STAR OF WAR A Ranma 1/2/Fist of the North Star Crossover By Dragonlord. valheru@mixmail.com Chapter one: Banishment and Liberation ----------------------------------------------- This story takes place before Ranma and Ryouga learn throwing ki-blasts (Shi Shi Hokoudan and Mouko Takabisha respectively). For the Fist of the North Star I'm using the spanish version along with some knowledge from the web. The action, in the Fist of North Star world, takes place several years after the final volume (nš 27) but without following much of the action after vol. 16. This fanfic is for fun. I don't own any of the characters, only the situations are mine. I'm poor so don't sue me it would be pointless and you are smart people. C & C welcome. Please don't be nasty boys or nasty girls, thanks and enjoy! ----------------------------------------------- A fine afternoon in Nerima... "Ranma, prepare to die!" "Don't you get bored of that crap, P-chan?" As usual the fight between Ranma and Ryouga ended with Ryouga being lost. Ranma looked to the retreating back of his rival, a look of longing in his blue grey eyes. As time passed, making Ryouga to get lost was the only way to end a fight he didn't want. "Man, after all the problems with Pantyhose I hoped that pig-boy would have set down his "revenge", but..." finished Ranma with a sad sigh before heading to the dojo, looking once again in the direction where the one he believed to be his friend so long ago had disappear. "Damn" he swore once again. That seemed to be the history of his life: could be friends turned into bitter rivals or unwanted fiancees. Meanwhile Ryouga was still running in the streets of Nerima looking to his heated foe but with the same luck as if he wanted to find his way out of a single door room, that is; none. Finally he arrived to a park were he stopped and, realising were he was or were we wasn't, shouted: "Ranma it's all your fault!!" After the Pantyhose matter Ryouga realised that he needed to improve his skills if he wanted some day to defeat Ranma and gain the heart of Akane, so he began another training trip. After finishing it and believing that he was finally ready he headed back to Nerima. Eventually, being who he was, a trip of a few kilometres ended being a "discover Japan and its cities" journey and after a couple of weeks wandering, he finally found Ranma coming back from Furinkan High, alone. But as usual during the battle Ranma menaged to make him loose himself, rendering his training almost useless. "You're a coward Ranma, a COWARD!!" Then a voice sounded. "Well, well, well... Isn't it Ryouga: the eternal lost boy blaming his rival for his own incompetence." Ryouga didn't needed to turn back to know who it was. "What do you want this time, Mousse? I have still to see you do better." He said in a neutral voice. Mousse ignored the reference to his own defeats at the hands of Ranma. "Maybe, but this time I have a plan that will definitively ride us an inconvenience by the name of Ranma Saotome." Ryouga snorted. "Yeah, sure! Like last time we worked together to defeat him, what a joke!" Mousse nodded remembering the episode: they had ended like fools and, even cursed and hand cuffed, Ranma was able to defeat the both of them. "True but this time we are not to fight him, and we have some help too..." Ryouga laughed humourlessly. "Not to fight him? Then how do you suppose we are going to defeat him?" Mousse remained silent a moment, the last rays of the siting sun gleaming in the frame of his tick glasses before speaking. "Who said something about defeat him? What we are going to do is banish him from our lives. After that he will never be able to disturb us anymore!" "And how are we going to do such feat? And by the way were is the help you talked before?" Another voice, naughty and full of scorn came from behind him. "I'm here, peasant" Ryouga was slightly surprised to see who it was. "Kuno." "Indeed, friend Hibiki. I have blessed you both with my noble presence, true prove that the gods are with us. Why if not so, will I, of the noblest blood be here helping the both of you, so low breeded? After deep reflections do I believe that Mousse's plan has high possibilities to finish well. Indeed with my means; the ones of the Kuno clan and my cleaver mind will us be victorious! And it's so ironic that the foul sorcerer Saotome, who had enslaved my two true loves, faces his doom at the hands of sorcery!" He launched a laugh that could have put in shame the ones of her sister "What are you two talking about? I have some problem to see how you can stand this idiot, mousse." Said Ryouga. To be true Kuno's speech had almost been the cause of an extra week in the hospital for the son of the Kuno house. "What we are talking about", explained Mousse "is that when I was cleaning the Nekohanten I found this!" He added showing a quite curious item as if it was the major treasure on the planet. He needed Ryouga and that speech had almost erased is opportunity to put the lost boy in the group. Time to trap the lost martial artist. Ryouga looked at the hands of the Hidden Weapons master. What Mousse was showing him were three balls made of bluish steel of about ten centimetres in diameter each. Each ball's graved surface displayed strange looking ideograms, from a language that