Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ The Ultimate Antidote ❯ Twilight ( Chapter 27 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The Ultimate Antidote

Written By: Matdeception

Disclaimer: Don't own shit. I'm lucky I can beat up the guys at work, heck, that's the only reason I still have underwear. Tho it's used... eh.. forget I said anything. Yare yare yare, no money, not mine, paying homage, yare yare yare.

Author's Notes: Since, aside from a single person who half assed guessed the reason Ranma didn't remember Akane a long time ago, guess I'll need to come out and offer you confused people some advice.

Consider everything. When was the last time Ranma, or anyone, even talked about Akane prior to the bloody dance? That's a big clue there, just don't forget to think about everything that happened in that chapter, and you should get a grasp of the most basic elements of that incident.

Then just ask yourself, 'Why was Ranma acting like he was in love with Rogue?' and you should be able to get the gist of it.

If you can discover the link between all of the above, you'll be able to understand much more fully what happened with Jean, Ranma, Risty, and Kuno.

Chapter Author notes at bottom.

Oh yeah, Dan is still extorting me (much to my delight), so if you know who I'm talking about, thank him for the numerous chapters :P

---

Chapter 22: Twilight.

---

Xavier opened his eyes, mind returning to normal as he did so. Hesitantly he answered the unspoken question being directed towards him, "I... I think I got everyone."

Logan nodded, glancing at Amarra as she focused incredible waves of heat onto a certain part of the gym floor, disintergrating the last of the evidence of their demonic invaders. "What's tha story gonna be, this time?"

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. 'Such a mess. Though, I can't shake the feeling covering up what happened here is going to be the easy part.' Call it instinct, or pyshic premonition (well gee, whattya know), something had changed, something pivitol to the balance of good and evil, something extremely important, but still hidden behind a veil of shadows. "Deranged Animal activists." he wheeled around as Amarra finally finished her grisly duty. "Where are the children now?"

Storm spared the wreaked gym one last look, before following after the Professor. "Dr. McCoy has Jean and Rogue at the mansion, Rogue looks to have a concussion, and he's still running tests on Jean to try and determine the cause of her most recent malady."

"Pfeh. Bet you a shot of tequila that punk's at the core of Jean's problem." Logan snapped, putting his hands in his pockets. "Betcha she still has those damn things in her."

Amarra, who followed after the adults, mouthed 'Things?' but kept silent.

"It's feasible." Xavier nodded. "We'll talk more on this latter."

---

The ride home was an agonizing ordeal, for everyone. Ranma hadn't said a single word since depositing Jean with Scott, whatever happened between him, her, and Kuno had left it's mark. Just sensing his general emotional state left her shuddering. He was submerged in a pit of despair, of sorrow, and beneath it all at the core was a festering cauldron of rage and uncomprimising hate. She didn't dare delve any deeper then that, whatever had hurt him and caused those feelings just wasn't something she was ready to deal with, not with the glaring fact NERO had found them rising up and smacking her in the face.

Nabiko sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly. 'Gah, I need some hot water, damn it.'

Lance spared the rear view mirror a glance as he pulled up to their home, not all that surprised to find Toad hissing slightly during the turn into the parking lot. Except for Ranma's nasty cut on his arm, Toad was the only one to recieve any appreciable damage from the battle. He was amazed the little guy was holding up as well as he was, and truthfully had been half expecting him to whine and cry like he use to before they had gotten involved with Nabiki. He shook his head, sighing. 'So much changin, and jus when things were goin good for everyone, this happens.'

Peitro, Tabitha, and Fred weren't present. There simply wasn't enough room in his jeep to hold Fred's girth, not with the number of people who comprised their little group, and there was no way in hell they were going to have him walk home all alone. "We should get yer wounds looked at."

Ranma snorted disdainfully as the Jeep pulled into park, hopping out of his seat, "I'm fine, take care of Todd."

"Yer anything but fine." Wanda snapped, glaring at the boy accusingly.

"What would you know about it!" the boy snapped, features twisting to the most disgusted, hatefilled scowl anyone had ever seen on him. So feirce was his look Wanda winced involuntarily at the vehemenance. "That's right!" he continued when no one deigned to respond, "You've never watched everyone you've ever cared about get put down like a fucking dog! Ya never..." he stopped talking when Nabiki's eyes met his own, and for a moment he simply stood there meeting her gaze, only to break with a yell "Jus leave me alone!" as he leapt towards the roof.

Toad smirked, "Just a buncha warm toasty feelings here, ain't there?"

