Disclaimer: Ranma an co. do not belong to me

Chapter 2: Bound for Disaster

No! It can’t be!

Akane hung upside-down from her captor’s shoulders, her soft cheek digging into his spine, and stared in horror at her doppelganger standing hip-deep in the sorcerer’s cauldron. It is darkest sorcery, her mind warned her.

“She looks like me,” the princess whispered, unable to take her eyes off the wet Shampoo. “What have you done?”

“You’re better off not knowing,” the stranger carrying her replied. She could feel the vibrations when he spoke, pressed as she was against his back. She didn’t know who he was, who any of them were, or what was going on. She’d been sailing home to Nerima when a sea serpent, a water dragon, had attacked the ship. She had woken as the prisoner of this boy who now carried her, and the girl who had suddenly assumed Akane’s own face. But the sorcerer, he was surely the most evil of all. She could sense it.

“The spell is nearly complete.” Satisfaction showed in Kulloden’s pale, thin face. “Now…” he began.

All hell broke loose.

There was a sudden crash, and a blast of wind entered the chamber from the entrance tunnel, sweeping sand before it. There were shouts and the sound of running feet. They’d come to rescue her, Akane was sure of it.

And when soldiers wearing her father’s royal colours swept in with swords upheld, such relief hit Akane that she nearly forgot to be embarrassed that a strange boy held her in such an odd position.

The dark sorcerer frowned and raised his arms, his long, bony fingers extended. He reminded Akane of a crow she’d seen on the castle walls once, its cruel claws and tattered feathers marking it as a bird of prey. She gasped as he fired bolt after bolt of energy at the soldiers, stopping them in their tracks, felling them like trees.

“Villain! For stealing the princess, you shall suffer…” A skinny youth in loose robes and a pointed hat marched towards the cauldron, his arms out flung as his fingers moved. Shampoo recoiled, fear on her face. Mousse. Akane recognized the apprentice to the court magician. She was not well acquainted with Mousse. He was hardly someone a royal princess was required to consort with, but she had heard reports from her giggling ladies-in-waiting about Mousse’s magical ‘accidents’ in the laboratory.

She searched the soldiers and saw a tall, dark-haired figure brandishing his sword.

Kuno. She was almost glad to see even him.

“Akane!” Kuno shouted, gladness in his voice as he spied the petite princess. He strode towards the cauldron, shoving the skinny apprentice out of the way, his eyes sweeping Shampoo’s wet form before raising his gaze to hers. “Sister, I’ve found you!”

Shampoo abruptly stopped thinking up spells of attack as she realized that her golden opportunity had come. This eager oaf thought she was the princess. He’d called her sister. That meant he must be the crown prince of the Tendos. She really must look exactly like Akane. The joyous expression on the young man’s face showed her her reflection better than the rippling water in the cauldron. 

“Brother!” she cried, and fell into his arms, sobbing in a maidenly fashion. Kuno looked surprised, for she’d never greeted him in quite that friendly a manner before, and then gratified.

Akane’s heart sank.

“No!” she shouted. “No, can’t you see I’m the one who…?” A hand clamped around her mouth even as she screamed the words. Desperation gave Akane new strength, and she bit Ranma’s hand, gagging at its salty taste.

Ranma grimaced but he didn’t let go. She hadn’t bitten him very hard. He suspected the princess was not used to fighting. At any rate, he was caught on the proverbial horns of a dilemma. Rush to his master’s rescue or hold on to Akane so that Shampoo could proceed with their plan?

He pushed Akane’s face with the hand he had on her mouth, caught her with his other arm as he turned her in his grip so that she was now clasped securely against him.  He was slightly hidden in the shadow of an alcove, but soon the soldiers would see him.

There was only one option.

Akane yipped as she felt Ranma’s hand on her neck, and then fell limp as he pressed a vital point.

Kuno had lifted Shampoo out of the cauldron, and was carrying her tenderly in his arms. Mousse had produced a pair of thick glasses from somewhere and was blinking owlishly through them. He blushed at the thought that he might accidentally have attacked Princess Akane.

“Over there!” A solider shouted. “Another sorcerer! Get him!”

