[Ranma][Fanfic] End of a Modern Dynasty - Story Overview Parts 1 & 2=======================================================================End of a Modern DynastyRanma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by RumikoTakahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permissionEnd of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, andcopyright 2000-2010 by Jim LazarAn ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime.For maximum enjoyment of this fanfic series, please read my Childhoodand Adulthood of Modern Dynasty series and outline before reading End ofa Modern Dynasty.E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: contactus |at| animeprime.comMake sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website forall released AMD stories, graphics files, and other information:http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md=======================================================================The following is a general overview of End of a Modern Dynasty that wasto take place after Adulthood. While I have expanded some parts, it is avery brief overview of the major events to allow my readers (and myself)to have some closure. The final chapters may have presented thingsdifferently.----------------------------------------------------------------------Part 1: No war and no peace(Some of the world events mentioned at the end of the Adulthood outlinemay have been expanded and detailed in the beginning of End. Just forreference, here are the world events again.)Estimated world population at end of the Black Wars: 2.6 billionPrimary cause of death during the Black Wars: Incineration by Monolithfollowed closely by starvation.Number of countries left with populations: 138Number of states left in the United States: 43 (Maine, New Hampshire,and Florida no longer exist as land masses and were dissolved as states.Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri were ravaged when the Buyierfeiattacked America's breadbasket. Due to the almost complete decimation ofthe land, buildings and infrastructure, a single state called New Plainswas formed to rebuild from the ashes. North and South Dakota werecombined into a single state called Dakota after the Manitoba monolithdestroyed a large chunk of North Dakota. The southern parts ofSaskatchewan and Manitoba didn't even get off that easily.)The Chinese Communist party collapsed during the war after a monolithunder the sea between China and Korea went critical. Most of the Koreanpeninsula was submerged and large chunks of North-Eastern China weredestroyed, including Beijing. With the Chinese government gone, theDemocratic government of Taiwan stepped in to stabilize the nation.Tibet separated from China and is now a separate nation.The Koreans who survived repopulated the string of islands where theKorean Peninsula once was, looking much like a miniature version ofJapan. There was no reason to care about the old division between northand south in forming a single country from the rubble, since the old38th Parallel separation line vanished with most of the peninsula.Like many countries Australia declared martial law during the war tokeep order and maintain the flow of food and critical supplies, but whenthe war ended the extremists in the government retained control andrefused to return the former democratic government. Using loyal troopshardened by the war, they used censorship and strong arm tactics to keeptheir population controlled and placated. Aided by Kang and Kodachi,skirmishes broke out and the Western Australia and Northern Territorystates managed to break away from the eastern fascist government,dividing the continent into two.The endless Israeli-Palestinean conflict ended when Palestine and Israelwere submerged under the Mediterranean Sea by another monolith thatdevastated the Mediterranean seashore.The remaining population of Israel resettled on the now uninhabited tipof what was once Central America. No longer connected to South America,the entire populations of several nations were wiped out when themonolith severed the land connection between the two continents.Only Mexico survived between the new Israel and the United States,although some small populations of people displaced by the destructiondid settle in southern Mexico.The remaining Palestinians resettled in the middle of Africa, near thenew lake formed in the crater left by the Fourth Monolith.Attempts are made to form a single world government. Not only was itseen as a necessity to help rebuild the war ravaged world by gettingresources where they are needed regardless of the national borders thatused to be clearly defined, but also as a way to prepare for a possiblereturn of the Buyierfei.In the end, more governing power is entrusted to the United Nations andthe structure is redefined (mostly due to the old structure not makingany sense in the post-war world). While the world economy shifted away from a currency based one duringthe war in order to fuel the massive international war effort to savethe world, the end of the war started the process to restore some of theold currencies. The United States Dollar and European Euro were thefirst to recover, with others following. Some nations banded together toform loose financial groups that shared common currency and some overallfinancial governing