[Warhammer runs out.]
	WH: Ah ha! You thought I was done with the Hammer's Wrath story arc! 
But there was this little intricacy that wouldn't go away. So here's 
your answer. 

Teknos Warhammer presents

A Mother's Love

A Ranma/Teknoman crossover
Written by Christian Clark

Date: August 15, 2051/United Earth Government Year 22
Place: Nerima 4th District, Tokyo-2


	In the home that had survived so much since the Second Impact, the 
Tendou/Saotome school of Indiscriminate Grappling still stood. As did 
the school's best students, Ranma Saotome and his wife Akane Saotome. 
Despite how much they argued on the matter, neither one was better all 
round, than the other. 

Ranma's speed and agility was unmatched, yet the sheer amount of 
strength and endurance Akane possessed even brought the mighty Pantyhose 
Tarou down to his knees. Or now just Shin Tarou ever since he got his 
name changed with the news of Happosai's death. 

	Either way, one was not as good as the other all around. Yet, they both 
chose not to take it too seriously and just live. They had plenty of 
years ahead to argue and figured they would put off arguing on trivial 
matters for another day. 

	Dressed in a simple white yukata, Ranma Saotome brushed away his gray 
hair from his face from the cool autumn breeze. He had the appearance of 
a man in his 70's, yet had the strength and speed of a man in his 20's. 
On account that his blood was flowing with the power of a Teknos Healer. 

His mother, Teknos Katana or Nodoka Saotome, had inadvertently given him 
the power that kept him young and still with his beloved wife. How 
ironic that fate had nearly made them both advocates for the enemy whom 
they knew was coming, and instead had made them warriors that had a long 
and nearly lost legacy of defending. 

	He sighed and walked back into the dojo. It wasn't the fact that he was 
getting old, it was the fact that he could not transform into his other 
form that bothered him. For he had no crystal to draw upon the necessary 
power to summon his armor and weapon. He didn't even know what his 
designation was. 

	Without a thought, the gray in his hair vanished and the lines faded to 
show Ranma in his prime. He took off his yukata and put on a pair of 
loose black trousers and a tank top and started a simple Tai Chi 
movement, which got more complex with the larger amount of moves he had 
used. 

	Suddenly, he switched forms and started a defensive patter for drunken 
monkey kung fu. He ended with falling on his back on purpose and using a 
handspring to get up. Just for the heck of it, he started to jump around 
and perform several intermediate Ceopeira kicks. 

	"Ranma, what are you doing?" an elderly voice asked. Turing to the 
right, he saw his wife, looking about the same age he did a short while 
ago. Like with him, she too could control how old she looked. At the 
moment, she continued to look like the old lady everyone thought her to 
be. 

	"It's for my barmitsva." He said with a sarcastic grin. "I got another 
message from mom. She's coming around here any day now and she thinks 
she's ready for me to try and get my crystal again." Then, his shoulders 
stooped and he sighed. "If it's anything like all the times before, I 
don't have a chance." 

Ever since Nodoka's 'death' she hunted down all the other Teknomen on 
Earth that were still loyal to Darkon and stole their crystals. From 
those crystals, her power increased exponentially.  Once to five times 
every year that followed, she offered Ranma the most powerful crystal 
she found. 

The only catch was, he had to prove himself worthy before he could even 
begin to use the weapon and suit of a Teknos. Every time he fought her, 
he lost� miserably. Such an odd way to drive humility into someone. 

	The elderly Akane took the food she got at the market in the kitchen, 
walked back, changed into her much more beautiful youthful body, and 
hugged her husband. She looked into his eyes and said gently, "Ranma, 
please don't talk like that. It's like there someone else here instead 
of my perverted, lovable, and arrogant husband."

	Ranma chuckled at the 'heart felt insult'. "Pop would most likely never 
let me hear the end of it if he knew that I was in this position."

	Akane snorted, "Who cares what that old fart thinks? He ruined your 
mom's life, mine, Ukyou's, yours, and who knows how many others he sold 
you to. I wouldn't be surprised if he FINALLY got what he deserved, and 
I be pissed if he didn't."

	He looked down, as if he felt guilty of still defending his father, 
"But I mean, mom didn't even trust him. No one deserves that. It's like 
the poor guy was all alone when he passed on and mom didn't even cry at 
his funeral. Like she still has a grudge against him."

	Akane lifted her husband's head up and looked into his eyes with 
adoration, "Sometimes Ranma, you've got a bigger heart than you're 
willing to admit. That's one of the reasons why I love you so much. But 
you got to know that he chose his path and you must choose yours too." 
Before he could respond, she kissed him. 

