Attached.

As usual, the FFML mail filters are probably going to ruin the formating of 
this fic, making it very hard to read unless you are dedicated to the task. 
I reccommend going to our website (http://www.bladeandepsilon.com) or one of 
the other fanfic archives (anfics forum, ff.net or ficwad.com) for an easier 
time.

--------------------
Epsilon



-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: hybridtheory16final.txt

I am doing this, you must understand, under protest.

I, Telulu, am a very busy Deathbuster. Bringing about the Apocalypse isn't 
going
to happen on its own, you know.  It especially isn't going to happen if you 
sit
around in a house teething some mewling brat and promising that yes, she'll 
grow
up to be a nasty little Messiah some day.  That cretinous Professor couldn't
even hold on to his supposed trump card!  A far more competent (if laughably
short-sighted) villain named Vega kidnapped her from right under his nose!

Then she was re-kidnapped by my fellow witch Eudial, then re-re-kidnapped by
Ukyou just when the Professor thought she had been returned.  Having no
contingency plan, he was forced to just let Ukyou take his precious saviour
away.  Not that taking her away from her "father" endeared Ukyou much to the
little brat.

Speaking of brats, apparently some girl named Kaede is trying to destroy 
this
island nation before I, I mean we, can destroy the entire world.  Ukyou made 
a
big deal about how her friends and loved ones might need to kill her and
conviently excused herself to go re-re-kidnap the brat Hotaru so she 
wouldn't
have to break her contemptible vow against killing.

One person not so burdened is the youma Tethys, whose use of the human 
Hayato's
martial arts skills and physical prowess allowed her to kill her former 
queen
when the foolish woman let her guard down.  Now she rules the Dark 
Kingdom...
for whatever good that will do her when the Silence comes.

It pleases me that that moron Chris has dragged Sailor Moon and her friends 
out
of Tokyo, heading for an unimportant school named Ohtori Academy somewhere 
in
the north.  Just two less problems standing between me, I mean us, and 
universal
destruction.

One problem I'll have to deal with, perhaps, is the overly self-confident 
wench
Nabiki Tendo and her imbecilic bodyguard.  They extracted from Ukyou the
information about a sword that grants wishes to the one millionth person to
attempt to draw it from its resting place.  In exchange, they - well, rather
Ryouga, for Nabiki has laudable good sense in sending disposable flunkies to 
do
her own work - helped Ukyou re-re-kidnap Hotaru.  I understand Vega was most
cross about this whole situation, not to mention his being obliged to 
retreat by
the combined forces of Ran, Akira, and Ranma.

Hmph.  Really, that ought to suffice for even the most dull-witted of 
readers.
The more so since none of this matters.  All the characters you love, you 
hate,
or are indifferent to will perish soon enough!

On that note, I'm leaving now.  Apocalypse to choreograph, and all that...




			      C&A Productions Presents

                          A Work of Blatant Self-Insertion


                                   Hybrid Theory


                              Chapter 16: Step Up






	Akira slid off the end of the bike. She slipped her helmet off and
shielded her eyes from the sun. It was a bright sunny morning. The air was
heavy, almost stagnant, and the heat had crept up so high that it felt like 
an
oven. It was the first heat wave of the summer, and true to its name Akira 
could
literally see the air rippling as it rose off the pavement. She sighed and 
undid
her jacket, pulling off the tight leather so that her torso was clad only in 
a
blue and yellow t-shirt.
	"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Daigo said. He was still sitting on his
cycle. He looked pristine in his long black coat. The heat didn't affect him 
in
the slightest: not a hair was out of place in his short black mane, and not 
a
bead of sweat stood out on his brow. He frowned down at her, and to most 
people
his scarred face would have been intimidating. But Akira could see the worry
there, the concern and sense of responsibility. He wasn't frowning because 
he
was annoyed, he was frowning because he cared.
	He reminded her a bit of Ukyou.
	"I'll be fine," Akira said as cheerfully as she could.
	"Akira..." Daigo reached out and clasped her on the shoulder. She
shifted slightly, but his touch was gentle and kind. "You don't have to do
this."
	"I think I want to," Akira said, although she didn't know why she felt
that way.
	Daigo stared down at her for a moment. He released her and sighed. The
hand that had been holding her rose up and stroked the length of his scar, 
not
flinching away from the ruin that marked where his eye had once been. "I 
just
don't want you to end up like me," he said. "The only thing fighting does is
lead to more fighting."
	"Brother..." Akira said plaintively. "We aren't fighting today." She
smiled. "This is a victory celebration. The good guys won, yesterday." She
patted him on the arm. "Can't you just be happy for once?"
	"Maybe." He smiled thinly. His was a face not much used to smiling. He
didn't say anything more before kicking his motorcycle to life and riding 
off
down the street. Akira looked after him wistfully. It would be years before 
she
could afford to replace her own.
	"Hey, that your brother?"
	Akira turned and saw Ranma walking up to her. He was wearing a yellow t-
shirt with a little bow-tie and a pair of slacks with his hands thrust into 
the
pockets. Her lip twitched a little.
	"Yeah..."
	"He looks strong," Ranma said with a nod in the direction he had left.
There was a sort of eagerness to his voice.
	"He is," Akira nodded. "Much stronger than me." She glanced out of the
corner of her eye at Ranma. "Probably stronger than you, too."
	"Me?" Ranma laughed. "I'd like to see him prove it."
	Akira poked him in the ribs. Ranma's toppled over with a cry, clutching
his side. Akira giggled.
	"That... was a dirty low down trick," Ranma muttered as he got to his
feet slowly.
	"Sorry," Akira said, feeling a little bad. "It's just..."
	"Yeah, yeah..." Ranma grinned at her. "Everyone wants a shot at the guy
on top." Suddenly Akira didn't feel so guilty anymore.
	"Didn't Ukyou come with you?" Akira asked, changing the subject.
	"She said she'd meet us here." Ranma said. "She didn't want to be
walking around with the kid all day." Ranma grinned again. "I guess she's 
afraid
Hotaru will try to make a break for it in a crowd."
	Akira didn't have any response to that. She believed Ukyou. Ukyou wasn't
lying when she said that Hotaru's father was a monster... but still... How 
did
you deal with that? How did you save a girl like Hotaru without coming off 
as
the bad guy? Well, maybe Ran had done like she promised and come up with 
some
way to prove Ukyou right.
	"C'mon," Ranma said as he started towards the gates of the school. "Ran
is probably inside working on the big story already."
	Akira followed him with a nod. Taiyo High School was virtually abandoned
at this time of day. The sun had risen not a half-hour ago, and it was still
three hours before first bell. Not even the teachers and other staff would 
be
here this early. Ran had once joked that it was the only time she could get 
any
work done. Akira just marveled that the girl could still manage to produce a
daily paper, by herself, and run around helping Ukyou and Ranma out. The
newspaper at Seijyun ran about once a month, and anybody asking about the 
Gedo
High School paper would be directed to gossip scrawled on the bathroom 
walls.
	Her office was up on the second floor. Ranma led the way, obviously
familiar with the trip. Akira lagged behind him a little bit. She supposed 
Ukyou
would know to come in when she arrived. She glanced behind her, out one of 
the
windows at the hot pavement. She grimaced - somehow it was even hotter in 
the
building. She did not look forward to attending classes today... especially
since she would have to explain her absence yesterday.
	The door to Ran's office was open. The hallway was deserted except for
Hotaru. The girl was sitting against the far wall. Her black hair gleamed in 
the
hot light. She was wearing the same dress she had been wearing yesterday. 
She
was crying. Large hiccuping sobs. Her face was buried in her hands.
	Akira slowed down even as Ranma sped up. Something was wrong.
	Ranma reached her and bent down. He asked her if she was okay, but she
didn't look up at him. She just kept crying into her hands. Ranma turned to 
look
into the office...
	Looking back, Akira realised that was when she knew. It was his eyes.
Not just the way they widened, not just the way they flinched back... it was 
how
they changed. The moment they looked into that room... Ranma's eyes changed.
	Ranma stepped forward, his entire expression twisting. His lips pulled
away from his teeth as if he was trying to scream. Akira was running now, 
but it
was like a dream and everything moved in slow motion. The only sound was
Hotaru's pained sobs and the loud echo of her footsteps. It was so hot.
	"Ran..." Ranma said, his voice a whistle as he forced air from his
throat. He vanished into the room, moving like an automaton.
	Akira skidded to a stop in front of the room. She didn't want to look.
She already knew what she would see.
	It was worse than that.
	Ukyou was inside. Her hands were pressed against the window as she
leaned against it for support. Her hair hung down over her face. Her jacket
fluttered in the hot breeze. It was covered in blood.
	On the floor...
	Oh god.
	"Ran..." Ranma was on his knees. He reached out and grabbed a hand. The
hand was too pale. "No... no... this isn't happening..."
	Akira felt the wall hit her back. She couldn't back up any further. The
air was too hot. She couldn't breathe. It was too hot.
	"Wake up!" Ranma screamed. He pulled her into his arms, cradling her
against his chest. Her arm... oh god... it flopped to the ground at his 
side.
Just flopped. It was almost comic. "Wake up, Ran!" Ranma's jaw was 
trembling,
his words kept stuttering. "W-Wake up... oh g-god... this is t-too much.., 
d-
don't do this to me..."
	Akira closed her eyes. She looked away. She couldn't stand it. She
wanted to cover her ears. To block it out. But Ranma kept talking.
	"Do something!" he roared. "She needs help! We need to get her to a
doctor!"
	"It's too late..." Ukyou's voice; soft, cold...
	"Don't give me that!" Ranma screamed. "Do something! My God, she isn't
breathing... Ukyou... she isn't breathing... DO SOMETHING! Please! Anybody!
Please!"
	"It's too late..." Ukyou said again. "I tried. I saw... I tried... I..."
	There was something wrong with Ukyou's voice. Akira opened her eyes and
looked. Ukyou had turned around and was looking down at him. Her hands were
covered in blood, and they hung limply at her side. Akira remembered briefly 
the
ruin that had been Ran's chest.
	"Hotaru!" Ranma snapped suddenly. "You said she could heal people,
right?"
	"Ranma..." Ukyou reached up toward him but he wasn't looking at her
anymore. Ranma was staring out the door at Hotaru. The girl was sobbing. She 
was
curled into a ball against the wall. Ranma stretched a hand out toward the
little girl.
	"Help her," he begged. Akira had never heard Ranma beg. She had honestly
thought that it was something he couldn't do. But he was begging now. His 
voice
was full of anguish. Akira's sides hurt. Her eyes burned. Ranma was crying 
too.
The tears were streaming down his cheeks. He didn't notice. He didn't care. 
He
was begging. "Please! Use your power! HELP HER!"
	"Ranma!" Ukyou snapped harshly. But Ranma wasn't paying attention to
her.
	"She isn't breathing!" Ranma said, his voice catching. He tried to say
something else, but for a moment all that came out was a series of choked 
'huh'
sounds. "You huh-have... you have to... she's too cold... we have to..."
	"Close the door." It took Akira a moment to realise that Ukyou was
talking to her. Akira looked up mutely, meeting Ukyou's cold black lotus 
eyes.
"She can't do anything. It's too late. She doesn't need to see anymore of 
this.
Close the door."
	Akira walked over. Her body was moving of its own accord. She had no
control over it. She couldn't think. It was too hot. She couldn't breathe. 
The
door clicked shut under her hand. She spun around and leaned back against 
it.
Hotaru had changed position. She had stopped crying. She looked up at Akira. 
Her
little girl eyes looked far too old. Akira could still hear inside the room.
	"Damn you, Ukyou!" Ranma screamed, his voice wavering. "Open the door!"
	"It's too late for her," Ukyou said softly.
	"It's not... it's not..." Ranma's voice trembled. "I'm Ranma Saotome,
damn it!" Now his voice had regained its strength. "Ranma Saotome does not 
lose!
Not this battle!"
	"Please... Ranma, please... listen to yourself..." Ukyou's voice grew
closer to the door. "Feel her, Ranma. She's cold. She's dead. She's been 
dead
for hours. I found her... I tried to help, but it's too late. There is 
nothing
anyone could have done!"
	"I can do something!" Ranma roared.
	"No... no, you can't... nobody can..."
	Ranma tried to say something, but his words kept dissolving. Finally he
gave up and just screamed. It was loud and primal and Akira sobbed to hear 
it.
His voice grew hoarse and then his scream trailed off. It faded into sobs. 
Sobs
that continued for Akira didn't know how long.
	Finally there was silence.
	The heat hung on the air like a specter. Akira could see it out the
windows. It was all she could feel, the heat. Her mind was numb.
	"Who did this?" Ranma said. Akira started. That couldn't have been his
voice. It was cold. So cold that even Ukyou at her worst sounded warm in
comparison.
	"Ranma, you have to put her down... the police are coming..." Ukyou said
slowly.
	"Who. Did. This?"
	There was a pause.
	"Vega," Ukyou answered simply.
	"Where is he?"
	"He... left a note..."
	There was a soft sound as Ran's body slid to the floor. Akira fell away
from the door and was suddenly on her knees. Her breakfast came up.
	"Give it to me."
	"Ranma!" Ukyou sounded desperate. "You can't do this! It's just what he
wants-" Ukyou cut off, crying out in pain, and there was a thud as she fell
against something. "Ranma!" Ukyou sounded more desperate now.
	A moment passed. Then the door opened. Ranma stepped out into the
hallway. He wasn't looking at anything. He didn't even notice Akira or 
Hotaru as
he stepped out into the stiflingly hot corridor.
	"Ranma!" Ukyou appeared in the doorway. She grabbed the frame to hold
herself up. Her eyes were staring at him and shaking. "Ranma, it isn't worth
it!"
	"Ukyou..." Ranma said, his voice still cold. "I am going to kill him."
	"NO!" Ukyou shouted. "You can't... not like this!"
	Ranma didn't respond. He just turned around and started walking down the
hallway. He dropped a piece of paper on the floor as he walked. It was 
curled
into a ball. Ukyou started after him, but her steps were slow and unsteady.
	Akira reached out and grabbed the note. Her body was moving of its own
accord again. She didn't want to read it, but her hands unfurled the note 
and
her eyes fixed on it. The handwriting was neat, even beautiful... like the 
work
of a master calligrapher. "Ranma Saotome, Akira Kazama, Ukyou Kuonji. Please
excuse the drama of this message. I'm afraid you left me little choice. I 
was
far too disappointed by our last encounter to let it go at that. Perhaps you 
can
meet me again soon?
	"I would also suggest you bring along the thing you took from me. I have
grown attached to her. If you do not, I shall have to take something 
precious
from you. Miss Hibiki told me an amazing story, about a fabulous sword. 
Perhaps
if you do not meet me, I shall console myself by acquiring it?
	"I'll be waiting.
	"Vega."
	Akira stood up slowly. She wasn't moving like a robot anymore.
	That monster.
	He hadn't just...
	He had tortured...
	Despite the heat, Akira pulled on her jacket one arm at a time. Ranma
was disappearing down the stairwell now. Ukyou was caught halfway down the 
hall.
She kept glancing back at Hotaru. Akira buttoned her collar in place. 
Ukyou's
eyes met Akira's, and she mouthed 'no' at her. Akira ignored her. She pulled 
on
her helmet.
	She had to catch up to Ranma, so she moved quickly.
	Alone, he might not be able to kill Vega.

*

	Telulu stood on the tarmac, looking over the base with a critical eye.
Azuma had been right: the place was nearly deserted. She hadn't even been
accosted since she had walked through the front gate. It was wonderful 
having a
friend with access to nearly any military equipment she wanted. It opened a 
lot
of doors.
	She paused as she heard a light, musical beeping coming from her coat.
Azuma wouldn't be calling her so early. Then she remembered that only one 
other
person had access to this number. She smiled and pulled the cell phone from 
her
pocket.
	"Yes, Professor?"
	She listened to him rant and rave. Apparently he had used the device
Eudial had built to track down the Messiah again. He wanted her to come with 
him
and help liberate the Messiah from the clutches of the martial artists who 
had
kidnapped her. Telulu clucked her tongue.
	"I'm sorry, Professor, but I'm rather busy at the moment." She tilted
her head to the side. "Perhaps we can meet up when you are finished doing 
your
own dirty work... for once?"
	There was silence on the other end of the phone, but that was all right.
Telulu was hanging up anyway. She smiled. Did that fool really think she 
would
let him pit her against the martial artists alone? And end up in a hospital 
bed
for the next week like Eudial? She had bigger things to do today.
	Destroying the world, for example.
	Which reminded her that she had a schedule to keep. She walked jauntily
down the tarmac, looking at each of the war machines in turn. The only 
problem
was: which one to pick? She needed something mobile, but still powerful.
	"You there!"
	Telulu looked over her shoulder. A half-dozen soldiers were walking
towards her. They were heavily armed. Ah, dependable Americans. She 
shrugged.
She hadn't expected to have the run of the base forever. Besides, she had 
picked
out her target.
	"Stop! Identify yourself!" the man in front ordered. He was reaching for
his sidearm by now, but Telulu had already finished. She held up the grey 
ribbed
daimon egg and blew on it gently. It floated forward almost lazily. The 
guards
shouted something and leveled their guns at her.
	The egg touched the nose of the jet fighter. Immediately, pink webbing
erupted from it and adhered to the machine. Slowly the egg sunk into the 
machine
until there was no trace of it.
	"On the ground, or we will open fir-fi..." the leader's voice trailed
off as the transformation began. The entire jet was consumed by a swirling
nimbus of light that stretched over its form like a skin. Then it began to 
twist
and distort, slowly shrinking down as it did so. The humans stared at it in
wonder and horror as it began to take on recognisable shape and form. Slowly 
it
became humanoid.
	Then, with a blast of light and a sound like a thunderclap, the daimon
was born. She stood two meters tall and was made of white metal that glinted 
in
the morning sunlight. Her face and body were feminine, but extremely thin 
and
angular, like a rough-hewn sculpture of a woman's proportions. A large metal
plate descended from her head like hair, and the cockpit of what had once 
been
the plane emerged from her crotch. She stretched her arms up to the sky and 
her
mouth opened in rapturous joy. "VALKYRIE!" she cried, naming herself.
	"OPEN FIRE!" the guard yelled, finally snapping out of his stupor. It
was too late. Telulu leaped up and back out of the line of fire as the 
humans
opened up with their machine guns. The bullets pinged harmlessly off of
Valkyrie's armour. The daimon looked over at them. Her sky blue eyes 
narrowed.
	"Valkyrie... kill them," Telulu said mildly.
	"Valkyrie acknowledges her command!" the daimon roared and turned to
face the humans. They continued firing. One of them reached down and pumped 
a
cylinder under his gun. There was a soft exhalation of air and a small black
object flew directly into the daimon's face. An explosion tore across the
tarmac, and for a moment the monster was hidden from view by the smoke.
	Telulu smiled. She had used the most powerful of the daimon eggs to
create this weapon. Eggs that the Professor had intended for the creation of
others like Telulu down the line. She watched as Valkyrie stepped out of the
smoke, not even scratched.
	"Valkyrie is locking on target!" the daimon cried happily as she stared
at the humans and leaned back, thrusting out her chest. The humans had 
stopped,
stunned by the lack of effect their weapons were having. "Valkyrie is 
firing!"
the daimon declared.
	Telulu quirked an eyebrow as Valkyrie's breasts exploded off her body.
The nipples became nose cones, and long shafts extended from them as they
transformed into missiles. The humans screamed and began to turn and flee. 
They
were hopelessly slow as the missiles tracked in on them.
	The explosion was quite a bit more spectacular than what their grenade
had caused. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing but a two meter-deep
crater and the gore of the dead humans. Sirens and alarms were ringing out.
Valkyrie turned to gaze at the base proper. Dozens of soldiers were pouring 
out
of it now.
	"Valkyrie has spotted new targets!" she declared as she leveled her arms
at the base. Her breasts had regrown, and now her fingers locked forward as
their tips opened, revealing the bores of miniguns. She roared and her 
fingers
twisted around in circles as a hail of bullets flew forward. A line of torn
tarmac traced across the ground to the base, and a dozen soldiers died on 
their
feet as their bodies were literally sliced in two. Then the assault climbed 
up
the side of the base. Valkyrie stopped when her hands were both pointed 
skyward.
A second later, the side of the base exploded.
	"Excellent," Telulu said with a smile. "But as entertaining as watching
this is, we don't have time to waste here."
	Valkyrie turned and looked at Telulu. Her body snapped rigid and she
gave a crisp military salute with her still-transformed hands. "Valkyrie is
awaiting orders!"
	"Come along," Telulu gestured. "It's a long way back to Tokyo, and we
have a schedule to keep."
	"Valkyrie will escort the commander!" the daimon yelled as she blasted
forward, the flare of her jets coming out from just behind her cockpit. She
scooped up the startled Telulu in both arms, and then without missing a beat
adjusted her aim so that they were both flashing into the sky. Telulu looked
down at the flaming base as it rapidly vanished behind them. Then she began 
to
laugh.
	Things were working out entirely on schedule.

*

	Kusanagi landed on top of the office building. He glanced to the side.
Another giant ward encircled the building across the way. The second of 
three,
if Ukyou was to be believed. Even now, the others would be on their way. He
wanted to be below the city with them. He wanted to see for himself what was
happening down there.
	He wanted to know the truth.
	But he had felt it. A power on top of this building. It had been mostly
dormant, but it had been incredible. Momiji was usually the only one who 
could
sense the aragami, but not sensing this would have been like not spotting 
the
sun. Ukyou had been right: there was something up here he needed to do.
	There was a man standing on the other side of the roof. He had one foot
up on the raised edge of the roof and was gazing favorably at the giant 
brown
centipede skin that encircled the other skyscraper. His long black hair blew
behind him, falling to his waist as the morning sunlight tinted it purple. 
He
was clad in a grey and orange jacket with white slacks. Kusanagi clenched 
his
fists. Every instinct that he had was telling him to run, but he wasn't 
about to
do that.
	"So, Kusanagi, we meet at last," the man said, his voice a chilling,
reverberating mockery of a human's. He looked back over his shoulder. His 
skin
was pale, almost chalky, and he had black irises. His face was pretty, and 
he
smiled arrogantly before he spoke. "I suspected this would be inevitable,
however."
	Kusanagi already knew the answer, but he had to ask the question. "Who
are you?"
	"I am called Murakumo," the man explained. He turned and bowed, his hair
flowing neatly behind him. "And you are Kusanagi. The traitor who has 
abandoned
his duty to serve and protect the humans. Now we are introduced."
	"What did you do to Kaede?" Kusanagi shouted. He couldn't play pretend.
He wasn't about to deny what he had been told. Kusanagi raised his arm and
clenched his fist. His blades painfully tore themselves free of his arms and
locked into position. Damn Ukyou and her plan. He was going to beat the
information out of that bastard!
	"Ah..." Murakumo crossed his arms. "I've done nothing to her. And I
don't respond well to threats." He smirked, shadows creeping across his
features. "Especially from a low class soul like you."
	"Low class?" Kusanagi snarled. "I'll show you low class!"
	He charged. Murakumo vanished. Kusanagi slashed through empty air. He
stumbled to a halt, his foot teetering on the brink of the building. He 
gasped.
That had been fast!
	He looked behind him and saw Murakumo standing on the opposite edge of
the building. He hadn't even uncrossed his arms.
	"You're too slow and weak to fight me, Kusanagi," Murakumo informed him.
"You only have seven pieces of your own soul." He grinned again, a sinister
grin. "I have eight: a complete set. I am as much beyond you as you are 
beyond
the human worms you fight so desperately to defend."
	"Yeah, right!" Kusanagi turned around. Ukyou had told him that if he
confronted Murakumo, his sole job would be to buy time. Kunikida had told 
him
that they needed to make sure the most powerful of the aragami was occupied
while they went down there to deal with Susano-oh before he could be 
awakened.
Momiji had begged him not to get in over his head. Everybody agreed that 
Ukyou
was probably right and Murakumo would be a lot more powerful than him. The 
best
he could do was keep him busy.  That was his job.  That was the plan.
	Fuck that.
	"Let's see you beat this!" Kusanagi roared. He grit his teeth and flexed
his muscles. He reached down inside and pulled aside the mental block that 
kept
his powers in check. His head flew back as pain and energy crashed through 
his
body, contesting for control. His body shifted and transformed as great 
spines
ripped free of his back and his feet became twisted claws. His jacket and 
shirt
were torn asunder and his shoes dissolved under the onslaught. He stepped
forward, breathing heavily as the transformation completed itself.
	Kusanagi grinned. He would beat the truth out of this bastard. He would
find out what the aragami had done to Kaede. He would make them pay for it.
	"Well, well..." Murakumo smirked. "Perhaps I shall have to show you how
truly pathetic you are?" The man spread his arms, and his eyes turned black.

