Shadow Veiled Senshi
(Ranma/Sailor Moon X-over)
By Shad4c
Disclaimer: Ranma and Sailor Moon belong to other people. Not me. This is
purely done for entertainment purposes and no profit is made from it in
any form.
You can find my fics at:-
Lady Cosmos Fanfic Library - http://ladycosmos.anifics.com/
Nighthawks Fanfiction - http://nighthawk.anifics.com/
and
Ranchan Totally Crossed Out - http://tannim.anifics.com/

Authors Note - << >> = start/end of flashbacks.
Chapter 5
Looking at Ruins - Senshi Style
By the time that the sun was resting on the horizon at the end of the day, Nemesis had reached the entrance of the cave that the path lead up to.
It was a fairly easy walk, the path was a little... overgrown... by now but there were no major natural obstacles (the vines had only tried to strangle her twice and that poison needle spray was just reflex right?), while the animals seemed to know to avoid her, at least after she'd Dark Dragon Lightning 3 of them.
The cave itself was a fairly general looking hole in a cliff surrounded by a small grass clearing, large enough to let a van through with a little room to spare.
Nemesis looked around at the entrance with a vague sense of disappointment, before shrugging and striding into it. The darkness of the cave wrapped around her like a blanket as she continued on, the light from outside soon becoming too dim to see by as the cool wind blowing in from the mouth and the darkness combined to grant the tunnel a tomb like quality. In response the Dark Senshi paused of a moment to concentrate, focusing her ki and ignited her battle aura. The ghostly blue fire of confidence illuminating the surroundings in a pale blue filled with soft shifting shadows which flickered and changed as she moved forward.
The cave itself narrowed until it was a thin passage large enough for two
people to walk through side by side comfortably. At this point Nemesis had been walking for 5 minutes, the cave was straight and the passage that had
sloped downwards sharply at the beginning, was now levelling itself off. A sure indication in her mind that it was coming to an end.
Two minutes later Nemesis' guess was shown to be right as the passage
ended at a large metal door, made with a dark material that seemed to draw in the ghostly blue light from her aura. It was elaborately decorated with flowing silver script from some strange language and an equally elaborate set of pictures and symbols spread out across the door. All of which seemed to stand out while still being part of the door as a whole, chaotic and individual while still being orderly and united.
Examining it for a minute Nemesis reached out a gloved hand to push the door
open, since she could see no signs of any type of handle. As her hand came in
contact with the door, the patterns glowed faintly in time with a similar glow covering her hand. In response, the door swung backwards slowly, hindered by the damage done to it by the entropy of time. Nemesis watched the door as this was happening, ignoring for the time being the sight that it reveals , as the door continued on its steady path to an open state. Nemesis glanced down at her now upturned palm.
Blinking slowly in mild surprise at the reaction of the door to her hand the senshi shook off the mild shock and put it down to some sort of magic.
She then turned her attention to the newly revealed room, as she heard a faint click when the door settled into its new position. She was immediately forced to shield her eyes as the room suddenly flared up with almost blinding light. After adjusting to the new level of light and dropping her ki aura, since it was no longer needed,
she carefully stepped into the room looking around, as she did so, for
any... surprises, its past users may have left. Her idiot father had sent
her into enough old temples (occupied and abandoned) and burial grounds (stupid skeletons!?) in search of money and lost martial arts techniques for her to be careful (the money being the Pandas' motivation, the techniques her own). Seeing no signs of any such things, she carefully moved further into the room. She took note of her surroundings scanning for threats.
Described in one word it would be called.. barren, the wall, floor and ceiling were the same as the passage she'd just exited with the exception of glowing white crystals at strategic places along the walls and ceiling. Having said that the room was of a respectable size, only emphasised how empty it was. The only thing else in sight was a raised metal platform in the centre of the room.
Seeing nothing else of interest, Nemesis walked over to the platform
and looked down on IT. It being the circle with a glowing yellow crystalline
top on it. Crouching down and running a finger along the edge of the yellow
crystal, she growled as she felt more memories assault her, by now, memory-recall abused mind.


