Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma. S/he is the property of Rimuko Takahashi, along with all these other characters that she crafted. I only lay claim to the few characters I add in. And the plot. That’s mine too! And Ryo’s.

Her War

“My chest is always burning; I can’t stop crying! Why? I didn’t even care about the damn thing… so why does it hurt so much?”
— Saotome, Ranma

Chapter Nine
What Makes Men Tremble

A few weeks of rest we had. Maybe a month was all before the war was upon us. But that was all Ruby needed. She fought as well as any Amazon at first, though truly She was little better than average. Her manacles shielded too much of Her power. I, on the other hand, grew strong, and quickly.

None of that mattered though. All too soon we had lost all ground outside the walls of our city. The Musk army at our gates, and our only chance at escape, the tunnels, burned. Joketsuzoku had sent no reinforcements save for those long dead.

We were going to die. It was the end, and we were all going to die.

And Ruby, in Her desperation stared into the eyes of a cat. I thought She’d gone insane.

Perhaps She had.

In a small clearing deep within the heart of a dim forest somewhere far north of Kinagoda, and west of the ruined city of Tsukigezoku, a small fire crackled warmly, casting a flickering light across the trees and shrubs surrounding it.

The canopy of trees, and the small amount of smoke choking them, blocked out all but the brightest of stars, but the crackling flames gave little shelter to the biting chill of late autumn. Brown leaves littered the ground everywhere, and many of them had been used as fuel to start the small campfire.

The pleasant stench of meat cooking slowly on a spit built over the fire seeped into the dark figure hovering near. Grinning to himself, the lumbering man rubbed his hands together, both in anticipation for his meal, and comfort from his long day.

He’d been walking for almost a week now, and for the past two days, had been eating surprisingly well. He was deep in Amazon territory, so of course most of the big game was being hunted by them. But he’d gotten lucky, a few days ago, and it was simple to haul his catch along with him.

Grasping the sticks he rotated the makeshift spit watching as the meat cooked in hungry anticipation.

“Ahh, this is going to be delicious!” He exclaimed. “Tell me, would you like a bite?”

His laughter, loud and melodious, rang through the forest and echoed in Esthre’s ears. She shuddered as the smell reached her nose. It smelled… wonderful. Even so, she glared a hateful defiance at the man, and would have screamed her rage at him, had her mouth not been gagged.

Her traitorous stomach gave a massive rumble, and guilt shuddered through her.

The man lifted the stick suddenly, and brought the spit to his lips, taking a massive bite and grinning as he chewed.

“Mmm… good as I thought it would be.” He murmured deliriously.

Esthre shrieked through her gag, and strained at her bonds, but they were firm. The shackle buckled around her wrist somehow sapped her strength. Her shame felt like a mountain on her shoulders, but the ropes would not break. No matter how she struggled.

“Aw, come now.” The man said kindly. “You haven’t eaten in three days you know. You must be hungry.” He stated as he strode towards her.

Her eyes rose to meet those of the massive man, and she quivered, but not in fear. She stared longingly at the piece of meat sizzling in his hand. Her mouth watered and she desperately tried to shove the scent out of her nose. But she could not turn away.

The man slipped a finger between the rope that ran through her lips and tugged it free, leaving her mouth handing open, as he shoved the slab of food beneath her nose. She moaned at the wonderful smell.

“Go on girl… eat, eh?” He said, proffering the food, a warm smile on his face.

She tried… so hard she tried… but it smelled so good!

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she gnawed into the meat viciously. Tears of shame. Of weakness. Only three days captive to this monster and she… she…

Gods but it tasted wonderful!

“Ah… good, girl. You like that, don’t you? Tasty?” He asked warmly, as he pulled the meat away from her and took a bite himself.

“Why won’t you kill me…?” She begged. She still wanted the meat! How could she…?

“Kill you…?” The man seemed confused. “Why, I’m not that hungry. Your friend,” He paused. “No, sister, I think you called her? She’ll last at least another day.”

“P-Please!” She begged. “Don’t make me…”

“Make you?” He exclaimed with mox offense. “Hah! I only offered, girl. It was you who took the bite. Want another?” He held up the meat again, dangling it before her nose, tantalizing her.

Esthre could only muster the strength to hesitate a moment before she sunk her teeth into the roasted food, horror mingling with the warm feeling sinking into her empty belly, and when her mouth was empty she could only stare in hatred. “Bastard…” She seethed, her eyes glistening.

But that didn’t stop her from taking another bite, squinching her eyes together in shame as she swallowed, voracious hunger and the will to live overcoming everything else.

Borage grinned. He’d forgotten how much he loved torture. And this was the most fun he’d had in ages. It was so good to torture someone who actually broke. Not to mention terribly tasty. But this all had a different motive beyond simple pleasure. This was training.

He was master of torture, and despite his lost manhood, he’d regained his sanity. Until he had recalled the blessed powers of the pools he’d thought all was lost. He was not a man. How could he even be a part of the Musk if he wasn’t a man? But Jusenkyo… it could restore him. It would restore him! He would regain his father’s favor.

He would recapture Ruby, and on that day he would show no mercy.

Until then…?

Well…

‘Practice makes perfect.’

“T-Take them! Take them down! Cut down the Amazon scum!” Ruby heard the deep scream from somewhere off in the woods to the south, but she ignored it. It was nothing more than one of hundreds, though this one rose above the din of the rest.

Her eyes flashed silently to the left, but she saw nothing but the shadows cast by the dim fringes of sunset far beyond the edge of the forest. Heat seemed to meld together with her skin. The heat of fires in the distance. Bodies and battle raged all around her, and she couldn’t see one through the dense thicket of trees shrouding the true heat of this war from all view in darkness.

Making sure that no one was in the near vicinity, she unwrapped a length of gauze. “Come on. You’re gonna be okay.” She murmured, her eyes locked on those of the woman before her. Leaning against a tree, long red hair, similar to Ruby’s own, the woman seemed at the very peaks of pain.

Still, the woman had been a warrior longer than Ranma had been a simple martial artist. She was good at holding the pain, and keeping it hidden. Blood trailing down her leg, Ranma wasn’t so sure she would have done so well, but this wasn't the worst wound Ruby had seen in the last week she'd been actively participating in the battle.

Well, perhaps she would. She’d proven herself under Borage’s hand.

“You… who are you? A Joketsuzoku girl? Or a Tsuki survivor? I’ve n-never seen you before.” The woman only grunted once through Ruby’s quick poking and wrapping of the wound, and Ruby couldn’t help but feel impressed. This woman was as strong as she was beautiful.

“I’m… not from around here. They call me Ruby.” Ruby replied quickly.

Running a hand through her own hair, cut short for the first time in her living memory, Ruby set to work wrapping the gauze more firmly around the woman’s blood soaked leg. The dead musk, a tiger, lay a few feet away, its upper right fang missing from where it had been lodged in the other red-haired woman’s leg.

“Ruby…” The wounded girl murmured reverently. “You…? But… you are—!”

“A medic, I know.” Ruby interrupted dismally. “I… I’m just not strong enough to be any use…” She admitted, showcasing her arm and the manacles on it. It had burned her to admit that cold fact the first time, when they’d finally allowed her in battle and her hands seemed to do little more than bruise her enemies. That had been days ago. Now, the wound to her pride had scabbed and was slowly healing.

The number of musk she’d killed had increased during her time in these godforsaken woods. She was not completely without power, though medics were looked down upon in Amazon society. Still, at least she could do… something.

An explosion burst in the distance, the ground trembling under power that Ruby couldn’t see from here. She could feel it though, and her hands began to move all the faster. As she continued her medication, the other red-haired woman had been taking a closer look at her and, having counted the manacles binding Ruby’s ki away, her jaw now sagged open in stark wonder, forgetting even the pain her leg was in.

It was not the first time Ruby had seen such a display. Amazons were familiar with the manacles, and the power they held to bar a person from the use of their ki, but after some prying, the Amazons had admitted that they had long since forgotten how to make the wretched devices. Cheguo, the Liontamer, as her title went, had claimed the Amazons had made them first, but that knowledge was long since lost, stolen in the past before written record was kept.

To the Amazon’s knowledge there was no way to remove the manacles, save for having them removed by the one who put them on.

Great load of help that was. Ruby bet a chainsaw could get the damn things off!

The woman burst without warning. “But… how could you single-handedly rescue the entire captured forces of the eighteenth brigade if you had no ki? How could you have fought eye to eye with the Prince of the Musk!? How could you have possibly saved no less than six fellows in distress from right under the phoenix queen’s nose!? You… you can’t be Ruby!”

