After 9 months of the Return Revision project I'm putting new content.
Here's the first scene of Bonding Allure ch1.

The rest can be read in Bonding Allure itself on my page

The Return

A Ranma Sailor Moon fic thingy.

By Sunshine Temple

Naturally, I own neither Sailor Moon nor Ranma. So here's the disclaimer

Ranma 1/2 and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

Previous chapters and other works can be found at my fanfiction website.

Temporary Backup Site.

fic/

Other website Temple of Ranma's Senshi Seifuku

C&C is appreciated.

Book 6: Bonding Allure

Chapter 1: Invitations and Impositions

Agents and officers in grey uniforms slowed to detour around a chuckling redhead in leather pants and matching jacket. Standing in the center of the junction of two hallways, a sheaf of un-folded papers were held in her hand. Much of the foot traffic for this level of the underground facility went through those two major corridors.

The broken tiles had been replaced and most of the bullet holes in the walls had been repaired. A young teen with pastel blue hair helped direct traffic around the redheaded blockage with an apologetic smile. Rapt, her mother hardly noticed. Her shoulders began to quiver, and her wings fluttered a bit.

"You don't have to read the whole thing right now," a third woman, just as unnaturally pale as the other two, but with loose lavender hair, dryly said.

The redhead's daughter sighed and not so subtly tried to nudge the slightly taller woman down one of the hallways.

"This is too rich Cecilia; some guy horned in on our sister's business when she was over here." The redhead laughed. It was a deep chuckling sound.

"And she only found out after looking in the Yellow Pages under wizards, and she's complaining about how his advertisement is a full page ad. With color?"

The lavender-haired woman shook her head. "BlackStone gets to the real problem with... 'Wizard' Samri Balducci later in the letter."

"Oh?" Tail swishing, the redhead flipped to a new page while her youngest daughter shot a glare at Cecilia.

"Ranma, you were headed to the commissary?" Cecilia ventured.

"Yah, but it's not every day I hear from our baby sister. Ah, Doctor Butters' girlfriend helped her. Good, someone sensible enough-"

Cecilia narrowed her eyes and plucked the letter out of the redhead's hand.

The redhead glared; her purple eyes flickering for a second.

"Come on." Cecilia had folded the pages once more and fanned them making a rustling noise.

"Fine, I can finish it later." Pouting, Ranma snatched the letter. "Come along Nabiki."

Nabiki glowered, the expression marring her youthfully adorable face. "I was the one trying to push you out of the way. Did you want to stand there until someone ran into you?"

"Oh, it wouldn't have gone that way."

"Your tail was out and wagging Mom." Nabiki adjusted her periwinkle and silver silk dress. "Did you expect someone to slap you on the butt to get you out of the way?"

Eyeing the letter, Ranma murmured. "Um... I was going on my way to talk to Serenity."

"Oh? Her and not our other guests?" Cecilia chuckled.

"Well, she's fun and her girls are very cute," Ranma allowed as they neared the doors to the commissary.

"Please, Scarlet's hair is a bit overdone for Misako and her dresses are too frilly and sparkly for my tastes. Though I do like their mother's taste in dresses; they are cute, if a bit plain," Nabiki said.

"Firstly, that's not true, Misako loves that girl's hair, and you only object to Scarlet's clothes because you prefer her mate's," the redhead chided.

Nabiki tilted her head causing her pastel powder blue tresses to swing about. "Yes, why would I prefer yukata with snowflake themes to acres of pink frills and black ribbons?"

"You make it sound like you wouldn't happily wear the latter," Cecilia reminded. "There was that one time when... our previous mother..."

Nabiki winced, her face clouded a bit, as did Cecilia's. Both their tails drooped in concert.

Ranma put her arms around both of them and eased them into the commissary. "It's okay, Alexia was a monster but she's gone."

Nabiki shook her head. "No... Cecilia... she's talking about a dress that Alexia-Mom got me... I think... I think she was trying to be nice. She didn't have Eclipse or Aurora force me into it or torment me at all."

Their mom was a monster, but she was still... Mother.

