Moon Over Neptune
A Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover
By: Bob Lobster

Disclaimer: I own pretty much nothing in this story. If I did own any
of this, I'd be filthy rich and wouldn't be struggling to pay rent.

Note: This story was written for the Ranma/Sailormoon crossover 
generator challenge. If you wish to check the challenge out or see more 
stories written for it(or vote for me^_^) it's at 
http://www.beeftrapeze.com/challenge 
Enjoy^_^

Poem: Fickle Fortune
Poet: Robert Burns(1759-1796)
Published: 1782

Though fickle Fortune has deceived me,
She pormis'd fair and perform'd but ill;
Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav'd me,
Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.

I'll act with prudence as far's I'm able,
But if success I must never find,
Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome,
I'll meet thee with an undaunted mind.





Prologue

    She was dying. Silent tears fell from her face as she held the
child tightly to her bosom. She knew that she was dying, her injuries
were far too severe for even her to survive. Her only consolations
were that her wounds no longer hurt as much as they had, and that her
child was still safe. Looking down on him, she was surprised to find
him still sleeping peacefully, despite the din of battle that was
prevalent in the area. He always had slept heavily though, not waking
in the night as often as most children. She cried, thinking of all
that would happen to him, now that she would no longer be there to
protect him.

    "Your Majesty!" Cried someone from the door to her chamber, and
she raised her eyes to see the form of her long time friend. Setsuna
was standing in the doorway, breathing heavily and looking the worse
for wear, but also seeming relieved to have found her. "Michiru-sama,
are you alright?"

    Michiru smiled sadly as Setsuna made her way towards her, leaning
heavily on her staff as she came. She could see small pools of blood
forming wherever Setsuna stopped and knew that the Senshi of time was
just as badly injured as she. Looking into the pained, yet determined
face of her oldest friend and guardian, Michiru knew what must be
done.

    "No, my friend," She said softly, finding it more and more
difficult to speak as time went on, "I'm dying. I know that, and I
grieve, for I know not who will care for my baby."

    "No! You won't die, Michiru, you can't." Setsuna practically
pleaded, knowing it was useless, but desperate for her Queen and
friend to survive.

    "I'm strong, Setsuna....but not that strong. Even I can't....hold
off the inevitable." Her eyes were shimmering again, and she could see
Setsuna holding back tears as well, even as she fell to her knees
before Michiru. With her child in the crook of one elbow, she raised
her other hand up and slowly caressed her friend's cheek. A smear of
red streaked across Setsuna's face where Michiru's fingers passed but
neither seemed to notice as Setsuna took her Queens hand in her own,
tears freely flowing now. "You've done so much for me, Setsuna, but I
have......just one more thing to ask."

    "Please, Michiru....anything, but please, we have to get you some
help. You'll be alright if we can just..." Setsuna couldn't even
finish the sentence, as she knew there was nothing that could be done
for her queen. There was no help to be had. The few remaining Senshi
were fighting a losing battle, and slowly the forces were pushing back
to the queen's chamber. The King was dead, and Saturn as well, leaving
no healers with power enough to repair the damage done to her friend's
body. This, in turn, also left but one heir to the throne, that being
the child held in Michiru's arms, a child the enemy would do anything
to be rid of. Setsuna knew as well as Michiru did that this was the
end, for all of them.

    "Setsuna....please...make sure my baby is safe. If...if I know
he's safe....I can be at peace. Please....promise me you'll protect
him." The pleading look on her face was almost more than Setsuna could
bear, but she held herself stoically, as suited her queen's final
moments. Though tears still streamed from her eyes, she kept her
expression as firm as possible and nodded once to Michiru's request.

    "I promise you. No harm will come to him so long as I have breath.
I will find him a place where he can be safe and happy. I promise."
Michiru's eyes filled once more with tears, as she knew that her child
would be safe. She kissed the baby once on the forehead, leaving a
bloody mark on his head, before leaning her head back and closing her
eyes.

    "Goodbye, my child." She said, in a soft, gasping voice. "Goodbye,
little Ranma." And then the queen spoke no more and all breath left
her body. Setsuna wept openly then and, placing a final kiss upon her
fallen queen's brow, she took the child in her arms and struggled to
rise. She knew that she had very little time left before the injuries
she had suffered sent her after her Queen into the next world, but she
was determined to honour her promise before she passed. Leaning
heavily against her staff, the child in her arms almost too heavy a
burden for her tired body to carry, Setsuna summoned a portal to the
gates of time that were her charge and staggered through. She knew
that Ranma would have no peace in the time and place from whence he
came, her only hope was to find a time and place where he would. Time,
however, was not on her side, and so she had to trust someone else to
complete this task for her. She therefore turned to the one person she
knew she could trust in such a matter: herself.

