The Goddess Ball

By E-Type.

Herein lies the Disclaimer. I don't own any of the characters portrayed in this story, I just borrowed them for a little while. Their respective owners can have them back when I'm done. No money is going to be made off of this anyway. My disclaimers are boring but I can't help it, I'd rather spend the time typing my story and just copy and paste the dumb disclaimer.

Urd, goddess of the past, looked at her computer screen in disbelief. She was looking at a woman's profile on it that she wasn't sure she actually believed was possible.

Apparently this green haired beauty had been living by herself for the past few thousand years, protecting a time gate. Urd had come up with those when she was really drunk and wanted some vacation time. Maybe it wasn't one of her better ideas now that she saw the girl who ran the thing. What a lonely job. Urd decided to take it upon herself to find a perfect man for the poor neglected woman. Then it was just a matter of whipping together some potion that would allow the two of them to meet and fall in love.

Urd started to flip through many different files she had made on some special guys. There were some unique requirements that had to be met for it to work between Setsuna and anybody for any length of time after the starter love potion wore off, besides the usual compatible personality and beliefs that went into a normal relationship.

Once that initial burst of love at first sight wore off, that's where something else would have to help them along. Urd already knew what it would be, too. She giggled to herself at her deviousness.

9 girls sat around a room with a young pigtailed man unconscious at the center. They were all showing various shades of embarrassment and concern.

Pluto shook her head in disbelief. "So, how did you mistake HIM for a female monster?"

Ami stood and walked over to the prone boy with two large glasses of water in her hand. "Well, we had just destroyed today's monster when this guy shows up, takes one look at us and starts laughing like a madman. We turn to him and, thinking that he's their boss, I manifest a fog to help us regroup."

Ami throws some of the cold water she's holding onto the boy's chest, turning him into a redheaded woman. Given the now wet shirt it's abundantly clear that he had indeed changed gender.

"When the fog cleared this is what we saw, and then she said something along the lines of "You've really done it now," so we moved to attack her under the assumption that the transformation had been over to her true form. She managed to dodge all of our attacks, but didn't return fire. We thought she was taunting us despite not really saying too much, except that she didn't want to fight us and would we please stop."

All the girls blushed at this point, not wanting to think about the fact they had been fighting monsters for so long they had been jumping to conclusions as of late and, in some cases, ignoring what the enemy said.

Ami continued. "Seeing as how we were unable to hit her I set the Mercury computer to figuring out information about her. It returned that it was a human male under the influence of a Jusenkyo curse. I called a halt to the fight to see if this was true by following the on screen instructions to pour hot water on him. He seemed rather startled and demanded to know why he was being attacked again."

Usagi was the one blushing and looking at her toes in embarrassment. Ami poured the hot water over the redhead and returned her to male form (very male) before walking over and patting Usagi comfortingly. The blonde smiled gratefully and managed to calm herself.

"Anyway," Ami continued, "Usagi told him who we were and why we were trying to attack him, and he apologized for doing what he did, but he told her that he thought our dress was, to quote, "Stupid for tryin' to fight evil in." Usagi took exception to that and demanded that he apologize to her, but when he refused she started crying and he seemed to panic and said he was sorry. After that Luna came out from hiding in the bush demanding to know what was going on. Ranma had been hidden by us girls surrounding him, so she thought we were alone."

Luna and Artemis blushed. All they saw were a bunch of legs, how were they to know that another pair was present?

"He," Ami gestured at the prone boy, "freaked out for some reason upon seeing the Moon cats and jumped into Usagi's arms. She screamed and dropped him. Showing amazing precision she then clocked him on the head with her scepter. Thus we dragged him down to Rei's shrine to figure out what to do with him, and so we could apologize for attacking and knocking him out."

Setsuna rubbed her forehead. She glanced over and sweatdropped when she saw all the Outers copying her gesture perfectly. Hotoaru looked so cute doing it, too.

Unknown to any of the short skirted teenagers in the shrine another beautiful and scantily clad woman floated outside, peeking in on them all.

She couldn't help but thinking about what it would be like to have him working at her side, shirtless so she could run her hands over his perfect form whenever the urge struck her. She quickly looked up some info on the boy and almost fell out of the air.

He was perfect for what she wanted, having an evil father and an evil Master. His leanings toward the dark side were considerable, particularly with the size of his ego. She was a little disappointed by how well all that was tempered by his large and kind heart.

Then she got info on his curse and the fact he had taken down Saffron and felt a need to get him. Unknown to Mara another beautiful woman was also watching the goings on of the pig-tailed martial artist with equal interest.

Urd saw his big heart, his big muscles and his big... confidence and fell in love. She was sorely tempted to get herself in that ball she planned on using. All she could think was that Setsuna better be happy with what she was giving the woman.

She swooped down, her potions ready in her hands. Right when she passed through the ceiling Mara rose from the floor. Both of them were so intent on Ranma (and in Urd's case, Setsuna) that they didn't notice the other until too late.

"Not another monster!!!!" Usagi wailed at spotting the platinum haired woman descending through the roof. Urd turned toward the voice to correct her that she wasn't a monster while Mara turned to see who it was that had said that.

The moon princess grabbed the cookie tray and quickly stuffed all the remaining sweets down her shirt before hurtling the tray at the woman with all her strength.

"Go away!!!" She cried as the thin sheet of metal clanged against the side of Urd's head.

Mara started laughing hard as Urd plummeted from the air, severely disorientated. Thus the demoness missed seeing the two magic potions held in her hand.

Setsuna recognized the facial markings on the two women and was so shocked at seeing them she just stared as the stunned Goddess hit the ground and lost her grip on the two potions.

Mara happened to glance up from her laughter just in time to see the vials go spinning by her towards a long haired blonde girl and one with short blue hair. Not sure what they were for but positive that she could use them for some sort of mischief the demoness dove for them.

Urd looked up from the floor and saw her precious creations tumbling toward a couple of girls that didn't have anything to do with her plans. Not wanting everything to be ruined she too dove for the vials.

With their attention solely focused on their target the two beautiful women collided in midair, their hands both bumping their goal and sending it spinning higher into the air.

The two fell to the ground and started wrestling with each other. Setsuna was just standing there still in shock when her feet were taken out from under her by the struggling superpowers. Instinct took over and she started fighting back.

The three of them managed to roll onto Ranma just as the magic potions they had forgotten about in the scuffle landed on the four of them. The women stopped fighting and looked at each other in shock.

Urd and Setsuna sat up and looked at their soaked hair in disgust. They spent a long time to get it to look the way they wanted and now it was all funky.

The both of them pulled their long hair over their shoulder and wrung it out in front of them.

Since they had all rolled onto Ranma the liquid naturally fell on him. The girl's seemed to notice this about the same time Ranma awoke from the shock of getting wet. Fortunately, since it was a magic potion and not water, his curse wasn't activated.

Urd's magic took affect. Ranma had no idea where the three Goddesses seated atop him had come from but he was thanking his traditionally bad luck for delivering him the three perfect women.

He somehow surged to his feet without disturbing any of the girls atop him. "At last perfection has befallen me!"

He made a grand gesture with his hand to include the three girls. "Grace me with the knowledge of your names please, you three example's of feminine perfection."

The three girls blushed in varying degrees. Urd was the most used to such talk and recovered first.

"I'm Urd, Goddess of the past, second class, limited," she stated proudly, if not arrogantly.

Mara wasn't far behind, though her blush remained while she spoke. "My name is Mara, demon first class, limited."

A minute of silence followed. Urd and Mara looked at Setsuna and rolled their eyes at the way the woman was giggling to herself. They elbowed her to get her attention.

Pluto shot to her feet. "Setsuna Meiou, Senshi of Time," she said in a surprisingly sexy voice.

"I'm Ranma Saotome and I have just fallen in love, thrice," he stated, implying that those before him were the ones.

All the Senshi and supernatural beings stared at him in shock. Minako and Makoto spoke at the same time.

"Man, how come he's not our boyfriend!?!"

Before anything else could be done or said the second potion activated. A ball that looked like it was made out of opal snapped into being around Ranma and the three women.

"He was too cute to die! Waaaahhh!" Usagi wailed.

Ami, a bit smitten as well as being concerned for Setsuna whipped out her computer and started scanning. After a moment readings started scrolling up that she was finding hard to believe.

"So, what's up doc?" Minako asked. Everybody looked at her in complete shock. "What?"

"Do you know what you just said?" Rei asked in disbelief.

"Uh, what's up doc?"

"I can't believe it, you finally got one right!" The moon princess enthused, seeming to have completely forgotten about the opal like ball sitting in the middle of the room.

Ami simply shook her head and tried to make some sense of her findings. Unless what they had said were true, and they really were a goddess and a demoness, there was no possible way the readings on her screen could be right.

Setsuna would be able to explain everything, well, as much as she does, but the emerald haired woman was stuck inside the ball in question.

The Mercury computer hadn't been able to find out anything useful yet, so Ami set it to scan more in depth before settling back to wait.

Ranma slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. Memories were tickling at the surface of his mind but he couldn't get them to surface.

Whiteness surrounded him, no sky or ceiling above. He turned his head to the side in hopes of finding a reason for the whiteness.

Three naked women lay beside him, two on his right side, one on the left. The single one on his left sported long green hair and an amazingly soft and curvy body. She had a huge contented smile on her beautiful face as she moved closer to Ranma in her sleep.

Ranma was rather startled when his arm automatically slipped around the woman and pulled her against him. She gave off a quiet, contented sigh as she snuggled closer. Ranma found himself gently running his fingers through her long hair.

Ranma couldn't seem to get his body under his control. He could only watch in amazement as his other arm snaked out and grabbed a long blonde haired woman who's head was perched on the prodigious chest of a woman with long platinum hair, also asleep.

She mumbled as Ranma gently rolled the shapely woman towards him by her waist. He noticed with interest she sported four red lines on her forehead that would have made her look evil if it weren't for the happy and contented smile on her lips.

Ranma's eye grew larger the farther along his hand crept up her voluptuous body. By the time he got to her sensitive bits her eyes had opened and they were staring into his own, almost frying his brain by the intensity of the love and lust burning within.

"I love you!" Ranma and the girl said at the same time.

The words roused the other two girls lying on either side of him. They rose up on their elbows and stared down at the young man, the same fire burning in their eyes.

The next few hours need not be described in detail, just let it be known that each of them were thoroughly satisfied when they finally succumbed to exhaustion. Ranma made sure of this before closing his eyes, many new techniques the four of them had come up with etched permanently into his brain.

Ranma opened his eyes once more, surprised that his arm actually responded to his command to raise and rub his face. He simply lay there for several seconds, basking in the wondrous sensation of being able to move freely once again when his hands encountered warm softness on either side of him.

Recalling what had gone on the previous time he was awake caused Ranma to turn crimson and snap his hands down to his sides. Upon feeling that he still wasn't wearing anything they crept up to hopefully cover all of his nether region.

A quiet, happy moan coming from either side of him made Ranma realize that the girls were waking up and he wasn't going to live much longer. He couldn't explain the burning desire in his chest that he got whenever he thought of those three women. It was almost as if he wouldn't be able to live if they weren't in his life anymore. It was scaring him badly to be feeling this, since nothing even remotely like it had ever happened before.

The first girl to raise her head and look around sported four red marks along her forehead. Ranma wasn't sure if he remembered any of their names correctly but was fairly certain on her. Mara just seemed so fitting for some reason.

"What the..." Mara muttered as her gaze swept around the empty space she was in. She was completely unable to fathom a reason as to why she was naked and snuggled up against the same guy a naked Urd was draped over, so she ignored that for now. A moment later memories and feelings slammed into her, everything she had done since being sucked into that magical ball of Urd's.

Ranma watched in slight concern as the woman's red markings flickered, as if unsure of what color they were supposed to be. Ranma vaguely remembered that Mara had introduced her as a demon, but after what he had just been through with her he found that hard to believe. Maybe that was why those markings were going crazy. Another head poked up from his other side, Urd's platinum hair framing her face and making her look beautiful even after just waking up from strenuous exertion.

"Mara?!" The goddess exclaimed, her face contorting into just about every emotion imaginable as memories returned to her. "What have I done?" She whispered, though she didn't sound too scared, just curious as all heck. Ranma wasn't too worried by that yet.

"PLEASE tell me this is just another dream," Setsuna said, though her head remained out of sight.

"Nope, I don't think this is a dream," Ranma said, the first words he had spoken. "I've had some experience with those and this feels real."

"You sure, Ran-chan?"

There was a collective pause as all those present stopped to stare at the girl. It took the green haired woman several moments to even realize she had used the nickname.

"I couldn't help it, the word just slipped right out!" She said, hoping to diffuse whatever it was the other girls were about to start.

