After Quest, 50 Years after Ranma was sealed and Alfea was rebuilt. Rating Options

[P-girl]

"Because I feel I have things to lose now." Xieress softly said. "Back then I... I felt like I didn't have much to lose. But now...? All I can see is the things I'm going to lose, no matter what is going to happen." He confessed. "No matter what I'll do."

[Nightstorm]

((****!!! This turned out a lot longer than I thought it’d be. Sorry for the length on this one…))

Solara audibly exhaled. Xieress was in a rough position; she couldn’t deny that. After a moment of silence, she spoke again. “Did I ever tell you how it was that I ended up here?” She didn’t let Xieress answer her as she already knew she’d never discussed this anyone since coming to Alfea.

“I ran a… rebel militant group back on Earth; we were based out in the Alps. It was the whole ‘super-powers rising against the oppressive normal people’ routine for a while before I ran into this armored darkness-controlling psycho calling himself Nightstorm. Turns out the guy wanted to save the planet by destroying it, and he didn’t like that I was screwing with his agenda, so we fought it out.

“During the fight, I decided to strengthen myself by fusing one of Nightstorm’s experiments to me, which pretty much turned me into a veritable nuke. At the time, we were arguably the most powerful of our kind to exist, and we were just happily trying to kill each other out in the western Pacific without a care to bystanders or even the planet itself.

“The battle did end, and Nightstorm won. But it wasn’t some miracle weapon that saved people’s lives, or legions of warriors that kept the planet from falling apart during the whole thing. Nope. It was just one woman; this li’l stuck-up, blue-armored merc that often followed the whole ‘Righting Wrongs’ motto. She didn’t have any powers, and her weapons weren’t that useful, yet she decided to throw herself between us. Us. The two most powerful Elemental titans on Earth, and she just butted right in as though she could match us.

“By rights, she should have died within seconds. She had an impossible goal: keep me from going on an endless rampage; and keep him from killing me, thereby releasing my power to wipe out everyone across the planet. And yet, she held; played ‘meat-shield’ between us to make sure neither of us killed each other.

“I don’t really remember what happened after she’d convinced Nightstorm to keep from killing me, but I do know that I was defeated. When I revived, I devoted myself to finding out how to control the new powers I got, and so I found the ultimate teacher through Nightstorm’s data: Ranma. Then I came to Magix to find him, and… well, you know the rest.” Solara paused to catch her breath, letting her memories flow through her.

“The point of the story, though, was that if that merc hadn’t interfered, that battle would’ve ended a whole lot differently. I probably wouldn’t be here. The Earth I know wouldn’t exist. But since she actually tried, despite the possibility of losing her family, her race, and her home, things turned out for the better.”

She walked up to Xieress and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re afraid of losing things; believe me, I get that. If you let Ranma and Nanaya duke it out, you’re guaranteed to lose everything; but if you try – at the very least, do whatever you can to try – to keep them from killing each other, then at least you’ve made a chance that you won’t lose someone. And if you’re lucky, anyone.”

Solara tried to level her determined glare right into Xieress’ eyes. “So I don’t know about you, but I plan on doing whatever I can to keep those two from even touching each other when it comes to that. Yeah, they’re more powerful than me – especially since I don’t have access to my powers anyway – and I may very likely die from the attempt, but I plan on trying anyway, even if I have to beat them into their senses myself. I plan on making sure I don't lose something in that battle. What about you?”

This post has been edited by Nightstorm: Jun 3 2015, 11:39 AM

[P-girl]

Xieress closed his eyes tightly, holding his head as he started to shake. He was afraid... so afraid that he might lose EVERYTHING. But he also knew Solara was right. If he didn't fight... that loss was an inevitability. If he fought, he at leat had a minute chance of saving something. It was going to be hard, but then again, when had something been easy for him? He could... no, he had to do this. He stopped shaking as he opened his eyes, filled with resolve.
"I'm in. I can, no, I have to do this." He said.

[Nightstorm]

Solara grinned as she gave Xieress’ shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “That’s more like it,” she praised before letting go and backing away, giving him his space again. “So what now?” she asked him.

[P-girl]

"Well, getting you up to snuff would be a good place to start." Xieress said, before realizing that might've been a bit.... "Sorry, that sounded meaner then intended."

[Nightstorm]

Solara shook her head. “No. You’re right,” she admitted. “That’s definitely a good start. Problem is… I don’t have very many ideas on how to go about that.”

[P-girl]

"Me neither, really.... Reconnecting to your powers? Doesn't feel like something that's going to be fixed by simple training." Xieress eventually said.