*

	Vega let the monk fall to the ground. He had been unhelpful, so his
death had been long. That had pleased Vega a small amount. On the other 
hand, he
had been unhelpful, and that had displeased Vega far more. Perhaps he 
shouldn't
have killed all the other monks in a fit of pique?
	He looked around. The field next to the small temple was empty. There
were only the corpses of the monks that had served the place strewn about 
here
and there where Vega had chased them down. There was no other living soul in
sight.
	There was no wishing sword.
	All that trouble to torture the location out of the reporter...
	According to the monk, this was the right location. There was even a
dead spot in the middle of the lawn where something large had obviously 
stood
until very recently. The same monk had told him that they had opened up 
their
doors this morning just to find the entire wishing sword, stone and all, 
gone.
	How bothersome.
	Vega walked over to the place where the stone had been up until now. He
flicked his claw, expertly cleaning all the blood off with the motion. He 
looked
around for some clue as to the sword's new location.
	He stood up sharply.
	Two of them, approaching fast. Vega held up his hand and turned to face
the temple. He watched as two shadows appeared atop it, silhouetted against 
the
rising sun. One was taller than the other. They paused as they noted him 
below,
and with a single leap they landed on the lawn not three meters away.
	Vega relaxed.
	"Juni, Juli... what a pleasant surprise," Vega said. His annoyed frown
was hidden behind his mask and his voice was perfectly calm, almost happy
sounding.
	The two Dolls stared at Vega. These were Bison's pets. His most favoured
and trusted servants, aside from that one Doll that had gone missing a 
couple of
months back. He had... done things to them.
	"Lord Vega," Juli said as she stepped forward. She was the taller of the
two Dolls, with brown hair combed into long bangs that framed her face. She 
was
also the more well-developed of the pair, a fact that her skin-tight 
Shadowloo
uniform left in little doubt. "We have been ordered by Lord Bison to assist 
you.
He felt the death of the other Dolls that had been placed under your 
command,
and thought it best to send reinforcements."
	Vega chuckled. He just bet that Bison had 'sent reinforcements'. Oh,
these Dolls would obey him. But Bison must have suspected something. Why 
send
more Dolls? Why not send someone like Balrog who was far more capable of
fighting?
	Because the Dolls were perfectly loyal. No. Vega had just been handed a
pair of watchdogs. Bison must be suspicious. Well, there was no help for it.
	"What are your orders, sir?" Juli said as she knelt in front of Vega.
Her companion knelt as well.
	Vega paused.
	"How did you find me here?"
	"Juni tracked your signature, sir," Juli informed him.
	Vega looked at the other girl. She was shorter than Juli by about half a
head, and had straw-blonde hair. She was less developed than her 
counterpart,
but had a certain tomboyish appeal to her nonetheless. That was 
understandable.
They were two of the later Doll series. Vega had screened the candidates for
that series himself. The Doll stared up at him mechanically. Her eyes were
empty. Not calm or controlled... just empty.
	"Explain," he said.
	"Juni can acquire an individual's chi signature," Juli explained. "She
can then trace their trail like a bloodhound. She simply acquired your trail 
at
the location of the fight you participated in yesterday and followed you 
here."
	Vega chuckled. He turned and walked over to the raw spot in the center
of the lawn. He knelt next to it. "Juni, come here."
	"Acknowledged." The Doll stood up and walked over to his location. She
stopped and stood over him, looming robotically. Vega wanted to sigh, but
resisted the urge. He had told Bison that not implanting a personality in 
her
would make her terribly boring.
	"Locate a chi signature that was here... sometime last night. It would
have had to be strong. A person capable of carrying a large rock, say about 
my
size, for an extended period of time."
	Juni stared down at the ground for a minute. Without seeming to change
expression at all she turned to him and spoke. "Signature acquired."
	"Can you follow it?"
	"Affirmative."
	"Then do so, at best speed."

*

	Ryouga sat down heavily and flexed his fingers. That thing wasn't that
heavy, but Nabiki had kept hounding him through the entire trip not to let 
it
jostle in the slightest. He glanced at it. It looked simple enough. Just a 
long
katana, thrust halfway up its blade into a rock about half as big as Ryouga.
	He wasn't sure he believed it was magic, much less that it granted
wishes. But Nabiki's eyes had lit up at seeing it. She had started chuckling 
and
rubbing her hands together. She wanted it badly.
	"So, now what?" Ryouga said.
	"Heh. Now, Ryouga, we win," Nabiki said. She walked over to his pack and
began to retrieve the items she had stored there before they left last 
night.
"Ukyou thinks she is very clever. She wants us to have a nice fight over 
this
little wonder." Nabiki pulled out a long scroll and unfurled it slightly. 
"Only
one thousand, two hundred and five people left to go before we hit the magic
number. Less than a week if we had left it where it was." Nabiki turned to
Ryouga and winked. "But unlike Ukyou, I am capable of lateral thinking."
	Nabiki gestured for Ryouga to help her pound some stakes into the
ground. He shrugged and did so. Now they were really getting attention. The
students of Todai, aka Tokyo University, the most prestigious school in 
Japan,
were staring at the two people and the giant rock that had appeared in the
middle of their school commons. Ryouga tried to ignore them as he worked.
	Once he was finished, Nabiki attached some poles to the stakes and then
unfurled a banner which she had Ryouga hold in place while she pinned it up. 
She
stepped back to admire her handiwork. Ryouga shrugged and did so as well. 
The
banner was now hanging just over the wishing sword, with the poles framing 
it
for all to see.
	"Test of Strength!" the banner read. And under that in much larger
kanji. "One MILLION yen to the first person to successfully pull the sword 
from
the stone. Ten yen per try."
	"This will be over before noon," Nabiki declared with a twinkle in her
eye as the students began to whisper and move towards them.

*

	"So this is it," Kunikida whispered as he peered around the corner. Two
aragami stood at the far end of the tunnel. They were tall, monstrous 
parodies
of human shapes with too many eyes and long clawed limbs. He inched his head
back and looked at his people.
	They were all here. Ready to plunge into the heart of the enemy, right
where Ukyou had told them it would be. Two points of a perfect equilateral
triangle, with the sanctuary of Susano-oh lying in the exact center of that
triangle. There had been only two possible places it could be. They had 
guessed
right on the first try.
	So far, everything Ukyou had told them had been the truth.
	He looked at Momiji. She was staring off through the walls of the musty,
dark tunnel. Her face was lit up from underneath. Not by a flashlight, but 
by
the soft blue glow of her mitama as it reacted in sympathy to whatever power
lay dormant down that tunnel. Kunikida caught her eyes and she nodded.
	He reached into his jacket and pulled out his pistol. He had never liked
guns. The weight and the cold of them always made his skin crawl. He glanced
around at the rest of his crew, making sure they were ready.
	Koume was grinning. She held a bazooka over her shoulder with one hand
and a heavy machine gun slung under her other arm. She was wearing a 
backpack
filled with ammunition. Ryoko was next to her. She slid back the top of her 
own
pistol and let it lock back into place with a soft click. She frowned and 
looked
up at Kunikida. Next to them, Yaegashi looked almost comically out of place. 
He
had a rifle, but was holding it like he had never even seen one before. When
Kunikida looked at him he gulped and adjusted his glasses with his free 
hand,
but nodded.
	Matsudaira was standing just down the corridor, her body half-concealed
in shadows. Kunikida squinted as he looked at her. Was she on a cellphone? 
Yes,
he could hear her voice just barely over the soft drip of water falling
somewhere in the distance. The woman nodded once, then snapped her phone 
closed
as she walked back into the light.
	"What was that?" Kunikida whispered harshly.
	Matsudaira blinked as she looked at him suddenly. She cleared her throat
and answered in a soft whisper back. "I was... leaving a message. For my 
son."
She paused. "In case I don't come back."
	Momiji smiled and patted the woman on the arm. Matsudaira looked down at
Momiji, her expression perplexed. Kunikida sighed. He guessed he could
understand the woman's concern.
	"Okay, everyone, on three..." He held up his gun. "And remember. Shoot
for the mitamas. If you destroy them, you destroy the aragami." Everyone 
nodded
as he turned back to the corner.
	"One."
	"Two."
	"Three!"

*

	The first sign that something was wrong was the people loitering outside
the gate. Stout-looking men (and the occasional woman) milling about in a
confused fashion. Normally, all shrines in Japan were open to the public. 
The
giant red arches that served as entryways did not even have doors. But 
someone
had strung a rope covered in rice-paper wards across the entryway. A small 
sign
hung from the rope.
	"Due to technical difficulties, the shrine is closed for today. We
apologize for any inconvenience."
	Ukyou only paused long enough to note the message before she leapt up
and over the crowd. It wasn't a long leap, but in her condition and carrying
Hotaru's weight it was a bit of a task. She landed on top of the tori arch 
and
looked into the shrine proper.
	It seemed like only yesterday she had been here. She and Aaron had found
this place even before they had arrived in Nerima. They had snuck into the 
place
in the dead of night a dozen times again after that. Always to check the 
roll.
They watched as the countdown to the magic number continued, slowly but 
surely.
	It should have been only another week. One week, and then the sword
would have been hers. Then she and Aaron could have been two people, like 
they
had been before. One more week...
	Someone up there was laughing at her.
	"Are you still there, Hotaru?"
	The girl didn't reply, but Aaron could feel her breath on the back of
his neck. He could feel her aura. It was troubled and turbulent, filled with
that strange deeper power that Aaron had begun to sense only recently. 
Hotaru
was awake, he could tell that. He really wished they had been able to leave 
the
girl behind.
	It had all been going so well. They had rescued Hotaru. They had driven
Vega off. In only a week... they would be cured. Ukyou was beginning to feel
like a human being again. It had felt good to be the winner again. Not 
fighting
for her own survival or living at the mercy of lost friends. Things had been
looking so good...
	Why hadn't they seen this coming?
	"Hold on tight for just a while longer," Ukyou told the girl on her
back. Hotaru didn't reply, but her grip tightened just a little. Ukyou leapt
into the courtyard. It was deserted. But the real action was behind the
building. She dashed across the well-kept lawn and over the roof with only 
three
hops.
	She knew Ranma and Akira were there before she saw them. Aaron felt
them. Them and nothing else.
	They landed and looked around. Ukyou almost dropped Hotaru. The yard was
full of corpses. She heard Hotaru make a small mouse-like sound before going
quiet. Ukyou kept her face calm as she looked at Ranma and Akira.
	Ranma was standing next to the temple. He was staring at the ground. His
hands were curled into fists. Akira was standing further out, in the middle 
of
the lawn. She was crouched next to a bald spot in the grass and...
	"The sword!" Ukyou gasped.
	"Gone," Akira said as she stood up.
	"Vega?" Ukyou asked.
	Akira shrugged. "He isn't here."
	"Damn him!" Ranma roared. There was a crash as he lashed out, punching a
hole a good three meters across in the wooden walls of the temple. "That
bastard!" Ranma turned around and walked into the yard. "VEGA! You said 
you'd be
here!" He raised his fists to the sky. "Come out and fight, you bastard! 
Isn't
that what you want?"
	"Ranma, we have to look at this rationally..." Ukyou began.
	"No!" Ranma shouted back. "We find him. We kill him!"
	Ukyou staggered back under the force of his words. She knelt down and
let Hotaru climb off her back. Maybe he was right? Ukyou and Aaron could see
where this was heading. They should have seen it all along.
	Vega was not the kind of opponent who ran away. Not unless he planned on
springing a trap. And Ran had been the one to take his picture. Ukyou should
have seen that! She should have been prepared!
	Ukyou grit her teeth. She clenched her eyes shut.
	(...Ukyou looked down at Ran's body and knew she was dead. She heard
Hotaru gasp behind her. She knew Ran was dead and all she could do was stare 
and
think...)
	No.
	There was no way she could have known. There was no way she could have
done anything. She had to believe that. She looked back up at Ranma. He was
literally seething. His aura was burning with fire chi as his rage flooded
through his body, eradicating all emotion. Ranma would fight Vega. He would
fight Vega and he would die, or he would kill the other man. That was what 
Ukyou
had to concentrate on now.
	"Why would he challenge us, and then not show up for the challenge?"
Akira asked to the air. She, at least, sounded more reasonable than Ranma. 
Her
aura was burning with anger too, but it had not filled her like it had him.
Maybe Ukyou could talk sense into her.
	"He wouldn't," Hotaru said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. She
was sitting on the ground, staring absently at the grass as it blew by. 
"He's a
monster, and he'll kill you all. He'll kill you all because you saw his true
face." Hotaru sniffed and rubbed her nose. "He will wait for you to come to 
him
and then he'll kill you like he did that girl and like he did these men... 
like
he'll do to me."
	"Hotaru?" Aaron whispered.
	"He showed me, just before you came..." She sniffled, and tears began to
leak from the corner of her eyes. "His face. He'll kill me one day, too. But
first he'll kill all of you. Just for being near me. Because of me. Because 
of
what I am." Hotaru looked up, her eyes searching each of them in turn. "Why?
WHY?" She was really crying now, the tears coming down in steady streams. 
"What
am I? What kind of monster am I that everything I touch dies? Why do 
monsters
fight over me? WHY!?"
	Ranma just turned away. Akira looked at Hotaru for a long time. Ukyou
stepped forward and knelt next to the girl. "I'm sorry, Hotaru."
	"Sorry?" Hotaru clenched her hands into fists and scowled at Ukyou.
"You're sorry? For holding me here? For treating me like a... like a thing, 
just
like him? What are you sorry for?"
	"I'm sorry this all had to happen," Ukyou said and reached down, but
Hotaru flinched away from her grasp. Ukyou let her hand fall to her side.
"Whether you believe me or not, I want to help you. I'm sorry I took you 
away
from your father, but he is a bad man... a sick man, who needs help. I'm 
sorry
that I have to take you with me now, but there is no one I can trust you 
with.
Kyosuke is still in the hospital and I don't know anyone else well enough to
think they can protect you."
	"You're going to him again," Hotaru said as she pulled her knees to her
chest. "You're taking me right to him."
	"Yes," Ukyou sighed. "And I'm sorry about that, too." She stood up. "The
world is harsh, Hotaru. I want to be a better person, to make this all just 
go
away. But I can't. All I can do is be who I am and do what I think is 
right."
	Ukyou turned and walked towards the place where the wishing sword had
been. Aaron had sensed the aura almost as soon as he'd gotten here, but it 
had
been driven from their mind. Now... now he knew what it meant. It was the
psychopower. It lingered in the air like noxious smoke and trailed off into 
the
distance like a scar. He glanced in the direction the power had vanished.
	It was too weak to be Bison. It had to be too weak to be Bison.
	"Vega went this way," Ukyou said. "He either has the sword, or is
chasing the person who does." She turned and looked back at Ranma. "I won't 
help
you kill him, Ranma, but he can NOT get his hands on that sword. He has to 
be
stopped."
	"You can follow him?" Akira asked.
	"Indeed."