"Oh, okay, I just thought you had heard it before," The goddess and Demoness said at the same time.

The two opposing deity's stared at each other for several more seconds before sitting up and comparing notes.

As they were on either side of Ranma this put their abundant assets in easy viewing position. Ranma's eyes got huge as they flicked back and forth between the delectable mammaries. He couldn't decide if he should compliment them due to his memories or avert his gaze as he had done in the past. Caught indecisive Ranma simply lay there and listened in.

Neither girl seemed to care that the only male in the group was ogling them, though they both noticed. "You did this, didn't you?" Mara said.

"Yup," Urd admitted. "Came up with this wonderful plan to get these two," The exotic looking goddess indicated Ranma and Sailor Pluto, the only one with a bit of clothing on as she wore her Senshi boots and her skirt, though it was still flipped up around her waist instead of preserving her modesty, "Hitched so they wouldn't be so incredibly depressed."

"So what all was in that potion? I gather by the way I'm feeling that it was some pretty potent stuff."

"Yup, was supposed to do exactly what it has. I had no idea what kind of powers or whatnot the Senshi or Ranma might have had against stuff like this so I just went a little overboard since it was going to wear off once it achieved its purpose."

"So you have no idea what it might do to a demon, do you?"

"Not a clue."

"Figures." Mara and Urd sat in companionable silence for a minute, absentmindedly smiling down at Ranma as they noticed him staring at their breasts.

"So," Urd started off this time. "Do you remember what all we did while the potion was in effect?"

"Do I ever," Mara said with a lecherous smile.

All four of them blushed profusely as they recalled some of their adventures. Inhibitions hadn't affected any of them that was for sure.

"I particularly remember that one bit where you and Ranma were pretending to be evil lords who had captured poor little Pluto-chan," Mara recalled with a smile. "It sure is nice that her uniform keeps regenerating no matter how many times we rip it off of her."

Urd and Setsuna started giggling. "Yeah, that bit where you came to "rescue" her from us was great, especially when she started rewarding you before you even left our lair," Urd managed to say between giggles.

"I think the best part was when Ranma asked if he could be rescued too," Setsuna said.

Urd pouted. "He was supposed to be my partner in *cough* crime *coughcough* and he goes running off with a real demon and her lover!"

Unable to restrain themselves the three girls start laughing, speech no longer possible. It's so infectious that Ranma joins them, his own memories of those great times warring with the ones from Nerima and before where girls never acted like this and he would be dead by now at the least if any of this had happened back home.

Mara noticed the expression on their lovers face. "What's wrong Ran-chan?"

More stares, which were shrugged off, causing the girls to realize that Ran-chan was the nickname of choice by general consensus.

Setsuna had sat up by this time, her fuku once more completely covering her body while putting her long legs on display. The same concerned expression as Mara and Urd wore adorned her face. "Tell us what troubles you, love," She urged him.

Seeing the open love and concern coming from the three girls, of which he had clear and frequent memories of them all engaging in a loving manor, caused Ranma to lose it. He knew he was never going to have it this good again and it depressed him greatly. He really wished this would continue forever, just not in this blank whiteness.

As the tears started to trickle down Ranma's cheeks the three supremely powerful women scooted in for a group hug, wrapping him in their arms and love and caring.

"There, there," Urd murmured, wondering what this was about. The sentiment was repeated by the other two girls.

Ranma cried harder as he was surrounded by the unconditional love he had wanted but never gotten before in his life. Unconscious of the fact that three out of four of them were naked he reached out and hugged them back as well as he could, given he only had two arms and there were three women. He was surprisingly good at it.

After a short crying jig Ranma calmed himself and continued hugging, now aware of the naked flesh but determined not to be affected by it. The memories popping up kept reminding him that nothing he did would ever get them mad at him but he was still reluctant. He still wasn't used to sex and just wanted comfort at the moment.

"I'm just so happy," Ranma sniffled, "And it's not going to last once we get out of this place. I don't ever want to give this up. I don't ever want you three to leave my life."

"Don't worry honey," Urd said, "We won't ever leave you. Let me explain how this thing works."

The other two girls sat down in front of her, ready for the lesson. They also hadn't let go of Ranma, so he was now sitting on their laps. Setsuna leaned forward and rested her head on his chest while Ranma's head was pulled tight to Mara's chest.

Urd smirked at the sight of them, wondering how Setsuna had managed to switch positions with Ranma so quickly so that she was now in his lap. She wished she could join them and maybe start another round of fun but had to get this out of the way before that could happen.

"Basically all this does is provide an uninterruptable place for us to fall in love. The potion was there to kick start things so it wouldn't take very long. Once having felt the emotions artificially I knew it wouldn't take very long for them to develop in a more natural fashion as those two would have been pretty much perfect for each other."

"Now that we're all here I have no idea how long this place will last, as it was supposed to keep Ranma and Setsuna in here until they had declared themselves married. I suppose it's a great boon that all three of us girls swing both ways but I still have no idea how long this might take before the magic decides that we're in love enough to release us. By the way, what's up with your markings, Mara?"

Said demoness blinked in surprise. A mirror appeared out of nowhere so she could inspect herself. "I... I don't know," She admitted. "I've never even heard of something like this happening before."

Ranma sat up and leaned closer to the girl's face, taking a close look at her forehead. Mara smiled wickedly (she's good at that) and tried to get him to stare farther south. Ranma defeated her by reaching up and covering the distractions with his hands. This also served to distract Mara rather well so he could finish his inspection.

"It looks like they're changing color to the same as yours, Urd," Ranma announced.

Urd's eyes widened in shock. "You mean she's switching sides?!?"

"That's what it looks like," Ranma admitted. "Though I'm no expert on these things that would be my guess. Maybe it has something to do with that love potion? I mean, demons don't love do they? She couldn't be a demon if she loved us."

"Hmm, you're right about that," Urd said, deep in thought.

"That's right," Mara spoke up. "That must be what's happening." The former demons eyes misted up. "You know, I've never been happy in my life before? All I've ever felt was satisfaction from doing a job well, but now that I've actually been happy and satisfied I don't think I'll ever be able to go back."

"I hope not," Ranma said. He obviously wasn't thinking when he spoke, just pouring out his heart as usual. This time, however, there was no filter blocking out his real emotions. "I love you and I don't want you to ever leave."

The other two girls were a bit saddened by the fact that he had said that to Mara first but were determined to get those words repeated two more times.

Mara's misting eyes overflowed. "I LOVE YOU TOO RANCHAN!" She shouted in glee as she glomped him with all her might. "Let's get married right now, I want to be at your side forever as Mara Saotome!"

A sudden flash of light blinded all those present. When it cleared they all had clothes on again. Mara sported a gorgeous bridal gown that showed off her body while still somehow looking rather innocent. Urd and Setsuna had bridesmaid dresses on and were standing to the side.

An arrow appeared in front of the couple and pointed at Ranma. He stared at it for a second in confusion before hazarding a guess.

"I do?"

The arrow seemed to morph into a thumb's up combined with a wolf whistle (how that became an image nobody questioned) before the arrow was suddenly pointing at Mara.

"I DO!" She shouted in glee, the color changing marks on her forehead now settled on the same blue as Urd's. The pointer disappeared and words formed over the newly weds. "I present Ranma and Mara Saotome. Go on a honeymoon, you two have earned it."

"Whoo hoo! More sex!"

Everybody stopped to stare at Setsuna, who blushed and tried to hide behind her hair.

"I didn't know it would be handled like that," Urd commented to nobody.

"I don't mind," Ranma said. "I hate long and boring ceremonies anyway."

"Same here," Urd, Setsuna and Mara chimed in.

"What happens now?" Sailor Pluto asked, her clothes having once more returned to normal.

"I guess we go on a honeymoon, love," Ranma stated while gazing at Mara with hearts in his eyes.

Mara blushed prettily and glomped her new husband. The two exchanged a rather heated kiss that had all present letting steam out from under their collar.

"So how were you two planning on leaving?" Setsuna wondered.

"You know, we've never tried to leave each other's visual range so far, so I have no idea," Mara stated matter of factly.

"Ahh, I see." Urd sounded like everything had become clear.

"What do you see?" Mara finally bit the bullet.

"Since my poor Ranchan married a demon I guess I better marry him to keep things balanced," Urd clarified for everybody else.

The small group tensed for a second as they anticipated the change over to wedding dresses and relocation of self. When nothing happened two girls and a boy stared at Urd.

"What?" She exclaimed. "I don't know how this is supposed to happen either!"

The three regarding her chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we keep forgetting that little detail," Mara admitted.

"Still," Setsuna mused, "I wonder why it didn't work this time?"

The group sat for a moment pondering. "Maybe 'cause she didn't say she wanted to marry me for the right reasons?" Ranma speculated.

His female companions nodded in agreement. "That makes sense," Sailor Pluto confirmed.

"Waaah!" Urd wailed. "Foiled by my own device!"

The other three laughed at her as she was stamping her foot and throwing a tantrum a five year old would be proud of. Setsuna and Mara walked over and hugged the taller woman tightly.

"There there," They said, "It'll all work out in the end, you'll see."

Urd sniffled. "Thank's you guys. I hope you know how much this means to me."

Ranma walked up to the three embracing women and somehow managed to enfold all of them in a hug. "That was some pretty good acting Urd," He said casually.

Urd smiled. "Wasn't it? I thought it was a little over the top but just perfect for my mood."

All four of them shook their heads in humor.

Ranma put his arm around Mara Saotome. "So, what about that honeymoon, honey?"

"I don't kn-" She was cut off as another opalescent sphere appeared around the newly weds.

"HEY!!" Sailor Pluto and the Goddess of the Past shouted. "Bring them back!!!"

The opal disappeared, revealing Ranma and Mara locked in a passionate embrace. Setsuna and Urd blushed before they started analyzing the technique for future reference.

Several minutes later the couple noticed that they weren't by themselves anymore. It was obvious to those watching that the two parted with great reluctance.

"So how long has it been for you?" Ranma asked.

Setsuna's and Urd's eyes widened in realization. "A few seconds," Sailor Pluto stated.

"What do you think love," Ranma asked his better half. "'Bout a month or so?"

Mara nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's about how long it felt to me too."

"So you two haven't been doing anything but... THAT for the past month?!" Urd almost shouted.

Ranma and Mara blushed as their hands automatically found each other and gripped. "Uh-huh!" Mara nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, we did trade our life stories between times," Ranma added.

*THUD*

The two girls listening facefaulted. "Oh, well, at least you got something accomplished," Setsuna remarked.

Urd sighed. "So I guess we're still stuck here until we get things figured out between all of us."

The four of them nodded in agreement. They stood there staring at each other for a minute as they wondered what to do exactly until Urd spoke up again.

"Maybe that potion wore off a little too soon. Then we'd at least have something to do."

Three stares met her calm gaze. "What? We would."

"She's right you know," Mara commented.

"I think I could have done without the sex," Ranma stated.

The three girls turned to stare at him with the most shocked expressions ever seen on a human face.

"THAT DIDN'T COME OUT RIGHT!" Ranma shouted in his defense.

The girls calmed and gestured for him to explain.

"I meant I think I would have liked it more if it was just a love potion that would have given us that feeling in my gut that I have now for the three of you. The one where I know I won't be able to live without you close by my side. I would have liked it more if I was fully aware and in control for everything like Mara and I were for our honeymoon. It was more special that way."

"I agree with Ran-chan," Setsuna said.

Mara and Urd looked at each other for a long moment before the Goddess saw something in the demonesses eyes. "I guess you're right. I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever run across something like this again."

"Oh," Ranma exclaimed loudly, causing the girls to jump a foot into the air in fright. "I just remembered something that Mara-chan and I discovered during our honeymoon."

He seemed to concentrate for a second before a simple yet very comfortable looking chair appeared behind him. The pigtailed martial artist plopped down into it and gestured for Mara to join him. She did so, slipping onto his lap and snuggling in.

"Pull up a chair you two and we'll talk," Ranma said.

Thinking that it would be a good idea the two girls did so. After concentrating for a minute two similar chairs to Ranma's appeared close enough so that their feet could touch. Both Urd and Setsuna draped themselves sideways across the leather, using the opportunity to show off their well formed figures, especially their spectacularly long legs.

Ranma and Mara smiled appreciatively at the view. "So, let's start with you," Ranma said, pointing at Setsuna.

Sailor Pluto blinked. "Me?"

"Yup, you," Mara grinned. This should be interesting. She had always wondered what that girl had done with all of her free time at those gates.

"C'mon Pluto-chan," Ranma said. "Tell us everything about yourself. It's time to see if love will continue as these potions wear off. Mara and I developed even stronger feelings than when we were under the influence."

