The End of the Beginning

by Tim Nolan

A continuation of the story from 'Obligations'. The Senshi must discover a way to defeat a powerful new foe, and find the will to fight for what looks to be a costly victory.

2. Default Chapter Title

The End of the Beginning {2/3}





" They're done, Mako-chan," she said as she set
down the bamboo steamer basket and took off the lid. She
grabbed another shu mai in the process and popped it into
her mouth before the chef, who was smoothing out a wrinkle
in her beige dress, could stop her.
" Haruka-san, I saw you sampling them over
there," Makoto complained in a good-natured way,
waggling a finger at her in a vain attempt to admonish
the taller woman. " If you keep that up nobody will
get any."
" I had to make sure that they were done, and
you have more than enough for everyone, Mako-chan," she
grinned as she picked up the next two baskets, stacked
them atop one another and returned to Michiru and the
fire they had set up earlier that was several meters
away.
" Here you go, everyone," Makoto called out and
indicated the plates and chopsticks in the basket at
her side.
" I guess we should take advantage of this," Ami
giggled as she began to fill her plate with an
assortment of dim sum. " It isn't often that Usagi-chan
is late for a meal like this."
" Well," Makoto shrugged in the direction of the
bottom of the hill and nabbed one of her shrimp har
gow while Ami looked the other way. " They're here, so
you'd better hurry up."
" Look at how tall she is," Rei gasped as she
joined them while they watched them get out of Mamoru's
car at the bottom of the hill. Usagi and Chibi-usa were
in near matching outfits, jeans and white T-shirts, due
to the reasons that Mamoru had explained earlier when
he had called to let them know that he would be a few
minutes late. The pink-haired girl had grown considerably
since the last time they had seen her. Chibi-usa let
out a cry of delight and began to run up the hill towards
them.
" She must be at least ten," she finished, and then
went over to get Minako before putting her hand on Hotaru's
shoulder. The young woman jumped in surprise and quickly
nodded in gratitude when Rei gave her a little push. " Go
on, Hotaru-chan."
" Thank you, Rei-chan," she hurriedly whispered
before bounding off down the hill towards the young
girl. At Makoto's beckoning, Rei picked up the child
and carried her over by the others and sat down. Ami
traded her an empty plate for Minako and set the girl
down by her to begin sharing her own meal.
" At least that part hasn't changed," Makoto
laughed as the girl grabbed a char siu bao from Ami
and began to eat the pork bun. " She still has the
same appetite as her namesake."
They joined her in a slightly nervous laugh
at the jest, but were still a little concerned about
the situation. Each day the child began to look more
and more like the Minako they used to know. They
still had no idea of what was going on with her, or
if she was even the Minako they had known.
" Hi," Mamoru said as he walked up to them
and put down the cooler he was carrying. He took
off his leather jacket before taking a seat. " I'm
sorry we were late, but we had to make a little
detour through a mall on the way. If what I said...
say in the future is correct, she must be making up
for lost time by growing so quickly."
" We can see why," Makoto added, taking the cooler
of drinks and sliding it around so that it was slightly
more out of the way. They all fully remembered the shock
when the future Endymion's image told them that the girl
was almost nine hundred years old. " I can't believe
she's gotten so big."
" It's almost been a year for us," Usagi
continued as she joined them. " And it's nearly
been the same for her."
" Here you go, Usagi-chan," Rei said to her
with a teasing smile as she handed her a plate and
some chopsticks. " There's plenty to go around,
even for you."
" Rei-chan!" Usagi complained as she took
several dumplings and put them on her plate. She
fed one to Mamoru before starting in on them herself.
" Don't say that, Rei-chan," Mamoru said around
a mouthful of food. " Our daughter makes her mother
look like a light eater when it comes to dim sum. My
wallet found that out the last time we went out when
she was here."
" Well, there is more than enough, even for
their appetites," Makoto declared as Hotaru and
Chibi-usa walked up to them.
" Mako-chan," the girl scolded the cook. " I
told you not to go to any trouble like this on my
next visit, didn't I?"
" I guess you don't want any, then?" the brunette
replied in a sweet tone of voice.
" No!" the girl blurted out and then blushed as
they laughed at the look on her face. She recovered
by quickly taking a plate for herself. " Thank you
for doing all this, Mako-chan."
" It was my pleasure, Chibi-usa-chan," she replied.
" So," Ami ventured a question with a broad smile
on her face. " How are things in the future?"
" Ami-chan!" they all yelled, but laughter made
most of them miss timing it correctly. It was an old,
but familiar joke between them about Ami wanting to
know something about the future, and Chibi-usa not
being able to say anything. It had almost become a
tradition for Ami to ask it and for the others to
complain in a good-natured way.
" Actually, I did have one question for you,
Chibi-usa-chan," Hotaru asked a few minutes later. " They
would have gotten you anything you wanted to wear today
when you hit the stores on the way here. Why the jeans?"
The girl thought about that a few moments
before laughing. " I guess I can tell you that part
without causing any problems.
" Thanks to a certain person's penchant for
formal wear," she explained while pointedly glancing
at her father, " the retro-twentieth century look
hasn't been in fashion for years. I haven't been
able to wear anything comfortable outside of my
rooms for months."
" Eeek!" Usagi screeched in mock-horror, not
noticing someone walking up behind her with the next
two baskets of freshly steamed food. " She's turning
into a tomboy like Haruka-san!"
" Is there something wrong with that,
odango-atama?" Haruka asked with a sweetly ominous
smile as she tapped Usagi on the shoulder.

************************************************

Far above the blue waters a figure stood in
mid-air, contemplating the scene below. The islands
were mere dots at this height, and she could even see
the faint suggestion of a curve to the horizon. The
scattering of clouds would have obscured the vision
of her old eyes.
The one place she wanted stood out in her mind
due to what had happened there long before. It was one
of the places where they dared to try and emulate her
own power, and that impertinence galled her. Today she
could finally begin to make them pay for that and all
the slights they had visited upon her in her earlier
life.
Confident of her being in the correct spot, she
rose straight up in relation to it through the remains
of the atmosphere. She went past the gadgets they had
in the lower orbits until she was at the most cluttered
altitude. Here were their satellites with the most
stable orbits, although the greatest concentration was
directly over the equator.
If one of them was pointed at her, they'll
certainly get a show today, she grinned as she began
to call upon her power. It would take just over eight
minutes for it to accumulate and reach her. The stage
was set, the players were in their places, and the
show was about to begin.

***********************************************

The one who was closest to the center was the
first to see what was happening. He cried out a
warning to the others and shared his view with them.
Theirs were the only eyes to gaze upon this. The few
deep space probes in position to see it weren't
looking in the right direction at the right time.
The fierce, blinding radiance of the sun began
to go dark on the side opposite the third one. They
watched aghast as the darkness spread over the space
of a few seconds to cover the rest of the surface
until the only light emitted was on the line between
it and the third one.
It will just miss, she reassured the others. She
was strangely calm for nearly having faced certain
destruction. The nova-bright shaft of light hurtled
along it's path, and the sun began to shine with it's
accustomed splendor over the entirety of it's surface.
It begins, the one fourth out quietly stated
to the others. They watched the brightness of the
beam move through the darkness. The first one out
was well away from it, but the second was closer to
the blast than he. She shivered in fear at the
feeling the energy had.
Such hatred, she cried out in anguish. The bolt
of light illuminated the surface of both the third one
and her daughter as it passed between them and stopped.
The figure floating there in the space between reached
a hand into the raw power and began to glow.
They could hear her laughter as she directed
the energy down towards the planet below. The clouds
vanished in the beam's path, getting blown outward in
a circular pattern as the blast fell from the sky and
slammed into the atoll.

