EVEN FLOW

R E V E R S I O N E D

A BISHOJO SENSHI SAILOR MOON Fan Fiction

By Nicholas Clark (Warriorsong)

Comprising the original fan fictions Even Flow Chapter 1 - In From The Void, Chapter 2 - Who Are You? Chapter 3 - Back In A Fashion, Chapter 4 - Sense Of Not Belonging, Chapter 5 - Maternal Instinct and Chapter 6 - Rook's Movement

1. COMING TOGETHER

Chapter One

IN FROM THE VOID

"In violence, we celebrate again

It's four o'clock in the morning, we'll wait again

And I'm high all the time

I wonder why every time"

The Feelers - "Float" - Supersystem

-------

The scream reverberated throughout the corridors of the small hospital, disturbing patients and staff alike. The shock on the faces of the first to the scene was almost palpable. The patient, a young man, struck by lightening, his body overloaded by the raw electrical fury of the sky, was sitting upright. Breathing raggedly, the young man, looked like he was shaking the dregs of a five month long nightmare from his consciousness.

By rights, even the coma he had been in, was a miracle. The sheer voltage, the time taken from the strike to a hapless motorist finding him, the cold and the exposure. The fact he was awake and looking around with panic and terror in his eyes, was almost inconceivable.

Shaking his head, the young man croaked. His body, weak and atrophied, would not respond. He collapsed back onto the bed. This time sleep claimed his ragged shell.

-------

The festivities had died away to a smaller gathering. The older guests had drifted away, best wishes and farewells drifting on the wind like the confetti on the grass.

Usagi sat quietly on Mamoru's lap, tired yet content. She had her one wish granted today, that all her friends and family be together and share in love and happiness. Sighing gently, she rested her head against Mamoru's tuxedo clad shoulder. This had been the subject of some slight coughs from the Senshi, due to its similarity to his "working clothes". Her pearly silk dress rustled slightly against his dapper suit jacket.

Her friends, the Senshi, milled around quietly discussing the day's events and small niceties. While a closer knit group than they had been, some small reservations still existed between the Inner and Outer branches of her 'court'. Giggling at the thought, she had broken Mamoru out of his contemplation of the top of her head.

"What's the joke Usako?" he asked, thinking she had been dozing.

"No really a joke, Mamo-chan," she replied, "just that they all seem to get on better and have more fun. Life has been good to us all."

"What can I say Sweet Dumpling-Head, you bring out the best in people."

She straightened up and swatted him on the shoulder, standing and walking into the centre of the dance floor. Her white dress shone, accentuating her beauty and radiance, the simple pearl necklace like a line of moons across her throat. Following, he caught her in his arms bending her backwards, and kissed her bodily on the lips.

Breaking apart, he realised where they were. Looking around, he was greeted by smiling faces and wistful gazes. Realisation then fully settled in with its feet on the coffee table, and pointed out Kenji, Usagi's somewhat overprotective (and rumouredly gun-toting) father. Blushing almost scarlet and near dropping Usagi, Mamoru looked like a startled deer in headlights. Those headlights could easily have been on a B Train, one carrying nuclear payload.

Kenji merely lifted his glass as a small smile spread itself across his lips. His wife, Ikuko, wrapped her arm around his waist. Kenji nodded at Mamoru as they left the pavilion.

Pulling Usagi back upright, Mamoru wiped the sweat from his forehead with his free arm, and pulled his beloved into a tight embrace.

The stressed silence was broken as music began to play.

-------

Haruka and Michiru sat quietly watching the dancing couple. Michiru was leaning against Haruka's chest. Haruka was dressed in a black tuxedo with a pale lemon cummerbund. Michiru was dressed in a simple spaghetti strap dress, coloured a pale lime green, matching pastel with pastel to the cummerbund of Haruka's tuxedo. A rather ostentatious choice but also a subtle joke to those in the know. The realisation of such a slip was after the fact.

They both looked on as the couple danced to the quiet and soft music that had filled the marquee with its soft air.

The day had been beautiful, warm and soothing, and now, as the sun began to set, dress jackets and collars were loosened, as the party became more relaxed.

The reclining pair had taken an almost parental role in the life of the Senshi, providing advice and assistance in times of need. The vast wealth that each had accumulated through their various pursuits, added to the investments made over the centuries by Setsuna, had allowed each and every girl to follow their dreams. Ami had returned from Helvetica, a little over a week ago, from her studies at the Medical University there. The other girls had enrolled in the University of Tokyo upon their graduation from high school. Setsuna had made a quasi life for herself in this time, deciding that the Gate could as easily be watched from this point in time as any other. Hotaru displaying a huge intellect and hidden powers was being taught by private tutors, her unexpected growth spurts finally halting at her outward appearance of fifteen years.

In short, the pair of Haruka and Michiru were happy. They had the love of each other and what they now thought of as their 'family'.

A shadow fell across Haruka's face. She opened her eyes to see the sombre face of Setsuna Meioh.

"I must depart," she said simply.

The look on Setsuna's face was one that did little to calm Haruka. She knew that look and didn't like it much.

"Business or pleasure?" she asked, knowing what the answer was going to be, and not liking it at all.

"Business," replied the stately dark greened haired woman, turning and walking away, "it is always business."

Haruka gently shook Michiru's shoulder, waking her. She then relayed what Setsuna had said. Michiru did not like it overly much either.

Perhaps they had let peace make them complacent.

-------

Usagi, her white dress swaying against her ankles and Mamoru, black clad, ever the gentleman, continued their dance.

Ami looked on. Her studies had progressed in class and in private. She now knew what was going to be covered before hand, as she had already studied it. Twice grounded her understanding. Her professors had recommended that she apply for the position of assistant lecturer over the holiday months, a well paying position, helping students catch up and being used to reaffirm her knowledge, and as an aide-de-camp to assist the resident research scientists. She had decided to think the idea over during her small holiday back home.

Urawa had insisted that she not study at all and had threatened to lock her in her bedroom for the entire time of her holiday. His having roped Makoto into his plan did little to help Ami's situation.

Although, the bedroom, as such was not entirely a bad idea. She and Urawa had finally gotten to the point where they could actually talk to each other and their relationship had blossomed. This offered Minako and Makoto endless pleasure, them having orchestrated the entire situation and relentlessly hounding her for 'information', as they called it.

Ami chuckled slightly when she recalled the last time they had pressed for such 'information'. She had told them vividly, and at length. Both had fled, flushed red from the neck up to the roots of their hair. Medicine had its advantages outside the scope of healing.

The next time Minako had gone to ask how Urawa 'was', Makoto had firmly planted her hand over Minako's mouth.

Urawa slid up to her and removed the half-empty glass from her hand. Extending his hand to hers, he led her onto the dance floor.

-------

Rei had finally given in and allowed Yuuichirou to dance with her. It had become a game of sorts. The feelings that they shared were mutual, yet they hid them from all but each other. They believed that, so their friends felt it unnecessary to shatter that illusion.

The red silk dress of Rei's rustled gently against the stiff fabric of Yuuchirou's tuxedo. He had removed his tie and unbuttoned his shirt, his unruly hair collecting on his shoulders and over his face. While originally, she had considered him a scruff, his dishevelled exterior and pure heart had played on her over time and she had finally admitted to herself the way she felt. It took her longer to admit it to him however.

Yuuichirou had no problem with this, his feelings obvious since he first laid eyes on her.

Rei had minimalised her temple duties, still taking an active part, yet concentrating more on her studies. Rei had decided to major in psychology with a minor in religious studies.

Yuuichirou had become a full-fledged priest, and was subtly running the temple in Rei's absence. Grandpa Hino, still going strong, was however becoming more and more unable to fulfil his duties. He, even amongst initial doubts, had taken a shine to Yuuichirou from the beginning and treated the boy almost like a son. Or as the old man secretly hoped, a grandson.

As one dance turned into seven, Rei failed to notice.

-------

Kino Makoto loved this. She had enrolled part-time at the University, spending the rest of her time managing a fledgling catering business. While currently only working for friends and acquaintances, her reputation as a chef was growing and rivalled that of some Master's, although she had not undergone their formal training. Makoto had taken courses in marketing and management, in order to help fulfil her business plans.

While life seemed in order for the most part, she as Sailor Jupiter was edgy. There had only been sporadic outbreaks of youma; none affiliated with major powers. Most had simply slipped through the dimensional cracks. Many were weak and a single Senshi alone could deal with them easily and efficiently. These creatures were not a threat to the peace of the last twelve months, being isolated and eliminated within a short span.

But, it did not sit with Makoto. Her warrior instincts were on a fever pitch. She half attributed it to paranoia, but she had a sinking feeling that something was going to happen.

A pair of warm arms reached around her to clasp over her stomach. Ken, his long brown hair brushing against the shoulder of his tuxedo, kissed her cheek. Turning Makoto around, her green form fitting dress matching his cummerbund and undone bow tie, he pulled her onto the dance floor.

-------

Aino Minako had managed to evade her legion of admirers. The fine arts course coupled with her amateur modelling had made her something of a 'Aphrodite' around campus. Not that it bothered her; in fact the term was quite amusing. However it all seemed hollow to her. Since the incident with Adonis, (or Ace, Danburite or whoever) prior to her becoming aware of the other Senshi, and the further revelation about her, Kunzite and their past, all attempted relationships had failed. While she was still outgoing and bubbly, it was now tempered with a watchfulness.

Watching for what? Sometimes she wished maybe she has followed her one time desire to study psychology, but quickly dismissed it.

She however, had not managed to find a boyfriend. She was okay with this surprisingly. Often she would catch herself crying that she, Vassal of Venus, as she was, could not find a mate. But she had learnt patience. She watched all the male companionship she needed at present, curled up against his 'intended'. The white fur and black fur like a pile of lint. She giggled.

She had helped the others find love, her turn would come.

But quietly, the melancholic corner of her mind asked herself one single thing, "When?"

-------

Tomoe Hotaru watched Minako quietly, as she did all the others. Hotaru had aged quickly following the Pharaoh Ninety "incident", from infancy onward, currently resting at fifteen years of age. Her powers had grown also. It was almost as if, her body, as it grew, could contain more raw essence. Or indeed had to grow rapidly to contain the destructive energies.

Pluto was the only Senshi who knew of this. Setsuna was not surprised, then again she never was. Hotaru often wondered whether the joy was taken out of life for her mentor. Setsuna had tutored Hotaru in the conversion and use of her new energies; taking her away for weeks on end and bringing her back seconds later. Which unbeknown to the other Senshi; explained some, but not all, of her growth spurts.

Hotaru had fathomed Setsuna's attitude. It made her sad. Setsuna had adopted the cold exterior for a specific reason. Calm. This calm enabled her to control her emotions readily. The power of Pluto was immense, enough to wreck havoc on an untold scale. Universal, complete and utterly merciless, much like what she knew of her own.

This frightened Hotaru. Her powers were exponentially more destructive than her friends. Thus she was quiet, opening up only to the Senshi, at varying degrees. She feared that if her emotion was to escape her, she could kill all life - everywhere.

She was lonely but she had her family. And home was where the heart was.

-------

Setsuna Meioh watched the Senshi half-heartedly through her temporal portals. She could read many of the expressions easily, having watched the first steps of those that wore them. Many emotions, joy, happiness, bliss, contentment, loneliness, calm, patience, acceptance and anxiety.