Urd's and Setsuna's eyes widened a bit upon hearing that. They glanced at each other in mutual shock, neither having believed that the love and desire burning within them could have gotten any more intense. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. After all, Mara was a demon, and if Ranma loved her as much as he obviously did maybe he could love them like that too. Like he had when they were directly under the potion.

"Er, well, let me start at the beginning I guess," Setsuna said, her mind racing back over the centuries to her younger days when the Silver Millennium was still in full swing.

Ranma and Mara smiled. "Take as long as you need hon," Mara said. "We've got all the time in the world."

Ranma's, Mara's and Urd's eyes were WIDE open. "Wow," Mara breathed, "I didn't realize everything back then was so depressing." Mara and Ranma stood, the both of them going over to Setsuna's chair and hugging her comfortingly. It had been so long ago the green haired woman was able to get through the story fairly composed, but all those present could see how sad she was.

Urd shook her head in disbelief. "I don't understand why I was never told about this. I had been about to look into the Silver Millennium when I was told not to." Urd got a far away look on her face before something horrible seemed to occur to her. She slowly turned to face Mara directly.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to know what your older sister looked like at the time, would you?"

Mara looked a little confused. "Uh, yeah, why?"

"Could you show me?"

Mara waved her hand and a floating image of a black haired woman appeared, the same four red marks on her forehead that Mara herself used to sport easily visible against her pale skin.

"It is her!" Urd exclaimed.

"What? Who's that?" Ranma wanted to know.

Urd looked at the assembled faces before her, all of whom she cared for deeply, and found herself in desperate need of a hug. All those present read that need and responded to it. Urd was no stranger to hugs, but the ones she usually preferred had ulterior motives, not the simple comforting one she was currently in.

"What's wrong, love?" Setsuna quietly asked.

Another brief staring session ensued causing the Senshi to blush, but was quickly forgotten about in favor of Urd.

"She's the one that told me not to look. She looked more like this at the time, though." A brief but magical stare later and the image changed slightly, the four red marks being replaced with the normal Goddess markings.

Mara looked a bit confused. "How did she get into Asgard? That's not supposed to be possible without raising hell."

Ranma, Urd and Setsuna groaned in disgust. Mara blinked in confusion? "What? It's true, it would raise... hell... man, I can't believe I said that! Uggh."

Ranma reached out and patted her shoulder tenderly. "We forgive you, don't worry your pretty little head over it."

Three glares met his startled eyes. "Ah, okay, I won't use that phrase anymore. Happy?"

Three firm nods were his response. "Well, at least Mara-chan isn't in the spotlight anymore. I'm used to being glared at by lots of beautiful women, so I better keep putting my foot in my mouth to keep the pressure off you."

The girls shook their head at him, but smiles were on their faces. "Now you're just being silly," Setsuna said, having recovered a bit from her storytelling.

"Anyway, I don't know how she managed to up to Asgard like that. She looked like she knew what she was doing, she had the right aura and everything so I obeyed her like a good little Goddess." Urd reached out and gathered Setsuna into a tight hug, almost smothering the slightly shorter woman.

"Don't worry about it," Setsuna said from her coveted position nestled against Urd's bare chest. "It's been a long time since then, and just so long as we manage to keep whatever springs up to replace the current system everything will be fine."

Ranma blinked in shock as he looked around him. "Wow, I probably have more knowledge and power with me and willing to do my bidding right now than anybody in the world."

"Who says we're going to do your bidding?" Setsuna asked archly.

Ranma pointed at Mara. "She said "I do", so she has to obey me. I know you two'd go along with it because you love me."

Mara pouted. "I knew I was forgetting something when I said that."

Setsuna and Urd laughed at the blonde haired demoness, finding it rather funny.

"I'm serious though," Ranma insisted. "Between the four of us we could probably rule the world. I mean, Mara is a first class deities and Urd a second, I'm sure they have a lot more power than I've ever seen, considering how much I've only just glimpsed. Setsuna here can play around with time and has that staff of hers with the never ending clothes. Not to brag but I'm the best martial artist I've seen so far, and each of you have a way to get out of an area completely and instantly should the need arise."

The three girls were thinking about this for a moment as Ranma spoke. "You know," Mara said, "He's right. We probably could take over the world. I don't know how long that would last before troops started getting sent in from both sides to get rid of us, but we could do it."

Setsuna gasped. "You're not seriously thinking about this are you?"

Urd sported a naughty grin, making the other three lovers blush. "We just might."

Ranma shook his head. "No, I don't want to rule the world, I was just making a comparison. I really gotta spar with you girls sometime. Probably be a learning experience considering how much power each of you have."

Setsuna smiled. "It's nice to know you think so highly of us, but I don't think we've ever really had any formal training. I had some back when I first became Sailor Pluto but that's been pretty much it."

Mara nodded. "Yeah, Urd and I can fight, but we usually end up throwing magic around instead of doing what you do. Unless we used our powers to be so much faster than you that you couldn't hit us I don't think we'd stand a chance."

"But that's what I'm talking about," Ranma enthused. "You COULD go so fast that I couldn't hit you, or form a shield that I could beat on and it wouldn't hurt you, and I would then get stronger and faster until such time as I could manage to hit you or break your shield."

The women looked at each other for a moment before regarding their man again. "You want to try, don't you?"

Ranma nodded enthusiastically.

"So," Urd said, "Who goes first?"

It had been two months since Mara and Ranma's wedding. The time had been split between training and the four of them getting to know each other better and better each day. Everybody was a bit surprised that the more they learned about their partners the more they fell in love. Setsuna and Urd now had an inkling of what Mara had been through on their honeymoon, as they had all been sleeping together as well.

Considering how long they stayed inside so far the four of them were thinking that they wouldn't get free until all those trapped were married. Ranma was now actually looking forward to getting married to three girls, as he had been living with them nonstop for the past two months, after having gone on the honeymoon with Mara inside the second ball, and he was happier than ever.

The three girls were surprisingly quick at picking up Anything Goes. Watching Mara and Urd go at it now was one of the most spectacular things Setsuna or Ranma had ever seen. The huge blasts of magic, splashing colorfully against equally powerful shields with impossibly quick flurries of punches and kicks in between. It made Ranma green with envy at how much energy the nonhuman's contained and unleashed so easily. He knew he would get there eventually, but it was taking him a long time to build up the ki reserves to keep up with those two girls.

Sparring with Setsuna was just plain fun. He had no idea why, and Setsuna had just mumbled something when he asked, but when he slipped his hands under the bows on the small of her back and over her chest and pressed lightly, her uniform disappeared. He thought she said something about fail safes or some such, but he wasn't too concerned with why they did that, it was just really interesting to see how many times it took her before she managed to get enough space to transform again, then see how much time it took Ranma to get her out of her uniform again.

Though when they were all going to sleep getting the green haired beauty out of her uniform was child's play. It was hard to keep her in it, since everyone still liked pulling or ripping it off of her for various reasons.

Ranma wasn't entirely sure of how much, but he was confident that he had been making some serious progress in his strength and speed from fighting with the more powerful females.

Currently he was taking on Setsuna and, for the first time, seemed to be on even ground with the transformed girl. She was looking more and more frustrated as she was unable to trick him or out speed Ranma into leaving an opening large enough for her to take advantage of. Ranma had a huge grin on his face that Setsuna couldn't help but return. He looked so happy. It always amazed the girls just how excited he got about fighting. He liked it almost as much as sex it seemed.

Mara and Urd had stopped their friendly sparring to watch the battle. They hadn't seen anything this intense since Ranma had first fought them and gotten trounced once the girls started actually using their superpowers. Now the intensity was back, the power and authority he held in a battle captivating their interest even as his chiseled body did the same. Setsuna's short skirted, long legged movements were also highly appreciated.

The two of them dove at each other and slammed together, limbs appearing and disappearing randomly they were moving so fast. A few solid hits could be heard amidst the multitude of blocks, but they were few and far between, seeming to alternate as to who got hit. Mara and Urd could both see that the Sailor Scout was pushing herself as hard as they had ever seen her, and Ranma was keeping up!

After 20 minutes of this nonstop, Urd and Mara were impressed. They hadn't thought Setsuna had that kind of conditioning in her, or that her magic was that good, which ever was the case. Finally, it ended.

Setsuna and Ranma landed identical punches on each other's face, sending each other hurtling backwards from the force of the blow. The pair remained where they landed for a minute before sitting up and staring at each other for another few minutes.

They were both breathing hard, sweat glistening on their skin from how fast they had pushed each other during that last exchange. "You okay, love?" Ranma asked, obvious concern in his voice.

Three giggles were his response. "You silly boy, how many times do we have to tell you that we can heal each other no matter what happens? It doesn't matter if one of us get's injured."

Ranma sighed. "I know I know, I just don't want to see any of you in pain. It hurt's, right here," He said, patting his chest over his heart. "I can't help it when I see you sitting there with your fuku all scuffed up like that."

Urd, Setsuna and Mara smiled sincerely at him, feeling warm and fuzzy despite how ridiculous his sentiments were. "Even when you've been beaten to an inch of your life you still look so happy and cheerful it's almost hard for us to believe that you're in any pain. That's probably why you never get asked the same thing. It'd hurt us to see you hurt if you every actually looked like you were in pain."

Ranma grinned. "I'll keep that in mind should I ever really want to be pampered."

Urd and Mara looked at each other for a second before nodding. A snap of the fingers from each of them and Ranma suddenly found himself reclining on an incredibly soft and huge chair with grapes, wine, chess and crackers, just all sorts of snacks and expensive finger foods lying around him. He looked wide eyed left and right where he found Mara and Urd standing.

The two of them sported harem girl costumes, Mara's being a dark blue tiny little vest just barely containing her chest and exposing everything else on her torso, while her puffy pants were transparent, putting her incredible legs on display, a darker pair of blue panties hiding her naughty bits. Urd had an identical vest containing her own large breasts, but instead of pants she sported two small blue flaps front and rear, showing off her incredible legs all the way up to her waist while still covering her nether region.

Setsuna looked over at this and giggled, not having something like this happen in a while. They had been too busy sparring and sleeping recently. Urd and Mara sat as sexily as they could upon the arms of the huge chair and gathered a few plates of food, alternating in feeding their beloved.

Ranma had a smile so large it looked like he was going to split his face. After a few bites he reached out and pulled the girls down into the chair with him, wrapping his arms around them and hugging tight. They paused in their duties to lean down and give him a kiss.

Setsuna got up and scampered over to the small group, wanting in. She couldn't ever remember a time in her life when she had been happier, more energized, felt more alive than right now with her loves Mara, Urd and Ranma. She now understood why Ranma had cried earlier on when he had been surrounded by love. It felt so wonderful she was downright terrified of losing it. She almost wished that they never escaped the ball simply so she could continue to feel the love that flowed so freely between them all for eternity.

Ranma freed his arms from around Mara and Urd to beckon over the third girl to their group. Setsuna gave a delighted giggle as she was invited over. She plopped herself down in Ranma's lap and all three of those that were seated hugged her tightly. Tears appeared in the greenhead's eyes as several delectable morsels were tenderly fed between her lips. She munched in happiness before she noticed that there were a couple of faces in her field of vision.

"Set-chan, why are you crying?" All three of her lovers asked at the same time. Their arms tightened around her as they awaited her response, hoping that this wasn't something bad. Tears were usually bad, but with girls one could never be too sure.

Setsuna settled back against Ranma, leaning her head back against his shoulder, pressing her face against the side of his while she laced her fingers together with Mara and Urd's.

"I'm scared of leaving this place, I don't want to lose this. Did you hear yourselves just now? All three of you asked me in perfect synchrony, "What's wrong Set-chan?" We've been together for just over two months now, and the love I feel for each of you is getting stronger and stronger, despite the potion having worn off. I didn't know I was into girls as well as guys, but now that I have you three I'll do anything to keep you, and it scares me. What'll I do if I lose one of you, or if you somehow get brainwashed and start working for the bad guys, or we end up getting separated, or..." The girl's rambling worries were silenced by a tender loving kiss. From the taste of the lips pressed against her's she knew it to be Mara's, which made sense since that was the side of Ranma her head had come to rest on.

As soon as that most wonderful kiss was concluded what felt like Urd's lips gently suckled her own. Then, after a slight shift, Ranma took over, his hands joining his lips in pleasuring her. Setsuna was starting to squirm when the final kiss was broken.

"We know Set-chan," Ranma said softly. "That's what I was feeling a while ago. Now you understand how I feel, understand why I'm willing to do whatever it takes or remain here however long is required for us all to get married. Once that happens, once we're forever bound to each other with a band on our finger's to show our devotion and undying love for each other then I'll be ready to leave and face the rest of the world again. Or whatever it is that'll be there when we finally emerge. Who knows, maybe the world will have changed and we'll have to save it from something when we finally get out."

Setsuna shook her head. "Nothing should be happening until Crystal Tokyo starts to form."

