Hybrid Theory XP 3

by CnA Productions

The Story YOU Voted For! You Have Nobody To Blame But Yourselves! Now labelled as a crossover. Thanks, anonymous guy, for your polite advice!

A Month Late, On A Computer Not Far Away...

(unless you're in like Australia or something)

SAILOR

WARS

Episode 2.5: Rolling Thunderpeal, The Headsman's Blade That Causes Readers To-

Wait, we did this last time.

Oh, screw it, just read the story already.

C&A Productions Presents

An Sidestory Chosen By (some of) YOU!

Hybrid Theory XP... Third Time's The Charm

Live From Techzas

Whoever said space was big and empty was lying, Akira thought with

annoyance. She was leaning over the controls of her ship, looking out the window

at the planet below. It was the seventh star system she had seen in as many

days. The solar body here was smaller than the one back at Earth, or so the

instruments told her. With a few quick commands she could bring up its type, the

orbits of all the planets in its system, all sorts of strange information. Not

that she cared much.

She missed Earth. On Earth, she had herself and the road. The highway

travelling through the empty wilderness, the dirt road through the mountains,

the winding coastal parkways... those were empty spaces. That was freedom. Space

was... exact. You had to calculate orbital trajectories and relative velocities.

Trips had to be painstakingly precise. A course off by even a tenth of a degree

when it started could end up placing you hundreds of lightyears away from where

you wanted to be. There was no capacity for wandering. There was no art to it.

She found herself wishing the enemy ships would spot her, like they had

three systems ago. The surge of adrenaline as the spacecraft came after her,

particle beams and lasers filling space all around her as she rushed the ship

through its paces, that was something fantastic. Every bit of her attention, all

of her instincts had to be focused on keeping herself and her passenger alive.

There was no room for stray thoughts.

Akira didn't really know how the drive of the starship worked, and

considering its origin she wasn't certain she wanted to. All she knew was that

it took a little over a day for the thing to recharge and that she had to be

parked near a star for it to happen. Which left her a lot of time to think. She

didn't want to think. She wanted a few months off. Just a few months to get away

from Earth and her search. Two years of fruitless effort. Everyone else had

given up, except her.

And now she was ready to give up.

"Ugh," Akira groaned, rubbing her face with one hand. "That's it. Sleep

now. I'm starting to sound like a girl's comic." She slipped away from the

controls, setting the proximity alarms to go off if anything came too close to

the deceptively fragile spaceship Tethys had constructed. "Plus I'm talking to

myself."

She pulled the door to the rest of the ship open and gingerly walked

out. The ship was big; maybe she would be lucky. The ship itself was shaped

something like a crystal formation, a series of irregular rods radiating back

from the control node. The crystal rods contained the living quarters and common

areas of the ship, as well as the arcane interstellar drive that Tethys and her

scientists had cobbled together. Technically speaking, the ship was supposed to

be able to hold maybe half a dozen people at once, or less and some cargo. At

the moment, there was only herself and her passenger.

So, of course, she ran into him the moment she started up the corridor

towards her quarters.

"Akira, how pleasant of you to join us," Touga said, smiling as he

floated in the corridor. His long red hair billowed around his head slightly,

giving his aquiline features an otherworldly quality. Akira frowned and pressed

her hands against the walls to slow herself to a stop.

"I need to get some sleep," she informed him crisply.

"Certainly I wouldn't think of denying you," Touga replied, floating to

the side to let her pass. She noticed that he positioned himself in the hall

such that she would have no choice but to brush against him in some manner to

get to her room. She fought down the desire to deck him. Technically, this was

his mission, and people didn't respond well to diplomats who were covered in

bruises.

"Touga, can we stop playing games like this?" Akira asked in annoyance.

"I've already told you I'm not interested."

"You expect me to spend all my time on such a long trip by myself, when

there is such a lovely young lady aboard?" Touga said with just the right hint

of self-deprecation that let you know he was being both sincere and joking

around at the same time.

"I'm gay," she let him know for the tenth time.

"True," he said with a smile; his eyes had become diamond-shaped. "But

that shouldn't stop you from enjoying yourself now and then."

Akira pinched her nose and glared at him. Then she snapped herself to

the side, planted her legs on the wall and spun around him in a flash. He

blinked as she slid through the space around him like a contortionist, slipping

through the space he left without so much as disturbing a lock of his hair.

"I'm going to bed now, Touga. I suggest you get some rest too. The next

system, we finally get to meet the Jurai."

"Why do you dislike me so much, Akira?" Touga asked as she started to

float away. Akira paused. She knew his tone was probably faked, but it sounded

contrite enough that she felt compelled to answer.

"It has nothing to do with you, Touga."

"I see..." Touga mused. "Then it's the company I keep? Of course, Tethys

is a demon. She admits as much. But you are working for her as well."

"Just this once..." Akira grumbled. After how boring and useless this

trip was, Akira would never go into space again. No, once she got back to Earth

it would be time to head off in search of Ukyou again. Maybe the information

Tethys had would be worth it, maybe not. It hardly mattered anymore.

"I'll see you later then, Akira," Touga called out cheerfully.

OoOoo

"...so, as you can imagine, it nearly caused a diplomatic incident! But

luckily, mother Funaho spoke to them while the medical teams were summoned. The

ambassador apologised, and Ms. Airi apologised as well, and so it all turned

out well. Although I've heard they haven't been seen in the same room since.

"Oh! There's going to be a Three Lights concert on the planet of Demood,

near the border. I'm going-"

Ayeka snapped her mouth shut, chiding herself. "Please erase that last

sentence."

There was a happy little chirp as the GPNet avatar obediently erased the

words from the letter. Ayeka cleared her throat and continued.

"Sasami and I are planning to watch the concert. Tell Ryoko that if

she's not been causing any trouble, I might send her a recording of it." Ayeka

giggled a bit to herself. Ryoko actually despised the Three Lights. 'Prancing

girly-boy twerps' was her description. The mere offer would probably enrage her.

"I've heard that the situation has stabilised in your area. I'm sure that soon

the blockade will be broken and you'll be able to visit your home..." She

sighed. "No, please delete that sentence as well. Instead, make it: I've heard

that the situation has become quiet in your area. I hope that is so, and you are

all well. We all miss you here, especially Sasami, and hope to see you soon.

Fondest wishes, Princess Ayeka Masaki Jurai." She paused. "End letter. Please

send it."

There was another happy little chirp as the GPNet avatar bundled up the

scroll upon which it had written Ayeka's letter. She gave it a little smile, to

which it chirped happily again. Really, they were perhaps just a little too

lifelike for Ayeka's tastes. Mihoshi had liked the things, but then, she liked

almost anything small and cute.

"Writing a letter, Princess?"

Ayeka jumped, spinning around in her chair, and then relaxed. "Oh...

Captain Shoten. I didn't hear you enter."

The captain of the Hiryu was a distant cousin Ayeka had met only twice

before this voyage, a veteran of several campaigns even before the Sailor War

had begun. She was thin, with a severe bearing that accentuated her austere

uniform, and close-cropped pale green hair. "My apologies, Princess, but you

asked to be notified as we made our final approach to Demood."

"Oh... yes, of course. Thank you, Captain."

Shoten eyed the GPNet messaging device sourly. "Is it wise to have sent

a message, Princess? The secrecy of your presence here is of the utmost

importance."

Ayeka glanced back at it guiltily. "I didn't give any indication of my

position... these messages are untraceable..."

"I find it a good strategy to not make such assumptions in wartime,

Princess."

"Umm... yes. You are probably right." Ayeka flushed, feeling scolded.

"I'm sorry."

"You needn't apologise to me, Princess," Shoten said. "In any case, it's

too late to do anything about it now. However, I suggest you make your

preparations for this rendezvous." She paused for a long moment. "The concert

will begin only an hour after you arrive."

Ayeka blinked. "So soon? Oh dear! I'll have to hurry to get a good seat

to get that recording for Sasami and..." she trailed off, and flushed even

hotter than before. "Um, yes, thank you. I will."

Shoten sketched a small bow and departed her quarters. 'Her' being quite

literal, since Ayeka's clandestine passage aboard the Hiryuu had been simply

accomplished by her being smuggled into Captain Shoten's quarters. Few would

think to look for something untoward there, and fewer still had the authority to

enter and check. Of course, now Ayeka felt even more like an unwanted guest than

usual.

She sighed and stretched. There was no use worrying about her cousin's

opinion of her. Ayeka knew she wasn't merely some spoiled child to be babysat.

While it was true that the chance to see the Three Lights in person had played

a... certain role in the timing of this meeting, the location was unavoidable,

as close to Earth as Jurai-controlled space still extended at this point.

Besides, the concert provided excellent justification for the Juraian

patrol ship to linger in the area. There had been more than one Sailor incursion

on Juraian worlds during Three Lights concerts in the past, so keeping a close

eye on the proceedings would be prudent. Ayeka was really rather proud of her

plan. That it gave her a chance to see Yaten in person was just a... a side-

benefit. An important side-benefit, since for some reason they seemed reluctant

to ever come to Jurai itself, but...

"Princess!" The joint voice interrupted her thoughts, then one of the

voices continued, "Will you be requiring your wardrobe?"

Ayeka nodded at Azaka and Kamidake. "Yes, please."

"Princess, we will prepare ourselves as well!"

Ayeka sighed, then affixed the two with a glare. It was hard to meet the

gaze of her two guardians, inasmuch as they resembled nothing so much as giant

logs, their only 'facial features' being a single expressionless lens in the

middle of their structure. Nonetheless, they shrank back a bit at her

expression. "We've talked about this. You are not accompanying me. This is an

incognito mission, and you two stand out too much."

"Princess, we realise that you are correct."

"And therefore, we prepared disguises!"

She stared. "Disguises?"

"Yes, look atop us!"

She looked. "That's a... palm tree top?"

"Yes, we will thus be mistaken for innocent trees."

"But you're floating off the ground. And have sigils on you. And lenses.

And you talk."

"...hmm. Perhaps a trenchcoat, then..."

Ayeka massaged her brow for a moment. "No."

"But Princess...!"

"You're staying here and that's an order!" She softened her tone a bit.

"It's just a concert and a diplomatic meeting. Don't be so concerned."

"We'd still rather you had an escort, Princess."

"I will be fine," she said firmly, and waved them aside. "Please let me

prepare now, it won't do to be late."

Ayeka clucked her tongue as she sorted through her clothes. She'd need

to pick something that disguised her identity, but wasn't too obviously designed

to do that. Not too obviously rich either - that would draw attention - but

Ayeka was self-aware enough to admit she wouldn't have the faintest clue how to

act like the poorer sort of space tourist. A happy medium was called for.

Oh yes, and it couldn't rumple too easily. The concert was likely to be

crowded.

She found herself replaying the conversation with Captain Shoten in her

mind as she sorted through her clothing. Not to mention a few other

conversations during the voyage. She felt her face heat again, but this time she

was at least fairly certain it was anger. This mission WAS important. As dubious

as many were on Jurai about the prospect of diplomatic contact with the so-

called 'Queen of the Dark Kingdom', she remained their only viable method of

contact with Earth. After the disaster at the Pleiades, they didn't have the

luxury of picking or choosing allies, even if some didn't want to admit it.

But there was more to it than that.

This Queen Tethys had promised them information about Galaxia. Jurai

needed that information, whatever it was. But even more so, Ayeka needed that

information.

She understood why she couldn't be at the front lines with... Tenchi.

She'd had it explained often enough to her. Yes, technically Tenchi was Juraian

royalty as well, but his power to command the Light Hawk Wings made him

irreplacable. Yes, the trustworthiness of Ryoko was under some debate, but her

contributions and ability to make fast responses to Sailor incursions were

essential. Ayeka was powerful and willing to help, yes, but she was too

important for that duty. She'd wondered bitterly at the time, how exactly being

told how important she was could make her feel the complete opposite.

But fine. She understood she couldn't fight with Tenchi. She did her

best to help him anyway, sending the most cheerful letters she could, to lift

his spirits. But just because she couldn't fight didn't mean she couldn't

contribute.

The Juraian Empire and the Galaxy Police had been fighting a war against

the Sailors for over two years. The first attacks had been thought by some to be

a strange disease, turning people into twisted, violent parodies of themselves.

But the arrogant message the being that called herself Galaxia sent to the royal

family had dispelled that notion. Since then, several other of Galaxia's

commanders had been identified. They called themselves 'Sailor Senshi', and some

possessed powers that rivalled that of Juraian royalty. They spread the 'Sailor

plague' on planets, attempting to overwhelm the inhabitants before help could be

sent. Sometimes, through some terrible means, they destroyed whole worlds,

wiping them clean of life.

The problem was, as Ayeka saw it, was that nobody was asking the right

questions about this. Many fought them, of course. And many were trying to find

out what terrible weapon the Sailors used to annihilate worlds, and why they

only used it on occasion. But the problem went deeper than that.

These creatures shouldn't exist. As the firstborn princess of the royal

hour, Ayeka had received the finest education Jurai could provide. She had

learned about the cultures of the galaxy, studied previous wars. There had never

been any mention of beings like these 'Sailors'. In thousands of years, nobody

had ever used such powers. What was even more disconcerting was how they and

their master Galaxia had sprung into being. Almost overnight, the Juraians had

not only found themselves at war, but war against an enemy they soon found had

already conquered over half the galaxy!

It was inconceivable. How could this have been accomplished without any

warning, any indication of the doom that was about to overtake the Empire?

Nobody knew. It didn't seem like an important question, with the enemy at the

gates.

Ayeka couldn't blame anyone for that opinion. But she was sure it WAS

important. In fact, she was sure it might be the most important question of all.

What did Galaxia want, besides domination? Where did she and the powers she and

her minions wielded come from? It seemed scarcely believable that everything she

learned as a child had been wrong. And yet, it seemed like the only option to

her.

She'd asked Washuu, once. But Washuu had just laughed. "No, no,

Princess, everything you learned was correct. I know, I created that curriculum

myself! It was totally true! It was just also completely and utterly wrong."

Ayeka had protested that didn't make any sense, and Washuu had laughed again and

said, "I know! It's great, isn't it? If you ever find out why, Princess, you let

me know."

Ayeka had felt at the time she was being made fun of. She often felt

that way talking to Washuu; to be fair, she strongly suspected everyone else did

as well. But she also didn't think the little scientist was lying. What she

learned HAD been true. She knew many relatives who had travelled the breadth of

the galaxy in their youths. She had read Galaxy Police logs of exploration going

back dozens of centuries. The universe they knew had BEEN the universe.

Then it had all changed.

If she could just find out why... then maybe that would also explain

Galaxia. Ayeka hoped she was right, because she was afraid that if they didn't

figure out what Galaxia truly was, they wouldn't be able to stop her.

Not that many shared her opinion. Not anybody did, really. There was no

foe that Jurai couldn't defeat. Their power was the greatest in the universe.

Once, Ayeka would have agreed without question. That too was what she'd been

taught as a child.

But then, before she met Tenchi, she would have felt a human manifesting

their own Light Hawk Wings was just as impossible. Maybe her experiences had

made her more open-minded than the rest of her family.

Or maybe, she admitted ruefully, she was just so young that she hadn't

had the first-hand experience to be sure the universe was the way it was. So it

wasn't so hard for her to believe it was suddenly all different...

"Crew of the Hiryu! We've established orbit."

Ayeka jumped again, but this time no-one was behind her; Captain

Shoten's voice was instead carried over the broadcast system of the treeship.

"Those requesting shore leave should gather-"

Ayeka gasped. She'd lost track of time. Looking down at the garment in

her hands - no, that clearly WOULD rumple, given the effects of it being in her

apparently very tight grip for the past few minutes. She hurriedly grabbed at

something else. She wasn't going to prove Shoten's low opinion of her right by

being late.

Whatever this Tethys knew, Ayeka would find it out. She'd do her part to

fight for Jurai and the galaxy, just like Tenchi.

And she'd need to make sure she got good tickets. On the side closest to

Yaten.

OoOoo

"Seiya, you should relax."

Seiya grunted and paced back over to the porthole, snapping a bottle of

water off a table as he did so. The planet was just coming into view now. Half

of it vanished into its own shadow. It was a planet of purple oceans and green

earth.

"He's always nervous before a concert, Taiki," Yaten said, leaning back

in one of the luxury chairs the captain had provided. Taiki shrugged and went

back to studying the program. Seiya didn't know why he bothered. They had done

the same concert more times than Seiya could count. Planet after planet after

planet. Always seeking, always hoping their music would reach her... and always

leaving disappointed.

"Taiki, what do we know about this place?" Seiya asked, his voice coming

out sour.

Taiki paused. He adjusted his ponytail and walked towards the porthole.

"Planet Demood." His voice was quick and precise, businesslike. "Population over

three billion sentients. Native species, humanoid. Signatory of the Jurai

compact and officially under the jurisdiction of the Galaxy Police. No known

Sailors exist in the system. The closest planet along several hyperspace vectors

to the Pleiades cluster. While the war seems to have stalled several systems

away for now, the authorities are nonetheless on high alert for any Sailor

activity."

"Tch, what a bother," Yaten groaned. He let his head flop back in a

gesture of exaggerated ennui, his long white ponytail brushing the floor. "We'll

have to be extra careful to keep our true forms well-concealed, then."

Seiya glanced at Yaten, who always looked mildly annoyed when the matter

of their disguise came up. But to tell the truth, there were a lot of times when

Seiya just plain forgot about his true form. He looked down at himself. He was

currently wearing a loose t-shirt and a pair of brown slacks. His body was slim

and fit, athletic. And male.

How long had it been since he'd been a girl? How long since he'd assumed

the form of Sailor Starfighter? Five months? Six? There was that battle on

Minbar... but they'd been forced to revert to their disguise when the GXP had

cracked down on the entire star cluster with an iron grip. Seiya smirked. Even

Yaten couldn't complain about their disguise then.

Nobody expected Sailors to be male. Then again, when the entire army

that was systematically destroying your civilisation was one gender, it might be

understandable if you stopped looking at the other so suspiciously. Still, maybe

he was getting a little too used to this body. Not that it was all bad. There

was no doubt it offered certain freedoms that his female form didn't. And there

was all the girls that squealed with delight every time he walked into a room.

The feeling of their eyes following him as he moved with careless grace and...

He shook aside those thoughts.

"While the level of security is bound to be higher, we should have no

problem. The Jurai Empire itself is sponsoring this event. I hear one of their

battleships is going to be coming into system so the crew can go on shore leave

for the performance."

"Really?" Yaten perked up. "So we might be performing for royalty."

"Unlikely," Taiki said with a shrug. "While every treeship captain is

technically a member of the Jurai nobility, most of them are far removed from

the royal line itself. Also, after the recent defeats they're unlikely to risk

any of their second-generation ships in such a location." Taiki frowned,

adjusting the collar of his starched shirt.

"Too bad." Yaten yawned. "All this tactical talk is boring. I'm going to

take a nap. Hopefully we won't be on this planet too long-"

"SHUT UP!" Seiya yelled, smashing his fist against the transparent

steel. "Is that all you can think about, getting off this planet? Just finishing

the concert? Is that it? IS THAT IT?!" He spun on his bandmates, his face

twisted into a snarl. Taiki raised an eyebrow, Yaten stared at him dumbly.

"Have you forgot the reason we're here?" Seiya pointed at the planet

with his water bottle. "Have you forgotten what we are looking for?"

"Of course we haven't," Yaten replied stiffly.

"But this is just another concert," Taiki added calmly. "According to

my research, the galaxy has more than twice as many inhabited planets than our

records would have indicated. The Princess could have fled to any one of them.

The odds are literally astronomical that she will be here..."

"The message we received..." Seiya growled out.

"That message could have come from anyone," Taiki asserted. "Or it could

be a trap. Galaxia is also searching for Princess Kakyuu, remember."

"No..." Seiya threw the bottle against the ground. It failed to shatter

satisfyingly, instead just sort of plopping onto the deck with a wet slosh.

"Whoever sent that message knows something about where our Princess is." He

looked down at the bottle as it rolled about. "What was that phrase in the

message..."

"The Light of Hope." Yaten looked out at the planet.

"Yes." Seiya looked up at them again. "We all sound like we're losing

hope. For nearly two years we've been fleeing from Galaxia. We left our friends,

our families... on the hope that we could find a way to fight back."

"Tch, that isn't possible." Yaten snorted, turning away with a sullen

expression. "Galaxia can't be stopped. Not even the almighty Jurai fleet can do

it, it seems."

"He's right, Seiya," Taiki replied. "The Light Hawk Wings the Jurai

ships can produce are tremendously more powerful then anything we had

encountered before we were forced to abandon Kinmoku." He paused. "When I heard

how they were able to hold off Galaxia's forces, I admit I allowed myself to

hope. But things have changed. It appears that even the Light Hawk Wings aren't

enough." Taiki turned away as well. "But we can keep running. One day, we'll

find the Princess, and then we can all find a new place to start over. Fighting

Galaxia is pointless."

Seiya grit his teeth and clenched his fists impotently. He couldn't put

his feelings into words. He could feel their future slowly drifting away. It

would be all too easy for them to... to lose themselves in this. At his heart,

in the core of his being he was Sailor Starfighter. Champion. Seiya Kou was just

a mask he wore. But it was a comfortable mask, a soothing mask. He could lose

himself in this life. Music star, travelling the universe to the adoring cheers

of billions of fans. It was a life without the need for war.

But the message had changed everything. No, he knew that this planet,

this planet he had insisted they come to over the other's objections, was

important. There was no proof that the message had come from the Princess, even

if it had addressed them by their real identities. And while the message hadn't

been signed, it had smelled faintly of the olive blossoms from their homeworld,

her favorite perfume. The message had said that their Princess was looking for

'The Light of Hope', and that this planet could lead them to that.

He turned back to the planet, now beginning to loom large through the

viewport. "Princess... I won't give up. I will find you. I will find the Light

of Hope." He smiled at his reflection in the glass-like porthole. "And not on

some distant planet, not on some far away day. Here. Now. This place." He placed

his hand against it. "I believe. I believe we can win."

OoOoo

"This isn't Earth..." Akira murmured.

"Hmmm?" Touga turned to her. "Did you say something?" He blinked, his

club-shaped eyes looking confused.

"Don't you..." She could see in his eyes that he didn't get it.

"Never mind." She walked past him. It was impossible to explain it. She had felt

it the moment she had placed a foot on the planet's surface. This place wasn't

Earth. The sky was purple, run through with white clouds. The people here looked

human, but had skin the colour of carrots and a weird sort of gait to them. It

took Akira a few minutes to realise that they had legs like cats, walking on

such long feet that it looked like they had backwards-bending knees. The cities

here were massively different. The buildings were rounded, and the cities were

spread out such that no two houses were closer together than five meters. To

someone who had grown up in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, where you couldn't own a

car unless you proved you had enough room on your property to park it, it was

amazing.

But it was more than just the obvious bits. It was all the little

things. The air here smelled different. It made Akira both faintly dizzy and

faintly hungry, like the smell of freshly baked cookies. She weighed more, just

a bit. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but she could feel her foot dragging

just a touch as she lifted it. The grass was shaped like tubes here, instead of

blades.

She was not on Earth. She was on an alien planet, hundreds of lightyears

from home. She was walking through a city populated by natives from another

world. Certainly she could encounter strange things on Earth. She had spent a

couple of weeks in Tethys' icebound city surrounded by rejects from a fourteen-

year-old boy's sex nightmares. She had fought giant eel-men, ancient demonic

gods and evil cults. She herself could punch through concrete and jump across a

four-lane highway.

But she was on another planet! That was so... cool. She just couldn't

stop smiling. No matter how frustrating the last few weeks worth of cramped

spaces and questionable company were, she decided, this was worth it. This was

just what she needed. True, this would bring her no closer to finding Ukyou, but

it had... it had been a moment of transcendent joy. Just stepping onto the

surface of a truly alien world, of understanding that the universe was so much

larger, so much fuller than she had ever imagined it could be had snapped

everything into a sort of perspective.

Because when you thought about the fact that, according to Tethys, there

were literally millions of inhabited worlds out there... and that was just the

ones Tethys knew about in this galaxy! There were billions of galaxies out

there, each with millions of systems with billions of people living on them.

Compared to that, Earth was so tiny.

Akira had begun to despair of ever finding Ukyou on it, but now she knew

that the Earth was really a very small place. She knew, intellectually, that the

area she had to search was no smaller, but she still felt like it was.

"Wait here," Touga said suddenly. Akira looked at him. He was walking

towards a huge crowd. There had to be over five thousand... people there. Not

just the orange-skinned natives, but dozens of other species. Some of them were

almost indistinguishable from humans, others were even more outlandishly bizarre

than the natives. There was at least one cluster of people that looked almost

but not quite like humanoid great danes with shaggy hair. There was a three-

meter-tall insectile thing with huge gossamer wings that glimmered with rainbow

lights, wearing a giant white shirt with the picture of three human-looking men

on it.

Akira glanced past the crowd and saw the stage. It was a pretty

traditional clamshell-like thing, except for the giant rotating three-

dimensional holographic pillars that floated on both sides of it, with a third

being projected into the air overhead. The speakers, if that was what they were,

floated on tiny pods that were being meticulously adjusted into place by

technicians.

"Here you go," Touga said with a smile, offering Akira a thin white and

blue strip.

"What's that?" Akira asked.

"Your ticket. Hold out your hand." Akira did so without thinking and

Touga slapped the strip against her wrist. Instead of cracking, the strip

circled around her wrist and forged itself together, a green gem appearing where

the two ends connected. Akira blinked. "To let you in," Touga explained.

"Yeah..." Akira tried to dig her finger under the band, which was on

pretty tight but didn't feel tight at all.

"Don't do that. If you break the gem you'll be kicked off the grounds

when the concert starts," Touga explained.

"Really?" Akira frowned. Then she shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. I

don't even know why I'm here."

"Wh-uh... what do you mean?" Touga replied quickly, his eyes had

abruptly become clubs. Akira glanced at him, but let whatever that was slide.

"You're the diplomat. My job was to get you here. You make contact with

this..."

"Jurai princess," Touga stated.

"...Jurai princess. You don't need me for that. I'm not exactly good

with... uh, people in general I guess. Especially not high-class people. I grew

up in the slums." Akira adjusted her leather jacket's collar.

"Nonsense," Touga replied smoothly. "You have elegant manners, and I can

see a level of refinement under your veneer of crudeness."

Akira grimaced. She had spent too much time pretending to be something

she was not. Yes, she could pull off the shy, demure woman thing that was so

socially encouraged in her homeland, but she had never felt comfortable with it.

Truth be told, she had always preferred kicking her feet up on the table, with

an ice-cold drink in her hand and cookie crumbs covering her stomach, than

kneeling formal style.

"Idol singers just aren't my thing, especially not pretty-boys. Maybe

I'll go exploring. You know, walk the city. See the sights." Akira smiled as she

looked around. "I mean, I can almost feel it, how this place is... different.

It's deeper than the air and the water and the soil. The energy of this place,

the soul of it... it's so alien. I wonder what it will feel like if I do some

real training..."

Touga blinked and his eyes changed to diamonds. "And what happens if

there is some sort of trouble?" he asked.

"You expecting some?" Akira crossed her arms.

"...not really," Touga admitted slowly. "However, I can hardly defend

myself if anything dangerous happens. Unlike you, I cannot fight without

transforming into my partner. And I don't think that would be wise, given the...

attitude these people likely have towards magical beings like Kairos at the

moment." Then he perked up. "Not to mention that this princess might have the

ability to sense magic. Everything I say might be suspect because of my partner.

However you are entirely normal, and thus more likely to be believed."

Akira frowned at him. Then she shrugged. "Okay."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, sure. You make good points. You want me to argue more?"