"It's okay," Ranma assured, she gave Cecilia a look.

The lavender haired woman nodded. "It came up during therapy with Lydia."

"Doctor Du Maurier does help," Nabiki said. The physiologist was a Company agent so she could comprehend their problems; still there were things that were hard to talk to humans about.

Ranma hugged them tighter and focused on giving them feelings of love. She knew she could have said something like: Just because she could be... kind doesn't mean she was not a monster. Or assure them that Alexia was dead.

But the redhead knew they already knew. She did step to the side of the doorway to not block things.

After a few moments, her daughter and sister recovered. Or at least enough that Nabiki was able to pull her mother towards the far end of the commissary where they got in line.

Things were a bit subdued as the trio got their food. A banh mi pork sausage, pickled cucumber, carrots and daikon sandwich with pate and jalapeno mayonnaise for Nabiki, while Cecilia simply got a brownie, and Ranma filled a whole tray with a pair of banh mi, hot and sour seafood soup, rice, dessert, and other odds and ends.

"Are you going to be okay?" Ranma asked Nabiki, while juggling her tray and the letter.

Cecilia deftly took the letter back.

Nabiki nodded. "Nariko and Grandma are waiting for me."

"Ah, inspecting your blades?"

She smiled. "Grandma wants to get some measurements on my knives and ScarletBane."

Ranma smiled. "Right, it just happens that we have another Dantite weapon on base and she wants to compare the blades she and Master Nishina made with a certain demon spear."

"Maybe." Nabiki gave a giggling smirk.

After hugging her, Ranma watched her leave the commissary.

"She'll be okay," Cecilia assured.

Nodding, the redhead scanned the room. It was futile, if the person she was looking for was here, she would have felt her, but some human habits die hard.

Finding a quiet spot in a corner, Ranma sat down at the table and unpacked her laden tray. Idly spooning some of the savory hot and sour soup she resumed reading the letter from her sister.

Cecilia stood a bit behind her.

"You've already read this?" Ranma asked, then chuckled. "A birthday party. She crashed some kid's birthday party?"

"Yes, and yes she did." Cecilia glanced at one of the exits to the commissary. Her tail twitched a bit on sensing her daughter Priscilla.

"And Eve read it," the redhead stated.

"Of course, Lady Pluto delivered it to her."

Ranma snorted. "Eve's the first to read anything regardless. Puu giving it straight to her just saved time all around."

"Oh?" Cecilia frowned. "Does Eve intercept all your inter-dim communications?"

"It's not like I have that many people writing to me from other worlds." Ranma put a bit of chili paste into the seafood soup. "Our sister aside, it's not like Grandma or Sun write all that often."

"Sun? Wait…" Cecilia paced to Ranma's other side. "You don't mean Sailor Sun?"

"Yes, that was before we found you." Ranma tapped the table with her spoon. "Hell, that was before Eve turned. Has it been that long?"

Bending forward to put a hand on her sister's shoulder, Cecilia smirked. "Please, we're still babies by the standards or our extended family. Even our guest is very young and she's been a demon for a few years."

"And Yohko had experience before being turned," Ranma murmured.

Cecilia studied her sister. "This Sun's a version of you, but still human?"

Ranma waggled her hand noncommittally. "She's a Pattern Silver."

"They're close enough to human. Isn't her husband an alien prince anyway?"

"Yeah, that and going back to his family's homeworld and raising their daughter Akiko is keeping her pretty busy."

Cecilia turned and nodded to her waiting daughter. "You know…"

"Yah, I know it's not a coincidence that Yohko's visiting. At least we had a couple months warning."

"But between Battle of Ottawa and Tessa's summoning scheme we've been a bit busy," Cecilia looked about. The Fallen's incursion into the base did not reach the Commissary but there had been plenty of damage.

"At least it accelerated us getting Site C setup."

Cecilia nodded. "Priscilla has been trying to get my attention, and I really should get going."

"I'm fine," the redhead waved off her sister.

The lavender-haired succubus gave her a hug before meeting up with her daughter.

Ranma resumed her lunch and eventually finished the letter. She laughed a few times and felt a tinge of concern. She conceded her baby sister had more experience with the supernatural.