---

Kurt spared the girl a long, sad look. He had half hoped she woulda left after he had gotten her to safety, but here she was, sitting at the edge of the roof waiting for him. What was he going to do? What could he say? She had to have realized he was different from other kids, what with his ability to teleport anyone nearly instantaneously. He sighed, stepping out of the obscuring shadows, "Eh... hey."

Amanda looked up, some small amount of fear still present on her angelic face. "Kurt?"

"Yeah, it's me." the boy sighed, pointedly not meeting her gaze. "The fighting's stopped, and, uh... no one got hurt or anything."

"What happened?" the girl asked, rising to her feet. "Who were those men?"

"I... I really don't know what happened back there." he responded truthfully. He didn't have a clue, really, aside from the fact they were from an Agency called NERO, and were after Ranma and Nabiko, prolly Nabiki too. "Look." he said bluntly, "I'm sorry you got mixed up in this screwed up life of mine, I didn't mean for ta scare you like that."

Amanda shook her head feircly, "You didn't scare me, you saved me!"

"I couldn't jus stand there and let you get hurt." Kurt grimaced, shaking his head while refusing to meet her eyes "Come on, let's get you down from here. Pretty sure yer parents are worried sick."

"Why are you acting like this?" she asked, looking hurt at how... cold the boy was being.

"I'm differnt from normal people, y'know that, you know what I can do." he closed his eyes, sighing tiredly, "I'm a mutant, it just isn't safe to be around me."

Amanda frowned, "And?"

Kurt blinked, "Uh... what?"

"Please." she rolled her eyes, "I knew you were differnt long before I asked you to the dance. I even saw you..." she implied, cryptically, running her fingers down his cheek "The real you, the one behind this mask."

"Uh... when?" he asked, panic quite apparent.

"Does it matter?" she sighed, exasperated, "If you think you're the only weird one in this school, then you just haven't been paying attention."

"Er... ah..." he stammered, "I... uh..."

Amanda grinned, "Besides, didn't you know blue's my favorite color?"

Kurt's eyes widened.

---

Nabiki shivered as the change took place, her body returning to the gender of her birth, a fact she ignored completely while lost in her thoughts. 'He's right...' she sobbed, 'He's right, they don't understand... they can't understand.'

Just thinking about it, of Wanda, Lance, Peitro, Toad, Tabitha, Fred and Emma... just thinking of them suffering the same torture as she and Ranma had chilled her to the bone. She could admit she loved them all, they were her friends, her family. They were people she cared for far more then she did herself. 'What if they got hurt even worse then Toad? What if everything blew up in our face... what if one of them had died?'

Suddenly it became hard to breath, the mere thought of them lying on the ground broken, bleeding, and dying breaking the emotional walls she had put up to protect her since her family had been brutally executed. 'Can't... I can't..." she hugged herself, suddenly feeling really, really cold.

---

Wanda just glared at the roof. 'Prick!' she snarled mentally. Didn't he realize they were all worried about what happened? Worried about him, about each other, about their family? Pushing them away like that wasn't helping, in fact she was struggling to control the impulse to climb up there and launch a thermo-nuclear dosing of Hex Magic up his ass to make him understand!

Toad hissed, "Hey! That hurts, dick head! Be more careful!"

Lance rolled his eyes, making sure the heat press was secure to the guys ribs. "Whatever, just don't move, gotta give it time to heal some."

"I think we should take him to tha hospital." Peitro, recently arriving with Tabitha and Fred, said with a frown. "Where's Ranma anyway?"

"That ass is off crying again." Wanda scowled, pointing up.

"Whatever." Fred snapped, "It ain't like you got a right to bitch about it!"

"What the hell did you say!" the Scarlet Witch snapped, eyes boring angrily into the fatter mutant.

"You deaf?" he growled. "He actually killed some one! You think that shit don't bother him? Ya think he's some kind of machine with no feelings or nothin?!"

"Fred's right." Tabitha snapped, "None of us here has actually, purposly killed anyone!" she poked Wanda in the chest then, scowling, "What would you be doin if ya had to face that fact? Could you even bring yerself to end some one's life? Could you?!"

Peitro remained silent on the issue, leaning against the wall and watching the interplay between his family. It was no secret Wanda harbored homicidal tendancies against their father, a fact that never really bothered him in the past, or even now, truthfully. They had both been left to rot by dear old dad, the dick only calling on him when he had a 'use' for him. No, dear old dad could rot for all he cared, now that he had found a real family, disfunctional as it was, to call his own.

Wanda colored red while glaring at the blond. An eternal moment passed, everyone waiting for her answer. None came, the girl breaking eye contact with the other girl, her eyes scrunching up some as if she was fighting off a torrent of tears threatening to break free.