"No, that will be fine. On that note, please do not mention my partner

to the princess, regardless of what happens. It would be a complication these

negotiations don't need."

"Sure," Akira shrugged. "I won't mention her. You. Whatever."

He nodded, then looked towards the stage. The holograms had changed.

They had become three slightly transparent projections of three different

teenage boys walking towards each other. On the stage the three actual singers

were walking on. The crowd began to murmur, then growl, then roar with approval.

Akira took a moment to examine the Three Lights. From what Touga told

her, they were one of the most popular musical acts in the entire galaxy, and

the prime reason they had chosen this planet. It was conveniently within a few

weeks travel of Earth, which while not at the maximum range of their ship, was

about as far as Tethys (and Akira) were willing to trust a spaceship that had

been designed from the ground up less than six months ago.

The three of them looked rather similar. All of them were tallish - or

maybe that was just the giant holograms skewing her perceptions - with slim,

almost feminine builds. In fact, for the longest time Akira was certain they

were women. Women trying very hard to disguise their true gender, but women.

Akira was an expert at the cross-dressing game, after all. But considering one

screaming teenage girl nearby was waving a giant poster with the three of them

wearing swimtrunks on it, Akira figured her instincts had to be wrong in this

case.

The lead had black hair, and the other two had brown and white hair. All

three had near-identical ponytails and wore near-identical suits, distinguished

only by having a differently coloured rose on their lapels.

"...search...mingle...here..."

"What?" Akira shouted.

"I'm going to go search for the princess!" Touga yelled again. "You

should stay here and mingle!" She could barely hear him over the cheers of the

crowd.

"Mingle?" Akira yelled, allowing her distaste to show on her face.

"Yes, Tethys' spell should translate any of their languages for you,"

Touga explained, leaning in uncomfortably close so he could pitch his voice more

softly. "Just see what you can overhear. You never know what might be valuable

knowledge."

Touga waved, his heart-shaped eyes flashing, before he turned and

vanished into the crowd.

OoOoo

"Control yourself," Touga thought at his partner. She stopped in mid-

motion. Kairos grumbled as she slowly put away the cards she had withdrawn from

her cleavage. Touga wished he could just relax, but his new "partner" had a

disturbing habit of doing the most ridiculous things. Frankly he was beginning

to think that the arrangement had not exactly been worth it.

Certainly having a youma bonded to his soul granted him power. Kairos

was actually very powerful. Her magic allowed her to manipulate probability

itself. The problem was that Kairos was insane. And not just normal youma

insanity. A mere psychopath he could have dealt with.

Kairos... liked to play.

"You should chill out, Touga," Kairos drawled as she leaned back in her

chair, extending one of her long pale legs and placing it on the makeup table.

She giggled. "God doesn't play dice with the universe, but that doesn't mean we

can't."

"Just remember we're here to perform a job," Touga growled. He hated

this. He didn't have any real control over Kairos at all, aside from the ability

to force the transformation back to his human form. Of course, that really

wasn't an option here. The last thing he needed to have happen was for anyone to

connect him to Tethys' scheme.

Ah, speak of the devil. The door swished open and three young men walked

into the dressing room. They stopped in place, staring at Kairos. She smiled at

them and arched her back a little.

"Hello boys," she drawled. Touga sighed. "What?" Kairos snapped.

"You don't have to be so obvious," Touga replied. "Sexuality should be

wielded like a scalpel, with precision and forethought, not like a

sledgehammer."

"Maybe for men who are trying to get in a woman's pants," Kairos said

with a smirk. "But us chicks just have to use the great equaliser." Kairos

grabbed her breasts and pushed them together a few times.

"Please stop that," Touga said with the telepathic equivalent of a

mutter.

"What, don't like breast fondling from the other side, huh, Mr. Lady's

Man, well-"

"You're speaking out loud, you idiot. They can hear everything you're

saying."

Kairos froze. She slowly turned her attention back to the Three Lights.

They had taken the time while she was distracted to circle around her. The

black-haired boy in the lead was standing before the door. The white-haired one

had circled to the left, leaving the brown-haired one on the right. All of them

had their hands in their pockets, obviously preparing to transform.

"Uh... could you pretend you didn't hear all that?" Kairos asked

cheerfully.

"Who are you?" the leader challenged.

"What do you want?" the white-haired one snapped.

"Did Galaxia send you?" the brown-haired one asked more calmly, but no

less dangerously.

"Well, maybe..." Kairos grinned. "I heard something about a Light of

Hope and decided to come check it out."

"No way!" the leader shouted, stepping forward. "How did you know about

that?" The other two looked shocked.

Touga felt Kairos relax, even though he himself was as nervous as he had

ever been. It was an odd disconnect, experiencing the physical sensations of

Kairos while keeping his own emotional reaction. He hadn't understood how

intimately connected the body and mind were until he had started sharing his

with a demonness.

"My great leader told me all about her," Kairos said, bouncing to her

feet. Which was technically true, Touga thought. Tethys had let them both know

about the Light of Hope and Princess Kakyuu's search for it. Of course, Touga

had no idea how she had learned about that, or the secret identities of the

Three Lights, but he didn't need to.

"We won't let you stop us!" the leader said, pulling what looked like a

gaudy headset from his pocket. "Sailor Starfighter, Make UP!"

Kairos backed up, blinking as a flash of kaleidoscope light surged out

from the singer. When the light dimmed, the boy in front of them had changed.

Most importantly, it was no longer a man. She wore a pair of hyperabbreviated

shorts and a bikini top with attached sailor collar, opera gloves and thigh-high

stilleto-heeled boots; all in glossy black leather of course. If she couldn't

have killed him with a gesture, Touga would have laughed.

"Wow, and he complains about my wardrobe," Kairos said, breaking out

into a fit of the giggles.

"This isn't funny!" Sailor Starfighter shouted, stepping closer. The

other two looked at each other and nodded.

"Sailor Starmaker, Make Up!"

"Sailor Starhealer, Make Up!"

"Oh no, I'm overwhelmed!" Kairos shouted in mock horror, pulling her

hands to her cheeks.

"Stop hamming it up," Touga growled. "They might decide to kill you

without talking."

"Heh, you idiots can't kill me." Kairos said, dropping her arms as the

Sailr Starlights walked closer. "Not if you ever want to see the Princess."

"What do you know about her?" Starhealer demanded, her long white

ponytail snapping as she turned suddenly to present Kairos a reduced profile.

"You didn't say please," Kairos pointed out, feinting towards him and

suddenly reversing back to backhand Starmaker in the side of the head. Touga

grunted in appreciation. It appears that his own combat skills were starting

to rub off on his partner. The girl flew back into the wall.

"Bitch!" Starhealer shouted. "Star Sensitive Infer-"

"NO!" Starfighter grabbed her partner's wrist, stopping the circular

energy blast from fully forming. "We can't kill her, she might know where the

Princess is."

"Maybe I know something, maybe I don't?" Kairos smirked as she flipped

past them, landing next to the door. "The question you three have to ask

yourselves is: what are you willing to wager?"

OoOoo

Haruhi Shoten strode onto Hiryu's command deck calmly. She kept her

hands locked together behind her back, and her stride even. Her uniform was

immaculate and her face the picture of serene competence.

Most of the bridge crew was absent. Along with the majority of the

troops, they had gone down for shore leave. Hiryu was technically running on a

skeleton crew. Not that it needed one. Hiryu was perfectly capable of running

only on himself, as he would often tell Shoten at length. He was always

complaining about all the gadgets and gizmos that had been cocooned around his

body and how much power it took to keep them all working.

During those times, Shoten would just smile and indulge him. She knew

that her treeship wasn't really annoyed about going around with all the

secondary equipment. Like herself, Hiryu had an almost irrepressible love of

space. While he could travel through hyperspace by himself, even taking her

along for the ride if he wanted to, that would have been it. Hiryu appreciated

the crew and didn't really begrudge them the support system that kept them

alive.

He did, however, hate being a warship.

Shoten frowned. She could feel the sadness still in her bondmate. The

Jurai trees didn't have emotions in the same sense humanoids did. Like regular

trees, they experienced life on a seasonal level. The destruction of a half

dozen of his brothers and sisters was still hard for him. Shoten could

understand. She had lost good friends. Friends she had know for hundreds of

years had died in the Pleiades disaster.

And she had been forced to watch, helpless. She had been forced to run.

It wasn't fair. She wanted to do something to pay those bastards back. But all

she could do was patrol the sector and escort a spoiled brat of a princess on a

fool's errand.

"Isn't Seiya hot?"

"No way, Taiki has those soulful purple eyes..."

"Ladies..." Shoten growled. The three young girls that had been left on

the bridge snapped around, their eyes widening.

"C-captain Shoten!" one of them gasped. The three were standing in front

of one of the deep range probe monitors, back to back so that Shoten couldn't

see what was on the screen.

"We didn't see you come in, ma'am," another one explained.

"And we certainly weren't misusing the sensor system to monitor the

concert down below instead of doing our job!" the last called out.

"You weren't?" Shoten allowed a smile to cross her features. The three

junior officers paled. The captain only ever smiled when she was going to enjoy

something, and that rarely meant other people would share her joy.

"Well, uh..." The first one to speak began to flail behind her blindly,

trying to reach the controls.

"You three had better-"

MURDERER!

Shoten snapped her head around. That had been Hiryu! She felt a wave of

hatred pour out of her tree, nearly driving her to her knees. A gasp escaped her

lips and she grabbed a nearby railing to keep up. She hadn't felt anything this

intense from Hiryu since...

"Quick," Shoten gasped. "Monitor all incoming gravity-"

"Captain, a ship is emerging from subspace!"

"Identify!" Shoten forced herself to stand. "Bring it up on the

display."

"Yes, ma'am!" A two-story-tall holographic screen appeared at the front

of the bridge. It showed a section of space where the stars appeared to be

rippling and twisting as if caught in whirlpool. "These... these readings can't

be right!"

Shoten bit her lip as the space in front of them suddenly shredded. A

ship emerged, twisting trails of blue and silver pseudolight warping around its

planes and angles. There was no real sense of scale in the image, but Shoten

knew from bitter experience that the enemy ship was nearly three times as large

as her own. Not that size mattered much. Theoretically, the Light Hawk Wings

were the most powerful force in the universe. A second generation treeship like

Hiryu could produce three of them on demand.

"The enemy ship is scanning us!"

"Lifeform detectors are coming back positive for 'Sailor' patterns!"

"Multiple teleport signatures detected! The Habuki-Samoflange defence

screen is preventing incoming teleports!"

"Multiple 'magic' pattern spikes, the enemy is charging main batteries."

Shoten forced down her fear. "Deploy the Light Hawk Wings. Place

ourselves between them and the planet."

"Captain! The new protocol is to retreat from any direct confrontation-"

But the girl didn't get a chance to finish. Shoten's orders hadn't been

meant for her. Hiryu shifted in space. She could feel it as he pulled on the

near infinite reserves of the Jurai treeships. She could almost see the wings

forming, phasing into existence in a shower of white sparks. Three feather-

shaped shields of indestructible incandescent light.

"Incoming fire!"

Space went from being empty and cold to full of burning plasma. Bolts

and beams of red and green light lanced out from the other ship. The Light Hawk

Wings rotated, spinning in place faster than unaided perception could perceive,

intercepting each attack and snuffing it out without so much as a ripple. On the

screen Shoten could see a few of the space yachts that had been unable to flee

the territory go up in brilliant plumes of vapourised metal and explosions of

light. The barrage continued for almost a minute, with the skeleton crew

reporting each fatal strike on a nearby ship.

Shoten felt her blood boil. Those people were just here for the concert.

There was no reason to destroy them! Then the barrage ended as quickly as it

began.

"C-captain... we're being hailed."

"Put them through." This was it. Either she was going to live, or she

was going to die. But somehow she knew whose face she would see a fraction of a

second before it appeared on the screen.

"Captain Shoten, what a surpise."

"Z," she snarled.

Z was humanoid, though what race it was impossible to tell. He might

have been Juraian, save for his slightly pointed ears. He had green hair, short

and spiked. His right eye was gold, and the left eye had been replaced by some

purple substance that was also growing out through his forehead in a series of

irregular spikes. He wore a brown coat, open in the front.

"You don't sound happy to see me, again." Z smiled, displaying his

fangs. "How is Seiryo? You two left so abruptly... I almost feel unloved."

"He'll live," Shoten growled. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"Now now, captain, let's not engage in empty threats." Z raised his arm

into the screen. "Lest you forget..."

And there they were, appearing out of nowhere in front of the massive

ship. Five Light Hawk Wings flashed into existence. Then as the freak-eyed

maniac grinned and twisted his hand, three of the wings vanished.

"Our light hawk wings are being neutralised!" one of the officers

screamed.

"That's impossible!"

Shoten grabbed the railing tightly. Of course, only a half-dozen crew

had survived the last battle with this monster. And she had been under strict

orders not to reveal the true reason for the disaster.

"Our shields are gone! We're utterly defenceless!"

"We have to get out of here!"

"NO!" Shoten shouted. "Prepare to fight using conventional weapons."

"Well now..." Z smiled. "Not running away. Trying to avenge your dead

comrades?" Another wave of hatred from Hiryu pulsed through Shoten. "Except I

don't think so." Z chuckled. "No, there has to be some reason you're not running

away. It can't be to protect that planet, after you fled so quickly the last

time..." Shoten bristled. "Now... what can it be? Something important ON the

planet, perhaps?" Z leaned in to the screen. "Something even a captain of a

second generation treeship would be willing to die to protect?"

"Open fire!"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

Of course, it was futile. Jurai warships were not outfitted with the

kind of weapons that a Galaxy Police cruiser could deploy. But even if this had

been one of the most powerful GP dreadnoughts, it still would not have pierced

two Light Hawk Wings.

"Oh, don't worry about betraying your secret, captain." Z chuckled.

"I wouldn't insult you by expecting you to yield to mere torture when you've

already shown your willingness to sacrifice your life. But still..." He abruptly

stopped smiling, his eyes going cold and hard. "Waste not, want not, they say.

Goodbye, Captain Shoten."

"You basta-"

The world dissolved into green fire.

OoOoo

Ayeka sat down with a happy little sigh as the intermission started. She

was covered with sweat, and felt almost light-headed. She wiped her brow.

Someone nearby, obviously seeing her condition, offered her a bottle of water,

which Ayeka accepted with a grateful "thank you". She gulped it down thirstily,

sparing only a quick glance around to ensure nobody was watching as she lifted

her veil to do so.

The concert was... exhilarating. It was much bigger than she'd expected.

The formal revues and plays Ayeka had attended in her youth were nothing

compared to this, and it was not simply due to the fact that the subject matter

was comparatively sedate. The Three Lights had a... power. Something in their

singing always felt like it was calling directly to her, and at the same time it

seemed lonely. The combination enthralled her. Even more than watching Yaten.

And it was only stronger seeing them in person, here.

Poor Sasami would be so upset that she couldn't come. Ayeka adjusted the

position of the video recorder cunningly hidden in her hairband. At the very

least, she could bring something back for her...

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

Ayeka jumped a bit, then giggled nervously. "No, of course you may."

There was nothing to worry about, she chided as she turned to face the newcomer.

It was perfectly normal for someone at a concert to...

She blinked. "Umm... why are you wrestling that man?"

The young man who Ayeka was talking to had a pleasant face, with short

brown hair and matching eyes. He was smiling in a friendly manner even as he

placed another man in a headlock. The man in the headlock looked vaguely

familiar, but Ayeka couldn't place him. The young man wore a black jacket with

spiked shoulder pads, and loose black pants. Strangely enough, they were of the

strange denim material that Ayeka only ever remembered encountering on Earth.

The man he was holding had a wooden expression and was struggling weakly.

"Oh, he was trying to prevent me from sitting here. I asked him if he

was reserving the seat, but it seems not. You said nobody was sitting there,

right?"

Ayeka blinked slowly, then looked around. Indeed, nobody was sitting in

the seat the young man was nodding towards. In fact, nobody had sat anywhere

near Ayeka throughout the concert. Five seats on each side, and a similar amount

at front and back, were empty. That had been very convienent for watching the

concert, but now that Ayeka looked around, she noticed it was also rather...

anomalous. In fact, other than the ones around her, she couldn't see so much as

a single empty seat anywhere at the outdoor stadium. Certainly none near the

stage.

She stared at the man in the headlock again. He still looked familiar.

In fact... "Wait. You were the man who sold me my ticket." The man didn't

respond aside from continued attempts to escape the newcomer's grasp. "And gave

me the water a moment ago. Why are you interfering with this person trying to

watch the concert?"

The newcomer stared at her for a long moment, then looked down at the

man struggling in her grasp. "So... you don't know this guy?"

"Umm... no."

"Huh. So, you're not a space princess, by any chance, are you?"

Ayeka lifted her hand to her mouth and laughed. She was certain it

sounded quite natural. "Umm... what a ridiculous notion! I'm sure I haven't the

faintest idea what you could be speaking of!"

"Huh. Well, then, not-space-princess, if you don't know these people,

you have some very dedicated stalkers."

Ayeka blinked. "Stalkers?"

"That would be the half-dozen guys trying to prevent anybody from

sitting next to you."

Ayeka looked around. "I don't see anybody."

"You need to look down."

Ayeka did. She stared at all the crumpled bodies for a moment. "Umm...

did you..."

"They really didn't want me to sit next to you."

The boy sat down in the chair, still holding the struggling man in a

headlock. With his free hand, he held out something from the concession stand.

"Want a cookie?"

"No..."

"Good, more for me." The boy popped the treat in his mouth. "Mmm, alien

cookie."

Ayeka felt quite confused.

Then a sudden suspicion stuck her. Leaning forward, she looked at the

man struggling in the newcomer's apparently very firm grip. Now that she thought

about it, he was obviously Juraian. She gritted her teeth. "Did my father send

you? Or was it Captain Shoten?"

The man paused. "Ummm... that is... no?"

"I'm not sure he's telling the truth," the newcomer drawled.

"Nor am I," scowled Ayeka. She could feel her face flush with anger and

embarassment under the veil. "Please tell whoever sent you that I am more than

capable of taking care of myself!" Seizing his arm, she yanked off the green gem

of his entry bracelet.

"Wow." The newcomer blinked, staring down at his suddenly empty arm. "He

vanished."

Ayeka, with perhaps a little more roughness than was strictly necessary,

gave the same treatment to the other sprawled, unconscious Juraian guards; like

the first, their forms flickered for a moment and then disappeared with a soft

sound as soon as their entry bracelets were broken. "Yes, without an entry

bracelet, trespassers are transported to a holding cell outside the stadium."

"They go 'zwee' when they vanish," the boy commented with bemusement.

"That's neat. I'm so used to 'zoi', now, I guess."

"Sorry?"

"Never mind, just reminded of somebody that's really best left

forgotten. So, you are the space princess?"

Ayeka slumped in her seat, cursing Shoten and her father equally and

grateful the veil covered her still-burning cheeks. Thanks to them trying to

'protect' her, she had managed to give the all-important first impression of

being a... a royal idiot, bluntly. That her own obviously woefully indequate

skills at realising what a 'normal' packed concert was like had sealed her fate

didn't help. "I do apologise. I presume you must be the representative of

Tethys?"

"Nope. Not at all." Ayeka gasped, but the boy held up a placating hand.

"Don't panic. I'm not the representative, but I do work for her. Well, I'm doing

this for her. I don't like her that much, really." Now Ayeka was feeling rather

confused again. The boy held out another baked sweet. "Sure you won't reconsider

that cookie?"

Ayeka nodded slowly, not quite certain what else to do. The boy suddenly

looked chagrined as Ayeka took the cookie. His fingers twitched once or twice,

as if he wanted to seize it back, but then his hand dropped.

"The real ambassador is around here somewhere," the boy mentioned. "I'm

just the pilot and bodyguard. A nicer one than yours, I hope."

"Umm, yes," Ayeka said, then drew herself up and dedicated herself to

trying to undo her previous impression. "I am, as you have surmised, Ayeka

Masaki Jurai. I apologise again for the misunderstanding and inconvenience.

Might I ask your name?"

This time it was the boy's turn to blush, which put a surprisingly

feminine cast to his face. "And here I am Japanese, and forgetting that." He

inclined his head deeply. "My name is Akira Kazama." He looked up and paused. "I

don't have a business card, though. Sorry."

"That's quite all right," Ayeka said, wondering idly what a business

card was. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise."

OoOoo

Akira had to admit she actually kind of liked the princess. Despite not

knowing her for very long, and despite an undeniable bit of prissiness, this

Ayeka didn't seem as stuck up as she expected. Then again, the closest thing

Akira had ever met to royalty was Tethys, and Tethys held court in a comfortable

office with oak bookcases and potted plants. Besides, Ayeka was awfully cute, if

the eyes peeking out from behind that modest veil were any indication.

Still, she could sense something was wrong. There was a feeling in the

air. The hairs on the back of her neck were rising. For some reason she kept

looking upward. It was like... She remembered standing on the ruins of Tokyo

Tower, staring up at the sky where the death god had almost managed to claw

its way into reality. The feeling here was almost the same. Like something

terrible had already happened, and she was just now feeling the ramifications of

that.

Ukyou probably would have been able to tell what it was that bothered

Akira.

Damn it. She closed her eyes and looked down. She had to stop that. She

grabbed her wrist and squeezed.

"Are you okay?" Ayeka asked.

"Yes..." Akira released her wrist and took a deep breath. "It's just-"

She cut off and threw herself at Ayeka, tackling the girl to the side. Ayeka

gave out a startled cry as Akira pulled her down into the aisle. A flash of

yellow light lanced through the air above them.

There was a crack and a blast of air, followed by a wave of heat. Akira

cursed.

"Get off me!" Ayeka yelled.

"Sorry," Akira called, leaping to her feet. She scanned the area, but

was unable to tell much of what was happening. The crowd was screaming and

running, dissolving into a panicked mob. The chi of the area was spiking as

everybody began to give in to their fear. They were screaming, but even with

Tethys' magic Akira couldn't understand a word over the babble of voices.

Ayeka stood up slowly, glancing around. Akira noticed a group of people

stampeding towards them. "Get do-"

Then the group slammed to a halt, their bodies flashing with blue-white

lightning. Akira blinked, before realising that the air between the two of them

and the crowd was full of tiny floating... logs? They looked like little logs,

as if harvested from bonsai trees. At the same time, there was a strangely

technological look to them. As Akira looked around she saw that the floating

logs completely surrounded her and Ayeka, preventing the crowd from trampling

them in their panic.

"Are you doing this?" Akira asked the princess.

"Yes..." Ayeka frowned. "It's part of my heritage."

"That's so awesome!" Akira gushed. "You have alien superpowers!"

"Er, yes..." Ayeka looked at her askance. "But I fear that this

situation is still not good. I can't seem to signal the ship..."

"Hold on a second..." Akira closed her eyes and brought her fingertips

to her brow. She tried to practice the meditation techniques Ukyou had taught

her. She had to empty the mind, eliminate her self. Only then could she filter

her perceptions through her void chakra and...

"They're coming this way!"

...she could just hear somebody shout conveniently. She snapped her eyes

open as the crowd parted. A white blur was racing through the crowd, being

pursued by three female figures. The three women were firing at the fleeing

alien with energy blasts from their fingertips.

Akira moved instinctively in front of Ayeka as the white figure

reached them. Then Akira saw who it was. Her name was Kairos and, from what

Akira could tell, she was Touga's evil female alter-ego. She dressed like a Las

Vegas showgirl, complete with fishnets, a ridiculously oversized top hat and a

peacock feather tail. She had alabaster skin and eyes that constantly shifted

between four card suits, just like Touga. She was also about ten times more

annoying than Touga.

All he did was hit on Akira. Kairos... played.

"Pardon me!" Kairos yelled and flipped up and over the two of them. A

blast of light flashed in behind her, obviously aimed at the youma-woman's back.

But without her to intercept it, the attack would have drilled right into Ayeka

had it not been for her shield. The blast pattered off the shield in a brief

aurora of blue-white sparks.

Kairos landed in a crouch behind Ayeka. The three girls landed in front

of them, standing together in what almost seemed like a choreographed pose.

Akira raised an eyebrow at their... abbreviated outfits, but placed that thought

aside for later.

"Sailors!" Ayeka gasped.

"What?" Akira asked. She was only familiar with a few people who called

themselves Sailors, and they were all dangerous people. Sailor Pluto had been a

psychopath out to kill Ukyou, and her two cohorts Uranus and Neptune had been

just as dangerous.

"Get out of our way!" demanded the one on the right, the shortest,

white-haired one.

"We have no business with you," the taller, brown-haired one on the left

pointed out in a more reasonable but considerably colder voice.

"We're after that thing!" declared the middle girl, the cute black-

haired one. "Don't get between us!"

Akira sighed. She looked back at Kairos, who was looking as innocent as

she was capable of. She looked at Ayeka. It was hard to see Ayeka's expression

through the veil she wore, but she looked both scared and angry. Akira pulled

the last cookie from the bag she had bought and flipped it into her mouth.

"I'm sorry, I can't let you hurt my friend."

"Your friend?" the black-haired girl growled.

"Yeah." Really, Akira didn't consider Kairos (or Touga) her friend. But

saying 'I can't let you hurt the person I'm currently defending even though I'm

not technically being paid to or have any investment in their well-being aside

from a vague promise to a person I actually kind of dislike but you know I keep

my word even when it's inconvenient and besides I want an excuse to beat

somebody up because I just spent three weeks in a cramped ship and want to have

some good old-fashioned violence' was too long to really be flippant.

"She knows where the Princess is!" the white-haired girl shouted. "And

we're not letting you stop us!"

"Princess?" Akira looked back at Ayeka and instantly regretted it as the

girl's eyes widened in shock. The three Sailors also gasped. "I'm sorry, girls,

but I can't let you get near the princess..." Akira paused. She hadn't meant it

to come out quite that way, but she shrugged the misspoken line off.

"Ayeka, why don't you let me through this shield. You concentrate on

keeping yourself safe." The Jurai princess nodded her head, her long purple hair

bobbing as she did so. Akira stepped through the field towards the three

Sailors.

"Maker, Healer..." the black-haired one said slowly. "Try to circle

around and get the clown-"

"I'm not a clown!"

"... just get her. I'll deal with this one." The girl settled into a

fighting stance. Akira resisted the urge to chuckle at it. It was rude to mock

your opponent. Plus, she could shoot lasers from her fingertips. There was every

reason to be cautious.

"Fighter, be careful!" the white-haired one replied, then leapt to the

side, trying to circle around Ayeka's shield.

"Come on then," Fighter said, holding up her hands. "If you know

anything about the princess, you should tell me now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Akira shrugged. She clenched her fist and

began to gather her chi. The other girl didn't react as Akira pulled more and

more of her spiritual energy. Any martial artist back home would have already

attacked, but this girl either couldn't sense the build up of energy or didn't

consider it a threat. Akira frowned. "Listen, I've never been one for banter.

Can we just fight?"

"Fine!" Fighter roared and leapt forward, thrusting her hand. "Star

Serious Laser!"

A yellow beam lanced out from the Sailor's outstretched fingers. Akira

was already moving, her body slipping sideways even as she rushed forward. The

beam of light was actually dreadfully fast, Akira didn't trust herself to dodge

it unless she could predict where the other girl was aiming. Thankfully, she

telegraphed her moves badly. As she raised her palm up, Akira made a note to not

make any stupid jumps or other moves that would leave her unable to evade for-

Oh wait, the girl wasn't dodging.

