Recs

Hearts of Ice by Krista Perry.

A Blood spell tears Ranma and Akane apart sending Akane to the Kami plane. Ranma is in a desperate race to save Akane, while Akane tries to find a way to return back to Nerima.

The scene below is spoilery.

The water turned smooth as glass and shone with a soft light as images began to form on its surface...

"The past first, I think," said Susa-no-o quietly. "Then the present will make more sense."

And Akane saw Ranma talking with her family in the dining room, with Ukyo, Ryoga and Doctor Tofu. Her heart leaped within her at the sight, and tears sprang to her eyes. There they were, all of her loved ones. Ranma; strong, confident, determined as he announced that he was leaving for China in the morning to break the blood spell... He looked just like she remembered.

So young...

Oh Ranma...

Akane reached deep within herself for her center of calm. She wouldn't cry. She would watch.

Ranma, in his room, quickly packing for the trip, his face set with determination. He looks up suddenly as if he senses something. Fear flickers across his face...

The light bulb explodes, plunging him into darkness, showering him with tiny fragments of glass, but he doesn't notice as he presses himself into the corner...

And the Snow Woman appears...

Akane choked back a gasp. Just watch.

She watches. And though the tears run unnoticed down her face as she sees and hears the Snow Woman, her former friend, torment Ranma with lies and then cast her cold spell on him, she remaines silent and still.

And watches as the Shadowcat comes to steal away Ranma's humanity...

The images swirl and speed up, only to slow down a moment later...

And Masakazu is there, in a mountain glade, coaxing a wild- eyed Ranma towards him so that he can remove the Snow Woman's cold spell. But the Shadowcat returns, and a battle, a battle over Ranma's soul, ensues...

Masakazu stuns Ranma with a small, yet powerful ki-blast... and then freezes, staring at Ranma, his black, inhuman eyes wide with amazement and wonder...

Akane felt her heart contract with fatalistic fear. What is he doing?! Can't he sense the demon coming up behind him?!

Akane wanted to scream, to shout at him, to warn him... but it was the past and she couldn't do anything. Except watch silently...

Masakazu blinks, then turns suddenly, fast, but not fast enough to avoid the flash of the Shadowcat's huge paw that pins him to the ground...

"Stop..." whispered Akane hoarsely, the tears running freely down her face. "I understand already, but please... I don't want to see this..."

Susa-no-o glanced sideways at her, his hands still stretched out. Then the image swirled and sped up...

Akane crumpled inside, whether with relief or sadness, she couldn't tell...

"Eight mortal days have passed since then," said Susa-no-o quietly. "This is the now, the present of the mortal realm."

Ranma, in female form, curled up sleeping on the floor of Akane's bedroom. The dirt and blood has been long since cleaned from his face and arms, and his red hair has been combed and tied into his usual braided pigtail. Her father, Nabiki, Ukyo and Doctor Tofu are gathered around him. They look drained and worried...

"I'm sorry..." Doctor Tofu's voice floats up ethereally from the surface of the water. "But I've tried everything I know. And if even Kintaro-sensei can't find a way around this cold spell..." He trails off helplessly.

The look on Nabiki's and Ukyo's faces mirrors Akane's own expression.

"You can be sure we'll keep trying, though..." Doctor Tofu continues.

Ranma blinks awake abruptly. He stands on all fours, looks up and around the room, his eyes wide and alert, his feline gaze turning...

...until it appears that he's looking right at them...

He stops and stares, his wild blue eyes peering up at them from the water's surface, from the two-dimensional image of her room.

He meows anxiously. Over and over again.

Susa-no-o's eyes widened. Akane's hands were fists, up to her mouth, pressing back the sobs that wanted to burst out. "C-can he see us?" she choked.

"Impossible." The deity's eyes narrowed. "Still... he obviously senses something. It could be his connection to the Kami Plane through the Shadowcat, though..." He trailed off, focusing as the image began to waver slightly.

Ukyo goes over to Ranma, tries to sooth him as he continues to mew anxiously at nothing. But he ignores her. Just stares up blindly out of the water, crying, crying... Tears begin to streak down Ukyo's face...

"Dammit, Ranchan..." she whispers, a sound between grief and anger. "She's not coming back. Why can't you accept that? Why can't you come back to me?" She begins to sob quietly as Soun, Nabiki and Doctor Tofu look on wearily, sadly. "Please... come back to me..."

But Ranma's eyes continue to gaze beyond what he can see...

"Enough." Akane's voice was barely audible. "I've seen enough."

Susa-no-o lowered his hands. The image faded from the water as it began to flow quietly once again.

"If I were there..." she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the water. "I could always bring him out of it... the Nekoken..."

Susa-no-o turned to her. "Which is precisely why the Shadowcat took advantage of this opportunity. Because you're not there. Akane..."

Akane looked up at him. Her face was wet, her brown eyes glistened with tears, but her expression was remarkably calm.

Susa-no-o smiled grimly at her. "The Shadowcat is here, Akane. In the Kami Plane. Masakazu was able to send him back before he died. But the link between Ranma and the demon is still very much alive."

Akane understood immediately.

"Where?" she asked.

"In the Gaki domain. The realm of evil gods. I can show you how to get there. I'd go myself, but if I take a single step out of my own domain, the Council jumps on my back faster than you can blink."

"Show me." Akane lifted her blade, which was pulsing with bright blue ki.

Susa-no-o's grim smile widened. "Atta girl, Akane.

"I knew I could count on you."

Shadow Chronicles by Mark MacKinnon

A dark force sweeps through Nerima, provoking changes both good and bad, but one thing's for sure... nothing will be the same again.

"He resisted at first," Lilla went on blithely, watching Akane out
of the corner of her eye. "But no mortal can resist us for long, Akane
my sweet. He was quite receptive to her by the end ..." Her opponent
continued with her taunts, her words driving icy spears into Akane's
chest.

Not true. None of it. Ranma loved HER. Akane felt a hot,
welcome rage rising behind her eyes in a blood red tide, and she
opened herself to it. Lilla shouldn't have told such lies about her
Ranma. She shouldn't have been smiling so smugly, and she REALLY
shouldn't have treated Akane with such contempt.

Akane remembered how it had felt, being cradled in Ranma's
arms after she'd nearly been killed during Ranko's first appearance.
She thought of way the head-strong, tongue-tied boy had taught her
"kitchen katas", his presence next to her sweet and comforting. She
thought of the way he'd forced himself to talk about how he felt, how
he'd done it for her. And her thumb traced the cool ring on her finger
as she remembered his face, gorgeous blue eyes catching the tawny
golden rays of the setting sun as he held out a ring box for her, his face
so eager and nervous and hopeful all at the same time.

Her Ranma. And they'd hurt him. That thought called up the
churning fury, white hot and immediate, and she welcomed it, no longer
fighting to be calm.

"I don't know what you want," Akane interrupted Lilla's taunt, her
voice deceptively gentle. "But you really shouldn't have hurt Ranma.
That was a mistake." Lilla looked at her in amazement, as if she'd
performed a really interesting trick. Then she opened her mouth to say
something.

Akane moved.

She let that rage explode within her breast, ceased letting it control
her and instead used it, riding the tide of her fury like a quicksilver bullet
express, streaking forward as the world seemed to slow....