[Ranma][Fanfic] End of a Modern Dynasty - Story Overview Parts 1 & 2
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End of a Modern Dynasty

Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission

End of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and
copyright 2000-2010 by Jim Lazar

An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime.
For maximum enjoyment of this fanfic series, please read my Childhood
and Adulthood of Modern Dynasty series and outline before reading End of
a Modern Dynasty.

E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: contactus |at| animeprime.com

Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for
all released AMD stories, graphics files, and other information:
http://www.animeprime.com/ff/md
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The following is a general overview of End of a Modern Dynasty that was
to take place after Adulthood. While I have expanded some parts, it is a
very brief overview of the major events to allow my readers (and myself)
to have some closure. The final chapters may have presented things
differently.

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Part 1: No war and no peace


(Some of the world events mentioned at the end of the Adulthood outline
may have been expanded and detailed in the beginning of End. Just for
reference, here are the world events again.)


Estimated world population at end of the Black Wars: 2.6 billion

Primary cause of death during the Black Wars: Incineration by Monolith
followed closely by starvation.

Number of countries left with populations: 138

Number of states left in the United States: 43 (Maine, New Hampshire,
and Florida no longer exist as land masses and were dissolved as states.
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri were ravaged when the Buyierfei
attacked America's breadbasket. Due to the almost complete decimation of
the land, buildings and infrastructure, a single state called New Plains
was formed to rebuild from the ashes. North and South Dakota were
combined into a single state called Dakota after the Manitoba monolith
destroyed a large chunk of North Dakota. The southern parts of
Saskatchewan and Manitoba didn't even get off that easily.)

The Chinese Communist party collapsed during the war after a monolith
under the sea between China and Korea went critical. Most of the Korean
peninsula was submerged and large chunks of North-Eastern China were
destroyed, including Beijing. With the Chinese government gone, the
Democratic government of Taiwan stepped in to stabilize the nation.
Tibet separated from China and is now a separate nation.

The Koreans who survived repopulated the string of islands where the
Korean Peninsula once was, looking much like a miniature version of
Japan. There was no reason to care about the old division between north
and south in forming a single country from the rubble, since the old
38th Parallel separation line vanished with most of the peninsula.

Like many countries Australia declared martial law during the war to
keep order and maintain the flow of food and critical supplies, but when
the war ended the extremists in the government retained control and
refused to return the former democratic government. Using loyal troops
hardened by the war, they used censorship and strong arm tactics to keep
their population controlled and placated. Aided by Kang and Kodachi,
skirmishes broke out and the Western Australia and Northern Territory
states managed to break away from the eastern fascist government,
dividing the continent into two.

The endless Israeli-Palestinean conflict ended when Palestine and Israel
were submerged under the Mediterranean Sea by another monolith that
devastated the Mediterranean seashore.

The remaining population of Israel resettled on the now uninhabited tip
of what was once Central America. No longer connected to South America,
the entire populations of several nations were wiped out when the
monolith severed the land connection between the two continents.

Only Mexico survived between the new Israel and the United States,
although some small populations of people displaced by the destruction
did settle in southern Mexico.

The remaining Palestinians resettled in the middle of Africa, near the
new lake formed in the crater left by the Fourth Monolith.

Attempts are made to form a single world government. Not only was it
seen as a necessity to help rebuild the war ravaged world by getting
resources where they are needed regardless of the national borders that
used to be clearly defined, but also as a way to prepare for a possible
return of the Buyierfei.

In the end, more governing power is entrusted to the United Nations and
the structure is redefined (mostly due to the old structure not making
any sense in the post-war world). 

While the world economy shifted away from a currency based one during
the war in order to fuel the massive international war effort to save
the world, the end of the war started the process to restore some of the
old currencies. The United States Dollar and European Euro were the
first to recover, with others following. Some nations banded together to
form loose financial groups that shared common currency and some overall
financial governing functions. The African Commonwealths, the South
Asian Union, and Iran/Iraq agreement were three of the bigger ones.
Unfortunately for Iran and Iraq, none of the other mideastern countries
wanted to join their shared economy since they viewed the governments of
those countries as dictatorships and untrustworthy.

Iraq's hard won democracy collapsed during the war and the hardliners in
Iran finally quashed their opposition. It should be no surprise how easy
it is to make your enemies 'disappear' when they did so every day of the
war.