Anxiety she could understand. Both Haruka and Michiru were on 'full alert', inconspicuously watching all and sundry. Maybe it had been a mistake to announce her departure. She could amend that but it was frivolous to do so. Unworthy of contemplation.

Turning to the large opening before her, its spectrum of colours swirling in a pattern only she could comprehend, she saw the fabric of time, bending and mending, after this recent tear.

As quick as the tear had appeared it had vanished. This created problems. While she would easily be able to isolate the time disturbance; temporal rifts caused other nuisances. Due to the nature of reality, all dimensions existed in a state of balance; a large disturbance such as this rip could cause ripples, imbalances in other dimensions and in the walls between them. Specifically the walls bordering on this dimension.

This basically meant that due to the fact that the Negaverse existed in this reality, a rip in time could imbalance the dimensional fabric, weakening the walls that separated our plane of existence from theirs.

Jupiter and Uranus would get their workouts. It seemed that unless things went exactly the opposite to what they usually did, everyone would get a workout.

-------

Prodding. Prodding. Constantly prodding.

The patient was disorientated, asleep for five months and now awake, it was weak, its muscles in a state of atrophy even though physical therapy had been undertaken. The patient had tried to leave twice now. Sedated but still uncooperative the patient made the occasional half-hearted play for freedom.

Inside his head the patient was swimming, drowning almost in an influx of memories. The body was a shell; the mind was new to it. The mind was trying to move in so to speak, setting its mental furniture about, filling memories in shelves like books. On a subconscious level, a residue of the original host rallied against this. A poltergeist that couldn't move on. The new inhabitant, finally after much cajoling, offered the previous owner the equivalent of a mental cup of coffee. They began to talk.

The body slumped.

The doctors and nurse's began a frantic sweep of the body, checking that it hadn't slipped back into limbo. Performing tests that had already been performed again and again.

The body and its minds were simply exhausted. A conclusion had been reached. Setting their cups down, the minds slowly melded, becoming a new entity, yet not so, a fusion of a whole and a fraction, the sum to the n-th factor of its parts.

Chapter Two

WHO ARE YOU?

"Hey you boy, think that you know what you're doing

You think you're gonna set things to rights

You're just another picture on a teenage wall

You're just another sucker ready for a fall"

Queen - "Fight From the Inside" - News Of The World

-------

The parts of consciousness melded and combined, the bodies base memories, its blurry recollection of events, weaknesses in its structure and its strengths where integrated into the new soul. The soul wasn't entirely happy with its disjointed memoirs, but as the residue stated, it was simply that - a residue. As the essences joined, becoming a new entity, an individual, the body, weak still from its prolonged hiatus and its new shock at invasion by an unknown spirit, rested, its breathing deep and unlaboured.

A restful sleep. The first in many months.

-------

Sailor Pluto was worried. From her vantage point on what she often referred to as the 'Banks of Time', she watched the eddy and flow of the streams.

Time has been said to be a stream, constant. Yet from Setsuna's experience, this was only partially true; time was actually a delta. Time flowed, forward mostly, sometimes in whirls, events repeating and overlapping. The majority flowed, straight and steady.

However, an unknown 'thing' could enter the stream, whether it be a branch or rock or plant. While metaphorical at most, these analogies were accurate. Anything unknown and out of place could divert the stream, forging a new course or following a dry, old creek bed. These riverbeds, and its new diversions all represented possibilities, the chance of new and unseen events. These new paths could often veer off, going away, into the distance or they could stay close to the original channel.

The main channels always existed, its possibility planned from its 'snow-cap' or 'spring'. Most called this stream Fate. However these new paths could affect outcomes and the future in turn. While some new streams would eventually rejoin the main flow, many could stagnant, become still. These often stayed stagnant, frozen in the events which they sprung from. Others could become brackish, poisonous to drink, foul to the nose.

Pluto shook herself. She was melancholy again. Her ability to watch the time streams often led her mind to wander down them like a paper boat. Watching events on unknown shores could be dangerous, having only half the story.

Her main concern was this new impediment to the main flow. A boulder of sorts. It let little water past it. It was acting like a damn.

Time had shown this to be a bad thing. Damning the stream could cause two main problems.

Both were incomprehensible to Setsuna Meioh, her mind reeled from their implications. The first was that time would stop, damned up by the impediment, and move no longer, the status quo would remain, and change, the most necessary part of existence would cease to be. The second was it would overcome the damn, a torrent of raw temporal energy and wash over bank and stream alike, melding all streams into a flood of events and circumstances, unmoored by past, present and future.

She re-entered causal reality.

-------

The party had wound down considerably. It was now early Sunday morning. The night air was crisp and the full moon shone its benediction onto the restive remnants of the festivities.

Usagi, Mamoru's dress jacket covering her slender shoulders, rested between his arms and against his chest. Her occasional snores indicated that she was sleeping. Urawa, Yuuichirou and Ken had escorted their respective partners and Minako, home. Makoto had promised to return and finish her cleaning and collect her equipment early in the afternoon.

Hotaru, still small and lithe, rested quietly in Haruka's arms, Michiru returning from the carafe on the sideboard, brought a tray of coffee over to the small group.

Mamoru asked the question that had been plaguing him for some time; reluctant to ask but almost compelled. Foreboding had been creeping into his thoughts for some months now.

"Setsuna left early didn't she." It was a statement of fact.

"Yes", replied Haruka quietly, careful not to wake the sleeping girl in her arms.

Mamoru didn't like this. Setsuna had not even mentioned her departure. This in itself was not good; she was usually unfailingly polite, except of course, when time beckoned.

"I don't like this." Mamoru mumbled. Both Haruka and Michiru nodded silently.

-------

All things exist in time. Setsuna had learnt that early on. Therefore, as time was also a constant, she could be anywhere that time held sway.

Time being constant and moving seemed a paradox. Even after thousands of years back and forth, she hadn't cracked that chestnut. But whatever made it worked wasn't broken, so time wasn't of the essence.

The Gate was also constant. Both at the Beginning and the End; and also everywhere In-Between. The Gate now however has different. Subtly so, yet noticeable immediately. It was closed - thankfully - and undamaged. Setsuna walked around the Gate, her dark fuku swishing in the raw chronal energy across her thighs. There was a piece of notepaper on the Gate. It was blank.

Setsuna, suddenly pale, swore vehemently. A twinned chronal and dimensional anomaly.

This was not good. She had screwed up. But if she had, it must have been for a good reason. Because something bad had happened.

-------

Dimensions exist like bits of a circle; cones cut from the sphere like pieces from a pie. All cones touch at the core of the sphere. This makes up the universe, the core of all being. From the outside these dimensions can be identified by the different shapes the cones take, although all are the same size relatively, while literally some may be bigger or smaller.

The problem lies that any major disturbance in any one cone, adversely affects the nature of reality in general. The ripples caused by these disturbances radiate in concentric circles, like a pebble dropped into a small pond, spreading ever outward. Larger dimensions are effected less, on a relative scale, while smaller ones can be severely damaged on the quantum spectrum.

The "screw up" in question, was as such. A chronal anomaly had caused a ripple. This tear in the fabric of time had also caused other tears. Luck or mathematics depending, being quite busy, had managed to avert any major problems. But, and in matters of dimensional mechanics, there is always a but, the location of dimensions in the sphere always play a part.

Our dimension, our reality, sat next to another, and another, on all sides. One particular dimensional wall however, was weaker. It always had been. This had caused problems for millennia, since magic had been born in our reality, and its initial use had broken the wall. This dimension or universe, ours, is a relatively nice place to live. The other wasn't so much. At all. Our reality was, to them, like the vacation spot everybody wanted a cottage at.

Time and again the inhabitants of this other dimension had made plays for ours. Most often they were repulsed and defeated. They had gotten stronger though. Maybe this time they could make a lasting impression.

This other nasty little piece of dimensional real estate had a name.

The Dark Kingdom. The Negaverse.

-------

The Negaverse housed various species of youma, or monsters. Many were very similar like drones or worker bees. Oft times these creatures simply existed in a dry barren dog-eat-dog world. The high fatality rate was all but nullified by the various indiscriminate sexual practices of the creatures.

Nega-humans, the predominate form of humanoid passable in our realms lived in a segregated harmony with their ravening neighbours, advanced magicks and dimensional manipulation allowing travel and expeditions to most corners of the multiverse.

Occasionally and with large forces, high-youma, interbred nega-humans or the more powerful adaptive monsters would gather bands of drones and ravage across the desert landscape. This and the acrid temperatures negated the chance of plants to grab even the most tenacious of holds. These bands often fought each other into oblivion, providing the scavengers with sustenance and thus allowing them to become stronger and raise bands themselves.

Many times it would take years, even decades, to recoup these casualties.

However once in a dark moon, a powerful entity would raise an army and sweep all armies into their fold. These creatures were rarely the youma themselves, but often the inhabitants of fringe worlds and huge travelling asteroids, nega-human youma hybrids, or powerful outsiders trapped with no escape. Over time a few such forces had arisen to power in the Negaverse.

The first was Metallia, a being cast from her own dimension into the darkness that existed in the Negaverse. Her anger and rage had surpassed that of even the most powerful high-youma. Crushing all opposition and ruling by fear and an iron hand, she united the Negaverse into a colossal force, bringing together a force of chaos from the chaos.

Not trusting the base nature of her high-youma or the dupliciousness and self serving qualities of the nega-humans, Metallia subverted powerful human mystics, themselves travelling too far and not knowing their limits. Through these twisted souls, Metallia began to bring the intelligent humans over into her realms, cross breeding the demonic youma with humanity, creating sentient killing machines loyal to her and her alone.

She became akin to a god.

These half-breed creatures were sent to the floating asteroids and inhabitable moons. Over time, their appearance became more human, as demonic traits were bred out, via nega-human mothers and fathers. The powers and the anger remained.

Nega-humans became a sub race. Genetic chattel and fodder for the battleground.

Eventually, a woman caught the attention of Metallia. A misguided girl enraged at being ignored by a man whom she loved. Metallia twisted this child, corrupting her soul, and because the likening between their rage was similar, she became a sometime conduit for the disembodied ruler of the Negaverse. Metallia renamed this girl Beryl.

Beryl challenged the Heavens and Heaven retaliated. The thunder and fire rained down upon her armies. The sea's and earth crashed against her armies, blocks of ice and sheets of light decimating her troops. But numbers and darkness prevailed, her four human generals, brought over to darkness by rich words and bent minds, and seven youma-kings winning through guile, treachery and deceit.

Then the light flashed and the darkness was extinguished. Emptiness.

-------

Centuries later, Metallia's distrust of her youma servitors was proved a wise decision. The floating satellites, now cities and worlds, hosted various 'families', warring factions similar to the city-states common in Renaissance Europe.

The most powerful of these, The Black Moon Family rose to power upon the moon of Nemesis. They attempted to follow in the footsteps of Beryl, herself now a prisoner in their dark dimension, away from her gaze. This isolation saved them from the second flare, some ten thousand years later, that destroyed their Queen, and yet sparing them, cast them into a hostile realm filled with enemies. Unable to destroy these enemies in the traditional means, they resorted to treachery and deceit. This centred on a child.

However this child escaped. And a precedent was set. Time could be an enemy.

They attempted to make it an ally.

Where the ancient nega-humans had used magicks and spells to pierce the veil between the dimensions, these displaced ones would use it to pierce the fabric between the moments.

