[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma/SM] On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Chapter 21

[Bert Miller]

HALLELUJAH!!!!

Mark MacKinnon wrote:
> Well, slow I may be, but here, at long last, is the next chapter.  Two 
> years.
>   
Thanks for the perseverance.  Two years it may have been, but that's 
much better than 'never'!

>     If it's any consolation, it won't take two years for the next 
> chapter to come out.  Promise.
>   
Looking forward to it!

> seat of power for the entire kingdom.  Ranma, lost in a berserker rage,
> remained unaware of this development as he managed to destroy Fenrir.
>   
You know, the above is really the only firm confirmation of this that we 
have...

> the force of the impact.  Black dots swam in from the edges of her eyes,
> doing some sort of demented water-ballet all over her field of vision.
>   
Now THAT'S a new metaphor...

>      She was upside down.
>      And flying.
>   
OK, so my guess (that Ranma was firing at Fenrir, who was right behind 
V) was wrong.

>      "In Niffleheim," Mara said wryly, "we had a word for how things
> went down here.  We called it a clusterfuck."
>   
heh.

> out across the city, but something was wrong with the view.  There.
> Where the spires of the palace should be was only a tattered pall of
> smoke rising into the roiling skies.
>      The palace.  It was ...
>      It was GONE.
>   
Hmm.  The stadium is rather closer to the palace, which is presumably in 
Highview, than I'd thought,
if she can pick this right out so fast.  Or else the palace is REALLY tall.

> scalp as the wind drove it at them in sheets.  The sight of the seat of the
> kingdom's power crumbling under the assault of darkness had left them
> all shaken, but there was nothing any of them could do about it now.
>   
By the way, whatever happened to the "curdled magick leftover" of the 
Underlords' which
launched this attack, anyway?  Is it still up there in the clouds, hovering?

> In truth, she knew little of
> the basis for, or extent of, Tux's powers, but she'd never seen anything
> like this before.  He did seem to have some link to Earth Magicks, what
> with his roses and all.  Had he somehow drawn strength directly from the
> earth itself?  And why did he seem to have been unaware he was even
> doing it?
>      Troubled for no reason she could really articulate,
In a previous chapter, you referred to a theory about the "spirit of Gaia";
this might be taken as a direct confirmation that it's awake and active.

> roof of the stadium.  Oddly, there was damage to this version similar to
> that inflicted by Fenrir ...
>      Whoa.  Wait a second. 
>   
Heh.  That was very fast on the uptake for V.

>      And then something grabbed her from behind.
>   
Heh.  Nice place to pause.
>      "NO!"  I came up again, shuddering, clawing at the rain like a
> madman.  And maybe I was just that, a madman, the last madman in
> Japan, maybe the world, lost in a fever dream and waiting for the end.
> They'd find me soon, follow the screaming, and then I could go down
> fighting, and it would end, there'd be peace and I could rest ...
>   
I liked this passage.  You haven't really realized this Ranma's baggage 
so concretely for us prior
to this. 

>      "Merde!  Stop struggling, they'll hear us!  Please!"
>   
French.  Heh.  Well, we know who this is (begging the question of what 
language on Gaia
corresponds to French...).

> buffer of space between them.  She was dressed in unusual clothes of a
>   
scanty unusual clothes

>      "I was Hild's prisoner," Peorth told her.  "She used my link to
> captured Aesir technology to watch you the last time you were here, and
>   
Hmm.  "Aesir" technology, rather than "Warden" technology, or "Divine" 
technology?
Probably I'm reading too much into that comment, though; either of my 
alternatives
would trigger a different reaction by V, and Peorth would know that.

> enough to free me and separate us long enough for me to escape.  I can't
> imagine what could have damaged the human queen's palace that badly,
> though.
Peorth has no previous experience with the curdled magicks?  Well, maybe 
not; we don't
know where Hild lured her from; Peorth might have spent almost all her 
time between the
catastrophe and her capture in Nikhien.

> Fenrir was toast.
Well, Mara seems to know for sure what happened to Fenrir.  She's the first
character who has.

>      Hild was going to be in a truly foul mood.  And she had a way of
> taking those moods out on her loyal minion.
>   
Heh.