Ryouga couldn't identify but strangely put him nervous, as if he was facing some sort of threat. "And what's this? A ball game?" He said trying to sound as calm as usual. "What you call a "ball game" is one of the most powerful amazon artifacts owned by our tribe, specifically Cologne!" Added Mousse. Ryouga raised an eyebrow, sceptically. "And she let you take it?" He asked. Mouse looked slightly less sure of himself. "Umm... well... yes, but she had still to know about it. You see, she is now at an amazon matriarchs meeting near Jusenkyo, and I couldn't ask her..." "What is the matter?!" Shouted Kuno. "We have now an artifact able to banish the damned Saotome and you are here talking about what a 300 years old dried mummy will do when she'll find about it?! Let's do it and afterwards claim our loves, as it is our destiny!!" Mousse nodded at Kuno's outburst. "For once I agree with Kuno. Shampoo is more important to me than anything Cologne could do to me. After we had banished Saotome she'll see that I am the only one good enough to have the heart of my love, but only if Ranma disappears definitively!" Ryouga had some doubts and still something made him uneasy about the amazon artifact. "If you have such a powerful item, then why do you need me? I don't like this type of... plan, so why me?" Even if he heated Ranma, Ryouga had always wanted to defeat him in a fair match, strength against strength, speed against speed and will against will... not by using some magical item. The only defeat of Ranma he would accept is the one when the bane of his existence would hit the floor; his handsome face smashed by his fists. "We need you," explained Mousse "because this item needs the will of strong human beings in order to activate its powers and it is needed _three_ human's wills to achieve such task. No more, no less: that's the meaning of the three spheres. It's also imperative that the three men or women agreed on the purpose of its use. That's why it was seldom utilised trough amazon's history; it is very rare that three people agreed in the use of its powers. And that's the reason why we need you: because you, Kuno and me have a common rival: Ranma Saotome. He stands in the paths that leads to our loves." He paused. "Don't tell me that you never dreamed of how would be the world if Ranma wasn't there to make your life hell. That you never desired that Akane Tendou looked at you as she looks to Ranma... to held her in your arms... to hear the beats of her heart against your chest as you hug her and she does it back. What would you give to have that?" Ryouga was at loss, he didn't knew what he was going to do, the previous fight still raging inside of his soul. In one side was his pride as a martial artist: he wanted to defeat Ranma in a fair fight, to humiliate him but only using the Art, not some magic as if he was giving up, recognising Ranma's superiority. But in the other side, the side wining slowly but surely, was all his frustration and depression, all the times Ranma tricked him, ridiculed him, defeated him, teased him for his shyness, all the times he threatened him of showing his curse to Akane. Akane. For being with Akane Ryouga would sacrifice everything. "How does it work?" He asked in a whisper his eyes closed as he made his decision. Mousse and Kuno couldn't help but smile to each other. Ranma Saotome was doomed. ------------------------------------------------- Ranma was standing in the soccer field of Furinkan High, waiting for Mousse to show. The day, until now, was one of the worst since his arrival to Nerima It started normally, with Akane splashing him with cold water, awaking immediately, cursing him, because they were to be late. It wasn't his fault that his idiot father dragged him to a harder sparring session. But noooo, the stupid tomboy didn't have the minimal consideration; she only cared about being late to school, not about him. After that he had to rush to high school, without having time to eat breakfast as his idiotic father ate it before! Worst, in the way to the school Shampoo's bicycle crashed on the very top of his skull. Still dazed by the shock he regained his senses immediately as he felt the patented amazon glomp. As his bad luck was having a field day the glomp was just in front of Akane, who as always malleted him without letting him to explain his side of the story, as usual. Then she send him crashing into a brick wall and not flying as always. After that he was splashed by the old lady as nearly every morning, and not having time to search for hot water he, now a she, was forced to continue in his girl form until the school. There he was glomped by Kuno, who, while flying due to a kick from Ranma-chan, spouted that today she will be free of the vile arts of the sorcerer Saotome. If all that nonsense hadn't be enough the hawaiian nutcase tried to shave him bald as soon as he turned back to his male form, making him being late to an English test. Then in the lunch hour he couldn't ate as, when he was about to start one of Kasumi's delicious bento boxes, Shampoo arrived trying to make him go to a date, just in front of Akane and Ukyou who, as usual, both of them, misunderstood the whole thing. So while Shampoo and Ukyou were battling a deflected spatula cut in half his bento box trowing all