Chapter 6:

Personal Hell.

by Man in the shadows.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Ranma * or Starcraft. Blizzard owns
Starcraft. Ranma * belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. God Bless these people. I'm
also low on cash. Please don't sue. God bless these people's lawyers.

I'll add other disclaimers at the end of the fic, if need be.

~ ~ These shall be used for telepathic communication. > < This is for
thoughts. = = are for Transmissions.

WARNING: Darkfic, Spoilers, Foul language, Adult situations, and Not just
bloody, but gory!

*********************************************************
Ryouga exited one of the dropships as they made landfall on Sal Cara. Ukyou
was busy setting up a temperary defense line. Ryouga's job was to meet with
the Protoss leaders and delever a med suit, that he now carried. Pepermint
had come along to help him find his way. What Ryouga was looking foreward
too was seeing if Ranma had gotten any stronger. Ryouga wanted a rematch in
a real bad way.

Peppermint looked a bit nervous as they walked through the Protoss
encampment. Ryouga couldn't blame her. He had fought with the Protoss once
before, and they proved to be powerful opponents. Ryouga doubted he would
have survived if not for the reach of his guns and The explosived he was
carrying.

Ahead Ryouga saw a group of Terrans with some Protoss, and Ryouga stoped
dead in his tracks. From where he stood, he could see Ranma's eyes under the
hood of the cloak. They were the eyes of a vetran. Ranma had clearly been
through his own hells. Ryouga Had the same kind of tired but determaned look
in his eyes too. Both wanted to just quit, but they would still fight to the
end. For a moment, Ryouga felt a bit of kinship with his rival.

Pepermint prompted him to continue. She clearly didn't like the idea of just
stanging still. Ryouga walked up to the others and set the medsuit down.
"Hi." Several Psiconic replies me his greeting leaving him a bit uneasy.
"So, how many hours till we get going?"

~We shall be done within the hour. Harry and some of our zealots will join
your defense line,~ replied a Protoss templar, before he floated away.

Harry went off with some Protoss Zealots and Dragoons. Kasumi seemed quiet
as she pulled on the med suit. Ranma walked over to Ryouga. ~So, who's your
friend?~

"Oh, this is Pepermint. She used to be a Zerg, till she got splashed by some
water from the Spring of the Drownd Woman and water from the Chiisuiton."

~Huh?~

"It's stuff that would make the change permanent but there's no more of it
in this sector." Ranma visibly relaxed. "So, why are you wearing a cloak?"

~It looks good and keeps the rain at bay,~ Ranma replied as he shrugged the
cloak back. Ryouga was very surprised to see Ranma was wearing Protoss
armor. ~Learn any new moves?~

Ryouga smiled and then he demenstraited the Shishi Hokoudan. Ranma was
impressed as the Chi' blast went into the say. "Think you can compete with
that," said Ryouga with a grin.

Ranma has a shocked look on his face. ~Wow, and all I learned was this.~
Ranma ignited his chi' warp blades. A smirk flowed onto his face. ~And this
little thing,~ he added as he vanished from sight.

Under his breath, Ryouga muttered something about showoffs.

*********************************************************
Harry watched the area before him. The observers had reported a major Zerg
movement, headed their way, before the observers were destroyed. The battle
was to come.

Nearby Avendar watched over him and the other Zealots. Nearby Ukyou was
position her solders, goliaths, and seige tanks. Avendar was having the
Dragoons take up positions near the tanks. Over head flew Wraiths, Corsairs,
Scouts, and Valkyires. Amoung those aircraft was the Hellfire Squadren. It
was a small comfert to have part of the old squad watching over them.

The other members of the Nermia Wrecking Crew were at the orbital platform,
preparing to try and keep the way clear. Harry was pretty much the outsider
of that unit. He never assiciated with others. He kept to himself, most of
the time. He was always was a solder. Social life had no place in his life.
And Morals only seemed to complicate things. But he knew, if he ever had to
make the decisions again, he would probly have stood up for what he felt was
right, on his first mission.