Yellow Pages issues aside, BlackStone had been a professional wizard for far longer than Ranma had been a demonic mercenary. Though if she were going by time in the field, she would have to admit that the Pattern Silvers had more experience.

Please, let's not kid ourselves, while I didn't see how they performed in Ottawa, Eve's girls did. Serenity took out a shoggoth herself. Where I got tackled and blew up my Jammers when I faced one and the Canadians had to use a tank, Ranma thought to herself as she finished a sandwich.

And then there was Serenity and her girls teleporting into Tessa's summoning. The demon's tail curled as she remembered the battle. Specifically, Serenity using her scepter to spear giant nightmare monsters with beams of blinding light.

Ranma smiled, Lady Mars' service also played a part. It was not every day one got to see Amaterasu's will in full display.

"My, the food here must be good," a voice interrupted the redhead's daydream.

Ranma cocked her head and looked over her… she was not sure how they were related. Given the visitor was of House RedStorm's royal line, and the founder of that polity was a daughter of BlackSky there was a blood link.

"It is. One of the perks." Ranma nodded at the lithe brunette. Her hair was braided up in a pair of rings. She wore a flowing silk, black cheongsam with silver trim and little ruby lightning bolts at the collar. A long bundle of red silk over two meters long was carried on a sling over one shoulder.

"Mind if I sit?" Teal eyes studied the redhead.

"Sure, Yohko." She gestured to a chair. "Where are your girls?'

"Sleeping in, they had a late night training."

"More like an early morning." Ranma gave a vicious grin. "How'd they enjoy their first helicopter op?"

Yohko snorted. "You don't train by halves do you?"

"Nah." Ranma paused to have some soup. "This was me taking things slow."

Tilting her head, Yohko sat down.

"I'm serious, ask around about the training my baby sister went through." The redhead gave a low laugh.

"The arcanist?" Yohko asked.

"Wizard."

The brunette murmured. "Still, it was handy that you were able to whistle up air-assets for training."

"You don't work that closely with the Company?"

Yohko glanced about. "I'm not a full-time contractor."

Ranma nodded. "Don't worry, it's not like you've got a bunch of agents babysitting you."

Her teal eyes sparkled. "Please, we both know that all Company visitors, human or non-human, special contractor or no, get escorts. They spy on everything."

The redhead finished her soup. "Certainly, but you don't have to worry about a bunch of agents babysitting you," she repeated, with emphasis.

"Ah." Shaking her head, Yohko gave a sly smile. "Full time has its rewards?"

"A few," the redhead shrugged. "But being independent gives a lot more flexibility."

"Yes, I may settle down as my girls are getting older," Yohko paused. "Maybe go to Silvana or somewhere else in House BlackSky."

"I'd like to visit, maybe when things calm down here."

Yohko tapped the table. "Yeah, you've had a crazy year here." She gave the younger demon a contemplative look. The redhead had a veritable flock of daughters and a clowder of sisters.

It was a bit intimidating to find such a young brood mother with such a large extended family. And one where there was no senior brood mother over the redhead and her sisters.

No wonder DarkStar was Grandmother BlackSky's favorite.

Eyes shifting, the redhead's tail flicked. "I didn't ask for this," she soothingly said.

Yohko smiled. "No, but you did make the best of it," she purred. "You do know how sexy you are?"

Ranma blinked and looked down. "Huh. Yeah, still a succubus."

"Not that." The brunette snorted. "I mean the easy confidence and command, without coming off as some spoiled, prissy princess."

The redhead coughed.

Purring, Yohko's tail swished. "First time being hit on?"

The redhead looked down and flushed. "Well... all the succubae I've ever met are either grandma, daughters, nieces, sisters or... food." She smiled, revealing her fangs.

"Oh."

"Come to think of it... Alexia was my cousin so all those poor minions I ate were first cousin once removed..." Ranma brightened. "Yup, that makes you the most distantly related succubus I've met!"

Leaning forward, Yohko's smile widened. "We might have to do something about that."