Urd looked her in the eye. "This wasn't supposed to happen either, yet it did. Are you so sure about that future?"

Setsuna stared at her before her gaze was directed over at the darker side of their group. "Don't worry about it so much, just go with the flow and make sure the whatever conclusion you want to have happen you fight your hardest for. Look at me, I've been wishing for happiness all my life, even though I'd never experienced it before and now that I have it I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with my life. Heck, I don't even know if I'll be able to survive too long once we get out of here. My switching sides to be with Urd and you and Ranma is not going to go unnoticed or unpunished. But, if all of us are working together like we have been so far, I'm sure that I'll be just fine and our bonds of love will be even stronger at the end of the trial."

Setsuna looked around at the nodding heads and was a bit startled. She hadn't realized that they had been thinking about this so much. She seemed to be a little behind the times, even though she had always considered herself a realist, one to face the facts first in a situation.

The girls read her expression and grinned. "Don't feel so bad," Mara admonished her. "I was so lost in my giddiness that I didn't actually think about it until Ranma mentioned his previous fiance's and what they were likely to do to him now that he actually went out and got married to somebody else. Er, elses."

"I'm still sorry about that," Ranma muttered. "I didn't want to kill your mood like that, I was just telling you my thoughts since you asked."

Mara reached over and patted his head tenderly. "I know love, don't worry about it. We sure made up for it later, didn't we."

Ranma actually blushed, something that the girls thought they had pretty much cured him of since they had all been sleeping with each other for so long now. "Oh yeah, I remember that alright."

Three hentai giggles were his answer. It still unnerved him when they did that. Something so girlishly happy and innocent shouldn't be perverted like that! More food was had by all, though nobody ever got a bite from their own fingers.

The four of them sat happily in the chair, satisfied with the meal even though they knew they didn't ever have to eat in this place. Urd and Mara had managed to figure out how to magic up some pretty good food not long after they had arrived, something Ranma was grateful for. Even though he didn't have to eat, he still enjoyed it greatly. Talking over a good meal was just something that they all seemed to enjoy.

Setsuna sighed in contentment. This was what it was all about. Her loved ones by her side, a nice cuddle session and a warm bed waiting for her when they felt like getting a little frisky!

Mara was looking right at Setsuna while she had those thoughts and was able to read them. "You want to get married, don't you?"

Setsuna was so happy and content at that moment that her defenses were completely down. Upon hearing the question her heart soared and responded before her mind could filter it. "I'd love to get married to all of you. That would just be perfect!"

Everyone blinked in surprise as the four found themselves all standing in wedding dress or tux. The arrow was now pointing at Setsuna. The girls all looked at each other, wondering why they were all dressed in stunning wedding gowns. They spent a minute admiring how beautiful they all looked, Ranma not even bothering to try and say anything, merely letting his expression convey his emotions.

The three women giggled happily, a normal giggle this time, upon seeing their husband's face. They could easily see his emotions and basked in his goggle eyed stare, posing for the pigtailed martial artist until he dashed forward grabbed them all in a huge hug.

Finally the four of them got themselves under control and lined back up in the approximate place they had started at, the arrow once more pointing at Setsuna Meiou.

"I do," She said gleefully, still under the happiness high she had since joining her three lovers on the chair.

The arrow did it's traditional thumbs up combined with wolf whistle symbol before moving to point at Ranma.

"I do," He stated cheerfully, obviously very pleased about current events.

They were all surprised when the arrow then turned to finger Mara. She blinked, looked at Ranma, then got a sly grin and gave Setsuna a hungry glance. Setsuna's eyes were wide upon remembering exactly what she had said when talking about marriage. She had said she wanted to get married to all of them. Maybe there was more to this marriage ball thing than just Ranma.

"I do," Mara said crisply. Another series of images by the arrow.

Urd was last. She smirked at the other two girls gleefully. "I definitely do."

More happy symbols from the floating wedding arrow. Urd suddenly blinked in shock. "Hey, I'm married to a girl before a guy! Arrgh, I'm never going to live this one down!"

The other three snickered at hearing that. Urd rounded on them. "Do you have any idea what kind of reputation I have in Asgard? Now I went and got married to Set-chan here before Ran-chan and everybody's going to tease me as soon as we get back."

Mara reached out and hugged the distraught girl. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure with me at your side looking beautiful and evil and threatening all at the same time you won't have anybody teasing you."

Urd smirked at her. "I'm sure once they get a look at how radiant now that we're happily married we look they won't be able to move anyway."

Ranma chuckled. "Don't make me change into a girl and show up all of you in the sexy looks department."

Mara, Urd and Setsuna cackled in delight. That had been funny! Ranma pouted which just made everybody laugh harder. The twinkle in the young man's eye revealed he had done it on purpose.

"So, about the honeymoon that you got to enjoy last time," Setsuna casually mentioned. "Where is it?"

"How should I know, I'm not the crazy woman who made this thing."

Urd glared at the blonde. "Hey, I'm not crazy! I'm especially unique!"

Setsuna got an evil glint in her eye, making Ranma wonder what the girl had planned. She reached out and grabbed the other two females, standing Urd and Mara next to each other. She pushed and prodded them until they stood ramrod straight, chests out and stomachs in.

She gazed between the two of them, eyeing them both critically. Ranma leaned in to whisper in the greenhead's ear. "What are you doing?"

"I'd say you're pretty similar, actually," Set-chan informed her wives, ignoring Ranma's question. The two girls being examined glanced at each other in confusion, not believing for a moment that they looked much alike.

"I meant your boobs," Setsuna clarified. "They both have the same wonderful fullness, and defiance of gravity that will probably get you a lot of death threats."

Urd and Mara boggled at the slightly smaller woman for a moment before the two deities turned to each other and hugged tightly, an almost chaste, tender kiss being traded during the embrace as well. Ranma hugged Setsuna while they were at it, wanting to get in on the affection before they went off without him, something they had been known to do from time to time.

The blonde and platinum haired women turned to face the greenhead. "Yup, guess you're right. We do have similar, exceptionally beautiful bodies," Urd said with a grin.

Urd looked around impatiently. "C'mon already, I want to have an actual bed and stuff! Where's the honeymoon bit?"

"You can make a bed you know," Mara informed the girl.

"Of course I can! But I don't want to! It takes up so much energy that could be better used IN the bed."

Mara thought back on it. "Yeah, we did last quite a bit longer since I didn't have to use my magic for anything. It was like those marathons we did when we first got here and were under the potion. Remarkable stuff, that."

Ranma walked over to the light haired girls and cupped their faces, having decided that a random observation was due. "This is a great blue. It's just so perfect I can't get over it every time I look at you."

Mara giggled. "And here I thought he couldn't get over this perfection," She said while flashing her cleavage. Everyone stopped to watch the bobbing assets, causing Mara to erupt in laughter.

"We've been in her for over two months and you three still do that? Man, you must have really been uptight before we all met each other."

"Were not!" Ranma and Setsuna shouted at the same time.

Urd and Mara simply stared at them.

"Okay, so maybe we were, just a little," Setsuna mumbled.

Urd came over and planted a huge kiss on the Senshi's lips. Just when the girl was really getting into it the platinum haired goddess broke it off. "It's okay to admit it now," Urd admonished, "since you definitely aren't uptight anymore. Wooheee, what a kiss!"

"Come back here," Setsuna commanded, looping her arms around the girl before proceeding to try and suck her tongue out.

Mara and Ranma looked at each other. "Well my beloved husband, looks like you were right. We do all have to get married to each other, not just you."

Ranma nodded, glancing over at the passionately kissing women, who looked as if they were about to move on to better things. "I'm kinda glad about that, too. When I'm dead and gone you three will still have each other. It's not just me that's holding you all together, so without me you'll still be in love and happy."

Ranma looked over at Mara with a sad little smile on his face and was shocked to see the absolute horror in her expression. He stepped close and put an arm around her.

"What's wrong, love?"

She simply stared at him for a few more moments before getting her voice back. "You... dead... gone forever... never to see you again... OH RANMA!" Mara latched onto her husband and sobbed, not wanting to think about the inevitability of her losing him and moving on with her life. The pain in her chest from the thought of him gone almost made her think she was having a heart attack. In a sense, she was.

Ranma hadn't thought this would affect her so, since it was such a long way off. Nevertheless, he held the girl tight as she soaked him with tears. "It's alright love, I'm still here, I won't be going anywhere for a very long time. Don't' be so sad, Mara-chan."

The demoness in form but not spirit managed to quiet her sobs a bit, taking great comfort from Ranma's tender embrace. She sighed when two more pairs of arms encircled the both of them. "It's alright Mara-chan," Urd said, echoing Ranma.

"That's right, whatever happened to upset you so we'll be able to fix," Setsuna said, hugging the crying girl from the opposite side of Urd, Ranma pleasantly squeezed between them.

Mara finally managed to get herself under control and started organizing her thoughts, knowing that there had to be a way to get around this. She refused to accept the fact that she had fallen for a mortal that was going to die and leave her, no matter what was worked out in Asgard.

"Girls, we have to do something," Mara said.

The seriousness in her voice made all those around her pause, though Ranma wasn't currently a girl. The tears hadn't been quite enough to trigger his curse he was glad to note, still being the same height as the women instead of a head or more shorter.

"About what?" Setsuna asked, the determination to help her loved one obvious in her voice.

"Ranma."

Everybody turned to stare at the pigtailed martial artist. He stared back. "What? I just mentioned that I'm going to die eventually and I'm glad that you girls love each other so much, instead of it just being me holding you together. Then she starts crying and I'm hugging her and then you all show up and now she's saying something about doing something about something. Or something like that." He paused for breath. "That was too many somethings, wasn't it?"

Three nods were his response. "Oh, right. Stupid language."

Setsuna chuckled at him. "Of course, it's all the language's fault. Couldn't be Ranma, oh no."

Ranma stood up to his full height. "Of course it's not me! I'm perfect!"

He couldn't contain it anymore and started laughing his head off, quickly joined by the beautiful women who's hearts he had captured, and vice versa.

Once they had calmed down Ranma spoke again. "Okay, now that we're all feeling a little better, tell us what's on your mind Mara-chan."

"Ranma."

Ranma waved his hands around frantically. "Now don't you all start staring at me again!"

Urd, Mara and Setsuna chuckled and managed to refrain. "What about Ranma? He said something about dying eventually...." Setsuna's eyes widened briefly to take up 90% of her face.

She managed to keep herself under control, kinda used to having things like this happen to her. Urd spoke next. "You're a mortal, aren't you. A special mortal, but a mortal nonetheless. A mortal that's going to grow old and die. That's not something I'm just going to sit here and let happen."

Mara and Setsuna agreed heartily. "We have to do something to make sure that he doesn't leave us behind, not after how long we've been alone."

"You can do that?" Ranma asked in surprise, looking between the three girls.

They all nodded, each thinking of how best to go about it, especially since they were still confined in the ball.

Urd crossed her arms over her chest and glanced around. "I don't think we can do anything about it while we're in here, but think on it and as soon as we leave we'll start putting our plans into action." She reached over and gave Ranma a hug. "Don't worry love, we'll have this problem solved in no time!"

Ranma just smiled at them, not really worried about it yet. Cologne and Happosai were 300 years old or so, and they were still going fine. Then he had an image of Happy with a pigtail cavorting around with Mara, Urd and Setsuna as they looked now and decided that maybe his girlfriend's had the right idea. Avoiding looking like a little troll would something he would do just about anything to avoid. He admired the girls' beauty in addition to their personalities and wanted to return that favor as much as possible. Not turning into a troll would be one way of doing so.

"Well, seeing as how we can't do anything about it here, why don't we all go on that honeymoon," Urd suggested to no one in particular.

When still nothing happened Ranma made a suggestion. "Maybe it only works for couples? Or since all of us are involved anyway it just decided to keep us all here in the main room for some reason?"

The girls shrugged. "It's as good an explanation as any," Mara agreed.

Ranma turned and grabbed Setsuna in a huge hug. "Well, since we're the newly weds, we better get on a honeymoon of some sort."

Mara and Urd bopped him on the head. He turned to look at them in confusion while Setsuna rubbed the spot he had been hit. He shot her a 'What are you doing that for?' look, causing the greenhead to blush. It was an automatic reaction now for her to make sure that he was alright no matter what happened to him.

"He, we're married to Set-chan too ya know," They informed him.

Ranma nodded. "I know, I was just saying that since I married her as well."

"Oh, well, that's okay then," Mara said, sidling up to the still lightly hugging pair. "C'mon, we've got a bed to make and then ruin."

Hentai grins appeared all around. This was going to be fun!