************************************************

The Frisbee caromed off one tree and narrowly
missed the girl before swooping up into the air as
part of her plan to bring it in on her from behind.
Chibi-usa was wise to it, though, and easily evaded
the second attack. Usagi caught it and flipped it
over to her daughter.
" See? Just like that American TV show heroine.
Your turn, Chibi-usa-chan."
" It's a lot harder with this," she replied,
frowning in concentration as she caught the disc. " I
could do it with your tiara."
" Some of us just have the natural talent," she
smiled back. They were about ten meters down the hill
from the others, who were still eating and talking. Dim
sum was supposed to be enjoyed over a long period of
time, with lots of tea and conversation according to
Makoto. The two of them had gotten bored and decided
to play catch.
Her daughter was good, but she didn't have the
same touch as she did. All the practice with her tiara
and an instinctive grasp of it made her a whiz with a
Frisbee. The return throw from the girl was a good one;
fast, hard and level, but easy for her to catch.
" You're not supposed to throw it like the
sidekick," she teased the girl. A quick flick of her
wrist sent it past the girl and off of two trees before
it returned to her hand. She almost laughed at the
exasperated look on the girl's face.
*Mama no baka*, she faintly heard an amused and
distinctly un-ladylike snort in her mind.
" Chibi-usa?" she whispered in shock.
*Not like that, Usagi-chan* the voice replied. She
could make it out to be her daughter's now. *Like this.
Inside*
" Inside?"
The girl pointed to her chest where they would
normally be wearing their broaches if they were in
costume. *The crystal*
*But how...*
*We can hear each other's, remember? I talk to
mine, and you can hear me*
*That's incredible! I'm so proud of you for
figuring that out!*
She could feel the wave of slight discomfort go
through the girl and realized that she must be putting
a lot of her emotions into the link as well.
*Usagi-chan?* her daughter asked.
* I wasn't supposed to find this out, was I?* she
guessed.
*No, it's not that* the girl sent back, and then
blushed. *You showed me how to do this just before I came
back this time. You said I'd need it, and since you've
been broadcasting your emotions at me ever since I saw
you there at the dock, I figured you already knew how
to do this. That wasn't what I wanted to ask you,
though. Can I ask you a favor?*
*Of course*
*I love you, Mama, but could we just be friends
here? I still feel more like we're sisters or cousins
here, and I sort of like being able to be your friend*
*Certainly* she smiled back and let her love for
the girl show through. She was feeling the same warmth
being sent back towards her.
*By the way, Usagi-chan, we shouldn't do this too
often*
*Why*
*It's hard to concentrate on this and the rest of
the world at the same time. Look to your left*
She did and jumped in surprise as she realized
Haruka was standing there making faces at her.
" Earth to Usagi-chan!" she called out again,
waving her hand in front of Usagi's face. " You okay?
You didn't hear a thing I was saying."
She turned and made a face at the girl after she
heard a faint giggle. " I'm sorry, Haruka-san. What were
you saying?"
" I needed to talk with you two for a moment," she
quietly said and waved her arm at the girl, motioning for
her to come over.
" What is it, Haruka-san?" Chibi-usa asked when she
got there. The tall woman wore a more serious expression
on her face now.
" You said back there that you brought nothing but
the dress you were wearing back with you, right?"
The girl nodded and looked back and forth at the
two of them before the woman went on. " What about your
broach? I haven't seen that, and you always wear it."
" I'm afraid that I couldn't bring it this time,
Haruka-san," she explained. " Sailor Chibi-moon didn't
make the trip."
" Chibi-usa-chan!" Usagi gasped in dismay.
" I'm sorry, Usagi-chan. My broach ended up in the
moat while I landed in the garden the last time I went
forward. It took us a month to find it, and that was only
blind luck. We didn't want to risk that happening again
this time."
" Okay," Haruka shrugged. " We'll juggle schedules
to keep someone with you at all times just to play it
safe."
" Haruka-san," she said, moving a step forward and
catching the gaze of the woman. " I may not have my
broach, but I'm not powerless. I just can't internalize
the broach to carry it like I can with the crystal."
Usagi watched in surprise as the girl reached into
a pocket and pulled out her Silver Crystal, or at least
her version of it from the future. They didn't know the
truth as to what it was, and Chibi-usa wouldn't tell
them exactly what it was.
" That's a start," Haruka grudgingly admitted, and
Usagi realized what she had on her mind. She was testing
the girl here in some way. " Still, we can't depend on
you being able to go into princess mode whenever we need
you, so-"
" Can't depend on me?" the girl declared with a
touch of steel in her voice and a determined smile. She
held the crystal up over her head and Usagi felt the
pulse of energy from it. Chibi-usa's form seemed to waver,
and it appeared for a moment that she was wearing a gown
similar to Usagi's when she was the Neo-Queen.
" Pink Ladies' Freezing Kiss!" she softly called out,
pointing forward and a single pink heart flew towards Haruka
trailing a white mist behind it. She easily dodged, jumping
up and over it, but collapsed to her feet in laughter upon
landing.
" That's good, squirt," Haruka gasped out between
breaths.
" What's so funny?" Chibi-usa demanded. It took
Haruka a few minutes to stop laughing.
" I never thought I'd be attacked by a giant, pink
candy heart with icing before," she explained, causing
Usagi to start giggling as well. Chibi-usa tried to look
angry for a few moments and gave up to join in the
laughter.
" NO!" a scream rang out behind them. They turned
to see Rei on her feet, the plate that was on her lap
now on the ground at her feet. Her eyes were wide and
unblinking. The pupils were so dilated that her eyes
seemed to have gone entirely black. Minako picked up on
her fear and started crying as Rei called out again and
collapsed to the ground.
They all gathered around the priestess as she began
to uncontrollably cry. Michiru stepped away and walked
over to Haruka. They looked at each other for a long,
timeless moment to drink in the sight of the other, and
then the spell was broken as Michiru took out the Deep
Aqua mirror.
" Haruka," she whispered, angling the mirror so
the other woman could see it.
" Ami!" Haruka yelled after glancing at it, and
dragged the girl away from the others by the collar and
forced her to look at the mirror.
" Oh, my God," Ami said as her face went pale and
she pulled her computer out her pocket. " The sun...
it's black."
She hadn't even begun to type when the light
dimmed. It grew almost intolerably bright for a moment,
with their shadows swinging around behind them like the
sun had moved before going back to normal. The ground
beneath their feet started to shake a few moments later.
" Earthquake?" Makoto ventured hopefully.
" No," the three Outer Senshi flatly responded
in unison. Ami's computer shrieked out in a klaxon that
they had never heard before. She hit several buttons and
brought up the reasons for the alarm signals it was
giving her. Her eyes went wide.
" I've got an intercept on United States military
transmissions," she announced a few moments later in a
grave tone. " They've gone to DEFCON 1."
" What?" Chibi-usa asked, beginning to feel
worried. She had no idea what it meant, but she didn't
like how Ami had said it.
" A nuclear attack is imminent," Ami
responded. " They're getting ready to strike back."

