DYNASTY - CHAPTER THREE - PART B
By Sydney Kyle <jantzen77@hotmail.com>

                       =========================
                          * * * DYNASTY * * *          
                          A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
                       =========================
                      
                              * * * * * *
      
                       =========================
                             CHAPTER THREE:
                                 Part B		
                                 Rescue
                       =========================

   "There's the canal!" Akari shouted from atop Katsunishiki as he 
approached the bridge.

   The eight of them halted, their gazes fixed on the ground beside the 
water, straining their eyes against the twilight backdrop.

   "Alas, but I still do not comprehend the point of this excursion,"
declared Kuno regally. "Akane, surely thou hast tired of this--"

   "Hold it!" Akane interrupted tensely, pointing. "Over there!"
   
   She was pointing to a congregation of about twenty figures, 
enveloped by a soft, ethereal green glow, gathered at the water's edge, 
far down below...

* * * * * * *   
   
   "Leggo of me! Argh--dammit, leggo!"

   Ranma cursed under his breath as he was forcibly escorted toward the 
front of the company. There were seven guards on either side of him, so 
any chance of escape was made moot. His wrists were shackled behind his 
back, which normally would have been a mere handicap for him. 

   Normally.

   But this time, he couldn't use his legs. Or his fists. Or his head.
He couldn't even move. There seemed to be an invisible cocoon that 
encompassed his body, rendering his limbs almost immobile, and he felt
oddly lethargic.

   He was still struggling halfheartedly when he fell to his knees in
front of the one who seemed to be the head of the group. It was the 
same red-bearded man who had spoken to him and the others earlier--the
one with the dragon staff. 

   Ranma tried to get to his feet, and fell back down. Through the dim
fog that swirled around his mind, he could hear the chanting of the 
congregation that surrounded him, as well as some shouts from Ryouga, 
Shampoo, and his father, commanding him to snap out of his daze. And 
then he became aware of a blue-green glow that emitted from an object 
just above his head.

   He looked up.

   His reflection stared back at him, framed by a ring of fluorescent 
mist, from inside a beautiful jewel box nestled in the palm of the 
red-bearded man's hand.

   The chanting grew louder, more incessant.

   Ranma watched, fascinated, as his reflection shimmered and dissolved 
into the visage of his female form, who stared at him with the slightest 
hint of a smirk on her lips. And then it dissolved again--into a face he 
knew well. It was the face of a girl with a bob haircut and dark eyes...

   It was Akane Tendo's face.

   Ranma couldn't tear his eyes off her.

   "What--what're you doing?" he managed to say. "What _is_ this...?"

   Lord Takuma smiled at him, the blue-green light turning his visage 
into a maze of shadows. "I think, young man, that you already know."

   Ranma smiled back at him, his head feeling strangely light. He 
closed his eyes as his body relaxed. "Oh, yeah. It's my soul, ain't 
it..."

   And then he felt his life force ebb away.     

* * * * * *

   "Akane--where are you going?" Soun yelled as she hauled herself over 
the side of the bridge and skidded down the grassy slope.

   Akane barely heard him as she ran toward the gathering, never taking 
her gaze off the turquoise-hued light. What she saw next made her heart 
stop in mid-beat.

   It was Ranma, on his knees. But what was more alarming was the fine 
mist that hovered above him, resembling a vaguely familiar human form.

   Akane took a deep breath.

   "RANMA!!!"

* * * * *  

   Takuma never saw it coming. 

   Someone had screamed a name, interrupting the ceremony. And then,
without warning, a spatula shuriken had hurtled toward him and 
effectively knocked away the jewel box from his hand.

   The box toppled to the ground, and the glow abruptly vanished. The
clan was in an uproar. 
 
   Takuma whipped up his head toward the source of the disturbance, his 
chiseled features contorted in anger.

   There, in front of him, stood a girl with short cropped hair, her 
face set obstinately, fists clenched at her sides. Behind her, emerging 
from the umbra, were seven more forms--a long-haired, middle-aged man, a 
withered old crone clinging to a stick, a young man holding a bokken, a 
leotard-clad young woman twisting a gymnastic ribbon, a young woman with 
pageboy-style shoulder-length hair, a girl with long mahogany hair, and 
a girl in a sundress riding atop an obscenely huge white pig.

   There was stony defiance etched on all their faces. And from the way 
they were standing, it was apparent that they were on the verge of 
readying themselves into their battle stances.

   Takuma raised an eyebrow. Were they actually considering fighting
_them_?

   "Give them back," the girl in front said in cold, well-modulated 
tones. "Whoever you are, give them back now."