*

	"Are you okay, Yaegashi?"
	"Don't worry about me..." Yaegashi grit his teeth and clenched his hand
over his shoulder. The blood seeped through his fingers and his face was 
pale,
but his eyes were focused and clear behind the rims of his glasses. "I can 
still
move. We have to hurry. They know we're here."
	"He's right..." Momiji gasped. The light was still shining from within
the breast of her jacket, bathing her in an eerie blue glow. Her eyes had 
taken
on a disturbing far-away look, and her voice seemed to be echoing slightly. 
"I
can feel them coming. Many angry souls closing in on us..."
	Kunikida nodded and gestured for everyone to start down the tunnel. He
paused and grabbed Koume as she started moving.
	"We need to stop them from following us more than we need to get out of
here quickly," he explained. The woman blinked at him, then a slow, happy 
grin
spread across her face.
	"I know just what you're thinking, boss man," she said slyly. She turned
around and dropped her machine gun to the floor with a clatter. Using her 
now
free hand, she levelled her bazooka at the roof of the corridor dozens of 
meters
down the stretch. Already Kunikida could hear the clatter and shuffle of the
approaching aragami. "Fire in the hole!" Koume roared. Her red hair snapped 
back
behind her as flames erupted from the back of her heavy weapon.
	Kunikida shielded his eyes as the dust and smoke thrown up by the
backblast temporarily blinded him. He could hear the low-pitched whine of 
the
rocket as it flew down the subterranean tunnel. The explosion was almost 
anti-
climactic, but the thunderous roar of the cave-in that followed was 
deafening.
Kunikida stumbled and fell to his knees as the shock wave raced back down 
the
length of the tunnel.
	He looked up as the dust cleared. There must have been fifty tonnes of
earth and rock blocking the path now. It should be enough.
	"Good enough," he barked. "Let's go!"
	Everyone nodded and started sprinting down the corridor. Yaegashi
trailed slightly behind, but Koume fell back with him and began to urge him
on... perhaps with slightly more insults and profanity than Kunikida would 
have
used, but it got the job done. Momiji took the lead. In fact, it was hard to
keep pace with her.
	Her eyes kept staring straight ahead and she began to take turns and
branches in the tunnels without pausing. Her feet were barely touching the 
floor
as she sprinted. Kunikida didn't like that. He didn't like that at all.
	Suddenly, as they turned a corner, there was a door in front of them.
Less a door really, and more a sort of organic valve... like the kind found 
in a
heart. It was dark purple and pulsated in the light cast by the TAC's lamps 
and
Momiji's radiance.
	Everyone paused at the doorway... except Momiji. She walked straight up
to it and the opening irised apart. Kunikida shouted for everyone to follow 
him
as he charged off after her. He almost broke his neck when the doorway 
opened up
a good two meters above the floor of the chamber beyond.
	The landing was harsh, but almost-forgotten training saved him from a
more vicious spill as he rolled with the impact. He grunted in pain. He 
could
hear Ryoko calling out his name in concern. Looking up, he saw Momiji 
floating
towards the floor. Her radiance had formed a bubble around her body now. Her
eyes were staring at something only she could see.
	"MOMIJI!" Kunikida roared as he climbed to his feet. He heard a grunt as
Koume leapt down beside him. Momiji landed a few meters away... and as her 
feet
touched the ground, the aura around her, and her far-away look, both 
vanished.
	"What... what is this?" Momiji asked softly.
	They were in the center of a large circular room, like the inside of
some alien flower. The green-purple walls pulsed slightly and glimmered
organically. The center of the room was a raised dais, out of which grew a 
short
slender stand like a weed. On top of this was a huge glowing blue seed: a 
mitama
as large as a human baby. A baleful blue glow, almost too bright to look 
into,
radiated from the mitama.
	"Susano-oh," Kunikida said breathlessly. He heard the other members of
the TAC climbing down behind him. "Step away from it, Momiji!"
	"R-right!" the girl gulped and ran back, placing herself behind Kunikida
and Koume. Ryoko stepped in front of him, kneeling and levelling her pistol 
at
the giant blue seed that was the incubator of a a god.
	"This is it?" Koume grinned. She pulled her bazooka into place again.
"Let's not waste time then! I'll blow that thing to kingdom come!"
	"NO!" Matsudaira cried and pushed the barrel of her weapon into the air.
"We have no idea what attacking it will do. The explosion could kill us 
all!"
	"We don't have time for this..." Koume began to bark back, but she was
cut off as a wet, viscous noise alerted them all to a new arrival.
	Kunikida turned his head slowly. He watched, stunned and unable to speak
as the girl stepped from the opening that had grown in the wall. Kaede. She 
was
dressed in long virgin white robes, and moved with an almost inhuman grace. 
Her
short blue hair was exactly as he remembered it. Her face, so much like 
Momiji's
and yet so unlike that of her fraternal twin's... it was smiling. She looked 
so
happy and at peace.
	"Father..." Kaede inclined her head slightly. She turned to Momiji.
"Sister..." She looked at the others in turn. "Everyone. Welcome to my 
home."
	"Kaede..." Kunikida said, his voice cracking. He could feel the gun
trembling in his hands.
	"You are alive!" Ryoko called out.
	"Very much so," Kaede said with a stern nod. Her smile transformed into
a dangerous frown. "Something I can't promise of the rest of you if you 
disturb
this sacred place."
	"Oh yeah?" Koume stepped forward and swung her machine gun into place.
"You and what army?"
	"Koume, no!" so many people screamed at once that it was hard to tell
exactly who had spoken.
	"This army," Kaede said as she raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
"Did you really think that..." She trailed off and snapped her fingers 
again.
"That I would..."
	"What's going on?" Ryoko whispered.
	"I..." Kunikida had no idea.
	A dark shadow appeared in the portal behind Kaede. Koume growled and
levelled her firearm at it. Kaede smiled and turned her attention back to 
them.
"As I was saying..."
	Everyone gasped as the creature stepped into the chamber. It was tall,
almost three meters so. It was covered in pristine white and grey armour and
looked like nothing so much as a sculpture of a human woman made out of the
parts of a jet fighter. The creature looked down at all the humans in front 
of
it and smiled. Then its eyes locked on the giant mitama in the center of the
room.
	"Valkyrie has located the primary objective!" it roared.
	"What?" Kaede spun in place, her robes flapping about her. Underneath
she was wearing some sort of strange outfit that Kunikida caught a glimpse 
of.
"Who are you?"
	"She would be my servant," a new voice said. A woman appeared, literally
fading out of the shadows behind the giant mechanical woman. The newcomer 
had
vibrant green hair done up in two large buns with small, thin locks dangling
from them. She was dressed in a tight black dress cut low on her chest with 
a
short skirt and strings that criss-crossed her bare arms and legs. Her vivid
green eyes flashed in the blue glow of the chamber. "I'm sorry none of yours
could make your summons. Valkyrie is very enthusiastic about her work, you 
see."
	"Who are you?" Kaede gasped. She was backing up towards the giant
mitama.
	"My name is Telulu," the woman said imperiously. She glanced over and
her eyes locked with Kunikida's. "I want to thank you for leading me 
straight
here, Daitetsu Kunikida. Without your help, it might well have taken me 
weeks of
waiting to distract her bodyguard and set up just the right circumstances 
for my
mission."
	"Your mission?" Kunikida asked, but there was a sour taste in his mouth.
He began to raise his arm, trying to bring his gun to bear on the newcomer, 
but
his arm felt like it was made of lead.
	"Yes..." Telulu laughed into the back of her hand. "I'm afraid I can't
let this girl be the Kushinada anymore." With a flick of her wrist, she 
gestured
at Kaede and two long green vines snaked forth like whips from her wrists. 
Kaede
gasped as they encircled her and snapped tight, trapping her arms and legs
together. "There can only be one saviour!"
	Kaede screamed. Black lightning was flashing from the vine whips,
running along the length of her body as her back twisted in pain.
	"Kaede!" Kunikida stepped forward. "Open fire!"
	All further words were drowned out by the hail of gunfire. Every member
of the TAC was firing, from the loud constant roar of Koume's gun as it 
chewed
through a long belt of bullets to the small, almost comical pops of Momiji's
little derringer. Telulu didn't even move. She didn't have to. The huge 
white-
grey form of the mechanical monster landed on its knees between them and her 
and
the lead bounced off it like rain drops.
	Kunikida gestured frantically, signalling for Ryoko and Koume to try and
flank the beast. He could easily see the horror show just beyond the giant 
metal
creature. Telulu was reeling in Kaede like a fish. The girl was screaming,
but her screams were lost under the roar of gunfire.
	"Valkyrie is commencing suppression fire!" the mechanical woman cried.
Her hands snapped up and her fingers locked forward. Bores opened on the 
ends
of them. Kunikida gasped and dove to the ground. He could only hope everyone
else did the same. The roar of the monster firing made the retorts of their
pitiful guns seem like firecrackers. He could hear bullets tearing into the 
wall
and rock behind him, chewing it up and causing echoing explosions. Dust and
debris began to rain down across the chamber.
	Kunikida looked up. Telulu had dragged Kaede over to her, and had raised
her hand.  Something glittered from her fingers, some sort of device. She
reached back, and then calmly shoved her hand straight into the screaming
girl's chest. "KAEDE!" Kunikida roared, but he couldn't hear his own voice. 
He
could only watch in horror as the woman drew back her hand, and instead of 
gore
she was carrying a small floating crystal. It was pink and white, formed 
like a
star, and glowed with an internal radiance unlike any Kunikida had ever seen
before. The soft, warm light of it seemed to echo across something precious
inside of him. He instantly knew that it was Kaede's soul. He couldn't tell 
how
he knew, but the certainty was so sharp and acute that there was no doubting 
it.
"Kaede!" he cried again.
	Heedless of the danger, he leapt to his feet and charged. He was firing.
He realised dimly that he was out of ammunition, but he kept pulling the 
trigger
as he screamed and ran. The green-haired witch turned to look at him. She 
smiled
as she looked him straight in the eye. Then she pulled the crystal up to her
lips and... swallowed it. She licked her lips.
	Momiji screamed and the room was suddenly bathed in a brilliant blue
glow. Everything faded into that blue light. Kunikida stumbled and fell to 
his
knees. The world had gone silent. He blinked and the glow slowly receded 
from
his eyes, leaving only dark spots that lingered until his vision cleared
entirely.
	Telulu was standing at the back of the chamber. Her head was thrown back
in exultation, and in her hands she was carrying the glowing blue mitama 
that
was the unborn Susano-oh.
	"Yes!" she declared to the sky. "Just as I suspected. The Kushinada
effect was tied directly to her soul." She looked down. "With the 
consumption of
her heart crystal, I have become the new Princess Kushinada."
	"Kaede!" Kunikida yelled. "What did you do to her?"
	Telulu gestured at the body lying at her feet. Kaede's eyes stared into
the sky. Unblinking. Unmoving. Her skin was pale.
	"Do not grieve. I only gave her peace."
	"You monster!" Kunikida somehow flipped a cartridge from inside his
jacket and reloaded with one motion. He was already aiming when Telulu 
pointed
at him.
	"Valkyrie, kill them all aside from the other Kushinada. Then bring her
to me."
	"Valkyrie confirms the command!" the monster roared. It threw its body
in front of Telulu again, and Kunikida's bullets bounced harmlessly off its
shell. He kept firing, roaring mindlessly. It wasn't supposed to end like 
this!
The machine-woman raised her hand and pointed it at Kunikida, her fingers
locking into place for firing again. Kunikida could feel tears rolling down 
his
cheeks.
	Then a weight impacted with his side. He heard the ear-shattering whine
of the monsters miniguns as they opened up. He also heard a scream. The 
ground
smashed into his side so hard the breath was knocked out of him and his gun 
was
sent flying.
	"Sir, are you alright?" Ryoko said from on top of him. But her voice was
a pain-filled hiss. He glanced up and saw her looking down at him. Her face 
was
drawn and pale. He saw blood drip down her arm. He could see that the back 
of
her jacket had vanished and her entire back was a bloody ruin.
	"Ryoko!" he shouted.
	"Dammit!" Koume roared. "Fall down and go boom, bitch!" She had replaced
her machine gun with her bazooka again. She gave a wild yell as the rocket
blasted forth. It streamed in on Valkyrie in a short arc. Valkyrie's arm 
snapped
up so fast Kunikida couldn't see her move. The rocket crashed into the palm 
of
her hand and Kunikida saw the warhead breaking and deforming around her 
fingers
before it mushroomed into a titanic explosion.
	The blast didn't even completely obscure the monster. It just grinned.
Koume stared in shock. There was a snap as the fingers of the beast turned 
into
guns again, pointed straight at Koume. He could see Telulu vanishing into 
the
same portal that Kaede had entered through, still cradling her giant mitama.
Ryoko had fallen unconscious in his arms.
	"Valkyrie will kill the human!"
	"STOP!"
	For a moment, everything did. All eyes turned to the far side of the
room. Momiji was standing there. The wall behind her was a blasted ruin from
where the creature's initial assault had torn it apart. The dust and wind of 
the
battle blew her long brown hair around her. She was staring straight at
Valkyrie, and holding her derringer to her temple.
	"Momiji, no!" Yaegashi shouted, but his voice cut off into a pained
gasp. Valkyrie just blinked at her.
	"If I pull this trigger," Momiji said, and her voice was deadly calm,
"then the power of the Kushinada will activate. All of the aragami will be 
sent
back into stasis! Even Susano-oh!" Valkyrie paused. Obviously it was not the
brightest of monsters, but even it could fathom that there was something 
wrong
with that. "Unless you let everyone here live and leave right now, I'll kill
myself! Then your master won't get her prize! The power of the Kushinada 
means
nothing without Susano-oh and the aragami!"
	Valkyrie stepped back. Then it slowly lowered its guns. "Valkyrie will
report back for further orders!" A high-pitched roar filled the chamber as 
the
jets on Valkyrie's back ignited. It spun in place and bent forward before
blasting out the still-open portal.
	Momiji stood strong for a moment longer, then slumped to her knees. Her
pistol collapsed from her suddenly nerveless fingers. Koume ran over to her.
Kunikida looked back down at Ryoko. She was bleeding so badly... but the 
attack
had not been deep. It looked worse at first glance than it did now. At 
least, he
hoped it did.
	"She needs a doctor!" he cried. "Matsudaira, get over here!"
	Everyone looked up. Yaegashi was leaning against the wall. His shoulder
was still bleeding and a piece of debris had fallen on his leg, trapping 
him.
Koume was holding the shivering Momiji. There was no sign of Matsudaira
anywhere.
	"Matsudaira!" Kunikida yelled again.
	"Matsudaira?" Yaegashi added his own voice. "I haven't seen her
since..."
	A cold chill ran up Kunikida's spine. "Azusa? Matsudaira!" He looked
around. But she was gone.

*

	Ukyou sprinted across the rooftops of the university. Ranma and Akira
were two steps behind her, Akira moving slightly more slowly since she was
trying not to jostle the little girl she was carrying on her back. Ukyou
tightened her grip on her staff. Her hands were slick with sweat. The heat 
was
only growing worse as the day continued.
	The university was packed today. Below them, thousands of students
milled about. None of them looked up to see the three shadows flick across 
the
roofs in the midday sun. The trail of the psychopower was growing stronger. 
They
were here, somewhere on campus.
	She clenched her teeth. Too many people. Too many ways that people could
get hurt.
	Then Aaron felt it. It was like a beacon. It blazed with repressed
power, hissing through his consciousness like a pressure cooker screaming in 
the
dark. He pulled them to a close and stared off to the side. He could feel a
large concentration of life forces off in that direction, but nothing 
specific
enough to pin point.
	But the beacon... it was much like the power he had felt from Hotaru,
Eudial and Pluto. Except it was different. It wasn't as... alive. It simply 
was.
Focused, held, bound...
	"The wishing sword..." he said softly.
	"What was that?" Akira asked as she landed. Ranma was standing there
too, but he wasn't looking at Ukyou. His eyes darted around what he could 
see of
the school. Looking for Vega.
	"This way!" Ukyou called and charged off in a new direction. Ranma
followed her without question, but Akira paused before she leapt off.
	They came to a large common area on the school grounds, and Ukyou saw
the booth almost immediately. Her eyes focused in and saw Nabiki standing
beneath a banner next to the sword, collecting money as a line of students 
made
their attempts at the sword. A long line of students.
	"Clever girl..." Ukyou muttered, leaping down, landing on the grass with
a soft thump. Nabiki wasn't going to relinquish the sword easily, and Ryouga 
was
with her. He had been wearing cotton in his ears when Ukyou had watched him 
go
last night, but now he appeared fine.
	"Nabiki?" Ranma said as he landed.
	"Come on," Ukyou shouted. "She has no idea Vega is coming!"
	"Coming?" Akira said sharply. "I don't think he's coming."
	Aaron cursed. He could feel it now. The power of the wishing sword had
temporarily driven all other concerns from his mind. Stupid. Those kind of
mistakes could get people killed.
	Ukyou turned and saw what Akira saw. Vega was standing on top of a
flagpole. The rising sun standard of Japan snapped and flickered in the hot, 
dry
wind beneath him.
	She heard Ranma snarl as the boy spotted Vega. Ukyou wanted to shout,
but it would do no good. Ranma was charging. What students were unlucky 
enough
to get in his way he jumped onto and over, sprinting across the heads and
shoulders of the crowd like they were stepping stones. Akira placed Hotaru 
on
the ground and ran after him.
	Ukyou took a step forward, then looked back. Hotaru was standing on the
grass, looking at her calmly. She hadn't cried since her outburst at the 
temple.
	Then Ukyou realised she had other problems. She snapped her head to the
side as Aaron pinpointed two psychopower signatures moving through the crowd
towards him. He spotted feminine figures in black leotards with blonde and 
brown
hair. He recognized them.
	"Juni, Juli..." he said with a groan. Of course, Vega didn't plan on
making this a fair fight. Suddenly the two Dolls emerged from the crowd into 
the
calm spot that had formed around Ukyou. The students still milled about, but
they gave Ukyou and her two provocatively-clad enemies a wide berth. Their
expressions were curious, but not worried. Not yet.
	"Hotaru, stay behind me," Ukyou said softly. Hotaru nodded and moved
behind her. The Dolls watched this impassively.
	In the distance, the students began shouting in panic. Aaron could feel
the auras of his friends flaring. Juni and Juli stepped forward, mirroring 
each
other's movements. Then Ukyou heard a god scream.

*

	The world was a tunnel of darkness and pain, then it exploded into hot
air and bright sunlight. Kusanagi flew across the street. A car was sent 
flying
as his shoulder slammed into it. He screamed, but his voice cut off as he 
rammed
into a telephone pole and came to an abrupt stop.
	The thick concrete pole cracked and snapped, before tumbling lazily to
the side. He could hear people screaming, but only barely over the ringing 
in
his ears. The coppery taste of his own green blood filled his mouth.
	An electric whine was his first warning. He was already leaping by the
time the blue lightning flashed out, passing through the tunnel his body had
plowed through the high rise. The mere passage of the blast was enough to
shatter all the windows and send a hail of razor-sharp glass into the 
streets.
The impact, as it struck where Kusanagi had been, created a blast so large 
it
flung a parked bus half a block away.
	Kusanagi gaped at the destruction below him as his leap carried him into
the air. Then the side of the high-rise burst open in a geyser of dust and
debris. Murakumo shot forth from the explosion like a bullet. His long 
blades
flashed out and Kusanagi roared and brought up his own. He parried the 
attack,
but just barely.
	The force of the impact was enough to send him careening into the
building opposite. The window he hit gave way without preamble and the desk 
he
crashed through only slowed him down. The floor stopped him, but dented in 
the
process. He groaned and stood up.
	Office ladies and salarymen were screaming and fleeing from the room. He
paid them no attention. He was staring out the window at Murakumo.
	The man was floating over the street, framed perfectly by the window
Kusanagi had blown through. That just wasn't fair. Kusanagi couldn't fly in 
his
battle form! But Murakumo was just laughing as he floated lazily in the air. 
He
had assumed his own battle form. It looked much like Kusanagi, with the same
shoulder pads, spines on the back and deformed feet. But where Kusanagi had
swept-back blades on his forearms, Murakumo had straight swords extending
forward from his wrists, and a sort of organic gauntlet over his forearm. 
His
eyes had become more inhuman: they were now completely black, with white 
specks
where his pupils should be.
	And on his chest were four mitamas, where Kusanagi had only three.
Kusanagi could see all the others glowing on the man's body. He had eight.
Kusanagi had seven. One seed. How could there be such a difference between 
them
because of just one seed?
	"I know what you're thinking," Murakumo called out in his disturbing and
smug voice. "But I am simply superior to you in every way. You are 
imperfect,
incomplete. I will give you points for sheer stubbornness, however."
	"Shut up!" Kusanagi roared. He held up his arms, flexing his blades
again. Parrying that last blow had shaved a nick out of them. "I'll find a 
way
to defeat you!"
	"I don't think so..." Murakumo said, almost sadly. "But I have no more
time to waste with you. I-"
	Murakumo cut off, his head snapping down and to the side. Kusanagi
grinned, ready to start his attack while the man was distracted, then he 
felt it
too.
	He screamed. It was like a voice was roaring in his mind. A voice so
huge and loud it blocked out all thought. And as quickly as it came, the 
feeling
vanished.
	Kusanagi came to his senses on his knees, his hands clenched over his
ears. What on earth was that?
	"Lord Susano-oh!" Murakumo shouted. Kusanagi snapped his head up and saw
the man flash downward. He cursed and leapt forward, falling out of the 
twenty-
story building without a care. The others had done something. Something big.
	Kaede! Momiji! He prayed they were safe.

*

	Ranma's foot flashed out and the metal flagpole suddenly had a leg-sized
hole cut straight through it. The pole toppled. He saw Vega flip gracefully 
from
the top and fly toward the ground. Ranma spun in place, kicking out at the
toppling pole and bouncing away. He bounced right past Akira and charged at
Vega.
	Vega.
	The man was waiting for Ranma when he arrived. He moved with the same
grace, the same speed as before. Ranma didn't care. He cried out in 
wordless,
unexpressable rage and did his damnedest to take Vega's smirking head off 
his
shoulders.
	Vega ducked the blow. Ranma followed him, kicking and punching. Vega
slid along the ground, kicking up gouts of dirt. Ranma flashed through them, 
his
body striking out as quickly as he could.
	All Ranma felt was the pumping of his heart. His breath felt acrid in
his own mouth. He didn't feel his wounds. He didn't feel tired. He didn't 
feel
the pain. Any of the pain. He didn't dare. Vega had to die.
	Suddenly Vega's foot connected with Ranma's jaw. Ranma grunted as he was
thrown back. He focused through the pain. He pictured Ran in his mind. He
pictured her dead eyes.
	Ranma handsprung from the ground. He saw Vega land where he would have
been. The assassin's claw flashed through the air. It brushed so close to 
Ranma
that the pressure of its passage tore a hole in Ranma's shirt. Ranma was
twisting even as the strike missed. His foot caught the ground and he shot
forward.
	Vega floated back, his chest unbearable millimeters from Ranma's punch.
The man laughed and snapped his hand back, trying to gut Ranma. Ranma saw 
Vega's
foot sliding back. He was a bit off-balance. Ranma had to strike NOW.
	Ranma could have dodged the blow, but it would have wasted the
opportunity. Instead he continued his twisting spin. The tips of Vega's 
claws
brushed up against his ribs rather than his gut and peeled off a shallow 
strip
of flesh. Ranma continued spinning, his blood arcing out, and then drew all 
his
momentum into a backhand blow.
	Vega took it straight in the side. He gasped in pain and was sent
flying. The grass rippled in his wake as Vega flew ten meters back before
rolling to a stop. Ranma was already moving after him.
	He didn't feel the pain.
	"Wonderful!" Vega laughed and leapt away. Ranma bounced up after him,
but he couldn't even get half of the other man's height. Vega spun in place 
and
bounced off the side of a building Randa hadn't even noticed was there, then
flashed off again. Ranma growled and rolled into a ball, conserving momentum
just enough to bring him to the wall of the same building. He copied Vega's
trick and was bounding after him.
	Vega landed on the ground again. "This is the battle I was waiting for,
Ranma Saotome! It appears I have truly discovered your motivation!"
	"What?" Ranma roared. He fell on top of Vega but Vega slipped out from
under him. Ranma's kick ripped a chunk out of the earth. He kicked back as
Vega came in, thrusting at the boy's heart. Ranma slipped to the side at the
last instant, and turned that into an elbow strike. Vega somehow flipped up 
and
over the blow.
	"Come now, Ranma," Vega said, laughing as he landed with a flourish.
"Haven't you guessed? Don't you know the real reason she is dead?"
	"Don't you mention her, you monster!" Ranma roared. He charged in again,
and his fist lashed out again and again and again. He just kept punching,
pumping his arm as fast as he could. Vega fell back under the onslaught. It 
was
all he could do to block the blows. But it didn't shut him up.
	"I didn't care about her, Ranma Saotome," the man said, his voice calm
even as he struggled to weather Ranma's attacks. Ranma could feel the 
strength
leaving his arm. He grit his teeth. Just a few more seconds! Just a few more 
and
Vega's guard would open! "But had I known that killing her would produce 
such a
spectacular battle, I would have done so weeks ago!"
	Ranma stopped. Vega slid back, his breathing fast and shallow. Ranma's
fist was still extended from its last strike. Ranma couldn't breathe. He 
wanted
to, but couldn't. His eyes were fixed on the end of his fist.
	Ran had died... because... because that bastard...
	Ranma's eyes drifted up and settled on Vega. Vega was chuckling. He held
up his unclawed hand and gestured for Ranma to continue the battle. Ranma's 
eyes
narrowed to slits. The world fell away. Suddenly there was nothing but a 
narrow
red tunnel and the man that had to die at the end. Ranma didn't even hear 
his
own wordless roar as he met Vega's challenge.

*

	Ranma was so fast! Akira sprinted to keep up, but he was flashing along
the heads of the crowd. The crowd was scrambling and screaming as they tried 
to
get out of his path or fell tumbling in his wake. Akira vaulted and slalomed
through the chaos. There was no way she was going to catch up to Ranma at 
this
rate.
	But Ranma needed her help. She grimaced and forced herself to move
faster. The crowd was shifting and tumbling like molasses and she ran 
through it
like a deer in a forest. Ranma couldn't fight Vega alone. He couldn't win.
	And Vega had to die. He was a monster.
	There was no other solution.
	Akira heard her brother's voice in the back of her mind. She heard him
talking to her about his battles. She remembered the starry-eyed awe she had
held for him back then. Then came the day when he hadn't come home. When her
parents had taken her to the hospital where her brother, her strong brother, 
her
invincible big brother, had been lying unconscious on the bed, bandages 
wrapped
around half his face.
	He had won the fight. He always won the fight. Everyone Akira had asked
confirmed that. Daigo had simply grown to possess a skill that seemed almost
inhuman. He never lost a brawl, he never lost a battle. His reputation grew, 
and
so too did the number of challengers who came looking for him. Then one of 
them
had taken his eye. According to witnesses, Daigo had kept fighting after 
that,
and put the boy through the side of the school. He had won the fight.
	But after that, Daigo never told her stories anymore. When she asked, he
just looked down at her. She was just old enough to get into school herself
then. She had even been in a few tussles. Like her brother, she had not 
lost.
She couldn't have lost. Daigo had looked down at her from his hospital bed 
and
refused to tell her the story. He had told her that fighting was pointless. 
He
had told her that all it brought was pain.
	He still got into fights. He still won. He had proceeded through school,
the unconquered champion. But he never talked to Akira about fighting 
anymore.
Any requests about the subject only prompted a lecture on the evils of it, 
or a
clumsy segue into another subject. The only thing they had been able to 
really
talk about after that was motorcycles.
	Daigo had never forbidden her from getting into fights. He had never
said a word when he heard about her brief tussles at school. But the look of
sadness in his eye when he did was enough. The fights at school stopped for
Akira, but not for her brother. He was trapped, trapped by his own 
invincible
reputation and talent.
	Akira hadn't really fought for years, not until Daigo had vanished one
day. Not until she had learned that only she could save him. Only she could
fight for him. That had changed everything between them, somehow.
	But now she heard Daigo's voice. It was rough and calm, filled with
brotherly affection and sadness. It wanted to know why she was doing this. 
It
wanted to know why she had chosen to kill. Daigo, in all his fights, even in
those that had tested his limits and cost him his eye, had never once taken 
a
life. He had even beaten that urge out of all the boys at his school. Gedo 
High
was notorious for its gang wars, but when they fought, everyone involved 
walked
home.
	Akira tried to block out the voice. Vega had to die because he was a
monster. He had killed Ran! He had tortured her and butchered her like a 
pig! He
was a wild animal that had to be put down!
	Her heart, her rage, her mind, they all told her that this was the
truth. Even if Daigo's eyes would never look at her again, she knew she had 
to
do this. Except...
	Akira was just pulling free of the crowd, just watching as Ranma
destroyed Vega's perch when she heard the scream. She skidded to a stop as 
Ranma
flashed past her, after Vega. Her eyes scanned back and she saw Ukyou.
	The young woman was screaming and clutching her ears. She had fallen to
her knees. Two girls in skin-tight black bodysuits were converging on her. 
The
Dolls? No, these two looked slightly different. But they must have been more 
of
Vega's minions.
	Akira stood, caught for a moment. Ranma needed her. But Ukyou was
injured, and unaware of the two women about to attack her.
	As the two Dolls grabbed Ukyou by the arms, Akira struck. She roared,
spinning up in a violent roundhouse kick that pulled her body off the 
ground.
Her foot caught the taller, brunette Doll right in the cheek. The Doll creid 
out
and released Ukyou as she was sent flying. Akira touched down for a fraction 
of
a second, then spun up with another roar and another roundhouse. The other 
Doll
was also caught flat-footed and sent spinning off to land on the ground a 
few
meters away.
	"Ukyou? Are you okay?" Akira asked as she stepped in front of the fallen
girl.
	"I'm..." Ukyou looked up. "I'm fine. It was just... something powerful
screaming through the energy of the city. But it's over now."
	"Good," Akira said with a brisk nod. "Get the hell away from here, then.
I'll deal with these two!"
	The Dolls had kicked to their feet and noted Akira. They raised their
hands and started closing in. Akira waited for them. She could handle them. 
She
had defeated two of the other Dolls by herself with no real problem. These 
two
didn't even have any weapons or fancy tricks, just their fists. She could 
hear
Ukyou backing off, and taking Hotaru with her.
	The crowd was running screaming in all directions. There was plenty of
room. Akira grinned, raised her gloved hand and gestured for the Dolls to 
make
their move. They looked at each other and then flashed forward, high and low
diving jump kicks. Akira roared and met them head on.