**********************************************

" I repeat, no EMP. I repeat, no EMP. There was
an awful lot of light and some turbulence, but no
electro-magnetic pulse."
" Acknowledged, Rook. Continue your patrol and
keep your eyes peeled," the controller ordered. " The
skipper will probably have further orders, so sit tight."
" Roger that," the pilot replied.
" They don't know what that was?" Domino asked
incredulously from the back seat. " That had to be a
nuke."
" It couldn't be," Rook explained as he put the
F-14 into a slow, spiraling climb towards a higher
altitude. " Nobody has anything that clean."
" Yeah, and guess who gets to go check it out,"
the pilot of the other plane in their patrol quipped.
" Us," Domino added with a groan.
" He's got a point, Domino," Rook said as he
smiled into his mask. They weren't out here on a
joyride today, and the new birds had the best sensor
systems of anything up in the air right now. " Better
start setting up all your targeting and recording gear,
you two Whizzos. Odds are we're going to have to go
see what that was."
" Thanks, Captain," the weapons officers replied
in a sing-song chorus. The idea of what might be
happening was serious enough to make them drop most
of their usual complaints at the semi-derogatory
nickname that was carried over from Air Force
terminology.
The SuperTomcats they were flying were part
of a test to see the effects of converting the F-14
airframe into a new attack plane that could still
function as an effective fighter. The old Tomcat was
given the same kind of treatment that had turned the
Air Force F-15's into the F-15E Strike Eagle. The
backseater was no longer called a radar operator
like they were in the old days because they had so
many more responsibilities in the new plane.
" Rook," an older, calm voice with a Southern
accent came over the radio. All four men fought
back the urge to salute. " We need you boys to go
see what happened. Washington wants visual
confirmation of what went on. What's your status?"
" Aye, skipper. Give me a moment on the status. What
about the satellites, and what are we looking for?" he
asked while he began to check his readings and calculate
his range.
" Negative on that. Apparently it was bright
enough to blind all of them that were looking. We don't
know anything right now other than there was an explosion."
" Skipper, we just topped off before it happened,
so we've got about twelve minutes at full burn with the
conformal fuel tanks. That won't give us much time to
loiter in the area, though."
" That's good enough, Rook. We're sending the
coordinates now. Four of the Tomcats on stand-by are
being scrambled with buddy tanks to meet you there,
and we'll have a pair of A-6 tankers on the way to
give you a full refill in 5 minutes."
A green light came on in his heads-up display.
Domino had the coordinates and route laid into the
computer. " Enterprise, we have the data. Accelerating
to full burner."
The wings swept back against the fuselage as he
gradually slid the throttle forward and increased power.
The two planes shot forward as if fired from a gun under
the impetus of the new engines.
" Correct course to 195 degrees," Domino added
as they slipped past the sound barrier when the
afterburners kicked in.
" 195, Roger," he replied and tapped the
rudder. " Where are we going, Domino?"
" How's this for irony, Mickey?" he asked
over the intercom to his old partner, foregoing the
use of his handle, and put up a map on the pilot's
display. He glanced down and nervously laughed.
" Think they forgot about one and it finally
went off?"
" Nah," the man in the back responded with a
grin. " That was a Navy operation, remember? The Army
and Air Force might have done something like that when
they did their tests in Nevada, but not the Navy. Maybe
it's Godzilla."
" We'll see," the pilot said and slipped back
into his professional demeanor. The rest of the flight
was spent in silence except for acknowledging status
checks from the carrier. They had been conducting sea
trials for the new planes and went through their
checklists to prepare for combat.
" Enterprise, you sure about those coordinates?" he
asked ten minutes later when he throttled back and slowed
down to subsonic speeds. They went into a shallow dive
to give them a better view.
" Confirmed on the coordinates, Rook," the captain's
voice came over the radio.
" Double checked on the GPS satellites and our
own inertial navigation systems," Domino quietly
added. " We're here."
" What is it, Rook?" the ship's captain asked.
" Captain," he responded slowly. " The look-down
radar shows a tsunami radiating outward from that point,
but no island. The atoll is gone."

***********************************************

" The world is still wondering what happened
today at Bikini atoll," the newscaster began the
nightly news. " Officials from both Japan and the
United States still do not know what destroyed the
island earlier today.
" Also, the tsunami watch had been downgraded
along the coasts of the southward facing beaches in
light of-"
Makoto firmly tapped a button on the remote,
switching it from the TV broadcast back to the feed
from the computer and turned towards the rest of them
in the expansive den of the penthouse suite. " So,
the entire island is gone, and nobody has any idea
of why."
Ami shrugged as all eyes in the room turned
towards her. She entered several codes on the computer
she was currently working on and displayed the
information on the oversized monitor they had been
watching.
" No radiation?" Hotaru asked. " I thought
anything that big would have to be giving off
radiation."
" It wasn't a nuclear explosion," Ami
explained. " There was no EMP or radiation at the
blast site. The only way it's hot is that the
temperature in the area went up. That rules out
a conventional nuclear device."
" What about a fusion bomb?" Chibi-usa asked,
recalling some of her lessons. " I thought those had
a cleaner reaction."
" The current fusion bombs aren't that good,"
she replied, taking off her glasses and massaging the
bridge of her nose. " They use a fusion process, but
they're still 'dirty', as they call it. To have a blast
site without any radiation, they'd have to make a device
that could completely change matter to energy."
She tossed one of the science books she had been
looking through onto the coffee table the others were
sitting around. " If you were able to perfectly use all
the energy in that book like a bomb, the resulting
explosion would have the planet starting to tear itself
apart by now."
" That still doesn't explain the lack of the EMP,
either," Michiru added. She was sitting in the deep bay
window across the room leaning up against Haruka with
her legs stretched out in front of her. " There is a
precedent for this kind of an explosion, however."
" What?" Mamoru exclaimed.
" There was an explosion of unknown causes in
Siberia in the early nineteen hundreds. Trees were
blown from outward from a central point for hundreds
of square kilometers. There were no signs of burnt
trees or, later on when modern scientists explored it,
any signs of residual radiation."
" Just like today," Makoto mused.
" The world's nuclear powers are denying any
involvement," Rei added from her seat on the floor.
Luna was curled up in her lap as she sat cross-legged. " I
tried a fire reading, too."
" And?" Usagi asked, still feeling slightly worried
despite sitting next to Mamoru on one of the couches. Rei
simply shook her head. Usagi sighed and considered the
worst part of it, at least in her mind. " Where there
many people there?"
" The exact numbers aren't known," Ami softly
responded. " The descendants of the original inhabitants
were allowed to start re-settling a few years ago,
though."
They were all quiet for a few minutes after that,
letting the cost of what they had seen sink in.
" Well, we don't have all the information we need
to solve why it happened yet," Artemis started in an
attempt to change the subject away from the grim
reckoning. " Nor do we know how it will affect us. What
else can we try and determine?"
" The data flow is still secure," Ami said. " They
still haven't realized that Setsuna's algorithms are
continuing to break their communication encryption. I'll
have a better idea of what happened with all the
satellites in the morning when they finish transmitting
all the scientific data. The world governments aren't
lying about what happened, either."
" Sorry, Ami-chan," Makoto smiled. " No government
conspiracy theory today to play with. You've been
watching that show too much, anyway."
The girl with the blue hair blushed and smiled
as they had a much-needed laugh at her expense. She
didn't mind it right now due to how somber they all
had been the last few hours. Luna looked up and caught
Rei's eye.
" My fire readings haven't been giving me
anything," the priestess eventually spoke up in a
quiet voice. " I have had some bad dreams about
something happening, though. I had a flashback
earlier today to one of those dreams."
" Dreams, Rei-chan?" Usagi asked, feeling more
than concerned for her friend.
" Like the ones from just before we all met," Rei
added, looking down and refusing to meet any of their
eyes. Hotaru put her hand on Chibi-usa's arm to stop her
from speaking.
" Was I going to destroy the world again?" she
asked, her face deadly serious.
" Hotaru-chan!" Rei gasped in confusion. " How
could you even think that?"
" Wait!" she called out, holding up her hands
for silence. She took a long look around before
continuing. " Something has been bothering me a lot
the past few days. I've been feeling like a rubber band
that has been stretched as far as it can go. I need to
know if I'm going to go crazy again."
" You're not the only one," Haruka called
out. " We've felt it, too."
" Both of us had it the strongest early this
morning," Michiru added.
" But what do these feelings mean?" Mamoru asked,
and then smiled as Usagi stifled a huge yawn.
" I don't know," the blonde said, " and I don't
think we're going to find out tonight no matter what
happens. Ami-chan will have more information in the
morning," she said while standing up and stretching. " We've
been doing this for an hour now and we're no closer to a
solution. Why don't we go get some rest and see what
tomorrow brings?"
" Don't forget practice tomorrow morning,
either," Haruka reminded them and was rewarded with a
chorus of protests.
The others agreed to go home, although it was
very reluctant in Ami's case. At Usagi's prompting,
Mamoru bodily picked her up and carried her down to
his car so she could be dropped off at home. It was
only when Usagi threatened to stay the night with her
did Ami agree to getting some rest while the others
went off to do the same.

