Okay folks, here it is. The final installment of The Shadows. What 
the hell, if I can't give you TGACFH!!! I can at least give you 
this...

----



>From the Journal of Akane Tendo, May 1

    ...She stood before me, the blade of her combat spatula pressing 
me to the wall. It wasn't Ukyou. It had her basic form, but the 
glowing eyes and the solid blackness of it's body told me it wasn't 
Ukyou. Behind her, my family and Mr. Saotome were lying on the floor 
of the living room, unconscious. I tried my best not to move.
    "What do you want?" I asked hesitantly. The thing in front of me 
just snarled.
    "You're her aren't you?' I asked, feeling a little bolder. "The 
one Ranma's been seeing for the past few weeks. Who are you?"
    "Let's just say I'm a part of a former friend of yours," the 
(ghost? who knows?) said. "If you don't shut up, you'll be joining 
her."
    Outside, a dog barked. The thing in front of me turned. Just for a 
moment, but it was enough. I grabbed the handle of the combat spatula 
and, using my knee for leverage, lifted the Ukyou-impostor into the 
air and into the wall behind me. The impostor crashed into the wall, 
leaving an outline in the plaster. It stood up, it's odd eyes glowing 
a frightening red.
    I began to run. I had no destination in mind, I just had to get 
away. I ran through the kitchen, making for the back door of the 
house. Suddenly, everything went black. I stumbled around blindly. My 
hand reached out searching for any sort of guide. It found another 
hand.
    My relief was short lived when I found that the hand was cold. 
Ice cold. The next thing I remember is flying through the air, then I 
hit something hard.
    When my vision returned, blurry though it was, I could make out 
the form of the impostor standing over me. I felt the sharp blade of 
the combat spatula near my throat. 
    "Now," the impostor said, "I'm going to put you out of Ukyou's 
misery." It raised the spatula upwards like a guillotine blade. Just 
as the being was about to bring it down, there was a crash from the 
front of the house.
    "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BITCH?" Ranma's angered voice floated back. 
The impostor removed the blade from above my neck and pulled me to my 
feet. It marched me down the hall to the living room. Ranma was 
crouching over the forms of his father and Kasumi. I could see the 
aura of ki-energy forming around him. He turned his head in our 
direction. 
    "I left them alive." the impostor said. "For now."
    "Leave her out of this," Ranma said, pointing at me. "This is 
between you and me."
    "Ah, the old crone told you, did she? I must have scared her more 
than I thought." the impostor replied.
    "Let Akane go." Ranma said flatly.
    "No. I don't want to." 
    Suddenly there was a shot. Some ceiling plaster fell. We turned 
our attention to Reiko, who had appeared with Cologne. Reiko had her 
pistol out and pointed at the impostor.
    "Let Akane go." she said coldly. Cologne stared at the livng 
shadow holding me.
    "One person," she said. "That's all you are allowed to have at 
any one time. You know you must do battle with Ranma to take him. He 
is here and ready to fight, so Akane is useless to you."
    The shadow being looked at Cologne, then shoved me towards Reiko. 
    "Put your pistol away, Sergeant," Cologne continued. "This is 
between them." Reiko looked at the old woman, then complied.
    "What's going on?" I asked as they drew me away from Ranma and 
the impostor.
    "A battle for Ranma's and Ukyou's souls." Cologne said quietly.
    The two stood facing each other. The shadow being's eyes glowing 
red, Ranma being surrounded by a blue aura of Ki-energy. Neither move 
for a moment. 
    Ranma suddenly cut loose with a punch that the shadow ducked 
easily, rolling across the floor and coming up with a volley of 
throwing spatulas. Ranma dodged the projectiles, rolling across the 
floor and out into the hall. The shadow creature follwed him. Ranma 
led it down the hall and out of the house. Reiko, Cologne and I 
followed.
    The shadow beign was clearly getting the upper hand. It managed 
to block all of Ranma's puches and kicks. Even the Kachu Tenshin 
Amaguriken had no effect on the being.
    "You're sloppy, Saotome." The creature said, amused. "What are 
you thinking about? How easily I killed Ukyou? How I hurt Shampoo? Or 
maybe just how I nearly killed the only one of your fiancees you 
really do love?"
    I felt a jolt go through me. Ranma loved me? Really loved me? How 
did that thing know? or was it just to get a rise out of Ranma?
    I looked at Ranma and saw tears forming in his eyes. Was it true 
then? Did Ranma really love me? Whether he did or not, it was enough 
of a distraction for the shadow to smack him a good hit across the 
face. Ranma went flying into the pond in the backyard.
    "RANMA!" I cried. I started to run to him, but Cologne held me 
back with her staff, shaking her head.
    Ranma, now in her girl form, crawled out. She lay panting on the 
side of the pond. For some reason this fight was taking a lot out of 
her. The shadow stood over her. I fought to get by the old woman, but 
she held me in place with her staff.
    I could see Ranma was bleeding from a gash across her cheek. She 
appeared to be in pain. But Ranma never reacted to a cut like that 
before.
    "It has begun," Cologne said to Reiko. "the Ki-Spirit is 
beginning to feed on Ranma's soul."
    Ranma was now fighting to stand up. She had barely gotten to her 
feet when the Ki-Spirit spoke.
    "You're good, Saotome. But let's see how well you deal with 
*this!* ENGULF!"
    Suddenly, the Ki-Spirit expanded in size and surrounded Ranma in 
a vast black cloud. I shoved Cologne aside and began running towards 
the cloud. But when I reached the edge of the cloud, a powerful force 
drove me back.
    "What the-?"
    "You cannot do anything for him," said Cologne. "Ranma must now 
confront his own personal demons if he is to succeed. We cannot 
interfere."
    "How can you be so heartless? Don't you care about what happens 
to him?" I shrieked. The old woman fixed me with cold eyes.
    "I care very much what happens to him. However, I care more about 
what will happen if that thing is allowed to win. Do you think it 
will stop at Ranma? No, it will find another victim and another until 
it has fed on every man, woman and child on the planet. There will be 
no stopping it!"
    I turned away, tears streaming down my face to look at the cloud.
    "Ranma..." I whispered...
    