his food to the floor. Just moments before Akane malleted him, sending him directly to the school's pool, shouting her usual "Ranma no baka!" So when she was getting out of the pool Mousse appeared challenging him to a duel "for the love of his beloved Shampoo and the honour of the amazons's ways who were better than the ways of the outsiders such as low born as him and bla bla bla bla..." So now he was standing in the soccer field of the school, as it was the place designated by Mousse to the duel. Strangely all the school was present, from the headmaster to the senseis, with all the students of the different classes. Even his father and mister Tendo as well as Kasumi. Of course his three "fiancees" were there, and even with all the bad blood between them, they were sitting together, with different expressions on their faces. Nabiki as usual was taking bets, he being nothing more than a way to win money easily. Shampoo was happy, or much better euphoric. Her aireen was going to battle Mousse, due to her "No time to be sorry for the fool duck-boy". After he will surely go to a date with her and after... Ukyou was there smiling: her Ranchan was going to wipe to floor with Mousse, no doubt about it! And she was doing a good selling of okonomiyaki. Nothing could be better. Akane's face was neutral, almost bored, but deep within she was angry with Ranma; if the jerk wasn't such a hentai womaniser nothing like this would happen. Thank goodness, Kodachi was missing. Ranma for his part was nearly oblivious of his surrounding, all what he wanted was to finish this nonsense and go to home and to sleep the entire week straight. All of these duels were beginning to be too much. If only they knew the temptation he suffered each time they challenged him. Each time the idea of crippling them to have some peace was growing to be a good idea in his tired mind... "SAOTOME!!" Peace went straight to hell as Mousse appeared. "Hello, Mousse" he said bored. Why couldn't they see that they were no rival to him? "Ha! I see that you haven't run as the coward you are!" Mousse boosted "I'm no coward," said Ranma in a tired voice "you want to fight me, duck-boy? Then come and finish this. I'm tired of all this nonsense and I had a very lousy day." As soon as Ranma finished Mousse jumped straight to Ranma with a speed that surprised everyone as Mousse's Hidden Weapons was more a style designed to fight from afar. But even then Mousse was not a match for Ranma's reflexes as the pig-tailed boy quickly countered with the Katshuu Tenshin Amaguriken. Hundreds of fist came flying meeting Mousse all over his body making impact. If Ranma had really wanted all of Mousse's internal organs as well as the bone structure of his body could have been turned into a bloody pulp. "That was stupid, Mousse." Was the only commentary coming from Ranma. But Mousse knew that Ranma was going to counter the move he did quickly, but it was part of the plan. He needed to be closer to Ranma to do what he, Kuno and Ryouga had planed. Even with all the pain, he resisted; Ranma was holding back and that would be the cause of his fall. Ranma was concerned. By this time Mousse would have been out cold due to the pain. The chestnut fist was a dangerous move: with only the air pressure he could cut flesh, and with his strength any blow could easily kill. And with that special attack he was able to land several hundreds blows per second. He was tenpted to do so. He was so tired of all this nonsense... He asked himself. But he knew that Mousse was not as resistant as Ryouga with his Backkusai-Tenketsu training. To Mousse one blow with more strength and he would kill him. Even if he didn't liked it he stopped the move. That was a major mistake. As Ranma ended his special attack in a moment of doubt, Mouse landed near him; almost body to body as it was his intention. Then with a flick of his wrist and a movement of his arm he attacked and made appear his weapon. A gun, as the ones used in hospitals, designed to inoculate the prescripted substance, was aimed to Ranma's jugular and with a swift movement Mousse used it and released a special product into Ranma's major blood flow. As the pain flared in his neck and the feeling of a alien product entering his blood he landed a quick combination of punches to Mousse's upper torso, followed by a roundhouse kick to the right side of his head, making the near blinded martial artist to end ten meters away on the ground. But it was too late and Mousse knew it. A mater of minutes and Ranma would be incapacitated to fight, totally defenceless. ------------------------------------------------- Akane was worried and as normal Ranma was the cause. She was still fuming by his commentaries of Mousse's attack. She turned her face for a moment, bored and wanting to return to her house when she heard some startled voices. "Hey what's that?" "Dunno. It seems some kind of gun." "Mousse is fighting dirty?!" "Hey that's not fair! Nabiki give me my money back!" "Ranchan!" She heard Ukyou's voice "Aireen!" By now she had turned her face just to see Ranma drop to his knees with one hand to his head and another one upon one side of his neck, but she could see the red blood flowing from the wound. "Ranma!" She shouted as she moved to go to her fiance's side. She was barely