************************************************

Jupiter laughed, ducked and brought the sword up
and around to deflect Saturn's Glaive up over her
head. That's the price you pay for those low, sweeping
cuts you like to use so much, she grinned and lashed out
with a kick at the girl's side while she was still
off-balance.
Or, at least, that was the plan. Somehow the shaft
of the Silence Glaive got under her foot as Saturn
shifted the direction of her swing. She brought it up
and tipped Jupiter onto her back before the brunette
could react. Endymion leapt to her defense while Uranus
flung herself at the other Outer Senshi.
Their efforts were in vain. The length of the
haft let Saturn tag Jupiter in the stomach while she
jumped back a step to neatly avoid Uranus.
" Damn," Jupiter swore and stretched out on the
grass, a casualty of war as per their rules. With the
odds more even, it was only a matter of time for Saturn
to deal with the other two by switching to a more
defensive style. The change in pace frustrated Uranus,
making her an easier target for the methodical girl.
Endymion didn't last too much longer after the blonde
woman went down from a leg sweep with the flat of the
Glaive.
" Pax," he muttered and held up his hands after
being disarmed. She grinned and gave him a short bow.
" That's two straight in 'weapons only.' Want to
make it best of five?"
" What's the point?" Jupiter asked, reverting back
to being Makoto and straightening the white gi she
wore. " We haven't been able to beat you in this
category for five months now."
Saturn only smiled before her fuku dissolved
into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and helped Uranus
to her feet. Makoto also stood and handed the sword
over to the taller woman. The blonde put away her own
sword before taking the one from Makoto. It was the only
other weapon they had that the brunette could use in
practice against the others like this. Regular weapons
tended to be cut in half upon being used to block the
Space Sword or the Silence Glaive.
" Her Majesty is about to speak," Hotaru giggled
and made Haruka blush. When Haruka had started setting
up the regular practices for all of them, she had held
Venus's sword while speaking to them once. In one way,
it was natural for her to do that because the Silver
Crescent sword was traditionally carried by the leader
of the Senshi. Usagi, as the royal princess, had given
it to Uranus to keep until Venus returned.
Michiru had been quick to notice Haruka's usage
of the sword as an additional, and not very subtle
reminder of her being in charge, at least during
practice. She compared it to a monarch making a
pronouncement from their throne, much to the other's
amusement. It was one of the few things that they
could tease Haruka about on a regular basis.
" Hush, Chibi-Hotaru," she growled back before
breaking into a friendly smile that belied her usual
competitiveness. " You should be thankful that this
was only weapons usage. You don't do as well when we
all get to use our powers."
" She's got you there, Hotaru-chan," Mamoru added
as he walked up after retrieving his sword. After he
sheathed the blade, his clothes shifted back to the
sweats he had been wearing earlier. " Of course, that
valley will never be the same after our last bout with
no restrictions. What's next, Haruka-san?"
" Unarmed and civilian," she decided, shifting back
as well. She looked around after an absent-minded tug on
the T-shirt she was wearing. " Go on and start without me,
though. I need to take care of something."
" Yes, ma'am," he jokingly saluted, but she didn't
react to him. Her eyes were already scanning the area as
she slipped into the bushes.

************************************************

" There they go again," Rei protested as she sat
down next to Ami, who was watching the melee between
Makoto, Mamoru and Hotaru get under way again. Ami had
taken off the blue top of her sweats in order to cool
off. The white shirt that was worn under the top was
soaked with sweat, just like her own probably was. " I
get tired just watching them."
" You weren't the first one to get tagged out,"
Chibi-usa complained.
" She does have a point to this, Chibi-usa-chan,"
Ami responded. " We did get in trouble because of our
relying on our powers too much against the magi."
" I know," the girl sighed and shrugged her head
towards the lower end of the clearing. " I'm going to
go down to the vans and get something to drink. Anybody
want anything?"
" Just bring the cooler, I'd guess," Rei said a
moment later. " I think they'll be breaking it up pretty
soon."
" Want to bet on the outcome?" Ami asked her after
the girl had left. Her eyes had an energetic sparkle, but
it was the eagerness in her voice tipped Rei off.
" No way," she said, laughing. " It almost isn't
fair anymore. Hotaru is going to win it, just like she
always does. Unless Mako-chan and Mamoru-san have gotten
a lot better at this, it isn't even worth betting on."
" That's true," Ami replied. " I wouldn't have
even taken your money if you had bet on the outcome."
" Inside info, huh? You did just give her a check
up last week, after all."
" Well," the girl in blue said as she leaned back
against the tree that they were sitting under. " At the
rate she's going, she's going to make the rest of us
look like wimps in comparison."
" She already does that well enough," Rei
sarcastically reminded her, brushing a lock of her
long, black hair away from her face. " She's been
beating up on all of us for some time now."
" Not as a Senshi, Rei," Ami softly replied,
looking around quickly like she was making sure that
nobody was listening to them. " She's the third
strongest in our regular forms after Haruka-san and
Mako-chan. In running, she's second only to Haruka-san.
From what I know of her reaction speed, Mako-chan
doesn't have a chance out there unless Hotaru-chan
makes a mistake."
Rei let out a low whistle and gave her a
worried glance. " Makes you feel kind of inadequate."
" Rei-chan!" Ami complained. " Don't talk like
that. We'll learn to adapt to it, just like we always
have. Remember when we first met Minako-chan?"
" Yeah," she shrugged, thinking back to that time.
Luna had felt that the four of them were getting too
cocky due to fighting one youma at a time and set up
an exercise during one of their workouts. It was the
first four Senshi up against the two cats and Venus. At
the time, they still didn't know much about the newcomer
and were beaten several times by the teamwork between
Artemis and his ward while Luna distracted the girls.
The same thing had happened when they started
working out with the three remaining Outer Senshi. It
had taken them months to learn how to counter the
uncanny level of coordination between Haruka and
Michiru by not making the mistakes that left them
vulnerable.
" We'll be fine, Rei-chan," she said while
pointing to her left. " See over there? That's the
attitude to take about the whole thing."
The priestess actually smiled at what she saw,
despite still feeling uneasy from her vision yesterday.
Both Michiru and Haruka held black belts in jujitsu
and kenpo, so they were qualified to be instructors. It
was just that this student was getting a very early
start.
Michiru was wearing a gi, and was kneeling next
to Minako-chan and showing her the correct stance. As
soon as the girl was able to stand relatively on her
own she had begun trying to emulate the others during
practice. Some of them had laughed at first until they
saw how upset the girl got when she didn't get her time
with whoever was the instructor.
That led to her getting her own gi and her own
lessons. She didn't know much more than a few stances
and still fell down a lot when she tried to move quickly,
but she kept on getting back up and trying it again. Right
now, her hair was pulled back in a braid and she was
frowning while she tried to understand what Michiru
was trying to get her to do.

