Disclaimer: I don't own the Ranma 1/2 casts but I do own the fanfic. This fanfic is a little dark and it's serious, contain violence and blood shed. If you can't handle that, please do NOT read this. Also, please don't say I didn't warn ya! ^_^ And now, the sizzling conclusion to Night Owl! (When I say sizzling, it could either mean sizzling as hot, or as burned out. You choose. ^_^) Night Owl Part Three By: Silver Star Ranma watched from his futon as the arms of the clock reached midnight, his eyes wide, half expecting something to crash into his room. He's wearing his blue Chinese shirt and his usual black pants. His shoes were on the floor, ready for him to slip in quickly. He sighed softly, looked back at the ceiling with his arms tucked under his head. He knew something's going to happen. The problem is, he doesn't know when and where. How he knew about it in the first place was a mystery. Shampoo is sleeping in the only other spare room in the house, one that was usually reserved for the students, but since there IS no student, it is now used as a guestroom. Cologn, fortunately, is still staying at Neko- hanten, to take care of the restaurant and to keep Mousse from running over and tried to disrupt the date, which Shampoo insisted the dinner and the night called. Ranma waited silently, as the arms of the clock ticked on until five minutes have passed. He sighed again. He thought. Part of him was hoping against hope that nothing is going to happen, and yet, another part of him wished almost to the point of obsession that whoever that was hurting his friends could show up so he could finally teach a lesson to him or her...or it. Ranma sat up abruptly. He looked over to the door of his room sharply, but then, he looked away from the door and let them roamed over the room, his trained eyes not missing a thing. What was that? Ranma frowned slightly as he tried to make out a low sound coming from... Akane's room. A sudden unspeakable fear grasped its strong grip over his heart. Could it somehow attacked Akane instead of Shampoo, as he had first thought? Ranma couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except listening to the low and muffled gasps that passed through the walls and into his ears. And suddenly, he could move again. Ranma jumped up from his futon and ran to the door, wrenching it open to the point that it almost fell from its hinges. His footsteps made no sound as he moved through the shadows to Akane's door. He put his hand on the doorknob and then paused, fearing what he might find on the other side of the door. Ranma hardened his expression, pushing down the fear that was surging up his throat, and flung open the door. The first thing he noticed is the window, or the lack of it, anyway. Shards of broken glass gleamed under the full moon light as it traveled into the dark room. Ranma noticed through all his confusion and fear that there were barely any broken glass at all. How can that be if a person shattered the glass to get in? Wouldn't the broken glass be inside? The answer is, no one is trying to get in; someone is trying to get *out*. Ranma stood there, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness that came from the moon. And that's when he noticed the state the room is under. The room looked as if it had been torn then put back together inside out. Broken pieces of jagged wood littered the floor. The desk was no longer a desk; in fact, the desk is no where to be seen. A closer look at the wood pieces on the floor proven that those were once Akane's desk. Torn pieces of what once had been Akane's favorite blanket draped over what was left of the mattress. The bookcase was on its side with books littered around it. Akane's bulletin board where she put some of her favorite pictures, including the one at Togenkyo, was lying on the floor. A picture of the Tendo family smiled up at the ceiling. Ranma took it all in with a sinking feeling. Suddenly, he caught something move at the corner of his eyes. He turned toward it, and finally realized that what he took as a ball of rolled up sheets was actually a person. Akane. "Akane!" He shouted out, wanting to hold her, to at least go over to her, but something held him back. Something evil. At the sound of his voice, a head snapped up, and Akane's pained and tearstained face stared at him. Her hair was all messed up, and a clomp of it draped over her left eye. Her eyes were wide, scared, and looked as though expecting someone or some*thing* pouncing on her as soon as she looked up. She opened her mouth but whatever she tried to say was interrupted by a deafening crash from the down the hall. "Sh-Shampoo..." She whispered, almost as she couldn't manage anything louder. Ranma looked down the hall to Shampoo's room, then turned back to Akane, a panicked expression on his face. "G-go to h-er. Don't wo-worry about m-e." She stopped, panting from exhaustion. She closed her eyes and finally caught her breath. "I-Akane, don't move. I'll be right back." Ranma gave her one last almost panicked look and sped down the hall toward Shampoo's room. Akane stared at his retreating form with hope and longing. Then, she threw back her head and screamed. It never reached the hall. Another crash shook the house. Ranma didn't know what's going on. He doesn't want to know either, but he had to in order to make sure his family and friends were safe. Shampoo, no matter what she had done to him, she is a friend. He never had any permanent friends before, not like Shampoo, Ukyo, or Ryoga, even though Shampoo is chasing after him and Ryoga is always racing around to kill him for one reason or another. Even if all of them want to make his life miserable, they are still his friends, and if somebody hurt his friends, that somebody is going to pay. Big time. And it's going to pay double if it had hurt Akane. No matter how much he tried to push her away, how much he tried deny it, he had developed feelings for the kawaiikunee tomboy and will always have