A door slamming caught everyones attention. Nabiki stood there, returned to the gender of her birth, watching them for a long moment, before saying, "I'm going to bed."

Lance frowned, "Hey... wait a second..." he had some questions to ask, damn it.

"Leave me alone!" she snapped, slamming the door to her room.

Toad winced, "Gee... there really ARE some toasty feelings floatin round here."

---

Pain was her first conscious realization as her eyes opened. She gasped, the crushing pain in her head was the least of her worries. Opening her eyes brought on a new level of torture, like needles being pressed into the soft senstive iris, splitting the sensitive tissues before diving back into her brain.

"How's she doing?"

"Concussion, thankfully not serious." she heard the voices, at first not recognizing them, but that was only a temporary malady. "What's goin on?" she tried to lean up.

A slender, cool hand pressed against her shoulder, pushing her back down. "Shhh, child. You've been hurt."

"Ugh." with her head swimming, she really couldn't deny that fact. Rogue winced, closing her eyes, sheilding them from the bright lights overhead. Her mind was cloudly with what happened, but even she still retained enough memory to remember the attack, the men with guns, that strange guy with the hat... "Ranma!" she hissed, worriedly, "Where is he?"

Storm spared Hank a glance, the good doctor nodding and retreating from the table. "He vanished shortly after the attack, he and the rest of the Brotherhood returned home, we think." her normally calm tone of voice doing much to calm her nerves.

"What happened?" she risked a peek at the older woman, wincing again at the light, "I rememba some guys with guns..."

'What to tell her? Even I don't know everything yet.' she sighed, "I'm sorry Rogue, we aren't too sure. Xavier's investigating what he can, I'm sure he'll let us know the moment he finds anything out."

The girl grunted, grumbling tiredly. Fear for the boy had gripped her chest, but just knowing that he had walked away from the encounter was a blessing in her eyes. It hurt, just a little mind you, that he wasn't there when she woke up, but with everything that could of happened while she was out, she didn't think much of it.

"I... I don't know what happened!"

Tilting her head to the side, the southern belle gazed blearily at the near by red head. Her dress was torn, burned in strange places, and her hair was a mess.

"Calm down, Jean." Logan snapped, "We ain't accusin you of nothin, we just want tha truth."

"I've told you everything!" the girl snapped in return, an act that surprised Logan greatly, "I followed him, okay?" her tone had dropped a bit, less angry, more confused, "They were talking about something, next thing I knew I was on the ground and I couldn't even move!" she gripped her head, tears escaping her eyes, slowly meadering down her cheeks, "The rage... I could feel it, like a snake" she shuddered.

Logan spared Hank a glance. The emotional girl was losing it. "Doc?"

The blue aped man shrugged, "I don't even need an MIR to tell you what you suspect. The boys cells are still in her, in fact the number of them seem to be increasing." he didn't really mind that Rogue was in the room. No one else that had yet to be informed of Jean and Ranma's dalliance were present, so it didn't matter he guessed. "Her blood stream is loaded with them, and preliminary scans show high concentrations in the mid and upper torso." he pinched his nose, "I'll need more time for a througho scan, I just have enough data to even make a feasible guess as to what's happening." he stopped, for a second, adding, "I could use the boy's presence here as well."

The hairy man grimaced. Getting the kid here? After everything that happened tonight? 'shit.' he sighed.

"What tha heck is he talking about?" she looked up at Storm, frowning.

"Ah.." Storm winced, not wanting to continue this conversation. "You see..."

Logan rolled his eyes. He didn't give a damn for secrets, a well known fact, "He saved Jean's life when they screwed around, that dick infested some of his mutation or some crap into her." he shrugged, ignoring the rather glaring pun. "She woulda died with out it."

Storm glared at the man, turning back to Rogue slowly, "Jean developed a fatal mental condition due to her adventure in Ranma's mind during the Cat Fist incident. Ranma's mutation allows for him to transfer a portion of his regeneration to others, how he does it we don't know..." oh yeah, good one. She could just see Rogue rationalizing as Xavier feared, that the boy was a STC - Sexually Transmitted Cure.

Rogue look dumb founded, eyes tracking to sobbing redhead. 'Weird shit.'

---

Emma just shook her head, "I'm fine, go home Baylor."

Her driver eyed the girl, critically. Hair messed up, her once pure white dress stained with dirt, dust, and even some blood. Her leggings had been ripped in places, and one of her shoulder straps had been torn asunder. He scowled.

"It's not what you think." she sighed, shaking her head, "Really. Just go home, I'll see you in the morning."

The old man nodded, pulling out of the drive way.

