the way, not without losing his head,
literally.
     "Give me some room!" Shinji insisted, as he squared off against
his father.
     Nabiki thrust Rei's spear over his head, and only managed to get
it chopped in half.  Shinji was distracted by the falling shaft, and that
nearly killed him.
     If Saotome wants this fight so much, Shinji bumped into him again,
He should let me run away, then I could let him try his luck against
father. He heard the trapdoor into the cellar open, he wondered who was
running away, and why.  He wished he could run away too, he doubted Saotome
would defeat his father, with only his bare hands, before he was badly
wounded.  He was doing better with the rifle than Saotome would do
empty-handed.
----------------------------------------
     Outside the cellar, Nabiki noted Rei was forcing her way into the
building, Probably to get at `Gendo` through the floor. Nabiki wanted to
find one of their two gunfighters.  She doubted any of the others could
`kill` Gendo, Rei could never bring herself to do it, the rest of us, she
admitted to herself, Could never kill anyone.
     The sounds of gunfire had slackened, so she hoped that meant they
were - done.  That bothered her even more, she knew these men were
criminals, even by the lax standards of the time. But gunning them down for
money doesn't feel right.  There are some things no amount of money could
make me do, she almost laughed at that thought, Some people might not
believe that.
     She heard the difference between Raccoon's and Asuka's pistols,
and the bandits' weapons.  Then she heard Raccoon calling out, it was
easier to track his voice, Boy does he sound angry! she wondered how Asuka
had screwed up to make him yell like that.  She headed in that direction.
The gleam of gold caught her eye, a pocket watch, she thought it was
Monacon's, it looked just like it.  She heard one more shot, a bandit's,
then silence.  She opened the watch, it played the same tune, then she
looked at the picture carefully pressed into the cover.
     "Oh SHIT!" she broke into a run.  "He wouldn't do that!?  Would
he?"  She spotted a dead bandit.  She relieved the corpse of the pistol and
gunbelt he wore over one shoulder.  She heard Monacon's voice now.  She
didn't recognize the words, but the phrasing she remembered from the duel
between Raccoon and the gunman who'd assaulted her, then she ran to where
she thought Raccoon and Monacon were.
----------------------------------------
     Rei pulled the last of the floor boards away, and dropped behind
`Gendo`.  She realized she couldn't kill him, he was too much like the
Commander.  But they only needed the sword, she picked up a handful of
dried beans and threw them, a handful of corn cobs followed, If I can
distract him enough, Saotome, Shinji-kun and I can disarm him without
harming him.  She hoped that would work.  Another handful of beans, those
seemed to work best, complicating his footing even if she missed her
target.  She increased to a steady barrage, scattering the entire bag on
the floor when it was light enough.
     "I'll kill you for your interference!"  `Gendo` screamed as he
awkwardly charged her.
     She was frozen for a moment, This thing couldn't possibly be the
Commander!
     She saw Shinji-kun take advantage of the distraction, to bring his
rifle barrel down on the imitation Commander's head.  Rei grabbed the
sword, as the thing she had hoped would be the Commander, fell.  She still
refrained from killing him, it was unnecessary to win.  She took the sword
and ran for the stairs, the silence outside had worried her.  She hadn't
expected the Second Children and Roku-kun to finish so quickly, or to be
silent about their success.
     When she approached a large open plaza, and things became clear.
Nabiki-kun had her bow drawn and pointed at Monacon, she had a pistol belt
slung over her shoulder like a handbag.  Rei heard her call Roku-kun 'A
careless old man,' and was walking between Roku-kun and Monacon, who had
kept his hand away from his pistol.  Rei glanced around, saw Roku-kun's
pistol lying in the dirt about a dozen feet from him.  She didn't
understand why Nabiki-kun didn't shoot the man herself.  Roku-kun was
reaching around Nabiki-kun, unbuckling the pistol belt.  He buckled it
around his waist as she stepped away.  Nabiki-kun still kept her bow aimed
at Monacon while she walked back to where Rei stood.  Rei heard Shinji-kun
and Saotome arriving.  They stopped at the edge of the plaza, watching one
or the other of the combatants.  As Nabiki-kun sat down, Rei heard the
tune.  She'd heard it before, when Roku-kun had killed the man who
assaulted Nabiki-kun, but it wasn't coming from Monacon, but from the watch
Nabiki-kun had.
     Rei sat next to Nabiki-kun, they watched Monacon sweat, He has to
know we won't interfere with the duel, Rei loosened her pistol
unobtrusively, If the bandit kills Roku-kun, I will kill him the next
moment. She didn't understand, but Roku-kun had trusted her, she would have
to trust him, and the others.