aware that Shampoo and Ukyou were following her. Then in a moment the ground surrounding Ranma and Mousse blew up. Akane and the other two girls were shocked as they recognised the move. "That was the Backkusai-Tenkestu!" shouted Akane as she recognised the special move. She also knew that the only one that could use it was Ryouga. But why would he interfere with Ranma and Mousse's battle? Something very strange was going on. She was starting to have a bad feeling out of this, and by the looks she was receiving from Shampoo and Ukyou she also knew that they were feeling it also. Meanwhile Ranma was fighting a loosen battle, and he knew it. He could feel the strange substance that Mousse had inoculated with his gun in his veins. Already he could feel some disturbance in his senses as his sight was becoming blurred as the toxins were interfering with his nerves. This seemed to have Kodachi's style but why would Mousse want to use the psychopath gymnast's ways? As is senses were failing his danger sense was going ballistic. A new voice made him regain focus immediately. "Well well... isn't the dark sorcerer Saotome kneeling like the knave that he really is?" Kuno's voice. Ranma's brain was working trough an inducted daze of drugs but even so he could easily recognise a trap. Mousse and his fake challenge. The Backkusai-Tenketsu preventing anyone to came near... that means Ryouga. Kuno appearing; that explains the poison, he supplied it to Mousse taking it from his sister. But why? Ranma's rage started to grow. He would not surrender! Not now! Not to them! "For once your right Kuno." Ryouga's voice "Its good to see Ranma like the dog he should be!" Ranma slowly risen his head, even with all his willpower he felt to him as if a mountain was now resting at the top of his body. The toxins were making the easiest movement look like as if he was moving an elephant or change the curse of the stars... but still... he would not surrender. Focusing his sight took him another battle with his body but at the end he could see the three of them smirking. Each was with what seemed a steel sphere... for some reason only looking at the gleaming orbs send unpleasant shivers trough his spine. That is if he could still feel his spine or any part of his body trough the cloud of narcotics flowing in his blood. The Mousse spoke with a voice that dripped hate. "Since returning from Japan my beloved Shampoo had eluded me, his rightful spouse, only to trow herself to a man unfitting for an amazon of her status. I have hated you since I heard your name coming from her lips. She should be saying my name damn you! MINE! I despise you Saotome! You represent to me the worst of a man... but I forgot that you're not even a man are you?" He smirked a cruel smile dancing in his lips. Ranma flushed, touched by the insult. He tried to say something but only gliberish came from his mouth making his rage to grow. How he regretted not having broken each bone of his duck cursed body sooner. It was Kuno's turn. "Indeed friend Mousse. As no true man could have sank as low as to use his evil sorcery to ravish all those young women, the flowers of Furinkan High and kami knows how many others across the land. But your worst sin, the one that condemned you is trying to steal the ones that are by rights the ones of the Blue Thunder! The tigress Akane Tendou and the fair pig-tailed goddess! Now ends your reign, demon! You shall be banned from this land and never will your shadow even be touched by the light of the sun." The smile in Kuno face was as vindictive as Mousse's. Ranma looked at the third of his own appointed judges and gazed deeply in the face of the one that he had believed to be his friend even with all the crap between them, but he only found hardness in the gaze of the lost boy. "Since meeting you so long ago you have been the bane of my existence. It's by your fault that all the bad things happened in my life. I could have forgiven all of that but you stand in my way to have the only thing that I have always desired: love." He paused "I hate you Ranma. I hate you because you have all the things that I have ever wanted and you don't even realise it. I hate you because I'm nothing more than the shadow of yourself. As long as you are here you will always remind me of what I never could posses. You have always won by some twist of fate. Until now that is. We banish you. Ranma Saotome we banish you because you are the thing that stand in the way of our happiness. He paused again, closed his eyes and when he opened them he had a smile as wicked as the one of his comrades. "Rest well in hell Ranma, because it's were we are sending you. I won: Akane will be mine. Think about it as you rot there. Bye my most heated foe." Ranma struggled as he tried to overpower the drugs that were preventing him to fight. Sweat purred down from his brow as he forced his muscles to move, but to no avail. He risen once again his head that had descended to the ground and noticed that Mousse, Kuno and Ryouga had surrounded him forming a triangle and that the spheres were glowing blue, red and white, emitting a blinding light. Soon he could see as circles of light started to surround him and noted that all the people that had come to see the fight were standing unmoving, like bewitched, as