[Nightstorm]

“The way it was always explained to me when I was trained was that inborn abilities are the same as motor controls in the human brain,” Solara said, thinking back to her younger years. “A section of the brain is devoted to controlling powers just as another section is devoted to moving an arm or a leg.” She fell silent as she began to think. It lasted for a few moments. “I think I remember hearing something about people who had become paralyzed from brain damage, but managed to self-reprogram an unused section of their brain to take on the tasks of the damaged section, thus removing the paralysis. Maybe that’s the key…” she thought aloud. "Maybe training can fix it..."

[Ranma]

Ranma flew towards Nanaya at break neck speeds, and Nanaya simply stood still and slashed his blade in the air in front of him before he disappeared from Ranma's view.

"Wh-where did he go?" Ranma asked out loud.

"Right here," Nanaya said with a stern voice as he slashed at Ranma's back. An attack that Ranma dodged with relative ease.

"Heh, that was pretty close."

Nanaya slashed the air again and disappeared as he had before.

"Hmmmm, that's weird."

[Nightstorm]

Well, it’s a crazy idea, but it’s better than nothing… Solara thought to herself. “Well, let’s try this, then,” she told Xieress. “Try using fire on me, again.”

[P-girl]

((Sorry for being.... spotty with replying. Been feeling a bit under the weather.))

"If you say so...." Xieress somewhat insecurely said, conjuring up a large flame in his hand, before firing it to Solara

[mightymarty2]

Martina stood back this had all the hall marks of a bad idea but she had no idea how to help

[Nightstorm]

((P-girl: No need for apologies. Hope you get to feeling better soon.))

Solara held out her hand in a halting motion, pouring her willpower towards the oncoming flames.

…

It affected the fire about as much as a breeze would affect a mountain. Her hand was burned… again; this time, though she bit back the pain as the flames dispersed against her fire-immune bodysuit. “I have to control this,” she muttered, trying to will her abilities back to her. “I need to control her.” Directing her attention towards Xieress, she braced herself. “Again,” she told him.

[P-girl]

"I-I don't think the result will be all that different...." He said, clearly taken aback. "And I don't want to hurt you...."

[Nightstorm]

“That’s… that’s really sweet and all, but I’ve been hurt – and killed – several times over in my life,” Solara pointed out. “You don’t have to worry about hurting me; I’m used to it. Besides, we’re getting low on time, and nothing’s been a better impromptu teacher than the old ‘Self-preservation Instinct’.” She readied her stance once again. “Now come on; you can do this. Again,” she stressed.

[P-girl]

Xieress wanted to protest, he didn't want to hurt her and it was pretty clear that this wasn't working... but his mind was drawing a blank at what else to do.
"As you wish." He said, once more shooting fire at her, closing his eyes.

[Nightstorm]

Solara took the attack head-on, trying to push every facet of her being into willing the flames into her command. She mentally screamed, spiritually roared, physically strained. It did nothing, as Xieress was expecting. The flames consumed her as they did before, leaving her skin reddened from the burns, her blonde hair singed at the ends.

When the attack subsided, she stubbornly held in the pain, though her breathing was labored. “I… am not going to let her screw me out of this… Not again,” she muttered. In her mind’s eye, Xieress no longer stood where he was – in his place was the draconic human that resembled her powers, her other “self”. The being that had so very briefly faced Tenchi, and the sole reason Solara sought to release Ranma: Eclipse. “I need to control you.” The female delusion, naturally, didn’t respond; yet, somehow, that seemed to anger Solara. “I have to cage you!”

She remained entirely ignorant of the fact that she treated Eclipse just like she had once treated normal humans back during her campaign against them: to be her slave – to be controlled in every way by her. Despite her willingness to help the other students, this aspect of her life still ruled her, and she didn’t yet realize that she needed to let this dominating side of herself go… It was obvious that she would never come to understand that on her own, though, before the flames would completely destroy her.

"A-again..." she eventually told Xieress.

[P-girl]

"You're losing your mind." Xieress said, getting rather scared now. "Is that what you want? Is that helping the situation?!"

[Nightstorm]

Solara slowly shook her head in answer to Xieress' questions. “Then what should… I do?” she asked him; she’d felt like screaming the words, yet all that came out was a tired dejection. “I want her back, but I can’t let her be free. So you tell me… what should I do?” Despite the possibility that Xieress knew nothing about Eclipse, it felt natural for Solara to speak so… casually about her “other self”.

[P-girl]

"I.... don't know, I'm not going to pretend I know anything about this..." Xieress admitted. "But I do know that what you're doing right now isn't the way to go. You'll just end up hurt or worse."