Well. That made Ruby a bit annoyed. Sure, being a legend was fun and all, but what use was it when no one believed it was you!? And wait… ‘fellows in distress?’ That didn’t even ring right! God but these people were backwards!

“Thanks for the faith.” She jabbed wryly, as she tied a particularly tight knot over the girl’s bleeding thigh and drew a wince that she admitted she took a small bit of delight from. She was Ruby. She could do anything.

Well, except fight worth a damn…

She was content however, as being a medic, she’d found, was unbelievably rewarding. Each fighter she dragged back from the depths of the battlefield, narrowly escaping the advances of the seemingly endless army of Musk, gained her the respect of the Amazons around her, and the warm glow of realizing that she’d saved a life. That this person she had brought back, would have died or worse, if not for her.

That felt big when her trade had been killing for so long.

“No more fighting for you today.” She stated after finishing the bandaging in silence. She was honestly starting to feel a bit awkward under the older woman’s stare but even that was something she was growing used to.

“C’mon.” She stated, slipping herself under the arm of the other red-haired woman and hoisting her to her feet. It was a half a mile to Kinagoda, a trip she’d made countless times over the past two days. “I’d carry you if I could, but I can’t hold out for that long.” Hours and countless trips to and from the battle field brought weariness to Ranma’s voice. Her arms burned with the fire of strain. Hundreds of woman, dead and dying, carried or limped or dragged back to the dying village left her limbs screaming in a blaze that even the heat of the battlefield couldn’t match. “You’re gonna have to walk a bit on that leg. Tell me, what’s your name?”

“Oh Goddess! H-help! Hel—!” The scream was roughly silenced by something in the distance, and Ruby felt fear grow in the pits of her stomach.

“We have to get out of he—!” Another explosion echoed right behind her, and Ruby turned and stared in horror as a tree, now blazing with flames that had not been there moments before came tumbling right towards her.

Pushing forth the massive effort required to use even that small ounce, perhaps a liter now, of ki, she instantly cradled the older woman in her arms and leapt, just barely dodging the massive trunk that would have flattened them both into crushed bone and death, but she did not escape without injury.

Thousands upon thousands of twigs raked through her back as the tree scrapped her retreating body, and she screamed as the pain jolted through her. Shrugging it off, she made another massive leap before her ki gave out. None left, she couldn’t hold herself up to land and she, and the red head tumbled in a heap on the forest floor.

After a few moments of silence, Ruby picked herself up, slowly, her back screaming, her shirt all but torn to shreds. “W-well… we made it. Didn’t we—?”

A chill passed through Ruby as she saw where she had landed. Bodies littered the tiny clearing, dead and dying men and women alike. Some skewered and hanging in midair on tree branches. Some lying against the trunks. Some with faces bashed off by clubs or bonbori. Some with stab and arrow wounds that were sure to kill slowly as possible as they moaned their agony.

Ruby gulped. ‘I’ve seen worse… Dear god… I have seen worse…’ Had she? She didn’t really know. But it made it less horrifying to tell herself so. After the hundreds of scarred battle sites she’d seen even just today, this was one brought fear to her bones.

“Aye, we did…” The woman said, her eyes staring, but hard and cold, her hands beneath her, straining to lift herself. “Come then, medic. H-help me up.” She stated with what might have been a derogatory sneer if not for the plea in the words. “There’s no help for these…”

Ruby almost glared. Didn’t this woman care!? “I can’t just leave them here!” She hissed.

“Fool girl! The weak fall behind! These women are beyond help!” The woman exclaimed, still trying to pick herself up as Ruby rose to her feet.

“H-help… me…” Came a hoarse female groan as if to punctuate the other woman’s cowardice. Ruby felt her respect for the older Amazon dwindle and fade. She wasn’t even willing to try?

“God dammit…” Ruby hissed, as she brought herself up. Her clothes, scraped and scuffed till rags would look better, but still blazing with the neon blue proclaiming her a medic seemed to barely cling to her as she stood. Blood trailed down her back, and she could feeling pooling in the crevice formed by her dingy black pants.

Still, through the pain of each step, she walked towards that voice, ignoring the blustering of the coward behind her. Her eyes scanned the bodies. Dead, dead… dead. All dead.

“Where are you…?” She whispered, the sounds of acrid blaze and the cling of steel on armor, the sharp ‘shink’ of arrows in the distance ringing like a timer ticking down the seconds till escape was gone.

Ten escapes. A hundred. God, but she was tired. But… Her code. She could never give it up.

Not ever.

“I’m… here…” Came a small voice to her left. So small…

“Medic! Please… I can’t walk!” The red haired woman behind her panicked but Ruby ignored her. Coming to where the whisper had echoed, Ruby looked down at a dead musk lying limply over a neon silver shield. Beneath the shield, lay another smaller body. Petite, only the legs stuck out from beneath the shield, hard green colored pants proclaiming the fallen girl an archer.

As if a cruel irony, an arrow protruded through one of those bruised legs.

Ruby grabbed the dead man and hauled him off of her, trying desperately not to keel over at the reeking stench, kneeling down and discarding the massive musk shield, to the sound of a small feminine groan.

Blood covered her hands at moving the man but it was only a coating for more. Some the red-haired woman’s. Some belonging to herself. More to others still, now resting in Kinagoda.

Below, Ruby found a girl with shimmering neon blue hair of the richest color she had ever seen. Kneeling, moving with a care foreign to her before she had donned her medic cloak only three days ago, Ruby turned the girl over, cradling her close and looking into her eyes.

“Are… you real…?” Came the girl’s tired whisper. A cough, and blood trailed down her lips.

Ruby shuddered. “I’m real…” She said her mind reeling. This girl couldn’t be older than fourteen. “I… I’m gonna get you out of here okay?”

The girl’s face lit up. “Out of here… ye-yes. That sounds, g-g-…” She coughed again, and ruby silenced her, laying the girl’s head gently to the ground.

“I’m… sorry. This,” Ruby paused as she studied the arrow in the girl’s leg and decided. “This is going to hurt.” It had to come free and get a bandage, now.

“R-Ruby! Please! Help me!” The red-haired woman was hysterical now. So much for hard and cold Amazon.

“Shut UP!” Ruby hissed, and the other woman’s cries were silenced.

“No…” The blue haired girl protested weakly. “No more pain. Let me die… I’m rea—! I’m ready—!” Yet another wave of coughs overtook the girl.

Ruby refused. She wouldn’t let this girl die. She couldn’t… She had to protect everyone… she had to destroy the Musk…! She had to… she had… to. God she was so tired. Steeling herself, she placed her hands on the arrow shaft. Too much blood was leaking from the girl’s tendon, and so Ruby did all she could. She held the leg. And pulled.

An ear splitting scream erupted from the girl, and Ruby only felt more cruel as she brought out her wraps of gauze. She was running low, but that didn’t matter. She’d make it back to Kinagoda soon… Only about a half hour’s walk on her own. Much longer with the two of them, but she could do it.

She hoped…

Her arms screamed in protest at the mere thought of carrying another human the half mile back to the city’s walls, but… ‘Only a half a mile…’ Her stomach twisted, but she steeled herself as she always did. ‘I can do that.’

The greater fear, the Musk forces, if they were still only small platoons, were fighting only half a mile from the city, and were only sending small waves of men from the massive army that lay no more than five miles east. And yet the Amazon’s were still being crushed.

‘No.’ Ruby thought heatedly. ‘We’re going to win this war.’

She thought it, and she believed it. But she couldn’t see how. It felt… so… hopeless. Scouts had reported that the scores and scores of soldiers camped five miles away from the city, poised to destroy them all, were a pittance compared to the army that still resided further still in the musk cities.

Musk… cities…

Ruby had thought there had only been the one. What a fool she’d been. But it didn’t matter. The Musk would fall. Someway.

Somehow.

Her bandaging finished, the wails of her newfound friend died a little, as the girl tried to hold her pain in, tears leaking down her cheeks mingling with the blood in her ears. It wasn’t a pretty sight… but she was alive. She was someone’s baby.

That firmed her nerves as she hefted the girl’s arm around her shoulder and dragged her onto her back. Her limbs in agony, the cuts on her back from stinging in searing crisis, she slowly stood, and walked. One step. Two. Three…

“Get out of here…” The girl murmured. “Let me die…”

That only firmed her resolve more.

The girl’s feet drug along the ground behind her, but Ruby could tell the blood was already clotting in the leg. The arrow hadn’t been the only wound the girl had, but it was the one she had fallen from. Blood loss. Always blood loss killed more fighters than ever the blade itself did.