***********************************************

She grinned in triumph as she left the hospital,
having accomplished the first part of her plan without
a hitch. Her fingers began to undo the braid her auburn
hair was in until it spread around her shoulders like
it usually did. As she turned a corner onto the main
street, her blouse changed back to the black like it
usually was. She didn't like the red color she had worn,
but understood the value of not sticking out in a crowd.
People in hospitals didn't like seeing anyone
wearing solid black clothes, and may have remembered
her. It tended to remind them of policemen or
undertakers. Her hair was unusual enough to stand
out, and she was taking no chances on being
discovered. There would be time later for the
fighting, he had said. We can't jeopardize our
efforts by letting her get a clue as to what was
happening.
Changing the schedule for the surgery department
had been the first part of one of their deceptions. The
computer system had proven easy to get into. Now, Dr.
Mizuno was going to be the first doctor that would be
called in case of an emergency that the staff on hand
couldn't deal with, or if they got too busy.
Busy wouldn't be the word for it, she decided. Chaos,
bedlam, or maybe catastrophe would be better words. She
stepped into an alley, vanished, and emerged in mid-air,
standing high above one of the public parks near the
hospital. It was crowded this morning, and why not? She
had made sure that the sun was shining and the clouds
didn't come near this portion of the city.
Below her, a number of children played. Usually, it
was their mothers with them today, or an occasional
father. Most husbands were good salarymen, and were
resting on this early Sunday morning after working
the last six days.
Decisions, decisions, she mused, looking below
her. Initially, she was going to do it to some of the
older children. It would be part of a payback for all the
insults she had to endure when she was younger just because
she was different. Carrot top was one of the favored
slurs, and it was all because she was a little different
from the others since she had hair that was almost red
instead of black or brown like the rest of them.
Her associate had reminded her that the younger
children would make a better target for their plans,
however. She agreed after thinking about it. Use their
instincts and concerns against them. It would be far
more effective.
There. That sandbox would be a good start. None
of the children were too old, and all of them appeared
to be in good health. She shifted over until she was above
it, and looked underneath the ground. As the municipal
plans had shown, there was the gas line. Eyes narrowing,
she pointed at the line, and a needle of invisible energy
in the X-ray portion of the spectrum stabbed through the
ground and nicked the pipe. An opening was made; the clue
they would eventually find and think was the cause.
Her next task was the hard part. Choosing a purple,
concrete turtle as the center, she took several deep breaths
and calmed her mind. Time seemed to slow around her as she
speeded up her perceptions. Each of the toddlers was
lightly wrapped in a field of protective energy as the
turtle exploded. The blast sent their parents flying, and
cracked the fields around them.
She watched carefully, making sure that none of the
children were actually killed as a result. That would be
too easy on the doctor. Several bits of debris were
vaporized by her before they could strike their targets.
Only the smallest fragments were allowed to hit.
Her work was well done, it seemed, as she looked
over the crater. Some of the parents were hurt, but that
didn't concern her as much. The prospects of some new
orphans would hurt just as much as the injuries to the
children themselves. Below, the crying were just beginning.
A lone siren started up, making her snap her fingers at
the memory of something she almost forgot.
Turning to her left, she looked at one bridge that
led to another district. It would be the most direct route
for ambulances to take patients to the nearest hospital
after the one she visited earlier. Casually, a wave of
her hand blew apart a truck and damaged one of the spans.
Taking all the extra patients to another hospital
would make it too easy. She looked down again to admire
her handiwork, not noticing the tears running down her
face as a tiny part of her helplessly cried out in pain
at what she had done.