*

	"What on earth is going on?" Ryouga shouted.
	"I don't know and I don't care," Nabiki snapped from beside him. "But
it's driving away all our business." Ryouga glanced at her askance. She was
frowning as the crowd scattered in all directions. Her beautiful eyes 
flicked
across the area and finally latched on one person. "Ukyou," she hissed.
	"Ukyou?" Ryouga followed her gaze. Yep, that was Ukyou alright. She was
screaming and clutching her head as she fell to her knees. The little girl 
he
had saved the other day was there behind her. He hadn't gotten a chance to 
talk
to her then: Nabiki had dragged him off before his deafness had worn off. 
There
were two girls in black, almost indecently tight, bodysuits converging on 
Ukyou.
But Ryouga's attention was suddenly caught as he saw a flash of red spring 
by in
the distance.
	Ranma. He was fighting that creep Vega. He was moving faster than Ryouga
had ever seen him move. He was snarling. Vega was just backing up, doing his
best to deflect the boy's blows.
	"How did they all follow us?" Nabiki asked slowly.
	"I don't know..." Ryouga said. His fists curled and uncurled. He could
feel the intensity of the fight from all the way over here. The air was 
filled
with a dangerous power that he couldn't pin down. A part of him wanted to 
join
this fight.
	"It was a rhetorical question," Nabiki snapped. Then she sighed and
rubbed her forehead. "Four to go. Just three more people, and then..." She 
shook
her head. "Grab the stone. We're getting out of here."
	Ryouga glanced at the fight again. However large the part of him that
wanted to join in was, a far larger part knew it was Nabiki's. His own 
desires
didn't matter in the face of his overwhelming debt to her. He nodded and 
reached
for the stone.
	"Ryouga, drop it," Nabiki said.
	"But you just told me..."
	"Nevermind what I said!" Nabiki sighed. "We have company."
	Ryouga released the stone and it settled to the ground with a clatter.
He turned and saw Ukyou sprinting towards them. She was carrying Hotaru 
under
her arm. He frowned. Nabiki gestured for him to step forward. Reluctantly he
did.
	"You aren't getting the sword," Nabiki called out as Ukyou skidded to a
halt a couple of meters away. Ukyou frowned, her black lotus eyes narrowing 
as
she glanced at Nabiki. She put down Hotaru and rose up to her full height.
	"Nabiki, I don't think you know how important that sword is," Ukyou
said.
	"Oh yes, I do," Nabiki laughed. "But don't insult me by trying to talk
me out of this. Ryouga, if she tries anything... break her."
	Ryouga stepped between Nabiki and Ukyou. He cracked his knuckles. He
really didn't want to fight Ukyou. She was a girl, an injured girl. It 
wouldn't
be right. He would destroy her. "I don't want to do this, Ukyou," Ryouga
growled. "But I will if I have to."
	"If all you want is your curse cured, I can do that for you too,
Ryouga," Ukyou said calmly. "But I need that sword. If I get it, I can... I 
can
save things."
	Ryouga's eyes narrowed. Of course, Ukyou didn't know the truth. Nobody
knew his shame. Nobody knew his undeniable karmic debt. Against that, what 
did a
little curse matter? Turning into a pig with a touch of cold water was a 
better
curse than he deserved.
	"What kind of power does she have over you, Ryouga?" Ukyou said slowly,
curiously.
	"It doesn't matter," Nabiki said quickly. "Either back off now, or
Ryouga will make you back off."
	"Nabiki, I don't want to debate this..." Ukyou trailed off. Then she
looked over her shoulder. "Akira!" she shouted in sudden concern.
	Ryouga followed her gaze. He watched as the girl in the black motorcycle
leathers staggered back as the taller brunette punched her. The smaller girl
with the blonde hair suddenly materialised behind her like she had 
teleported.
The two were striking and pummelling at Akira, bouncing her between their 
blows
like a human tennis ball. Finally they backed off and launched a set of 
flying
drop kicks that caught her torso like a vice. Akira screamed and slumped to 
the
ground.
	"Their auras..." Ukyou hissed. "Damn. Ryouga, look after Hotaru!" Then
she was sprinting forward, her staff held out behind her.  Ryouga glanced at
Nabiki. She was frowning at the fight. He glanced at Hotaru. The girl was
looking not at that battle, but on the one taking place between Ranma and 
Vega
across the commons.
	Ryouga clenched his fist. He knew what Nabiki was going to say. He would
order them to leave. But Ukyou would be little help in that fight. He closed 
his
eyes. "Nabiki, look after the girl!"
	"What?" Nabiki shouted, but Ryouga was roaring at the top of his lungs
as he ran so he couldn't hear what followed. He flicked his umbrella open 
and
launched it with a flick of his wrist. Ukyou slid to the side as it passed
through where she had been, its spinning shaft carving a furrow into the 
lawn.
	The two black-clad girls noticed it and leapt away, both just clearing
the top of the weapon. They landed with easy grace. Akira watched as the 
weapon
curved around her in a tight circle, the spinning edge of the bamboo coming
within centimeters of her. But Ryouga's aim had been true, and it didn't 
touch
her at all. He reached out and caught it as he ran on.
	"Thank you," Ukyou said as she skidded to a halt on one side of Akira.
Ryouga came to a stop opposite her. He turned and faced the taller 
black-clad
girl.
	"I just... couldn't sit back and watch," he explained.
	"The newcomer is unlisted," the brunette said as she circled to join
her companion.
	"Evaluating combat power..." the shorter blonde said.
	"Don't let them touch each other!" Ukyou suddenly shouted. She stepped
forward and swung her staff down, cutting between them. The girls 
cartwheeled in
opposite directions. Ryouga frowned. He didn't want to fight these girls. 
But
they were bad guys. He could feel it. It was like the air around them was 
sick
with darkness.
	"Back off!" he shouted and stepped forward, swinging at the brunette.
She slipped to the side of his attack, but just barely. Her knee pistoned up 
and
caught him in the stomach. He grunted and backed up. He had felt that, but
only a little. With a snarl he swatted at her with his other hand. She 
managed
to just roll enough that a solid hit only nudged her, sending her flying 
into
the ground.
	"Warning, new combatant has structural reinforcement energy at 170," the
blonde said mechanically. Ryouga glanced back at her. She was dodging around 
as
Ukyou thrust her staff. Ukyou was moving too slow to tag her. Akira was 
shaking
her head and getting back to her feet.
	"I already discovered that..." the brunette said simply. She rose to her
feet, rubbing the cheek Ryouga had tagged her on. Ryouga turned to face her. 
He
held up his umbrella, waiting for her to make the first move. "Designate 
primary
target!" she shouted.
	"Acknowledged," the other replied.
	Ryouga growled. He didn't know what they were planning, but he had to
prevent it. He dashed forward and the girl charged at him, moving low to the
ground. He swung his umbrella up, hoping to catch her if she tried to jump 
over
him.
	His umbrella was about to connect with her chin. He grunted and tried to
pull a bit of the blow. She was supposed to dodge! He didn't want to take 
her
head off! A split second before his blow connected, the girl seemed to blur 
and
shift, the air around her rippling. Then she was gone. Ryouga's eyes widened 
as
his weapon swung up through empty air. Then the air blurred again and 
suddenly
the girl was there, but running away from him now.
	Ryouga blinked as he got a fantastic view of her behind before she
plowed to a stop and spun to face him. But this was the blonde. Where had 
the
brunette gone? He stood there, stunned, as the girl rose to her full height.
She clenched her fists and crossed her arms.
	"That surge of..." Ukyou said. "Ryouga! Get away from her!"
	"What?" Ryouga cried back over his shoulder. But then he felt it.
	It was a presence like nothing else he had ever felt. It was huge,
powerful and full of hate and malice. Ryouga had felt strong fighting 
spirits in
his time, but nothing like this! It was like someone had ripped open a hole 
into
hell.
	Purple flames shot out from the blonde's body. They focused and grew in
front of her. Ryouga could only stare. He wanted to move. He wanted to do
something but he couldn't. His mind had locked up. He felt like a man 
staring up
at the sky and watching a rocket fall from the heavens. Out of the fire he 
heard
a sudden burst of laughter. Loud, deep, malicious laughter. Following the
laughter there was a face, then a whole body seemed to form out of the 
flames.
	He was huge, almost seven feet tall. His body was a mass of muscles,
clad in a red military outfit. A blue cape flapped in the air behind him. He 
was
wearing a red cap with a skull and wings emblem on it, with the bill pulled 
down
so his face was cast into shadow. Only his burning blue eyes and the 
flashing
whites of his teeth were visible. Ryouga backed up a step. The power flowing
from him was staggering. But Ryouga realized he could see right through him,
like he was a ghost.
	No, not a ghost. A projection.
	"Psycho Crusher!" the man roared, and then he was flying towards Ryouga
hands first. A huge shockwave of burning blue flames exploded out in front 
of
him. Ryouga threw up his arms. He screamed as the flames washed over his 
body,
but they only singed his flesh. Instead, they shot straight through his 
flesh
and seemed to burn through his nerves. His brain exploded with pain; burning
blue pain.
	He felt somebody catch him. He blinked, trying to focus as the pain
slowly faded. He could hear the person holding him grunting, then fling him 
to
the side. He was about to protest the harsh treatment when he saw the blonde
girl fly through the air where he had been, corkscrewing feet first. He 
watched
Akira take the flying kick in the chest and she fell back.
	Ryouga forced one hand down and began to prop himself up. His brain
still hurt, all his nerves were on fire. He could see he hadn't even taken 
so
much as a singe from the assault... not that that helped any. But that
overwhelming presence was gone. He forced himself to his feet.
	"It will take more than that, to put me down..." Ryouga gasped.
	He felt Ukyou land beside him. She was holding her shoulder, and her arm
hung limply. She frowned as the blonde and brunette cartwheeled across the
lawn. They landed next to each other and posed, both thrusting an arm at the 
sky
so that their forearms crossed and formed an X. Akira rose to her feet,
clutching her chest and moaning softly. The sound came out eerie and 
distorted
as the helmet gave it a strange echo.
	"Akira... back off," Ukyou said suddenly.
	"What?" Akira gasped.
	"Go help Ranma," Ukyou said levelly.
	"Not this time!" she growled back.
	"I can handle this," Ukyou said. "I've seen how they got so strong. I
can beat them."
	"You're injured!" Ryouga pointed out forcefully.
	"Doesn't matter," Ukyou said. "But I need both of you away from here.
What I'm going to do... I don't think I can control it that well. It'll hit
everyone, friend and foe."
	Ryouga was about to argue, but then he heard Nabiki screaming.

*

	Nabiki cursed as Ryouga ran forward. He obviously wasn't listening to
her. Then she sighed and covered her eyes. She should have expected as much. 
The
whole reason Ryouga was so loyal was because he was such a naive idiot that 
he
couldn't let a girl be hurt. That was bound to come back and bite her in the
proverbial ass sooner or later. She wiped some sweat from her brow and 
cursed
again.
	"Ryouga..."
	Nabiki looked down. The rugrat was standing now, staring after Ryouga.
She looked concerned. To be fair, she wasn't exactly a child. She looked to 
be
on the cusp of puberty. Still, it was annoying to have to look after her. 
Not
that Nabiki really cared.
	"Hey, kid," Nabiki said as she knelt down next to her. "Wanna do me a
favour?" The girl looked at her. Her large purple eyes had a strange, 
mournful
quality to them... Nabiki resisted the urge to grimace. The last thing she
needed was to start feeling sorry for her. "Could you pull that sword there 
out
of the stone for me?"
	"Excuse me?" Hotaru said softly, obviously confused.
	"Just give it a good yank," Nabiki explained as she picked up the kid.
She grunted at the effort. The brat was heavier than she looked. Hotaru 
glanced
back at Nabiki, but shrugged and grabbed the hilt of the sword. She gave it 
a
yank. Of course, nothing happened. But Nabiki put her down with a smile. 
Now, if
only two more people could do that, then Nabiki could draw the wishing 
sword,
and make all this stop happening. "Thanks."
	"Okay..." Hotaru said, still sounding confused. Then she gasped. Nabiki
looked down at her. That hadn't been a startled gasp, or a frightened gasp. 
It
had been a happy gasp. Nabiki looked up. The battle was still going on. In 
fact,
Ryouga was being propped up by that Akira girl as Ukyou was being battered
around by one of Vega's stooges. There was nothing to be happy about 
happening
at that fight.
	"Daddy..." Hotaru said softly, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears.
Then Nabiki realized Hotaru was looking behind her. Nabiki turned.
	A man with white hair was walking towards her. He was smiling. His
visible eye was wide and filled with glee. The other was hidden behind an
elaborate symbol etched onto the lens of his glasses. He was wearing a long
white labcoat which billowed behind him. The air was so hot and there was 
barely
a breeze, yet his coat seemed to move with a life of its own. He had his 
hands
in his pockets.
	"Daddy!" Hotaru called again and started to step around Nabiki. Nabiki
frowned, and some instinct made her reach out and grab Hotaru's shoulder. 
The
girl looked up at her in surprise. Nabiki wasn't looking at her. Her eyes 
were
fixed on the man. There was something not right about him. Something in his
smile and his eyes that sent off the creepy alert in the back of Nabiki's 
mind.
	Then it hit Nabiki. She had seen that kind of expression before. Jadeite
had looked at Nabiki like that. That same smile, and the same flashing 
insane
eyes.
	The man pulled his hands from his pockets. He was holding a gun. Just a
gun. Not even a large one. Nabiki froze. She heard Hotaru gasp. The man 
raised
it, and fired.
	Nabiki didn't scream as the bullet tore through her shoulder. She didn't
scream as she tumbled to the ground. She was in too much shock. The ground
hitting her snapped her out of that and the pain hit her all at once. But 
she
still didn't scream. She just moaned and lay on the ground. She reached up 
and
clutched her shoulder.
	The man stopped over her. He looked down at her and he was still
smiling. The sun was behind his head now, but Nabiki could see his gleaming
glasses and the flash of his teeth despite the shadows.
	"Daddy!" Hotaru screamed, but she was no longer sounding relieved or
happy. "Daddy, stop!"
	"Back away, Hotaru," the man said, his voice eerily calm.
	"No, Daddy!" The girl ran up and grabbed his leg. "She isn't one of the
bad people! She isn't the one who took me away from you!"
	"It doesn't matter," the man explained. "I can't let her live. She must
die, or she'll tell the others that I took you." He glanced at the girl. 
"We're
going far away, Hotaru. Away from all this. I'll hide you from them. They 
won't
stand between us again!" His voice had grown higher and higher pitched as he
spoke, until it was a literal shriek.
	"D-daddy..." Hotaru stared up at him. "No... you can't do this...
you're not my father!"
	"Of course I'm not," the man said and turned his face back to Nabiki.
She stared up into the barrel of his gun. "And you are not Hotaru Tomoe. You 
are
a vessel. But I love you all the same. I will protect you, until the Messiah
inside of you awakens to cleanse this awful world."
	Nabiki screamed. Her paralysis had worn off, and she screamed. The man's
smile only brightened and he squeezed the trigger... and the end of his gun 
went
flying away as a yellow and black blur streaked through where it had been.
Nabiki stopped screaming. She turned her head to the side.
	Ryouga was charging. His body was covered in a nova of green light, his
hand still extended from his throw. His eyes were focused directly on the 
man.
His lips were pulled back in a vicious snarl. Hotaru's father was turning 
slowly
to face him, but it was too slow.
	Ryouga pulled his hands down to his side. The aura around him suddenly
condensed, snapping into a flickering light behind his palms. He skidded to 
a
halt, his feet tearing tracks in the ground. His hands started up.
	"You bastard! I'll kill you! SHISHI-"
	"NO! Don't kill him!"
	Hotaru threw herself in front of her father, her arms extended to
prevent any attack from getting past. Ryouga hand kept rising. He couldn't 
stop
it, Nabiki saw that. The energy of his attack, his depression, was too 
intense
for him to hold it back. "-HOKO-" Ryouga lifted his arms, and kept lifting 
them.
He pointed them skyward. "DAN!"
	The blast exploded from his palms like a depth charge. It rose into the
sky, hovered briefly like a balloon, and then fell. Ryouga had already leapt 
to
the side, and his attack fell into the earth. The ground heaved as the ball 
sunk
into it. With a final puff and a sudden draft the energy dissipated, leaving 
a
crater almost a meter deep.
	Ryouga was getting to his feet. He looked at Hotaru, then at her father,
then finally at Nabiki. His eyes fixed on Nabiki's shoulder. They fixed on 
the
gun in the man's hand, or the half of it that was still there.
	"Move, Hotaru," he said. He was beginning to glow with green light
again.
	"No!" Hotaru shouted back. "I won't let you hurt him!"
	"Hotaru, you said it yourself, he isn't your father!" Nabiki said as she
backed off.
	"I... I didn't mean it!" Hotaru was crying now. But there was something
in the air around her. "I don't care what he did! He's my father!"
	"That's right..." the man said, cackling with the light still
silhouetting his face. "If you want to hurt me, boy, you will have to go 
through
this girl first."
	Nabiki was aghast. Couldn't Hotaru see what the man was saying? Couldn't
she see what he was doing? He was using her as a shield. His own daughter!
	"Get out of the way, Hotaru," Ryouga repeated. His hands were clenched
into fists, and the aura around him was pressing all the grass for a good 
meter
around flat against the earth.
	But the man leaned down and cupped Hotaru's cheek with one hand. He
rubbed a tear from the side of her cheek. "Messiah..." he said softly. "I 
know
this is a strain. But you must awaken. For one moment. Just one moment..." 
He
began to laugh. "Just long enough to kill these fools! Just kill them, 
Messiah!
Then we can be together!"
	Hotaru's eyes stared forward, and they filled with shock and horror.
Nabiki felt herself sympathise. She hadn't cared much for Ukyou's 
explanation
that the girl was a pawn in a game far bigger than her, but looking at her 
now,
she couldn't help but feel bad. How would Nabiki handle this? How could 
anyone
handle the sudden brutal realization that your father was a monster and was
raising you to become a worse monster yet?

*

	Akira lingered as Ryouga sprinted back towards Nabiki. Aaron could feel
the power back there. More magic, if that was what the strange energy he 
could
now sense was. Another of the Witches 5? Likely. Maybe even Pluto and her 
lot.
But Ukyou couldn't afford to go help them now.
	Ryouga would do the right thing. She had to trust him.
	The Dolls were standing ready, waiting to see what happened. Aaron could
see the psychopower swirling around them. It laced through their bodies,
connecting them together like a web. Pure power. Far more than any of the 
other
Dolls had been capable of calling forth. They must have been reinforcing 
each
other somehow like a catalyst, their shared power far greater than either 
could
control alone.
	It made them stronger than Akira. It made them perhaps even stronger
than Ryouga. But that power would be their undoing. Ukyou frowned and 
clenched
her fist. Her aura was still under control. Her focus was perfect. The heat 
of
the day had vanished. The ground around her was covered in a thin layer of
frost. She continued focusing her power, all of it into her wind chakra. The
temperature continued to drop.
	"Akira, get out of here," she asked again, her voice like the ice she
was calling.
	"Ukyou, I won't abandon you..."
	"If Ranma dies at Vega's hands, none of this matters!" Ukyou said
levelly. "Vega will kill us all, just for the sport of it. Go. Help him. 
Win!"
	Akira glanced at Ukyou again, then at the Dolls. Aaron could feel the
conflict in her aura. Her rage had not vanished.
	"If not for me, then for Ran!" Ukyou shouted.
	Akira looked at her again. Then she nodded and ran away. The Dolls
watched her go impassively.
	"Proceed with primary objective," Juli said as she started forward.
"Non-lethal attacks only."
	"Acknowledged," Juni said mechanically.
	Ukyou didn't have to wait long. They were on her in a second. She
flickered to the side, avoiding Juni's initial kick and just barely ducked 
under
Juli's backhand. Ukyou continued like this, dodging as fast as she could,
deflecting what attacks she couldn't avoid with as little force as possible.
Juni and Juli came in like twin infernos, their motions perfectly 
coordinated.
	They were two halves of a whole. As one moved, the other moved to
complement her perfectly. To avoid one attack was to set yourself up for the
attack of the other. Their feints and strikes were synchronized to a level 
that
no human could have hoped to achieve. Keeping ahead of them was like a game 
of
chess, played out at the speed of sound where you had to stay fifteen moves
ahead to even have a chance.
	Yet Ukyou and Aaron were doing just that. Alone, neither of them would
have been able to survive the assault. Aaron could feel their strikes 
coming, he
could almost feel their intentions in their aura. Ukyou could focus and move
faster than them. It took their entire concentration to do just that. If one 
had
been forced to break their focus for even a micro-second, the battle would 
have
been over. But they didn't.
	They didn't struggle against each other. For a short time, they just let
go and worked together. One feeding perfectly into the other, depending 
entirely
on the other.
	They retreated and retreated, always turning back slowly. The Dolls came
at her. As the fight dragged on, they only intensified their attack. The 
power
they shared flared and roared. Pure aggression, pure anger linked their 
bodies
together. The psychopower was nothing but unbridled passion. Ukyou continued
backward, leaving a slowly closing spiral of frost in her wake.
	They couldn't doubt themselves now. They had never actually managed to
pull off this move. They had twisted it once, using the Third Circle. They 
had
practiced it endlessly, but then they had abandoned it.
	But now was not the time for doubt. They had to focus too sharply.
Either it would work, or it wouldn't.
	"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!"
	The moment of truth. They stood in the center of the spiral, their fist
raised skyward. Juni and Juli were both leaping at her, from opposite sides.
They couldn't hope to dodge the Dolls' attack. The Dolls had guessed their
course, and had led them into this single unblockable strike. For a moment 
the
air was still and heavy and hot.
	Then the tornado came. It sprung from the earth, and Ukyou stood in the
eye of the whirlwind. She could see why the Chinese had called this a dragon
rising to heaven. It swirled and twisted around them with serpentine 
savagery.
It roared, a deafening animal roar like an enraged beast. The power of it 
was
primal.
	Ukyou lowered her arms. Aaron could feel the Dolls above them now. Their
auras were weak, fluttering on the verge of unconsciousness. But the tornado 
had
spat them out, almost a kilometer up. They would not much like the fall. But 
the
storm lingered, still fed by the swirling ribbons of the psychopower as the
tornado leeched it from the earth and ejected it into the sky above.
	The storm didn't just fade, it flashed out of existence with a
suddenness that was almost unnerving. Ukyou stood in the center of the
devastation, the one spot for almost ten meters that had not been torn or
shredded by the savage winds.
	She grinned, then fell to her knees. Her arm ached. Her body was on
fire. She had pushed it too hard, too fast. She could feel blood seeping 
from
several wounds that had reopened.
	She wanted to rest. She needed to rest. She had defeated the Dolls,
right? That had to be enough for one day, right?
	But Aaron had felt something change. The aura of the wishing sword, the
brilliant spike of unimaginable magical force. It had changed. It was no 
longer
straining or twisting like a force penned up. It was humming cleanly through 
the
air. It was free. No... it was READY.
	Aaron didn't know how he knew that. He just did. With a groan, Ukyou
rose to her feet.