unable to move as himself. He could see Akane, Shampoo and Ukyou look to his trapped body, their muscles frozen if only by the impression that the scene was causing to them. The light started to gain the shape of circles that were surrounding him from head to toe. Becoming larger, stronger, brighter, making most of the present to shut their eyes down as the trio of conspirators kept putting their concentration and will in the three orbs of light. Ranma still tried to fight it, unwilling to surrender as the circles of light lifted him from the ground making him to stand and stretch as if two hands were puling from opposite directions. Then he felt it. A slight pain from the tip of his feet, which slowly grew to become unbearable. He looked to his feet and his eyes widened as he sees it disintegrate in dots of white lights. And with each dot, that were as thin as grains of sand, the pain grew more and more and more and more and more times until he believed that he was going to go mad by the sheer amount of pain inflicted. Not even the training in the cat fist was as painful and, back to that time, unconsciousness was the key to fled the pain, becoming one with the cat spirit of the technique. Now, as some wicked effect of whatever mean those three fools were using to banish him he was feeling as each atom of his body was destroyed, the pain amplified a thousand time. Ranma screamed and screamed until he believed that his throat was going to bleed; the shouts of pain filling the field of Furinkan High. Some of the girls were holding their hears as if trying to prevent hearing the shouts of pain coming from Ranma. Some of them, both boy and girls, crying but unable to do nothing about it. In one last glimpse of sanity, Ranma clung onto the hate he was feeling and used it to burn, to fuel his fighting spirit. And with a last burst of his iron will Ranma shouted, his voice filled with hate and rage. "Hear me you bastards? I'll kill you! You... Kill you even if I must come back from the pit of HEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!" That promise was the last and first words since the start that were filled by determination and desire before the cries of pain started again for an unknown time. One minute... Ten... Thirty... A hour... Two... Three... Only the cries a constant. And in a flash of light as his upper torso and head disappeared in tiny dots of light, Ranma Saotome, heir of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, disappeared from that earth to never come back again. Silence and wind's blow across the field. --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- EPILOGUE Somewhere near Jusenkyou. Palace of the Musk Dynasty. "Is Herb ready? That's a strange question." Asked an aged voice, somehow concerned. "I know but I need your opinion brother. Too much depends on this. You know the danger." Answered another voice, younger but most commanding, the voice of a man that both his friends and enemies respect. But still a very concerned voice. In the throne room of the Musk dynasty, the remaining of a proud race in extinction, where golden dragons were carved into marble walls and all kind of terrestrial creatures were also represented, two men were talking. The first, aged but still fit; with a tight musculature that betrayed a control upon it that made the man a powerful fighter even in his old age. His white hair and red eyes that betrayed his non-human ancestor still vibrated with life. He was standing near the one using the Dragon Throne. This one with a body even more developed even being younger radiated an aura of power so thick that it was almost palpable. With his golden armour with red dragons in the breastplate, here was a man that was both a king and a warrior. His red eyes, of the same kind that the ones of the elder man standing at his right side seemed even more dipped in red blood. Both had a concerned face. Soon Herb would reach proper age for reclaiming the throne. That was a part of the problem that both men were talking about. The elder one spoke a hint of pride in his voice. "You know that Herb is the one that, after so much generations, had the purest kind of dragon blood flowing in his veins. Also his ki and battle techniques are among the strongest that our people had seen in the last two millennia." The younger one nodded. "I know all of that. I don't have any doubt about his physical prowess, you have done a good work out of the boy but..." "But?" "But you know as me that physical strength is not enough!" He smashed his fist against on of the arms of the golden throne, denting it. "The boy is too proud and sure of his powers. As I was at his age but the difference is that I had betters that could defeat me." He sighed. "His pride could mean his end and our doom as well... and worst is that he doesn't believe!" The elder man put his hand upon the armoured shoulder of his younger brother; his king. "Tarkan... you know better than anybody else why those flaws in your son could mean our end as well as the one of the world, but you know as well as me that some things cant be avoided. If Herb is destined to fail the tests only the gods will know if the light will eventually return to our world. Have faith in your son as I had faith in you all those years back." Tarkan, king of