“Where? Where?” Mousse cried, eager to make up for his mistake. He saw a form carrying something hiding behind an alcove. Ah yes! Retribution would yet be his! He set off with a war cry, soldiers behind him.

They’d spotted him! Ranma cursed, turned on his heel as he hefted the unconscious Akane and ran back the way he’d come, soldiers at his heels.

He needed his hands to create a spell and both arms were full of princess. He dare not release her, lest the soldiers discover that there were two princesses. Then their ruse would be discovered and Kulloden’s plan would come to naught.

Dragon’s balls!

The soldiers pursued with even more enthusiasm when they realized that this sorcerer was not going to attack them any time soon, for whatever reason. Yet even with his burden, Ranma managed to stay ahead of his pursuers, his knowledge of Kulloden’s cave serving him well.

He wove through the tunnels, going higher and higher into the mountain that rose behind Kulloden’s hideout, but the soldiers, trained by the king’s famous general, kept up.

At first, the foremost of the pursuers chanted and shot spells at him. He missed, sending green sparks careening off the rocks. No doubt a young sorcerer of some kind, without much practice. Ranma ran for what felt like hours, and eventually the area he was passing through began to look less and less familiar.

I’ve got to lose them, Ranma thought frantically, and I can’t do that with a princess hanging around my neck!

Just as he was debating his options, he saw a blue glow ahead. Freedom! It looked like an exit. With renewed hope, he ran on.

Behind him, Mousse’s heart sank when he too recognized the escape.

No! I can’t let him go! I’ll prove to Master Happosai that I’m worthy…!

Pulling every shred of energy and skill together, Mousse spread his palms, brought them inward to his chest, closed them into fists, muttering what he hoped was the right spell under his breath.

“Was it..er..vincio..or..divincio…?” Making a quick decision, Mousse yelled out, “Devincio dono!” and opened his fingers.

A green flash erupted from his hands, and blasted Ranma in the small of the back just as he leapt out to safety. The energy poured out into Ranma, bowing his back outward from its strength, even as he fell, Akane still cradled in his arms. He had only a moment to look, and see that he was fast falling into an endless sheet of blue. Then blackness took him.

“Oh no!” Mousse stood at the precipice, looking down into the sea below. He looked around him. Their tunnel opened onto the face of a cliff, and hundreds of feet below them, the tide churned viciously against the sharp rocks. The sorcerer was no doubt dead.

He turned to the soldiers. “I suppose we’d better get back to the ship. I don’t see much point in going furthur.”

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

Ranma’s head broke the water and he swam in place, drawing in fresh breaths of air. He looked around, but nothing marred the calm surface of the sea. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out, but presumably the princess had drowned in the interim.

He sighed. She was much better off that way. She wouldn’t have liked what Kulloden had planned for her after Shampoo left. He wondered what had happened to his master. He still felt the sorcerer’s geas on him, so he knew that Kulloden yet lived.

Ranma sniffed.

“Not like those men in tin cans could be much of a challenge to him, anyway,” he muttered, thinking of the soldiers. “Might as well go find him.”

He began to swim away, towards shore. And stopped. Something was caught on his foot. Or tugging on it. Whatever it was, the creature was about to reach its Piscean doom. Ranma dove underwater, trying to see what held his leg captive.

There was nothing.

The pulling grew stronger, however. Curious, Ranma swam deeper, and deeper still, into the dark depths of a shallow cave. There, he found Akane. She lay supine on the sand, her chopped hair and filmy clothing floating softly in the current.

Distracted, Ranma swam closer and lifted her. He placed an arm about her shoulders and swam to the surface pulling her, then to the shore.

Once on dry ground, he placed her on her back and examined her carefully. She wasn’t breathing. That could be fixed. He knelt next to her, his shadow falling over her unconscious form.

“Respirae,” he said, focusing a slight bit of energy on her. The energy pooled in him, went outward to Akane…came back.

“What?” he said, so surprised that he didn’t realize he’d spoken out loud. None of his spells had ever rebounded like that, unless the other person was using a shield, and this girl obviously was not.

“Respirae!” He tried again, forcing more energy into her this time. The magic rebounded into him again.