functions. The African Commonwealths, the SouthAsian Union, and Iran/Iraq agreement were three of the bigger ones.Unfortunately for Iran and Iraq, none of the other mideastern countrieswanted to join their shared economy since they viewed the governments ofthose countries as dictatorships and untrustworthy.Iraq's hard won democracy collapsed during the war and the hardliners inIran finally quashed their opposition. It should be no surprise how easyit is to make your enemies 'disappear' when they did so every day of thewar.Local skirmishes broke out and had to be quelled to avoid the worldfalling into a world war against itself. Fortunately the Black Wars hadunited most of humanity against the common enemy and the localskirmishes were small and contained.The Task Force was forbidden to interfere, but that ended when Akane sawthe suffering during the South American rioting that led to Peru andColombia taking up arms against each other after Peru closed its bordersto avoid more refugees from the monolith ravaged Colombia from headingsouth. That war was short lived as Akane and the Task Force restoredorder. The United Nations threatened to dissolve the Task Force over theaction, but Akane made her first public appearance since the end ofBlack Wars and gave a televised speech that "She would not let men turnagainst men to destroy the peace that my family gave their very lives tobring about." That pretty much kept any arguments about dissolving theTask Force to mild grumblings, else face a huge public backlash.                    -E-           -M-           -D-On arriving back on Earth, the Task Force finds out about thedestruction of Mars and that Nabiki's kids were found with their Amazonbodyguards and were safe back in Nerima. They also find out that all themonoliths that appeared on Earth (except for the few the Task Forcemanaged to destroy the heart for) vanished in a burst of colors causingno damage. Ranma avoided hot water until they returned to Nerima and they carefullyplanned how to tell Akane about Ranko, Daiji, Nabiki, Mousse, andYukiko. In the end she had to be sedated several times before she gotall the news about the devastation to her family.The Amazons elevated Yukiko to a level in Amazon society previously onlyheld by their ancient gods and the First Matriarch. To land the finalblow against their ancient enemy made the little over two hundredremaining Amazons very proud of her.Although the two martian children and Nabiki's older two children hadknown each other and talked via videoconferencing, there was a littleapprehension between them due to their age differences and the way theyall reacted when told their parents died saving the world.Nijiko (Nabiki's oldest girl) took it the hardest. She had long felt cutoff from her mother due to the separation of millions of miles ofvacuum. She pulled away from the family and in particular Akane. WhileTendo Enterprises was being run by Nabiki's proxies while she was onMars, her death opened up a power vacuum. With the world economiesstarting to recover and returning to a free market once again, manypeople tried to assert control of Tendo Enterprises.In a move that would make her mother proud, Nijiko used her mother'sstake in the company to flush out most of the directors and seizecontrol. She buried herself in rebuilding the company to avoid thinkingabout the death of her parents.Over the years following the end of the Black Wars, Akane would try tomake advances to her niece to repair the strained relationship Nijikohad with her and her siblings, but was only partly successful. At onepoint, Akane lashed out at one of Nijiko's business deals that used thegolden remains of monolith explosions to fabricate crystals that couldproduce holographic images. Although this led to incredible advances incomputer technology and vast fortunes for Tendo Enterprises and Nijiko,Akane was angry at her profiting from the ruins of Buyierfei monoliths.Within a couple years of returning to Earth, Kasei developed healthproblems and had to live in special pressure tanks to survive. It waseventually determined that her best chance for a normal life was tospend as much time in a low-g or weightless environment. Thereconstruction of the Earth precluded any large scale space explorationplans, and even pleas from Akane that the world owed Nabiki and Moussetoo much to not do everything possible to look after their childrendidn't push plans for a new orbiting space station significantly closerto reality.It wasn't until a large monetary and technical support commitment wasmade by an anonymous source that a plan to establish a basic spacestation in low Earth orbit was begun. It would be years until Akanefound out that the pledge had come from Tendo Enterprises. In her ownway, Nijiko was looking after her siblings.Although the space station would only host 2 or 3 people at first, itserved as the backbone of a larger Space Station that would grow tohandle over a hundred permanent residents and act as the staging groundfor the first manned exploration of Jupiter and its moons, with a briefpass near the N-M Belt. Kasei was a member of that crew, being ideallysuited to long duration space travel.Daichi was a avid rock collector on Mars, so his space suit had beenstuffed with rock samples from Mars. Those proved to be the only samplesthat would ever be returned from Mars. NASA took charge of examiningthem, except for a rock that he chipped two pieces off and made anecklace and gave to his big sister. Kasei always wears it around herneck. The other piece is embedded in Daichi's watch band.Memories of home.