Somewhere In The Shadows

    Ranma wandered through the darkness, stumbling blindly. She 
couldn't see anything, but she had to keep going. She had to find a 
way out of this blackness.
    She became aware of a light off to her left. She began walking in 
that direction. Soon, she found herself inside the Tendo home. That 
was odd, where was everyone? She walked down the hall into the living 
room.
    She fought to keep from retching. The entire Tendo family and her 
father were dead. Genma had been stuffed full of bamboo, to the point 
that he had choked to death on it. The fact that he was in human form 
served only to heighten the grisly scene. 
    Soun had been completely eviscerated, his entrails spilling out 
over the floor. Nabiki had been force fed the exact same camera she 
used to take her blackmail shots. Her feet had been lopped off and 
were lying in the corner, a large pool of blood collecting at her 
ankles.
    Kasumi had been crucified on the wall, blood spattering her once 
white apron. A pair of spatulas had been jammed through her hands 
straight into the wall behind her. Ranma avoided looking at the pulpy 
mass that had once been her face.
    Then came the blow that had sent her reeling.  Akane's body lay 
on the floor, her neck a bloody stump oozing blood. Her head was on a 
platter in the center of the small table in the center of the room, 
like some kind of grotesque centerpiece. Ranma forced herself to take 
a closer look. Akane's eyes were closed, much to her relief. But she 
noticed that the head was resting on something other than the 
platter. 
    Ranma swallowed painfully and forced herself fo remove Akane's 
head from the table. Underneath was a blood stained okonomiyaki with 
a message scrawled on it: "YOUR FAULT."
    Ranma recoiled at the sight of the message. She continued backing 
away until she hit the wall. She turned to leave the horrors behind...
    And found herself in a hospital room. There was a bed here, with 
a sheet covered form on it. Next to the bed a figure in white robes 
was crying.
    "Mousse?" Ranma asked, but the Chinese boy didn't seem to hear. A 
few minutes later a nurse came in and escorted Mousse out of the 
room. Ranma found herself drawn towards the bed. She already knew who 
was there, but she was compelled to go anyway. She picked up the 
chart at the foot of the bed.
    The word in the "Name" box read "Shampoo" and splashed across it, 
in blood red letters, the words "YOUR FAULT" filled Ranma's vision. 
    She screamed, the horror of the situation overtaking her. She 
screamed until it felt like her lungs would collapse. She screamed 
until her throat was dry and cracked. And when her voice gave out, 
she screamed silently until she felt she had screamed her soul out.
    Then the sheet moved. Ranma jumped back at this unexpected 
movement. She tried to force herself to move, to get away, but she 
remained frozen in place.
    Suddenly, the form in the bed sat bolt upright, the sheet falling 
away. The face of a deathly pale and emanciated Shampoo stared at 
Ranma until she felt her blood run cold.
    "Raaaaannnnmmmaaaa," Shampoo wailed like a banshee. She got out 
of bed and began advancing on Ranma, her arms outstretched, like she 
wanted a hug. Ranma kept backing up, even though there was nowhere to 
go.
    Shampoo began to rot. Flakes of skin peeled off her face and 
arms. Maggots began to go to work on her. Her body gave off an evil 
smell.
    "Raaaannnnmmmmmaaaaa," she moaned. Ranma broke out of her stupor 
and dashed for the door. She threw it open.
    Akane was there, holding her head out in front of her.
    "Raaaaannnnnmmmmaaaaa," she echoed.
    "Get away from me!" Ranma cried. She began backing away from the 
two dead girls. She tried to find another way out, bumping into the 
wall behind her as she did so.
    Two pale arms burst through the wall and grabbed Ranma. Ranma, 
more reflexively than anything else, jabbed an elbow into the crooks 
of the arms. The arms let go and Ranma jumped over Shampoo and Akane, 
onto the hospital bed. 
    The wall she had been resting against gave way, and Ukyou 
appeared, her arms also outstretched. She was also moaning his name 
like some kind of mystical chant. But then all three girls began 
chanting "Your fault, your fault," as they got closer to the bed. 
Ranma backed herself as far as she could go. She couldn't hit them, 
they were all friends, even if they were dead.
    And, Ranma realized with a chilling certainty, they were right. 
It was his fault they were dead, all of them. It had stared with 
Ukyou and went downhill from there. It was all his fault all of--
    "Snap out of it, Saotome!"
    There were three flashes of silver light and instantly, the three 
zombie girls had crumbled to dust. Ranma looked around for the voice 
that sounded like--no, it couldn't be...
    "Ucchan?" Ranma asked weakly.
    "It was NOT your fault. You did everything you could to save me. 
Don't let this thing fool you! Akane is alive, Shampoo is alive, the 
Tendos and your father are alive! This thing is trying to make you 
give up, to do to you what it did to me! Fight it! Have confidence in 
yourself! You've defeated worse things than this! You have yet to be 
completely beaten in anything!"
    Ranma felt a flame spark and begin to burn in her soul.
    "You may have lost me, but we'll both be damned if you're going 
to lose Akane, right?"
    The flame began to build.
    "Now, get out there and trounce this thing and save Akane. 
Because if you don't, then everything you've seen will actually 
happen. Now do you really want that on your conscience?"
    "No," Ranma said. The flame was now spread throughout her entire 
body.
    "I love you, Ranma Saotome!"
    "MOUKO TAKABISHYA!!"
    