After an hour of dragging the girl, or what seemed an hour, Ruby finally reached the red head. She allowed herself one small whimper as the woman stared up at her, and pushed with all her might to rise, not questioning Ruby’s offered hand.

The blue haired girl fell unconscious after a few minutes of walking through the menagerie of the dead. And the other woman did her best to walk, her own legs riddled with scores of wounds that looked to be caused by blades. More, the same twigs that had scarred Ruby's back from the falling tree had not left the other redhead unscathed.

For hours Ruby trudged on, her path somehow unhindered by any Musk contact. Trees slowly thinned and patches of grass and tilled soil where rice and grain had once grown lay in disarray. Battle had reached even here… though there were less bodies at least.

After the endless silence and dimming echoes in the distance, Ruby jerked at the sound of a voice.

“You… are Ruby. Caring to your last breath. I’m… sorry… I was afraid.” The red-head said, and Ruby jerked awake from her endless toil of counting steps, each one bringing her closer to falling and just closing her eyes right there on the field.

She didn’t blame the woman. Not much, though she felt little sympathy either. “We are all afraid.” She stated, in what she hoped was a sagely tone. Another step. God her arms were burning! Her legs were melting jelly… they wobbled furiously and her eyes threatened to close with each agonizing pull forward.

And suddenly, in the distance, she saw it. Only a short hundred feet away… turned on its side, but by gods it was useable! ‘A wagon!’ She exclaimed, just as the still nameless redhead voiced “A wagon!”

Turning to the left… to the right, she saw no one. The sun, now almost utterly obliterated from the sky, moonlight providing as much light as the dim fringes of twilight took over, lit the path before her as she gently, oh so gently, placed the two women down.

Walking to the wagon felt like walking on spring air without the two bodies burdening her, and in what seemed only a few short minutes, though she knew it had to have taken longer, she had the women lying on the back of the cart, and herself strapped the harness where a horse or donkey would once have been.

‘Soo… heavy….!” She heaved, but it was lighter than carrying them.

And they moved. By the gods it was only a half an hour’s run! Was she going the wrong way!? No. No, she recognized the signs… the village was near. Near, but still so far. Taking the small path leading from the distant farm towards a main road, Ruby trudged along carrying the two women on the wagon. They lay on soft, itchy, broken bales of straw, but it was the best she had been able to provide.

Another mile… another battle zone, another search. No survivors were found.

Another mile, and Ruby heard a whimper… another girl, this one unusually plump for an Amazon with hair that had once been green and glistening like a paler version of Chell's, was missing an arm. Well… she was out of gauze, so Ruby removed her shirt, leaving only the slim fabric The Amazons wore to constrict their breasts clothing her top, and wrapped the stub of the severed arm. As ceremoniously as possible, she lay the woman beside the other two on the back of the cart.

And began pulling…

Another mile… another mile… So many dead. So many. As many wounded men lay beside their charred comrades, scalded by ki attacks, but Ruby could not summon enough sympathy to help them.

Not when they lay beside twice their number in dead women.

She continued on… and another two women, both unconscious but alive, were added to the wagon's load. Pulling the thing was like pulling a cement block twice her size through mud, but they kept moving.

‘Just one more person…’ Ruby kept repeating in her mind. ‘It’s only one more. I can handle that.’

As she dragged the wagon alone black flecks started to flicker on the corners of her vision, and she fought them off ruthlessly. ‘Gotta make it… only a few miles.’ She thought.

And to her relief, finally the great barricade, a wall twenty feet high crafted of hundreds upon hundreds of trees, their trunks sheared into the finest points each jutting outward, a spiked palisade barring entrance to all enemies, came into view.

To Ruby’s ever rising dismay, bodies, mostly men, littered the grounds outside. She’d thought that by now the shock of seeing wastelands of dead had sharpened her stomach to a fine point, able to handle anything, but surprise washed over her all the same, as bile threatened to rise in her throat.

The city had been attacked, but it looked as if the ranks of the Musk had been a mere fly swatter when they’d needed a hammer. Ruby could see what had happened. The men had rushed the walls and fallen like flies. Bodies littered with arrows lay at the feet of those massive trunks, each jutting out in all directions to circle the Amazon’s smallest stronghold.

“C-Come on, Ruby…” She said to herself. “Just one more mile or so… that’s all…!”

The wagon rolled a little further, it’s creaking beginning to sound ominous in Ruby’s ears as she finally reached a segment of downhill, leading towards the fortress.

"I think here's good." Came a sudden sharp command. "Lay Erieud down by over the-! Hey!"

Ruby jerked in shock as her eyes connected with the man. She was horrified to find someone had come so close without her noticing, but that only climbed as she saw what she faced. Six men, Musk warriors for certain by their dress alone stood a good twenty feet behind the wagon. A small platoon, looking for a place to rest from their appearance.

Fear gripped her as she saw them. Nothing like the torturers save for perhaps Borage, these soldiers radiated a power and experience that Ruby knew she couldn't hope to contend with. Not now. Not yet. Each wearing the black leather jerkins common in the Musk army they varied as much as soldiers could. Some sported gaping wounds that they appeared to not even feel. The first to catch her eye, a massive fighter with dark skin trained his eyes on her with a curious glint. His face was almost hidden by an odd blue cap that seemed to signify him from the rest, but it was his expression that was the most unusual.

Strange, Ruby found, to see a man look at her, not in lust, but in suspicion and apprehension. A sword on his hip that seemed unusually short for his massive stature seemed ready to be drawn on the instant, and his hands slowly hovered above them in concern.

“Well well…” The man who had been barking orders hissed. “It looks like we hit the jackpot.”

Ruby stiffened. H-how? How had he gotten to the back of the cart so quickly!? Her eyes focusing on the bigger man, she hadn't even seen the soldier move, and now he stood hovering over the cart looking down on the women lying within. Only the redhead was still conscious and Ruby could almost feel the other woman's fear, staring into the man's beady brown eyes and mohawk.

"Jackpot indeed." He spoke again this time to her. 'Too close.' She thought grimly, though what she could do about it was beyond her. She could only see his head over the side of the cart, but beside him rose the top half of a massive blade that seemed to stretch all the way to the ground emphasizing his almost orange mohawk.

"G-Get back!" She heard the other red-haired Amazon screech, an edge of panic in her that Ruby couldn't help but pick up on. She choked, guilt rising in her for bringing the other woman into this. Trying not to let her own fear rise as she threw the harness to the ground with a hollow thunk, every muscle still aching as she tried rushed to the back of the cart. It ended up as more of a hobble, but at least she didn't fall over. She paused at the side of the wagon, staring over the edge at the soldier.

“This one’s already undressed for us! We’ve lost too many comrades today… I want revenge.” The mohawked fighter laughed as he stepped forward around the cart to face her. He said he wanted revenge, but his tone did not seem to agree. His arms bulged with muscle that belied his slim form, and Ruby made a note of the air of command he seemed to hold. The smallest man of this group but still the others seemed to follow him.

‘If anyone is underestimated because of size, it’s me.’ She thought, knowing that it was more than possible this man was the leader. She refused to underestimate him, as so many had done to her in the past.

Ruby tried to summon the words to speak, old stratagems of making her opponents so angry that they made mistakes coming to mind, and being discarded as quickly. That only worked when you weren't going to be making mistakes yourself. She was so tired. Her eyes could barely remain trained on the man as she stood at the edge of the cart, staring at him from over the quivering red-head and the other unconscious girls and women.

Ruby stood stark still, taking no stance. Her limbs burned already but her eyes were wide. Hopelessness warred with the thrill as only the thought of battle could, and not for the first time she wished the manacles clinking on her wrists and ankles were gone. Hell, if she were even well rested, things wouldn't look so bad, but nothing could stop the rise she got from standing on the edge of a battle that she shouldn't be able to win.

Bits of Ranma left in her, she supposed. Utter idiocy. If she lost, she would envy the fate of the dead, and she knew it.

"Leave." She stated plainly, her normally quick wit coming up with no words. It was all that was needed.

"She looks as half dead as the harlots she's draggin'." Came a harsh yet young drawl, and Ruby's eyes snapped to a nearby tree. Erieud, the leader had called him, sat tiredly against it, having just been laid down by the one who had spoken. Neither were armed, and both looked almost exactly alike. Twins, each with deep black hair and long pony tails reminiscent of the one she had once worn. Back when she'd been male... so long ago now.