-------

Setsuna Meioh watched. It was in her job description. As the Guardian of Time, she as the Sailor Senshi of Pluto had seen invasions. This was too much in her old, jaded eyes.

These fields of the slain, lying like wheat, sown yet left to rot as their ploughman neglected them.

Her home to be, The Crystal Millennium lay shattered.

In the handful of millennia since Serenity had established this bastion of light against the darkness that threatened the Earth, each threat had been repulsed. But not like this. This was too much.

The Senshi, all bar herself and those of the Moon, were dead. Fires flickered and ice rained down upon their still bodies, the residue of their powers settling, as if in mourning for their departed masters.

Neptune and Uranus lay near each other their arms, stretched to touch across the mud and slowly drying blood. Mercury, attempting to stonewall an attack against a weakened Venus, had been flash fried by a demonlord. Mars had wrestled said beast but had died under its death throes. Venus, enraged beyond sentience had attempted melee combat with one of the Queen's Hand.

She had fallen, weakened unto exhaustion, missing the scythe striking her by the grace of Saturn.

Saturn and a muddied Jupiter, who had been sparing with another demonlord, had attempted to halt the Hand on his way to the shimmering wall, waiting for Pluto to finish her task.

It had not been enough, although the Royal Family had held the shield wall.

Pluto had arrived, her own seifuku torn and ripped from battle, to see them fall and the Queen's Hand, the Four Beasts, raise their heads to the sky and bellow out a fierce cry and disappear.

As they and their Fell Queen vanished, she felt the pain. The pain of her power being forced against her, ripped against reality.

As she stood, rising from her knees, after the pain had subsided to look across this field of destruction the enormity of the facts hit her. She began to weep.

Movement caught her eye. A giant demon carcass, smoking in the hazy red light, shuddered. Raising the Time Staff, she prepared to smite the creature. It just rolled over. A silver flash as the Silence Glaive was hoisted into a vertical position. This was followed by the Senshi of Silence. Alive, relief. As she waded over to Pluto, through the corpses of friend and foe alike, ankle deep in blood and bile, to place her hand and what little support she could on Pluto, she voiced what they were both hoping, yet afraid to ask.

"I pray that Naydar makes it back."

-------

Pluto was rather angry. She had or herself did or she would, break a cardinal rule and warn herself, another herself about danger to the Time Stream.

Needless to say, a break of this rule, was obviously the precursor to something monumental.

She would need to find the origin of this anomaly and fast. Time really didn't mean much, but her perception of it was simply to make haste.

-------

The origin however, had by this time woken up and in true fashion for someone how had been asleep for a long time, was currently undertaking care of its necessary bodily functions.

A small achievement in itself that the nurses and such had let him up, considering their continued attempts to drug him to the eyeballs with whatever passed for the strongest tranquilizer around. The mind considered this as a sidenote to its current activity. Perhaps they realised that it wasn't having much effect on him and it would be better suited to use such measures on other patients. The fact the medical staff was befuddled by his seemingly rapid recovery didn't even register as a possibility.

-------

Pluto stepped through a portal and found herself looking over a field of destruction. She saw all her friends lying in various positions of agony and death. The sky was dark and dead, the stars seemingly dulled by the carnage and smoke of battle.

She quickly scanned the Time Stream. This reality was moving further out from the main flow, yet this was the point of contact, the origin of the ripple that had moved through time both forwards and backwards.

Movement caught her eye amongst the wreckage of beast and beauty, and she readied herself for battle.

Saturn approached her, bloodied and tattered, her magical glaive the only shining spot in a world of red and black destruction and said slowly, her still young eyes haunted, "I pray that Naydar makes it back."

-------

Naydar had made it. In fact he and his body were currently getting acquainted, via the questionable joy of food. It tasted like cardboard, but then again hospital food always does. Something's don't change.

He didn't know he was Naydar. The residue and the new soul had decided to slowly bring that back to the host's attention on at least an unconscious level until recovery was complete.

Another coma would seriously mess things up. The more complete residue of Naydar was also confused. Something important had been lost on the journey, a journey it couldn't or didn't want to remember. This vital thing was tantamount to his return and yet it remained elusive. The remaining soul simply pushed the body to fulfil its base need for sustenance.

Naydar ate the food anyway.

-------

Pluto stood by the Gate. That explained it. Naydar had been sent back to warn the others. But as she had sent Saturn back to the Palace with Naydar's body, she had realised what she would do in three thousand years. Send his soul back.

Into another body.

It was unprecedented. Manipulating matter through the chronal flux was one thing, but transferring a simply spiritual essence required more concentration and power than could possibly be expended and still allow her to maintain her, albeit unconscious, watch on the timestream. The threat, or what she could gather from the devastation she had witnessed, was horrifying, yet the risky procedure of soul transfer was never one hundred percent assured. Naydar could be back, full of faculties or he could be almost like a misplaced memory, a dream in another consciousness. Either way, valuable information was contained within.

Staying in that damned wasteland of blood was not an option, some things even she was not permitted to know. Even if she had, she would have been stopped. Certain things must run their course, and her interference would be questioned most critically. Especially by herself, now or later. That world of terror was the main stream, the central river and being there and learning more would prompt her to take action. She was only human, and understood her weaknesses. Only so much pain could be ignored. To ignore that scene any more required ignorance. A falsified blissful ignorance, and haunted dreams, filled with guilt. That could be withstood, practice had made it easier, but no less painful.

The task at hand was however more crucial. Now, it was simply a matter of finding that body. The soul would find a suitable host; Ami and Rei had clarified that, although the question confused them and Pluto had reluctantly shielded their memories of it being asked, at least until she asked in a thousand years time. Any interference along the flow even during the research period of Crystal Tokyo could further damage or impede events that needed to take place.

But out of five billion people, five billion souls to his one...

It was a job for someone who could work outside and around time.

Pluto stepped through the Gate once more.

-------

The body was startlingly bored. It felt good, better than it had. It decided to read its chart. Jack Argusson. Good name. The residue and the soul were feeding the body selected information, an unconscious selected amnesia. Nothing else registered really, simply taking in the environment and the minds wandering, slowly rebuilding to avoid further damage.

Jack stood up and walked down the corridors, the loose hospital garments pleasing him with the motion of air and cloth against his skin. This body felt tight, as strange as that sounded and didn't feel right.

He stumbled into the bathroom, splashing water from the faucet onto its face. The sensation was pleasurable, and the droplets ran down the skin in an odd way. Jack Argusson looked in the mirror. Dark hair, a very deep brown, and brownish green eyes.

This wasn't good. Something about that wasn't right.

The soul and residue were having trouble. The unconscious soul cursed. It had forgotten about Naydar's will. This stubborn man had caused all sorts of trouble back home, following his heart rather than his head and ending up in all sorts of unsavoury situations. Bull-headed enough to get itself out again, the soul was not taking any risks. It prodded the body away from the tantalizing mirror and its unknown reflection.

The Jack / Naydar hybrid walked into the Recreation Room, which was empty. The clock said three forty five am. Odd, that he wasn't tired, but he'd been asleep for five months so that wasn't very strange. He stepped outside and looked up at the stars. The full moon shone down on him, shining its benediction.

Benediction. Stately and beautiful like a queen. Queen.

The soul and residue lost their grip on the reins and reality crashed down on Jack like a truckload of concrete.

Chapter Three

BACK IN A FASHION

"I feel angry, I feel helpless

Want to change the world

I feel violent, I feel alone

Don't try and change my mind"

Creed - "One" - My Own Prison

-------

One soul and one soul residue, both trying to knit their composite realities together. Shutting down consciousness to build it back up again. The pulse of breath, the black nothingness of dreamless voids.

The nursing staff had found him at six in the morning. Lying on the balcony, his eyelids twitching like he was in a state of deep REM sleep. It was almost a dream, empty as it was. His two identities were attempting to mesh themselves, so their host wouldn't lose his already tentative and benign grip on an alien circumstance.

It was touchy at best. Naydar struggled for control, understanding he was here for a reason but unable to remember what. Naydar understood the basics behind soul transfer. Jack didn't. The leftover soul residue that was Jack, the boy struck by lightening, screamed and gibbered, its incomprehension tangible.

It was a horror. The two parts struggled to maintain a whole, while the stronger occupant, that of Naydar, more complete yet still lacking, helped that of Jack, the leftover core that gripped tenaciously to what it knew was real.

It was a battle of wills. Partial wills, but both with something great and entire at stake forever. Their universe, their individuality.

-------

Setsuna Meioh looked over her handiwork. Most of the remaining rips were simply stitching themselves slowly together, a gentle prod with her powers finishing the job.

The panic was now officially over, but the damage had already been done.

Setsuna stepped through a time portal, her entire being exhausted. Manipulating the time stream in order to repair such damage drained her mind to its limits. The two-fold hidden blessing and curse of her office. Luckily, for the most part, time was resilient and often the banks that it flowed between were strong. Shoring breaks and clearing floods still took time however.

Paradox.

Will. Her will.

She could stop time, level a mountain or tie a second into an endless loop, and possibly many more things. But it all lay on one simple factor. Her will. If she wished it to be so and carried out her will, it could be so, yet lose her faith in herself and her abilities and it was like pushing droplets of water uphill by hand.

She chuckled slightly. It surprised her that Uranus and Mars had not reached this conclusion. The henshin sticks were simply that - wands, pieces of plastic polymers with some latent magical energy. They were merely a focal point, a target for their owner's psychic energy.

The young priestess and the headstrong wind-racer, would have been her choices for figuring it out first. Their will and faith in themselves at least outwardly, surpassed that of the others. However she was proud. The one thing that kept them back for this discovery was a universal tie, that all the Senshi shared - love. Fear of hurting their loved ones, fear of losing them. Advancing above another would cause more guilt in the heart of the successor than animosity in her peers. Usagi advanced, yet love and respect made acceptance possible. That tie, love, was personified in their future Queen.

Their faults made them human.

Setsuna wondered if she was even human anymore. Her emotions had long ago been snuffed by the ravages of time and duty.

Her quiet safehouse, high above the hills of San Francisco, was her own. Safe, from her concerns, duty and from those others, whose love felt alien after so much time alone. No one knew of this house. She came here to be what she was afraid she wasn't any longer. A human female.

As she twisted the taps upon the large bathtub, the steaming water bubbled into the cream depression. Her mind wandered. She only called upon her own henshin wand in essences where she was required to transform in the company of her "co-workers". Often she could transform with just a mental nudge, often she wasn't there until it was time to fix an error or save the day.

Save the day. She laughed bitterly under her breath at that.

The wand was merely a symbol to her now. Of her innocence and how it was lost. Stolen by her loyalty to something that had broken her and made her feel the millennia more that her body showed.

As she dematerialised her fuku and stepped over the rim of the bathtub, sinking gently into the warm water her mind simply wanted peace, no more remembrances.

A single tear crept down her cheek and fell into the tub, lonely and lost amidst the steam and the flow. Just like her.

-------

The clean up had gone well. Makoto had managed to get help in the form of a willing Ami, Rei and Minako and a rather grumpy Usagi. Rei had been itching to make comments all afternoon about Usagi's manner and her unwillingness to clean up, especially considering they were the after-effects of her own mess, but whenever her head raised Makoto glared at her, subtly silencing any angry barrage.