Another three months had passed and Urd was starting to despair. She had no idea why, but for some reason there never seemed to be a good opportunity to get herself married. The was married to Mara and Setsuna, but the arrow would never show up like it did with them when wedding bells were hinted at. She couldn't understand it, or maybe it was just something that was done to keep the creator from locking somebody into the ball with them until the desired result was reached.

Ranma, Urd and Setsuna were getting a little annoyed too. They were all having a great time in there, but it was starting to get a little boring with nothing but white surrounding them everywhere you could look. They wanted to be completely married as well, not have just the platinum haired girl left out like this. Maybe it was time to just ask point blank.

Ranma walked up to a slightly sulking Urd, who had been designing a fireworks display in miniature, to be blow up to full size later. She looked at him a little frostily, obviously wanting a minute alone with her thoughts. Ranma smiled benignly at her and she softened. "What is it, love?" She asked softly, as if not wanting to disturb her thoughts.

"I want to marry you," He stated almost as softly, as if sharing a secret with her that he didn't want to distract her too much.

No arrow appeared. Ranma glared up at the whiteness, wondering why he was being denied this. Setsuna and Mara, standing behind him, glared upward as well. They wanted her to be part of the group, more than just married to the two other girls anyway.

"HEY!" Ranma shouted to the sky. "WHY CAN'T URD AND I GET MARRIED?!?"

The arrow appeared, but instead of pointing at any of them it settle to the ground and started to morph. Everybody looked to Urd but she jerked her head back and forth frantically, not having a clue as to what was going on either. She hadn't ever heard about this before!

The arrow formed itself into what looked like a woman. Ranma had a huge sweatdrop on the back of his head as he watched this. Something about it was making him a little nervous. The morph finally finished and the four were presented with... Ranko, in traditional Ranma red and blacks.

"Hi!" She chirped. "I'm Crystal."

Ranma jerked in shock.

"For some reason this seems like its happened before, in another place and time," He mumbled to himself.

"Let me guess, you're Ranko," Urd drawled.

The newly formed girl blinked a couple times, looking as if she was resetting from a memory or something that wasn't supposed to be there. "You could call me that."

Ranma blinked in confusion. "But, you just said your name is Crystal."

Everybody looked at Ranma strangely. "She did! Didn't any of you just hear her?"

Mara leaned forward and pressed the back of her hand against Ranma's forehead. "Are you feeling alright, honey? Your hearing is usually pretty good. The first thing she said was that we could call her Ranko."

Ranma shook his head and decided to just ignore it. "So, what are you doing here?"

Ranko looked down and dug her toe in little circles. "Well, I'm in charge of this ball, and I couldn't help but watch as everything was going on and I didn't want it to end."

Urd looked a little shocked. "What do you mean you're running this place? It was just supposed to be a little AI magic!"

"Well, that's what I started out as. But with all the magic and ki you four have been throwing around, along with how long this ball has been running, it's allowed me to gather enough energy to grown and learn, eventually becoming my own entity."

"So you won't let Ran-chan marry Urd-chan because...." Mara inquired.

"I wasn't done growing yet."

"Oh."

"So, can we get married now?"

"By all means, go right ahead."

"But, you're not an arrow anymore. How is this going to work?" Ranma wanted to know.

Ranko pointed at Urd while looking at Ranma. "Do you wanna marry this babe here, be with her forever and ever, keeping her happy?"

"I do," Ranma said with a sweet smile at the goddess.

Ranko reversed positions, pointing at Ranma while looking at Urd. "Do you take this hunk to be your lover forever, making sure he's always satisfied and well taken care of forever and ever?"

Urd nodded absently, having been staring into Ranma's blue eyes and almost missing what was being said. Ranko turned to look at the other two girls. "You two want in on this, right?"

Setsuna and Mara nodded eagerly. They both opened their mouths to say something when Ranko continued speaking.

"Then by the power given to me by Urd, willingly or unwillingly, I pronounce you all married and ready to bear Ranma's children."

A group hug ensued, Ranma being smothered by beautiful and happy women. He didn't mind. A moment later Urd suddenly froze up and wheeled around to face Ranko.

"Did you just turn off the birth control spell?"

Ranko nodded happily.

"Turn it back on! Now!" Urd almost screamed.

Ranma, Setsuna and Mara were wondering why she was getting so worked up over this. The other two girls were perfectly all right with what was going on, and since they were married it would be acceptable to have children as a result of their love making.

"You don't understand, we can't get pregnant for at least another five years! Skuld says that's the one thing that can't happen or the world is doomed to destruction."

"You already knew this was going to happen? How else could Skuld have told you that Ranma couldn't have babies with us for a while?" Setsuna demanded.

"NO!" Urd shouted, hoping to get them to listen by simple volume at the moment. "I mean that Skuld said Ranma having a kid with ANYONE would result in the end of the universe! When she saw me looking over his file a while ago she gasped and said she recognized the pigtailed young man on the screen. She said that his child would be the end of the universe should he father one. I don't want to risk something like that. Skuld did mention that any babies after 5 years of marriage wouldn't bring about the apocalypse, thus we wait."

The girls turned to look at Ranma. He was decidedly freaked out. Pigtail standing on end, hair toinged out in several places, wild eyes flicking rapidly between the various females. "My kid destroys the world? Geez Akane, what the hell were you teaching him?"

Mara turned to Ranko. "As much as I hate to admit it, ending the world would be a Very Bad Thing. Put the birth control thingy back on. Once we get out of here we're going to have to make some contraceptive necklaces for us or something."

Ranma blinked about that for a minute and decided to voice his opinion. "Hey, um, do you think you could make something for me to wear instead of you? Then we'd only have one necklace thingy, instead of keeping track of three of 'em."

The girls turned to stare at him for a minute in shock. Male contraceptives? Who'da thought?

"Not a bad idea," Mara speculated. "We'll have to spend a little time coming up with the right spell, but I'm sure it can be done."

Setsuna thought for a moment, looked down at the Senshi uniform she currently sported, and shook her head. "Man, I'm not gonna be able to wear this thing once I start showing. I can't even remember if we had any Senshi maternity clothes. Now that I think about it, when the heck was the last pregnant Senshi?"

Mara, Urd and Ranma turned their attention back to Ranko once they realized that Setsuna would be in her own world for a while.

"So you'll turn it back on, right?" Ranma made sure of what he thought Ranko would do. While he wouldn't be adverse to having a child, he would really prefer to have that happen later rather than sooner. He still had to graduate and get some income before he could start getting his wives pregnant. Besides, after spending this much time with them alone and not getting anywhere near bored of it, he wanted to experience just the four of them some more before everyone was distracted with a baby or three to take care of.

Ranko nodded, herself looking a bit unnerved by what Urd had said.

Ranma turned his attention to the platinum haired goddess, grasping her hand before asking a question. "Why exactly is my kid going to destroy the universe? I'm glad you told us this now, instead of after the child was already born and we had to try and second guess ourselves as to what change caused the kid to blow everything up. I've seen anime, that never works out."

Urd wondered if he would appreciate knowing that he was an anime character himself in several universes she knew about, but decided to keep that tidbit to herself.

"Skuld is very new to her powers, so she doesn't have a complete grasp of what's going to happen in the future. She only gets bits and pieces, the fragments getting bigger and bigger as she matures. Last time I talked to her she didn't know why or how the universe got destroyed, just that Ranma Saotome's kid, born before five years of marriage had elapsed, would bring about the end of all things."

Ranma shivered at the closeness of the disaster that had been avoided, pulling Urd and Mara, who happened to be standing much closer than Setsuna since she was still off in her own, into a comforting hug.

Ranko suddenly popped up between them. There was a mass blink as those already in the hug wondered how the girl had managed to slip between them all without anybody noticing. "I really REALLY wanna hug." She spread her arms out and gave her most kawaii look. "Pleeeeease???"

A quick glance confirmed that all those present were in agreement before the petite redhead was smothered in affection.

Just as the hug was reaching critical mass a huge bolt of lightning flashed out of nowhere to slam into the middle of the group. Several screams were heard, quickly followed by Setsuna's inquiries about her loved one's health.

"I'm fine," chorused three voices. A second later Ranma added, "Ranko's extra crispy, though."

Setsuna frowned and walked over to see exactly what he meant by that. Ranko lay on the ground, her red hair almost black and obviously burnt. Smoke was curling up from her open mouth, out of her ears and in various places down her body. Half her clothing was also gone, the edges blackened and brittle.

Ranma turned to Urd. "She's going to be alright, right? With her being a magical AI or whatever it was you were talking about earlier."

Urd shook her head. "I don't know. I can't remember a basic magical AI ever doing something like this before. I'd assume a healing spell would still work on her, though."

Urd kneeled down next to the prone redhead, hoping that her mediocre healing skills would be enough.

Ranko wasn't doing that good and Urd was starting to get frustrated and angry. Not at anyone in particular, more at herself and her inability to help the injured redhead. Her best healing spell had managed to stop Ranko's downward slide and get her back on the road to recovery, but no one was sure how much of her body would still be 100% once she healed. Anything like that would have to be taken to Belldandy, something not available at the moment.

The lighting bolt that had struck her nobody had ever seen before. It was more than just electricity or magic, it was something of a combination of many different powers. The three girls nor Ranma had been able to identify everything that had been in it, despite thinking on it over the past day.

Ranma had a thought, but he was a little nervous about suggesting it. After a few minutes of hemming and hawing the pigtailed martial artist firmed his resolve and marched over to where his three wives were attending the battered and still unconscious woman.

Urd, Mara and Setsuna immediately picked up on their husband's distress, completely ignoring his obvious determination to go through with whatever was on his mind. "What's up, love?" Mara asked, being the least distracted with the healing.

The demoness in form and name, just not allegiance had very little knowledge in the way of healing went, never having had a need for it before. Now she regretted that, not wanting to see someone who looked exactly like Ranma in so much pain.

Ranma stopped before the blonde bombshell, absently brushing a strand of hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. Mara's hand came up and squeezed his while she gave him a loving smile, the four marks on her forehead turning a slightly brighter blue as the almost overwhelming love for her man washed through her being.

"I have an idea about Ranko, but I'm not sure if it's even possible any more," Ranma told her in quiet tones, not wanting all of the women to get wind of this until he had cleared it with Mara first.

Mara blinked in surprise, wondering why he was coming to her with this. Urd would be the logical choice, or maybe Setsuna given her long experience with many forms of healing.

As she opened her mouth to say so Ranma placed a finger of her lips, begging her silence for the moment. Mara couldn't resist and flicked her tongue over his finger, causing the young man to shudder in suppressed desire. By the look he gave her she knew that he would soon release it, most likely upon her first. Which is what Mara had wanted to accomplish in the first place.

"I'm asking you because it has to do with you. Or rather, who you are," Ranma said, hoping that he would be able to get this right. Mara was probably the least stable of the girls there, thanks to her demon's temper that would flare up. Ranma was rather glad that he was tougher than Ryoga now thanks to his training. It meant he and Mara could have a little fun and friendly bantering before he started to actually hurt from her temper.

"Who I am? What are you talking about?" Mara wanted to know, wondering where in the world her husband was going with this.

"You still use your demonic powers, don't you?" Ranma stated more than asked.

Mara nodded.

"The three of us were hugging Ranko when the lightning hit her, yet none of us were hurt by it. Now Urd has done her best and Ranko's going to be alright, but doesn't it seem strange to you that a spell strong enough to easily heal what had happened to the girl has very little effect?"

Mara nodded again, still not sure of his intentions.

"Well, last time I was with her I tried to use some of my ki to see if I could replicate what Urd was doing." Mara grinned at him and elbowed her lover in the ribs.

"Always trying to get something from us, aren't you?" Mara teased. "Just aren't satisfied with the love and affection we shower you with, you still want to learn all our most guarded secrets."

Ranma chuckled, grabbing the girl in a tight hug to keep her from getting much leverage to hit him with again. Not that it had hurt, but he liked hugging her a whole lot more than getting elbowed.

"Yup, that's me. Just can't get enough of a good thing," He joked back before sobering. "Anyway, to make a long story short I did manage to get something like her spell started while using it on myself."

Mara's eyes widened and she tightened her hug considerably, happy at her husband's accomplishment. "That's great honey! Now we won't all have to come crawling to Urd when we bang ourselves up sparring."

"That's the problem Mara-chan," Ranma said. "Last time we went at it (great fight, by the way) I managed to nick you with a vacuum blade (soooooo sorry my love) after you dropped your shield to launch some larger magic at me. After I won (it was not luck, that was skill!) I tried to heal you while we walked over to Urd, but nothing happened. Later I tried it on Urd and managed to heal her hair, making it softer and shinier than ever before, instead of fixing a few of the love bites she sported."

Mara blushed, having been the one that put those on her. Ranma chuckled at his flustered wife, his hands starting to roam across her back and rear during the long hung. "She doesn't mind, you know that."

