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The Earth Princess by Cloud Dreamer

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Beryl studied the photo of a young redheaded girl, her niece. She damned her father for his past machinations even as she assumed his mantle after his untimely death. She suspected that the child was part of the reason he had been assassinated. Not even the fact that he was a distant blood relative of the Earth's ruling family had shielded him in this case. Somehow he'd obtained Royal sperm and had her elder sister artificially inseminated in an effort to unite the Earth line and the Moon Kingdom bloodlines in hopes of somehow creating a Terran Senshi that did not owe allegiance to that bitch Serenity. The toddler had vanished the same day her father had died.

Beryl now had another reason to hate the Moon Kingdom. She wondered what had been done with the young redhead.

Oh, well. Hopefully she'd find out next week. Only time would tell. In the meantime, she had a ball to 'crash' since she didn't have an invitation. She grinned at her refection in the mirror, she knew she couldn't fail, a recent prophecy had proclaimed the emergence of a 'red-headed' ruler of the world of man. She smirked, that was obviously herself.

Setsuna sighed as she reluctantly locked the Time gates. She really didn't want to do this but the coming chaos storm that would herald the beginning of the final events that would ultimately culminate in Crystal Tokyo in another millennium, made the gates unusable and potentially dangerous to her and the gates themselves if she didn't lock it out for the next half century or so. She'd learned this lesson the last time a major chaos storm had come during the end of the Silver Millennium. She'd tried to use the gates then and nearly been killed as a result. By the time she'd recovered enough to look in the gates again, it was all over. She had been ill and grieving for centuries afterwards.

"Oh well," she grumbled to herself, "it's not as if there was anything that could change the path this late in this time-steam." She grinned to herself as she thought about one of the benefits of this event. "Alright! It's time to party since I don't have to guard the gates for awhile."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ami absently studied her computer trying to chase down a couple of stray thoughts; memories, ancient memories of her first life actually.

Bored from watching the other Senshi in their various repetitive activities, (two fighting over a manga, two talking about boy watching, two more snuggling while mama-S just watched 'wisely'), Hotaru wandered over and sat down next to the 'wonder' girl. "Hi Ami, what are you doing?"

Ami shyly smiled at her and replied, "Just trying to define what our relationship with our planets was really like in the old days."

Hotaru sighed; it brought up so many memories. "Ami, mama-Setsuna said I have a lot more of my old memories than most of you." She paused and softly continued; an element of longing in her voice, "We were more than just linked with 'our' planet for our magic. It was dependent on us. Each planet was almost alive and it looked to its Senshi for guidance and protection in exchange for the power it gave us."

"Yes," affirmed Setsuna as she quietly seated herself on the other side of Ami, "That was in fact one of the reasons that Beryl waited until we were all away from our planets at the Lunar Ball when she attacked. Without a scout to guide the planetary responses, each planet was easily overwhelmed and the biosphere destroyed." She sighed, "In a sense that is one of the reasons that the earth survived." Seeing Ami's and Hotaru's confusion she explained. "The earth did not have 'one' senshi; It was linked to hundreds of individuals, the ruling family foremost and many others such as senior monks at temples; in a way they represented a sort of 'hive' mentality that steered the defenses of earth to destroy the dark warriors that Beryl sent to capture the planet." She added quietly, "Of course Beryl also took pains not to cause too much damage to her own home especially since it wasn't part of the Moon kingdom." She sighed regretfully, "Still she did enough damage to plunge the world into barbarianism for almost ten millennia before 'civilization' started to rise again in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China."

Ami thought about it for a few moments then tentatively asked, "You mean having a planetary senshi was actually a liability then?"

Setsuna thought about it for a few moments, it was after all an argument she had raised with herself all those lonely years. "Yes and no. It sort of depends on the individual that assumes that position. If she was knowledgeable, strong and stayed at her post – then it was it was definitely a good solution. But since our focus in the Moon kingdom was more on preserving the Kingdom instead of the planets, then I would have to say 'no', it wasn't the best solution."

Hotaru sighed and then giggled as she recalled some of the more pleasant memories. An introspective expression on her face she softly said, "I remember walking among the sky trees of Saturn." She sighed again and wistfully continued, "Some times all I had to do was 'think' about it and the weather would change to what I wanted it to be."

"Yes," agreed Setsuna, "All of you were so in tune with your planets that they responded almost to your every whim." She smiled and added, "It also made you particularly effective in battles on your planets as well. All of you could command almost instant monster storms and massive earthquakes not to mention incredible lightning strikes."

"But I thought 'lightning' was Sailor Jupiter's providence?" asked Ami.

Setsuna shrugged, "It is, but what I was talking about was the 'planet' itself fighting on your behalf and at your direction."

"Hotaru?" asked Ami, "I don't understand. How did people live on your planet? I mean the pressure and gravity on the surface is just monstrous and even worse on Jupiter."

The youngest scout giggled, "That's just it," she said, "we didn't live on the surface. On both Saturn and Jupiter, we lived on large floating islands high in the atmosphere where the gravity and pressure were tolerable; most of them were as large as continents on Earth; there were a few really huge ones too."

"Yep," interjected Setsuna, "In fact, the 'red spot' on Jupiter is the only major one that survived on that planet. There are a couple of the smaller ones remaining on Saturn as well but because that planet is further away and the islands so much smaller, they haven't been discovered yet." She sighed, "In both cases, the 'planet' managed to preserve your home castle along with a trace of life." She sighed regretfully, "Just plants and a few simple animals, no people," she clarified.

Ami glanced up and noticed that the other six Senshi had silently gathered around and had been listening to the conversation. She turned to Setsuna, "So all of us had a strong link with our planet much like Hotaru was describing?"

Setsuna nodded, "Yes," she sighed, "well sort of. Since you haven't 'stepped' onto your planets in so very long, the link has diminished a lot." She added painfully, "Of course, the fact that some of the planets are completely lifeless now and all of them uninhabited also reduces your power levels as well."

The Senshi silently accepted that information and wondered what they could do about it, if anything.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma glared at the offending clouds that had just dumped their load of water over her. She shook her fist impotently at the sky and hissed, "Damn it, I just wanted to spend one day, one lousy day dry for once." The clouds were immediately swept out of sight and an unseasonably warm wind gently blew in her face as she was haloed in a warm shaft of light. She was stunned by the sudden change. Even more so when several songbirds perched on her arm and began to 'sing' energetically.

Nabiki had been spying on Ranma in hopes of finding some blackmail material but this caused her hair to briefly 'toing' out in shock.

Ami glanced at her computer, a slight frown on her face. 'That's odd,' she thought to herself, 'I wonder what that small strange energy surge was about?'

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Cologne restlessly paced the floor of her bedroom. She didn't need much sleep at her age, but even that was being denied her by her apprehension. Her female intuition, augmented by skills and magics learned over the course of centuries was telling her something big was on the horizon. Then today a brief cryptic note had arrived from their tribe's leading mystic lore-mistress telling her to 'be prepared for duty!'

Cologne was tempted to return home and strangle the old biddy except that it was her own youngest sister that was apparently jerking her chain.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Setsuna sat surrounded by the other Senshi in a lonely park a few months later. They were all transformed and using their powers to watch the shadow that was slowly obscuring the sun.

"It has begun," softly intoned the shrine maiden Rei.

Silent tears traced their way down Usagi's face. "Is there really no way for us to defeat that thing?" she asked. "Not even Crystal Tokyo is worth all the death it will cause."

"Death eventually comes to all," quietly echoed Setsuna. She added, "The only difference is the circumstances in the end. Most have a 'singular' death in that their passing is unrelated to anybody else, but sometimes it is due to small things like regional wars or massive disasters." She whispered, "These cause 'chaos zephyrs' or breezes. But sometimes, once every ten or twenty thousand years or so; there is a 'chaos storm' when a large part of the life on these planets is threatened." Tears dripping, she finished, "And just like when the Silver Millennium fell fifteen thousand years ago, there is nothing any of us can do except to ride out the storm."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Eyes twice their normal size, Ranma was almost glued to the TV screen as he and the Tendou's watched the televised images of events happening so many millions of miles away.

The frenetic commentary only served to emphasize just how ignorant of any solution all the world leaders and 'knowledgeable' experts actually were in the end.

How strange it was that a chance comment by an irreverent social skeptic contained the solution. How fortunate it was that a certain neo princess heard and understood the potential subconsciously, even if it was just grasping at a straw.

Ranma's attention was drawn away from the events on the screen as Kuno entered the Tendou yard yelling, "Foul sorcerer! Now the world knows of thy evil deeds. This day will I smite thee and save the world. Then shall my true loves reward me as I deserve."

A fuming Akane launched him into LEO. "You idiot! You trampled my laundry into the dirt."

Cologne glanced out of her window only long enough to identify an airborne Kuno before returning her attention to the TV screen. She hadn't even opened up the shop today. 'Was this what the warning had been about?' she wondered.

Ukyou had heard Akane's yell and wondered if Ranma had gotten hurt again. She sighed and wondered when Ranma would wise up about the violent girl. She kept a warm smile on her face as she worked frantically. Her TV was on and prominently placed on a counter so it could be seen by all in her shop. Business was booming!

Kodachi grinned as her brother splashed down in Mr. Green Turtle's pond. She watched the battle for a few idle moments before turning off the TV (after all, it did not affect her and therefore was of no concern) and strolling into her garden.

Somewhere . . . Ryouga screamed at the sky, "Ranma, this is your fault too."

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Setsuna stared in disbelief at the headlines a week later. "World's Volcanoes all Blow Within Days of Each Other!"

She shakily read the accompanying article that told how the volcanoes were all spewing incredible amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In fact they were actually starting to counteract the affects of the diminished sunlight.

"I never saw this in the time gates," she quietly said. "What in the world is going on?" She paused and softly repeated, "What in the world . . . it's almost as if Terra is actually responding to guidance."

Hotaru had been a silent witness to this up till now. "Mama-Setsuna, maybe that 'hive' mind for guiding the planet is still working somehow?"

"Maybe," replied the senshi of time, "but this so focused a response usually means that all of them are in agreement. Somehow I don't think that is the case given the confusion that seems to exist worldwide just now."

Usagi grabbed a manga and started to read it while ignoring a fuming Rei. "I wonder if Ami knows anything about it?" she asked as she turned a page while dodging Rei's efforts to retrieve her newest acquisition.

Minako turned to Makoto and softly remarked, "Have you noticed how Rei always seems to leave her newest manga out for Usagi?"

Makoto shrugged then nodded and quietly replied, "Yeah, I think it's really just a game between them anymore."

Ami cocked an eyebrow at M&M before responding to Usagi's comment. "Sorry Usagi, but I haven't seen much that would indicate another senshi. The only thing strange was some random spikes of some unknown power last week." She pulled out her computer and froze as she looked it over.

Haruka noticed and asked, "What's up, Ami?"

Ami gulped and admitted, "Well, I've really been cramming for the University placement exams and this is the first time I've looked at the Mercury computer since that day in the park when we first gathered together to watch this whole situation start." She paused and guiltily added, "The computer is showing some really strong surges of power happening right now, planetary power apparently."

The others all gathered about her as she deftly manipulated keys. She set the computer down on the table as it began projecting a hologram of the globe into the air above it. Ami sighed in relief as the data demonstrated that the power she was talking about was visually shown to be concentrated at the volcanoes. "It looks as if something is causing the earth's planetary power to react, but I see no sign of a senshi."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma fled from both his suitors and enemies, despairing of finding any peace. "Damn it," he yelled hopelessly, "I wish they would just leave me alone." Ukyou heard his words and stopped her pursuit, shocked at the lonely despair in his voice.

Ranma almost fell from the roof as multiple sheets of lighting fell between him and his pursuers. The brief storm included enough rain to change Ryouga, Shampoo and Mousse into their cursed forms while blasting the Kuno duo into temporary oblivion. (Un)Fortunately Akane had seen Ryouga change.

"P-chan no hentai!" the tomboy screamed and malleted the lost piglet out of sight. She glared balefully at Ranma; torn between apologizing to him for all the times she'd blamed him for picking on P-chan or Ryouga; or blaming him for failing to tell her clearly about Ryouga's curse.

Ranma fled onward, "I just want ta have a nice peaceful day. Is that too much ta ask?" A bit later he dropped into a previously unvisited park and was startled at just how pretty and peaceful it seemed to be. He thought it was odd that even the local folk seemed amazed by the park as well, but he dismissed it from immediate consideration.

Ranma happily picked a dozen apples from a tree in the park and quickly finished his snack not even realizing that normally apples aren't found on trees in early spring.

As Ranma relaxed in a hidden part of the city park, he was surprised as dozens of small animals approached him. Several squirrels dropped nuts at his feet and even gave a jerky semblance of a bow to him as they left.

Ranma was really puzzled though it somehow reminded him of that weird American movie about a girl and some dwarves that Nabiki had made him watch last month.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

The inner Senshi had met together more for 'old times' sake rather than any problem. Within a decade they would have to take refuge from the advancing sheets of ice as the world fell into another ice age, but for now, they were just another gaggle of school girls enjoying a spring day.

The hair on all five Senshi almost stood out straight from their heads as they felt the surge of unfamiliar planetary power. They watched in awe as the grass visibly greened and grew, trees leafed out and flowers sprung from the soil, budded and opened into blossoms in mere minutes.

Ami's eyes were almost bugging out of her head as she checked the power levels surrounding them via the Mercury computer. She gulped audibly, "The planetary power level in this area is almost as strong as the silver crystal," she squeaked.

Meanwhile, Minako and Makoto were both dreamily staring at a dark haired boy wearing a pigtail as he harvested apples from a tree; apples that hadn't been there ten minutes ago.

Setsuna sat next to Usagi at the emergency meeting at Rei's temple three hours later. The other's looked to her for the explanation to the events Ami had just described at the park.

"It can't be," she muttered, "It can't be. I would have seen it from the gates."

"What!" yelled the ever impatient and frequently angry Rei. She gulped as Setsuna cocked a cold eyebrow at her, "Sorry," Rei offered.

Surprisingly it was Hotaru who guessed the cause, "Terra has a scout now doesn't it. That's why the earth is reacting so strongly to the threat." A frown creased her petite cute face. "How is that? Since the earth was never part of the Silver Millennium, there was also never a scout for the planet. What happened to cause one?"

"Beryl," sighed Setsuna uncertainly.

"Beryl!" yelped the others.

Ami took up the line of questioning, "Beryl is dead and she never had anything to do with a Sailor Earth unless there is something you haven't told us yet."

Massaging her temples, Setsuna ignored them and absently continued, "Beryl and her line were all carriers of incredible amounts of chaos energy. It made her and her kin almost impossible to track. It was one of the reasons that the Earth Ruling family was able to resist the Moon kingdom for so many years. Even they had a fair share of it. Not as strong as Beryl and her family, but enough to foul up the time gates and any other tracking means."

Setsuna turned to Ami and said, "Ami, enter into the archive protocols of your computer please." When Ami indicated she was there, Setsuna directed her, "Ami, open the file named 'Earth-Princess', encryption code, 'Serenity-sister'."

The other Senshi gathered behind Ami as she slowly (for her) read through the file. Usagi blanched, "I have a 'half-sister' who is also Beryl's niece." She swallowed and added almost in a wail, "My mom's security staff kidnapped her and killed her grandfather too! No wonder Beryl was so mad at the Queen!"

"Actually," inserted Setsuna, "Beryl had already made all her plans before she even found out about this. Queen Serenity's security chief tried to take custody of the little girl only a week before Beryl attacked."

"Why would he try steal a little girl?" asked Minako confusedly.

"She," absently corrected Setsuna, "The chief of Security for the Moon Kingdom was a woman, Usagi's distant cousin on her father's side in fact. When the Queen found out what she'd done, Queen Serenity fired her." Setsuna grimaced, "It really sucked that this all came about less than a week before Beryl attacked."

"But why?" repeated Minako.

Chiba stepped from the shadows where he'd been for the past few minutes. "Because she was potentially not only the first Senshi of Earth, but also because of that power and her blood link to both the Terran ruling family and the Moon kingdom, she could have probably claimed the right to rule the Earth as well. That made her a threat to my family and because she was potentially a Senshi unbound to the Moon Kingdom she was also a threat to them." He paused and added, "If Beryl had managed to 'keep' her niece, she would have had a powerful tool to block my impending marriage to Usagi back then. She may have even been able to claim the earth as regent and the Moon kingdom would have been powerless to prevent her." He sighed, "I recall overhearing dad accepting Queen Serenity's apology for the assassination of his distant cousin despite the 'crime' he'd committed against her by creating the little girl."

"What happened to her?" asked Makoto softly.

Ami answered, "I found a follow up file. It indicates that she was put in the custody of a group of warriors sworn to the service of the Earth dynasty." She paused and added, "It says that Queen Serenity wanted the girl on the moon but King Endymion refused her. He placed her under the guardianship of," she paused in disbelief, "a group of Amazons?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma-chan sleepily rubbed her eyes as she softly padded her way into the bathroom at the Tendou home. It was just dawn but she was unable to sleep in much any more despite her ole man having been drug back home by his wife. She grinned as she recalled the look of sheer terror on the old fart's face as Nodoka mumbled about 'getting a job & chores to do & . . .' while pulling Genma behind her by the ear. She sighed as she sort of wished she could have gone with her folks but Soun just wouldn't hear of it. Besides it would have meant changing schools in the middle of the school term so maybe it was better the way it was; . . . maybe.

Ranma-chan carefully checked to make sure the furo area was empty before she entered. She not only placed the 'occupied' sign in place but blocked the door 'locked' using a short piece of broom handle that she dropped into the tracks of the sliding door. It was perhaps excessive, but it had prevented Akane from walking in on him at least a dozen times since he'd started doing it.

Ranma sighed as she thought about Akane. Yesterday Akane had found out about P-chan and Ranma had managed to avoid her so far. It helped that Akane had decided to stay over with some friends for the weekend but that was only delaying the confrontation. Ranma doubted it would allow Akane to cool down; she was probably 'stewing' over her anger instead of just letting it go.

The redhead quickly shed her clothes but stopped short of actually washing up as she glanced in the mirror and spied something out of place. Ranma leaned over the sink to peer into the mirror closer. As she did so she raised her bangs to get a closer look at the golden glowing mark on her forehead. It was a circle cut into four pieces but even as she glared at the mark, it faded completely.

Ranma spent the day puzzling out why being a guy felt vaguely 'wrong' and faintly irritating. Both feelings vanished when he became a girl. He experimented with his kata and found that his skills in both forms were not affected but were instead slightly augmented more than he could explain. It bothered him that the effect was more pronounced for his female form.

Ranma sat on the roof absently staring upward at the stars and still hiding from Akane – one could never tell when she'd show up. Once again he was trying to puzzle out just where that surge of energy came from that enabled him to defeat Saffron. In his desperation of the moment, he had reached deep within himself for the extra power. He had failed to find it there and had almost despaired until a welcoming surge of energy outside of himself had answered his desperate call.

Still puzzling it out, he slowly drifted off to sleep in warm spring night. He didn't notice the whirlwind that lifted a blanket from a neighbor's clothesline and gently draped it over him.

Ranma dreamed, but this time it was not about cats or food or Kuno offering roses. No, this time he met himself, well sort of.

Ranma glanced around himself. He was sure it was a dream, an unusual dream in that it was a flower covered meadow in bright sunlight with only a few majestic clouds in the sky for contrast and texture. He saw the redheaded girl lying in the flowers and almost sullenly walked over to her.

"Alright 'Ranko', what is it now?" he almost snarled. Ranma had met her several times in his dreams in the recent months since tangling with Saffron.

She looked up at him and softly replied, "I finally remembered."

He arched an eyebrow, copying a technique Nabiki often used on him. She giggled so he continued; "Did you remember whom you were when you drowned?"

"I never drowned," she softly replied, "I'm just the sum of all your previous reincarnations." Seeing the confusion on his face she explained, "Normally 'I' would only meet you after you had died, well, what would have really happened is that you would just remember me and your life would just sort of get 'tacked-on' to what I am or was or whatever." She sighed and laid back in the grass and flowers again before adding, "Three things happened though. The first was you fell into a cursed spring. This established a sort of link to the realm of the dead in a passive sort of way," she paused and added, "Normally that wouldn't have made much difference except you fell into the spring of drowned girl." She looked into his eyes and grinned, "Which is what 'I' just happen to be, a girl." She smirked as his obvious discomfort before continuing. "The second was when you battled Saffron, you called for help and you were answered. The being who helped you then now needs your help desperately and is asking, almost demanding or pleading for your help." She paused again and softly finished, "And lastly, this is the destiny our soul was created for."

Ranma's eyes narrowed, "I ain't gonna be a girl."

"I never said that," she replied.

"Don't believe I ever was a girl either," he added belligerently.

"Tough," she casually answered, "what you believe has no bearing on the truth. In fact, this is only the second time you've been a boy in all of your previous reincarnations."

Ranma grumped but was otherwise silent.

"Tell me Ranma," she asked softly, "what would you be willing to do or give up in order to save four billion lives including the lives of everyone you know?"

Ranma stared in silent shock at her for a moment before the number she cited made a connection for him. "You're talking about what's happening to the sun and the world ain't ya?" he asked pensively.

She nodded. She patted the earth beside her and said, "The earth is alive. Not just with all the creatures that live on it, but the world itself is alive. Not alive in the way we are, but alive nonetheless. 'She' is feminine and glories in the life she supports. She gave you the power to succeed when you asked. Now she is in trouble and needs a guide and champion." She looked up at Ranma, "It's you or nobody, since there isn't enough time to find somebody else who is both strong enough and has the necessary link to this planet's life-force." She softly reaffirmed, "She needs help, your help; or a lot of folks are gonna die."

It took Ranma a long time to wipe the tears from his eyes as he woke in the middle of the night. He sat there the rest of the night wondering how his life was going to change. He understood that he did not have a choice as honor and duty were a part of his soul and mere macho pride was not enough to cause him to deny a part of his very being.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Neptune used her deep aqua mirror and tried to focus on the problem. It didn't help that her lover Uranus was eagerly peering over her shoulder.

Sensing her lover's growing frustration, Uranus quickly backed off.

Neptune relaxed a bit and focused more strongly on the task at hand. 'A redheaded Japanese girl!' she realized. That seemed to be the root of the problem. She grumbled as the mirror refused to show more and merely repeated the image every time she asked it any question relating to Terra.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Akane finally caught up with Ranma after dinner that Sunday evening. Ranma had been considering all the various scenarios and had even tentatively decided on a few possible response options.

Akane confronted Ranma in the yard as he was stretching out and glared at him before finally declaring, "You put your own honor before mine. It just proves what I've been saying all along. I can't trust you." She huffed self-righteously, "We are not engaged; there is no way I could ever love or marry an untrustworthy pervert like you."

Ranma was stunned for the moment; then unfamiliar anger surged upward. He fought it to a standstill so that the only evidence of it was his wildly fluctuating aura. Still it was enough to shock all that saw it. All of them stepped back; Akane slipped in the suddenly wet grass and slid several feet into the koi pond. Her feet slipped into a hole in the muddy bottom and suddenly she was in neck deep water in a pond that was barely a meter deep.

Suddenly suspecting a bit of what was happening, Ranma reined in his anger and watched as Nabiki and Kasumi pulled the now frightened Akane out of the water. Ranma fatalistically shrugged his shoulders in understanding before softly answering, his anger obviously held in check, "Alright, Akane; you've broken the honor agreement between our clans for the last time. Because of the cir . . . er . . . circumstances, I guess part of the blame is mine; so no honor is lost by either family." Ranma bowed low to each of the Tendous in turn before concluding a bit sadly, "I will leave now forever." He paused and then added, "You know, both my dad and yours also knew of Ryouga's curse as well but said nothing. It appears that neither of them cared at all for your honor or the engagement since they allowed the pig to sleep with you." He added, "I at least had the excuse of having given my word not to say anything." With that he jumped into the second story window of the guestroom he'd been staying in the past year. He quickly packed using all the speed with which he was capable. He invoked the umi sen ken technique and vanished out of the Tendou home, unseen out the window, over the roof and the back wall. It was several blocks later before he released the technique.

Ranma made his way toward his recently rebuilt childhood home and when the rain started misting, she merely adjusted the straps of her pack to a more comfortable position, glad for once that she didn't have to conceal the tears.

That evening, Akane watched the rain from her bedroom window; absently wiping her eyes every once in a while. She murmured, "Baka, you weren't supposed to do that." Maybe she knew who 'baka' really was, maybe not. It no longer mattered.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Minako watched the muscular boy with the pigtail as he bowed to the class. It was unusual for someone to transfer into Juuban high school with only two months left in the term but once they heard he was transferring from Furinkan, it made complete sense. Nobody really wanted to spend time in that school.

The love-struck girl shortly joined Usagi in the hall again. She wasn't late this time like her friend; she just hadn't noticed anything else after Ranma had appeared until the eraser had bounced off her head. Fortunately the schools used 'dry-erase' boards now else her face would have been covered with chalk dust. On the other hand, that might have hidden her embarrassed blush.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Genma glared at Ranma as she demurely sat at the table in a dress listening to her mother explain the intricacies of the tea ceremony with respect to various cultural situations.

Nodoka had decided that Ranma was both a man and a woman and was training Ranma to function socially as both.

He snorted disgustedly, she'd even put an end to the food fight speed training. Genma grumbled at the food he'd been missing as a result. Few realized it but Genma rarely targeted just Ranma's bowl for his food thefts. During all the time at the Tendous, Ranma had been handicapped by having to defend not only his own food but the Tendous' as well. Ranma was good but not that good, Genma had always come out a bit ahead.

Genma dumped a glass of water over his head before his grumbling got him in trouble, or even worse, on a diet, again. It didn't help when Ranma saucily winked at him.

Little did he know that the 'girls' were conspiring to annoy him as much as they could. It was the main driving force for Ranma to dress and act this way. Well, learning this was important to Nodoka made it important to Ranma-chan as well in this case too.

Genma continued to grumble softly to himself in Pandaese, 'I almost wish the master had taken me with him on his trip to see the 'Miss America Pageant' in person.'

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Sailors Uranus and Neptune stood frustrated before their princess and future queen. Usagi glared at the two of them as she said, "So you think we should hunt down somebody who may be my reincarnated half sister and who may be the senshi of this planet and 'kill' her just because it gives you a warm fuzzy?"

The two outers gulped audibly as they reconsidered their words briefly. It was obviously not long enough as Haruka snapped out, "Nothing must be allowed to interfere with Crystal Tokyo. If she is an obstacle then . . ." She paused in consternation as Usagi transformed into her Eternal form, gossamer wings framing her fuming form.

"If that is the way you feel, then perhaps I can help you resolve those feelings," she offered sweetly. "After all, if you were no longer a senshi, I'm sure it would no longer be a concern of yours," she added brightly. Her smile was brittle though as she continued, "The two of you have the dubious 'honor' of being the only senshi to have ever attacked me or killed another senshi. I'm sure it won't be too difficult to find 'better' replacements for the two of you."

The two outer senshi powered down and knelt before her. "I'm sorry," they said in unison, voices trembling in anxiety. They had never before considered the idea of being stripped of their powers and it suddenly made them eager to please their future Queen.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki cornered Ranma as he casually practiced early one Sunday afternoon in a park midway between their homes. "Ranma, you still owe me for when you and your dad were staying at the Tendou Dojo."