She was content. Things were good. While she refused to take money from her 'customers', most gave her money anyway. She didn't like the idea of her friends paying for her food, when now, as for the past four years she did it for the joy it gave her and the pleasure it gave them.

She had finally found love. Close, as it was the whole time. Ken. It had shocked her at the time, but they had just fallen in love with each other. Simple and uncomplicated. If love could ever be called uncomplicated, she mused, remembering the various ups and downs experienced by Mamoru and Usagi.

The sun was setting. The last of the bags had been filled with any rubbish and the boxes containing her kitchen had been packed. They would head uptown soon, to waft along and do nothing, the perfect end to the perfect weekend.

The crunch of gravel alerted the small gathering of females to the arriving car. It was small, a hatchback, yet somehow the forms of Urawa, Mamoru, Yuuichirou and Ken, managed to get in and out with a minimum of bad language and resetting of limbs.

Hello's were exchanged and greetings were given, as Makoto watched her knight, stride across the grass to embed her in a hug. Yes, life was good. Uncomplicated.

They gathered into a loose circle.

"Okay then," said Makoto, "we will take my things back to my apartment and Mamoru, you're going to pick up the van later, right?" she queried.

"Yeah, and we meet you ladies for a movie at nine and then a late dinner." replied Mamoru. Usagi just burrowed her way into his armpit.

"Right then, me and Urawa will load the van then," said Yuuichirou.

"Sweet," replied Ken, followed by, "then me and Mamoru will start taking down the marquee." Urawa nodded.

"Just as well because HE would probably end up ripping it" barbed Rei, glaring at Yuuichirou.

He just poked his tongue at her. She winked back.

"Alright, may as well, let's do it then!" barked Mamoru. Makoto often wondered if he was practicing for the future. She had asked Usagi about it once, jokingly of course, but Usagi had gone all misty eyed and started ahh-ing and ohh-ing.

Uncomplicated. Yeah right.

-------

The eyes of Jack Argusson flicked open. Everything fit now. No gaps. Much. No all-consuming need to chew furniture. Yep all was set. He was Jack Argusson, coma victim. He was Naydar, Captain of the Outer Guard.

He still needed some time to process the changes however. He was back in time; the inherent memories of Jack's life and his were millennia apart. Close to three if he figured right. This was two thousand or so. History lessons after this point were pretty much null and void; they didn't mean shit. He was here, a time jumper; he would have to be damn careful.

Setsuna had always gone on about this when he was kid. He never paid attention though. Setsuna. This had something to do with her. He knew it. But whatever it was seemed to be skipping about the still darkened corridors of his mind, elusive and ghostly. Time from here on until about two thousand eight hundred was foggy in records at best. Only a handful of people left knew what had really happened, and they wouldn't talk about it. He often thought that was why they called it The Silence

What confused him most was that this wasn't even his fucking body. It was smaller, too tight and felt like a wet jersey; loose in some places but constricting in others, moving about was a new process to be learned. He felt animatronic, feeling but with sensations like he was drugged and muddled.

Why in the hell was he here!

-------

Minako sat quietly nursing her ice-cream sundae. She wasn't surprised at the turn the conversation had taken. It was scientifically proven (at least according to the trashy magazines she read), that gather more than three females together in one place and the subject of men will surface. She just listened. Her friends all seemed happy, and she was glad of it.

She however was not happy. She hated this. Last night she had been optimistic about finding a boyfriend, a companion, yet now she was depressed. Usually it went like that, but today, whether or not it was because she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed, as the metaphor went, it had hit her harder than usual.

Her friends didn't notice but then again, she didn't begrudge them.

She took another spoon of chocolate ice cream. Things would work out.

Optimism and naiveté could very easily be confused.

-------

Ami had noticed however. Very little slipped past Ami. Minako wasn't like this. Not until recently. Ami either pinned it on boy troubles, or school troubles. She could help out with either.

The fact that Minako's usually bubbly exterior had disappeared since college started was a concern. While studies had never been Minako's strong point she accepted her failings with good grace, and tried her best given the situation. Now, it was more of a case of sliding through by the whiskers and not even mentioning it, shrugging off all offers for assistance like a summer breeze.

To interfere was not like Ami, but she would watch her friend anyway. It hurt her to see her friend in some sort of pain that she didn't feel she could be open about.

-------

The alleyway was dark. And it stunk. Bad. Like, well, something really freaking stinky. It wasn't the alleyway that stunk. While the alleyway wasn't mint fresh in itself, it did have its pride. What stunk was the large seven-foot tall grey-skinned youma. This youma, even though he didn't have a name that could be vocalised using a human language, was well known in the Negaverse. He had a hygiene problem.

And for other youma to notice, it had to be bad.

At this time, the youma was digging through trash, looking for something to eat. Nothing in particular, just something. Rancid sprang to its mind, but quickly left the rather disturbing mental processes to their own devices.

A stray dog wandered forlornly into the alleyway, its limp tail almost dragging on the asphalt behind it. The dog sniffed.

The youma sniffed. It's bovine shaped legs stiffened and it's thickly muscled torso turned towards the unsuspecting canine. The bat-like snout wrinkled as the air rasped in and out, tasting the creature that had confronted the youma.

The dog barked in warning.

The monster roared.

High above the industrial district, and across town, the still night air carried the terrified whines and yelps of a stray dog.

Then nothing.

And then the air was like the alleyway, empty.

-------

Setsuna had nearly fallen asleep. In the tub. That would be interesting. Guardian of Time drowns in tub. She snorted derisively. She could help prevent the end of the world, heck even the Universe but she can't help falling asleep in the tub.

She was sitting in a white terry cloth bathrobe, deep in a dark red leather armchair. She sat contemplatively; looking quietly out over the sea of lights that made up night-time San Francisco. All those lights, like souls - able to be snuffed out, as easy as flicking a switch.

Such morbid thoughts.

Setsuna shuddered. A chill ran down her spine. Youma. She hadn't felt it in so long, the sensation surprised her. It wasn't close either; it was some distance away. She never expected to sense one here.

She snapped back. Of course. Her mind had drifted while she watched the city, her mind floating free. Something she had used to isolate the Senshi originally, but which, in quieter times, she really had no daily use for. She decided to try to pinpoint its location using the same method - it was moving and quickly, noises were attracting it. It had the taste of blood on its tongue. She cursed her self-involvement, had she been paying attention rather than felling sorry for herself she would have felt its arrival immediately.

Setsuna hated it. Even the brief psychic contact left her feeling sullied and dirty. That was a problem with being a Senshi, untap the powers and they get stronger and stronger. She had often used the trick when she and Hotaru went "hunting", as she called it, scouring the world for dimensional blemishes and destroying the invaders that snuck through.

Still this perversion had a taste for blood and it was heading towards people, and a lot of them.

Damn.

Setsuna vanished.

-------

Hotaru was quite content. Her homework had been finished by lunchtime on Friday. Her trump card was that she didn't let on how smart she really was. So tonight, Sunday, she simply sat quietly in the spa pool of the "Outer Mansion" and channel surfed through the satellite television.

She clicked the large button on the remote and the television blinked off.

Setsuna had disappeared late yesterday afternoon and hadn't been seen since. While not unusual, Hotaru was ill at ease. Setsuna often disappeared for periods of time, and she could only guess how much time actually passed in those days. Hotaru was glad she hadn't pulled that straw. One with time yet apart from all that moved within it.

That was another query she had wondered about. Saturn, her planet, was the Roman name for the Greek Titan Chronos. Chronos meant Time. Pluto was the Roman name for the Greek God of the Underworld - Hades. She wondered why she was the Senshi Of Silence and Setsuna that of Time. It had confused her ever since she had opened that mythology book back when she was four or some such.

Her mind was drifting. She was thinking about Haruka and Michiru. They had gone to dinner. It was usually at times like this when Setsuna would appear and she and Hotaru would disappear into the time stream for months at a time, Setsuna eventually bringing Hotaru back seconds after they had left.

Everyone had commented on her 'growth spurts'. Setsuna had said that it was because her power was capable of so much, that any lack of focus or control at the wrong time, or a flash of emotion, could rip the fabric of the Universe asunder. Maturity of at least a physical nature was required to harness and reign in the destructive force.

Maybe the hunting and training had been in preparation for whatever occupied Setsuna at present?

So she was quiet. She alone could see through Pluto's harsh exterior, into the lonely places within. Hotaru often shuddered at the pain she had witnessed, not just of this reality but thousand's of others.

Pain and suffering that could make the Gods weep.

Let alone a woman.

Chapter Four

SENSE OF NOT BELONGING

"No proof again

I'll take the myth, you take the blood

It's all the same to the world-dreamer

Its all the same in the end"

Live - "Ghost" - Secret Samadhi

-------

Setsuna Meioh, now Sailor Pluto, appeared upon a rooftop. Looking out over the city, she gently pushed her mind outward, searching for the youma.

There it was.

Damn. It was faster than she had assumed, and more cunning. But as a wise man in Ancient Greece had once told her, "Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups." Or at least, that was the current translation.

Setsuna conjured a portal and jumped into it.

-------

Naydar / Jack had had about enough of this. The food was awful, there wasn't enough of it and he was bored. He needed to do one simple thing. Simple in deciding, but difficult in the execution.

He needed to find Setsuna. Problem was he didn't know where in the world to find her, let alone when. Tokyo was a fairly safe bet for the where, but even then, it was a big city at the beginning of the twenty first century.

He had only been awake for three days and he was already in the process of browbeating the doctors to let him out. They were reluctant due to his collapse on the balcony and his seizures, yet his constant nagging of the staff wasn't making him any friends. Tough shit. He wanted to get out of the damn place and anyway was a good way.

The trouble had really been earlier this afternoon. Jack's parents had shown up. Not that that was bad, Naydar just needed to access Jack's memories. The trouble was simply that Jack was only seventeen years old. Naydar was over two thousand. The outlook of both consciousness' was like black is to white and his, Jack's, parents had left more concerned than when they had arrived.

Naturally they had wanted to look after him. He could understand that but how the hell was he gonna get to Tokyo with an overly concerned family watching him night and day? He couldn't just leave; their hope had been solidified when this body awoke, even if their son no longer lived in it.

-------

The grey skinned monster was nearing a large group of people; it could smell them, the sweet scent of their ripe flesh, pumping with blood and juices. The creature drooled, its dark saliva steaming a sticky trail down its chin.

Meat. Fresh meat. The rich gamey tang of human flesh.

It was lost in its own urges.

It didn't notice the fabric of time warp and melt and the woman with the staff step from the rent she had created. It didn't notice her ready a battle stance and swing the staff at its head.

It sure as hell noticed the contact though.

It screamed in rage and agony, its head bent to one side, the creature spun around on its bestial legs to confront its assailant.

-------

Pluto stepped gently out of the portal. She had scant minutes to act, the creature's intent and strength enough to carry out the base instincts that drove it. It was a low-level youma; capable of the basic thought patterns only, until it evolved. Thought patterns consisting of food, attack, defend and kill.

She shuddered at the thought. Youma evolving off the consumption of their own species was one thing, but evolving off the rich life energies of humans was entirely different.

One thing she was grateful to Beryl for. Her tight reign on the appetites of her minions.

It was unthinkable.

Its thickly muscled back was large and openly available for attack from her position behind the creature. Her best point of contact was on the triangular bone at the base of the neck...

Readying a practiced stance and gripping her Time Staff, Setsuna was battle ready. Inhaling, she swung the Time Staff like a club, catching the beast on the neck and snapping its head over.

