---
Gaia's Awakening
---
" " is for speaking
' ' is for quotes in talks
{ } is for thoughts
---
Chapter 1
---

Akane was on the end of the cave. After the much needed traps, spikes,
boulders, she was a the end of the cave. The only obstacle between her
and the exit was a big cauldron. After inspection, she noted that it
was full of boiling water.

{I need to push it in some way}

But the metal was way to hot to touch it, burning her skin.

{I can't possibly use those damn handles! They are as hot as the
cauldron itself!!}

And yet it seemed like she had not the choice. Gathering her bravery,
she tentatively put her forearms under the handles on each side of the 
big cauldron.

"Ouch! That's way to hot... I can't do it!" She said aloud.

"Giving up?" she heard from the other side of the boulder. "You have
the right to, if you think you can't handle it."

"Never!" she nearly shouted back. "I'll do it!"

Again, she gathered all her bravery and she added her rage to it.
She took the handles, burning badly her arms. And in one short effort,
she pushed the cauldron enough to let her exit the cave.

"Good... You succeeded the trials. For now on, you are now one of us, 
a proud Amazon warrior. Congratulations, child." Akane recognized the
voice, the one of the grand mistress of the Amazons, the Matriarch,
Cologne.

"Thank you very much, Elder." She looked then at the burning marks on 
her forearms, somewhat not as surprised as the thought she would have 
be : a dragon mark on the right arm and a tiger one on the left, like 
all the Amazons.

"These are our marks, child. You'll be able to heal them sometime in 
the future, but if you do, you will cease to be one of us." The lady 
showed Akane her own arms, revealing the same burns. "Like you know, I 
could heal them if I wanted to, but this is our sigil. Be proud of 
them. They are the symbol of the Taoism religion we follow here."

Nodding her understanding, Akane let herself to be showed the path to
return to the village.

"You have mastered the powers you already got, child. But you have a
long way to go to catch up to others."

"Hum... Ranma said that I have awakened not long ago."

"Yes, he is quite powerful now, he apparently have awakened himself
quite a long time ago now... but know that I'm a waken myself since 
the Armageddon."

Akane gaped to this information. The Elder was awakened 50 years ago?
But how? She couldn't be more than 40 years old... Cologne seeing
Akane's face smirked at her.

"Unbelievable, isn't it? You'll see by yourself that being a waken is 
much more that the power itself. I need only a couple hours of sleep 
to be totally refreshed and I barely eat at all... and my aging 
started to slow down several years ago."

Akane head was now spinning. Between these informations and the stress
of the test, she was completely drained.

"Don't worry child, you are not at this stage of your evolution... 
yet. For now, you must increase your power and help us to beat this 
prideful tyrant." Her eyes gleamed with a cold spark. "He dares to 
insult all of us like this. The Amazons cannot accept the fate of 
being only a hunted prey. Soon... soon we will be ready, and then it 
will be time for payback."

With this, the Elder vanished from Akane's view, knowing the girl 
could return back to the village by herself now.

Akane stayed a short moment there, just standing, her mind lost. When
she was done, she resumed her pace. A feast was due to celebrate her
success.

---

The traditional acceptance feast was a buffet and, for Ranma, it meant 
an 'all-you-can-grab' buffet. While he pleasured himself by vacuuming 
food, the Amazons were busy chatting with their new sister : Akane. 
Ryoga was too shy to approach her, even if the desire to do so was
burning through him.

Akane quickly became good friend with Shampoo, the village's best
warrior, elders excluded. Now that they were in good relations, Akane
built the courage to ask Shampoo a question that plagued her.

"Shampoo, you had to pass the trial too, right?"

"Yes. That was a few years ago."

"I wanted to ask you about the last cave before the cauldron... 
something was giving me the creeps but there was nothing there."

"If you had come here before Ranma passed his trial, you would have 
seen why. There was another trial in the trial, in that last cave. You 
would have fought your inners demons there. You know about our curses, 
right?"

"Yeah, you turn into a cat, Ryoga into a black little pig and Ranma 
into a girl."

"Correct. Ranma's curse affected the test somewhat. So, in place of
fighting his inner demons, he fought his dark inner self. We don't 
know for sure what happened, even Ranma don't remember. But he was 
somewhat changed when he passed the cauldron test."

"Changed? How?" 