Uncharacteristically, all Ranma did was cock an eyebrow at her and merely continue his cooling down kata.

A little disconcerted and irritated because of it, Nabiki hissed, "Pay attention to me when I'm talking to you."

Ranma kept on with his measured movements but responded nonetheless, "You are right. I do owe you. You ought to thank the kami that my honor is all that keeps me from giving you all the payback I truly do owe you."

Nabiki blanched as she realized that the distance between Ranma and the Tendous was much wider than she realized. Getting him back with Akane might not be possible she decided. Still . . . she shrugged and continued, "Ranma, is that any way to talk to your fiancée?"

She grinned as he stumbled.

"Ah not again," mumbled Ranma halfheartedly.

"Yep," sighed Nabiki, her eyes glistening as she clasped her hands in front of her in feigned girlish excitement.

"Yeah, right!" retorted Ranma, "I remember your lies and schemes last time and don't want any part of it again."

Ranma froze in place as his danger sense pegged momentarily. He glanced around before noticing Nabiki's glare. She softly said in a voice edged with steel: "I NEVER lie, Saotome. You might not understand what I said, you might jump to the wrong conclusions because you only have part of the story, but I never lie."

Ranma's eyes narrowed sharply. He'd had time to rehash memories recently and there were a few concerning her that he'd just get clarified now and prove her last statement wrong. "Oh really Tendou," he began casually. "So just what did I miss when you told me that 'you loved me' the first time we were engaged." He grimaced for the need to do this as he actually liked the girl and even somewhat respected her for keeping her family fed even if he didn't appreciate her methods. "Tell me, were you lying then or did I somehow misunderstand that you meant that you loved me as a cash cow or maybe as a comedy routine or something else?"

She froze in consternation. She tried glaring at him but the tears kept interfering; finally she just turned away. She took a dozen steps before she softly said over her shoulder, "Maybe all that you missed was the obvious."

Ranma watched her walk out of sight. He turned the conversation over in his mind a few times. There was one possible conclusion he could make if he took all of Nabiki's comments into consideration. "Nah, that's not possible," he said to himself and decided to forget the whole matter.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Makoto watched in awe as Ranma's speed increased to such a level that he was beginning to leave afterimages. She had found Ranma in the school gym after school doing some of his daily kata. Makoto had stumbled onto him while waiting for Usagi and Minako to get out of detention.

She sighed and wistfully wondered, "I hope he gives lessons." Lessons in what was left to the viewer's imagination.

Unfortunately, she like the other girls at this school before her found that Ranma was somewhat brusque in how he offhandedly ignored her attempts to 'claim' him; or perhaps he was merely clueless. The results were the same.

Ranma had gotten splashed a couple of times but rather than explain it, he had simply invoked his fathers hidden thief method and vanished before anybody realized that he had changed. When questioned, his response was to shrug and explain that what they thought they saw was an illusion based on a secret advanced martial arts technique.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma was frustrated; he'd tried for several weeks to make headway on his most recent problem without results. Finally he'd decided to ask the person with the most magical knowledge he knew. Then Mousse had splashed him just as he'd walked into the Cat Café. In irritation, she'd flared her aura and things had suddenly taken a turn for the strange even for his life. It all began when she'd noticed the sigil on her head again in a mirror on the café wall and pointed the sigil out to the old ghoul.

Cologne stared with astonishment at the glowing mark on Ranma's forehead for only a moment before dropping off her stick and onto to her knees before the redhead.

When Shampoo and Mousse hesitated, the crone quickly knocked their feet from under them with her staff. She glared at them and hissed, "Look at her forehead and remember our tribe's greatest duty."

"Aiaya," softly moaned Shampoo as she studied the glowing mark. Tears in her eyes, she also took her place by Cologne's side on her knees as well.

Mousse hesitantly followed her lead but before Ranma could ask anything, Cologne eagerly asked, "Your highness, how may these Amazons serve the Princess of the Earth, and eternal Queen of the Amazons?"

At her words, Mousse glanced up in sudden understanding, a slight smile on his face at first until he recalled other details of the prophecy related to this duty.

"I don't understand," hesitantly started Ranma. She pointed to her forehead where the mark had now faded, "How does this dumb mark make me a . . . (she shuddered) . . . a Princess?" She hesitantly protested, "I'm a guy, not a girl."

Surprisingly to all it was Shampoo who responded. She rose to her feet and gently embraced the redhead. "You is you, but you is more than you know."

Ranma froze momentarily before relaxing as she realized it was a genuine hug instead of a glomp. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shampoo released the hug and led the neo girl to a table where she urged Ranma to sit before she seated herself opposite her. Shampoo glanced at Cologne and Mousse and then stated softly yet authoritatively in her native tongue, "By the words of ancient prophecy, I am shield maiden and guardian of Princess."

Mousse thought a moment before nodding.

Cologne sighed and then added as she also sat in the booth, "The kiss of marriage and the kiss of death is not binding on her or you." She then caught Shampoo's eye and warned, "Your honor is fully restored, but it is now her honor. Your life is hers. Your future is hers. Fail her in any way and death will be the least of your worries."

Shampoo gulped audibly and nodded. "Mousse," she directed, "put closed sign in window and fetch meal for ari . . ." she paused and then softly continued, "Ranma."

"So . . . Ranma," continued Cologne, "how may I help you?"

Ranma nervously picked up the hot tea before Cologne and poured it over her head. He hesitated then visibly forged onward, "I gotta remember."

"Remember?" the elder asked.

"Yeah," confirmed Ranma, "I sort of had a talk with the 'spirit' of my reincarnations and she said I had to remember if I was gonna be able to save the world."

"You!" interjected Mousse in shock, "You are the one that started all those volcanoes, aren't you?"

"No, well, sorta," answered Ranma uncertainly. "I mean, I think it happened because I kinda thought it was a good idea. But I didn't know that it would happen then."

Cologne shook her head regretfully, "I'm sorry Ranma," she said. "What you ask about remembering your past lives is not possible."

Ranma sat there before shrugging, "Yeah, that's what I said too. I mean there was no way I was gonna remember being a girl. Even if 'Ranko' said that because of my curse, she and Gaea could do it if I really tried to do it."

"Ranko?" asked Shampoo in confusion.

"Gaea!" whispered Cologne apprehensively.

"Huh" responded Ranma before continuing, "Ah, Ranko was the name I gave to the girl that visits me in my dreams recently. She says she's not my curse but an as . . ." Ranma paused obviously searching for the right word, "aspect of my past lives." He added, "She said the curse let me talk with her. She also said that the world was alive and was called Gaea."

"What else did she say about 'Gaea', Ranma?" hoarsely asked Cologne.

Surprised, the three youths glanced at the elder Amazon and then Ranma responded, "She said that Gaea was the name of the earth itself. Gaea was alive and had the aspect of a mother for 'she' gloried in the life she bore. Gaea also needed my help desperately to save the life on the earth." Ranma softly said, "I am supposed to be her Guardian." He paused and then added, "I don't believe it, but Ranko said I was 'created' as a girl and I was always supposed to be this Guardian whatever. I don't believe it, but I can't take the chance that I might be wrong. So I gotta try to do what Ranko said and remember how to be a Guardian or else a lot of people are gonna die." Ranma gulped and added softly, "I ain't a girl. I just know it, but maybe I can do part of this stuff anyway. But first I gotta try to remember the Guardian stuff if I can. If that don't work then I gotta try something else until I find a way."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ami glanced at the results of the climatic model she had just run on the Mercury computer. She turned to the other Senshi, "I just ran a simulation on the weather patterns. The onset of the ice age is delayed by maybe a hundred years, but it's still on the way. It won't be quite as severe, but there are going to be other problems instead."

Rei shuddered and asked, "Tell me that world wide flooding isn't one of them?" Seeing the questioning looks the others gave her she clarified, "I did a fire reading last night." She hesitated and added, "What I saw scared me."

"Sorry," responded Ami. "The greenhouse affect is initially going to cause an increase in the earth's overall temperature. Because of the way it's happening the effect will be to cause the whole world to become temperate instead just a slight increase everywhere."

Seeing the confusion on the other faces including that of Setsuna, Ami explained, "One model for global warming has temperatures rising a little everywhere, meaning the equatorial deserts are a little hotter and the poles a little warmer also. But the model the Mercury computer uses has the equatorial regions actually becoming cooler as air and ocean currents move vast amounts of heat from the equator to the poles. In short the whole world is warm or temperate just like when the dinosaurs roamed the world." She paused and softly said, "That means that all the ice at the poles and Greenland melts and sea levels rise almost twenty meters in the next ten years."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma was on a short training trip; this time to an old shrine just on the edge of Juuban ward. Cologne had said it was reputed to have a secret technique that might help Ranma remember some of his past lives. No one had been able to confirm this rumor though so Ranma didn't have his hopes very high in this regard.

Just as Ranma was about to enter the outer temple grounds, he heard a roar. It was interspersed with the screams of frightened people. Ranma quickly raced toward it and was stunned to see what had to be a youma. Ranma had heard of them and had even seen the images on TV, but that was over a year ago. Ranma peered at it and was surprised that it seemed to be an animated statue of an animalistic female kami or something. It was trashing the series of small shops before the Tori of the temple.

Ranma braced himself and prepared to attack it. Before he could move though, it saw him and tossed an entire aquarium of goldfish at him. Ranma dithered between dodging the water or catching the aquarium, in the end he opted to catch the tank. He caught it and set it safely on the ground but not without being splashed as a result.

The youma froze as it gazed on the fuming redhead. It felt a weak connection to its mistress from the girl who faintly resembled her.

Ranma froze in turn as the statuesque youma knelt and bowed to her, arms outstretched in a semblance of asking for something.

Ranma cautiously approached the subservient youma. She was on guard as she circled it, but the dark chaotic creature made no threatening moves at all. Finally, Ranma had enough and sharply asked, "Why did ya do all this bad stuff?"

The youma looked up, an expression of surprise on its stony face. It gestured to the damaged shops questioningly.

Ranma nodded and then explained, "It ain't nice to do this stuff. It's why alla the people scream and run from you. It's also why the senshi kicked the butts of your friends."

The youma scratched 'her' head and then shrugged her shoulders in an obviously questioning manner.

Ranma was confused yet on some level felt a faint connection to the creature. She sighed and then gestured to the shops at the temple entrance, "If ya wanta make up for it, then help fix up the stuff you broke." She paused and then added, "After you're done, then maybe you can help out at the temple."

The youma slowly stood and then bowed to Ranma before she began to repair the damaged shops. At first the shop owners stared in disbelief, but as the creature continued to work, they also began to pick up their scattered wares, taking care to keep a wary distance from the creature.

The senior monk of the temple had been a witness to this scene as he had come with wards to try and protect his neighbors. He fixed the redhead with a stern gaze and asked, "How is it that you can command creatures of darkness young lady? Are you in league with them?"

Ranma was a bit upset as she stalked toward the monk. First he had called her a 'lady', as if! Then he had the gall to question her honor as well.

She stood nose to chin with the aged monk who towered over her despite being a bit stooped with age. She looked up into his glasses and saw her reflection. It was the reflection of a redheaded girl she noted and half her frustration reluctantly melted away. "I ain't in league with no dark creatures, but I don't kill nobody 'less'n it's my only choice. It surrendered and accepted doing the right thing to make up for what it done so it ain't right to hurt it now."

She glanced at the wards in the monk's hands, "What cha got there?"

The monk slyly smiled to himself and handed the anti-evil wards to the girl, "Here take a look at them for yourself." He halfway expected them to destroy the girl but on another level was not surprised when she merely looked them over quietly before handing them back without comment or harm.

He thought his subterfuge had gone undetected until she murmured, "For the several insults you have offered me, you owe me."

He nodded slightly.

"Alla you monks and priests are always spouting about people changing for the good" Ranma stated. Ranma pointed to the youma and continued, "I want you to take care of her, give her good work to do, teach her the right stuff and protect her."

The monk's face froze in outrage, outrage that did not diminish when Ranma added, "Or is all the stuff you say mere window dressing without any truth?" The outrage remained but changed into an acceptance of a challenge to show that the temple could 'do' as it also taught.

"Very well," stiffly responded the monk, "introduce me to the new temple gardener."

Ranma did so.

A bit later, Ranma sat sipping tea across a short table from the senior monk and the other two monks at this obscure temple as they all watched the new gardener at work in the rather extensive and overgrown grounds of the nearly abandoned temple.

"So Ranma," finally asked the senior monk, "what was it that brought you to this obscure temple?"

Ranma hesitated on how to ask this, finally she said; "I've been chosen to be the Guardian of Gaea, our mother earth. But to do my task, I need to remember my past life when I once before held this job since there is not now time enough for me to learn what I need to know if I am to save the peoples of the world." She paused as she continued to watch the former youma hard at work. "I gotta remember or a lot of people are gonna die," she softly added. "I heard that there might be an ancient technique here at this temple that might help."

All three monks stiffly stared in obvious disbelief at her. One of the other monks glared at her, glanced at the youma working in the yard and then said, "We have heard many tales designed to convince us that their cause is worthy and we should assist in restoring past reincarnations to power. But this is preposterous. You expect us to believe the mere words of someone who is surely the mistress of an evil creature. There is no way we will help an even greater evil to return."

Fuming, Ranma nonetheless held her anger in check and sibilantly asked, "Then does that mean you DO have the means to restore my past memories?"

Before either of the other two monks could respond, the senior monk held his hand up, gesturing them to silence. He guardedly responded, "We do know part of a technique. But without confirmation of your claims, we will say no more."

Ranma sat there quietly sipping her tea and wondering what to do next. On one hand, she really didn't want to do this. No way was she interested in remembering being a girl. But on the other hand, this was the path of honor and duty, her chosen life path, no matter how hard or what it required of her or the sacrifices of pride it required. She softly sighed as she started to analyze the matter. It was obvious that force was not the answer. As she probed her recent memories with a new understanding, a line of approach occurred to her.

She rose to her feet and walked into the dusty yard, gesturing the monks to follow her. She sat on the sparse grass at their feet as they stood before her. "Gaea," she softly said, "is the mother earth; all life is important to her. To her, the only monsters are those that destroy life without cause or need." Ranma pointed at the youma, "That could be a monster." She pointed at the monks and said, "Just as you could also be one." Forestalling their protests she clarified, "It depends on what you do, not what or who you are."

Ranma looked deep inside herself. This time she found the faint trace of the power that had helped her win against Saffron; she embraced it and putting her heart into her desire pushed it into the link as she said to the monks, "Experience the power of Gaea, know that she glories in life above all else."

Ranma was not sure what was going to happen, but even she was surprised when the ground faintly trembled. A few moments later the gentle splashing of water heralded the rebirth of a long dried up fountain as a spring flowed once more. Distracted by the sound and sight of the fountain, it was a few moments before they noticed the surrounding trees gradually swelling to twice their height. Those that bore blossoms in season quickly blossomed again. The yard was no longer a dusty sparse green, the long lush grass was obscured by a colorful patchwork of blossoming wildflowers and herbs, many rare and a few believed extinct.

The monks froze as an old bear ambled out of the surrounding trees and came up to Ranma. The bear whined and nuzzled Ranma's hand entreating a petting.

Ranma-chan sighed, then hugged the bear and told him to go back to his home. The monks watched spell bound as the bear waddled a short distance away before awkwardly rising to its hind feet and jerkily bowing to Ranma before disappearing into the trees again.

Unnoticed behind them, the youma froze in shock as she stared wonderingly at her hands as the stone skin flaked off. She shivered and a shower of stone dust gathered at her feet as her stone skin was replaced with living tissue that looked much like her original skin but proved that she really was a living being now. The youma stared in awe at her mistress, unforced devotion plainly evident on her face but unnoticed by the others.

Ranma stretched and asked, "I'm a bit stressed out, do ya mind if I relax in your hot springs before I leave?"

"We don't have any hot springs. There was a small one a long time ago but it's dead now," the heretofore silent third monk responded with a stunned stutter.

Ranma hesitantly scratched her neck and asked, "What's causing all that steam then? Sure smells like a hot spring," she added.

The senior monk bowed low to her. "I will show you the way to the hot springs." He gestured to the other monks; "One will fetch you a robe and towels while the other gathers the scrolls of the technique you seek." The other two monks also bowed low and quickly left to do their assigned tasks. Ranma had ended up reluctantly explaining the curse as well. He figured that if he was going to have to work with them, then it was going to come up one way or another.

The elder monk had only nodded and commented, "That explains why your aura is so balanced, neither predominantly male nor female."

Ranma cocked an eyebrow and queried, "You can see auras? Does that mean you are a martial artist?"

The old man shook his head in denial, "No, neither I nor the other monks are warriors; but we have studied the ways of the spirit world instead that we may help those who are troubled, especially if the troubles are from other spirits."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Rei noticed the puzzled look on Ami's face and decided to ignore Usagi for the moment. "Hey Ami, what's up?"

Ami looked up and briefly smiled, "Well for a little bit, I thought I had detected the faint trace of a dark kingdom creature just on the edge of detection. I set my computer to scan for it and just as it was starting to refine its location, it disappeared!" She paused and added, "There was also some other momentary spike of that other power like we saw at the park but there was also a burst of chaos with it so I lost all the signals because of it."

Makoto absently cracked her knuckles as she eagerly asked, "Any chance of finding where the youma went?" She sighed and added wistfully, "Kami, it has been a long time since I've had a chance to trash something."

The others merely 'sweat-dropped' in silence.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Cologne had summoned two lore mistresses from the tribe with the urgent and cryptic message, "Earth Princess found, Amazon Queen Regent summons you now."

The two lore mistresses had arrived with a guard of twenty of the best of the Amazon warriors. Cologne and Ranma had met them outside of Nerima and all the Amazons had promptly knelt upon seeing the glowing golden sigil on Ranma's forehead. The rush of Gaea's life energy that had surrounded Ranma at that point had only confirmed her identity in their eyes.

Ranma introduced the Amazon elders to the monks she'd befriended though the three gals were a bit leery of the 'tamed' youma at first. The senior monk explained that because the youma unsettled the local folk, she had taken to 'freezing' in place on their roof during the day and doing the gardening at night. They had decided to call her 'Demona'.

The newly arrived Amazons had set up camp on the temple grounds and the three Amazon elders and the monks had spent two months going over each other's respective 'secret' techniques and scrolls. Between them they had devised a technique that they believed might work.

They had tried it yesterday; Ranma had been unconscious upstairs in the new Cat Café just outside the temple grounds up until an hour ago.

Ranma sighed to himself.

Cologne cocked a questioning eyebrow toward him.

"Yeah," he responded, "I remember now. I remember all my past lives. Not as if I 'was' them but rather as if they were movies that I had seen lots of times."

Mousse and Shampoo both sat near him. Mousse offered them both a soda as Shampoo sat the bucket of popcorn between them. "So, what happened?" she asked.

Ranma grimaced, he wasn't sure he wanted to talk but he also realized that not only did he actually need to talk in order to relieve some of the stress but it was unlikely the Amazons would permit him not to tell them either.

"Fourteen," he started off absently. "This is my fourteenth life. The first was as you said; I was the first Queen of the Amazons during the fall of the Silver Millennium kingdom almost fifteen thousand years ago. I, with the help of a few of the surviving advisers from the Earth court managed to save and preserve the Amazon people. It was then that I gained all my Earth Guardian powers as we fought the residue of the dark ones that destroyed the Moon kingdom. My first life was also my longest, lasting almost seven hundred years." He concluded softly, "It seems I average being reborn about once every millennium since then."

"Almost fifteen thousand years," sighed Cologne. Seeing the question on the other's faces she explained, "The Amazons lost most of their history during the 'lost times'. A lot of the old history is now mixed with myths and it has only been the past three thousand years that we've actually got good records anymore."

Mousse thought about what he'd overheard. "So you really are originally a girl," he snickered.

Ranma huffed, then blushed when he realized how feminine the gesture was. "Yeah," he admitted. "This is only the second time I've been born male." A wide grin crossed his face as he added, "But mom would really have liked that first time!" he exulted.

Seeing the curiosity on their faces, Ranma explained, "My second life was as a minor priestess, but then I was reborn into my third life as a barbarian warrior who became a king named . . ." Ranma paused for effect and then said with a wide smile, "Conan!"

Shampoo frowned cutely, "That not funny Ranma! Everybody know 'Conan' made up, not real."

Ranma shrugged, "That's what I thought too until I got my former memories back." He grinned and said, "My last reincarnation was as an English maiden and before that it was as a princess in India but the one before that was as . . ." again he paused for effect.

Cologne sighed and bonked him on the head, "Enough already! Just tell us."

Ranma rubbed his head then grinned as he said, "Xena."

"Nnoo," whispered Mousse to think that his favorite female warrior (after Shampoo of course) was actually Ranma.

"It gets better," grinned Ranma. He waited until the three Amazons were watching him. "Mulan of ancient China actually existed." He paused, "Guess who was my eighth reincarnation?" He asked rhetorically.

Cologne dropped her staff. Take a guess as to who was her favorite 'mythical' hero was?

"Ranma?" asked Shampoo, "You no joke?"

Ranma nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Nah, Shamps; I'm not joking. Beats me how somebody wrote about them though."

Cologne sighed and offered, "It is rumored that the lives of the great ones in history are captured by the 'muses' and retold as stories in later times. Maybe there is some truth to those stories." She grinned and laughing said, "Maybe somewhere, somebody is writing about us!" She sniggered at the stunned expressions on their faces, "Get off it!" she chuckled, "I was only kidding."

Shampoo was still unconvinced. She pouted and told Ranma, "Shampoo no like 'princess' teasing shield-maiden."

Ranma glanced over at her and visibly paused as he was about to say something. He then softly said in ancient Chinese, "Please believe this one, warrior maid. In all of my lives, I was honorable, refusing deceit or murder. A few times I was a barbarian and lived as one; plundering and destroying my enemies. But even then, I was honorable by the code of my people and the times I lived in."

All three Amazons gulped at this undeniable sign that Ranma had been telling them the truth.

"So Ranma," began Cologne, "You apparently remember more than just a little of your former lives I take it?"

Ranma reluctantly nodded, "Yeah, I actually remember all of their lives. I have all of their skills as well." He sighed, "The languages may not be all that useful the further I go back, but the skills might be." He grimaced, "I can use a broadsword like probably no one else in the world anymore and my archery skills were taught to me by Robin Hood himself for all the good that does me now."

Seeing the confusion on their faces, Ranma picked up a metal platter and casually tossed it like a 'Frisbee'. It soared into the kitchen, bounced out of sight a few times before lazily landing before them with a few bread-sticks lying on it. Ranma calmly reached over and picked up several of the snacks as he softly added, "I seem to have even the 'muscle' memory of how to do things as well."

Cologne was silent for a few moments before observing, "It's odd how many of your incarnations played major roles in history or were associated with those that did."

"Karma," hazarded Ranma.

"Maybe, maybe not," responded Cologne. "I think that perhaps your spirit is drawn to the nexus of conflicts and in a rudimentary way you've been used by Gaea each time to bring about a small measure of peace whenever you've appeared."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

"Usagi?" asked Setsuna, "What are we going to do about the Senshi of Terra? What do we do about Crystal Tokyo? I don't know if she prevents it from happening or not. It's possible that this was always meant to be a part of the creation of our future and what's happening now was part of what was hidden from me by both the time gates and my future self."

The blue-eyed blond cocked her head quizzically at the elder senshi. Just as Setsuna expected to hear a ditzy response, Usagi quietly responded, "We've been wrong in the past. Creating an utopist future of our choosing should never have been our goal. Safeguarding whatever future these people created should have been our true goal. Maybe they might have chosen me as Queen then, but unless that becomes our true goal, then none of us are worthy to rule."

Setsuna felt tears in her eyes. She quietly thought to herself, 'yes, this is my Queen. Maybe we really are on the right track after all.'

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma could feel the difference in his link with Gaea while in male form. It was still there, but strained as if it was a 'bad connection' like sometimes happens with telephones. He splashed himself halfheartedly, assuming his cursed form out of duty. Ranma automatically masked his/her aura these days using a combination of techniques learned from Tofu, Happosai and Genma. Ranma had dubbed the passive hybrid technique as the 'Gosunkugi Shadow Form'; when Ranma used it, he remained visible but nobody noticed him and his aura vanished almost completely unless the one looking for it was very skilled. It had the side effect of cutting down on the craziness of his life. Oh weird things still happened about him, but it just somehow seemed to not 'land' on him as much as it did before. It was almost as if his 'do-not-notice-me' technique deflected the chaos to some extent. Of course, his growing rapport with Gaea may have contributed to this as well.

Ranma-chan had reluctantly acquiesced to the necessity of spending most of her time in female form for the next several years as the rebonding with Gaea proceeded. Apparently something called the 'silver crystal' could have made the bond happen almost immediately but Gaea's information on that process indicated that it also enslaved the Guardian to the bearer of the silver crystal. Even a willing slave is still a slave and neither Ranma nor Gaea wanted any part of that.

The redhead remembered how the bonding gradually happened over several decades the first time, but even if she was the same soul, there were sufficient differences that years of time would be required just to renew the old existing bonds that had weakened over the millennia.

Ranma had thought long and hard about concealing what was happening to him from his parents but then recalled the remembered pain of deceiving his mother. Because of that, Ranma had taken his mother aside one day shortly after 'remembering' and explained what was happening to the world and what his part in it was and more importantly what 'her' part would be.

Nodoka had slowly pulled out the seppuku contract that she still carried with her despite having decided that Ranma had fulfilled its demands. She then poured a little water over Ranma before handing her the contract with these few words; "My child honors me." They hugged, simply hugged each other for a long while; thus old bonds are renewed and old hurts soothed.

Ranma reluctantly began the final year of high school but as a girl this time. Fortunately, few of the students connected the new redhead with lonely and bitter martial artist that had shown up during the final months of their junior year. When Ranma's school records had finally shown up from Furinkan, the indicated gender had been 'both'. Resolving the resulting confusion had enabled Ranma-chan to enroll in girl-form after privately demonstrating the curse for the principle who had agreed to keep Ranma's secret. Fortunately, the girl's PE showers were private; unfortunately, Ranma-chan was required to conform to the school dress code.

While Ranma certainly appreciated being free from the attention of the various hopeful girls, she really had problems with the interested boys. Well, briefly anyway; the flash of her aura when the first couple of boys attempted to hit on her quickly taught all interested boys that Ranma was NOT interested.

The aura bit did catch the attention of a few of her classmates but a quick scan with the Mercury computer on the sly convinced Ami that Ranma was not possessed of anything other than an odd ki level. Makoto attributed it to her martial arts training after learning of Ranma's skill. Ami was concerned about the high chaos reading associated with the redhead but it was less than Mamoru's and there were others such as Usagi's friend Naru who also radiated chaos as well so it wasn't exactly unique.

Of the old fiancée brigade, only Ukyou and Nabiki were left. Shortly after the start of school, Ranma-chan met them together in her mother's house. She delayed the confrontation by initiating a formal tea ceremony with only her mother in attendance on the three teen girls.

Seeing the confusion in their faces as the ceremony ended, Ranma explained. "Circumstances of honor and duty will require me to remain in this form almost exclusively for the next three to five years. At most I will be able to be in my birth form no more than four hours a day, probably less." She bowed partially from the waist. "I am not allowed to tell you of my duty but know that Shampoo knows of it and it is important enough that she no longer pursues me but is now bound to me as an honor guard by her people." She sighed wistfully, "This duty supersedes any obligation I might have to either of you or even my own family."

