Note:  I don't own the characters, I just play around with them.
Ranma 1/2: Cyclopean Structure Vol. 1-Destiny Lost

---

	"The rest is shadowy and monstrous.  There was no one in the soaking 
street, and in all the world there was no one I dared tell...Then grey 
dawn unfolded wetly from the east, silhouetting the archaic hill and 
it's venerable steeples, and beckoning me to the place where my terrible 
work was still unfinished.  And in the end I went, wet, hatless, and 
dazed in the morning light, and entered that awful door in Benefit Street 
which I had left ajar, and which still swung cryptically in full sight 
of the early householders to whom I dared not speak."
(H.P. Lovecraft, 1924.  The Shunned House.)

---Japan, Minato ward---

	Ranma Saotome seldom cried.  After years on the road with his strict, 
stupid father crooning on and on that crying was for women, it seemed 
an ingrained reflex to fight back the tears and put forth a strong shell 
to the merciless world.  It was not working now, his mother wept beside 
him, his father's bloodless corpse sprawled out not two feet away.  
Kasumi was gone, taken by the lower troops of Phoenix Mountain for ransom, 
taken back to Saffron along with Nabiki and Akane.  The charred bark of 
the plum trees serving to remind him of the burning ki storm Saffron 
sent from all the way in China.  Faint wisps of smoke, untethered from 
chains of wood, dissipated in the afternoon sun.

	[Plum Tree?  Pops said something about 'forbidden techniques' hidden 
under the plum tree at our old house!]  "Mom!  We've gotta get back to 
Juuban!"  He glanced at his father's remains, "I'm gonna save Kasumi if 
it's the last thing I do."  Tracing the line his tears had dug in the 
dirt and dust on his face, he wiped his eyes, smudging the grime across 
his cheeks, twin swaths of war paint.  "I can't lose her now just 
because of one mistake I made, she shouldn't have to suffer."

	"And what mistake was that son?"  Nodoka  came up behind him, 
carefully skirting over the sight of her husband's body steeping in it's own 
blood.

	"Letting Saffron live."  A faint breeze blew through, nudging the 
bangs falling over his face, nipping gently at his clothes, and awakening 
the lovely Kima from her torturous sleep.  

Kima sat up from her sleep, carefully wrapped bandages, loosened a 
little due to the movement of her flesh underneath, fell to her lap stained 
with blood.  Her skin burned still from the attack, the salve reducing 
the scalding on her wings and arms.  Rising from the futon and exiting 
the spare room, Kima noticed that most of the feathers adorning her 
uncovered flesh were burned away except her face which had been covered 
defensively when the attacking fire wave had hit her.  Her boots and 
gloves had been taken, as had her sword and wing armour.  Staring at her 
slightly scaled hands, the nails manicured short as not to harm anything 
fragile, she realized what a sea of difference lay between her and the 
Guardian.  Not that it would stop her chosen path, however.

Scaly, clawed feet tapped down the stairs searching for any sign of 
life in the house, there was none.  The kitchen was decimated, the stove 
and sink sliced neatly into pieces, a hole blown right through the far 
wall and into the yard beyond.  A mass of speckled feathers, matted with 
blood, sat crumpled on the floor; she knew whose they were immediately.  
Someone had followed her, meaning Saffron had known about her quest 
from the start which might explain the wave of fire that had engulfed her.  
It was all some kind of sick plot to kill all that oppose him along 
with the guardian.  Kima had no doubt that the Phoenix sent had come up 
against major obstacles from Ranma...the copious pools of blood and 
feathers spoke volumes.

	Hearing muted voices from the front, Kima collected her brown leather 
boots and gloves, affixed her scimitar to her belt and opened the door.  
Ranma was speaking to an older woman she could only assume was his 
mother, auburn hair pinned up in a bun.  He was the first to notice her 
arrival.

	"You're awake?  Are you hurt badly?"  He walked forward, reaching out 
to grasp her blackened shoulders.  "I'll get Cologne to rewrap your 
bandages."  Nodoka moved to her son while Soun went inside to call for an 
ambulance.