A fifth man, the oldest of the six had a white mustache that was warring for prominence on his face with an equally white beard. Bald otherwise and pale, he seemed more ready to kill than any, with hard eyes staring into her with a hatred that made even her quake. None of those things held her attention for more than the bow in his hands, arrow notched and ready to skewer her before she could blink, crossed her vision, and she couldn't help the involuntary jerk.

She couldn't help the momentary fear, but that was all it was. Was she ready to die? The question came quick, and the answer, quicker. 'Yes. I am.' Her fear abated quickly with that. Of the arrow at least. 'But I don't want to.' As if pleading with her, a small kick came from the unborn child growing within her. 'I don't want you to die either, little one.' The thought brought a newfound fervor to her, and her seemingly unbearable fatigue abated. Just a bit.

Taking time to survey the final man in the group, she noticed a young man, probably at least a year younger than her with a nihilistic grin on his face as he tossed a serrated dagger into the air and caught it repeatedly. A straw of grass stuck out of his mouth, but he seemed no weaker than the others. Youth bringing him lust, he stared openly at her barely-covered breasts. Surprisingly, he seemed to be the only one doing so.

"I said leave!" Her voice firmed, and she moved forward with a speed that surprised even her. Her arms screamed but the punch she threw rang true, slamming straight into the mohawked man's chest, staggering him a few steps away from the wagon and the precious lives inside. Most importantly she separated him from his weapon, leaving the thing buried in the dirt just enough to leave it standing beside her.

The man looked utterly shocked, not by the punch but by how weak it had been. Staring at her wonderingly, having never encountered an Amazon that pulled her punches before, his eyes found the shackles clinking on her wrists. A slow smile spread to his face.

“You gonna fight all of us…? Eh, healer?” The man's mohawk reminded her of a fox somehow, and she realized dimly that the man might easily have had a fox for a mother. She grit her teeth, and clenched her hand into a fist, dropping into a low fighting stance. A simple stance... anything more complex and she would fall without even needing these men to fight her for it. The baby protested with a kick, but she ignored it.

"Should I kill the bitch, Sadoya?" Came the old warrior's rough voice, his bowstring drawing just a bit tighter, as Ruby readied herself for a catch she was almost sure she wouldn't be fast enough for.

The dark skinned man turned to him with a pacifying gesture. "Stay your bow, Grausund. This girl is on her last leg. Haven't you had enough killing for one day?" The lumbering man murmured.

'Great,' Ruby thought, in the corner of her brain that still had enough energy for sarcasm. 'Big and peaceful.' The man's hand had never strayed more than five inches from that sword at his hip.

"Agreed." The man with the mohawk called Sadoya she supposed. "I've had enough of battle today." He insinuated, heaving the blade. Ruby was almost shocked by the weapon. A two foot handle in the center of two blades jutting forth from either side, each another two feet long and three inches wide, like two broadswords sewn together into a staff taller than the man himself. He held the thing easily in his left hand, one end stabbed into the ground behind him. "Many of our brothers fell today. I don't know about you but I think I'd like to add to our number. Tell me girl, how would you like to bear my child?"

For some reason that Ruby simply could not fathom, she felt flattered by the fact that the man had not noticed she was already pregnant. Anger battled that emotion down easily, and the seriousness of the situation overwhelmed that by miles. She would not dignify the vulgarity with response. She was Ruby! She would not be mocked… not by this rabble. She'd faced down Marjoram himself. Killed him on her own! Musk peons should be nothing! Energy filled her. Two hours without using her ki had restored the beaker that she was able to produce, but her limbs ached even more at the thought of using it. Still. No choice…

She took a fighting stance coolly and stared down their laughter, noting that the large man in the back had not joined in. He was eyeing the shackles around her wrists and ankles warily.

“Come on…” She taunted, one eye on the arrow set to run her through, the other on the man before her. Her chances of remaining uncaptured, hell of even living through this were declining by the moment, but she feigned confidence she no longer had. It was the only way she knew. Defiance to the very end. “Think you can take me?”

The skinny man jerked his eyes to her again and was about to bark a reply when she flashed, bursting away from the side of the cart forward first to the two wounded men. Her mad dash proved to have been not a moment too soon as the she heard the sharp thunk of an arrow sliding inches from her cheek and into a tree behind her. Running with all she had, her foot bouncing off Sadoya's surprised face, she readied her nimble fingers.

Precision that she had never known before the past month's training under Mai the Fiercebladed was the only thing that kept her alive as she weaved under a shuriken thrown by the boy with the straw, still running. Her knowledge of pressure points was her only advantage now, and Mai had honed that knowledge to a point as fine as that of a sword. Sliding into the range of the twins, she spotted her target and took aim. The wounded one was no threat, so she struck at the surprised ponytailed fighter. The results were instant. Two quick jabs and the man’s throat ruptured at the apple, a bloody mess covering her left hand in the moment it took her to get away.

Disgust welled in her, not at the blood, but at the inefficiency. Too much ki. She’d used too much. She only needed to block the damn airway, not cut it open! Still, the function served as the soon-to-be-dead soldier clutched vainly at his throat, blood seeping through his fingers.

She whirled as quick as her feet could take her, but she could not block the swift kick that slammed into her back. From which fighter she couldn't tell as she staggered forward and her face smashed into a tree. Pain welling in every limb, she felt a pair of hands press against her shoulders, locking her against the tree. She struggled, but to no avail as shadows began to hover behind her, surrounding her. Shock bloomed within her as another hand reached between the tree bark and her chest to squeeze one of her breasts.

'N-No! God damnit! No! Erudei! Erudei!" A despairing scream raged behind her, and even amidst the firm hands roaming her chest the hard bark her cheek smashed into, she couldn't help but feel the same guilt that welled into her every time she killed.

Even that faded though, when a fourth hand slipped under the rope serving as a belt around her waist and touched her. Overwhelming hatred bubbled up to a froth within her. Nightmares began to flash before her eyes. Men. Many men… touching her… torturing her! Rage burned within her soul, and her ki burst forth in a torrent. A river. A flood! Her body began to glow a deep and menacing red, ki fueled by her endless anger. Her veins filled with golden scorching heat, holding within them enough power to make the sun itself weep in envy. Channeling that force into her elbow, she rammed into the chest of the man behind her.

Ruby didn't need to see the damage her desperate attack had inflicted; she could feel her elbow had ripped through her attacker's sternum and gut his chest cavity in a crunching splatter. His spine was next as life blood poured from his torso, but that wasn't her concern. Rage. She would not let them touch her again. Never again. NEVER AGAIN!

The men stared at the remains of their comrade in shock, and only then did Ruby realize that it was the boy with the dagger she had killed. But she didn't care, not much at least. She was thankful only for the moment that their roaming hands ceased. Witnessing the unreal power behind the small redhead, the soldiers groping had stalled completely, giving her enough time to leap, wrenching herself away from their damn paws.

“Sadoya…” The big man murmured, staring at the red-haired girl. “Look at her… her wrists… it’s her!”

Sadoya sniffed, having backed away from Ruby. He'd been the one touching her... touching... Her anger brewed anew as she watched him, her breath ragged. Hatred burned to match her own in the fox-man's narrowed eyes, but his words were not for her. “Maybe she is... I'd never believed the wives tales from the capital. Che...” He snapped.

Ruby breathed heavily, the burst of rage gone, but still boiling just beneath the surface. They were going to take her back… they were going to make her… make her...! No. She wouldn’t let that happen… she… wouldn’t!

The black flecks were threatening harder than ever to bring her to collapse. Her legs wobbled and her stance faltered for only a moment, but that was all it took. Sadoya flashed forward, his movement hidden by the blackness surrounding her vision and pain erupted in her stomach as his fist blasted her. She doubled over, eyes wide at the pain, falling onto his crouching shoulder in a vain effort to catch her breath. She couldn’t feel… couldn’t think as he knelt lower and wrapped his arms around her legs, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack.

‘No, No, No, No, NO!” Her mind screamed over and over in protest, but her limbs only dangled helplessly. Deep within her, something broke. She was going to be taken back… all her effort was for nothing.

Nothing… Nothing…

Her eyes fell blank, glazing over into gray portals looking inward on the past, and the future sure to come.

“Come on… she even provided us with free transportation.” Sadoya stated awkwardly, trying to laugh as he stared down at his fallen compatriot. It was war, and he was a soldier. Sorrow for the dead had to be pushed away. “I haven’t had a good schaat in weeks and tonight is definitely a night for it.” He stated, his eyes finally turning grim as he cast a glance at the bodies lying at the foot of the walls far down the slope. He took a step towards the wagon, and that moment was all he had to realize that the redhead tossed carelessly over his shoulder was shimmering green. It was the last thing he saw before she exploded.