**********************************************************************

    Setsuna Meiou was having a positively horrible day. It wasn't the
worst day of her life, that being the day the Moon Kingdom fell, but
it did manage a close second. Today was the day all her hard work went
up in smoke. She sat down on the chair she had set up in front of the
time gates and silently mourned the lose of not only her dream, but of
the child who never had a real chance to live. Usagi Tsuninko was
dead. Still born, dead before she even had time to see the light of a
single day. Setsuna watched as the mother cried over the loss of her
daughter and silently wept over the death of everything she'd worked
for. Without Usagi there was no Sailor Moon, without Sailor Moon there
was no Ginzuishou, and without the Ginzuishou, there was no hope for
the future. Just as she felt the urge to curl up and allow life to
leave her, however, her eyes were drawn to a quickly forming portal
off to her side. Leaping to her feet, Setsuna leveled her staff at the
possible new threat. She almost dropped said staff, however, when she
saw who passed through it.

    The woman was obviously her, but at the same time obviously
wasn't. She had a feeling that only someone as well aquatinted with
temporal and dimensional travel as Setsuna was could detect. She had
an aura about her that absolutely screamed 'I'm out of place! This
isn't my world!' It was the aura of someone who didn't belong in your
plane of existence and Setsuna immediately knew that this woman was
another dimension's analogy of her.

    Once the woman's identity was determined, Setsuna raced to her
side, catching her counterpart as she fell towards the floor. As she
helped the injured Pluto to the chair which she had only just vacated,
Setsuna allowed herself to take in the woman's injuries and realized
with some sadness that they were quite serious and more than likely
fatal. The woman was bleeding from multiple wounds and from her
extremely pale complication had no doubt lost a great deal of blood.
She seemed to be having a great deal of trouble breathing and she sat
for a long moment just trying to regain enough breath to speak. She
was adorned with a number of burn marks as well and part of her hair
seemed to have been burned off of her. The bundle in her arms was
clutched firmly, yet gently to her chest and Setsuna had a sneaking
suspicion that she knew what the bundle was. Finally, the injured
Pluto seemed to get ahold of herself enough to speak and looked up
into her younger counterpart's eyes.

    "I.....I don't.....have much time." She managed in a ragged voice.
It was obviously taking a great deal of effort to speak and Setsuna
suddenly had the impression that she was keeping herself alive on
shear willpower and her respect for her counterpart rose
significantly. Whatever errand she was on must have been of great
importance to put this much effort into merely surviving. "This
child......must be cared for. Promised......my Queen.....would save
her son. Please......find Ranma......a home. Please.....help him."

    Her eyes began to glaze over and Setsuna took her hand, providing
what comfort she could to her in her final moment. She watched as the
life left her counterpart's eyes and wondered what she was to do now.
One part of her rejoiced, knowing that a child of Neo-Queen Serenity
would be able to summon the Ginzuishou and take Usagi's place, perhaps
allowing for the future she had planned to come to pass. Another part
knew, however, that this would have to be dealt with carefully. She
couldn't just hand the child, Ranma, over to Usagi's parents and hope
it all worked out. For starters, only women could become Senshi, and
Ranma was very obviously not a woman. Secondly, she really had no idea
what Ranma's past was like, only a dying woman's last words to go on.
It could be that this wasn't Serenity-sama's son at all. The second,
however, was the easier of the two to resolve.

    First thing, she buried her counterpart. She attempted to distance
herself from the more morbid thoughts that it was, in fact, herself
that she was burying, but was unable to completely remove the feeling
of strangeness that came with laying her own body to rest. After that
was done, Setsuna went about setting up a place for Ranma to sleep and
made sure that she had plenty of food should he awaken. Thankfully, it
had only been an hour or so since the injured Pluto had shown up and
he was still fast asleep, making her work that much easier. She then
sat down and began to first trace Pluto back to her home dimension,
before replaying enough of her past to find out what had happened to
her and where Ranma came from.