*

	Vega ran along the side of the building, angling steadily upward. His
sheer momentum and skill carried him higher and higher in defiance of all
natural laws. Ranma rose with him. The boy was exceeding all his 
expectations.
He matched Vega stride for stride, his strikes never stopping.
	It was taking everything Vega had to keep ahead of him. Such a battle
was something he had dreamed about for years.
	Ranma made a small mistake: his fist went a fraction of a millimeter
too far. Vega slipped to the side, through the suddenly appearing hole in
Ranma's defense, and slashed out with his claw. Again, the boy did not 
dodge. He
simply leaned back, letting the tips of the claws brush across the flesh 
over
his heart. The blood flew out. It was beautiful! Vega was struck by the 
poetry
of it. And Ranma struck him.
	The blow sent him through the wall. The concrete crumbled and exploded
as Vega flew into the classroom. Pain burned in his chest from where Ranma's
fist had hit. His ribs ached. They had almost broken. Almost.
	Vega landed gracefully, balancing on the back of a chair. Ranma came
after him, down the gently sloped classroom on the tops of the desks. Vega
flipped back, kicking the chair he was on into Ranma's path. Ranma just 
punched
through it without stopping.
	Vega rose through the cloud of splinters. The two were moving so fast
that to them the debris was like a drifting mist. Vega's fist lashed out, 
and
Ranma blocked with his forearm. They exchanged five more blows, blocking and
parrying each, before the wood settled to the floor.
	Vega retreated again. He was breathing quickly. His heart was racing. He
had never felt so challenged! He felt what might have been a tingle of fear, 
a
small bit of doubt in the back of his mind. He might lose this fight.
	Vega laughed and backflipped, easily outpacing Ranma's attacks. The boy
growled wordlessly and followed, somehow speeding up. But Vega matched his
speed. He reached down, drawing on his reserves. Ranma's foot drifted past
Vega's face, and Vega grabbed it with one hand. The other came up, and his 
claw
sunk into the boy's calf.
	Ranma screamed. Vega grinned. He pulled his blade free, twisting it at
the last second so that he tore a bloody chunk from the boy's body. The boy
stumbled back, trying to balance on one leg. Vega slid forward, kicking the
boy's foot off the floor. Ranma fell backward, his body crashing through a 
desk
as he fell.
	Vega leapt up, twisted, bounced from the ceiling. He dove claw-first
towards the fallen boy. Ranma saw him and rolled to the side. Vega's claw 
sunk
into the floor. Vega laughed and slapped his palm against the ground. The 
floor
cracked and Vega was pushed into the air again. His feet touched the ceiling 
and
he pushed down, angling for Ranma's new position. Ranma rolled again, his 
good
leg kicking out and knocking a desk from his path. Vega only laughed again 
and
did the same trick.
	This time, as he descended, Ranma rose to meet him. He kicked to his
feet and thrust his fist into the air, a strong uppercut. Vega realised that 
the
blow was angled so that his own claw would just brush against Ranma's 
shoulder,
but Ranma's would catch him full in the face. Vega frowned and tried to 
change
his trajectory, but the speed of his assault was too fast for even him to
compensate.
	Then Ranma's leg betrayed him. He screamed as his wounded leg spasmed
under him and he fell. Vega landed, his claw sunk into the ground a 
centimeter
away from Ranma's throat. Vega allowed the momentum to carry his legs down, 
and
he rammed both knees into Ranma's gut, curling him forward.
	This time the impact was too much for the floor. It gave way around them
and in a shower of drywall and piping they fell to the next floor. Vega's 
eyes
widened as, even while they were falling, Ranma increased the arc of his 
folding
body and brought his forehead into Vega's.
	There was a sharp crack, and Vega was sent flying back. He landed
roughly, tumbling into a desk which shattered around him. He groaned in 
pain,
and rose slowly to his feet. He shook his right hand, dislodging a fragment 
of
wall that was still stuck to his claws. He could see Ranma rising across the
room. His forehead was bleeding slightly from the cut Vega's mask must have
caused. But Vega grinned. The boy could barely stand.
	Vega only realised he was standing with his back to the window when it
exploded inward. He twisted in place and a black form crashed into him knee-
first. He cried out, and was sent flying across the amphitheatre, careening 
down
the sloping desks and into the chalkboard. The board snapped around him.
	He slapped his hands against the wall and kept from falling. His eyes
narrowed at the black-clad figure standing on the top of the amphitheatre. 
Of
course, Akira. How could Vega have forgotten about her? She had been part of 
the
reason he had killed that girl. He chuckled.
	"Welcome to the dance," he greeted her.
	"Shut up and die!" she roared and sprinted down the aisle of the
classroom. Vega stepped away from the wall to meet her. Ranma was moving to 
join
them, but he was hobbling on his bad leg.
	Akira came in with a jumpkick. Vega caught her ankle and twisted it. She
was sent spiralling towards the ground. She landed on both palms. An instant
later, she pushed off and came at him foot first. He ran backward, feet
propelling him up the wall, and flipped gracefully over her attack. She hit 
the
wall and kicked off. Vega spun to the side as she arced past him, fist
extended.
	His claw came up, and caught her in the side. She cried out in pain as
the metal easily sliced through the thick leather and the flesh beneath. But 
the
cut wasn't deep. Vega watched, amused, as she landed badly. She rolled and 
came
up, clutching her side.
	"That was pathetic," Vega admonished. "You can do much better than
that!"
	"Damn you..." Akira hissed.
	"Your fight's with me!" Ranma roared. He grabbed the edge of a desk
and flipped himself forward. He cartwheeled through the air and came down on
Vega, axe-kicking with his good leg. Vega slid to the side and stabbed down, 
but
Ranma deflected the blow with a chop to Vega's wrist that sent a stinging 
flare
of pain up his arm. Vega backed off, barely avoiding a follow-up punch.
	"This one is much more entertaining," Vega pointed out to Akira. "Your
heart obviously isn't in this as much as I thought it would be." Vega 
snorted.
"Perhaps I will have to find what motivates you as well?"
	"You won't get the chance!" Akira retorted, and she charged.

*

	Ryouga grit his teeth. His hands were levelled at the madman. He could
feel the depression welling up inside him. It was like the earth was rising 
up
and pulling down on his body with fingers of doubt and sorrow. Every time 
Ryouga
caught a glance of the blood leaking from Nabiki's shoulder, he wanted to
scream. And he couldn't stop glancing at her.
	He had failed. He was supposed to protect her! He had promised to
protect her! He had failed!
	But Hotaru was between them. Her father was crouched behind her. He was
holding her kindly, almost cradling her to his chest with a fatherly hug. 
His
lips were near her mouth and he was whispering into her ears. Ryouga 
couldn't
hear what he was saying, but he could guess. Hotaru stood rigid in his 
grasp.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. Every now and then, a red light flickered 
from
behind her eyes.
	That feeling on the back of his neck warned Ryouga that he was in
danger. Something was happening, something was happening to Hotaru, and if
Ryouga didn't do something he would be in danger. But he couldn't fire. The
Shishihokodan was too indiscriminate, too large to hit the madman cradling 
her
and not Hotaru as well. She was small and frail, she would be hurt... maybe 
even
killed.
	"Professor Souichi Tomoe, you are under arrest!"
	Ryouga started. He looked up. A woman was standing behind the madman.
She was tall, older, with mussed-up black hair and wore a grey and red 
jacket.
She was standing with a pistol which she held to the back of the Professor's
head. The man froze. Ryouga found her very familiar, but couldn't place her.
	"Who...?" the madman said slowly.
	"Azusa Matsudaira," the woman introduced herself. "I have full authority
to arrest you, and will use this weapon if you force me to. Now, release the
girl."
	"Matsudaira?" Nabiki asked. She had risen to her feet. Her face was
contorted with pain, and she was using her good hand to prop herself against 
the
top of the wishing sword's stone. Then Ryouga remembered her, the nice 
scientist
lady from the other day. He hadn't recognised her without her labcoat.
	"Sorry I'm late," the woman said. "But I was taking care of some other
business until recently."
	The madman looked up, and Ryouga allowed more of his aura to seep into
the air. He made it clear without words how badly it would go if the man 
tried
to do anything stupid. The madman slowly uncurled his arms from around 
Hotaru
and rose them above his head. Ryouga stepped forward and grabbed Hotaru, 
pulling
her to him.
	She grunted, and the red light in the back of her eyes snuffed out
suddenly. She began to hiccup and sob into Ryouga's chest. Ryouga felt his
depression melt away as he held her. What was his life and his failures 
compared
to what she had gone through? His heart filled with a strange, comforting
warmth, and he held her gently.
	Tomoe turned and suddenly blinked as he got a good look at the woman
holding him at gunpoint. "But you're-"
	"The person holding you captive!" Matsudaira pointed out sharply,
cutting him off. The man paused at this, then began to chuckle softly, his 
body
quaking a bit as he did.
	"Of course, of course..." he said when his laughter receded for a
moment.
	"Ryouga," Matsudaira addressed him. "I have him under control now. Why
don't you..." She trailed off, and Ryouga spun around.
	A tornado roared in the center of the commons. It stretched down from
the sky like the finger of a god. Ryouga's mouth gaped, but he saw that the
cyclone was perfectly stationary. Ryouga took a step forward, then there was 
a
sudden gunshot.
	He spun back around. The Professor had collapsed to the ground. He was
staring at Matsudaira. His hand was clutching his chest. Blood welled up 
between
his fingers. "W... how..." he said, his voice a choking, liquid gasp.
	Matsudaira was just staring down at him, her expression impassive.
Ryouga heard Hotaru gasp, and he gently grabbed her chin and turned her face
away from the scene. He was glad he did.
	As the man lay on the ground, he suddenly started spasming. Ryouga
backed up as a bright light shot forth from his eye. The eye with the symbol 
on
it, Ryouga realised a moment later. Matsudaira just stood calmly, looking at
this without any visible reaction. The man spasmed again and coughed blood 
onto
his lips. Then there was a flash of yellow as something shot forth from the
madman's eye. It was thin, like a vine with a large bulb on the end. The 
bulb
had a parody of a human face painted on it, nothing more than a cyclopean 
eye in
the shape of a star and a red half-circle for a mouth, with a black star on 
its
forehead.
	The thing shot up from the man's body, then spun in the air before
landing with a crash a few meters away. A huge cloud of dust arose from the
landing, and Ryouga watched as a giant... thing climbed out of it. It was 
huge,
almost two stories tall, and shaped like some giant alien flower mixed with 
an
insect. It had a huge red bulbous body and pink petal-like things extending 
from
the top to frame a head made of some sort of molted green material. Two 
limbs of
the same material stretched from its 'neck'.
	On the ground, the man the monster had come out of spasmed once before
he fell back. The symbol had vanished from his glasses, but now his eyes 
were
glassy and stared lifelessly into the air. In the distance, the roar of the
tornado suddenly became muted. It seemed to have shifted so it was now just
hovering in the air somewhere. It also sounded different now... but Ryouga 
shook
that out of his mind.
	"Oh, Hotaru..." Ryouga moaned. He was still holding her face away, but
his tone was enough to start her screaming. She kept yelling for her father,
again and again.
	"Why do you cry, child?" the thing said in a voice like madness
incarnate. "All I did was discard that useless shell of a human body. I can 
find
another. This changes nothing!"
	"It changes everything, daimon Germatoid," Matsudaira said as she turned
to face the monster. The creature swung its stalk-like head to face her.
	"And who are you?" it hissed. "I never authorised this!"
	"No, I did it myself!" a new voice shouted over a sudden roar.
	Suddenly Ryouga felt the heat in the air double and a powerful wind was
blowing down. He shielded his eyes with his free hand, trying to keep his 
grip
on Hotaru with the other. The roar was like an engine, or a jet, and Ryouga
looked up to see that his guess was not far off.
	A huge woman made of white metal was floating in the air. From the small
of her back two thrusters emerged that pushed hot air straight down into the
ground, sending the grass billowing out in all directions. The metal woman 
had
what looked like a cockpit emerging from her crotch. Another woman, this one
clad in green and black with bright green hair in buns, sat on this cockpit. 
She
was cradling a huge blue seed in her lap.
	"Telulu!" the beast roared.
	"Of course," the woman said, laughing. "Germatoid, you have failed yet
again. Your plan was foolish. Whereas I, on the other hand, have achieved in 
one
day what you couldn't in four years." The woman smiled down at the seed in 
her
hands. "Look at it! This soul is a heart crystal, as powerful if not more
powerful than the Holy Grail! Not only that, it is alive! With my will, I 
can
guide this unborn god and summon Pharaoh 90. There is no need for your 
Messiah,
your plan... or for you."
	"Damn you, Telulu!" the creature roared and started forward. But the
woman only pointed, and suddenly the metal woman reared back.
	"Valkyrie is deploying missiles!"
	Ryouga could only stare in shock as the woman's breasts exploded from
her chest, fell past Telulu - barely missing clipping her head - then 
reshaped
into missiles and spun down into the beast. It roared impotently before the
explosions blew it into pieces. Ryouga shielded himself as bits and pieces 
of
the thing fell down across the area.
	He watched as Matsudaira walked over to where the centre of the blast
pattern, where the creature had been standing. Ryouga caught a glance of a
strange grey-ribbed egg near her foot before there was a retort from her gun 
and
the egg shattered. A wisp of black smoke emerged from the pieces, briefly 
formed
into what could have been a face, and then vanished.
	Ryouga backed up a step. He had no idea what was going on, but his
instincts told him that he wasn't finished here yet. The metal woman was
descending to the earth. She set down and knelt to allow her passenger to
disembark.
	Telulu looked around, before her eyes settled on the wishing sword.
	"Is this the sword you told me about, Azuma?"
	"Yes," Matsudaira said, her voice cold. She walked towards the sword.
Nabiki gasped as the woman shoved her roughly aside. "I can feel the magical
energy inside of it as we speak."
	"It can grant any wish," Telulu mused. Ryouga slowly put down Hotaru.
She ran over and knelt over the body of her dead father. He ignored her 
pain. He
started gathering his depression again. The metal creature slid to the side,
placing herself between Ryouga and the green-haired woman.
	Matsudaira reached out and gave the sword a good yank. She frowned and
released it. "There appears to be no way to determine exactly how many tries 
it
will take to get to one million. It could be one, or a thousand. We could 
take
it back to the labs and..."
	"One good try, then..." Telulu nodded and tried the sword once herself.
She shook her head regretfully. "Forget it," she said calmly. "It would be
useful to have, but I'm more concerned with somebody using it against me. 
Just
back away and I'll have Valkyrie destroy it."
	"NO!" Nabiki shouted, but Telulu ignored her. The metal woman turned,
taking her eyes off Ryouga.
	He struck. With a roar, he leapt and punched, throwing all his strength
and all his emotion into one blow. He didn't care about holding back against
this monster! "Shishi Hoko DAN!" he roared, and his fist exploded with green
light just as it struck the metal woman. The blast caught Valkyrie in the 
side
and sent her flying back. She struck the ground with enough force that her 
body
carved a five meter long trench in the lawn before she came to a rest.
	Ryouga landed and stepped in front of Nabiki. The two women looked at
him and backed off. But Telulu was smiling. He turned to the side and 
watched as
the creature slowly got to its feet. It wasn't even scratched... and it 
looked
mad.
	Ryouga grit his teeth. That had been everything he had, literally. He
didn't think he could produce a blow much stronger than that. Maybe if he 
used
the perfected Shishihokodan... but Nabiki and Hotaru were too close. And 
despite
appearances, the thing seemed to be alive, so he doubted the Bakusai 
Tenketsu
would work either. He heard a rustle behind him. Nabiki was moving, crawling
towards the sword. She was grinning. Ryouga tore his eyes off her.

*

	Aaron took in the scene with a sweep of his eyes as he ran. He noted the
magical aura permeating Matsudaira. He noted the giant mitama in Telulu's 
hands.
He noted the huge daimon made out of a fighter jet squaring off against 
Ryouga.
He noted the dead body of Souichi Tomoe and Hotaru kneeling over it, her 
eyes
shocked.
	But he only noticed these things in passing. His full attention, Ukyou's
full attention, fixed on the sword. It was humming in their minds. It was 
like
it was calling to them. Ukyou stretched out her hand.
	Nabiki was pulling herself up the stone. Her hands also reaching for it.
She knew. She knew it had reached the magic number. Ukyou poured on the 
speed.
She was faster than Nabiki. She could cross the five meters in the time it 
would
take Nabiki to reach the hilt! She had to!
	It was their salvation! No more dreams! No more lost memories! No
more...
	Ukyou's hand snapped around the blade and she smiled. Then she realised
that Nabiki had grabbed it too.
	They stared into each others eyes. Neither of them moved. Neither of
them breathed. Aaron blanked his mind, blocking out his senses. They must 
have
grabbed it at the same time.
	But it didn't matter. Nabiki's eyes were filled with fear. She knew that
Ukyou could take the sword from her. Tired and injured, Ukyou was still much
stronger and faster than the short-haired girl. Sweat started to form on
Nabiki's brow as the seconds stretched out.
	Ukyou could tear Nabiki's hand off the hilt. Break it off if it came to
that. Nothing could stop her from taking the sword. So what that Nabiki had
grabbed it first? So what that Aaron had felt it shifting up a little as his
palm had settled on it? It wasn't proof that she had gotten there first!
	Even if it was...
	Ukyou felt the power down inside of them. Quiet and alien and there for
the taking. She NEEDED this sword... just like she needed a solution to the
problem of the Dolls a few nights ago. It would be hers. The sword could 
belong
to them if they just wanted it badly enough!
	No more living as one person. They could defeat Telulu. They could bring
Ran back to life. They could do anything.
	Just... take it. That was all they had to do. Take it. It was theirs. It
had called out to them! It was their Destiny!
	Who was trying to convince who? They couldn't tell anymore.
	Ukyou closed her eyes. Aaron looked deep inside of them. The Third
Circle, its power was there... quiet inside them. Would it bend the world to
their will like this? Was that how it worked?
	And what cost? A bit of strength in desperate times had cost them so
much... how much would virtual omnipotence cost them?
	Neither one of them could tell who slowly unlaced their fingers from the
sword. They both stepped back. They both opened their eyes and watched as
Nabiki, eyes flashing with rapture, slid the sword free. She was laughing.
	Only then did Aaron see everyone else in the clearing again. They had
all stopped, all except Hotaru, and looked at the confrontation over the 
sword
in silence. Telulu's face contorted in surprise and rage. Ryouga's 
expression
was unreadable.
	"Valkyrie!" Telulu pointed. "Destroy..."
	Ukyou flung a flour bomb at the daimon. It exploded and filled the hot
air with a white cloud. The daimon squawked. The flour wouldn't delay it for
long, but Ukyou didn't need very long.
	"Snap out of it, Nabiki," Ukyou barked. "Or your victory will be very
short-lived." Nabiki nodded and turned, wincing but holding the sword aloft.
	"I suggest you get out of here," Nabiki said with a sneer. "I wouldn't
want to waste a wish on you, but I will blow your bodies to the four corners 
of
the globe if you make me." Nabiki chuckled. "Unless you think you can stop 
me
before I say a few simple words, that is?"
	Ukyou stepped around the stone, placing herself to one side of Nabiki.
Ryouga stepped back and flanked Nabiki on the other side. They both let 
their
auras go. They flashed and flared, Ukyou's cold aura sapping the heat from 
the
air, Ryouga's heavy aura causing the grass around him to wilt.
	Telulu frowned. "Very well," she said. "Consider this a draw, then." She
gestured and Valkyrie stepped forward as it rubbed the last of the flour 
from
its eyes. The daimon glared at Ukyou before picking her mistress up. 
Matsudaira
also reached up and climbed aboard. A moment later, the monster shot into 
the
sky.
	"As for you, Ukyou..." Nabiki said, trailing off.
	"Save it, Nabiki," Ukyou said with a sigh. "You win. Okay? I just want
to go help my friends." She let her aura die down, but slumped. She had been
pushing her injured body too much. With the adrenaline no longer flowing, it 
was
going to start catching up to her. Ukyou turned and looked at the university
proper. Aaron could sense the battle now. He began to walk towards it.
	"Ukyou..."
	They paused at the sound of Hotaru's voice. They glanced back over their
shoulder. The girl was walking towards them, absently wiping the tears from 
her
eyes. Her face was so cold and adult that it made a part of both of them 
want to
cry. The girl stopped a hand's breadth from them.
	"You tried to tell me the truth, to warn me," the girl said.
	"Hotaru, I... don't know what to say..."
	"I hate you for that," Hotaru said, her voice calm. "But I understand."
She reached up and touched Ukyou's hand. Aaron gasped as he felt the magic
inside her flash to life. For a moment, he thought she was attacking him, 
then
he saw the white light spreading up their body and felt the warmth and 
strength
returning to his limbs.
	A moment later, Aaron blinked as the sparkles of Hotaru's magic faded
away. He raised his hand. His strength was back, his injuries were gone. 
Hotaru
didn't even look tired. He gazed down at her in wonderment.
	"Go. Help your friends," Hotaru urged. Ukyou didn't need any more
prompting.