"Visiting home, er the Home Plane? That would be nice, but me and my girls will need some time off..." Ranma took a bite out of her second sandwich.

Yohko looked coy. "There are other options."

"Oh?" Ranma met her gaze then turned to the side. "Senny!" She waved.

A tall, almost willowy, woman crossed the room. Her features were pale and statuesque, but not the unnatural succubus pallor, or sharp features of the redhead. Long silver-blonde hair was pulled up into two inter-braided buns on the back of her head before spilling down her shoulders in a pair of long tails.

A silver jacket, just a tinge darker than her tresses, was open over a cream-colored blouse with heavy decolletage in front. A matching silver skirt managed to conceal more of the tops of her stockings than was given by first impression.

She strode closer, white pumps clicking on silver-chased toes and metallic silver heel spikes.

"You were looking for me?" she asked the redhead. Her smile beamed out, complimented by the relatively understated cosmetics that focused on drawing to her eyes and lips.

"Senny?" Yohko asked.

"Yes, that is a... new one," Serenity's attention went between the two brood mothers. "Ah, your new friend, Ranma?"

"This is Yohko of House RedStorm; she and her daughters are visiting," Ranma said as she motioned for Serenity to take the seat beside her at the table.

Yohko's tail swished at that. "And you're the Lunarian Queen," she bowed her horns to Serenity.

Taking the offered chair, Serenity gave a little sigh. "Am I that obvious?"

"You might not have your calling card on your forehead," Ranma purred. "But you certainly taste that way."

"You two are tasting me?"

Yohko waved. "More like smelling, but saying your odor is recognizable is not exactly complimentary sounding is it?

"It's not a bad smell, it's a very enticing one," Ranma turned so her knees were closer to Serenity's.

The queen smiled and looked at the depleted tray. "And here you are after such a light meal."

Yohko chuckled.

"I do have some experience in managing hungry little demons." Serenity squared her shoulders and was just tall enough to loom over the short, but not petite, redhead.

Ranma put on a faux pout as she snaked her tail over to Serenity.

"You do," Ranma purred. "You all moved into the new place?"

Serenity gave the teal-eyed demon a slight glance. "Yes, Meiou is still getting escape plans setup. I'd say she's paranoid but..."

The redhead nodded. "You know, you could have moved onto my street."

"And put all the Company's high value assets in one place?" The Moon Queen laughed. "Your sister would hit you for suggesting that."

"Eve wouldn't... hit me," Ranma pouted.

"Maybe not, but I know she finds Succubus Street risky enough."

"Succubus Street?" Yohko asked.

"Eve, Cecilia, and their girls live just down the road from where I live with my girls."

The brunette demon nodded. "Right, centralization allows for more efficient defense and access control, but it makes a bigger target."

Sighing a bit, Serenity eyed her. Age was hard to tell with succubae, but the Japanese woman had an air of more maturity and age than the redhead. "Is every succubus an expert in... tradecraft?"

"I have been a contractor for a while, more independent than some, but similar job," Yohko shot Ranma a look. "Though I specialized in Pattern D's who didn't play nice."

"And even those of us who aren't 'on the job' have to live among humans, which requires being able to hide our true nature."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Ranma, you do the bare minimum to not look blatantly demonic."

"Still!"

Before turning to Yohko, Serenity gave Ranma a smile. "How long have you been a well... demon hunter?"

The brunette gave a fanged smile. "Since before I was turned."

Serenity looked the brunette over. She was not sure on the etiquette here. Was asking how someone was turned a sensitive topic? It could be very traumatic, such as how Ranma, most of her daughters, and Cecilia and all of her daughters got turned. For that matter, Eve's daughters were also turned during battle.

"How'd you get turned?" the redhead blurted out.

Yohko looked a bit embarrassed. "A dumb teenager got in over her head and tried to banish the wrong demoness. My grandmother, my human grandmother was... not happy."

"You attacked a succubus and got turned?" Serenity frowned.

"There was more to it than that. For one Mom's really powerful and... patient," Yohko blushed. "At least my dating life got better, which made both my new and old mother happy."