	"No need son-in-law.  I'm already here."  Cologne dropped down from 
the roof, her staff drawing a hollow tap from the stones.  "I saw the 
Phoenix fly off with Kasumi, your Moku Takabashi actually managed to hit 
one, he's at the restaurant.  I've brought more healing items for Kima's 
burns and a few wrappings for your wounds."  She withdrew a satchel of 
herbs and ointments, stitched with the Chinese for 'Cologne.'  "It 
would be advised to retire into the house son-in-law, the Phoenix may have 
spies lurking about."

	"She is right son, it would be best to stay out of wide open public 
places for now, these 'Phoenix' may well return, and in larger numbers."  
Nodoka motioned towards the house, "Come now, Kima needs her rest."	

	Cologne and Kima walked back into the house as the trio of elders, two 
physically the part, the last mentally, awaited the ambulance.  Soun 
stood in shock, stoic face marred by the occasional tear that slipped 
past his check, two of those most dear to him had died.  No matter how 
hard he tried he could not tell which was the worse death, both victims 
had a large place in his heart, and so he stood divided as Dr. Tofu 
arrived with the ambulance.

	Dr. Tofu immediately recognized the tell-tale signs of shock radiating 
from Soun and quickly took steps to prevent yet another loss, wrapping 
him in blankets and putting him to bed, he would sleep for another 
three days.  His presence also evaded some of the more, evasive, questions 
the paramedics asked about the death.  With covered face and silent 
lights, the ambulance sped past the victim's son and wife, carrying with 
it their hopes and dreams.  Tofu had dealt with the police, who knew 
what it was to have Tofu there, with all the craziness happening all 
around them none of Tofu's explanations rubbed them the wrong way.  With a 
curt nod and a wave goodbye, Tofu gave his regards to the late Genma 
Saotome, leaving the scene,  tears marring his own young face.

	Ranma trudged back to the house, soft slipper-shoes kicking dust and 
dried blood from the stones, finding Kima already patched up with her 
golden wing carapaces and sword adorning her frame once more.  Nodoka 
went upstairs to see to the Tendo patriarch, his sobs reverberating off 
the soft walls of the house.  Left alone with Cologne and Kima, Ranma had 
only just sat down when Cologne opened the forum.

	"I've received several urgent messages from my tribe, son-in-law, 
apparently Saffron has increased his power in some way.  He is greater than 
before."  Her wise, old eyes slitted like some venomous viper stabbed 
him to the quick.  "You must honor your father's wishes, I do not what 
any more blood spilled in the name of that heathen god."

	"He has stolen the power from his children, that is why I fled."  
Kima's arms were wrapped in gauze with a layer of herbal ointment that 
broke down the dead tissue and induced rapid new growth.  "Mysterious 
deaths had been occurring at the Mount, five virgin maidens of the house of 
Saffron were found murdered in the caverns beneath Jusendo.  Saffron 
refused to acknowledge their deaths and secluded himself in the throne 
room, none of us had any idea what he'd been doing..."  Her arms made 
slight squeaking noises as her bandages stretched with her movement.  
Wrapped head to toe she resembled more a mummy of ancient Egypt than a 
warrior Phoenix out of legend.

	"What had he been doing child?  What did he do to increase his power 
so dramatically?"  This interested her, whatever he had done would have 
been drastic to shatter the loyalty his tribe had shown him in the 
past.

	"He killed them, bathed in their blood, graphed their wings to his 
own...he killed his family for vengeance against the Guardian."  She 
looked pointedly at Ranma, tears streaming from her face, white plumage 
dying red from her tears.  "You must go back.  Only you can stop him."

	"Kima...I don't know if I can!  I mean, he sent a ki wave the size of 
this island across the sea from China!  How can I hope to defeat him 
now?"  he had not a minute to elaborate on the futility of their 
situation before his mother appeared in the doorway, hair undone and cascading 
down her back, the ribbon ritually holding it back severed in her 
struggle with the Phoenix.

