Grave's New Life

Chapter Eleven

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to these series... Though maybe I can get the rights from Genma for a fish, two pickles and some rice. *Ducks blunt, sharp, and Amazon objects of death.* Gomen, gomen, gomen. Anyway, Rumiko Takahashi-sama owns Ranma 1/2 and High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger.

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Inside the Armsmaster Palace, Tirant, the bald leader of the group of criminals trying to take over Jade, raised an eyebrow. "Array, what are you doing with that?"

The pink haired woman smirked. "Well dearest, after G'Nolga keeps her position as Armsmaster, I was going to give it to those kids and let them leave."

Tirant nodded. "Okay, but why?" Personally, he didn't see why they should give a powerful artifact like that away.

Array shrugged. "Payment, I guess."

"Still, why do you have to use that?"

'That' was the item that had allowed Array and Tirant to get to Jade in the first place. [1]

"It's not like we're going to need it if our plans all go well." She argued.

"Hmm, true... I suppose that giving it to them after our plans are done with."

'Say, weren't we planning to give it to the girl?'

'Yeah, I thought we were too.'

'Shut up, we will. But not right now.'

'Are you telling me to shut up?! Maybe you should roll in a cow pie.'

Array's eye twitched. "Excuse me dear. My other selves are having an arguement and it's getting offensive."

Tirant nodded and let his girlfriend go.

The pink-haired woman left her taller boyfriend, having a mental fight, thankfully none of her other personalities were arguing out loud, so she didn't have to worry about anyone hearing what they had to say.

'We should tell him.'

'Why? This isn't like with the Demi-Golem.'

'I know that! But do you honestly think those two children like being held like this?'

'Technically speaking, they're teenagers, not children.'

'Tomato, tamato. Neither one is an adult yet.'

'Well, technically, neither was Brianna Diggers, yet we placed her on trial, sent her to prison AND got her into deep trouble with her mother.'

'We all know how THAT turned out.'

"Alright you guys, quiet down in there. You're giving me a headache." Array muttered to herself.

'Sure thing boss.' All the voices spoke at once.

Array sighed and walked into the room where her blue armored Undead ally was. "Uh, Rook?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?" Looking at the Undead, it was easy to understand her bewilderment.

Rook was strutting around the room, and occassionally making poses like a bodybuilder would. "You really shouldn't worry too much."

Array nodded. "Uh huh."

"If you're still worried about the Northern Edge Guard, don't worry... For the MACHO UNDEAD ROOK SAVAGE shall take care of them!!" [2] Striking a pose Rook let off with an "OOOOH YEAH!"

Array slapped her forehead. 'I don't know how, I don't know why, but television has warped his Undead brain.'

Shaking her head in disgust, she left the room with the brain warped, but still useful, Undead and just walked down the halls.

'Ugh, I've got idiots on one side, good guys on the other, vengeful old women on the other side and my compassion.' Array asked a question that no one had ever been able to answer before. "Why is good help so hard to find?"

"I don't know. Maybe because all the good help for our plan isn't available?"

"Maybe? But I thought it was because good help doesn't exist?"

"Hey come on, we're giving the boss a headache."

"Sorry boss."

Truthfully, Array didn't mind her other personalities, they just gave her headaches sometimes. Shaking her head she walked into a Troll, one of the smarter ones, that worked for Rook. "Your boss is an idiot. So, did that boy have anything useful on him?"

The Troll, about eight feet tall, solid muscle, green skin coloring holding a large club in one hand, shook its head. "Just some scrolls, stuff I don't really understand, a rather sharp knife and a spatula."

Array pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Of course you wouldn't know, you're a Troll.' She really couldn't believe the help that Rook had gotten them.

'Hey! Don't forget that some of us in here aren't the sharpest tools in the shed either.'

'But none of us are Trolls.'

'True, though I come the closest by being a Rock-Giant.'

'Hey guys, the boss's getting a headache again.'

'Ooops.'

Actually, Array didn't get headaches, she was long since used of the conversations in her head, so they didn't bother her. Yet all the thinking and talking from the others made it harder to concentrate on what she was doing at that moment.

Array shook her head and told the Troll to toss the backpack in with the prisoners, that is, after she got a look through it.

Walking over to it and opening it, Array started digging through the stuff in the backpack. 'If there's nothing that can hinder our plans in here, I'll let him have it back.'

'You know, we don't make much of a bad guy do we?'

'Not really. But you have to admit, getting on the good side of some of those 'good-guys' is probably one of the best moves that we've made.'

'You mean besides getting Tirant as a boyfriend?'