*

	The battle was not going well. Ranma was injured, the wound in his thigh
too deep and bleeding too badly to ignore. He could barely stand, and every
moment more and more of his strength bled away. Vega must have severed an
artery.
	Akira tried to make up for him. She tried to push herself, to fight at
her full strength. She knew she was always able to fight better with her 
helmet
on. The confidence always brimmed in her when she had that reflective sheen
between her and the world. Even the sound of her own breath echoing in the
enclosed space was familiar and comforting.
	But it wasn't enough. Vega was able to dance around her attacks. His
claw slashed out playfully, tearing at her leathers and cutting lightly into 
the
skin beneath. Not one of the attacks he inflicted on her were as bad as the 
one
he had done to Ranma, but they were adding up.
	It didn't help that with how mobile Vega was, Akira was being forced to
fight him virtually alone. The best she could do was pin him down for a few
seconds while Ranma made his way to them and struck.
	Vega leapt away from her suddenly and turned his head to the window. He
shook his head. "Ah, I think this game has to end now," Vega announced. 
Akira
immediately leapt away, but he was too fast.
	He snapped out one hand and forcibly yanked her hand away from her body,
then sunk his claw into her gut. She screamed as the metal pierced her. It 
was
pain worse than any she had felt. She had taken spills at a hundred 
kilometers
per hour. She had been hit hard enough to crash through brick walls. None of
that compared to this.
	All she could do was gasp and grab at Vega's wrist. He was staring into
her faceplate. From this close, he could probably see through it and get a 
good
look at her gasping pale face. Akira could see nothing of his face behind 
his
featureless white mask, except his eyes. His eyes were smiling.
	He kicked her free of his claw and she stumbled across the room,
clutching her gut. She collided with the wall and sat down hard. She 
couldn't
help thinking of her brother. 'All fighting does is lead to more fighting. 
All
it does is lead to pain.' Maybe she should have listened.
	She tried to rise to her feet, but the strength deserted her. She could
feel her energy flowing out of her body. She tried to resist it, but the 
wound
was deep and wide. He must have tagged an organ, something important. She
struggled to rise again, but all she got for her efforts was a scream of 
pain as
she bent forward.
	She hadn't been good enough.
	"I can feel your friend Ukyou approaching," Vega announced. He was
standing in the center of the room. Ranma was opposite him, slowly working 
his
way forward. It was unclear who exactly Vega was addressing. "She's moving 
at
good speed. Perhaps she can be more of a challenge? Bison was so interested 
in
her." He laughed. "I think that, if I kill one of you... it will really get 
her
in the spirit of the fight!"
	"NO! You bastard!" Ranma leapt across the room. He punched at Vega, but
Vega sidestepped with ease and kicked Ranma to the floor. Ranma grunted as 
he
landed, but rolled to his feet.
	"Oh come now, Ranma Saotome," Vega said with a slightly pitying smile.
"Our fight was beautiful, but even you must see it is over. You've lost too 
much
blood, and this young lady never really had her heart in it to begin with." 
He
raised his claw. "Maybe I'll let you pick, Ranma Saotome? Which of you do 
you
think killing will motivate Ukyou more? The girl, or you? Please tell me
swiftly. We haven't much time."
	Ranma stood silently. He looked down at his leg. He closed his eyes...
and the anger seemed to drain out of his body. All the tension, all the 
energy
seemed to seep down and out of him. When he opened his eyes, he was serene. 
His
eyes were clear of hate and pain. He smiled.
	"Me. If you want to kill somebody, kill me."
	"Ranm-!" Akira shouted, but cut off as she began coughing.
	Vega chuckled. "Very well then," the man raised his claw. "It was a
beautiful battle. I shall cherish it always. Do not regret. You are simply
slower, less experienced and less skilled then me. You are just no match for
me!"
	Vega thrust his claw right at Ranma's heart. Akira winced, either in
pain or anticipation, she wasn't sure. But she blinked, and thus missed it.
	When she opened her eyes, Ranma was standing with his hand outstretched.
His fingers were laced between the blades of Vega's claw, just touching the
razor edges but not actually being cut. His hand was clasped firmly onto 
Vega's.
Vega stared down at his hand in shock.
	"I am today," Ranma said simply.
	Ranma roared and with a vicious twist pulled and broke Vega's arm. Vega
screamed in pain and the sound of the bone cracking retorted across the 
room.
Ranma continued yelling, punching his fist into Vega's face. There was 
another
crack as the man's mask shattered into shards. Vega's head snapped back, 
blood
flying from his cut lip and nose. Ranma's hand moved like a snake, twisting 
and
grabbing Vega's ponytail. He yanked the man forward, even as he twisted the
man's shattered arm with his other hand.
	Akira watched, unblinking, as Ranma buried Vega's own claw in the man's
stomach.
	Ranma released his grip on the Spaniard. Vega stood there for a second,
staring at Ranma in shock. His eyes blinked once, twice. With a groan he 
fell
backward, toppling a chair as he crumpled. He coughed, blood flecking his 
lips.
Akira tried to smile bitterly, at the pain she knew Vega must be feeling. 
But
she could feel no real joy.
	Ranma stood there, looking down at Vega. The man coughed again, and
grabbed his claw with his good hand. The claw was still attached to the arm 
that
had been twisted at an angle arms were not supposed to twist. Vega screamed 
as
he began to drag the blades from his stomach one centimeter at a time.
	Akira heard a gasp and turned her head slightly. She saw Ukyou standing
in the window. She was covered in dirt and her clothes were tattered, but 
she
looked healthier than Akira had ever seen her.
	"Ranma..." Ukyou said, her voice barely above a breath.
	"It's over..." Ranma said, his voice calm. "I win." He turned around,
and began to stumble away.
	"It... isn't... over..." Vega croaked. He had pulled the claw from his
gut and was climbing to his knees. "I'm still alive, Ranma Saotome..."
	Ranma paused but didn't respond.
	"Do you have it in you, Ranma?" Vega said, and laughed. His laughter
turned into painful coughs. "You could have hit my heart. You aimed for it, 
but
I saw you change your aim at the last second." Ranma closed his eyes. "I 
don't
think you can. This wound... it isn't bad." Vega coughed. "A lesser man 
might
die. But I will live!"
	Akira stared at him. Ukyou knelt beside her suddenly, her hands probing
the cut. Akira winced, but said nothing. Ukyou's hand flickered out and 
touched
Akira's body in several places. The pain numbed. Not entirely, but Akira was
grateful for what little the girl could do. Ukyou stood up and began to 
circle
around behind Vega.
	"Come now, Ranma Saotome," the man coughed. "How can you call yourself a
man? This fight isn't over until one of us is dead!"
	"I defeated you," Ranma said. "I can do it again." He frowned. "I won't
put you out of your misery. The shame of your defeat... that's the worst
possible revenge I could inflict on you!" Ranma's voice snapped sharply at 
the
end.
	Vega's face twisted with anger. His bloody lips pulled back from his
teeth. "You think this is over? I'll be back!"
	"Maybe," Ranma said. "But not for a while. I'm better than you. Maybe
not yet, but soon. I'll defeat you again."
	Then Vega's eyes narrowed. He smiled and coughed. "I never did tell you
how she died. Did I tell you that she begged? Did I tell you I made her 
scream?"
Ranma spun around, his eyes flashing, his fists clenching. "She would have 
given
me anything, in the end. My claws can inflict quite ex-" He coughed. "Quite
exquisite pain. She betrayed you all, in the end." Ranma's mouth worked
soundlessly and he raised his fists. "She offered me everything... her
knowledge, her bod-"
	Two hands settled on both side of Vega's head and twisted sharply. There
was a soft crack. The madman's eyes went calm, then blank. His body slumped
lifelessly to the floor. Ranma stared, his hands still balled into fists.
	Ukyou looked down at her hands. Her black lotus eyes were calm.

*

	Tethys had almost forgotten how cold it was. The walls of ice, the
arctic howl outside, the darkness... they were just symptoms. The Dark 
Kingdom,
or the pathetic dregs of it that huddled here in a pit under the 
uninhabitable
wastes of the Earth, was a cold place. What warmth existed was what you 
stole
from the beings around you.
	She raised her hand and called forth her magic. The walls of the room
changed: the satin curtains and the ostentatious ornaments vanished, to be
replaced by bare ice. It was heady, having all this stolen power. She had to
remember what had allowed her to get this far. She had to keep perspective. 
She
gestured again, and the weaves of magic shaped the room once more. The room 
that
had once been Beryl's private chambers was now much different. A single desk 
of
polished stone with a comfortable but simple chair sat in its center. A 
stand
next to it held the long black scepter that had once been Beryl's badge of
office and, Tethys had learned through experimentation, a focus for much of 
her
power. The walls were bare for now, but Tethys didn't plan on them being so 
for
long. She had already chosen a few of the more... intelligent youma for 
special
missions. Subtle missions, to extract human technology and devices.
	If she was going to fight a war, then she needed the right tools.
	And the right people.
	She slid around behind her desk and into her seat. With another gesture
she conjured a book into her hands. It was a book she had read before, 
otherwise
the magic would not have been able to weave it for her, but that was not
important. The very act was more practice. Beryl's power was immense 
compared to
what she had before, and the abilities it granted were intoxicating and made 
it
easy to lose perspective. But she had to maintain tight control.
	"We're ready," Tethys said aloud. Hayato was the only one who could hear
her, and he could have heard her inner thoughts had she allowed him to. He 
sent
her a feeling of encouragement. She frowned and put down the book. Once 
again
she contemplated ejecting him from their union. But he had been useful. 
Without
his plan, his honed sense of timing, she would never have been able to kill
Beryl. She had almost expected him to grow sick at the thought of feeding on
Beryl's power, like he had whenever she drained a human. But he had been 
oddly
quiet on the subject.
	Tethys simply shook her head and tried to ignore the feelings he stirred
in her. Instead she waited until the appointed hour.
	The three Dark Generals materialised together. Each was accompanied by
the distinctive anima of their power, like a fingerprint in their magic. For
Zoicite, the youngest and weakest of them, it was a swirl of rose petals. 
For
Nephrite, the one she had allowed to pummel her into unconsciousness, it was 
a
flickering light filled with star signs. He was looking particularly 
nervous.
For Kunzite, the strongest and highest-ranking, it was a white glow that 
faded
into darkness.
	They all stood at attention, stiff and not looking anywhere but at her.
Tethys resisted the urge to sigh.
	"Have a seat," she invited, and conjured some chairs behind them. It was
a wasteful display of magic, but served to remind them of the power she now
bore. They all obeyed her command.
	"Te... my Queen... why have you summoned us here?" Kunzite spoke first.
Tethys had leaned forward on her desk, steepling her fingers in front of her
face. It was times like this she regretted how her merger with Hayato had 
given
her a face. It was much easier to hide your emotions when you had no 
expression
to speak of.
	"To talk about what happens next," Tethys explained. "I thought it was
time I had a talk with the people who are supposed to be in charge of my
armies."
	"I'm glad you wanted to speak to us," Nephrite said, his voice hiding
his nervousness well. "But Queen Beryl always took audience in the throne
chamber."
	"I'm not Beryl," Tethys explained sharply. "I do things differently."
The general gulped. "Don't worry, I have no intention of killing you for any 
of
your actions in the past. I don't like to waste valuable resources, and you
three are my most powerful agents, for now."
	Kunzite glanced at Zoicite, who noticeably relaxed.
	"That doesn't mean I won't kill you if I believe you are a threat to my
plans, either through treachery or gross incompetence," Tethys said into the
silence. That had them all on edge again. "But I believe in giving you all a
chance." Actually, the plan had been Hayato's suggestion... but she decided 
not
to share that with these three. "I'm giving you all one month to prove
yourselves to me."
	"Prove ourselves?" Kunzite said sharply.
	"Yes," Tethys nodded. "I'm going to be starting a whole new kind of war
soon. I want you three to prove to me that you can follow the new order. 
Each of
you must go out into the world and do something for me." She stood up and 
looked
down her nose at them. "I don't really care what you do, but understand that
your choices might well determine your ultimate fate." She held up her hand 
and
Beryl's sceptre levitated into her clutch. "I only have one order for you to
follow during this assignment. There is a woman out there named Ukyou 
Kuonji.
She is my enemy, and dangerous. I want you to avoid her. I want you to do
nothing to her. I want you to not even go near her. She is to be left 
completely
alone. Is that understood?"
	"Yes, my queen," the three said, standing up and bowing slightly.
	"Then be gone..."
	"Just one thing before we go, if I may?" Kunzite said, holding up a
finger. The other two paused, halfway through the act of weaving their
teleportation spells. Tethys nodded to the platinum-haired man.
	"You are still planning on freeing Metallia, are you not?"
	"And if I am not?" Tethys asked.
	"Metallia is not a force to be trifled with," Kunzite told her evenly.
"She is our god. She made us all what we are. Every youma, including you, 
are
her children. Beryl herself would spend a great deal of time conferring with 
the
Empress. But I have not heard a word about you visiting her crypt."
	"That's because I haven't been there," Tethys responded.
	"I see..." Kunzite bowed slightly. "Just because she is crippled,
doesn't mean she isn't fearsome."
	"I believe you," Tethys replied dryly. The man nodded and the three
started up their teleportation again. Tethys halted them with a gesture.
"Kunzite, you said that Metallia made the youma?"
	"Yes..."
	"We are magical constructs, are we not? We could have been designed any
way she pleased."
	"Yes."
	"And she chose to make us as we are?"
	"I believe so," Kunzite sounded unsure of himself. He obviously had no
idea where she was going with this. "You would have to ask her."
	"Perhaps I will..." Tethys mused aloud. She waved them away and they
vanished. Tethys sat down at her desk again. Metallia was her maker. She had
known that, inside somewhere, all along. But something didn't feel right. 
Hayato
said it before she thought it, his silent voice echoing from the depths of 
her
mind.
	"If Metallia made you... did she simply forget the survival instinct?
You can not deny that if I had not stepped in, you would have gladly drifted
away into oblivion..."
	And that was a question Tethys did not have the answer to.

*

	Akane's lungs were burning. Her arms felt heavier than the lead weights
she wore. Sweat dripped down her cheeks. She steadied herself and raised her
sword. The metal glinted in the sunlight and she adjusted her grip until the
razor-sharp blade was pointed directly at Shampoo.
	"Don't insult me, Akane!" Shampoo roared as she charged forward. Her
larger sword flashed and Akane screamed. Her own blade rang and almost 
shuddered
from her grip. Akane jerked her hands around, trying to keep her grip. She 
only
realized that she had dropped her guard when Shampoo's heel connected with 
her
temple.
	Akane blinked away the stars and blackness. She groaned and sat up,
clutching her head.
	"You okay?" Shampoo asked. She was standing over Akane, offering her a
hand up. Akane took it gratefully.
	"I think so..." Akane mused, then hissed as she probed gently at the
bruise that was forming on the side of her head.
	"You could have blocked that if you had not insisted on wearing those
weights," Shampoo said in a slow and careful manner.
	"That would defeat the entire point of this training," Akane grinned.
She held up her sword again.
	"You..." Shampoo shook her head. "You should rest for today. I'm getting
tired of beating you up."
	"But I think I was just getting the hang of it!" Akane insisted. "I have
to learn how to use this sword..."
	"I don't see why..." Shampoo rested the back of her blade on her
shoulder. "You aren't even taking this training seriously."
	"What do you mean?"
	"I mean..." Shampoo frowned, obviously searching for the best way to
phrase her thoughts in Japanese. "You hold back. A sword isn't a defence 
weapon,
Akane. It's meant for killing. You always wait for me to attack... you have 
to
strike at me first!"
	"Well..." Akane sighed. "Maybe if you hadn't insisted we train with
steel blades. I have some perfectly suitable bokken..."
	"Bah!" Shampoo swung her sword down. The grass rippled in a wave in the
wake of her swing. "If you want to train with a sword, train with a sword. 
If
you want to train with a stick, get a dog."
	Akane lowered her weapon, letting the tip rest on the earth in front of
her. "I'm not really training with a sword so I can kill people, Shampoo. 
I'm
training so that I can have an edge in the fights against... well, zoanoids,
youma, take your pick I guess." Akane frowned and stared down the edge of 
the
blade. "I never plan on using a steel blade against a human opponent. But if 
the
monsters out there think I can cut their arms off, they might think twice 
before
attacking somebody I'm protecting."
	"Huh." Shampoo looked at Akane for a long moment. "You changed. Couple
of days ago you were crying because we were chopping up zoanoids."
	Coming back to life does that to you, Akane failed to say. "I guess I
have," she agreed.
	"It's not like I... uh... how do you... unapprove?"
	"Disapprove," Akane corrected her gently. "Your Japanese has really
improved since I first met you, Shampoo," she added, mainly trying to make
Shampoo feel better. Then again, it was considerably better, now that Akane
really thought about it. Especially since Shampoo had still been using 
broken
Japanese only yesterday.
	"Akane, actually... about that-" Shampoo began, but cut off abruptly.
	"Shampoo, over!" Pink yelled as she walked out of the treeline into the
small clearing Akane and Shampoo were using. Akane was always amazed with 
how
unhappy a person who only smiled could manage to look. Pink paused when she
noticed Akane and gave her the evil eye. Akane just blinked and stared back. 
She
never knew how to treat Pink.
	"You should know better than to wander off, Shampoo," Pink said sweetly.
"That hotel Chris booked us into is absolutely dreadful. The bathroom is a 
mess
and needs immediate cleaning. I suggest you get started immediately. Oh, and
since there are no cleaning supplies, you will be using only your tongue, 
over."
	Shampoo's eyes narrowed, but she looked like she wasn't going to protest
so Akane felt the need to step in. "Wait a minute," Akane held up a hand. 
"What
about all the towels and soap and stuff?"
	"They all vanished. Mysteriously. In a fire." Pink paused. "You'll also
have to clean the ashes of the fire out of the bathtub, Shampoo. Using only 
your
tongue, over." Pink's smile widened.
	"I don't think so," Akane said quickly. "Didn't Chris specifically ask
you two to leave Shampoo alone when she was training with me?"
	"You don't look like you're training to me, over," Pink replied
skeptically.
	"We is training still," Shampoo said. "Shampoo just let Akane take
break. Go away. Shampoo no stupid twin's slave today."
	Pink glared at Akane, her smile twisting into a hate-filled grimace.
Then she took a short breath and her expression became calm. "Fine, have 
your
fun, but I'll be waiting for you to return, servant." Pink smiled. "And who
knows what other problems might have turned up in the meantime for you to 
attend
to, over?"
	Pink waved jauntily and stepped back out of the clearing. Akane sighed
and waited for the sounds of her passage to vanish before she spoke up 
again.
	"I'm sorry," Akane said sincerely. "I think I just got you in more
trouble." Shampoo waved that off. "Well..." Akane chuckled. "At least we 
seem to
be in the same boat. I think about the only person Pink dislikes more than 
you
is me. At least, if the number of times she's tried to poison me are any
indication."
	"It's because Chris likes you," Shampoo pointed out. "Pink wants to be
the only one he listens to."
	Akane shifted uncomfortably. Chris' faith in her was one of those things
that she didn't like to think about. So, she didn't. "Hey! Weren't you just
uh... using really bad Japanese when you were talking with Pink?" Akane 
said,
letting the first thing that came to mind shoot out.
	"Yes." Shampoo turned to look at Akane, her expression serious. "Akane,
please don't tell anyone else that I'm speaking better now."
	"Uh... why?" Akane blinked. Shouldn't Shampoo be proud of how quickly
her Japanese was advancing?
	Shampoo turned away a bit, her sword held loosely in one hand. "Because
they all think I am stupid. They think they know more than me." She paused.
"They think I don't understand. And I didn't. That is why I..." She 
struggled
with the word for a moment. "Why I am trapped like this. But I learned that 
the
people who keep secrets from others are the ones in charge. Now I don't want
anyone to know my secrets. If they think I am stupid, they think I have no
secrets."
	Akane was taken aback by the bitter softness of Shampoo's voice. The
purple-haired girl had never sounded so... vulnerable before. Yes, that was 
it.
It was the complete lack of confidence in Shampoo's voice that was making 
her
sound so different now.
	"I think I understand..." Akane walked around Shampoo until she was back
in the other girl's line of sight. "I had a friend who once lied to me and 
kept
things from me as well. I know how powerful having that kind of information 
can
seem..." Akane hesitated. She also knew how dangerous keeping those kinds of
secrets could be to a friendship. But who among their group could Shampoo 
really
call a friend? Even her great-grandmother and her barely spoke. "I'm glad 
you
trust me enough that you wanted to tell me," Akane said and smiled. "But 
then
again, trusting each other is something friends do."
	Shampoo flushed a little and began to stammer. Akane just stood, smiling
and waiting patiently for Shampoo to get whatever she had to say off her 
chest.
It was obviously important, so Akane wanted to make sure Shampoo felt 
satisfied.
	"Akane, I can see why Chris trusts you so much. You're nice. I use to
think you were too nice. But, ever since the mountain..." Akane's smile 
faltered
slightly, but she resisted the urge to interrupt Shampoo. "...I've seen that
you're more than just nice. You're not that strong. You're not that smart. 
But
you're a warrior. You really want to make things better and you fight to 
make
that happen. I respect that. I... want to have that kind of strength myself 
one
day. I want to trust you."
	"Shampoo, all you have to do is ask," Akane said with a friendly laugh.
She took a few steps away and snapped back into fighting posture with her 
sword.
"Now, since you said you were just letting me take a break, and you already 
have
enough secrets to carry around..."
	Shampoo blinked, then she smiled when Akane let out a fierce battle cry
and attacked her.