	"Son, I believe I will arrange for our transport to China.  Nabiki 
would have but I fear I'll have to take her place for now."  Nodoka sat 
next to Cologne across from Ranma and Kima.  "I'll take care of it, don't 
worry Ranma, we'll save Kasumi.  We shall go to Juuban first, you two 
are welcome in my house, I believe we may need your help later on."

	"I agree, such circumstances warrant immediate action.  My tribe has 
already been massacred enough by that tyrant, I pledge my assistance to 
you son-in-law, Ranma the Guardian!"  The ancient old woman sprang from 
the table for the trees with agility betraying her age.  "Shampoo and 
Mousse will assist us, I shall meet you in Juuban."  And with that she 
was away.

---Title---

Ranma 1/2: Destiny Lost
Chapter Two-The Shunned House
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

---Phoenix Mountain, the underground library---

	Choiler sat in his office, worrying about Kima and the response to 
their request for aid from the Guardian.  Since the time she had left he 
had sequestered himself in the catacombs underneath the mount, afraid 
and alone in the candlelight of his studies and laboratories.  Saffron 
had gone mad, of that he was sure, there was no other reason for his 
murderous behavior and strange chanting he had heard emanating from under 
the audience chamber, an archaic version of their own primitive dialect 
lost to the sands of time.  At times his forced exile drove him to the 
brink of madness as imagined and unimagined voices called to him, 
taunting him into a trap of the most hideous sort, a kind of cosmic jest at 
his expense.  He knew his time was running out, it wouldn't be long now 
until he would have to face that feral mask of sanity that masquerades 
the insanity and inhuman forces lurking behind their lord and master.

	Noises were coming closer, closing the walls in on him, crushing him 
to death in formless darkness of the caverns, cold, wet moss rubbing 
against his feathers as he fled from the searches dispatched by that lord 
of inhumanity.  As a pinhead of light pierced the darkness he knew the 
effort useless, all at once an old text came to mind, a centuried 
document from the first generation of the Mount.  It was kept under glass in 
the Forgotten Library under the castle but it seemed to call out from 
the oldest vestiges of his mind.

	"Our god descended from the heavens to reap benefits for his own lord, 
his is a mockery of life for he cannot truly live with such a cold, 
black heart.  An inhuman monster came from the seas of death, sowing seeds 
of doom in the soil and making mountains from sand, howling in pain as 
the ones from above burned his blackened hide.

	"As the dark ones went to the rivers of tears and died in the mire of 
ruin, so too did our fathers and mothers, sister, cousins, 
brothers-from all positions they came.  Weak-willed and loathsome they ate of the 
dark one's flesh, transfigured into hideous abominations that still 
haunt the forests today.  Let all of the mount know that some who are 
friends may hide the enemy within."

	For all these years they had believed the story fictitious, an olden 
fable told to teach one wariness of the outsiders, now he understood, 
after years decades of living under the pall of evil and ignorance he was 
shown the light of truth.  It was _THEIR_ lord that descended with a 
black heart!  Saffron was the agent of the darkness, of that loathsome 
creature whose decaying remains compose the Desert of Bleached White 
Bones, where insects live underneath the shifting sands and swallow unwary 
travelers whole.  The people had believed that Saffron was one of the 
heavens, but he was that agent of evil that called its dying master to 
land in order to gain it's strength back over the centuries.

	It was the main hall that opened to his eyes, Saffron's hideous visage 
glaring at his squinting form from the platform.

	"Lord of Antiquities, so nice of you to join us, we spent so much time 
scouring the palace for you I thought you dead."  He shot a powerful 
blast of heat across the room to burn Choiler's feathers.  "Now since 
there will be no escape you will join the others.  Divus!  Take our aged 
lord to the hatching chamber."  He felt rough hands rip him from the 
ground and drag him out of the chamber in favor of the frozen, dark halls 
of the palace.

	"you cannot do this...Saffron is...demons from the seas...divus you 
must listen..."  He babbled as the pain of loosing all his wings blew his 
mind, the feeling of the sharp stones underfoot cutting his featherless 
skin.

