Confrontation


Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld looked at the sign in front of the house they
were standing before. A dojo? What would this powerful ancient entity want
in a dojo? They were all three dressed casually, as they did not want to
frighten the inhabitants. 

Before knocking, they waited to allow Skuld to scan and determine if the
ancient was still present. Urd tapped her foot impatiently, but held her
tongue. Her little sister had been surprisingly helpful, again probably
due to the scare they had all had when they realized the kind of power
they were dealing with, and so for once, Urd actually tried to be patient.
She was just about to blow her top in spite of this, when Skuld finally
spoke up.

"It's very strange, oneechan... I don't think the demon is here, there's no
active trace of that ancient power... but I'm getting readings that match
his ki aura. No trace of that third power he used, though..." She looked
up, genuine worry stark on her pretty young face. "I'm sorry, oneechan."

Urd smiled, surprised at how cute her sister could be when she wasn't
angry. Urd didn't see her not angry very often. "It's okay, imoutochan.
We'll just have to go in and see. Be ready..." 

Urd opened the gate, and they walked up the short walkway, and rang the
doorbell. The door slid open, and a pretty young woman with long brown
hair stood before them. "Hello, may I help you?"

Urd twitched a bit at the sound of her voice, and her eyes flicked from
Kasumi to Belldandy several times, as if to verify that her sister did
still stand beside her, but she showed no other outward signs of her
perturbance. "My name is Urd, these are my sisters, Belldandy and Skuld."

"Oh, my. You aren't more fiancees, are you?" Kasumi wore a very pretty
expression of vague apprehension. Urd boggled at her. How the devil did
she manage to make apprehension look so sweet and kind? 

"Uh... fiancees? I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"Oh, well, that's all right then. I am Tendo Kasumi, please, come in.
Would you like some tea?"

In moments, Urd and Skuld found themselves seated by a low table, being
served tea, while Belldandy and Kasumi disappeared into the kitchen... by
the sound of it, discussing recipes.

"Chikuso," spouted a sopping wet, but still very pretty red-headed
girl, wearing boyish clothes, standing in the doorway to the yard, "please
tell me you're not fiancees of Ranma?"

A dark-blue-haired girl burst in from the next room, shouting, "Ranma!
What are you doing getting more fiancees?!"

Urd spoke up quickly, seeing the potential for violence escalating
rapidly, "No, no, nothing of the sort, we're not fiancees, not at all.
We're here to ask you about anything unusual that might have happened..."
Urd stopped, staring at the pair, who were now rolling around on the
ground laughing. 

Skuld was fiddling with the device in her hands, and hissed to Urd, "Urd,
the red-haired one is the one with the aura!"

Urd looked at them both, still laughing as they struggled to sit up, and
whispered back, "it looks like they know each other, and have for a while,
so I don't think its the real thing. Still..."

Belldandy and Kasumi came in with a tray of light snacks, and set it on
the table, then sat by the table, still making light conversation. 

Urd looked at the two laughing girls, who were finally getting control
of themselves again. "Well, now that you are finished enjoying
yourselves, perhaps you could answer my question? Exactly what was it
that is so hilarious, anyway?"

The dark-haired girl giggled a bit, then finally spoke, "Ano... around
here, it would be extremely unusual for a week to pass without something
unusual happening."

Skuld nudged Urd, and whispered, "There's residual magic hanging off
the redhead... might be a curse, something like that."

"Sweeto!" 

The redhead and her companion both grimaced and frowned, then they
boggled, when they suddenly learned where Genma and Soun learned the
Crouch of the White Tiger from, for Happosai had just appeared, fondled
Akane, then Ranma, turned to fondle Urd, turned pasty white, and entered
supreme supplication mode.

"Please don't fry me! Please don't fry me!"

Urd looked at him in mild distaste, then realized he might actually be
able to help them. He was certainly sensitive enough to have noticed...
She pulled a black leather brassiere from nowhere, which for some reason
she couldn't fathom, caused the blue-haired girl to hit the red-haired
girl with a mallet, and waved it at Happosai. 

His eyes followed it hungrily. 

"It's yours, old man, if you can tell me what I need to know. Did anything
unusual happen this week?"