A vortex of ki, depression in its purest form blasted into the air. Green and black, spinning like a writhing twister, shrouding Ruby and the Musk bastard from the eyes of the others. Hiding what happened inside. But Ruby saw through glazed eyes that cared for nothing beyond her pure despair. In her eyes, all she could see- all she could feel -was the endless hands. The chains. The shackles… the collar around her neck.

She could hear Sadoya’s scream, but it was as if she wasn't truly there. He tried to throw her, push the burning body of the once adorable redhead away from him, but as he tried, she grappled him, her arms encircling his shoulders and pulling him close. 'You wanted me... right? I'll never escape... Never.' She whispered, almost deliriously as if her mind wasn't truly seeing what was happening. Her depression would not abate and the ki within her raged, exploding in the tornado they resided within. Sadoya's scream only grew louder as raw power overwhelmed him. His body seemed to lose any form of cohesion that held it together, and pieces ripped apart. Appendages blasted away, torn into the ever closing barrier circling them, the artificial wind ripping his detached body parts into mere dust and atoms. His eyes seemed to melt into nothingness, skin ripping off of flesh and blood, all of it flying up the raging tempest Ruby's depression had conjured.

The vortex finally abated, a second that lasted a lifetime, the last of the eerie green waves of light flashing away into the sky ripping a hole in the clouds overhead. Ruby stood her hands wrapped almost lovingly around the charred form of skeleton, her head pressed firmly against the bones where Sadoya's chest had once been.

Just before it crumbled to dust, leaving only the skull, cradled in her smooth fingers.

The men’s mouths hung open, most of them blown off their feet as her eyes slowly rose to meet them. The redhead's pupils and iris were gone; lost to the sickly green energy boiling from what could have only been a demoness, summoned to possess the girl and devour their very souls as easily as she had their leader. The skull in her hand disintegrating into dust as well, flaking away into the wind while her gaze swept across the survivors. No words were necessary since her sightless gaze communicated everything the remaining Musk needed to know, devouring every last remnant of confidence they possessed. It spoke of only death and despair, and the Amazon's message was communicated with absolute clarity...

...Remain and die.

The men scrambled to their feet like rabbits running from a fox. No. Like mice scampering from a brushfire, they fled screaming in terror. Even the wounded man forgot his dead brother and crawled away as fast as his weak limbs could take him.

Ruby held her ground for a moment, staring after the fleeing musk warriors until the burning green and black fires around her abruptly guttered. Ruby fell to the ground inert, eyes staring blankly into her nightmares for what seemed hours more, until exhaustion and sleep finally overtook her.

Until the Amazon patrol sent to investigate the strange green energy pillar arrived, the only sound in the clearing was the quivering of the red-haired Amazon, and the stirring of her unconscious compatriots from the back of an impossibly undamaged wagon.

"Is... Is she alright--!?" The voice was dim to Ruby, but awareness of sound came before she realized that her eyes weren't opening.

"She is alive. But that's all we know, now. In a few days we might be able to..."

The voices faded to an unusual muffle before she could hear anything else, the edges of unconsciousness beckoning her back into their embrace. She refused as strongly as she could, just long enough to become aware that the concerned voice was Aktaya. Beautiful Aktaya. Her friend...

Her last thoughts before the darkness of unawareness took her were to wonder if little Tir was doing okay.

It happened like that more than once. She faded in, still unable to open her eyes, the words of those around her sounding muffled to her tired ears. Moans of others in the ward. Cold analysis delivered from medics and healers who became more and more used to the reality of death.

Even in her state of partial consciousness, Ruby felt the tension grow in the air around her. The war was not faring well. Every moment she was aware of her half conscious state she strove to wake, to rise, to help, and each failure only made her more determined. In the between times, when sleep held her in fully in its thrall nightmares plagued her along with dreams of peace and happy times that she could recall. Times before the war.

A hundred times a hundred dreams, and even more muffled words before she finally rose to actually understand something again, and with this time, the awareness brought pain. Her legs ached like they'd been roasted on a spit for hours and then made to run the length of China. Her arms felt like rubber, wormy and useless, crisped with the same flame as the rest of her.

But it was a soreness, not direct pain. She was healing. She was sure she was healing.

"...can tell she's been using her ki almost constantly for the last year--Yes! I know she can't use it! But she is! With the shackles limiting her she used her ki beneath them, but it wasn't ever able to leave her body... so it expanded her limits."

A pause. What were they talking about?

"Yes. Yes it's as if she hasn't stopped once. She... I think she's even pushing in her sleep. You've seen it; that glow beneath her skin... You've seen her. We all have."

Her eyes fluttered suddenly, as if her mind finally plugged in the circuits needed for movement, and the stretch she attempted ended in failure as the full sensation of 'awake' overtook her. "Wh...where?" She spoke weakly. Her lips felt like dry bread crusts and her throat felt worse.

"By the goddess, she's awake!" Came the shocked cry of a voice Ruby didn't recognize save from the dreams. Wait, were they dreams? What was that about limits? Her mind felt fuzzy, but her vision seemed to suddenly snap into focus. The nurse-- no trained healer could possibly be that young --seemed to be training for a mother hen contest with her squawking but Ruby couldn't fault her for that. Deep black hair tied back in a ponytail that hung to the middle of her back framed a cute baby face that seemed better suited on a babysitter or maybe an elementary teacher.

It wasn't right, a young girl like her a healer, and from the looks of her, well trained at that. She didn't look right with those bloodshot eyes, and the unnaturally clean hands, surely a result of her attentions to the wounded.

Her body felt like it hadn't moved in ages. Burning and searing was an old feeling, still strong. Still there. Dim as if weeks old.

She threw her legs over the side of the bed, and stood. Her muscles ached, but it didn't take her long to realize that no matter how bad she felt, it was nothing compared to the days in the Musk kennels.

"You fool girl! Get back in bed! Get back in--!" The nurse had no right to call a five-year-old a girl, but she did, and her tone was surprisingly firm. It didn't matter though. As she met Ruby's eyes, her tirade guttered with a blanch.

'Is she afraid...?' Ruby thought dimly. Abruptly memories resurfaced. The men... the men she'd killed. She saw it all through eyes unclouded by the despair that had served as a wall between her and the abyssal power within her. 'By god... she should be afraid! What... how did I...?" Her memories seemed focus on the ki she'd held. The utter depression spawning that hellish twister that had ripped away the Musk's very skin. She remembered feeling his skull crumbling into dust, falling like sand through her fingers. She couldn't help but feel the parallel to that, and the hideous memories of her meeting with Tsingtao. He'd done the same thing.

'What am I becoming?' She thought in worry.

"The war..." Ruby began quickly, her mind suddenly jumping to the reason for her battle on the outskirts of the city. "Those women in the cart! Were they alright? Did they--?" Ruby trailed off leaving her question unasked. Words weren't needed, her worry voicing itself; it took her a moment for the frightened healer to answer.

"O-one died." She stuttered. "The girl who'd lost her arm. Erita. The others have all recovered."

"Erita..." Ranma mouthed, scorching the name onto the tablet of graves her mind had conjured for her. Eika. Aiuke. The old woman. Her first kills. Well. Her first female kills. As she wracked her brain for the names of any men she'd killed. Somehow, Marjoram was the only name that came to mind. Thinking harder she discovered two names. Rallum, and Kadred. She hated herself for the fondness that crawled up her spine at the memory of stuffing Kadred's dead body down the wastehole in her cell. That should have pained her, she realized, but his name made it no closer to that mental gravestone for that.

She'd seen other women die. Watched them die in the battle over the last few weeks trying to rescue them. Many had been nameless to her at the time, but she chiseled their faces into her mind forever, and now she added another. Erita, a green haired girl who'd lost her arm and her life battling the Musk.

Ruby turned and began walking towards the exit of the Remedy Cabin, as they called it here and ignored the nurse's surprised squawking as she grabbed her clothes lying on the side of the counter. Ignoring the girl, she shucked the patient's robe she had been dressed in and put the donated woolens on, and then walked towards. The girl made to get in her way as she made for the door, but again, she flinched at Ruby's eyes, and meekly moved out of the way. Ruby pushed the door open and left the room and the seven other patients it held behind.

The first thing Ruby noted when she walked out into the dirt covered street was the people. Or the significant lack of people. Now, no children played at tetherball or tag around the streets. No merchants groaned at the antics of children while bartering away their items for coin. A significant lack of men hanging clothes on clotheslines or standing at windows or over tubs of washbasins seemed to punctuate the occurrence of something major during Ruby's rest. The villagers, those who couldn't fight, had evacuated.