	Time stood still for both of them as Akane wrapped her arms around her 
husband's head and slowly let herself down, still holding onto him. The 
kiss finally ended and both of them noticed a rather apparent shortage 
of breath. This time, Ranma became the aggressor and kissed her, but 
this one didn't last as long as the first one. 

	In her ear, he whispered, "How long has it been since we've done it in 
here?"

	Akane's eyes widened a bit and she tried to contain the laughter that 
nearly emerged. "Ranma! People might notice! Don't be such a pervert!" 
She said stroking his cheek. 

	"Well, I got you to thank for that." He said smirking..

	Akane's eyes leveled mischievously, "Prove it then, you scoundrel."

	Ranma blinked a few times and then, with a roguish grin, "A scoundrel? 
Scoundrel?" He took her hands gently and started to massage the warmth 
into them. "I like the sound of that."

She looked down to see his hands administer the soothing healing power 
of his Teknos enhanced chi, helping the pains in her hands, "Stop that." 
She said.

"Stop what?" He asked, momentarily stopping. 

"Stop that, my hands are dirty."

"My hands are dirty too, what are you afraid of?" He said, letting the 
bravado take over and continued to advance slowly.

"Afraid?"

"You're trembling." He said a bit quieter, coming closer to her. 

"I'm not trembling."

"You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in 
your life."

"I happen to like nice men."

"I'm a nice man."

"No, you're not."

She whispered as his face and hers were coming closer and closer, ready 
to kiss.

But a third voice from nowhere ruined the whole mood. "My, my, getting 
bold. Aren't we?"

	Both Ranma and Akane glared at Nodoka who simply leaned against the 
wall, chuckling at their expected responses.  

	"For crying out loud mom, you could have knocked!" Ranma said with a 
frown. 

	"Oh? Sorry son, but dead woman can't knock on doors." 

	Allowing Akane to sit up, he stood up and spoke, devoid of all 
immaturity and full of seriousness, "So Okaa-san. What do you have to 
taunt me with this time?"

	Nodoka then pulled a faded ruby from the sleeve of her kimono. It 
consisted of three diamond-shaped portions, all somewhat pulled to make 
the upper parts longer than the lower. The central one was longer and 
thinner than the ones on the outside. The outer diamonds seemed to 
overlap halfway into the central, giving the crystal an almost hawk-like 
shape. 

	"This one belonged, at one time, to an extremely strong German woman by 
the name of 'Zweihander'. That is, until I got to her. Out of all the 
Teknoman loyal to Darkon, she had to have been the strongest I've ever 
faced. Such a boost to your power would certainly help you catch up with 
Akane and myself." 

She tucked the crystal back in her sleeve and put her hands into her 
sleeves, very much like Mousse did, and smiled darkly. "So my son. Do 
you feel like you are ready to claim what is yours?"

	Ranma took a defensive stance, nodded, and looked to Akane, who moved 
to the wall to allow the Saotomes more room to fight. "But I have one 
condition."

	Nodoka raised an eyebrow, "And that is?"

	"The use of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

	Nodoka shrugged, "If that is your wish, I too shall play by your 
rules."

	Nodding, Ranma continued, "Good, because I wanted to let you know that 
Akane and I have broken up and I'm in love with a small Mexican man. Who 
I intend to marry next month."

	Both Nodoka and Akane's eyes widened with horror, but that was what 
gave Ranma the time he needed as he vanished into a blur of lines, 
appeared in front of Nodoka and attacked. His mother barely caught the 
fight that nearly hit her stomach with one hand and threw him off, but 
because of the shock, it was not as powerful as she hoped. 

	Ranma landed on his feet and charged again. This time, Nodoka was 
ready. As she expected, Ranma tried to get right in front of her to 
attack her chin, but threw her fist at him before he even reached the 
area he was to land. Ranma barely dodged the attack and rolled back as 
Nodoka tried to step on him with every roll. 

	He couldn't understand how she was moving so well in a kimono of all 
things! Getting to his feet, he threw off several punches to his upper 
body and head. In an unexpected move, she threw both of his hands away 
from her, reached forward, and grabbed his head. He expected a head 
butt, but instead got a rather passionate kiss. From his mother!!

	All this was too much for Akane as she slumped to the floor and passed 
out. 

	He lurched free, rolled backwards a few times, and rubbed his lips with 
his arms as hard as he could, trying to erase what just took place.