"Hmm... He's still a little immature, but he seems to enjoy his life a 
lot more. He used to have a very bad fear of cats, and now he controls 
the dreaded Nekoken that made him thinking like a cat when he used it 
before. The Elders investigated the cave, the magic of the cave used 
for the test was completely dried up... so this test can't be used 
anymore. You had it easy Akane... maybe you wouldn't have succeeded it 
if that test was still active." Shampoo teased Akane with a big grin.

"Yeah, right... whatever. Why didn't the Elders cast a new spell in 
the cave?"

"The cave was enchanted several millenias ago. The first Amazons found 
the case already enchanted." she shrugged her shoulders, and resumed 
eating while a few things were left unanswered.

---

"Come on Ryoga! Don't tell me you are stuffed yet!! There is plenty
more." shouted Ranma to the lost boy. "You lost your appetite, lost
boy?" Ranma then resumed eating at his normal pace, that is : for a
waken of the Saotome school of eating-all-you-can-at-an-all-you-can-
eat-buffet, very secret technique.

"Argh! shut up! Stuff you face so that I can't hear you, will you? And
I DO NOT get lost that much, thank you." replied Ryoga.

"Ranma, *munch* don't tease him, *munch* he got better for that.
*munch*" Elder Cologne came to Ryoga's defense.

"Hu... thanks." Ryoga replied, blushing that the Matriarch herself 
took his defense.

---

"They are at it again."

"Akane, you know they love each others like siblings. They just tease
each others for fun."

"Well, it look like pretty stupid to me, Shampoo."

"You have not seen my Amazon sisters just before a tournament. This is
nothing."

Akane looks at Shampoo like she had grown a second head. Well, at
least, her new life promise to be anything but dull.

"Speaking of them, where are theirs parents? Your father cooks at your
home and your mother is dead, but I didn't heard a word on theirs..."

"For Ryoga, it's easy : they are lost somewhere on earth. Only his
awakening allows Ryoga to stay near the village, near enough not to 
get lost anyway."

"It can't be THAT bad?"

"Akane, Ranma told me once that Ryoga could get lost in a room with
only a door and no windows. I can assure you it must have been pretty 
much the case before his awakening. Because since he came here, he got 
a lot better, even if there is still a lot of room for improvement."

"Oh... and Ranma's parents? His father is a friend of mine."

"His mother could be dead for all we know. His father, on the
other hand... it's a sore spot for him..."

"He is dead?"

"Worse, Akane, for us anyway. He had willingly joined the beetle 
troops."

"What? Why would he do that? He left Ranma here alone?"

"No. He'd have taken Ranma with him, by force if necessary, but Elder
Cologne chassed Genma before he could get Ranma."

"Thanks for telling me. I will be able to avoid the mistake of
mentioning it to them."

"The big problem is, when we'll be ready to attack, we might face him.
I hope Ranma get strong enough to hold his own against his father."

"Genma is that powerful? Cologne beat him still, no?"

"Yeah, but Elder Cologne is more powerful than what we can imagine.
Genma and Ranma awakened at the same time, but Ranma was very young
then, and so Genma's power grew faster than Ranma's at first. I could 
bet that Ranma is increasing his power faster than anyone here 
nowadays."

"Let's hope it'll suffice".

"Yeah."

---

And so, the training continued. Harder than ever, pressing each Amazon
well further their limits. Accenting each one advantage. Ryoga's
resistance to damages and resistance, Ranma's speed and nekoken, 
Akane's raw strength, Shampoo's agility. 

And so, the attack of the enemies' land was planned. I didn't take 
that long to leave. only the bests were sent to gather information. 
Elder Cologne would finish the warriors' training while Ranma and the 
others were doing their researches.

The travel was quick, thanks to the feeble amount of sleep and food
needed. Ma Yuan being based in Los Angeles in the USA, the Amazon 
scout party decided to go to the States to test theirs powers, but far 
enough of Los Angeles. No Amazon was allowed to go there yet. Ranma's 
scouting party was sent to test their powers, so that they would know 
how they rank against the beetles.

---

"Guys, hide your auras. We need to appear to be slightly less powerful
than them." Ranma said, dressed in his trademark red chinese shirt
with black trousers and black combat bracers.

"Pfff.. Ranma, don't tell us something we already know. We want to 
know just how much we can beat them." snarled Ryoga in his yellow 
shirt and dark green pant, with his trademark yellow and black 
bandana.

"They don't search for power below 50 anyway... so as long as we stay
on human level, we are safe." Ranma pointed.

