Ranma soon grew tired of kicking Genma around the yard like the human
beach ball that he was, but before he could give up he seemed to
notice his appearance for the first time.  More specifically, Ranma
noticed the three foot blades extending from each of his arms.  He
tested one's edge by tearing a long gash in the soil at his feet.  The
dark blade passed through the hard packed dirt as if there were no
obstacle at all.

"Well Oyaji, it looks like we're having Genma fillet for dinner
tomorrow." Slowly, he drew the blades across the whimpering man's
chest.  The gi he wore peeled away like air.  A thick line of crimson
blood welled up from where Ranma had cut.  Satisfied, Ranma went into
a blur of motion.

To everyone watching, Ranma's dark form was nearly impossible to see
clearly for more than the merest instant.  Genma on the other hand was
looking like last week garbage.  The remains from a slaughter house.
Ranma had completely stripped his 'father' of clothing and there were
hundreds upon hundreds of nicks and gashes covering the man's body.

Usagi, previously paralyzed by a sort of sick fascination, finally
came to her senses.  She couldn't let her grandson become a murderer,
which he was well on his way to achieving.  There was no way she could
transform, not in front of so many civilians, but from what she had
seen of their treatment of Ranma's special abilitie, the Tendo family
appeared accustommed to the unsual.  If there was a possiblity, she
knew she had to try.  Power was close at hand with her own crescent
revealed and the masking magic gone.  Usagi knew theoretically that
she should be able to throw around her magical energy while not in
senshi form, but how?  Luna had never bothered to train her, and the
whole situation wasn't desperate enough for whatever programming she
had that took over and transformed her into her true eternal form to
kick in.

Genma was bleeding really badly now, Usagi saw.  He couldn't take much
more abuse from Ranma and Ranma didn't look much like he was in the
mood to stop.  Usagi began thinking of all the times where her friends
or her Mamo-chan, or her daughter had been in trouble.  They had died
for her.  She found a well of emotions that she had long kept hidden.
They had sacrificed themselves before for her sake, she should be able
to pull off a little trick, something, anything to save Genma if it
meant Ranma would keep what little of his innocence remained.  Usagi's
crescent began to glow lightly, unnoticed by Ranma's audience.  The
world went black around her.
****

Usagi opened her eyes and squealed in a mixture of fright and delight.
There were clouds everywhere, of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  She
was floating lazily through the air on a soft cloud of sky blue mist.

"My daughter, you have grown into a beautiful woman," a voice from
behind Usagi said.

Usagi spun around and was confronted by her mother, the Queen of the
Moon Kingdom, Serenity."Mo-mother, what's going on?" she asked."Where
am I?"

Serenity stepped closer and embraced her daughter.  There were silver
tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks as she stepped
back."This was always my favorite place when I was a child.  It was
easier to bring you here than to talk to you directly."

"I don't understand, Mother.  I've got to go back and help Ranma.  He
doesn't know any better but he's going to kill his father, adopted
father I mean."

"Do not worry, Ranma and all the others will be exactly as they were
upon your return as when you left them.  Actually this visit is mostly
for Ranma's sake.  Listen closely, Ranma will need to know this if he
is to survive." Usagi nodded."The positive, or silver energy that we
of the Moon Kingdom used was not 'good' energy, it was simply what we
had access to.  Positive energy comes more readily and in much higher
quantities when a person's intentions are pure, but in the wrong
hands, positive energy could be as deadly or even moreso than negative
energy.  Negative energy is likewise neither 'good' or 'evil', it's
just that negative energy is more available to those with evil in
their hearts.  For thousands of years our people harnessed these two
opposing forces, but terrible imbalances were created in parts of the
solar system and the neighboring star systems.  You see, during
different time periods, one of the two energies was always the more
commonly used, negative for war and expansion, positive for peace and
healing." Serenity paused for a moment, lost in her memories, before
she continued.

"The countless shiftings between the two energies had destabilized
huge areas of open space.  Many of the main shipping lanes were
effected because of the drive systems on the ships were powered by
either a silver or dark mage.  It came to the attention of the Queen
at that time, my long dead ancestor, that steps had to be taken or
disaster would soon befall the kingdom.  Scientists and mages were
gathered to discover a solution to the problem.  Their efforts were
partially succesful when they created the Silver Imperium Crystal and
the Black Light Gem.  Both acted as powerful magnifying devices for
their respective energies, and with proper management the imbalances
were removed.  An act of sabotage by a group of political dissidents
seriously damaged the Black Light Gem's monitoring station and the out
of control Gem badly destablized the entire region.  When rescue crews
arrived, the Gem was gone.  It was assumed that the Gem was destroyed.
It wasn't, it infact emerged from a blackhole in another galaxy and
grew into the dark moon you know as Nemesis, but this is irrelevant to
the story.  Now with only the Silver Imperium Crystal, the imbalances
were occuring more rapidly than ever and with much greater magnitude,
but the knowledge used to create the Black Light Gem had been lost."