Quiet. That was what it was. Quiet. Soldiers stood everywhere, walking, training in the training grounds visible from where she stood, or in the distance, up on the battlement walls. Women of all ages, and all sizes, almost all carrying a weapon and an edge of unease about them as they walked. They were everywhere, and yet the city felt so...

...empty.

'Is Aktaya still here?' She wondered sadly. 'Chell will be surely.'

It saddened Ruby more how little she'd seen the other woman. Chell's ambition, an almost mad drive keeping her up hours into the night, was her daughter Elli. The woman had become almost single minded in her quest for a way to retrieve the girl, spending hours looking over maps and compasses and stratagems for entry. Forgetting to eat, sometimes for days, the woman seemed shocked whenever Ruby happened upon her. But it seemed her efforts were in vain. Getting out of the Musk realm was probably easier than it would be to get back in, and rescue someone. But she was still Chell. She wouldn't have left here. Somehow, the broken woman Ranma remembered first meeting what must have been almost a year ago now had become a pillar of strength against the Musk. Chell was the proof that anyone in those kennels, anyone wearing that damn collar could come back from the brink.

And if Ruby had her way, one day she would save them all.

"Ruby!" Came a voice Ruby had not been expecting to hear. "You're finally awake! I thought... I was starting to think you..."

Surprise dotted her features as she realized that she'd been walking. She hadn't known it but her feet had a destination, and they'd taken her right to it. The pain of waking had faded to a mere dull throb and been forgotten almost entirely during her extensive thoughts, but now it returned a bit as she became aware of where she was. Her eyes focused on the area around her and she found herself in her favorite training ground. Trees dotted the entire area, much like many of the training grounds situated about the massive city, most riddled with small holes where arrows had littered them in the past.

No matter how much Chell had changed since leaving the Musk realm behind, Aktaya topped her by miles. The girl looked almost exactly as she had back when Ruby had first met her... if one were speaking of her figure alone. Otherwise, that was where the similarities ended. A slim thing, now that the weight of having her baby had been exercised off, and slimmer still for her training. Everything about her that had once screamed 'school girl' though had washed away. Leather pauldrons on her shoulders matched a tight leather jerkin that she wore proudly. A white skirt, fringing down to her knees beneath the jerkin, rested over a pair of skin tight red pants that seemed to flow with her as she moved. Leather boots adorned her feet along with a pair of gloves to match, the one on her right arm having been slid beneath the manacle somehow. Her chest, marked with a Japanese Kanji for 'Resilience' as her sigil seemed to top the image of, making the once weak girl seem almost knightly. She stood there staring at Ruby, an expression of joy lighting her face as she plunged a sword that was nearly her height in length into the ground and leaned on it.

Without warning, Ruby felt a shiver rush up her bones and a short jump in her chest as a strange emotion overtook her. She recalled dim fringes of the emotion from before her imprisonment. She'd felt it before many times, back during her stay in Nerima. Xian Pu came to mind most prominently but all of her fiancées had evoked it, each in their own subtle way. Even Kodachi.

Attraction. Lust. Honestly, it scared her a bit, and she fought to collect herself. "Aktaya? Why are you still here?" Ruby asked feigning calm, trying to figure out why Aktaya had just suddenly sparked such attraction. Only after she spoke did she realize that the question probably offended the girl.

Aktaya frowned, tossing her now long brown hair. "Nice greeting." She stated giving the redhead a wry look, that bordered offended. It failed to reach though, as Aktaya was well aware that Ruby had a way with words that resembled a stone. She recognized the concern blooming within the question, and responded accordingly. "I touched my ki for the first time a few weeks ago." She stated. "You were still unconscious then. They say I’m where their twelve year olds should be. If... if you didn't see them, those twelve-year-olds are here, waiting to fight. I am too."

Ruby felt a bit of shock. 'I've been unconscious for weeks!?' When that faded, a whole new question came to mind. One far more important. "But... what about Tir? Is he--?"

Aktaya turned her back on Ruby and huffed. "I sent the little brat with Heiona to Joketsuzoku. She was the midwife--Er... Foremaid, they call it here, I think."

Ruby was shocked at that. Little brat? What had happened to cause such anger in Aktaya? Had she started to dislike the child because of his father? No... it couldn't be that. From what Ruby could remember, among torturers, Aktaya's husband Veter had been a saint when compared with most of the Musk.

The girl suddenly grinned, looking lazily over her shoulder, that massive sword somehow held in one hand lumbered over her back. When did she do that? Ruby hadn't even seen her move the thing. What was she thinking using that giant thing? It couldn't possibly be her best choice, but the other girl's words drowned out Ruby's thoughts. "Thought that would scare you. It's true though. The little kid cries like there's no tomorrow. He's a complete and total brat, but I love him for it."

Ruby couldn't help but grin, her worries placated. "Is that so?"

The girl nodded. Then without warning she moved almost as fast as Ruby herself could, and suddenly the massive sword was falling towards her in a great arc. A handle a foot long, the girl held it as if it weighed half an ounce, and swung it as if she were swinging a stick. A broom. A feather! Dodging to the left, Ruby grinned. The sword slammed into the dirt of the ground, and lodged there. Ruby assumed she had the time to steal the win quickly. This little battle was ridiculous. She was a seasoned master, and even without her ki, Aktaya couldn't possibly stand a--!

The girl twisted the weapon, flinging dirt up to obscure her uncannily quick movement. She circled Ruby, the sword following along the ground creating a long scrape in the dirt before she rose it with a spiral swing, that Ruby was shocked to find had nigh on perfect form. Ruby knew she couldn't hurt Aktaya, but she was quickly beginning to realize that the girl had not been slack in learning, and if she didn't put up at least a mox offensive the girl might accidentally slay her!

But why the massive sword? A buckler and spear, or maybe a short sword would make so much more sense!

Reality seemed to disagree as the sword's glinting blade tip sliced within inches of her arm, whirling around the dark-haired girl with a momentum that Ruby herself would have had trouble imitating. Dust seemed to trail into the sky as the spin slowed and stopped, the girl lumbering the massive blade, point aimed at Ruby as her feet skidded to a halt.

"Well, well." Ruby said with a mocking grin as she finally realized what the other girl wanted, settling lightly into a fighting stance. "Someone's been practicing."

Aktaya nodded. There was confidence in her expression but a grim look overtook her. "I..." Her eyes turned to the sword. "I wanted to go with Tir. To Joketsuzoku... but I couldn't leave you. So... I..."

Ruby could hear the words she left unsaid. I stayed behind. I want to fight beside you. I... stayed for you.

A small blush crept up Ruby's cheeks as she realized there was a very good chance that her imagination had added that last one. Aktaya was a girl... and as far as she knew, so was Ruby. It wasn't going to happen. But... that didn't mean she couldn't help the girl. It looked like she already had an amazing trainer, but there was always room for improvement.

"You're an idiot." Ruby said with a smile. Aktaya looked almost hurt for a few moments until Ruby blurred, slipping into the other girl's defense and grabbing her wrist, securing the giant sword to the ground with a swift shove. "You need to hold it like this." She stated, and then proceeded to place the girl's hands and feet.

Ruby stayed out with Aktaya, training and teaching her what she knew of wielding broadswords for hours. Sparring, or when tiredness began to creep into their eyes, just talking. And throughout the hours, each of them began to sense a sort of strange awkwardness that had never been there before. A fluttering where before there had been friendship.

Ruby had trouble stopping herself from outright leering when Aktaya seemed particularly graceful, but during one of her own practices, she was almost certain she'd caught the other girl doing the same to her.

Another hour and the sun fell, sending chills through their bones and spurs to their feet to move to the warmth of indoors.

Ruby and Aktaya had shared a small home for the past few weeks ever since Tir had been born. Caring for him had become one of Ruby's greatest joys, and internally, one of her largest fears. Her own child was on its way, and she could not help but feel she would never be ready. Her child would hate her, or worse, Ruby couldn't help but think of the small possibility that she would hate him. It tinged her soul, but every time she pictured the Musk spawn, she knew she would remember...

Remember that horrid place. The things that had been done to her, what felt like eons ago already.

"Tea?" Came Aktaya's light voice, and Ruby jumped, startled out of her deep thoughts.

Aktaya giggled at Ruby's jump, but Ruby effected to front a smile. She responded in the affirmative and took a cup and the kettle from Aktaya to pour herself a drink; she sat down next to the other girl on the plush Amazon form of what she supposed could be called a couch. Wooden posts and siding held four feather cushions that were quite large and comfy to sit in on cold nights like this.