	"You ancient fool, Saffron will bring us to greater glory!  He will 
give us chosen the world when all those impure are driven from it!"  
Divus roughly threw him into the hatching chamber.  Closing the door with a 
kick.

	The hatching chamber was circular and usually held the eggs of those 
nearly born children.  All Choiler found was a gooey membrane covering 
the walls and the rotting remains of embryos crushed at the peak of 
birth.  Blood ran cold as he realized the vision of Saffron's ultimate 
goal, he would crush all the people of the world to resurrect the pieces of 
his master's body and bring about the time of darkness spoken of in 
their oldest texts.  To do it meant no interference from the rest of the 
Phoenix, so he killed the newborn children.

	He was not alone in the chamber, three others were encased in the 
sticky substance across from him.  Three women, no more than girls really, 
two with brown hair and one with black; he could make out the string of 
obscenities the youngest was screaming at the oldest.  Mercifully he 
passed out before Divus could return with the librarian's permanent 
prison.

	When he awoke he was encased in an identical cocoon as the three 
girls.  With the veil of pain lessened somewhat he saw that one of the three 
was the girl the Guardian had come to save.  [So this is his plan.  
Lure the Guardian to his doom and tie up the loose-ends before bringing 
the darkness. Very cleaver.]

---Saotome household, eight at night---

	Ranma couldn't find them.  Genma had said the sealed techniques were 
hidden under a plum tree, and yet Ranma had dug up all six of the trees 
in their yard and as such found no trace of the scrolls.  He'd been 
digging for hours, sweat and mud pouring off his frame like water as his 
mother, and Kima, Cologne and Shampoo looked on.

After digging since three, Ranma rested and bathed before returning to 
the living room where his mother sat making the arrangements for their 
transportation to China.  Cologne sat with Shampoo preparing for their 
trip, packing herbs and medicinal potions to aid them in reaching 
Saffron safely, or at least in one piece.  He was in pits of despair.  
Kasumi was taken and would die unless he found the Saotome secret techniques 
that could conceivably break through Saffron's defenses and hopefully 
make the battle run smoother than it had last time.  Akane and Nabiki 
had been taken as well, it seemed Saffron wanted to make him suffer far 
worse tortures than he had previously, and the plan was working 
perfectly.

	He trudged down to the deck, slumping over as the tears began again, 
the third time today as he lamented his own inability to protect those 
he loved, Kasumi and Akane both, neither deserved this, he could have 
prevented it but he just wasn't strong enough.  Cologne had gleamed 
little information from the dying Phoenix that had fallen by his Moku 
Takabashi, only that Saffron was grander now to his people than ever before, 
that he would crush the Amazons and rule the Bayankala range with 
ultimate power.  Finally he was silenced by death, as his organs were eaten 
from the inside out by Ranma's searing emotions consolidated into the 
blast that hit him.

	[Kasumi, I wish you were here.  You'd sit behind me, embrace me from 
behind, whisper in my ear that 'everything would be alright.'  I now it 
won't, I don't know how, I just know that something terrible is going 
to happen soon if I don't find those scrolls.]  He looked to a print of 
a geisha behind his mother, finding it a striking resemblance to Kasumi 
in poise and demeanor.  As his eyes once again pierced the picture he 
caught sight of a fruit and branch off to her right, barely visible to a 
casual observer, but Ranma was anything but a casual observer.  His 
training over the years had taught him to examine the minute details in 
everything he saw, leading to his fantastic learning curve.

	Leaping across the room and brusquely shoving his mother out of the 
way, Ranma tore the print from the wall.  His mother sat in abject terror 
that her son's mind had snapped, that he would tear her home apart, but 
nothing could have been farther from the truth.  He slammed the picture 
frame on the table, knocking the matting and print from the fasteners, 
and ripped off the matte board from the plum tree in the back.  He tore 
the board to pieces in his search, images of Kasumi and Nabiki, Saffron 
and Akane flashing before his stunned eyes.  Finally the group gathered 
by his side as the print was revealed to have Genma's less than 
eloquent handwriting on the back.