'That too.'

Array sweatdropped from the conversations in her head, they were starting to bug her.

***

Meanwhile, in another part of the Armsmaster castle, G'nolga, disputed Armsmaster of Jade was working out with her staff, a rather long bo staff that was segmented in three parts, each different part connected by a chain, but the three parts could be reconnected into a long staff that was longer than she was tall. The chestnut haired woman was thinking about all that was going on at the moment. 'Why the hell did I go along with those three?' She questioned herself before growling and moving with a flurry that very few people could hope to match.

Memories of what Tirant, Hanza, and Rook had said to her, to convince her to take such a coward's way out. They convinced her to go against everything that she had stood for, just to take over Jade. 'The only reason I ever teamed up with them was to get a clean shot at Julia, no tricks, no nothing, just me and her, so WHY did I choose this path?'

Growling, the Dwarf did a quick spin kick and threw her weapon into the stone pillar that acted as the wall, shattering it. Panting a bit heavilly, she growled. "Julia, you had better be the one I face in the finals. I'll never forgive you otherwise." 'Or myself.' She added to herself. While G'nolga hated losing to Julia, it was still better for her honor and pride to lose to the redhead than to take such a coward's way out. [3]

Growling a bit, she shook her fist in impotent fury as she remembered how Rook, Hanza and Tirant had talked her into going along with them, how honor didn't factor into their decision. How that bald bastard Tirant had said that taking over Jade was just business and that honor and her personal goals didn't matter in the equation, how Hanza played on her pride to get her to go along by questioning whether she could stand to lose to Julia again, and how Rook had made mention that this was the best chance she had to beat Julia.

"And that's why I agreed to kidnap Brianna and help Julia lose her honor." She muttered to herself.

Of course, at that moment, a certain blue armored Undead ally of hers was walking up the steps to see her. "So you stopped working out, huh?" He said as he reached the top step, G'nolga's back to him.

She turned and leveled him with such a glare that if it was possible, Rook would be vaporized by her glare alone.

Taken slightly aback, Rook shook his head and spoke. "I just heard from the Bazzar that Julia was fighting in an arena nearby."

G'nolga snorted, she didn't care, all she wanted was one clean, honorable battle with Julia, to restore both their honor. "You're point?"

"It's against her mother, Brunhildagard "Mumsey" Brigand."

THAT got G'nolga's attention. She stared at Rook and smirked a bit. "Well then, that's different. Let's go. I don't want to miss a good fight."

Rook blinked, he would have thought that she would want to see Julia get crushed. He just didn't understand these warriors all that well.

****

Ranma sighed as he started to cool down from his workout. Looking over, he smiled lightly as he saw the small Werecheetah that was his friend sleeping soundly. 'She said that she was part Werecheetah, and a Cheetah's a C, C, Cat... But she don't look like no C, C, Cat that I've ever seen.' After all, cats had slitted eyes, sharp claws, pointed, triangular ears and a nasty disposition. Yet Grave didn't have those things. Her hands had no claws, her eyes were normal, as was her ears. So what if she had a furry body and a tail? His father turned into a Panda, and he was still human.

"Maybe I'm just crazy." He mumbled to himself. There had to be something he could do to get out of this mess. 'But what?'

Preview of Next Chapter: "Hey, this is me, Brianna! Well, in the next chapter, this whole debacle in Jade finally comes to a head, at least for a few characters. We're going to jump ahead a day or two and get to the good stuff. Be there, or I'll sick Peebochu on you!"

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[1] It was never stated, to my knowledge, just how Array and Tirant got to Jade in the first place, since both were from Earth to begin with. All that is known is that while Tirant was in Jail from a failed attempt to take over New York City, Array was on Jade manipulating the system there. How Array got to Jade in the first place, I have no clue. Later Array broke Tirant out of prison and then took him to Jade to see her handiwork.

[2] All apologies to the Macho Man Randy Savage. (Like I said, I watch pro wrestling on occassion.) I've been meaning to do that for some time now.

[3] Before someone says that there's a continuation error, I modified some of the earlier chapters. *Sigh* This is what happens when you don't have all the issues of the color series, you miss one little issue and you miss some really important info. Anyway, in the comic, G'nolga does question herself why she chose that way, but not until later.

Well, this is my shortest chapter, please forgive me, I've been distracted and I've had slight writer's block. Another note to pass on is that my writing style itself has changed. You could see that, I hope, when I picked up the story with G'nolga. I've attempted to refine and improve my writing style. What do you readers think? Of both the changes and the story itself?