Michael Won <skeezy5@geocities.com>
=======================

God Emperor 1 / 2 - Part IV
	by skeezy5

=======================

	Characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.
	Dune Chronicles belong to Frank Herbert.

=======================

	"A great man once said,
	'There is no greater 
	love than for one man to 
	lay down his life for 
	the sake of another.'
	I will tell you right now
	that there is."
	
	-The Stolen Journals


	The dark ki of the Shishi Houkou Dan spreads over its victim, 
burning the body in its fire.  I lurch as best as I can with a sprained 
ankle, but already, it is apparent that I am too late to do anything.  
Finally, its energy spent, the dark ki dissipates into thin air.  
	"Shiro..."  I finally reach the side of her charred body.  She 
looks up at me weakly, her life fading quickly.  The attack had been 
fueled by three thousand years of depression and anger, too much energy 
for any human to survive.
	"Father...  father..."  Shiro's breaths come weakly, and her voice 
is barely a forced whisper.  I glance down at her body to see a few ribs
exposed through the charred skin.
	"Shh...  Its all right.  Everything is going to be all right."  I 
want to hold her, but she winces at my slightest touch.  Gently, I brush
back her bangs from her eyes, so that she can see me more clearly.
	"Father...  It is too late.  I'm sorry."
	"No, Shiro.  No.  You don't have to be sorry.  Above all, I taught 
you to do what you believed in.  There is no need to be sorry."
	"That is not what I'm sorry about.  I am not sorry for trying, 
father."  Her body is wracked with coughs, and she spits out a large 
amount of blood.  "It hurts so much!  Father, hold me."
	Gently, I enfold her in a hug, tears flowing down my face.  My 
daughter, dying because I could not guide her better.  Dying becuase
I could not help her see the true path...  She reaches up with an arm 
and brings my ear close to her mouth.  "Father..."
	"Yes, daughter?"
	"Forgive me.  I am victorious."  Those final words leave her body 
as she exhales for the last time.  I gently let her body down, numb.  
Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I look up to see Commander Hibiki.
	"I'm sorry..."
	"..."  His words pass through me without really registering.  My
mind reels, fastforwarding through every memory I have of Shiro.  I 
find myself so inadequate, such a bad father.
	"She was a great leader and a good comrade.  I wish I could've 
been better friends with her."
	"..."  Shiro.  Dead.  What would I tell her sisters?  What would I 
tell Shinobu?  I run my hand over her eyes, shutting them, and stand up.  
"She chose her path and followed it to its end.  Such is the way of a 
warrior."
	"That's cold."
	"That is life."  The words leave my mouth, and I feel as if 
somebody else is saying them.  I try to swallow, but find it difficult 
to.  I try again and barely manage.
	"How can you say that?"  His voice is filled with disgust, but I 
do not care.

@->-

	"Damn them all!  Damn them to all of the nether hells and beyond!"  
Ranma-sama throws off another blast, decimating another chunk of the 
forest.  I step out of the hut, having scene enough of the bloody mess.  
While on an inspection tour, a close advisor of hers had been taken 
hostage by rebels.  The kidnappers had demanded a ransom, one which had 
been paid in person by Ranma-sama as per their demands.  That had turned 
into a gigantic melee, as the treacherous villains had planned to ambush 
us.
	As their leaders fled the battlefield, we had tracked them to this 
hovel, their hideout. Upon our arrival, however, we had discovered that 
the hostage had been brutally tortured and murdered, many, many days 
ago.  He had been a close friend as well as an advisor to Ranma-sama.
	"I say again, burn in hell you fools!"  She finally stops 
destroying the landscape and sits down on the ground, exhausted.
	"Why?  Why must they persist in this senseless violence, my lord?"  
I shake my head, not being able to understand these rebels.  "How is it 
that they hate you so much?"
	Ranma-sama turns to look at me and laughs bitterly.  "Hate?  They 
know nothing of hate.  The emotions they hold against me are petty 
compared to the pure hatred that people will feel for centuries, once my 
reign is finished.  My name will be the vilest curse, and they shall 
call me the Devil.  It will be many millennia before they even begin to 
comprehend what my Golden Path has done to their ancestors, them, and 
their descendants.  It will be even later when they finally discover my 
Journals.  Even then, I despair that they will be able to understand 
me."
	"My lord, then why do you try to help us?  If nobody will ever 
appreciate you, why do you persist in your efforts to guide us and care 
for us?"
	"Because I must."  The hint of resignation that had entered her 
voice is gone, replaced by a raw, almost unbridled determination.
	"But why?"
	"There are many reasons for which I pursue the Golden Path, 
Kaneda, and even the smallest one makes me continue."  Ranma-sama looks 
around, once again surveying the carnage that has been wrought.  "I am a 
warrior, Kaneda.  I have chosen to follow a path, and I will follow it 
to the end as long as I believe in it.  No matter what."

