[Ranma][Fanfic] End of a Modern Dynasty - Story Overview Parts 3 & 4=======================================================================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 3: End of a Modern Dynasty2050After Akane finds out that Ukyo is dying of cancer, she flies to SanFrancisco. She was a little upset that Ukyo hid it from her. "We mayhave had our problems with our mutual loves, but I'm still your friend,right?""Yes, always," Ukyo said, a weak smile on her lips. "It's ironic thatI'd die this way and not in battle."Akane wiped a tear out of her eye and hugged Ukyo. "None of that talk.We'll get you killed in a battle yet!"Ukyo chuckled. "Hey, Akane... you have my permission.""Permission?""To marry Sanma once I'm gone.""Ukyo... I know Sanma loves you.""I know. But as you should know, love is not as simple as that. You bothlove each other, admit it.""Yes, we do. But we...""But nothing. Don't drag it out. Don't let Sanma pretend it'sinappropriate to get married so soon. So it..." Ukyo got a mischievoussmile on her face. "Do it the day after my funeral."Akane's jaw dropped. "Not a chance...""And if one of you gets killed in battle before you can marry?"Akane had no answer for that.Akane spent the next three months in San Francisco with her friend andon a foggy day in June, she buried her friend right next to her father,who was buried in San Francisco after his death defending the city. Hewas known as 'San Francisco's Hero'.Sanma buried his wife.The Six Pack buried their mother.                    -E-           -M-           -D-The next morning, Sanma and Akane sat on a hill in the San FranciscoCompound overlooking the new Golden Gate bridge. The sun rising in theeast cast its rays across the bay."A least she died peacefully.' Akane said softly."Yeah, that's a rarity in our lives," Sanma responded."About us...""In time, I'll ask you.""So you don't want to get married today?"Sanma shook her head. "I don't think that's appropriate, even with herpermission.""The answer's yes, whenever you ask.""That's good to know."Akane looked over to Sanma, squinting as the sun got in her eyes."Sanma, I..." Her eyes went wide. "Avian!!" She pushed Sanma, and theyboth tumbled down the hill as a small avian crashed into the grass werethey had just been sitting. It exploded on impact taking off the top ofthe hill as it did.Sanma and Akane jumped to their feet at the bottom of the hill and werealready generating chi balls when the second wave of avians appeared.Shortly after, invisible Buyierfei attacked the Compound, the bridge,and other key spots in San Francisco.The second battle of San Francisco had started.The city survived mostly unscathed thanks to the Task Force membersalready deployed in the compound and the extra team that always traveledwith Akane.The Tendo's San Francisco Compound was heavily damaged, but the cemeterywas fortunately undamaged.The New Golden Gate Bridge suffered some damage when the Buyierfei droveAkane up onto the suspension cables. Cornered at the top of one of thetowers, with Buyierfei approaching along the cables from both sides andavians circling she wasn't sure she could get out this one. She blastedaway at the advancing hordes before losing her footing and slipping.<Damn, I shouldn't have sent Sanma to defend the east side of theCompound after all.>Grabbing hold of the edge before plunging into the bay waters below, shesquirmed trying to pull herself up. As the Buyierfei swarmed towards hershe could feel the bridge shaking. <By the feel of it, there must behundreds.>Nearing the end of her strength, she pressed a blue button on herpalmtop that was strapped to her belt. "Hang on tight, Dear!" shescreamed and let go of the button.She blurred and suddenly a taller man took her place. "Oh, shit!" Ranmaswore as he tried to figure out where he was."Hang on tight, Dear!" Akane's voice came from the palmtop."The thought ha... had occurred to me..." he grunted as he dug hisfingers into the metal, trying to get his grip. His longer arms allowedhim to get a hold of the edge with his other hand, thus preventing adouble suicide.A chi blast exploded beside Ranma, taking a nearby Buyierfei with it."Huh, that was yellow..." He looked around and saw the familiar shape ofone of the Task Force's attack helicopters swinging around the tower hewas hanging from. "The calvary is here," Ranma said as chi balls rained down on theBuyierfei surrounding him from the movable pods along the side of thehelicopter. Flexing his arms, he did a impressive flip to land on hisfeet at the top of the tower. As he touched down, he sent a string ofchi balls from both of his hands to finish off any stragglers on thesuspension cables.The helicopter hovered nearby and dropped a rope. Within seconds, Ranmawas aboard and breathing a sigh of relief. "That was a bit close."Sanma came out from one of the side pods where he had been firing chiballs from. "Oh, thank goodness," he pulled Ranma into a hug."Yeah, I'm glad to see you too," Ranma quipped even as he pressed a redbutton and released it right away. His body shrunk."I take it I'm alive, huh?" Akane asked, returning the hug the Ranmawouldn't."Yeah..." Sanma said. "That was too close.""I've had closer.""Yeah..." Sanma muttered. "Akane... will you marry me?"Akane's eyes went wide and she pulled back enough to look into Sanma'seyes. "I'll think about it."                    -E-           -M-           -D-As the Task Force finished mopping up the Buyierfei, Akane made a callto Nerima. In typical Tendo fashion, the news went out and plans werequickly made.Later that afternoon, Akane sat besides some tents and finished a call."See you soon." The holographic picture of Kasumi disappeared and sheleaned back in her chair."Grandmother, Mr. Davidson is here to interview you," a young woman saidas she approached with a man in his mid to late twenties.Akane looked up. "Ah, Mr. Davidson. I'm glad you could make it.""No, it's my honor to be allowed to interview you, Matriarch," the mansaid, bowing.Akane grimaced. "No need to be so formal. You can call me Akane," shesaid.                    -E-           -M-           -D-"Wow, that's some story. But... um...""What is it?" Akane asked."You said that Ranko and Sanma were your lovers? Didn't Ranma mind?"Akane looked uncomfortable suddenly. "Oops, well no... he didn't mindthat much. He understood.""He understood that you were cheating on him with his twin sisters?Pretty understanding guy," James commented."Well actually, he was pretty stubborn and opinionated," Akane said,grinning. "But he understood this relationship. I loved them all. To methey seemed to be the same person.""Are you bi?""Getting a little personal there, Mr. Davidson.""Sorry.""Anyway no, I don't consider myself bi-sexual. That's a tag that societyuses to identify someone who doesn't let physical gender determine whothey can love.""Sorry, didn't mean to insult you.""No insult taken. I've dealt with this issue throughout my life. Yes, Iloved all three of them and I always will. Even if I only have one by myside now, they are all in my heart." She patted her chest and seemed tobe a million miles away. Or fifty years in the past."Well, so..." James began to say after letting her a moment to reflect,but was interrupted by Imoki."Grandmother, it's time," Imoki said simply."Oh, of course," Akane replied and Imoki left. "I'm afraid that's all Ihave time for today, Mr. Davidson. I hope it's enough?""Yes, it was most kind of you to take the time to talk with me," Jamessaid, turning his laptop off. He got up and shook her offered hand."I look forward to reading your article, Mr. Dav..." Akane wasinterrupted by two teenagers barreling into her and knocking her over.James stumbled and fell into a nearby