The creature roared in an incomprehensible bellow, clearly in pain, its head lolling to one side, the brute's neck partially shattered. Advantage Pluto.

Pluto repositioned the staff in her gloved hand and advanced, striking the monster directly in the stomach with the Garnet Orb as it turned to face her. Recoiling and bending over the creature grabbed the Orb in its claw, attempting to pull Setsuna off balance and into its arms.

Setsuna laughed. The creature looked up at her quizzically over the slowly illuminating orb.

With a mental nudge, Setsuna activated the Garnet Orb, its dark red flames consuming the creatures hand in an instant, reducing its claw and forearm to ash.

Roaring once more, the creature swung its arm in a backhand motion, which Setsuna blocked with a twist of her staff, deflecting the monsters strike and smashing its elbow against the alley wall, with her follow through counter strike.

The youma, now both arms immobilized charged at the Senshi headfirst. Setsuna vaulted over the monster, landing deftly behind it and in a fluid position, spinning in her crouch, she crashed the Staff lengthwise across the back of the monster's knees.

The monster crashed to its face, blood gushing out its flat nose from the impact with concrete, its arms useless and its cattle-like knees inverted. Setsuna slowly rose and advanced once more.

Standing over the youma, its pathetic mewling filling her ears, Setsuna placed the Time Staff, the Garnet Orb, glowing brightly behind the creature's head.

"Dead Scream," she whispered.

Chapter Five

MATERNAL INSTINCT

"Blue masquerade strangers look on

When will they learn this loneliness?

Temptation heat beats like a drum

Deep in your veins I will not"

Gerard McMann - "Cry Little Sister" - The Lost Boys OST Album

-------

Sailor Pluto breathed in deeply, as a gentle breeze scattered pieces of paper and the ashy remnants of the youma, down the alleyway. The greenish grey dust swirled like mini tornadoes as it was dispersed into obscurity.

Pluto relaxed her shoulders, placing the butt of the Time Staff on the ground breaking her combat stance. Mentally extending herself, a small purplish vortex materialized in front of her.

She tensed. She was being watched.

Spinning around and bringing her staff to the ready she positioned herself to fend off the attack.

A dirty-faced little girl was crouched between two garbage cans, the trails of tears marked on her face. Pluto relaxed, her staff disappearing in a seemingly absent minded way.

She knelt down on one knee and extended her hand to the child.

"Come here little one," she asked, placing as much compassion as she could in her voice.

The child looked shell-shocked, she had obviously seen the whole event. The child squirmed from her hiding place and stood up quietly. Pluto's compassion exploded onto her face as she now could fully see the child. Her Senshi eyes, heightened by her powers and her vision saw this girl more clearly than a crystal.

The girl was dressed in rags, hand-me-downs and charity, cut to fit. Her small pink toes peeked from her shoes like small blind creatures afraid of the light. The girl was emaciated, starving. As Pluto saw the child's life spread out before her in a moment of rare clarity, she shuddered at the pain this person would and had experienced. This was no life for a child. Let alone an adult.

Holding out her hand to the girl, she softly beckoned her. The girl was intrigued, she knew the strange lady that had been holding the big key wouldn't hurt her. She took a step forward.

And another.

Pluto looked into the child's face, her skin barely visible behind the layer of dirt.

"What is your name child?" she asked softly, fearing the girl would run.

"Katie," replied the girl in a quiet voice.

"Katie, would you like some food and some new clothes?"

The child had seen this sort of thing before. People would come and offer things and take the people she knew away. Sometimes those people where bad, sometimes they were nice. She was usually scared so she would hide. This time, she felt as though her eyes had been opened.

"Yes please." she replied in that same voice.

"Good girl," replied Pluto, motioning for the child to come to her. Still hesitating slightly the girl climbed into Pluto's arms and rested her head on Pluto's shoulder.

Pluto nudged her portal with a thought and it expanded to allow her passage.

As the portal winked out of existence, a small pearl drop tear that had fallen from Setsuna's eye splashed against the filthy asphalt.

-------

It had been another bad night in his head. There was some sort of argument going on, like a backlash of sorts. He just lay there; his eye's trying to register upon the outside world yet not really making much effort.

He raised his arm. It was stiff and it hurt. He opened his mouth and an "aaahhgc" was all that came out.

His eyes slowly opened to see a blurry conglomeration of whites and blues and those other pastel type colours that look hideous when thrown together.

A voice tried to break through his befuddled state of mind.

"Mr. Argusson are you awake?"

Jack just waved his hand limply in the direction the voice came from.

"We had to sedate you Mr. Argusson. During the night you were screaming and yelling."

Oh, well that explained it then.

-------

She stood, staring out into the night from the top of Tokyo Tower. While her mood was sombre, it amused her that they kept rebuilding the structure constantly, even after it's being levelled so often. A beckon of normality in a constantly changing world perhaps, something solid to say everything is all right.

She had lived centuries, millennia, forward and backward and once or twice sideways, and still the world was a harsh and cold place. She had witnessed many atrocities first hand. Most were etched on her mind like glyphs on stone. The concentration camps in Nazi Germany, the slaughter of innocent Native American woman and children during the Civil War in America, the sacrifice of infants to the fire god Baal and the blind hatred committed under the false banner of religious fervour during the Crusades.

She had seen so much pain and suffering. And always the same ones were those made to suffer. The innocent, the pure, the weak.

Her skirt fluttered across her thighs almost cracking in the biting wind.

She had seen enough pain. It now seemed to define her.

-------

As the sun rose quietly over the Juuban district, the light slid unobtrusively through the curtains and across the face of the young woman. She wrinkled her noise and made to roll over. Finding resistance, she lifted her arm and swatted at the obstacle. It gave.

It also swore.

The obstacle moved and noise could be heard as it wandered off in the opposite direction. The girl rolled over fully her face now out of the sun and began to snore.

This snoring was rather like music to the young man's ears.

As he looked in the mirror and his slightly red nose, Chiba Mamoru turned on the tap, letting semi warm water gurgle down the plughole. Splashing some on his face he rubbed his eyes and turned the tap off. Leaning back and stretching he yawned deeply. He would definitely make sure they had a super king-size bed at the Palace. His ribs hurt.

Looking around he noticed that he wasn't wearing any clothes. Grinning to himself he stepped into the shower and turned it on.

He smiled to himself as he soaped his chest. Things had indeed worked out. He was happy, Usagi was happy. He was pretty sure the other Senshi were happy as well, although he wasn't sure about Minako and Setsuna. Although being sure about anything involving Setsuna would require a degree in quantum physics and abnormal psychology.

He had been through so much to be with his rabbit. He had died, a couple of times, but those memories were sketchy at best (thankfully). He had been through personal doubts, tragedies, dreams from the future and any other number of cosmic interferences.

Yet, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

Meanwhile the girl with flailing arms was awake. The caterwauling from the bathroom wasn't exactly conductive to sleep.

She smiled. They had been through so much and now they were able to finally just be there for each other body, mind and soul. It had been hard, so very hard at some stages. Yet they had a direction, a destiny mapped and chartered. It didn't bother her however. While Ami wasn't really keen on the destiny idea, Tsukino Usagi didn't mind. It helped actually, almost like a TV schedule. She had all the time before the show started to do other things. Admittedly the show didn't start for nearly one thousand years, so she had plenty of time. She had a man she loved, and who loved her back, she had a wonderful family, both of the blood and of the heart.

Yep. Time.

Minutes later she was snoring.

-------

The gentle rays of the early morning sun fell across the cobbles that paved the courtyard in the front of the Hikawa Shrine. Rei stood on the decking around the residence with her trusty broom in her hand. She had no classes today yet watching the sunrise over her home had become a habit that had become almost as normal as breathing.

A pair of warm hands wrapped around her waist and a roughly shaven chin rested on her shoulder.

She sighed. Half content, half exasperation. She was happy but deep down she could feel it.

A storm was coming.

-------

Makoto shut the door to her oven with her backside and wiped her forehead with her forearm, deftly balancing the tray of biscuit-like morsels, which she then put down on the counter top. She had been up for a couple of hours now, cooking and baking these little biscuit things for some sort of corporate party or some such at the company Usagi's father worked for.

Makoto was placing some more of the morsels on a tray when she heard the door open and shut.

"Mako-chan!?" Ken walked into the kitchen carrying a tray with two coffee cups on it. She leaned over and he kissed her on the cheek as he placed the tray down out of the way.

As Makoto pushed the tray into the oven and stood up Ken grabbed her around the waist, squeezing her in a tight hug.

"So what plans for today my darling?" he asked.

-------

The day was slightly further along when Ryou Urawa brought the large continental style breakfast into the kitchen and placed a plate in front of his girlfriend Mizuno Ami. The large plate of sausages and eggs, with a side of toast seemingly went unnoticed from behind the large medical text.

The book slowly closed as Ami finished her page. She grinned at Urawa and began to eat her breakfast. He watched her eating, smiling at her. There was a time when she would only eat due to necessity, yet under the tutelage of Usagi and Minako, she was now cutting loose and having fun more often. Study wasn't her entire life now; just a big part of it.

Urawa was unsure as to whether this was a good thing or not.

He grinned and began to eat his own breakfast.

-------

Mamoru entered the bedroom, a tray of toast and coffee in his arms. Usagi had woken up again and was sitting up rubbing her eyes. Mamoru placed the table tray across her lap, and as she smiled at him, he flicked his wrist. In a burst of petals, a red rose was in his hand.

Usagi looked at the rose, squealed and pulled him into a hug. The rose was heart shaped, it petal's providing the curves.

Mamoru climbed onto the bed next to her and they drank their coffee.

"Usako," he asked, "are you happy?"

She wrinkled her nose as if the question was confusing.

"Of course Mamo-chan. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just a little worried I guess, everything and everybody seem to have landed on their feet, everybody is settling down and finding their path, but somehow it just seems like, I dunno, I can't help but feel like things are going to go flying out the window. Everytime we all get settled, something blows it all apart."

Usagi smiled at him, taking his roughly shaven chin in her hands. She kissed him gently on the lips. "Don't worry Mamo-chan."

She got out of bed, her pink bunny pyjamas almost a seductive sight and went towards the bathroom.

Mamoru lay back resting his head against the backboard of his bed.

"I wish I could believe you love," he said under his breath "but somehow I can't."

Lying back, Mamoru couldn't really explain why he felt this way. A mix of experience, gut feeling and paranoia had been over him since the night of Usagi's birthday. A niggling feeling at the base of his skull. He didn't want to worry her, but the sensation had become almost a constant in his waking hours. Setsuna's hasty exit had sparked whatever fear had lay hidden for nearly a year, and now, the demon wanted to be fed.

He would drop in and see Rei later.

The doorbell rang. Standing up and scratching his chin, Mamoru picked up a shirt and began to pull it on as he walked towards the front door.

Buttoning the shirt up he opened the door. The face that greeted him with a big smile belonged to Minako. She smiled, slapped his cheek playfully and entered.

"Morning Mamoru, where's Usagi-chan?"

"Eh shower, Mina. You want a coffee?"

"Sure" she said.

Mamoru filled the jug and grabbed a cup out of the cupboard. "You seem chirpy this morning? I'm glad," he said as he placed coffee and sugar in the cup.

"Why's that?"

"Well I have been worried about you lately. You just seemed to not be yourself."