    She was gladdened to see that Ranma was indeed an heir to the
throne of the moon, meaning that he could summon the Ginzuishou. How
it happened, however, came as quite a surprise to her. That Ranma's
parents were not Usagi and Mamoru as she originally believed, but
Michiru and Kenji, a male counterpart of Usagi, was a great shock to
her system. Just seeing her princess born as a man was shocking
enough, but to have him marry Sailor Neptune, who in her reality was
firmly lesbian, nearly made her fall out of her chair. She remained
seated though and watched through most of young Ranma's life, up until
the point where he came into her care. Partway through her viewing,
Ranma had awoken, but she found him to be extremely well-behaved and
merely fed him and held him while watching the going-ons of his past.

    Once she was finished watching the past of her deceased
counterpart, Setsuna sat back and considered what to do about her
charge. The most obvious answer would be just to take care of him
herself, but she ruled that out quickly. For starters, she had far too
much of an obligation to stay in the Time Gates for the next several
years to raise a child. With Usagi gone, things would be in flux for
the next few years and she had to monitor it closely to avoid anything
else going wrong and, frankly, she knew better than anyone just how
lonely the Gates could be. As much as she would appreciate the
company, the idea of forcing a child to grow up in a place like that
was too much for her. Also, it would be best if he could be raised by
someone who could teach him some martial arts, as well as a good deal
of kindness and honour. While she was a decent fighter, she had
nowhere near the level of confidence in her abilities to pass it on to
someone else. Besides, she'd had the sneaking suspicion that the Gates
had had a corrupting influence on her sense of honour over the
millennia and she knew that someone who would be her superior had to
above such corruption. How could he be if his chief influence was,
herself, corrupted?

    This all led to the obvious conclusion that she needed to get him
adopted. This led to a whole new set of complications. First off, he
needed, as she already thought of, training in fighting and a high
sense of honour. This meant a martial artist would be preferable. He
would need to be in the Tokyo area when everything started happening,
around his sixteenth year, preferably in the Juuban district or one of
the close laying regions, such as Nerima or Tomobiki. Finally, and
probably most importantly, as much as she hated to do it to the lad,
he needed to be a Senshi. This in itself wasn't so bad except that all
Senshi were girls. This meant that he needed to be a she. Now Setsuna
knew of several methods of doing this, it really wasn't that hard, but
the most advantageous way would have to be Jusenkyo. The Cursed
Springs would not only give him the required....equipment to become a
Senshi, but it would also leave him the opportunity to retain some of
his masculinity as the curses were reversible.

    So, essentially, Setsuna needed someone from the Tokyo area, who
was well-versed in the martial arts, wise enough to teach him honour
and yet stupid enough to get him cursed. She knew the perfect person.
She just hoped Ranma could forgive her someday.

*********************************************************************

    Nodoka Saotome was ecstatic. After the tests came back she had
feared that she would never have a child. Of course, Genma had blamed
her, refusing to even look at the test results when she came back with
them, but she'd read them, and she knew the truth. It came as a bit of
a shock that Genma was sterile, but then, at least she knew it wasn't
her fault that she couldn't conceive. Still, whether it was her fault
or his, the fact remained that so long as her husband was shooting
blanks she would remain without child. Now, however, she didn't need
to. A perfect, darling baby boy had been left right on her doorstep,
and Nodoka would be damned if she let what she saw as her last chance
at having a child go.

    It was perfectly understandable, then, that she lifted the basket
containing the child into her arms and, rather than call the police as
she should have, she went into the house and started trying to decide
how she would go about making him her legal son. Almost
absentmindedly, she picked up the letter which was on top of the
baby's blanket and, setting the basket down on the couch next to where
she herself sat down, started to open it. Pulling the letter loose
from the envelope she unfolded it and began to read the flowing,
elegant script.

'Dear Mrs. Saotome,

    I know of your recent trouble having a child and of your and your
husband's wish for a son to pass on your values and traditions. This
child has recently been orphaned in a violent crime which took the
lives of both of his parents and I ask you to take care of him and
allow him to fill in for the child that you cannot have. His name is
Ranma, and he will grow up to be a very powerful man, one that many
will look up to and depend on, but only with a proper family to raise
him, something that I hope you can provide.

    The only condition upon your receiving Ranma as your son is that
you agree to raise him to be a great martial artist, the true man
among men he will need to be to survive what life will have in store
for him. If you agree to this, put this letter back in the mailbox
right away and ignore it for a time. At five in the afternoon check
the mailbox again and you will find all the registration papers you
need for Ranma to be a permanent part of your family. Should you
disagree, leave Ranma where you found him and he will be picked up
shortly.