The evacuations had begun long before Ruby had awoken, and many houses had already been available when they had first arrived. Amazons were not stingy about dwellings or properties. All Amazon holdings were the property of them or their sisters. Since most Amazon’s considered even their most hated rivals sisters in some form or another, it led to relatively few disputes over boundary and ownership.

Among themselves anyway.

Silence hovered over them after that, as Ruby sipped at her drink, waiting for it to cool off.

At first the silence was normal. That of two friends just glad to be near the other. Worry for Ruby's injures faded from having watched the girl train most of the day, but as she stretched, it returned in part. Ruby seemed exhausted, but the happy grin on her face did something now that Aktaya had not felt for a long time. Not since before the Musk. It made her blood run. She'd never thought that another girl could do that to her. Not before the Musk, but she had changed now.

And... well... Ruby was her Hero.

Peace wasn't upon them by any means, but Aktaya wondered if she should be ashamed of feeling emotions such as these when war loomed so close to them. But she did.

After it became apparent that Ruby, barely clothed lying stretched over the back of couch cushions was definitely bothering her, the silence became downright tangible. Aktaya had no choice but to break it, but Ruby had the same idea.

"So Ruby..."

"Ah, Taya..."

They stopped, and laughed, each having spoken at the same time.

"Aktaya..." Ruby continued after her laughter had faded. "There's something about me that you should know." Ruby stated, trying to find the words. Trying to... hide the words. Aktaya listened intently as the redhead floundered, but she made no comment, trying to give her the time she needed. After a brief pause Ruby seemed to gather herself as if for a battle. But Ruby was a master of battles, at ease in them when a war god would be worried. This, though, the girl seemed to struggle with, and Aktaya had trouble coming up with a possible reason for Ruby to be so... nervous? No. Apprehensive.

"I... Aktaya, I... am..."

Aktaya's fingers traced the redhead's cheek surprising even herself. She didn't remove them though as her eyes met Ruby's. Perhaps she was wrong, but it didn't matter. Aktaya stared into Ruby's blue orbs with fear and worry and embarrassment, and the security of knowing that she was forever safe with this red-haired prodigy.

"I know Ruby. Me too." Aktaya whispered gingerly.

The dark haired girl laced her fingers through red hair, and let her other arm flow where it would, landing lightly on Ruby's hip. The girl stiffened in utter surprise, but relaxed as their eyes met. Slowly, Aktaya moved closer her very motions depicting what she assumed Ruby had been trying to say.

I don't think I could ever feel safe with a man again... not ever. But... With you I...

The words in Aktaya's heart seemed to find mirrors in Ruby's. Not knowing she was missing the target by miles did not matter as Ruby's thoughts, her plans to tell Aktaya of her locked curse, and Ranma's story melted away. It didn't make any sense. It wasn't right, by her way of life, in Japan. But what was really right anymore? What was the honorable path when she had fallen so far? Her swollen belly was proof enough of that. As if ephemeral hands had pushed them together, Aktaya's fear and worry and embarrassment melted away as easily as Ruby's confession had died on her lips in the mood of the moment.

Their lips met, and their eyes fell closed. Love... a different sort of love. But love all the same. Each felt the other's soul singing in tune with their own.

And for a brief moment. A brief night. All was right with the world.

'Why am I here?'

'What am I doing!?'

The men were getting closer. A massive tide of fighters sliding down the slope like a wave of humanity. No. An avalanche. Her mind told her there couldn't be more than five hundred... There couldn't be more than that, but her fear tripled their numbers and made her feel so very small. They charged, weapons bared, some flashing with visible spectrums of ki, all bulging with muscle and will to kill. What in 'god's' name was she doing here!?

"Hold the lines! Hold! They're not so strong!" A voice rose over the din. Inspiring in a chilling way, an old woman with deep white hair exclaimed before a massive burst of white energy encircled her. A sphere of ki, a barrier, she thought at first, but the elder was not finished. Abruptly pearly fist sized globes burst out from the transparent white circle the old woman encased herself in. Like homing missiles they blurred each leaving its own identical tail trailing behind it until they crashed into the ground before the lines of approaching men.

Explosions wracked the earth as men flew, and screams began only a mere two hundred paces from the lines of amazons standing before the gates.

She herself stood at the back, but she felt as if the breath of the musk lie right over her, each man trying personally to slit her throat. It horrified her, but at the same time... a sort of thrill rose in her.

She was here. She was fighting like all of them. Fighting to keep the freedom she'd finally gained.

Other elders created their own massive attacks each remnant of bombs and nihilistic power surges that seemed to be the very birth of destruction. From one she saw a great circle of lines and sigils form in midair, beaming with an eerie sound before fading away, as great molten meteors began to fall down from the sky above into the heart of the torrent of Musk. Another Elder threw a great cane up above the din of the Amazon's and a beacon of light flared at the staff's end. In counterpoint, a beam of white light shined for a moment almost three hundred paces off, right in the middle of the mass of male fighters. It flashed for only a moment before a great geyser of power burst from the depths of the ground sending bodies flying everywhere and leaving a crater in its wake. The men were torn asunder, their masses battered and beaten by ancient Amazon techniques. But not stopped.

All the Amazon's great techniques seemed to be only throwing snowballs at the descending avalanche. Nothing could stop that wretched tide. She could feel an almost tangible hatred hanging in the air, like a living thing poised just a speck away from her skin. As the line of men and women finally crashed a good fifty paces in front of her, an epic scream of women defending their homes rose. Defending all that they were, the warcry rippled through their force as the charge of men broke somehow on their stalwart defense. Their ranks were plunged into a roiling mass of flesh and swinging weapons and battle. An oppressive heat seemed to seethe through the fighters like a noxious fume bearing down on them all.

Without warning a beast of a man, his beady eyes and nose reminiscent of a massive boar, barreled through the lines to charge down everything in his way. But strangely as she watched him approach, her fear began to filter away. His eyes glared heated death to every women he could see, but the spears and arrows littering his body brought him down. He plunged nose first into the ground skidding along it not two feet in front of her.

Her fear didn't abate completely. Whenever she'd been younger... before all this, she'd imagined battles and great struggles. Heard of them in history, and had been uninterested. Now she was, and her mind had conjured scenes of battle and heroes and emerging victorious. This was not like those stories, but... if she thought of the battle as if it were just one of them, she believed she could survive. She believed she could fight.

Men seemed to span out to fight individually, a hundred one on one matches each interfering with the others as flailing weapons cleaved fingers as easily as arms. From her spot near the rear of the line of women, she could see battling everywhere, friends and foes alike. Elders ripping through their opponents with ease borne of centuries of practice. Youthful Amazon's parrying attack for attack, slaying as often as they fell.

Young women, too young for battle, younger than even she, being cut down by the savage men.

And she found her spark of anger, even as an opponent for her seemed to materialize from the fog of war. A man, taller than her as most were, shirtless and strong. He had a long snout of a nose and jaws resembling fangs mixed with deep eyes that made her think of a wolf. It was often easy to see where the Musk descended from, their features almost always mirroring an animal of some sort. A vicious one nine times out of ten.

The man held a massive sword, wielding the thing in one hand. Bladed on one end it curved into a menacing tip. The flattened side frayed into strips of metal at the back and a series of gleaming amber gems decorated it at the base. Strangely, her fear didn't increase. The man stood challenging, and she stood ready. She held a slim dagger and no other weapon save the mere month of training she'd received. Relentless training, sun up to sun down. Forms drilled into her mind and martial arts being programmed into her.

The sight of young amazons, younger than her, fighting and dying here setting her anger to a low simmer, she crouched to begin. Memories of another who fought when hope seemed lost drove her onward. She was weak. She was new at fighting. But how much stronger could her inspiration be? No. The world didn't ride on her friend's shoulders. She had to... carry her own cross. And battle came.

For herself. For her newborn son. She would fight. Blowing her now long hair out of her eyes, she waited for the man to come. Her face settled into a confident grin that she hoped mirrored the one of her greatest friend, as she beckoned him forward with the mock of that grin.

The man made the first move, closing the ground between them in moments as the massive sword fell towards her. A strike that would have cleaved her in two, had her feet not been perched to dart out of the way of the downward arc.

Her eyes widened in shock as the man twisted the blade just before it struck the ground. Using the rising momentum, he bounced the blade to bring it swinging sideways, aiming to cleave her in two at the waist.

Training left her as a desperate struggle to merely live spurred her feet. Though perhaps it hadn't left her completely because she chose to run towards the man, the hilt ramming into her shoulder instead of the sword slicing her in half.