"Human level, Ranma? we are at what can be qualified to the top best 
of the human level. No human can really get to this level..." Shampoo 
wore the Amazon battle suit, colored in white and pink.

"In any case, we are there. This seems to be their quarter in this
village." Akane choose to dress in a yellow gi, a remembrance of her
past 'normal' life.

"Good job Akane. Hum... I think there is a squad leader in there."

"Yeah... who get it?" asked Ranma, a cocky grin on his face.

"The first to get to him, who else..." answered Ryoga, a big smile on
his lips.

"Less talk, more fight!" announced Shampoo. "We go now!" and she
started her run along the street, straight toward the inn where are 
the beetles.

"Ooo-kay, we follow I think..." commented Ranma before rushing after 
Shampoo.

"Then think quickly, first there gets all the fun!!"
shouted Ryoga while dashing behind her purple haired friend.

---

Inside the inn, a detector began to scream, but way too late, as the 
wall was caved in and then exploded to reveal a cute purple haired 
girl, holding two bonboris.

Before the three beetles could even blink, Shampoo charged one of them
and stroked with her mace, hard. The beetle desperately tried to block
the blow, but the mace wasn't even slowed when it crushed his blue
armor, sternum and ribs with the same ease, killing him.

One of the two other beetles jumped on Shampoo to punch her in the 
face, but she side-stepped him like she didn't even mean to and 
crashed her mace down his skull, imploding it. She then struck the 
last one with a double hit with both maces, crushing him like an empty 
bottle.

Satisfied with her handy work, she broke the next wall, not even 
seeing the door on her left.

---

Akane, surprisingly, was the first to enter the inn by the door. But
she was noticed by the two beetles guarding it. Her fear was
immediately replaced by rage as her veins were flooded by adrenaline.
She charged the first guard.

Her punch was strong and, as she managed to actually hit her opponent 
on the stomach, she hurt him bad, shattering his armor, expulsing the 
air from his lungs. Even if the beetle refused to go down, he still 
had to sit down, gasping for air.

The second one attacked her while she relished on her semi-victory. 
She backed of trying to dodge, but she was hit on her shoulder, just
bruised from the blow.

Pushing a scream of pure rage, she uppercut her aggressor on the gut,
unprotected by the parts of his armor, effectively decapitating the 
man and sending his free head flying on the opposing wall, making a 
nasty blood trail on it's path and on the wall.

{Oh my God! I killed him. I didn't want to... No... no, no, no !!}

Unknown to her, the gasping beetle had recovered and prepared to 
strike her from behind. It might have been the case if Ryoga wasn't
supervising her. Luckily for Akane, it was the case and the beetle saw 
his life end from quick blood loss when a flying bandana went to 
severe the arm he tried to hit Akane with.

"Akane!"

"Oh Ryoga! Don't look at me... I killed him, I'm a murderer. I'm not
better than them..." she said sobbing.

"Stop this nonsense at once, Akane. I killed more than I wished to. 
I'm as much a killer as you, if you want to look at it like that."

"Why...?"

"Uh?"

"Why do we need to do this? Fighting is okay, but do we need to kill
them?"

"Hell! They are more fighting machines than human being. If I'm ever
converted, I want someone to kill me. I refuse to be reduced to 
this... this pathetic excuse of a human."

"But..."

"No buts, Akane, do you want them to kill your family?"

"N...no."

"Then, help us. If you can't or don't want to kill, stay at the
village. But then you won't be able to defend your loved ones."

"Why do you fight Ryoga?"

"I wish I could say that it's to defend my family, but I barely know
them, being lost and all... No, I fight for my friends, and my new
family, the Amazons. Come on, follow me and cover my back. I want a
part of the leader too..." he finished with a big grin.

"Yeah... sorry. I was not as prepared as I thought I was."

"I know, Akane. I know." He then resumed to invest the inn, a single
tear on his cheek, unseen by Akane.

---

Ranma used his flying abilities to get to the second story of the 
building and tried to get a feel on the strongest aura. A few nekoken 
slashes later, he crashed the walls.

{If I want some fun, that's the only way to go, it's too packed 
downstairs for my taste.}

As soon as he entered, he saw two things : the only man on the room 
was sitting at his desk and dressed in a brown battle suit, very alike 
the blue beetles. The second thing was that this man's power level was 
truly higher than the others ones, meaning he was the leader.

"Found you." announced happily Ranma.

"Fools. Maybe you are strong enough to kill beetles likes bees. But
you'll find that I'm not like them." The man stood and took a battle
stance, holding a sword.