Akira slammed her palm into the girl's sternum and released her built-up

chi. She dumped as much as she coud at the last minute for good measure,

multiplying the force exponentially. There was a crash like a wave breaking

against a reef and a hemisphere of blue force rippled through the air out from

Akira's palm. The Sailor was caught straight on, not even managing to roll with

the blow. Akira watched as her opponent careened across the concert, ripping

seats from the ground and scattering them like tenpins. She finally came to a

stop when her body punched through a metal-sided vehicle of some kind. Even

then, the force was enough to cause the bus-sized vehicle to tip over, kicking

up a cloud of dust.

Behind her, Akira could hear the rest of the fight die down.

"F-fighter!" one of the Sailors cried out in horrified shock.

"NO!" The white-haired girl ran past Akira towards the overturned

vehicle, her eyes wide and frightened.

Akira could have struck her. The girl was totally open, so concerned

with her friend she wasn't giving a thought to defence. She passed close enough

that Akira could have used an elbow-strike to her temple to put her out. The

girl likely wouldn't even feel it. But Akira paused.

Then, just as she was about to run out of range, more of those weird

little floating logs appeared in front of her. The girl yelped in pain as she

ran into the field, causing lightning to flash across her body. This time Akira

felt the surge of chi. She looked back at Ayeka. Whatever those were, they

weren't just some hypertech machines. They were focusing the princess' chi in

some way. And the amount of chi the girl was putting off was... staggering.

Akira hadn't felt anything like that since Tethys.

"Damn you!" the white-haired Sailor shouted, jumping back. "Star

Sensitive INFERNO!" She unleashed a blast of light and noise into the field, but

it wasn't having any effect. Akira frowned. Ayeka had her hand outstretched to

project the field. It must have left her open, but the girl hadn't done a thing

to attack her. She was trying to break out.

To get to her friend.

"Ayeka, let her go," Akira said.

"What?" Ayeka looked at Akira, her red eyes widening. "We can't let

these monsters escape! They'll destroy everybody on this planet."

"Monsters don't cry over fallen comrades," Akira explained.

"Whoa, ladies!" Kairos said, suddenly leaping between them. "Why don't

you two just take down the bad guys and..."

"I won't attack them if they aren't attacking me," Akira said simply.

Ayeka looked at Akira oddly. Then her eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry, but

I've seen what these monsters can do. These Sailors destroy whole worlds. I

won't le-"

Ayeka's voice cut off into a noiseless gasp and her eyes shot open. She

fell forward, staggering like she had just been punched in the gut. Akira

appeared beside her, grabbing the Jurai princess before she fell to the ground.

Her veil had come loose, and it drifted to the ground.

"Ayeka?" Akira shook the girl slightly. "Ayeka!"

"That... wasn't supposed to happen," Kairos mused.

The two sailors had stopped as well. They looked up and then frowned at

each other. Their expressions were almost resigned. Akira looked at Kairos, who

looked as confused as Akira felt.

"Well now, imagine this..."

Akira turned quickly, looking towards the stage. There was a man there.

He wore a brown jacket over a wine-coloured shirt and blue slacks. His hands

were in his pockets and he floated casually above the stage, leaning back

slightly. His face might have been handsome except for the dark purple spikes

emerging unevenly from his forehead and his grotesque purple eye.

Akira froze. The moisture in her mouth vanished. Her throat tightened so

much her breath came in a thin whistle. The muscles in her legs began to buckle

and the only thing that kept her from collapsing was the knowledge she would

drag Ayeka down with her.

Akira had never felt anything like this before. She had felt chi, the

life force of people, for many years now. In the last few months, she had begun

to refine her senses. She had felt the energy emitted by every human soul, from

the weakest sickest child to the greatest martial artists who had cultivated

their spirit to a fine-honed weapon. She had felt, at a distance, the

unrestrained power of a zoalord. She had been in the presence of demon queens

and fought more than a few actual demons in her time. But the power of this man

put all that to shame.

The worst part, the absolute worst part, was how casual his energy was.

There was no spike of killing intent, no martial focus. His aura was completely

at rest, and it dwarfed anything she had ever seen the same way the sun dwarfed

a bonfire.

"Two Sailor Senshi, on this little planet," the man said, smirking at

the Sailors. "So was that the power I picked up? What a waste."

"Z," the brown-haired girl snarled.

"Oh, you've heard of me?" The man smiled pleasantly.

"Galaxia's puppet," the brown-haired Sailor continued, her voice full of

disgust. The man's expression darkened.

"I'll let that pass this once, Sailor," Z warned. "But don't ever call

me that again."

"Damn..." the white-haired girl looked between the stage and the toppled

transport. "Maker, what do we do?"

"It would be such a waste of resources for me to fight you," Z said. He

nodded his head and twin flashes of bright light appeared on either side of him.

They resolved into the shapes of young women. Like the two women who currently

had his attention, they wore sailor collars, but there the similarity ended. The

one on the right was thin with purple skin and a skintight Chinese print dress

with dragons winding around it; she carried a whip curled seductively around her

hips. The one on the left was shorter, and carried a pair of sabres with pink

blades and heart-shaped guards.

"Sailor Dragontail, Sailor Sabre, take their Star Seeds."

"Yes, sir!" they shouted in unison, leaping into the air.

"Damn!" Maker shouted, jumping to the side. "Watch out, these are no

ordinary phages!"

"Phages?" Akira muttered. She had no idea what was going on. She just

knew that she had to get herself and Ayeka out of here. The princess was slowly

coming around. Whatever had shocked her was apparently passing. Akira looked

around for a moment as blasts of magic and attacks passed across each other. She

couldn't spot Kairos. Not that Akira could blame the youma for running as soon

as she could.

"Star Gentle UTERUS!" A spherical shockwave of magic exploded from the

brown-haired Sailor's hand, causing Sabre to leap out of the way. However, she

seemed more amused than hard-pressed.

"...she didn't just say that," Akira muttered to herself as she began to

carefully pull Ayeka away. She had to get the princess to safety no matter how

much she wanted to find out what was going on. She didn't know who the good or

bad guys were here. Best to not get involved. Yeah, that was it...

"MAKER!"

Akira's head snapped up. Damn. The brown-haired girl had been pinned to

the ground, a blade shoved through her shoulder. The phage-woman's black eyes

were wide in sadistic glee as she twisted the hilt, causing the Sailor to

scream. The white-haired girl tried to run towards the two, only for a whip to

snake around her knees and send her roughly into the dirt.

"Pathetic," Z sighed. "It appears my Sailor Killers are more than a

match for the real thing." He shrugged. "Still, don't finish her off right

away." He smiled. "I highly doubt Captain Shoten gave her life to protect a pair

of Sailor Senshi. There must be something here you're after." He gestured with

one hand and Sabre twisted her blade again. Maker screamed. "I'm certain you'll

tell me what it is."

"NEVER!" the white-haired Sailor shouted, only to have Sailor Dragontail

slam a heeled foot into the back of her head.

"Show respect," the phage-woman said with a mocking lilt.

"Captain Shoten?" Ayeka said, raising her head.

"Ayeka, this isn't our..."

"Did you say... Captain Shoten?" Ayeka continued. Her eyes rose up to

lock on Z. Akira swallowed painfully. Akira wanted to warn her not to say

anything. That no matter what she did, she did not want to draw that man's

attention. But the words stuck in her throat. "What did you do to Captain

Shoten?" Ayeka shouted.

"Hmm?" Z glanced at them. "I killed her, of course."

"You.. you... YOU MONSTER!"

Akira was thrown to the side as Ayeka exploded forward. There was a

flash of blue-white light that travelled up from the girl's feet to her head,

leaving her clothing transformed. She was now clad in a jacket with a high

collar that was cinched tight at the waist like a kimono and whose hem framed

her hips. Her loose pants rippled and even her face had changed, covered in some

sort of dark war paint that, when combined with her red eyes, gave her an almost

demonic appearance. She drew back one hand, a floating ring around her bicep

spinning, and a wall of force began to build in front of her.

The chairs between her and the stage didn't just get brushed aside as

she rocketed towards the man, they exploded. The ground in front of her cracked

and shattered, scattering around her like the wake of a speedboat. A twisting

contrail of screaming air formed behind her.

The man staggered back, his eyes widening. Ayeka broke onto the stage,

thrusting her fist at him in a wordless scream. The entire front third of the

stage shattered around her; great clouds of debris, some pieces the size of

watermelons, crashing out in all directions.

And as the smoke settled, Ayeka was standing there, her fist extended. Z

was holding up one hand, his palm directly in the path of her attack. Between

the two of them, a semi-transparent pane of white force had appeared. It was

shaped somewhere between a wing and a blade.

"No... not possible..." Ayeka gasped.

Z smiled. His inhuman purple eye widened. "Princess Ayeka!" His voice

was full of twisted joy, like a cat who had just watched a bird land in front of

him. "Now this IS quite the surprise."

Akira wasn't certain when she arrived on the stage. She was already

half-way across the shattered platform when Z's hand snapped out, clamping onto

Ayeka's throat. "Oh, Princess... you don't know how happy I am to see you..."

Akira didn't bother trying to announce herself. She didn't yell for him

to let go. She just came in silent and hard, her body coiled down as she slid

across the last few meters on the balls of her feet. Her entire body slipped

around into a spinning axe kick.

Z's hand caught her ankle, dragging her to a sudden jarring halt. Akira

just barely managed to plant her foot so she wasn't thrown onto her face by the

sudden reversal of her inertia. "Excuse me, Princess." He turned to Akira. "I'm

sorry, who are you? I'm afraid I try to make a habit of not killing people I

don't know." With a deceptive twist of his wrist he launched Akira across the

stage. She screamed as she smashed into one of the hologram projectors with

enough force that the machine broke apart around her. Then she went through the

wall behind that, then she slammed into the ground hard enough that she drilled

three meters into it. "Now remember... if you come back, we've already met." she

heard Z say as her vision began to dim.

OoOoo

"Oh, dear princess, I cannot tell you how much I have looked forward to

this meeting," Z commented, almost casually. His smile lacked any warmth,

however; more like a savage baring of teeth. "I've spent months wondering just

how I could get your good friend Tenchi's undivided attention. And here, it

seems, the chance I've waited for has fallen into my lap."

Ayeka was strangely calm. She knew she should be panicking. Somehow, a

heretofore unknown compatriot of Galaxia had found her here. More incredibly

still, he had used the Light Hawk Wings. Captain Shoten was dead. Help, as the

unfortunate Akira had found, was nowhere to be found. Really, Ayeka had every

reason to panic several times over. But suddenly, she had found her thoughts

absolutely lucid.

She could not be captured by this man.

He wanted to use her against Tenchi. Tenchi, fighting against a foe who

also wielded the Light Hawk Wings, in a battlefield of his enemy's choosing...

no. She wouldn't let that happen. Any more than she'd let an implacable enemy of

Jurai use her as a hostage in the middle of a war. She had responsibilities. She

had to escape. And if not to escape, then to not be taken hostage... by whatever

means necessary.

But to try and escape, she'd need to know more of what she had gotten

herself into. "Who are you?" she snarled. "How did you find this place?"

"Find?" Z titled his head slightly, getting a better look at her. "I

followed a rumour. Something about a 'Light of Hope', or some nonsense." He

chuckled. "Not that it matters now."

There was a crack and a flash of light. The air suddenly filled with an

acrid scent. "Ah, it looks like the heroic marines have arrived." He twisted

Ayeka's head so she could see the large open-air stadium. Jurai marines were

charging into the area, their sidearms filling the air with blue-white flashes.

Z waved his hand and three Wings of the Light Hawk appeared between them and the

stage. The incoming fire slowly petered off as the marines began to realise

that what was in front of them was not, in fact, an illusion.

Light Hawk Wings, the secret power of the Jurai family, were the most

powerful force in the known universe. They could even hold back the event

horizon of a black hole for a short time. Up until a few years ago, the only

things capable of producing them were the royal treeships of Jurai. Then, there

had been Tenchi, a miracle child.

And now there was this man. She could see the stunned despair settle

over the troops. There had been a lot of them, most of them getting leave for

this very concert at Ayeka's request. And they could do nothing for her. But

they were Jurai royal marines. They would die before they would leave her. She

wanted to cry out, to order them away, but Z's hand tightened slightly.

"Let's watch for a few moments," he told her as she gasped for air. "I

want to see how my Sailor Killers deal with the best Jurai has to offer."

From both sides of the stadium the strange Sailor-women appeared,

brandishing their weapons. Ayeka closed her eyes and turned her head, unwilling

to watch, as the sound of battle started up. Z laughed. "Spoilsport."

OoOoo

Seiya woke up to discover a whole new definition of pain. This was not

merely agonising. It had gone right past the point where current galatic

languages failed to describe it. The songwriter inside him wanted to coin new

and interesting words about his pain.

Then he managed to remember what had happened. One moment he had been

attacking that arrogant boy in the leather outfit, the next... the next he was

here. A weak groan escaped his lips and he opened his eyes. He was inside

something. His body was plastered into a dent in a metal wall. That boy had hit

him, he recalled vaguely. He had hit him hard enough to embed him in metal. Then

he looked up and saw that there was a great gaping hole in the ceiling, the

shattered metal twisting inward towards him. The attack had hit him hard enough

to punch him through one metal wall and into another.

His fingers found purchase on something and he levered himself into a

sitting position, avoiding the sharp edges of the broken metal. He brought his

other hand up to his chest and... oh yeah. She brought her hand up to her chest.

Oh fuck, she wished she were a guy right now. It had to hurt less than this.

There was just so much less there to be hurting, after all.

But she needed to remain in sailor form. Because she could hear fighting

outside, and didn't think that this would be a good time to rest. Plus she was

fairly certain her mortal form couldn't survive this level of damage.

Fighting back the pain, Seiya climbed to her feet and dimly realised she

was in a vehicle of some kind. The entire thing had been knocked over onto its

side. Seiya winched and clenched a hand over her heart. So, knocked through a

metal wall, denting another wall and toppling over a large transport. If Seiya

saw that guy again, he would have to make certain not to provoke him so much.

Gritting her teeth, Seiya leapt up, using one hand to pull herself out

of the hole. She stopped, her eyes widening. The stadium was a war zone.

Soldiers were fighting two phages. No, they weren't fighting. They were being

butchered.

Whatever those phages were, they weren't normal. Seiya had been fighting

the demons for years, and knew that while their forms were bizarre and their

powers more so, they really weren't much of an actual threat. But these two

moved with a speed and power that no phage she had ever seen could. One of them

slipped in and around the soldiers, the twin sabres in her hands flashing around

in neat little circles, leaving almost poetic showers of blood in her wake. The

other strolled seductively through the stadium, cracking her whip so fast the

weapon couldn't even be seen. Men over a dozen meters away were being tossed

around by her casual strikes.

And on the stage was Z.

Seiya froze. She had only ever seen Galaxia's new lieutenant from a

distance, but even those brief glimpses let her know the man was dangerous. He

was holding up a woman by the neck, his face twisted in a rictus grin. It took

Seiya a moment to realise that the woman was the same one who had been with the

leather-clad man who had defeated her so handily. She had transformed into some

sort of combat form, but that had apparently not done her much good.

And at the bottom of the stage, unconscious and bleeding, were her

comrades.

"Tai-" Seiya was cut off in mid-shout by a sudden crippling flare in her

chest. She bent over, coughing and gasping, the pain in his chest spreading

outward. Tears leaked from her face as she rolled off the top of the transport

and landed behind it. Damnit, she couldn't even talk.

It took a few seconds for the pain to dull to the point where she could

think clearly again. When she could, she realised that she was actually kind of

lucky. While the strike had knocked her clear of the battle, it had apparently

kept Z and his phages from realising she was here. Plus the pain had kept her

from announcing herself.

Now, she just had to figure out a way to save her friends. The option of

running wasn't even considered. She had lost everything. She had lost her

princess, lost her homeworld, lost her very identity as Sailor Starfighter,

champion of justice, and she was not about to leave the last thing she had

behind. But it was still clear, no matter how much it hurt her pride, that this

was a fight she needed help in.

Seiya frowned. That man. The one who had defeated her. He seemed to care

about the purple-haired girl. He had gone out of his way to protect her. Plus,

quite frankly, he was obviously more powerful than Seiya. So... if she could

just find her...

Mind made up, Seiya began to circle around the fight itself. It felt

terrible, and not just because her chest flared in protest with each step, but

because she felt like some... criminal skulking around this close to a battle.

People were dying. Good people.

Taiki would say that those same people would chase her down and kill

her. That if the Sailor Starlights were in the middle of a battle with phages,

the Jurai military and Galaxy Police were as likely to just carpet bomb the

entire area into the ground than try and figure out who was on whose side. Yaten

would say that it wasn't their problem. That the fight didn't concern their

goals, so why should they care?

But Seiya had never believed that. She had almost blown their cover over

a dozen times because... sometimes, damn it, you had to step in. Sometimes it

was right to stand between those with power and those who couldn't defend

themselves, and damn the consequences. So doing nothing while those men died

hurt more than her almost certainly crushed ribs.

It didn't take her long to find the man. When she did, a brief moment of

despair filled her. He was unconscious, drilled into the earth with enough force

that he had left a huge trench. He was curled up into a ball, having

successfully twisted to take most of the impact with his back. Seiya looked at

this for a long moment, then saw that the man was still breathing.

With a grunt she began to climb down into the trench. She landed next to

the man with a wince and a gasp of pain. Tentatively, she reached over and

grabbed his shoulder...

Only suddenly her wrist was caught in a vicelike grip. The man's eyes

snapped open, but didn't seem to be focused on anything. Seiya froze and decided

to stay frozen. One strike had taken her out of the fight previously and she did

not fancy finding out what this man was capable of doing when he felt really

threatened.

Finally the man's eyes settled on Seiya. "You..." he said, his voice

strained. Seiya could see blood on his lips. His face was beautiful, soft and

gentle-looking. Seiya found herself caught in his eyes for a moment. "What do

you..." The man still held Seiya's wrist, not apparently aware of that fact.

"Have..." Seiya gasped and clenched her chest again. "My friends, your

friend... in danger..."

"What's wrong with...?" The man sat up, pulling Seiya in closer. Seiya

gasped and lost her footing, tumbled into his lap. For a moment Seiya was

pressed against him. He was... very soft. The leather of his outfit was

surprisingly supple.

The man was blushing fiercely. "I see... your chest." He looked down at

her. "Hold still a moment." She brought up her free hand, extending two fingers.

"I'm not very good at this, so don't move."

Then the man began to touch her. Seiya felt her cheeks flushing as the

man began to rhythmically tap her breasts and upper torso with his fingers. Then

she began to realise the pain was draining away. In fact, with each tap she felt

something... flowing into her. Just a little bit. It was like the water of a

warm lagoon, flowing straight into her wounds and soothing them away.

"There." The man pushed her back a bit. "Now be careful, you're not

actually healed. I've just... uh..." She frowned. "What's that word for the drug

that they use on you before surgery?"

"Anaesthetic?" Seiya was surprised by how easily she talked now.

"Yeah, that." The man paused. "You can get off now."

"Oh!" Seiya scrambled off. "Sorry." Seiya flashed her roguish grin, the

one that had made a billion girls across the galaxy swoon.

The man didn't even look at her. He was standing up. "Hmm." He looked

towards Z. "We have to rescue Ayeka somehow, and your friends if we can."

"You're willing to trust me?" Seiya asked, surprised.

The man looked at her. "How about I explain my feelings about teamwork

and friendship AFTER we've saved our friends from a fate worse than death?"

"Right..." Seiya held out a hand for the man to pull her up. Normally

she would never have done so. There was just something too... girly about it.

But considering that she was injured (even if the pain was mostly gone), she

would go for it. It certainly had nothing to do with how splendidly muscled he

was, now that she got a good look at him. After all, Seiya was about as gay as

you could get. Even before she had started posing as a male pop star, she had

been known as a ladykiller back home. She'd never even so much as looked at a

man as anything but a rival for a girl's affections before.

To tell the truth, it was kind of...

The man took her hand and pulled her up, only to pause suddenly and look

down at her wrist. Seiya blinked. "What's this on your wrist?" the man asked.

"That..." She looked down. Oh yes, the ID bracelet. It didn't look like

the ones the audience had purchased to get into the concert. It had been neatly

hidden and integrated into her male forms suit, but stood out badly against her

Sailor forms costume. "It's the bracelet for the concert..."

"How accurate are you with your laser?" the man asked quickly, looking

up at her. Seiya blinked. "Because I think I have a way to save everyone. We

just need a distraction..."

OoOoo

The plan was not to be hiding under an overturned parfait stand. The

plan was not to be shaking and holding a hand over his mouth to keep his breath

from being heard. The plan was not, in other words, going well.

Here was the plan: Touga was supposed to accompany Akira on her trip

into space. Akira was a genius prodigy when it came to operating vehicles, even

if the girl herself barely realised this; thus, she was the only person who

could be trusted to safely operate the highly experimental craft. This would

allow him to meet up with the Jurai princess on this world.

The plan involved Tethys and Touga tricking the Sailor Starlights into

getting into a fight with Akira and Princess Ayeka. It would be easy. Tethys

spread a few rumors about 'the light of hope', and the Starlights would come

calling. Then Touga and his partner would trick them into thinking Akira and

Ayeka were their enemies. Ayeka's entire society was under constant threats from

Sailor attacks and the only three Sailor Senshi that Akira had ever met were

murder-happy ones. It was child's play to get them to fight each other, which

was why Touga had let his partner do it.

That, and it wouldn't do for anyone to know how much Tethys was pulling

the strings.

Then when Ayeka and Akira managed to defeat the Sailor Starlights, the

Jurai marines would arrive and kill them off before any annoying questions could

be asked. Touga would appear, using cunning and charisma to cement a friendship

forged in adversity between the two girls, and convince the princess that her

people and Tethys had common cause. With Kairos pulling on the strings of

probability every now and then, the plan was certain to work.

The plan was for him to get a cushy post as an ambassdor to a rich and

powerful world. The plan was for him to sleep his way through the royal family,

earn their trust and win valuable information for Tethys. It was such a good

plan. He had quite liked the plan.

The plan did not include a nigh-omnipotent purple-eyed freak man who

could produce the fucking Wings of the god damn Light Hawk at will showing the

fuck up. Oh fuck. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Touga was screwed. He was going to die.

He was too pretty, young, charismatic and humble to die!

His internal monologue was also being affected too much by Kairos,

obviously, but he put that aside for the moment.

Kairos had suggested they make a break for it. Of course, that wasn't

really an option. Only Akira had the reflexes and experience to pilot the ship.

Without her, they were stuck on this planet. And from what he knew of Galaxia

and her minions, the one thing she seemed to hate above all others was

survivors. Plus, even if he managed to escape, there was the matter of reporting

back to Tethys.

'Oh yes, Queen of Darkness, I just returned here without the

experimental ship you invested a large portion of your valuable resources into.

Also, that girl you just recruited is dead. And so is Princess Ayeka. This

probably means any chance of an alliance with Jurai is shot to hell. If they

don't just assume your overtures were a poorly concealed trap and act

accordingly, they'll assume you can't even guarantee the safety of any of their

diplomats. So, I managed to be about as abject a failure as is possible.'

Tethys was a reasonable despot, far more so than he suspected most of

Earth's rulers were. But the first time he had met her, Tethys had brutally

murdered a man in front of hundreds of witnesses for being an abject failure.

First impressions such as that were very hard to get past.

No, Touga knew one thing. If he didn't do something, then they were all

going to die.

"Come on, partner, it's not really that bad!" Kairos replied chipperly.

"Yes it is. In fact, it's worse." Touga looked towards the stage. He

could see Akira approaching it now. She was alive. That was good. She was also

accompanied by Sailor Starfighter, which was not so good. "It looks like our

ride is about to kill herself being heroic."

"Then let's make certain she doesn't have to!" Kairos leapt to her feet

and rushed out from behind the overturned concession stand. Touga was stunned to

silence, unable to so much as think a dirty word as Kairos ran up onto the

stage. "Don't worry," Kairos said with the telepathic equivalent of a wink,

"I... have a plan!"

Oh god, he really was about to die.

"You there!" Kairos shouted, stopping only a meter from the casually

dressed god-monster. "This farce ends now!"

The man turned to look at Kairos. His eyes narrowed and he frowned.

"You... you're like a phage. Except you've been..." He turned his head slightly.

"Well now. I never thought of that. An interesting way of removing the weakness

of the design."

"Huh?" Touga thought, but Kairos wasn't the kind given to caring about

what her opponents were doing.

"I hereby challenge you to a shadow game!" Kairos called out in a deep,

booming voice. She drew out a back of cards. "We each draw one card from the

deck. Whoever wins gets the princess!"

"That's your plan?!" Touga didn't have breath to gasp with, but he tried

very hard.

"I had to create artificial star seeds to perfect the Sailor Killer, I

never thought of using actual complete souls..." Z mused as Kairos rushed in and

thrust the cards into his face. "What's this?"

"Pick a card!" she demanded. Bemused, Z did so. He still held Ayeka

with his other hand. "And now my card!" Kairos let out a deep breath and placed

her fingers on the deck as she closed her hands.

Touga felt himself tensing up.

"Behold!" Kairos stepped back, flipping the card into the air and

scattering the rest of the deck across the stage in a flurry of white and black.

She caught her card with a flourish and thrust it face-first at Z. "Witness

despair! The queen of hearts!"

Z raised an eyebrow. "I'm not certain what this card means." He held out

the ace of spades.

Kairos tilted back a bit, her eyes widening. "Uh... it means... it

means you lose!" She dropped the card and pushed her palm at him. "MINDCRUSH!"

"Was that supposed to do something?"

"Yes?"

"Like what?"

"Distract you for another two seconds?"

Z blinked, then he turned just as Akira appeared behind him in a blur of

motion. The woman's hand flashed forward, cracking through the air. Z snarled

and pulled around his arm, raising another Light Hawk Wing between himself and

Akira. But that hadn't been her target. Akira's hand flashed past Ayeka. The

princess vanished in a flash of pseudomotion.

"What the...?" Z looked startled. Akira wasn't pausing, she was reaching

for her own wrist. Then Z caught her hands in his. "Clever." He smiled, a

dangerous smile. "You removed the wristband, and Ayeka was teleported away. Too

bad it was also futile. I'll track down her position after I tear you..." He

trailed off.

Akira looked up at him. He frowned down at her. "This... no. It can't

be..." Z muttered. "You ceased to exist."

"What are you...?" Akira began, but was cut off.

"Star Serious LASER!"

From just offside, a flash of light appeared, streaming through the air

and zipping across Akira's wrist. She gasped in pain, a gasp that vanished with

a soft electronic popping sound. Z staggered, again.

Kairos' eyes tracked Sailor Starfighter as the girl began to dash around

the stage, trying to get a good position to fire on her comrades that had been

tied up at the bottom of it. Touga could immediately see that she had been

forced to give up on saving them right away, when Z caught Akira so easily. He

could also see Z's face twisting into a snarl of rage. His hand was raising up.

Kairos gasped as she felt massive energy spiking in front of him.

Touga wasn't certain what did it. Later, he would claim it was his

heroic impulse. But he knew that was a lie. But for whatever reason, he shouted

for Kairos to save her. He knew that they would need Sailor Starfighter alive.

Acting quickly, Kairos flipped her hand, sending the card she was

holding singing through the air. She didn't wait to see it catch Starfighter's

wristband. As she put the next part of Touga's plan into action, she just hoped

that Z didn't decide to vapourise the planet.

OoOoo

"...talking about?"

Ayeka let out a long-held breath when Akira appeared in the holding

cell. "Thank goodness. Are you all right?" she inquired.

The boy didn't appear to be too badly harmed, though a mottled bruise

had risen on his cheek where Z had first hit him. "Wait, where are they? Damn,

the plan was to save the other two while I had him distracted..."

Ayeka blinked. "Save? Who are you talking about?"