	"Son! You found the techniques!  I'm so proud of you!"  Nodoka pulled 
him into a hug as he stood transfixed by the writing of his late 
father.  "Cologne, Shampoo, I suggest we leave my son alone with the 
techniques in the dojo.  Ranma?  Don't you agree?"

	He could do nothing but nod as his father's life-work stared back at 
him from the sheet of parchment.  A complex series of movements that 
took advantage of water and earth to produce it's attacks, deadly moves 
that could shear a man in half.  No letter or bit of explanation was 
given nor was any needed, any true student of the Anything-Goes school 
would understand the movements as the basis for most of the school's aerial 
attacks.  He walked without realizing it into the dojo, still analyzing 
the stances and movements, like water on the paper they flowed one into 
another, taking things from one and incorporating it into another.  In 
all his life he hadn't known his father so brilliant.

	Bowing to the altar and the memory of his father, Ranma began the 
movements of the Umi-sen-ken.  The wind beginning to ripple like water 
around him.

 ---"??"---

	The Child is growing restless, we must initiate the sortie now.

	The Guardian is not yet ready.

	Without his power our Lord will never awaken, he must realize his 
potential now!

	We cannot wait any longer for the Guardian to train.  The teachings of 
his father were found and deciphered.  We must no allow him a chance to 
test them.

	Our lord will be in contact with the Child soon enough.  He will make 
it clear to him how important our goals are.

	Or he will destroy him.

	That too.  But is that not a predetermined event?

	Nothing is set in stone save the teachings of our master.  It is to 
him that we must swear fealty.

	The day is almost over, the Guardian has finished, and the sun shall 
rise over the blood-soaked hills of the world and usher in a new age of 
darkness and pestilence.

	To wipe the unfit from the Earth...

	It is a necessary price to pay.

---Phoenix Mountain, two days before the ultimatum expires---

	Saffron sat upon his throne of gold and light, wings fluttering as he 
expelled the filth from the mountain.  Around him were his generals, 
those of bent and corrupt means, those who would gladly sacrifice their 
own families for greater power.  Waves of energy crackled down the walls 
of the fortress, following the corridors of rock and granite until 
burning inhabits who had not come from his time and flesh.  Only those who 
had a part of the master's body would survive the onslaught, those born 
of the inextinguishable fire, who would burn brightly throughout the 
cosmos.

	Divus stood at his right side, eye sewn shut and scarred from his 
battle with the guardian; battle scars he would say to those who asked.  
Assembled generals talked amongst themselves, questioning how the purge 
would come about, how the impure would be burned from the earth.  
Saffron allowed Divus his rants, as he was pondering matters of far more 
reaching implications.  His master had ordered a meeting, his spirit would 
commune with ultimate power and receive his new orders.

	"Divus, leave me.  Take the others with you."  Saffron did not glance 
at him, merely extended a hand and gestured to the door.

	"Yes my liege.  Everyone!  We will retire to the main audience 
chamber."  Divus flew lopsidedly away from the raised dais, the other generals 
following closely behind.  As the great stone doors of the hall slammed 
shut, Saffron rose from his throne and ran his palm against the smooth 
bas-relief carved into the wall behind him.  The stone yielded, running 
like syrup between his fingers, rising off the wall and forming a 
twisting, whirling pillar of fluid from the sheer stone.

	The liquid was fire, the stone was power, Saffron watched as the 
melted mass of magma began to shift and writhe like fire, surrounding the 
grisly amalgamation of limbs that sat and giggled at the centre of it's 
being.  The great lord himself, he who had challenged the heavens powers 
and lost his corporeal form, the great lord of the fire had returned.  
Many limbed talons sprang from the pulsing blob of flame, the burning 
mercurious fluid dancing along the walls like flame, and a rough 
composite of eyes and a formless mouth erupted from the surface of the wall.  
The torches hung from around the hall ate along the walls until the 
entire room burned like the surface of the sun.  Arms shot from the walls, 
thousands of flaming limbs entangling his own, searing his flesh and 
scalding his bones.