<< I'm walking along the corridor in one of my rare visits to the Moon
Kingdom's palace from which Queen Sincerity rules. Ahead of me is my
Sensei, leading me through the winding corridors of the Palace even though since we are both in senshi form we never get lost, a nice side effect of being the Senshi of Space. In the Palace it also a vital one since the place had been constantly improved and expanded over thousands of years so no-one knew every passage way. Staff knew and even lived in their own small parts of the Palace and that was that, guests where passed from one guide to the next as they travelled through the mammoth building. We finally come to a small room with a small yellow crystalline disk on a raised metal platform in the centre of the other desolate room, my Sensei walks up to stand by it, then stops and looks at me.
I look back at her, then at the disk, then back at her again in confusion. By now I could feel the residue of warped space around the device, hell I could practically TASTE it, so I knew that this was the reason we were here. I simply didn't know WHY it was the reason we were here.
" Are we here to destroy it?" I asked with confusion, it was in the palace so it MUST be official somehow, or was it?
"No young one, we are not, although sometime I wish I could!" Elder
Nemesis answered, a slight smile tugging at the edge of her lips on an otherwise grim face.
“Then why?”
"To show you one of the biggest headaches any Sailor Nemesis has to
deal with”. The Elder Senshi waved her hand over the metal disk, losing her smile “This is a teleport disk, they are rare thankfully, since they're extremely difficult to build. It allows high ranking people to move around the system at high speed by teleporting them between disks."
At this Elder Nemesis' smile turned rueful. "Teleportation of the type used in this techno-magic device warps space, and hence I have a constant number of false alarms going off all around the system on top of the real ones that I have to deal with. None of which I can ignore."
I nod as the meaning of the trip becomes clear to me. Before again asking why she doesn't destroy them.
"I let them be, since they do come in useful for me as well as everyone
else, even if I don't need them" She finishes looking back at me with a grimly amused smile.
I must have looked at her strangely, because she elaborated.
"Any type of teleporting takes POWER for everyone else! P-O-W-E-R!!! While its easy and cheap power-wise for us, any use of power leaves a marker that others can pick up if they know what to look for. It's very difficult to do and we're almost impossible to pick up in this way but it can be done. This
device means I can travel around the system without leaving a power trail for
someone to follow." She sees the spark of comprehension in my eyes and
nods happy that her lesson seems to be sinking in.
"Now since we're here I must pay my respects to the Queen and her
daughter"
I groan at the thought of the formality to follow, one of the greatest reasons that I avoided the Palace whenever I could. >>


Nemesis groaned in real life as she pulled herself to her feet, the
information was nice but she could do without the instant playback all the
time. Well, at least she now knew what this thing was, she grinned cockily.
'Lets try it out'.
Stepping onto the disk, Nemesis found herself speaking 'Moon Palace' in
a musically flowing language. With this, the world lit up and she felt it warp around her. She shut her eyes..
...To open them to a pitch black room.


With Ranma's disappearance on a sudden training trip, a unsteady peace
had settled over the not-so-sleepy ward of Nerima. With the main focus of all their actions missing, the various members of the Wrecking Crew had no reason at the moment to live up to their infamous reputation.
While Ryouga had set out to find Ranma when he had heard (with stop offs in Antarctica and the Sahara), dragging Moose along with him, Kuno was his normal delusional self ranting about vanquishing the dread sorcerer and freeing his two loves... as soon as he recovered from his twisted sisters latest poisoning. The Fiancees had taken a 'wait and ambush
Ranma at the first chance' option (or in Akane's case bash him for leaving
without saying goodbye).
In the Nekohanten, two Amazons were busy with the midday rush, with
Moose away and Ranma not available Shampoo had to work twice as hard. She
grumbled about blind idiots and recipes for 'Peking Duck' as she made her way
back to the counter for another order.
"Two bowl of chicken ramen for table two, Great Grandmother" Shampoo
told Cologne as she put down some dirty bowls.
"Coming right up Granddaughter. Is there something on your mind? You
don't seem focused on your work" Cologne asked with concern.
Shampoo sighed and looked around before speaking in a low voice.
"Why we no follow Airen, Great Grandmother?"
Cologne nodded and looked wise (doing a far better job of it than
Genma).
"So that's what's bothering you today is it Granddaughter, don't worry
yourself so. Sometimes it is best to back off for a while, particularly in
this case. Ranma has killed. No matter how good his reasons, that is what it
boils down to. He used the Art to take a life and now he needs some time and
space to come to terms with it. I would be more worried if he hadn't done
something like this. He'll be back Granddaughter. Now, table two's order is
ready".
Cologne handed over two steaming bowls of ramen to the now smiling
waitress who nodded in thanks and made her way to the correct table. The old
Elder watched her for a moment before turning her attention back to her work.
'I hope you find the answers you seek Son-in-Law'

