“I’m going to take Venus to my bedroom, and ask Grandfather to watch while we talk. Don’t start until I get back.”
Moon glowered at the other Senshi, but nodded. Mars disappeared farther back into the shrine with her burden while the rest sat down, and returned a few minutes later. She took her own seat, and Moon was just opening her mouth when Setsuna stepped out of nowhere.
“Hello, everyone,” the emerald-haired woman said as she walked over to sit down in an empty chair between Moon and Vanguard. “I thought this discussion could use a referee, and while you were going to do your best, Mars,” she added with a smile toward the black-haired Senshi, “you have a bit of a temper. I suspect I can do a better job.”
Mars nodded her acceptance with ill-hidden relief, and Setsuna looked around at the angry Moon, defensive Saturn and Chibi-Moon, and determined Vanguard, and sighed. “For starters,” she said, “why don’t you all de-transform? Things might be more comfortable that way.”
The rest exchanged glances and stood, and a few minutes later the Senshi had been replaced by ordinary-looking young women and girls. Usagi was staring open-mouthed at Ranma as the petite redhead came out of her apparent whirlwind in her usual black pants and red shirt, finishing rebraiding her pigtail. “How ...” the long-braided blonde managed to get out, and Ranma smirked slightly.
“Just a couple a’ ki techniques I picked up from the Amazons,” she said offhandedly.
“Isn’t it cool?” Chibi-Usa enthused, then shrank a little, Hotaru doing the same beside her, as Usagi turned to them, her simmering anger finally exploding.
“I gave an order Ranma wasn’t to be involved!” Usagi shouted. “You deliberately disobeyed!”
“Uh, no, we didn’t,” Hotaru almost whispered, then shrank slightly from Usagi’s glare but continued, “You said you didn’t want Ranma helping, and that we weren’t to tell her anything about the enemy. We haven’t, not a word.”
“And I suppose it was just a coincidence that Ranma showed up at the battle,” Usagi growled.
“No, it wasn’t — I followed them,” Ranma said, then continued as her older sister looked her way, “I was on top a’ the school and me and Shampoo followed them when they got the call for help.”
Usagi’s angry glare faded, but Ranma steeled herself as she sensed the building worry her sister’s anger had been keeping at bay. “Look, Usagi,” she said almost pleadingly, “I’m a Martial Artist — it’s my duty ta help when the innocent and helpless are in danger, if I can. And now I can.”
“Besides,” she added, her eyes falling as she reached back and tugged on her braid, “if somethin’ was ta happen to ya, an’ I could a’ stopped it but wasn’t there, I’d ... I’d ...”
Usagi blinked a bit at suddenly damp eyes, then rose and walked over to the redhead. Crouching down in front of Ranma, she reached out and took her sister’s hand. “Ranma,” she said, “I understand that, really I do. But I have my Senshi form’s regeneration abilities, I’ve even brought the others back from the dead before. You don’t have our regeneration and with your immunity to magic ... I know you’re good — better than any of us, really, but what if the enemy gets lucky? And it could be in a fight where we don’t even really need you!” Glancing over at the other Senshi, their leader asked, “This afternoon, could we have gotten by without Ranma’s help?”
The others exchanged glances, then Chibi-Usa hesitantly said, “Well ... probably. She gave us orders as soon as she saw what was happening, but they were what we’d have done anyway. And with the training Ranma’s been giving Hotaru in using her glaive ... it would have taken longer, but we’d probably have gotten by.” The other two Senshi that had been there reluctantly nodded their agreement.
“You see, Ranma?” Usagi said, turning back to the redhead, but Ranma was shaking her head.
“Yeah, ya probably coulda gotten by without me this fight, but that’s this fight — what about the next? Ya ain’t gonna know until ya get there. Besides,” she continued when Usagi began to turn toward Setsuna, “even if ya could I still need ta be there, ya aren’t gonna be in a fight without me if I can help it!”
Usagi desperately searched for something — anything — that might change Ranma’s mind, and tears began running down her cheeks as she came up blank.
At the sight, Ranma’s determined expression softened, and she gently squeezed Usagi’s hand. “Look, big sis, like Nabiki said, it’s nice ta have someone tryin’ ta keep me out of a fight because you’re worried about me, fer a change. And I know how ya feel — the thought of Akane gettin’ involved in this scares me like almost nothin’ else. But I promised her that she could join as soon as I thought she was ready — she has the right an’ duty ta help, an’ so do I.”
After a long moment, Usagi nodded. “All right, I’ll get you a communicator, and have Ami add you to the alert network,” she said. “But you are more fragile than we are, so I want you to stay out of the actual fighting unless we really need you, understand? And the same rule would apply to Akane once she’s gotten good enough,” the Senshi leader added hastily as Ranma started clouding up.
Ranma froze, her mouth open to protest, then slowly nodded. “Yeah, I guess that sounds reasonable,” she said reluctantly, and Usagi broke out in a broad smile.
“Great!” she said, pulling Ranma out of her chair and into a solid hug.
Then, as the two separated, Usagi paused, struck by a sudden thought. Giving Chibi-Usa and Hotaru a searching glance, she asked, “Did you two probably-budding conspirators mention the Life Dancers to Ranma?” When the two girls shook their heads, she turned back to her sister. “The Life Dancers were the Moon Kingdom’s ki-users. They weren’t fighters, but they were healers. I’ll tell Ami to get with you, show you what the Mercury Computer has on them.”