> vibrating like the wings of a hummingbird.  "Oh, gods, they killed
> Professor Lewdine.  He tried to stop them.  With a coat rack.  He tried ...
> they killed him."
>      "Yeah, I got that part.  Tell me about this lab, Mariko."
>      "What?  The lab?  In the palace.  We were studying the sphere,
>   
Oh, this woman.  I thought she was toast long since.  Yet another 
surprise you've pulled.

> guards, handpicked and trained by her.  Hinari, that girl in the kitchen
> who always got her Kennarian tea.  Yaster Fenni, whose teasing she
> secretly enjoyed every time their paths crossed.
Nice touch.

> smile.  "But you are not far from the truth.  The relationship between
> Shadow and your plane is not well understood, but I can tell you that the
> two realms have drawn closer together, perilously so, since the death of
> the Azakaru Queen."
>      "The Azakaru have a queen?  I didn't know they even had
> gender," V blurted.  "And she died?"
>      "Murdered," Peorth told her.  "How, I cannot conceive, for the
> Azakaru are an ancient race, believed to be as old as the Osiren or the
> Phantom Guard.  And part of the natural order of Gaia."
>      "Who did it?"
>      "Even Hild could not discover that," Peorth said wryly.  "But it
> happened fourteen years ago.  Just before the event your people call ..."
>      "The Long Dark."
Okay, let's pick at this hint you've thrown us.  Hypothesis one: Wynneth 
instigated the Long
Dark as a distraction for her murder of the Azakaru Queen, which she 
carried out specifically
for the purpose of drawing Shadow and the mortal plane closer together, 
which she
orchestrated specifically for the purpose we see at the end of this 
chapter.  This seems the
most probable.  Alternate hypothesis:  The Azakaru Queen is not dead; 
she faked her
murder, and is the voice behind Wynneth.  No, too speculative, and 
unsatisfactory on
other grounds.  Hypothesis one it is, then.

Any other implications here?  The Azakaru are the "Guardians of the Dark 
Border", and
presumably they've been weakened generally by the murder of their 
queen.  Better keep
this one in mind; I doubt you're finished with this.

> Mara's opposite number?  If Mara was some sort of demon, did that
> make Peorth an angel?
>   
First mention you've made of "angels" as part of Gaia's human's 
worldview, I think.
Wouldn't that be "did that make Peorth a goddess?"

>      "We need a place where Shadow is held, drawn by forces beyond
> this realm, into a pool of rawest darkness.  Unleashing an antithetical
> magickal force with enough power should sunder the barrier."
>      V opened her mouth, closed it.  Banri.  The fake Banri.  Jupiter's
> lightning attack had hit it, and they'd been thrown into Shadow.  So that
> was why ... wait.  That meant the fake Banri was actually some sort of
> Shadow artifact.  That damned vamp again.
>   
Interesting.  I think V missed the point here, that being "forces beyond 
this realm".  The news
to us isn't that the fake Banri is composed of Shadow; the news is that 
forging it required
more.

>      "Peorth, I don't understand.  Ranma ..."
>      "Your friend is not ... properly a Warden," Peorth blurted
> between gasps.  "Takzvyrmishammir.  Wild one ..."
>      That word.  That was the word Ranma had seen in the tunnels.  V
> grabbed Peorth's shoulder, excitement rising.  This woman had answers,
> more than the rest of them anyway.
>   
Heh.  So, of course, they get separated and we don't see Peorth again 
this chapter.

> shimmering deep in the metal.  And felt, just for a moment, an answering
> pulse from the key lying against my chest, weak enough that I was left
> wondering if it had even happened.
>   
Interesting.  Just how old is Galiraithe?
>      "My name," the swordswoman said with an enigmatic smile, "is
> Kendra.  And this is Raine."
>      "Nice to meet you," I said.  Kendra blinked, like she'd expected
> me to recognise her name or something.  Famous bounty hunter, maybe?
>   
Heh.  I like it.

>      "Police armour," Artemis said with a savage grin as the two
> heavy mechs opened up on the creature with their cannons.
> "Wolverines."
>   
They should have claws, not cannons. ;)

>      "V, this is Raine," I said as we crossed the deck to meet them.  "And
> Kendra.  They ... OW!"  I rubbed the side of my head.  V had hit me
> much harder this time.
>   
Heh.

