SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS

Destiny

By arun<arundude1@yahoo.com>
       <arun2110@sancharnet.in> 

Prolouge <Originally completed on 06/14/2001>
<REVISION #1>

            This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon
crossover with certain
aspects of Ramayana.

Disclaimers:

            Rumiko Takahashi and Shogukkan own Ranma
and the cast
members of Ranma 1/2. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the
most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans
of the anime
world are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma
and co. Thank you
Rumiko Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our
lives.

            Naoko Takeuchi, Toei animation and
KODANSHA, owns sailor
Moon and its characters.

            I do not own the characters of both these
shows, nor do I
even pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but
a tribute to the
above anime shows.

Guys:

            *....* indicate thoughts. In the first and
second chapters
<...> indicates Japanese and  "..." indicates Chinese.

            In all the other chapters, the reciprocal
is true.

***********************************************************************

The Silver millennium...

            In one of many tropical forests of earth,
an area that
would later be known to humans as the Gangetic plain
millennia into the
future, a termite mound stood tall and proud with its
spires reaching
to the star studded evening skies above. The mound
stood surrounded by
lush green trees in all their glory. If one focused
his attention on
his senses, he could hear the roar of the Ganges the
background. Even
then, the river would be barely audible over the soft,
persistent hum
that seemed to permeate the air. The hum was as
unnatural as anything
ever could be and yet at the same time it seemed to be
the most natural
thing in the world. It brought peace and a sense of
longing to one's
heart. The flora seemed to revel in the clearing
sprouting shoots and
growing denser than anywhere else in the forest. The
fauna too seemed
to be possessed by the unnatural peace. A peace, which
made their
genetically imprinted fear of predators and the like
to disappear into
thin air.

            Birds with feathers of every hue hid from
the relentless
fury of the sun on the branches of the trees that
littered the edges of
the clearing. They sang and made merry with their
mating calls and
beautiful songs. Yet, their voices never drowned out
the hum.

            A monkey suckled its young while sitting
on a branch. It
had a vacant dreamy expression on its face. Another
member of the clan
was grooming a male who seemed to be the ruler of the
troop. More
prowled the grounds pausing infrequently to pick a
fruit or two that
had fallen from the tree and ate it. Still others ate
mud from a corner
of the clearing to satisfy their body's salt
requirement.

            Presently a sambar with its kid walked
into the clearing.
It bleated once in a while as it continued its search
for its clan. A
tigress had stalked them the other day and had singled
out its kid for
a meal. The others had fled and yet she had remained.
Her maternal
instincts had been too strong and she had given in to
them. Putting
herself between the young tigress and her kid she had
faced off with
the mistress of the jungle. The tigress was a tad
young and
inexperienced. After a standoff that lasted all
through the morning the
tigress had finally abandoned the hunt and had went
off in search of
greener pastures. During the course of initial stalk
and the subsequent
standoff the clan had disappeared and mother and child
were left to
fend for themselves. Now they stood their survival
dependent upon
nature's mercy, which was miserly at the best of
times.

            The kid was tired from the long march
across the grasslands
and the forest and it bleated in a tone that any
mother would have
recognized at once. Immediately the sambar halted its
march and the kid
headed towards her udder. Dinner served!

            The flow of adrenalin decreased and the
sambar relaxed. The
clearing seemed so peaceful to her primitive mind that
she dropped all
pretences of being on the guard. She settled down and
ruminated whilst
her kid tugged heartily at her udder.

            A tigress and its three cubs marched into
the clearing
through one of the footpaths that the animals had
created. The great
predator of the forests yawned and stretched her back
before she rested
her body on the soft grass covered ground. The kittens
immediately
began fooling around. The tigress swatted gently with
her massive paws
when one of her kitten tried to get her into the game.
With her head
neatly tucked, away between her legs she eyed the
sambar speculatively.

            The sambar too locked eyes with the
meat-eater. Normally
her self-preservation instincts would have kicked in
and she and her
kid could have made fast tracks but something the
likes of which her
primitive mind could not comprehend prevented her. A
sense of peace and
love permeated the air and quenched the raging fire
that was her fear.
Still wary of the newcomer she refused to let her eyes
wander away from
the predator. There was more at stake than just her
life for her to
carelessly ignore the predator. The tiger too seemed
content to remain
as she was with her eyes locked on the young ruminant
mother. It too
was concerned about its kittens. The maternal
instincts of a mother
could not be over ridden even by the sanctity of the
clearing.