   With a resigned sigh, Takuma nodded at the assembled figures at his 
side. The clan rippled outwards, as gracefully as any wave. It was 
battle synchronization in its most deadly form.   

   If it was a fight they wanted, then it was a fight they were going 
to get.

   Takuma couldn't help but suppress the faintest hint of a sneer. It 
had been a _long_ time since the Dragon clan had been challenged in 
combat.

   This was going to be one interesting night in Nerima.

* * * * * *
   
   Cologne observed the formation of the clan with growing 
apprehension. From what she had seen of their adversaries so far, there 
was no doubt left in her mind that there was no way in hell that she and 
team Nerima were ever going to defeat them. They showed no sign of 
trepidation at all, even when confronted with the monstrosity that was 
Katsunishiki. 

   There were about twenty of them, donned in ancient samurai garb, 
complete with lacquered helmets, layered breastplates, and iron face 
masks that concealed their mouths and noses. The cloth that they wore
was similar to the piece that Cologne had found--a cloth that seemed to 
be sewn out of a fabric that glimmered as if alive. Adorned all over the 
fabric were strange characters emblazoned onto the material with gold 
thread, and the images of various green serpentine creatures that 
grinned from a gold, red, green, and black background. 

   There was definitely something eerie, almost supernatural, about 
these people.

   Never in her two hundred seventy-five years had Cologne imagined 
that she would actually bear witness to a supposed myth that had been 
passed from her ancestors in whispered tones. Never had she imagined 
that she would even have been bestowed the honor of participating in a
battle against a clan that had been drawn from the very heart of 
legend. 

   She readied her battle-stick as the apparitions surged closer. Her 
blood was of a Chinese Amazon, and she would die first before she would 
fall to any one--even the legendary Shoryuu Clan.

   They were standing in a defensive circle, all eight of them, as the
clan surrounded them, flowing as smoothly as water in a fast-flowing 
river, moving as if connected with a psychic rapport.

   And the Dragon clan charged forward.

* * * * * *

   Takuma was surveying the melee below him when he became aware of 
that familiar humming sound.

   He frowned, slightly baffled, then became aware of a light that 
began to pulse from his right. He turned to face the source.

   Sure enough, he saw what he had expected to see.

   "Is something wrong, your eminence?" he asked, his voice detachedly
polite.

   {I want you back here. All of you. _Now_.}

   Confusion flickered briefly by Takuma's ice-cold blue eyes. "You 
wish us to leave, my emperor? But--but we have not even finished the 
ritual--"

   {I don't care.} The boy's tone was cool and indifferent, and yet 
imperious enough to make one think twice before questioning his orders. 
{Order the warriors to retreat. Leave the five chosen alone. Do you 
_understand_?}

   "But--but if they are still alive, then what of the Dynasty--?"

   {Trust me, old man. I have a far more...interesting way to deal with 
these distractions. Now call off the warrior clan.}

   "Y-yes, my emperor. A-at once."

   {And _I_ don't want any of them hurt. Not any of the chosen or any 
of their friends. Not one. Do you hear me, Takuma?}

   "You have my word, Empress," Takuma muttered. He would never admit
it, but the Empress scared him far, far more than the Emperor. And for
a reason that had nothing to do with her temper.

   Takuma picked up his staff, regarded somberly it for a minute, and 
then raised it up high.

   A crack of red thunder sliced its fingers across the night sky.

* * * * * *   

   Flames. Red flames.

   One second, the eight of them had been tensing themselves for the 
incoming onslaught that was rushing toward them, and the next second,
their visions were awash with red flames.

   Soun, Akane, Kuno, and Cologne had experienced something similar 
before--when Prince Toma of Togenkyou Island had conjured up an 
illusion of blue fire as a deterrence in order for him to escape. 

   But even Toma's illusions had never felt so real.

   They could feel the intense heat, hear the crackling of the flames 
licking at their ankles and elbows. 

   And in front of them, charging through the curtain of a crimson
inferno, were the Clan of the Dragon, swords flashing, armor gleaming,
their eyes glittering with fierce determination.

   Akane let out a scream, and somewhere in the distance she heard 
Akari do the same.

   The clan was almost upon them when they were all suddenly assailed
with a flash of immense red light.

   The brightness faded a second later.

   And the only ones standing in the middle of the grassy battlefield 
were Akane, Akari, Soun, Nabiki, Katsunishiki, Kuno, Kodachi, and 
Cologne, surrounded by only the sound of crickets and the rustle of 
grass.

   The Clan of the Dragon, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen.

* * * * * *

   "Ranma? Ranma?"