************************************************

It had taken her nearly twenty minutes to find a
spot she liked up on the side of the hill. She couldn't
directly see into the clearing below where the others
were currently at, but she heard an occasional shout or
blast of power. They had driven up here early in the
morning in order to have a chance to practice in some
degree of privacy.
They were currently on government land, although
the only way to get there ran through privately owned
property. She didn't ask where the Outers had found out
about it, and she conveniently didn't listen when Haruka
mentioned it. There were just too many things she wanted
to think about today, so she had let her mind wander and
slipped away during practice.
There was going to be another fight soon. She
didn't know who it would be against, but they would be
in battle again. Somehow, she would have to make sure
what happened the last time would never happen again.
They'd hear her if she screamed in frustration
like she wanted to right now, so she settled for sitting
down in a patch of shade a few meters away from the
trunk of a tree. Makoto was right about not liking to
wait. It was getting on her nerves.
She pulled the clip out of her hair and let it
cascade down onto the ground around her. It wasn't in
her usual style, but just falling loose. The hum of the
insects and a bird's chirping set her more at ease as she
thought about one of her problems.
All of them had a destiny to fulfill, but she
couldn't bear to let them do it again at such a cost.
First it was Hotaru, and then Setsuna and Minako. Which
of the others would get the foolish notion that they
could save all of them by sacrificing their life this
time? The other Inners had proven themselves as willing
as Minako, and the Outers were crazy enough to do it as
well.
She sighed loudly and tried to think it through.
That was when someone grabbed her and pulled her over
onto the ground. She screamed as her assailant rolled
over on top of her and forcefully pinned her shoulders
to the ground.
" Baka!" she hissed, glaring down at the smaller
girl with her face only a few centimeters away. It took
Usagi a few moments to start breathing again. " What have
I told you, Odango-chan?"
" Haruka-san," she stammered, feeling ashamed and
like she wanted to cry. They were supposed to be training
up here, and she had been told that Michiru or Haruka
would be trying to surprise her at some point.
She had not, however, actually started to cry, so
she was quite shocked when she felt a tear hit her face
and begin working it's way down her cheek. The woman's
eyes were a swirling mix of emotions as anger and worry
battled each other, and it scared her to recognize fear
as well.
" I'm not going to lose you again," she said in
a low, thick voice, forcing out the words with great
difficulty. " I've come too close too many times, Usagi,
and given up too much."
" Haruka-" she started to say.
" No," the sandy blonde interrupted her, but her
voice was caring and warm this time instead of the
harshness of her first words. " Don't say anything,
Odango-chan. Just don't leave yourself so wide open."
She was about to explain when Haruka suddenly and
quickly kissed her. That brought her to a complete,
surprised stop as the other woman pulled back with that
infuriating grin back on her face, the same one she
used when she was teasing someone she actually liked.
Despite her best efforts, Usagi knew that her
face was looking like someone hit the reset switch on
her brain right now. That had happened the other two
times Haruka had done this to her. While she had
seemingly been joking at those two times, she had
learned enough about the woman over the last three
years to understand one very important thing about
her. She only did things like this to people that she
really cared for.
Haruka still did flirt with the girls who
continued to fall for 'him' when they didn't realize
just what she was at first. There was a point that she
wouldn't go past, however. She might string them along
for a little bit, but she never let it go for too long
in order to assure that nobody was seriously hurt.
" What did you do that for?" she asked a few moments
later. For now, she would let Haruka think she thought it
was still just a joke like the times before. She wouldn't
bring up the fact that the kiss tasted like the tear that
had left a wet trail down the cheek of the tall woman.
" It made you think, didn't it?" Haruka responded,
sitting back and pulling her to a sitting position as
well. Usagi's hair had some leaves and grass in it, and
some of the strands had gotten loosely tangled. She moved
around behind her and set to work on straightening it out.
" Yes, it does," she replied, and then started
working up the nerve to ask something that had been in
her thoughts for a while now. " You haven't called me
odango-chan for a long time."
" You haven't been acting like a child for a while,
so I stopped."
" Haruka-san," she began, forcing herself to say the
words. " Just before this whole thing started and my life
changed, I was at a costume party. Were you the one who
was dancing with me that night?"
" Maybe," the woman shrugged and went back to her
work.
" Maybe?"
" It depends," she said, and Usagi could almost
feel her smile. " Is Mamoru-san still mad at me?"
" It was you!" she exclaimed and laughed, feeling
one less burden about her past lift away from her. This
one wasn't related to her usual memory losses from being
reincarnated, however. She had such a good time for two
dances that she didn't remember most of that evening.
Now, she could get to what she wanted to know. " You
were there the whole time, then. Why didn't you come to
us when you saw us working as Senshi? Maybe, if we were
together, none of this would have happened like this."
The other woman stopped braiding her hair,
presumably to think about this. She did feel Haruka
slump forward a bit and put her hands on her shoulders
in a comforting grip. She began to work at massaging
and loosening up the muscles, although it seemed to be
done by reflex more than intent. When the other woman
spoke, her voice was unusually hesitant.
" We had our own mission, and we knew how important
it was to keep the god of ruin from awakening. That made
us concentrate on our own task. We didn't know that you
were the princess."
" I didn't, either. None of us did, although
Minako-chan said she was the princess at first in order
to protect me."
" Well, you had us confused as well. I didn't
remember all of you and what you looked like back on
the moon. We didn't know what to make of Sailor Moon
at first, either. There was never a Sailor Moon among
the Senshi at the time of the Silver Millennium.
" I remembered Venus and Mercury, but I'd known
them for a while. They were almost as old as I was back
then and were chosen early like Michiru. Jupiter looked
familiar, though. The one I didn't understand was who
was pretending to be Mars when I first saw Rei-chan."
" Pretending? What do you mean?"
" You were too young to remember Mars'
predecessor," Haruka smiled at the fond memory. " She
passed on about five or six years before Rei was finally
chosen, and she started fading pretty badly while you
were still very young. She was this big, burly blonde
woman who looked like the fat lady in an opera, and she
didn't take anything from anybody. Not even me. I knew
her a lot longer, and far better, than I had known
Rei-chan.
" Anyway, that's why we didn't join up with you. The
Inner Senshi were back, but there was no sign of the
princess. As long as it was just us Senshi, we'd stay
apart and take care of our own mission. For all we knew,
you were Saturn, since we didn't recognize Mars. Maybe
we weren't all coming back in the same bodies.
" When we did find out that Sailor Moon was
actually the princess, it was too late for us to do
anything. We still didn't know that you were Sailor
Moon, and you had already left to go against Beryl.
Tomoe-sensei and the Deathbusters chose that moment
to unleash a new generation of daemon eggs as part
of their search for the talismans. We didn't sleep
for a week as we tracked down and fought all those
eggs."
" That wasn't his fault, Haruka-san," she replied,
catching the hint of anger in her voice. She turned around
so they were facing each other. " He did all that to save
Hotaru-chan."
" Yeah, I know," she admitted. " Tomoe-sensei is a
good man at heart. He wanted to save his daughter, and
she turns out to be the god of ruin and the bringer of
the Silence, Sailor Saturn."
" I never knew how much that you had gone
through," Usagi said. " Thank you for sharing that
with me."
Haruka looked away from her and tried to put the
usual bantering tone back into her voice. It came out
bitter instead. " It was nothing, odango-atama. I'm just
good at beating people up. That's my job, remember?"
She wanted to yell at her that she was wrong, but
realized that doing so would be a grave mistake right
now. For some reason, the woman was opening up to her
right now and letting her in behind the defenses that
normally held everyone away. Well, not everyone. Haruka
did confide in Michiru, but never let the others in
close like this.
At the moment, she wished she was one of the
others. Ami's reasoning could figure out what would
be the best thing to say, or Rei's experience at the
shrine would provide the answer. Minako had been one
of their best at understanding people. All she had
right now was herself.
" Haruka," she began, painfully aware of how
important it was for her to not drive her away by
saying the wrong things. Right now, she really wished
that the other side of her, the part that was or would
become the princess, was going to take over like it had
a few times before. " That's not true. We are what we
are today because of what you've done for us.
" You've shown us how to be strong, and how to
make ourselves better. You do so much more than just
fight well. Michiru is only so good at things because
of your support of her. She's admitted it to me, and I
know that she's told you that.
" I've never told anyone this," she admitted a few
moments later after deciding that Haruka didn't look
convinced enough yet. " Just after Hotaru jumped in to
fight Pharaoh Ninety, I looked back at you after I had
finished trying to power up. You looked so sad, Haruka-san.
I've never seen such a look of despair on your face.
" The only thing that I could think was that I'd done
so many stupid things up until then, and that the look on
your face was my fault. I gave the Grail to Mistress Nine.
I gave her the one thing that they needed to destroy the
planet when I could have stopped them.
" Suddenly I realized how much was really at stake,
and how much it hurt you for us to lose. You showed me
that, Haruka-san. I couldn't give up after seeing you
like that, so I tried powering up again, just one more
time, so that I could somehow make it up to you for
giving up the Grail."
" It worked, too," the tall woman replied. " Thank
you, Usa."
" 'Usa'?" she asked. " Isn't that awfully familiar
of you?"
" No," Haruka laughed and pulled her in and hugged
her. It wasn't part of a joke, but rather one that was
warm and comforting. She relaxed as she put her arms
around her and hugged back. " Don't spend all your time
worrying about us, Usagi-chan. You'll only end up in
trouble like that. We'll be all right. Just concentrate
on doing your part, and everything will work out."