> We are all
> reincarnated from the defenders of the White Moon Court."
>      "Remarkable."   For the first time since I'd met her, the shadows
> seemed to retreat fully from Kendra's eyes.  "You actually lived through
> that time, nearly eight thousand years ago!
Huh.  That's double what I had down as a tentative timeline.  Of course, 
I was going for minimums.
Which would seem to mean that when Ami said that the Genrous' empire 
lasted a long time (in chapter
nine), she meant several times my tentative one thousand years.

The more important point is what it says about Wynneth, of course, given 
the revelation later in
this chapter.  The supposed vamp leader during the Long Dark was scarily 
powerful because he
was two thousand years old, and we now know Wynneth is roughly four 
times that old.

>      "How did only a handful of you come to be reincarnated,
> though?" Raine asked, tugging at the sodden bandage over her eye.
> "And why here, why now?"
>      "That we don't know.  Queen Serenity must have done it, I
> suppose, given us a second chance."
>   
Interesting.  In canon (any version, I think), the senshi know these 
answers after their
defeat of Beryl.  If they didn't reappear here and now by Serenity's 
hand, to fight Beryl,
then maybe they're here at someone else's hand?  (Let's call this 
hypothetical person 'W'.)
And why would W do this?

> seemed genuinely intrigued.  "Hey, is it true your people actually found
> the old spaceport at Carnica?"
>      "No," Kendra said.  "Wait, you mean Carnica really existed?"
>      "Oh, yeah, it was real.  A shining gem of a city, Gaia's capital and
> home of the royal family back in the day."
>   
Now, from most authors, this detail would just be lending your story 
color and verisimilitude,
but knowing you, this old spaceport is going to play a key role in the 
plot eventually.


>      "DS Otohari," he replied easily.  "Who's asking?"
> be a tall bald guy and a smaller woman with dusky skin, both dressed in
>      "Sergeant Meaghan Piakesti,
Right.  Your two Dark God lookalikes are running around out here, for 
whatever (real) reason,
and still aren't giving us any reason to believe they're not fully 
human.  Red herrings?
Or Divine Deep Cover?

> rudely aside.  Someone with answers?  That was something I'd never
> expected to find!
>   
Ranma's already met someone with answers.  Two, actually; Illianka and 
Dragon.  Neither
told him much, but certainly he could have expected to meet more such 
people.


>      So why did I still feel this vague uneasiness?
>   
Interesting.  Ranma's sufficiently in sync with the Key now so that 
capital-D Dark nastiness
definitely registers with him, even when it hasn't happened yet.

> seemed least bothered by the wet.  "Ranma's path leads toward the Zone.
> If he had kept going, he would have eventually reached the border of the
> Old City."
>      "Exactly," Mars said, the lights gleaming on her rain slicked
> skin.  "Coincidence?
I think not!  Seriously, though, Mars brought up the point about the Old 
City being a reason
for the vampire to pick Saeni way back in chapter 9, but so far we 
haven't seen the Old City's
proximity play any part in the plan.  It's about time.

>      "What about someplace other than the temple?" I asked.  Listening to
> Mars, I had started to feel ... I don't know.  Something.  Like she was
> shining a light around a dark room, allowing me to catch brief glimpses
> of the answer, just disconnected pieces of the puzzle.  But I could put it
> together.  I had to.  Now that it was out in the open, I felt an increasing
> sense that something was wrong, that we hadn't averted disaster, and that
> time was running out.
>      But why?  Why did I suddenly feel this way?  Had using the
> key's power the way I had opened some door in my head? 
>   
This is very interesting.  Ranma is quite OOC in what follows, but then, 
we expect a Warden
to maybe put puzzle pieces together like this.  Is Ranma now 
transitioning from Takky to true
Warden?  (By OOC I don't mean that his phraseology is, btw, just his 
genius-level thinking.
His phrasing is vintage Ranma.)

>      "They abandoned that temple for a reason," Mars pointed out.  "The
> old temple district was right in the middle of things when the Old City
> appeared.
By the way, we've never been told where the Old City came from, have 
we?  Or how old it is?