"For over a century the condition worsened until finally two great
mages came forward with a solution.  They were brothers, their names
lost in antiquity, but one was a Silver Mage and the other a Dark
Mage.  They proposed altering the souls of specific people with high
magic indexes so that they constantly emitted either positive or
negative energy.  These people would then be taught by mages of both
orders how to regulate their energy.  House Serenity and House Beryl
were the only family with a strong enough bloodline and enough magic
to undergo the procedure.  The Queen volunteered herself and the rest
of her family to undergo the process, as did Lord Garion, the then
current head of House Beryl.  Our line was more suited for the
positive aspect while Garion's, though not evil, were best suited to
the negative.  In the end the alterations were carried out and peace
and prosperity were restored for several millenia until High Lady
Beryl made her pact with Metallia, and you know what happened after
that."

"The whole point of this narration is this: over the millenia, the
House of Serenity and the House of Beryl tried on numerous occasions
to mix the blood in order to create a soul capable of producing both
positive and negative energy, but they never succeeded.  Never that is
until roughly a quarter century before the fall of the Moon Kingdom.
The girl born of my brother and Beryl's niece, possessed the positive
and negatives aspects of both Houses.  Her power first manifested when
she was in her late teens, and it was a power to make the heavens
tremble.  She was feared in much the same way as poor, sweet Saturn.
The girl had it within her power to request a favor of me as I was her
godmother, and it was a favor I was all too happy to grant.  With the
Time Gates recently created and with an unlinked power conduit, it was
a simple matter to give her Setsuna her title as Sailor Pluto."

Usagi broke in,"You mean that Setsuna is that powerful?" Why hadn't
she used all that power in all the fights over the last two years?

Serenity nodded."Setsuna is very powerful, but her link to the Time
Gate neutralizes her power.  Unfortunately the process was still too
unstable to reverse when Beryl and her forces attacked or I may have,
with her help, been able to repulse the invaders.  Now Ranma has come
along, with his dual natured soul of Serenity Silver, and the Black
Light Gem's own negatively created Dark soul.  He must learn to
balance the two energies within and without, or he will certainly
destroy himself, and possibly take the world with him." Serenity held
her hand out to Usagi.  It contained a small blue crystal key."Give
this to Setsuna, she'll know what to do with it and tell her to train
Ranma and choose a successor for the mantle as Sailor Pluto."

As Usagi had listened to her mother, her own memories of what had been
spoken of slowly came back.  She remembered sitting through dozens of
history classes now, all of them giving much longer and even more
boring lectures about the subject of the Great Balance as the act of
the two mage brothers was called.

"My time grows short," Serenity said.  Her slowly began to lighten as
she spoke those few words, and her form became insubstantial.

"Wait!  How do I stop Ranma?" Usagi asked desperately.

Serenity smiled and touched a finger to Usagi's crescent."You'll know
that and much more when you return.  Bye now." Serenity's last act
before disappearing completely was to kiss Usagi lightly on the cheek.

Once again the world went dark.
****

Usagi opened her eyes to see the scene just as she had left it.  Ranma
hadn't carved his initials in Genma at least.  She tucked the small
key into her pocket and cupped her hands slightly below her breast.
Soft silver light began to gather in her hands, until an amorphous
blob of mercury-like energy slowly roiled in her grasp.  Ranma may be
powerful, but he hadn't truly come into his power yet, but Usagi had
been duking it out with the most powerful entities in the known
universe since she was fourteen and she could throw around some
serious energy when she wanted to.  Now that she actually knew how to
use her own power-her mother had somehow passed the knowledge to her-
Usagi could act.  The mass of energy she had formed shot out of her
hands and exploded in a radiant burst of silver light at Ranma's feet.

It had been a construct, a magical spell that only very powerful or
very skillful people could create.  Within it were four separate
spells.  One stripped Ranma of his dark aura while another put him to
sleep.  Genma got the mercy of a minor healing spell, not strong
enough to keep him from being a mass of scars, but enough to keep him
alive, and a mind altering spell that would make the smallest of lies
that passes beyond his lips be excrutiatingly painful.

The break in the action and Usagi's little light show tore everyone
from their little bloodfest.

"I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki said from the porch.  She
spoke in a lighthearted manner, but internally she was scared nearly
breathless.  What if she had ever pissed Ranma off enough to attack
her like he had just done to his own father?  Admittedly, she didn't
know what the panda had done to deserve being skinned, but just the
thought that Ranma was capable of such cruelty was disquieting.

Akane was busy being violently sick behind a bush and Kasumi was
hugging her unconscious father protectively, her face as pale as milk
as she stared at Ranma's sleeping form.

"It was the negative energy inside of him that did that, not Ranma,"
Usagi said."He hasn't learned to control his power yet."

The senshi didn't know who to goggle at the most, Ranma or Usagi.  On
the one hand, they had just seen some prime quality violence commited
to a man whom they had very little respect for by a cute boy who had
seemingly turned into a monster, and on the other there was Usagi, who
had not even transformed and had done some kind of new attack that not
only stopped Ranma from further savaging Genma, but had stopped all og
Genma wounds from bleeding and even closed up some of the really bad
ones.