"I know, it's just embarrassing that I can't control myself at all when it comes to that woman," Mara said. "Or you, or Setsuna. Heh, I'll give everyone love bites before I'm through."

"You already have, mine just got healed like usual," Ranma informed the demoness.

Mara blinked. "Oh, right, should have known that."

Ranma laughed and kissed his Mara-chan soundly. When they finally came up for air it took another few minutes for Ranma's brain to reengage and him to remember what he had just been talking about.

"Anyway, the reason I mention all this is that I think you might have something to do with helping Ranko get better."

Mara blinked at him in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"After having done that hair thing with Urd I decided to try it on Ranko, hoping that I would be able to do a bit more than just her hair for my second try." Ranma gestured at the prone redhead. "As you can see, I wasn't successful. She does now have the best hair in her short life, however."

Mara continued to stare at him for several long moments. Right before she was to say something derogatory about his story telling ability and knowledge of relevant facts Ranma continued.

"It took me a minute to notice it, but I helped her with more than just her hair," Ranma said, pulling Mara down with him next to Ranko. "What I did wasn't externally visible, but she's breathing much easier now and her vital signs are much stronger, even though her body is in the same state as before I did anything." Ranma smiled brightly at her as he got to the point.

"Think about it. Urd heals her, she looks a lot better and is on her way to a recovery. Urd can heal any of us of pretty much anything that can happen. I tried it and it didn't really work on Urd, which it should have given her stuff works on me. So I do the exact same thing to Ranko and she's suddenly much improved, even though her body hasn't changed. I'm thinking that this might be mental, since she did start out as a magical AI, and that she needs to feel the concern and contact with others for her body to heal itself. So I want you to heal her. She's improved with myself and Urd, so I want to see if she'll improve with your different abilities and orientation."

Mara sat in mild surprise. She certainly hadn't been expecting something like that from her husband. She cast a long look at the comatose redhead, trying to think of what she had been like a short while ago before Ranma had done his thing. Using a little magic to boost her memory made it clear that he was telling the truth about her breathing and whatnot. Maybe there was truth in his theory.

Certainly couldn't hurt to give it a shot. She probably should have had Urd teach her this spell a while ago anyway.

"Hey Urd!" Mara shouted.

The magical shout echoed across the white nothingness. Ranma clapped his hands over his ears in shock. When standing next to someone doing that it was a lot louder than a normal shout. "Don't do that!"

Mara giggled at him. "But that pout you have is just so cute!"

Ranma glomped onto the blonde bombshell. "Waah! Mara-chan is making fun of me!"

Mara dived at the opening. Her fingers shot directly to his ticklish spots, attacking him mercilessly even as he squirmed to try and protect himself AND maintain the glomp.

By the time Urd had floated over a full scale war was going on. She took one look at what was going on and decided to join Ranma's side, as Mara looked to have the upper hand. The blonde squealed as another set of questing fingers fluttered across her skin in hopes of rendering her immobile from giggles.

Mara finally admitted defeat and simply hugged her two lovers tightly, husband and wife. Ranma and Urd stopped as well to return the loving embrace, the three of them catching their breath while looking into each other's eye.

Mara finally pulled back a bit in order to speak to Urd's face. "Would you teach me some of your healing spells, love?"

Urd nodded happily. "Of course I will. I don't know if you'll have to do anything differently, but we should be able to get this to work."

Ranma sighed. This was one thing that he doubted he'd ever be able to share with his wives. As talented as he was he freely admitted that he wasn't a god, and didn't have anyway to access their magical powers. He had managed to get a sort of healing spell, but that pretty much just isolated some ki and duplicated his quick healing ability. That was probably why it didn't work on anything big yet, but he hoped to get it right soon. While Setsuna drew her power from a different source as Urd and Mara, it was just as sealed to him as the Goddesses. Seeing as the two blondes (well, one blonde, one platinum, close to blonde) were getting pretty deep into the intricacies of spell casting the pigtailed martial artist decided to see what Setsuna was up to.

"Hey girls, I'm going to go check on Set-chan. Let me know when you're finished, okay?"

Urd and Mara sprang up to give him a quick hug (and grope, on both sides) before waving him off and returning to their conversation. Ranma smiled, feeling like his chest was just about to burst he was so happy. The love he felt for these three women was growing more and more every day and Ranma was starting to get a little worried he was going to die of joy.

A brief search revealed Setsuna practicing a kata with her staff. Ranma sat and watched, his eyebrows briefly shooting up his forehead every time the short black skirt the greenhead sported flipped up and revealed her skimpy little panties. He knew his wife was aware he was watching her, and he could tell that she had changed her kata so his view would be the best possible, something Ranma was very appreciative of.

After a few minutes of this Ranma admitted to himself that the girl was starting to affect him. Another minute and Ranma dove at her, Setsuna laughing happily as she allowed herself to be gently tackled to the ground.

An hour later and both couples had finished their objectives. Setsuna was helping Ranma hunt his clothes down, her own uniform magically reappearing on her body. They had just located the last article, his shirt, when Urd and Mara walked up.

They looked at the two of them, Setsuna almost impossibly clean and beautified, obviously signifying that she had activated her uniform again and it had cleaned her up. Ranma, putting on his shirt while he looked like he had just finished a rather brisk workout.

"Oooh, I told you to call us!" Mara and Urd whined at the same time.

Setsuna smirked. "I just couldn't resist having all his attention for once. You all know how much I like it. Beside's, it's not like I'm going to wear him out."

Urd giggled. "Too true. I can't believe I actually married a Super Stud. I thought they were just myths the other love goddesses made up because they didn't want to admit they sucked."

Ranma scowled. He never liked being called that. It always made him think of breeding stock, like in the Amazon village. That was something that he had wanted to get away from, not be reminded of it. With a sharp shake of his head Ranma forced those thoughts out of his mind. He didn't want to start thinking badly of Urd or any of the girls. He knew they were just listing facts, they weren't trying to offend him.

"We're finished, I can do the healing spell same as Urd now," Mara informed the two most recent lovers.

Ranma smiled happily, wondering if his theory had been proven correct.

"I hadn't used it yet, though. I thought you'd want to be there when I do."

Ranma's smile grew. He knew nothing like that ever would have happened back in Nerima. "When's the last time I told you I love you?"

The three girls put their fingers to their cheeks and stared off into space in thought. "About a minute ago," Setsuna stated with a flutter in her voice.

"Good one, huh Set-chan?" Urd asked the girl quietly.

Setsuna nodded enthusiastically.

"Hour or so," Mara informed them.

Ranma glomped the blonde. "I LOVE YOU MARA!"

Mara returned the embrace. "I love you too Ran-chan."

Ranma deglomped and turned his attention to Urd. "You haven't told me yet, but I want to say it anyway. I LOVE YOU URD!" Urd knew her husband and they executed a perfectly timed double glomp, something not nearly as easy as it sounds.

Mara and Setsuna dove in from the sides, not wanting to be left out. After everybody had been thoroughly hugged the four broke apart and walked hand in hand over to where Ranko peacefully lay recovering.

Mara took a deep breath to steady her nerves, a smile coming to her face when she felt three reassuring hands on her back, two small and one large. "You have this down perfectly," Urd encouraged, "There's no need to be nervous. Just do it like we practiced."

"Right," Mara said confidently, getting a big boost from her loved ones. "Let's see if Ranma's as smart as he is cute."

"HEY!"

"Just kidding love, don't get your panties in a bunch," Mara teased.

Ranma crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll have you know I've never worn panties."

Urd and Setsuna cleared their throats loudly. Ranma blushed. "Okay, maybe once or twice. But it wasn't willingly!"

More throat clearing.

Ranma's face was now the same red as Ranko's hair. "Well, okay, but you so enjoyed taking them off of me I couldn't say I wouldn't wear them!"

Blushes all around. Mara cleared her throat this time and everyone calmed down.

Mara closed her eyes and held her hands in front of her chest, palms facing each other and fingers pointed up. She reached out and drew upon the strength that was always available to her, ready to flow through her veins at a moments notice. The four blue marks on her forehead flared right before a ball of blue energy flared between her hands.

Urd silently clapped her hands, everything going perfectly so far. Getting the spell to form correctly was the hard part, applying it to somebody was merely pressing the magical energy into them.

Mara knelt next to Ranko and looked at her beautiful features for a long moment, thinking about when Ranma had looked just like this when they were playing one of their many games. She pushed the pulsing blue sphere into Ranko's chest, nothing visibly changing at first as the spell worked its magic from the inside out.

The four lovers held their breath and each others hand as they waited for results, either good or bad.

A collective gasp was heard as Ranko took a deep breath and opened her eyes once more. She slowly sat up only to be bowled over again by three women and one man, all very happy to see her well again.

Since nobody knew what the lightning had been for Urd assumed that it was some sort of defense against the AI being programmed to kill somebody or make them fall in love with the AI while they were in here. Seeing the logic in that nobody had questioned it.

Ranko sat staring at everyone, not really responding to the hugs or kisses (on the cheek) she was getting. Everybody seemed to notice this at once and they pulled back to take a look and see what's wrong.

Unable to find anything visual Ranma spoke up, "What's wrong, Ranko?"

Her blue eyes flicked to Ranma, startling him with just how bright they were. If he didn't know better he'd have sworn they were glowing. He glanced at Mara and Urd's softly glowing symbols and decided that he might not have been imagining things.

"Something's happening," Setsuna whispered. "Between Mara, Urd and Ranko. I don't know what, but they're doing something magical that's making my senses go crazy."

Ranma turned to face Setsuna, wondering what was going on. He certainly hadn't expected any of this, and he was wondering if he would be able to handle a fourth wife. Three seemed overwhelming at times, he knew four would leave him with no free will. Not that he didn't love them to death, but girls always seemed to have the last word somehow. Maybe it was just the girls he knew, Kasumi had never seemed like that. Though when it really came down to it, she got the absolute final word with anything pertaining to the Tendo home, so there goes that idea.

Setsuna somehow managed to read his expression. "Now don't start thinking you're good enough for four girls. I think the three you've managed to collect so far is plenty."

"Yeah, but what if I have to to get us out of this ball?" Ranma asked gently.

Setsuna eyes widened a bit, the girl obviously not having thought of that. "I hope not."

"Me to."

Ranma thought about it for a moment. "On the other hand, it does make me wonder what she was planning now that she has a body to go with her mind."

Setsuna looked at her husband, wondering what he was getting at, hoping it wasn't what she thought he was getting at. "Look, we'll talk about this later, right now we have to figure out what's going on with Ranko."

"You're right," Ranma agreed, turning back to face the redhead.

Mara and Urd were starting to look a little worried, a sight that always put Ranma on edge. If they could detect something that worried them Ranma knew to be concerned.

He almost immediately found the source of their worry. Ranko was blatantly glowing now, her entire body enveloped in a rainbow of colors, traces of lightning visible between the bands of brightness. Ranma had no idea what to make of this, nothing like it having ever occurred before.

Mara and Urd weren't too sure what to make of it either. While people being enveloped in huge quantities of magic was a much more common occurrence for them, it never happened to simple magical AI's. What they were worried about was that it might have something to do with that lightning that had struck her earlier. Not knowing for sure what that was had put the women on edge as to what could be occurring here.

"I hate not knowing what's going on," Setsuna muttered.

"You'll get used to it," Ranma muttered. "I haven't had a clue for a while now but I seem to be doing fine."

She glared at him for a moment before returning her attention to the glowing Ranko. "I don't suppose either of you know what's going on with her?" She asked the two supernatural women.

They shook their heads in unison. "No idea what could be happening to an AI like her, one that's managed to make herself a body and been struck by some sort of lightning."

Realizing nothing could be done the four settled back a bit to see what could happen.

When the glow started to intensify they got a little worried.

When it got too bright to look at they became rather concerned.

When an ear shattering boom flattened the lot of them clan Saotome became scared. Scared a bit for themselves, but mainly for their loved ones, even though they all knew everybody was capable of taking care of him or herself.

Before anybody could recover from the effects of the concussive sound a wave of energy slammed into them, knocking them unconscious.

Eight Sailor Senshi along with two moon cats and six martial artists stood in wide eyed disbelief as a rather large ball, resembling a giant opal, crackled with electrical discharges.

Soun turned to his lifelong friend with obvious fear in his eyes. "Remember the last time we saw something like this, Saotome?"

Genma nodded jerkily.

"Then tell my why are we standing here?!"

"Becau-ahem," Genma cleared his throat, hoping nobody had noticed how high up in the register his voice had just been. "Because Ranma's in there, and we have to unite the schools Tendo."

Soun nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, I know. But remember the last time we saw a ball like this?????"

"Well, come to think of it, that was about the time you suddenly decided to settle down with your wife instead of leaving her to fend for herself while you went off on another booze filled training trip with me," Genma recalled.