>      "These trailers are the sort used to transport heavy equipment.
> Like, for instance, a Bander armoured car and a Massovelli Waterbug."
>   
Heh.  And yet another apparently-irrelevant detail from several chapters 
ago now proves
important.  Seriously, man, you should go into professional mystery writing.

> stopped me dead, though.  It was the circle itself.  Even as Mars and V, in
> unspoken accord, unleashed a fierce volley of attacks against the circle's
> border I was struck by the malice of the thing, the twisted beauty, the
> malevolent hunger that it radiated.
>      And the Sisters' expressions of wild joy. 
>      They didn't KNOW.
>   
...because they aren't Wardens.  This circle doesn't lead to piddly 
Shadow; it leads to someplace
REALLY nasty.  Outside?

>      It was too late.
>   
Nice description throughout this passage, btw.

> seductive.  "Patience.  All of you will kneel to me, very soon."
>   
Wynneth is expecting to come back from whereever she goes at the end of 
this scene.
Of course, they may or may not be the Voice's plan.

>      "Right," I said.  "But isn't that ...?"
>      "Nemesis," V finished for me.
>      The moon was red.  But of course, it wasn't the moon really, not OUR
> moon.  The baleful bloody eye of Nemesis rode high in the sky, gazing
> down in madness on all that Wynneth had wrought. 
>   
Right.  Well, I, for one, was expecting this; Wynneth's spell has 
swapped Nemesis and the White Moon.
(Of course, you did give us enough hints.)  But I was expecting this 
effect to be her goal, and now
it's not clear that it was.  Or, at least, it's not clear that swapping 
the moons has had any effect, while
the spell clearly had another important effect:  transporting Wynneth 
(we assume) to someplace far,
far away.

>      "If she was telling the truth ..." V began.
>      "Yeah.  If," Jupiter snorted softly.
>      "We'll have to tell Hotaru."
>   
Heh.  Wynneth called Hotaru "my darling daughter" way back in the 
beginning of your story,
if memory serves.  And now it turns out that she meant it.

> her eyes.  I got her point.  If Wynneth had been around fourteen years
> ago ...
>   
If?  What if?  She was probably the prime instigator.

> This place was far from the inhabited planes, and nothing that lived had
> ventured here for a span of time that was almost inconceivable.
>   
Now, where have Wynneth and Saekianna gone?  "Far from the inhabited 
planes" makes it sound like
this is inside "this last, lonely sphere", just far away.  So what's the 
point?  And is the Voice's physical
body (assuming it has one) with them?

>      Scattered shards of dark crystal.
>   
The remnants of the fake Banri, I presume?


Great read.  Well worth the wait.

Now for some speculation:  I've been assuming all along the the Eye 
resides in this sphere.  In fact,
for a long time I assumed that the Eye was, in fact, Nemesis (the first 
home of the Gods when they
came to Gaia).  This now looks unlikely.  But if the Eye isn't to play a 
key role, then what's so
special about this sphere?  Or, put another way, if the Eye IS in this 
sphere, then WHY did the
keymakers (presumably) build it here?  And, if the Eye ISN'T in this 
sphere, why did snapping the
hyperlinks to it stop the spread of chaos?

We've also been assuming, pretty much since day one, that Ami was right 
in identifying Ranma
as The Outsider.  But what if that's wrong?  Ranma is from 
lower-case-'o' outside, but what if
the Outside is from upper-case-'O' Outside?  We've seen various 
in-the-know types make a
distinction here, where Outside is where the capital-D Dark comes 
from/came from.

Suppose the Eye was placed in this sphere because this sphere is on the 
border with Outside?
Then the chaos that threatened All That Is with apparent destruction in 
the distant past may NOT
have been generated from inside this sphere, say from a broken Eye, as 
it appeared, but it may
have come THROUGH this sphere, and been generated Outside.

This also makes sense out of the Azakaru's title of "Guardians of the 
Dark Border", as well as
giving a secondary purpose to the murder of their Queen.

All this would mean also that the real Outsider is now a prime candidate 
for the identity of
the voice behind Wynneth.  And if that's true, then Wynneth herself may 
not return from her
little trip (or, at least, as herself, assuming she's ever really been 
herself other than momentarily).

Still to be revealed:  what good a key, without a lock?  So where's the 
lock?  And is
something locked out, or locked in?