Local skirmishes broke out and had to be quelled to avoid the world
falling into a world war against itself. Fortunately the Black Wars had
united most of humanity against the common enemy and the local
skirmishes were small and contained.

The Task Force was forbidden to interfere, but that ended when Akane saw
the suffering during the South American rioting that led to Peru and
Colombia taking up arms against each other after Peru closed its borders
to avoid more refugees from the monolith ravaged Colombia from heading
south. That war was short lived as Akane and the Task Force restored
order. The United Nations threatened to dissolve the Task Force over the
action, but Akane made her first public appearance since the end of
Black Wars and gave a televised speech that "She would not let men turn
against men to destroy the peace that my family gave their very lives to
bring about." That pretty much kept any arguments about dissolving the
Task Force to mild grumblings, else face a huge public backlash.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

On arriving back on Earth, the Task Force finds out about the
destruction of Mars and that Nabiki's kids were found with their Amazon
bodyguards and were safe back in Nerima. They also find out that all the
monoliths that appeared on Earth (except for the few the Task Force
managed to destroy the heart for) vanished in a burst of colors causing
no damage. 

Ranma avoided hot water until they returned to Nerima and they carefully
planned how to tell Akane about Ranko, Daiji, Nabiki, Mousse, and
Yukiko. In the end she had to be sedated several times before she got
all the news about the devastation to her family.

The Amazons elevated Yukiko to a level in Amazon society previously only
held by their ancient gods and the First Matriarch. To land the final
blow against their ancient enemy made the little over two hundred
remaining Amazons very proud of her.

Although the two martian children and Nabiki's older two children had
known each other and talked via videoconferencing, there was a little
apprehension between them due to their age differences and the way they
all reacted when told their parents died saving the world.

Nijiko (Nabiki's oldest girl) took it the hardest. She had long felt cut
off from her mother due to the separation of millions of miles of
vacuum. She pulled away from the family and in particular Akane. While
Tendo Enterprises was being run by Nabiki's proxies while she was on
Mars, her death opened up a power vacuum. With the world economies
starting to recover and returning to a free market once again, many
people tried to assert control of Tendo Enterprises.

In a move that would make her mother proud, Nijiko used her mother's
stake in the company to flush out most of the directors and seize
control. She buried herself in rebuilding the company to avoid thinking
about the death of her parents.

Over the years following the end of the Black Wars, Akane would try to
make advances to her niece to repair the strained relationship Nijiko
had with her and her siblings, but was only partly successful. At one
point, Akane lashed out at one of Nijiko's business deals that used the
golden remains of monolith explosions to fabricate crystals that could
produce holographic images. Although this led to incredible advances in
computer technology and vast fortunes for Tendo Enterprises and Nijiko,
Akane was angry at her profiting from the ruins of Buyierfei monoliths.

Within a couple years of returning to Earth, Kasei developed health
problems and had to live in special pressure tanks to survive. It was
eventually determined that her best chance for a normal life was to
spend as much time in a low-g or weightless environment. The
reconstruction of the Earth precluded any large scale space exploration
plans, and even pleas from Akane that the world owed Nabiki and Mousse
too much to not do everything possible to look after their children
didn't push plans for a new orbiting space station significantly closer
to reality.

It wasn't until a large monetary and technical support commitment was
made by an anonymous source that a plan to establish a basic space
station in low Earth orbit was begun. It would be years until Akane
found out that the pledge had come from Tendo Enterprises. In her own
way, Nijiko was looking after her siblings.

Although the space station would only host 2 or 3 people at first, it
served as the backbone of a larger Space Station that would grow to
handle over a hundred permanent residents and act as the staging ground
for the first manned exploration of Jupiter and its moons, with a brief
pass near the N-M Belt. Kasei was a member of that crew, being ideally
suited to long duration space travel.

Daichi was a avid rock collector on Mars, so his space suit had been
stuffed with rock samples from Mars. Those proved to be the only samples
that would ever be returned from Mars. NASA took charge of examining
them, except for a rock that he chipped two pieces off and made a
necklace and gave to his big sister. Kasei always wears it around her
neck. The other piece is embedded in Daichi's watch band.

Memories of home.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

Akane's depression over the loss of her loved ones kept her bedridden or
in Ranma's form for most of the year after the Black Wars ended. She
even found it painful to watch video messages from Ranma, since it
reminded her that she couldn't touch him directly anymore. At first
Ranma tried to stay in her body for as long as possible to keep Akane
from the pain, but Kasumi insisted that Akane needed time to adjust,
think, and morn. Since they weren't conscious or aware of time passing
when the other one was using their body, it tended to stretch out events
and dealing with emotions. Of course, even Akane occasionally splashed
herself with water to avoid the pain of her own emotions.