those feelings, even if she is quick to conclusion and always misunderstanding him one way or another. Ranma stopped running when he reached the door that led to Shampoo's room. "What's going on, Ranma?" Ranma whipped around and saw Nabiki, looking at him with barely concealed fear and panic in her eyes. Nabiki is afraid. Now that's a new one. "I don't know." Ranma turned back to the door. Surprisingly, the door was still intact and in place. There were cracks all over the wall and door, but they didn't collapse from the crashes. Ranma turned the knob and pushed the door. It didn't budge. Ranma pushed harder against the cracked door but it still didn't move. By this time, the entire member of the family except Akane was present. "It's stuck." Ranma said, pushing it again, but this time, almost using all his strength. The door slowly opened an inch, and then another, and another, until there's a foot of space between the door frame and the door itself. Ranma give it one last push and the door gave away and collapsed. "What- what happened!?" Soun cried. The room was totally trashed. Everything that was previously inside the room was turned into toothpicks. There isn't anything that's larger than a slab of wood, and all those are piled over the door to block it. Opposite the door, at the place where the window is supposed to be, is a gigantic hole. Whoever had done this is powerful. *Very* powerful. "WWRRREEOOWWW!!" Everyone jumped at that inhuman scream that filled the night. It sounded almost like a...like a...a cat... Ranma swallowed at the scream, and then ran over to the hole. Below, at the front yard of the Tendo Dojo, a bloodied and battered Shampoo stood in a defensive position. It didn't seem to do her any good, though. Opposite her, a black form crouched warily, waiting for the attack that was sure to come. And it did. Shampoo jumped, raising her bonbori into the air. The black form jumped also, meeting Shampoo with a powerful kick and a punch to the stomach. Ranma finally got a good look at the creature and he was stunned at what he saw. The face was familiar, it was a face that he saw just a few minutes ago, a face that was filled with pain and fear, and perhaps even hope when those eyes met his. It was Akane's face. "No..." Ranma whispered, wanting to deny what he was seeing. All of a sudden, everything that had happened pieced them together and he finally found the answer to every question that he had asked. Why Akane was so cold to everyone, why he saw the flashes of cat tooth and cat eyes, why she was so pale everyday, why she never ate her food, those questions all have an answer now, an answer that he doesn't want to accept but have to. Akane is a monster. Wait. There's one thing that doesn't fit in with the answer. Why is Akane fighting Shampoo when she is still in her room? She couldn't have possibly moved fast enough with the pain that she was showing. It only took him a few seconds to get to Shampoo's door, and Akane couldn't have gotten there before him. And besides, the attack happened when he was still with Akane, so it couldn't be her. Can it? Everything became jumbled up again. It just doesn't make sense, now that he looked at everything again. Unless... Unless the creature is using Akane's face. A scream tore him away from his thoughts. Ranma jumped out just in time to catch Shampoo, who was sent hurtling down by the creature. He landed softly with the bleeding girl in his arms. Now that he's closer to her, he finally realized how deep those wounds are. In fact, if he hadn't caught her before she slammed into the ground, she could have died... With shaking hands and barely concealed of what appears to be a mixture of fear, hatred, anger, and sadness, he lowered Shampoo onto the ground gently and stood up. He turned around slowly, fixing his piercing gaze of hatred at the creature in front of him. And in the bright moonlight, he saw, with both relieve and fear, that the creature only resembles Akane, not the real her. But it also brought his fear of cats to surface. The creature was like a cat, stalking its prey silently, striking with deadly precision. Its eyes were like those of cats, flashing green in the semi- darkness. It crouched under the shadows, claws digging into the ground, ready to dodge and avoid the attacks it anticipated. Ranma swallowed, trying to push his fear of cats back, but failing miserably. He can't fight under this circumstances, not when he's deathly afraid of what the creature seemed to be. He can't even bluff it, if he does, he'll just freeze in fear, leaving himself open for the cat-creature. As he stared in fear at it, it seemed to smile with glee, almost as if it knows that he's afraid of it. And with a feral yell, it jumped. Ranma raised his arms in a desperate attempt to block, but he knew, with those claws, it could shred his arms, and him, into ribbons. He's going to die. He knew it; he could taste it, a bitter taste in his mouth that won't disappear. He failed. He failed his family, peoples that he cared beyond himself. Genma, Nodoka, Soun, Kasumi, Nabiki, Shampoo, Ryoga, Mousse, Cologne, and even Kuno, Kodachi, and Happosai. They trusted him, and he failed them all. And most importantly, Akane. He failed her, he was suppose to be her fiancée, the one who was supposed to protect her and love her. But he didn't do any of that. He doesn't deserve to be her fiancée. And as he watched the creature sailed toward him with the raised claws, he knew he won't even have a chance to say sorry. To be continued... WAHAHAHAHAA!!!! Surprised that this is not the end? Don't be. I decided while writing this to extend it to another part. Sorry to disappoint you! ^_^ "I hate you, Ranma. Ever since you came, you made my life a living hell. I don't know why I ever fell in love with you. You're a liar, a liar who tells lies everywhere he goes. And I will kill you this night, Ranma, and perhaps then, this world would finally be safe." - Tendo Akane, Night Owl Part Four