	Nodoka chuckled, "Having an Oedipus complex is not very manly, Ranma."

	He glared back and growled, "That's not funny mom! That was sick!"

	Her smile faded and she raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And what of your 
attempt at distraction? Was that not sickening enough to give you the 
extra time you needed to attack? I was simply following your rules."

	:"I never asked you to kiss me!!"

	"You brought it upon yourself son."

	Ranma frowned at the accusation, "How so?"

	"When you said Anything Goes Martial Arts, that was how I interpreted 
it. ANYTHING goes�" She frowned and looked to the right, remembering, 
"Had I known your father was a student of such an art, I would have 
forbade you to learn it. It allows cowards a greater chance to win by 
using dirty tricks and subterfuge. Especially your father's 'Secret 
Saotome Technique'. HA! It was simply running away and it was said by 
its user as courage."

	Ranma couldn't believe it, not only had Nodoka grown displeased with 
his dad, but she was basically spitting on his grave and memory. Genma 
may had been a moron, but he was Ranma's father and he wouldn't let 
anyone dishonor the name Saotome, despite how tainted Genma made it. 

	He charged again and threw both legs from his left in an attempt to 
force Nodoka off her feet. She dropped to her back and kicked with both 
of her feet onto Ranma's back. Sending him nearly slamming into the wall 
on the other side of the dojo.

	Ranma winced at the pain at the small of his back as he stood up. Not 
even Herb, Saffron, or Tarou was ever this strong or fast. Figuring a 
change in strategy was needed, he pushed his body to the limit, leaving 
only a faint residual image of where he once was. 

	Nodoka followed every image that came from nowhere and went to nowhere 
all about the dojo. She kept herself at a defensive position. She knew 
where Ranma was going to appear every time he vanished, given the fact 
of their mindlink. Yet, even she knew that it was unfair and closed her 
mind and gave him a bit more of an advantage than he thought.

	That was when he appeared right in front of her and cried with fists 
flying, "Kachou Tenshin Amaguriken!" She brought up and crossed her 
arms, one of her knees, and covered her face and gut as 5,635 punches 
hit her forearms and shin. Yet, the odd thing was that if it had been 
any other normal human, he would be punching holes through them with the 
displaced wind alone. 

	She winced as every punch felt like a baseball had been thrown like a 
fastball. Yet, a little known fact to her alone was that with every hit, 
he was increasing the amount of power she would use in her counter 
attack. 

	Her avenue to attack would be extremely small, so she would have to 
time it exactly. The slightest mistiming could spell defeat. She threw 
her arms out in an arc and used the power to create a wall that flew to 
the other side. All the while screaming, " Tamashi Booeiha!"

What she didn't see was that Ranma had jumped to the side in time, 
gotten below her and threw a vicious uppercut in response to her miss. 

	She began to tip off to one side, the force of the blow strong enough 
to knock out any man. Gritting her teeth, she sped up and spin kicked 
him straight in the cheek, making him crash into the wall. Had Ranma 
been any other human instead of half Teknos, the only thing that would 
have been flying was his head through the wall. 

She fell to her knees and held her jaw as the pain screamed through her 
body like liquid fire, giving Ranma another change to attack. 

	He jumped from his impression in the wall and his feet only met with 
the ground as his mother vanished into thin black lines and reappeared 
at the other side of the dojo. Now, Ranma knew the way to victory. His 
mother was powerful and fast, but close range fighting was not her 
forte, were as it was easy for him. 

	Reaching out with his right hand, he started to gather large amounts of 
chi. It seemed that if Nodoka liked fighting at a distance, he'd do it 
just to make her happy and lower her guard. A small ball of light 
appeared over his hand and grew bigger until he swung the sphere 
backwards, then forwards, screaming, "Muoko Takabisha!!"

	Still possessing some of the power from her last attack, she twirled 
her arms into a circle and created a shield, which stopped the blast 
dead in its tracks. The gray and white circle held despite the strong 
wave of chi that hit it. "Ryuki Tate!" Only at the last second did she 
realize her mistake.

	Ranma appeared beside her and rammed her into the wall. She pushed him 
off quickly and rolled to another side of the dojo as Akane began to 
wake. Nodoka clinched her side and stood her ground. Letting her guard 
down had allowed Ranma to hit her in the side 733 times. Despite all the 
power she commanded, she had yet to master it all. She had to end this 
now, she was starting to falter, as was Ranma. They were both at the end 
of their ropes. 