"That damn idiot!" Akira growled. "This wasn't the plan!"

"Plan?"

Suddenly, there was another slight hum and another body occupied the

cell with them. Akira turned and-

"Princess, it's one of THEM! Get down!"

Her bodyguard's attempts to shove her down failed, mostly because Ayeka

shrugged them off. Another body popped into the holding cell, some red-haired

man, but Ayeka dismissed him as she stalked forward to confront the monster.

"You!" she growled. "You won't escape this time!"

The Sailor, whose own expression had been twisted in anger as she

appeared, stared at her in incomprehension for a moment. "Oh. Uh-oh."

Her guards, giving up on getting her out of the way, took up positions

on each side of her. Despite the injuries Akira had earlier inflicted upon them,

their movements were calm and professional, although a few were limping. Each

held a pistol levelled at the Sailor.

The Sailor held up her hands hastily. "N-now wait, this has all been a

big misunder-"

Ayeka opened her mouth to give the order to fire, but suddenly Akira was

there, interposing himself between Ayeka and the Sailor.

"This woman just saved my life," Akira declared. "If you want to kill

her, you'll have to kill me first."

Ayeka blinked. Before she could react, the guard to her right yelled

"Fine!" and pulled the trigger. Or, at least, Ayeka presumed that had been his

intention. Instead, he went flying at a ninety degree angle away from his gun,

which lazily spiralled up into the air. Ayeka blinked again. Now she realised

why she hadn't noticed the last time Akira and her guards had clashed. In the

space of that blink, five of the seven guards had gone down, and she suspected

the only reason the other two hadn't was the sudden barrier of force Ayeka had

erected between them. Akira frowned, rubbing his fist which had crashed into the

selfsame barrier, and eyed Ayeka warily.

Ayeka considered her next move carefully. After a moment she spoke,

making sure to put enough imperial frostiness into her tone to ensure that Akira

understood the seriousness of his situation. "Akira Kazama. Despite my initial

inclination, I want to extend you the benefit of the doubt and not assume this

is some sort of vile plot. But for your own sake, you had better explain

yourself. You're defending an enemy of all that lives, while at the same time

its compatriots are killing good men and women outside."

"I should hope you don't think it's a trap," Akira snapped. "What, our

evil plan was to save you from the omnipotent purple-eyed freak out there so we

could attack you while we're outnumbered? Don't be stupid."

Ayeka felt her eye twitch, just a little bit. "That," she said,

measuring each word, "was why I was giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"Now now, ladies," a new voice interjected. Ayeka and Akira tore their

glares from each other and glanced at the source of it. It was presumably the

same man that had entered the cell moments ago. Ayeka had not seen him before,

but was almost involuntarily struck by his... beauty, for lack of a better term.

He was tall, with skin like an alabaster statue, and long red hair that flowed

elegantly down around a charcoal-grey, military-style uniform with red piping.

His face was smooth and fine-featured, his easy smile the sort that could calm a

heart and set it to beating furiously at the same time. The oddest thing,

though, were his eyes. The pupils were the shape of diamonds.

"We won't get anywhere fighting each other, nor do we have the luxury of

time to waste upon it. I doubt Akira knows any more than she has said - this

woman has saved her life. That being the case, why don't we let the Sailor

explain herself to you, Princess Ayeka?" He bowed gracefully. "You are of course

famed throughout many worlds for your graciousness and modest restraint. Please,

forgive my boorish companion and listen to this Sailor's tale, outlandish as the

very thought may be." Raising his head, he smiled again.

"Well, I..." It was suddenly just a little hot in the cell. Possibly due

to how many people were crammed into it. Yes, that was clearly it. "I am, err,

that is, I see the wisdom of your counsel..." she trailed off.

The newcomer flashed that dazzling smile again, his diamond eyes warm.

"Forgive me for my rudeness. I am Touga Kiryuu, the emissary of her majesty

Queen Tethys of the Dark Kingdom. I saw the chaos and hurried to help as best I

could... but that's not important. With the situation as serious as it is, it's

imperative we gather information as quickly as possible."

Ayeka nodded, the thought of what was going on outside suddenly driving

all... distracting thoughts from her mind. People were dying - people HAD died,

for her. She needed to make sure it wasn't in vain. "You're right. Akira, Touga,

let's call a truce. I'll listen to this... creature, but if it makes any hostile

moves..."

"Uhhh, don't worry, I won't!" the Sailor piped up.

"Don't be nervous," Akira said to the Sailor. Up until now he had been

silently gazing at Touga, looking almost as if he'd swallowed something sour,

but now his expression had softened. "Just be honest and things will work

themselves out."

"Honesty..." the Sailor said, licking her lips. "Honesty, eh?" she

repeated. "Okay, I can do that."

And suddenly, she was surrounded by a flash of light.

And then...

And then...

Akira reacted first. "Wait... you're one of those..."

"Seiya?" Ayeka said. She felt numb, except for an odd sort of tingling.

"Uhh, yeah," Seiya Kou of Three Lights, the most popular band in the

Juraian Empire, responded. He rubbed the back of his head. "You see..." then

suddenly he coughed, cutting himself off and lowering the hand to clutch at his

chest.

"You're... a Sailor?"

"K - kind of," Seiya gasped out.

But...

That meant...

"YATEN?!" Ayeka gasped. "Is... is he also..."

"Uh, yeah. Umm... sorry?"

This was... this was... a SCANDAL!

If anyone on Jurai found out she had watched the videos of and purchased

the single album of and maybe possibly happened to have secretly stashed a

poster in her bedroom of a... of a... SAILOR...

"I'm going to be the laughingstock of Jurai," Ayeka moaned. "Barred from

inheritance! Stripped of my rank!"

"Umm, Princess, it's probably not that bad-" Akira began.

"Probably set adrift in unknown space. I would never be able to face

Tenchi again!"

"Look, a lot of people have confused genders," Akira said, holding up

his hands placatingly. "He had me sort of fooled too, it's not so bad!"

"My name striken from the history books... oh Sasami, I need to warn her

or she could share my punishment! Although wait, I believe Taiki is her

favourite... but he must be one of you too, isn't he? Isn't he?" She didn't even

wait for Seiya's mute, wide-eyed nod. "Oh Sasami, I didn't know! I didn't know

when I bought you their first album! You have to believe me!"

"We believe you, Princess!" one of her conscious bodyguards cried,

clasping her arm.

"...I mean, you'd never believe how many people have mistaken ME for a

guy! It's not so bad, really!"

"Oh, that I had never been born rather than bearing such shame..." Ayeka

lowered her head to her sleeve. Then she blinked and raised it again. Something

had tickled the back of her brain. She stared. "Wait, what did you just-"

"You're a GIRL!?" Seiya shouted.

Akira blinked. Slowly, a dull flush covered his... her face. "Umm...

yeah..."

"I KNEW IT!" Seiya leaped to his feet, pumping one fist in the air. "I'm

still gay!"

"Still - wait, what is that supposed to mean!?"

Touga coughed loudly into his sleeve. Everyone turned to him. One

eyebrow was arched, the pupils within now the shape of spades. His perfect

features showed just the slightest hint of impatience. "If I could draw

everyone's attention to the battle outside once again..."

"Umm..."

"Yes..."

"Of course..." Ayeka murmured. Her face was hot again. "Please explain

yourself, Seiya. Is it somehow possible for Sailors to take a human guise?"

Seiya shook his head. "No. Or rather, what you've been calling 'Sailors'

aren't, really." He leaned against the wall, wincing and rubbing his chest

again. "Look, I have to make this quick, so please believe me, Princess, but

what you've been fighting aren't Sailors, no matter what they call themselves.

They're phages - monsters created from the corpses of regular people who have

had their Star Seeds removed by Galaxia or her minions." He gestured toward the

wall of the enclosure. "Star Seeds are what Galaxia is really looking for, but

those of most people flicker and burn out in moments, leaving only phages. The

true Star Seeds are inside people like me, the real Sailor Senshi."

"That's impossible," Ayeka snapped. "Am I to believe that Galaxia, too,

is one of these phages?"

"No," Seiya sighed. "Galaxia is a Sailor Senshi, I admit. But she's no

ally of mine, any more than she is of yours." He looked up, his eyes hard.

"She's a monster. She came to my planet and destroyed it. My friends and I

barely escaped with our lives, and we've been hunted ever since. That's why we

took these male disguises. That's what she's been doing to all of us, Princess

Ayeka... all of the Sailor Senshi. All over the galaxy. One by one, she finds us

and takes our Star Seeds. If she isn't stopped, the power of the entire galaxy

will be in her hands."

"Other Sailor Senshi?" Ayeka repeated, uncertainly. "Just how many are

there?"

"More than you can imagine. There's one for every world in the galaxy.

But most of them are hidden, only awakening in a time of crisis." He nodded,

seeing her expression. "Yes, Jurai must have one too."

"And... if they're taken by Galaxia..."

"The Star Seed isn't just the power of a true Sailor Senshi. It's the

very lifeforce of the planet they are sworn to protect. If it's taken..." he

trailed off, his face twisting as if he was remembering something painful.

"Without it, the planet dies. And everything on it."

No.

It couldn't be true. It was impossible. Thousands of years, the greatest

minds of the galaxy... they couldn't have not known this, if it were true. There

was no way.

And yet... how many times had it happened? That a planet under attack by

Galaxia's forces had suddenly been struck by a horrible... disease, for lack of

a better term? Plants and animals died, the soil became grey and inert, the air

cold and stale? Even the Sailors, or phages or whatever they were called, died.

The only survivors of such blighted worlds were those that were evacuated before

the blight. The secret of this effect, the so-called secret weapon of Galaxia,

had been hotly debated from the Imperial Palace to the Jurai Science Academy.

And just as hotly debated was the reason it was so erratically used. Sometimes a

planet suddenly died at the very onset of an invasion. Sometimes battles raged

for weeks and the phages were eventually exterminated, and nobody knew why this

time it had not been used.

It was impossible. And yet, at the same time, it made perfect sense.

What was it Washuu had said?

"All right," Ayeka said. "I think... I believe you."

"Princess?" one of the guards exclaimed in shock.

"I believe you," Ayeka repeated, pleased her voice sounded far more

certain than she actually felt. But this was what she had wanted, she reminded

herself. To find the truth that might save her people from destruction. She

would have been foolish to expect that to happen without any risk. "But I want

you to come back with me to Jurai. You clearly know more about Galaxia and these

phages than we do, to say nothing of these Sailor Senshi. If we're to win this

war, we need to know what you know."

Seiya looked into her eyes for a long moment. His gaze was hard. "Only

if we rescue my friends."

"Seiya..." Akira began hesitantly, then stopped as if she herself wasn't

sure what she was going to say.

"They've surely been captured by now," Touga said sternly. "And quite

possibly had their Star Seeds removed. Escape will be difficult enough; fighting

Z would be a suicidal risk you can't reasonably ask the crown princess of Jurai

to take."

"Maybe not, but I'm not going anywhere without them," Seiya snapped.

"They're my friends. They're my only - that is, my only companions from my

planet. I won't abandon them to Galaxia, no matter what."

"That's good enough for me," Akira said, stepping beside him. Touga

opened his mouth, but her expression apparently made him think better of it.

"Then let's go," Ayeka said. "We're just wasting time here."

Touga turned to her, his expression chagrined and eyes the shape of

clubs. "Princess, not you too."

"Galaxia is my enemy as well," Ayeka reminded him. "And I won't just run

and hide while a man who callously killed a member of my own family threatens a

planet that is under Jurai's protection." Of course, she had been seriously

considering doing just that - it was still really tempting - but she brushed

that aside. She had responsibilities. Not just to Captain Shoten, and not just

to this planet, though they were important enough. Whatever Seiya and his

friends knew, Jurai also had to know to have any hope of winning this war. So

there was simply no choice but to not only live, but succeed and bring him back.

Touga sighed, but it was a more indulgent than exasperated sound. "Well,

it would do me no good as a diplomat to let my contact - to say nothing of my

pilot - head into danger alone. If you've made up your mind, princess, then I

suppose I will simply have to make sure you stay alive." He smiled, his eyes now

the shape of diamonds.

Ayeka nodded. "Then it's agreed. We'll rescue your friends, Seiya."

He grinned roguishly. "Call me Sailor Starfighter, princess."

OoOoo

"Aren't you going to go after them?"

Z turned slightly. The woman that had stepped out of the shadows did not

look all that dangerous. She was thin, with long blue hair and bright blue eyes

that always seemed half-ready to close for a restful nap. She wore an outfit

that was somewhere between a long coat and lingerie, mostly in blue shades with

hints of white at her ears and wrapped around her stockings. The only real

splash of non-blue in her attire was her golden bracelets. Her posture was

slouched and she appeared to be holding in a yawn. She obviously wasn't paying

attention to much of anything.

Z wasn't fooled for a second. Of all of Galaxia's minions, he was most

wary of Sailor Aluminium Siren. Not because of her power, which was honestly

laughable. He was wary of her because he knew that despite her outward

appearance of laziness and nonchalance, she was the kind of person who didn't

miss anything. And everything she noticed was filed away in her brain for later.

"I could destroy them myself," Z pointed out. Then he shrugged. "But

then, this would be a pointless exercise."

"Yes, but then I could get back to Zero Star Sagittarius," Aluminium

Siren whined. "I'm hungry."

"We still haven't located this 'light of hope' they were looking for

here."

"Oh, I'm certain it will pop up eventually," the woman sighed.

Z smiled, turning away from her. "Galaxia wants to see my Sailor Killers

in action. I think this is a perfect opportunity, don't you?"

The woman pouted. "It sounds so bothersome..."

"You don't have to watch, if you don't want to," Z suggested mildly. He

was very careful to keep his reactions simple and controlled. He couldn't let

his excitement show. That woman... that woman had something about her. He had

almost seen it. The signs were all there.

She could be the Counterreactor.

If she was, then he would not need Galaxia anymore. He hated being that

woman's errand boy. He hated helping her create her little wars and her precious

chaos. It reminded him of... of That Time. The point where he had lost

everything. But she was the only person he knew of who had ever touched it,

touched the power beyond that of the Chousin. The power greater than even the

gods who had created all reality. He had to bend knee to her in the hopes of

ferreting out that secret.

The problem was that he suspected Galaxia knew exactly why he was

working for her. He suspected that she knew about his plans to destroy her along

with all the other sick gods of creation. He suspected she found his ambition

amusing, in the same way a man would find a precocious pet amusing.

But if he could find the Counterreactor again...

"Perhaps if we let these fools run, they will lead us to the Light of

Hope," Z said aloud. Aluminium Siren glanced at him out of the corner of her

sleepy, droopy eyes.

"As you say, you are in charge..."

"If you want to make yourself useful, why don't you take these two up to

the ship?" Z chuckled at the unconscious bodies of the Sailors. "But leave their

star seeds intact for now."

"Oh..." Siren tapped her lips. "Galaxia won't like that. She wants pure

star seeds."

"She'll have them." Z's smile spread wider. "But first, I want to find

out all about this Light of Hope." He gazed out across the stadium, his eyes

meeting those of his two prototype monsters. They nodded solemnly and vanished.

They knew exactly what he wanted.

He wondered how far he would have to push the girl. Well, if she was the

Counterreactor, then he would know soon enough.

OoOoo

The side of the building bulged outward, then exploded in a shower of

sparks. Akira waited for Ayeka to lower her hand. Whatever kind of power that

girl had, it was certainly impressive. Akira had seen things that were probably

more powerful. She'd seen an evil god try and rip a hole into her world from

the place beyond time to devour the souls of all humanity, for instance. But

that was... that was something else.

This was a girl, who was throwing around enough chi to vapourise a small

city. The thought of Ayeka being trained in actual martial arts like the kind

that was so popular on Earth both frightened Akira and excited her. Akira almost

wished she had an idea how to train someone. Ukyou would have known how to draw

out Ayeka's potential...

Damn.

The bodyguards were fanning out, covering as much of the area with their

weapons as they could. Akira followed them, with Seiya a few steps behind. The

Sailor had returned to her 'battle form', since she was still injured from

Akira's earlier hit. Touga moved last, constantly glancing around for any sign

of danger.

They were in some sort of parking lot, or the equivalent for the

vehicles on this planet. Akira stared across the lot, her eyes widening

slightly. Back in Japan, it was actually pretty rare to even own a car these

days. Even then, most cars looked the same. Oh, Akira could go on for days on

end about the differences between a Toyota and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, but

in the end they were all the same basic design. You had an internal combustion

engine which turned gasoline into torque which turned the wheels and made you go

forward. Add a few bells and whistles here and there, change the efficiency of

this part and that, and you had almost every single thing Akira had ever driven.

Compared to that, this place was a madhouse. There were vehicles here

that Akira couldn't even fathom the purpose of. There were things shaped like

eggbeaters or clams, things that hovered and things that had spider-legs. But

she could almost guess how some of them worked. There was one thing that looked

like nothing so much as a ski-doo mated with a jet engine, and she found her

fingers itching.

"So, what's the plan?" Akira asked.

"We need to rescue my friends," Seiya reminded them.

"Yes, but we can't fight Z head on," Akira replied. "We need to get away

for a while. Find someplace to hide while we think this out."

"The ship," Touga pointed out. "We could use the warp drive to move off

planet. Since Galaxia's sensors can't track it, we should be safe."

"Good idea," Akira admitted. She didn't like Touga much, but he was cool

under pressure.

"You have a stardrive that can't be tracked by Galaxia?" Ayeka asked,

eyes widening.

"Yeah," Akira waved her off. "Now all we have to do is get th-"

"AHHH!"

Ayeka staggered and fell forward, clutching her side. Her eyes were

closed. Akira was already moving, her body lifting up as she thrust her leg at

the thing now standing behind the wounded princess.

There was a crack as her boot was caught on the flat of a sabre. The

thing staggered back. Its black manic eyes narrowed. It was a woman, wearing

some sort of enameled breastplate and a long skirt that reached down to her

ankles. She had sabres in each hand and a sailor collar around her neck.

"Look out!" Seiya warned. Akira could just see the other creature

appearing. This one wore a skin-tight Chinese dress with a hem that barely

covered her hips and stilleto heels. Her whip snapped out, catching two of the

Jurai guards. One of them went flying, driving into a parked vehicle with enough

force to dent it. The other simply collapsed to the ground, blood flowing from

the ruin that had once been his face.

"Touga, take the princess," Akira yelled. She landed in a crouch,

standing in front of the sword-wielding phage. The woman-shaped-thing just

grinned.

"I can handle myself..." Ayeka gasped, still clutching her side. Red was

seeping through the side of her outfit, and even through the dark warpaint Akira

could see the colour draining from her cheeks. There was no telling how deep

that wound was.

"Star Serious LASER!" Seiya called, firing a beam of light at the other

phage. The purple skinned woman bounced up and over it, landing on a large

transport of some kind. "Damn, they're too fast..."

The one facing Akira laughed. It was a soft, disturbingly lucid chuckle.

"Well, well..." The woman raised her blood-stained sword in front of her face.

"I've never tasted royal blood before..." She leaned forward and began to slowly

lick the gore from the blade. "Mmm. This tast-urk..."

Akira's foot dropped and she skipped back a step. Her kick had driven

the thing's sword directly into its face. Served the creepy bitch right for

doing something so stupid within striking distance of an enemy. The phage

staggered back, the blade dropping out of her head slowly. Akira began to turn

to help Seiya deal with the other one...

She barely ducked the blow in time. She snapped her head around, staring

up at the thing in disbelief. Its face was whole again, looking like it hadn't

even been nicked, much less had a half-meter-long blade shoved through its

mouth.

Akira slid sideways, barely pushing away fast enough to avoid the next

slice. The ground where the blade hit cracked open. The phage spun, tracking her

with its other blade. Akira tumbled backward, trying to get behind it. It was

fast, but not faster than her.

For a few precious seconds, Akira's world narrowed down to two flashing

silver lines. She could stay one step ahead of it, and if she did so long enough

then she could find a pattern. Her breath came faster and deeper as she focused,

drawing on her chi. Then she saw it. Immediately she stepped into the thing's

range.

Her arm came up, forearm colliding with its elbow with enough force to

pulp a tree. Akira channeled the force through her and into the ground, making

it crack up and around her. Akira's free hand snapped out, a palm strike to the

back of the thing's neck. Her intention was to rip its head clean off with a

burst of chi.

She almost lost her own head instead. Her block should have halted the

phage's backhand swing. It would have, if it had a human elbow. Instead, the

thing's arm twisted and popped, bending grotesquely to slash at her. Akira

sensed the danger just quickly enough to twist her head to the side.

A red line of pain carved its way across her face.

Akira exploded. She wasn't certain how she did it. She panicked and just

knew she needed to get the thing away from her. Somehow, her chi blasted out in

a shockwave, sending the phage flying back. Akira collapsed to her knees, her

eyes wide.

Then a whip snapped around her neck. She was yanked to her feet, and a

foot smashed into the small of her back. The spiked heel dug into her leather

jacket painfully. A rich, silky voice spoke from behind her.

"You shouldn't fight so hard, dear..." it said. "You're making yourself

all sweaty and dirty with blood." Akira was scrambling at the whip, gasping for

air. She could see Seiya running towards her, but the sword-wielding phage

landed in front of her. Touga was carrying Ayeka, and the four surviving guards

were looking on in horror.

A hand began to caress her cheek even as the phage forced her to her

knees, continuing to drive the point of her shoe into Akira's back. "You don't

have to die like this, pretty little thing. Maybe, if you ask nicely, Z can turn

you into a Sailor Killer, like us."

"You'll love it," Sabre said, parrying Seiya's laser attack with her

blade. The beam reflected into a nearby vehicle, cutting a line through it for a

second before the entire thing went up in a fireball. "Of course, you'll be

incapable of love, so you won't actually love it. But you'll also be incapable

of regret, so it evens out."

Akira grit her teeth. No. She was not going to die here, on some planet

she couldn't even remember the name of, fighting a war that didn't even really

involve her. She had to get back to Earth. She had a promise to keep. She had a

woman to find. Her eyes settled on the aircycle she had spotted earlier.

She had to get out of here.

She let go of the whip, letting it snap taut around her windpipe. She

now had only a few seconds before she either blacked out from lack of air, or

the monster crushed her neck like tin foil. Her hands latched onto the

shoulderpads of her jacket. She liked those shoulderpads. She had spent hours

painting the little skulls onto them, and securely fastening the spikes. With a

pair of simultaneous rips she tore them from her jacket. She pumped as much chi

into them as she could, dumping as much as she could force into the material. It

was remarkably inefficient, and left her feeling lightheaded, but the pads began

to glow. Then she threw them with all her might, one for each phage.

Sailor Sabre sidestepped hers, and the one holding Akira just ducked.

But Akira hadn't been aiming for them. She'd seen when Seiya's refracted beam

had caused the other vehicle to explode. If she was right, that was where the

fuel tank was. With a twin pair of thunks the pads sunk into two vehicles and

the chi stored in them exploded out all at once.

The ships went up a moment later. The blast wave knocked Sailor Sabre

over. The one holding Akira was far closer to the explosion, and cried out as

the shockwave slammed into her back. She stumbled forward, the whip going slack.

Akira couldn't even waste the time gasping for air. She reached back, grabbed

the thing's hair, and pulled it over her head into the ground. Then she jumped

up and stomped on its face for good measure.

A snap of her hand tore the whip from around her throat and she began

gasping as she ran through the flames. She saw Seiya first. The girl was staring

at Akira, her eyes wide.

"Do you... know how to pilot these things?" Akira said, pointing to a

trio of identical looking one person scooter-rocket things.

"Uh... in theory."

Akira shoved her towards one of them. "Get going then. We can't fight

those things here." Akira could already see two figures standing up through the

smoke. She looked at Touga. "Touga... tell your 'friend' it would be really nice

if we just happened to find the keys or whatever to these things lying around.

Unless you know how to hotwire a space-scooter."

Touga frowned. His eyes closed, and when they opened again they were

spades. "Done. Just hop on, they were carelessly left running."

Akira nodded and held out her hand. "Give me the princess."

"But..." Touga frowned.

"I'm the better pilot. You and Seiya just make a run for it, I'll

protect everyone."

Suddenly she heard blaster fire. She turned to see the Jurai guards

letting loose with their sidearms. The two phages had leapt back to avoid the

sudden attack, but it wouldn't hold them for long. Ayeka winced as Touga handed

her over.

"Get going, princess!" one of the men cried. "We'll hold them for as

long as we can."

"No... you don't..."

Akira didn't bother to let her finish. She just pulled the princess in

close and leapt onto one of the skycycles. Her eyes scanned over it in confusion

for a moment. Ayeka grunted and her hand reached out, double-tapping a large

green button. There was a hum, and then the cycle began to rise off the ground.

A circle of dust plumed up all around them.

"Touga, Seiya, make a straight run for the ship!" Akira ordered.

"What about you?" Seiya shouted.

"I'm going to make certain we aren't followed!" She reached out and

grabbed the handlebars. It was just another bike, she told herself. Just a bike

that had another axis of movement. She already knew all about two, one more was

simple. Right?

"Hold tight, Ayeka, this isn't going to be a smooth flight."

With a roar, the bike screamed up into the air.

OoOoo

Ayeka grabbed onto Akira's waist with as much strength as she could. The

sound of the repulsor field that powered the aircycle roared underneath them as

the girl put about five times more power into it than was neccesary to lift them

off. Dust exploded up all around them as the bike shot straight up. Ayeka

couldn't help but look at the fight below. Her men, her bodyguards that she had

never asked for, were falling one after another.

For a moment Ayeka's eyes met those of the sword-wielding Sailor. The

thing peeled back her lips in a grim parody of a smile. Then she leapt over the

crowd and sprinted towards the remaining aircycles.

"They're coming after us!"

"Of course..." Akira yelled back. "That's why I sent the others on

ahead. They'll chase you down no matter where we go, but they don't care about

them."

"What?" Ayeka protested. "You never said..."

"Because Seiya would have insisted on staying to protect you, and

frankly, she'll only get in my way." Akira turned around and grabbed the

handlebars of the vehicle. "Now which button is forward..." Ayeka gulped.

"Nevermind, found it."

And then they were off.

Ayeka had been on spaceships before. She had ridden shuttles into orbit

at escape velocities. She had flown across the entire universe, surpassing the

very speed of light. Therefore she understood that technically she wasn't really

going that fast, relatively speaking.

She tried telling her stomach that, but it had apparently been so caught

off-guard it was still back at the landing pad. Akira leaned forward over the

handles, revving the primitive fusion engine to its fullest. The repulsors

surged, creating a growling sort of whine. Ayeka made the mistake of looking

down, watching as the backdraft of the repulsor created a wake in the grass as

they fled the city. Fleeing people blurred past too quickly to make out their

features. The cycle slalomed through the few ships that were attempting to flee

from the Sailor attack, easily outpacing them.

"Oh goodness..." Ayeka cried, clutching Akira tighter. She felt her side

twinge in pain.

"Don't worry, I won't let anything hurt you!" Akira promised, yelling

over her shoulder.

"Don't make promises you can't keep!"

Ayeka's head snapped up. Sabre twisted around from the other side of a

huge airbus, one hand on the controls of a much larger and more powerful-looking

aircycle. In the other hand she held one of her duelling swords. Akira twisted

the controls and suddenly Ayeka was jarred sideways as the bike jerked down and

to the right. The Sailor's blade cut through the air above their head in a

silver flash.

Akira dropped them, Sabre pursuing all the way down. Much too quickly

they ran out of sky. Akira's hands and knees shot out, brushing the ground as

she forced the cycle to spin almost in place, sending them off almost exactly

ninety degrees away from their previous course. Sabre shot past them, her more

powerful machine literally tearing a trench in the ground with its repulsors as

she struggled to turn it to follow them.