"Come get me!" Ranma dared him, getting ready too.

"You amuse me. I'm a Justicer."

"And you have a big mouth."

Ranma zapped the distance between him and the brown armored guy in a
blink, trying his defense with a simple hit on the jaw. He succeed in
hitting but didn't make much damage.

"Good... I feared you wouldn't even entertain me. Apparently, you'll 
do fine." Ranma said.

"Puny rebel..." howled the Justicer while wiping a little blood from
his mouth.

"Want more? You just have to ask!" teased Ranma just before launching
another simple attack. This time, his opponent moved out of the fist's
path at the last second.

"Well, that's better. And how's that?" continued Ranma.

This time, Ranma's body itself seemed to blur while he hit the man 
just bellow the chest armor.

"Urgh... *cough* You dare?"

"You're funny, ya know? Just a moment before, you were sure that you
were going to crush me... Now that's not gonna happen. Bye!"

This time, Ranma hit the armor and it absorb all the damages.

{Damn. I might have to take better care of my aim.}

The brown soldier, seeing an opening, slashed with his sword. Seeing 
he would not be able to evade, Ranma poured as much chi as he could in 
his left hand and caught the blade. While the Justicer was asking 
himself how this rebel could have caught his blade bare handed, Ranma 
was using this time to pour chi in his free hand.

The chi powered blow was perfectly calculated to hit the
unprotected jaw, pushed forward when Ranma pulled the blade in his 
left hand. The man went flying into the wall. He got back up with 
difficulty.

"Ready for more, pal?" {Damn, I'm near my limit. I can't go with chi
powered blows like that forever. Maybe allowing the others a little
fun? Well, if they manage to get their asses here in time, that is.
Wait? He can't even stand by himself?} "This is the final blow!"
shouted Ranma while he threw himself at the Justicer, both his fists
glowing blue. "Kachu Tenshin Amagouriken!"

Ranma pummeled the barely standing man in the torso and face a few
hundred times, making him to lose the last of his consciousness.

"Pfiou... It was harder than I thought it would be." Ranma
acknowledged, panting from his chi massive loss in his last action.

Shampoo entered the room, looking as fresh as before the start of
the battle.

"Aiya! Too late."

"Eh. He was nearly as tough as Ryoga. A good match."

"Really?" Shampoo asked him, surprised and disappointed at the same 
time.

"Yeah. Justicer, my ass. If one of us is able to defeat them in a one
on one fight, we won't have to wait too long before our attack."

"Yeah. But you didn't finished him..."

"Didn't have time... Damn armors."

"Hey... you just gave me an idea."

"Hu?"

"Let's take theirs armors, some might be salvageable and we can use 
the protection."

"Why not... It's not like he actually hit me, but I'm the fastest, and
maybe the others won't have as much luck as me. Hey look!"

"A sword? Maybe I will add it to my collection?" He told him with a 
smile.

"Yeah. Let's get out of here... Let me finish him and take his 
uniform. We might have a need for it later." he said, using the sword 
to behead the Justicer.

---

Amazon village, return of the scout party.

"So, children. How are things doing?" asked Elder Cologne.

"Their Justicers are tough. As much as us. The beetles nonetheless are
like weaklings now." announced Ranma.

"Hum... and what is this?" she asked, pointing to a large pile of 
clothes.

"We kinda stole some uniforms... It might come in handy..." answered
Ranma, grinning cockily.

"Well done. I think that you can now go prepare our arrival to our
nemesis' hive."

"We can leave as soon as we are ready."

"The use of the beetle uniforms can help you to get in the city."

"We won't disappoint you, Elder." promised Ryoga.

The next morning, the group was once again leaving the village,
planning a new step needed before the final battle.

---

End of Chapter 1
Next chapter : infiltration in Los Angeles, someone return when he is
the least needed. Genma and Ranma, a fight between father and son.
---

author's notes:

ok... No more Ranko... like I said in the notes in the prologue, I 
already have "Reincarnations" in which I use a double Ranma plot, so I 
decided to retire Ranko from this story... 

Since Ranko is no more, I added a little more of the nekoken for 
Ranma... since he fought his darker self and inner demon in the cave 
of the amazon trial, I though that the nekoken was his greatest power, 
but his biggest weakness too... since he's supposed to have won 
against his inner demon, I gave him the nekoken, since it will be a 
technique like the others, just more sharp than a punch.