	Using the wall as a spring, Ranma flew at Nodoka with all his speed and 
aimed a kick at her upper stomach to knock the breath out of her. What 
he didn't expect was that she took his foot, pulled him towards her, and 
while he was still in mid air. He wasn't stuck in mid air for a tenth of 
a second before he knew what she was going to do. 

	Over her knee, she suddenly brought it against his back and brought her 
elbow down into his stomach. Both her knee and elbow connected 
simultaneously, which not only knocked the wind out of Ranma, but sent a 
little bit of blood spewing out of his mouth.  Like with the other 
attacks before, had this been anyone else, they would have found 
themselves cut in half. Akane gasped at the blood that flew from Ranma's 
mouth and saw him collapse to the ground. 

	Panting, Nodoka waved to the wall and leaned against it to catch her 
breath. Akane cried her husband's name and knelt by the still breathing 
Ranma. Looking up to his mother, she screamed, "What were you doing! You 
could have killed him!!"

	Nodoka's eyes opened to her accuser, "I would not have. He is my son 
and I have greater control over my own body than you may think. I would 
never think to commit such a cruel act and kill my own son for nothing."

	Akane had nothing to say to that, but found her attention back to her 
husband as she heard what she thought she head. Sobbing? She looked down 
to see Ranma's eyes covered with tears of physical pain that wouldn't go 
away. He struggled to get to a sitting position as he said to his 
mother,

	"I don't care anymore� I don't want it� if the only way that I'm 
supposed to get that crystal is through pain and humiliation, then I 
don't give a damn if I get one or not! I GIVE UP!!" With that, he turned 
from his mother, sat cross-legged and closed his mind to her and Akane, 
despite the pain. 

	Nodoka's unemotional face didn't move a muscle as she walked around 
Ranma and sat in the traditional way in front of him and asked, "Ranma� 
do you know what made this battle different from all the other ones?"

	"What? The fact that you nearly killed me?" he snapped.

	"No. It is the only time you actually had the strength to cry and admit 
defeat. All those years back when you got Akane back from Darkon, you 
only started to let your pride go. Even now you still work on it, but 
you have taken another step to humility. Which is also a step to true 
manhood." 

She reached into her sleeve, pulled out Zweihander's crystal, took 
Ranma's hand, and placed the crystal in it. "Despite how it may not seem 
that way� I am proud of you." She said with a sincere smile and face as 
she kissed the top of her son's head. 

	Ranma's and Akane's eyes widened at the newest change of events. They 
were so shocked, that they didn't even notice Nodoka standing up and 
leaving through the doorway. "I love you, Ranma. My son, you make a 
mother proud." She whispered into the air and into his mind. 

	Ranma looked up to thank his mother but found her gone. He ran out 
after her, despite the fact he was only seconds behind her, she was 
gone. "I love you too mom, and thank you." He whispered to the wind. He 
sniffed and wiped the dry tears from his face and went back in, the 
Hallelujah chorus from Handel's 'Messiah' playing inside his head. 

*************************************************

	The next day was windy, yet the clouds in the sky said that no rain 
would fall upon the cities of man today. In a field outside of the city, 
Ranma stood alone. Letting the wind pull at his clothes and hair, he sat 
on a stump and studied the pale crystal that was his. 

	The reason why it was still red, was that Zweihander's presence in the 
crystal had yet to be totally erased. Well, if it was to be his now, 
then he might as well see if he could counter her will. He raised the 
crystal in the air and announced the activation words,

	"Tek Sector!"

	Red lightning coursed from the crystal and onto his hand. He winced and 
dropped the crystal, seeing the steam emerge from it, it appeared that 
her crystal wasn't going to give up without a fight. He picked it up 
again, raised it high and started the activation sequence once again. 

	And once more the red lightning seared his hand with power that claimed 
that he wasn't supposed to use. But he wasn't going to give up. He 
continued to let the pain course through him and exert his will over the 
many times more powerful Zweihander's. 

	Once more, he dropped the crystal and saw the burn marks on his hands. 
Yet, there was a distinct difference in the crystal now than it was 
before. There was a definite hue of blue around the bottom. Without its 
original owner to keep it stronger, his will was slowly overcoming its 
previous owner's. 

	He took the crystal again and screamed the activation. This time, the 
lightning was much more violent as Ranma's control over the crystal 
became stronger and stronger. He screamed with pain and thrashed about 
wildly as the lightning coursed over his body. 