Ranma looked around, wondering if this was some kind of trick. Was she a magician? Even a sorcerer? Had she wound some kind of defensive spell about herself?

No. If she had, he’d have sensed it.

Puzzled, he stared down at her, and noticed that she was turning blue.

“Dragon’s blood!” he cursed. She needed air.

He bent down, cupped her face with his hands, sealed her cold lips with his own warm ones, and blew. He raised his head to examine her for any sign of life. He repeated this a few times until suddenly she began coughing.

Ranma withdrew to a safe distance as he watched her spit up a gallon of seawater. She sat up, and began squinting around miserably, getting used to the bright afternoon sunshine. Her eyes alighted on him and widened.

“You!” She pointed, then lowered her hand abruptly. “You!” She said again.

“I’m Ranma,” Ranma said patiently. He stood and wiped off his loose black trousers. “Not that that need interest you. As I will no longer be sharing your company, delightful as it’s been.”

Akane blinked, disoriented. She’d woken to a dark cave, some loud and odd things had happened, and now she’d woken up to a completely different setting, a deserted beach. Well, deserted except for her captor. And this time she was not going to make the mistake of assuming it was all a dream.

“But my father’s soldiers came,” she began. “I should have been rescued by now.”

Ranma stayed quiet. Her memory would return soon enough.

“That...hussy!” Akane exclaimed. “She fooled them all into believing that she was I!” She began to get up. “I must return to the capital immediately and advise them of this duplicitous…”

“I’m afraid that will be a trifle hard, pri…Akane,” Ranma said firmly.

She gaped at him.

“How dare you address me so informally, sir!” she demanded, pint-sized royalty that she was. He regarded her with some amusement. She was perhaps a year or so younger than him, if that. Yet their upbringings were so different.

“You are no longer the princess. Shampoo is. This is a small deserted island, with little food or water, and no way off except by boat. It’s not on any of the Neriman shipping routes. You’d be best off conserving your energies and looking for a meal.”

Having said these words, Ranma turned his back on the astonished princess and walked off. He planned to take avian form and fly off the island. It was the only thing he could do. She really was better off on the island. Possibly, once all this was over, he might drop in to check on her. There was more food than he’d let on. There were coconut trees and breadfruit trees further in, and she would find a spring of some kind.

Ranma stopped as something tugged hard at him. He turned, but there was nothing except the princess a few feet away, still watching him dazedly. He turned, tried to continue, but it was as though there was a fishing hook in his chest. He simply could not continue, although he tried to propel his feet onwards.

“What the hell...?” he muttered. A spell. He could recognize it. Dragon’s balls. The pint-sized princess had put a spell on him, HIM, a sorcerer’s apprentice. He tested it with every mental tool he had. It was strong. He could feel the energy vibrating on an invisible leash from him to her. He walked back to her and picked her up before she knew what was happening.

“What are you doing?” Akane shrieked, realizing that he was carrying her into the water. “You...!” She didn’t have time to say more as Ranma pushed her head under the water, held it there for a few seconds, and then brought her back up, dripping and choking.

“You monster!” she gasped. “What are you…?”

“Tell me,” he said, his grey eyes cool and emotionless. “Tell me how you Bound me to you.”

“Bound…?”

He pushed her under again, held her there despite all her struggles, and brought her back up.

“How did you bind me?” he asked again, a hint of anger brightening the grey eyes. “You don’t give off the power a sorcerer or even a magician would. How did you do it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Akane protested and tried to take a much needed breath as he pushed her under again.

Ranma held her there until her struggles weakened, then hauled her out and began to walk back to shore with her.

She cried weakly, too exhausted to do anything but sag against him. On the shore, Ranma put her down. He flayed every bit of compassion from his soul and slapped her. She made a soft cry, and put her hand to her stinging face.

“Akane,” he said, in such a dangerous voice that she looked up, afraid. He’d taken a dagger out of a leather sheath and now held it in front of her face. “I’m going to ask you one last time. How did you Bynde me? If you don’t answer truthfully, I will kill you right here and leave your body for the birds.”

Staring up into his cold, grey eyes, Akane believed him. She noted absently that his eyes were also framed by long, thick sooty lashes.