Over in the Ucchans a brown haired chef was also dealing with the midday
rush with the help of her self-appointed servant Konatsu.
Business was good at the moment but she couldn't make herself excited
about it. Something was missing, something important. Ranchan.
When she'd heard that Ranma had left she was all for up-rooting her
restaurant and going after him. After all she'd come to Nerima for Ranma, ok
admittedly to kill him, but she'd stayed because she loved him, and that
counted for something. It was Nabiki and Kasumi of all people that had
pulled her aside as she prepared to leave and convinced her that this was
something that Ranchan needed to do alone.
She sighed as she flipped some butter, it hurt that he hadn't come to
her about this or said goodbye. Of course, the same was true for Shampoo and
Akane, and that made her feel better. When he came back they'd had a lot to talk about.
Just then Konetsu walked over to the grill with an order and she forced herself to refocus on the task at hand.

Meanwhile, in the Tendo Dojo, things were quiet, Genma and Soun were in
the living room playing a game and chatting about the old times and what it would
be like when the schools were joined. Akane was out with her friends somewhere,
and Kasumi was in the Kitchen cleaning up after dinner when Nabiki strolled
in. Kasumi looked up and smiled gently at her sister before going back to her work.
Nabiki sat on a nearby chair and watched her older sister work for a
while before speaking.
"Do you think Ranma's all right?"
"I'm sure he's fine Nabiki" Kasumi responded quickly glancing at the
middle sister. "You know he can look after himself".
"Will he be back?"
Kasumi paused at this blunt question and thought as Nabiki continued.
"After all he's been thinking a lot more, and a lot deeper since Saffron.
He's gone off to think no matter what he said about training. What if he
decides he doesn't want to come back?"
Nabiki's voice was strangely neutral throughout this speech, she then leaned forward and waited for a reply from the elder Tendo.
"He'll be back, he's not his father. He'll come back even if it's to
say goodbye and straighten this whole mess out." Kasumi spoke with confidence.
Nabiki smiled slightly before settling back in the chair again to watch her
sister in peace.

While Nabiki was wondering about Ranma's future, the person in question
was wondering were the hell she was now. She promptly smacked herself in the
head with her empty hand (she was holding the Void Lance with the other).
She was in the Moon Palace of course, thats where she told the teleporter
to take her after all. It also...felt like the Moon Palace, although the feeling was vague, distant or.... faded. She cranked up her battle aura again to provide light, then headed out of the room.
If she remembered correctly then she should be near the Senshi's
Hallway, the most likely place for her to find answers. As she walked down the dark corridors she felt sad, the memories of this places magnificence and the present reality of broken marble and cracked crystal depressed her, what had happened to this place?, what had destroyed it?, hopefully she could find
something here to answer her questions, 'preferably WITHOUT sparking to many
memories at once'. Nemesis chuckled slightly at this thought before turning into the hallway see sought and stopping.
Looking down a hallway as cracked and damaged as any of the others
she could see that the doors to the Senshi' rooms looked pristine, a stark
contrast to the devastation that surrounded them.
Something was strange here, from her time in Nerima she'd noted that a
door was more likely to be damaged than a wall. With the level of damage around here, these doors should be totally smashed. What was so special about them?
In answer to her question more memories surfaced.


<<"What's so special about these rooms Sensei?" I asked Sailor Nemesis "I mean, I've been in yours a lot and, well, while it's a REALLY nice room it doesn't seem all that special"
She looked down at me before smiling and taking my hand. Leading me
through the palace we arrived before the Senshi's Hallway, she then pointed
down at all the rooms in turn.
"Sailors Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and my own room, Sailor Nemesis."
I looked down the hallway noting the pristine look of all the doors
except for Sailor Saturn's, which looked run down and uncared for. I pointed
this out to my new Sensei.
"There is an answer to your question little one. The rooms are linked
to the Senshi they sometimes house. As long as that Senshi exists then so
does the room and its magic keeps it in pristine condition. There isn't a
Sailor Saturn at the moment so there is no magic for the room to draw on, when a new Saturn awakens then the room will restore itself to pristine condition.
The same is true of all the rooms in this hallway." She explained patiently.
"Ahhhh" Was my only response. After all, What else could I say? >>