            Presently the hum whose pitch had been
rising slowly but
steadily for the past decade or two began to reach a
crescendo. The
whole clearing glowed and a small breeze picked up.
The monkeys became
agitated and began to chatter as they jumped up and
down at their
positions. The tigress stood up and the kittens duly
stopped playing
and took their positions behind her. Mother would
protect them from
whatever was happening. The sambar for her part
stopped her mastication
and stood up. Her kid bleated confusedly while trying
to reach for her
udder. She nudged the kid to her side and they stood
staring at the
shadows under a tree.

            The pebbles that rested under the tree
began to rise into
the air. A sphere of pure energy flickered in the
midst of the floating
pebbles. The sphere began to throb and ballooned
before exploding in a
burst of light. When the blinding light finally died
away it revealed a
man and a woman of ordinary appearance with an air of
sanctity about
them.

            The man had the tan of one who wandered
frequently into the
sun. His brownish complexion was what one would expect
of an inhabitant
of the topics. He carried himself with an air of
purity about him. The
man was dressed in the hide of a tiger, which covered
just so that his
modesty did not suffer. His face was handsome to look
at though it was
marred by a thin scar that ran from near his right ear
to just an inch
above his lips. The scar was almost invisible, as age
had done a good
job of covering it. In his hand, he clasped a Trident
made of gold. The
weapon glowed with an aura of white as though it was a
living being by
itself.

            The man had unbraided hair and a moustache
that made his
face look all the more handsome in a rugged kind of
way. A snake, a
member of the king cobra species was coiled around his
neck. Its head
stood tall and proud with its hood proudly stretched
out. The man did
not seem to mind it nor did the woman who stood by
him.

            The woman for her part was dressed in a
piece of silk that
covered her nether regions. The silk was so thin that
it was
effectively transparent. As a result any observer
could get a glimpse
of her nether regions if he so desired though the act
would have been
'injurious to his health' if one took into account the
not so pleasant
looking obsidian crystal in one of her arms. She
remained uncaring with
a detached look on her face as to the well being of
her partner. The
snake, worshipped in that part of the world remained
erect, tasting the
air once in a while. The hisses that it made went
unnoticed by both the
man and the woman.

            A parrot stood perched on the woman's
right shoulder. It
would tilt its head once every couple of seconds or so
and examine the
termite mound. To any observer the bird would have
seemed almost human
when one took into account its unnatural curiosity.
The woman had an
earring on her left ear. A diamond of the first water
hung precariously
from the earring seemingly floating in mid-air though
it was connected
by very thin lines of gold that were strengthened with
lines of power.
A necklace of sorts nestled on her breasts with
beautifully carved
pieces of jade of the type they called the imperial
jade ornamenting
it. Her nipples, which would have been visible to the
naked eye, was
hidden behind two star shaped pieces of jade that
protruded from the
aforementioned necklace. Similarly, her nether region
was covered by a
belt of gold studded with diamonds and jades of the
finest quality.

            Even without her expensive ornaments, the
woman would have
looked as pure and beautiful to the naked eye as a
clear sky is at
night. Anyone who observed her in her present
condition would have
thought that she was devoid of ornaments of any sort
for such was the
effect of her persona on one's senses. Her body was
lithe and had fat
in all the right places. She was sensuous with a
vaguely oriental look
about her.

            The woman looked at her husband and looked
at him with love
written all over her face. At some unspoken signal,
they both turned
towards the termite mound and addressed it.

            "Raja Chola, thine penance has been heard
in the astral
plane and it has not been found wanting. I have come
here to grant thee
three boons as a gift for thy penance. Extricate
thyself from the mound
and claim thine reward."

            The man spoke softly without rushing
through any part of
his speech. All external sounds seemed to fade away
when he spoke and
an unfelt breeze carried it so that it was clearly
audible to anyone
within the clearing. Having spoken thus the man waited
while Raja Chola
extricated himself from the termite mound.

            A soft hum, different in tone from the one
before emanated
from the mound. Cracks appeared on it and it glowed
golden as Raja
Chola used his ki to destroy the mound that had
protected him from the
elements for so long. The cracks widened and pieces of
the mound fell
off.

            Raja Chola arose from the ruins of the
mound with naught a
cloth on him. Dust covered his body from head to toe
providing a small
measure of modesty to the yogi. If looks ever were
deceiving, Raja
Chola's certainly did. Though he looked like a man in
his mid-twenties,
he was much older than that. In fact, he had been
doing his penance for
the past three hundred years if his knowledge of math
served him right.
Raja Chola smiled in spite of himself. *I have done
it. We will have
our revenge Anita.*

            Raja Chola allowed a small smile to form
on his lips. Even
though his very being screamed at him to tear them
apart as revenge for
the sin their kind had committed against him, he was
indeed glad to see
them. He had always respected Shiva though he hated
their kind.