	After an eternity, the form spoke from it's chortling, a voice 
dislocated from our reality came into our universe.  Ever so faintly it gained 
in pitch until the horrifying bass rang through Saffron's skull.

	"SAFFRON.  LOYAL GUARD OF THE FLAME, HONORED GENERAL OF MY FIRE, I 
COME TO YOU NOW AND DECLARE THE END OF THIS REALM.  THE GUARDIAN YET 
STANDS IN OUR WAY, NOW IS THE TIME TO STRIKE."  A wheezing death-rattle 
echoed off the walls.  "STALK HIM...TEAR HIM APART...AND DELIVER HIS SOUL 
TO ME."

	Saffron lowered his head as far as the burning tendrils of napalm 
would allow.  "He will come, my lord.  I have things which are precious to 
him.  He will come."

	"YOUR PROMISES DO NOT INTEREST ME, SAFFRON.  ONLY YOUR DEEDS, AND 
RECENTLY YOU HAVE HAD NONE TO BE PRAISEWORTHY OF.  HUMBLED BY A HUMAN, EVEN 
IF HE IS THE GUARDIAN, IS A FAILURE PUNISHABLE BY DEATH, YET I HAVE 
SPARED YOU.  DO YOU KNOW WHY?"

	"Why have you done this my liege?"  The napalm shackles seared his 
flesh further.

	"BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE OF MY CHILDREN TO SURVIVE!  I DO NOT DO 
THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE CAPABLE, I DO IT BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE.  DO 
NOT MISTAKE MY GENEROSITY FOR EVEN A PASSING AFFECTION, I WOULD RATHER 
SPIT ON YOU THAN SPEAK TO YOU; BUT KNOW THIS, IF YOU SUCEED YOU SHALL 
HAVE BOONS UNHEARD OF IN YOUR LIFE."  The anger subsided, the tremors of 
energy rippling off the walls, tossing him back and forth like a leaf 
in the breeze.  "I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE MEANS TO POWER, IT IS UP TO YOU TO 
USE IT.  I HAVE SHARED THE FLAME WITH YOU AND I CAN EASILY TAKE IT 
AWAY."

	"I will not fail you my lord.  The Guardian will die, I will crush his 
heart in my hands and devour his entrails, you will have your time."  
Saffron was slowly lowered from the air, and as the tendrils 
disappeared, smoking bone and marrow gleamed from his arms and legs, and in a 
split-second they were gone, replaced by healthy flesh.

	"HEED MY WILL, SAFFRON, I WILL BROOK NO EXCUSES!  NOT FROM ANYONE, NOT 
FOR ANY REASON!  WHILE THE POWERS CONSOLIDATE, I AM LEFT NON-CORPOREAL.  
GIVING MY ENEMIES THE TIME THEY REQUIRE TO PLAN MY PERSONAL DOWNFALL, 
THEY SEEK TO AWAKEN _HIM_.  IF _HE_ AWAKES THEN I SHALL FALL, AND IF I 
FALL YOU FALL TOO."  The smoke cleared, the air blew fresh and clean 
again, the walls were stone once more, and the bas-relief loomed over 
Saffron once again.  As the Phoenix lord shivered from the energies 
released, his master's voice drifted with the dust settling in the room.

	"...i will not tolerate failure...even if you die, fulfill your 
goal..."

---to be continued---

		For those of you wondering where my fanfiction is located then please 
refer to the following list.

Lady Cosmos: 
http://www.crosswinds.net/~ladycosmos

Zaxxon:  
http://sfcreators.com/Atlantis/FanFic/Other/DrSuekeiichiKaiton/

Hawk:  
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/6189/

Phu:  
http://members.nbci.com/phu_lam

The Lost One:  
http://ranmaxovers.tripod.com

The Church of Kasumi and Ranma:  
http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/KasumiandRanma

Tannim:
http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim

Nighthawk:
http://www.geocities.com/nighthawk/hosted.htm

As always, C&C, flames to:
Suekeiichi Kaiton, 
Holy Scribe and Second Disciple
The Church of Kasumi and Ranma
Kaiton@banet.net