Then Ayeka didn't have time to worry about their pursuer.. The natives

of Demood apparently liked nature, since there were a large number of trees and

shrubs all over the place. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but Akira had

yet to pull them up. Ayeka screamed as the aircycle slid sideways, passing close

enough to a tree that her hair brushed against its trunk.

Akira, despite all logic, seemed to relax as she slowly accelerated

their vehicle. The tension in her muscles leaked out as the girl clenched the

controls, yanking them only at the last possible second to avoid anything that

came up in their path. Ayeka would have thought she was insane, except for the

feeling of... of pure confidence rolling off her. It was like an aura of utter

certainty was seeping out of the girl's pores and enveloping Ayeka in its

comforting embrace.

For one brief, glorious moment, Ayeka did not doubt at all that they

would survive this insanity.

"Dragontail TORNADO!"

"SHIT!"

Akira leaned back, pushing on the controls as a cyclone of wind roared

into existence in front of them. The cycle climbed and flipped almost vertical

as she tried to get the full force of the repulsor field pushing them away from

the unexpected attack. Ayeka screamed as she began to lose her grip.

Akira's hand snapped back, cathcing her. The aircycle bounced backwards,

throwing out a blast of force as Akira gunned the engine. The force was enough

to disrupt the approaching cyclone. One-handed, Akira ran her fingers across

the console, then grabbed the handle again just in time to turn their backwards

bounce into a safe landing.

Above them, Sailor Dragontail was riding another of the larger, more

intimidating black gunmetal aircycles. She had her whip in one hand, which she

was beginning to spin in their direction.

"Of course they have ranged attacks," Akira drawled. "Princess, I need

my hand back."

"Oh... yes..." Ayeka murmured. She grabbed the girl again, determined to

hold on tighter this time. Damn. Why didn't she see that attack coming? The

wound in her side wasn't life-threatening... but only because she was of royal

Jurai blood. All her energy was currently tied up in preventing her insides from

spilling out across the landscape, meaning she was as helpless as a newborn.

"Sabre SWALLOWCUT!"

Akira spun in place, pulling Ayeka to the side. The aircycle rotated,

spinning like a top. Ayeka only saw a silver-blue flash and another of red. She

heard Akira curse. There was a cut along the back of her jacket now, and an

angry-looking red line oozed there. Ayeka blanched.

"Damn, no choice, we need cover." Akira gunned the engine again and

they took off. The two Sailors fell into place behind them. Ayeka wondered what

Akira meant, then she saw the city approaching quickly.

"No!" Ayeka protested. "There are innocent people there!"

"I know, but if we stay out in the open, we'll be toast. All they need

is one lucky shot!"

Ayeka bit back her reply. She hated the idea of drawing their fight into

a populated area, but what choice did they have? Besides, if they lost here,

then everyone on the planet would be dead before tomorrow. Right? The worst part

was that the two Sailor Killers seemed to sense Akira's plan, and were

deliberately holding back. Ayeka knew that their vehicles were faster, and that

they had ranged attacks. They could have overtaken Akira at any time, but they

were waiting... no, not just waiting, HERDING Akira into the city. Ayeka

couldn't see the boyish girl's face, but she could feel an edge of disgust and

hatred seeping into Akira's aura. Then they reached the city limits, and Ayeka

didn't have much more time to contemplate Akira's mood.

The first attack came just as they began to reach the traffic of the

city. Sabre shot forward. Her cycle roared as she pushed it into melee range.

Dragontail pulled higher up. She was cutting off their retreat.

Akira waited until Sabre was almost on her. She dropped again, repeating

her earlier escape. Sabre anticipated it, bringing her blade down in a vertical

arc.

"Take the controls!" Akira yelled. Then suddenly her hands snapped out,

her palms clamping together on the flats of the blade. Ayeka had a moment to

gape in panic, then somehow she pushed forward, reaching around Akira to grab

the control handles. The ship was shaking violently. It wasn't supposed to be

engaged in these kinds of manoeuvres!

The aircycle jerked, almost twisting out of control. Akira gasped as she

almost lost her grip. The blade plunged towards her face. Sabre cried out in

triumph. "Hold it steady!" Akira yelled.

"I'm trying!" Ayeka snapped back. She looked around. Akira still had her

foot on the accelerator, depressed all the way down. They were speeding up just

as they were beginning to reach the heavier traffic. Much larger aircars and

transports were trying to peel away from the mid-air melee, but they were much

slower than the sportster Akira had picked. One particular vehicle, a large

cargo transport with three cylinders hanging from its bottom, was directly in

front of them.

"It's not too late to surrender!" Sailor Sabre crowed, her voice barely

audible over the roar of the repulsor fields.

"Consider this my witty comeback!" Akira yelled. Her hands snapped down

and to the side, pulling the sword away from her even as her head shot forward.

It smashed into the Sailor's grinning face. The girl-thing cried out as she was

knocked back. Akira pulled, beginning to wrench the weapon free-

"AKIRA!" Ayeka yelled.

"UP! UP!" Akira yelled back.

Ayeka twisted the controls up. The aircycle responded slowly. Ayeka

realised she was screaming. She also realised she didn't care. Out of the sky

dropped Sailor Dragontail, her field blasting Ayeka's hair flat. There was a

crack like thunder-

Akira's arm appeared above Ayeka. The whip was snapped tightly around

her forearm. The leather sleeve was torn, but not destroyed. Unfortunately,

Sabre's weapon was now free. The other Sailor growled and slashed at Akira.

Akira pulled on the whip, dragging down the other cycle with sheer brute

strength. She used the brown coil to parry the incoming blade. Then Ayeka saw

the other ship hit the top of the transport. The impact sent a riot of sparks

across its top. The repulsor also pushed the ship down.

Just enough so that their cycle shot over the top of it. Ayeka looked

back. The transport was behind them so fast it made her heart skip. The bottom

of one of the containers plowed into the earth. The entire ship snapped up

straight.

Ayeka felt the cycle buck in her grip. She turned her attention back to

the front. Dragontail was fighting with Akira, sawing her whip back and forth,

and the cycle was jerking in response. Akira was flowing and arcing her body

around it, always keeping the surprisingly durable leather whip between her and

Sabre's blows. Akira's feet, still on the pedals, suddenly released the

accelerator and hit the brake.

Ayeka fought the controls, but it was no use. They began to spin. The

inertia yanked on Sailor Dragontail and, with a little help from Akira, pulled

her free of her seat. Sailor Sabre pulled away from them, arcing up and to the

left to avoid being caught in the now completely out-of-control vehicle's

motion.

Behind them, the transport had disintegrated. The cylinders had broken

free and were pinwheeling throught the air. In front of them was a cross street.

Dozens of ships were flashing through the intersection at three different

levels. Below them people ran screaming in all directions as the ship spun

towards the ground. Above them the rest of the traffic flew on, trying to peel

away from the danger. Ayeka saw all this in flashes as her world dissolved into

a kaleidoscope.

There was a crash as Dragontail slammed into the front of the bike. With

one hand she grabbed on. Akira was thrown back, the whip unwrapping from her

arm, but then pushed herself up, using one hand to hold onto the seat of the

aircycle. Her legs flashed in a tight circle, striking at the Sailor. The woman

parried one blow with her forearm, but the second caught her in the cheek. Her

face caved in and she slid forward, off the cycle.

Then Ayeka was in freefall. She wasn't certain how she had lost her grip

on the vehicle, but she had. She was plummeting toward the surface now. Akira

snapped her head around.

The cycle rocketed into the intersection. One of the cylinders crashed

beside them, sending up a plume of dust, Another was spinning up and through the

patterns of interweaving cars. Many tried to veer out of its path. Many failed.

Most of those that did ended up veering straight into the flight path of some

other poor ship.

The sky lit up with explosions.

Akira reached out for Ayeka. Ayeka reached for her. Their fingers

brushed each other. A nearby explosion sent Ayeka and Akira flying apart. Ayeka

lost all perception of up or down. She screamed and threw out her hands. Her

shield popped into existence. She could feel the blood suddenly spurting from

the wound in her side.

A ship smashed head on into her, the front crumbling inward. Ayeka

winced as she was driven sideways for a second. She could see Akira falling

below her, or was it above? The girl was leaping at Sailor Dragontail.

The purple-skinned monster spun around, her face having restored itself.

Her whip cracked out, spinning in a circle. A tornado sprung from it, lancing up

through the air at Akira. Akira spun, placing one palm and the side of her foot

against a passing vehicle that was augering into the ground at several hundred

kilometers per hour. Then she pushed off, just avoiding the blast.

When asked later what was the most impressive thing Ayeka had ever seen

in all her years of space travel, Ayeka would not talk about stars going nova or

nebulae or any of that. She would remember one woman moving with the grace of a

flowing river. She would remember Akira dancing between the spinning chaos of

aircars and explosions, always one step ahead of being crushed and ripped to

shreds. She would remember her spiralling down behind Sailor Dragontail, her

entire body rotating as the Sailor struggled to keep up. Then the girl drove a

palm into the back of the thing's head, a blast of blue light rippling outward.

It took the monster's head clean off.

Before the blow was even finished Akira hooked it with her feet and

kicked it away, everything except the whip. Her hand snapped up, clasping the

leather strip. She spun, kicking off a aircar that was under her for a fraction

of a second before leaping up at Ayeka.

Only then did Ayeka realise that she was still falling. Which meant

Akira was above her, and had just kicked down. The girl pulled back the whip and

yelled something at Ayeka.

Ayeka's shield went down. There was a crack as the whip snapped tight

around her ankle and a brief flare of pain. Then she was being pulled up until

she was being held against the other girl in a surprisingly gentle grip.

"AYEKA!"

"I..." The world was swimming. Ayeka had lost too much blood. She

couldn't breathe.

"HOLD ON!"

There was a brown flash and Akira managed to snag a passing vehicle.

They were dragged up and away from the ground. Akira cried out in pain as her

shoulder popped. They sailed up and through the maelstrom for a few seconds,

aircraft of every design spinning and turning around them at every angle...

Then a silver-blue flash passed through the air overhead and suddenly

Akira was holding onto about ten centimeters of leather. There was a roar as

Sabre flew in, her aircycle twisting sideways so she could pass between two

tanker transports.

"For fuck's sake..." Akira growled. "Ayeka! A shield would be nice."

Ayeka could hear her voice drifting in and out. "Ayeka! AYEKA! Damn it!"

OoOoo

"I really think you should just tear out their star seeds."

Z sat on the edge of the table, letting one leg dangle over the edge.

The Sailor Starlights hung from manacles that floated just beneath the ceiling.

Their bodies were covered in a few bruises and burns. Dragontail and Sabre had

been a little zealous in securing them. Thankfully, Z had designed the manacles

to suppress their second order abilities.

Not that he was afraid of them. However, constant escape attempts were a

nuisance.

"You'll have to forgive my companion," Z said to them in a pleasant

tone. "She has a bit of a one-track mind."

"She's a pawn of Galaxia, just like you!" the white-haired one, Sailor

Starhealer, snarled.

"Really?" Aluminium Siren said, tapping her lip.

"You betrayed your people, your entire world, just to spare your own

life," the brown-haired one cursed. "How does it feel to sacrifice your entire

world for slavery?"

"Well, it's probably not as glamourous as being a pop idol," Aluminum

Siren replied, her voice not even carrying a hint of irony. "Maybe I should have

run away for that instead?" she asked innocently.

The brown-haired one winced. The white-haired one glared at her, cheeks

flushing in rage. Well, he knew which one of them was the weak link now. That

would be good. Z smiled and leaned back further.

"I'm sorry, that was impolite of her," Z cut in. "Apologise to the

girls, Siren."

"Oh so?" Aluminum Siren looked at him, her big innocent eyes

fluttering. "Did I say something wrong?"

Z sighed theatrically and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Forgive her, I

think Galaxia removed her brain along with her star seed." Z glanced at the

golden wristbrands that marked Aluminum Siren as one of the Sailors who had

made the devil's deal with Galaxia. Life as a soulless slave. He suppressed a

shudder.

That could have been him.

That HAD been him.

"Just get it over with," Sailor Starhealer snarled. "We'll never join

Galaxia!"

"Join Galaxia?" Z made himself looked perplexed. "Why would I ever think

you would do that?" The white-haired Sailor frowned at him. "Actually I just

plan on killing you and delivering your star seeds to Galaxia." The brown-haired

one - Starmaker, if he recalled correctly - blanched. Even Healer lost some of

her fire.

"Then let me..." Siren said, her innocent features suddenly darkening as

she brought her wrist up and together. Z grabbed her hand and pushed her arms

down. The blue-haired woman looked startled at how quickly he had crossed the

room.

"If they're dead, they can't tell us anything," he informed her.

"We'll never talk," the brown-haired one insisted.

"Really?" Z turned to face her. He smiled and stepped in front of

Aluminum Siren as he started to walk forward. "Do you see this?" Z tapped the

side of his head, right next to his artificial eye. Sailor Starmaker met his

gaze with difficulty. "It's an implant of my own devising. It can see time."

The girl's jaw dropped open. "No, it cannot see the future. Nor even the

past. It can see time itself." Z smirked. "The infinite flow of probability that

flows from one moment to the next. So, not exactly seeing the future, but the

weight of potential future. Damned thing used to give me the strangest

headaches." He shugged. "But the point is, that I can see the blossoming of

potential all around you. So don't try telling me you will 'never' talk, Sailor

Senshi. I know from never."

Z was standing right in front of her now. He reached up and stroked her

chin. She pulled her head back as if burned. He shrugged it off. "I just want

to know why you were here. I know about the Light of Hope. I know it's what

dragged you to this worthless planet. I intercepted the message in the flows of

time." His eyes narrowed. "I want to know what it is."

"Why should we tell you?" Starhealer shouted. Z turned to her with a

smile.

"I said I was going to kill you." He stepped back. "I never said

anything about your friend."

"Starfighter!" the brown-haired Sailor gasped.

"That's right." Z glanced over his shoulder at Aluminum Siren. She was

drinking from a juicebox, seemingly unconcerned with the conversation. "Galaxia

won't like it. But if I give her two star seeds, she'll be satisfied." He turned

back to them. "If you tell me what I want to know, I'll leave your friend be.

I'll call off my phages on the planet, and she'll be able to move on..." He

paused. "Provided the Juraians don't kill her."

Starmaker glanced up at him. Z kept his face carefully dispassionate. He

could see the blossom of potential beginning to open up further. It was always

fascinating, watching one of these moments. Everything in the universe had

millions and millions of possible futures, all branching off in a million

directions. But for the most part, the variations were dull and dry. The destiny

of a rock wasn't much changed. People were far more interesting. They were

always capable of so many wonders and horrors. Every one of them was pulled so

many ways.

And then there were moments like this. Momentous decisions could effect

the courses of not only one person's destiny, but those of everyone around them.

They could change the entire universe. Starmaker was in the middle of one of

those decisions, her potentials growing faster than even Z could keep track of.

Her head fell. The potentials slowed down back to a more reasonable

pace. Z sighed.

"Not going to talk, I see."

"They're probably just looking for their princess." Aluminum Siren was

delicately chewing on the end of a candy-stick. The two Sailors gasped. Z

turned to her.

"Princess?" He frowned. "The only princess on that planet is Ayeka. And

the Jurai Royal Family would sooner kill a Sailor Senshi then employ one."

"Not her." Aluminum Siren shrugged. "Princess Carwash or Cockfight

or...'

"Kakyuu!" Starhealer burst out, then immediately looked like she

regretted it.

"Yes, Princess Kakyuu." Aluminium Siren gave the captured Sailor a

thankful and honest smile. "Thank you, that's been bothering me all day." She

turned to Z. "Anyway, when Galaxia destroyed their home system, she didn't meet

with as much resistance as we thought. The most powerful star seed of the

system, the one held by Princess Kakyuu, the leader of the Starlights, fled

before she even got there. It wasn't long into the campaign before these three

fled as well."

"Princess Kakyuu?" Z frowned. "Is she the Light of Hope?" He closed his

natural eye, focusing on the flow of time around them. The potentials around

this planet were very strange indeed. He hadn't seen anything like it... not

since before he'd been forced to flee Tokimi. And the potentials had grown

stranger since Kakyuu had been mentioned.

They were collapsing.

That simply didn't happen. The universe was always splitting. Each

quantum event created billions of offshoot universes, expanding and expanding

the timeline out into infinity. Potentials did not collapse. Sometimes the

potentials grew faster or slower, but they never actually shrunk.

Except for one reason.

"Well?" Z turned to the captured Sailors. "Are you going to answer me?"

They remained tightlipped.

Z sighed and turned to Aluminum Siren. "Take that one. Torture her."

Starhealer's face drained of colour.

"But I just had my nails-"

"Sailor Aluminum Siren." Z allowed the full weight of his power to fall

into his voice. The girl looked at him suddenly, her eyes widening. He stepped

up to her. He let his power blossom slightly. The lifeforce of the gods. It

surged beneath his skin. The potentials around Siren began to slow and slow. "Do

not forget who I am. Take this Sailor away. Torment her. Use the phages. Use

your imagination. Make her scream. Make her beg. I don't care what you do...

except you will not kill her. But I want her broken."

"Y-yes..." Siren gasped, stumbling around him. She grabbed the control

off the table and started hovering Starhealer out of the room. Z waited until

they were gone. Then he turned to the other side of the room.

Two large wooden objects loomed in the corner. They had just barely

survived the attack on the Hiryu. He had salvaged them on a whim, mildly

interested in the fact that two machines would have such potentialities

surrounding them. He was familiar with the concept of Jurai guardians. They were

semi-sentient automatons, infused with the Jurai power and tasked with the

protection of and service to the royal family. No doubt these two belonged to

Princess Ayeka.

He smiled. He would have them do his work for him. With a slight effort

of will, he focused on them. The Jurai guardians drew on the 'secret energy' of

Jurai, just like the treeships. Like them, what they were really doing was

tapping into a fraction of the power of the Chousin, the great goddesses.

Compared to him, their power was infinitesimal. He could nullify Light Hawk

Wings. The act of suppressing these machines was so small he hadn't even been

aware of the drain until he ceased it.

The machines came alive with human-like gasps.

"Where are we?"

"What have you done with Princess-"

"Shut up." Z waved his hand,suppressing just enough of their power to

render them quiet. "Now, listen to me..."

OoOoo

Seiya pulled on the handles of the aircycle, skidding to a stop in mid-

air. The red-haired guy, Touga, slowed to a more sedate stop. They were coming

up to a series of canyons, which the man had told her hid Akira's ship.

"What's the matter?" Touga called back. "Do you sense trouble?"

"No..." Seiya looked back at the city. There were explosions. She

couldn't see them, but she could hear them. There were ships peeling out of it

at all speeds, some racing for orbit while others skidding along the curve of

the planet. "Damn it..." She began to turn the cycle around.

"Don't be an idiot," Touga called. "You'll get yourself killed."

"Don't you care about your ally?" Seiya called back.

"Akira can take care of herself," Touga replied calmly. "I would only be

a hindrance to her in this fight. However, if you want to go, I won't stop you."

With that, the man tapped his console a few times and swept down into the

canyons.

Seiya sat on the cycle, a frown on her face.

OoOoo

Sabre came in like a vengeful comet. She rose up, using her knees to

hold her aircycle steady. Her blades flashed as she extended them to the side.

Akira tossed away the remains of the whip, pulling Ayeka, who had reverted to

her normal clothes, in to her side more tightly. She could feel blood flowing

over her. It wasn't the fountain that it had been a few seconds ago, but

whatever technique the purple-haired princess had been using to hold back the

flow had obviously failed. She was bleeding out.

"Sabre SWALLOWCUT!"

Akira was good, but even she couldn't dodge in mid-air without something

to push off of. So instead she concentrated as much chi in her hand as she could

and tried to parry the incoming blasts. The first one nearly chopped through her

hand, flaying the skin off her palm and just barely missing cutting Ayeka in two

as it swept past. Then Akira's hand erupted with light as she parried the second

blow, knocking it aside.

Sabre's machine spun on its side as the phage pulled in close. She was

going to pass to the side of them, striking with her blades. She wasn't really

trying to hurt them, just keep Akira too busy to find some way of keeping them

both from slamming into the ground at three hundred plus kilometers per hour.

"Sorry, Princess..." Akira murmured. Then she threw the woman at the

phage.

Sabre's eyes widened. She had never expected such a move. The

unconscious girl slammed into Sabre's side with enough force that the phage

was knocked clear off the aircycle. Akira floated beyond them... her hand still

holding onto the unfurling cloth from Ayeka's shirt. With a snap of her wrist,

she pulled Ayeka back, slamming her against the side of the aircycle and pulling

it towards Akira.

Akira hated having to do it, but a few bruises were better than a messy

death. Thankfully the bike came within arm's reach before they both slammed into

the ground. With speed born of desperation, Akira grabbed the controls and

pulled Ayeka in behind her, struggling to prevent the crash.

The aircycle brushed the ground, ripping a trench in it, before shooting

up again. They were past the intersection, back into a one-way flow of traffic.

A quick look back confirmed there was no immediate pursuit.

Akira needed to stop the bleeding first. Her fingers flashed out,

jabbing a few pressure points along the princess's side. She hoped Juraian and

human physiology were close enough for this to work. With a final pulse of chi,

Akira tried to reboot Ayeka's shield. The white glow had been holding in the

blood up until a few seconds ago...

It was with great relief that Akira saw the white glow appear on the

girl's side. The flow of blood halted instantly. Akira carefully placed Ayeka

against the seat, using one hand to steer between the ships while she pulled off

her jacket with the other. It was a lost cause anyway, she told herself with

some regret.

While Akira tied the princess to the bike with her jacket, she kept

pulling the ship up. She needed to get up out of the traffic. That disaster had

cost too much. Those weren't empty drones, there had been people in those-

Her instincts saved her as she abruptly pulled to the side. A sword

flashed through the air, slamming into the roof of a passing ship the size of a

sedan. There was a flicker of motion and then Sabre appeared, clutching the

weapon's handle. Akira peeled away, trying to gain altitude. Sabre threw her

other blade, sinking it into the side of a passing cargo hauler. Then with a

flicker she appeared on the side of the vehicle, clutching the weapon. Even as

Akira tried to steer away, she tossed her blade again, once again vanishing and

appearing where the weapon sunk into a ship.

"Teleporting..." Akira moaned. Of course. She winced as she placed her

maimed hand on the controls. Her chi wasn't healing the injury fast enough, and

her blood made the controls slick. But she couldn't afford to fail now.

The next few minutes passed in a blur. Akira's focus narrowed and

narrowed even as she expanded and expanded her awareness. She had to be able to

see the entire area as much as possible. She had to keep track of the entire

corridor of traffic, even as she focused on slaloming through it and avoiding

Sabre's attacks.

The phage was always just behind her. Her silver-blue attacks cut

through the air, turning the airtraffic into a obstacle course. Ships too large

or too slow to get out of the way were caught flush with the crescent-shaped

beams. Most of those caught split in two, their halves tumbling away from each

other. Some exploded. Akira wove between them. She ducked under a exploding

airyacht, then flew up and between two halves of a ship as it slowly

disintegrated.

Slowly, traffic thinned. Soon, Sabre wouldn't have any other ships to

teleport to while she pursued Akira. She would start getting desperate.

She pulled herself up briefly along the side of one of the buildings.

Her reflection raced her in the smooth glass. Sabre appeared in the side of the

building, her hand clutching the sword she had thrown in front of Akira. Akira

grinned and amped up her engine.

The repulsor blew the side of the building apart, creating a shower of

glass. Sabre was caught by surprise, her body shredded by the attack. The engine

pulse had bounced Akira and her passenger safely away from the explosion. Akira

looked around.

The air around her had almost entirely cleared out. Any ship not caught

in the battle had managed to depart the area. Akira throttled up, hoping to

escape the city soon. From the city it was only ten kilometers to the canyon

where Tethys' spaceship was parked. Hopefully the weapons on the ship could

handle these things.

Then one of the skyscrapers in front of her exploded. Akira threw the

aircycle to the side, gasping as the entire side of the building blew outward

like a waterfall of glass and dust. Out of the cloud of debris emerged a huge

shape. It was a ship, almost three times as large as any Akira had seen to this

point.

On top of it was the formerly headless Sailor Dragontail. She was

smirking, holding onto the top with one hand. Akira could see the driver through

the window. It was a man... or had been. His face was black and covered in

yellow warning labels, and he wore a similarly-decorated sailor costume. He was

laughing.

"Oh come ON!" Akira screamed. "I blew off your head! That means you're

dead! The blowing off of a person's head means they have LOST! That's the RULE!"

"Sailor Pilot, take them down!" Dragontail called out, pointing.

The magically transformed pilot veered the huge ship towards them. There

was no way it was as agile as Akira's ship, but it didn't have to be. It was the

size of two buses parked end to end and three buses tall. They had a flyswatter

the size of a building, and Akira was the fly.

Akira pulled the cycle vertical, pushing the repulsor right into the

oncoming ship. The aircycle bounced backwards, trying to stall out. Akira

fought with it, trying to make out the controls through the blood that had

seeped across them. She spun the ship, bouncing it off a building. Somehow she

steered the ship up and towards another building.

The starship slammed into the building Akira had just bounced away from.

Its side tore a hole in the structure. Akira flew up and over it, angling the

field to bouce them away again. Then she spun the controls, turning the ship so

it bounced off another building, leaving a crater in the side of the structure.

Like the ball in a ping-pong machine Akira didn't so much fly as

rebounded. With every bounce she cranked up the repulsors a little, gaining a

bit of momentum. The engine was redlining. She could feel it overheating. The

starship was behind her now, zig-zagging across the city, trying to catch her.

The buildings along its path were shredded and toppled like toys.

Akira growled. There were nearing the edge of the city. Soon, there

would be no cover, nothing to bounce off of. The ship was going critical. The

safeties that Akira had bypassed were flashing warning signs. She wasn't going

to make it.

"Star Serious LASER!"

The beam came in from straight ahead. Akira passed within inches of it.

It lanced back, striking the canopy of the starship and melting it away. Then it

plunged right into Sailor Pilot's chest. The phage didn't even have a chance to

scream as he disintegrated.

And the beam kept going. Akira could see Seiya, Sailor Starfighter, up

ahead. She was wincing and pulling her hand up, struggling to maintain the beam.

The orange-white lightbeam cut up and through the rest of the starship. Akira

saw Sailor Dragontail's eyes widen in fright as she leapt to the side, avoiding

the blast.

Then the entire starship exploded.

The shockwave rippled through the city like a tsunami, ripping the tops

off of buildings. It also caught Akira's ship and sent it tumbling like a leaf.

She gunned the engines and prayed, hoping to ride out the blastwave.

Seiya pulled her aircyle in, riding the shockwave with more luck since

she wasn't caught as close to the blast. She was screaming, but Akira couldn't

hear her. Akira pulled Ayeka free and threw her again. Seiya's eyes widened, but

she reacted better than Sailor Sabre had. With a gasp she managed to catch the

princess in both arms as Akira whipped past.

Akira stood up on her ship as she pushed the engine past its maximum.

This was insane. It should not work at all. She would be blown to pieces. The

ground was coming up too fast. She closed her eyes.

"Ukyou..."

Then she leapt backward, thrusting both hands downward. Her chi exploded

from her palms even as the aircycle exploded. The force of the explosion would

have thrown her backward, had she not already been travelling at far too fast a

speed. Somehow the force of the explosion cancelled out her momentum, and for a

moment she was hovering in freefall, buoyed by a wave of chi that kept the

blastwave from tearing her to shreds.