Then the anouncments coame over the comes, and through Psiconic messages.
The Zerg had arrived.

*********************************************************
=All pilots, contact at 4 o'clock. He comes the Zerg,= came over Mousse's
com.

=Hellfire Squadren, this is Ladybird. We're flying in with a wing of Protoss
Scouts. Watch out for Scurge and Mutalisks. And rember, till the Overlords
are down, cloaking is useless.=

Mousse acelerated his Wraith's engines and went with the advance force. He
hoped his upgraded weapons and armor would hold. Ahead Zerg barreled towards
them. Mousse unlocked the saftys on his missles and preped his lasers. The
battle had begun.

*********************************************************
Ryouga was helping Ranma with learning the Shishi Hokoudan, with Peppermint
watching, when he heard the anouncments that the Zerg had met with the air
born forces. "Shit! We better help load the gear." Ranma just nodded.

*********************************************************
On board the Hevenly Wrath, Kuno was kneeling before Mengsk. "My lord, the
CDC upon the Drake is nearing completion."

"Good. How long till the Drake joins this fleet?"

"With in the week, my lord."

Mengsk smild and leaned back in his chair. "You may leave."

*********************************************************
Mousse blasted by a mutaslik while it was exploding. Before him lombed a
overlord. He fired off a missle and dove blow the overlord as it's head
exploded. Before him a group of Scuroges speed towards his. Mousse fired a
missles at one and a volly of missles at the rest. A group of three protoss
Scouts hit the Scrouges from above with a hail of proton fire. Mousse blazed
by the gore and barreled towards a Devourer while three of Hellfire's
squadren members formed on his wing.

"Okay, watch out for it's acid spores. And rember, it's wings only help
direct it."

=We copy that, over.=

As the headed for it, Mouse fired one of his five remaining missles at it.
The other three fighters followed suit and they peeled off in pairs while
the missles impacted aginst the Devourer's carapace. Their lasers fired at
the behemoth, while they blazed by the vission from hell.

With amazing speed, it turned arouns and fired a huge glob of acid spores at
one of the pairs of fighters. Both got hit. The spores ate through the first
one's battered armor with ease and hit the engine. The fighter went sailing
towards the ground. The other ended up having shorts in it's circuts causing
enough confusion for a mutalisk to his it from behind. The fighter went down
in a flaming wreck.

With a yell of outrage, Mousse dove down on the mutalisk and fired his
lasers several times. The monster burst under the onslaut. The enraged
fighter pilot pulled up and went stright towrads the Devourer, firing two
missles. The twin explosive devices hit dead center on a weakspot on the
carapace, compromising the intregaty of the gas sacks. With the sack quickly
lossing gas, the wounded creature started to float gently to the ground.

Mousse continued after it, fireing his lasers, trying to kill the beast. Two
scouts took up his wing and fired missles at the Devourer, pearcing the
creature's main body, and destroying some vital organs in a gory spray.

All three fighters pulled up and went to the next challenge.

*********************************************************
Ranma sat in the shuttle with Kasumi near by. They were to join the Units
presently on the orbital platform, when Nabiki's voice came over the com.
=Oh my God! We're under attack by a huge force of Zerg. We're being over
run!"

"Shit," cursed Ryouga as he checked his rifle. "Kasumi, can you keep an eye
on Peppermint after we land?"

"Okay," came the simple reply.

Ryouga looked over to Ranma. The Dark Templar stayed quiet while he pulled
on his life support gear.

When they exited from the Protoss shuttle, they found they had walked into
the middle of a firefight. Zerg were everywhere. Guns were firing like mad.
And in the distance, the group could see Nabiki facing off aginst Akane.
They started runing towards them, but they wouldn't make it in time.

Akane grabed Nabiki by the shoulder and ramed her hand into Nabiki's chest.
Nabiki screamed as her chest felt like it was on fire. Suddenly she felt
Akane's hand wrap around her heart. The hand slowly squeesed. Syddenly she
felt her heart pop.