Her face fell quickly but as his back was to her, he didn't see. She struggled to pull on a smile and said "No problems here."

He turned and handed her the coffee; she grinned and flashed him her trademark V sign.

He grinned and left to hurry Usagi up.

Minako sat down as her face fell. She held her head in her hands. She was so lonely. She didn't want to say anything to her friends to ruin their happiness. She knew she was being selfish but she couldn't help it. Surely she had a right to be loved?

She straightened her face when she heard Usagi giggle. Usagi came into the room, smiling brightly, she grabbed her purse and ran past Minako grabbing her hand on the way, saying "Bye Mamo-chan" at the top of her voice. Mamoru grinned wearily as Minako waved at him as the door closed behind them.

Mamoru sat down on the couch and pulled his dog-eared copy of 'Interview with the Vampire' from between the seat cushions. Studying could wait. He sat bolt upright and shook his head. What was he saying? He looked over at the photograph of her on his coffee table.

"This is your fault," he said to the photo.

It didn't answer.

-------

The large mansion was quiet. The three occupants were all in the process of consuming breakfast. Haruka was reading a newspaper while Michiru poured fresh coffee for herself, Haruka and Hotaru.

Michiru broke the silence as she asked, "Has either of you seen Setsuna in the last few days?"

"Not since she left Usagi's the other night," mumbled Haruka from behind the newspaper.

"I'm worried," said Hotaru, "I have a bad feeling."

"You aren't the only one Hotaru-chan," said Haruka "things just seem to be too quiet."

"You and Makoto are just itching for a fight."

"Keeps me out of trouble." Haruka said as she lowered the newspaper, winking at the sea green-haired beauty next to her.

Michiru blushed.

Hotaru looked at them and dryly muttered "Don't mind me, I just live here."

Haruka guffawed dryly, and looked at their ward. "So Hotaru-chan, what plans for today?"

"School." she said indicating the uniform she was wearing.

A loud pop was heard, followed closely by a "No, not really."

Three heads turned to see the newcomer, their previously absent companion, comrade and landlord.

"Coffee, Pluto?" asked Michiru, seemingly unfazed by her sudden appearance, asked.

"You look like shit." Haruka stated matter-of-factly.

The fuku of Pluto dissolved in a miasma of colour and Setsuna Meioh stood there, dressed simply in jeans and shirt.

She sat in the empty seat and raised her eyebrows at the short-cropped blonde and the long aquamarine tressed girl. "Dressing gowns, my fashion has changed such in the last three days?"

"Touché" replied Hotaru grinning around her toast.

Setsuna sipped on her coffee and looked over the edge of her cup at her friends. She didn't like this. Everything had settled down and now...

"I will be calling a Senshi Meeting today. In two hours."

Haruka looked at her sideways, "Sounds like fun."

"Not really," said Setsuna, draining her cup and standing up. She placed the cup down and walked towards the far end of the house.

"No school?" asked Hotaru.

"No school." replied Michiru.

-------

"So essentially, you fought a youma. A mindless youma." stated Mamoru.

"Yes, if you take mindless to mean rampant killing and eating machine."

"And the reason why this is worthy of a meeting, asides the fact it is the first resurgence of youma outside Tokyo, or any trans-dimensional nastiness for that matter outside its confines - since Galaxia anyway, is?"

All the Senshi had at some stage in the last year confronted youma within the Tokyo area, the original nexus of the Negaverse - Terran influence. Hotaru remained quiet, herself and Setsuna alone were aware that the destruction of the Beryl - Metallia entity had opened various random gateways across the planet, not least at D-Point. The encounters with the Dead Moon and Black Moon Family were merely put down to refugees before the closing of the anomaly at D-Point, albeit incorrectly.

"Same as why you left Usagi's early, right?" questioned Haruka.

"Quite. A temporal flux."

"You didn't mention anything to me about it?" said Usagi, sounding somewhat hurt.

"It was your birthday, Princess, I didn't wish to disturb you" replied Setsuna.

"That's beside the point Usagi, what are we going to do about it?" queried Rei.

"Simple. You do not worry. I shall retire to the Gate and look over the streams in more detail, in order to determine the nearest flux and its origin. Then I shall deal with it."

"I'm all for sharing information that may be critical to the safety of the general populace but why inform us when you could easily neutralize such a threat."

"I wish it were that simple Ami, but it is not. This anomaly caused a tear in the fabric of reality. While I managed to stitch the majority of the wounds, reality exists in a balance and whatever came through or may come through will imbalance any events and reality itself. This imbalance weakens dimensional walls. That and the flow of time has been impeded."

Ami's mouth fell open quickly followed by those of Mamoru, Haruka and Michiru.

Rei stuttered but managed to force out "The flow of time is impeded?"

"Correct Mars," replied Pluto, "Whatever has, did or will come through is causing time to stagnate, and unless it can be prevented or aborted, time will not be able to flow along its designated course. Our holiday appears to be over."

Setsuna added silently to herself, "And it's my fault."

It stung her and tasted bad in her mouth but it was true, too many secrets, not wanting to risk the future and forewarn those involved directly of events concerned had turned and bitten her squarely in the face. Better to attempt to fix her mistakes and pretend they never happened, as some may not, or at least do what she could and then get the help needed.

Her mouth was dry. Foolish, proud woman that she was.

Chapter Six

ROOK'S MOVEMENT

"I hate to talk like this

I hate to act as if, there's something wrong that I can't say

I have this dream at night, almost every night

I've been dreaming it forever, its easy to remember it

It's always cold, it's always day, you're always here, you always say

I'm alright, I'll be okay, if I can keep myself awake"

Black Lab - "Keep Myself Awake" - Buffy The Vampire Slayer OST Album

-------

Setsuna had left to do whatever it was she did at the Time Gate. As the day was half gone, and they were all there, discussion had turned to the news she had left in her wake.

The Senshi broke into smaller groups to deal with his information in ways that suited them. Haruka and Makoto had excused themselves and headed towards the dojo. The sounds of their exertions could be heard across the temple grounds where the remaining Senshi and their guardians rested underneath the shade of a cherry tree. Before Setsuna had left they had mulled over all the facts and discussed them all in detail. It was futile and they knew it. But having something to occupy their minds would detract from the inevitable thought that would strike them all.

It is starting again.

All sat in quiet. Words were unnecessary. This might be the last social get together they had for some time without the spectre of duty over their heads.

In time, this small gathering broke up also. Individuals dispersed over the grounds of the Hikawa Shrine. Change was coming.

--------

Quiet contemplation aside, and forgotten, Minako sat across the temple grounds from her friends, perched in the limb of a large cherry tree. She had trouble explaining it.

Every time she had found love or a companion, she had her heart ripped from her chest and thrown bloody to the ground. Ace (etcetera, etcetera) was the first of many, small interests and various dates throughout the last few years, all to end in either her being called away due to 'personal things' or them falling for someone else or whatever the hell excuse was the pick of the day.

So then she just gave up, and gave that up and gave up giving up in favour of giving up.

It still hurt. She felt like she could offer someone out there so much, for just a chance for the both of them to be happy. Senshi of Love? Ha!

She moved along the branch until she reached the trunk and the extra support that it provided. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged her arms around them. She began to cry.

Artemis looked on from another tree. He had thought something was wrong, and when he had confronted her she had denied it, yet the white moon cat knew his charge. As much as he wanted to go to her and comfort her, he could see she needed her space.

Maybe Luna would know what to do.

-------

Ami Mizuno sat quietly her hands darting over the keyboard of her small computer. She had been very busy the last few minutes, collating data in megabytes, running automated scenarios and generally trying to get a handle on things. All data from previous encounters had been compiled and analysed to the n-th degree. There were only two constant factors that sprang up over the course of the Senshi's exploits. The first, being that the enemies absorbed soul energy in its varying forms whether it be star seeds, pure hearts, soul energy or life force. The second was the fact that these enemies always seemed to do one thing besides the stealing of said energy. They always got stronger. Beryl had been tough, the Black Moon tougher, Galaxia the worst. If the graphs that had been made to indicate varying factors were correct, they were likely to be in trouble.

Aside from that, Ami had patched into the global positioning satellite system. Apart from being able to locate anything, anywhere on the planet, various factions had conspired to place 'other capabilities' aboard the satellites. These 'other capabilities' were not entirely above board, yet they provided some interesting resources to the Senshi of Ice. Such as the recording functions that recording the electromagnetic spectrum surrounding the planet. This was to monitor unsanctioned thermo-nuclear activity.

Early on in her career as Sailor Mercury, Ami had made a discovery that oftimes enabled them to stay one step ahead or at least on level footing with their enemies. Magic and nega-energy were viable, and as such produced a reaction in their environment whether it be heat, light or other spectromic reaction. By this simple premise they could be read off the electromagnetic spectrum or a magical derivative. Which was what Ami had done, however with the inception of the satellite only several months ago, the technology had not been available to them when they could have used it most for collation and determining future points of conflict.

A tracer program, compressed to the size of a small text file and floating the ether of cyberspace like a parasitic cyst maintained an interval contact with the satellites, in order to prevent the discovery of the technology from those in power. Uploading the log file, Ami was able to determine more recent energy spikes around San Francisco, along with Setsuna's magical energy signature, which was obviously the fight she mentioned. There was also another spike, the like of which she had never seen, strong and bold yet often faded and weak. It existed in a state of flux. And it wasn't nega-energy either. This added to the already growing equation.

Her mind wandering, Ami pondered the use of 'whatever' as valid scientific terminology.

Another interesting fact that at present Ami chose to ignore for the greater cause before them was that globally, nega-energy signatures were not just confined to Tokyo.

The scope here was beyond what Setsuna had claimed. Something monumental was happening. But why the secrecy? She would confront Setsuna at a later date. The Oldest Senshi should have known that, by now, she could trust and confide in those around her. She hadn't, so in all likelihood, she must have had a good reason. Ami wasn't usually one to deal in likelihood's, she preferred fact.

-------

Rei Hino sat before the Great Fire, her eyes closed yet seeing more than they could comprehend. The Fire however, was holding its secrets close. She continued to push her mind into the depths of the holy flames.

Behind her, quietly stood Yuuichirou Kumada. He was new to his role of priest, but with Rei he could tell. Something was amiss, and with the other girls here, it confirmed his suspicions. There would be nothing he could do, except love her. But that would happen anyway.

-------

The thuds of blows landed against the punching bag and the soft padded slapping of feet against the mats shimmered through the air like the heat coming from the bodies of the two young women.

Makoto and Haruka were taking turns compacting the stuffing of the said punching bag by alternately kicking the lower portions and punching the higher ones. Not one of the pair had spoken in the entire time they had been here, in the spacious low beamed training room.

Makoto let out a harsh grunt as she performed a flying spin kick to the top of the bag. A crack was heard as the chain connecting it to the floor pulled at the boards.

"Nice" said Haruka, generally meaning it. When they had first met, Makoto had been somewhat infatuated with the statuesque blonde, believing her to be, as was often the case, male. After they had mutually became aware of the others dual identity, they had become rivals. Now they were friends and sparring partners, each pushing the other to new feats of strength and endurance in the varying fields of combat.

"Thank you," huffed Makoto between breaths.

Haruka walked off towards the benches that ran down the sides of the gymnasium and taking a bottle of water, pitched it underarm to Makoto. She caught it and nodded her appreciation at the blonde.