     Roku-kun waited, both he and Monacon seemed to know exactly how
long the song played.  Monacon's hand moved slowly up towards his pistol.
     The bandit's hand had close on his pistol as a shot rang out.
Their last foe flew back to the edge of the plaza.  Roku-kun recocked the
pistol, keeping it pointed at his victim.
     When the man didn't move, Roku-kun walked over, he kept his pistol
on him as he carefully removed the watch from the dead man's hand.  Rei
walked towards him, noted that Nabiki-kun fell in beside her.  Nabiki-kun
handed him the duplicate watch.  Rei saw the photograph inside: two boys
and an older woman.
     "Family resemblance?" Nabiki-kun asked, Rei translated as Roku-kun
took the proffered watch.
     "Naturally," he said quietly, staring out across the plaza,
"Between a mother and her two sons," Roku-kun carefully replaced the
watches in his vest pockets.
     "I thought pilots were only children," Shinji-kun said, then he
remembered, "Your brother?  He died."
     "No pilot has siblings," he replied, "When they become a pilot.
If you have the sword, then it's over, where's Langley?"
     Rei watched the others look around, she spotted the figure
recovering the gold-filled saddlebags from where she had hidden them.
     "I think we're all rich!" the Second had collected all the dead
bandits in a wagon.
     Logical, Rei thought, They were worth money, and it was a way of
ensuring she had them all.  She watched as the Second added Monacon to the
pile, Roku-kun was checking his pistol.
     "With this hit on the cylinder, I wasn't sure it would still
work."
     "Then how what - were you going to do?" Shinji-kun asked.
     "Knife and derringer, I figured I'd get him before he got me."
     "Shouldn't this be over?" Ranma asked.  The Second seemed to be
recounting her collection.
     While Shinji translated, Rei saw the movement, turned and fired.
     The Second saw the armed man fall from his concealed position,
"Thanks Wondergirl.  I was wondering why it didn't add up, bad math, very
distressing," she checked again, "That's all of them."  She threw the last
corpse in the wagon, then brought the gold back to Shinji, "Better you keep
track of this, Spineless."  Shinji-kun staggered under the load.
----------------------------------------
     They rode back across the border, disinterring the other bodies
killed by the other bandits, Roku-kun and the cavalry on their way.  The
reward for all the bandits was considerable.  Although both Jeff and Asuka
found the Cavalry Captain and U.S. Marshall's reaction to their proof
amusing.  Once they were back at the train, they also earned the reward for
the safe return.
     "What are we going to do now?" Ranma asked, "We did everything: We
got the sword, killed the bad guys, and got back here, you two got paid.
There's nothing else."  Shinji automatically translated.
     They were all sitting in the Prince's railcar, waiting while the
engine got up a full head of steam.
     "There is one thing we haven't done," Jeff stood up and walked
out.  The others followed as he climbed down the stairs to the hardpan.
     "There's a question that we have not answered," he drew his
pistol.
     "What's that?" Asuka asked.
     "What's the others' freedom worth?" he replied, flipped the pistol
up and under his chin, and pulled the trigger.
----------------------------------------
     "NOOOOO!" Nabiki crashed onto the floor of the room.  She
painfully glanced at Asuka, who was also lying on the medical room floor.
     "Ow!" Asuka said, then shouted as she realized she still had the
Colt in her hand.  The two looked up from the floor at Rei, who was sitting
up with the covers pulled over her, staring at them.
     "Roku-kun?" she asked, and the pair charged out of the room.  Rei
pulled the covers aside, revealing the costume of the priestess she still
wore.  It was the softest silk she'd ever felt and completely without the
maddening seams.  It didn't chafe as ordinary clothes did.  She wondered if
it was a bribe, to bring the others to the conclusion she, and obviously
Roku-kun, had come to.
     She extracted the Schofield pistol she had been left.  She
considered the contest, yesterday the opponent had weakened them as much as
possible, tormented them all mercilessly, in ways they didn't even know
they could be injured.  Then battled the wounded pilots in earnest, and
lost.  As a result, their opponent had decided to withdraw.  Not victory or
defeat, but non-participation.
     She also wondered at the tokens they had been granted for their
victory, the weapons would only be useful against other humans.  Was that
warning also part of their accolade?
     Rei sighed, laid back down, closed her eyes.  It was too difficult
to think about.  She did wonder when Nabiki-kun would realize she was still
carrying Roku-kun's pistol.




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