Nabiki watches as Aane withdrew her gore soaked hand, just before everything
went black.

Outrage filled Ranma, and he started to advance further. A few hydralisks
got in his way. Their spikes bounced off his sheilds, as he ignited his
blades, and lept foreward. He started cutting through them like the
Hyralisks were rice paper.

He could feel the greaf coming from Kasumi. He could hear the screams of
pain from Nabiki. And he could feel the dark energies coming from Akane. It
had to end.

Ranma was ten feet away from Akane when he stopped. ~I chalenge you to a
duel, Akane.~

Akane smiles and took a lose stance. Red energy crakled up and down her
arms. Her eyes stared back at Ranma with a glare that would scare the hell
out of lesser men.

The dark Templar took a losse Stance. Arieal attacks that he like would be
ineffective in space. He kept his blades ready, and waited for Akane to make
then first move. She didn't keep him waiting.

She moved foreward and went for a punch to the chest. Ranma bent over,
backwards to avoid it, and slashed at her arm. Akane retracted the arm and
grabed it. There was a thin linewhere the carapace had been broken. The
stage had been set.

Akane moves foreward with a series of punches and kicks. Ranma let his
sheild take the punishment and came back at her with a few punches to the
chest and a kick to the shin. Anak went down on one knee and used her other
legs to kick away from Ranma. She grabed onto the ledge of a higher platform
and pulled herself up. Ranma leapt at her, with his blades out and slashed.
She quickly rolled away, while Ranma pulled himself on the platform.

The infected Terran got up and faced Ranma with a feral grin. He had gotten
better. This is what she wanted. A chalenge that she could go all out
aginst. She gathered some of her energy before her and fired it at Ranma, in
a short beam. Ranma staggered back a bit and countered with a very weak
Shishi Hokoudan. Akane shurged it off like it was nothing. She rushed
foreward, gathering a lot of energy at her fist. She was able to punch
through the sheilds. Ranma tilted his head at the last second, escaping with
just some singed hair.

Ranma hit Akane with a full Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken. Akane staggered back,
feeling pain in her ribs. Ranma pressed the advantage, moving foreward and
kicking Akane in the belly. Akane staggered back and hit Ranma with a chi'
blast. It hit Ranma in the gut and sent him flying into a abandoned signal
disk.

Ranma grit his teeth and got up, decideing it was time to experament.
Depression wasn't his strongest emotion. Confidence was. Ranma started to
gather that into a chi' ball, and mixed a bit of psiconic energy with it.
Akane was almost upon him, when he released it at her gut. Akane was flung
several yards away. Her Carapace was cracked, and now it was her turn to
feel as if her insides were on fire.

As she was getting up, Ranma made it to her position. he kicked her in the
chest, knocking her flat on her back. He then ignited a chi'/psi warp blade,
and hit her with a Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken. Onely the tip his her, but the
millimeter deep wounds that started bulding up, too their toll. Ranma then
closed down the blade, and droped down to pin Akane.

Akane was in pain. She looked at him and wondered why he wasn't finishing
it. Then she felt the mind probe. Akane started to thrash about. Ranma held
her still and kept staring stright at her, as if his boring gaze was the
probe gringing deeper and deeper into her mind. She didn't register Ryouga,
who was in sight and trying to keep the Zerg at bay. She didn't register
Kasumi who was busy tending to the wounded Terrans who had just moved to
that Platfor. There was just that mind probe.

Then Ranma found what he was looking for, and destroyed it.

A hellish flood washed through Akane's mind. Greaf, remorse, pain, and
selfhaterid that had been bulding up, hit her in one blow. Her mind screamed
out in horror as the faces of all the people she had killed, as a Zerg,
flashed in her mind. Then she saw Nabiki's death at her hands. It was all
she could see. And Akane didn't even have the power to scream.

Ranma got up. Kasumi put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "What did you
do?"