It was his turn to widen his eyes. Time seemed to slow around her as she realized that he wouldn't be able to touch her. Now was her chance. A dim moment she stared at the dagger in her hands. Simple, a wood hilt and a blade. Sharp enough to kill. But not sharp enough to penetrate a Musk soldier's skin.

She'd done it before... now... now she just had to reach out!

She felt the single manacle on her wrist holding her back, but she pushed beyond it. Pushed. Pushed! And she felt it... a well of... something. Wonderful. Indescribable energy bubbling in her just waiting to be pulled out.

She filtered that wonderful blue confidence melded with red anger into her arm, her wrist, her fingers and the tip of the dagger. All happening in a split second, her weapon plunged into the man's chest. A brief moment it held against his barrier of ki. And then the satisfying thud of her dagger splitting through his skin, a scream ripping through the battlefield.

Her mouth dropped as she sunk to the ground with him, not thinking to let the dagger go as he grabbed her arm with it. Blood rushed out dribbling down his bare chest as they sunk to the ground together.

"Y-You will fall... Amazon whore! You will all fall!" His last words, defiant to the end.

They fell on deaf ears as she fell to the ground with him, her limbs frozen now as she realized what she had done.

'I've killed him. I've... I've killed a man. A... I've... killed.' She watched pleading for her thoughts to be untrue. Even knowing how much better the world was for each Musk death, her conscience would never be satisfied. Not with this...

Her hand reflexively gripping and slacking around the dagger she no longer really saw, she tried to pull herself up. To make the pain of what she had done ebb away, but nothing worked. She lay down atop the man, his eyes now glazed over in death, and let out a howl as the last shreds of innocence she may once have clung to were forcefully ripped from her in the act of her first murder. She screamed, and she wailed endlessly, her own eyes as unseeing as the dead Musk soldier's.

Aktaya screamed and jerked up in her bed, her breath coming in ragged strokes. Nightmares again. They'd plagued her for weeks now, ever since she'd first killed that man on the battlefield. She wasn't ready, or hadn't been. But then, who truly was ready for their first murder? Even in war… It felt ill to her soul.

If anyone had been ready though… if anyone bore the scars better… It would be her.

Aktaya's eyes trailed down to Ruby, lying peacefully beside her in the large bed they’d been granted now that the men and children were gone. There was ample space now, and any luxury the soldiers could get was not taken for granted. There were more than enough beds to go around, but somehow, neither she nor Ruby had wanted to be alone. When she had closed her eyes the night before, and lay cuddled in bed, her friend's body heat and slow breathing warming the large wool covers, Aktaya thought that she could pretend this was a sleepover.

Just like back home.

But now, staring up at the wooden ceiling as she was, she could no longer pretend. Her eyes fell to the sword leaning against the wall, a gleaming beacon of memories, and more than likely the cause of the repeating nightmare. The sword of that man she'd killed. She didn't know why she'd taken it, but she had. This, she'd decided, was what she wanted. Her dreams. She couldn't give up, and her dreams now revolved around becoming strong.

As strong as...

Her eyes trailed to Ruby as a giggle crept into her thoughts. The girl's belly was finally starting to round out. Getting closer. Perhaps another two or three months. Maybe longer, maybe shorter. It was hard to tell without knowing when the girl had actually become with child. Now she lay on her back, face turned sideways and bits of drool leaked out over the pillow. Honestly, she was such a... boy at times. It was really quite cute.

Abruptly her mind flashed to the night before, when they'd kissed. Slept together. Touched and held each other… kissed endlessly till blissful sleep had taken them. Even so, a massive blush crawled up her cheeks as she floundered on a way to describe her emotions for the other girl. Sometimes she felt like a sister. Sometimes, Ruby was more a hero from storybooks; a thing of legends. And then still others, Ruby was beauty. Pure and simple beauty that captivated her in ways she'd never dreamed of before. Ways she'd never dreamed a woman capable of.

As always, the intimate thoughts led her mind back to her dead husband. She remembered watching Marjoram kill him the night she'd been dragged to Ruby's cell. The night they'd escaped. She still didn't know what to feel about that. She hated and loved Veter at the same time. He saved her from the pain of torture. Took her. And at times, made her feel like she was a princess, touching her, kissing her as she'd always dreamed a man should. Other times, he was more sinister, though she had not wanted to watch him die.

Sunlight slowly began to creep into the fringes of the window. Dawn. 'When did I become an early riser anyway?' Aktaya thought ruefully, forcefully pulling herself from thoughts of the past as she rose from the bed and moved to grab her clothes. The slick red pants clinging to her skin like some archaic form of spandex made her feel embarrassed slightly at times, but the armor made up for it. When she looked at her reflection she honestly felt she was looking at a character from a story. Scars of torture decorating her. Armor meant to ward off enemy attacks. A sword. It was all so... unreal.

A horn echoed in the distance and Ruby jerked awake herself at its call. A week had been all it had taken to program instant alert at the sound of that horn. Each blow of the thing represented a score of five hundred men come to attack. And the horn rang. One call. Two. Three...

...seven... eight...

After a time, Aktaya lost count. Today was the day. No more patrols sent to test the might of the Amazon farming city. No more parties of men set to circle the city, killing anything and everything not protected by its massive walls. No...

Today would be the final battle for Kinagoda.

Aktaya couldn't help but be afraid, but staring into Ruby's eyes she thought she could manage it. She would have to kill again today, she knew. But this time she could do it. This time, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much.

Ruby didn't even seem fazed by the endless calls of the horn. She stood, slowly, and made eye contact with Aktaya for a moment before giving a smile. Aktaya found herself returning one, as Ruby wrapped her arms around her in a hug that said everything and nothing. Pulling apart, eyes making contact for perhaps a moment to long, Ruby turned away and began to dress herself.

It was time.

The reaper hung over them, his scythe poised to swing as dawn crept over the land.

"Ruby?" Aktaya asked, her voice quivering slightly. "I... how are you so calm? Today's the day. Today's... We might die today." She stated, trailing off as she realize the implications of that horn, still echoing it's long low tone in the background. "I might never see Tir again."

Ruby turned from the window and faced her for the first time, and for a slight moment, Aktaya saw a strange look cross over the other woman's eyes. A look that vaguely reminded her of Veter; care and... and it could only be called lust gathered together in the same determined face. But it only lasted a moment before the grim determination that singled Ruby out anywhere overtook it all.

She stood, and Aktaya felt shivers crawl up her spine at the sight of the girl. In her glory, small cloth covering only her privates, and even so leaving very little to Aktaya's imagination, Ruby was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Scars dotting her body only added to the lustrous shimmer the fringes of dawn cast over her through the light of the window. Aktaya was almost surprised when the girl's arms encircled her in a tight hug.

"Aktaya. I promise... no, I vow. You will see Tir again." The words, stated in a small whisper on the crest of morning seemed to have the impact of tumbling mountains.

Finally catching a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, tears began to spill from Aktaya's cheeks as the implications of Ruby's promise sunk in. Ruby had made a promise to bring Borage low. She had done so. She had sworn vengeance on the Musk, and she had yet to achieve it, but still she tried. And now, another promise. It meant worlds to her.

"I believe you..." Aktaya rasped.

For a second time they kissed, tears trailing both of their cheeks.

The horn was still sounding in the background, each solemn note lengthening the reach of the reaper's blade.

End Chapter Nine

Author’s Notes: Heya all. Special Thanks sent out to Ozz for taking a proverbial bat to this fic. Bat turned into more of forge hammer.

I know my battle scenes have always been my Achilles heel. I suck at em. I don’t know how to make them feel epic. Ozz does, and god damn does he do it well. I admit, I used some of his example writings instead of just writing my own for this so thanks a bunch Ozz! Mayhaps I’ll be able to do better with fights from now on!

Doubt it but ya never know!

Also, special thanks goes out to both Mark Reynolds for his comments and being my idea bouncing wall and Google Documents for finally becoming the new instrument through which I write.

Microsoft Word… R.I.P. …

I’ve put mountains of effort into this chapter and I STILL didn’t get to the Nekoken. As I’m slowly discovering this fic may turn out to be even longer than my Ranma/SM/WoT fic. I want to push the chapters forward but dammit there’s just no way to do it plausibly.

I wanted to put some truly epic scenes into this chapter but for it to be epic, it needs proper build up and that’s going to take probably the whole of next chapter… sigh… sigh…

So with a tired hand I give you this, what is probably one of my best pieces of writing to date. I really hope that it shows because this chapter was rough to write.

Please Submit a Review so I know my dizzying efforts are worthwhile!

Till Next!

MB