muddy pool of water."Oh my."James looked up to see a tall woman, maybe a little older than Akane,standing over me. She held out her hand to help me up. I hesitated, notwanting to mess up her clean dress."I'm Kasumi, please let me help you up," she said."Thanks for your help.""I'm sorry about the kids. We just flew in from Tokyo and they are alittle restless after the long flight," Kasumi explained."That's okay. I'll live, although my laptop..." He shook my laptop todrain the water from it."Oh my.""Kids, apologize to Mr. Davidson," Akane instructed the two fidgetingteenagers."We're sorry. We didn't see you there," the young girl said."Yes, I'm sorry. Usually Grandma can deflect us without harminganything," the young boy said.James grinned. "Oh, so you're Akane's grandchildren then?""Oops... I'm sorry. I'm her grandson Soun. This is Hanaki Ono. She'sAunt Kasumi's granddaughter," the young man explained. Both teenagersbowed."Nice to meet you both," James said, returning their bows.They scurried off in to a nearby tent."Here you go, Mr. Davidson," Kasumi said after rummaging though a largecrate for a few seconds. She handed me a briefcase-sized box.Taking the box, James asked, "What's this?""It's one of Tendo systems new palmcards. With the full accessorypackage.""Oh no... I couldn't," James insisted."James, please take it to replace your laptop that the kids justruined," Akane insisted."Yes, we brought plenty to replace the ones destroyed in the battle,"Kasumi explained."I keep telling Nijiko that she has to have these things made sturdier,"Akane said, pointing to a pile of broken, mangled, and burnt palmcards."Okay. Thank you," James finally agreed and looked at the box. "Thankyou very much.""Kasumi, could you help Mr. Davidson dry off and show him out? I have toget dressed," Akane asked."Yes, of course, Akane. This way, Mr. Davidson," Kasumi motioned towardsone of the tents."Thank you again, Akane, for allowing me some of your precious time.""No bother, it was fun to reminisce," Akane replied. She smiled and thenmade her way into one of the tents.Suddenly, Hanaki reappeared. "I can help him, Grandma. You go helpAuntie get prepared."Kasumi smiled sweetly and nodded. After James had been led off, she wentover to the tent Akane had went in and smiled as she saw Akane fingeringthe long white wedding dress. "It'll look great on Sanma."Akane smiled as she turned to see Kasumi. "I'm still a bit worried aboutdoing this so fast.""I know you are, but Ukyo wanted you both to be happy and as todayshowed, you can't always be sure there's a next day to get married."Akane nodded. "Yeah... that's what Ranma said too.""So what's the problem?""I just don't want to replace Ranko.""You aren't.""But...""They're different people.""Yeah, but...""What does your heart say?""That's easy... marry Sanma before he gets away from me.""There's your answer. You were talking to that nice reporter about yourfirst battle with the Buyierfei, right?""Yes.""And how did you feel about Sanma and Ranko after that battle?""I wished that I had another chance to make the right decision to marryall three." Akane looked up sadly at the ceiling of the tent. "And somuch of this... pain could have been avoided.""So now you have the chance to finally make that wish come true andmarry the last of your idiots."Akane smiled. "You know me too well."Shortly thereafter, the wedding party raised their hands and shouted"Aikizuna Mokoutsu!". Then a bright, red beam of energy spiraled up intothe evening sky from their hands to signify that a Tendo had gottenmarried.Akane's fourth wedding finally saw her wish fulfilled.Better late than never.                    -E-           -M-           -D-(This series of events (Ukyo's death, the battle, and the wedding) arealluded to in the Childhood of a Modern Dynasty Side Story Number 1,which detailed James Davidson's first meeting with Akane. At the time Iwanted to hint at bigger things going on behind James' back. And now youknow what was really happening in San Francisco.)                    -E-           -M-           -D-2053During a particularly harsh battle in the Buyierfei realm, Akane gaspedand looked down to see a tentacle sticking out of her chest.Sanma screamed and blasted apart the Buyierfei that had speared her,then held Akane in her arms and lowered Akane gently to the ground."No... no..."Akane couldn't speak but her eyes were locked on Sanma. The look toldSanma everything she needed to know. Akane was dying."Medic!!!" Sanma screamed and tried to staunch the flow of blood withher hands. "No... no...""No!!!!" a familiar voice screamed and a pair of legs dropped downbeside them. "Mom, I told you you had to live!"Sanma looked up and saw Kourui standing over them. "Huh?""No time to explain, Uncle." Kourui placed a hand over the wound andthen INTO the wound. Her whole body started to glow. "Uncle, tell Momthat the plan is still on to destroy the Buyierfei once and for all, butI'll have to do my work from within now.""Within?""Mom must live and for that, I must take the place of her heart." Kouruismiled sweetly, belying her position as the leader of the Buyierfei. "Itmay be painful at times, but tell her that I will return to her when themonoliths cover the world once again. At that point, you will have anobvious target to destroy. Destroy it and save the world.""Is that all?" Sanma replied, sarcastically."Tell her I love her and Dad." Before Sanma's startled eyes, Kouruiglowed brightly and shrank into Akane's chest, which overflowed withlight.Sanma just stared at Akane, helpless.Akane coughed and then opened her eyes. "Wha... what happened?" Shetried to get up, but Sanma stopped her."Don't get up yet, your chest is still wide open."Akane looked down at her own chest and gasped at the glow emanating fromit. "What...""It's Kourui... she... replaced your heart with herself. She's insideyou.""But...""She said the plan to destroy the Buyierfei is still on."Akane smiled. "That's my girl..."The medic finally arrived. While he was surprised that Akane was stillalive despite the obvious lethal wound, he started to stitch Akane'schest back together.(In the future, James is astonished to find that Akane has the Buyierfeileader inside her chest."So that was the light from your chest?"Akane nods. "And before you ask, killing me will only put the Buyierfeiinto hibernation, not destroy them.""I wasn't going to ask.""Well, it was a topic that came up around here after I took on the thirdlife I'm directly responsible for. Now, I can't die for the sake of myown life, and for Ranma's, AND for Kourui's.""And the world...""True... at least I can talk directly with her.""Huh?""Every now and then, Kourui can talk to me in my head. Sometimes it'sjust a warning about the Buyierfei, but we can occasionally have a nicelittle mother and daughter talk.""You're a lot more complicated than I would ever have thought possible.""I did promise that trying to write about my life would be a difficulttask, didn't I?""Yeah, but I never expected all this...""Me either.")(This is the explanation for the glow from Akane's chest that waspreviously seen during the future segments of AMD.The attack in 2057 where Akane's chest is speared through by theBuyierfei was an attempt by the Buyierfei to not only kill Akane, butalso to separate Kourui from Akane.)                    -E-           -M-           -D-(This is where the future segments featuring James' interviews withAkane would end up covering the 2057-2058 timeline.Not much to add to those.)