Then the moment passed and she slammed into the ground. She tumbled

across the earth, spinning end over end. She felt her hip crack and her shoulder

shattered. Then she came to a rest against the side of a rock the size of a

house, leaving a series of cracks in it from the force of her impact.

Akira tried to rise, failed, and tried again. She managed to sit up just

as Seiya came down, still holding the unconscious Juraian princess over her lap.

"Holy... you're still alive?"

"Only because I'm too stupid to realise I should be dead," Akira

replied.

"At least those freaks are..."

"No..." Akira coughed. Damn. She could barely breathe. "Don't know how,

but they don't die..."

"Then we have to get out of here..."

"You're right." Akira nodded. "Head to the ship. I'll..."

"If you're about to offer to nobly sacrifice yourself, shut the hell

up." Seiya leapt down from her bike, carefully placing Ayeka against the stone.

"We'll just have to find a way to kill those things."

"Damn..." Akira sighed, then winced as it hurt. "Can't exactly argue

with that." She reached up with her good arm and tried to drag herself to her

feet. She looked out across the rocky plain that existed between the city and

the canyons Akira had decided to hide Tethys' ship in. She could see two figures

marching towards them. "Better get ready."

"Princess Ayeka, thank the maker!"

"At last, we found you!"

"What?"

Akira blinked and looked side to side. Two huge logs had appeared on

either side of them. They had kanji engraved in their fronts, one in red and the

other in blue.

"She's hurt!" the one on the right said.

"A Sailor! She must have done this!" A lens at the top of the log began

to glow. Akira groaned.

"No! We're her friends!" Akira called, throwing herself between the two

and Seiya. "Those are the bad guys!" She pointed towards the approaching phage.

The log-robot things hesitated. "Listen, you can ask Ayeka later. But if you

attack us now, those things will kill us all. You have to get us out of here."

The logs seemed to consult each other silently. "Very well. Please come

along peacefully."

"Huh?" Seiya said. Then she gasped as a field of blue force appeared

around the three of them. A moment later, the world around them flickered and

blurred as they teleported en masse. Akira, who never had liked teleporting,

finally blacked out.

OoOoo

Ayeka thought it was funny that she was the only one awake. But then, as

the only one who'd been unconscious during the battle with the phages, perhaps

that explained why she could not rest now.

Akira had yet to wake up. They had all agreed to rest and wait for her

to regain consciousness, as much because everyone else needed to recuperate as

out of any politeness. Touga had gracefully retired to his own quarters; Seiya

was curled up in the corner of the room that had been roughly converted into an

infirmary. Even Azaka, hovering protectively at the interior of the door, had

his lens dimmed in rest mode, and she suspected Kamidake was similarly

recovering outside the door. Of course, they would spring to life at any

untoward movement, which was part of the reason Ayeka had remained still and

quiet. It wouldn't do to cause a commotion and wake everyone else up simply

because she herself couldn't sleep. Besides, it had given her time to think.

That she owed her life to all of them, now, had been the first thing

she'd realised. The worst of the wound Sailor Sabre had given her had healed,

for which she must have had Akira to thank, though she hadn't a clue how. It

still shook her to contemplate how close it had come to being fatal.

That had led her to thoughts about her guards, her own people, who

hadn't been so lucky, had such healing powers, or such strong allies. She hoped

some of them had survived, and felt wretched that was all she could do. The

natives of Demood, as well. She didn't even want to contemplate how many lives

had been lost in the running battle between Akira and the Sailors.

It wasn't that she hadn't seen death before. But it hadn't been so...

personal. Nor so many. And not for her sake. Which only made her more keenly

perceive how insulated she had been, which had made her feel worse.

And made her think of Tenchi. Usually that subject brought her more

comfort. Ayeka had only spoken with him directly a handful of times since he had

been pursuaded to come with them off his home planet. She had been sure, at the

time, that it was the right thing to do. In a space of scant months, Earth had

warped almost past recognition. People with strange abilities had suddenly been

in the news everywhere, great battles had broken out daily, and shadowy figures

of great power had been seen at work, their motives and origins and abilities

unknown even to Washuu. Not days after they'd left, Tokyo had apparently been

almost annihilated in a great battle. Compared to that, Jurai, ever-green and

eternal Jurai, had seemed a solid rock of stability.

Of course, she'd known about the war. But at the time, she hadn't

understood the magnitude of it. When they'd asked Tenchi to fight, she'd been

enraged, but her protests had changed nothing. Tenchi was only too eager to do

something, anything to avoid sitting around the palace and moping. It had been

over a week before Ayeka had been willing to speak to her parents again. There

was selfishness involved, of course. She'd wanted to have that time with Tenchi.

She'd wanted to show him all the wonders of Jurai, which she herself had also

been absent from in her long journey across space, and then her stay on Earth.

She'd wanted to rediscover them with him.

But it wasn't just that. She knew Tenchi was important. The reason,

she'd been told, why everyone concerned had agreed to persuade him to leave the

planet was because he was so important, and his abilities so remarkable. His

ability to generate the Light Hawk Wings, and to transmute matter... if he'd

stayed on Earth, he'd have been noticed too soon by the strange and powerful

beings that had suddenly infested it. They would have come for him, and it would

have sparked a conflict that could spell disaster. So why, why, she had raged,

if that was so... why had they chosen to put him in danger here?

Now she realised the truth. They were using Tenchi as a weapon, not out

of callousness, but out of desperation. Just like they were using Ryoko. They

needed them. But nobody had been willing to tell Ayeka this, because what nobody

had wanted to admit to her was that Jurai was losing this war.

Of course, that was perfectly obvious, now that she'd seen the reality

of it. Her eyes opened, it was remarkably clear how ill-suited Jurai and her

allies were to even fight this war. The enemy could strike anywhere, at any

planet, and even their objectives had been unknown until now.

Ayeka had heard about all the victories, of course. Many planets had

been saved. But others hadn't. The planets taken by Galaxia were dead and

lifeless. They didn't need to be guarded, and to attempt their recapture was

pointless. And what did all the victories mean, ultimately? The enemy's armies

were the very people that they were trying to protect, and their victories cost

the enemy nothing but time. They could always try again, after the Juraians had

left, with another phage army. Many ministers had bragged before the Pleiades

disaster how the war was grinding to a standstill, how they were checking

Galaxia's might. But what difference did it make? Even if they stopped every

Sailor incursion, even if every planet survived, all that each victory meant was

that Jurai and her allies had once again succeeded in killing scores of their

own people.

The only way to win this war to destroy its architect. And nobody knew

where Galaxia was, or even what she was. But she apparently had in her thrall a

servant who could himself control the Wings of the Light Hawk. Which meant she

was more powerful yet.

Ayeka sighed. She missed the days when that thought would have extracted

an indignant 'Impossible!' out of her.

"Thinking depressing thoughts, Princess?"

Ayeka resisted an urge to start. The whisper had reached her ears, but

it was a whisper nonetheless. She looked over. Akira was still on the makeshift

cot which had been prepared for her, but now her eyes were open. "Don't feel so

bad," she whispered again. Her lips barely moved, but the sound still reached

Ayeka's ears clearly. "At least you got a real bed."

Ayeka flushed. Since Touga had explained this was the ship he and Akira

had travelled here in, that meant this was Akira's room, and consequently her

own bed that Ayeka was resting in. "I apologise..."

"Don't worry about it. I take it we all escaped, then?"

"Yes. Are you feeling any better?"

Akira flexed her arm slightly, and blinked. "Surprisingly, yes. More so

than I would have expected. How long was I out?"

"Only about five hours," Ayeka whispered back. "However, we were both

treated by Touga. He said the ship contained life energy, which aside from

providing it its power, could be used to speed healing."

"Huh," Akira mused. "Clever. Wonder why I didn't think of that."

"According to what I've heard, it might be your tendancy to ram yourself

head-first into the ground at excessive speeds."

Akira grinned ruefully. "You might be right. It's a habit I should get

out of - no, stop it."

Ayeka blinked. "Stop...?"

"You were about to thank me for saving your life. I could tell from the

I'm-gonna-apologise-for-my-life-being-such-a-bother look you suddenly got on

your face. So, don't. We're comrades-in-arms now, saving each other's lives is

what we do. And I wouldn't have made it through that without your help anyway."

Ayeka laughed a little into her hand. "Very well. My, you certainly do

speak your mind."

"Probably why I get mistaken for a boy. So, shall we wake up these

sleeping beauties?" Before Ayeka could respond, Akira pushed herself up on her

arms. "Hey, rise and shine. Don't we have some ass to kick?"

"Wha - Princess!" Azaka sputtered, his lens flashing to life. "Are you

still resting?"

"No, it's fine," Ayeka said drawing herself up as well. "Please awaken

the others as well. Considering the message we were given, we shouldn't delay

any longer..."

"Of course, Princess!" Azaka replied. He swiveled and exited the room,

hesitating next to the sleepily yawning Seiya, but then proceeding, possibly

feeling the force of Ayeka's glare at his back.

Ayeka had thanked Seiya for saving her already, when she had heard what

had happened. The Sailor Senshi had laughed it off, which, more than anything

else, had convinced Ayeka that everything she had discovered, everything she had

been told, was true. Jurai had been cleverly manipulated into believing every

Sailor was a monster, when in fact, people like Seiya were indispensible

guardians.

Which made her even more determined that somehow, they would make it

through this, would rescue Yaten and Taiki, and make it back to Jurai. So Akira

was right. Which reminded her... "You should know about the message as well,

Akira."

She glanced at Ayeka. "Message?"

"My guardians here were captured and then released by Z to bring his

message to us." Ayeka took a deep breath. "It's not really any of us he came

for, it seems. He's looking for the same person Seiya, Yaten and Taiki came here

to find. Someone called Princess Kakyuu. So he's willing to let us all go, but

only if we bring her to him."

"Not all of us," Seiya broke in. "He never said anything about letting

Yaten and Taiki go." She grimaced. "Not that I'd turn over the Princess to that

monster in any case."

"Huh," Akira said noncommitally, brushing some unruly hair out of her

eyes. "So, what's the catch? I doubt we get to sneak away and leave him hanging

on our answer."

Seiya snorted. "Yeah. He said he'd know if we left the planet. Something

about its 'potentialities'. And if we did, he'd blow it up."

Akira raised an eyebrow. "He can do that?"

Seiya shrugged. "I don't know the guy. Maybe. I'm sure he could do a

hell of a lot of damage."

"It's not something we want to risk, in any case," a new voice offered.

Ayeka glanced over as Touga entered the room. Azaka and Kamidake hovered behind

him, too big to all fit in the small chamber. The Dark Kingdom ambassador's hair

and attire looked as immaculate as if he were about to go to a formal ball. He

offered her a faint smile, which she returned hesitantly. Her face, she was

uncomfortably aware, suddenly felt overwarmed, as if she'd been out in the sun

too long.

It wasn't that she was attracted to him. She had already met the love of

her life. But the Dark Kingdom ambassador was certainly quite a sight to look

at. Even his alabaster skin and his odd eyes - currently shaped like diamonds -

just added to his exotic appeal.

No, she wasn't attracted to Touga, exactly. But the prospect of getting

to know him better during diplomatic discussions wasn't exactly unpleasant, she

had to admit. Assuming, of course, they all got back to Jurai alive.

Akira, for her part, seemed to be far less impressed by Touga's

immaculate appearence, if her suspiciously narrowed eyes were any indication.

"Well, Touga, I wouldn't have expected you to be speaking up to voice your

concerns about the fate of this planet," she drawled sardonically.

"You wound me, Akira," Touga said, his faint smile unperturbed but his

voice sincere. "The fate of a planet is far too weighty to be dismissed

casually. Please don't mistake my past concern for my companions and the

Princess for indifference to the innocent victims on Demood. I'll gladly do

whatever I can to help."

"You're right. Sorry," Akira conceded, though she didn't sound entirely

convinced. "So, now that we're all here, what are we going to do?"

"Well, as to that, while resting I was considering the matter," Touga

said. "I have noticed something that might be important. Namely, that our foe

appears to be unaware that Princess Ayeka has joined forces with Seiya here." He

half-turned, nodding in acknowledgement at Azaka. "The guardians told us that

when he reactivated them, Sailor Starmaker was in irons in the same room, which

he made no effort to hide. I suspect that was a deliberate show of his

unfriendliness to 'Sailors', and that he thus actually expects a positive

response to his demand. He's assuming that if the princess knew where this

Kakyuu was, she would gladly turn her over to him for her own life, figuring

they're both enemies of Jurai."

He looked back at Akira. "I further suspect, by his reaction to you,

that he is equally ignorant of who we are, or what party we work for. Most

likely he has dismissed us as merely nosy interlopers. So, we do have one

advantage in this situation - he won't be anticipating Seiya's possible

interference, nor our own."

This time Akira really did look more chagrined. "Good thinking, Touga.

You're probably right, he definitely didn't seem to be expecting me to attack

him back at the concert."

Seiya grinned ferociously, leaping to her feet. "And if he doesn't

expect her to have help, then we can sneak attack the bastard!"

"He still has the Wings of the Light Hawk," Ayeka cautioned. "Even if

he's taken off-guard, with both I and Akira injured, can we defeat him?"

"You're right," Seiya conceded, "but there must be some way to take him

down. The fact is, I don't think my Princess is even on this planet. I

haven't... I mean, I didn't feel like she was here. No signs. And we won't give

up Ayeka, either, which means we've got to fight. All we have to figure out is

how to win."

Akira chewed her lip. "Maybe we could sneak on his ship, try to find

something to use against him. Damn, I wish I wasn't injured..."

"In fact, I think that's possible," Touga noted. "As Akira knows, I have

a contact on this planet, Kairos. You've already met," he said to Seiya.

"Who..." she blinked, then scowled. "Wait, that damn clown-girl?"

Touga blinked for a moment, suddenly looking uncharacteristically

awkward, as if he was straining to say something but also straining just as hard

to hold it back. "I realise you met under poor circumstances," he finally said.

"I apologise for her behaviour; she was attempting to gather information, which

she often does by pretending to know more than she does. Nonetheless, her skills

will be invaluable on a covert operation such as this, so I'll ask you to

forgive her for the sake of our common goal. Given the injuries to Akira, you'll

need to be our infiltrator, and you'll have little chance of doing so on your

own."

Seiya shrugged, her expression regaining its usual good humour. "Sure,

okay. It won't be the first or last weirdo I've teamed up with, that's for sure.

And like you said, this is more important than good first impressions."

"Injured or not, I'm not just going to sit here," Akira snapped.

"I never expected you to," Touga said, his smile broadening to dazzling

intensity. "After all, the obvious distraction to an infiltration attempt by

Seiya and Kairos is us giving him what he wants... or a reasonable facsimile."

His eyes had become little spades, gleaming wickedly. "Now, Akira, doesn't every

little girl dream of being a princess?"

OoOoo

"See, I told you it'd all work out fine."

"Yeah, you told me. I still don't believe it, but you told me."

Kairos grinned as she stepped out of the ship's hatch. The plan was

beautiful in its simplicity, like all good plans were. Z had destroyed the

Juraian ship, but knew nothing about the ship she and Akira had taken to the

planet; the ship which had successfully eluded detection by Galaxia's forces

during the trip from Earth. And even if it was low on fuel after using its

stores of life energy to get Akira and the Princess back on their feet, it still

had enough for a jump or two. So while Akira and Ayeka used those stupid

floating logs to go meet their host, the ship would serve as their undetectable

route to infiltrate Z's ship.

All that beautifully simple plan required was that their blind,

unplanned jump into the interior of Z's ship with an experimental craft she'd

never tried to pilot take them to an unguarded, empty room that was large enough

to hold the Dark Kingdom ship, rather than straight into Z's personal chambers

or the engines or halfway through a wall. Simple!

Simple so long as the pilot was Kairos, the enchantingly beautiful and

devastatingly mighty youma of chance and fortune, that was.

"Don't be so pleased with yourself," her silent partner cautioned. "This

was merely the first part of our plan."

"As if you're any less constantly pleased with how clever you are," she

sneered back. "I don't see any need to be subtle about it."

"Umm, who are you talking to?"

Kairos blinked and then chuckled nervously, realising she'd said that

last bit out loud. Unvocalised thoughts had never been a strong youma trait.

"Sorry, sorry, never mind! Let's get going, Sailor Starfighter."

Seiya walked up to the door, which slid open noiselessly at his

approach. The room they'd landed in appeared to be some sort of large, near-

empty storeroom. Or wait, no, those were bunks that were buckled against the

smooth metallic walls. So, probably quarters for the transportation of a good-

sized regiment of troops.

Kairos's lip curled at the spartan furnishings. No self-respecting youma

would let themselves be packed like sardines into a can. Phages and youma were

more or less cousins, both humans with a portion of their souls removed and the

ensuing void filled in with magic, but she had little respect for them. Youma

were elegant individual living weapons, but phages were little more than

mindless beasts. Their minds were simple, their powers inadequate, and their

fashion sense absolutely deplorable. Really, their only redeeming features as

minions of terror and death were their savagery and numbers. It was really quite

embarassing to be so closely related to them.

Seiya had carefully peered out the door, then slid her head back and

beckoned Kairos forward. Looked like the coast was clear, not that Kairos had

any doubt.

"Follow me," she whispered as she passed the Sailor Senshi, who nodded

and did so. Kairos didn't have the faintest clue where she was going as she

chose a direction, but that didn't shake her confidence one bit.

Ayeka had reported that she had heard rumours that Galaxia's forces at

the Pleiades had possessed a weapon that could somehow bypass the Light Hawk

Wings and transform crew members into phages, paralysing the crew as they

attempted to hold off attacks from within and without. What information Queen

Tethys had given them before they had embarked on this journey also indicated

this might be the case, and the fact that Z himself used those selfsame Wings

only added credence to the story. It would be a delicious piece of irony to turn

his own toy on him. Of course, that required it to be on the ship, and for

random chance to reveal a way for Kairos and Seiya to steal it without alerting

anyone.

Simple.

Kairos hummed a happy little tune as she strode down the hallway,

earning her annoyance from Seiya and Touga both. She ignored them with confident

ease, and chance bore out her seeming carelessness. Sometimes they turned

corners just in time for doors to slide shut down the hall in front of them,

sometimes they passed by other corridors where phages or other humanoid

creatures stood, backs turned. Kairos' stride never wavered. They were never

noticed.

Some youma resented the new order, railed that they were now expected to

merge with the humans they had regarded for thousands of years as little more

than a food supplies and occasional playthings. None complained to Queen Tethys

directly, of course, but there was still a strong thread of discontent. Some

even whispered that the Queen, a former youma herself, had somehow betrayed them

all, sold them out to the humans and used their weapons somehow to overthrow

Beryl and Metallia.

Kairos wasn't one of them. Admittedly, it didn't hurt that she'd been

confined to an isolated corner of the Dark Kingdom in the inglorious position of

floor cleaner for several centuries before Tethys had destroyed Beryl. Kairos

had never been fond of authority, or strictly following orders; tendencies -

along with her love of involving her fellow youma in completely harmless and

certainly not rigged at all gambling games - which had been what had gotten her

in trouble in the first place. The iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove of the new Queen

wasn't really much more to her liking than the velvet-glove-less rule of the old

one, especially since Tethys was far less easily flattered or predictable.

But freedom, sweet freedom! Travelling the outside world and then the

universe, meeting strange and interesting people and then bilking them of their

money or information or virginity or all three, that was a prize worth any

amount of bothersome necessity to obey Tethys' instructions at the same time.

And as for being merged with Touga Kiryuu...

Well, he DID often cramp her style, granted - she loftily ignored his

somehow-elegant snort of disgust - but in truth, they were very similar. She

didn't really understand his obsession with gaining long-term power and

influence, when taking whatever they wanted right now was so much easier, but

his quick mind saw possibilities even she missed, and he had a gift for

manipulation that often left her filled with admiration, if impatient. And being

merged with him, sharing their spiritual power, had raised her own innate

abilities to heights scarcely imaginable before. Together, they'd learned how to

twist the winds of fate to their own purpose, and now talking to exactly the

right person in the room, happening to step by just in time to catch the lady or

gentleman as they slipped, and whispering exactly the right sweet nothings into

an ear required no more effort than rolling snake-eyes on dice ten times in a

row.

Sometimes less. In truth, when Touga was in charge of their little

partnership, they got distracted significantly less. But that was only because

he didn't know how to get caught up enough in the fun of the moment.

All in all, the last year had been the best of her millennia-old

existence. She intended every future one to be just as interesting.

"Which means we have to somehow survive this idiotic, suicidal plan,"

Touga reminded her.

"It was your idiotic suicidal plan," she reminded him sweetly, making

sure she was not vocalising the thought this time.

"Being the most preferable of an unpleasant array of options does not

lend it any real virtue."

"Oh, stop grumping," Kairos admonished her partner. Abruptly, she

stopped walking. "Look, we're here anyway."

Just in front of them, in the endless boring blank corridors that seemed

to traverse Z's ship, was a door. There was nothing special at all about the

door, except that Kairos abruptly had felt she didn't want to walk any further.

Which was all the clue she needed.

Seiya stopped walking a moment later, and raised an eyebrow quizzically.

Kairos grinned at him, and took a step forward, then stopped again. Some

annoying rudiment of caution, probably all Touga's fault, gripped her, and with

a subvocalised grumble she knelt and slid her head beneath the sensor so she

could place an ear to the door without it opening.

"-damn it! Why can't I just go down and find the bitch again?"

Suddenly, she was very grateful for that annoying rudiment of caution,

as she recognised the voice of Sailor Dragontail. There was a slight rustle as

Seiya knelt by her to listen as well.

"Because, Dragontail, you're going to kill her. And Z wants her for some

reason." That was Sailor Sabre. Seiya's eyes widened as she too realised who was

there.

"What, doesn't Galaxia have enough damn minions already? I'm already

itching to kill half those trumped-up Animamates. Did you hear what that

insufferable overgrown moth Papillon said about my outfit?" Dragontail growled.

"You're just angry because you got your head blown off," Sabre chuckled.

"Don't be so careless next time."

"Oh, as if you're one to lecture me about carelessness! How did that

sword feel going through your brainpan, huh?"

"Look," Sabre snapped, her calm suddenly evaporating. "I'm no more

thrilled about Z's interest in that homely little girl than you are. But right

now, we should just be happy he didn't decide our failure to capture them wasn't

worth our summary executions!"

"Homely little girl?" Dragontail said, voice turning sly. "What an...

interesting choice of words."

"What?" Sabre sounded annoyed.

"Not that she isn't, of course. But it's not like you to notice...

unless..."

"Oh, don't you go on some stupid flight of fancy," Sabre snapped

peevishly.

"Why so defensive, Sabre?" Dragontail laughed. "You almost sound jealous

of Z's interest in that girl."

"N- now what did I just tell you?" Sabre growled. "What a ridiculous

notion! You know perfectly well I'm no more capable of love than you are, and

even if I was, Z wouldn't be involved. I mean, just look at that... eye of his!"

She sounded decidedly flustered, both Kairos and Touga noted with interest.

"Love, no," laughed Dragontail. "But jealousy, rage, and of course lust

are something else again, now aren't they?"

"Oh, quit it," Sabre snapped. "That's true, but Z? Come on. That eye,

ugh!"

"That's true," Dragontail mused. "And that tacky jacket he wears..."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with his jacket."

"...of course not," Dragontail replied drily.

"I was just saying! There isn't!"

"If you say so, Sabre dear."

"Anyway," Sabre said, hastily changing the subject, "what I'm just

saying is we should take the Soul Extraction Device and yank out the Star Seeds

of everyone on the whole planet."

Success! Kairos nearly pumped her fist. Her inimitably astounding powers

of fortune had brought them to the information they needed.

"Oh, come on. Using the SED would take too long and you know it."

"But it'd make us both feel better."

"Mmm. But so would mass slaughter. I think..."

Now Dragontail would lead them to the armory, where the weapon

undoubtedly resided. And she wasn't even planning to use it, so there was no

need to fight her. Another outstanding success for the mighty powers of Kairos

where idiotic, suicidal planning failed! She turned her head to grin

triumphantly at Seiya, who had doubted her.

"...I'll go to the gym and work out."

Oh, poopy. Kairos sighed. Well, nobody said this would be simple.

"Except you," Touga unhelpfully reminded her.

"Okay, okay."

"Several times, in fact."

"OKAY! I thought you didn't like such unsubtle smugness?"

"You're rubbing off on me," he silently smirked as Kairos fumed. "But I

have a plan."

And so he did, Kairos realised. She smiled as she instantly absorbed the

details. "Why you sly little manwhore! Well, we'll just have to get little Seiya

to play her part, then."

"Yeah, sure," came Sabre's voice from the other side of the door. "Kill

a few for me. I don't really feel like it."

Kairos slipped back from the door, Seiya following. They briskly walked

back down the corridor, slipping into a side passageway. When they were far away

not to be overheard, Seiya whispered, "Okay, they must know where the weapon is.

But how are we going to find out?"

"Don't worry," Kairos smiled. "I can get that information from Sailor

Sabre."

"You can?" The Sailor Senshi's voice was dubious.

Kairos tipped her top hat at her. "Sorry, dear, but a good magician

never reveals her secrets. Just trust me. But I'll need you to make sure Sailor

Dragontail doesn't come back to interrupt."

"Uh... I hate to say it, but I don't think I can-"

"Of COURSE you can!" Kairos hissed, spinning Seiya around by the

shoulders and giving her a good shove down the corridor. "Defenders of love and

justice always rise to the challenge, or so I'm told. Go down past the next

three doors and turn left, and you'll catch her on her way. Look, we don't have

any choice, right?"

Seiya squared her shoulders. "All right. I'll do what I can."

"That's the spirit," Kairos giggled. "Just one piece of advice. I know

Sailor Senshi, and I know they love to jump out and yell and tell the opponent

just how naughty they are before the fight, right?"

Seiya looked back at them, blinking. "Umm... okay, what's your point?"

"Well maybe, just this once, I'd suggest shooting her in the back with

no warning. I know, I know," she said, holding up a hand to forestall Seiya's

response, "It's not really very super justice-like, but you know, nobody will

ever know if you do it just this once. Except me. And I'll never tell. It'll be

just our little secret, promise!"

Seiya stared for a minute longer, then shook her head and walked away.

Kairos chuckled and headed in another direction, circling around to go back to

the room, though making sure to leave more than enough time for Sailor

Dragontail to get far away. As she turned the last corner to approach the room

where Sailor Sabre was, she abruptly become a he.

Touga brushed an errant strand of hair from his eyes. Truthfully, he

didn't think Seiya could win a fight with Dragontail even if she took their

advice. But he was far more certain of something else: that the phage held a no

less nasty grudge against Seiya for blowing her up than she had against Akira

for removing her head. Which meant she would undoubtedly linger on repaying

Seiya more than long enough to let Touga do his own work.

He smiled slightly. The expression - one of many he'd carefully

practiced in the mirror growing up - was warm and pleasant, but held just a hint

of a mysterious secret. The smile was almost guaranteed to arouse curiosity as

to just what was hidden behind it.

"Jealousy and lust indeed," he repeated. His own association with Kairos

was sometimes rewarding, sometimes infuriatingly frustrating; yet for all her

insanity, knowing her mind had taught him there wasn't nearly as much difference

between the average half-soulless monstrosity and the average human as either

thought. The revelation hadn't surprised him at all.

The door slid open, and Sailor Sabre's head snapped around to focus on

them. She was polishing one of her swords. Her face, obviously twisted in

frustration, was now slackening in surprise. Touga smiled, and opened his mouth

to issue a carefully-worded greeting.

"Why hello there, Sailor!" somehow emerged instead, in an embarassingly

husky voice.

Touga silently swore. Reminding the sniggering imbecile inside his head

that they both had plans that included living out the day, he carefully regained

control of his voice and expression. "Do you mind if I come in?"