"N-N-Nabiki," he managed, following it with his eyes. The two squabbling
girls stopped and stared, eyes wide.

"Explain!"

"N-none of the weird stuff ever touches Nabiki-chan... Only Ranma-chan and
Akane-chan. She engineers some of the weirdness... but it never happens to
her."

"Chikuso, he's right, it doesn't, so where'd that thing come from?,"
blurted Ranma.

"Continue, old man."

"She came down from her room one evening with a dragon on her shoulder,
and wouldn't tell where it came from. She still has it."

The goddesses shared a meaningful look, while Akane and Ranma stared at
each other in horror. A short time later, three goddesses and two mortals
were in a train, heading for Nabiki's college.

---

The five searchers walked onto the campus, looking about them. Urd
looked at the group for a moment, considering the two mortals, before
deciding that if the dragon hadn't acted yet, he would likely not do so
until they forced his hand. After all, if he wanted to harm the two, he
had apparently already had plenty of opportunity.

"I suggest we split up. She didn't answer her phone, so she's
probably..."

"Right there! Hey, Nabiki!" Ranma shouted, pointing across the lawn at a
young short-haired girl apparently reading a book. 

Akane hit Ranma, "Hey, baka, what happened to low profile, and let's
find out if she's in danger first? Sheesh!"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Ranma looked sheepish, but the damage was done. Urd
watched the girl stand, and look upward. Moments later, a tiny dragon
swooped down to land on her arm.

Fey had detected their approach... the aural signatures of the two
goddesses he had seen before triggered alarms in his mind, and he had
prepared for their coming. While in flight, high above the college, he
had carefully pulled out of the body. Then, as he had done once before
for a sprightly young amazon, and again when he first created the race,
he created a mind, and bestowed it upon the dragon, binding it with a
loyalty and love for Nabiki. 

He wrapped his aura and magic about each other, hiding each within the
other, like a snake swallowing itself, until he was wholly undetectable.
He followed the dragon down then, as it noted its mistress standing.

Nabiki strode toward the group, holding her arm up. Diamond landed
lightly on it, wrapping its tail about her arm.

"Yes, Ranma? Akane? What are you doing here? Who are your friends?"

Akane looked around nervously, then eyed the little dragon. "Uhm...
maybe we should get someplace private, so we can talk, ok?"

Nabiki gave her a sharp glance, not having missed the nervousness she
was displaying, nor the way she was eying Diamond. She glanced again at
the other three. "Alright, I guess introductions can wait. Come on, my
dorm room isn't all that big, but it is made for two. We should be able
to fit."

Fey followed in silence. It hadn't really been his intention to leave a
dragon with Nabiki, but he surmised that the two ladies who had been
present at his summoning would not look kindly on him if they learned he
had been pretending to be her pet. For that matter, neither would
Nabiki.

Nabiki locked the door to the dorm room when they were all inside, then
turned to face them. "Alright, what's this all about?"

"Nabiki, this is Belldandy," Belldandy bowed politely, "Urd," Urd
nodded, smiling faintly, "and Skuld," Skuld just glanced up, then
returned to fiddling with her device. 

Skuld looked around then, and then up at Urd. "Oneechan, that's not him.
Very similar aura, much less powerful, no sign of the ancient power, but
a little magic."

Urd looked around angrily. "Alright, come out, damn it! I know you're
watching!"

Nabiki looked at them with a supercilious smirk. "Who's watching? What
are you talking about?"

Before they had a chance to respond, there was a shimmering in the air,
and a blue glow appeared, a tiny speck, that swelled suddenly, and
firmed, taking on the indistinct form of a man. No details could be
seen, for he seemed to be wreathed in blue flame, and the room could be
vaguely made out through him. 

Even stranger, there was a spectral blue dragon and blue tiger that
seemed to be chasing each other through the fiery aura.

"I suspect they mean me, Tendo-san," it said, in a deep voice that
seemed to echo through the room.

Nabiki eyed the apparition, not noticing the look of pure shock on Ranma
and Akane, who could tell that this was a manifestation of pure ki, or
the look of fear on the three goddesses. "Lord Fey, I presume?" 

"Precisely. I see your reputation is well-earned," the spectral blue
wraith responded, bowing deeply to her, then he turned to face the
others. "Ranma and Akane I know by reputation as well, but never have I
made thy acquaintance, ladies... though two of you I know by sight."