"Yes, succubae seem to have little problem dating," Serenity glanced to Ranma. "Normal succubae," she teased.

Ranma stuck out her tongue.

"Both were happy?" she then asked Yohko.

"My mother, my human mother, was always... sexual. She gave me a package of condoms when I was sixteen."

Serenity coughed.

"Hey, I was boy crazy back then," Yohko's cheeks tinged and she caught Ranma's eye. "Not... that I am 'boy' crazy now. Also... I obviously wasn't that boy crazy even as a human."

"Obviously?"

Yohko worked her jaw. "Oh. Um... well... how to put this..." Her eyes went to the silk bundle she'd propped up next to her.

"What... did your magical powers only work if you were a virgin?" Serenity blinked at the teal-eyed demon's sheepish nod.

"Oh... no wonder your human grandma was mad."

"Granny Madoka was more than mad. I mean her own daughter, my mom, couldn't be a Devil Hunter because she was pregnant with me. The mantle had to go from my grandmother to me. And now I was a demon, and worse a sex demon? Who ever heard of a virgin succubus?"

Serenity chuckled. "Yes, imagine such a thing."

Ranma blushed.

"So... how bad did it go with Granny Madoka."

Yohko put her hands on the table palm down. "Adopting my friend Azusa helped. It was complicated but..." The demonic hunter bit her lip. "Azusa was training to be a devil hunter and had been... my sidekick. She's the 109th Devil Hunter now."

"I'm sorry." Ranma put her hand on Yohko's.

"Grany Madoka still talks to me. She... um, I'm not the one she blames." Yohko gripped the redhead's fingers. "Funny thing... I should have been, the 109th Devil Hunter."

"But your mother..."

"Yeah, she got pregnant with me too early. Though I don't think I was conceived her first time."

"Oh." Serenity gave a sour expression. "She blames your mother for not being a virgin?"

"She blames both my mothers!" Yohko looked to Ranma and gave a little smile.
"If my human mother had taken up the mantle. And had fought she and grandma could have trained me. I would have been stronger, would have been wiser. And I wouldn't have fallen to some temptress."

Serenity could just feel the wave of sympathy going from the redhead to the brunette.

Yohko gave Ranma's hand a pat. "We can't all be the result of magical reincarnation."

"It's overrated," Ranma and Serenity echoed.

The brunette shook her head. "Magical girls."

"Hey!" Ranma groused.

"Its' not all bad. My human mother loves seeing my girls."

"And given they're succubae, her sexual attitudes probably mean she's the fun grandma," Ranma offered.

"Yes, but as much as my daughters love Granny Sanyoko, she's still only..." Catching Serenity's gaze, Yohko trailed off.

"Human?" Serenity asked.

"There is a gap between our kind and your kind," Yohko awkwardly looked to Ranma for help.

The redhead frowned and finished her soup. "My last relationship was... challenging. That she was human wasn't the only problem, but it... contributed."

Serenity put an arm around the sad succubus's shoulder. The shorter woman leaned on her.

Yohko turned away. "Um, there was another reason why I wanted to talk."

"You didn't just want to flirt?" A bit of a smile crossed Ranma's face

"Well, we got to talking and..." Yohko pulled out a black gilt-edged envelope and placed it on the table.

Recognizing the sigil embossed in wax on the black Ranma tilted her head. "Grandma?" she looked at the surprisingly slim envelope.

"I can guess what it is," Yohko took out her own black envelope.

The redhead was already slicing off the edge and pulling out a cream slip of paper filled with a very neat set of Hiragana characters.

"BlackSky knows Japanese? And calligraphy?" Serenity asked after Ranma handed her the short message.

Yohko gave the silver-haired woman a perplexed gaze. "Grandma BlackSky is the mother of RedStorm, the head of my House. She rules directly or indirectly the better part of a continent."

"She invaded this world." Ranma reminded. "And used my death to destroy a rival and further her dealings with your Mother."

Yohko nodded. "BlackSky is."

Serenity picked at the letter. "And she's inviting herself over for dinner?"