Through the love of her family and then finding a new purpose in life
when Peru and Columbia went to war shortly after the one year
anniversary of the end of the Black wars, she pulled herself out of bed
and took a team down to quash the war brewing in South America.

When confronted about the Task Force being used to fight other humans,
Akane lashed out. Although Task Force funding had slowed and mostly
consisted of maintaining a basic capacity to fight the Buyierfei should
they return, some wanted the Task Force disbanded entirely. The use of
the Task Force in a human conflict raised the voices of protest even
louder.

Her "She would not let men turn against men to destroy the peace that my
family gave their very lives to bring about," speech cemented her
stature as a world figure not to be messed with. In a sense her need to
preserve the peace her family had given their very lives to fight for
gave her a new lease on life. Although some in her family wanted her to
retire from her position as leader of the Task Force and Matriarch of
the Amazons and just enjoy the peace, she found comfort in solving the
little problems the world faced when rebuilding and restoring peace and
prosperity.

After all, when you've held the fate of the world in your hands for so
many years and you saw haw close the world came to ending, you have
trouble letting that world destroy itself.

Plus there was no way she was going to let her families' many sacrifices
go in vain.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

During her recovery, Sanma spent a lot of time with Akane trying to get
her out of bed and to find some reason for her to continue living. Akane
was cheered by her remaining children and by Sanma's presence, but it
wasn't until Sanma 'accidentally' watched a news report on the South
American situation that she found a reason to get out of bed and do
something.

The years that followed were rough for the family and Akane, but she did
get better and was spending more time as herself than Ranma finally.
They almost decided to announce that Ranma was in fact alive to the
world.

Then Sanma and Akane gave into temptation and spent the night together.
(Sorry, didn't have a plan for how this transpired and which of them
gave into temptation first.)

At first they hid it from their spouses out of guilt, but then Ranma
found out when Sanma was talking with Akane about it and she was
splashed with water. Before Sanma realized Ranma was there, she spilled
the beans.

(There is a slight possibility I would have a water spill during the act
of lovemaking that made Ranma appear. But that depends on if I had the
guts to write that scene.)

Ranma first impulse was to make a Sanma shaped hole in the wall.

He did.

When Ukyo found out, she and Akane had a big fight over it (verbal, not
property damage). Eventually, Sanma and Ukyo move to the San Francisco
Compound to avoid temptation on anyone's part. Sadly, Akane and Ukyo's
friendship is strained after this.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

The Amazons decide to move back to China and rebuild their village.
Akane wants to give up her Matriarch title, but they won't let her. At
least they allow her to stay in Nerima. Nice girls, those Amazons. :)

They send word that the Jusenkyo springs have refilled again. Sanma
'borrows' a spacejet from the Task Force to go there really fast.

He relishes being male again. Not so much all the other animals he
becomes. Ukyo finds living with 'Akane' a bit awkward, but it prods her
into talking with the real Akane for the first time in years.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: Return of the Blackness


All's right with the world. With the signing of the Australian peace
agreement, the last major political fallout from the Black Wars is over.
The government of 'Ranma', which is what the western half of Australia
had called itself during the civil war that divided the continent, now
controls the entire Australian continent. This led to ego overdrive on
Ranma's part as he gloated about having an entire country named after
him (with occasional grumblings that the continent should be renamed to
'Ranma' as well). Only the former Australian state of Tasmania was still
in the control of the hardliners who retained power after the Black
Wars.

The economies of the world were flourishing, although the thriving
companies were still mostly in the reconstruction sector. Even two
decades after the end of the Black Wars, there was still plenty of black
and barren terrain to be found among the returning greenery.

The population of the world passed the three billion mark for the first
time since 1960.

And then Akane woke up, made her way downstairs, slid open the doors to
the garden, and fell over backwards.

At first, she just gurgled and gasped.

Then she screamed, loudly.

Kourui, Akane's youngest child, rushed into the room in her gi, her long
green hair tied in a pigtail like she always had it when training.
"What's..."

She went silent. There was no need to ask 'what's wrong'. 

It was plainly obvious.

Where the koi pond usually was, a large black monolith now stood and
blocked out the sun.

Casting blackness over Akane once again.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

They check for reports about any other monoliths around the world, but
none are found.