"Looks like we get to have some fun after all, huh," said Makoto, after she had drained half her water.

"If you have an itch, I would be more than happy to scratch it for you," grinned Haruka, continuing a long-standing game. Over the past year, with no new enemies to beat on, they began baiting each other.

"You do and I'll tell on you," replied Makoto, doing a fairly good impersonation of Usagi, by poking out her tongue.

They both laughed. It was forced however. They both knew danger lay ahead. How much was anyone's guess.

Haruka pondered that anyone's guess didn't likely include Setsuna.

-------

Michiru sat in the shade beside the gymnasium. She found the sound of these workouts to be relaxing. She knew her lover needed to work out her frustrations by hitting something and Makoto was the best partner for that sort of activity. However, she, Michiru Kaioh, needed to be near Haruka. Even out of sight like she was now, was comforting enough.

The thudding stopped. She stood quietly and walked toward the closed screens that the two combatants would exit from.

As she walked quietly she could hear their conversation. She stopped in front of the door. Their laughter had died off, uncomfortably.

Then the screen slid open and Michiru, her foot tapping, greeted Haruka with a chill look.

"Misbehaving, are we?" she asked innocently.

Haruka blanched and lowered her head. Michiru winked at Makoto who began to laugh anew.

-------

Hotaru sat quietly, her slim shoulder resting against the tall thin structure that housed a small bird coup. She sighed. She had dreaded this moment for over a year. A new enemy and with it, her qualms and misgivings. She loved her friends, more her family now, yet she would always worry. Would they be able to tackle this new threat, avert any global calamities that may be thrown at them, withstand the mind games that the enemies would often use? If not, then she would have to step up to the plate and go into bat. And if she was required to bat, existence would be negated, reality unwoven like a cheap scarf.

She shuddered. It scared her to think that she could destroy the world. But she would. If her friends, her loved ones, where to be killed; or the world faced the prospect of eternal slavery under the yoke of some cruel oppressor, she would not falter.

She would destroy the world.

Tears ran down her cheeks.

-------

Usagi and Mamoru remained under the cherry tree, her head resting against his shoulder. They drew comfort from the proximity of the other, their thoughts seeming the echo the others.

Usagi was concerned. Her friends, they would die for her. She, in turn would die for them. They wouldn't let her do that. She knew what she had to do in the future, but at what cost. The lives of her friends, her lover, countless innocents.

This time there would be no quarter. She could not face the prospect of needless death, the though of it occurring made her feel ill, soiled. She would save them all. In any way possible.

Mamoru ran a finger gently down the side of her face. "No Usako, you won't".

She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes.

"You won't risk yourself, Usako, there is no way on Earth, or anywhere else, that I, or the Senshi, will let you risk yourself for us."

"But," she began.

"No buts' my darling. Or any other word that could carry on that sentence. You will survive, we all will. We have too for the sake of the future. For the sake of Chibi-Usa."

He hadn't wanted to say that. He hated himself for it. But he had seen that resolve in her eyes before. Twice. Once at the North Pole through a haze of delusion and pain; once in the presence of Galaxia; beyond the veil of finality. Willing to trade her life for theirs. That look scared him more that death itself.

He reached his arms out and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Listen, Usako. I am scared. Terrified, that I may lose you. I won't let that happen. No way, no how. And if you do leave me, by all the gods, I will follow and fight them all, to bring you back."

Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked into her deep blue orbs. He pulled her into a loose embrace and cupped her chin with his hand.

"I will never lose you again, not ever."

He kissed her.

He wasn't lying either. He was terrified. He wanted to scream at the world for the injustice that it had just dealt him and his friends.

Terrified he would lose her again. Terrified he would be too late, terrified that she would have to save him again like she had in the past. Now it wasn't his pride that suffered, it was the prospect of an eternity without her in his arms. And in that thought, an idea was born.

-------

As the mid-afternoon came, the Senshi had said their goodbyes and moved off to complete their day elsewhere. Haruka and Michiru, along with their ward, Hotaru, disappeared down the road, under a cloud of dust, Haruka's yellow sports car disregarding the speed limit.

Mamoru with both cats in tow had left for his apartment. This had Usagi worried. He had a look of resolve that she rarely saw on his face. He was intent on something. She mentioned to Luna that she was worried, and her guardian assured her she would keep her eyes on him. Mamoru kissed Usagi goodbye and said that he would see her for dinner that evening.

The Inner Senshi all stood atop the steps of the Hikawa Shrine looking down on their departing friends.

Minako, again pushing her pain down deep within herself, smiled and said "Anybody for ice cream?"

The group then, upon unanimous, albeit unspoken decision, headed towards the Crown Arcade.

-------

"Rei." The name was said out of nowhere.

"Yes?" she said, turning to see a startled blonde man stop in mid-stride. Makoto placed her hand on Usagi's shoulder, to slow her down. Ami and Minako had also stopped to look at the man Rei had started to speak too.

"Pardon?" said the man, obviously thinking of something else entirely from the confused look on his face.

"You said my name," Rei almost snapped, "what do you want?"

"Rei!" hissed Makoto.

"Oh, I am so sorry," said the man, his face becoming puzzled as he struggled with the language, "Sorry, I was just thinking about a friend back home."

"Where are you from?" asked Minako, interested and intrigued by this stranger.

"New Zealand" he replied.

"You certainly are a long way from home." commented Ami.

"That I am." said the foreigner, as he turned and began to walk away.

The girls stood there looking at the departing man's back. Finally Makoto grinned, thinking of a way to alleviate the sombre mood Setsuna's news had brought with it, "You know, he looks a lot like my ex-boyfriend."

If the blonde heavyset man had heard he kept walking slowly and intently, as if he hadn't. His mind was occupied by something else. Ami just frowned.

-------

The Time Gate stood in majestic glory, its high gilded arch towering above the eddying billows of mist. The Gate opened, its massive doors moving without even the pretence of sound. The dark clad Sailor Senshi, Sailor Pluto, stepped from under the arch and the doors swung shut behind her, the only evidence of their motion a few stray wisps of mist.

Sailor Pluto turned towards a spot where the mist was somewhat thicker and the damp clouds swallowed her whole.

-------

Jack wasn't dealing. Not really anyway. On the outside it was cool. Inside however it was different, nightmares invading his mind during any sleep that crept over him. While Jack hadn't noticed this fracturing, he noticed the disturbed sleep. Naydar sat in quiet contemplation of his body. Jack knew he was there, just as Naydar knew Jack was there, yet while Naydar had accepted Jack and all that was his residue, Jack couldn't grasp the myriad of possibilities that Naydar's presence and full awakening to his situation had created. The original agreement was in hindsight, premature.

Sweat soaked and disturbed, he tossed and turned in his sleep.

Acceptance was needed.

-------

Setsuna sat in her tower. It was squat, heavy-bricked affair, with several layers. The bottom layer being a basement of sorts with racks of wine and brandy, aged for centuries as well as casks of gold and jewels (for emergencies). The middle floors contained tomes of knowledge lost to the world for ages, ancient manuscripts from Babylon and Alexandria. The top floor was the living quarters, small and immaculate, as well as being home. Setsuna sat there now in a deep overstuffed armchair, a cup of tea on her lap.

She could relax here, one of the few places she could.

Finishing her tea, Setsuna straightened her sweatpants and thick jersey and moved towards the double doors the stood in a small alcove. As the doors opened at her mental command, she couldn't help but wonder when she would be able to relax next. She was not sure how her folly had occurred and what had prompted it, but finding the 'spike' would get her halfway there. She had the origin in time of the 'spike' and his identity, but lost in the haze of a soul transfer, he would be difficult to find.

The other half would be finding out the cause, her reason for doing to him what she had, and the discovery she had shifted around her head and neglected to tell the others. That there was magic other than hers involved. Temporal magic.

She may have been The Guardian of Time but even she could only do and know so much. That pained her beyond measure on occasion. Her compatriots thought her to be infallible on the majority. The only one who truly understood her was young Hotaru.

Shaking the unwelcome thought's from her already cluttered mind she stood out onto the protruding ledge of stone, the concealing door having rolled back at her presence.

Making a sweeping motion with her hands the mists below her parted to reveal a gap. This gap was a hole in reality, different to any others in existence. This gap was a juncture of possibilities, a record of events in time and space across all time and space. With training and meditation the eye could follow a path along a set route weaving in and out of dimensions and fractured eventualities.

Setsuna Meioh stared into the rippling depths of this colourless gap.

With practiced ease she focused on the time streams and isolated the origins of the more prominent 'spikes'.

A young man on a skateboard wearing a red jacket and with an electric guitar across his back. The jacket was not from this timeline, its spike originating further forward than the boy. Another, a white haired early thirty something man with a star shaped tattoo on this eye. This man had been through the streams on numerous occasions. Setsuna scanned deeper. His bio-signature indicated he was human yet somewhat more. And yet another early thirty something man, scarred and battered with a haunted look in his eye. This one was strange; he had an ancient gauntlet on his fist. He was also somewhat more than human, heightened and alert. She pushed deeper, the images alien, rubbings from other realities let in by the rift.

The last spike was a young man, brown haired. He was asleep, yet troubled. She could see the sweat on his brow and chest as he writhed under some night-time torment. The torch of a nurse flashed over his face and moved off.

Setsuna pushed her mind further, all possibilities melting away as she sifted away the unwanted realities and timelines. The dark haired boy in the hospital was the ticket, the only remaining solid in the dispersing realities about him.

It was time to pay him a visit.

-------

Jack lay there, rationalising his new memories and emotions. How could he possibly acknowledge an existence in which he was semi-immortal, exposed to horrors and joys he had not yet known and could not possibly comprehend?

How?

Deep in his essence a deal had been made. Another one, which hopefully would be more successful than the first. The nightmares and horrors had ceased. A ploy if you will, was in process. Naydar knew his history. Jack could not comprehend the massive influx of knowledge concerning the future and the advances made, and with that he discounted the life experiences of another individual with his own logic and ideals.

So the game was initiated. A fine game of chess played deep within the bowels of his mind. Jack needed to awaken to these things on his own. So Naydar sat and waited. Backseat driving to what he knew would occur. Some trigger, some stress that would allow him to reach for the wheel. He waited and watched the scenery blur by.

He just needed to bide his time and wait for the irrefutable proof that he indeed was.

-------

She stepped out of the portal. The rooftop was chill in the pre-dawn light, a waning moon glimmering overhead. She turned, her heels clacking softly against the tar. The door into the building stood before her.

Lifting the Time Staff, she placed the Garnet Orb against the lock. Satisfyingly it gave a barely audible click. She smiled, grateful her staff was resemblant of a giant key.

She entered the stairwell and descended into the gloom as the door swung closed silently behind her.

-------

The fabric of reality rippled. To the casual observer it would appear that a pebble had been dropped into a wall. A wall which, somehow, had suddenly become liquid.

Like gelatinous ooze it parted, allowing a grey scaled claw to reach through. The claw flexed making a fist. This fist was followed by an arm, then a head, smatterings of the gooey wall coating them like amniotic fluid.

Now free, the creature stood, the gunk pooling on the clean floor tiles and creeping like quicksilver back to its original home.

The single creature was joined by another larger monstrosity. Both creatures were grey skinned sexless beings; their epidermal layer stretched taunt over their frames. The overall effect of tight skin over sinewy bodies, with their sunken eyes and skull-like nostrils was that of an animated cadaver.

