My BAKA Gaidin

                  Wheel of Time (Crown of swords)

                           Ranma 1/2

 

Keys

*(thoughts)*

 

Prologue

 

             Spanning the stars of the night, flows of energy weave into its target. Inside a tent lay a woman, young compared to her real age. Shifting uncomfortably back and forth, she wasn't in the best of moods by the reflection on her face. Dreams can do that to you. A person's dreams is often a pleasurable experience though confusing, but sometimes, like now, it was down right horrifying. Those were referred to as nightmares.

 

             Gleemen, legendary traveling storytellers, have told of ancient horrible creatures that plague the world, destroying everything in the name of a great evil with uncountable names. It had been said there was no worst sight then the eyes of a myrddraal, a fade, known by many names. Some have claimed this was a fable creature to scare little children at night, others who have fought them, have said 'to look into the eyes of a fade is to know fear'.

 

             Among the stories the name Aes Sedai were also spoken, some good, others bad. Once there were both male and females with mystic powers who wore such a title, now there were only women. Siuan Sanche, known for her recent dethroning as the Amyrlin, the chosen leader of such a clan, had done little better then anyone else. The cold, utter hatred stare of a fade is as terrifying as the first time it was experienced, Aes Sedai or not.

 

             The fade moved with uncommon grace, slipping into the blackness of the surrounding scenery. It seemed to phase in and out of view every so often, blending in completely with the darkness, but not long enough. With a cloak of pure darkness that never moved; it silently moved towards her, never wavering, staring with those soulless eyes to strike fear into its prey. It had an exposed blade out, a wicked blade as dark as everything else on the shadowspawn, but the outline of the blade was always clearly visible for all to know it was there.

 

             Siuan was not inexperienced; she knew what to do in the face of a shadowspawn, but with all her past training nothing but panic flowed through the mind as she took a step back. One step became two, two became three, before long she ran with desperation on her face. Finally some sense had gotten back to her. Facing the creature, she tried to use her powers, quickly if not fumbling in doing so.

            

             An intricate weave of mystic power formed around the opponent, a barrier of air to hold the fade, power that flowed through her with all its sweetness and pleasure just to wrap herself in it. Siuan almost lost herself to the sweetness, fumbling the flows like the first time she had channeled. She made the weaves of air as thick as she could manage to contain the fade, not a wise thing to do told by old lessons. One was taught to never do anything short of destruction to any shadowspawn. Still the fade seemed effected little if none at all. From Siuan's point of view it had almost seem to smile at her feeble attempt.

 

             Reevaluating her efforts, Siuan deposed of the idea of air and opted quickly with fire. She channeled with all of her strength, a bright stream of fire flew from her hands at the shadowspawn as she shouted, "Die!" To her fear the fire trickled down and vanished in front of the fade as if some invisible barrier just squelched the stream. Siuan's eyes widened, and mentally cursed to the unknown.

 

             The fade seemed to slow down, but little else was done as the storm of fire continued to flow towards it. *How can this be happening, my power isn't what it was, but it should have died. Died!* Siuan took a step back trying to compensate for the fade's forward motion, never letting up the blazing hot fire. Renewed panic and fear struck her with vengeance as the situation rapidly spun out of control. *Stay back! Die, burn you, DIE!*

 

             On the other side of the pitch black plane, if you can call it that, was of little better scene. A young boy faced off his latest opponent. Ranma Saotome of the 'Anything Goes Martial Arts' was doing badly in his fight with the black cloaked thing. It was more like a struggle than a fight as it currently had a firm iron grip on him. He kicked and fought, but that had done little to free himself. What frightened him most was the deathly stare of the creature, but being the great Ranma Saotome he had worst.

 

              Normal men, even abnormal men, would cringe at the sight of a fade's stare, but Ranma while still frightened had worst than the creature ever could produce, namely Akane's cooking smelled, tasted, looked, and probably was more dangerous then the creature could be. But that didn't matter now; he clenched his teeth putting all his strength to release the hold from his opponent. *I'm not gonna loose to a thing like you! LET me go, damn you!*

 

             Siuan's efforts were having ill effects on her. She was channeling with every bit of strength she can manage and beyond that. Her hold on the One Power was weakening. The strand of power that connected herself to Sadiar, the female half of the power, was strung high. Slowly it was breaking apart, but that was an afterthought with the fade still coming toward her. Then it broke; the strain of her channeling broke it apart. The connection to the One Power snapped like a string holding a mad horse. All thoughts were forgotten as Siuan desperately tried to latch on to the fleeing string of power that was flung away. *No, NO, not this, NO!* Fumbling hopelessly, it was like holding on to a squirming wet kingfish, with no avail.

 

             Ranma's sight was starting to blur. His strength was gradually decreasing. The grip of the creature had gotten tighter and tighter. It was squeezing the life out of him. Then on the corner of his eye something appeared, a tint of light, like a rope of some sort. Desperately he tried to reach for it. *Come on, Ranma Saotome never gives up!*

 

             Siuan would have dubbed the situation, "Slipped off the boat and floundering to get back on," if she had that luxury. Mentally she reached out to grab the strand that gave her to ability to channel. Right now it was the only thought on her mind. Every time she thought she had it, it just wriggled right out. In a final attempt she mentally stretched with all her might, she lunged forward to grab it...it seemed to grab her also.

 

             Ranma finally got a grip on the light rope that he had seen before, it almost seemed to leap at him for some reason and pulled. *Got it!*

 

             Siuan pulled and pulled, it almost seemed like a hand now and with that she lifted her self towards it. An image seemed to form from the strand, almost like a body...a male body. *What the...*

 

                                    < OH MY! >

 

             Siuan's eyes shot awake. Sweat covered her face and likely the rest of her body. She quickly sat upright, the only thought on her mind was... *It was a dream, all a dream... It was so real... it...was a nightmare* The last thought almost felt like a relief.  Cursing herself for unknown reasons, she went into deep thought of what it meant. *My stilling, the stilling was probably why I had the nightmare. The fear that I would lose my powers again... Burn you Elaida!* Her rage quickly died out as new emotions seemed to slip into her mind. It was much like her own, but the feeling wasn't the same, it was different. She couldn't describe it, it was odd and it also pointed in a particular direction.

 

             Ranma awoke with frenzy. *A nightmare...* He was confused as anyone else that just had a nightmare. It had been a vivid dream, but not all that uncommon when you were Ranma Saotome, nightmares and real life weren't all that different. He soon shrugged off as being another 'Someone is going to kill you' nightmare and looked at his surroundings. *Funny, the forest looked different from yesterday* Some of the more obvious things were that it seemed much hotter then last night and the leaves were now withered on the trees. But those thoughts quickly subsided with new ones, very faint, something unfamiliar to him. He seemed to look off into a direction, something was there, but again it had been hampered with greater thoughts of food. *Man I'm hungry*

 

             In some unknown place a figure stood glazing over the distance and appeared to be in deep thought. *My plans seems to be going nicely* As almost always these events seemed to be the doings of some being and their plans. *They should make a good match up, though I have to admit there are better choices then Ranma in this world. Besides the fact that I'm Pro Ranma (just have to love him), he does have some of the qualifications for the job. Now to continue with my plans* Though the figure had done all this, it really didn't have further plans or have any experience with this type of stuff, but you have to start somewhere. *Oh, this is going to be fun* and with that last thought it opened a portal and disappeared.

 

                           End Prologue