The entire Nerima Task Force assembles around the monolith, trying to
decide what to do. They are hesitant to just go in for fear of
triggering the Buyierfei's return and Daiji is no longer available to
blast it from the outside.

The fact that it appeared right in front of Akane's house is obviously
not a coincidence. It is decided that Akane should stay as far away from
it as possible. Akane is reluctant, but agrees finally. She flies to
China and stays in the Amazon village for the time being. Kourui and a
number of other family members go with her.

The Japan Self-Defense Force is mobilized to cordon off the area around
the compound should anything emerge from the monolith.

So as to not panic the public, all this is done in the guise of a
'training exercise'.

Those few families still living near the compound evacuate anyway,
having experienced too much property damage over the years to take any
chance. Even 'training' tended to cause property damage around Tendos
and Saotomes.

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

Days and then weeks pass without anything happening. In the Amazon's
village, Akane wakes up and again falls backward when she sees a
monolith blocking out the sunrise outside her hut. A quick call to
Nerima reveals that the monolith there had vanished.

"It's just going to follow me wherever I go, huh?"

With still no hostile action from the monolith, they still decide not to
attempt to enter it. Akane decides that a deserted area would be the
best place for her just in case the monolith explodes. Since there are
plenty of barren landscapes since the Black Wars ravaged the world, she
flies with a small team to the base of what was formerly Mt. Everest and
waits. Kourui and the others go back to Nerima. "Luv ya!" Kaurui said to
her mother as she stepped onto the helicopter, earning a smile from her
mother.

Several weeks later they figure out that the monolith wasn't waiting for
Akane, it was waiting for Kourui. Appearing in Nerima once again the
monolith pulls Kourui into itself. The task force does it best to save
her, but they can't prevent it. A large group goes into the monolith to
save her.

Akane races back home, cursing her ego that thought she was the target.
Clutching her scared belly, she remembers when the Buyierfei ripped
Kourui from her womb. "They want her for something... something bad."

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

Akane was right. Kourui was absorbed and being turned into the new key
and bridge for the Buyierfei. Akane battles the Buyeirfei in their realm
to save her youngest child, but in the end Kourui lashes out and sneers
at her mother. "I've been connected to the Buyierfei my whole life. The
Buyierfei reached out to me once Shuma was destroyed."

"That was over twenty years ago."

"The Buyierfei are patient."

"Is there no part of my child left in you?"

"None."

Akane collapses to the ground and pounds it with her fists. "No... no...
I won't let another of my children be taken by these abominations."

"You can't help it. I'll lead the Buyierfei to finally rid this world of
it's pests."

Akane looked at a nearby Amazon. "Give me your sword." She takes the
sword and grips the blade above the hilt. "I have no desire to see
another part of my family killed, so..." She turned the tip of the blade
towards her stomach, blood dripping from the wounds on her hands where
the blade dug into her flesh. "This battle will be fought by others this
time."

Kourui flinched, the black filling her eyes fading slightly. "No..." she
mumbled.

"Kourui, only you can save me by saving yourself," Akane said, a soft
smile forming on her face. A mother's smile.

"Nonsense, we will prevail!"

"Who will?"

"The Buyierfei!"

"That's not what we taught you!"

"But..."

"You're a Saotome!"

"Saotome..."

"And Saotomes always prevail."

"Prevail..."

"And they prevail because they are part of the..."

"The..." Kourui convulsed. "The... The Anything Goes Task Force will
prevail!!" 

"That's my girl!" Akane took a step towards her daughter. "Fight the
power within you. You're not a defenseless child and can fight the
Buyierfei."

"Yes... I... will... but... for now..."

Akane shuddered when Kourui's eyes went black again. "Fight it."

Kourui smiled. "I am."

The pulsing heart they were fighting in suddenly went dark and the
crystal core turned black and shrank into itself.

"Keep up the fight, Mother. I'll keep them under control as best I can,"
Kourui said as the world vanished around Akane. "Luv ya!" was the last
thing Akane heard.

Finding herself and her team in front of her still standing house, Akane
looked around in vain for her youngest. "Kourui?"

Akane collapsed to her knees. "Yet again the Blackness has stolen a
child from me..." She pounded the ground.

In the months that followed, more monoliths appeared. As during the
Black Wars, the Task Force would go into them and destroy them before
they went critical.