"But my dowry," hesitantly began Ukyou.

"Your bill . . ." Nabiki's words trailed off at the sternness she saw in Ranma's eyes. She belatedly realized that the jerk of a martial artist had grown up into a seasoned warrior. She mentally damned the distance between the Tendou and Saotome homes that had limited her contact with Ranma the past several months.

Ranma chan closed her eyes and seemed to either remember or perhaps somehow commune with someone. Ranma eventually briefly nodded her head in understanding and rose to her feet, surprisingly graceful in kimono and geta as she made her way outside to the small koi pond in the back corner of the Saotome yard.

Ranma reached into the water, not bothering to pull back her sleeves. Surprisingly, the water parted before her hand. Ranma fumbled with the stones in the muddy bottom of the pool before seemingly to select four small stones each the size of a robin's egg that were gathered together in a small newly formed depression in the bottom of the pond.

Ranma quickly washed the stones and then handed one to Nabiki and two to Ukyou. "This should more than cover all the expenses and financial obligations between our families."

Nabiki's eyes had almost bugged out as she appraised the stone. "This, thi . . . is a . . ."

"Diamond," Ranma completed her statement, as she handed the fourth gem to her mother. "Here mom, this should take care of expenses for awhile."

Ukyou sighed as she accepted the two stones. It wasn't what she wanted but it would do she supposed. She sighed, at least this way she still had a friend.

As the three started back into the house, Genma dove into the pond desperately searching for more of these riches. He was to be disappointed.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

It was another meeting at the shrine. Surprisingly it was Minako who raised the question that was to trouble them so much in the future.

"Usagi?" Minako began, "If there really is a senshi for earth, doesn't that mean she is already the ruler. I mean, there is no way you can become Queen of the earth if your power isn't even from this planet and hers is? I don't understand," she ended plaintively.

Mamoru Chiba grimaced but protested, "Hey, don't forget, I'm the Prince of the Earth by birthright!"

Ami idly tapped her teeth with a pen before reflectively adding, "Humm, in the Moon kingdom, the planetary rulers were selected by their respective planets even if that selection did tend to stay in one family, not by the people for political reasons as was done on Earth then and now. So which way was Crystal Tokyo supposed to be like?"

Usagi bit her lower lip slightly in thought but said nothing.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Cologne sighed to herself. She wanted to believe that she had finally identified the cause of her continuing though diminished apprehension but was entirely too old and experienced to fool herself with wistful thoughts.

She stretched and carefully returned to the book she had been studying and was about to go to her bedroom when she heard sounds of distress from Shampoo's room. She quickly but silently opened the door. Seeing her heir apparently in the midst of a nightmare, she gently awakened her.

"Dear," she softly asked Shampoo, "can you remember your dream?"

Shampoo visibly stiffened her back, trying hard not to show weakness. "Is nothing."

"Tell me anyway, warrior."

"Yes elder," Shampoo responded. "Shampoo have dream about being cat floating in space, was scary."

Cologne face-faulted. She shook her head and said, "No more anime for you anymore," as she walked out chuckling. 'Sigh,' she thought, 'if only that was the limit of our problems.'

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki locked her door and carefully unlocked the hidden inner door to her closet. She studied the small cask of Nanniichuan she had 'liberated' before the failed wedding.

"Good thing I substituted a cask filled with normal water considering what happened to it," she muttered to herself in self-justification.

"Now what do I do with it?" she absently asked herself. Indeed, what?

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Author's notes:

1.) I was reading over the offerings at the 'Temple of Ranma's Seifuku' and got to wondering how Ranma would look as a senshi and what it would take to get there. That is where the impetus for this story came; not sure how far I will take it before my muse goes dry (again, again).

2.) Additional Ranma and Sailor-Moon crossover fan-fiction can be found on my personal Web Page listed below and at Fan-Fiction-Net & Tannim's crossover page. Note that only my personal web-page has all my stories.

C & C to cloud_dreamer2000@yahoo.com

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

"Darn," muttered Nabiki as she studied the hidden cask. "With this new 'duty' or whatever that Ranma has taken on, there is no way I can use this Nanniichuan to bribe him with a cure," she mumbled. She angrily slammed the door of the hidden panel closed and rose to her feet before sitting at her desk.

Gathering the tatters of her normally hidden temper about her, the Ice Queen slowly reassembled her façade. She sighed for past mistakes with respect to dealing with Ranma. The schism between Ranma and Akane now seemed insurmountable and she was really having mixed feelings about it. She was sad for her little sister's tears even as she felt that Akane was just getting what was due her for how she'd treated Ranma.

On the other hand, oh boy on the other hand; she now had a chance at the boy she'd reluctantly admitted to herself that she loved and had loved since she'd been briefly engaged to him. She hadn't lied to Ranma when she said she loved him then but she doubted he'd believe her anytime soon.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Setsuna cautiously approached the time gates. Since the 'chaos storm' she'd seen approaching the time gates the last time she'd used them seemed to have been either diverted or delayed, she was hopeful of being able to use the gates again.

She really didn't want to admit it, but her curiosity was killing her; she 'hated' not knowing what was happening. Despite her many millennia of experience, she was trembling with apprehension. This was something she had only limited experience with and the first time she had encountered it, it had almost killed her.

She glanced behind her to ensure that Hotaru and Usagi were keeping a safe distance from the gate and behind Saturn's localized 'silence wall'; in a sense, they were her medical backup in case anything went wrong.

It did go wrong, badly wrong. Setsuna woke up to remembered agony. She glanced about herself and blankly stared at the pool of blood next to her partially melted key staff not too far from the time gate. A slight noise to her side brought her attention back to her companions. Both Hotaru and Usagi looked very tired and Setsuna belatedly realized that they must have used their powers to save her life.

Now very worried, Setsuna shakily rose to her feet and studied the now open time gate. Her very soul shuddered at the sight before her, 'damn my impatient meddling' she mumbled to herself.

"Mama Setsuna," whispered Hotaru; "is everything alright?"

"No," she hoarsely responded, "it's about as bad as it can get."

"I need to rest," interjected Usagi. "I'm hungry too," she added.

"Then the universe dies," was the soft hopeless reply.

Both of the younger Senshi turned in surprise to the oldest scout. She only pointed to the time gate. The other two looked to the gate and noticed a lenticular shape of void blackness just off center in the gate.

"Somehow an imbalance has been ripped open in the time stream flow," Setsuna explained. "Eventually it will become turbulent and the back flow will destroy this universe."

"Setsuna!" yelled Usagi, "How could you risk something like this unless we absolutely needed it?"

Hotaru sat there almost frozen in shock but she managed a quavering question, "How do we fix it?"

Setsuna glanced at her, "I'm not sure since this is new to me. I recall reading a theory on this once." She paused and struggled with her fatigue, wracking her brain for information before continuing, "We need to re-balance the flows but that takes three persons of strong spiritual powers; one of light, another of dark and a neutral." She sighed, "We don't have the time to find them; especially as tired as we are."

"But mama," protested Hotaru, "doesn't that describe us?" Seeing their dawning comprehension she continued; "I am the bringer of silence, that's dark. Usagi is all about light and you usually strive to be neutral."

Pluto shook her head incredulously; she'd brought the two because they were the only ones with healing power. It had not occurred to her that their senshi powers were also spiritual powers. She sighed to herself, 'either my injuries are getting to me or I must be more tired than I thought'.

Setsuna nodded and shakily took position before the gate with her damaged key now in her hand. She gestured the other two to make their way to each side of her until they were all equidistant from each other.

Usagi asked in confusion, "Setsuna, the gate looks the same now as when I was standing with you. Did it turn to face me?"

"No Usagi," tiredly responded Setsuna, "the time gate only has one side. It is sort of like a moebius strip. No matter where you stand around it, you are always facing that one side."

"Oh," she acknowledged. "What do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," came the hesitant response.

"That's odd!" stated Hotaru as she leaned her glaive toward the void. "My glaive is drawn to the void and it's talking to me." A moment later she added in surprise, "The glaive said we should all lean in and touch the void at the same time with glaive, key and wand."

Pluto hesitated, unsure of what to do until Usagi said, "My wand agrees. I wonder why it's talking to me now? It never did before."

"All right, we might as well give it a try," said Pluto. "Watch each other so that we all do it together."

The three Senshi carefully leaned in together quickly discovering that any imbalance in their actions resulted in some rather spectacular light shows. As the three artifacts touched the void together, several things happened. Each of the three experienced every life they had ever lived and variations of them as well. To a limited extent, the experience bled over between each of them. Fortunately for their sanity, the experience was beyond their comprehension and they were left with only a vague impression of the experience. But it matured and mellowed each of them in addition to drawing them closer to each other. As they slumped unconscious to the floor, the void closed; the chaos within it drained, the storm delayed for the moment.

Later, much later, maybe days, months or perhaps years; the three slowly woke up. The slight noise from the first one to wake eventually rousing the other two. Setsuna carefully picked up her restored staff and after verifying that the gate was for the moment stable, locked it down again.

She then glanced at the other two and started to turn away before quickly facing them again. Hotaru and Usagi had both acquired her own ageless look. They both looked mature, fully grown and very healthy.

Lifetimes of vaguely recalled experience gave them all a poise that few others could emulate. Extended time spent in the limbo of the time gate had allowed their inherent powers to flush the contaminations acquired in their mortal life from their system thus fully healing them and bringing them to their near immortal physical maturity. Because of the mix of energy the three had absorbed from time gate, this process took significantly less time than otherwise; a fact that Pluto was to discover only when she failed to duplicate it later for the remaining Senshi.

Hotaru and Usagi both tried to communicate with their artifacts again, but neither the glaive nor the wand were very cooperative; even Setsuna tried to talk to her key though she felt silly doing it. Each of the three Senshi got variations of the same message from their tool: 'energy flow beyond established parameters, reboot successful, diagnostic in progress, minimum default settings enabled'.

Finally Usagi had gotten frustrated and yelled at her wand, "Stop telling me that! Tell me what you are." A moment later the other two Senshi heard her say, "Oh, ok." Usagi looked up at her companions and held the wand up, "See the writing? It says 'I belong to Belldandy'," she said as she pointed to the glowing words that were already starting to fade again. Hotaru and Setsuna both asked their artifacts to declare their identity. The glaive had writing on it that said 'property of Urd' while the words on the key simply said, 'Skuld's tool'.

All three Senshi shrugged since the names didn't mean anything to them. Hotaru voiced the question troubling them all: "I wonder what those three persons have to do with the time gate or the Senshi? Who could they be?"

When the three Senshi left the time gate and returned to the temple; they arrived only an hour after leaving. Rei almost went ballistic when she saw the changes to Usagi; but Usagi's quiet, "Rei, that's enough," silenced her in mid rant. All the other Senshi looked to their princess in surprise only to realize that it was now neo queen Serenity they were seeing.

Setsuna wondered about that. The gates would never reveal the point at which Serenity finally manifested completely but the time guardian knew it happened after the gates were locked and before Crystal Tokyo was established. 'Could it be that they were on the right track still? That would explain what had happened and why her future self didn't warn her.' She paused at that point as she remembered that with the time gates locked, she was isolated from the other Plutos.

Michiru and Haruka approached the now adult Hotaru. The senshi of silence gravely regarded the two who had not only raised her but had also killed her once. She now stood slightly taller than her former foster parents and softly said, "Something happened in the gates which caused the three of us to endure all of our past lives again." She paused and added, "I know the two of you raised me after I reverted to an infant and for that I'm grateful. But I can see no justification for you killing me and then saying later that you still loved me." She saw the pain that her statement caused and finished, "I have decided that the two cancel each other out and while I will not seek revenge for your betrayal, I will also no longer call you my parents." She resolutely turned from the pair and walked to stand beside Setsuna who simply put a companionable arm around her as they talked about arranging home-schooling for the youngest senshi since she no longer looked her given age.

Usagi took the lead and explained all that had happened. The other Senshi were very unhappy that Setsuna had taken such a great risk for what seemed trivial reasons in retrospect.

Usagi took out the Lunar disguise pen and gravely regarded it for a few moments. She hated to deceive her parents but she really didn't have a choice at this time. She concentrated on it, changed her appearance to 'normal' and locked its effect in place on herself with the silver crystal.

Ami somberly sat down next to her and softly remarked, "The outward appearance is the easy part Usagi."

Usagi nodded and hopefully said, "Maybe they won't notice any changes in how I act?"

Rei chuckled, "Just cry meatball head. Wail anytime they question your behavior and that will convince them they are wrong."

"WWAAAAA," Usagi wailed, "Rei's so mean to me!" She paused and calmly asked, "Like that?"

Ami caught on first; she began to giggle and said, "Yes Usagi, like that."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Akane sat and glared at the Lost Boy. If Akari hadn't been sitting next to him she would have been sorely tempted to pound him. Ryouga for his part nervously shifted in his seat occasionally glancing worriedly at Akari.

Akari sighed and wondered if he was really worth all this bother. She looked over at him again and her eyes became dreamy and her being slowly filled with a warm contentment. 'Yes,' she decided. "Akane," she began, "my fiancé wishes to apologize for all the trouble he's caused you."

"Fiancé!" was Akane's startled response.

Ryouga blushed and nodded.

Akari giggled and whispered to Akane, "Oh, it was so romantic! He was on one knee as he asked me to marry him." She giggled again and added, "He was so terrified that he was even facing the wrong way with his eyes closed."

Ryouga colored with embarrassment and thought to himself, 'no way am I going to tell her I was practicing and didn't even know she was there.'

Akane wanted to lash out at Ryouga and tarnish his happiness but she couldn't bear to diminish the joy evident on Akari's face. She forced a smile on her face and put an arm around the other girl. "I can see that you're happy, so I'm happy for you also."

The engaged couple noticed the undercurrent of unhappiness in Akane's voice.

"Akane," Ryouga hesitatingly started, "I'm sorry for what happened." He sighed, "For so long I blamed Ranma for all my problems until Akari helped me see that I was wasting my life because of that. I saw how often you were hurt by him and I didn't think he was worthy of someone like you."

"Your apology is accepted Ryouga," Akane softly replied. "As a descendant of warriors, I now understand that it would have been dishonorable of Ranma to reveal a potentially fatal weakness of yours especially since he promised not to do so. I also can understand how you would hesitate to reveal your curse to anybody since it made you so vulnerable." She sighed and continued with a small sniffle, "I understand and can even forgive a little." As her sobs started to steal her voice she finished, "But it still doesn't help that I've lost the one that I loved the most in the world as a result of what you did and my temper." She sniffled harder, "It's so easy to say that now that he's gone."

Akari enveloped the crying girl in her arms as Ryouga helplessly reaped some of the pain he had sown in another's life. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"What can we do to make up for this?" asked Akari.

There was a pause broken by several sniffles before a soft but broken voice asked hopefully, "Help me get him back?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Cologne had spent an interesting couple of months so far with the two visiting lore-mistresses, especially since one of them was her 'baby' sister. For lack of a better place to meet comfortably (meaning away from the bustle of the city and the cafe), the three elderly Amazons had taken to meeting at the temple of the three monks who had provided several of the key elements for the techniques used to restore Ranma's past lives.

Both Cologne and Ranma had noticed that the chaos that normally plagued Ranma's life was somehow lost in the normal chaos of the strange ward that the Sailor Senshi battled in.

The no longer young monks had developed an ability to see beyond the surface façade of a person and were in awe of the ki bonfires raging within each of these old biddies. By comparison, Ranma's ki was like plasma when ever he allowed it to be glimpsed; but he had mastered a passive technique that enabled him to mask it completely. It had a welcome side affect of making Ranma more or less obscure to those unfamiliar with him or her.

The six elderly folk constituted an informal school that provided lore and guardian instruction to Shampoo and the other young Amazons and occasionally to Ranma as well. The temple made a good base from which to hunt husbands too. The Amazon guard had set up camp in several of the unused outer buildings on the temple grounds and rarely entered the main temple though several were always on hand somewhere on the grounds. Who would have believed that all 20 of the best Amazon warriors just happened to be single still? Ranma for one didn't buy it, but since it didn't concern him, said nothing. The temple was humorously referred to as the 'Amazon' temple by the local folk who had quickly gotten used to the lovely ladies with the vibrant hair colors now residing there with their elderly guardians.

Cologne had taken steps to close her original café and open a larger establishment near the temple shortly after meeting the monks. While it wasn't close to the Saotome home, it wasn't terribly far either. The good food and her staff of talented, very talented waitresses had ensured success. A bonus was that it also tended to keep the husband hungry girls a bit controlled too.

All of the Amazons were still wary of Demona though Ranma had taken the time to experimentally spar with her a few times after carefully explaining exactly what she was wanting. Ranma had finally decided that the reformed youma was too weak to help Ranma train at her current enhanced power level. Shampoo on the other hand was delighted to find a new sparing partner that could take her on at full power though Demona's inherent regeneration powers were sorely taxed at times.

There came a time when Ranma and Shampoo had left the temple together after biding good night to their six teachers late one evening after an extended lesson when Ranma had abruptly recalled that she'd forgotten her school books at the temple. Shampoo had insisted on returning with her so both girls had quietly made their way into the temple so as to not wake their mentors. Ranma had paused to wave to Demona in the garden before retrieving her books from within the temple while Shampoo had gone on ahead to grab a quick snack from the kitchen for the two of them.

Deciding to put some of their recent training to work, both girls had let their ki form passive receptors as they attempted to spy on their elders.

Shampoo and Ranma had simultaneously blushed heavily before turning to each other, giggling and fleeing; Ranma homeward and Shampoo to the Cat café and her room. Seems that there were only three bedrooms being used that evening and apparently the six elderly folks were a bit uninhibited at times as well.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Soun and Genma lethargically played a game of go as they sat together on the Saotome porch; both of them occasionally glancing over at Ranma-chan as she lay on her belly and idly waved her bare lower legs in the air as she studied her school work under Nodoka's helpful guidance. Usually either Nabiki or Shampoo would also have dropped by but for the moment, Soun was the only visitor.

"At least he's not wearing a dress," grumbled Genma to himself. Though to tell the truth, the midriff blouse and shorts were not all that much an improvement he decided as he noted his friend's distraction and quickly moved a few tokens.

He suddenly grinned as he thought of a way to return some of the harassment his wife and child had been recently visiting upon him. Genma abruptly clapped a hand on Soun's shoulder, "My friend!" he began jovially, "it suddenly occurs to me how we can unite our families." He gestured to Ranma, "Since I no longer seem to have a son but a daughter instead . . ." he paused dramatically, "why don't you marry 'her'?" he concluded insincerely.

He frowned at the look of excitement on his old friend's face and almost fumbled one of the pieces he was rearranging. But before either of them could utter another word, their attention was brought back to Nodoka as she unsheathed her katana with enough force to make the cold steel ring.

Both of the older men shuddered at the red auras surrounding both Saotome gals. Nodoka's voice coldly stated, "Husband, that is one idea I better not ever hear repeated again if you want to keep your head; either of them." She glared at Soun, "As for you, I understand neutering can cure you both of such ideas."

Both men audibly gulped though Genma was also sniggering just a little bit too at least on the inside that is. 'Gotcha!' he thought smugly.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Few people realized it, but Akane did have a hero. Her name was Sailor Jupiter. The various senshi fan clubs had been assembling profiles of the Senshi based on overheard casual comments made by them. Jupiter was known to be a martial artist and a chef; a girl so much like herself Akane was prone to say to herself.

Akane was confidently striding down the street carrying her latest culinary creation. 'This will be so wonderful,' she dreamily thought, 'just one taste of my masterpiece and Ranma will fall into my arms and . . .'

Her day dreams were interrupted as a bevy of under clothed girls surrounded her.

"Don't worry little girl," cried one that Akane recognized as Sailor Jupiter, "we'll save you from that youma possessing your bowl."

A fine mist drenched Akane while a blast of lightening frizzled her hair as it knocked the large casserole bowl out of her hand. The bowl broke apart and the contents began to rapidly slither toward the girl with the odd hair do.

Sailor Moon shrieked and blasted it. Unfortunately, Akane caught part of the magical attack. She felt her clothing rip, her masterpiece had been destroyed, her temper ignited, "Senshi no baka", she screamed and manifested a mallet.

Moon 'eeped', took a step back, tripped and fell on her rear as the mallet passed harmlessly overhead.

Jupiter was more direct, forgoing a magical attack; she arched into a snap kick that was fully powered by her sailor powers and indignation. The kick caught Akane in the stomach and launched her back toward her home.

A fuming Mars was not willing to be left out or be very forgiving. "Mars flame sniper," caught Akane at the apex of her arc high over the Nerima/Juuban border and lit her up like fireworks.

Akane splashed down in a very familiar koi pond. Soun was in a wailing panic as he pulled her out of the pond but it was a worried Kasumi who tended her. Kasumi later told her father that Akane's anger aura had shielded her from any major harm but she would be out till at least morning.

Nabiki was sniggering to herself even as she worried about her little sister. She had witnessed the entire episode. After calling Kasumi to find out how Akane was, Nabiki continued on to Ranma's home, she had a story to share now.

As the Senshi made their way back to the temple, they discussed this odd episode. Ami decided that perhaps she should take the time and make an effort to map the unusual energies her computer told her were resident in Nerima.

Akane destroyed her Sailor Jupiter poster the next morning

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Soun and Genma quietly plotted together on the front step of the dojo while casting an occasional nervous glance toward Nabiki who was standing in the open doorway of the house watching them with narrowed eyes.

"I'm telling ya Soun, ole buddy," loudly whispered Genma. "We've got to go and get another cask of that Jusenkyo spring water for Ranma if you want my SON to marry one of your daughters."

Soun sniveled and complained, "But I can't leave my babies! I have to take care of them."

"Humpf," injected Nabiki rather brutally, "Come off it dad. You've been totally useless since mom died."

"WWAAAAAAAA, my daughters hate me;" sprayed the Tendou Patriarch Waterworks (TPW).

Genma fatalistically shrugged his shoulders as he was changed into a panda again. He had to admire how easily and effectively Nabiki had derailed his plans. He didn't like it but he did admire the deviousness she was so capable of. Too bad it seemed to be aimed at foiling all his plans concerning Ranma at present. Ranma had actually laughed at some of Genma's problems with Nabiki when he'd heard of them.

"Father, father," murmured Kasumi as she handed the two old men small saucers of sake.

Instantly stable again, Soun said, "Thank you Kasumi."

Nabiki shook her head and carefully remarked as she embarked on a little mischief, "You know, with Ranma's new duty or what ever that is keeping him locked in girl form most of the time, your best bet for uniting the schools is for you to dowse Akane with the Nanniichuan instead of Ranma."

"Ewwwuuuuee," from Akane as she shuddered at the idea of being one of those 'perverts'.

"Genma," asked Soun, "do you have any idea of what this new duty is and who is filling Ranma's head with this nonsense."

Genma shrugged and gestured to Nabiki, "Nah, but I'll bet she knows."

A shark like grin slowly spread across her face as the two fathers reached for their wallets; "Twenty-five thousand yen from all three of you, nothing from Kasumi."

"Nabiki!" yelped Akane in exasperation, "I shouldn't have to pay to learn something about Ranma; after all he is my fiancé." She paused and added, "Why is Kasumi exempt but not me?"

Before Nabiki could respond, Kasumi asked with a puzzled expression on her face, "Akane, I thought you cancelled the engagement and our fathers transferred it to Nabiki." She then smiled warmly at Nabiki, "Thank you for not charging me little sister, but I am curious as to why you are not."

"Kasumi," began Nabiki, "I owe you more than I can ever repay for your efforts to take care of me and the others after momma died." She then shrugged as she said, "Akane, as to why I'm charging you, well, let's say that breaking bricks, walls and roofs only made my job to earn money harder. Kasumi has thanked me for my efforts but you've always taken me for granted." She paused and added, "Besides, like Kasumi said, Ranma is my fiancée, not yours."

Akane's shoulders slumped. She trudged upstairs and shortly returned with the required amount. She wasn't sure why but she had a gut feeling that she needed to know this information.

Nabiki carefully recounted the yen in her hand before giving a satisfied nod. "I have not been able to specifically identify Ranma's new sensei," she held up a hand to silence their incipient cries of outrage at this non-information. "But I do know SHE is very powerful, more so than Ranma. She is also not teaching Ranma martial arts but magic instead." She put a pair of earplugs in her ears after offering a set to Kasumi. "Who ever this new sensei is, she is teaching Ranma to be a Magical girl; sort of like the Sailor Senshi I think. Whatever it is, the Amazons are in on it too."

The wordless shout from the fathers and Akane shoved Nabiki up against the wall. In absent irritation, Nabiki tried to smooth her hair down after she removed her earplugs, but it insisted on frizzing in all directions. Finally she gave up and said, "That's all I know. When I find out more, I'll let you know." She unsteadily stood up and walked out of the room, the ringing in her ears causing her a little disorientation.

Akane was the only one to respond and it was with a brusque nod.

One odd occurrence related to Happosai was that Taro had shown up at Furinkan looking for the old pervert. Tatewaki had noticed him talking to Akane and deduced that this was the new form of the missing 'foul sorcerer' and fixated on smiting him. Kodachi had shortly followed in her brother's delusion though with a romantic intent and Taro was amusing himself taunting both of them while waiting for Happosai to show up.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma grumbled to herself. It was one of those days that happened every month that reminded her why she hated being a girl so much. Her mother would commiserate with her, but sympathy? Not in this lifetime apparently; at least not when it came to being a girl anyway.

Ryouga had wandered by and Ranma had promptly dowsed him with water and dropped kicked him out of sight before he could get all of his trademark greeting out. Female hormones had left Ranma-chan in no mood to put up with the lost boy.

Ranma had taken a page out of her experiences with Nabiki and started to research the Sailor Senshi. Surprisingly enough, it turned out that her mother was a fan of theirs and had amassed a surprising amount of information. Better yet, she taught Ranma how to use the computer to find out more. It was a real eye opener for Ranma; especially when the two of them had discovered Nabiki's Ranma-chan website with all the various Ranma-chan merchandise offered for sale.

Nodoka had gotten a thoughtful look before regretfully remarking that since Ranma-chan didn't have a legal existence, there was probably nothing they could do about Nabiki's profiteering at Ranma's expense. Fortunately it seemed limited to mugs, tee-shirts and video footage of some of her fights. Ranma was faintly relieved to see an absence of revealing photos offered for sale other than a selection of tasteful posters.

Ranma sat back later that evening and considered the idea of a legal identity for his girl side. Finally he decided that the anonymity that the present situation provided was worth the legal void she had to exist in.

During the night following Nabiki's revelation, Genma quietly entered Ranma's room with a small bucket of hot water and a bar of waterproof soap. He glared at the short redhead peacefully sleeping, "No way is my retirement going to be lost to worthless magical girl!" he softly snarled.

Genma carefully poured the hot water over his child but before he could lather him up, a bolt of lightning from a sudden storm outside blasted a hole in the roof. The influx of rain woke the redhead while a second bolt fried the panda.

Ranma picked up the familiar bar of soap and then glanced at the half filled bucket of hot soapy water. She grabbed her insensate father and hauled him downstairs where Nodoka quickly joined them. Nodoka set her katana on the table before the nervous panda while Ranma poured hot water over him.

"Explain," was Nodoka's one word terse command.