    Ranma's ki-blast dissolved the shadows around her. She found 
herself back in the Tendo backyard. She looked around for the Ki-
Spirit. 
    "Behind you, son-in-law!" Cologne cried. Ranma turned, to see the 
Ki-Spirit descending upon him, combat spatula at the ready. Ranma 
leaped into the air and intercepted the Ki-Spirit. 
    "Not this time!" she cried. She tossed the spatula away, grabbed 
the Ki-Spirit behind the neck and drove it face first into the ground.
    Reiko and Akane cheered. Ranma smiled and winked at them.
    The Ki-Spirit stood up, wavering slightly.
    "You're even better than I thought, Saotome." it said.
    "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" Ranma said. "MOUKO TAKABISHYA!"
    The ball of ki went sailing towards the spirit. It's glowing eyes 
widened. Then it folded upon itself and vansished. The ki ball landed 
in the pond, heating the water, and sending a generous amount of it 
onto Ranma. 
    "Where'd it go?!" The now-male Ranma demanded. He looked over at 
the spectators. "Where is it, old ghoul?" he asked Cologne.
    Cologne was already lost in thought. "To the cemetary, quickly!"
    
    The four of them dashed into the Nerima Community Graveyard. The 
Moon was a bloated orb as they dashed towards the spot where Ukyou was 
buried. 
    All they found when they arrived was a pile of dirt, a broken 
headstone and a coffin.
    "Open it." Cologne ordered. Ranma and Akane pulled the lid of the 
coffin upwards. The light of the moon overhead was more than enough 
to see that the coffin was empty.
    "It is not over yet, son-in-law." Cologne stated. Ranma, Akane, 
and Reiko looked at each other, each feeling in their gut that the 
old woman was right.

---

    That's it, folks. "The Shadows" Part two of the "Death of Ukyou 
Trilogy." Next, Ranma takes a journey to the Astral Plane to take 
care of the Ki-Spirit once and for all, and quite possibly return 
Ukyou to the land of the living. Be here for The Death of Ukyou Part 
Three: "The Beyond!"

                                                ---Erin 2.5
   
   "This just goes to show you that brain damage can be fun!"
   
                        ---Shadoe Stevens, "Shadoevision"