the Musk sighed. "I still believe that you were the one that should be in this throne, Eldhan. This self imposed task is growing all consuming as our fore fathers supposed, but if not us then who could have taken it?" "No one could back then if the legends are right, sadly. We are only men even with our blood and the powers of Jusenkyou." "Each passing generation our people grew weaker as those one time allies of us, as the Thing grows stronger and more cleaver. Well, things will be as they meant to be." As he was about to start again a messenger appeared in the Hall of the Dragons. "Your majesty?" Started the messenger that Tarkan recognised to be the father of his son's friend Lime, Eldor. "Prince Herb is here at your request." "Very well," nodded Tarkan the previous signs of doubt erased from his handsome face. "Let him pass." Eldor bowed once before returning to the gates of the room. A few moments after Herb, prince of the Musk dynasty appeared before his father. He bowed and kneeled once before standing proudly in front of his sire. "Father, you have requested my presence?" A hint of sarcasm in his voice. Both knew that he was there only because he decided so. Herb had the favour of a great part of the nobles that followed his dreams of restoring the once might of their now falling kingdom, something that had distanced both father and son. "Yes. I asked you to come because I have decided to give you the thing that you have always desired; the Throne of Dragons." A spark of... lust (or was it desire?) appeared in the crimson eyes of the prince. "You are going to abdicate?" He said scarcely hiding both his surprise and his happiness at the news. "Yes, once you sit in this throne your power will be absolute and I'll be death. I'll be living the place for the "younger blood" as you would say." He paused as to see what could be passing in his son's mind. So alike they were in one time, but the Test changed that as he hoped would happen to his pridefull son. With luck he will adapt, if not he would broke and the world with him as it nearly happened to him fifty years back. He had advised his last contacts in Joketsuzoku and Mt Phoenix but he wasn't sure that it would change anything in case that Herb failed. "But before you must pass the Test." He said his voice growing cold, devoid of emotions. "A test?" Asked Herb. That was a new one. "Yes. Since the founding of the Musk dynasty, back in the days when dragons and gods walked the land, any member of the royal family, descendants of the Great Dragon, must pass a test. I can't disclose to you the challenges that you are going to face as each test is different depending on the being. Pass the test and the power will be yours." "And if I fail?" Herb's voice clearly told that he wasn't expecting to, as was the smirk in the corner of his mouth. The king gave a cold laugh that send chills in the spine of his son, who menages barely to hide it. "Better don't think about that possibility." His eyes bored in the ones of his son, the power shining in them turning the blood red to crimson gold. Herb gaze hardened. "Your uncle will take you to the place were you are going to be tested, follow his advice young dragon, maybe you'll learn some wisdom..." He paused. "But I doubt it." With that said he stood up and soundlessly exited the throne room without looking to his son again. Herb stood there way before his father had disappeared when he heard a well known voice. "It's time to go Herb." Said Ehldan. Herb turned, his face cold, his crimson cape turning with the movement and without waiting his uncle, exited the room. Ehldan stood there his gaze going from the golden seat to the red clad back of his nephew, a sense of dread cursing his old bones. He could still remember when he renounced to the throne with the hopes that his stubborn and pridefull brother would pass a test that he knew he, the older, wasn't going to. In that time he had hope, but still this time, even with his words to his brother sounding in his mind, he wasn't so sure of it. Once the Musk had been like Herb. Powerful, pridefull and full of ambition. Cold and deathly. Not that other races and tribes where better but it was also a different world back then. Then... it happened and nor the Musk, nor the Bird People or the Joketsuzoku where the same again, five thousand years before after accepting the task of being the Guardians. Ehldan sighed. Sometimes hope was so difficult to hold. He exited the room not even looking back to the gold throne witch glimmer seemed dull and senseless to his old eyes. ------------------------------------------------- "Have we arrived yet?" Asked Herb. Ehldan looked back to the young man and, without even answering turned his back. He could still remember in his mind's eye the boy he had formed in the Musk's martial arts, the softer times when he could still took him in his arms after he had passed out due to tiring his body's ki too much, looking at him with the eyes of one that never had his own sons to teach and see grow, but even so full of love. Thousand memories of better times, when a boy's laugh would be the only reward he would have looked after. In which point did Herb become so cold and distant? What had they done, his father and himself, to see a now young man thirsty of