Genma started babbling. Ranma frowned when she learned what Nabiki had not only deduced but was making known. This was not good.

"Genma," Nodoka frostily cut him off, "understand that what Ranma is doing is DUTY. You will NOT interfere; am I making myself understood?"

Genma reluctantly nodded; he'd heard that tone from her only a few times before and it meant she was serious, deadly serious if need be. He understood; cross her in this and there would be no second chance.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Haruka and Michiru were both feeling despondent. They had considered themselves soldiers yet it was pretty obvious to them that they had alienated themselves from the rest of the team in their arrogance and because of their flexible ethics.

It hadn't helped their feelings when Hotaru and Setsuna had moved out into their own apartment some distance away. The pair of Senshi sat in the empty room that had once housed a young woman that they had once called their daughter for a little while.

"We don't need them!" Haruka finally hissed out.

Her lover was more restrained, "Maybe, but I'm more worried that they will realize that they don't need us."

Haruka chuckled, "When the chips are down, they will call on Uranus and Neptune. They've done it in the past it will happen again. You'll see."

"Perhaps," softly responded Michiru, "and what do we do if we aren't the Uranus and Neptune that answer?"

Haruka collapsed beside her, her arrogant self-righteousness failing her. "Kami no!" She drew in a shuddering breath and softly asked, "What can we do?"

Michiru drew her in close and answered, "Sometimes I wonder if it would be so bad to let the power go. Both of us have careers that we can't fully pursue anymore. Would it be so bad to just get on with our lives? Tell them to find somebody that will 'toe-the-party-line' and count us out."

"No," whispered Haruka, "if it was our idea then I could do it. But I won't quit as a loser. I'm not made that way."

Michiru smiled at her lover, "Then perhaps it's time to get back in the race?"

"You mean become part of the team?" the blond asked.

"We always were part of the team; it's just that we thought we were the best of the team or at least the most important part. We were wrong. We need to let the others know that." Michiru smiled a moment before saying, "We thought we were first and second violins in the Crystal Tokyo orchestra. It turns out that it's the Sailor Senshi rock band. We were thinking we were the important part of the future while they were wondering when we would ever read the music."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki sat watching Ranma spar lightly with several of the Amazons before he grimaced in obvious discomfort and reluctantly found a spare water bottle to splash himself. All the Amazons understood who their Princess was and knew that the few hours that he was able to endure being male each day were not to be interrupted by them.

Ranma sighed as she took a seat next to Nabiki. She wondered that the other girl spent so much time here anymore. After graduating from High School several months ago, Nabiki had enrolled in a local community college for only a few classes instead of going to Tokyo University full-time as everyone had expected.

Nabiki was a frequent visitor at the Saotome home, so much so that Nodoka had converted small storage room into a bare bedroom for the older girl. And she was often underfoot at the Amazon temple as well; like now.

Ranma sighed as she saw the books in Nabiki's hands. School books and not Nabiki's either. Ranma had learned that Nabiki always had a reason she could give to explain why she was there, wherever Ranma was. Tonight it was helping Ranma with her homework. Ranma reluctantly returned her smile; she really did appreciate the help and was grateful that Nabiki wasn't an overtly physical person.

Instead of beginning to study with Nabiki, Ranma calmly took out a Ranma-chan tee-shirt and laid it on the table. Nabiki became very nervous when both Cologne and Nodoka also took seats on either side of her.

Ranma started off with the casual observation, "Nabiki, I don't recall you becoming my agent nor have I seen my share of the profits."

Before Nabiki could respond with her pre-researched reply about Ranko's legal non-existence, she received a more damaging broadside.

"Do you not realize the potential harm your paid tongue can cause, girl?" stated Cologne.

Nabiki frowned as she most certainly was not dense. She had dealt with information bartering for years and knew the risks of exposed secrets; it was part of what made some information so valuable. But before she could say anything, Nodoka interrupted her train of thought.

"Let me propose a scenario for you Tendou-san," Nabiki flinched at the formal title. "There is a reason why the Sailor Senshi go to such effort to hide their true identity. If the name and location of their families were known, then the forces of evil that have several times tried to destroy them would most certainly have slain or captured their families in an effort to get to them. If you publicly identify Ranma as a 'magical girl' similar to them, then you put me at risk as well as all of Ranma's friends; that certainly would include the Tendous and the Amazons."

Ranma sighed and added, "Elder, the fault is not entirely hers. I and the Amazons have all been too careless with our words." She added, "My understanding of modern Chinese is not perfect, but I suspect that anybody listening in to the casual conversation of your warriors would have gleaned a large part of the story from that source alone." She sighed and added, "It is only because I have kept out of the public eye here in Juuban that all these stories have been dismissed so far as mere baseless rumors."

Cologne sighed but then agreed, "I will speak to them. Your enemies shall not learn of you or your family from us."

Ranma picked up the shirt again and softly observed, "You seem to go out of your way to make it hard to trust you." Ranma paused and added, "Things like this could cost you all your dreams Tendou-san."

'How could I have been so stupid?' ran through Nabiki's mind as she realized the obvious only in hindsight. "I'm sorry," she offered. Ranma and Nodoka both nodded before leaving for home without her.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma spotted the Sailor Senshi taking down another youma. From the past news reports, this was something that was happening only a couple of times a year anymore so he considered himself fortunate to discover them. Ranma quickly masked his visible presence using the umi sen ken technique and set out to follow them.

He was a little worried as the one with short blue hair frequently studied what seemed to be some type of laptop computer and often pointed in his general direction. Several times the Senshi had started toward his hidden form until he had moved into crowded areas. The second time this happened, Ranma thought a moment and then used the same techniques that he used for his ki to pull in the magical portion of his aura to the point it felt like he was stifling himself and silently changed location again. He noticed that the girl with the computer no longer seemed to be able to detect him. Ranma nodded to himself in confirmation that the Sailor Senshi, being magical girls fighting magical foes would have developed techniques to detect magical signatures. Apparently his aura now had a magical signature component as his bond with Gaea matured.

He carefully followed them to a Shinto temple quite a distance from the Amazon temple and watched as the Senshi de-transformed. He was surprised to recognize four of his classmates and the school guidance counselor. The other four Senshi were strangers to him but he did mark their appearance and the names they were called by.

This gave Ranma pause as he realized that if he had been able to detect magical signatures, then he could have sensed them as well at school. He almost stumbled at that conclusion as he realized that they should have already identified 'her' at school. He thought about it then decided to test a theory. He took a nervous breath and then dropped both the active ki and magic masking techniques that he was currently using as well as stopping his use of either power source. He left his passive aura damping technique in place though since it now took actual effort on his part to drop it.

Ranma noticed that the girl who normally sat three desks in front of 'her' was frequently checking her laptop. Ranma grinned and briefly pulled up a little of his ki. A small grin appeared on Ranma's face as Ami stiffened and began typing on the keyboard. Moving to another location using ninja stealth learned from Konatsu, Ranma drew upon his rudimentary earth power briefly and healed an old tree on the temple grounds that he was only momentarily in.

Ranma quietly chuckled from his concealment behind them as he saw the anxious Senshi gather about the cherry tree only moments later. As far as Ranma was concerned, the whole experiment had proven that they couldn't detect him as long as he wasn't actively using either of his two energy types. That also probably explained why Ranma hadn't noticed anything unusual about them. He frowned at that as he realized that he was at a disadvantage since he couldn't detect magic yet.

As he quietly left, the now untransformed Senshi quickly gathered around Ami who was perplexedly studying the mercury computer. "I don't understand it!" she finally wailed in a good approximation of her princess. Feeling Setsuna's comforting hand on her shoulder she explained, "There were ghostly blips of strange energy near here just like what was following us after we took down that last youma, but I can't pinpoint it because something is blocking most of the signal."

"Ghostly!" quavered Usagi.

"Blocking?" softly asked Setsuna.

Ami nodded and admitted, "Yes, and the odd thing is that it's sort of similar to how the computer can't get a good fix on you, Hotaru or Usagi anymore since you came back changed from the time gates."

Surprisingly, Hotaru was the one to guess, "Chaos energy. I'll bet that's what we were exposed to. That would mean who ever was spying on us is filled with chaos energy as well."

"The Earth Senshi," softly stated Usagi. Seeing their eyes on her she explained, "The files we read said she was related to Beryl, so that would mean she has a lot of chaos."

"There's only one problem with that guess," grimaced Ami, "I got enough of a scan on the other person to tell it was guy so that means it wasn't the earth senshi since Michiru said her mirror showed she was a redheaded girl." As an afterthought she added, "It's too bad the mirror wouldn't show her face. I wondered if that new redheaded girl in our class could be her, but the scans I took of her in the school yard didn't show anything unusual about her at all other than a high ki and chaos levels!"

She frowned and added, "According to Makoto, Ranma's ki is not unexpected for a martial artist of her level, though it's unusual given her age. And her chaos level is not the highest around either."

"Can we scan for people with chaotic energy and find this guy and the new senshi that way?" asked Makoto.

"No," responded Ami; "I've tried, but carriers of chaos act like static generators for my scan. I can tell they are there but I can't pinpoint where unless I'm right next to them. The biggest problem is that while Terra's power might be life based, it's also chaos infused." She sighed, "The simple fact that the earth senshi is nearby is enough to make scanning for her impossible because of the extra chaos when she uses her power. The best I can do is to get a general direction." She sighed, "It also doesn't help that there are several hundred minor chaos infestations in just this ward either."

"Ami?" asked a confused Minako, "Why are there so many people who radiate chaos around here?"

Ami massaged her temples and explained, "Every time one of those youma drain a group of people, their individual energy is mixed together by the youma. When we kill the youma, some of its dark energy also gets added to the already mixed up energy that flows back to all the people. All of those people become chaos radiators. While the chaos in each of them will eventually dissipate, it takes years for it to all go away. As a result, there are several hundred chaos radiators in the ward right now." She grimaced, "They are essentially static as far as the mercury computer scanners are concerned when it comes to trying to detect chaos energy."

Usagi turned to Setsuna, "Setsuna, how are you doing? Are there any side affects from your injuries?"

"I'm fine Usagi," she replied, "It's just that I'm limited right now and I'm not used to it." Setsuna frowned at her key staff; she now understood part of the message it had been giving her. Its powers were currently limited to those she had initially received so many millennia ago. At first she couldn't even teleport someplace directly anymore except to the time gate. Of course from there she could then go where she wanted to go, but the available energy for teleports was also reduced. Both Hotaru and Usagi had confided to her that they had also experienced similar power reductions but since both of them were still young, their new power levels were at least similar to what they had had.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Akane glared at her sister Nabiki. 'Ranma's mine!' she thought. Yet somehow Nabiki either didn't understand that or just didn't care. The two sisters had made arrangements to meet with Ranma at the local skating center.

Akane had confidently brought her ice skates not noticing that Nabiki was carrying roller-blades. As a result, she was sitting on the sidelines watching instead of impressing Ranma with her skills as she'd intended. She was sure on some level that Nabiki had planned this.

Ranma was in male form, something rare it seemed anymore for some reason that Akane was not sure of. Sure she knew about his magical girl training, but he wasn't training all the time so why did he spend so much time as a girl? Months ago she would have stridently damned him for being a pervert for staying a girl so much; now she just wondered.

The sudden silence drew Akane's attention back to the skate park just in time to see Nabiki and Ranma soar high into the air holding both hands with each other as they spun in a series of airborne circles about each other.

The roar of appreciation from the crowd did not drown out Nabiki's giggles.

As they settled back to earth, Nabiki in Ranma's arms for safety; Ranma paused to watch Akane storm off. He frowned as he saw her punch Kuno into the distance and then snap several telephone poles off with almost absent punches.

That evening, Akane was waiting for her as Nabiki finally entered the house just as evening was setting in. "Where the hell were you with my fiancée?" Akane yelled almost before Nabiki could get her shoes off.

"I wasn't anywhere with either Kuno or Ryouga," was the flippant response. Perhaps adding, "I spent time appreciating the strong honorable body of MY fiancée Ranma," was a bit over the top considering the already evident temper Akane was demonstrating.

The right cross was the last thing Nabiki saw that night.

Kasumi was so worried that she called Nodoka who in turn sent Ranma to pick up Nabiki and carry her back to the Saotome home for the evening. Akane never noticed as she was in the dojo fuming about 'she only got what she deserved' between smashing concrete blocks.

Ranma was extra solicitous of Nabiki for the next week that she stayed with them, so she really didn't mind other than the pair of black eyes she now had. That first morning together, Ranma had teased her that she sort of resembled one of the family now. She was puzzled until he had dumped water on Genma.

Shortly after that she was chasing him around the house swinging a pillow and yelling, "I do NOT look like your panda-father you baka."

Nodoka only smiled to herself and made chocolate chip cookies, lots of them. A certain pair of teenagers shared a sweet tooth.

Akane never did apologize which did not surprise Nabiki at all. Ranma was not happy about it though.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Evening was approaching and Ranma was sitting cross-legged in a shaded part of the Amazon temple grounds meditating when she became aware of Demona kneeling before her. Slowly opening her eyes Ranma studied the creature before her wondering just what she was.

Ranma had watched the Senshi destroy a similar creature a week ago yet she had felt no desire to help that youma especially after seeing the people lying in the street. That the people had recovered afterwards had made no difference to her feelings of anger towards the rampaging youma. Yet Demona was different; was it only because she was now alive or was it just because Ranma had taken a chance on her? Ranma had finally solved the question of what did the strange creature eat. Ranma noticed that the background environmental chi was weaker anywhere Demona had spent time.

Ranma noticed that Demona was gesturing to Ranma, urging her mistress to follow her. Ranma rose, stretched and softly padded after her as Demona led her toward one of the older buildings on the edge of the temple grounds. The stone and wooden beam building had once been a stable apparently but was now starting to fall into ruin.

As Ranma entered the building, the hair on her forearms prickled as goose bumps formed. Ranma gathered her ki and started to softly glow illuminating the dim recesses of the building shell.

Demona quickly knelt anxiously waving her hands before her. Seeing that Ranma was passive for the moment, Demona turned her head and quickly gave a guttural growl that resonated with harsh vibrations. Ranma tensed as two shadows slowly detached themselves from the deeper darkness where Ranma could barely detect them and moved gradually toward the reformed youma.

They were youmas Ranma realized. One had apparently merged with and taken the form of a piece of corroded bronze statuary that had once been a horse and rider. It now resembled a centaur; though the remnants of samurai armor did seem slightly appropriate to the form. The bronze centaur clumsily knelt and held his hands forward in a wordless plea of supplication. The other youma was now part of a massive log that had been left to rot because of the mass of knots and burls that had made it impossible to cut further though some enterprising wood worker had used a chainsaw to roughly cut some facial features into it before giving it up.

The log crawled forward on six branching legs like a monstrous ant inside a wooden turtle shell. The legs were the remains of massive truncated branches. Ranma was surprised to see four eyes warily watching her. The eyes were on stalks above a gaping maw in one end of the log; the head of the creature Ranma realized as she studied the rough cut features. This youma too settled to the floor before Ranma and lifted the first pairs of appendages into the air toward her. Ranma belatedly realized that these were the creature's hands instead of the first pair of feet as she had supposed. Ranma tensed as the log youma slightly arched in the middle and its forward end was elevated as it watched Ranma anxiously like a grotesque caricature of a wooden statue.

Ranma focused all of her senses on the trio of youma before her. She could sense that Demona was alive yet the other two did not seem to be so, at least not in the traditional manner. It puzzled her.

Ranma became aware of two things simultaneously, first was that Demona had been making a lot of gestures toward herself and her companions with growing desperation in her movements and second was the presence of a group of Amazons moving to surround them.

As the two wild youma began to nervously shift; Ranma softly yet with authority said, "Stop."

Amazons and youma froze in place. Ranma continued to watch the youma.

In the background Ranma heard the Amazon elders order the younger girls to back off, that their Queen would not appreciate them butting into her business.

Finally Ranma got a glimmer of what Demona was asking and to test the theory, she picked up a dried up branch. She held it in one hand, pointed to it with the other hand and then to the three youma. Ranma stuck the dead stick in the soil and called forth a trickle of Gaea's power. The stick swelled with life, taking root and sending forth new leaves. Ranma then pointed to the two wild youma and cocked her head in question as she asked, "Is this what you want? Is this what happened to Demona and what you want for yourselves? I can do it but why should I?"

The centaur shuffled forward awkwardly on his front knees. He grasped a few of the leaves from the newly living young cherry tree and put them in his tarnished hair as a way to say this was what he wanted. He twisted and patted his back apparently offering to be a steed.

The wooden dwarfish one gestured helplessly, its four eyes wildly looking in four different directions at once. It paused then backed up and positioned itself beside a massive fallen stone. As it picked the stone up, Ranma tensed and she could hear the Amazons shifting into offensive positions. Ranma held up a palm to forestall action on the Amazons' part and passively watched the massive wooden youma. Ranma studied it as the youma heaved the stone upward, used some of its branching limbs to shear new faces on the stone and clean a spot for it before the massive youma gently reset the stone from where it had fallen decades earlier.

Ranma understood then that both of the new youma were making pledges of fealty as best they could. Ranma stood up and gestured to the new pair of youma and said, "Alright, I accept your word that you will do good. Come outside and I'll change you like I did Demona."

As Ranma led the way out of the interior of the stable ruins, Cologne pogoed to her side, "Ranma, are you sure this is wise? Creatures such as these have always been destroyers in the past and thus worthy only of destruction."

Ranma shrugged and answered, "That was the past elder. Maybe because their life was flawed, they had no choice. I intend to give them a portion of true life and a chance to be other than what they were ordered to be." Ranma grinned slightly, "You know me Cologne; I always try and give my foes a chance to become my friends."

Cologne stopped when she realized that Ranma had frozen in place, eyes fixed on something on the other side of the broad temple grounds. Cologne sniggered when she saw the Sailor Senshi with their childish uniforms bound over the wall and gather around a blue haired girl with a computer who was pointing in their direction.

"Cologne," quickly instructed Ranma, "they must have detected the newcomers. I ain't gonna destroy them and I'm sure not gonna let them do it either. Can you get your 'girls' to play with them? No kiss of death either if they get lucky as they are only trying to do their job and this city is technically their village."

The old crone cackled and quickly prepared to give instructions to the Amazon troop. She placed two fingers in her mouth and gave a loud warbling whistle. The younger Amazons quickly gathered near her as she began speaking while pointing to the advancing Sailor Senshi. "These are the Sailor Scouts or Senshi. They are to be treated as if they were Amazons of a neighboring village; however," she paused as a wide grin covered her face, "the princess wants to test their skill. So guess who gets to 'power spar' with them?" Seeing their answering smiles she added, "No double teaming but tag team is good, now go and make your elders proud."

The Senshi paused as the twenty-one girls with unusual hair colors before them suddenly let out a resounding cheer and quickly began trotting in their direction.

"Oh great," snipped Mars, "fan-girls, just what we needed now, NOT!"

Shortly each of the nine Senshi found themselves facing one of the girls. But before any of the Sailor Senshi could explain that they didn't have time for autographs, the other girls attacked!

"Eeep!" as someone with twin ponytails stumbled and knocked an Amazon out by accident.

"How dare yo . . . umph!" as a distracted shrine maiden in disguise failed to notice the fist approaching her stomach in time.

Venus Love-me-chain met bladed pole arm and love went to pieces.

'Deep Submerge' soaked several Amazons impatiently standing to one side. Shampoo started snarling and spiting, the others decided that the no double teaming rule had just been voided and jumped into the fray.

Luna and Artemis saw the transformed cat-girl and gave what each thought was an understanding nod to the other. Luna launched herself at the new cat with the lavender highlights while Artemis pulled out a box of popcorn and a beer. Deftly opening the can, he sat back to watch the cat fight with a grin on his face. The grin disappeared as the two battling female cats washed over him sending beer and popcorn flying. The two on one battle ended with both furious females beating the shit out the male who was desperately trying to escape. As the two females glared at each other over the barely twitching tomcat that had gotten them coated with beer, popcorn and grass, Luna reached deep into herself and used an attack mastered in her youth so long ago. A beam of light lanced out from the mark on her head and engulfed the Amazon cat causing her to arch her back in momentary agony before she collapsed on top of Artemis. Luna looked at her handiwork and grinned, "Yep, still got what it takes," she snickered aloud and then collapsed as well next to Shampoo.

Behind them, Cologne arched an eyebrow and murmured to herself, "Talking cats, now that IS unusual." She pulled out a digital camera and quickly snapped a few more shots before wandering back toward the fight chortling to herself as she viewed the images, "Oh yes, I'll have to see about getting a poster of that one."

Shampoo twitched as the magical attack ran an unexpected course in the Jusenkyo cursed girl.

With hearts in her eyes, Dowel clasped the rose to her breasts. 'That handsome masked man in the penguin suit had just thrown it to me!' she thought. Ok, so she had had to knock Sugar and Spice out of the way and make a desperate grab for it but those were trivial details. Then the rose exploded.

Dowel woke up a few moments later. "Wo ai ne," she murmured happily as Sugar and Spice despondently kicked at a stump as the same thought crossed their minds: 'why couldn't I have been blown up?'

Mamoru screamed as Dowel engulfed him in a bear hug before throwing him over her massive shoulder and making a break for the nearest building with a bed and a locking door.

The three Amazon elders adroitly circulated in amongst the free-for-all deftly ensuring that it didn't get more out of hand than it already was. In the end, Sailor Moon was the last of the combatants standing and she was wavering.

"I'm impressed!" commented Cologne. Seeing the girl attempt to face her, she waved a small hand disarmingly and said, "None of that girl, my name is Cologne, matriarch of the Amazons. You and your friends have done remarkably well in this sparring match."

"Sparring match!" Sailor Moon whispered in disbelief.

"Well," hesitated Cologne, "normally we might have gone all out since you were trespassing on our home, but our princess ordered us not to harm you but to test your skills instead." She shook her head, "Your combat skills are pathetic but your magical powers are impressive."

"Trespass . . . you? But . . . youma . . . we . . . I don't understand," Usagi finally said. She relaxed, accidentally going so far in her fatigue as to release her transformation and the disguise field she normally concealed her new appearance behind. Realizing she had blown her secret identity she weakly said, "Hi, I'm Usagi."

Cologne stepped back as the almost ethereal poise of neo queen Serenity affected her. Seeing that the monks and other elders were taking care of the younger girls of both sides, Cologne motioned Usagi to come with her. 'This was something that her princess needed to deal with,' the elder decided after noticing the golden crescent moon on the girl's forehead.

Ranma and the three youma had been interested, though hidden watchers of the confrontation. As Cologne and Usagi came toward them in the hidden area behind the old stables, all three youma moved into defensive stances before Ranma.

Ranma could feel their fear and see it in the postures of the three youma. That they still moved to protect her did more than anything else to impress her with the sincerity of these creatures toward herself.

Usagi transformed but instead of entering her Sailor Moon guise, her full princess form appeared, gossamer wings and all. Both Cologne and Ranma stepped between these adversaries; Ranma motioning the youma to back down while Cologne snapped, "Behave yourself before the Princess of the Earth Usagi!"

Ranma and the Moon Princess slowly approached each other taking each other's measure in more detail than their previous casual encounters at school and liking the person they saw before them. Usagi broke the ice by saying to her classmate, "Hello Ranma, looking good little sister," and giggling when even the youma face-faulted.

"Sister?" asked the redhead from the ground.

Usagi knelt placing herself on the same level as Cologne and Ranma were presently. "Yes, I'm your sister, but not in this lifetime;" she paused and then said: "A long time ago, there was a moon kingdom and all the planets had life, not just the earth like now; that kingdom was destroyed by armies of youma," she explained as she pointed behind Ranma. "My mother, Queen Serenity, seeing that the battle was lost; traded her life for the power to banish the enemy into another dimension and send me and the other slain senshi into the future to be reincarnated together again when it was time to rebuild our lost kingdom." Usagi softly added, "Beryl was the leader of our enemy. She was your aunt and you were my half sister on my father's side though our father never met your mother."

"My first incarnation," Ranma whispered. Seeing the confused look on Usagi's face, Ranma explained, "That would have been about fifteen thousand years ago and when my soul first appeared." She sighed, "I remember back then, I recall fighting youma as I grew up to become earth's first guardian. What you just told me matches some of what I remember being told as I was growing up in my first life."

Usagi sat back in shock. On one level, she had expected Ranma to be the earth senshi given the various clues, but to learn that it had happened so long ago was unanticipated. Usagi held out her wand so that the silver crystal within it could be seen. "I could use this to help you form your bond," she offered.

Ranma emphatically shook her head, "No way. I heard about that crystal. It makes it happen quicker but it also enslaves those that it's used on like that. Not gonna happen, nope."

"Enslaves?" repeated Usagi in disbelief.

Ranma paused then asked, "Do you have the power to remove the powers of the other senshi?"

Usagi nodded, Ranma softly concluded, "You really don't have the right to make that decision. That you have the power means that they are your servants and not your peers."

"But I was to be the Queen," she protested weakly.

"That's political and a senshi is really supposed to be a guardian position." Ranma paused and added, "Guardian of the people, their planet, their spiritual health; and politically independent."

Usagi sadly nodded in reluctant acceptance of the concept though unsure that it was the right thing to do but then asked, "How do I release them?"

Ranma hesitated and then said, "I'm not sure, but I think it can only be done on the planet itself; I think it has something to do with re-forging the link again, but I ain't no expert."

Usagi nervously twirled her wand as she cast anxious glances at the youma. "What about them?" she finally asked.

Ranma shifted so that she could see the three youma sitting nervously to one side. A thoughtful look on her face she asked, "Sis, can you sense any differences between (Ranma pointed at Demona) her and the other two?" as she gestured to the two 'wild' youma. Somehow it felt right to call her sister.

Usagi blushed at being called sister by Ranma but she focused her attention on the three youma in turn. Finally she said as she pointed to Demona, "I can't sense any evil in her, but I can in the other two. All three still have some dark energy as well though even if hers is a lot less. Did you do something?"

Ranma nodded and said, "It has to do with being a spiritual guardian as well. I want to show you something." With that Ranma stood up and walked toward the youma and then knelt in the triangular space between them. Cologne walked to Ranma's side as Ranma entered a meditative trance. Usagi shivered as she felt the slow upwelling of something that reminded her of a mother's love.

This was the first time that Ranma had included herself in the focus of power instead of just being a conduit of it. As Gaea responded to her call she felt old aches fade as her body repaired years of abuse and injury. As the magic corrected years of malnutrition, Ranma-chan grew several inches taller as well.

Cologne gained a foot in height and all three youma were affected as well.

Demona had been on the outskirts of the power before and thus only partially affected then. But now the full measure of life energy filled her and her two companions. There were some changes in their external appearance in that all three still looked like somewhat humanoid statues, one stony, another metallic and the last wooden, but the skin was flesh nonetheless. Usagi was not affected.

Demona spoke first, "Thank you mistress." The words were hesitant and the tone guttural but the words sincere and clear.

"Mistress," echoed the centaur's soft bell like tenor, "I also thank you."

A deep thumping bass resonated from the wooden one in barely distinguishable words, "Thanks I you."

The three humans all arched an eyebrow at this unexpected result and then the other eyebrow joined its mate as they took in the changes to the local landscape.

A hundred and thirty foot tall cherry tree now stood in the middle of the stable ruins; the vines, weeds and debris had vanished and the grass of the newly formed lawn was tall and lush in response to Ranma's desires and power.