************************************************

" Jesus!" the man yelled, looking out the doors
that led to the emergency department. They had heard
the reports, but hadn't believed them at first. They
didn't want to believe them, actually. Nobody in their
right mind would want to.
The sight of six ambulances pulling into the
parking lot, and the sounds of more sirens coming
towards them were tangible proof that it was going
to be worse than they feared. The orderly went pale
at what he saw next, and ran back to begin to get some
help in getting gurneys out into the lot.
" What are you doing?" one of the nurses called out,
holding her hand over the phone she was using to try and
get any of the staff they could into the hospital.
" They just brought in a bus full of kids," the man
yelled out over his shoulder, making the room go silent.
" A busload?" Dr. Mizuno gasped as she ran into the
ER. " What about St. Bartholomew? Why aren't they sending
anyone there?"
" The bridge is out," one of the other doctors
said to her, tossing over a box of surgical gloves. " A
tanker truck is on fire. It's completely engulfed in
flames. We'd better get started. You and I are the only
ones here right now with trauma training."
" This is like a war," she whispered to herself
when they walked out the doors and into the confusion.
Her night had already been difficult due to a suicide
bombing by someone who thought that the destruction of
the island yesterday meant that the end of the world was
near. The man had strapped on several sticks of old
dynamite he got somewhere and walked into the middle
of a mall before hitting the detonator. Only two sticks
went off, but it was enough.
She had worked until two in the morning in surgery,
and had barely gotten home to catch some sleep when the
call came from the hospital. She paused, feeling herself
cringe inside at the amount of suffering she saw. Right
now, she just wanted out of here and away from all that
pain.
" Mizuno-sensei?" one of her friends on the nursing
staff softly called her name as she put the doctor's long,
black hair up into a ponytail. " Are you all right?"
" Yes," she stammered, bringing herself back to the
task at hand. The paramedics had a good start on things
already, and had transported the worst cases. She ran
over to them, calling out instructions as the first of
the medevac helicopters came overhead and gave her an
idea. Maybe they could airlift some of their patients
if the bridge was out.

************************************************

" So, what do they know about it, Ami-chan?" Makoto
asked impatiently as she came into the room after taking
a shower. She still wore a damp towel wrapped around her.
The girl with the blue hair had made a beeline for the
computer when they got back after their workout while the
rest of them got cleaned up.
" Well," she responded, her mind still partially on
the data displayed on the terminal in front of her. " It
wasn't a nuke, just like I thought."
" Any idea what it was, then?"
" Ever play with a magnifying glass when you were
little?" Ami responded, entering some commands.
" Yeah, but not to fry any ants," she said, taking
a seat on the desk by Ami and crossing her legs.
" Well, as gross as it sounds, that is basically
what someone did here. Watch this."
The monitor displayed what Makoto realized was an
image of the sun seen through a filter due to the spots
and a small flare. The yellowish-green circle of light
began to shrink until it went dark for a few moments, and
then grew from a central point again until it was like it
had been at the beginning.
" That was from a solar observatory in Hawaii," the
girl explained, tapping in some more commands.
" How could the sun go out?" she asked, puzzled, and
looked down at Ami.
" It didn't go out, Mako-chan. Somehow, the entire
energy output of the sun, at least on the side facing us,
was directed into a single, narrow beam that passed
between us and the Moon.
" All that energy fried the optical systems on the
satellites, so I don't have a clear idea of what happened
next. I believe that the energy was redirected downwards
to hit the island."
" And that was what destroyed it? If it was sort of
like a big laser, doesn't it have to be on a single
wavelength?" she asked, remembering her science
classes. " The sun puts out energy all over the spectrum
from what I recalled."
" It doesn't need to be on one wavelength. It was
sheer heat, Mako-chan. The island was literally cooked
away in an instant."
" The people, too," Usagi added from the doorway,
her voice sad as she finished tying the sash to her robe
and walked over to the TV.
" The island isn't gone all the way," Ami went
on. " There's an American carrier fleet there already.
They report that the water is about a hundred fathoms
deep, or about two hundred meters, where the atoll used
to be."
They both looked over at her when Usagi gasped in
shock. " Ami! This is your mom's hospital!"
" What?" Ami replied, walking over to her just in
time to see the scene shift to the crater in the park. A
caption on the screen said that the scene was recorded
earlier, but that did nothing to lessen the impact of
seeing so many people lying on the ground, and all the
ambulances.
" Oh, no!" Ami whispered, her face going pale. " I
have to go, Usagi-chan. My mom will need me."
" Ami-chan?" the blonde asked. " What's wrong?"
" She's been having some... problems lately,
Usagi-chan. This isn't going to be easy for her," she
admitted, whirling and running out of the room with an
embarrassed look on her face. They heard her calling out
for Haruka to give her a ride as she ran down the hallway.

***********************************************

" Did you like the movie, Chibi-chan?"
" Any movie would have been fine tonight,
Hota-chan," she laughed at the pet names they used
to call each other and almost skipped down the steps
of the theater.
" Any movie? Why is that?"
" An audience makes it more fun," the girl
giggled, grabbing her friend's arm and turning them
towards the mall since it was still open. They had
the night ahead of them, and she didn't mind having
a chaperone right now.
She understood the necessity for being able to
stay in contact with the others, and was very grateful
when Haruka had said that she needed to be with someone
for only that reason, and not her ineptitude in a fight.
She had practically glowed at the implied compliment,
feeling herself move a step closer towards being able
to be a real part of the Senshi.
" Is it that lonely in the future?" Hotaru asked,
getting a little sad. She still felt guilty about what
their enemies had almost made her do, and the knowledge
of what was supposed to happen reminded her of those
times.
" In some ways," she replied, pushing open the
doors and looking around, getting her bearings. The
ice cream store at the far end hadn't moved. She smiled
before speaking again, but was still a little sad,
too. " There still aren't a lot of people awake, and
definitely not enough for showing movies."
" Chibi-usa-chan," she tentatively began, holding
up her hand so she could talk without being
interrupted. " I know I can't ask you about the
future and what happens, but I hope that I'm there
for you so we can still be friends."
" Thank you, Hotaru-chan," she whispered, resting
her head against her friend's shoulder for a
moment. " When did you get so tall?" she asked,
taking her hand.
" Me?" Hotaru giggled. " What about you?"
" I asked you first," she teased. " Are you
going to regular school yet?"
" No," the girl with the black hair shrugged. " I
still haven't stopped growing, so we don't know what age
to say I am yet. Ami thinks I'm slowing down, so maybe
next semester in the fall."
" So what do you do now during the day?"
" I take care of Minako while Michiru and Haruka
are at school, and get private tutoring three nights a
week. We pretend that it's just to help me out in my
regular schoolwork so the tutor doesn't get suspicious,
but it's hard.
" I need to go to school for the same reasons
you're here, Chibi-usa-chan," she pensively added a
few moments later. " I need to get better at learning
to understand people, too."
" Well, we're both off to a good start in that
regards," the girl announced, and swerved towards the
shop like she planned. " We became friends with each
other. And, since we're both still growing young ladies,
we need some ice cream."
" Chibi-usa-chan!" the owner's voice boomed out of
the shop as they walked up to it and sat at the counter. He
hadn't forgotten one of his best, and favorite customers. You
just don't forget someone with a hairstyle and an appetite
like hers. " Your usual?"
" Yes!" she smiled happily, spinning on the stool
before stopping facing the mall so she could watch all
the people. That had been one of the things she looked
forward to the most, right after seeing her family,
friends and a banana split with triple fudge.

************************************************

The two girls in the ice cream shop didn't notice
a woman they had passed on the way to the mall making
her way up the stairs leading to the third level. She
turned at the top and walked over to a railing from
which she could watch them through red eyes that were
hidden behind dark sunglasses.
She wore a snug black halter top and shorts, much
to the delight of a group of young men who had stopped
to ogle her. Black heels and braided hair completed the
disguise that had fooled the girls so well. They were so
used to seeing her in stylish dresses that resembled
business suits that they hadn't even looked at her twice
when they were only a few meters away from her.
One of the young men, bolder than the rest, worked
up his courage and approached her. She didn't seem to
hear what he said at first, so he began to repeat his
well-practiced line. The woman merely turned to look at
him and coolly slid her glasses down with one hand so
she could peer over them at him.
She held his gaze for a few moments before turning
back to the courtyard below and her contemplation. He
walked away after standing there for a minute. His mind
truly couldn't decide which was the worst thing right
now. It was either the pain he felt from her rejection
of him in front of his friends, or the pain he felt in
a sudden rush of sympathy for her due to the pain in
her own eyes.