            Chola knelt and bowed until his beard
touched the ground.
"Oh most sweet, kind and wonderful Lord of destruction
hast thou
finally found my unworthy being worthy enough to bear
witness to thy
majesty as well as thine lady's." he said humbly.

            The man smiled. Shiva, for that was the
God's name raised
his hands in blessing and spoke. "Arise, O Phoenix!
Thine prayers had
indeed been found worthy as thine self."

            Chola smiled. "Praise to thee lord of
destruction."

            Chola began to sing in praise of Shiva and
Meenakshi. Both
listened captivated by the melodious song until it
ended. Shiva smiled
at Raja Chola.

            "Thine meditation has been the most
powerful ever Raja
Chola and it had been felt by all in Heaven. We are
very pleased to
have a devotee like thee and have thus decided to
grant thee three
boons. Ask and all will be given to thee."

            Raja Chola raised his head and looked into
Shiva's eyes.
Hiding his joy under the veil of sanctity that he
wore, Raja Chola
spoke.

            "My first wish is that I be made an
immortal, O sweet Lord
of destruction!"

            Shiva did not seem surprised by the wish.
In fact almost
everyone he had granted boons to had asked for the
same. A glint of a
smile came to his face. "Ye know very well that
immortality cannot be
bestowed on a mortal as a boon unless he had a trace
of godliness in
him." he said trying to hide his mirth.

            If Chola was disappointed his face did not
betray him.

            "Then my Lord, I ask that I cannot die
unless I am killed
by someone else."

            Shiva looked at his wife and she squeezed
his hands in
support. He gave her a loving look and turned towards
the yogi. "Very
well, Raja Chola. I grant thee the first boon."

            Raja Chola smiled inwardly. He would not
be able to ask for
the third boon he had planned on asking but it did not
matter as long
as he got this one straight. No one would be able to
kill him and as
long as he lived he would seek vengeance for the sins
they had
committed against him.

            *Soon my love I will send all those who
destroyed our
happiness to hell and may they rot there for all of
eternity.* Memories
of what had happened brought back his unquenchable
anger and his
muscles rippled as his body tensed as it drove back
the tidal wave that
was his anger.

            "As my second boon O sweet Lord of
destruction, I ask that
no one, he or she be a God or a Goddess or an Ashura
or a mortal or an
animal or a spirit be able to kill me."

            Shiva nodded and granted the second wish
though it meant
that Chola was pretty much immortal in the eyes of the
world from then
on. He had been close to reaching that goal on his own
before but then
he would have been killable. Now that was not possible
in the normal
sense.

            *Just one more and we will have our
revenge, Anita.*

            "As my third boon, O sweet Lord of
destruction, I ask that
I be granted power over all that lives and that I made
king to the
Ashura's." asked Chola silently praying that he be
granted that wish.

            "Thine third wish is unique Chola," said
Shiva not taking
his eyes of him.

            "It is, O sweet Lord of destruction."

            "Is that what ye wish for Chola?" asked
Shiva hoping that
he had misheard or even misinterpreted it.

            "Yes O sweet Lord of destruction." replied
Chola.

            Shiva nodded and raised his arms in
blessing. Power flowed
from the palm of his hands into Chola who received it.
The power sent
white-hot tendrils of pain shooting through his body.
Chola bore it
joyously for it signified that the long awaited time
for revenge was at
hand.

            In the palace of Queen Serenity, the
sleeping queen shifted
in her bed as the same nightmare played itself
repeatedly in her mind.
Throughout the moon kingdom, every magician who had
sufficient power
had the same nightmare, a nightmare in which the
kingdom was destroyed
and the people slaughtered as though they were pack
animals.

***********************************************************************

            Two years later...

            In the plains of Mars...

            Queen Serenity looked at the battle from
her command post.
She chided herself for having been a fool and for
having let the plague
of destruction come upon her people. She shuddered
unconsciously as
images from the outer planets played themselves in her
mind over and
over again. Scenes of wanton destruction, rivers
flowing crimson with
the blood of innocents and people slaughtered by the
thousands. The
luckiest ones had only their guts ripped out while the
others were torn
apart and left to scavengers. In the worst scenarios,
they had been
skinned alive and then parts of their body eaten as
they watched with
their very own eyes. Most of them died of shock alone.
The ones that
opposed the hordes and the ones that surrendered the
meted out the same
treatment. She suppressed another shudder as the death
of Sailor Mars
replayed itself once more in her mind. Her close
friend and advisor had
been raped, sodomized and then skinned before being
devoured alive by
one of the raiding monsters. She and the other Sailors
had watched her
suffer from less then a few hundred yards away. She
had never felt more
helpless in her life. Helpless because she herself had
been engaged in
a battle to the death with another one of the monsters
so that she
might be spared from the same fate. By pure luck, they
had managed to
force the monsters into a retreat on that terrible day
in the plains of
Saturn. And it was by that very same luck that they
remained alive.
Whatever those monsters were they were phenomenal
fighters the likes of
which no one had ever laid eyes upon.