Usagi studied the three youma again before concluding, "They're all alive now and while I don't sense any evil, there is still a taint of dark energy." She smiled, "If you want, I could try my healing spell to get rid of the dark energy?"

Ranma was hesitant and the youma were anxious, but there was a strong feeling in her that urged her to test this power of her sister's. Ranma motioned the three youma together with the centaur in the middle. She jumped onto his back and placed a hand on the youma to each side as she allowed her aura to softly flow over the group as a spiritual shield. To Usagi she said, "Alright Usagi, if you promise that it's safe then I should be ok too, right?"

Usagi nodded happily as she had used it safely before even on her friends. She wound up and . . . "Moon Healing Exhalation!"

She was badly shocked when Ranma screamed and obviously fought part of the beam. Most of the spell had flashed past Ranma's spiritual shield unimpeded but a portion of it coruscated over the outside of the shield almost seemingly to attack her. It was quickly over and Ranma collapsed to the ground with Usagi at her side sobbing almost instantly, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's never done anything like that before. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Please don't hate me."

Cologne stood there in frustration, not knowing exactly what was happening or what she could do.

"How could you do something so evil?" was Ranma's soft question to Usagi through gasps of pain; a question that shocked Usagi to her core. Ranma glanced at the three youma perceiving that they no longer looked fearsome at all and that their features had become more life like. "So part of it worked like you said," she added thankfully.

Usagi sat there with tears dripping in confusion and shame, "I'm sorry but I don't understand what happened either."

Ranma couldn't help it; she leaned into Usagi and put her arms about her even as the other girl also hugged her. "Usagi, part of the spell you used contained a compulsion. That was the evil part. It was a compulsion to 'do and be good'; but that makes no difference. Any compulsion is like a form of spiritual or mental rape. It robs its victim of the right to choose." Ranma sighed, "Sis, promise me you'll fix that spell before you use it again?"

Usagi sniffed and rapidly nodded her head. Then she broke down in loud sobs, "I didn't know. Nobody ever said anything before!"

"Of course not," explained Ranma, "the compulsion part of the spell would not allow anyone to even notice what had happened let alone complain about it." Ranma shivered and then added softly, "If this was something used commonly during your moon kingdom, then maybe it was a good thing it was destroyed."

Usagi shivered as well; doubt for the righteousness of her heritage and future plans entering her soul. "I . . . I need to go," she managed to get out.

Usagi launched herself into the air, wings taking lift as she gracefully fluttered above the trees and across the temple grounds. As she was leaving, her teammates finally roused and seeing her airborne quickly followed her.

Moments later, Mamoru managed to escape by using a rose to blast a boarded-up window apart. Top hat and mask barely in place, he was bare-chested and his pants in tatters as he fled screaming with a naked Dowel in hot pursuit. She lost him at the tall outer wall as he cleared it cleanly in a running leap while she failed in her effort to go thru it face first.

The following day when Usagi finally explained about the 'sparring', the reformed youma, the flawed binding and the hidden compulsion in her healing spell, well let's say that that all the Senshi had a lot to think about. For reasons of her own, Usagi did not identify Ranma or that she was the earth princess. She did caution the Senshi not to trespass at the temple again telling them that they should consider it as being embassy grounds.

There was another unanticipated result of the impromptu sparing; the Amazon warriors became fan-girls of the Sailor Senshi. It was not uncommon for an Amazon to break off husband hunting (it was pretty pathetic anyway they all agreed) to join her favorite Scout in trouncing evil at any chance that they had.

It got to be somewhat annoying in fact but there was not a whole lot the Senshi could do about it especially since they knew first hand that the Amazons were tough fighters in their own right.

The hero worship did get a bit out of hand in a few ways; the fire hydrants and hoses being used by Neptune's admirers were something Cologne could handle, but the flame-thrower idea used by one Mars fan-girl Amazon was stomped out immediately before they lost a second building.

Tuxedo Kamen on the other hand, made himself scarce, very scarce.

Both Hotaru and Setsuna disappeared the day after Usagi explained what she had learned from Ranma. Hotaru was gone for five weeks while Setsuna returned briefly after eleven days. She stayed for only two days before vanishing for another three weeks. Neither of them answered their communicators while they were absent nor offered any explanation for their absences upon returning.

Usagi suspected what was happening but didn't know how they could have done it. She was reluctant to broach the topic as a result since she could easily be wrong and wasn't sure of her response should she be right.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki was frustrated. While she was sure that Ranma considered her a friend, she just couldn't seem to get closer no matter how hard she tried. She had tried to confront him about it only to have Ranma dismiss it sadly with the words, "How could anybody want a girly sex changing freak like me?" She shook her head in sorrow for her own actions as she realized that Ranma's friends and family had really done a number on his self image.

Finally reaching the end of her rather large store of patience, Nabiki cornered Ranma one day when they were alone in the Saotome home. She had made some preparations born of desperation.

Nabiki's glare softened as she continued to stare at Ranma as he sat on the kitchen counter munching a sandwich she'd made for him. "Ranma," she softly said, "I admit that I screwed up in how I treated you at first. Somewhere and some-when in our relationship, I really did fall in love with you, but I thought you and Akane were in love with each other and would probably marry when you both grew up eventually." She sighed and continued, "But then that fell apart, apparently for good; so I decided to make my move." She scowled and growled, "I didn't think it would be as hard as this to make you believe that I loved you, but you really leave me no choice anymore." She took the cloth off the open cask sitting on the table beside her revealing the metal Nanniichuan tag on its side before swiftly lifting the small cask over her head. "I know that you cannot accept a cure now so that means that if becoming a guy is the only way left to convince you that I really do love you and that you aren't a freak, then so be it!" she exclaimed as she poured the cursed Jusenkyo water over her head.

"Meow?"

Ranma's eyes grew larger, 'she' had almost gotten over the effects of the cat-fist with Gaea's help, but guy Ranma had a significantly diminished link with Gaea and the terror momentarily overwhelmed him because of his surprise and he fled screaming.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

C & C to cloud_dreamer2000@yahoo.com

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki thought to herself, 'What the hell happened?' She glanced at the remains of the cask that had fallen to the floor and broken when she'd transformed. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed that the metal tag that said 'Nanniichuan' had fallen off and revealed another name burned into the wood beneath it. She growled as she recognized the Chinese characters for 'weird demon cat'. The growl shifted to an angry snarl as she noted the damning phoenix symbol on the back of the metal Nanniichuan tag. At this point, it was belatedly obvious to her that she'd placed herself on the receiving end of Kiima's attempt at revenge on Ranma for killing Saffron. Ranma had expressed a little worry that the guard captain might return to the Tendou home a second time bent on revenge but the passing months had blunted that concern.

Her hair was standing on end so great was her fury at this point that it almost caused her to have a heart attack when soft hands appeared behind her and gently picked her up.

Ranma-chan shakily stroked the weird rabbit-cat that Nabiki had become as she attempted to calm her while holding the small creature in her lap. She studied Nabiki's new golden-green furred form wondering at the cat face, voice and forepaws; with rabbit ears & back legs and a golden-blue gem in the middle of her forehead. Ranma noted that the darker colors in the gem slowly shifted shape so that it almost appeared to be an image of the . . . earth rotating?

Nabiki wanted to scream, but the need to cry was almost overwhelming at this point as well. She shifted in Ranma's arms and attempted to put her 'arms' about the redheaded girl's neck. The paws weren't working out for this. Desperate to meet her emotional needs, she reached out into her new cursed form for someway, something she could do and strangely enough, found it on an almost instinctive level.

Ranma was stunned as Nabiki morphed into a short cat-like little girl who threw her stubby arms about Ranma and launched into broken sobs. Ranma-chan held the devastated girl and gently stroked her bare but furry body. Ranma soothed her as Nabiki tried to apologize but the words were partially garbled by the tendency to lapse into 'meows'. Still Ranma understood, "Ranma, I'm so sorry. I've ruined it for us again!"

All she could say in reply was, "Nabiki, it wasn't your fault. It's ok, it will be ok; you'll see." Awhile later she softly added, "You know, your plan did work in a way. I do believe now that you really do love me after all." She sighed and continued, "I think I can tell you now that I . . . I sort of lo . . . like you too. I couldn't tell you before because I didn't believe you and couldn't trust you either as a result."

Nabiki's sobs got louder.

Ranma-chan lifted the wailing little cat-girl into her arms and carried her into the bathroom. Nabiki refused to let go, so Ranma in the end, shed her outer clothes and unenthusiastically stepped into the hot water of the furo, resigned to a potential beating. He got an Amazon level glomp instead as they both transformed. That he fainted soon thereafter was probably the only thing that kept the still somewhat hysterical Nabiki from doing something he might have regretted; not her though. She only regretted that he fainted and nearly drowned thus spoiling her impromptu plans for making him hers.

She 'humphed' to herself as she dragged his heavy form into his bedroom. In a way she was irritated that she was still a virgin. She heaved his body onto the bed finally and then slipped into bed with him, curling about his back and snuggling their bare forms together after pulling the light layer of blankets over them. She needed comfort from the disaster her life had become and he was a source of that for her even if he was unconscious. As for Ranma, well, the cumulative stress of the changes in his life had caused him to take a prolonged break for awhile.

Nodoka peeked in on her son before she turned in for the night later that evening and only softly smiled to herself when she realized that Nabiki was there as well. A knowing smile graced her face when she realized that neither youth was wearing anything as she adjusted the covers over them before leaving the room and firmly locking the door behind her.

Genma still ranted about how Ranma 'had' to marry Akane to unite the schools and as far as she was concerned, this was none of his business. Nodoka had seen the changes that had gradually occurred in her child just from being in the non-demanding and helpful presence that Nabiki had provided. The social growth alone was amazing from her perspective.

A few hours later and Ranma began to moan softly as if in pain. Nabiki roused long enough to realize what was wrong before she sleepily reached over Ranma to the glass of water conveniently placed on the night stand. She poured just enough water to trigger his change. Ranma immediately quieted. Nabiki sighed and drew the smaller girl into a gentle embrace before falling asleep again.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Tatewaki and Kodachi were on a hunt for their beloveds and a mortal enemy. That one person filled all four positions was something that could only happen to Ranma. The Kuno pair kept a watchful eye on the other aware that their sibling would be trying to destroy 'their' beloved and assisting 'their' mortal enemy.

As chaos would have it, they found a youma instead. This youma had made its way away from the youma killing grounds known as Juuban and was finally ready to wreak havoc among the helpless peoples of Nerima.

Tatewaki stared as the statue of his lunatic of a father began to move. Kodachi was not so restrained; she turned to the side and heaved. The sight of a ten foot stone-flesh replica of her father, dressed in all his Hawaiian glory including that ridiculous little tree; gyrating in a grotesque parody of a hula dance was more than even her stomach could handle.

The youma chuckled malevolently, 'Yes, havoc was being wreaked,' he thought to himself. He began to strum the ukulele and 'sing' as he cavorted.

People screamed, fled, puked and a few even began pounding their heads in the walls as they pleaded, "Please make it stop." The traffic accidents began to mount up as the now 'living' statue shared its 'joy' for all things Hawaiian.

The youma kept dancing until finally the Kuno siblings could take it no more and attacked. The battle was desperate, both almost lost it when the youma mooned them, but in the end they finally prevailed and forced the youma into the pond where Mr. Green Turtle lived.

The poor creature had a bad stomachache for several days and passed extremely noxious gasses for a month. That first week the massive alligator floated like an inflated inner tube, barely able to move and unable to dive.

The Kuno siblings were treated as heroes by those unfortunate to have witnessed the event. The whole episode was very odd and shocked both Kunos almost sane.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Happosai was back from his trip and was hunting Ranma. He'd heard that the not so petite redhead was now living in the Saotome home in Juuban; the old pervert stuck pay dirt almost immediately. It wasn't Ranma but those short skirts and their magnificent . . . auras . . . more than made up for that.

Akane was on her way to visit Ranma when she heard the shrieks and deduced the problem immediately upon hearing Happosai's battle cries ['hotcha, sweeto' etc.]. She skidded to a stop and broke out into a grin when she recognized that it was the Sailor Senshi he was molesting – all nine of them at that.

Happosai had found Uranus and Neptune in the midst of an old industrial complex that was due to be demolished because of damage from earlier youma attacks. They were experimenting with combining their attacks when Uranus had frozen in disbelief as she stared at the 'male' on her chest doing what no male had ever done before; fondle her. It had escalated from there eventually drawing in all the other senshi.

Each of the others had been groped in turn, had their short shirts flipped, their derrière's patted and their racks evaluated. His comment of "Pitiful" upon reaching Moon had enflamed them further.

Well, except for Mars who was giggling until the 'dark-one' had latched onto her and exclaimed "What! Still using training bras?" That he was standing there in front of her publicly examining her Sailor Senshi bra was a death sentence as far as she was concerned.

"Wowsa!" was his comment as he sprang away from Pluto, her bra in one hand and her panties in the other. He barely dodged her 'dead scream'. He froze in shock momentarily as the blast hit the large building behind him and imploded it into pebbles and metal shards. The fact that all the senshi were also frozen in shock was the only thing that saved his hide for the moment.

Spying Akane off to the side leaning against a building as she watched her former heroines get taken down a peg or two; he made a beeline for her. She lashed out in a quick combo of fists and feet but he gleefully parted her from her underwear while giving her a through massage as well. He saw Moon glaring at him and he leered at her before darting toward her again.

Sailor Moon shrieked and tried to blast him. Unfortunately, Akane was caught in part of the newly reworked magical attack. Akane felt something rip from her being before blackness overcame her. It felt as if a scab had been torn off a wound; a painful relief and release.

Happosai almost missed Sailor Moon's incoming attack as he leaped to the side in a zigzag pattern for his next target having remembered his previous assessment of Moon.

A silence glaive surprise almost nailed him as he started toward Saturn for a return visit. But he dodged it never noticing as a deep wide gouge silently appeared behind him and the remains of the two adjacent buildings toppled into the resulting massive hole.

Saturn snarled as her attack missed; she panicked as the pervert attached himself to her again and reflexively teleported back to her home castle taking him with her.

The remaining Senshi stood there stunned a moment before assessing damages. Before they could really become worried for the youngest senshi, she reappeared with them panting from exertion and stress – but without the pervert.

Mercury looked at the slightly smoking girl lying on the sidewalk and thoughtfully remarked, "That's odd, Moon's magical attacks aren't supposed to hurt anybody that isn't evil."

Mars knelt beside Akane and placed a ward on her forehead. Mar's forehead furrowed in concentration as she studied the vague information she was deriving from the ward. "I think it is as if someone placed a geas of anger on her. It would be similar to possession and probably distorted her perception of reality as well." She paused and added, "It could have been self imposed if there was a major trauma in her life," she said.

Sailor Moon nodded in understanding and motioned her friends away from the girl as she said, "It sounds like a healing spell would work then."

Venus grabbed the other Senshi and pulled them back saying, "Let's not waste the spell. It won't make any difference if it hits more than just this girl and it might do us some good."

The other Senshi glanced at each other before nodding and ranging themselves behind Akane. Sailor Moon wound up and; "Moon Healing Exhalation!"

The revised spell had a softer golden color absent from the older version. Removing the compulsion part from the spells Usagi used had taken her and Ami considerable time and effort using the Mercury computer and a reluctant wand before they had broken the magical code and rewritten the spell protocols. The resulting reworked spells had become more powerful and contained spiritual healing overtones now that made them more effective on dark creatures as well.

Setsuna had picked up Akane's fallen purse and determined her address. She studied a photo of the Tendou home for several long moments before finally pulling the 'normal' girl into a firewoman's carry and opening a portal into the Tendou dojo. She carefully laid the unconscious girl on one of the mats before departing. Usagi had scheduled a 'debriefing' meeting at Rei's home and had made it a point to tell Setsuna that she was expected there.

Usagi sat and watched as the other senshi interrogated Hotaru and Setsuna demanding an explanation of why their two attacks were now significantly more powerful. She noticed that Hotaru ignored or shrugged off inquiries about where she had disappeared to with the old pervert. Quietly reaching a measured decision, she spoke just after Rei had once again demanded to know where Hotaru had vanished to.

"She went back to her home planet, probably to Castle Saturn," quietly offered Usagi. Both Setsuna and Hotaru quickly glanced toward her, open concern on their faces. The other senshi were startled silent for only a few moments and just as they started up again with their questions; Usagi asked a quiet question. "I'm curious, how long did it take you, Setsuna and Hotaru, to break the Moon kingdom link and reestablish your unbound planetary link. Were there any problems that the rest of the Senshi need to know when it is their turn to do so as well?"

"Usagi?" whispered a concerned Rei; "Are you alright with this, are you sure that's what happened?"

Usagi smiled, a smile belied by the few tears leaking from her eyes. "I wasn't sure how I would feel about it until Ami and I deciphered my magic codes. The hidden compulsions in some of my 'good' spells convinced me that I needed friends, not servants." She started to sob and Rei immediately hugged her, "My spells as they used to be would have been perfect for a Queen, whether a benevolent monarch or a tyrant." She whispered, "Hitler would have loved them too."

Setsuna sat next to Usagi and embraced her from the other side. "It took me a week and a half to break the old bond. I came back to check on you to make sure that what I had done didn't harm you." She smiled into Usagi's damp eyes, "If it had, I would have asked you to remake the link. You were that important to me. Once I realized that it was alright, I returned to Pluto and my castle there. It took me three weeks to reinitialize my link with my planet. It has been growing stronger ever since." She smiled and added, "The reason you've seen so little of Hotaru and me is that we spend all the time that we can on Pluto and Saturn, I even sleep at home on Pluto now and I think Hotaru spends most nights in her castle too."

Hotaru sat before Usagi, a few tears leaking down her face, "I . . . I wanted to know if what you said after we met the Amazons was true. I went to Castle Saturn and . . . I . . . ended up breaking the bond when I was examining it. I was stranded there afterwards since I no longer had most of my powers. I came back as soon as my new link was made and I had enough power." She sniffled, "I'm sorry, if you want to put it back the way it was, then that's ok with me."

Usagi leaned into a hug with Hotaru, "But it's NOT ok with me. I want friends and allies, not servants." She sighed and asked, "I know that Setsuna has always had the ability to teleport because of the time gates, so I know how she managed to get to Pluto, but how did you get to Saturn?"

Setsuna chuckled and offered, "I lost a lot of my powers as well when I broke the Kingdom bond, but since I had been a senshi so long, I also had a measure of my own residual powers as well. Enough to allow me to open a portal back here via the gate." She glanced at Hotaru before continuing, "Hotaru was able to go to Saturn because she remembered it, am I right?"

Hotaru nodded, "Yes, I can teleport from anywhere back to my home castle. From there I can go anywhere I want on Saturn, but I can only return here back to the place I left from. I can't teleport anywhere else though."

Ami hummed a few moments in distraction before asking, "So why can't the rest of us go to our castles?"

Surprisingly, it was Usagi that answered, "I think it's like Hotaru said, you have to be able to remember your castle in order to work the magic to return to it." She paused and then clarified, "I want all of you to remake your planetary bonds the 'right' way."

Setsuna nodded, "That brings us to a problem. How do the other senshi get to their castles the first time?" She grinned and asked, "Know anybody with a spaceship?"

"Wait! Wait a minute," said Makoto, "What about our 'sailor teleport' that the inner Senshi can do? Won't that get us there?"

"Where?" asked Ami. Seeing the confusion on the other's faces she explained, "It's alright to say 'we will teleport to the royal castle on Mars' but where is it? What does it look like? We really don't have enough of a description of our destination for Usagi or anyone else to adequately visualize it." Seeing the confusion on Minako's face she clarified, "In other words, it won't work unless we accurately know where we want to go."

Michiru asked, "Does the mercury computer have any images or descriptions that would help?"

Ami blinked a few times wondering why she hadn't thought of that but then quickly began typing. A frown appeared on her face and she shook her head and replied, "Maybe, I can't tell though because all 'castle' information is marked classified and I can't access it now." She sighed in frustration as she added, "I found a note that says information on each castle is accessible only from locations within those castles."

"Wow," muttered Rei sarcastically, "that helps a lot."

"By the way Hotaru," asked Haruka, "what happened to the old pervert?"

Hotaru got a wide grin as she explained, "He's wandering the wilds of one of the small floating continents of Saturn." She snickered, "There are no other people and the only things to eat are some plants that taste like liver and some small rodent like creatures that resemble skunks." She giggled, "I hope he is 'enjoying' his stay, NOT!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma yawned as she gradually drifted in and out of consciousness occasionally giggling as the sensations from her body demanded an outlet. She shivered as she realized that there was a naked girl behind her with her body firmly, very 'firmly' pressed to her back. She froze as someone's hand gently tweaked one of her nipples while another hand stroked her short curly hair in a very sensitive place. Her body was almost paralyzed in terror but she managed to look over her shoulder; "Nabiki?"

Said girl languidly opened her eyes, smiled and gently leaned forward to kiss Ranma before she could react. "Morning Ranma; how about we get some hot water and continue this?" she suggested with a leer.

Ranma dithered, unsure of how to respond. Finally she asked, "Ca . . . can you stop that please? I gotta go really bad."

Nabiki slumped, her chin on Ranma's shoulder. She sighed and said, "That really isn't all that romantic a response baka." Her smile took all of the sting out of the words though as she released the other girl and gently shoved her toward the door as they rose together. "Go, I'm certainly not going to clean it up if you have an accident."

Ranma grabbed a robe and hurried, fumbling a few desperate moments with the locked door. Nabiki sighed, and then walked naked out the door and across the hallway into her room at the Saotome home. She grabbed her robe and wandered determinedly toward the bathroom after Ranma-chan.

As she walked into the bathroom, she heard Ranma mutter, "I think that is the first time I've ever been glad my girl side has a smaller bladder." Ranma blushed as Nabiki hung up her robe and glanced over at her as she did her business.

Nabiki only sighed and whispered as she started dancing from foot to foot. "Come on, hurry up. I have to go too."

A bit later as Ranma was scrubbing up, she heard Nabiki enter. Ranma hung her head really uncertain about 'things' at this point. Nabiki quietly walked over to the furo, took the cover off and checked the temperature. She was not surprised to discover that 'mother' Nodoka had already prepared it for morning use. Nabiki drew a bucket of hot water from it and sat down on another stool before she proceeded to first scrub Ranma's back using warm water that was neither cold enough to change her nor hot enough to change Ranma. When she was done, Nabiki then scrubbed herself using the slightly hotter water she had drawn from the furo.

Ranma was puzzled by this for a few moments before she recalled yesterday's events. She gestured to Nabiki to turn around and she then washed the older girl's back using the hot water also; the hot water on Ranma's hand still not being quite sufficient to change her since Ranma was using a slight bit of the 'soul of ice'. Ranma glanced at Nabiki and then at the furo and back again. Nabiki decided for her by taking her hand and pulling Ranma with her into the hot water.

As Nabiki's hands began to wander, Ranma softly said, "Please don't do that. I need time Nabiki. I don't know what the right thing to do is."

Nabiki hesitated then lapsed into a simple hug. "Ranma, whatever you want is alright with me. If it is only friends, then alright as long as you will let me be with you, please never send me from you." She sniffled and Ranma gently but hesitantly put one arm about her. She continued, "Ranma, you need to know this though; I am yours. A wife if you will let me, a mistress if you want;" she grinned and added with a faint trace of mirth, "or even a pet like P-chan if that is what you need to tell your troubles to."

A smile twitched at the edges of his mouth before he added, "Or a really cute little cat-girl to tease sometimes too." He paused and asked, "What went wrong with the water in the cask Nabiki?"

Nabiki understood the partial question and answered it. "I think that Kiima found out that the guide was going to send you that cask of water as a cure. That would explain the letter from him, but I suspect that Kiima substituted some 'weird demon cat' spring water for the real cask. I noticed that the metal Nanniichuan tag was made by the Phoenix folk and it covered the real name burned onto the cask."

Ranma sighed, "Darn, I want to be mad but I find it hard to be."

Nabiki wanted to lash out at this insensitive comment; 'he was supposed to swear vengeance on Kiima, wasn't he for my sake?' Instead she mastered her turbulent emotions and asked, "Ranma, I don't understand. Please explain."

Ranma sighed again but with a lonely sadness that caused Nabiki to pull him into a tighter hug. Ranma didn't notice. He softly began to explain the adventure that had happened almost a year ago. This time he explained the details that had been glossed over in earlier explanations. This time he explained about the bitter battle that resulted in killing Saffron and how that impacted a whole race.

In the end Nabiki could only sigh and softly remark, "I don't like it that I got cursed like this, but I'm glad it wasn't you. I can understand why you can't get angry at Kiima and while I want to, all I can muster is a sense of sadness for the despair she must be feeling."

Ranma hugged her, grateful that she understood.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ukyou had decided to move her shop to Juuban in imitation of the Cat Café. Cologne had heard of her decision and offered her the use of part of the new and much larger Cat Café.

She was suspicious until the elder had explained that Ranma was now Amazon Royalty and she wanted to do all she could to keep her happy and that meant helping Ukyou among other things. The lonely girl agreed and added her menu to theirs. It was a gold mine for them both, especially after several of the Amazons gained enough skill to help at the grille.

But best of all from her perspective, it allowed her to spend more time with her Ranchan. She was surprised that Nabiki seemed closer to Ranma than ever, yet did not get jealous of time Ukyou spent with Ranma. Nabiki trusted Ranma completely.

The more she watched Nabiki with Ranma, the more worried she became until she finally realized that a choice had been made and it wasn't her. Not even the fact that Nabiki was now apparently cursed too made any difference to the pigtailed youth.

Shampoo was the one to find and comfort her tears when she finally broke down in misery. Shampoo understood and that helped the lonely girl. From that day forward, Shampoo called her 'sister' and meant it.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma slowly worked out in the new dojo that the three former youma had built out of the ruins of the old stables. It was a large and rather beautiful building, Ranma was grateful for their gift.

As she slowly worked out, watched by Nabiki and Shampoo, the three youma hesitantly entered one end of the building and sat, waiting to be noticed.

Shampoo only glanced at them but did nothing else. Ranma trusted them so she did too. That was it as far as she was concerned.

Nabiki walked over to them and sat on the centaur's back and idly talked with the three. She had made an effort to befriend them as part of her normal information gathering style. It was at her suggestion that the three were there that afternoon.

Ranma grabbed a towel and plopped herself before the trio as she waited for them to explain what they wanted.

"Mistress," began Demona, their usual spokesperson. "May we go out into the world and find others like us?"

"More youma?" asked Shampoo as she hefted one of her new bonbori experimentally as she checked the balance.

"No guardian," replied the centaur, "no more youma. I think we were the last."

"We were not always youma," explained Demona. "Our distant ancestors were magical folk. Beryl captured them and transformed them into youma, from them were we spawned long ago." She sighed hoarsely, "But now that Mistress has restored us, we can sense our 'cousins' far off. If Mistress will permit, we three would go to them and see if they will help Mistress."

Ranma pensively studied them but came to a decision when he noticed Nabiki nodding in affirmation to her. "Alright, it seems that Nabiki is for it and that's good enough for me. Go and see what you can do but make no promises in my name and do not reveal who we are."