Urd brightened, "So, you are the one!"

Ranma finally managed to shut his gaping mouth, and summon his
intelligence, as best he could. "You... you're made outta ki?"

The spectre eyed him, then nodded, "Close enough, though not really.
What you see, certainly, is my ki aura." He turned back to Urd, "What do
you mean by 'the one'?"

"You're the dragon Mara summoned!"

"If by Mara you mean the incompetent female following instructions
written by a dead man with delusions of grandeur who persisted in making
the same mistakes that led to the death of his life-long enemy in front
of his face, then yes, I suppose I am that one. Why have you come
seeking me?" There, he thought, that should throw them off-balance just
a bit.

"How do you know we're seeking you?" Urd snapped, a bit put off at his
strange speech.

"If you were not, you would hardly have assumed my presence, and
demanded my appearance." 

Skuld stepped forward, visibly shaken, pale with fear, mouth set in a
determined line, "Don't talk to my sister like that!"

Urd stared at her for a moment, watching her sister unlimber her mallet,
shocked that Skuld would defend her, before stepping forward, "Skuld,
thanks, but that's not necessary... We don't know for sure that we have
to fight him... yet."

"Well," he drawled, "it's nice to know you don't intend to slay me out of
hand."

Akane looked at him curiously. "You don't seem much upset at it, either
way."

He glanced at her. "I and they both know it wouldn't be that easy, even
if it were their intention. I am displaying but the merest portion of my
power, and," he glanced back at them, seeming to appraise them, "I
certainly hope they are as well, or it would be a truly short battle."

Ranma's mouth thinned to a hard line. "They wouldn't be fighting alone.
Nabiki's my...," he grimaced, but said it anyway, "my sister, and I
don't know why you've been messing with her, but I don't like it."

Nabiki stared at him, eyes wide, but said nothing. Akane blushed deeply,
and stole a glance at him. Ranma was rocking on the balls of his feet,
every muscle loose and ready. 

Fey glanced at him, then turned back to the ladies. "Well, you say you
do not yet know if we must fight... what must you know to make your
decision?"

Urd breathed out slowly, trying to gather her thoughts, a process
strongly affected by the knowledge that if a fight broke out here,
innocents would die, and she would be to blame. She prayed silently that
his lack of action so far implied what she hoped it did.

"Mara was trying to summon an Ancient One... beings so powerful and
callous that the gods and demons had to join forces to defeat them, and
lock them away, that mankind might have a chance to live..."

She was trying to figure out how to ask him whether he planned on
destroying reality anytime soon, when he interrupted.

"Ancient one? Ancient? That's rich. I'm not even two decades old yet!"
Jaws dropped all around. Ranma, who had been trying to hold back his awe
of the power before him, telling himself that it was because he was
ancient, like Kho Lon, he'd be stronger when he reached that age, etc,
suddenly found the ground pulled out from beneath him.

"Then... how... how?" Urd sputtered.

Fey sighed. "I was summoned by an evil man when I was seven, driven
insane by a terrible training forced upon me by my father." He glanced
at Ranma. "I suspect Ranma can sympathize. In my insane and feral state,
I responded badly to his threats, and killed him by accident." Somehow
the pain that came through resonated in the room, and Ranma nodded,
thinking of how hard it had been to make the decision to kill Saffron,
and how much had been on the line before he had finally been able to
make that terrible decision. The others were simply aghast at the depth
of the pain that seemed to become almost a tangible entity, occupying
the room with them. 

"That evil man had sought and gained the love of a beautiful lady, and
betrayed her, trapped her in magical bonds. I spent every day of every
year thereafter, for nine long years, training under hundreds of
masters, being raised and taught magic by an ancient dragon, to gain the
strength and knowledge I would need to free her. In the end, I had to
sacrifice my manhood, and any hope of eventual sanity, and sunder
myself, giving up my own body, to gain the power to free her. That is
how and why I am as you see me."

"But... but you had a body when we saw you the first time," Urd
protested.