----------------------------------------------------------------------Part 4: End of a Modern Dynasty2061Ranma is awoken to sirens. "Huh," he said groggily, scratching hisstubble. He looked around, not remembering falling asleep. Spotting atipped over vase on the table next to the bed he signed. "I told Akanewe have to be more careful with water." Then feeling something on top ofhis chest, he looked down to see Akane sleeping peacefully on his chest."Ughhhh... get off!!" He violently pushed Akane off of him, sending hercrashing to the floor.Akane rubbed her butt and looked up. "What's the big idea?!""Sorry, just a reaction at seeing you."Akane shook her head. "Akane will not like to hear that you are repulsedby her.""Just you in her form, Sanma."'Akane' smiled. "How did you..." Sanma stopped when she saw the vase.She double-checked that she was still Akane. "Thank goodness I didn'tchange too."Yohachi dashed in and shouted. "What's keeping you two?! The sirens havebeen going off forever!!"Ranma got out of bed. "Sorry... we had some water problems last night."Sanma got up and brushed off Akane's butt. "What's the emergency?""Fifty-seven monoliths have been spotted all over the world.""Fifty-seven?" Ranma said, his eyes going wide.Sanma looked at Ranma. "Is this it?""Kourui said monoliths would cover the Earth. Fifty-seven is a lotbut...""Counts up to one-twenty," Yohachi said, checking his wrist pad."This could be it... We'd better get to the situation room." He grabbedone of the Task Force gi packs they kept handy for quick dressing inemergencies.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Once the count hit two hundred, they were pretty sure this was theirlong awaited for situation.Needless to say, they had planned and rehearsed this battle many, manytimes.Of course, they still had no idea what the target would be, other thanit would be 'obvious'.So they mobilized the entire Task Force worldwide.With no obvious target outside the monoliths, they prepared to enter themonoliths from several locations (which was easy, since the various TaskForce teams could just enter a monolith near where they were based).Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Nerima Task Force didn't have toleave the compound since there were five monoliths inside the compoundalready. The children and non-combatants were evacuated to a safelocation, although 'safe' with this many monoliths around was aoxymoron. Nijiko went with the last group, promising Akane she'd takecare of them all. "I know you will," Akane said, smiling at herestranged niece.Worldwide, civilians started mass evacuations to the few areas thatdidn't have a monolith nearby. Unfortunately, many of the Great Shelterswere rendered useless by the presence of monoliths in the center ofthem.In a maneuver practiced and successfully accomplished on five out oftwenty-six times it had been tried in the past, they flew remotelycontrolled attack helicopters into the monoliths. The helicoptersguidance computers were programmed to try and land safely once insidethe Buyierfei realm. Unfortunately, more often than not, the helicoptersexploded on impact. Those that did get into the monoliths, then had onlyabout a twenty percent chance of being able to land in the screwed upphysics of the Buyierfei realm that made it hard for even an expertpilot to land safely. Naturally, they didn't want to try these odds withlive pilots. Even Jaki, who had already defied the odds once insurviving entering a monolith in part of Tendo One, didn't like the oddsof surviving another.The pilots would go in with all the other Task Force members and thenuse whatever helicopters survived. James was very worried about Hanakigoing into the monoliths, but she reassured him that she planned to makeit back to him. He would go with their two children to what was the areawith the least number of monoliths. "You bundle up and keep the kidswarm," Hanaki said."Don't worry, we'll probably never leave the transport planes," Jamesreplied. "Even with the global warming caused by the Buyierfei,Antarctica is still a bit nippy for a stroll."Hanaki nodded and gave James a long kiss and hug goodbyee, then repeatedfor each of her kids. "Don't worry, I'll be back. Matriarchs orders.""Huh?" James said."No one dies in this battle, that's an order!" Hanaki said, doing herbest Akane impersonation. Akane had given that instruction at the end ofher message to all Task Force units before mobilizing everyone. "No onedies...""You don't want to get her angry at you, so you make sure to follow thatorder too.""Yes, dear," Hanaki said, stealing one last kiss before heading towardsthe staging area.James and the two kids watched her go, then climbed into the tubestation to be whisked off to the Mt. Fuji base for their evacuationflight to Antarctica.Although there were several monoliths on the Antarctica continent, theywere spread out quite far as compared to the populated continents.Ironically, the failsafe Great Shelter that the world's leaders hadconstructed directly at the south pole had two monoliths sitting in themiddle of it. The world leaders would have to find somewhere else tohide this time.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Hanaki and Jaki sat at the controls of one of the surviving attackhelicopters, Akane and Akane seated in the seats behind them. All fourwere scanning the gray world they flew through."Okay, now we just have to find an obvious target," Akane said."Yeah, any hints from your head?" Akane number two said."Nope... Kourui is silent so far."Akane number two scratched her chest. "I wish I could be in my own bodyfor this, your boobs always itch."Akane chuckled. "I think you look beautiful. Be glad you're not a frogfor this...""Eight o-clock low!" Jaki called out and banked the helicopter in thatdirection.All eyes looked in that direction and then straight forward as Jakicentered why she had seen in front of the helicopter, she slowed to astop and hovered in front of the object.It was a clear crystal, but with shifting shadows within. Unlike theshifting shadows they usually saw in the Buyierfei realm, these weremuch more concentrated and appeared even if you were staring at them.Judging by the size of the other helicopters that were now taking uppositions in front of the mammoth crystal, it was very large. Maybe evenlarger than the Tokyo metropolitan area."Is that obvious enough for you?" Hanaki asked as she looked back atAkane.Akane stared at the crystal, pausing as if listening to something. "It'sobvious, but Kourui isn't talking. Let's gather the troops, but makesure no one enters it. Just surrounded it for now."Sanma used Akane's fingers to seed a text message out to all the otherTask Force members and attack helicopters that made it inside theBuyierfei realm. Although normal communications were impossible, trialand error had found that sending signals through a holo-crystal made itpossible to communicate within the Buyierfei realm. It was occasionallyinterrupted by static or other interference, but they had gotten prettygood at communicating between forces when battling inside monoliths.Akane had to eat her complaints about Nijiko using Buyierfei material toproduce the holo-crystals that made holograms possible (and made Nikikothe richest woman on the planet). That same technology now allowed themto coordinate attacks inside the Buyierfei realm and had saved manylives.                    -E-           -M-           -D-"So, do we just blast it?""That's what she said.""Okay, well you first.""Sure." Sanma charged up a chi ball and launched it at the crystal. Itreflected right back at her and blasted her backwards. She grunted asshe landed. "Well, now what? Mass blasts?""That could be dangerous, but if we're careful..." Akane looked aroundat the Task Force members around her. "Okay, A and B groups, blast thatthing with streams of chi balls on three, but be prepared for anyreflections."The Task Force members around her took up stances and waited for hercount. Then in unison they sent streams of chi  balls into the crystal.Many of the blasts reflected back, but most of them got out of the wayof their blasts.Sanma dusted off her gi again. "That's not fair...""Sorry, Grandfather, that was mine," Saki said.Sanma grumbled something about wondering if that was accidental or not.Akane was examining the crystal. "Not all of them reflected. I don't seea crack or anything, but maybe a concentrated series of blasts?""Worth a try. What about your shift blast?"Akane nodded. "Okay, you call out the count after I inform everyone."Sanma nodded.Akane pressed a 'send to all' button. "All units, repeat, all units. Weneed to do a full chi barrage on the crystal. Be VERY careful of therecoil of the blasts, and space yourself out along the circumference.Keep up the blasts until instructed or my shift blast stops. Sanma willcount us down." She pressed down a blue button on her wrist top thenrepeated the instructions for everyone and for Ranma. Letting go of thefirst button, she added, "Ranma, we'll do a shift blast. Be careful ofthe blast reflecting back at you. Sanma's got the count." Releasing thebutton, she blurred and Ranma took her place.After listening to Akane's instructions, he nodded at Sanma. "Let's dothis...""Get ready for a big light show!" Sanma pressed the 'send to all' buttonand then called out. "All units ready. One... two... three!"All around the crystal, Task Force members started to generate chiblasts and send them at the crystal. Even the low chi users sent weakballs at it, with the expert chi users sending continuous streams ofenergy at it. Some expert foot work allowed them to keep the reflectedenergy from causing too much damage, unfortunately at least one unmannedhelicopter was caught in a reflected blast and went up in flames.While this was going on, Ranma pressed a special black button on hiswristpad and then took up a stance. Generating a ball of energy betweenhis hands he blurred and Akane replaced him. Akane focused more energyin the the ball before blurring back to Ranma. This process repeateditself a dozen times before the energy reached a critical point and thenshot off towards the crystal. As they continued to shift back and forcebetween themselves, Akane and Ranma focused more and more energy intotheir shift blast attack. As they had discovered a long time earlier,the mere act of shifting between their forms caused extra energy to becreated, so that was funneled into this attack, multiplying it'sdestructive power.The blast impacted against the crystal, and while several small straybolts of energy were reflected, the main energy beam crashed into thecrystal and caused the entire surface to shake and buckled slightly.All around the crystal, the attacks continued and after several minutesthe first crack appeared. "Keep it up, it's starting to crack," Sanmacalled out.Then the whole crystal throbbed and shattered outward, engulfing themost of the Task Force who were subsequently tossed around by the forceof the blast.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Akane awoke  with someone on top of her. Grunting she looked around, andfrowned when she saw distinct shifting shadows all around her. "On yourfeet everyone, the blast didn't destroy the Buyerifei."Ungh... what the fuck was that?"Akane slowly slid Sanma off to the side so she could get up. "What areyou wearing?" Then she noticed her own combat gi was torn up. <Huh?>"Just my usual armor... Akane?" Sanma shook her head and looked again."Am I dreaming? Or dead?""We're not dead... probably." She got up and then held out a hand. Herjaw and arm dropped at the same time as she saw a naked Sanma stumblingto his feet several meters away. Yes, HIS. Then as she scanned the area,a panda, elephant, and other animals right out of a zoo came into view.Then she saw herself staring back at her."What the fuck?" the other Akane said, her ripped combat gi hanging fromher body."Err... Sanma?" the first Akane said.The other Akane nodded, and so did the various animals. But surprisinglynot the male Sanma or the female Sanma that had been lying on top ofher."Akane? Is that really you?" the male Sanma said."Akane... I can't believe I got sent back," the female Sanma said,smiling and jumping to her feet.Akane then saw another male Sanma and female Sanma--both naked--stumbleinto the confused crowd of people and animals. "Two... four... what theheck is going on with you Sanma?!" And then another male and femaleSanma joined the group, looking as confused as everyone else."Akane, it's me Ranma," one of the male Sanma's said."Ran... ma..." Akane gasped and held a hand out for his chest."Akane... it's me Ranko, not Sanma," the female Sanma who had been ontop of her said, taking a step towards her."Ranko?" Akane said, holding another hand out for her chest. Then herfeet fell out from under her.Ranma and Ranko dashed forward and grabbed her, each starring atdisbelief at the other. "You're really Ranko?""Yeah... you really Ranma?""Yeah... how did you come back?""Big red crystal that engulfed me after we killed the Buyierfei leaderback four thousand years ago. How did you get out of Akane?"Ranma shook his head. "No idea... this just happened.""This is very confusing..." Akane said, trying to focus on anything."Sorry, Mom, I should have warned you about this, but the Buyierfeiwould have figured it out."Akane's head spun around at the voice she had only heard in her headrecently. "Kourui."Behind her, a naked Kourui smiled. "Okay, now that you're all split upand inside the crystal, the real hard part begins.""The hard part?!" several people called out in unison, already wiped outfrom blasting the crystal and then finding  a whole bunch of new peopleand zoo full of animals all around.                    -E-           -M-           -D-"Sorry, Uncle, about splitting you too. I didn't expect that. I justexpected Mom and Dad to be split from me, but I guess since you were inthe middle of your blessings..." Kourui explained later after putting ona spare battle gi. All around he group, the other members of the TaskForce were assembled to hold off attacks from the Buyierfei while theleaders of the Task Force figured out what happened and how to proceedfrom here.Female Sanma looked at himself, that being the Male Sanma, and then atthe other male and female Sanma, the twins as they were usually calledwhen only they were around during Sanma's string of curses. She sighedas she saw Akane-Sanma at the end of the row of human Sanmas, Then shelooked at all the assembled animals, mentally making sure they were allaccounted for. The panda with the snake coiled around his neck, the pigand cat squabbling over a pig/cat keyboard, the baboon holding the frogcarefully, and the elephant and horse standing behind the menagerie.Needless to say, this is the first time she'd ever seen himself in allthe forms at the same time. "It's okay, but... this could take somegetting used to." Her eyes glanced at Akane, the real Akane, to see howshe was taking this latest twist in her love life.Akane was sitting between Ranma and Ranko, still trying to soak in thenew husbands she just gained. Three human husbands might be doable, butsix human husbands and assorted animals were going to be hard to juggle.Not to mention how difficult it will be if the animals are stuck asanimals forever."Unfortunately, since the curses are based on Buyierfei energy, theywere broken when you broke the outer nexus of the Buyierfei."Nexus?""The center of everything Buyierfei.""But if that's broken, then why are there still Buyierfei out thereattacking us from the edges?" Ranma asked, pointing at the edge of theirdefensive circle where an occasional Buyeirfei could be seen attacking."It's