It was after three of these battles that Akane and her team noticed that
the Buyierfei weren't attacking with anything near the power they had
before. They soon realized why.

"Kourui is fighting back to keep them under control."

Akane smiled for the first time since the BUyierfei's return as she
realized she wouldn't have to kill her youngest daughter to save the
world from the Buyierfei.

This time they had someone fighting the Buyierfei from within.

While Shuma was taken from Sanma as a fetus, Kourui had a lifetime of
experience to fight the Buyierfei's attempts to use her as the focus of
the Buyierfei.

(It was always my intention for Kourui to replace Shuma (hence her being
'prepped' for the job after begin torn from Akane's uterus). but the
details of her becoming the new Buyierfei leader and then resisting
their control was less thought out. This bit seems to work well, but may
have been more involved and expanded in the full version.)

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

Although Sanma is fighting with the Task Force and Ukyo and Akane are on
speaking terms again, Sanma rarely fights with Akane or manages to see
her. During a battle inside a monolith, they are separated from the
others and can't find the heart to destroy.

They have their first long talk in a long time and decide they still
love each other deeply.

"So now we have sex?" Sanma asks casually.

"You wish." Akane chuckles. "We love each other, but I won't betray my
friend again."

"Yeah... I won't betray Ukyo again either."

"So what do we do?"

"We tell her and we resist the urge to jump on each other."

"I don't know which is harder."

"They are both hard."

                    -E-           -M-           -D-

The battles continued and the Great Shelters are re-opened and
refurbished to handle refugees seeking some protection from the
Buyierfei.

Less powerful or not, many who lived through the wars don't like the
chances of the Human race surviving the Blackness for a second time.
Third time if you count the first time the Amazons fought them.

During a battle with the Buyierfei, Akane again confronts her daughter.
"You're doing a good job."

Not exactly as abrasive of a confrontation as she used to have with
Shuma.

"You have no idea..." Kourui smirks. "The Buyierfei have some kind of
group consciousness that is focused through me. I can disrupt the
decisions made most of the time, but occasionally they overcome my
will."

"Like that little attack on me last week?"

Kourui nodded. "Yeah, for some reason the Buyierfei hate you quite a
lot."

"The feeling's mutual." Akane looked around. "So, anything upcoming that
I should know?"

"Not upcoming, but I did find out something interesting."

"Such as?"

"You know the Amazon's two great gods?"

"Yeah..."

"You know them as Ranko and Daiji."

Akane's jaw dropped open. "Huh?"

Kourui smiled. "They didn't die. They were sent back four thousand years
and fought the Buyierfei with the Amazons back then."

Akane gripped her chest. "How... how..."

"The Buyierfei aren't even aware of it, but while sorting through some
of their old memories trying to find a weakness, I recognized them
immediately."

Akane smiled. "And Yukiko?"

"The First Matriarch, you mean?"

Akane sighed. "And she always hated being the Matriarch."

"There's more... I think I know of a way to destroy the Buyierfei for
good."

"What is it?"

Kourui shook her head. "I can't tell you. As long as it's just in my
consciousness, the Buyierfei don't know about it. That's how I can fight
back against them, I'm separate from the hive consciousness. Since he
was taken as a fetus, Shuma never had a separate personality to fight
the control from the Buyierfei. All he ever knew was Blackness."

Akane nodded. "I'll leave it in your hands, then."

"My mind, you mean. I have to warn you... it will take a while."

"How long?"

"I cannot say, but I will say that YOU have to live in order to pull it
off."

"Me?"

"And Dad, of course."


(In the future, James has yet another "I'm going to have to re-write the
drafts" moment. Then he realizes that Adulthood has been published
already. "Would have been nice to know they were alive before finishing
AMD. That ending was a bit depressing."

"Yes, I know it was."

)

(Kourui's transition to the Buyierfei's leader to resisting their
control might not have happened as fast if I had been able to write out
full chapters, but for this outline the sequence of events seemed to
work well.

If you go back and read the future segments, you'll find mentions by
Akane that the Buyierfei were not at powerful or dangerous as they were
during the Black Wars. THis is the reason. Kourui was keeping them in
check.


I was unsure if I would let Akane know Daiji and Ranko were alive and
well back in the past and also when I'd let the readers know. But while
putting together this outline it made sense that Kourui would find out
and tell her mother in none of their friend mother-enemy talks. :)

Now would be the time to read the 'Birth of the Amazon Way' outline to
see what happened during the first Buyierfei war and the early Amazons.)