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Akane's depression over the loss of her loved ones kept her bedridden orin Ranma's form for most of the year after the Black Wars ended. Sheeven found it painful to watch video messages from Ranma, since itreminded her that she couldn't touch him directly anymore. At firstRanma tried to stay in her body for as long as possible to keep Akanefrom the pain, but Kasumi insisted that Akane needed time to adjust,think, and morn. Since they weren't conscious or aware of time passingwhen the other one was using their body, it tended to stretch out eventsand dealing with emotions. Of course, even Akane occasionally splashedherself with water to avoid the pain of her own emotions.Through the love of her family and then finding a new purpose in lifewhen Peru and Columbia went to war shortly after the one yearanniversary of the end of the Black wars, she pulled herself out of bedand took a team down to quash the war brewing in South America.When confronted about the Task Force being used to fight other humans,Akane lashed out. Although Task Force funding had slowed and mostlyconsisted of maintaining a basic capacity to fight the Buyierfei shouldthey return, some wanted the Task Force disbanded entirely. The use ofthe Task Force in a human conflict raised the voices of protest evenlouder.Her "She would not let men turn against men to destroy the peace that myfamily gave their very lives to bring about," speech cemented herstature as a world figure not to be messed with. In a sense her need topreserve the peace her family had given their very lives to fight forgave her a new lease on life. Although some in her family wanted her toretire from her position as leader of the Task Force and Matriarch ofthe Amazons and just enjoy the peace, she found comfort in solving thelittle problems the world faced when rebuilding and restoring peace andprosperity.After all, when you've held the fate of the world in your hands for somany years and you saw haw close the world came to ending, you havetrouble letting that world destroy itself.Plus there was no way she was going to let her families' many sacrificesgo in vain.                    -E-           -M-           -D-During her recovery, Sanma spent a lot of time with Akane trying to gether out of bed and to find some reason for her to continue living. Akanewas cheered by her remaining children and by Sanma's presence, but itwasn't until Sanma 'accidentally' watched a news report on the SouthAmerican situation that she found a reason to get out of bed and dosomething.The years that followed were rough for the family and Akane, but she didget better and was spending more time as herself than Ranma finally.They almost decided to announce that Ranma was in fact alive to theworld.Then Sanma and Akane gave into temptation and spent the night together.(Sorry, didn't have a plan for how this transpired and which of themgave into temptation first.)At first they hid it from their spouses out of guilt, but then Ranmafound out when Sanma was talking with Akane about it and she wassplashed with water. Before Sanma realized Ranma was there, she spilledthe beans.(There is a slight possibility I would have a water spill during the actof lovemaking that made Ranma appear. But that depends on if I had theguts to write that scene.)Ranma first impulse was to make a Sanma shaped hole in the wall.He did.When Ukyo found out, she and Akane had a big fight over it (verbal, notproperty damage). Eventually, Sanma and Ukyo move to the San FranciscoCompound to avoid temptation on anyone's part. Sadly, Akane and Ukyo'sfriendship is strained after this.                    -E-           -M-           -D-The Amazons decide to move back to China and rebuild their village.Akane wants to give up her Matriarch title, but they won't let her. Atleast they allow her to stay in Nerima. Nice girls, those Amazons. :)They send word that the Jusenkyo springs have refilled again. Sanma'borrows' a spacejet from the Task Force to go there really fast.He relishes being male again. Not so much all the other animals hebecomes. Ukyo finds living with 'Akane' a bit awkward, but it prods herinto talking with the real Akane for the first time in years.----------------------------------------------------------------------Part 2: Return of the BlacknessAll's right with the world. With the signing of the Australian peaceagreement, the last major political fallout from the Black Wars is over.The government of 'Ranma', which is what the western half of Australiahad called itself during the civil war that divided the continent, nowcontrols the entire Australian continent. This led to ego overdrive onRanma's part as he gloated about having an entire country named afterhim (with occasional grumblings that the continent should be renamed to'Ranma' as well). Only the former Australian state of Tasmania was stillin the control of the hardliners who retained power after the BlackWars.The economies of the world were flourishing, although the thrivingcompanies were still mostly in the reconstruction sector. Even twodecades after the end of the Black Wars, there was still plenty of blackand barren terrain to be found among the returning greenery.The population of the world passed the three billion mark for the firsttime since 1960.And then Akane woke up, made her way downstairs, slid open the doors tothe garden, and fell over backwards.At first, she just gurgled and gasped.Then she screamed, loudly.Kourui, Akane's youngest child, rushed into the room in her gi, her longgreen hair tied in a pigtail like she always had it when training."What's..."She went silent. There was no need to ask 'what's wrong'. It was plainly obvious.Where the koi pond usually was, a large black monolith now stood andblocked out the sun.Casting blackness over Akane once again.                    -E-           -M-           -D-They check for reports about any other monoliths around the world, butnone are found.The entire Nerima Task Force assembles around the monolith, trying todecide what to do. They are hesitant to just go in for fear oftriggering the Buyierfei's return and Daiji is no longer available toblast it from the outside.The fact that it appeared right in front of Akane's house is obviouslynot a coincidence. It is decided that Akane should stay as far away fromit as possible. Akane is reluctant, but agrees finally. She flies toChina and stays in the Amazon village for the time being. Kourui and anumber of other family members go with her.The Japan Self-Defense Force is mobilized to cordon off the area aroundthe compound should anything emerge from the monolith.So as to not panic the public, all this is done in the guise of a'training exercise'.Those few families still living near the compound evacuate anyway,having experienced too much property damage over the years to take anychance. Even 'training' tended to cause property damage around Tendosand Saotomes.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Days and then weeks pass without anything happening. In the Amazon'svillage, Akane wakes up and again falls backward when she sees amonolith blocking out the sunrise outside her hut. A quick call toNerima reveals that the monolith there had vanished."It's just going to follow me wherever I go, huh?"With still no hostile action from the monolith, they still decide not toattempt to enter it. Akane decides that a deserted area would be thebest place for her just in case the monolith explodes. Since there areplenty of barren landscapes since the Black Wars ravaged the world, sheflies with a small team to the base of what was formerly Mt. Everest andwaits. Kourui and the others go back to Nerima. "Luv ya!" Kaurui said toher mother as she stepped onto the helicopter, earning a smile from hermother.Several weeks later they figure out that the monolith wasn't waiting forAkane, it was waiting for Kourui. Appearing in Nerima once again themonolith pulls Kourui into itself. The task force does it best to saveher, but they can't prevent it. A large group goes into the monolith tosave her.Akane races back home, cursing her ego that thought she was the target.Clutching her scared belly, she remembers when the Buyierfei rippedKourui from her womb. "They want her for something... something bad."                    -E-           -M-           -D-Akane was right. Kourui was absorbed and being turned into the new keyand bridge for the Buyierfei. Akane battles the Buyeirfei in their realmto save her youngest child, but in the end Kourui lashes out and sneersat her mother. "I've been connected to the Buyierfei my whole life. TheBuyierfei reached out to me once Shuma was destroyed.""That was over twenty years ago.""The Buyierfei are patient.""Is there no part of my child left in you?""None."Akane collapses to the ground and pounds it with her fists. "No... no...I won't let another of my children be taken by these abominations.""You can't help it. I'll lead the Buyierfei to finally rid this world ofit's pests."Akane looked at a nearby Amazon. "Give me your sword." She takes thesword and grips the blade above the hilt. "I have no desire to seeanother part of my family killed, so..." She turned the tip of the bladetowards her stomach, blood dripping from the wounds on her hands wherethe blade dug into her flesh. "This battle will be fought by others thistime."Kourui flinched, the black filling her eyes fading slightly. "No..." shemumbled."Kourui, only you can save me by saving yourself," Akane said, a softsmile forming on her face. A mother's smile."Nonsense, we will prevail!""Who will?""The Buyierfei!""That's not what we taught you!""But...""You're a Saotome!""Saotome...""And Saotomes always prevail.""Prevail...""And they prevail because they are part of the...""The..." Kourui convulsed. "The... The Anything Goes Task Force willprevail!!" "That's my girl!" Akane took a step towards her daughter. "Fight thepower within you. You're not a defenseless child and can fight theBuyierfei.""Yes... I... will... but... for now..."Akane shuddered when Kourui's eyes went black again. "Fight it."Kourui smiled. "I am."The pulsing heart they were fighting in suddenly went dark and thecrystal core turned black and shrank into itself."Keep up the fight, Mother. I'll keep them under control as best I can,"Kourui said as the world vanished around Akane. "Luv ya!" was the lastthing Akane heard.Finding