Ranma looked down at the quivering form of Akane and shook his head. ~I
removed the block keeping back her sense of right and wrong. I think the
backlash sent her into a catatonic trance.~

"Ranma," shouted Ryouga over his com. "Quit talking and help us here, before
we get over run!"

*********************************************************
=Evacuation of ground troop is comeplete,= said Ukyou over the com.
=Fighter, try and punch a hole for us, to those people on the Orbital
Platform.= Several fighters formed on Mousse's wing. Konastu had to bring in
her fighter, and at the moment, it was grounded. Mousse was in command of
Hellfire squadren. As the Wraiths broke through the clouds, Mutalisks that
had been hiding, fired at them. Mousse quickly switched on his cloaking
device and made a bee run for one flock. He fired his last missle at the
center of the group and the Mutalisks scattered, looking for the offending
craft.

Mousse led his squadren stright for the Orbital Platfom. "Okay, keep in
formation, and let's kick some ass."

*********************************************************
Ryouga had run out of ammo and had to rely on his Shishi Hokoudan. Ranma's
Moko Toshiba was doing damage too, but he was tiring. The other marines were
low on ammo. The Zerg just seemed to keep comming. Things looked grim.

Peppermint was starting to feel scared. She didn't want to die. She looked
to Ryouga, who was fighting for all he was worth. She watched him fire Chi'
blast after chi' blast., but he was starting to tire. Peppermint couldn't
help but think, >That doesn't look to hard.< She took up a position near
Ryouga. Tried to bring her feelings to a point before her, and released it
with her chi'. The results of her first chi' blast nearly scared everyone
shitless.

>From her hands burst a large chi' blast that wouldn't stap. The beam lanced
out across the Zerg and kept going. Peppermint let out a scream of fear. She
couldn't stop it. Then she felt two arms wrap around her and grab her
wrists. Those hands guided the blast to sweep across the Zeeg. The beam
swept away the waves of Zerg like a strem of water, hitting a sandy hill.

Suddenly she was too exausted to maintain the chi' blast and it died out.
She swooned, being caught in her arms that were around her and looked up at
Rouga's shocked face. She couldn't help but giggle, as she passed out in his
arms.

*********************************************************
They quietly sat in the transport, as they headed away from Sal Cara. They
all had weapons aimed at the bound creature who was crying on the floor.
Near by Kasumi was crying while Ranma held her. On the other side of the
transport, Ryouga watched over Peppermint, while she sleept.

Shampoo, Harry, and Ukyou had their attention on the bound form of Akane
Tendo. The woman laid their, crying. They didn't trust her much, but the
tears were heartbreaking.

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

Author's notes:

Well we've come close to the end.

I'll bet no one saw Nabiki's end coming.

Akane's not dead, she just in her own privite hell.

I hope Ranma fans will like that way Ranma one this one. This is why I
didn't let him have a easy time in the other battles. I just wanted to jerk
your chains till he did win. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And it's not over yet, folks!

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

COMING ATTRACTION!

*********************************************************
 He's been bruised, battered, burned, betrayed, bashed, broken, and beaten.

  *Ranma lights his Chi'/Psi Warp Blades, near his face, in the darkness.*

                       Not it's time for some payback.

*Ranma lunged at Kuno with his blades out, while they are srounded by a ring
                            of shouting Marines.*

       The Doninion is hitting hard and It's Ranma's turn to hit back.

 *A fleet of Protoss ships, and a few Terran Drop ships being hit by a huge
      blast from a dragon shaped ship and vanishing in a bright flash*

    The Dominion is yelding it's new weapon to eradicate all those who it
                            preceves as threats.

    *Saffron lunges at Ranma, who blocks Saffron's weapons with his Warp
                                  Blades.*

           And Saffron wants a rematch. It all comes together in-

   *From the deck of Mengsk's ship a large flash can be seen from a world,
            before the ship.* STARCTAFT 1/2: Protoss COMING SOON