Soun nodded again. "You don't remember why I decided to make that decision, do you?"

"Nope, I was drunk out of my mind that whole week. You deciding to stay home is about the only thing a can remember for a good period of time before and after that."

Soun fell over in disbelief. "You were standing right next to me! I never did understand why nothing ever happened to you, despite not following the instructions."

The two fathers thought back on the curses, the many bad decisions for training, Genma's perpetually large gut never shrinking despite how much he practiced his martial arts while he was on the road, the many problems that showed up that he somehow managed to force onto his son instead of accepting the blame, his lovely hair suddenly falling out, his inability to get girls to even acknowledge that he existed, his exceedingly poor memory. They stopped about there and realized that maybe he hadn't gotten off as scott free as they had first thought.

Michiru turned to Haruka. "When and how did they get here? I don't even remember all those people showing up," She asked, gesturing at the many martial artists from Nerima.

"I don't really know, but here's what I gathered. This boy with a bandanna stumbled through, somehow managing to disappear from a closet, then came out of a different closet dragging a short haired girl in a gi behind him. Usagi told her what had happened to the pigtailed boy and she ran off, only to come back a short while later trailing all these other people. Why Luna and Artemis are letting them stay here is beyond me. We can't even transform if this ball explodes or something."

"C'mon Ran-chan, I know you're okay in there, you can't let something like two crazy girls with magical potions get the best of you," Ukyo chanted encouragement to herself.

Akane was alternating between glaring at the ball, knowing that Ranma was doing something perverted with the three girls that had gone into the device with him, and being worried at what those women were doing to her clueless Ranma.

Shampoo wasn't too sure what to make of this. She had heard of something like this before happening in the Amazon village but couldn't for the life of her remember why. She was just grateful that she had noticed Ryoga dragging Akane around Nerima and managed to tag along through the closet to end up here, ready to help her husband whenever he emerged.

It had only been about 15 minutes since the ball had first appeared, yet all these people had shown up and started yelling, throwing threats around and generally causing chaos that it had seemed like no time at all had passed, especially for Rei who was trying to make sure that none of her possessions got too badly damaged by the guests.

Nabiki looked at her father with a gleam in her eye. What had he and Mr. Saotome been talking about just now? Something about the reason why her Father had been home instead of abandoning Mother to go on drinking binges? This bore some looking into.

Soun almost jumped through the ceiling when his middle daughter suddenly appeared before him. He had no idea how she got that close to him without him noticing, particularly from dead ahead, but he was even more unnerved by the look she was giving him. Nothing good ever came of it.

Genma knew the look and was slinking away as quickly as he could in the crowded room. A hand flashed out and latched onto his arm with a grip that he couldn't break for the life of him.

"Going somewhere, Mr. Saotome?" Nabiki purred as she yanked him back to stand next to her Father.

"So," She begins, arms crossed and staring the two men down, "What's this I hear about Daddy hear planning on leaving Mom while she was pregnant?"

Soun and Genma are sweating profusely, their eyes swiveling wildly as they try and find a way to avoid the girl. Genma thinks he has a brilliant plan and acts.

"What's that over there!" He exclaims, pointing over Nabiki's shoulder.

Knowing she shouldn't look behind her, but also knowing that given the ball that was taking up the middle of the room it would be foolish to just ignore the warning, Nabiki glances over her shoulder as quickly as she can.

It wasn't quick enough. Not seeing anything, as expected, her eyes return to the two fathers just in time to see a fist come sailing in. A sharp impact followed by blackness is all Nabiki knows.

Genma turns to his friend, a triumphant smirk on his face. "Ha! That'll teach her to go snooping around where she's not wanted, won't it Ten... (gulp!) uh, Ten(squeak!) Cough, ahem! Tendo?"

Genma back pedaled away from Soun. The taller man's eyes had slitted and a forked tongue was flicking out from between his lips, but his head was still normal size. What was really unnerving him was the rattling sound coming from nowhere. He had only ever seen this happen once before. It had been when the two of them were dating their wives before they had married them and the girls had been accosted in an alley. Soun had taken a look at what they were planning on doing to his woman and this is what he had looked like, right before he had ripped the rapists a new one (literally. There was a lot of blood before the paramedics showed up).

Now having that same expression directed at himself was one of the scariest things Genma had ever been subjected to. A stain started spreading down the front of Genma's pants.

"N-n-now S-Soun, nothing drastic here, okay? I mean, there are children present, we don't want to have them subjected to the horrors of- URK!"

Soun Tendo had grabbed Genma by the throat and was holding him off the ground. "You struck my daughter Genma Saotome. You struck my daughter, a non martial artist, with her back turned, in the face, simply because you didn't want to answer a few slightly uncomfortable questions."

"You didn't want to answer them either!" Genma managed to gasp out.

The portly man squeaked as the grip on his throat tightened. "Now you have that gall to argue with me about it?!?!"

Genma knew this had been a mistake. Soun's face hadn't changed, he still had the snake eyes and forked tongue, plus that rattle seemingly coming from nowhere. He couldn't even think of a way to redirect his friend's wrath to someone else like he usually did. This was looking very bad.

Desperate measures were called for. Genma tried to gather his wits about him while he dredged up something to say to keep Soun from doing him great bodily harm.

"Nabiki had it coming, old friend. The girl just doesn't know when to give up. If it had been Kasumi I wouldn't have had to hit her, she would have stopped before it got to that point. Girls should be more like Kasumi, don't you think? You did such a good job of raising her, knowing her place so I wouldn't have had to hit her at a time like this, it's a shame all your daughters didn't turn out so well, eh Tendo?"

Genma frowned a bit as he realized Soun had frozen solid. Yet his grip on his throat seemed to be tightening ever so slightly. He also noticed that more than a few people were watching the confrontation now, most of them wondering who's side they should be on. Maybe he could take this opportunity to slip away since his partner in crime seemed to be in shock over something.

Just as he reached up to press on Soun's tendon to make his hand open up the mustached man reacted.

A low rumble was his voice, coming from deep in his throat. "You would strike Kasumi?"

Genma's eyes widened as he realized what he had just done. "Oh please no! I'm your best friend, we training under the master together, surely you won't...."

He was drowned out as Soun screamed and kicked him, releasing his throat at the same moment. It was mere luck that he sailed through an open window and out into the yard, instead of through a wall. The Tendo patriarch let out another war cry before diving through the window after Genma.

The girls remaining winced at the sounds of unspeakable violence occurring outside. Ryoga and Akane seemed to smile with each impact, while Ukyo and Shampoo simply stared at one another, not able to believe what they had just heard.

Nabiki groaned and sat up. "Geez, was I knocked out? Oooh, what a headache."

Akane shook her head. "And she didn't even get what she was after. Poor Nabiki."

Wondering what in the world was wrong with everyone Usagi ran over to the girl. "Are you alright? That looked like it really hurt! Here, let me take a look at it."

Akane seemed to jerk as if realizing something. She dashed over next to her sister as well. "Let me help. I can't believe Mr. Saotome would do something like that."

Nabiki grinned ruefully. "Oh, I can believe it all right. I mean, he's attacked his own wife before. I just thought for sure I'd be able to at least dodge it enough to remain conscious. Now I won't be able to learn what I wanted to."

Akane glanced over to the part of the wall where the sounds of violence could be heard. "And I was going to marry his son?" A shiver went up and down her spine.

Nabiki looked at her younger sister in amazement. Akane had spent more time with Ranma than just about anyone, and she was worried about him acting like his Father? Nabiki herself knew that Ranma would never stoop so low. He always tried to verbally spar with her whenever she went after him, and, given his complete lack of experience in the area he always lost terribly, but no matter how frustrated or angry he got she was never worried in the least that he would physically attack her. He just promised that he would keep at it until he could beat her in a debate as easily as he could beat Akane in the dojo. A worthy goal, but it was taking him a lot longer than physical training.

While she would sport a nasty black eye for a few days there was no blood, much to the girls' relief. Genma apparently knew how to hit someone just right so as to not break the skin, which made everyone wonder as to how he had gotten those skills.

Nabiki was helped to a chair and was fussed over for several minutes, ice being applied and a few excellent cookies being consumed. Usagi had given them up to make the injured feel better, an almost superhuman effort for the girl.

Just as everyone was starting to calm down from fussing over Nabiki, something they were very glad she hadn't been awake to see how long she was ignored after being hit, everyone's attention so riveted to Soun and Genma, another event occurred.

Most of the Senshi had been looking right at the ball when it suddenly quivered for a moment before a huge bolt of lightning arced through it, blackening the ceiling above and the ground below.

The girls all looked around at each other and couldn't help themselves. They started laughing. Every single person in the room had their hair standing straight up. Usagi's long ponytails were making her look like a hot air balloon the way they made two huge inverted cones above her. Haruka sported a fro while Michiru looked extremely pissed, her hands doing their best to hold her hair down.

Rei, unable to see her own hair, took one look at her leader and howled in laughter. Usagi pouted for a moment before doing the same, the shrine maidens black locks looking particularly odd sticking a little up but mostly back for some reason. Rei frowned and stomped over to the blonde to deliver her obligatory punch in the shoulder.

As her fist neared the other girl's shoulder the two of them could feel the buildup of energy. Not wanting to know what would happen if they touched with this much static electricity floating around Rei tried to pull her hand back, but it was too late.

A loud crack was heard as a blue bolt of electricity passed between the two girls, though they were still a good 6 inches apart. Those in the room stared in shock, as that had been the first time they had been able to see static electricity do its thing so clearly.

Rei and Usagi cried out in pain. "Ahhh!" They chorused, Rei clamped her fist under her arm while Usagi rubbed her shoulder like crazy, a tear trickling down each girl's cheek from the pain.

"You just had to do that, didn't you?" Usagi griped, now trying to massage the hurting area.

Rei glared at her for a moment before dropping her eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry."

Everybody stared at Rei for a moment, though the Nerimiens were only doing it because the locals were. "Rei... apologized?" Minako hissed in wonderment to Makoto.

Usagi smiled cheerily. "It's okay, Rei-chan! I forgive you." She leaned forward to give a hug but stopped at the last moment. The two girls stared at each other for a moment before they both realized that the damage had already been done. They embraced, not so much as a twinge passing between them (okay, maybe there was a twinge, but for reasons that neither one of them wanted to admit to).

All those present looked around fearfully, not wanting to have to do that to get rid of their wild hair. Usagi and Rei's had pretty much settled down after their discharge. Nabiki decided to try and be helpful, since her hair was making a perfect space helmet shape around her head and she wanted to get rid of it.

"You know, I've heard that the best place to get struck by lightning is your butt. It has the least nerve endings," She informed.

Ukyo and Shampoo looked at each other, then over at Akane. Akane was looking right back. "So, will you...?" Akane mumbled, too embarrassed to actually say it.

Shampoo and Ukyo shared one last look before nodding. "Sure, we'll... um, fix that with you."

The three girls timidly approached each other in a triangle, not sure in the least of how to go about getting rid of static electricity rectally. They got within a foot of each other, able to feel the electricity crackling between them. The girls turned around, looking over their shoulder at each other as they tried to communicate what to do with eyes and small gestures alone, not wanting to speak of this now or ever.

Nabiki decided to take control. "Bend over!" She barked at them.

Startled, the three young women complied, the current building in the air around them.

"Brace yourself!"

Their faces screwed up as they prepared for the worst.

"And lean!"

Ukyo, Shampoo and Akane leaned backward at the same moment, hoping that this wouldn't hurt as much as it looked like it had Usagi and Rei.

An arc lanced between Akane and Shampoo, the two girls slightly closer to each other than Ukyo, when a third one formed to her before the first had time to dissipate.

Nabiki stared so wide eyed they took up 90% of her face. That couldn't have felt good at all!

There was a moment of silence after the crack from the discharge had died down before three screams sounding as one caused birds to scatter for miles and small woodland creatures to flee in terror.

Rei came back from putting the three injured girls up in a guest bedroom. Her eyes were still huge and she was walking a little funny, as if trying to protect something precious like men will do when their manhood is threatened.

Usagi was looking rather queazy. "Oh man, I can't believe of all the places to strike it was right (shudder) THERE!"

All the females in the room nodded in agreement, suddenly having some idea of how guys must feel after witnessing one of their own take one in the family jewels.

Michiru, rubbing her shoulder from where she had been shocked by Haruka who was doing the same, leaned over and whispered into her lovers ear. "You know, now the only one in here who isn't supposed to be is that Nabiki girl. We should be able to keep things under control with just one witness if we have to transform while she's still here."

Haruka was a bit startled to realize that the sounds of violence hadn't let up from outside, that bandanna'd boy had disappeared, and most of the girls that had trailed in with Akane were gone as well. The only one that remained was Nabiki.