@->-

	"Akane!"
	"Ranma!"
	I turn to see the two lovers run to each other, finally reunited 
after so long. They leap into each others' arms and are locked in a 
tight embrace.  
	"Oh Akane, I love you."  He buries his face in her hair and sobs 
out.  His voice is unmasked, each word carrying the weight of a thousand
suppressed emotions.
	"My dear, dear Ranma...  I... I love you too."  Her voice is shaky 
as she speaks.  I watch the two of them as they kiss, and I feel a 
twinge of jealousy but am happy for Ranma-sama.  Finally, I turn back to 
my daughter's corpse, too wrapped up in my grief to truly care.
	Perhaps it is because I am tired, perhaps it is because I am 
distracted by my grief, but a full ten seconds go before I realize that 
Akane had been bound hand and foot when Commander Hibiki tossed her to 
Ranma-sama.  And nobody had been close enough to her the whole time to 
untie her.
	*Click* That is not really Akane, but a ghola of Shiro who has 
been conditioned with Akane's memories.
	*Click* A ghola's memories are restored when something which it is 
conditioned to do conflicts with a strong pre-ghola impulse.
	*Click* The Akane/Shiro ghola had been bound, yet is now free.
	*Click* Shiro had claimed final victory.
	"Ranma-sama!"  I spin around, screaming, but the long needle 
protruding out of his neck tells me that I am too late.  Slowly, he 
slips through her arms as he slides down onto his knees.  Akane/Shiro 
takes a step back, a myriad of emotions playing across her face, as her
pre-ghola memories come rushing back to her.  I run to his side, limping 
on my bad leg, and catch him just as he is about to fall.  Pulling out 
the needle, I throw it away.  "Medic!"
	"It is too late, Kuonji.  The poison is already spreading too 
quickly."  Ranma-sama's eyes stare up at the Akane/Shiro ghola, a 
wistful look on his face.  As she stares back at him, the look is 
replaced, not by one of hate nor recrimination, but of love and 
forgiveness.  
	"Ranma-sama, you can't give up now!"  I shake him, angry and 
afraid.  He can't die!  He can't die!  He's a God!
	"It is a neural poison.  Already, my nerves are starting to die, 
starting at the extremities.  Not even I can stop a neural poison, 
Kuonji."  I set him down into a sitting position so that he is leaning 
against me.  He looks up at the ghola.  "My Golden Path..."
	"Ranma..."  Akane/Shiro's face is twisted into a mask of anger, 
but the tears fall from her eyes uncontrollably.  Shaking slightly, she 
kneels down in front of him.  "You knew.  You knew..."
	"Of course.  Did I not tell you before?  I have limited myself in 
my prescient searches, but I made sure my Golden Path would carry 
through."  As he speaks, he tries to raise his hand out to her, but 
already the motor control is going, and his wrist goes limp.  "In the 
decision to engage in that spiraling dance of death with Shiro, I 
looked, and I knew.  I knew how my Golden Path would survive."
	"You...  How could you let me do this to you?"  Akane/Shiro takes 
his unmoving hand and brings it up to her cheek.  Her tears spill onto 
his hand, a small waterfall forming across his motionless fingers.  
"How could you let me do this to myself?  Why, Ranma?  Why?"
	"What should I have done?  Kill Akane?"  As Ranma-sama speaks, I 
feel his weight against me increase, indicating that the poison has hit 
the base of his spine.  "Let Shiro win?  Shiro could not have guided the 
events that would have taken place after her victory.  You, however, 
can.  Shiro made a mistake in thinking that she would be restored when 
you killed me.  You are not a true ghola.  Ghola's have the memory of 
death.  That is how they are able to distinguish the memories of this 
new life apart from the old.  The 'magic' is gone in those new memories.  
Shiro took her cell sample before her death.  You are neither Shiro nor 
Akane.  You are an amalgam of the two.  For you, the 'magic' has just 
begun."
	"Ranma..."  Her mask of anger breaks down, and her face is now 
full of regret, sadness, and...  "Ranma, I... I..."
	"I know.  I love you too."  The words are whispered, a private 
message from one half of a whole to the other.  Akane/Shiro finally 
breaks down and begins sobbing inconsolably.  
	I feel Ranma-sama slightly shuddering and his breathing becoming 
labored.  "My lord!"
	"I have a few moments left yet, Kuonji.  Ryouga!  Ryouga!!!"  
Commander Hibiki crouches down next to Akane/Shiro, an indecipherable 
look on his face.  "Ryouga.  Take care of her.  Love her.  Love the 
Akane that is part of her.  Do this for me.  This is my last request, as 
one friend to another."
	"Ranma..."  Ryouga's eyes bore into Ranma's, and something passes 
between the two age old friends.  "You need not ask."
	"My army will follow you.  They have always been trained to be 
loyal to you after me.  Love them and care for them, for they love you 
and care for you, even now."  Ranma-sama tries to turn his head towards 
me, but he can't.  "Kaneda."
	"Yes, Ranma-sama."  I barely croak out a response.  I wish to cry.  
I wish to cry so badly, but my eyes remain dry.  It is as if they refuse 
to acknowledge that he is dying, as if they are locked in the same state 
of disbelief as I am.
	"You have been the most faithful of all my companions.  Of all of 
them.  Ucchan would be proud of you."
	"..."  The words choke in my throat, the grief threatening to cut 
off my breathing.  Swallowing again, I finally ask, "Does it hurt, my 
lord?"
	"Do not worry.  It doesn't hurt.  In fact, I almost feel free from 
my body.  Free from my bonds.  Free..."  He shudders one more time.  
"Remember!  When they call me the Divided God - man and woman, angel and 
demon, savior and damned - remember!  Remember that I lov..."

