Shared Wishes, Shared Lives
By Archangel Nightshade Bloodraven
Ranko managed to drag herself coughing and sputtering from the river as one of Ryouga's bandanas sliced through her thigh. I dunno what I did to get everyone steamed at me, She thought as Kodachi's ribbon shattered her right knee. But even I can't take them all at once.
She toyed with the idea of a full force Mako Takabisha, or even a Shi Shi Hokodan but she knew even if she tried the more competent martial artists would evade and continue their pursuit.
She did not want to think about what would happen when they caught her. Kami please. She sent her silent prayer to the heavens. I know that my best hasn't always been good enough. But if you get me out of this one last scrape, I swear to you that I'll straighten out this fiancé mess and live my life the way I want to. This is the vow of Saotome Ranma!
At that moment he caught sight of the old temple.
***
At this moment Urd, Norn Goddess of the Past looked down from the temple roof in time to see a battered redhead stagger up the steps. "Damn it all." She muttered pulling her hand away from her sake. "Bell, you've got a patient, Skuld, we've got a fight!"
"All right!" Skuld, Goddess of the Future gave a grin that would chill even the coldest of souls. Whatever she'd been working on hadn't met with much success and now the more technologically inclined goddess was more than ready to vent her frustrations in a fight, despite her seemingly innocent appearance in pink jeans and a white t-shirt that offset her long ebony hair. The one thing that didn't seem to belong was the slender croquet style mallet attached to her back.
Belldandy, goddess of the Present, or Bell as she insisted friends call her, came out with a worried frown on her face as Ranko cried out in pain from one of Mousse's hidden weapons taking out her left knee, sending the redhead tumbling into the older brunettes arms.
"Get her inside Bell." Urd said, her white hair fluttering behind her as she dropped to the ground and stepped outside with Skuld at her side. "We'll take care of her fan club."
Urd scanned the group with cold hard eyes. "What is your business here?"
"We have come for the villainous cur that seeks refuge in these holy walls." Kunou said imperiously brandishing his bokken.
Skuld spoke next with a voice colder than a Ragnarok winter. "My sister, Belldandy and her late husband Keichi, were people of peace, and now you dare to bring weapons to our home after you assault a guest now under our protection. Leave. NOW."
"We shall gladly leave once we have slain the vile dog!" Kunou snarled waving his bokken.
"Kunou, stop yakkin' and let's just go through them." Ukyou snarled charging with her battle spatula ready.
Skuld gazed at the two warriors impassively as she stepped back and found her mallet in her hand, as though she had stepped back through it. She spun swiftly blocking Ukyo's attack and glaring hard at the girl before whipping around to smash Kunou into orbit.
"An opening!" Akane shouted, using her own mallet to hammer Skuld into the nearest wall.
"Skuld!" Urd didn't even pause to blink as a mana blast leapt from her hand slamming into Akane with a blinding explosion. A second one was prepared when Skuld managed to get to her feet, her mallet ablaze with power.
"No, sister." Skuld hissed. This was just too much. First her equipment fails, then this lynch mob chases that girl here, and now that... upstart mortal had the nerve to hit her with a mallet. No one ever did that before. "She's mine."
Cologne and Happosai had since noticed the intense power of their challengers and the latter quickly left under guise of a smoke bomb, as the former attempted to call her wards to her.
"Shampoo no leave without Airen!"
"And I will not leave without Shampoo." Mousse said vehemently.
"Then you are both fools. Urd sama, they only follow their hearts, Honored Goddess." With that the old matriarch leapt lightly atop her staff and bounded away.
Akane had managed to recover consciousness as Skuld charged her, only to be slowed by one of Shampoo's bonbori. The youngest goddess sprung over the brutal weapon to send the Amazon female flying with a wicked snap kick. She turned towards her prey with a malicious smile fixed firmly upon her face as Soun and Ryouga stepped between them.
"You will not hurt my daughter." Soun said decisively.
Skuld started to growl then caught herself. This berserker rage wasn't normal for her. Was this girl really worth all this, simply for a blow to her pride?
Skuld decided not as she slung the mallet back on her back and effortlessly flung the two men out of her way.
"You'll have to forgive Urd chan. She's very protective of her little sisters." Skuld said, gently running her hands over the other girls body. Summoning her limited healing talents, the young Norn did what she could to get the young martial artist back on her feet. "Go home. Whatever she did to you can't be worth all this."
"Why..."
"Does it matter?" Skuld asked with a sunny half smile. "Go."
As the injured girl limped away, Skuld turn to check on Urd.
"Begone foul ivory harridan! Ranma sama will be mine. HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!" Kodachi laughed lashing out with her ribbon.
"Flattery will get you nowhere!" Skuld chided silencing the maniacal girl with a flying kick as she relayed Urd her mallet to flatten a panda.
"Thanks sis." Urd said bringing the mallet down and clobbering the panda over his head.
[I fight on!] The panda signed before collapsing unconscious.
"Genma!" Soun charged forward as quickly as his armor would allow, only to have the panda's sign broken over his head by a still irate brunette who rebounded off his prone form to land by her sister.
"This is your last warning." Urd said slinging Skuld's mallet back to her. "Leave now." Before Bell gets angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry. She thought.
"Only when Ranma is dead!" Ryouga snarled.
"Enough!" A new voice shouted as Skuld and Urd glanced at each other with a time-to-get-outta-Dodge-while-there's-still-a-Dodge-to-get-out-of kind of expression.
"Don't look now..." Skuld whispered edging towards the door.
"Hurricane Bell is here." Urd murmured quickly following her younger sister's lead.
"You have disturbed the peace here long enough. Leave this place."
"When Ranma lies in a shallow grave!" Ryouga shouted charging Belldandy.
Urd moved to the middle sister's side ready to protect her though it proved unnecessary. Belldandy's usually warm tender eyes became cold and hard. Skuld reached out and took Urd's hand and pulled her as to the sturdy tree she was hiding behind as she could as the winds picked up. "YOU DARE COME TO THIS HOLY PLACE, MY PEACEFUL HOME, AND ASSAULT A GUEST NOW UNDER MY PROTECTION, AND THEN DEMAND THAT I DELIVER HER TO HER DEATH?" Bell howled as the winds matched her, whipping around the intended mob, both capable and not, lifting them off the ground. Bell stammered incoherently for a few seconds then screamed. "BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE!"
A moment later a twinkling point in the sky was all that remained of the tornado that whisked the uninvited guests from her home as a soft voice chuckled. "My fiancé... would love that trick...."
"Oh my!" Belldandy moved to the young redhead who leaned heavily against the door holding her still bleeding side. "You shouldn't be up..."
"S-Saotome Ranko." She whispered tumbling forward into the goddess's waiting arms. "S-sorry about this."