*

	Rei pushed absently at her plate with her chopsticks. It wasn't that the
food wasn't good. She had just lost most of her appetite lately. Her plate 
was
only half-empty. She tried to work up the will to finish her food, but 
sighed
and gave up.
	Wordlessly she pushed her meal in front of Usagi. The girl didn't even
pause before she started devouring it. Rei wasn't sure Usagi actually 
noticed.
The girl was chatting amiably with everyone else at the table at once. Not 
that
anyone was paying particular attention to what she was saying. Usagi just 
sort
of filled the background with a happy kind of white noise that put everyone 
else
at ease.
	Like nothing had really happened.
	Everyone was relaxed. Even the old woman, Cologne, was sitting on top of
the table, happily smoking her pipe and looking for all the world like she 
had
drifted off into a deep slumber. Rei guessed that everyone was just glad to
finally be having a decent cooked meal for once. At least Ami had managed to
confirm that the entire restaurant was zoanoid-free before they had entered.
	Now Ami seemed more taken with the pair of little... things that Link
had brought with her. They were small, about two hands tall, and looked
disturbingly cute for creatures that Rei had personally seen tear a large 
rat
apart in seconds. Things with claws and spines were not meant to be cute. 
Not
only that, but there was something about them that set Rei's nerves on edge. 
It
was like there was an energy around them that Rei felt she should recognise, 
but
that she couldn't place her finger on.
	"Are you certain you have those under control?" Ami asked softly.
	"Yes, quite certain, over," Link said with a happy little frown on her
face. She was dangling scraps of meat from her fingers and making the 
mewling
creatures leap and beg for them. The large blue seeds on the backs of the 
tiny
monsters glistened in the dim light of the restaurant. "As we moved further 
away
from Tokyo, I found it easier to get them to listen to me, over."
	"Listen to you?" Ami said, blinking. "You can actually talk to them?"
	Link clucked at them (adding an 'over' to the end of it) and the two
monsters immediately snapped their heads towards her, then they knelt
submissively. "I can talk with pretty much any plant, but none of them
understand as wonderfully as these, over."
	"As long as you keep them away from me," Luna said primly. She was
lounging as far away from the little creatures as the table would allow her 
to.
Akane's pet octopus was flopped down next to her, studiously ignoring 
everyone
else as it ate its own meal with a pair of chopsticks. Rei preferred not to
think about the octopus.
	"Ah, is Luna a little scaredy cat?" Usagi said as she patted her cat
roughly on the head. "I think they're kind of cute." Luna endured the 
treatment
with a mechanical-looking smile.
	Makoto seemed to be the only one not paying attention to Link's little
creations. Instead she was chuckling softly to herself and rubbing her 
knuckles
as she stared at the slumbering Cologne. With a smirk she leaned back as far 
as
her chair would let her then snapped forward like a cracking whip, her fist
practically blurring in the air as she attacked the old woman.
	Cologne was on the other end of the table by the time Makoto's fist
reached the space she had been. Everyone paused to glance at her. She was 
still
slumbering. There was even little puffs of smoke coming from the bowl of her
pipe in perfect time with her deep, peaceful snores. Makoto blinked, then
frowned. She stuck her tongue out and clenched her teeth around it as she 
re-
oriented on Cologne's new position. Rei watched her miss three more times 
before
Makoto threw her hands up in frustration.
	"Is she even asleep?" Makoto asked sullenly.
	"Probably," Link noted shortly. "She's an annoying old-ow! Over!"
	Link rubbed her forehead as the chopstick tumbled down to the table. It
landed between the two creatures, which had turned on Cologne and were now
hissing like annoyed cats. The old woman's eyes eased open just enough for 
Rei
to see the whites of them, and she stared at the monsters. They began to 
whimper
and ran around behind Link.
	"You weren't asleep!" Makoto accused.
	"I never said I was," Cologne replied, closing her eyes again.
	"How am I supposed to hit you if you aren't asleep?"
	"Not my problem," Cologne informed her. "You are the one who has to hit
me if you desire my tutelage. I am not the one in pursuit of a new student."
	"This isn't over, old tro-ow!" Makoto rubbed her own forehead, her
expression eerily mirroring Link's.
	Rei stood up. She felt slightly ill. Everyone here was so happy. They
were laughing and joking and enjoying themselves, just like they always did. 
Rei
didn't belong here. She just couldn't work up the strength to laugh anymore.
	She excused herself politely and started away from the table. She had
vague plans of going back to the hotel. She had vague plans of going down 
and
walking by the seashore. The city they were in was certainly beautiful. 
Maybe
walking through it would help clear her head.
	Perhaps just being away from the others for a while would do it. Two
days journeying through the wilderness had forced her to constantly stay 
near
Usagi and the others. It had forced her to hear them laugh and joke with 
each
other as they slowly got over the anxiety of being separated from their
families. It had forced her to watch them as they grew closer.
	"Rei, wait up!"
	Rei turned, surprised, as Usagi ran across the restaurant towards her.
The girl banged her shin on someone's chair and fell in a heap across the 
floor,
but she looked up at Rei with only her normal irrepressible smile in place. 
Rei
shook her head slowly and waited for Usagi to join her.
	"Where are you going?" Usagi asked.
	"For a walk. I need to clear my head," Rei explained.
	"Mind if I come with you? We haven't had much of a chance to talk
lately." Usagi's good cheer was something that you couldn't just turn down. 
Even
if Rei had wanted Usagi to leave her alone, the girl would have just kept
pouring on the charm until all her defenses crumbled under that incessant 
good
will. Besides... Rei maybe did want to talk to Usagi.
	"Sure," Rei said and led the way out. It was much brighter outside. The
air was warm, but the breeze off the ocean kept it comfortable. The people
walked about on this beautiful summer day, their faces nothing but smiles. 
Rei
didn't walk long before Usagi began to talk.
	"Rei, have you ever had dreams?"
	"Uh... yes..." Rei said. That hadn't been quite what she expected. She
suspected that Usagi had noticed Rei's... emotional absence lately and was
cooking up some harebrained scheme to get her to feel better.
	"I used to have these dreams..." Usagi said as she walked along the
promenade. "Some ancient place was always in them. There was a handsome man,
whose face I could never see very well. We were dancing together in a
magnificent palace and I knew he loved me..." Usagi looked down at the 
ground
and smiled. It wasn't her usual happy smile. This one was a deeper, more
personal smile. It was the kind of smile that Usagi reserved for herself, 
Rei
could tell.
	"And..." Rei prompted the girl. As a priestess, Rei had been trained a
great deal in dream interpretation. Mainly because as her powers grew, her
dreams were supposed to subconsciously reflect the future. But Rei had never
gotten anything useful out of her dreams. Besides, all her dreams lately had
been nothing but a garbled view of a figure on a plain and a muffled voice
yelling at her and then... ...something bad happened, but she could never
remember what.
	"Well, last night I didn't have the dream," Usagi said as if that
explained everything.
	"Okay... so?" Rei tried not to sound cross.
	"It's just... last night, I felt like something was missing." Usagi's
face had become a soft frown. "I just... I felt like there was something I 
was
supposed to have. And now... I feel like it's gone."
	Rei paused. Then she shook her head. "Forget about it, Usagi." She
turned sharply. "It's just a dream. They don't mean anything."
	"But this felt really important!" Usagi protested.
	"It wasn't," Rei snapped. "Listen... Usagi, I just would like to walk by
myself for a little while. I just need time to deal with... with what 
happened,
okay?"
	Rei tried to mollify her tone, but Usagi still looked slightly hurt. But
she nodded and walked away. Rei watched her leave and sighed to herself. 
There
was no surer way to get Usagi to leave her alone than to raise the spectre 
of
Rei's grandfather. Rei allowed a sardonic smile to cross her face. If only 
that
were the problem.
	Rei gestured and suddenly she felt the weight of her transformation wand
settle into her palm. She looked down at the small red stick with its golden
'Mars' symbol for a long moment. She remembered watching Sailor Mercury and
Sailor Jupiter raise their own, similar wands. She remembered the light of 
their
power blasting out in thin, perfect lines as they lit up the cave they were
hiding in. She remembered them offering their own power up to Sailor Moon 
when
she needed it most.
	She remembered how she had failed. She had stood there, her wand raised,
and nothing had happened. She had wanted it to happen. She had needed it to
happen. Yet, the power had never left her. Something had held her back.
	And she knew what. She didn't belong here.
	Usagi, Makoto and Ami... they still believed. They had left their
families, but they had not lost them. Rei had taken a step away from them,
somehow. All she could hear while she had been trying to summon her power to 
aid
Sailor Moon was her grandfather's voice. She had heard him pleading with 
her.
She had heard him asking her not to abandon him.
	Of course, that had never happened.
	But still...
	Rei sent the wand back to whatever place it came from. She turned her
eyes across the skyline of the small city. In the distance a thin white 
tower on
top of a hill loomed over the city. Beyond it, a giant forest grew. Chris 
was up
there now. He had insisted nobody come with him. He had warned them all 
against
following him. Rei almost gave into a sudden, intense desire to ignore his
warnings. But she shook her head clear.
	Still, as she walked away towards the ocean she could feel the shadow of
the tower on her. This entire city, it felt so beautiful... almost cloyingly 
so.
It was like she was being wrapped in its tender arms and somebody was 
whispering
into her ear that she didn't have to worry about all that anymore. But that 
was
silly. Places weren't like that.

*

	Ranma stood on the street corner, looking down the row of middle-class
homes. The sun was setting slowly, turning the sky into a brilliant cascade 
of
purples and blues. The heat had finally broken, a cold wind blowing in off 
the
sea as afternoon crept into night. Ranma looked down and held the tiny 
camera in
his hands.
	He had found it there... he had taken it without thinking.
	He felt Ukyou walk up to him. She wanted him to feel her coming, her
aura was much too strong. She was becoming like a whisper.
	"Ranma, what are you doing here?" Ukyou asked. She looked concerned. To
most people, she would have looked indifferent, maybe even callous. But 
Ranma
had learned how to read her. He could see the emotions in her by the twitch 
of
her lip or flicker of her pupils. New eyes, scars... none of that mattered.
Ranma knew Ukyou... or had. He refused to meet her gaze.
	"Where's Hotaru?" Ranma changed the subject.
	"Akira is looking after her," Ukyou explained.
	"Good," Ranma nodded. "I still need to thank her. Both of them. But
Hotaru especially..." He glanced down at his leg. His pants still had a hole 
in
them. The blood had dried, leaving a maroon stain. He would have to get rid 
of
them. Hotaru had touched him and healed him without a word. Ranma hadn't 
been
able to thank her. He just hadn't been able to say the words.
	"Hotaru... is stronger than she has any right to be," Ukyou said.
"Losing someone like that, it just isn't right."
	"Yeah," Ranma said. Ukyou had somehow dragged the subject back to where
she had wanted it. He shouldn't have been surprised. Ukyou always managed to 
do
that, to turn things around on him. He felt a flare of annoyance at her. But 
not
his comfortable, hot annoyance. This annoyance... it came from somewhere 
deeper.
"You know... all those pictures she took, and I don't think I have a single
picture of her." Ranma tried to keep his emotions out of his voice as he 
flipped
the camera into the air and let it settle in his hand.
	Ukyou looked away. Her voice grew softer, warmer. But he could tell she
had read the resentment in him. "Did you love her?"
	"I don't know," Ranma replied after a second's thought. "I think... I
think I would have liked to find out, though." He closed his eyes. Men 
didn't
cry. Men didn't cry. He gritted his teeth behind his lips as his eyes 
burned.
	"I'm sorry," Ukyou said lamely.
	Ranma almost exploded at her. But that wouldn't have been right.
Ukyou... she had just done what she thought was right. She couldn't be 
blamed
for Ran's death. So why... why did he feel this sudden anger at her? It was 
like
she had stolen something from him, but he didn't know what. But he fought it
down. He strangled it with his will. Ukyou was his friend. He liked her.
	"What are you doing now, Ukyou?"
	She seemed surprised by the question. She stepped back, and her
dark eyes looked away. It was that strange far-off look that meant she was
thinking hard, in one of those internal moments she had.
	"I don't know," Ukyou admitted after a moment.
	"You're going to take care of Hotaru?" Ranma asked.
	"Someone has to," Ukyou said. "Telulu may say she isn't interested in
her, but..." Ukyou ran a hand through her bangs and sighed. "Plus Chronos 
and
Shadowloo and a thousand other problems. Too many people want her for what 
she
is."
	Ranma nodded. He turned to face Ukyou fully. He held the camera tightly.
It was like a talisman. "I'm through drifting, Ukyou." He looked down at the
camera. "You can flow from problem to problem if you want. You can wait for 
evil
to come to you... but I'm not."
	"Ranma..." Ukyou looked up at him, her eyes wide. He still refused to
meet her gaze. He wanted to... he just couldn't.
	"What's the worst place now, Ukyou?" he asked.
	"What do you mean?" Ukyou's voice was worried.
	"The worst place on Earth." He furrowed his brow. "Where are the worst
monsters? The ones that make Vega look like a child. I want people I can 
kill,
Ukyou."
	"Don't say that, Ranma," Ukyou said sharply. "You don't really mean it.
It's the grief talking."
	"Maybe..." Ranma kept his eyes on the camera. He had made a promise.
"But I have to start somewhere, and I want to start at the bottom and work 
my
way up."
	"What if... what if I don't tell you?" Ukyou's reply was hesitant.
	"I'll find out on my own," Ranma said sharply. He looked down at her.
"I'm doing this for myself, Ukyou. I don't really care about Japan. It isn't 
my
home. I've never really had a home. But I'm not going to stand here and wait 
for
the bad guys to get around to me while more people like her die. Her, and
Hotaru's dad, and everyone else..." He trailed off and closed his eyes. The
breeze was cool against his skin. "I need to start somewhere. The worse the
better. Because I'm Ranma Saotome. I'll find a way to win."
	Ukyou paused. "England."
	"England?" Ranma asked.
	"It's the place with the worst monsters."
	Ranma didn't bother to ask how she knew. He knew better than to doubt
Ukyou. He nodded.
	"I'll follow you," she said after a moment.
	"And Hotaru?" Ranma thought to ask.
	"Getting her out of Japan is probably a good idea..." Ukyou said half-
heartedly. "Honestly, I can't think of anywhere that will be safe for her."
	Ranma nodded again. "We leave tomorrow morning." He turned and started
down the street.
	"You never answered my original question, Ranma," Ukyou pointed out
mildly.
	"They deserve to know," he explained.
	"The police already told them," Ukyou said. "They don't need more grief,
Ranma. They lost more than you did, if you can understand that. Maybe it's 
best
you leave them alone."
	"No, Ukyou," Ranma replied, shaking his head. "Ran would want this. She
would want them to know, to know everything. Somebody has to tell her 
story."
	He took five more steps before Ukyou turned and walked away, fading into
the twilight like a whisper. Ranma continued walking until he came to a 
simple
door. He knocked. Eventually, a man with dark bags under his eyes opened it. 
He
looked like he had seen hell. Maybe he had. Ranma took a deep breath.
	"Mr. Hibiki, you don't know me, but I knew your daughter..."

*

	"If a chick cannot break out of its shell, it will die without ever
being born."
	The man sat in the chair, staring out into the rain.  A flash of
lightning caused him to blink and shift slightly.
	"We are the chick. The world is our egg."
	The bolt's answering roll of thunder shook the entire mansion.  The man
wondered momentarily how long he had sat there, staring out into the rain
without actually seeing it.  An hour? A day? Then he remembered that it 
didn't
matter.
	"If we don't crack the world's shell, we will die without truly being
born."
	And yet something was keeping his attention from sliding back into the
abyss of dark and twisting thought.  What was it?  Something was different.
Something was wrong.
	"Smash the world's shell!"
	The windowed door swung open smoothly, and the lightning illuminated the
huge figure that stood there, who a moment ago had been nowhere to be seen.
	"For the revolution of the world!" the figure said, echoing the words of
the recording as if he had heard them a thousand times before.  His voice
sounded both smug and joyous.  The man could do nothing but stare as the 
figure
took a step into the room, water rolling off his coat to splash carelessly 
upon
the carpet.
	"Good evening, student council president," the intruder said
conversationally.  He was clearly massive, both in height and musculature,
wearing jeans and a black coat with a hood that hung low ever his face.  His
eyes were nowhere to be seen, but the wide grin that shone from the shadow 
cast
by the hood was almost predatorial.  "I apologise for my rude interruption."
	The man in the chair merely stared for a moment.  The intruder grinned
at him.
	His sword wasn't within reach, so the man didn't bother looking for it.
Was this intruder a thief?  But the way he'd echoed the recording...
	"We are the chick. The world is our egg."
	The stranger appeared to have lost patience waiting for a response.  "I
won't keep you long.  If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know where the 
dormitory
room of Keiko Sonoda is."
	The man stared.
	"...we will die without truly being born."
	"Come now," the intruder said.  "I'm sure you know where it is."
	The man in the chair pointed.  What else was there to do?
	"Many things are in that direction," the stranger noted.  "Where,
precisely?"
	"...of the world!" the recording broadcast into the following silence.
	"It is... in the second building, the west dormitory.  First floor, the
third door from the right of the entranceway."  The man's voice sounded 
dusty,
disused, alien even to himself.  How long since he had spoken to anyone?  A
week?  Two?  Ever since...
	The stranger's smile widened.  "I thought you'd know.  Thank you for
your assistance, student council president.  I'll let you get back to 
talking to
yourself now."
	"Smash the world's shell!" The man in the chair's voice, sounding strong
and confident, emanated from the recorder, echoing throughout the room.
	The intruder turned around, a few final splatters of water from his coat
whipping onto the floor.  He walked out, slid the door carefully shut, and
looked back at the man in the chair.
	Then he vanished.
	No, not vanished.  There was a movement, almost too fast for the man's
eyes to follow.  But he had shot upward.  And there he was, for the briefest 
of
instants, just on the edge of vision, before he shot upwards into the air,
leaping higher, farther and faster than should have been possible, and 
vanished
into the night.
	"If a chick cannot break out of its shell, it will die without ever
being born."
	The red-haired man spent another moment looking after the intruder.
Then he stood up suddenly, moving over to the recorder, and sharply pushed a
button, silencing it.
	He needed to think.

*

	The temple was quiet as the first stars began to emerge. Akira sat at
the foot of the tall Buddha, her hands on top of one knee. Her helmet was 
beside
her. Her undershirt and jacket were in the garbage; they had been too torn 
up to
salvage. Ukyou had loaned her a shirt to wear.
	How had she gotten here? How had a simple favour done for one boy -
that, truthfully, Akira didn't even like very much - gotten her here? The 
stars
didn't answer. Akira wished she could hit the open road; drive so fast that 
the
feelings didn't catch up with her. It hurt too much. All this fighting...
	And for what?
	Ukyou emerged from the darkness. She moved soundlessly across the
courtyard to stand near Akira. Her face was covered in shadow.
	"Where's Hotaru?"
	"Inside, sleeping," Akira explained. "How was Ranma?"
	"As well as can be expected," Ukyou explained. There was something in
her tone, her posture, that Akira knew was important but couldn't place. 
Ukyou
was hard to read when she wanted to be.
	"I don't know what I would do if... if someone I loved..." Akira looked
away from Ukyou, unable to look at her for a moment. Ukyou sighed and sat 
down
as well, placing her back against the great Buddha. They sat together in 
silence
for a long time. It was cold now, and Ukyou wasn't exactly a bastion of 
warmth
on the best of days. But Akira nevertheless felt warmer sitting here with 
her
in the shadows than she had during the hot day.
	"Ranma is leaving in the morning," Ukyou said. "He's leaving Japan. I'm
going with him."
	"I..." Akira coughed and blinked. That had been sudden. "Wow. Where are
you going?"
	"To hell," Ukyou said. "To fight demons."
	"You're... speaking metaphorically... right?" Akira said shakily.
	"I'm not so sure," Ukyou mused aloud.
	Akira lowered her head and ran her finger through the rocks that covered
the courtyard. They made soft clicking sounds as she shifted them. "You 
really
do love him." She looked up at Ukyou's face. "You would follow him into hell 
and
back."
	Ukyou looked at Akira for a long time. Then she nodded. When she spoke,
her voice was choked with emotion. "Yes." She looked down at her hands.
	"You did it for him..." Akira trailed off. She couldn't express the
feeling she had inside. She wasn't entirely sure what it was. She just knew 
it
meant something. She knew why Ukyou had done what she had done this morning. 
She
just couldn't explain it.
	"Yes," Ukyou said softly. "I'll do anything for him."
	Akira looked down at the ground again.
	Minutes passed.
	"I'm not coming with you," she pointed out.
	"I know," Ukyou said.
	"I want to explain!" Akira shouted suddenly, spinning in place to face
the other girl. Ukyou looked at her sharply and nodded towards the temple. 
Akira
hushed her tone. "I don't want you to think it's because I'm a coward, or I
don't want to help."
	"It's okay, Akira," Ukyou stepped smoothly into a pause in Akira's
speech. "You have friends and family here." Ukyou smiled wryly. "Plus, 
you're
not sure if you want to go anywhere with a monster."
	"No!" Akira hissed softly. "Ukyou, you aren't a monster! That has
nothing to do with this."
	"Doesn't it?" Ukyou looked down at her hands. "What good am I? The one
principle I said I would never break... and I don't even have that to cling 
to
anymore. No. You shouldn't be around me, Akira. Everything I touch turns to
ashes."  Akira opened her mouth, but Ukyou cut her off without even looking 
at
her.
	"Akira, before you try and defend me, let me tell you one thing." Ukyou
looked up at the stars. "This morning... when I was in that school, and I 
saw
her body... when I looked down at it the first thing I thought, the VERY 
first
thing, my immediate reaction," Ukyou slowly trailed off. "My first reaction 
was
relief." She looked at Akira. "Relief that she wouldn't be there to stand
between Ranma and me, anymore."
	Akira clenched her fists. "You're too hard on yourself, Ukyou." The
other girl blinked. "You can't blame yourself for Ran's death! You aren't 
God!
You can't blame yourself for your feelings!" Akira kept talking, quickly. 
She
hated talking. She was bad at it. She preferred to stay quiet. But she knew 
that
if she stopped, that if she let Ukyou stop her, then she would never start
again. Then it would be too late, because Ukyou would be gone. "And I know 
you
did it all for him!" Akira said the words and they tasted sour in her mouth.
"You killed Vega... because someone had to. He was a rabid dog. You killed 
him
for that reason... and Ranma wasn't going to. Ranma would have killed...
because... because..."
	"Because Vega hurt him," Ukyou finished.
	"Yes..."
	"That doesn't make it right, Akira." Ukyou looked away, into the
darkness. With her strange eyes, Akira wondered what she saw. "I... I really
tried. I thought that if... that if I held on... that if I refused to give 
away
just that last bit of me. That if I was true to my promise, that it wouldn't 
be
true."
	"What..." Akira knew that Ukyou wasn't talking about Vega anymore. She
realized that Ukyou had come to a conclusion sometime today, sometime after 
all
the violence and the terror. Something had changed in Ukyou, and not for the
better.
	"Ukyou..."
	"Go home, Akira." Ukyou stood up, and helped Akira to her feet. She kept
a hold on Akira's hand even after they were both standing. Akira felt her 
cheeks
flush for some reason. "I'm sorry I can't be the girl you want me to be, 
Akira."
	"What?" Akira gasped.
	Ukyou smiled enigmatically.
	"What do you mean?" Akira said harshly. Ukyou released her hand and
stepped back.
	"I thought about it for a little bit, but it just isn't in me," Ukyou
said. "I'm sorry."
	"Sorry for what?" Akira wanted to shout, but controlled herself. Ukyou
cocked her head to the side and rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
	"You..." Ukyou shook her head. "It doesn't matter. My mistake. I was
leaping to conclusions again." Akira blinked, not sure what that had all 
been
about. "But you should be going home, it's late."
	"I'll..." Akira gulped. Why did this sound like more than a goodbye? A
flicker of fear entered Akira's chest. Her eyes widened slightly as Ukyou 
took a
step back again. "I'll come by to see you off..." she began.
	"No need," Ukyou replied crisply. "We'll be gone by morning."
	Akira stepped forward until she was almost touching Ukyou. "Then one
day, we will meet again." Ukyou looked at Akira strangely. "We're friends,
Ukyou. I won't let us lose that. One day, we'll meet again. Promise?"
	"I don't make promises I can't keep," Ukyou replied softly.
	"Then you'll keep this one!" Akira insisted.
	Ukyou didn't smile. "No, Akira. I can't promise you anything."
	Akira wanted to shout something, but couldn't. Her tongue felt too big
for her mouth. What had changed behind those icy black lotus eyes? But now 
Ukyou
was turning away, entering the shrine. Akira waited until she was out of 
sight.
Then she looked down at the gravel and up at the great Buddha.
	"I promise then, Ukyou. I promise we'll meet again."