Akane came from behind her bush, her face nearly as pale as Kasumi's,
and a glowing mallet in her hands."Raaaannnnmmmaaa!" She charged
towards her fallen fiance with the firm intent to severely punish
Ranma while he was still sleeping for hurting her father.  Even Akane
had enough sense to know better than to beat on Ranma when he was
enraged to the point of killing.

Akane never made it to Ranma.  Usagi waved at the girl and a sheet of
silver light flew from her hand.  As it washed over Akane, the mallet
slipped through suddenly slack fingers and it fell to the ground
beside the now sleeping Akane.

"Hmm, if Ranma isn't really a Saotome, I wonder if he's still engaged
to my sister, or Ukyo for that matter?" Nabiki's question was
calculated.  There were other money making opportunities that were
much safer than dealing with this new Ranma, and having him around
wasn't really her idea of fun anyway.  The blonde girl also had Nabiki
on edge.  She had casually taken Ranma down, an extraordianry feat
that she wouldn't have previously believed possible.  The blonde also
seemed to share a mark similar to Ranma's on her forehead.  She
definitely didn't want to get an over protective sister with magic
powers upset at her.

"Usagi, how are you doing all this stuff?" Makoto asked her friend
quietly.

"Mother showed me how," Usagi answered.  Once again she was working
magic, this time in the palm of her upturned hand.  A translucent ball
of shimmering energy was floating over her palm.  In a dull flash of
light, Setsuna's face appeared in the globe.  The green haired woman
couldn't have looked more unsuprised if someone had told her the sky
was blue."Um, Setsuna, this is really important.  Could you open a
portal to the Time Gate for us?"

Setsuna nodded without speaking, and moments later there was a
swirling gray portal leading to the Time Gate floating a few inches
above the ground three feet behind Usagi.

Usagi said,"Thanks," and allowed the globe to fade from
existance."Makoto, could you carry Ranma though?"

Within a minute all the senshi and Ranma were standing on a platform
floating in a formless gray mist.  Rini rushed over to Ranma as soon
as Makoto set him down and hugged him as best she could with him lying
on his side asleep.  He also came away from the encounter with a cheek
covered with small pink smudges from the lipstick that Minako had let
Rini borrow.

"Usagi, you're starting to freak me out," Minako declared.

Usagi chuckled weakly."Sorry guys, but my Mother, you know, Queen
Serenity, visited me in my head and told me about Ranma and some other
stuff.  I really need to talk to Setsuna, I wish she would goon and do
her mysterious appearance so we can get this over with."

"Usagi, where are Luna and Artemis?" Ami asked as she looked around
for the cats' duffel bag.

"Oh no!  I left them back there with those horrible people!" Usagi
shouted."Damnit Setsuna, get out here so I can go save my cat!" Usagi
demanded.  It took a moment for her to realize what she had said, but
when she did Usagi turned bright red and clamped her hand over her
mouth.

"I'm here, Princess," Setsuna announced from behind the group.

Usagi pulled the crystal key that her mother had given her from her
pocket and gave it to Setsuna."Mother said for you to train Ranma to
use both sides of his soul and to choose a successor to be Sailor
Pluto."

For once since anyone of the girls had known her, Setsuna was clearly
shocked.  Thunderstruck would have been a better description."Princess
I-

"She said that Ranma could destroy the planet if he doesn't learn to
control it," Usagi asserted.

"I understand.  Leave Ranma here, everyone else step through the
portal." Setsuna pointed to empty space, but it soon grew a portal
like the one they had used to travel to the gate.

Rini ran over to Ranma and Screamed,"I just got him back, you can't
take him away!"

Usagi went to Rini and whispered,"Come on, you know that Ranma is
better off here until he gets control of himself.  Look at what he did
to Genma, the man who raised him."

Rini shot back,"That man was mean, Ranma wouldn't hurt any of us!"

"Rini, you don't understand.  Ranma is only using the bad magic in him
right now and since he doesn't know how to control it, it's making him
bad too.  Setsuna can help him learn to control his magic because she
has the same kind of magic." Usagi hugged her daughter."Come on, we
need to go get Luna and Artemis before the fat man eats them."

Rini managed a small giggle at that."Diana wouldn't be very happy with
us if that happened, would she?" They had left Diana at home with a
severe case of the feline eqivalent to the common cold.
****

Author's Notes:  I know it's a short chapter, but once again, this
felt like a good place to stop.  Now for the good part.  I'm pretty
sure who the new Pluto is gonna be, but if I get a worthy suggestion
that could work...well ya never know, right?  So send me your
suggestions or guesses at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com.  She should be
attractive, smart, and from the animeverse.  If your choice isn't from
one of the more widely distributed animes that I may have not have
seen yet, please include a brief description.  And all C&C except for
grammatical corrections is welcome.

P.S. Lots of people have asked why I used Rini as the name for Usagi's
daughter instead of Chibi-Usa.  The answer is that I just like the
name more than Chibi-Usa, go figure ^_^