Foreword: Got an idea that wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to spend an hour or two getting it written out so I could get some sleep. I have no plans on continuing it anytime soon, but y'never know. If anyone would be interested in co-authoring, I just might.

A Ranma ½ / Sailor Moon crossover story
by Larry F

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

Prologue

It had been a long, hard fight, and Sailor Moon was exhausted. Nothing she'd done had seemed to do more than stave off the inevitable for a time. 'I wish I didn't have to fight by myself. I wish Luna could find the other Senshi like she promised. I wish I knew how to fight. Most of all, I wish I'd just gone to bed instead of coming out here and getting into trouble.'

Her opponent, on the other hand, looked like he was enjoying himself. He had appeared just as she was finishing off a monster, and had introduced himself as Jadeite, a general of the Dark Kingdom. From an earlier conversation with her mother from back in the Silver Millennium, she recognized that name, and knew he was a deadly enemy.

After the all-too-brief pleansantries, he'd torn into her with a ferocity that left her with no way to go on the offense. She was much too busy desperately dodging blasts of dark energy.

Then it happened. She tried to jump over a low traffic barrier between the street and the sidewalk, and caught the heel of one of her red boots on the rail. The result was a nasty fall that left her sprawling gracelessly on the pavement. Her first impulse was to get up and run again, but she knew that her relentless foe wouldn't give her the chance. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, waiting for what she was sure would be a level of pain even worse than her last trip to the dentist's office. 'Oh, God! I-I'm gonna die, aren't I? I don't wanna die! I'm just a girl, and I haven't gotten to do anything yet. I don't have a boyfriend, I haven't had my first kiss, I haven't been to that new ice cream parlor yet—'

It occurred to her that she really shouldn't have had the time for lengthy internal monologues.

'I'm still alive?'

Ranma Saotome was wandering the night-shrouded streets of Tokyo, searching for something he couldn't define. He'd been having strange, half-formed dreams and feelings for the better part of a week, and they had left him unable to sleep.

What had driven him out into the cool air of the late hour, though, was a tugging at his subconscious. He felt that something important to him was out there somewhere, and the urge to go and find it only got stronger as time passed.

He jogged along the near-deserted alleys and side streets of the huge city, eyes unfocused, letting his feet find their own path. An hour and a half later, he neared a major avenue far distant from his home turf. Hearing muffled sounds of explosions, he slowed to a walk. 'This must be where I felt I had to be. At least that feeling like I have to move is gone now.'

He reached the end of the alley he was traversing, and paused to take stock of the situation. 'Okay, what have we got? One blond guy in a black uniform? Check. One blonde girl in a really short sailor dress? Check. The girl is running all over the place while the guy tries to peg her with nasty-looking ki blasts? Check. I guess I can tell who the bad guy is most likely to be. Still, better not stick my nose into this before I know for sure that I got the sides right.'

As he waited to see if they said anything that might give him a clue as to who was fighting for what, the blonde girl zagged from across the street and began running toward the mouth of his alley. As she attempted to leap over the crash barrier lining the sidewalk, she tripped on it and executed a full 360-degree vertical spin with a half-twist. The grace and complexity of the move would definitely have gotten a "10" even from the Russian judge had it been remotely intentional. However, it wasn't, and the ending belly-flop on the hard, hard pavement left Ranma wincing in sympathy.

He stared at her face, which at first seemed strangely blurred. After a few moments, something seemed to click within him, and her features became clear. With that, he found himself mentally tossed about like a cork in an ocean storm. However, the feeling passed quickly, and he found that he had memories of the girl that he'd never had before… and that he knew who she once was and what that meant to him.

Shaking his head slightly to clear the last of the stray impressions in which he'd so suddenly been immersed, he saw that the man had approached and was speaking to the girl.

Usagi gingerly cracked open one eye and the first thing she saw were black boots a few inches away from her face. Tucked into the boots were the legs of a pair of black pants. 'This isn't good. I just know it!' As her eye tracked upward, her fears were confirmed when the pants proved to be topped by a black tunic, and above that a blond head that she was sure would be featured in her nightmares — assuming that she wasn't sent to meet her ancestors in the next few seconds. The chances of that seemed fairly high, given the orb of deadly force the man was balancing over a white-gloved hand.

However, instead of killing her outright, Jadeite began to speak. "You know, there is a way that you can avoid coming to a messy end. Why don't you come with me instead?"

Usagi was flabbergasted. "W-w-what? Go with you? You're my enemy, and the enemy of everyone I care about! I'm not supposed to go anywhere with you, I'm supposed to be getting away from you!"

"That's not really one of your options. You are too important." He paused for a moment, and then seemed to come to a decision. "Sailor Moon, you do not yet know it, but you have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I'll show you how to unlock your potential. After that, with our combined strength we can end this eons-long war at last."