OoOoo

Seiya took a deep breath, then spun around the corner. Sailor Dragontail

spotted her almost instantly. The phage was flowing to her feet, uncurling her

new whip. Seiya was already aiming. Her fingertips started to glow.

"Star Serious-"

There was a crack and a flash of pain across her wrist. She staggered

back, hissing and losing the attack before it could go off. Dragontail had a

large, predatory smile on her face,

"Well, well, what have we here?"

"Where are my friends?" Seiya snarled. Best to try and confuse her as to

why they were actually here. Not that he didn't care...

"I believe the white-haired one is being tortured to death," Dragontail

said with a sinuous shrug. Seiya felt the blood drain from his face as he

cradled his wrist. "The other? I think Z has her."

"Damn you..." Seiya took a deep breath. She needed to draw this one off,

away from Kairos and her attempt to trick the other phage into revealing the

location of the star seed extracting weapon. So she did the only thing she

could.

She ran.

The thing's mocking laughter echoed behind her. Seiya tried to tune it

out. She knew that she was grossly overmatched. These weren't normal phages.

This one had survived an explosion from a starfreighter. But it had dodged away

from her attack. Her only hope was that her attack might actually do permanent

damage.

But it was faster than her, stronger than her, more skilled than her.

Akira had overmatched Seiya with distressing ease, and these things were as

skilled, if not moreso, than her. Even trying to snipe from range was out. It

had a ranged attack of its own, and Seiya had no trouble believing the phage was

better at using it.

There was a flash from behind her. Seiya tried to turn away from it but

the whip smashed across her back. She cried out in pain and tumbled down the

corridor. Somehow she managed to get back to her feet almost as quickly and keep

running.

"That's it. Run, little Sailor Senshi...," the thing whispered, its

voice seeming to come from right behind Seiya. She spun, firing behind her. Her

attack scorched a mark into the wall, but hit nothing. Then she felt the whip

kiss across her ribs and she collapsed to her knees. "I may not get to kill the

master's new pet, but I can have my revenge on you."

Seiya turned. The phage was walking out of a side corridor. Her stride

was sensual and suggestive, but Seiya felt nothing but disgust. The phage was a

mockery of humanity, a soulless killing machine.

"Oh, that expression..." Sailor Dragontail grabbed the whip with both

hands. "That expression won't do at all." It pulled the whip taut in front of

its face, licking the black leather. "Before I kill you, I'll see true terror on

your face."

"I'll never fear you," Seiya vowed. She needed to think of some way to

win this fight. There had to be some place she would have the advantage. Some

environment that could compensate for her lack of speed and power. A place that

would make up for Sailor Dragontail's superior reach and mobility.

"Oh..." Dragontail looked disappointed for a moment. "Then I suppose

there's no need to waste time."

Seiya screamed as the phage struck her, hard across the face. Her head

snapped back and she tumbled into the wall. Then a second and third strike

slammed her into it harder. Then more. She lost track of the attacks.

Seiya tried to run, but the thing caught her ankle and dragged her to

the ground. It kicked her into a wall. It picked her up and threw her down the

hall. It wasn't going for elegance or torment anymore. It was just beating Seiya

to death. And as it did, it talked.

"I only wish I could do this to your friend," Dragontail purred. "It's

so... cathartic." At this point the thing was carrying her by the neck. The whip

was currently binding her wrists together behind her back. "But in a few hours,

she'll just be one of us."

"One of..." Seiya coughed. "What do you mean?"

"That biker chick, the one who blew my head off..." Dragontail slammed

Seiya face-first into the wall. "Z's going to make her one of us."

"No... Akira won't..."

"You think he'll give her a choice?" Dragontail laughed. It ground her

face against the wall. "Do you know what I was before Z found me?" The thing

laughed. "I was a nurse. A pediatric nurse. I healed sick children." A sneer

traced its way across the thing's woman-like face. "But Z saw the potential for

such beautiful madness in me. He saw malice and pain where others saw kindness

and tenderness." It smiled almost nostalgically. "All he had to do was strip

away my weaknesses."

Dragontail pitched Seiya down the hall and she landed with a crack in

the corner. She was certain her shoulder had dislocated. "And when Z is finished

with this 'Akira', she'll be just like me. Twisted and broken from everything

you know. She'll delight in suffering, chaos and death. I'm certain the two of

us will get along very, very well." It leered. Seiya stared up at it.

"Ah, there it is," the thing purred. "A look of pure terror." She shook

her head. "You Sailors are so predictable. No matter what I do to you, you'll

never back down. But threaten your friends..." She pulled back her whip. "Now, I

have no more use for you. Your star seed will make a fine addition to Galaxia's

collection."

With a laugh it slashed out with the whip. There was a crack as it broke

the sound barrier. It moved faster than Seiya could even percieve.

Her forearm screamed in pain as she somehow managed to catch it. The

rawhide snapped around her arm, and with her other hand she grabbed the slack,

pulling it tight. "I won't let you," Seiya said.

"A bit of will left?" The thing smirked. "All the better." It yanked on

the whip, trying to rip it free of Seiya's grasp.

"I won't let you." Seiya pulled back. She knew she was no match for this

thing. But somehow, it didn't manage to pull the whip free. Its eyebrows raised

in shock.

"I." Seiya stood up. "Won't." She pulled on the rope, causing the thing

to take a stumbling step forward. "Let." The phage tried to recover, but Seiya

snarled and ran towards it. "YOU!"

She collided with the thing with her wounded shoulder. The pain sent

black stars across her vision, but she sent it tumbling back. The whip fell

out of its hands. The phage crashed to the ground.

"H-how?" the monster stammered. "You're no match for me!"

"Not today," Seiya told it. She uncurled the whip and flung it behind

her. Then she saw the thing's eyes widen and its lips tremble. It was afraid.

That didn't last long. With a roar, it launched itself at Seiya, its

hands curled into fists. Seiya screamed and rushed it. She had no plan. She had

no hope of winning. She was going to anyway. Akira was her friend. Akira had

healed her. Akira had saved her life. Akira had stood up for her when she had

every reason not to. Seiya was not going to let this thing hurt the first friend

she had made in two years!

A punch landed in Seiya's gut. She felt the ribs Akira had cracked

earlier snap again. Another punch slammed into her side. She felt something

inside her break. Seiya led with one hand. She reached out, grabbing the thing's

hair. It snarled and punched again, and again and again.

The force of the blows lifted Seiya into the air. Her back bowed. The

air exploded from her lungs. One blow landed right above her heart, and she felt

it stop beating. She was dead. She had died. It had killed her.

She shoved her dead fingers under the thing's chin. She was a Sailor

Starlight. She protected those things precious to her, even in death.

"STAR SERIOUS LASER, BITCH!"

Sailor Dragontail's head ceased to exist.

Seiya slumped to the ground. Dragontail's body stayed upright for a few

moments. Then, slowly, it began to dissolve. Motes of light began to peel away

from its body. They were small at first, but grew larger and more frequent in

the next few seconds. In a few seconds the body of the phage had completely

dissolved away into a slowly expanding field of starmotes.

It was getting dark. The magic that had somehow sustained Seiya's body

was giving out. Well, there were worse ways to go... She looked up. She could

swear she saw someone in the fading motes of starlight. It was... a young woman?

She looked happy as she leaned down over him. She wore a white uniform, and her

face was like Dragontail's, but kind. Her hand rested on Seiya's heart.

"Thank you..."

Then she was gone.

It took Seiya a few minutes to realise she wasn't dead. She grabbed her

heart, feeling the steady beat. Her body was still battered, but not nearly as

badly as she had thought. Had she seen that? Or was it a hallucination?

With a pained grimace, Seiya rose to her feet. It appeared the old

saying was wrong. She wouldn't be able to rest even when she was dead.

OoOoo

"Touga," Kairos laughed silently, "you're feeling unsubtly smug again."

Touga didn't bother dignifying her with a response, but did allow a

smile to flit briefly across his features. Eight minutes WAS a new personal

best.

"Oh, Z, please forgive your most humble servant!"

Touga leaned forward, whispering softly into his companion's ear. He

pitched his voice harsher, lower. "Forgiveness? Forgiveness doesn't come so

easily, my servant."

He allowed his hand to drop, letting the end of the whip lightly tickle

the back of her neck. A shudder ran up Sailor Sabre's entire body. She opened

her mouth to plead for "Z's" forgiveness once again-

"Now tell her what a naughty, naughty girl she's been!"

"Shut up," Touga coldly informed his partner. "You're interrupting my

concentration again."

"Sorry, I can't help it. What a sap!"

He smiled again despite himself. Truthfully, even he had been mildly

surprised at how smoothly this little operation had gone, but then, Touga Kiryuu

was nothing if not good at adapting to the roles other people desired of him.

Touga turned his attention back to Sailor Sabre. She was quite

thoroughly trussed up in several of Dragontail's whips, a process he'd been very

careful with, remembering how the phage's joints had popped out of place when

fighting Akira. She was also blindfolded, all the better to facilitate the

illusion of "Z".

"...never fail you again! I sweeeeear!" The note of pleading in her

voice was actually quite fetching, Touga thought.

"Typical! Chauvinist pig."

"I told you to shut up," he reminded Kairos, then turned his attention

back to Sabre. "Perhaps I will forgive you. Perhaps. But you will have to prove

your... loyalty." He lingered just long enough on the last word to be rewarded

with another shudder.

"Yes, yes, anything, my dearest Z-"

Touga flicked the whip sharply. "Who said you could address me by my

name?"

The expected apologies and 'masters' followed. Touga ignored them as he

carefully chose the next series of words. When she'd paused for breath, he

spoke. "You'll need to prove yourself all over again."

"Anything, oh, anything!"

Well, she seemed to be quite in the moment by now. "I doubt it," he

sneered roughly. "Can a miserable failure like you remember even the basics of

her training?" She swore fervently in the affirmative. "Then listen closely,

servant. You will bring me the SED."

She stiffened slightly, her voice losing its pleading note. "Wait, how

do you know about..."

"Sailor Sabre," Touga said slowly, voice dripping menace. "Were you

given permission to ask questions?" The whip flicked again as she paused. "Were

you?"

A dreamy smile reasserted itself on her face. "Oh no, no, master Z,

please forgive me!"

"Again I should forgive you? Do you even remember where the SED is?"

"Oh yes, master, it's in the second armory!"

"And how will you get it?"

"I'll take my keycard and-" she suddenly shut her mouth again, but it

was too late. Touga's keen eye had seen the slight, involuntary movement of her

head. He strode over, opening the cupboard the phage had tried to look at.

Amongst the spare whips - Dragontail appeared to have quite a collection,

actually - was indeed a simple blue card. "Hey, wait a minute..."

Touga coughed lightly. Doing that deep-throated voice was a bit of a

strain on the neck muscles, but at least he was finished with it now. "Thank you

for your cooperation, Sailor Sabre. I think you're forgiven."

She paused for a long second, then jerked up from the bed. "Why you...

untie me RIGHT NOW!"

"I'm sorry, but I have no time at the moment. Perhaps we will meet

again." Touga passed his hand in front of the door, which slid open.

Predictably, Sailor Sabre whirled and lunged. Even blindfolded and bound, her

aim and the power in her legs was certainly impressive. She flew through the

open door like a guided missile, and just as unerringly passed through the

corridor outside and smashed head-first into the opposite wall. A very

recognisable impression of her features was left imprinted in the metal of the

wall as her abruptly boneless body slid to the floor.

After a few experimental pokes to verify her unconsciousness, Touga

dragged Sabre back inside her room. He briefly considered trying to kill her,

but wasn't certain he'd trust Kairos' powers to do more than just wake her up

again. For all they'd learned together, she was far from the most combat-capable

of youma.

"Jerk!"

Besides, seducing Sabre again wouldn't be too difficult if the chance

came up, since he wagered her prospects of a relationship with Z to be rather

dim. If this entire endeavour went south and his allies were captured or killed,

it would be handy to have someone on the enemy's side who could be persuaded to

vouch for his trustworthy character and potential usefulness to Galaxia's

forces.

Smiling to himself, he walked out of Sailor Sabre's room, letting the

door close behind him.

OoOoo

Akira really didn't have anything against dresses. In fact, she thought

they were very nice. They could be a lot more flattering than pants and shirts.

The way the fabric fell just came off as more classical and refined than casual

clothes. The cut of the hems and neckline could be as revealing as the tightest

fabrics, while still containing an air of concealment and mystery. In short, a

well-designed dress was a thing of beauty that turned even the roughest girl

into a lady.

So Akira actually liked dresses. She just didn't like wearing them. The

skirts were confining, the tops uncomfortable, the entire production demanded an

attitude and grace to pull off that Akira wasn't really comfortable with. The

problem was that she knew she was good at it regardless.

From the reaction of Seiya and Touga when Akira had walked out of her

room, and Ayeka's proud little smirk that she had done such a good job hiding,

Akira knew that in this dress she looked good. Very good. Unconsciously she

found herself falling into those old patterns again. The graceful and gliding

steps, the careful and bashful looks and the demure and feminine poise were

thing she had spent ten years perfecting. Just as with her martial arts skills,

she was a master at putting on a show of feminine grace.

Maybe a year ago she would have been able to do this without feeling

vaguely unpleasant. But until a year ago, she had been lying to herself. She had

been concealing her true personality so far behind the pose of a perfect young

lady that she had begun to develop an unhealthy dual identity. Then Ukyou had

shown her that you had to be true to yourself, even if you didn't always know

what that meant.

So putting on the dress had felt almost like a tiny betrayal. She raised

a hand up to her hair, which Ayeka had lengthened using some sort of hairbrush-

like device. Not too much, and she had also dyed the hair red to match the

description Seiya had given them of Princess Kakyuu. Well, hopefully this

would be short and sweet.

The door in front of them opened. The Jurai Guardians, who had flown

them up from the surface inside them, parted as they swept to both sides and

placed themselves on either side of the door, Akira almost strode through right

after them when she remembered her place.

Ayeka moved in first, clad in a shimmering purple kimono patterned with

lavender leaves of a type Akira didn't recognize. Her obi was golden, and Akira

suspected it was actual gold thread. She moved with sedate ease as she strode

into the room. Akira could just see beyond her to the rest of the room.

It was a banquet hall; not a huge and ostentatious one like Akira was

expecting, either. It was actually just barely large enough to fit the table

with room to walk around at all sides. The table could comfortably sit six,

maybe ten if the people involved were friendly. The rear wall was a picture

window that stretched around halfway down the right hand side. The planet Demood

spun slowly outside the window, mostly dark since the sun was behind it at this

time.

And in the chair opposite them, slowly getting to his feet, was Z. Akira

almost froze. She could hear Ayeka announcing her - or rather, announcing

Princess Kakyuu - but the words didn't seem to register. All she could think was

that this had gone way out of her control.

She was injured. Her leg and arm still hadn't healed fully. Worse, she

couldn't even try and speed up the healing for fear that Z would sense the chi

at work and see through her disguise. But even if she could fight at her best,

she knew she was no match for this man. She had gotten him dead to rights, a

perfect attack from an unepxected angle and he had defeated it with the same

ease with which she would a fly, and all the indifference as well. He was faster

than her, stronger, and had access to a power that (if Ayeka was to be believed)

could hold off the force of black hole.

Ayeka was looking at her, and Akira realised she was supposed to be

doing something now. Steeling herself, Akira walked into the room.

"As requested, I have come to throw myself at your mercy. In exchange

for the lives of those on this planet." The words sounded much better than they

had any right to. Any nervousness Akira felt could be attributed to the fact she

was surrendering to a powerful enemy.

"Please, no need to be so formal," Z said. He was wearing the same brown

jacket and black slacks he had before. He slid out his chair again. "Please

sit." Akira watched as the man's eyes ran up and down her body. She didn't like

the look in his eyes. They looked so... eager and possessive. It was like he was

ogling a bag of gourmet cookies rather than a human being. There wasn't

anything leering or sexual in his face, but what she saw there was worse.

Darker. Hungrier.

"Of course..." Akira demurred. She walked up to the table and almost

pulled out her own chair, then stopped herself at the last moment. Azaka and

Kamidake appeared behind her and Ayeka, somehow levitating their chairs back as

the two sat in eerie unison. "You are a gracious kidnapper."

"And you are a courteous hostage," Z replied. He gestured at the plates

arranged around the table. Akira noticed there were four places set, but only

three of them here. "Please, let us eat and discuss our new alliance, Princess."

Something about Z's tone made Akira nervous. He couldn't have seen

through their ruse already, could he? The plan was simple. Akira was too injured

to fight, as was Ayeka. therefore the two of them would distract Z. In the

meantime, Touga (or more accurately his 'servant' Kairos) and Seiya would sneak

on board using Tethys' ship. From there, they would hopefully find a weapon to

use against Z. It was a thin hope, but it was all they had.

If Z saw through the ruse, it was all over. But he didn't say anything

else, and his gaze remained on Akira with that same disturbing intensity. He

must be fooled, Akira told herself.

So, right, delaying. Also, which utensil was she supposed to use? Akira

surreptitiously observed Ayeka out of the corner of her eye, trying to mimic the

other woman's actions.

"You certainly are being more polite than you were on the surface,"

Ayeka observed, her voice polite but frosty.

"Ah, yes..." Z ran a utensil across his plate idly. "I'd apologise, but

I don't really care to." He smiled at Ayeka. "Frankly, the very sight of you

makes me angry. It is taking a good deal of willpower to not to choke the life

out of you this very moment." He chuckled dryly. "The thought of delivering your

lifeless corpse to Tenchi makes me... almost giddy."

Akira took a long drink. It wasn't so much the words he was saying that

made her throat go dry. It was the casual, indifferent and utterly sincere

manner with which he spoke them.

"What grudge do you bear against Lord Tenchi?" Ayeka snapped, Z's words

obviously getting through her decorum.

Z frowned. "I'd like to say it's something profound and justified. It

would certainly make me sound more... admirable." He shrugged and popped some of

the noodle-dish into his mouth. "But the truth is I'm jealous. I hate him

because he has everything I do not."

"But you have..." Ayeka trailed off.

"You were going to say 'more power', isn't that right?" Z gave a small,

humourless smile. "No, princess. This isn't about power. This is about life." He

leaned back. "This is about gods, and the playthings of the gods."

"Playthings?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't see it that way." His smile grew vicious.

"After all, your own sister is one of them."

"Sasami? What does she..." Ayeka trailed off. "You mean Tsunami."

"Tsunami?" Akira couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, it's a fine story," Z said, leaning forward, placing his elbows on

the table. "No, Princess, don't bother. I'll tell." He smirked at Akira. "You

see, many thousands of years ago the world of Jurai was attacked. By who doesn't

particularly matter. But the enemy was able to penetrate their defences, and

even the Imperial Palace was attacked. The youngest daughter of the royal line

was involved in an accident." His eyes gleamed. There was something hauntingly

familiar about his expression. "She was thrown off the edge of a balcony and

plummeted hundreds of meters to her death." And here his voice took on a mocking

tone. "Or she would have, had not the great and powerful goddess of Jurai

intervened to save the child's life.

"The goddess saved the child, but in so doing she gained a physical

existence in this world. Now, she lives as the child's reflection... influencing

her..."

"Stop!" Ayeka slammed her palm into the table. "You make it sound so

sinister!"

"Oh, that's not the right tone at all," Z replied, still mocking her.

His tone was still oddly familiar. It made Akira feel vaguely ill. "You see,

Tsunami, the goddess in question, did this for only the most pure and noble of

reasons. Her motive was just to save the child." His eyes narrowed. "It

certainly had nothing to do with gaining the ability to ingratiate herself with

Tenchi. After all, this occurred thousands of years before the boy was born. How

could she have known what would happen?"

"You're just twisting the facts!" Ayeka accused.

"No, Ayeka, I'm stating the truth." The mirth drained from his tone. "We

are all pawns of the gods. They rule the cosmos, and to them we are just

curiosities." His tone started growing cold, and that too was blood-chillingly

familiar. "Do you know why the goddesses created the universe, Ayeka?"

"I-"

"What about you... Kakyuu?"

"I'm sorry, I've never given it much thought," Akira admitted. She

really wasn't into philosophy.

"Why would the gods create such a universe? A universe full of pain and

misery, or war and chaos? Why create people like us? People with the capacity

for love and compassion, with the ability to feel so much for each other and yet

be constantly driven to war with each other? If they wanted to, the gods could

have made a world where there was no pain, and no loss, a world with order and

peace."

He leaned in towards Akira some more. "Yet they didn't."

"What does this have to do with Ayeka?" Akira asked.

"I'll get to that." Z waved a hand dismissively. "You see, Kakyuu, the

secret is that the gods want a world of chaos and strife. They want us to

suffer. They want to punish us and hurt us. They'll fracture our lives. They set

enemies against us. They destroy our homes. They kill our loved ones. They make

it so that we will never know peace. And if you survive, if you persevere, they

just keep pushing and pushing.

"Until we break."

There was something about his tone. It was almost hypnotic. Akira found

herself thinking of Ukyou. She remembered how the girl had seemed to live a

cursed life. So many enemies had come to her, for no good reason. Eventually she

had been driven away. Driven away from her home. From her friends. Until finally

she had vanished. Until there was noone searching for her anymore... except

Akira.

"They want us to break, Kakyuu." He smiled bitterly.

"Oh, not because it amuses them. They WANT something from us. They want

to find something in us. They want to find something larger than themselves.

That's what they are looking for, Kakyuu. They are looking for that one person

who will be pushed so far that eventually they will just... go beyond their

limits. Go beyond all limits. They want to make something greater than a god."

Akira was frozen in place.

"You're lying," Ayeka snarled. "Sasami... Tsunami is not like that!"

"Oh really?" Z turned to her. "I'm a result of your sister's kindness,

Ayeka. Or, more accurately, I'm a result of her indifference." His smile grew

vicious. "Ask your little sister about her true family some time. Ask her about

Tokimi. Ask her about how her dear sister decided that to find the perfect

being, she would create chaos and war. That she would randomly warp space and

time, create dangerous anamolies and bizarre phenomena and inflict it on the

universe." Z's body began to shake slightly. "Ask her about my people, my race.

Ask her where her kindness and protection was when my people were being

slaughtered by the war her sister created. Ask her where her forethought was

when Tokimi ripped apart space around me, while I watched my parents die! ASK

HER!" He stood up, slamming his hands into the table.

The table exploded. Akira managed to throw herself back, sliding against

the way. Ayeka was able to avoid the worst of the debris as well. Z stared down

at the damage, his face twisted into a snarl of hatred, Akira found her pulse

quickening. There was something so damned familiar about all this...

"Then that bitch, that bitch that had destroyed my life..." His entire

body trembled. "I survived her 'test', I survived her 'experiment', you see. I

developed the Wings of the Light Hawk. I briefly touched on the power of the

gods. But it wasn't enough for her. She had to know: why? Why me?" He curled his

hands into fists. "So I became her pet. Her toy. She used me. She played with my

body and mind, trying to dissect what made me so... special." He spat the last

word, as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. "But what could I do? Even

with five Light Hawk Wings, I'm no match for Tokimi."

Akira felt something twisting in her stomach. That was what was so

familiar. He was the same. His tone, his words, his outlook... they were the

same as Ukyou's. Akira remembered that cynicism. She remembered the mocking

tone. She remembered the cold, implacable fury. It was just like Ukyou's. Just

like her cold rage at the unfairness of the world. Except instead of being

turned inward as self-loathing, this man had turned his hatred outward. To the

gods, to Tokimi, to Ayeka and Tenchi, and the entire universe.

He had nothing, Akira realised. Even at her darkest, there had been a

spark of hope in Ukyou's life. She had never given totally into despair... or

had she?

Akira stepped forward, her eyes narrowing. "Are we supposed to feel

sorry for you now?" Z's eyes snapped up and focused on her. "So you had a hard

life. Tough. Lots of people live hard lives without becoming psychopaths."

Z sneered. "I think it's time to end this charade." He clapped his hands

and the door opened. Akira turned quickly and watched as a figure walked in.

Akira recognised her, vaguely. It was the brown-haired Sailor from the

concert. She was still in her abbreviated battle outfit. Her face was downcast

as she walked into the room. Akira froze up.

"Sailor Starmaker," Z addressed the woman. "Remember our deal. All you

have to do is answer one question for me, and I'll let your friend go. Seiya

will live, and Yaten's torment will end."

"Bastard," Starmaker growled, her eyes screwed shut.

"Perhaps." Z waved the comment aside. "If you want, I could send you

back to your cell. The acoustics there are to your liking, right? You can hear

everything happening to Yaten, can't you? I know you're the sort of person who

hates to be left out of the information loop."

"Just ask your damn question!" she snarled.

"Is this woman here Princess Kakyuu?"

The girl opened her eyes and looked at Akira. Akira stared back, her

eyes wide. The Sailor stared at her for a long time. Then, she looked guiltily

away. "No."

"Was that so hard?" Z said with mock sympathy.

"Z... you have to understand-"

"Save it, Princess." Z snapped, and Ayeka fell silent. He turned back to

Akira. "I believe you broke our agreement. I had a very specific request." He

held up his palm towards her. Akira tensed. There was nothing she could do to

defend herself, but that wouldn't stop her. She would sell her life dearly. But

Z's hand panned away from her and pointed at the planet.

"NO!" Akira roared and leapt at him. There was a flash of white and she

went crashing into the wall.

"Z, stop!" Ayeka screamed.

"You promised!" Starmaker cried out.

"Then stop me," Z said, looking directly at Akira. She stood up and

walked over in front of the viewport, spreading her arms wide. It was a futile

gesture, and Z chuckled at it. "Not like that, you fool."

"I can't stop you," Akira said. "But you'll have to kill me to get to

them."

"Heh, of course. You don't even know what you're capable of. You have no

idea what you will become." Z laughed. "Just like Misaki."

"Misaki?" Ayeka paused. "Mother?"

"Yes, just like her."

"What does she have to do with this?" Ayeka snarled. "What do you have

against my family?"

"Against Misaki? Nothing. Up until some time ago, in fact, she was my

only hope." He smiled. "But then something changed. The universe shifted, and

the potential left her. She ceased to be the Counterreactor."

"Counterreactor?" the Sailor asked.

"The weapon that can kill even the gods. The weapon which can destroy

Galaxia, and Tokimi and all the rest of the things which think they control our

lives." He looked back at Akira. "And you..."

That was when the wall behind him disintegrated. Seiya came running

through the gap, battered but ready to fight. Z reacted quickly and spun,

striking at her with his outstretched hand. Seiya went flying back. Starmaker

cried out and attacked, a blast of light exploding from her fingers. Azaka and

Kamidake sprung forward, launching pulses from their eyes. Akira began to gather

chi, cursing the lack of foresight. She should have started gathering power as

soon as the ruse was blown.

But she need not have bothered. None of the attacks even fazed Z. His

wings encircled him like a cocoon, protecting him entirely from their feeble

attacks. His face was a study in cold rage. "Please, I'm trying to..."

Then Akira saw it. Kairos dropped from the ceiling behind him, and she

was holding a cannon of some kind. There was a golden lens at the end, and she

pointed it straight at the man's back. She started pulling the trigger...

Only to have Z spin and kick it out of her hand. "Did you really think

that would work?" he snapped.

Akira leapt, driving a foot towards him. Her leg protested as her kick

connected with the force field. Her skirt tore itself to ribbons with the sudden

movement. But hitting him hadn't been her real purpose. She slapped out,

catching the cannon in mid-air. It flew down and straight into Ayeka's grasp. Z

turned to her, bringing up his hand. Akira threw herself between them.

