-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: wcl.txt

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Ranma 1/2: What Cost Love?
By Jack Staik
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She walked through the park, trying not to show the tension.

The Memorial towered a good twenty meters above her, on the 
location that was once Furinkan High School. The location 
where the Peacemaker had made her proclamation ten years 
earlier.

She chuckled at that thought. The Peacemaker. Even she 
thought of her former spouse by that title. Few remembered 
that the Peacemaker had another name once. Fewer still knew 
that this woman and the Peacemaker had been man and wife.

Until the Curse of Jusenkyo had driven them apart. Before 
the Art had transformed one of them forever.

She looked up at the great slab, with the immortal words of 
the Proclamation inscribed on it;

	"It is the duty of the strong to protect the weak, 
and the powerful to wield power in the defense of right. 
Therefore, it is my duty to protect as many as are in my 
power.

	"It lies in my power to protect all that live.

	"From this day forward, I declare that the practice 
of war is forbidden.

	"The nations of the world are hereby commanded to 
surrender their arsenals to me for immediate destruction. 
All means of mass warfare, and the means of producing them, 
are to be destroyed immediately.

	"Those nations that fail to obey will feel my wrath."

Several nations did feel that wrath. Nearly twenty million 
died before the governments of the world surrendered and 
disarmed themselves. For ten years, no weapon more powerful 
than a shotgun or pipe bomb had existed on Earth.

She remembered their childhood in this district of Nerima. 
They had had fantastic adventures, and she had been strong. 
But after their marriage had fallen victim to Jusenkyo, her 
ex-lover had re-dedicated herself to the Art that had been 
her first love, and attained levels of power and mastery 
unheard of save in myth and legend.

She hopped to the top of the Memorial and waited.


In the skies over Tokyo, the sound of a sonic boom tore the 
air.

Since supersonic aircraft were, by the declaration of the 
Peacemaker, weapons of war, and Tokyo lacked a spaceport, 
it could only be one thing;

The Peacemaker approached.

All knew the tales, watched the news. A generation grew up 
learning of the molten ruins that were once proud Beijing, 
mighty Moscow, and ancient Baghdad ... and Who had made 
them thus, and why.

Priests prayed in their temples. People knelt in the 
streets and prayed to whatever gods they believed in.

Some prayed to the Peacemaker, for there were those who 
said that She was a goddess.

(Of course, anytime anyone tried to make a temple or church 
to Her, it was leveled the next day by Her hand. But still 
they prayed.)


Atop the Memorial of the Proclamation, a woman sat. With 
her finely honed senses, she felt a slight change in air 
pressure.

"Hello," she said.

The figure who stood behind her said nothing.

She turned and gazed at face of her one-time lover and 
spouse.

"Still wearing that stupid pigtail, I see."

She touched it self-consciously. "I've grown used to it."

The woman pulled her gaze from the Peacemaker. "You know 
what today is?"

The Peacemaker shook her head. "I ... lose track of days."

"Today would have been our twentieth wedding anniversary."

The Peacemaker sat down besides her, but a short distance 
away. They were together, but not touching.

"Twenty years?" the peacemaker said in disbelief. "Has it 
been so long?"

"Another lifetime ago," the woman agreed.

"When we were young, and life was full of promise." The 
Peacemaker sighed. "And we were two different genders."

"Damnit! It didn't matter to me!" the woman cried. "Why did 
it matter to you?!"

"It didn't."

The woman looked at her in shock. "Then ... why?"

"Because it did matter to you," the Peacemaker answered. "I 
could tell. The way you refused to talk to me. The way you 
pulled away. When the Curse became permanent ... you went 
away. Even though you were right there, you went away."

The woman hung her head. She'd dealt with this in therapy, 
but it was so hard to remember that, with *her* so close 
that she could smell her. "I was ... ashamed. I kept 
telling myself that the outside didn't matter ... but it 
did, didn't it?" She took a deep, shuddering breath. "And 
when I finally was ready to reach out ... "

"I was gone."

"And I don't hear about you for another ten years. When you 
tell the world to beat their swords into plowshares. And 
beat them into doing it."

The Peacemaker nodded. "When I left, all I had was pain ... 
and the Art always helped me deal with pain. So I threw 
myself into it. Cologne, Happosai, even Herb and Saffron. I 
even journeyed to the Kami Plane and learned from Hachiman-
sama Himself. And then I pushed the Art further."

The Peacemaker got up and paced nervously. "One day, I 
realized that I had gone so far, no one was a challenge. I 
had all this power, I had to do something with it. And my 
Mission was the only thing I could do."