	The crystal slowly changed from red, all the way to blue after several 
minutes of fighting in this battle of wills. Yet, when the crystal had 
been changed completely, Ranma had passed out, still unchanged� on the 
outside that is.

*************************************************

	Ranma found himself in a darkness that had a weak blue source of light� 
but the source couldn't be found. He looked about to see another figure 
in the darkness, but from the large flowing cape, he couldn't tell who. 

	He swam through the darkness, still keeping his eyes on the figure. He 
guess whoever it was, seemed to be about six feet tall, but the armor 
that he started to see, suggest a lean build. Soon enough, he saw that 
the person had a short mane of emerald green hair flowing as if it were 
underwater. 

The figure soon paused, noticing his presence and turned to see him. Her 
eyes were a gentle sunset orange, and her face a model of maturity and 
power. What she wore seemed out of place for someone who looked like 
her. It was a rather impressive suit of armor, colored black, white and 
scarlet. 

"Who are you?" The woman asked. 

"Um� Ranma Saotome."

	She blinked and tilted her head in confusion, "That's odd. I don't seem 
to recall anyone like you becoming Teknos."

	Thinking quick, Ranma stated, "You remember a woman by the name of 
Nodoka? The one who was swallowed in a teknopod while she was pregnant?"

	She nodded once before her eyes went wide and she stared at him in 
shock. "You're� you're the child?"

	He smiled and nodded, "Nice to meet you."

	She floated about him, poking him here and there, pulling a hair once 
in a while, and then took his cheek and stared into his eyes. "There's 
no doubt. You have the power of Teknos in your veins." After she let go, 
Ranma blinked.

	"Uh say, if I may ask, who are you?"

	The woman smiled, folded her arms, and answered, "I am Shara, Mother of 
the Teknos. And it seems you are the first who has ever met me without 
me visiting them first. Quite an achievement."

	"Well, getting Zweihander's crystal to become my own wasn't easy."

	She blinked once, and then pecked her right palm with her left fist. 
"Oh, so that explains how you got here. And by the way, how exactly did 
all those people on Earth become Teknos? I know they used a Lahdam 
metamorphic pod, but who did it and how?"

	Soon enough, Ranma told Shara of Slade's visit, the war to come, and 
how so many people on Earth became Teknoman. 
	
	"Darkon?!?" Shara roared. "That lousy son of a� Thank you Ranma. Now I 
know that I MUST do something before Darkon gets here. But how?" She 
turned around and tilted her head in thought, "I know, I can descend and 
ask mother to give me the tools I need to stop him."

	"Um�" Ranma said, trying not to be pushy, "� but uh�"

	She turned back to him. "Oh yes. I forgot. You don't have a name or 
armor yet, do you?"  

	He shook his head dumbly. "In that case, I'd better get to work on 
yours then. Oh wait�" She looked at him again, "That's odd, I've never 
seen anything like this before."

	"What do you mean?"

	"I mean this." She waved her hand and all of a sudden, he became a she. 
"I've never seen anyone do that before."

	Ranma-onna sighed, "Believe me, it's a VERY long and VERY tragic 
story."

	She narrowed one eye at him and changed him back, but still didn't stop 
thinking. "Say Ranma." He looked to her, "You're not exactly the most 
powerful of the Teknos on Earth, am I correct?" He nodded sadly. "How 
about I make a proposition. If you become my guinea pig, I will most 
certainly give you a form for both of your genders. The reason why is 
that I have never done something like this before."

	Looking up, he considered her offer, at least something to set him 
apart from his powerful wife and monstrously powerful mother. That was 
when something came to mind, "Hey, why did you say guinea pig? This 
isn't going to be dangerous is it?"

	She shook her head and said casually, "Of course not. Well, except for 
that poor soul who ended up losing it and blew up himself." She saw his 
frozen expression and said, "Ranma� it's a joke. It never really 
happened." 

He sighed irritably and then said, "Ok, I'll go with it. What do we do 
now?"

	She snapped her finger and suddenly, Ranma felt a rather evident draft, 
which he found that his clothes had vanished. He screamed with horror 
and covered as much as he could. "What'dya do that for?!"

	She frowned, "Stop whining, I know you're married, I won't even touch 
you." 

She lifted up a hand and a pillar of light engulfed him. Inside the 
column, he noticed numbers on the side, which he figured were his 
measurements as a green line went over his body. Then, just as the line 
went past his head, he suddenly changed to his female form and the line 
went back down. 