Ranma’s eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously. “You bet!” she said, and Usagi chuckled as she returned to her seat. But her chuckles died abruptly when Ranma continued, “And now, tell me about this enemy we’re fightin’.”
With a sigh, Usagi nodded to Setsuna. “Setsuna, you’re the one that’s actually seen the enemy, why don’t you tell her what we know?”
“So, Puu,” Ranma said thoughtfully when Setsuna finished her briefing, “the real threat is the final attack, when they actually invade instead a’ just probe?”
Setsuna nodded, and Ranma gazed down at the crude map she’d drawn of the final battlefield. “So, they’re gonna be comin’ outta this central ... uh, tunnel entrance ... but only two at a time. But there’s gonna be almost a couple hundred warriors already out, bounced in with the ... anchors, ya said?” Setsuna nodded. “So we gotta deal with those couple hundred trained, armed and armored men, stop more from comin’ out, and destroy these ten anchors.”
“Correct.” Setsuna agreed. “But the ten anchors are self-regenerating, and so long as one of them is still active the portal will remain open. That is what is most likely to defeat us. Especially because Hotaru won’t simply be able to close off the tunnel with her Silence Wall — one of the things the Confederacy’s watchers have been doing is analyzing our powers, and by the time they invade they’ll have a counter for the Wall.”
Ranma gazed thoughtfully at her hand drawn map. “What we really need are more fighters,” she mused, then suddenly stiffened. Jerking to her feet, she turned away from the Senshi and stared silently at the wall. The Senshi exchanged glances, then as the minutes passed Usagi opened her mouth only to shut it when Setsuna shook her head.
“What happens if we lose?” Ranma finally asked, back still turned to the room.
“Japan is overrun in short order,” Setsuna responded. “The rest of the planet takes decades, but in the end the entire planet will be conquered.”
Ranma’s shoulders slumped. “Alright,” she said in a low voice, “what we really need is more fighters, and I know where ta get ‘em — the Amazons.”
“What, you mean the people that made your life hell for years?” Rei growled.
“Yeah, them — the people that think I’m their princess. If I ask them ta help, they’ll help,” Ranma agreed.
“And what’s wrong with that?” a confused Chibi-Usa asked.
“ ‘cause I’ll have ta ask them as their princess,” the redhead whispered, unconsciously hugging herself. “Even if I pretend I’m not, that’s how they’ll take it. There’ll be no gettin’ away from it then.”
Setsuna smiled sadly as she watched her young friend, her eyes damp, while the other Senshi exchanged uncomfortable glances. Then, Usagi rose and walked up to her little sister and hugged her from behind. “I know,” she whispered. “You don’t want to be responsible for all those lives, the ones that may die in the fight, the civilians that will look to you for guidance and protection. I didn’t, either. But sometimes you just don’t have a choice, not a real one.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ranma said, relaxing back against Usagi for a moment before straightening and breaking the hug, stepping away. “I just don’t know how I can take care of them like they’ll need.”
Walking back to her chair and the map she’d dropped, she picked it up and nodded. “All right, when the warriors and anchors get here, we’re waitin’ for ‘em. We, along with some others I’ll recruit bounce right over the circle they’ll have around the anchors. You guys go after than anchors, an’ I’ll make sure no more warriors get outta the tunnel. Then, when they turn around ta deal with us, that’s when the Amazons attack them from behind.”
Usagi looked at Rei, and the priestess-in-training nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds good,” she said, and Usagi nodded.
“Okay, I’ll ask Cologne ta get her people here as soon as she can right after practice,” Ranma said, then stiffened and looked over at the clock and shot to her feet. “I gotta get home! Akane will be getting out of school any minute, and she’s gonna be worried.” Looking over at the other two teenagers, she asked, “You two comin’ ta practice?”
Chibi-Usa and Hotaru immediately stood up. “Of course,” Chibi-Usa said.
“Don’t worry about telling Ku Lon,” Setsuna said as the three teenagers started for the door.
Ranma stopped and turned around, looking at Setsuna, and she continued, “I thought something like this might happen, so I set things up so that we could start bringing the tribe over as soon as you gave the word. Don’t worry, they’ll be here and well taken care of.”
“A’ course you’d know,” Ranma said ruefully. “ By the way, how does yer Time Gates say ya were gonna destroy all ten anchors without me an’ the others?”
Setsuna hesitated, then finally sighed and shook her head. “We almost certainly weren’t,” she responded.
“What?!” the other Senshi shouted.
“But we obviously were going to win, how would that happen if we didn’t destroy the anchors?” Rei asked.
“Eventually, after we’d tried and almost certainly failed, Hotaru would have sealed the portal herself, from within the dimensional tunnel,” Setsuna answered.
“She can do that? Cool! If she could, why waste time tryin’ ta destroy the anchors?” Ranma asked with a grin, only to have the grin vanish because of the pain and self-hatred she was picking up from her Puu even as Setsuna’s eyes dropped.
“Because there’s no way to get her out of the tunnel when it collapses,” Setsuna said, staring at the floor with slow tears trickling down her face. “That’s the real reason why Usa’s Setsuna sent her here so early — months before the attacks even started — to give her and Hotaru as much time together, make Hotaru’s final weeks as happy as we could.”
The rest of the young women and girls stared at her in stunned silence. Then Hotaru smiled at Setsuna. “Thank you for thinking of me, and doing what you could,” she said softly, then walked back and knelt to pull the Senshi of Time into a hug. Looking back at the other two teenagers, she said, “You two go without me. I think Setsuna-mama and I need to spend some time together this afternoon.”
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(Posted Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:01)
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