"Oh no, she's just expressing an interest in meeting both of us again, and invites us over to Silvana, but is more than understanding that our busy schedules would not allow us to attend."

"And she just happens to imply that she would not be insulted if you made an offer that was more convenient to you." Serenity shook her head. "I'm Japanese too, we all know about politeness games and saving face."

Ranma snickered.

"Okay, maybe not all of us," Serenity added.

"I can be plenty polite, diplomatic even," Ranma crossed her arms.

Serenity nodded. "Sure."

"I was diplomatic with that scary fae queen, even got a deal out of it."

The moon queen's eyes met Ranma's purple ones and she gave a tiny inquisitive look. The redhead nodded ever so slightly

"You mean when that queen's leg breaker tried to phone home for support and figure out why she-"

"He," Ranma interrupted. "At the time," she added to Yohko.

"Why he had been sent here, when it turned out that another fairy queen sent him over?"

Yohko's hand played against the bundle of red silk she had leaned against the table. "Right, can you summarize what you're talking about?"

"You how over a month ago there was a... gas explosion to the east of Toronto?" Ranma asked.

"You mean when some terrorists angry at Canada's middle eastern meddling prematurely set off an improvised fuel air bomb they had made out of some tanker trucks they had staged near a hospital they had planned to destroy?" Yohko flatly recited

"Hey, I don't write the cover stories. I mean the guys in Public Relations Section make sure to keep me well away from the media."

"They really do," Serenity added. "It's a challenge given all that red hair."

"Says the woman with all the blasts of brilliant glowing light."

Yohko shook her head. "Right... some Pattern F bigwigs sent you an asset to help you kill whatever it was you two blew up in London, Ontario last month."

"It was more than just us," Serenity assured.

"And the asset was a powerful Prime, a full blown wizard."

"And from the pronouns, and that I'm the first succubus you've met not of your brood, you turned him."

Ranma gave a smug smile. "Sister."

"You made a fae queen's wizard asset..."

"Her knight," the redhead corrected.

"Her knight into your sister? And this queen didn't flay you?"

"I'm pretty sure Mab's quite happy with the results."

Serenity shook her head. "She gets insufferable like this."

Yohko blinked. "Oh, her. You did that... to Mab. "

"You've met?"

"My mother told me about her, from her mother." Yohko exhaled. "Okay, that's pretty impressive."

"Don't encourage her," Serenity mock sighed.

"Hey, I was also diplomatic with you."

"Are you talking about the deal to train me or the insurance deal."

"I got better with those," Ranma's tone was sheepish. "But no, I'm talking about how I treated the Ami situation."

Serenity quirked an eyebrow. "You mean how you haven't eaten my friend?"

"Your friend who is playing evil Mistress and doing naughty things in Japan. I've been exceedingly polite with her."

"Dare I ask?" Yohko asked.

"My friend Ami was- is- "Serenity corrected herself with a snarl. "A magical girl. Six months ago, she got corrupted by the same bozo who got this one all demony." She waved to Ranma.

"And she's running around being a dark magical girl?"

"She thinks she's saving me from dark influence, and learning how to make us stronger, better able to fight what's coming." Serenity flexed her right hand and then clenched her fingers.

"Oh... "

The table grew silent for a bit.

Yohko gave the redhead a wistful look then shrugged. "You know, when Grandma visits..."

"You're assuming BlackSky will get her wish and they'll setup a dinner thing?" Serenity asked.

Both demons chuckled. "The brass here want to keep her, and by extension her spawn happy," Yohko said.

"Yeah, not to mention Jacob and Stillwater see this as a way to learn more about the succubus Homeplane," Ranma added.

"I'd bet Eve already knows and is ironing out all the logistics and planning," Ranma chewed her lip. "Picking a location will depend on a lot of things, like how many will show up, and how private it'll have to be."

"Not just that," Yohko gave the redhead a coy smile.

"Oh?"

"It might be best if you brought a date to this dinner; to keep Grandma from meddling." Yohko then pointedly turned to Serenity.

The silver-haired Senshi coughed. "Um..."

Ranma gave her a wry smile.

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The rest can be read under Bonding Allure.