“I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about, I give you my word,” she said. “If you won’t accept that, you can kill me like the woman-slayer you are!” She clapped a hand to her mouth. She never spoke so graphically. A lady was always polite. But most ladies didn’t have to look down the blade of a dagger or another dunking, either.

Ranma studied her face, and with a sinking heart, believed her. It explained why he had felt no magical aura about her. But…he was bound to her. How had it happened?

He cast his mind back over everything, and remembered. The skinny magician’s apprentice….his green spell, hitting Ranma and Akane just as they fell into the ocean.

Cursing softly, Ranma turned on his heel and walked off for a distance. Immediately he began to feel the pull of the binding. It was like another geas. It made his flesh crawl. Tied to this slip of a girl…

And no wonder his magic had rebounded on him! From what he knew of a binding, or Byndeing as sorcerers called it, he could perform very little magic unless Akane gave him permission. He was tied to her like her soul was.

He fisted his hands, unable to believe his bad luck. He could hardly let her know how she’d incapacitated him.

A thought struck him and he turned back to her.

“Who was that boy chasing us?”

“What boy?” She tried to scoot backwards, away from him. For some odd reason, he reminded her of her old tutor, who hadn’t hesitated to rap her on the knuckles when she gave him an answer he didn’t like, princess or no princess.

Ranma remembered she’d been unconscious when they’d been running down the tunnels.

“The skinny boy with spectacles.”

“That’s Mousse.”

“Yes?”

“He’s Happosai’s apprentice.”

“Who is Happosai?”

“Our court magician.”

“I see.” Ranma thought for another second. “I suppose Mousse resides in the palace then.”

“Naturally.” Akane sniffled, feeling very sorry for herself, left to the mercy of this horrid beast. “So did I, until recently.”

“I know,” Ranma said, in the kindest tone he’d used yet. Startled, Akane glanced up at him. “No doubt you wish to get back. Home. To the palace.”

Akane was sheltered, but she wasn’t stupid.

“You wish to go to the palace?” she asked. She thought out loud. “You want to see…Mousse. Because…Mousse put this spell...this binding on you?” She jumped at the scowl Ranma sent her way.

“It’s not wise to ask too many questions, princess.” Apparently he was back to addressing her by her rightful title. “Do you wish to go home or not?”

“And if I do?” Akane asked, hope fragile within her.

“Then it seems that we share a common goal, for now.” Ranma paused. He had to word this carefully, allowing Akane to give him permission to do magic without alerting her to the fact. “The only way to get off this island is by sorcery.”

“Why don’t you do it then?” Ranma did not strike Akane as the sort to stand around explaining things, and his behaviour puzzled her. She didn’t understand what Ranma meant by binding. What was he bound to do?

“I take it you want me to take the form of a giant bird and carry you to safety?” Ranma took care to make his voice sound slightly sarcastic.

“Well, yes, if that’s what it takes.” No sooner had Akane finished speaking than a wind sprang up, centered around Ranma, blowing his bangs around. He had raised his hands, spread his arms apart even as he muttered something and then a ribbon of blue energy swirled around him in a spiral.

When the wind died down, a large hawk, the size of a horse, shook its wings where Ranma had been standing.

Akane stared. Then she reminded herself that princesses didn’t stare. Did he expect her to climb on, by herself? Why, she never even climbed on a horse by herself! The bird gave her an impatient look out of one sharp, golden eye and Akane took a deep breath and approached.

The bird held out its wing. Akane gingerly stepped on.

“Eek!” The hawk raised the wing suddenly, sending Akane tumbling onto his back, so that she sprawled around his neck. She sat up, irritated, straightened her dress, and took an unnecessarily fierce grab of the hawk’s neck feathers but the bird didn’t seem to notice.

With a rush of air, the hawk flapped its powerful wings and shot into the air like a golden, feathered arrow, leaving Akane gasping with fear and clinging to his warm, soft neck with all her might, helpless as though she were not a girl clinging for dear life to his mighty shoulders, but prey caught in the hawk’s talons.

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

 AN: Well, well, what now? Akane wants to get home, but will it really be that easy with her enemy knowing her movements? Review!