The first beast stood apelike, its powerful shoulders pulling its body forward, its massive knuckles resting on the ground. The second beast stood nigh on seven feet tall, its sinewy and compactly muscled frame belying its colossal strength. A pair of fibrous batlike wings extended to their full ten-foot range, taking the place of arms.

The ape creature sniffed, the entirety of the skin on its head wrinkling as its nose worked. Its head turned with catlike acuity towards the left. The creature slowly loped off in that direction.

Aloof and distant the tall creature wrapped its membranous wings around it like a cloak, and impatiently followed the first.

-------

Two sets of eyes snapped aware. One set drawn from sleep, albeit fitful, the other set greeting this revelation with a smirk.

-------

Deep within the wall across the dimensional rift lay a cavernous under-realm. Twisting and turning through caverns and tunnels a large hall is reached. Against the far wall upon a dais there is a throne deep in preternatural shadow.

This throne was a grandiose work of abomination. Skulls adorned every inch of this seat, ranging from large youma-beasts to smaller birdlike animals. Almost every species on this world, extinct and alive was represented.

This throne was occupied. A lanky figure, its leg resting over an arm rakishly stared off across the hall. Its greasy black hair hung limp, plastered over its pasty white face. Its red eyes glimmered, the white irises seeming to scream of damnation. The figure smirked in response to some unseen stimulus, its yellowed teeth showing, prominent canines glinting in the half-light.

Had his hunters found their prey?

-------

The night-time halls of the hospital were dim, with glaring pools of light at specific points for nurses and on-duty staff to navigate by. The two creatures navigated by the olfaction of the apelike one. Echoed squeaks of rubber soled shoes reverberated through the moonlit halls.

-------

He lay there, wide-awake. He could sense their presence. Youma. Damnit. He shifted his legs to the side and sat up. Moving slowly so as not to creak the bedsprings, he stood. His body was stiff. Cursing the lack of exercise and the fact that he was in a hospital with over five months of inactivity both mentally and physically, he moved slowly out into the hallway. The fact he wasn't used to the body didn't help matters. Jack wanted to sleep, which didn't help either.

The lone nurses' station at the far end of the hall provided a yellow spot of illumination in the silver that the moon cast into the night-time halls. The moon.

Jack shook his head, images jumping through his mind. He moved silently across the hall into the bathroom across the way, leaving its sliding door open. He leaned up against the wall, took a deep breath and waited.

Jack was confused by this, his body tired and wanting sleep, but the more prominent host knew what was coming and sleep would have to wait, as would explanation to his co-pilot.

The opening play in the next game was about to begin.

-------

The dark fuku-clad form of Sailor Pluto, tensed, her back against the wall. The stairwell was dark and silent. However the flapping of leathery feet could be heard, almost silent in the night stillness.

A shadow passed the door that led off the stairwell into the main corridors and byways of the hospital. Another followed. This second shadow stopped. It seemed to shrug its shoulders as it moved off again.

She breathed out silently, unconscious until then that she had been holding her breath. She opened the door silently and slipped into the hallway. The tall form turned a corner. She followed them in earnest.

-------

The emaciated figure had straightened up on his throne and was smiling evilly with anticipation, its yellow teeth seeming to give a phosphorescent glow. The far wall that demanded his attention was like a black waterfall, oily and dark, with the occasional rainbow flash playing across its surface. With his sight, he saw beneath the inky murk and into the scene unfolding in the reality opposite.

His two youma had nearly reached their destination. The figure pushed its greasy black hair out of its red eyes and stood, his white stained uniform uncreasing as he looked on, his evil smirk stretching further across his pale bone white face.

-------

He stood there, his back against the wall, breathing ragged. He could sense them, so close; so close he could smell the evil coming off them like cheap perfume. He cursed silently and turned his head quickly to look into the hallway. Two demonic creatures stood there, one apelike, hunched on its knuckles, the other like a giant skeletal man-bat.

Jack gibbered. Naydar cursed.

Jack wasn't coping at all well with this. Naydar, metaphorically speaking, straightened up in the back seat as Jack lost his grip on reality and the wheel of his consciousness.

"I'm dreaming! I wanna wake the hell up!"

"No, this is real! My real!"

Naydar grabbed the wheel. Now, this was the time to fully get the acceptance from Jack that he needed.

Naydar took a deep breath.

In the hall the youma, looked into the small hospital room. The messed up sheets and the faint dampness of sweat could still be seen on the sheets. The ape monster jumped onto the bed, it creaked ominously.

And the beam of a flashlight played across the linoleum of the floor.

"Mr. Argusson? Is that you? Are you alright?" asked the young nurse as she stepped around the corner, having just checked the other side of the ward. Her flashlight flickered across the face of the tall bat beast, which spread its wings to their full span and hissed at her, a snakelike tongue flittering across its lips. The ape beast jumped out of the room landing before its counterpart.

The nurse screamed, the torch hitting the floor and with a crack the battery casing smashed open.

Naydar, now fully in control, made his left hand into a fist and placed it in his right palm, across the front of his body, almost as if in supplication.

The breath whispered across his lips, the fluttering mantra "Change, please change," barely audible.

The nurse had fallen to the ground; her knees brought up in front of her, almost to protect her from the ape monster that slowly lumbered towards her.

Naydar stood, as his hospital pyjamas (too small and drafty for his tastes) dissolved in a mesh of static and shadow, slowly revealing dark calf high boots, with black baggy trousers tucked into the tops. His white shirt was tucked into a large blue cummerbund type thing, which covered the top of his trousers as well as the tails of his shirt. Blue fingerless fighting gloves, adorned his hands, ending halfway up his forearms. A blue bandana, unremarkable in its simplicity sat around his neck.

He looked down at himself and grimaced. "I'm a pirate again, just fucking great," he mumbled. Slowly he caressed the cloth about his neck and leapt out into the hall.

The ape youma was still advancing on the woman when Naydar kicked it in the head sending it into the wall. The winged beast opened its jaws, the snake tongue flicking at an amazing speed, tasting Naydar's strength. Naydar looked down at the nurse, confusion, fear and the urge to run written over her pale and tear streaked face.

"Run" he yelled at her as the winged youma tackled him.

Pinned against the wall by the fibrous wings of the beast, Naydar watched over its shoulder as the nurse fled down the hall. Her being gone allowed him more room to manoeuvre. He swung his head sharply to the side taking the beasts jaw with a sidelong blow. The monster steeped back, its jaw limply hanging as its reptilian tongue darted back and forth, accessing the damage.

Naydar leaned up against the wall, shaking his head to clear the fog. "Mental note," he said, "don't do that again unless wearing big damn helmet."

The ape beast recovered from its kick to the head, lunged at Naydar, who met it in mid air with a knee to the jaw, as his gloved hands sought purchase on its leathery skin. The winged one attacked, blindsiding him and sending all three of them through the already weakened wall.

Naydar rolled out of the tangle of limbs and grabbed a wing. Pushing his arm around one and scrunching the leathery skin up against the bone, caused the beast to scream, a reverberating cry like that of a B-grade movie dinosaur. Using his arm barred grip on the wing, his other arm against the base where it joined the beast's back, Naydar used his body weight to throw the creature against its rising accomplice sending them both to the floor.

Taking a few steps backward, Naydar made a claw out of his right hand holding it to the side, concentrating his energy into a palpable force. The ape beast was the first to rise, and was greeted by Naydar's hand curling towards it as the words "urrrhhgh, bang!" echoed through its ringing ears, harsh and low.

A ball of dark coruscating energy, flickering with grey bolts of lightning hit the monster in the chest sending it against the wall. As the monster hit the wall, the ball dispersed hitting the beast's body with a web of dark lightning. The beast squealed like a pig as it slowly began to turn into dust, its greeny grey remains piling on the floor, in turn further disintegrating to nothingness.

Naydar fell to his knees, his energy depleted. He cursed again, against his luck mainly, for ending up in a weakened body.

The slowly rising bat youma, looked towards the dispersing dust and turned back to Naydar, hatred burning yellow in its slitted eyes. It started towards him, its shattered wing, limp and dragging across the floor. Naydar grinned at it, his sword magically appearing in the hand that was behind his back and poking at the edge of his sub space pocket. His blade was a large boardsword, black handled, with encrusted sapphires along the hilt. The pommel stone was a large ring of blue metal, with two horns protruding from it.

As the beast charged, Naydar steadied his balance. "Sorry 'bout the bad dialogue," he rasped, "best I could do in a pinch."

As the beast lunged Naydar pounced, swinging the blade with his right hand in a low arc, flying under the creatures outstretched arms and biting deep and through across its midsection. The beast's lunge continued over Naydar as he rolled over his right shoulder to the left, pulling himself with the momentum of his strike. Standing and turning, Naydar watched as the beast crashed against the linoleum, its viscous black blood steaming as it pooled on the tiles.

Naydar stood, his knees shaky, the exertion sending him close to the edge of collapse. A stray claw flailed towards him at ground level. Lifting his boot, he placed it down heavily on the weakened appendage of the beast, cracking its tibia.

Effectively pinned by both the foot on it arm and the debilitating stomach wound, Naydar lifted his sword in a downward swipe.

The beast quickly turned to dust, Naydar's knees crashing down with him behind them, where the beast's head had been seconds before. His sword winked out of existence and he placed his hand on the cold floor to steady himself, his stomach doing flip-flops and the urge to dry retch becoming a compulsion.

A quiet clapping reached his ears. Looking up from the tiles and down the hall, he caught sight of the Time Guardian, Sailor Pluto.

"Bang?" She said questioningly.

"Hello Setsuna, s'bout time you showed up," he said before falling headfirst to the ground, his costume dissolving in a static rain.

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DISCLAIMERS

Even Flow Chapter 1 – In From The Void started April 2000 and finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong) Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. Float by The Feelers from the album Supersystem is copyright WEA and Warner Music. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.

Even Flow Chapter 2 – Who Are You? started April 2000 and finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong) Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. Fight From The Inside by Queen from the album News Of The World is copyright Queen Productions and EMI. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.

Even Flow Chapter 3 – Back In A Fashion started April 2000 and finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong) Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. One by Creed from the album My Own Prison is copyright Wind Up Entertainment, Epic Records and Sony Music. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.

Even Flow Chapter 4 – Sense Of Not Belonging started April 2000 and finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong) Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. Ghost by Live from the album Secret Samadhi is copyright Radioactive Records and Universal Music. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.

Even Flow Chapter 5 – Maternal Instinct started April 2000. Finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong). Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMann is copyright WB Music Corporation and BMI. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.

Even Flow Chapter 6 Started April 2000. Finished April 2001. Compiled and Edited June 2002. By Nicholas Paul Clark (Warriorsong). Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon and related characters were created by Naoko Takeuchi and are copyright Kodansha, Bandai, Mixx, Pioneer Entertainment and DIC. Keep Myself Awake by Black Lab is copyright Geffen Records, EMI Blackwood Music and TVT Records. Marty McFly / Back To The Future and copyright Warner Bros. Cable created by Rob Liefield and copyright Marvel Comics and Toy Biz. Ashley J Williams / The Evil Dead are copyright Sam and Ted Raimi. If any of this information is incorrect or absent, I offer my most humble apologies. No copyright infringement is intended, this is merely a work of fan fiction. I am in no way affiliated to any of these organizations, companies or individuals. Thank you for reading.