Nemesis blinked back into reality and shook her head to clear it. She growled to herself quietly, she HAD to stop doing that before she got permanent brain damage!!!
Strolling down the corridor she looked at each of the doors in turn,
admiring the artwork on each, and again noting the condition of them, if her new memories were right then that meant that all of the senshi where active at the moment. Something to look into... Maybe they knew what it was that
happened to the palace to cause this. She frowned as she passed Saturn's
door, as a vague sense of warning flittered in her mind, but it passed before
she could figure out what had caused it so the senshi shrugged it off. Reaching the final door in the row, she looked across at the doors to the chambers she had lived in sometimes during another life. She took a moment to admire it like she had done so long ago, before stepping forward and opening it, moving into the room beyond.
The room itself was in fact a small series of interconnected rooms, a
bedroom, bathroom, living room and a small kitchen containing everything a
senshi might need during their stay at the palace. Dismissing the other
rooms for the time being, after a brief inspection Nemesis turned her
attention to the living room. It was nicely decorated with lots of dark
varnished wood, plush furnishing in the form of a sofa and chairs and a large
number of shelves and cabinets. There was also a large desk facing the door
with a single large book resting on an otherwise desolate surface, a shimmering purple dome surrounding it.
Walking around the room to stand behind the desk she looked down at
the object in question, through the field. It was a thin book with a black cover, gold bindings and the symbol of Nemesis on the front cover in glittering silver. The new warden slowly reached forwards, the dome flaring slightly before flickering out as her fingers touched it. Her hand continuing through to gently brush the cover of the book with reverence. Taking a few moment to trace the symbol on the cover. Nemesis snapped her hand back as the book glowed black and opened on it's own. When the cover came to rest the pages flickered in front of her eyes until it reached the final page.
Nemesis stared at the tome on the desk warily, like it was a snake that would bite at any moment (which considering what had happened to him so far it just might!). Before slowly leaning over and picking it up gingerly and starting to read the strange script that somehow made sense, fading into memory as she did.
' My Friend if you are reading this then either I'm showing it to you or you have found the Book of Nemesis on your own. With the circumstances that I find myself in at the moment I.. unfortunately... feel the latter has a more likely chance of being true. Ether way this means you are Sailor Nemesis since........'


<< “...this is the only way you could have opened or even touched this book.” I spoke aloud as I wrote the word while sitting on one of the large rocks that seemed to abound on this barren planet my exiled wanderings had taken me to. I look up a the dull orange sky and feel the space around me, I expel a resigned sigh at what I found before I went back to writing.
“And since this is the page your reading then you must have tripped the spell I will place on the book, making it open to this page when next opened at all. This means that you are my successor, inheritor of an ancient power and responsibility, one I am sorry I cannot be there to help guide you into. Fear not though as the Book contains the combined experience of every one of our predecessors merely close the book concentrate on what you want to know and then open it again and it will be there.” I glance up as I feel a shift in the fabric of the dimensional wall across the system I was in, it was near, very near. Bending to my writing with new vigour I finish what I fear will be my last Testament. “Always remember that is your duty as a Sailor Senshi is to Protect Humanity and the other races of this universe from the forces that would destroy them and also to protect the line of Serenity from the Darkness and the Light that will both always threaten to consume them. I wish you luck in your task.

Signed
Ranka Paradox
Sailor Nemesis”
With this I shut the book and cast a spell on it before using my powers to send it back to my room in the Palace. By now I could practically TASTE the warping of the cosmos around me and across the system, the reason that I'm here. I get to my feet, draw my Talisman and prepare to do my duty. >>


Nemesis dropped the book back onto the desk as the Space Senshi came out of the memory with a gasp. She jumped back from the table as her thoughts raced and her emotions slid through fear and disbelief. She stood there shaken as she stared at the words again. She was about to speak aloud when she suddenly felt the same feeling she remembered a D-Rift giving off coming from Tokyo, the aqua transsexual senshi grabbed the book and shoved it into her sub-space storage pocket. Turning away from the desk she swiped the Void Lance through the air and formed an astral bypass, before stepping through it and onto the roof of building overlooking an abandoned lot in Juuban. Staring down the new senshi hardened her resolve and jumped into the lot.


Authors Note:
OK loooong break between writing this and the last chapter but here it is, I hope you enjoyed it.

Please send constructive comments (Flames will be used to heat my room) to [email protected].

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