herself and her team in front of her still standing house, Akanelooked around in vain for her youngest. "Kourui?"Akane collapsed to her knees. "Yet again the Blackness has stolen achild from me..." She pounded the ground.In the months that followed, more monoliths appeared. As during theBlack Wars, the Task Force would go into them and destroy them beforethey went critical.It was after three of these battles that Akane and her team noticed thatthe Buyierfei weren't attacking with anything near the power they hadbefore. They soon realized why."Kourui is fighting back to keep them under control."Akane smiled for the first time since the BUyierfei's return as sherealized she wouldn't have to kill her youngest daughter to save theworld from the Buyierfei.This time they had someone fighting the Buyierfei from within.While Shuma was taken from Sanma as a fetus, Kourui had a lifetime ofexperience to fight the Buyierfei's attempts to use her as the focus ofthe Buyierfei.(It was always my intention for Kourui to replace Shuma (hence her being'prepped' for the job after begin torn from Akane's uterus). but thedetails of her becoming the new Buyierfei leader and then resistingtheir control was less thought out. This bit seems to work well, but mayhave been more involved and expanded in the full version.)                    -E-           -M-           -D-Although Sanma is fighting with the Task Force and Ukyo and Akane are onspeaking terms again, Sanma rarely fights with Akane or manages to seeher. During a battle inside a monolith, they are separated from theothers and can't find the heart to destroy.They have their first long talk in a long time and decide they stilllove each other deeply."So now we have sex?" Sanma asks casually."You wish." Akane chuckles. "We love each other, but I won't betray myfriend again.""Yeah... I won't betray Ukyo again either.""So what do we do?""We tell her and we resist the urge to jump on each other.""I don't know which is harder.""They are both hard."                    -E-           -M-           -D-The battles continued and the Great Shelters are re-opened andrefurbished to handle refugees seeking some protection from theBuyierfei.Less powerful or not, many who lived through the wars don't like thechances of the Human race surviving the Blackness for a second time.Third time if you count the first time the Amazons fought them.During a battle with the Buyierfei, Akane again confronts her daughter."You're doing a good job."Not exactly as abrasive of a confrontation as she used to have withShuma."You have no idea..." Kourui smirks. "The Buyierfei have some kind ofgroup consciousness that is focused through me. I can disrupt thedecisions made most of the time, but occasionally they overcome mywill.""Like that little attack on me last week?"Kourui nodded. "Yeah, for some reason the Buyierfei hate you quite alot.""The feeling's mutual." Akane looked around. "So, anything upcoming thatI should know?""Not upcoming, but I did find out something interesting.""Such as?""You know the Amazon's two great gods?""Yeah...""You know them as Ranko and Daiji."Akane's jaw dropped open. "Huh?"Kourui smiled. "They didn't die. They were sent back four thousand yearsand fought the Buyierfei with the Amazons back then."Akane gripped her chest. "How... how...""The Buyierfei aren't even aware of it, but while sorting through someof their old memories trying to find a weakness, I recognized themimmediately."Akane smiled. "And Yukiko?""The First Matriarch, you mean?"Akane sighed. "And she always hated being the Matriarch.""There's more... I think I know of a way to destroy the Buyierfei forgood.""What is it?"Kourui shook her head. "I can't tell you. As long as it's just in myconsciousness, the Buyierfei don't know about it. That's how I can fightback against them, I'm separate from the hive consciousness. Since hewas taken as a fetus, Shuma never had a separate personality to fightthe control from the Buyierfei. All he ever knew was Blackness."Akane nodded. "I'll leave it in your hands, then.""My mind, you mean. I have to warn you... it will take a while.""How long?""I cannot say, but I will say that YOU have to live in order to pull itoff.""Me?""And Dad, of course."(In the future, James has yet another "I'm going to have to re-write thedrafts" moment. Then he realizes that Adulthood has been publishedalready. "Would have been nice to know they were alive before finishingAMD. That ending was a bit depressing.""Yes, I know it was.")(Kourui's transition to the Buyierfei's leader to resisting theircontrol might not have happened as fast if I had been able to write outfull chapters, but for this outline the sequence of events seemed towork well.If you go back and read the future segments, you'll find mentions byAkane that the Buyierfei were not at powerful or dangerous as they wereduring the Black Wars. THis is the reason. Kourui was keeping them incheck.I was unsure if I would let Akane know Daiji and Ranko were alive andwell back in the past and also when I'd let the readers know. But whileputting together this outline it made sense that Kourui would find outand tell her mother in none of their friend mother-enemy talks. :)Now would be the time to read the 'Birth of the Amazon Way' outline tosee what happened during the first Buyierfei war and the early Amazons.)