"Hai. I can make a body. It was one of the things I had to learn to do.
I had to split myself in two, and for that, I had to make a second body.
Heh... I learned a lot about biology that way... The body you saw,
though, was not that one... that was, I believe, the ultimate expression
of the Neko-ken, the training method my father used to drive me insane."

Ranma flinched at the word neko, then looked at him with wide eyes. "You
mastered it? How?"

He looked at Ranma. "I lived with a pride of lions for a month, as one
of them. The only reason that solution was even possible was the
presence of an ancient dragon strong enough to suppress my fear, and
allow me to grow accustomed to it in small doses. I still feel the fear,
but I control it, now."

Skuld looked at him, hands on her hips, and spoke angrily, "You claim
you aren't ancient, but then why do you have access to the same ancient
power that they used?"

He looked down at her a bit sadly. "I failed... the first time I truly
tried to free the Lady. I knew that I had failed, but I put everything I
had in a suicidal attempt to reach a power that lay beyond the powers I
could reach, beyond the tapestry that is the weave of existence. I
strove, and gave everything I had, because I knew that if I could not
free her... then my death would free her. I reached that power... and it
took me. I died, and one that loved me drew me back again, but I had
been touched by that power, and it burns inside me still."

Akane blushed again, looking out of the corner of her eyes at Ranma,
thinking about being brought back from death by one who loved her.
Surely that meant he did love her, didn't it? Didn't he know how much
she loved him, too? Why, oh why couldn't he admit it?

"I can only guess that that is the power you sense. If it is, then it is
probably what allowed Mara's spell to reach me. I suppose in that case
this might not be Arkus's doing... just that I was the only example of
that power that didn't require reaching beyond the boundary created by
the gods... though the feel of the magic as I was drawn through
certainly seemed like that of Arkus."

Skuld nodded, slowly. "I... I had noticed that you didn't have as much
power, in that way, as I expected... just a little bit of it. I
suspected it might be a conduit..."

Urd smiled in relief. It looked like they might escape without fighting
after all. "So... what is it that you want here?"

"Want here? I want nothing from here, nothing more than to get to my
home. But I need to know if I am going in the right direction, so I
decided to research what I could in this place, to see how close it was
to what I know."

"What you know," Nabiki said suddenly, staring at him, "You...
Neko-ken... gave up your manhood... You're Ranma!"

Fey sighed, as the others boggled at her. He solidified suddenly,
looking like a slightly younger copy of the Ranma that stood across from
him, though he was dressed all in black. "Hai," he said, smiling
faintly at Nabiki, "You certainly live up to your reputation, Tendo-san.
I am Fey Ranma."

Ranma looked at him. "Fey? Not Saotome?"

"I took up the mantle of the Lord of Fey after I accidentally killed
him. I had to, I had a responsibility to his people, and the Lady. After
I returned, and freed Ranko and Neko, Genma tried once more to control
my life. So I changed registers, and set up the Fey register. I don't
need the Saotome name."

"But what about the school?"

"Happosai had already licensed me to teach it, and I'm the grandmaster
of the Fey Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu... I've more than enough credibility as
the Lord of Fey."

Nabiki looked at him a bit curiously. "And you really are the ArchMage
to the Court of Farallon?"

"Hai. That would have been... hmm... when I was twelve, I think. I'd
been a mage at the court far longer, though."

"And... and Diamond?" she asked, feeling as though someone had
just taken her heart in their fist, and squeezed, as she absorbed the
realization that these women probably intended to either help Fey to
leave... or force him to leave... and the book had said that Diamond
would not remain with her forever.

He sighed, then turned to Urd. "Can you ladies assist me in finding my
home?"

Urd looked at Skuld, who nodded sharply. Skuld spoke up, "I can give you
something that will help guide you... I can't send you straight home,
because you've spent so much time in two different dimensions... I can't
detect your real home, and if I tried, you'd just end up somewhere
between them, and my guess is they aren't nearly as close to each other,
as this world is to your plane of origin, ne?"

"Hai. How long?"

"I have it with me."

"Very well. If you would please give me a few minutes alone with Nabiki,
I will be ready to depart."

The others nodded, and left. Ranma decided that he ought to be
trustworthy... considering who he was. Akane poked Ranma in the ribs as
they walked out, and warned him that if Ranma did anything to her
sister, he'd pay for it. The door closed behind them.