Usagi gulped nervously, but still she said, "I'll never join you."

"Even if it means your death?" asked Jadeite. "Besides, you belong with me. I know that you've been talking with the shade of Queen Serenity. Did she tell you what happened to your father?"

Usagi sobbed between ragged breaths. "She told me you killed him."

"No. I am your father."

She stared in horror, the very idea freezing the blood in her veins. "No… You're lying."

"Am I? Or are you telling yourself that because you don't want to believe it?"

Black despair began to well up, making Usagi feel as if she were being dipped slowly into a pool of icy water. "I-I… don't know what to believe! This is all so sudden! Just last week I'd never heard of Moon Kingdoms or Dark Kingdoms!"

Jadeite smiled in twisted triumph, sensing the effect his words were having on the young heroine. "Your destiny is to stand with me, Princess. Your precious mother knew it, and kept the truth from you."

"No…!"

"Just think. If you are at my side, we can destroy Queen Beryl. Join me, and together we can recreate the former glory of the Silver Millennium and rule as father and daughter!"

"I need time… Time to think…."

"There is no time. You must choose. If you don't want to be my daughter, then you will be my enemy, and I'll kill you here and now."

Ranma, watching the two from the shadows of his alleyway, knew that the time to intervene had arrived. He'd hoped that the young Princess Serenity would be able to stand up for herself, but with the emotional assault the Guardian was putting her through, that couldn't happen until she regained her composure. Besides, after seeing her crumble before the Guardian's claims, he was certain that she didn't have all the information she needed.

Stepping out of the alley and onto the sidewalk, he laughed loudly. "What a crock."

Both Jadeite and Sailor Moon were startled, having been so intent on each other that neither had realized another person was near. Jadeite recovered first and examined the newcomer as if he were a something unpleasant the ageless general had been about to step in. "Whoever you are, you have nerve to interrupt your betters, I'll give you that."

Usagi, on the other hand, was ready to snatch at any crumbs of hope she could. "What do you mean?"

"Simple. He's lying through his teeth. He ain't your father from the Silver Millennium… 'cause I am!"

To be continued?

Author's notes: This is an idea that I got after seeing the chapter of a fic where Ranma ends up as Queen Serenity's lover back in the Silver Millennium. It then struck me that while I've seen fics where Ranma is the father of other Senshi, I couldn't recall one where he was Usagi's reborn father, and the elder Queen Serenity's consort.

In Ranma, this event takes place after the canon series, but in SM, it's early on before any of the other girls have been located. There are several points of divergence:

1: Jadeite is a lot more hands-on aggressive in his tactics, and much more likely to fight for himself rather than hide behind his youma. He feels no sense of loyalty to Beryl. She's been keeping her troops in line through terror and intimidation, and if any of the generals could overthrow her, they would. They are always keeping their eyes open for the opportunity. Up until the rebirth of Moon, there was never a chance that a coup could be pulled off without instant, fatal retaliation from Beryl. Thus, Jadeite is much more personally active in the energy draining plots, and can kill Usagi easily. He doesn't, because if he can corrupt her, she's his first real chance of finally eliminating Beryl and taking the top slot for himself. He spends about as much effort in plotting to subdue her as he does in gathering energy.

2: In Usagi's case, she's already had several conversations with the spirit of Queen Serenity. The first came the night she became Sailor Moon, when QS appeared in her dreams and told her why she'd been recruited and what she was fighting for. Because of this, Usagi is much more motivated than the canon— although she still only has the moon tiara attack. In one of the conversations with QS, Usagi asked about her original family, and that's when she was told that her father from that time had died at Jadeite's hands. He'd been fighting off several of the Seven Shadows at the same time, and Jadeite shot him in the back from hiding using the magical equivelent of a rocket launcher.

3: Ranma doesn't have any memories of the Moon Kingdom. At least, not yet. He's been having strange, vague nightmares, but he can't remember any details of the dreams when he awakens. He has a link to Usagi, very much like the one that Mamoru has. His dreams started when she first became SM, and are actually impressions of her fights with the early youma. It isn't until he first sees her that he gets any memories. He has innate magic, which cuts through the disguise magic that protects her identity when she's in Senshi mode, but has no control over it. It just happens on its own. When he sees her face clearly, he suddenly knows that she's his daughter from a past lifetime, and that the life was in the Moon Kingdom during something called the Silver Millennium. He also remembers the four Guardians, and that they were traitors to the Earth. He doesn't remember who his wife was, so he can't reveal to Usagi that she's the missing princess; he doesn't know that. Sensing that his past life involved fighting, he assumes that he must have been a wandering martial artist back then, as he is in his current life. After he sees her "fighting" for the first time, he wonders to himself why he didn't train her, or if she forgot everything. That leads to him takes personal responsibility for correcting the oversight, with all the slapstick that implies.

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007