@->-

	I sit there crying, my elbow hurting.  
	"What's wrong, little Kanchan?"  A strong pair of hands picks me 
up from behind. 
	"I... I...  I fell down."  I say between sniffles.  "My elbow 
hurts."
	"Oh, poor Kanchan."  She turns me in her arms so that I can see 
her face.  "Here, I'll make it all better for you."
	As she rubs my elbow gently, I can feel the pain lessening.  After 
a while, my tears subside, and I smile at her.  She puts me down on the 
floor again and squats in front of me, smiling.  Impulsively, I wrap my 
arms around her neck.  "I love you Ranchan."
	"I love you too, Kanchan.  All of you.  I forever have and forever 
will love every single one of you.  Always remember that, Kanchan.  
Always."

=======================
[Credits]

	Okay, for starters, I know I said I'd explain the Dune references.
This quickly bloated into a multi-page document, one that desperately
needed to be cross referenced every which way.  At page four, I gave
up.  Go read the Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert.  You should read it
anyway.
	Okay, now to give credit where its due.  Obviously, the characters
are from Ranma 1/2.  The universe of Dune is from the Dune Chronicles.
The quote at the beginning of Part III is lifted out of the DC Graphic
Novel, "Watchmen".  The quote at the beginning of Part IV, I'm not sure
who originally said it.  I got it from reading M. Stackpole's "B-tech:
Warrior Trilogy".  Thanks to Coca-Cola for keeping me up, Phillip-
Morris for my smokes, J.S. Bach for screwing with my mind, and MIT for
giving me this wonderful network connection.
	The idea for the timelessness of Ranma's female form evolved from
Richard Lawson's "Thy Inward Love - Magic".  I know its not canon.  I
don't care.  I needed an immortal God Emperor, and voila, I had an 
immortal God Emperor.  Just giving credit where its due.
	Thanks to all the lovely people who read this and encouraged me
to keep on writing.  Probably woulda quit, otherwise.

=======================
[Author's Notes]

	I really don't have much to say.  It was fun writing this, lots
of fun.  The idea was initially conceived as a one night work.  Once
I hit the end of Part I, I decided, maybe it should be in two parts.
I had only started with a very vague idea, mainly the character of
Kuonji Kaneda.  As the ideas around it evolved, this lengthened out
to hit its current length.
	As you may have noticed, almost all the flashbacks are one on
one Kaneda and Ranma.  I almost named this "K&N: A Love Story".  
Didn't think anybody else would appreciate the humor.  'sbout all I
have to say, other than that I really hate myself for killing Ranma
at the moment.
	I hope to write the full Dune-Ranma X-Over, sometime in the 
far, far future.  Any co-writers???