    I apologize for the burden I've placed you under but I know,
should you accept him, that Ranma would be raised properly with your
family.

                        				     A Friend

    Nodoka reread the letter several times before getting up and
walking to the front door. There she left the letter in the mail box,
just as it had specified, and walked back to Ranma to await both the
promised response and her husband's return from work.

    While she waited, she lifted Ranma out of the basket he was in and
held him close to her, looking him over and memorizing his features.
He was sleeping soundly and Nodoka couldn't help but marvel at how
beautiful a child he was. As she was holding him she noticed a small
chain around his neck and pulled the end of it from the blanket in
which he was wrapped. At the end of the chain was a beautifully
wrought locket of gold and silver. Opening it up, Nodoka found two
pictures within. One of the pictures was of a couple standing together
with a baby in their arms. Realizing that these were Ranma's true
parents, Nodoka examined them closely. Ranma's mother was a beautiful
woman, tall and refined with long aquamarine hair falling loosely past
her waist, while his father was tall, blond and handsome, a man who
looked as if he could easily be royalty. The woman stood within her
husband's embrace while holding Ranma within hers, and both had
expressions of love and joy on their faces.

    The second picture was of a group of eight woman and two men
standing before a beautifully ornate fountain. All of them were
dressed formally, in gowns and tuxedo's, and Nodoka could see Ranma's
parents were at the head of the group, seemingly the leaders of the
group like a king and queen presiding over the lesser nobles. Ranma's
father had his arm around Ranma's mother making it obvious that they
were a couple when the photo was taken, along with several other
couples including a green-haired woman with the other man and the two
blond girls (which, although Nodoka didn't think was proper, she
didn't overly disapprove of since, afterall, love was love regardless
of it's form). The rest of the women formed a loose group amongst the
couples and seemed content just to be within the company of their
friends.

    Nodoka closed up the locket after a time and placed it within her
pocket, deciding that she had best hide it when she had the chance if
she wished for Ranma to keep it. As much as she loved her husband, and
she did despite his many faults, she knew that anything of value would
not remain long in his presence. He had a tendency to sell off
anything of value to feed his various appetites and generally at much
less than they were worth. She knew he never meant any harm by this,
that he couldn't really help himself, but she also knew that if she
wanted anything of even slight value to remain in her possession she
should put it somewhere out of sight. In Genma's case 'out of sight,
out of mind' proved to be the truth.

    Looking up at the clock, Nodoka noticed that it was five minutes
past five, and so got up to check the mailbox. Within the mailbox she
found a mass of paper work which she took back with her into the
living room. Amongst the paperwork were a birth certificate for one
Ranma Saotome, presently just under a year old, and legally her son by
birth. She wasn't sure how her mysterious benefactor managed to obtain
the documentation for something that obviously never happened, but she
didn't complain either. They had only moved into the area in the last
month and she had yet to really meet the neighbors so tricking them
into believing that he was her son wouldn't be too difficult. Also
within the mass of papers was a statement of funds in her name,
presumably so that she could afford to raise Ranma on the measly
salary her husband brought in. She would have to keep that from him as
well or it would disappear rapidly in a stream of warm sake.

    She had just finished looking through the paperwork when Genma
came home. Nodoka had anticipated having to fight him about keeping
the child, set as he was on having an heir to his genes, but he agreed
surprisingly easily. It seemed the thought of not having an heir at
all scared him enough that he quickly agreed to anything that provided
that heir. Nodoka didn't like the gleam that entered his eyes when he
looked upon his new son, but she ignored that as he seemed excited at
the opportunity to have a son to train in his art.

    As she lay in her bed with Ranma snuggled in her arms, Nodoka
listened half-heartedly to her husband talking excitedly on the phone
with his best friend. He seemed to be making plans to go drinking with
the other man in celebration of his new son, but she ignored him as
she drifted off, her eyes on the sleeping child in her arms and a
contented smile on her face.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: I wasn't going to start up anything new, but I tried
using the crossover generator once more and came up with such a
convoluted mess that I had to give it a try. This is just the prologue
since it's so short. I had planned on making it longer, but it came to
such a natural stopping point that I couldn't help but stop the
chapter. I'll try and work on getting chapter one out shortly.
C&C can go to ranikkoku@hotmail.com and you can find my other stories
at www.geocities.com/ranikkoku
Thanks for reading
Bob Lobster