not that simple to destroy the Buyierfei completely... plus Ididn't expect Ranko to reappear.""Sorry," Ranko said, tightening her grip on Akane's hand.Kourui smiled. "Don't worry, Pop, I'm very glad to see you here. TheBuyierfei don't pay too much attention to individuals usually, so theydidn't take much note of your disappearance at the end of the firstBuyierfei war with the Amazons."You talk like you know a lot about them.""Well, I am their leader... was...""What?!" Ranko tensed and got to her feet."Sit down, Ranko, Kourui was absorbed by the Buyierfei, but she foughtback. She's why we're all here now, alive and... well." Ranma said, thenfrowned. "Was?"Kourui nodded. "Shattering the outer nexus severed my link with them.I'm just a plain human.""Nothing plain about a Saotome, Sugarpie," Ranma said, smiling.It had been a long time since her father had called her that, causing asmile to spread across Kourui's face. "Yes, but that means they areleaderless and will just lash out at anything they can. I imagine Earthis swarming with Buyierfei now."Akane shuddered and finally found her voice. "Then should we just betalking here?""Well, the problem is when we were engulfed in the crystal as itshattered outward, we were technically cut off from Earth. Those thatwere far enough outside the range of the crystal when it reformed wereprobably returned to Earth, but this group that's inside will have towait for the crystal to fully regenerate before we can escape.""Regenerate?""It'll heal itself, but since we're inside it now we can destroy itforever along with the Buyierfei."Akane's eyes lit up. "So we can really destroy the Buyierfei completelyand forever?"Kourui smiled. "Yes. The nexus is what kept on living even after theleader of the Buyierfei is destroyed. It hibernates until it storesenough energy to reach out for a new bridge. It also occasionallyhibernates when it's gorged itself on life and is 'full'. It did thatafter arriving on Earth and destroying the dinosaurs, for instance."The strange group looked around at each other and smiled broadly. Well,the ones that could smile with their lips, that is.                    -E-           -M-           -D-As preparations continued, Ranko and Akane spoke together during a briefmoment when they weren't needed. "Akane, I have a few things to tellyou. Daiji is alive and well back with the Amazons.""Kourui told me... so he was okay after that final battle?"Ranko nodded. "He should have escaped after breaking the red crystal Iwas in..." She ran her hand through her messy hair. "Which I guess ishow I returned to the future here."Akane nodded. "I'm really happy you're back." She leaned over and gaveRanko a long kiss, one of many exchanged with her returned husbandssince the splits."Me too.. I really want a decent hamburger."Akane blinked."Anyway, Daiji is happy, so don't worry about him. He found a wonderfulwoman to love and we have another grandchild. Or had one way back then."Akane clutched her chest. "He finally found someone who could understandand live with his curse?"Ranko nodded. "Yeah, and... um... it was a long time and I didn't expectto be able to return... so... um..."Akane tilted her head. "What is it?""I... sort of married Yukiko."Akane smiled. "That's okay. I married Sanma..." She glanced at the fivehuman Sanmas and the assorted zoo where they were trying to figure outwhat to do. "We had to live our lives."Ranko nodded. "Thanks for understanding... I still loved you, but wewere like two fishes cut off from our ocean.""If she was the First Matriarch, then before the final battle..."Ranko nodded. "Yeah, she died peacefully a couple years before Ireturned. I think she was happy... I know I was.""Died peacefully... that must have been nice."Ranko pulled Akane into a hug and held on tight. "Not really. I'vemissed you."Akane smiled. "Me too... how many years were you back there?""Twenty three."Akane smiled again. "Then you're younger than me now.""What year is it outside?""Two thousand and sixty one.""You look great for an old woman.""Charmer.""Okay, time to draw up the battle plan," Male Sanma said as he walkedup. He was distinguished from Ranma by the big 'S' that had been writtenon his forehead when they were trying to sort out all the multipleSanma. Female Sanma and Akane-Sanma had a S as well, while the male andfemale twin Sanmas had 'T' on their foreheads.Although several Sanma's complained, Ranma and Ranko were unmarked sincethe lack of a mark could identify them easily.The animals were unmarked, being easy to spot out of all the humans.(There would probably be more with the planning and the multiple Sanmas,but you get the idea for this outline. The idea of multiple Sanmas wasactually going to be used in Adulthood were hundreds of Sanmas getcreated in a monolith and the Buyierfei are decimated by them. Most ofthe Sanmas die in that process, but the few that escape gave Ukyoproblems before there was only one left (more deaths during the wars).Never really had a good spot to put it into the outline, so I added avariation here.)                    -E-           -M-           -D-At first, all the animal Sanmas were going to be left out of the battle,but then the panda and baboon showed that they could fight just as wellas humans. The elephant and horse are enlisted for transportation, muchto their chagrin. The smaller animals reluctantly stay behind with therear guard, since there was too good of a chance they would be trampledin any major skirmish with the Buyierfei. Sanma was used to stayingbehind in his animal forms when the Task Force went into battle. Doesn'tmean he liked it, but he understood the complications of fighting as ananimal.This time they had no choice.Akane looked at her husbands on all sides and then smiled. "Remember, noone dies in this battle!!" And with a cheer, the Task Force took offtowards what Kourui said should be the center of the crystal sphere.Akane and Ranma rode elephant-Sanma with Kourui, while Ranko rodehorse-Sanma. There's a yuri joke in there somewhere. Or would that beyaoi?The three attack helicopters that survived the initial crystal explosionflew alongside the attack force. Hanaki and Saki flew the leadhelicopter into battle.As they neared the target, they started to take in what they were upagainst.First, a seemingly endless mass of land Buyierfei lay before them. Allvisible and all pressed together, their tentacles intertwined. "Easypickings," one of the Sanmas commented, confidently.Second, large splotches of what looked like black oily water were spreadout among the mass of land Buyierfei. A couple of large splashesconfirmed the presence of aquatic Buyierfei. Hard to fight and hard tofind, the aquatic Buyeirfei were like big whales with tentacles allover.Third, circling overhead above all this was flocks of big and smallavians. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them.And in the center of all this, was a very small, clear crystal monoliththat was spinning on an axis through opposite corners of the rectangularobject.Their target."Maybe we should have brought the rear guard as well," Akane commentedas she good a full look at what they faced.Unfortunately as Kourui had predicted the avians were tightlyconcentrated around the crystal monolith, making a direct arial attackimpossible.                    -E-           -M-           -D-(Sadly, I can't really describe the full battle in this outline, so thiswill have to do.)The first attack consisted of sweeping runs by the three attackhelicopters. chi balls strafed the surface Buyierfei and chi balls hitthe avians. Mostly designed to scatter the Buyierfei and to keep themguessing.The second attack consisted of a straight strafing run to clear a pathfor the ground forces, followed by the first push of the ground forcesinto the mass of Buyierfei. "I think i liked it more when we couldn'tsee them."The third attack crossed the strafing run at an angle to disperse theBuyierfei and to forge a path around a large body of 'water'.As the Task Force made their way through the mass of Buyierfei, Ranmastarted to notice something that worried him. He couldn't put his fingeron what at first, but when they reached what looked to be the innerdefense line he realized what it was."They're organized," he said softly."Huh?""They should be operating independently and may have instinct to protectthe crystal monolith, but they're way too organized for that. They mustbe being controlled from somewhere." Ranma turned around and looked atKourui on the back of the elephant. "Or someone."Kourui's eyes went suddenly black and she thrust her hand around Akane'sneck. "Try anything and I snap the Uncute-One's neck."Akane eyes went wide and started to tear up. "No... no.... you can'thave been deceiving me all this time.""Foolish cattle... for you think one of you could resist the power ofthe Buyierfei. We are too strong for you.""Kourui... please... we love you," Akane gasped. If it was almost anyoneelse, Akane could have incapacitated or even killed her attacker, butnot when her attacker was her baby. Her sweet, green-haired baby girl.With Akane's life on the line, Sanma didn't have such hesitation. Theelephant's trunk reached up and pulled Kourui's leg, yanking her off hisback. Akane gasped as Koueri's hand was yanked from her throat, butstayed on top thanks to Ranma's grasp."Don't kill her!" Akane yelled as Sanma swung Kourui in front of hiseyes. Those eyes showed the pain of a parent who had lost some of hisown children and the anger of a husband facing the monster thatthreatened his wife and family.But despite all that, Sanma wouldn't kill her.Kourui knew this.When Kourui started charging up a black chi ball and aimed at Akane,Sanma reared up, tossing Ranma and Akane off his back. The black chiball impacted his large gray chest. Smoke rising from the wound, Sanmatried to squeeze Kourui until she fell unconscious.But Kourui wasn't normal human. Or even a normal Saotome.She was Buyierfei and breathing wasn't particularly required, as Shumashowed when he took a stroll on the surface of Mars. She just grinned asanother chi ball blasted the elephants hide."Kourui, stop this!!" Akane yelled, as she and Ranma circled out frombehind Sanma.Although the rest of the Task Force and Sanmas were doing a pretty goodjob of keeping the BUyierfei away from this little battle within a hugebattle, their plan had been to keep moving. Staying stationary wasstarting to give the Buyierfei a chance to overpower their parameter.Akane knew this.Ranma knew this.Sanma the elephant knew this.As if spooked by a little mouse, Sanma took off running. The chargingelephant with Kourui wrapped tightly in its trunk veered to the left oftheir intended target and broke through the defensive parameter andtrampled many Buyierfei as it charged through the masses of black flesh."Sanma!!" Akane called out.A hand gripped her shoulder. "He knows what he's doing... we have todestroy that monolith."Akane looked behind her to see Male Sanma standing behind her. "But...""They're both strong, they won't die. But he gave us time, we shouldn'twaste it.""But is destroying that monolith even our goal any more? If Kouruiwasn't really free of the Buyierfei's control then..."Ranma stepped forward. "We're so close now... we can't go back now.Let's believe that some part of our daughter was in there and stillhelping us." He looked towards the crystal monolith.Akane nodded as she looked away from the commotion surrounding therampaging elephant. She clenched her fists as she looked toward thecrystal monolith. "No more hesitation... we press for the center!"With the help of the arial attacks from the helicopters and theirdetermination to see their attack through to the end, the group pressedforward against almost impossible odds.(Again, there would have been more battle descriptions with the variousSanma curses getting some screen time along with some of the kids thathave been introduced. Sorry for the brevity of this outline.)                    -E-           -M-           -D-As they neared the crystal monolith, the Buyierfei's attacks intensifiedas they knew they would.The crystal monolith hovered over the ground, spinning slowly in place."Okay let's blast it," Ranma said, stepping forward.Akane stepped forward with many of the Sanmas. "Yes..." she saidvacantly, her heart not in the battle since Kourui's deception.They reached their arms out and prepared to send everything they had atthe monolith.Before releasing their blasts, Akane's wrist top crackled and Hanaki'svoice called out. "Matriarch, look under you!!"Akane frowned and looked down. She didn't see anything at first, butthen she noticed the ground was transparent. The grayness of theBuyeirfei realm made it hard to tell from the surface, but from the airHanaki and Saki had spotted it easily. Sending a video feed to Akane'swrist top, the holographic display popped to life and gasps were heardfrom the attack party.Akane smiled slightly and looked at Ranma and then Ranko, and then theSanmas in turn. No words needed to be spoken.Lowering their arms, they fanned out and aimed deep underneath thesurface directly under the crystal monolith.Akane fired the first shot, with Ranma and Sanma following shortlyafter. Except for those on the parameter, the other Task Force memberssoon joined the attack on the ground. Two of the helicopters spent theirtime keeping avians away from the ground forces, while the other helpedbast into the ground.As the ground bubbled and burst at the concentrated blasts, the threebig arrows and Japanese characters reading "Mom, blast this spot here!.Luv ya!" started to distort.You couldn't get more obvious than that.Fortunately, the Buyierfei couldn't read Japanese.Finally getting through the transparent ground, the blasts reached theirtarget: A red crystal monolith spinning slowly in time with the clearcrystal monolith above, as if it was a reflection or shadow of the clearcrystal monolith above.As the red crystal monolith started to crack under the intense blastsfrom the Task Force, the Buyeirfei all around them started to turn redand crack as well. The avians started to drop out of the sky, causingsome quick moves on the Task Force's part to avoid being killed by theexplosive falling debris.A nearby pool of 'water' erupted upwards and a large aquatic Buyierfeileapt out of the water, spun to the side and crashed to the ground. Itshattered and exploded into a million red bits.All around the Task Force, these sights repeated themselves a thousandtimes.For Akane and the others blasting the red monolith, it went unnoticed.They were intent on destroying the target.Then, suddenly, the clear monolith stopped spinning and then dropped tothe fragments of the ground still hanging under it. As any 'reflection'would do, the red monolith rose to the surface and then connected withthe clear monolith.Akane and the others raised their blasts to follow the red crystalmonolith.Akane's eyes went wide as the monoliths merged and then Kourui appearedin their place. "Luv ya, Mom!"Her blast faltered, but the deed was done. In front of her eyes, youryoungest daughter was ripped into tiny particles.And then the gray world around them burst out in every color possible,and even some impossible colors. In a blast of glorious color, theyBuyierfei vanished from existence.The Blackness was gone.The Buyierfei were gone.On a tiny blue-green planet, the impossible happened.The light had completely destroyed the darkness.The over five hundred black monoliths on the surface of the Earth shrankinto nothingness and then bloomed into a rainbow of light.Those that saw it said it was like looking at love itself.And maybe it was.Because it was the love between a mother and daughter that allowed theBlackness to be destroyed once and for all.                    -E-           -M-           -D-Yohachi opened his eyes and shielded them from the glare of the sun. Hehad been through the torturous experience of leaving a monolith manytimes before.But this had been an entirely new experience in pain. "Shit... thathurt." He looked around and saw other members of his team that had beenleft to the rear guard. Or as Ranma liked to call it: "The ones who willsave our ass once we get in over our heads."In the end, they weren't needed to save anyone's ass.Yohachi unsteadily got to his feet and looked around. He recognized theruins of the Tendo Compound immediately, including his mother'sflattened house. "I guess the Buyierfei did rampage outside as Kouruisaid..."He frowned when he saw no sign of Sanma's animal curses that had stayedbehind with them. They had been right by him when the world explodedaround them.A fierce wind forced him to shield his eyes and he looked up to see one,two, and then three attack helicopters drop out of the sky and landnearby. He smiled as he saw Hanaki and Saki wave from the cockpit of oneof them. Soon he started to recognize more and more people from the mainattack force.But try as he might, he saw no sign of his mother, father, other father,and stepfather. Not to mention his baby sister.His smile sank into a frown.                    -E-           -M-           -D-The Task Force sent out a press release later that day. It read."People of the world.The Buyeirfei have been defeated for good.The nexus holding them together has been destroyed and will never beable to reform.Come out of your shelters, your homes, and your places of worship. TheBlackness is no more. Enjoy the sunlight on your skin as the human raceno longer has to fear the Blackness for the first time in over fourthousand years.As of June 16th, 2061, the Task Force is officially disbanded.Please enjoy your life as we will enjoy ours.Signed,-The former members of the Task Force, the Saotome and Tendo Families,and the Amazon tribe.Missing in Action:Akane Tendo-SaotomeSanma SaotomeRanko TendoRanma SaotomeKaorui Saotome"The inclusion of Ranma and Ranko would cause much confusion in the daysthat followed, but most assumed it was a way for the Task Force to honortheir great leaders who were lost in battle over the course of theentire battle with the Buyierfei.No one would guess that they were recent losses.And no one would guess the truth.[The End]End of a Modern DynastyBy James DavidsonCompiled and Edited by Red Tofu DavidsonFor the world and for my father, let no one forget the great sacrificesmade by those who fought the Buyierfei. -Red Tofu Davidson======================================================================="Are you sure this is what you want?" a young man asked as he lookeddown on the ruins of Nerima a couple of months later."Yes," the cute girl at his side replied."It will be hard living a life without fighting," a beautiful womanremarked."I think we deserve a chance to live a normal life.""A normal life?" another beautiful woman remarked, quizzically."Well, normal for us," Akane said, smiling at Ranma, Ranko, and Sanma.Those who knew them through the dark days of the Black Wars and morerecently wouldn't recognize them. Or would assume they were one of themany Saotome or Tendo descendants that roamed Nerima.Gone were the wrinkles, the scars, the gray hair. Present were softskin, dark hair, and perky breasts on Akane, Ranko, and Sanma. Ranma hadto settle for his chiseled pecks.They were as they were when they first entered the monolith in theAustralian Outback over sixty years earlier. Physically, that is.Their eyes shown with the pain of more battles than any one personshould have to fight.They shown with the experience and wisdom of almost eighty years oflife.Ranma flexed his muscles. "I wonder if there's any martial artstournaments we can enter?"Akane sighed. "What part of 'blending into society and living a calmlife' don't you understand?""That'll get boring real fast," Ranko remarked."I can use a little 'boring' right now." Akane smiled and put her handson Sanma's and Ranko's stomachs. "Besides you two will be mothers againin a few months."Sanma and Ranko smiled, putting their hands over Akane's that rested ontheir bulges that held their unborn children.After they awoke after destroying the Buyierfei nexus, they foundthemselves facing some young people that looked oddly familiar. Itwasn't long before they realized they had reverted to the state theywere in when they first entered the Australian monolith way back inNineteen Ninety-Nine. That 'state' included Ranko and Sanma being pregnant, which theydiscovered a couple weeks after emerging from the final battle.Ranko would have a chance to have Daiji all over again, and make all thesame parenting mistakes once again.Sanma would have a chance to give birth to Shuma this time, and raisehim and/or her as a proper Saotome. She was confident that she could doa better job than the Buyierfei did. Although, like Ranko, she wouldchoose a new name for her child.In other words, they had a chance to live their lives over again. Thistime without the Buyierfei to fight.They could fix many of the mistakes they made.And make entirely new ones.Appearing three weeks after everyone else, they were amused to find theyhad been listed as dead."Missing in action, Mom," Yohachi insisted as he welcomed his parentsback among the living. "Since other people in the main attack force hadappeared right away, we didn't think the three week delay would happenthis time."Akane didn't care.Her family had emerged from the battle as she had hoped: "Nobody died."Well, Sanma sort of felt like his cursed forms died, since there was nosign of them. When he returned, he remembered all of the experienceseach of his cursed forms had in the Buyierfei realm when separated, sothey were within him in spirit.Those memories included a clever little girl enraging him and gettingSanma to distract the Buyierfei's attention by his attack on theirleader.Kourui sudden reversion to being the 'bad guy' was a carefully chosenruse by her to keep the Buyierfei from realizing that instead of settingup a trap to kill the 'Uncute One' and other collectors that Kourui hadled the Buyierfei to believe the final battle was, it was a trap to getAkane and the others in range of the reflection of the nexus, their truetarget.Fortunately, Buyeirfei couldn't the read the Japanese Kourui had laidout along the transparent ground.So several weeks later, the four person family stood atop a hilloverlooking Nerima and made their choice. They would remain 'missing inaction' and move to a different part of Japan and try to blend in andhave a normal life. They'd still stay in contact with the rest of theirfamily, but would live their new lives out of the spotlight they hadbeen under for so very long.The lives that had been given as a last gift of their youngest child.Kourui."Did someone call?"Akane and the others turned and smiled as a middle-aged woman climbed upbehind them. "So you're going to toss it all and run a little martialarts school down in Kyoto, huh?"Akane smiled and Hugged her daughter. "Yeah... can't get that out of ourblood, but we'll avoid teaching the chi attacks, I think."Kourui smiled. "That's probably for the best."Ranma hugged his youngest daughter. "What will you do?""Probably the same as you." Kourui flipped her long, black pony tailbehind her back. "I don't even have to dye my hair to hide my identitysince it reverted to a normal color. I'll just be another part of theextended Tendo and Saotome family."Ranko and Sanma fingered their red hair. "Normal is boring."Kourui chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right. But as Mom has beensaying, a little normal right now is very welcome.""So... Buyierfei defeated for good, our family and friends safe," Ranmasaid, then looked at Ranko and Sanma. "My two co-husbands pregnantand..." He looked at Akane. "And the love of my life looking hotter thanI remembered.""She always looked hot to us," Sanma mentioned, earning a nod fromRanko."Now, Boys, no fighting. We're ALL hot!" Akane grinned and in noparticular order gave all of her husbands a long kiss."Get a room, you four."