*

	Keiko Sonoda was asleep, of course.  Her hair had been let down from its
trademark pigtails, floating around her head like a mousy-brown cloud.  The
blankets were dishevelled and her limbs flung out awkwardly: she wasn't 
sleeping
restfully, not surprising in this thunderstorm.  Still, for all that, she 
still
seemed... elegant, somehow.
	Chris wondered if that was some inner beauty the plain girl rarely
displayed, or if it was a side-effect of being a resident of Ohtori Academy,
where fairy-tale elegance covered everything like a fine glaze.  Or perhaps 
it
was just his own bias: after all, Keiko was his favourite character from
Revolutionary Girl Utena.  Perhaps it was all three.
	He wouldn't wake her up, of course.  Keiko was a normal girl - by Utena
standards - with normal problems - again, by Utena standards.  She served a 
girl
whom she despised, in order to be close to said girl's brother, Touga, the
object of Keiko's desperate, doomed love.
	It was impossible to overstate the importance of this love to her; it,
in fact, defined much of how Keiko lived her life.  And yet it was so very, 
very
small.  Chris smiled a bit to himself.  He couldn't remember the last time 
he'd
had to deal with such a small, innocent problem as unrequited love.
	No, Keiko was normal.  Painfully so.  Chris would not wake her up now.
Most likely he'd never even speak to the girl.  And that was obviously the
kindest thing he could do for her.  She didn't deserve to be wrapped up in 
the
sort of problems he had to deal with.
	Turning away from the window he had been looking through, Chris focused
on his real goal.  Even in the rain, the Chairman's Tower was impossible to
miss.  He'd seen the tall, pristinely white structure hours before he had
reached the Ohtori grounds, towering at the center of both the campus and 
the
city surrounding it.  He had been putting off going there.
	Of course, he knew why.  Akio Ohtori was dangerous.  He might not be
able to smash mountains like a zoalord, but he made Chris at least as 
nervous.
Brilliant, ageless, cunning, manipulative, silken-tongued, and without the
slightest shred of comprehensible humanity.  He had been God, once, or so 
the
Utena backstory would have it.  He sought to reach that height again.
	If he fought a zoalord, Chris could at least try to find bigger guns as
backup, like Sailor Moon and her deus-ex-machina crystal.  But Chris didn't 
know
of any character who could out-think Akio, or out-talk Akio, or had more
experience than Akio, or would be able to out-manipulate him.  It didn't 
help
that he wouldn't trust any straight woman to be objective about the
preternaturally - if not flat-out supernaturally - sexual being. And that 
was
why Chris was on his own for this one.  He was pretty sure he could handle 
it.
Maybe.
	But Akio knew the truth.  Akio knew, to a greater extent than anyone
else Chris had consulted, what something eternal was.  The Third Circle.  
The
power of miracles.  Whatever you called it.  Akio had once commanded it.  Or 
at
least it seemed more likely that he had than anyone else Chris could think 
of.
	If it meant taking a risk like this in order to gain that information...
well, Chris had promised never to kill anyone again.  He was on borrowed 
time.
	He glanced back through the window.  Keiko had rolled over, clutching a
pillow to herself.  Was she dreaming of Touga?  Probably.  Chris smiled a 
bit.
At least his appearing out of nowhere to ask Touga for her dormitory room 
and
then leaping away had probably gotten Keiko the attention of her love.  And,
since Chris didn't plan to pursue any further connection to her, hopefully 
she
wouldn't get any undue attention from higher up.  That was the best he could 
do
for his favourite character.
	Well, aside from saving the world.
	Chris began walking towards the Chairman's Tower.  Cologne had said the
Third Circle would most likely trump everything else, and Chris lived, 
moved,
and walked with the Third Circle... so if nothing else, Akio's dear younger
sister probably wouldn't be able to turn him into a cow.  Nor could they 
make
him see whatever they wanted to.  If nothing else, Chris could threaten to 
tear
their whole damn little paradise around their ears.
	Or threaten to kill them.  They didn't know about his promise.  If they
even could be killed.  Well, it wouldn't come to that, anyway.
	Probably.

*

	"Anthy, what is it doing?"
	The witch opened her eyes, and a thousand blades skewered her.  "He's
finished looking in the girl's window.  I believe he's coming here, 
brother."
	"I see."
	"Nothing is having an effect on him.  And nothing he is doing is
directly affecting the projection, either."
	"Did it react to the wall?"
	"No, he walked right through it.  I don't believe he noticed it."
	"I see."
	The witch watched as her brother fell silent, pensively staring at the
wall of the planetarium room.  A fire greater than any sun scorched her 
flesh
and bones, and the witch wondered dully what her brother planned to do.
	A long moment passed.
	A doorbell rang.
	"He's here," the witch said unnecessarily.
	"Then I should go greet our guest."  Her brother rose smoothly to his
feet and walked to the elevator.  A moment later, the witch watched the door
close, cutting off her sight of his face.
	The witch was left alone with her thoughts.
	She wondered if the creature that waited at the door of this tower was
here to kill them.  It was a tempting thought.
	But she didn't have hope in such a miracle happening.
	How many millennia had it been since she'd last let herself have hope
for release?  She pondered that thought for a moment, as her bones were
perforated by burrowing maggots, and realised that she didn't really 
remember.
She'd stopped keeping track of time a long time ago too, come to think of 
it.
	But she knew how long it had been since she had last encountered a being
like the one below.  That was easy to remember.  Because this was the first 
time
since her Betrayal.
	If the creature hadn't talked to Touga Kiryuu, she might not have
noticed him until he had knocked upon their door.  But the Kiryuu boy was 
one of
the ones she had been told to keep an eye on, and the disturbance to the 
natural
order of things had been like the quiver of a spider's web.  As of yet, the
witch couldn't tell what consequences that touch might have on the Kiryuu 
boy.
But such things weren't very important compared to the much larger problem 
that
was rising up through the elevator shaft.
	A cheerful chime announced their arrival.  She stepped forward, smiling
as acid ate through her skull, and noticed the creature look at her and 
flinch.
Her brother noticed it too.  "Why hello there!" the witch said brightly.  
"I'm
afraid I don't have anything prepared - it's very late to be entertaining
guests.  And such a frightful night, too!  Should I go make some tea?"
	"No," the creature said, having regained his composure but still not
looking directly at her.  "I don't... rather, thank you, but no."
	"Perhaps you'd like to ease your burden for a time," the witch's brother
invited, gesturing towards the couch.
	The creature looked at her brother, as if expecting something else to be
said.  After a moment, he shrugged.  "Why not?"
	"An interesting question," her brother quipped.
	The creature laughed a bit to himself, and sat down, his muscular form
squeezing awkwardly onto the cushions.  "I apologise in advance for soaking 
your
upholstery.  As you said, it's a nasty night out there."
	"All the more reason a host is obligated to offer shelter," the witch's
brother noted, settling himself on the coach opposite the creature.  The 
witch
remained standing.
	"As you said, it's late, so I shouldn't waste too much time with this,"
the creature said.  The witch saw her brother tense, though the signs would 
be
invisible to anyone else.  His smile never wavered, his eyes never blinked, 
his
muscles didn't even so much as twitch.  But the witch heard the faintest 
pause
in the beating of his heart, the pressure of his breath.  Again, she 
wondered
idly if they were about to die.
	"You can call me Chris," the creature said after a hesitant pause.  "I
guess from my reception that you noticed that I'm... unusual."
	And just like that, the moment passed.  The witch wasn't disappointed;
after all, she'd never let herself hope.  To his credit, her brother's smile
didn't widen one iota.
	This was no Prince.
	She listened with mild interest to Chris's story.  It at least had the
value of novelty.  If the witch hadn't long ago grown to hate stories, it 
might
even have intrigued her.
	"I see," her brother said finally, when Chris reached the proper
narrative stopping point.  "So, if that is the situation, what brings you to
this school?"
	Chris leaned forward.  Before, he had been hesitant, carefully choosing
his words, obviously telling them only what he thought safe.  Now, however,
confidence radiated from him.  Blank eyes and lack of pulse didn't hide it.  
He
expected a reaction to this statement.  "Because I'm interested in what's 
beyond
the Rose Gate."
	Her brother, of course, didn't disappoint the creature.  He paused,
leaned back, raised one eyebrow ever so slightly.  "Ah.  I'm afraid to say 
I'm
not accepting any new Duelists at this time."
	Chris's lip twisted.  "That's not what I'm here for, of course.  I'm not
interested in messing with your current game, Akio.  You know about 
eternity.
Miracles.  The Third Circle.  Whatever you call it, you're closer to it than 
any
other being around here.  And I need to know what you know, if I'm to fix 
this
situation."
	And so the verbal fencing began.  The witch paid only passing attention,
since the way it would go was clear from the first few sentences.  The 
creature,
while not entirely incompetent, obviously believed that as long as he kept
whatever secrets were important to him, he had won.  So her brother allowed 
him
to win, probing enough to reassure Chris that he was interested, and 
otherwise
simply let whatever information he wanted to divulge be extracted piece by
piece.
	"So you want me to tell you of miracles?" her brother said at one point,
leaning against the couch and spreading an arm over the back of it.
	"Yes," Chris said.  "What is the essential DIFFERENCE between them and
what else exists?  How can that barrier be crossed?  Who could cross it?"
	"The barrier cannot be crossed," he replied.  "The difference is like
comparing the portrait of a rose to the jungles of Brazil."  He paused long
enough to allow Chris an opportunity to ask something, then moved smoothly 
on
when the dead creature did not.  "You already know of the other two ways, if 
you
call this the 'Third' Circle.  I'm guessing the First Circle is the least of
them, that which gives strength and life.  The Second Circle, then, would be 
the
slightly larger, the one that gives possibility.  But do you know what they
are?"
	"Maybe.  Explain what you mean, please."
	Her brother leaned forward, fixed the dead man with an intent gaze. "How
do you think of time?"
	Chris thought for a moment, then shrugged.  "As an ongoing thing.  A
dimension that we partake in, but can't truly alter."
	"A scientific explanation.  Allow me to tell you a story, then.
	"In the beginning, there was a small village.  The people who lived in
this village were industrious and good-hearted.  They worked together, and 
over
time their village grew.  But one day, there was a child of this village who
found that his place was no longer among them, and so he left to found his 
own
village.  And this happened many times, so that the valley was filled with
villages.
	"However, these villages, one and all, were essentially the same.  They
all were populated by decent, hard-working people.  And although they never
talked to people from other villages, and in many cases did not even realise 
the
others were there, they all nonetheless lived within the same valley.
	"Eventually, however, things change.  A child was born who was neither
decent, nor hard-working.  He stole, and he begged, and refused to work, and
otherwise made the lives of all those around him uncomfortable.  And so he 
was
forced to leave the valley, as there was no place for him there.
	"Outside the valley, he founded a village of slothful, deceitful people.
And their children grew up slothful and deceitful, and sometimes they left, 
to
found new villages in the place outside the valley.  Things continued thus 
with
them, until eventually a child was born who was neither hard-working and 
decent,
nor slothful and deceitful, and he could find a place with neither people.
	"And so he moved beyond, and this continued for eternity, until
humankind spread across the world.  Millions of villages, none of which knew 
the
others existed.  And that is the story of time."
	As her brother paused, Chris nodded thoughtfully.  "I follow you - time
isn't linear, alternate worlds, et cetera.  But what does that mean?"
	"Because there are people who live in the valley, who know how to call
on their distant family and friends for help with the harvest.  If they call
their family from within the valley, that is the First Circle.  If they 
contact
the family they have from those who are outside the valley, that is the 
Second
Circle, because after all, those who live outside the valley have a 
completely
different way of doing things from those within."
	"And the Third Circle, then?"
	"Therein lies the difference.  There is no story about the Third Circle,
for its story is not the story of the valley.  Its story cannot exist at the
same time as the story of the valley.  Say, in our story, before the first
person left the first village, a great plague fell upon them, and all the 
people
died.  And yet, the slothful and deceitful village continued to send off 
people
to found all the other villages of the world.  Can you see what is wrong 
with
that?"
	 "If the first person never leaves the first village, the slothful and
deceitful village doesn't exist yet.  It can't send anyone anywhere," Chris
replied.
	"And it certainly couldn't send someone with medicine back to the first
village to cure the plague.  That is the story of the Third Circle."
	"Okay..." Chris said.  "So, basically, the First Circle could be called
the possible, if perhaps implausible.  The Second is that which is 
impossible.
The Third, then, is... the thing that isn't only impossible, but also
contradicts its own existence?"
	"People use the world impossible too often, I find," the witch's brother
said smoothly.  "There is a student at this academy.  I expect you know his
name.  He knows a great deal about quantum physics, and he will tell you 
that,
in fact, it is quite possible for the impossible to happen.  Instead, it is
simply so unlikely that it never does."
	"Granted," Chris replied.  "But while I understand what you're saying,
I'm not sure how it relates to my situation."
	"Because thermodynamic miracles - as I understand they are called -
could happen.  They simply don't.  So while something such as, say, demons 
could
just happen, something greater than that requires an outside agent.  The 
barrier
between the Second and Third Circles cannot be crossed... unless someone 
already
has."
	"If it can't be crossed, how did they cross it?" Chris asked dryly.
	Her brother's tone grew slightly chiding. "That personage could likely
answer the question much more accurately than I, for reasons you have
demonstrated yourself to be aware of."
	"And, of course, you would undoubtedly be very interested in whatever
information I might gather about just who that personage might be, I'm
guessing?"
	"Is there, perhaps, something else other than information you might be
looking for within my sanctuary?" the witch's brother asked, raising an 
eyebrow.
	Chris pursed his lips a moment, obviously thinking furiously.  "Maybe.
How safe is Ohtori?"
	"It is as safe as those inside want it to be."
	"Not the clearest answer," Chris countered.
	"The correct one, however."
	"Well, there are no zoanoids here, so I'll take that at face value.
That being the case, and given that you'll want me to pop back by 
occasionally,
I was wondered if I could get you to look after some girls I've been
shepherding."
	"Hostages?" her brother replied, his tone one of faint distaste.
	Chris shook his head.  "No, no.  Heroes.  But ones in over their head,
who couldn't stay in Tokyo."
	"Ah, heroes in over their heads.  But then, isn't that the state of any
hero?"
	Chris chuckled.  "Probably.  It's not that they're incapable.  But
they're YOUNG.  I promised I'd find a safer place for them to stay.  If this
place is a sanctuary as you say, it might fit."
	The witch's brother shrugged.  "The only rule I have ever insisted upon
is that any child who lives at Ohtori Academy also attend Ohtori Academy."
	"Of course," Chris said flatly.  "However, let me be bluntly honest with
you, Akio.  I'm happy to work with you, but as I said, I know you.  And 
before I
let them in here, I'm going to tell them exactly what sort of school they're
walking into, and who runs it.  In other words, they'll be forewarned.  And 
I'll
be keeping an eye on things, too."
	Her brother spread his hands in mock surrender.  "Then I'll give you my
word, for whatever you feel that may be worth:  I will never speak so much 
as a
single untrue word to our new students."
	The dead creature sighed.  "Well, that'll do.  And thank you for your
help.  I do appreciate it."  He stood up, and his eyes suddenly glanced at 
the
witch before flicking away again.  "As was said before, however, it's late.  
I
should leave you two and prepare to bring them in in the morning, I think."
	"I'm certain you'll have entertaining stories for us when you return!"
the witch said brightly.
	Chris looked at her for a long moment, then looked away again.
"Hopefully."
	The witch watched the blind, pathetically self-important creature leave
with a blank, innocent smile.  She hated him.  But not, in the final 
measure,
any more than she did anyone else.
	Except that he had almost, for a moment, given her hope.
	But she would forget that too, with time.
	The door closed behind Chris, and he travelled down and away.
	"An interesting turn of events, isn't it, Anthy?"
	She turned around.  Her brother was still sitting on the couch.  His
shirt had come undone at some point.  "If you say so, brother," she said
sweetly, her eyes boiling in their sockets.
	"Come here, Anthy."
	The shutters of the planetarium slid closed.

*


	Eudial must have sensed something was amiss the moment she stepped into
the lab, because her body froze up like the proverbial rabbit in the shadow 
of
the hawk. She twisted one way, and then the other, looking through the gloom 
and
smoke for any signs of what could be there. But she didn't see anything 
wrong,
so she stepped forward anyway. The door closed behind her with the sound of
finality.
	She was still injured. Her arm was in a cast, and she was using a crutch
to hobble along. Telulu sneered. A part of her wanted to strike down the 
little
pest now. But the far more practical part of her avoided that line of 
thinking.
	"Eudial, it's good you returned so promptly," Telulu said from beyond
the safety of the mists. "I have a job for you."
	"Telulu?" Eudial asked slowly. She narrowed her eyes and gazed into the
darkness. With one hand, she adjusted her glasses. Telulu's sneer turned 
into a
smile and she stepped out of the fog. "Where is the Professor?" Eudial asked 
as
soon as she could see Telulu clearly.
	"He's dead," Telulu replied simply.
	"What?" the other Witch gasped.
	"I had no more need of him or his pathetic failure of a plan," Telulu
informed her new assistant as she removed her glasses. She breathed on the
lenses and carefully wiped them off on the edge of her labcoat. "I am in 
charge
of the Deathbusters now."
	"You... you can't be serious!"
	"Oh, I am." Telulu smiled and raised her fingers. With a single snap,
the mist parted and the towering frame of Valkyrie stepped free of the 
shadows.
The lights gleamed off her body with its sharp angles and dangerous curves. 
"You
see, Professor Tomoe was blind. He couldn't see the war coming. But I can. I 
am
prepared."
	"Daimon..." Eudial said, eyeing the monster warily.
	"Yes, one of the eggs you entrusted to me," Telulu replied. "I must
thank you. They have proven quite useful so far."
	"So..." Eudial's eyes flashed as she glanced at Telulu. "Is this to be
my end as well?"
	"Far from it," Telulu laughed haughtily. "Unlike you, I believe in
converting enemies into my allies." Telulu snapped her fingers again.
	Out of the mist stepped Azuma. She had discarded her human clothes, and
was now wearing a sultrily-cut dress. In her hands was a large metal box.
	"Pleased to meet you, Eudial," the newest Witch said, bowing slightly.
"I am Azuma. I will be working with you from now on."
	"A... convert?" Eudial glared at Telulu. "So, you think to take the
place of the Professor now, is it?"
	"I already have, Eudial," Telulu replied, her smile turning from amused
to predatory in an instant. "Don't you see? I have accomplished in one day 
what
our former master could not in two years!" She raised her hands up high, 
fingers
bent into claws as her head tilted back to stare into the dark, 
mist-shrouded
ceiling. "I can feel it in my breast! The beating heart of a sleeping god!
Enough power to destroy a nation! Enough power to reshape the world in our
image!" Telulu began to laugh, her voice echoing eerily across the cavernous
chamber. "Don't you feel it, Eudial? The beacon that will summon Pharaoh 90 
to
this pathetic world? It is ours... and soon it will be active!"
	"What are you talking about?" Eudial hissed.
	Telulu looked down her nose at the red-haired woman. Her smile became
mocking. "I told you. I found it. The god of this nation. It connects all 
the
living things of this land. It reaches through the roots, you see. They 
stretch
everywhere, a billion tiny channels through the earth. Drawing in the power
around them, transferring it all. Through him, I shall harness the power of 
this
planet. I shall open the path for Pharaoh 90. No need to struggle for the 
Holy
Grail or place our hopes in the hands of a little girl."
	"I don't see any god," Eudial replied softly.
	"He's in here," Azuma explained. "This, my anti-aragami detection
device, is a miracle of chemistry! With it, we can prevent the god's 
servants
from tracking down their master until it is too late."
	"That... looks like a simple lead box..." Eudial said, beads of sweat
forming on her brow.
	"Uh..." Azuma was also sweating. "It's really more complex than that."
	"Valkyrie likes the anti-aragami detection device!" the daimon roared,
her voice echoing across the room. Everyone turned to stare at the creature. 
She
blinked and leaned down next to Azuma. "Valkyrie wonders if she said that
correctly? Valkyrie was told to say that, right?" Azuma sweated some more.
	"I'm so impressed by your little army..." Eudial said, snorting.
	"You should be," Telulu turned around. "Because you are a part of it."
	"What do you need me for?"
	"My god is not yet awake." Telulu held up her curled fingers towards the
sky again. "He must feed to gain his full strength. For that, I shall feed 
him
the souls of his people."
	"Heart crystals?" Eudial asked.
	"Of course," Telulu glanced over her shoulder at her. "I want them. Take
as many as you can. From the homeless, the dregs of society. Capture the 
souls
of those people humanity will not miss. You are now the thing that lurks in 
the
shadows to take them to hell. Take them all. Take them quickly. Quantity 
over
quality is what I want." Telulu paused. "Just do it without attracting the 
wrong
kinds of attention."
	"The wrong kinds of attention?" Eudial replied.
	"Ask Azuma. She actually knows more about your new enemies then I do,
for the moment," Telulu said, chuckling. "Understand that I need your help 
in
this, Eudial. Do a good job, and you will be rewarded with a place by my 
side
when the Silence comes. Turn on me..."
	Valkyrie roared and her fingers snapped forward, transforming into
deadly weapons. "Valkyrie likes killing things!" it informed them all
needlessly. Eudial swallowed.
	"You should know that just because I'm going to be busy bringing about
the end of the world, that doesn't mean I won't be keeping an eye on you,"
Telulu shot over her shoulder just before walking into the darkness.



				To Be Continued...



Author's Notes:


Epsilon: I suppose we have to say something about killing Ran.

Blade: Well, for the love of Dios, I hope David Barbour's happy now.  
Fricking
bloodthirsty reviewers.

Epsilon: Now, now, were it not for the readers comments, not nearly as many
people would die as are going to.

Blade: For instance, next chapter we're gonna kill eight or nine people!  
And
we're not talking second-stringers like Ran!

Epsilon: That's right!  Because next chapter is when we finally start 
crossing
over into Elfen Lied!

Blade: Yeah, baby!  Everyone's gonna get killed and their limbs ripped 
off...
but don't worry!  There'll still be lots of comedy with Akane and her 
prosthetic
limbs!  Also, BANDO!

Epsilon: Bando and Yan!

Blade: One is a bloodthirsty mercenary working for a corporation that deals 
with
genetically modified killing machines that also happen to be cute chicks!

Epsilon: The other is a smartass vampire with chips in his head!

Blade: Together, they fight crime!

Epsilon: Stay tuned for future chapters of the all-new Hybrid Theory!

Blade: "Hybrid Theory... FUCK YEAH!"

Epsilon: But before that, this boring crap with your character!

Blade: Damn straight... wait just a-




	There was something wrong with the cottage.  Even before it came into
view, Chris could tell that.  The traps they (and Pink and Link in 
particular)
had been encountering so often up until that point were conspicuously absent 
in
a large radius around the one-room shack.  Even that, however suspicious,
wouldn't have Chris as certain as he was that something was wrong.  It was 
the
animals. They had not seen any of them, giant or mundane, for several 
minutes of
walking.  Even the constant buzz of insects had faded, leaving them walking 
in
complete silence.
	Chris exchanged a glance with Cologne.  She had obviously noticed
something was very wrong as well.  But for the moment, they stayed silent.  
Not
much point in making a big deal until they knew more - warning Pink was just 
an
invitation for her to loudly call out whatever dared threaten her, anyway.
	Finally the trees broke, and he saw the dwelling.  It looked the same,
as far as his vague memories of the Shinnosuke story arc from the series 
told
him.  A run-down wooden structure, with a traditional ricepaper door and not
much else in the way of notable characteristics.
	His senses prickled, just as Cologne raised her staff sharply.  "There
is a great evil here," the old woman hissed.


		Hybrid Theory Chapter 17: Somewhere I Belong




















































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