The three nodded in agreement and silently left, merging into the shadows.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Haruka and Michiru sat on the roof of a building that overlooked the Amazon temple as the locals now called it. The deep aqua mirror was open and being used by Michiru while Haruka was using a pair of expensive field glasses to study a certain redhead sparring in the yard below them in the distance. Occasionally she would compare what she was seeing to the images in the mirror. Michiru also used the field glasses at times.

Finally Haruka sighed and concluded, "I don't think that there is any doubt. That is a classmate of the inners named Ranma and she is the Terran Senshi."

Michiru nodded and added, "Yes, and I think that Usagi knows it which is why she forbid all of us from going there."

"So what do we do?" asked the short haired blond.

"We do what we should have done all along," Michiru answered, "we obey."

"I'm glad to hear that," said a soft but steely voice behind them.

The two outer Senshi almost jumped off the building before turning to see who was behind them. They gulped when they saw all five transformed inner Senshi ranged behind them with Sailor Moon in the center. Michiru noticed that Minako was awkwardly carrying a large bag with its strap looped over one shoulder. She understood its purpose when she saw Artemis briefly peek out at her before a black paw pushed his head back down.

Usagi de-transformed and moved close to the other couple who were still nervous around the neo-queen. "I really am glad to hear that you've decided to be part of the team. Thank you."

She smiled widely at their obvious expressions of relief. "You've been watching Ranma for awhile; do you have any suggestions about meeting her or anything?"

"Only one," replied Haruka, "we really, really could use some training from them. All of the Amazons are skilled martial artists, but Ranma completely outclasses them all and I don't think it's just due to her becoming the earth senshi either."

Usagi transformed again before pulling the two outers with her into the middle of a circle formed by the inner Senshi. They barely had time to blink as Usagi cried out "Sailor Transport!" and the world momentarily turned inside out.

Usagi curiously looked about her, noticing the changes since the last time she had been here almost three months ago. The ruins of the stables had been completely rebuilt into a large dojo with the monster of a cherry tree in the middle of a small garden to one side.

She de-transformed and then raised an eyebrow at the other Senshi until they followed suit. Raising her communicator she said, "Setsuna? Please bring Hotaru to my location."

"On our way," was the reply and shortly thereafter, all nine Senshi were casually sitting in the shade of the cherry tree calmly talking together and waiting for their hosts.

Ranma studied the nine females curiously. She had become aware of their presence almost as soon as they had magically appeared near her training hall. She walked toward them from the open lawn where she had been sparring with several of the Amazons. The Amazons had reluctantly obeyed her hand signal to back off but they remained in defensive positions that could immediately change to offense if need be.

Usagi smiled as she saw Ranma approaching; she waved but remained seated as she didn't want the other Senshi to stand with her. "Hello Ranma, I wanted to introduce the other Sailor Senshi to you." When Ranma cocked her head in interest, she rose and gestured to the other girls as they rose and named them and their position in turn. She did not name Ranma to them as she had informed them of her identity before telling them that they were going to meet with her. Setsuna was the only senshi to notice that Ranma did not seem surprised at the identities of the scouts.

"Hello, I'm Ranma, the earth princess," she sighed in resignation as she repeated her unwanted title. 'Damn it,' she thought, 'why couldn't I have been the earth prince instead?'

"Not a senshi?" asked Ami in confusion.

Ranma shrugged, "Maybe in the future, maybe not." She shuddered and added, "I really hope not though, I mean, those short skirts and the bows and jewelry; there is no way I wanta be ever caught wearing something like that."

"Tomboy!" sniggered Makoto. She only grinned at the baleful glare from the redhead. The two had actually become casual friends over the past half year they had been attending school together. Their mutual interest in martial arts had been the start of that.

Nabiki slowly walked into view from inside the dojo where she had been studying when the senshi had arrived. She had snapped a few photos but had realized that they were only for her scrapbook and nowhere else.

The Senshi had frozen when Nabiki had wandered into sight as they realized she had probably overheard the introductions; several of them looked on in confusion as she leaned in and quickly kissed Ranma's cheek. Nabiki smiled and said, "I swear on the honor of my clan and my mother's grave, never to reveal anything about you or do you harm as long as you are friends of Ranma and not her foes." Understood but not stated was the implied threat of what she would do if they became foes – anything and everything.

The Senshi relaxed only after Ranma affirmed, "Nabiki's word is her bond. She will actively protect you as well because of your potential link to me in our duties." Ranma smiled widely at the taller girl before adding, "Trust me, having her on your side makes a big difference."

Nabiki blushed deeply at the compliment. She had wrapped an arm about Ranma before resting her chin on top of the other girl's head. "Thanks Ranma, hearing you say that makes it all worthwhile."

Ranma nervously grinned up at Nabiki before moving away to sit with her back to the cherry tree her arms resting on top of her upright and spread knees as she sat in distinctly masculine manner. Nabiki chuckled quietly before sitting next to her. The Senshi ranged themselves in a loose arc in front of her; their two cats seated next to each other beside Usagi. The Senshi were surprised when Cologne arrived a few moments later and sat next to Ranma. She was followed shortly by several Amazon maidens who set an assortment of treats and beverages in the middle of the circle before retreating beyond the meeting area.

All except one; Shampoo took a stance slightly behind and to one side of Ranma only to scowl and take a seat next to Nabiki in response to her elder's rapid hand signals in Amazon battle sign. Shampoo began to rub her head as the diffuse but chaotic aura of mingled magics in the meeting area kept bringing her eyes back to the two cats with the strange marking on their foreheads. She remembered them both with distaste. She wondered why she felt so weird in their presence though.

Usagi started the impromptu meeting, "Ranma, I am . . ." She explained who she was, now and in the past and then glanced over toward Setsuna before helping herself to the refreshments.

Setsuna accepted the cue and also explained her past and present mission in much greater detail than any had heard before.

And so it went around the circle, Usagi ordered both cats to participate as well to the surprise of the others present. When the visitors had finished, Ranma began for her side.

Ranma went into considerable detail, even to demonstrating his curse and giving a brief recap of his life including several past lives as well. Cologne took the lead from Ranma's example and divulged a lot of Amazon history and myth related to her tribe's duty to Ranma.

Nabiki's comments were almost as brief as Shampoo's. Shampoo declared herself as Amazon guardian and shield-maiden for Ranma while Nabiki simply said she was bound by giri to Ranma and loved him with all her heart. After seeing his gorgeous male form, the senshi could only envy her. Neither girl divulged her curse deeming it no one else's business.

As the introductions were ending, Setusa posed a question, "Ranma, I noticed that you did not seem surprised at our civilian identities." She trailed off, inviting a response from Ranma.

Ranma shrugged and said, "Yeah, I figured out who all you guys were almost six months ago; shortly after school started again. Wasn't any of my business to say anything to anybody though so I didn't." Seeing the looks of surprise on the senshi's faces she chuckled and added, "I saw you gals take out a youma, afterwards I followed you to that temple where you gals meet."

From that meeting rose an organization devoted to reversing or minimizing the ongoing attacks against the earth's biosphere. Matured by the shock of Ranma's assessment of her past and goals that had been underscored by the revelations of the deliberate flaws in her magic, Usagi had put Crystal Tokyo second to this task. She and Mamoru had broken up because of her decision. Unlike previous times, she had only shrugged and walked away. Usagi had refused his efforts to apologize since then. She had accepted the fact that she might not ever see 'the spore' again, but she was sure that the girl nonetheless existed some-when and that was marginally alright.

One immediate outcome of this joining of efforts occurred when Ami demonstrated and explained the weather model she had developed. Ranma and Gaea tried fine tuning their efforts now on a weekly basis based on Ami's model dynamics. Needless to say, the results drove the meteorologists of the world nearly mad. Of course there were a few flaws in the model that had to get worked out at first, one such resulted in most of the Sahara Desert being washed into the Mediterranean Ocean in a disastrous serious of massive floods. While it did reveal an amazing number of ancient ruins that had been hidden beneath the deep sands and form several large lakes, it also created a massive delta that silted up almost half the small nearly land locked sea.

Nabiki suggested that a search be made for the 'powers-that-be' that were behind this attack. Ami was overridden when she volunteered to do it, the elders were convinced that it was not an attack launched from the physical realm and having the search led from that aspect would potentially cause them to miss discovering the true source of their ills.

The monks and elders decided to spearhead that search but quickly consulted with each senshi in turn to see what magical discernments skills each had and what if anything they detected or even intuited.

The preliminary results were confusing, some said it was being instigated by something reminiscent of the Negaverse, yet other data suggested a magical attack. Both obscured the other and made them difficult to detect.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Bits and pieces of various conversations that Akane had overheard had pieced themselves into a very weird dream that she had started having ever since her last encounter with the Sailor Senshi. Worse yet it was reoccurring often enough to make Akane wonder if she was the pervert she had always accused Ranma of being.

It wasn't always the same dream yet it was. The circumstances were different but the spirit or underlying thrust of the dreams was unchanged she realized. She thought about this last one for a moment.

It started off so innocently too she recalled. First there was a knight in shinning armor who rode into sight. She recalled how thrilled her watching secret self had been at first. Then she'd realized the knight was herself. No make that HIM-self. Yuk. He'd ridden up to a cave where Ranma-chan was chained to the wall next to the cave entrance. Before he could release her, a multi-headed dragon that reminded her somewhat of the eight headed Orochi that they'd defeated; had come storming from the cave. It had only three heads but that was bad enough as the heads looked a lot like Shampoo, Ukyou and Nabiki. 'Somehow' HE had defeated it and then freed Ranma-chan who had promptly swooned (like any proper maiden) and then they had ridden away into the sunset to a happy-ever-after that had left her panting with emotion when she suddenly awakened once again before getting to the 'good stuff'. Akane suddenly frowned as she recalled that in the dream she was a he and that would make the good stuff . . . eww. No, don't think about it she told herself.

When she came downstairs she paused as she heard her father and Genma whispering about taking a trip to china. Her father was reluctant to leave she quickly gathered.

She thought about it for a long moment before she had a sudden epiphany; 'this was what those dreams were about! If I went to china and got Ranma's cure then I would have rescued him from his girl side and he would then . . . oh my!' Akane confronted the two fathers and asked, "Can I go with you?"

Genma grinned as he realized what Soun's response would be and suggested, "Sure, why not girl. After all you'll have me and your father to protect you." Soun dithered before he sagged and agreed to go.

Akane smiled brightly, "This will be so much fun. It's been forever since I've gone on a training trip. I know! I'll take care of all the cooking for us," she decided.

Genma traded equally terrified glances with Soun. "Ah, no need for that . . ." He gulped as he saw the frown forming on the girl's face, a prelude to anger he knew; he desperately suggested, "You'll be too busy training with us to cook. Either I or your father will be training you while the other master will take care of camp chores such as cooking."

Both fathers smiled in relief as her brilliant smile appeared though Soun whispered, "Us cook? And I don't want my little girl to get hurt!"

"It's either that or she cooks for us," whispered Genma back.

Soun shuddered, 'caught between a rock and a hard place' he thought before reluctantly nodding his acceptance.

Akane decided that she would 'inspire' the two to keep their word, "Alright, but I'm going to cook every chance that I get when we aren't sparring." Both fathers' groaned.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

The sparring between the untransformed Senshi and Amazons was going rather well in Ranma and the elders' opinions. Each scout had one or more Amazon maidens who were dedicating themselves to ensuring that they became proficient warriors. The Senshi were already regretting their decision to ask for training; especially that first weekend when a maiden had appeared at the break of dawn at each girl's house and taken them on a short involuntary training trip in their PJ's. The trips had lasted till evening the following day. The girls had all skipped classes the next morning, barely wakening before noon that particular Monday.

The bevy of girls, [Senshi, Amazons & others] were sitting beneath the cherry tree enjoying a bountiful lunch one spring afternoon when a quick breeze blew in bringing with it a brief shower. All the girls had shrieked in surprise at first but then the Senshi had frozen when they saw Nabiki and Shampoo shrink down into their cursed forms.

Ranma had hesitated as Shampoo changed. Shampoo-neko angrily shook the excess water out of her fur and began cursing in Mandarin. Her curses trailed off as she realized she was actually speaking instead of 'meowing'. Fearfully, she glanced up at her princess only to notice that Ranma-chan was staring rather intently at her instead of quivering with terror of her cat form.

"Ahh, Shamps; when did your cat form start talking like people and what's with the blue circle on your forehead?" asked Ranma as she petted Nabiki who had jumped into her arms meanwhile.

The Amazons were all familiar with Shampoo's cursed form but were surprised when she began to speak. Cologne quickly explained to the Senshi about Nabiki's and Shampoo's curses but was at a loss at to why Shampoo now spoke.

Usagi gently picked up Shampoo and started to pet her. The cursed girl began to purr despite herself. It just felt sso0oo good. Usagi cocked her head and said, "I wonder if her contact with Luna and Artemis did something to her?"

Cologne snapped her fingers in surprised frustration, "That must be it! I remember now that when the Senshi and Amazons first met and sparred, Luna defeated Shampoo using some form of magic from that mark on her forehead. That is when it must have started."

Shampoo thought about it for a moment before remarking, "Shampoo no mind, is good that Shampoo can talk when in cursed form."

"I wonder," mused Ami, "do you suppose that she might have some of their powers as well?"

"Powers?" asked Shampoo and Cologne together.

Usagi hesitated and then said, "We can't tell you any more about that. It's something that we really should leave up to the two moon cats to deal with."

"Ok, Shampoo go with senshi and talk to other fur-balls."

Minako grinned, and thought 'I wonder how she knew that was what I called Artemis?'

The moon cats were shocked at the changes to Shampoo. They of course knew about her curse all along having seen it that first encounter but had chosen not to mention it to the Senshi as a trivial detail; an oversight that had resulted in being yelled at by Usagi and Minako.

After a careful examination of Shampoo's astral image, Luna and Artemis had agreed to teach Shampoo what they could to the extent she could learn it.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

They had initially been worried that the springs would still be flooded and the curses mixed, but had decided to make the trip after confirming that the flooding had abated and found that the guide had solved the mixed springs problem by the simple expedient of pumping each spring dry of the mixed waters and allowing them to then naturally refill.

The training had gone surprisingly well on their journey to Jusenkyo. Even Soun had finally gotten into the training and taught her several advanced Tendou school techniques. She had made remarkable progress especially now that she somehow was able to focus without losing her temper so readily. She couldn't explain it but she hadn't felt so in control of herself since her mother had died. On the other hand, Akane shuddered as she again regretted her decision to go to china.

This was an opinion adamantly shared by both fathers. Genma had learned that entering another pool in his cursed form caused the two curses to mix. He had found the spring of drowned man, but his cursed form was no longer cute. Now he looked like some sort of were-panda and mobs complete with torches and pitchforks seemed to form within moments of his cursed form being sighted.

Soun and Akane had both stood well back from the springs while Genma had gone forward to be cured and fill a cask for a cure for his son. They had dismissed the light misty rain that had started falling as the stocky man had approached the springs. Genma had shrugged it off, declaring [via a sign] that this was the last time they would see that form. He wished he had been wrong; he really wanted his beach ball at times now.

As Genma had emerged from the spring in all his awful glory, an earthquake, a strangely localized earthquake had knocked the two Tendous into different springs.

Soun had fallen into the spring of 'fat-old-woman'; at least 'her' wails seemed somewhat in character now.

Akane thought about her cursed form again as she glanced up at the clouds anxiously checking for evidence of rain; it revolted her to say the least. She also scanned the horizon hoping that Taro hadn't found their trail again.

Seems that ole Pantyhose had belatedly realized that he could change his name by marriage in Japan. He had gone home to visit his mother and after seeing Akane's cursed form the monster boy had decided it was a match made in heaven; Tremendous Taro Tendou had a nice alliterative ring to it he thought.

Akane was sure that sulfur and brimstone was involved in these events instead of ambrosia. She had fallen into the same spring that Taro had been baptized with and since it turned out not to be a gender specific spring, she was now a female version of his monster shape except for the tentacles that he had added later. The thought of their cursed forms together sent shivers of terror down her spine. The idea of the two of them together made her shudder as she realized that Pantyhose was apparently everything that she had ever accused Ranma of being. She wondered if this was some sort of karmic revenge. She detested having an udder instead of breasts in her cursed form. On the other hand there was something to be said for the baka pounding capability of that form. Her chi mallet was almost the size of a Buick if she used it when transformed.

The guide had been surprised that she had remained female and had quickly changed the sign for the spring by replacing the word 'bull' with the gender neutral term 'bovine'. Akane had problems with that too. There was no way she was going to describe her cursed form as Yeti-riding-a-COW etc. She thought about that and decided that the term 'exotic flying Yeti' would work just as well or would 'winged minotaur' be more accurate? As for the tail, well she really, really wanted to forget about it. 'Who knows where the perverted thing would end up going by itself,' she thought to herself.

Genma carried four casks of Nanniichuan provided by the guide as future cure for Ranma, Soun and himself and as a bargaining chip for either Ryouga or Mousse, but the guide had cautioned him that using the spring water before a year had passed would only cause further problems instead of curing them. The guide had provided Akane with a cask of Nyanniichuan for her eventual use, assuming Taro didn't find her first. In the meantime, Akane had purchased the guide's entire supply of 'water-proof' soap in an effort to remain human. She had ended up resorting to twice daily beatings of the pair of fathers in an effort to keep them out of 'her' soap, but it was doing wonders for her skill development.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi sat on the edge of the porch in a pair of shorts and idly watched the clouds as she lazily nibbled on some chocolates. She frowned slightly as a massive shadow blocked the sunlight. She sighed and said, "Hello Taro; Ranma doesn't live here anymore and Happosai is gone too." Up until that moment she had really been enjoying her month long vacation.

"Moo?"

"Wait there a few moments and I'll bring you some hot water," offered Kasumi. She filled a kettle from the sink taps and handed it to the monstrous young man. He carefully took the hot kettle between his thumb and a massive finger and poured it between his horns.

"Thank you," he said after quickly dressing with the spare clothes he had learned to carry in fold space. This was soon to be his sister-in-law so he decided that being polite was the way to go, besides, this was Kasumi and it was difficult to be otherwise in any case.

Taro decided to break the ice about him and Akane slowly so he asked another question first; "What was it you were saying about fem-boy and the old pervert?"

Instead of answering directly, Kasumi asked, "Have you ever been to Juuban?"

Taro nodded, "Only a couple of times. The sailor Senshi live there and it's shoot first and don't bother me with questions whenever they see my cursed form."

Kasumi nodded and explained, "Ranma lives with his mother over in Juuban ward now. The Sailor Senshi are his friends." She stopped at that point but Taro understood.

"So if I go after fem-boy," he said, "the Senshi will make hamburger of me." He paused and then asked, "Happosai?"

A wide grin split her face, "Sailor Saturn took care of him. He groped her and she marooned him on an empty floating island on Saturn. Nabiki explained that he is the only person living on the whole planet and the only things to eat either taste like liver or smell like skunk."

"No gals and no panties?" chuckled Taro. When Kasumi nodded in affirmation, he began roaring with laughter. It was a long time before he got himself under control. He finally muttered, "For this, I forgive the senshi for everything they've ever done to me."

They sat in an oddly companionable silence before Kasumi asked, "Taro-san, why are you here then?"

Taro twiddled his fingers for a few moments before he said, "I want to marry Akane and become Tendou Taro."

Kasumi sighed and then asked, "Does she have any say in this or are you going to be like all the rest that have come to claim her and have used methods more akin to a rapist than a suitor?"

Taro blanched before he softly said, "My mother was raped, that is how I came to be. I would never do such."

Kasumi looked with sympathy at the angry young man before softly saying, "In some ways you and Akane are alike, both filled with anger at what happened to your mothers, lashing out at those who oppose you irrespective of whether you are in the right or not."

Taro held his peace, it was hard but he sat there in silence.

"Taro-san," Kasumi hesitantly asked, "is it only to change your name that you seek Akane or is this part of your feud with Ranma?" She paused and then added, "Know this, Akane and Ranma are sundered apart and Nabiki has captured Ranma's heart instead."

Taro chuckled, "The two deserve each other."

"Yes," was Kasumi's quiet response, "they do. Both are honorable and their passions run deep. Each fills a void in the other and when they stand back to back, they are a force few can overcome. The Amazon's have abandoned their pursuit of Ranma as has Ukyou. Nabiki no longer even lives here now but dwells with Ranma even going so far as sharing his bed."

"Wow," grinned Taro, "I never would have guessed at that."

Kasumi studied Taro before finally asking, "Taro, would you like the secret to Akane's heart?" Seeing him uncertainly nod she continued, "Treat her first as a fellow martial artist, never belittle her in anything but assist her in gaining more skills. Second, treat her as a worthwhile person NOT as a valuable possession. And lastly, never forget she is a woman and thus a paradox. She is strong yet weak at the same time; forgiving to those she cares for yet vengeful to those who threaten those she cherishes. You will have to woo her to convince her to spend the rest of her life thinking of you, bearing your children and raising them. Attempt to claim her and she will resist you till the devil buys a pair of ice skates."

He doubtfully nodded before he commented with a wistful note in his voice, "It's just that I thought her new cursed form made us a perfect pair."

"CURSED form!" shrieked Kasumi.

"Yes," sighed Taro, "She has the female version of my curse, so I . . ." He sighed again before noticing that Kasumi had fainted. "Was it something I said?" he asked warily.

A bit later Kasumi woke up, glanced at Taro and then decided she didn't want to know anymore just yet. "Taro," she began, "you can stay in Nabiki's old room since it has been cleaned out. It's right next to Akane's but don't take advantage of that please."

Taro nodded. He rose and bowed to Kasumi with surprising grace, "Thank you Kasumi-dono," he said before following her up the stairs.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki had moved out of the Tendou home completely the day after being cursed. She had managed to keep the curse hidden from her family and they all believed she was still 'just friends' with Ranma or so she thought. But she now routinely slept in Ranma's bed though the redhead did insist on PJ's for both of them and had refused to even talk about going to bed as a guy those first few weeks. But then one evening two months ago Nabiki had managed to change his mind and ended up seducing him. Thereafter, Ranma usually went to bed as a guy even if he didn't stay in that form before drifting off to sleep.

Ranma and Nabiki sat together on the roof of his [temple] dojo and watched as Shampoo trained with Luna and Artemis. They watched in wonder as all three cats slowly morphed into human form. It seemed that Shampoo had found a sort of cure. After initially learning that her new form also possessed some limited magic skills as well, she had announced to Cologne her decision to retain her curse. This latest accomplishment validated her decision apparently.

A sudden brief misting changed Ranma and Nabiki to their cursed forms. It was rare now days for Ranma to not get rained or misted on if 'he' was outside. Frequently Nabiki got caught by it also. Ranma sighed, adjusted her clothing and picked up Nabiki-cabbit and began to pet her.

For the moment, Nabiki was content to simply be petted and a soft purr echoed. Ranma hesitated for only a moment before continuing.

Eventually, Nabiki also morphed into her diminutive little cat-girl shape. With practice, she had managed to master speech. "Ranma, I wonder if my form has any other abilities?"

"Don't know of any way to find out," Ranma obliquely answered.

"How about yourself?" the child like girl asked.

Ranma shrugged, "I'm not sure. I'm a little worried though. Somehow I've reached a plateau in my link with Gaea. I remember that I can get more mastery of that power but somehow Gaea is not letting the link form in the same way again. I've tried mediation but all I get is some weird image of puzzle parts coming together. I ain't even got no idea of what the pieces are let alone what to do with them."

Nabiki idly scratched behind one of her large ears before suggesting, "Let's go talk with Usagi and Ami and the elders; someone there might have an idea."

After Ranma stood, Nabiki reached out her small arms and Ranma gently picked her up, even surprising her with a brief kiss on the cheek before she jumped to the ground carrying Nabiki. From there they sought out Ami and Usagi and asked them to come with her for a consultation. Both Senshi were eager to oblige if it meant an end to sparring.

The three Amazon elders and three temple monks readily agreed to listen to Ranma. She explained how she felt Gaea wanted something different than what she'd developed in her first life but didn't know what it was or how to do it.

After hours of brainstorming, Ami summed it up this way: "Ranma, I think that Gaea wants you to incorporate your experiences in this life and the important bits and pieces you remember from your other lives to make a stronger link than what you had in your first life."

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah that does sound about right. Got any idea on how?"

The others mutely shook their heads denying the knowledge.

A couple of days after the brainstorming meeting, Nabiki was awakened a few hours before dawn as Ranma stealthily slipped out of bed. Eyes narrowed, she watched as Ranma-chan dressed and pulled a small pack out of the closet. A pack that Ranma must have previously packed she surmised.

Just as Ranma reached for the doorknob, Nabiki softly asked, "And just where do you think you are going? Not without me I hope!"

Ranma's thin shoulders sagged as she replied, "Please Nabiki, let it go. I got an idea, but it might be dangerous and I don't want nobody else hurt, especially you."

Nabiki's chest almost hurt with the warm emotion that the 'especially you' part caused. 'He really did care for her, just like he once cared for Akane.' She softly replied as she quickly dressed, "Ranma, all I've ever asked of you is to not be left behind. I know I can't operate on your level, but please let me watch over you as best I can."

Ranma studied her face. She saw the glimmering of tears and realized that they were real. This was important to the other girl. She gave a short nod and the two quietly left the house together after a hurried but massive breakfast.

Two hours later they were sitting side by side under an old tree next to a small but deep lake nestled among steeply rising hills. A small shrine was barely visible on the top of a hill on the opposite side of the lake. As Ranma meditated, Nabiki watched the sun slowly rise. She looked about herself in wonder, amazed that Japan still had such places of primitive beauty remaining.

In her mind, Ranma had just met Ranko again. It was their first meeting in almost a year. When Ranma had asked her what to do, she had only sadly smiled and then seemed to shatter like a piece of glass. The pieces had then turned to gossamer and floated out of his reach every time he grabbed for one.

Ranma finally sat down in the dreamscape and began to meditate again. This time he felt himself become insubstantial. But each time a chink appeared in who he was, a thread of gossamer floated over and filled in the hole. He was amazed as the strengths he had developed in this life became stronger and merged with talents of previous lives. He was grateful that weakness he perceived in himself were shored up and repaired in a similar manner. He watched amazed as the neko-ken morphed from a child's remembered terror into an accessible skill through the courage and skills of previous warrior lives.

Finally, there was only the hole that he somehow perceived as 'destiny & duty' remaining. As he pulled 'his honor' toward himself and that hole; he turned it into 'his choice' and he felt the power of Gaea, past and present both, upwelling in grateful acknowledgement and filling his whole being. The power seemed to fill him to overwhelming, erasing the seams between the strands of his present and past life, his hurts and triumphs, skills and failures.

As Ranma integrated all of her potential, a visible manifestation occurred as for the first time ever, Sailor Terra appeared when Ranma-chan used her considerable learned skills to link her dual heritages from the Earth dynasty and the Moon kingdom into the power bestowed on her by Gaea.

Ranma spun in a whirlwind of rainbow colored streamers as she was re-clothed in her own version of senshi garb. It was an almost standard sky blue fuku, but the stylishly ragged earthen brown and green leaf patterned skirt was offset by built-in sky blue mid-thigh biker shorts. The edges were trimmed with golden-yellow and green with a short yellow ribbon in the back at waist height; none in the front. Instead of tall boots with heels that the other senshi wore; she had short dark blue socks in a pair of slippers covered with tiny feathers of every color imaginable. Her only jewelry was a golden tiara and her short fingerless gloves were yellow.