power? What, indeed? When did the boy die and let the void that was prince Herb? "I said..." Ehldan looked back his eyes shinning. "Watch your mouth, boy. You are not still the king of the Musk. And as for your answer we are already there." He pointed to his front. Herb suppressed the urge to show the old man his place in the scheme of things as it would be pointless. And after all the last step before he had all the liberty to rule as he see fit was just a few meters in front of him. Once that senseless "test" had passed he would see both his father and his uncle step aside willingly. A better improvement. Herb focused his keen sight to his front. That wasn't what he was waiting. Instead of a colossal looking gate lost in the high of the chinese mountains were they were, what was greeting him was a simple looking door of black colour. He looked to his uncle who nodded. Herb looked to his surroundings. Even if what he was looking was harmless; rocks, some green and a cascade just at the side of the black door, something was in the hair. He turned around him as he felt a cold wind brush his neck. He again looked to his front, then to his uncle who stood there silently. Again and again Herb turned around, not knowing what was putting him nervous. With the exception of himself and his uncle the place seemed desert, no danger could be seen or felt. He stopped turning as he had the sudden feeling that his behaviour was childish, yet the still uncomfortable sensation was there. He then discovered what was strange about the place. There was no sound. Not even the cascade that ended thousands of feets down at the starting of the stair was making a sound. He was positive that at the beginning the sound of the water crashing against the rocks from the cascade was imposed upon other sounds but now the sound was, for a better term, death. Nature stood motionless, as if afraid. But afraid of what? There. Again. Something passing cold fingers upon the hypersensitive skin of his neck. He nearly launched a ki-blast in answer. Nothing was there. "You are feeling It." Herb turned and noted that his uncle had sit upon a large rock. The young prince could feel his own perspiration in his brow, in his hair now glued to his skin. He passed a hand to shake the cold sweat. "What's there?" He asked glancing the black door. Ehldan looked to the gate for a moment before looking to his nephew again. "I don't know. It changes with each one of us. You will pass the test there." He paused as if to decide to say something more. As his uncle remained silent Herb decided to approach to door. As he grew nearer the sensation of... something grew stronger. Herb looked to the door. It was a wood he could not identify or even wanted to. Even the movement of touching it made his skin wants to flee his flesh. Herb looked attentively the door before recognising the shape of a dragon's head carved in the dark material of the door. What surprised him was that the dragon wasn't chinese as were the one used in the decoration of the Musk palace. Now that he looked it he grew more puzzled to find that the dragon wasn't of any kind he could recognise and that was... weird. As a prince of a bloodline founded by the Great Dragon he should be able to identify any kind of those creatures at sight, but this one... there was something disturbing, a sense of malice and dread. Herb clenched his hand in a fist, ki-fire cursing across it, his power heating his cooled blood by the antinatural ambience of the place. It helped him to feel more confident. He was Herb, descendant of the Great Dragon. His kind dominated to world ages before the coming of mankind! He, Herb, was -is- power! Then just before opening the door sounded a voice. "Be careful in there Herb. You may be powerful but were you are going _you_ are your worst enemy. Be aware and don't trust anything. Remember that above anything. More than your life his in danger there." Herb turned to his uncle with a naughty grin, his eyes glowing. "I'm Herb, prince of the Musk. I never loose and once I'll return from this... farce that my father and you have organised things will be as they should." He turned, opens the door and went inn. Ehldan looked as the darkness that was beyond the Gate claimed his nephew. He sighed once and hopelessly waited death. ------------------------------------------------- Tarkan was waiting in his private chambers gazing to the dark skies as the sake of all that he and his ancestors along with so many others had fought for was at stake, waiting the decision of Destiny. Almost eight hour had passed since both his brother and his son went to the Dark Gate. Now he could only wait, his role long time done. As one of his last orders he had send a missive relating the last events as well as his fears to one of the amazon matriarch, the current head of the council. Along with the missive a scroll of the legends and records from the Musk about the charge they had to take care since before the foundation of their dynasty. He only hoped that the little he had done would help the ones that had to remain to fight. Suddenly he heard the door open and close without sensing any movement, and in an instant he knew. The head of his brother went rolling toward him leaving a trail of dark blood upon the white ground. "He put a good