Emma just shook her head, smiling slightly. Baylor's concern was sweet, and she meant that. Finding people to be that concerned about her health, and her health alone was a rarity among the business world, everyone always concerned with making the bigger better buck or brown nosing.

She sighed, idly pushing strands of hair from her eyes as she walked up the steps to her apartment. She really needed a long hot bath after tonights events, the mere thought of being swallowed head to toe in the soothing waters enough to widen that smile.

She didn't feel it at first, not paying particular attention to the general emotional state of anyone or anything around her, but with each step she took up the stairs something began tugging at the edge of her perceptions. She ignored it at first, not really in the mood to deal with more chaos today, but with each subsequent step that feeling at the edge of senses grew, grew so much that she was able to recognise the emotion for what it was.

Despair, a hollowing despair held together by a rage so feirce, so focused, so deep it left her short of breath. Tentatively expanding her awareness and 'tasting' the source, she recieved quite the surprise.

'Bitch.' she felt the word, more then she heard it.

She frowned deeply. Being a practiced telepath she knew there were certain things she could expect from keeping her mind open to the general emotional state of people near by, and what should be impossible except for extreme circumstances. The problem with all this was the fact she had purposefully kept her telepathic powers down since leaving the school, and shouldn't have even felt what she had.

That was a minor surprise when it came to her mutant power, but represenation such as the word... that spoke of something far more powerful then any single mind she had ever touched in her short life, of an thought or belief that threatened to smother all other aspects of ones self. To express words, thoughts, represenation of love, hate, anger, or despair with out her actively seeking such out would require an emotion of such intensity... of such intensity... she couldn't even express how strong it had to be in words.

She focused her thoughts, concentrating on the emotion and who it belonged to.

'Bitch... you bitch...' the words again, only accompanied by a flash of some one, of a girl with pale skin and feirce green eyes. It was a face she had grown to know, and disgust, very well in the last few days.

It was Rogue, and the owner of the emotions was...

"Ranma?" she said in a whisper, looking up towards the roof. He was the source of the despair? Why? The Dance maybe? She couldn't think of anything that happened there that could possibly explain the extreme dark emotions he projected, not for the person they were focused on, not when he expressed nothing but joyus love before the dance.

Tentaivly glancing at the door to the boy's home before climbing up the ladder leading to the roof, she paused at the edge, peering over to gauge the boy and hopefully get some clue what was happening with him.

He sat there, on a lawn chair, unmindful of the nasty gash to his arm or the way it was slowly healing. He was staring at the floor, lips twitching every so often. Just looking at him she couldn't really see anything that could explain just how he was feeling beneath the surface, and frankly that scared her. The boy never really guarded his emotions, such things always bubbling to the surface no matter what was going on around him.

Opening her mind fully to the boy... she sobbed, finding her own heart breaking at what was bothering the boy. "Ranma?" she breathed, the smothering pain in her chest quivering, like needles being stabbed into her heart as his eyes snapped towards her own. Burning eyes, hateful eyes... of crying eyes, the crystalline tears reflecting off the moonlight overhead.

"Go away!" he roared, looking away.

She whimpered as more and more of the boys thoughts trickled in through her senses. "What... what did she do to you?" her voice was soft, with a noticeable tremble.

The boy visibly shook, rage erupting across the link, accompanied by images flashing by so fast she couldn't make hide no hair of it all. "What do you know about it?" he snapped.

"I... I felt you." she gasped, his eyes snatching her own, boring into them at those words. "She... she did something, something horrible..."

"How the hell do you know?" he accused, flying from his chair and grabbing her by the arms, shaking her slightly.

Wincing at how roughly he was jerking her, she whimpered, "I'm a telepath! I'm a mutant like you!"

He stopped then, looking at the girl as if he was just seeing her for the first time. He turned to move away, snapping, "Figures." but quickly found himself held in place as she grabbed onto him from behind, hugging him feircly. "No! Don't treat me like that! I didn't know she had done anything!"

"Let me go." he trembeled again, mind awhirl with differnt thoughts, varying levels of anger. Just being held as he was proved to strain his tedious control over his temper. If she didn't let go, he'd explode.

Emma, still open to the link and feeling the rather... angry urges flowing through the boy, still held on despite it. She simply said, "It's okay... let it out."

Ranma snapped, physically breaking the girls hold on him, swinging around and grabbing her by the shoulders again. He ignore the girl whimper, his fingers digging painfully into the soft flesh. "Yer all the same!" he cried, "All the same! Always lyin, always cheatin, always tryin ta take somethin from me!" each word said with such rage, punctuated with the increasing pressure on her shoulder, Emma couldn't stop herself from crying again.