   Ranma grimaced as he felt someone slapping him. His first instinct
was to sit up and yell at the guilty party, but somehow he didn't even
have the strength to open his eyes. "Ouch, ouch, ouch," he mumbled. 
"Stop that, y-you crazy macho tomboy...y'makin' my head...hurt..."

   "Ranma! You're okay!" Akane cried in relief. "You jerk! I thought--
I thought you were--"

   "Geez, Akane, you sound like you're _worried_ 'bout me, ya know."

   "Well, I--I, ah--" Akane tried not to acknowledge the faintest trace 
of a blush on her cheeks. 

   "You're lookin' for a test subject for your cookin', right?"

   Every indication of compassion in Akane's eyes evaporated as she
raised her hand to give him a concussion-inducing slap. "Why, you 
arrogant--"

   "OHOHOHOHOHO! RANMA DAAAARLING!"

   "I SHALL SMITE THEE LIKE THE CUR THOU ART, SAOTOME!"

   "I'm in hell," mumbled Ranma, eyes still shut. "Yup, I've died and 
gone to hell."

   Soun knelt by Ranma's side, visage grim. "Son, where are the 
others?"

   Ranma groaned and pointed weakly to the right. "Last time I heard 
'em, they were yellin' at me from that direction."

   "No need to look for us, Tendo. We're all right."

   The group turned simultaneously toward the voice. 

   Genma, Ryouga, Shampoo and Mousse emerged slowly from the shadows
below the bridge, looking exhausted but none the worse from the whole
experience.

   "Saotome!" cried Soun. "You're alive!"

   "But of course," replied Genma, smirking through his missing front
teeth. "You didn't actually think that anyone could have defeated
_this_ master, eh, Tendo?"

   "Heheheh...indeed, Saotome."

   Nabiki rolled her eyes. Ranma would have done the same had his eyes 
been open. 

   "Great-grandmother!" Shampoo called. And then she spied Ranma on the 
ground. "RANMA!" She flew over and wrapped his defenseless form in a 
hug--much to Akane's, Ukyou's, Kodachi's, and Mousse's aggravation.

   "RYOUGA!"

   Ryouga looked up wearily, and was stunned to see a pretty young girl 
running ecstatically toward him, followed by a huge white pig.

   "A-a-a-a-a--" was all he managed to croak out before she threw her-
self blissfully in his arms.

   "I'm so glad you're all right!" Akari whispered, burying her face in 
his chest.

   Ryouga was speechless. Even though he and Akari had been going out
steadily for a month now, he was still knocked senseless when she 
demonstrated any show of physical affection toward him. Not to mention 
that he'd expected Akari to be furious at him for departing his 
surrogate home in the country because he was still in love with Akane 
Tendo. Oh, he'd told her as delicately as he could about his mixed 
emotions before packing up and trekking back to Nerima. And all that did 
was rouse her supposedly deceased grandfather out of his grave. From 
there, Grandfather Unryuu had made that earth-shattering decision that 
he and Akari move from the country to the city in order that she pursue 
her conjectural fiance properly. All that trouble, all in the name of 
love.

   The problem was, Ryouga wasn't sure about his feelings for her were 
at the moment. Akari's feelings for him, on the other hand, were so
pure and unsullied that he felt like a two-timing, lowlife jerk.

   Akane stood up. "Ryouga!" she exclaimed in concern. "You okay?"

   His eyes almost bugged out. "A-Akane! Y-yeah, I'm fine," he squeaked.

   Ukyou was able to tear her gaze away from Ranma long enough to watch 
their exchange. She suppressed a tiny scowl. <What a wimp,> she thought 
in irritation. <I wonder what Akari sees in _him_, anyway...?>

* * * * * *

   Cologne, meanwhile, was combing the scene of the ceremony when her 
sharp eyes caught sight of something twinkling amongst the grass. She 
reached over and picked it up.

   It was the most exquisite jewel box she had ever seen. It was 
laquered, and imbedded on its walls were unidentifiable gems of every 
shape and color. But what caught her attention the most was the 
greenish-blue glow flickering weakly within it.

   <The Tama-tebako...>

   "Can you get up, boy?" Cologne overheard Genma say to his son.

   The gleam inside the box vanished abruptly, leaving behind nothing 
but a dark, empty velvet interior.
 
   "Yeah, Pop--I'm okay now. Let's just get outta here, all right?" 

   Very thoughtfully, Cologne pocketed the box somewhere within the 
folds of her green Chinese robes and followed the others as they headed 
back for home.

                        =end of Chapter Three= 
   
Next: Planning for battle


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