"Is it so important, then?" the woman asked. "More 
important than ... than love?" She put her hand on the 
Peacemaker's red Chinese shirt. "We can try again. We've 
both grown. We can make it work."

The Peacemaker sighed. "You don't understand."

"Then explain," she replied. "I'm listening."

The Peacemaker was surprised at the earnest tone of her ex-
spouse's voice. She tried to think of a way to explain.

"Do you know how many people I've killed?"

The woman nodded. "About twenty million."

The Peacemaker nodded in agreement. "Twenty-three million, 
one hundred eighty-four thousand, six hundred thirty-two. 
And I remember every face." She sat back down. "In order to 
do what I had to do, I had to ... let go of part of 
myself." She looked from the woman's face. "I'm ... not 
worthy of your love. I'm ... a monster."

"No," the woman insisted. "You're still the person I 
married." She reached out, embracing her. "We were happy 
once, we can be again."

The Peacemaker pulled away. "And have you considered what 
would happen if we tried? We'd never be left in peace! The 
crap we went through when we were kids with challengers and 
fiancées would be amplified a million-fold! Half the people 
on this planet want me dead, and the rest think I'm a god! 
Not to mention the ones who think both!" She snarled. "Damn 
Kuno. And his damn cultists!"

The woman nodded in agreement. "You could just disappear."

The Peacemaker laughed, a melancholy sound. "Are you nuts? 
Do you have any idea what would happen?"

"What could happen?" the woman asked. "The governments 
don't have any weapons or factories -"

"Just last month, I had to wipe out a Canadian cavalry 
force," the Peacemaker said. "And I'm wrecking hidden 
factories and arsenals on a regular basis. Not to mention 
labs, refineries, reactors, and all sorts of things." She 
sighed. "It seems that the only thing that really stops war 
is everyone's fear of it. With me gone, I figure Earth 
would be in the middle of a World War in about two weeks."

The woman gasped. "Is it really that bad?"

"Worse."

The woman looked away. "Come back. Let them kill each 
other."

"You don't mean that."

She shook her head. "I don't know."

They just sat silently for several minutes.

"Do you want to come back?" the woman asked.

"Yes," the Peacemaker answered, without hesitation. "Would 
you let me come back, even knowing the cost?"

"Yes," the woman answered, also without hesitation. "But 
you won't."

The Peacemaker nodded.

"Could you ... train me? We could be together..."

"To attain these levels, I had to immerse myself in the 
Art. I gave up everything. Love, happiness, most of my 
humanity ... I love you too much. I won't do that to you."

"You ... still love me?" the woman asked.

"Yes. Do you still love me?"

"Yes."

The two women sat in silence for several hours.

"What will happen ... after you're gone?" the woman asked 
the Peacemaker.

"The Age of Peace will end as it began - in blood."

"How long will you live?"

The Peacemaker shrugged. "Happosai and Cologne lived three 
and a half centuries, kept alive by their ki-mastery and 
obsessions. My ki-mastery has passed theirs, and my 
obsession is as strong ... a millennium, perhaps two."

"Have you considered having children?"

"Not without you."

The woman brushed away a tear.

"The medical sciences are really advanced now," she told 
the Peacemaker. "They can combine two ova and create a 
girl-child. We could have a daughter."

"To be my heir?" the Peacemaker said, her voice deep and 
bitter. "No, I won't do that - not to that child, not to 
anyone. Let my legacy die with me, and let my enemies 
scream when I have no heirs for them to vent their rage 
on."

"So - that's it."

The Peacemaker nodded.

The woman looked at her hopefully. "Will you - visit me 
again?"

"Call me the same way, and I'll come."

The woman chuckled. "If I can. Ryoga's always hard to get a 
hold of."

The Peacemaker smiled. "You two always got along. He'd make 
you a good husband."

The woman shook her head. "It'd never work. Too much past. 
None of us ever got over the P-Chan bit."

"I did."

The woman looked away in pain.

The Peacemaker grimaced. "Sorry."

As the Peacemaker got up to leave, a gentle hand touched 
her shoulder.

She looked at her former spouse's face, and saw the 
question in the eyes...

A gentle, lingering kiss...

The woman's eyes were closed when her lover left.

She opened her eyes and scanned the heavens. Some clouds 
were blown apart and a sonic boom sounded in the distance, 
the only trace of the Peacemaker's passage.

"Damn you," she whispered. "And damn me for still loving 
you."

She hopped to the ground and headed home. "Take care of 
yourself, Akane-chan," she whispered to the dark. "I'll 
always be here if you need me."

Ranma touched her short hair. "Pigtail looked better on 
me."




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