He hesitated. Akira grabbed his wrists. She had no idea what he wanted

with her, or what this Counterreactor business was all about, but she realised

one thing. He wanted her. She should have realised it sooner. He had seen

through the ruse right away. It had started on the stage, down on the planet. He

had seen something when he'd looked at her, something that had surprised him.

Something he wanted very badly.

Something he was desperate for. So she gambled that he wouldn't risk

actually harming her. Z snarled as he tried to throw her off, but he wasn't

using his full strength. The two Sailors attacked from both sides, but the

Light Hawk Wings materialised, nullifying their attacks.

"Ayeka!" Akira called. "Fire the weapon!"

"You... you're in the way!"

"Do it! Shoot us both!"

"If you lose your Star Seed, you'll be worse than dead!" Seiya called.

Z's snarl smoothed into a smile. "She's right. You'll become a phage, a

monster that lives to kill. You'll be my slave. That weapon is what I used to

create my Sailor Killers."

"Ayeka!" Akira snapped. "SHOOT!"

There was an anguished cry and a flash of golden light and Akira knew no

more.

OoOoo

Ayeka lowered the cumbersome weapon, her arms shaking. Was it over? Z

was slumped against the far wall, his eyes closed. Akira was lying in front of

him in the remains of the table. Her face had gone pale. Seiya was standing,

using a chair to prop herself up. She looked like she had been worked over by a

pissed off Ryoko. Sailor Starmaker - Taiki, Ayeka reminded herself - was holding

a ready stance. Kairos was crouched near the door, her body tense.

Z opened his eyes. Ayeka felt her heart skip a beat. The monster slowly

rose to his feet.

"Shoot him again!" Seiya yelled.

"It... it won't work..." Ayeka said, her voice cracking. All the

moisture in her mouth had dried up.

"Very good, princess." Z said. "Though I admit, that thing packed more

of a punch then I was suspecting."

"What...?" Seiya looked between the two of them.

"What, did you really expect that I would build a weapon capable of

destroying me?" Z said with a snort. Her crossed his arms. "What kind of fool do

you take me for?"

"You used us..." Ayeka said. She realised suddenly why Akira had been

able to get into that brief grapple with Z. He outmatched her so much that even

her strength at perfect health had been no contest. Injured, she would have been

even less capable of overpowering him. He had allowed himself to be grabbed, so

that Ayeka could... Ayeka could...

She dropped the weapon to the ground. It cracked against the floor and

rolled to a stop against the wall. Z chuckled. "Ah, if only I had a recorder." Z

rubbed at his lapels. "It's almost a shame I have to destroy you."

Then the room suddenly flooded with light. Ayeka looked down and saw a

flower blooming from Akira's forehead. It gave off a light, a radiance so bright

that the rest of the light in the room seemed to dim in response. Z stepped

forward, the light flashing up to cast the angles of his face in sharp shadows.

The result was horrific, his inhuman eye and the purple horns burrowing out of

his forehead looked even more disturbing.

"Well, well, moment of truth, so to speak..." Z said, holding out his

hands over the flower. The petals bloomed open, revealing a perfect diamond that

shimmered in the light. At its heart pulsed a miniature star. Ayeka gasped. She

heard Seiya give out a choke and Taiki whisper.

"Star Seed..."

"We are all made of stars," Z said, spreading his hands over Akira's

prone body. "Inside each of us, is a small spark of the divine." He leered down

at the Star Seed. "When the gods created the world, they gave us all this gift.

The potential to exceed our limits is buried deep inside everyone."

His hands came together, and he gestured. The diamond slowly began to

rise. As it did, the flower on Akira's forehead dissolved into white motes.

"NO!" Seiya screamed. "Leave her alone!"

Seiya screamed as she slammed into the Wings of the Light Hawk. Z wasn't

even looking at her. Her body collapsed against the wall, smoking. Taiki

screamed, wordlessly firing a bolt of energy. Another wing appeared, the bolt

splashing against it.

"Normally by this point, the star seed would have gone dark..." Z

explained as the gem rose up to between his hands. "You see, normal people are

born with a simple soul. It can not survive long outside the body. When it is

removed, something... something else filters in. Dark magic? No, I think not.

It's the antithesis of the divine spark. Some force I can't name, some twisted

non-force that rips apart souls... it is what fills the heart of every phage."

Ayeka slowly began to gather her power. She felt her side protest as the

force field she was using to protect it vanished. Logs began to float around her

as her power amplifiers materialised out of subspace.

"That is what initially drew me to Galaxia, you know." He looked at

Ayeka, and smiled. "She created this plague. She created it to protect herself.

Galaxia, you see, is a being who touched the ultimate power. The force that even

the gods fear. With it, she remade the fabric of the universe."

Ayeka felt her power reaching its peak. She didn't move as the logs

around her began to concentrate in front of her. Sparks began to run between

them. Z wasn't even concerned.

"And she brought back something with her. A horror from the edge of

infinity. A horror that devours. It devours life and sanity. It devours souls.

It kills gods." Z began to laugh.

Ayeka screamed and launched her attack. She didn't aim at him. Instead

she focused all her might on Akira. If she couldn't save the woman's life, she

would save her from a fate worse than death. But Z's wings interdicted the

attack. The focused blast of Jurai force exploded out along the length of the

white ribbon. Her attack flew into the wall, creating a crack in the viewport.

"That's what I need, Ayeka. That's what I need for my revenge!" The glow

of the gem cast all of his face but his monstrous purple eye into darkness.

"Once upon a time, your mother would have been the receptacle for this darknees.

She would have become the nullifier, the anti-god, the soul destroyer. The

Counterreactor. I admit, I never knew how it happened." A white flash appeared

in the shadow as he smiled. "But that doesn't matter. She was spared that

future. And I lost my one lead on the true Counterreactor.

"But fate, it seems, has given me a new opportunity."

"Z, don't do this," Ayeka pleaded. She fell to her knees. "Please."

"You don't understand, Ayeka..." He shook his head. "You just don't

understand. The gods MUST die. One day, this girl will stand at the edge of that

power, the edge of that darkness, and she will choose to let it consume her...

just as your mother would have." His hand clasped down over the gem, cutting off

its light. "Some distant future will destroy her." He began to chuckle. "Her

fate is already sealed." His fist began to tighten. "All I'm doing..." His hand

spasmed and there was a cracking sound. "...is helping her get there a bit

sooner!" Blood began to drip out of his hand.

Ayeka watched as the purple blood gathered at the bottom of his hand.

It swelled and swelled, growing bloated. She felt time slow down as the drop

began to dangle from his fist. Then with a dreadful finality it fell and

splattered against Akira's forehead.

Everything went to hell.

Akira screamed. Her body arched and her eyes shot open. Her hands opened

and flew out to her sides. Her scream was wordless and full of rage and pain.

Ayeka slapped her hands over her ears.

The walls exploded. The crack Ayeka's futile attack had made blew

outward, ripping the side out of the ship. Z started, gesturing in that

direction and protecting himself with a Light Hawk Wing. Seiya's voice was

muffled by the roar of escaping air. Taiki tried to grab onto something as she

was swept out into space... Ayeka seized them all. She collapsed to her knees.

Her forcefield strained for a moment, but held. She had caught Seiya and Taiki.

Kairos was nowhere to be seen. Had Ayeka missed her?

The floor beneath them cracked and shattered. Ayeka clutched her side

and strained to keep her field intact. Acting on instinct, Taiki grabbed Seiya

and dragged her closer, allowing Ayeka to concentrate her force a bit.

Akira was still screaming. But there were words in it now. Her body was

flickering. There were two Akiras, imposed one over the other like two images

on the same screen. One was Akira in the torn dress Ayeka had lent her, the

other was a woman who looked... older. Not much older, but her hair was longer

and she was taller and more developed. She wore a green and brown shirt and

black riding pants. She was... she looked like she was dying. She was covered in

blood, blood that streamed from her eyes and nose and ears and even pores. Only

her eyes shined out of the crimson mask of her face. One moment, the other Akira

would appear as a faded afterimage, then the next it was the real Akira.

"Leave her alone!" Akira roared and shot to her feet. The floor gave

way, and Ayeka watched in horror as the entire ship near them simply... peeled

back. It wasn't exactly being destroyed, it was just pulling away from them,

like an image in a funhouse mirror. The stars suddenly seemed much closer. They

floated around and between them.

"Is this it?" Z said calmly.

Akira's eyes weren't focused on anything. Her body kept flashing between

the two images, the forms of them blending together. Her eyes were... there was

nothing there. No compassion or hatred, no anger or concern... just nothing. Her

hand curled up and out, like it was grabbing onto something. She was saying

something, but the words kept fading in and out. Ayeka couldn't hear it.

Then she began to giggle. It was a childish sound, but devoid of any

innocence, or even malice. It was devoid of any meaning at all.

"I... the past..." Akira hissed. "...make it ... never existed... kill

Angel..."

"GIRL!"

The scene in front of her stopped. Z was standing up, standing on

nothing. His fist was held in front of him, purple blood leaking through his

fingers. "You belong to me, now," he told her.

Akira's face twisted sideways. Her face remained pointed at whatever she

was yelling at. She continued screaming, her words still fluttering in and out.

But at the same time, her face twisted to the side. It made Ayeka's stomach

turn. Akira face tilted to the side, bending at an almost unnatural angle as if

she were trying to see around some strange obstacle. Z faced her, his lips

quirking up in a smile.

"I have your Star Seed..."

"Z..." Akira said. "...don't care about the... all go away..." Her

laughter echoed from nowhere and everywhere. For a moment Ayeka thought she felt

Akira standing behind her, caressing the small of her back while she breathed on

her neck. For a moment she saw Akira pressing herself against Z. She saw Akira

twisting Seiya's head off like a top. She saw-

"I control your power," Z informed Akira. "You will serve me."

"...Ukyou will die... hopeless... any cost..."

"No."

The word came out clearer than the half-heard conversation. Z narrowed

his eyes. "Woman, you think you can resist me? I have your soul..."

"Keep it," Akira said, her twisting face breaking out into a smile. "Not

gonna need it no more."

Z suddenly looked apprehensive. He backed up a step. The laughter around

him suddenly began to fill with whispers. Ayeka could just barely make them out.

It was Akira's voice, but at the same time it wasn't. It was a chorus of

childish taunts. They ran together, but she could make out the thrust of it.

"...you should have died, too..."

"...betrayed your family..."

"...failure..."

"...abandoned..."

"...unloved..."

"SHUT UP!" Z roared, stepping forward as he flared all five of his Wings

of the Light Hawk. They spread out across the sky, huge ribbons of pure white

light. Akira smiled, reached out, and curled her fingers around the edge of the

white ribbon-blade.

That wasn't possible. While the Wings looked like nothing but ribbons of

light, in reality they were powerful fields that protected anything beyond them.

The gaps between the wings didn't really exist. The entire field was actually an

impenetrable wall that stretched across multiple dimensional planes. It was only

the amount of power the field projected that determined how many "wings" were

visible.

Akira grabbed the edge of the wing and, with a snort and a flick of her

wrist, bent it like wet taffy. A sound escaped Z's throat. A scared, small,

pitiful sound. Something dropped from his hand to the 'ground' with a clink.

Akira reached out and grabbed another nearby wing. Then she proceeded to wrap

the wings around his body, tying his arms to his chest with them. She grabbed

two more and hogtied his legs behind his back. The fifth she balled up like a

wad of putty and shoved into his mouth. Z could only stare, nearly crying in

naked fear as Akira disassembled his ultimate defense with ease.

Ayeka could also only stare. That could not happen. That hadn't

happened.

Akira looked down at her handiwork. "Bye bye." She waved a little wave

and pushed him out into space. He slowly drifted back and, before a heartbeat

had passed, vanished from view into the depths of space.

"Now to fix it all..." Akira said, her face widening in a smile.

Ayeka looked down. She could see a diamond there. It was cracked down

its length. Light was seeping out of it. The star in the center was being

eclipsed.

"Akira, stop!" Ayeka said, throwing herself in front of the girl. Akira

looked at her. Her face that was here and her face that was somewhere else both

suddenly focused on Ayeka. Somehow Ayeka suddenly knew that there was a great

deal at stake here. Whatever future this Other Akira had come from, she had one

chance to change it. Here and now.

"Akira, I don't know you..." Ayeka scooped up the Star Seed with one

hand. "I don't know what terrible choice you're making. But you can't do this. I

can tell, in my heart, that what you are about to do is wrong. You're changing

time..."

"I can fix it," the two Akira voices said with an odd echo. "Angel won't

have to grow up with him. Ukyou doesn't have to be tortured. I don't have to

kill all those people..." Akira began to tip back and forth. "...fix it... make

it not real... shadows..." She grabbed her head. "...too many voices... too

many... can't hear..."

"AKIRA!" Ayeka screamed. "You don't have to listen to me, but listen to

yourself!" Ayeka held up the star seed in her hand. "Listen to the voice inside

you!"

Akira's eyes focused on the gem in Ayeka's hand. "My... soul..." Then

she smiled. "Of course..."

She reached out and grabbed the gem and Ayeka-

-lowered the cumbersome weapon, her arms shaking. Was it over? Akira was

lying in front of her in the remains of the table. Her face had gone pale. Seiya

was standing, using a chair to prop herself up. She looked like she had been

worked over by a pissed off Ryoko. Sailor Starmaker - Taiki, Ayeka reminded

herself - was holding a ready stance. Kairos was crouched near the door, her

body tense.

Z was gone.

"I... what..." Ayeka stumbled.

Akira groaned and woke up. She looked up at Ayeka. "Did we win?"

"I..." Ayeka looked down at herself. She looked at the weapon. Her hands

went numb and it clattered to the ground. Had that really happened? Akira

groaned and got to her feet slowly.

"Oh man, I ripped the dress you gave me..." Akira said apologetically.

"It's... okay..." Ayeka replied mechanically.

"Hey, why is everyone looking at me so funny?" Akira said as she looked

around the room. "What, did I grow a second head or something?" Ayeka felt her

world sway. "Hey, Ayeka... it was a joke... Ayeka..." The world was dimming out.

"Oh man, not aga-"

OoOoo

"Oh, hey, Princess."

Ayeka looked up as Akira leapt down from the top of the odd crystalline

ship. She landed with ease, despite falling nearly two stories. Ayeka took a

deep breath and forced herself to smile.

"I heard you were leaving today."

"Yeah..." Akira threw a towel over her shoulder. "I have to get back."

She looked over her shoulder. The sun was setting behind the hills, and the

stars were beginning to come out. "There's stuff I have to take care of at

home."

Ayeka opened her mouth and closed it again. A part of her told her it

would be a bad thing to mention what she had seen up there, on Z's ship. A part

of her wanted to believe she hadn't actually seen it. That it had been some

elaborate fever dream caused by loss of blood, and that Touga's story was true.

His plan had really worked, the star seed ripping gun had somehow driven Z off

and saved all their lives. It was a very big part of her.

"I... came to see you off."

"Thanks," Akira smiled shyly. "You didn't have to, if you didn't want

to..."

Ayeka flinched a little. Of course the girl had noticed. Ayeka had been

avoiding her for the last week. Avoiding her because of exactly what she was

feeling right now. As long as Akira wasn't near her, as long as she couldn't see

the other girl, she could forget the memories. She could imagine she had not

seen some bizarre double-focus Akira bending the Wings of the Light Hawk between

her fingers-

"No," Ayeka bowed her head and clapped her hands together. "I've been so

busy with examining the ship and trying to learn as much as we can about

Galaxia..." The lie came easily to her lips. Akira nodded and leaned against the

ramp into the crystal spaceship. "I'm sorry I haven't been down to see you."

"No problem," Akira waved her away. "After everything that happened, I

think I prefer being on the ground. Things make more sense with solid earth

under your feet." She chuckled dryly. Her hair waved softly behind her in the

breeze; she had decided she liked the longer hair that had been grown for the

disguise, much to Ayeka's discomfiture."I'd rather not spend time on a

spaceship, really."

Ayeka nodded. She leaned against the ramp as well. For a moment they

just stood there in companiable silence. Ayeka looked to the sky. Somewhere up

there was Z's cruiser, it and all the secrets it held. Secrets the Jurai Empire

needed badly. Secrets about Galaxia, the Star Seeds and the Sailors. So many

people had died for those secrets, but they had found them.

In a small epiphany, Ayeka realised she had done it. She had set out

into the universe to find the secret of winning this war. She had found it. She

had learned more about Galaxia's war in one day than the Galaxy Police and the

Empire had learned in two years of fighting. She had found even more than that.

She had found allies. People like Akira and Touga who, while strange, were

powerful and helpful friends. No doubt this Tethys would make a fine ally for

her people in the war against Chaos.

And people like the Starlights.

As if summoned by the thought, the Starlights were there. They appeared

in a flare of pink light, descending from the heavens and stepping out of the

glare. They were in their combat forms for the moment, though they had spent

most of the last week in their civilian identities. They looked much better.

Yaten, especially, had been in rough shape when they had found him...

her. Apparently one of Galaxia's minions had been tormenting her in the dungeon

of Z's cruiser until she had left for, as Yaten put it, 'a lunch break', and

simply failed to return. They had found no sign of the woman aboad the ship,

even as they cleared out the few remaining 'normal' phages. Now, she looked

positively healthy. Apparently quick healing was another Sailor Senshi trait.

"Yo!" Seiya called, waving to them as she approached. Akira nodded and

waved nonchalantly. Ayeka stood straight and gave a more formal greeting, which

Taiki and Yaten returned.

"Here to see me off, too?" Akira asked.

"Yeah, I couldn't let you go without a proper send-off," Seiya said.

"After all, if you hadn't been willing to be a bridge of trust, none of us would

have survived this."

"We're in your debt," Taiki added.

"Anytime you need help, let us know," Yaten continued.

"We're friends," Akira replied simply. "Friends fight to defend each

other." She shrugged. "That's the way it works." She paused for a moment. "So

what happens for you guys, now?"

"We're going to Jurai with Ayeka," Taiki reminded her.

"We're sick of running away," Seiya pointed out. "No more hiding and

fleeing from Galaxia. It's time we all got together and beat her." Akira

grinned.

"What about your princess?"

"I will be helping them with that," Ayeka promised, looking at the three

Starlights. The three nodded in thanks. "After all, every ally we can get is

worthwhile. And Princess Kakyuu may still have discovered her 'Light of Hope'."

"I think you already did," Akira said, standing up. "Well, I better get

going. Earth isn't going to get any closer." She started up the ramp.

"Wait!" Seiya called. Akira turned around.

And Seiya grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into a long deep

kiss. Well, long for about two seconds. Than Akira punched her so hard she flew

ten meters before tumbling to a stop.

"What the hell was that for?" Akira shouted, her cheeks burning.

"Heh, told you I wasn't letting you leave without a proper send-off,"

Seiya said with a groan. "By the way, I like you with long hair."

Akira brushed the ends of her hair with her fingers, then frowned and

turned up her nose. She stalked into the spaceship as Ayeka, Taiki and Yaten all

laughed. A few moments later the ramp shifted up, merging seamlessly with the

rest of the crystal ship. The air around them stirred for a moment as Akira's

ship floated slowly into the air. With a soft thrumming sound, it vanished.

Ayeka looked skyward for a moment. The Starlights, still chuckling,

started walking away.

'The Light of Hope.'

Ayeka looked at where the ship had vanished, then back down to her own

hand. Should she have said anything? Why was she the only one who seemed to

really remember anything that had happened? Had she remembered it, or was it a

fantasy? It was too good to be true. A young woman who would carry the weight of

the universe on her shoulder some day, and her small part in helping her retain

her humanity.

It was a nice dream. She brushed a bang back out of her face. Her

fingers brushed against something.

Then, Ayeka suddenly remembered her recorder. She reached up hesitantly

and touched it. She had turned it on at the concert and forgotten to turn it off

since. With a few clicks of her fingers she accessed it. The data was

there for everything: the concert, the attack, the chase, the desperate

plan... everything right up to the moment Ayeka fired the soul extracting

device.

Then static.

The next image was Z gone and Akira waking up. According to the

timestamp, not even a single second had passed. The static might well have just

been a glitch.

But it was five minutes long.

Ayeka shuddered and looked down. Then, quite deliberatly, she singled

out the static on the tape and hit erase.

OoOoo

Galaxia's throne room did not really exist in the universe itself. It

was at the metaphorical center of it. If you wanted to reach the closest thing

to its location, you would travel backwards, away from the spinning orbits of

the galaxies, opposite the thrust that was spreading the stars thinner and

thinner across the heavens. You had to walk backwards through the paths carved

by the big bang, to the very place where it had all started. A journey back in

time, at least in a symbolic sense.

The place had a few names. Some called it the Galaxy Cauldron,

birthplace of the stars. Others called it the Graveyard of the Galaxy or the

Last Refuge of Dying Stars. According to legend it was here that Sailor Galaxia

had summoned up the very incarnation of Chaos to fight it for the fate of all

creation in an effort to create peace. It was here she had won that battle, and

lost it as well.

It really wasn't that impressive. A tiled glass floor, stretching out of

sight into the distance in all directions was accented by the starscape that

hovered above and below it. The only real decoration here was the throne, a

golden seat with a back made of thick, transparent crystal. Z hated this place.

It was the main reason he was always looking for excuses to find something to

do.

Up until now, he had always been able to justify his adventures.

He knelt before the golden throne. The woman on it stared down at him

with impassive malice. Her skin was charcoal black and her eyes were red like

blood. Her long hair was red and gold and curled up neatly on her head. She wore

golden armour, designed with a skirt of metallic bands and a sailor collar.

Galaxia.

"So... allow me to summarise this," Galaxia said. "You managed to not

only fail in capturing the star seeds of three Sailor Senshi..." Z kept his face

down, but could still see the women around Galaxia shifting and staring at him.

"You also allowed Princess Ayeka of Jurai to escape your clutches with

information about our real plans and goals. Plus..." Z could see Heavy Metal

Papillon sneering at him, her large scythe propped over her shoulder. Next to

her, Aluminum Siren was giving him a wide-eyed look of disbelief. Her partner

was next to her, and there were about a half dozen other Sailor Animamates

around as well. "Plus you lost your vaunted warship, your experimental weapon,

and managed to give Jurai, my enemies, not one but two new allies. Have I

accurately described the depth of your failure, Z?"

"You have," Z admitted. The Animamates began to murmur among themselves.

He felt his hackles rise, but repressed the urge to silence them. He hated them.

They had, one and all, sold out their people for a chance to live as Galaxia's

pawns and puppets. They had given up their free will for their lives. It was

something he would never be able to do.

"And what have you gained from this foolishness?"

Z closed his eyes. He remembered. He remembered the woman's cold brown

eyes staring straight into him. That had been it, the power of the

Counterreactor. He remembered what he had seen with his special eye. The horrors

he had seen as he had looked at her. He had, for one mind-numbing instant, seen

it all. He had seen her kill him a million ways. He had seen him kill her a

million more. Not just potential, but actual realities. She had shown him the

truth, and his mind had shied away from it. He could barely remember anymore.

His mind had simply stopped processing the images he had seen with his cursed

left eye. He shuddered.

There were things that had never meant to be discovered. There were

secrets that even the gods had never unravelled. Now he knew there was a reason

for that. When he had first come to serve Galaxia, he had asked her about the

ultimate power, the power she had touched all those years ago in her fight

against Chaos. She had looked him straight in the eyes and told him, "Do not

search for it. You will not like what you will find."

She had been right.

"I learned that your wisdom is greater than I thought," he admitted,

though it left a sour taste in his mouth.

To his surprise, Galaxia smiled. "Then you are finally of use to me."

Z looked up, shock etched across his features. He realised dimly that he

had not seen the moment of decision making, the point where all the possible

futures based on Galaxia's choice of what to do with him had been laid out. She

had known all along. She had known what she was going to do here. She had

probably known since before he had left to pursue the 'Light of Hope'.

"Stand up," Galaxia bade him rise with one hand. "I would not have my

prime lieutenant kneel before me. I have no use for another sniveling worm."

"My lady!" Heavy Metal Papillon protested. "He is a-"

"You forget your place," Galaxia said softly. Papillon blanched and

stepped back, whispering apologies. She turned back to Z. "Now that you have

seen the foolishness of your quest for power, I can begin to use you the way I

wished from the beginning." She stood up.

"My lady..." Z hesitated. "There is the matter of what I saw..."

"I am aware," Galaxia nodded. "There is much I must tell you." She

paused. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep an eye on the situation. Sailor

Iron Mouse."

"Yeep!" A white-haired girl in a white pyjama-like outfit scrambled out

of the crowd of Animamates. She stood nervously in front of Galaxia and Z. "Y-

yes, Lady Galaxia?"

"Proceed to Earth. Monitor it. Report back to me if you discover

something of interest."

"Y-yes ma'am!" The white-haired girl bowed a few times then scrambled

away again.

Galaxia gazed after her and then turned back to Z. "The rest of you,

leave us." She walked closer to him. "Z and I have much to discuss in

private..."

Z felt a cold wind blow across his skin. But he nodded. What choice did

he have, anymore?

To Possibly Be Continued...

(But hopefully not, because that'll mean we're behind again and there's only one

and a half chapters left to write, for pity's sake.)

Author's Notes:

Epsilon: (dies)

Blade: Right. So, uh, sorry about that "it'll be done in a week" thing.

Epsilon's Ghost: Too... much... writing...

Blade: For some reason, we decided NOT to go with the other first-place choices

(Ranma stuff, Tarou/Athena/Sakura stuff) and write the gripping tale of how

Ranma, Minako, Tarou, Athena, Sakura, Herb, and Akane all travel to Japan to

fight Zoalord Rienzi and his laser-breasted zoanoid beach babes. No, seriously,

that was our other plan, and it would have been called "The Magnificent Seven",

which would possibly involve us having to threaten Linkin Park into recording a

song named that.

Epsilon's Ghost: Silly... writes... faster...

Blade: Yeah, but then Epsi just HAD to have his skycycle chase ripping off

Attack of the Clones, so instead we went with the other first place vote

(Juraian War) and the second place vote (Akira). Nobody voted for more Kairos

except me, but that's because I'm smarter than you.

Epsilon's Ghost: Too... many... characters...

Blade: Right, so see, we wrote one sidestory, and it had three heroes and a

villain and comedy, and it was nice and short. Then we wrote another sidestory,

and it had five heroes, two villains, comedy and minor tie into the actual plot,

and it was longer.

Epsilon's Ghost: We're... sooooooooo... stuuuuupid...

Blade: So I'm not sure why we decided to write a story with three heroes... and

a villain... or four villains... and two sidekicks... and two more heroes... and

one sort of grey guy, or two, depending on how you count... and another

villain... and Sailor Iron Mouse, who barely qualifies... and a whole shedload

of ties directly into the ongoing plot... and we expected this to take like

100k.

Epsilon's Ghost: Soooooooooo... stuuuuuuuuupid...

Blade: And as for comedy... yeah. Okay, so, we may be sorry about this. This is

the single most manic-depressive thing we have ever written. Or read. I mean,

seriously, the story goes:

"HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!"

"Wait, everyone's dying!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, gender confusion antics!"

"No, seriously, people are dying!"

"Wow, Kairos is sure hahahahahahahahaha crazy as shit!"

"Dramatic slow-mo pans of people being blown up in spaceships!"

"Dramatic self-sacrifice!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!"

"LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR!"

"The end."

Epsilon's Ghost: Neeeeeeeevvvvvvver... agaaaaaaaain...

Blade: So I have no idea, really, how this will be reacted to. Much less what

category to put it in. You only get like three genres at you

know. We promise to take lithium next time. But if you don't like it, just

remember: you voted, so it's all your fault. If one more person had voted for

Ranma, well, it would've been Rienzi's BreastForce for everybody.

Epsilon's Ghost: Demooooooocracy... doessssssssn't... wooooooork...