            She clutched her fists in anger. She had
failed her people.
Her kingdom was supposed to be one of peace and love
but scarcely two
decades had passed since she had founded the kingdom
and the rivers ran
crimson throughout the kingdom. She knew as well as
all the other weary
souls that defended the citadel that they were
fighting a lost cause.
The kingdom was done for she had realized that much
when Saturn had
fallen. If the enemy had shown the tiniest shred of
humanity, she would
have been content to give up her kingdom so that her
people may live
but the enemy had not. Day and night they killed and
pillaged
destroying everything and everyone in their path as
they followed the
commands of their leader assuming that they had one.
Even though the
war about to end she still did not know anything about
the enemy. Like
the plague they had emerged one day at the borders of
her kingdom and
like the plague they had spread far and wide spreading
death and
destruction everywhere they went. In fact, she had
never seen the face
of the enemy leader. All that her forces had faced
where those six-
handed, human look-alike monsters that ripped
everything in their paths
to shreds moving at speeds that even the sailors found
impossible to
maintain for long.

            *Kami, What will happen to my people? Why
didn't I realize
the serious nature of the threat when I first heard of
it a year and a
half back?* As much as she wished that all would have
been well if she
had responded correctly twenty months ago, a part of
her mind knew that
it would not have had the least effect on the outcome.
She wiped out
the lone tear that had somehow found its way into her
right cheek. She
would not cry... She could not cry... For the sake of
her people, she
had to put on that strong act for that was one of the
few things that
her people now clung onto.

            She pulled herself together and looked
again at the scenes
of battle that was raging on a thousand yards from
where she stood. She
could hear the chanting and could feel the huge
collection of magical
energies that was taking place in the background.
*This gamble must
work or...* She found herself unable to think clearly
through the haze
of fear that clouded her mind. There were so many
people who had yet to
live their life to the fullest. So many people who did
not know what it
feels to hold the warm flesh of one's child in their
arms or to be in
love. For their sake, she would make this gamble work.

            Serenity, Queen of the newly found Silver
Millennium,
solemnly swore to herself that she would defeat the
hordes for the sake
of the children and tightened her fists until she
heard her knuckles
pop. Then she took a deep breath to clear her mind and
walked into the
clearing where the mages were preparing for what she
hoped would be
their first blow against the enemy. If things worked
out as had been
planned, the blow would also be the coup de grace. If
not humans would
become the latest addition to the extinct species
list.

            She reached the site within a few minutes.
*It will not be
long now. I can feel the energies gathering and soon
we will be rid of
this threat and peace will reign once more.* Thought
she as she looked
about the site. A hundred of the empire's strongest
surviving magicians
including her had gathered there to cast a spell that
would send the
enemy and his army into limbo. She sat down and the
others shifted
their positions to accommodate her into the circle.
They never stopped
their chanting and energy levels began to increase
more rapidly than
before. A few minutes passed and everyone stood up to
cast the spell.
*Just two or three more minutes and the decisive
moment will upon all
of ...*

            Her thoughts were interrupted by a shriek
to her left. She
would feel some of the magic going away and she
realized that one of
the monsters was upon them. She focused on the
Ginzishou and
concentrated a little bit harder to neutralize the
loss. Shrieks began
to increase in frequency as one after another the
magicians fell to the
monster. Soon she heard of the clashing of weapons and
the ear-
splitting bangs of explosions as the lunar guard came
to the rescue.
However, the damage had been done by then. Her last
gamble had failed
and her people would perish.

            Just when she had all but given into
despair, she felt a
presence. A being of pure love entered her mind.

            *Who are you?*

            *I am everything and nothing child. I am
here to comfort
you. Do not despair child there is a way to defeat
your enemy for now
though he will return in the future.*

            *He will comeback and kill us all in the
future then.*
Replied Serenity choking back the emotions that
threatened to break
through the calm mask that she wore over her face.