And she knew, through the feelings expressed by his tormented mind, this was only the beginning. She whimpered, meeting his gaze, "No matter what you do..." he voice trembling as she spoke, "... I'll always be here."

Ranma cracked.

---

"An that's all I saw." Evan sighed tiredly.

Xavier couldn't believe some of what Evan said, even if just by feeling the boys mind he knew it to be true. This Emma Frost being a mutant was... problematic. Oh, not in the sense of 'Oh noes, another enemy with Telepathic powers! Egads, I'm no longer the complete authority on the matter', but more in the fact the girl had managed to keep it hidden all this time.

She was trained, that much he was sure of. Dropping people through psionic force wasn't an easy feat, well, not easy enough to pull off more then once or twice with out actual mental discipline in the skill. "I see."

Scott grunted, "I know they haven't been friends long, but you should have seen them, sir. The way they moved, acted, it's like they had been training all their lives as a team."

The older man grunted. That was another surprise. The Brotherhood had systematically torn apart their attackers, both human and demonic, only recieving a few minor injuries for all their efforts. That spoke of ability, of determination, and of a level of team cohesion he never imagined them to possess. "Did either of you catch the fight between Ranma, Jean, and this 'Kuno' boy?"

"Nah." was Evan's quick reply.

"Me either." the leader of the X-men sighed. He should have tried to track Jean down when he noticed she was missing, her safety was his responsibility damn it! "I'm sorry."

"I see." he frowned, rolling away from the two youths, "Get some sleep kids, you look tired."

---

Hank spared the recordings a tired look through. The lights in the infirmary were off, mainly, only Rogue present and she was currently sleeping off her concussion. Glancing up at the red head who sat layding down, head held in place by a plastic head brace, dutifully enduring the torment of yet another brain scan with her eyes closed . "It's infested her frontal lobe, creating a large cluster of linked cells that seems to be intergrating itself."

"I don't sense anything differnt." Xavier sighed, "Her memories are intact, no mental tampering, whatever those things are doing, it's not attacking her mind despite their proximity."

"I wish I knew." the blue ape sighed, "If the boy were here, I could administor more tests since he's the source."

The crippled man nodded, seriously, "I think it's time we ask him to come here as well. I'll send Logan in the morning."

Unbeknowest to either man, Jean twitched, another breath of frost like air escaping her lips once.

---

Risty opened the door, "Mom I'm home!"

No answer came.

Not that she expected anything different, slumping into a chair. 'What a night.' she didn't think anything could get any worse then it already was, but of course she was wrong.

"I knew keeping an eye on the Rogue would eventually lead me to you." a very familiar voice grabbed her attention, head snapping left towards the bedroom door, a shadowed figure stood there, grinning madly at her.

"Who the heck are you?!" the girl screamed.

"Come now." the man chuckled, stepping out and into the light, his body encassed in a blood red armor from toe to torsoa, a strange looking helmet held tucked under his arm. "Certainly you realized you couldn't run from me forever, eh, Mystique?"

Risty's eyes turned gold as her form melted away, revealing the blue skinned red headed mutant known as Mystique. "Erik... what do you want now!"

The man chuckled, meeting the woman's eyes with his own. "Why, the world Mystique, I want the world."

---

To be Continued (Soon)

Author's Notes: Eh, pretty quick chapter. I'm sure you guys are gonna spam me with email about the scene with Emma and Ranma, so be prepared for a cheerful lie in response, as I'm not saying a thing on the matter.

This begins the build up for the Day of Reckoning - When the entire town discovers who are mutants, and who aren't. Much fun, hmm?

Expect things between Ranma and the X-men, Rogue in particular, to take a nose dive. This was anticipated, and in fact planned early on into the story, and no, it doesn't have any say on that old Match Up pole. I've removed it from the story, or at least I won't be posting it anymore. We're about 1/2 way, 3/4's way to the point of cutting it off anyway, so I'll just leave it a secret until the end.

As for the whole 'social' life thing that was pretty much the focus these last few chapters - to establish character heat and let you get to know of some of the intricacies between everyone - expect it to vanish for awhile, or at least take a nose dive. There aren't alot of happy feelings floating around right now, and as you noticed there seems to be some division in the brotherhood, at least on Ranma and Nabiki's end of things.

Yare yare yare.

Now for the bad news. I might - read: maybe - get another chapter out before the weekend, but it's doubtful. Since everyone at work is taking vacations almost back to back our schedules have become fubared, and next week in particular is going to suck for me, real bad.

I can't wait for January to roll around, so I can take my own damn vacation, not to mention giving all these other pricks a small measure of pay back for them taking their vacations before me :P

Anyway, enjoy, questions, comments, porn to narkanarka@hotmail.com, or just leave a review.