Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

Ranma soon grew tired of kicking Genma around the yard like the human beach ball that he was, but before he could give up he seemed to notice his appearance for the first time. More specifically, Ranma noticed the three-foot blades extending from each of his arms. He tested one's edge by tearing a long gash in the soil at his feet. The dark blade passed through the hard packed dirt as if there were no obstacle at all.

"Well, Oyaji, it looks like we're having Genma fillet for dinner tomorrow." Slowly, he drew the blades across the whimpering man's chest. The gi he wore peeled away like air. A thick line of crimson blood welled up from where Ranma had cut. Satisfied, Ranma went into a blur of motion.

To everyone watching, Ranma's dark form was nearly impossible to see clearly for more than the merest instant. Genma, on the other hand, was looking like last week’s garbage or the remains from a slaughterhouse. Ranma had completely stripped his 'father' of clothing and there were hundreds upon hundreds of nicks and gashes covering the man's body.

Usagi, previously paralyzed by a sort of sick fascination, finally came to her senses. She couldn't let her grandson become a murderer, which he was well on his way to achieving. There was no way she could transform, not in front of so many civilians, but from what she had seen of their treatment of Ranma's special ability, the Tendo family appeared accustomed to the unusual. If there was a possibility, she knew she had to try. Power was close at hand, with her own crescent revealed and the masking magic gone. Usagi knew theoretically that she should be able to throw around her magical energy while not in Senshi form, but how? Luna had never bothered to train her, and the whole situation wasn't desperate enough for whatever programming she had that took over and transformed her into her true eternal form to kick in.

Genma was bleeding really badly now, Usagi saw. He couldn't take much more abuse from Ranma and Ranma didn't look much like he was in the mood to stop. Usagi began thinking of all the times where her friends, her Mamo-chan, or her daughter had been in trouble. They had died for her. She found a well of emotions that she had long kept hidden. They had sacrificed themselves before for her sake; she should be able to pull off a little trick, something, anything to save Genma if it meant Ranma would keep what little of his innocence remained. Usagi's crescent began to glow lightly, unnoticed by Ranma's audience. The world went black around her.

Usagi opened her eyes and squealed in a mixture of fright and delight. There were clouds everywhere, of all shapes, sizes, and colors. She was floating lazily through the air on a soft cloud of sky blue mist.

"My daughter, you have grown into a beautiful woman," a voice from behind Usagi said.

Usagi spun around and was confronted by her mother, the Queen of the Moon Kingdom, Serenity. "Mo-mother, what's going on?" she asked. "Where am I?"

Serenity stepped closer and embraced her daughter. There were silver tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks as she stepped back. "This was always my favorite place when I was a child. It was easier to bring you here than to talk to you directly."

"I don't understand, Mother. I've got to go back and help Ranma. He doesn't know any better, but he's going to kill his father… adopted father, I mean."

"Do not worry, Ranma and all the others will be exactly as they were upon your return as when you left them. Actually this visit is mostly for Ranma's sake. Listen closely, Ranma will need to know this if he is to survive." Usagi nodded. "The positive, or silver energy that we of the Moon Kingdom used was not 'good' energy, it was simply what we had access to. Positive energy comes more readily and in much higher quantities when a person's intentions are pure, but in the wrong hands, positive energy could be as deadly, or even more so, than negative energy. Negative energy is likewise neither 'good' or 'evil', it's just that negative energy is more available to those with evil in their hearts. For thousands of years our people harnessed these two opposing forces, but terrible imbalances were created in parts of the solar system and the neighboring star systems. You see, during different time periods, one of the two energies was always the more commonly used, negative for war and expansion, positive for peace and healing." Serenity paused for a moment, lost in her memories, before she continued.

"The countless shifting between the two energies had destabilized huge areas of open space. Many of the main shipping lanes were effected because of the drive systems on the ships were powered by either a silver or dark mage. It came to the attention of the Queen at that time, my long dead ancestor, that steps had to be taken or disaster would soon befall the kingdom. Scientists and mages were gathered to discover a solution to the problem. Their efforts were partially successful when they created the Silver Imperium Crystal and the Black Light Gem. Both acted as powerful magnifying devices for their respective energies, and with proper management the imbalances were removed. An act of sabotage by a group of political dissidents seriously damaged the Black Light Gem's monitoring station and the out of control Gem badly destabilized the entire region. When rescue crews arrived, the Gem was gone. It was assumed that the Gem was destroyed. It wasn't— it in fact emerged from a black hole in another galaxy and grew into the dark moon you know as Nemesis— but this is irrelevant to the story. Now with only the Silver Imperium Crystal, the imbalances were occurring more rapidly than ever and with much greater magnitude, but the knowledge used to create the Black Light Gem had been lost."