            *No child, when the evil comes again we
will be ready and
it will be defeated forever.*

            *Then tell me what I must do to defeat him
now?*

            *You will be able to defeat him child but
there will be
price to pay, you will die if you what I ask you to
do.*

            Serenity hesitated but for a moment. There
was too much at
stake for her to refuse the boon. If she must die so
that her son,
Freon, may live than so be it.

            *I will do whatever is necessary to save
my people.* She
replied mentally to the being. Though she could not
see her inside her
mind she realized that the being had nodded.

            *Concentrate child, concentrate on
yourself. Look deep
inside of you and tell me what you find.*

            Serenity concentrated and looked into
herself. She found a
throbbing mass of yellowish blue light. She realized
it for what I was.
*I can see my soul.* Replied Serenity in awe. She had
never realized
that she could one could see their own soul.

            She again felt the being nod. *Good, now
focus yourself
onto the Ginzishou and let the magic from all of
nature flow through
you.*

            Serenity complied and immediately felt
phenomenal amounts
of power coursing through the Ginzishou. She realized
that her body was
being used as the channel while her soul was the
focusing lens. She
realized too that she would not survive the process.
She also realized
that the Ginzishou was acting as a reservoir until she
demanded that
all the energy be released. She felt everything and
nothing around her.
She felt the fear and the pain from her soldiers and
those who where
dying or fighting for their lives. She felt the hate
and the thirst for
destruction that clouded the mind of the monsters whom
she realized
where Ashura's, the anti-Gods. She felt the love and
peace and the
power that was the being and realized that it was God.
Though she felt
her body weaken from being subjected to the huge
amounts of energy, she
felt strangely happy and content for the first time in
her life.

            The power grew until the Ginzishou was
having trouble
containing it and then she willed it to do its job.
The ground shook
and hurricane force winds rose as the mana and the ki
that had been
stored were released. She was at the epicenter of the
explosion of
energy and with her as the center, the energy spread
across the cosmos
sending into limbo all the Ashura's as well as their
king. Her ki and
mana spent in trying to control the power and her body
near death due
to channeling so much energy she collapsed in a heap
onto the floor.
She could hear faint voices, which she deduced, were
from members of
the lunar guard. She did not care what they said for
she was happy as
long as God was by her side. She felt his soothing
touch on her mind
ridding her body of its pain and she heard him
whispering into her ear.

            *Sleep child, I will take care of you.*

            And she slept.

***********************************************************************

Author's notes:

            This is going to be a long story and it
might even a year
or more to complete. I got this idea while I was
reading Alan Harnum's
'Waters Under Earth', which is one of the finest
pieces of fan fiction
writing you will find on the net. I thought why not
combine certain
aspects of Ramayana (the Indian epic, literally
meaning the story of
Rama) and combine it with a not so usual Ranma and
Sailor moon
crossover. For the record Ashura means Anti-God. You
like? You no like?
Tell me.

            The story is hosted at the following
sites:
1. Mine (http://samrtaleck.anifics.com)
2. Lady cosmos
(http://www.crosswinds.net/~ladycosmos/)
3. Rakhal's Penultimate Ranma Fanfic index
       (http://www.rakhal.com/FFIndex/lstmain.html)
4. FFML archives 
      
(http://miniarchive.dyndns.org:123/cgi-bin/MiniArchive.exe)
5. Mediaminer fanfic archives
(www.mediaminer.org/fanfic)

            I would like to take this oppurtunity to
prostrate myself in front of my pre-readers. Thank
you, guys! This
couldn't have been possible without all of you:
 jakub [jpilecki@poczta.onet.pl]
 Kaz [kazblah945@aol.com]
 Madcat [madcat08@hotmail.com]
 Brain [bmccullough@nucles.com]
 James Merritt [j.merritt1@home.com]
 Philip Penty [plainswaker@hotmail.com]
 Nathan Shuker [rezantis@hotmail.com]
 Zero [shinzero@home.com]

            Hints for you readers from the author:

            Hint #1: Arun does not write to a
schedule, he really has to spend a lot of time with
his psychiatrist.

            Hint #2: (for those out standing critics
out there[;)])Call
Arun anything you want in your mail provided (though
he won't) he has
the right to call you by these same names. Arun
appreciates
constructive negative comments and he really loves the
positive
comments. Its the 'Go to hell you mother F***ing Freak
of nature' and
such that he hates. Please send me your negative
comments though I
would be most grateful if you would tone down the I
hate you part a
little.

            Hint #3: The truth is out there, hey,
don't ask me where but is out there since Fox 'spooky'
Mulder says so.

            Hint #4: There is no hint #4.

            Hint #5: Read the author's rants section
if there is one. It would clear some of yer questions
as well as create some totally unrelated ones.



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