The instant the column left, his clothes returned and Shara was still 
floating there, smiling. "All done." 

He looked at his hands and looked himself over, he didn't feel any 
different. He looked back to her and said with a bit of incredulance. "I 
thought you said I was supposed to�"

	With a fury of a goddess, her smile faded, a powerful wind came from 
nowhere, and she boomed, "KNEEL MORTAL!" 

Not one to anger one more powerful than himself, he knelt as best he 
could in the gravity-less void. He looked up to see that she have begun 
to glow and the light about her got brighter and brighter. It nearly 
blinded him as the pillar that grew from her swallowed him in light.

	He lost all sense of time as he felt his senses return. He opened his 
eyes to see a nebula in space and looked about that he too was in the 
middle of space, but he was standing on a platform. And standing beside 
him, was his female form, encased in purple, white, and black armor. She 
turned to him, winked, and looked straight ahead again. He looked down 
to see the same kind of armor, only a more leaner version that the bulky 
suit that his female side had. 

	He looked ahead to see Shara standing at the head of the platform, and 
she too appeared to have changed. She seemed to have lost most of her 
armor in exchange for the robes of a traditional goddess. She still kept 
her breastplate, gauntlets, and pauldrons which left her shoulders 
exposed, but the rest was covered in flowing sunset-orange robes, with 
futuristic designs consisting of green, blue, red, silver, and gold all 
over. 

	She was staring into the galaxy being born, which oddly enough was the 
same color as her robes. She turned to show that she had single wires 
going about her face and body. 

On her hands, a air of ruby colored wires made a thin diamond shape on 
the backs of both. On her palms, a set of sapphire colored wires wove 
about from a circle and to the tips of her fingers. A pair of emerald 
wires traversed down her neck and outward over her collar bone.  A pair 
of gold wires above her eyes which started at about the same length as 
did her eyebrows and ended at the same place as the silver wires. A pair 
of silver wires wove under her eyes to her ears. A single, vertical, and 
shining crystal wire on her forehead signified the power from which all 
Teknos could gain someday. 

Her eyes seemed to carry much more than any human was capable of. As if 
she knew all, experienced all, and was all. Her voice seemed like it 
came from everywhere and nowhere. Even then, it was gentle, "What you 
see is my true form, Ranma. All Teknos see this only once. The only 
other time when they see this, is when they reach the final form, of a 
Teknos Deity."

She slowly walked from the platform to him. "Now, kneel and you shall 
receive your fated name."

	He turned back to his female form and was about to ask about her, when 
the female side of him stepped right beside him and knelt in front of 
Shara. He looked back to the Mother, who simply smiled and gently 
gestured to the ground beside the other Ranma. He gulped and then knelt 
beside his cursed body. 

	She stood in front of them both, placed a hand upon one shoulder of 
both Ranmas, and spoke ethereally. "I, the Mother of Teknos, charge you, 
Ranma Saotome, Child of Earth and of the Dragon Sword, to defend the 
good, the weak, and the innocent and will do so until the day you cease 
to breathe. To assist you in this charge, time will be nothing to you, 
as it has been with the others who has come before you.

"Your designation shall be that of the bloodless weapon. You shall be a 
healer of the Order of the Staff. In your tongue, you shall be known as 
the staff. Your power as a healer will grow as you give aid to those who 
suffer, in body, heart, and mind. 

"You will someday take the name of your predecessor, Variceas, Master of 
Change.  With your curse, it shall become a blessing. Your cursed body 
will have the power of a warrior, while your true body shall continue to 
give the power of a healer. Though you will grow slower than most 
others, it shall bring you farther in the future than those others. You 
will overcome the limitations of your curse and of yourself. 

"Now, arise and become one with your blessed curse� Teknos Bo." 

	He stepped up and saw his cursed body fade into a blue mist and merge 
with his own. At this time, he never felt more complete than he could 
ever remember. He looked to the Mother, who merely smiled and turned to 
walk away. Before he could even thank her, everything went bright again. 

*************************************************

	"Ranma! Ranma! Wake up!" Said a familiar voice. He blinked a couple of 
times to see Akane leaning over him, a mask of concern on her face. "You 
ok?" She asked. 

	Sitting up, he found himself back at his home and in bed, still 
clothed, and bandages on his right hand. "Yeah, I guess I am. How long 
was I out?"

	"Two days. When you didn't come home, I got worried, and went to look 
for you. That was when I found you in the fields outside the city, in a 
small crater. You were also steaming when I found you. What happened?"

	

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com