---Ran TakahashiAka TakahashiSan TakahashiRumi TakahashiJust a normal family, running a little martial arts dojo in Kyoto.Normal if you don't count the husbands or what sex they are, that is.Although polygamy was now legal in Japan, thanks to a call from YohachiSaotome to the Prime Minister on a sunny day in 2061.So, call it the new 'normal'.---Years later, the family, now seven strong, sat around the living roomholo-screen and watched the first transmissions from the manned probecircling Jupiter."That's one small step for a Martian, one further giant leap forMankind," a voice familiar to the four adults was heard over thespectacular holo images being beamed live from Jupiter. Unlike hermother, Kasei kept to the script."As we see these worlds for the first time with our own eyes, I can'tbut feel awed and humbled by the sight. I'm honored to officiallyproclaim the new names for these moons of Jupiter."AkaneRanmaRankoSanmaDaijiKouruiSounGenmaShampooCologneNippleringRyogaUkyo...The list continued with the most well known of the fighters lost to theBuyierfei during the long years of the wars until all known moons ofJupiter were renamed in honor of those who had saved the Earth from theBuyierfei. The International Astronomical Union resisted some of theAmazon names, since it was going to be awkward to study a moon calledNipplering, but in the end the Amazons got their memorial moons as well.Yohachi had to make up a story about how Genma died heroically, since'crushed by a falling pyramid stone' wasn't that heroic. But he wantedhis grandfather remembered, because his parents wanted him remembered.The same went for Ukyo. Akane and Sanma wanted her remembered, so shewas.Like Nabiki and Mousse in their eternal dance though the N-M Belt, Akaneand her husbands now were eternally dancing around Jupiter, never to beforgotten. There were many, many more names that would vanish intohistory, but countless 'unknown fighter' memorials covered the Earth tohonor those nameless warriors who helped save the planet.Sadly, there were many more unknown civilian memorials as well."Who are those people, Mama?" A little girl sitting on Sanma's lapasked.Sanma smiled. "We'll tell you all when you're a bit older."Ranko smiled and patted the head of the boy in her lap. "It's a longstory."Ranma and Akane looked at each other and then at their daughter sittingbetween them. "A real long story," Akane said.[THE REAL END](The scene with the young Akane and her husbands looking down on Nerima(which is not part of the 'End of a Modern Dynasty' book that waspublished by Red Tofu Davidson) was intended ever since I figured outwhen the final battle would be fought and won. Whether they were to beghosts or spirits looking down happily at their surviving family orphysical beings restored to youth wasn't clear for most of the timewriting the chapters and even these outlines.In the end, I felt them getting a second chance at life was a fittingreward for the hell I put them through.It doesn't erase everything they experienced or the deaths of friendsand family, but call it a fitting retirement for those that saved theentire world more times than even I could describe.I had planned for more interaction with the Area 51 organization, up toand including the collapse of that organization after a conflict withthe Task Force (with the organization splitting in two due to somesupporting the Task Force and others taking a hard line stance). Whetherthe Task Force would take it over like they did the Japanese Mt. Fujibase or it would collapse and disappear, I wasn't certain. Onepossibility was that it would try to seize control of the US governmentafter the Black Wars ended. In the end that didn't seem like a goodstory so I never used it (although the hardline Australian governmentkeeping control after the war is a smaller version of that plotline).Likewise, I had wanted more with the Black Shroud Clan (Shuma's humanworshipers) and the group behind the terrorists Akane and the othersthwarted on the plane back from Australia. Unfortunately, in thisoutline there was no space to put them in (outside of their involvementin the first battle of San Francisco in AMD).Although touched on more in AMD, I never had New York attacked to goagainst the usual stereotype 'bad guys attack New York first' battles.So all the worry from New Yorkers about attacks ended up to be needless,since New York never suffered an attack or destruction from theBuyierfei (except for the attack on the New York area four thousandyears earlier in BAW).I hope I got all of Sanma's curses into there. I had to re-read a bit ofthe old chapters to make sure I remembered them all. Almost forgot thetwins. The horse is a new mention that I had held off mentioning untilnow. Since the 'ma' in Sanma's name is for horse, it seemed a fittingfinal curse to be revealed. Hopefully, I didn't forget any other animalcurses.Sanma's curses disappearing at the end was because of there no longerbeing Buyierfei energy to support them, plus he was reverted to a statebefore he ever got the multiple curses. More than likely, Ranko andSanma's babies would be single genders. A boring, normal life. :)There was also supposed to be future segments in End that were from theview of James and Hanaki's son going through his father's old notes tofinish 'End of a Modern Dynasty' after it was left unfinished after hisdeath (which was either going to be by Buyierfei during the final battleor by old age... I never decided). During James' initial research forthe book, the book was going to be called 'Return of a Modern Dynasty'(despite Akane insisting they never went anywhere) but was changed to'End' after the Buyierfei were defeated for good and Akane vanished frompublic sight. Since I never wrote James' death into this outline, why heleft the book unfinished is up to you to decide.And to think this story started out as a simple idea:What if Ranma was split into separate male and female versions ofhimself. And what if he could marry all his fiancees because of that?Yes, believe it or not, the Buyierfei didn't even enter into the earlystoryline. Nor did Sanma (she became necessary when I planned the birthof Daiji and the need for a leader of the BUyierfei that would have apersonal connection to Akane and Ranma).It wasn't until I realized that I needed a powerful enemy for the"World's Greatest Martial Artists (TM)" that the Buyierfei and all thetwists and turns they introduced into Akane and the Ranmas' lives thatthis epic became this untamable monster.While I am sad that I'll never be likely to finish this entire story incomplete chapter form, I am glad I was able to at least put thissomewhat detailed outline together to get the story out of my head andonto electronic paper.Unless someone has a couple million dollars to give me to retire andwrite full time, this will have to suffice.For all my readers who stuck with me.Thank you.For everyone who gave up on ever hearing the whole story.Suck it.Thank you.-Jim Lazar)