"For over a century the condition worsened until finally two great mages came forward with a solution. They were brothers, their names lost in antiquity, but one was a Silver Mage and the other a Dark Mage. They proposed altering the souls of specific people with high magic indexes so that they constantly emitted either positive or negative energy. These people would then be taught by mages of both orders how to regulate their energy. House Serenity and House Beryl were the only families with a strong enough bloodline and enough magic to undergo the procedure. The Queen volunteered herself and the rest of her family to undergo the process, as did Lord Garion, the then current head of House Beryl. Our line was more suited for the positive aspect, while Garion's, though not evil, was best suited to the negative. In the end the alterations were carried out and peace and prosperity were restored for several millennia until High Lady Beryl made her pact with Metallia, and you know what happened after that."

"The whole point of this narration is this: over the millennia, the House of Serenity and the House of Beryl tried on numerous occasions to mix the blood in order to create a soul capable of producing both positive and negative energy, but they never succeeded. Never, that is, until roughly a quarter century before the fall of the Moon Kingdom. The girl born of my brother and Beryl's niece possessed the positive and negatives aspects of both Houses. Her power first manifested when she was in her late teens, and it was a power to make the heavens tremble. She was feared in much the same way as poor, sweet Saturn. The girl had it within her power to request a favor of me as I was her godmother, and it was a favor I was all too happy to grant. With the Time Gates recently created and with an unlinked power conduit, it was a simple matter to give Setsuna her title as Sailor Pluto."

Usagi broke in, "You mean that Setsuna is that powerful?" Why hadn't she used all that power in all the fights over the last two years?

Serenity nodded. "Setsuna is very powerful, but her link to the Time Gate neutralizes her power. Unfortunately, the process was still too unstable to reverse when Beryl and her forces attacked or I may have, with her help, been able to repulse the invaders. Now Ranma has come along, with his dual-natured soul of Serenity Silver and the Black Light Gem's own negatively created Dark soul. He must learn to balance the two energies within and without, or he will certainly destroy himself, and possibly take the world with him." Serenity held her hand out to Usagi. It contained a small blue crystal key. "Give this to Setsuna; she'll know what to do with it. And tell her to train Ranma, and choose a successor for the mantle of Sailor Pluto."

As Usagi had listened to her mother, her own memories of what had been spoken of slowly came back. She remembered sitting through dozens of history classes now, all of them giving much longer and even more boring lectures about the subject of the Great Balance, as the act of the two mage brothers was called.

"My time grows short," Serenity said. Her slowly began to lighten as she spoke those few words, and her form became insubstantial.

"Wait! How do I stop Ranma?" Usagi asked desperately.

Serenity smiled and touched a finger to Usagi's crescent. "You'll know that and much more when you return. Bye, now." Serenity's last act before disappearing completely was to kiss Usagi lightly on the cheek.

Once again the world went dark.

Usagi opened her eyes to see the scene just as she had left it. Ranma hadn't carved his initials in Genma, at least. She tucked the small key into her pocket and cupped her hands slightly below her breast. Soft silver light began to gather in her hands, until an amorphous blob of mercury-like energy slowly roiled in her grasp. Ranma may be powerful, but he hadn't truly come into his power yet, but Usagi had been duking it out with the most powerful entities in the known universe since she was fourteen, and she could throw around some serious energy when she wanted to. Now that she actually knew how to use her own power— her mother had somehow passed the knowledge to her— Usagi could act. The mass of energy she had formed shot out of her hands and exploded in a radiant burst of silver light at Ranma's feet.

It had been a construct, a magical spell that only very powerful or very skillful people could create. Within it were four separate spells. One stripped Ranma of his dark aura while another put him to sleep. Genma got the mercy of a minor healing spell, not strong enough to keep him from being a mass of scars, but enough to keep him alive, and a mind altering spell that would make the smallest of lies that passes beyond his lips be excruciatingly painful.

The break in the action and Usagi's little light show tore everyone from their little blood fest.

"I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki said from the porch. She spoke in a lighthearted manner, but internally she was scared nearly breathless. What if she had ever pissed Ranma off enough to attack her like he had just done to his own father? Admittedly, she didn't know what the panda had done to deserve being skinned, but just the thought that Ranma was capable of such cruelty was disquieting.

Akane was busy being violently sick behind a bush and Kasumi was hugging her unconscious father protectively, her face as pale as milk as she stared at Ranma's sleeping form.

"It was the negative energy inside of him that did that, not Ranma," Usagi said. "He hasn't learned to control his power yet."

The Senshi didn't know who to goggle at the most, Ranma or Usagi. On the one hand, they had just seen some prime quality violence committed— to a man whom they had very little respect for— by a cute boy who had seemingly turned into a monster; and on the other, there was Usagi, who had not even transformed and had done some kind of new attack that not only stopped Ranma from further savaging Genma, but had stopped all of Genma wounds from bleeding and even closed up some of the really bad ones.