Nabiki screamed in agony as she was caught in the power backlash as a brightly glowing Ranma-chan floated upward over her on an incredible column of planetary power mostly composed of dynamic chi heavily laced with life magic, chaotic life magic. Tendrils of earth power strong enough to blow a volcano apart coruscated across Nabiki's body and up her limbs knocking her into the small lake behind them. The water was quiet only a moment before it began to froth in streaming geysers as a very massive glowing crystalline form emerged to hover a dozen meters over the surface while absorbing energy. The absorbed energy had enabled Nabiki to assume her previously unknown crystalline form, providing her protection from power overload. Her new form hungrily absorbed additional power, using the massive power flow to synthesize the materials needed to create its form as well as stabilizing and energizing its new abilities. The solid column of power enveloped Ranma and lapped over Nabiki for what seemed to them to be forever but actually lasted less than an hour.

Ranma regained her senses high in the air. Surprised that she wasn't falling she hesitantly moved a limb only to zip in that direction. Quickly regaining her balance, she soon figured out that her new slippers focused her powers in such a way that they enabled her to fly. She was about to test them out when she remembered Nabiki.

'Damn it, not again!' moaned Nabiki to herself as she once again began to take stock of her newly modified form as the remembered pain finally subsided. 'I'm a spaceship!' she realized in shock as heretofore unknown sensors came on line and provided her with a wealth of information that she could barely understand let alone interpret. As she investigated her new form, she became aware that it was normally a dormant form that had surfaced to protect her from the flood of energy she had been caught in. However, by absorbing the power, this new form was now empowered years, perhaps decades before it would have normally been able to emerge.

"Oh my," she softly exclaimed as a rather startling piece of information from her self-scan caught her attention. "How in the world can I be both a spaceship and pregnant?" she wondered. Well, the pregnant part she had an idea about since she had managed to seduce Ranma almost two months ago shortly after Genma had vanished. As a result, he had started reserving most of his limited male hours for early bedtimes since then; but still, a pregnant spaceship?

'Damn, damn, damn!' she swore under her breath. 'What will my changing do to our baby?' she wondered. This was now the fourth shape she'd assumed since becoming pregnant she realized. She studied the barely perceived embryo and abruptly realized that it was now a baby spaceship though she could not make out any details. She figuratively shook her head as she concluded that 'as she changed form, so did the baby as well.'

"Nabiki?"

Nabiki turned her sensors outward and found Ranma standing before her, literally hovering in midair like she was. "Yes, love?"

"What happened to you? Are you alright?" asked a worried senshi of Terra.

Nabiki lightly laughed belying her own uncertainties; "Yes, love, WE are both fine." Nabiki studied Ranma, finding it difficult to see her with normal vision but her advanced sensors easily piercing her disguise field. "Looking sharp there Ranma," she added in admiration.

"We? Both? What do you mean," asked Ranma nervously.

"I'm pregnant Ranma," answered the spaceship; interested in how her lover would take this.

'Thump'; from a dozen meters in the air.

"Humm, she actually took that pretty well," Nabiki said as she looked at her lover twitching on the ground. Nabiki then thought a few moments before muttering, "How the heck do I change now?" It was as if vocalizing the question called the answer as steams of data flashed across her mind. "Oh," she paused and then said, "I wonder if . . ." Her form blurred and suddenly Nabiki was standing there in all her natural glory.

She absently rubbed a hand across her flat tummy in an oddly gentle gesture as she walked over to Ranma. She sat down and placed Ranma's head in her lap and began to stroke her crimson hair while she waited.

Ranma's eyes fluttered open, they widened in anxiety when she noticed Nabiki's bare breasts just above her. She quickly turned her face to the side only to realize that that was probably not a good thing to do as recently familiar short curly brown hair tickled her nose. "Eeep," squeaked Ranma as she all but teleported to the side, several meters from Nabiki.

Ranma paused as she noticed the beginnings of sadness come over Nabiki. She quietly de-transformed, took her shirt off and gave it to the older girl. "Here Nabs," she said before she leaned in and gently kissed the other girl. "You sure?" she asked.

Nabiki nodded, "Yes."

"I'm glad you know," responded Ranma as she pulled the larger girl into a hug. "I sort of wish we had put it off a few more years or maybe waited until after we were married but I'm still glad anyway."

Nabiki's composure broke completely as her mask of ice shattered from the repeated shocks. Ranma didn't understand completely but just held the weeping girl and gently rocked her as the storm of her emotions raged and finally passed.

"Ranma," she finally began hesitantly, "About what you said, I don't want you to feel that you HAVE to marry me . . ."

She got no further as Ranma placed a finger across her lips, "I WANT to marry you Nabiki. You gave me the choice and you've also decided to give me a child anyway. It is my choice to marry you; not because of any sense that I have to but because I love you and want to marry you."

Nabiki sniffled a few times before leaning into a warm hug, "Thank you, Ranma. That was really sweet of you to say." She sighed and explained, "Ranma, remember a couple of days ago when we were talking about if I might have hidden powers?" Seeing her nod, Nabiki continued, "It turns out that I do. I can turn into a spaceship." She added, "That must be the reason the spring was labeled 'demon' I'm guessing."

"Oh," softly said Ranma, "well, it ain't all that much weirder than what happens to me or Shampoo now I guess. She found her pack and gave Nabiki the extra clothes Ranma had packed for herself; they didn't fit all that well but they did maintain modesty. They made their way back home, though Ranma insisted on carrying Nabiki much of the distance. They made one stop where Ranma changed genders before arriving back at the Saotome home.

Nabiki grinned mischievously, "Watch this Ranma," she whispered.

Nabiki led the way into the house. When Nodoka saw them she smiled widely and greeted them. Nabiki said nothing in return immediately but walked over to the older woman, put an arm around her, kissed her on the cheek and whispered, "Hello, grandmother." She then walked over to Ranma and waited for the reaction.

"YATTA!" Nodoka screamed and embraced the couple, questions rolling off her tongue too fast for either teen to understand. Finally she wavered and fainted backwards with broad smile on her face. Ranma caught her and laid her down gently on the couch.

Ranma glanced over at the sniggering Nabiki before a slight smile crossed his face and he softly asked, "I wonder what she will say when she hears that we also just got married as well?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

C & C to cloud_dreamer2000@yahoo.com

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi smiled warmly as she greeted yet another guest for Nabiki's wedding reception. She led them to the back yard and dojo where other guests were gathered about the various refreshments.

Akane shuddered as Taro smiled at her. He was trying to be nice, but kami, it was almost scaring the piss out of her. She had tried malleting him once only to discover that chivalry wasn't a word he understood.

She sighed as she looked over toward her sister Nabiki who was cuddling with her husband Ranma. It didn't help that the two old farts, a.k.a. their fathers, were drunkenly dancing about singing how the schools were finally joined.

Akane sighed again, this time for lost chances. Her sigh was echoed by both Ukyou and Shampoo.

Cologne smiled, though there was an edge of sadness to it as she watched the reactions of all the young folk to the announcements that Ranma and Nabiki had made. Marriage was surprising in itself, but a baby on the way was somewhat unexpected based on what she knew of Nabiki. She paused as she realized she was thinking of the girl she'd first met instead of the young lady she'd matured into. The first valued money, mischief and her independence. The second loved Ranma to the exclusion of everything else.

She chuckled as she watched Nodoka hovering over her daughter-in-law; scurrying to fetch anything Nabiki even seemed to want. 'Mother-hen' was a most appropriate figure of speech to describe her behavior she thought to herself.

Just before the party ended, Nabiki finally managed to get Kasumi alone. "Sis," she began, "I think it's time you began to pursue your own dreams." With that she handed Kasumi a bank letter guarantying the cost of her college education.

"But . . . but, father . . . Akane, I mean . . ." she dithered for a moment before Nabiki interrupted.

"They are both adults and can take care of themselves," retorted Nabiki. She paused, then added softly, "Kasumi-chan, please think about this. Mother would not be happy with you denying your own dreams just to be housemaid and servant to those too lazy to do their own chores."

Kasumi stilled at the mention of their mother. She looked searchingly into Nabiki's eyes before she hesitantly nodded and replied, "I'll, I'll think about it. I promise."

As they re-entered the party, Kasumi asked, "Nabiki, where did you get the money for this?" gesturing with the letter.

Nabiki smiled mischievously and said with a louder voice than necessary, "Oh it was no problem Kasumi; you see, after Akane told me about her recent trip, I found these casks of Nanniichuan stored in the basement. I auctioned them off on e-Bay and I got more than enough money to pay for everything."

Soun and Genma started to stutter but Nabiki cut them off curtly. "Neither of you earned those four casks. Neither of you paid for the expenses nor have either of you worked to earn any money for the dojo. That means those casks were mine to do with as I please since you used the money that I earned to go get them. Don't like it - TOUGH! They're gone and there is nothing you can do about it." With that, she doused them both with water.

Genma hesitantly held up a sign 'I'm a cute panda'. The crowd didn't buy it as various farming tools mysteriously appeared in their hands. He vanished under his cloaking technique.

Soun, mean time was wailing about how his daughter didn't love him. Everybody just ignored the crying woman; too used to the sound to pay much attention to the new visage of the source.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Cologne was sitting on the grass under one of the large shade trees in the temple grounds idly talking with her younger sister. "Har Bou," she began (in Chinese) "what do you think about telling all these outsiders of the most ancient of our people's prophecies?"

Hairbow sighed and offered her opinion, "If they are truly allies, do we have any choice in the matter? Besides, we must tell the Queen at the least and I think that our own warriors should be reminded as well even though we normally restrict this information to only Amazons." After a pause she added, "Well, the full version is only known to the elders and their heirs, though I believe that the first few stanzas are still taught as part of our history."

Cologne sat in thought a bit longer before she signaled to one of the other Amazons, "Call Shampoo to me and ask the Queen if she will come also." The maiden nodded and ran off to do as she was bid.

"Hiya old ghouls," snickered Ranma as she seated herself beside Shampoo and before the two elders.

'Thunk!' Two canes impacted the ground almost as one as Ranma dodged backwards while remaining seated; a wide mischievous smile on her merry face.

Shampoo had a confused expression that suddenly cleared as she exclaimed in sudden understanding, "Shampoo now remember! Shield-sister master tea ceremony and is quick on toes, No?"

Ranma just chuckled and seemed to glide back to her seat beside the other girl, "Yeah, it was one of the weirder styles I've ever mastered but it does come in handy at times."

Hairbow and Cologne just sighed in resignation and the matriarch began, "Shampoo and Ranma, there is an ancient prophecy a bit over six thousand years old that my sister and I believe you two, the other Amazons and the senshi should know about. I believe Shampoo already knows part of it but not the whole thing. I'd like the two of you to gather the others together this afternoon in the main temple meeting room so that we can discuss it."

Ranma and Shampoo nodded and did as they were asked.

A few hours later, the three Amazon elders were seated together at the head of a rather large circle of people. Besides the senshi (civilian form) and the contingent of Amazon maidens, the three monks, Nabiki, Nodoka Mousse, Ranma and the two moon cats were in attendance.

Hairbow started the meeting by saying, "There is an ancient prophecy that I think may apply to Ranma and her allies. It has been translated from the old tongue and then again into Japanese and as a result much of the poetic nature has been lost but the essence remains. It goes as follows:"

For the next several hours they discussed interpretations. Some were straightforward. All agreed that the crossed circle referred to the symbol for Terra that Ranma wore.

Hairbow sighed and observed, "There is no doubt about whom chaos reborn is."

Shampoo grinned and said, "Shampoo is cursed champion lunar cat and now shield-sister to Ranma. That part of old words come true too."

Nodoka observed, "The yin and yang obviously refers to Ranma's curse and I suspect she's the redhead but the wind walker and crystal towers make no sense."

Cologne nodded and said, "Ranma's relationship with Gaea has already shown that she could use those powers to fight the effects of lessened sunlight.

"And Shampoo kiss twice like old words say," she added.

Usagi smiled and interjected, "Whoa, I guess it was a good thing that Ranma protected those Youma, mercy was a good thing for us and them too."

Nabiki snickered and finished that thought, "I would like to point out that Demona and her two friends appear to play a role in the future events as well. Ranma allowed them to leave and the prophecy seems to say that they will be successful in finding allies for us."

Hotaru shyly observed, "Maybe we are all supposed to redo our planetary links if that is what the prophecy means by the words 'freed'."

Usagi smiled and nodded, 'yes,' to that suggestion, reaffirming her earlier decision.

Setsuna sighed and spoke for the rest, "All of that makes sense, but the rest of the words are ridiculous. I mean, eating the moon! And who ever heard of flying cats either!"

One of the monks snickered and countered with, "Oh, yes, let alone talking cats or magical girls; I mean that is impossible. Right?"

The others grinned and on that note, the meeting broke up. It was agreed that the matter would be revisited once everyone had had a chance to think about the prophecy a bit more.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki and Ranma were lying side by side on the roof of the 'Temple-dojo' watching the stars; grateful that the background lights were minimal in this area.

"Ranma," murmured Nabiki huskily, "isn't the moon romantic tonight?"

Ranma yawned but then looked to the side a bit and up at the moon. He studied it for a moment before responding, "Mumm, Nabs, what's romantic mean again?"

Nabiki sighed and just snuggled into his chest a bit more; "Never mind Ranma," she sighed.

A few minutes later Ranma idly observed, "I wonder what it's like on the moon. Might be kind of fun to go there if we had a way."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Haruka hesitantly held the recently purchased mini-cask in her hands. Kami knows that they had paid enough for it, but the results were guaranteed and from Ranma's experience, they knew that it wouldn't affect her senshi powers. She glanced at her life partner questioningly. Michiru blushed and nodded. Haruka stripped and then stood in a shallow basin before pouring the magical waters over herself.

The games then began in an all new way for the couple.

It was a scene repeated many times all over Japan for those who had won the bidding war that had erupted over the magical waters Nabiki had sold on the 'Sailor Senshi Forum'; one of the few venues where the readers avidly believed in magic. Her research had shown that each standard cask could be stretched to 'curse' six or seven people. Nabiki had repackaged each cask into six mini-casks and provided instructions cautioning each buyer that the contents of each mini-cask would only work for one person and they should soak themselves in it for a little while to ensure it worked fully.

Kodachi had purchased one and was cackling gleefully as she contemplated her future revenge on the 'scarlet harlot'. Odd the way her 'rose' colored glasses permitted her to understand the cursed water without letting her see the truth about Ranma.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Mousse had a secret. He had been in correspondence with his distant cousin the Jusenkyo guide and had finally convinced him to send a cask of Nanniichuan; chaos was there for the delivery to the Cat-cafe.

The scene was set. Business was slow so 'innocents' were few. Shampoo was in the back corner sitting at a low table in her cursed form quietly talking with the two moon-cats; all three were in their cat-humanoid hybrid forms. Ryouga had wandered in; Cologne had taken pity on the lost boy and fed him after she'd placed a call to Akari to come get him. Genma had wandered by so that he could harass his son but had decided to steal his food instead. Nabiki and Ranma had just sighed and moved to a different table leaving the meal to the glutton.

A delivery man entered, "Package for a Mr. Mu Tsu," he announced.

"MY Nanniichuan!" yelped the blind master of hidden weapons joyfully. The stillness within the business was absolute for ten seconds before the battle began.

Ryouga didn't care if the water cured him or mixed with his curse as had happened to Genma, either way he would no longer be helpless.

Genma had gotten desperate since Nabiki had sold the casks he and Soun had acquired and had quickly forgotten the warning from the guide about using the cursed water too soon.

Genma and Ryouga both jumped toward the package held by Mousse but collided in mid-air as Mousse abruptly sat on the floor to open the package. The three men were immediately entangled together, none of them noticing as the cask rolled out of the way to stop at Nabiki's feet.

Nabiki picked it up and frowned at the familiar metal tag. A tag that was absent on the casks she had recently repackaged and sold.

As the three battling males launched themselves toward Nabiki, Ranma's aura flared and blasted them all away from her. It also sent the cask flying toward the three cat-folks in the corner.

Seeing the cask escaping his grasp, Mousse desperately flung a chain toward it. He almost missed it. Almost meant that the cask was destroyed, drenching the three humanoid cats with its contents.

The three cursed males began to wail about the loss of their cure only to quickly stop when they noticed the dozen or so Amazon warriors surrounding them; frowning Amazon warriors armed with weapons that they were very skilled with. The beating that ensued was brutal.

As the three males regained consciousness shortly after the beating ended, the angry visage of Cologne was what they first saw. It was a wonder that none of them had heart attacks.

"You three have caused an Amazon warrior to be cursed as well as cursing two allies of the tribe." She glared at Mousse and asked, "How did you get that cursed water? The guide promised me he would not send any more here."

Mousse swallowed and replied, "I . . . I told my cousin it was a gift for Ranma. That was the only way I was able to convince him to send it."

Cologne glared at him before pronouncing sentence, "Mu Tsu, you are no longer an Amazon, you are banished. If you ever again contact or attack an Amazon, you will be hunted down and executed; GO!" she said before punting him out the door.

Turning to the other two, she snarled, "You have both betrayed the hospitality of the Amazons, neither of you has any honor worth even mentioning. Both of you are banned from any contact with Amazons. If either of you forces contact or attacks an Amazon, you will be hunted and executed." She turned to the warriors witnessing these events and ordered, "Toss this trash into the alley."

Ranma quietly witnessed all this and said not a word, turning his back on them in silent comment.

Nabiki meanwhile was in the back corner looking at the three recently cursed individuals. She sighed as she realized that it was the same cursed water she had gotten; apparently Kiima had attempted to strike again. She frowned as she noticed a difference then. All three of them still looked mostly cat-like other than their ears were a little longer as well as their back legs but it was not as pronounced as for Nabiki. Instead of a rabbit's tail, the three new moon cabbits had feline tails. Shampoo was lavender in color with a gleaming blue-green earth gem in her forehead similar to that of Nabiki's cabbit form; she also had light blue markings. Luna was now a dark grey instead of black though she did have black markings and the crescent on her forehead had been replaced with silvery full moon gem. Artemis was still white for the most part but had neon pink 'Siamese' markings and had a reddish full moon gem on his forehead. Both of the moon gems were similar in that they slowly rotated showing the various features characteristic of the Lunar landscape. Like Artemis, Shampoo's and Luna's alternate markings covered their tails, feet, ears and bit of their heads as well.

Luna took one look and Artemis and began to snicker despite the discomfort of being drenched. Finally she said, "Arty, you look good as a redhead."

Nabiki interrupted their byplay when she said softly, "Have I a lot to tell you three." Nabiki had not told anybody about her newest evolved form but thought that these three probably needed to know.

Cologne walked over with a kettle of hot water and poured it over the three.

Nabiki grimaced as the three were briefly enclosed in a dome of light that caused all three to arch in brief agony. "Off hand," she observed, "I'd guess that that wasn't a good idea to do to basically magical creatures while they were all three still drenched in the magical water as well." A few moments later all three of them changed into their human forms seemingly none the worse for the experience.

Nabiki hesitated then commented, "You know, I don't think that is how the two moon-cats normally change into human form."

Cologne sighed as she rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on as she racked her memory for data about how Jusenkyo curses interacted and behaved with respect to each other and other magics. "I think that the magical water that the three were all sitting in caused their various magics to connect with each other when I attempted to activate the reverse function the first time on all of them together." She frowned in thought, "I would guess that Shampoo's initial Jusenkyo curse bled over to the other two affecting their own magical alternate forms thus setting their 'base' form as human instead of cat since all three were in their humanoid form when they were cursed. The fact that all three were actually cat hybrids modified the curse to be a mix of cat and whatever that 'demon' water form really is." She smiled and said, "It is apparent in retrospect that the Jusenkyo magic seemed to interpret their alternate moon cat like form to be equal to a Jusenkyo cursed form when it was establishing their base curse form since all three of them had a human form as well." She paused and concluded, "That was probably because the two of them were already magical as well."

"That's what I said," smirked Nabiki.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ryouga and Mousse wandered far and wide. Many wondrous sights the pair could have seen had Ryouga only looked up or Mousse put his glasses on.

Occasionally fate does something nice.

"Auuuuuggggggggghhhh," 'splash, splash'.

Guess who just fell into the 'virtuous young priest (man)' spring.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Akari flared her nostrils as she asked again, "What do you mean you are cured?" Her lips flattened into a straight line and she added, "You better be talking about your directional curse."

"Ryouga?" exasperatedly hissed his wife as the 'virtuous young man' fainted backward in a spray of nasal blood after she unbuttoned the top button of her blouse, "how can your cursed side be even more shy than you were? That's just not possible. Ryouga? Wake up! How are we ever going to have kids at this rate?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

In his cursed form, Mousse silently watched Shampoo from across the street as she bounced from task to task, bubbly and perky as always. He sighed, with his cousin's help he had managed to lock his form so that he was now merely anonymous to the Amazons instead of despised or hunted. With his newfound understanding, there was so much that he regretted doing. It was somehow symbolic that with his new enlightenment came perfect eyesight as well. All too well could he now see what he had done wrong in his pursuit of Xain Pu.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma and Nabiki were exploring the moon. Their intention had been to search for technology but Nabiki's cravings had started surfacing with a vengeance shortly after they had arrived.

Nabiki had beamed Ranma into a surviving environmental envelop buried a kilometer below the scarred surface and then had phased herself in cabbit form next to the newest senshi. For safety, Ranma was in her senshi form. She was disconcerted to note that she still had a link to Terra through Luna. Apparently moons were secondary power foci for planetary power. That made her wonder what Sailor Moon was really connected too.

A half hour later and she had the answer to that question. The palace, though ruined on the surface was largely intact below ground. Ranma could tell that the palace was a foci all its own. It seemed to be linked to every celestial body in the solar system except the earth though it was linked to the moon so there was a secondary link instead of the direct link as the other planets had. Ranma and Nabiki continued to explore the outskirts of the palace, reluctant to actually enter the massive foci structure itself. Ranma studied the foci as they circled it. It was obviously a construct and its power signature echoed that of the Ginzuishou that Usagi had used on Ranma so many months ago.

Nabiki was stuck in her cabbit form at the moment and was not at all happy about it. Not that the form wasn't cute, but the cravings had become overpowering in this form since her arrival on the moon. She had just eaten an entire weapons vault, starting with the doors and then all the contents and it had been a huge structure. Now all that remained were the bare walls and those had teeth marks. Somehow her cabbit form had been able to freeze the AI guarding the vault; she had not only eaten the AI but all the explosives that would have been used to destroy the vault too.

Ranma picked up her wife and cuddled her close. She smirked, "If I had any doubts that you were a Saotome now, those are gone. I'd say you were a grand mistress of the Saotome unlimited eating style." Her gentle laughter softened the comment only causing the cabbit to blush; a blush that deepened as she hiccupped and half of a small metal gear bounced across the bare floor.

For the moment Nabiki's form was frozen, partially from the waves of pleasure as her husband petted her but also from the successive waves of information she was processing from the consumed AI. Apparently, some things that her cabbit form consumed went into subspace where they were integrated into her space ship form instead of being destroyed for minerals. 'Oh this is interesting!' she thought to herself.

The odd couple continued to explore, Nabiki's cravings were eventually satisfied it seems as after nine hours under the surface, she was finally able to shift to her human form. "Kami, I feel bloated!" she blurted almost immediately.

Ranma had only laughed. The vault had been the only large victim of the feeding frenzy that had possessed Nabiki during this trip, but there had been numerous items of what could only be described as scrap or ruined laboratories that her cabbit form had consumed. She asked her spouse, "Any idea what happened?"

Nabiki nodded, "Yes. I found the information when I was able to open some previously hidden files that described the cabbit life cycle. It seems that when I was first empowered as a spaceship it was years, maybe several decades in advance of what should have happened based on my cabbit form's apparent age. But when I was caught in the back-flow of your ascension to your senshi form, I involuntarily transformed into the spaceship form in order to save my life as that form was the only one capable of handling energy of that magnitude. Apparently I used some of the excess energy to create some of the components that I needed."

"Sor . . ." began Ranma only for Nabiki to put a finger over her lips.

She explained, "We both know it was neither your fault nor mine. Sometimes things happen. In this case, I was in the wrong place. Well, maybe; it turned out for the best in the long run. My ship form is active years earlier because of it and nothing seems to be wrong otherwise, I think the stuff that the cabbit form ate was for spare parts or maybe just because I'm pregnant."

Ranma smiled and hugged her, "Ready to go home?" she asked.

"Oh yeah!" responded Nabiki as she transformed into her cabbit form and phased to the surface where she assumed ship form.

She reflexively beamed Ranma aboard before figuratively freezing. "What the hell," she exclaimed as Ranma materialized on the command deck.

Ranma arched a scarlet eyebrow as she took in the changes. The command deck was almost four times larger in each direction and Nabiki's overall form as visible via the view ports, seemed equally larger as well. There appeared to be a lot more instrumentation and other equipment as well.

"Nabs, you know what happened? Some how I never expected a space ship to have a growth spurt," Ranma asked.

"Accessing," muttered Nabiki absently. "Got it!" she said. "Oh, my" she said in an almost perfect rendition of her elder sister's voice. "Ranma, remember how I said that the early power up of my ship form didn't have problems. I take that back. What was powered-up was the bare skeleton of my ship form that was just able to save my life. What you see now is the complete form now that my cabbit form was able to find and identify what was needed to finish this ship form." She added softly, "I've also stored enough material for the baby as well."

Ranma sighed, "I'm glad we came here then. I would hate to have seen what would have happened if this feeding frenzy thing had happened back home."

Nabiki sighed, "That was never a concern, dear," she softly replied, "I don't think the necessary components were anywhere on earth."

"Special then," Ranma hazarded a guess.

"Magical," responded Nabiki. "Most of the weapons and even the wreckage had magical components from the Silver Millennium. Even some of the technology was special in that it was warped into multidimensional configurations that could not be engineered on earth at present. Because this form is a living spaceship, I am able to reshape all of this into usable forms that enabled me to fully build and empower this form." She paused and added, "I didn't even realize that I was missing FTL engines or weapons until those systems came on line just now."

Ranma paused and then asked, "What do you think about scanning the ruins and maybe bringing some of this technology back for Ami to play with?"

"Excellent idea," she responded. For the next ten hours, they slowly circumnavigated Luna, beaming up and storing tons of potentially useful technology. One of the more awesome finds they made was of a relatively undamaged hanger containing space ships in various states of repair and construction. Energy readings indicated that none were powered even minimally however. Nabiki guessed that the state of the ships was what kept them from being targeted during the fall of the silver millennium.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Demona and her two companions dodged the attacks with skills taught them by their mistress. That was all that was saving them. They had stumbled onto a pitched battle between a small group of dwarfs and a slightly larger party of elves. Both of the warring fractions had frozen at the sight of the three reformed youma and then instantly attacked them together; their previous hostilities forgotten.

Becoming desperate, Demona had finally shouted, "We come in peace."

A snarling dwarf had hissed, "There shall be no peace with the distorted . . ."

Only for an elf at his shoulder to finish for him, ". . . spawn of Beryl. Pieces of you we will have though!"

"We come in the name of the Moon and our mistress the Earth Princess; not the forsaken one who has been slain," replied Demona again.

At the name of the Moon, the elves had paused. The dwarfs had frozen in place when the Earth Princess had been mentioned.

Still facing the three youma, the dwarfs gathered to one side, equidistant from both the elves and the youma. The elves had also regrouped themselves. The leader of each party warily approached the youma and the dwarf demanded. "Tell us what you will, but for your sake pray that it is the truth."