fight for someone as old as he. Would you do the same?" Said a smooth feminine voice. Tarkan rose his gaze from the head of his brother to look the one that had spoken. In front of him was a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, with mid back short dark hair and hard violet eyes, eyes that he had once seen. Her lips, as red as the blood that was coming from the head of his brother, were smiling, a smile of utter satisfaction and happiness only making her more beautiful, if that was possible. She looked at him and her smile grew even more. She was free. Free. After five thousand years. Free. That was almost the only thought in Tarkan's mind. "You know, I should kill you right now. On the spot." She said almost as if she was talking with an old friend, but her eyes, cold, told him otherwise. "But I also could use you... in other tasks. War dog, maybe. What do you think dear?" She gestured to someone to approach, someone that was in the darkness. Tarkan's eyes grew slightly wide as he recognised the figure of his son, but looking to his red eyes he knew that Herb, as he knew him, was death. "What have you done to my son?" He asked not even waiting an answer. "Why, I have twisted his little mind and broke his fragile ego... now Herb, here, as handsome as he is my new playmate... my consort if you wish. It was so funny to see him fighting to not loose himself in my little... mindgames. It was funny and _so_ easy." She approached Herb and put her arms around his neck only to lick his face. After a moment she turned again towards Tarkan after releasing Herb, her face now as hard as steel her eyes glowing bright red. "This is the deal: you give me the information that I don't have (right now) and I'll not crush you like the insect that you are. That done you will enter my soon-to-be formed army with rank of general with only me as your direct superior. I can be a very generous mistress if I want." She looked at him expecting. Tarkan only went to gather the head of his fallen brother without looking to the woman. Once he took it he passed his hand by the face of Ehldan. What thought could be passing by his head were interrupted by her voice, now as cold as death. "Well, what are you going to do? You impressed me the time you passed the test and I'll be disappointed to see all your skills gone to waste. Above all else don't do a mistake old man, I warn you." Tarkan looked at her, his eyes burning ki just before giving life to his battle aura. The woman not even blinked at the sudden light nor did Herb, whom like a mindless zombie stood there, but her eyes glowed even stronger as if in response of Tarkan's display. The Musk king spoke. "For five thousand years, even before the founding of the Musk dynasty, me and my ancestors have protected the world from your madness. We never surrendered to your temptation or to the dark power you promised for your freedom. Now you ask me once again to turn back from what I know to be right! Never, even if you asked me a hundred times over! Never!" He looked once to the figure of his son before looking back to the woman. "My son had not achieved in what for five aeons had been the task imposed freely upon us by God. He has fallen and I can only cry for him but I will not dishonour him, my brother nor any of the ones that have paid with their lives the freedom that the world now have. My answer you ask? You have it. Never will I bow to you. I never did and never will!" The nameless woman's features darkened as her eyes glowed even brighter to the point if looking as fire. Then in a deadly voice she said. "Herb, this man had offended me. Please go and bring me his heart." Faster than the eye could follow an as soon as her mouth stooped speaking Herb was in movement. Tarkan saw him coming. He could have stopped his son. But he remained immobile. Herb's hand glowed bright... Tarkan felt pain for a moment before staring how his own son's hand had passed trough his chest and how blood splashed in all the room. He could feel how his son's hand had trespassed his chest and back as cold sized his body. Then with a new wave of pain cursing his body he saw Herb's hand emerge from his chest clutching the still beating heart. Tarkan's body fell to the floor, his fingers crossing his son's cheek for the last time as Herb, without looking for his father, turned towards his mistress. He handed her the blood purring organ into her hands. "How sweet of you..." she said before sinking her white theet in the flesh making blood to bathe her face, neck, clothes and ground. Then she looked to the prone figure of the last of the Musk kings. "Sleep well in hell knowing that the world is mine." Then flashing a feral grin to the impassive face of Herb she proceeded to kiss him, staining his alabaster skin with his father's own blood, while a flicker of feeling entered his red eyes. Soon he was kissing her as passionately as she was, reaping her clothes as her laugh sounded trough the corridors of the Musk palace. ------------------------------------------------- The blood was cold. Trakan's eyes already veiled by death were fixed in the last thing he saw as his blood was creating a pool around him. A smile froze in his face. And in the northern skies seven stars where glowing. END OF CHAPTER ONE OF STAR OF WAR.