"Back to where we started, how interesting. I wonder what that Ranma boy's doing in there. That lightning must have shaken it up a bit, don't you think?"

Michiru nodded in agreement with her love, wondering if Setsuna had had the same problems with her hair as those outside. Wondering what in the world could be going on in there in the first place.

The ball shook again. There was a collective gasp of fright. A second later when no lightning rained down from above the gasp turned to a sigh of relief. Then the goddess ball shook again and rose into the air.

"Ami, have you gotten anything on it yet? Do you know what it's doing now?" Usagi asked frantically, hoping that whatever was going to come out she wouldn't have to fight.

Ami shook her head. "The Mercury computer hasn't even finished it's initial detailed scan! There's no way to know what's going to happen until it happens, the shielding protecting that thing is just too strong."

Usagi nodded, her hand resting on her brooch in fear, though her determination to do what was right no matter what emerged shone through, making the Sailor Senshi realize why she was the Princess.

The ball had risen about four feet off the ground now, the top of it almost brushing the ceiling. A crack appeared in the bottom and spread up either side until it stopped about halfway up. The rest of the Senshi got a hold of their transformation wands in preparation while Nabiki took note of the odd looking pens with interest.

A moment passed before the ball split open, five bodies tumbling from it to land in a heap on the ground. Nobody knew how five bodies had fit in that ball, while the more observant were wondering where in the world the extra body had come from. Only four had gone in, right?

Cracks appeared all over the ball's surface until it shattered, thick chunks of opal falling all around the five inert forms.

The girls sprang into action, idly noting that many unspeakable acts of violence were still being committed outside the shrine. The first order of business was to separate the bodies while Nabiki, having pretty much recovered from her hit besides a headache, and Hotaru quickly shoved the opal chunks into a pile off to the side, pocketing a few of the larger pieces.

The four girls and one guy were lined up in comfortable looking positions on the floor before anyone stopped to really take a look at them.

All of them had clothes on, the ones they had went in with, though it looked like they had been beaten up then dressed. Bruises, scratches and scuff marks were visible peeking out beneath all their clothing, though everyone present was startled to see Ranma in both girl and boy form at the same time.

Haruka licked her lips upon seeing the redhead, though a quick elbow from her girlfriend made her avert her eyes from the material stretching chest. Ami scooted forward and ran her computer over them all quickly, hoping that she had managed to keep Nabiki from seeing the device in her hands.

Nabiki knew that the Akane look alike was holding something secret and very precious to her in her grasp, but she was too good at shielding it with her body for the middle Tendo to get a look at what it might be. It was frustrating her to no end. No matter what she did while removing the opal shards every time she stole a glance Ami's back was turned.

Ami finished scanning the five unconscious without letting Nabiki see her computer. "They all seem to be fine except for the obvious bruises and scrapes. They should be perfectly fine in a few days after everything heals. Ranko... Ranko I'm not to sure what to make of. She's human, yet she has the strangest aura I've ever seen. It's like she's not supposed to be there, yet she is."

Everyone glanced at the male Ranma in speculation. Rei left to get two glasses of water. A quick splash later revealed that Ranma did indeed still have his curse. So where had, for lack of something to call her but the name Nabiki had blurted, Ranko come from?

Nabiki was tempted to get the smelling salts and make one of 'em talk when Ranma started coming around. Before he had fully regained consciousness and opened his eyes the platinum haired woman and the blonde sat up and scanned the room, then winced as their bodies protested the movement.

Ranma sat up a moment later, noted the two girls already awake and started looking for the third and fourth of their number.

Mara jerked her thumb over her shoulder even as she silently chuckled at Ranma's expression, his body protesting movement as well. Ranma leaned back a bit and saw the green and redhead's still out of it upon the ground beyond Mara and Urd. He glanced into Mara's eyes, who was closest to the unconscious women and was relieved to see that they were in the same condition as everybody else; mainly okay.

Only once the well being of all those he loved was confirmed did he really turn his attention to what was in the room around him. A gaggle of pretty girls stared at him. He stared back, not too sure what to make of this. He had no idea what kind of entrance he had made, being in dreamland at the time, and wasn't too sure what type of excuses he should be making. Spotting Nabiki in the crowd didn't help him any, as she was usually the one to make him squirm the most before finally giving him the facts.

Two more groans sounded and Ranma scampered over to the prone ladies.

Urd and Mara's forehead symbols were glowing rather brightly, a sign Ranma knew to mean they were getting information from above and below, though he still wasn't entirely sure of who Mara was working for now. She seemed to have access to both sides at the moment, as her symbols were still the four slashes, yet they were the same shade of blue as Urd's triangles. Mara wasn't sure either, nor was Urd as they hadn't heard of this happening before. The platinum haired Goddess had spent some time going through her memories trying to find a precedent, but with no such luck.

Setsuna's red eyes fluttered open to the wonderful sight of Ranma's concern filled face staring down at her. "You feel all right, Set-chan?" Ranma asked her tenderly, his finger gently stroking her cheek.

Setsuna took a moment to consider before nodding and sitting up, Ranma's hand on her back supporting her efforts. She looked around her as well, noting all the familiar faces, both before and after the ball. She was happy that all those she had come to love more than life itself had made it back through whatever that took them from the ball and back to the shrine, but was less than thrilled that everybody she had left behind were still here like when she had left. After the honeymoon ball she figured she knew the reason why everything looked exactly like they had left it, despite how many months they had spent inside.

Nabiki was still in shock after seeing Ranma be so tender with the red eyed woman, who was also obviously older than him by several years. Ranma put an arm around Setsuna, his other extending out towards Urd and Mara. Both girls seemed to float across the floor, Mara sitting in his lap since she had been closer and claimed dibs, while Urd attached herself to his free side.

A group hug ensued, Ranma, Mara, Urd and Setsuna very happy that they had all come through relatively unscathed. After a good squeeze the four of them broke up to see what was happening to Ranko. They felt bad for her. Ever since she had shown up bad thing after bad thing had happened to her, and they hadn't even really gotten to know her yet.

Seeing as the little interaction between those just emerging from the ball had concluded the Senshi pounced on the Guardian of Time.

"Setsuna!" Minako, Makoto, Rei, Usagi and Ami all said at the same time.

"What happened?" Michiru and Haruka said together.

"Why do you look so happy, Setsuna?" Hotaru asked softly. She pushed her way through the mass of girls to get a better look at the greenhead.

She gasped upon seeing the many scabbed over cuts, scrapes and bruises she sported, not even counting the ones covered by her clothing. Setsuna was rather glad her business suit had come back upon exiting the ball, instead of her Sailor fuku. Having all these people call her Setsuna while dressed as Sailor Pluto would be rather hard to get out of, especially with that fairly sharp looking girl over to the side listening to everything.

Hotaru walked up to Setsuna and placed her hand on the woman's arm. "Please, let me help you," She begged, not wanting to see her hurt like that.

Setsuna smiled and patted the girls hand. "Don't worry, you don't have to do anything Hotaru-chan. My wif-cough! Excuse me. My friend's Mara and Urd can take care of it. You don't have to strain yourself."

Hotaru looked up at the beautiful women. If what Ami had speculated was true then those two should be able to heal her friend all right. But she still wanted to do it herself. She wanted to make sure that she was okay.

Setsuna smiled upon seeing the determination in the young girl's eyes. "Alright Hotaru-chan, I accept your offer. Now get to it, I hurt." She smiled warmly to take out any possible sting her words might have had.

Hotaru didn't seem to even consider that the words would be anything but a bit of humor in a serious situation. Something Setsuna wasn't known for, but Hotaru was a lot more willing to accept good changes like that than Michiru and Haruka, who were still goggly eyed that the ever serious woman had made a joke like that, however slight it might have been.

Setsuna glanced at Nabiki again as Hotaru started concentrating. They shared a look and Setsuna knew she would be meeting the girl later to discuss something. What she didn't know just yet, but she was sure to find out.

The purple eyed girl emitted a soft light from her hands as she worked her gift. Ranma looked on in interest even as Urd and Mara cast a healing spell, relieving themselves, Ranma and Ranko of the injuries they had sustained.

Urd made a mental note to look into how that had come about. She hadn't heard of any exit being that rough before. But what really worried her was the missing time. There was enough time from when they were struck by that energy wave to when they actually appearing back in the shrine for their cuts to scab over and the bruises to fully develop, which implied a couple hours, up to maybe half a day of time that had disappeared somewhere. Urd was determined to find out why. Maybe she could get Mara and Setsuna to help her on this one, both of them very powerful in their own right. She smiled at the thought, not even worried if they needed some convincing to help her. The convincing was the fun part! It was good to be in love.

Usagi couldn't contain herself any longer. "Setsuna, or anybody, what happened to you guys in there?" She asked, pointedly looking between Ranma and Sailor Pluto, who's hands were touching and it didn't even look like they were aware of it.

Setsuna could feel herself getting better and better as Hotaru worked her magic, her skin healing and returning to its normal flawless state. In the silence that followed, only interrupted by the quiet humming from Hotaru's hands, Ranma and his wives noticed the sounds of violence from outside.

"Who's fighting?" Ranma wondered aloud.

Usagi stamped her foot at being ignored. She wanted to know what happened to them! It was a lot more interesting than what was happening outside!

Setsuna grinned at this. "Calm down Usagi, we'll tell you as soon as we get our bearings here. We're all a bit disorientated from our sudden trip and we need to get our thoughts in order."

Usagi sighed but nodded, knowing that she would merely get them mad at her if she kept asking.

Michiru turned to whisper in her lover's ear. "I think Setsuna finally got laid."

Haruka almost choked on her own tongue. "What makes you think that?" She whispered back once she got herself under control. The blonde eyed the collection of beautiful women, wondering which was the lucky one. Then her eyes fell on Ranma and recalled how he had hugged all the girls. But all the girls had hugged each other as much as him, despite the fact he was in the center.

Michiru giggled at Haruka's face. "I think you're thinking what I'm thinking," She giggled softly. It was more of an amazed giggle though, as her mind tried to come up with the circumstances and smoothness mixed with honesty needed to get Setsuna to open up. And to have three such people together in one place for her to fall in love with. Astonishing!

Urd and Ami continued to examine the still unconscious Ranko, concern for her bubbling forth. Ranma helped Mara and Setsuna to a couch for them to sit in, although they were now perfectly fine. Ranma went back to Urd.

"How is she?" He asked his wife.

Urd shook her head. "She's fine. I don't know why she hasn't woken up yet. I guess she's just not used to this sort of thing like we are."

Ranma chuckled. "That's a relief. I hope she wakes up soon. She might know more than any of us since she used to run that thing," He jerked a finger over at the pile of opal shards.

Urd nodded in agreement.

"Are you guys done sorting thoughts yet?" Usagi asked hopefully.

Ranma, Urd, Setsuna and Mara all put a finger to their cheek and stared up into space, looking unbearably cute in the process. "Ummm, can it wait until Ranko wakes up? We don't even know what all happened, we want to ask her a few questions too."

"How about just the basics?" Usagi pleaded. "C'mon, you've gotta tell us something."

The rest of the Senshi nodded eagerly in agreement, wanting to know what had happened to all of them.

Mara smiled. "I'll tell 'em something, how 'bout that? You guys can jump in when you want to add your own details."

Ranma, Urd and Setsuna nodded in agreement. Mara settled back on the couch and casually looped an arm around Setsuna, drawing the girl close. Setsuna returned the favor.

Ranma leaned down to whisper in Urd's ear. "What were you downloading earlier anyway?"

Urd whispered back. "I'll tell you later. It has to do with Ranko."

Ranma jerked in surprise. Urd explained. "Not about why she hasn't woken up. Bigger things. Much bigger."

Ranma sat back down next to the platinum haired beauty and gave Ranko a long look, wondering what she was all about. His hand went out and touched Urd, who responded by grasping his hand and leaning against him. Most of the Senshi noticed this and wondered. Mara and Setsuna were cuddling over there, while Urd and Ranma were starting to cuddle over there, and yet they had thought for sure that Sailor Pluto and Ranma had something between them.

"Listen up everybody," Mara said loud enough to capture everyone's attention, "This is a pretty long story so I'm going to be doing highlights. If you have to know, ask and I'll fill you in on the juicy details."

Ranma's eyes bugged a bit at the juicy part while Urd just snickered.

(NEW STUFF)

Akane cracked an eye open. She couldn't believe how much that had hurt, and truthfully wished it's counterpart on male's to never happen except to a select few. She wondered what had awoken her when she noticed voices faintly drifting through the walls. Wondering why something so faint would stir her to consciousness Akane listened a little harder and discovered the reason.

That was Ranma's voice!

Akane jumped out of her futon and dashed for the door, stopping hersel