The three youma exchanged glances and at a nod from Demona, all three sat down, deliberately placing themselves at a disadvantage should the battle resume. Demona began to explain. "Long ago, we were not thus. Our ancestors were stolen away from their people by evil. Beryl was the name of that evil. By magic and technology we were created and spawned into a mindless army constrained by magic to obey without question. Death was freedom which we all sought to some degree. Yet the army spawned was large if unskilled and poor in spirit. With this army and betrayal did Beryl bring down the Moon kingdom until the Queen herself yielded her very life to cast Beryl and her army into prison. Less than a year ago Beryl was finally slain by the reborn daughter of the Moon as Beryl attempted to escape her prison." Demona gestured to herself and companions and continued, "Of the youma spawn created by Beryl and brought to earth, we three are the last we believe though there could be more yet remaining in the realm that was Beryl's prison. We were cleansed of the taint of evil by the Moon daughter and renewed in the gift of life by the reborn Earth Princess and are sworn to her service. She in turn is friend to the Moon daughter and her reborn court."

"A likely tale, twisted one," mocked one of the dwarfs only to be silenced by his leader's up-raised palm.

The leader of the elves asked, "Why have you come to Jade. For beings of magic, this is a sanctuary from the evils of technology, especially that used by Beryl."

"Unknown foes attack the earth seeking to destroy all life by casting the world into eternal winter," replied the youma spokesperson, Demona. "We have come seeking knowledge of our ancestors and perhaps allies for our mistress in the battle to save the home of all."

After a few moments thought, the dwarf chieftain sighed deeply, "By the ancient god Crom, there is no help for it," he stated. "Elf! We have no time to play with you and your kin. This is news that must be taken to the caverns." He turned to the youma, "One of you must accompany me. We leave at noon."

The youma exchanged glances, wondering what to do. Finally, the wooden warrior responded to a faint feeing of kinship to the dwarfs and boomed, "With you, go I will."

The elf warrior had been standing in contemplation while this had been happening before he nodded in agreement and asked, "And which of you will accompany me?"

Demona hesitantly responded, "I will," but then glanced at her remaining companion, the bronze centaur.

He in turn rose to his four legs and gestured to the massive forest that they were on the edge of. "Can you tell me of this forest? I would know why it seems to call to me; summoning me deep within it."

Both the dwarfs and elves looked apprehensive at that statement, but the elf answered nonetheless. "This forest was ancient even before Jade was discovered. Long ago when the peoples of Jade were enslaved, only here in this forest was there sanctuary though the cost to the forest was dear. Even now it is less than half of what it once was. Because of that, this forest is revered by all of Jade. It is called the Ent-wife home but none know the meaning of the name."

Stepping slowly toward the forest, the centaur replied in his bell like voice, "They are summoning me. I must obey, even if it is to my destruction, my very being tells me this is the right thing to do." With that he disappeared into the forest.

The dwarf chieftain boomed a deep laugh, "Well, imagine that!" He gestured to the wooden warrior who was now among his own group, "If the forest was to call anyone, I would have thought that the wooden warrior would have been called."

The elf leader chuckled in turn before gesturing to Demona and retorting, "Yes, and that the stone one would be the one accompanying the burrowers instead of the elves." Both laughed and peaceably parted ways.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Shampoo was frustrated; there was no other word for it. She silently swore to herself, 'If I hear the word 'cute' just one more time . . .' She tensed as yet another little girl picked her up and gushed . . . that awful word. She glanced over to where Artemis and Luna were also being victimized by the horrors inhabiting this preschool. Somehow their moon cabbit forms were irresistible to the little demons. She signed, wishing they could restore their original pure feline forms. She couldn't believe that Nabiki had managed to not only 'rent' them to the school but had convinced them to agree to it as well. She truthfully suspected that it wasn't for the money but the mischief factor that Nabiki had done this awful thing to them.

She was so depressed that she didn't even notice when her phasing powers momentarily activated for the first time and she fell through the little girl's arms . . . and the floor. She did notice when she landed in the old emergency shelter beneath the school in a plume of dust in the dim flickering light of emergency lighting. Puzzled, Shampoo glared at her surroundings, taking in the stacks of obsolete equipment that bureaucracy prevented the school from disposing of, much of it useless office equipment. She wondered how the heck she had gotten there.

Shampoo had this odd craving that she did not understand; I mean there was not a drop of chocolate in sight.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki and Ranma had returned several days ago from their trip to the moon with nobody the wiser as they had told everyone that they were going on a weekend training trip and honeymoon. Neither intended to reveal Nabiki's space ship form just yet if ever.

Nabiki was perusing the morning paper while waiting for Shampoo to pack their bento's, something the young Amazon insisted on; when an unusual news article caught her attention. "Ranma," she said, "look at this. Isn't it strange that somebody stole or vandalized a bunch of obsolete equipment at the same school Shampoo, Luna and Artemis were at yesterday?"

"Eeep!" sounded from the kitchen doorway drawing attention to a deeply blushing Shampoo who was now standing there.

Nabiki might not have made the connection had Jusenkyo not helped out by 'somehow' causing a cup to fall from a shelf, landing in a pan of water and splashing Shampoo. Nabiki looked at the newest cabbit, back at the article then recalled where Shampoo had been yesterday and then recalled what had happened to herself on the moon. Connecting the dots, she took a guess and smirked to Shampoo, "Tell me, did the computers taste good and were you surprised that that little form could eat equipment and so much of it?"

Amazingly enough, the little lavender moon cabbit managed to blush through the thick coating of fur. Nabiki gaily laughed and tossed her hot tea over the Chinese girl who quickly dressed though she did not mind Ranma seeing her unclothed.

Shampoo sighed and said, "Shampoo not believe legends told about 'demon-cat' until now. But old legends tell of cute little rabbit-cat that eat magical tools of Amazons as well as most of weapons. Grandmother not happy when see Nabiki's form and immediately store all magical items in personal stuff space. Grandmother glad that she do when three more cabbits appear."

Nabiki laughed until she noticed the serious look on her husband's face, "Ranma? What's wrong?"

Ranma sighed in exasperation and said, "I wish she'd given us warnings about that. I'm not happy she kept that little fact a secret." Ranma wearily rubbed the back of her neck and said, "It's nice that Cologne is protecting her magical articles but what about the Sailor Scouts. They have Luna and Artemis with them. What will happen when the cravings hit them and Mercury's computer is eaten, or the time-staff or silence-glaive or their communicators or . . ." She paused, there really wasn't any need to continue but the thought did occur to Ranma, 'kami help us if one of them got a craving while at the time-gate'.

Both Nabiki and Shampoo's faces had gotten progressively whiter as Ranma had spoken. Nabiki had then gotten an abstracted look on her face and Ranma quieted Shampoo before she could say anything that might have interrupted Nabiki. Ranma recognized the expression as one that indicated that Nabiki was accessing the extensive computer files available to her from her ship form.

Nabiki finally sighed with a bit of relief. "Luckily it won't be a problem at their current power levels. They won't go after such items until they have accumulated the necessary minimal level of power or they get caught in a power cascade like I did. For now they will seek to accumulate bulk metal and electronics. It would take at least a decade before their power levels would mature enough for them to be attracted to magical items." She paused and added, "Humm, though the fact that they have silver millennium connection may change that. But still it should take awhile before Shampoo or the moon cats raise their power levels high enough to be able to process magical items."

Ranma sighed and added, "Or they accidentally get hit with a Scout magical attack or something similar."

"Oh shit!" the three uttered in unison.

Noticing the somewhat confused expression on Shampoo's face on how the other two knew about this problem, Ranma vaguely explained how Nabiki had recently learned about the voracious and eclectic appetite of the cabbit form especially when hit with a bit of magic.

Nabiki's face was blank as her ship board super computer evaluated data and scenarios. Finally, she sighed and declared, "There is no help for it given Shampoo's martial arts skills and the silver millennium links of the other two and the fact that the Sailor Scout artifacts are in use and can't really be protected from the moon cabbits." She sighed and added, "For a normal person who fell in that spring, I doubt they managed to live long enough to find the materials sufficient to allow another form without a massive external power boost."

Nabiki caught Ranma's eyes and announced, "Dear, we are going to have to recreate the circumstances that matured my form. That means another trip you know where for us and the three new moon cabbits."

"Next weekend?" asked Ranma.

"That would be the logical thing," responded Nabiki, "after all, what could possibly happen between now and then." The three paused and then sprang into action.

"I go tell grandmother, Shampoo be going with shield sister," announced Shampoo.

"I'll call the school to let them know we will have to miss today and maybe tomorrow due to family emergency," said Nabiki.

"I'll call Luna and Artemis and tell them to get over here immediately," said Ranma.

After Shampoo had left, Nabiki remarked, "You know I think I just figured out the prophecy references to 'wife ascends to heaven', 'flying cat eats moon' and 'three for battle."

Ranma grinned, "Yeah I caught that too. The old ghoul is gonna be surprised when she finds out not to mention Pluto."

Nabiki snickered and added, "At first I thought the 'Princess's wife ascends to heaven' meant our honeymoon activities but . . ." She stopped and laughed at the deep flush on Ranma's face.

An hour later, Ranma, Nabiki, Shampoo, the two moon cats, Usagi, Nodoka and Cologne met in the center of the 'Amazon' shrine in a large clearing where the trees gave concealment from outside observers.

Only Ranma and Nabiki truly knew why they were there though Usagi didn't care as she was just excited to miss school. Having Usagi join them was an afterthought of Ranma's. Nodoka insisted on going with them wherever they were going if it was important enough for her pregnant daughter-in-law to miss school. Cologne insisted on going after Shampoo admitted that Nabiki had an idea on how to cure the moon cabbits from possibility eating her magical artifacts.

Ranma turned to the group around her and softly said, "Nabiki and I have kept a few secrets from you. The main two are about to be revealed and neither of us apologizes for not telling you until now." With that, Ranma crossed her wrists over her head and pulled the earth power up and over herself. The others only saw Ranma taking a stance, a bright flash of light and then there the Terran Senshi was standing before them, visible to the public for the first time ever.

"I am Sailor Earth," announced Ranma before she was engulfed in tight hugs from her mother and Usagi.

"Oh Ranma," gushed Usagi, "I'm so glad you are finally a senshi like the rest of us." She blushed and then softly added, "I may be the reborn daughter of Queen Serenity, but I know that means I'm not your Princess even now."

Ranma gave her a quick hug back and whispered, "I have something to show you later, sis."

Nodoka was speechless though Cologne and Shampoo just chuckled as another piece of ancient prophecy came true before them.

Nabiki changed into her cabbit form and nuzzled Ranma as the Terran scout picked up and held the cute little critter. Everyone was shocked when Ranma tossed the cursed form of his pregnant wife high into the air. They froze when she transformed into a massive spaceship, towering over a hundred meters above them and almost three hundred meters in diameter.

Ranma glazed fondly at her wife's powered up form. A form that meant Ranma didn't need to worry about protecting the one she loved so much. They covered each others back very effectively.

Shampoo's jaw was dangling in the wind as she stared at the slightly oval crystalline form hovering above her. Nabiki's form was mostly golden with reddish trim. The six silvery spikes jutting toward the ground were equally spaced and flared outward to the sides shortly after beginning. Shampoo could see the tips of sets of matching spikes on the upward side of Nabiki's new form.

Ranma chuckled and announced, "This is Nabiki's alternate form. It is actually the mature form of the cabbit but it takes a lot of specialized materials and a lot of power to get there."

Ranma didn't get time to add anything more before Nabiki beamed the entire group to the command deck. "Oh, yes, I should add, this form is a space ship, a very powerful space ship" Ranma finished.

Nabiki's gay laughter washed over Ranma and the fainted bodies surrounding her. Even Cologne was sprawled out unconscious.

They were half way to the moon before the others roused. Each took a look at the growing sight of the moon before them and the shrinking visage of earth behind them and sighed in resignation and acceptance though Cologne was heard to mutter under her breath, 'flying cat, my wrinkly ole arse.'

This time they beamed into the middle of the palace. Usagi was almost frozen as she felt the Imperial power lines gradually activate and embrace her. The others watched in both concern and awe as the Princess renewed her heritage.

When it was done, Usagi collapsed in a heap on the floor and began to helplessly sob as ancient memories told her of what was now lost. Nodoka enfolded the crying girl in her arms. Nabiki gestured the others to come with her though Cologne elected to stay and watch over the pair.

Back aboard her ship form Nabiki and Ranma explained what had happened to Nabiki to cause her to gain this form. Ranma ended by saying, "What I plan is to place each of the three of you in different spots on the moon near wrecked complexes that contain enough of the needed materials, technology and magical artifacts to enable you to reach your final forms. I will use my link to Terra and the fact that the moon is one of its foci to provide the necessary power to enable you to make the transition."

Nabiki added, "Be prepared, it will be painful, but well worth it."

Ever practical Luna sighed and muttered, "As if we have the choice given that these curses are permanent and these changes will eventually happen anyway."

Artemis nodded and reluctantly added, "Better to do this now under controlled conditions instead of later and possibly with disastrous uncontrollable results."

Shampoo giggled and added, "So this what old words mean, 'demon cats' eat moon and change to flying cats and fight better."

Once the moon cabbits were in place, Nabiki and Ranma returned to the others. From there Ranma drew up cocoons of planetary power over the three new moon cabbits and fed it to them only as fast as they could absorb it. It took an hour before the first cravings hit. It took almost six hours for them to finally reach satiation and fall asleep next to an unfinished meal of silver millennium scrap.

Ranma was exhausted by this time. Nabiki smiled fondly down at her sleeping female husband. A smile echoed in a similar way by the other three females.

Prior to this, while the moon cabbit empowering had been happening, Usagi and Cologne had been gradually wandering the underground portions of the palace; in awe of the majesty, sad at the damage.

Shortly after Ranma had fallen asleep, Nabiki announced that it was time to return to earth. Usagi had glanced about her surroundings once more before coming to a conclusion and a decision.

Dropping the disguise she had maintained since leaving the time-gates, Neo-Queen Usagi announced, "I will be with you shortly. There is something I must do and it is best done when I am the only one on this planetoid."

The others arched their eyebrows, not only at her matured form but her calmly commanding voice. However, Nabiki understood that in calling it a planetoid, Usagi was attempting to designate that the moon was part of a binary planetary system instead of a planet-moon system.

"That won't fly," calmly rebuked Nabiki on behalf of her sleeping spouse. "The moon belongs to Ranma. She has already claimed it as a foci of her power and domain today as you saw."

Usagi sighed in acceptance but lifted her chin, "But the palace is mine!"

Nabiki nodded, "Yes, Ranma recognizes that already. Even when we were here alone, we took care not to trespass into the palace." She added, "We know that the palace is an exceptionally large artificial magical foci structure that is linked to the whole solar system except for the earth. Ranma will allow you to link to the moon but not to the earth directly. That is her domain, a responsibility that was never part of the silver millennium. She and I have talked about this and she decided that she would share the moon with you but not give it up."

Usaig nodded in acceptance and shortly afterwards was the only living being still on the planet. Nodoka and Cologne watched her from space via the screens Nabiki activated. They saw her carefully pull her power into herself before gradually feeding it into the palace structure. It took over an hour, but when Usagi finally collapsed in exhaustion, the entire palace had been restored.

Nabiki beamed the sleeping princess aboard and into one of the many bedrooms to join the other sleeping companions and then started back home.

From the time gates, Setsuna froze in momentary shock as the command link to the palace re-established itself and the restored palace appeared momentarily in the time-gate image.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

About a fortnight after the accidental cursing of the moon cats, Ranma called a senshi meeting. The other senshi were grumbling since it was in a somewhat remote location that took them most of the day to get to. Usagi knew what Ranma was going to do and added her voice behind Ranma's.

Once they were all assembled, Ranma demonstrated her senshi form.

Ranma spun in a whirlwind of rainbow colored streamers as she drew up the power of the earth. She was re-clothed in her own version of senshi garb. It was an almost standard sky blue fuku, but the stylishly ragged earthen brown and green leaf patterned skirt was offset by built-in sky blue mid-thigh biker shorts. The edges were trimmed with golden-yellow and green with a short yellow ribbon in the back at waist height; none in the front. Instead of tall boots with heels that the other senshi wore; she had short dark blue socks in a pair of slippers covered with tiny feathers of every color imaginable. Her only jewelry was a golden tiara and her short fingerless gloves were yellow.

The other senshi were stunned at first before Rei exclaimed angrily, "Why is her uniform different? I want mine to look like hers. I'm tired of flashing my ass to everyone when we fight."

Usagi agreed but had no idea on what to do.

Hotaru, however did have an idea. One Saturnine transformation later, the youngest senshi was standing there in her normal garb. Focusing her powers internally she vanished only to reappear back but in a different uniform. The colors were the same but instead of fuku, she wore a vest like blouse that reached to her hips and her legs were covered with loose pants that came a few inches past her knees.

Pluto looked startled before she also vanished only to reappear five minutes later wearing an evening dress in her colors.

Usagi was the one to state the obvious, "It seems that if your powers are no longer bound by the silver crystal, then you can change your uniform but only if you are on your own planet."

"A lot of good that does," retorted Rei, "it does us no good unless you happen to have a spaceship in your pockets," she sarcastically added.

"Not my pockets," giggled Usagi as she reached into her backpack and pulled out Luna who had already seen all this and had been taking a nap. "Ready?" she asked Luna. Seeing the moon cabbit nod, Usagi tossed her up into the air.

For the first time ever, a moon cabbit transformed into a spaceship. Her transformed form was only about an eighth of Nabiki's mass and the shape was different as well. Luna was somewhat teardrop shaped with four long spikes making 'fins' on the pointed end and four shorter spikes surrounding the nose of her new form. Luna beamed the others onto her deck where there was just enough room for all of them.

Nabiki frowned and asked, "Luna, any idea why your form is so different from mine?"

Forestalling the questions that this question stirred, Luna replied, "Accessing . . ., I believe the most likely explanation is because the original cabbit curse form was modified by the previously existing magical forms that Artemis and I had. That may affect Shampoo's form as well."

Both Nabiki and Shampoo thought about it a few moments ignoring the questions the senshi were tossing out. Finally Artemis asked, "Luna, dear, if you would, please transport Nabiki, Shampoo and myself out side so that we can transform."

A few moments later the senshi were staring in surprise at the forms of Shampoo and Artemis which resembled Luna's, differing only in color and shape of the spikes. But the form that earned their awe was Nabiki's massive and powerful form.

Ami smiled and asked, "So when can we visit our home planets?"

Ranma smiled and said, "Well that's up to Luna and Artemis I guess." Anticipating the question, Ranma added, "No, Nabiki is not available for ferrying you because of her pregnancy and Shampoo is my guardian and won't go unless I do and I'm staying close to Nabiki."

"What are the main differences between Nabiki's and the other forms?" asked Ami.

Nabiki was the one to respond, "From the data readings that I was able to make, the moon cabbits seem to transform into fighter type spacecraft with high speed and a limited number of powerful weapons designed for close combat. My form is more of a battleship with faster than light or FTL capabilities which they don't have and very powerful long range weapons." Of course, I'm still almost as fast as they are. They may beat me in the space-lane sprint but I can eventually overtake them however, they are much more maneuverable than I am."

A bit later, Nabiki, Shampoo and Ranma left the senshi to their planning discussion.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Two months later, Ranma laid on their bed and absently stroked Nabiki's bulging belly.

Nabiki slowly ran her fingers through the crimson locks as she studied her spouse's face. Finally she asked, "Ranma, you seem to be bothered by something?"

"I'm a little worried about the senshi. I know they said they were going to visit their planets. Luna was taking Ami, Rei and Minako; and Artemis was taking Michiru, Haruka and Makoto. Usagi was going to stay on the moon while the others are gone and Hotaru and Setsuna stayed to watch for trouble meanwhile. But their communicators are not functional over the distances involved. I'm glad that Setsuna has stopped by a few times to say that they all seemed alright. But I am still a little worried about them;" Ranma confessed.

"Is that all?" Nabiki asked as she put her hand over Ranma's on top of her tummy. "Worried about something else too maybe?"

Ranma froze in momentary panic before answering, "Yeah, a little." The silence stretched out for a few moments before Ranma continued, "You said that the kid changed too?"

Nabiki interpolated what Ranma was trying to say, "Humm, I take it you are worried that the babies will be born cursed?"

"Babies?"

The mother to be chuckled, "Oh, guess I forgot to tell you that didn't I. The last time I changed into a spaceship a couple of months ago, I was able to do a full diagnostic on the pregnancy and found that we are expecting triplets." She paused and added, "No idea on genders though."

"Gaahhh, glurk"

With a wide grin she added, "I thought I might let you be the one to tell your mom". She held the trembling redhead close to her and softly suggested, "Maybe we could just let it be a surprise instead?"

Ranma relaxed with a slight giggle, "I don't think I'll ever get used to the way you can wind me up like that." Her face became pensive once again as she continued, "I'm worried about the babies though; are they going to be cursed too?"

Nabiki tentatively bit her lower lip in tension before she shared her views; views based on rather extensive thought and exhaustive conversations with the elders, "Ranma, I'm not sure. I've thought a lot about it and I think that 'maybe' is about as close as we can come to knowing for now. I think that it might make a difference on whether or not I'm in any of my three alternate forms when it comes time to give birth." She paused, on the brink of tears, "I know that the babies are affected by my cursed form when the magic forces me to change so I'm guessing that if they are born in one of those alternate forms, then that becomes their natural form. They might not be able to turn human in that case though." She hesitated and then softly added, "It's my hope that if they are born human, then the transformation magic might not affect them after that." She sighed and finished, "It is also just as probable that it will make no difference whatsoever and they will be just as cursed as I am since both parents have curses."

Ranma sighed as she thought. Eventually she suggested, "Humm, maybe tha' ole ghoul might have some information considering how long the Amazons have lived next to the cursed springs."

Nabiki shrugged and responded, "That's what I thought too. I decided that it couldn't hurt to ask I guess considering that they consider you their Queen." She sighed and continued, "The answer I came up with was based on their input, but crossings where both parents are cursed is something new for them. It's possible that the Musk might have more information, but that doesn't really help at this point."

Nabiki added thoughtfully, "You know she's going to go 'ape-shit' crazy once she finds that the second of the prophesied 'thirds' is happening?"

Ranma sighed yet again but said nothing in response.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ami studied the controls intently before finally referring back yet once again to the manual she had found. She muttered to herself, "If I am reading this right, and I'm not completely sure given the language problems, then I should be able to restart the biosphere controllers. On the other hand, this word could mean 'self-destruct' or maybe 'initialize', now which is which?"

Ami sighed again and wandered back into the library of Palace Mercury to study while her planetary bond was reformed. Her dreams lately had been a bit odd, almost as if they were memories yet none that she had experienced as far as she knew.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

C & C to cloud_dreamer2000@yahoo.com

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki was feeling confused and a bit apprehensive the next morning. Spotting Shampoo running off into the dawn screaming in apparent panic just confused her more. Hearing her grandmother cackling boosted her apprehension levels significantly in addition to sending shivers down her spine. She sat back with a sigh and indulged herself as tender smile spread over her face while she watched her man, oops, well now girl, pound the crap out of the male parental unit.

Nabiki grinned at the sight of a panda floating face up in the pond. She rose and grabbed her bathing gear, planning on joining Ranma in the tub this morning. They had bathed together only a few times and she decided that she liked it. She twirled her engagement ring on her finger as she waited to intercept Ranma.

Author Note:

I am in my sixties and while I have the time to write, I do lack the energy to write as much as I did in past years. Considering it took over three years for the last update, I thought I would provide my outline so my readers could see where I planned to go with this story.

Outline notes,

Snow Queen, Lich and Chief Youma herder (deformed human-youma hybrid) have combined forces to destroy earth. Snow Queen (SQ) for revenge and to 'spread her snowy empire'. Lich to expand realm of undead and the boss youma (BY) to supplant humans. Both Lich and SQ contribute negative (death) magic; Lich and BY chaos & tech; SQ and BY negative chi/ki. Because of overlap from differing sources, hard to specifically detect individual contributors.

SQ tries to affect weather patterns

Lich darkens sun with interposed matter

BY targets environmental destruction, dams, fires, etc.

Scouts re-bond with Planets, begin restoration environmental envelopes

Terra with Ami help disrupts adverse weather patterns

Chiba take lead for scouts on planning against BY eco-terrorism, Scouts fight larger battles but the 3 living youma bring reinforcements from Jade (Gold-Diggers folks off on miscel. Adventure) after they find their roots. Jade folk do bulk of terran defense against BY and Lich agents but Ranma is main defender of earth especially if 'armies' show faces.

Terra leads Scouts and Jade folk to invade youma realm, the 3 reformed youma kill BY, Terra demonstrates ability to restore youma, who then go back to Jade and launch attack on Lich realm. Because of youma origins and dual link to earth (via Terra) and Beryl realms, they can function in Undead realm, begin battle there. Ensuing battle becomes a civil war also resulting in destruction of Lich and loss of backing for darkening sun. However, it will take decades for effects to disperse. Beryl realm becomes part of Undead realm but merger makes both realms a bit more hospitable to living beings as the negative magics in both tend to destroy each other instead of combining as positive magics would.

Terra gets in pitched battle with SQ but then other scouts use a massed sailor teleport to transfer battling pair to icy moon of Neptune; they then bring Terra back but leave SQ stranded forever dancing entranced in a liquid nitrogen fountain.

Because of ongoing damage to Terra Biosphere, all the above is going in parallel to colonization efforts of other planets in effort to both reduce 'load' on earth and to save (spread) some of the Terran threatened ecosystems.

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C & C to cloud_dreamer2000@yahoo.com

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Just a few future notes so I don't forget some of my ideas for this chapter as I suspect it may be awhile before I return to this story.

Attacks, life based, including mythological. Has sword shaped a little like a katana. Take horn of Unicorn for core of sword, add mythril refined by dwarfs and fashioned by elves into the blade with magic into the 'Unicorn blade'. Sword cannot harm an innocent, but is like a light saber set on 'nova' against evil. Also can be used to heal a little bit. Of course Ranma hates using it but Nodoka gushes – so Terra is stuck using it. Trees can split rocks, so can Sailor Terra (Earth?) with a knife hand. Algae can live in artic ice or hot springs, Terra immune to temperature extremes and can lash out with intense cold chi/magic or blistering hot chi/magic attacks. Instead of heels, Terra has slippers, slippers covered with hummingbird feathers (think legend of Hermes) that enable her to fly, darting in, out, up wherever at blinding speed. Eternal form has eagle wings maybe (form of an angel?). Hide (armor) of a rhino, striking speed of a mongoose, strength of an elephant etc. (include mythical creatures like phoenix rebirth or dragon fire?) How about "Medusa glare' (actually I think this one is real, some women seem to have some sort of temporary version of this, Father's tend to develop the 'Basilisk stare' that turns their kids to stone at times, especially when caught 'with hands in cookie jar' or so.)

Ranma's effects on earth defenses are probably going to result in wide-scale oscillations until 'she' gains enough understanding of cause and effect not to mention an education before defenses become effective. Of course until then, it's a bit unpredictable which will work in her (and Gaea's) favor a couple of times. What is it going to take on Ranma & Gaea's part to succeed and how would that affect Crystal Tokyo?

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