Akane came from behind her bush, her face nearly as pale as Kasumi's, and a glowing mallet in her hands. "Raaaannnnmmmaaa!" She charged towards her fallen fiancé with the firm intent to severely punish Ranma while he was still sleeping for hurting her father. Even Akane had enough sense to know better than to beat on Ranma when he was enraged to the point of killing.

Akane never made it to Ranma. Usagi waved at the girl and a sheet of silver light flew from her hand. As it washed over Akane, the mallet slipped through suddenly slack fingers and it fell to the ground beside the now sleeping Akane.

"Hmm. If Ranma isn't really a Saotome, I wonder if he's still engaged to my sister, or Ukyo for that matter?" Nabiki's question was calculated. There were other moneymaking opportunities that were much safer than dealing with this new Ranma, and having him around wasn't really her idea of fun anyway. The blonde girl also had Nabiki on edge. She had casually taken Ranma down, an extraordinary feat that she wouldn't have previously believed possible. The blonde also seemed to share a mark similar to Ranma's on her forehead. She definitely didn't want to get an over-protective sister with magic powers upset at her.

"Usagi, how are you doing all this stuff?" Makoto asked her friend quietly.

"Mother showed me how," Usagi answered. Once again she was working magic, this time in the palm of her upturned hand. A translucent ball of shimmering energy was floating over her palm. In a dull flash of light, Setsuna's face appeared in the globe. The green haired woman couldn't have looked more unsurprised if someone had told her the sky was blue. "Um, Setsuna, this is really important. Could you open a portal to the Time Gate for us?"

Setsuna nodded without speaking, and moments later there was a swirling gray portal leading to the Time Gate floating a few inches above the ground three feet behind Usagi.

Usagi said, "Thanks," and allowed the globe to fade from existence. "Makoto, could you carry Ranma though?"

Within a minute all the Senshi and Ranma were standing on a platform floating in a formless gray mist. Rini rushed over to Ranma as soon as Makoto set him down and hugged him as best she could with him lying on his side asleep. He also came away from the encounter with a cheek covered with small pink smudges from the lipstick that Minako had let Rini borrow.

"Usagi, you're starting to freak me out," Minako declared.

Usagi chuckled weakly. "Sorry, guys, but my Mother, you know, Queen Serenity, visited me in my head and told me about Ranma and some other stuff. I really need to talk to Setsuna. I wish she would go on and do her mysterious appearance so we can get this over with."

"Usagi, where are Luna and Artemis?" Ami asked as she looked around for the cats' duffel bag.

"Oh, no! I left them back there with those horrible people!" Usagi shouted. "Dammit, Setsuna, get out here so I can go save my cat!" Usagi demanded. It took a moment for her to realize what she had said, but when she did Usagi turned bright red and clamped her hand over her mouth.

"I'm here, Princess," Setsuna announced from behind the group.

Usagi pulled the crystal key that her mother had given her from her pocket and gave it to Setsuna. "Mother said for you to train Ranma to use both sides of his soul, and to choose a successor to be Sailor Pluto."

For once since anyone of the girls had known her, Setsuna was clearly shocked. Thunderstruck would have been a better description. "Princess, I—"

"She said that Ranma could destroy the planet if he doesn't learn to control it," Usagi asserted.

"I understand. Leave Ranma here. Everyone else, step through the portal." Setsuna pointed to empty space, but it soon grew a portal like the one they had used to travel to the gate.

Rini ran over to Ranma and Screamed, "I just got him back! You can't take him away!"

Usagi went to Rini and whispered, "Come on, you know that Ranma is better off here until he gets control of himself. Look at what he did to Genma, the man who raised him."

Rini shot back, "That man was mean! Ranma wouldn't hurt any of us!"

"Rini, you don't understand. Ranma is only using the bad magic in him right now, and since he doesn't know how to control it, it's making him bad too. Setsuna can help him learn to control his magic because she has the same kind of magic." Usagi hugged her daughter. "Come on, we need to go get Luna and Artemis before the fat man eats them."

Rini managed a small giggle at that. "Diana wouldn't be very happy with us if that happened, would she?" They had left Diana at home with a severe case of the feline equivalent to the common cold.

To be continued.

Author's Notes: I know it's a short chapter, but once again, this felt like a good place to stop. Now for the good part. I'm pretty sure who the new Pluto is gonna be, but if I get a worthy suggestion that could work… well, ya never know, right? So send me your suggestions or guesses at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com. She should be attractive, smart, and from the animeverse. If your choice isn't from one of the more widely distributed anime that I may have not have seen yet, please include a brief description. And all C&C except for grammatical corrections is welcome.

P.S. Lots of people have asked why I used Rini as the name for Usagi's daughter instead of Chibi-Usa. The answer is that I just like the name more than Chibi-Usa, go figure. ^_^

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007