************************************************

She was so tired her bones hurt, she decided,
staggering down the hall to her office after taking a
shower. One of the nurses had taken her clothes and
purse there shortly after she arrived this morning. The
rest of the day was a painful blur.
She wasn't supposed to be on call today, but there
had been a mix-up somewhere, and she was the first one
they had called. The fact that they ended up calling in
every doctor they could was of little consolation that
morning. Her hangover wasn't strong, but it refused to go
away until she saw the news.
After that, she got to work as soon as she could. One
of their orthopedic specialists had actually served in the
UN during a conflict when he was younger, and he likened
the situation to a war zone. His summation was far too
accurate for her liking.
The most deviant, mentally diseased terrorist
couldn't have come up with a better plan than what
happened today due to blind luck. She would be eternally that there weren't any casualties from the
explosion due to a leaking gas main under the park, but
that almost made it worse. Normally, as much as it
horrified her to say it, there should have been some
dead among the injured.
People who had been fifty meters away had been
hit and injured by debris or the concussive force of
the blast. She'd treated industrial accidents before,
and knew something of what kind of a force was involved
in covering that much area. The children close to the
center of the explosion should have been killed.
The sheer number of wounded people had clogged their
facility. The first helicopter broke down on the roof, so
they couldn't fly out any of their patients until a
suitable alternative landing pad had been found. The
closure of that one bridge snarled all the vehicle
traffic around them for kilometers.
Since it was a Sunday, many of the other doctors
were out of town and couldn't get back quickly. They
couldn't make use of the ones who had volunteered because
they hadn't been properly accredited at that facility,
and allowing them to operate would have jeopardized the
hospital's malpractice insurance coverage.
To top it all off, she had been the best one there
for taking care of some of the worst cases. She was proud
of her skill as a pediatric surgeon, and she had saved
several lives today, but it had been like hell for her.
Her fingers shook as she fumbled with her keys, and
finally opened the door. To her surprise, her desk was
neat. All the files were neatly arranged into categories,
and the reason why was sleeping on her couch. She smiled,
looking fondly at her daughter.
She sank into her chair with a sigh of relief, and
slid open the bottom drawer to the desk. It wasn't there,
she realized. She must have finished it last night, or
very early this morning. Truthfully, she couldn't
remember which one it was right now. Plenty more at
home, though.
" Ami-chan," she called out softly, waking her
daughter. " Let's go home, dear."
" Okay, Mom," was the sleepy reply. Ami got up,
collected her mother's coat and purse, and steered them
towards the parking lot. She almost decided to get a
wheelchair, but she managed to get her mother to her
car.
" I'll drive," she decided, taking the keys and
helping her into the passenger side seat. She got in
herself and buckled them in. Those lessons from Haruka
were going to pay off, it seemed. She didn't have a car,
but she had learned to drive as soon as she could.
The drive was a short one, thankfully, and was soon
over. She didn't have a license, or at least one that was
valid in Japan, so she had gotten lucky. Hopefully, her
luck would last the night.
It didn't, however. She went to put her mother's
things away in her room when she heard the sound of a
glass breaking in the kitchen.
" Are you all right, Mother?" she called out,
making her way to that side of the condo.
" What did you do with it, Ami?" her mother asked,
her voice dangerously low.
Ami blushed and stood her ground. " I poured it
down the sink when I came home earlier today."
" Why?" her mother said, walking over towards
her. " If I want a drink-"
" You don't need it," Ami cried out, cutting her
off. " You've had too much already lately, Mother. You
can't go on like this any more. It isn't good for you,
and you're only hurting-"
" If I want a drink in my own house, I'll damn well
have a drink!" her mother exploded, slapping her across
the face. " Get out, you ungrateful child!"
Ami's mind was moving as she watched the blow
come. Her training told her several ways to deal with
it, but then her heart got caught up on the fact that
it was her mother who was hitting her, and all she
could do was to let it land.
" ...only hurting yourself," Ami finished in a
whisper before raising a hand to her reddened cheek. The
girl turned and ran out of the room, and was silent
although she looked like she was about to cry. Her
mother heard the front door close, and not slam,
behind her. She collapsed to the floor, wondering
where everything had gone so wrong.

************************************************

" Good night, Artemis," she called out and
closed the door to her room, taking the little girl
with her. The cat sighed and settled down in his
latest favorite spot in Makoto's apartment. The back
of the recliner gave him a measure of warning before
the little blond terror could reach him. He was grateful
for a place to sleep, although he hadn't realized that
Makoto had her again so soon.
Merely being around his old house proved to be
difficult for him. Her parents had even begun to think
that he had wandered away until he made it a part of
his routine to run into them a few times each week. He
had gone inside once, and the painful memories hit him
so hard that he had to leap out of a window in order to
escape them.
The saddest part for him, though, was that he had
believed that the house would be the hardest thing to
deal with. It turned out that her ghost was haunting
him instead of her old residence.
He had tried staying with her at first. His
discovery that Minako no longer carried any trace of
Venus had been very painful to bear, but the only hope
he had was that she would regain her memories someday.
That hope gave him the strength to keep going on.
It quickly became apparent to him that he couldn't
continue to be with her all the time. Seeing her reminded
him of everything he had lost. Her fixation on him, which
at first he hoped was a sign of better things to come,
soon became another straw upon his back.
Since he knew he couldn't carry such a load, he
had cut back his time spent with her. The Outers were
doing most of the work raising the girl, but they lived
too far away for him to easily walk to their residences.
You can't call it a home when you only stayed there a
few months at a time.
Michiru and Haruka had been in the habit of moving
between several houses ever since they had begun fighting
the Deathbusters. They would spend a few months in one
before going on to the next in one of several houses that
Setsuna had set up for them when they began their
mission. They usually had Minako at nights and during
the weekends, so he wasn't able to see her too often
while they had her.
Hotaru watched her during the school days, and he
would sometimes have her pick him up so he could help
her out with keeping an eye on Minako for a few
hours. While Hotaru still spent a lot of time with
Michiru and Haruka, she had moved out a little over
a year ago into a penthouse suite down near the harbor.
It had been an old office building at first until an
entrepreneur purchased and converted it into luxury
condominiums with an upscale shopping mall on the
lower floors.
Afterwards, he'd get a ride back towards his usual
territory from one of them. The other girls would often
give the Outers a break by taking her for a while at
night, or on the weekends. Makoto usually was the one
who ended up with her for overnight stays, though. She
was the only one who had her own place and no parents
to deal with.
The brunette even opened up her home to him. It
was an ideal place in his mind, and the food was very
good, but he only spent a few nights a week there. To
keep from dwelling on his loss, he had thrown himself
into some kind of work.
Luna would have objected, but he set up a loose
perimeter patrol outside of hers at Usagi's, along with
keeping tabs on the houses of the other Inner Senshi. He
also took up studying with Ami, although his work was
more on the theoretical side. Like the girl with the
blue hair, he had a distinct appreciation of mathematics.
Tonight, though, he wished he wasn't as good with
it. Juggling a complicated formula in his head would be
good at taking his mind off of everything, just like his
hunting forays did. Instead, he kept his thoughts on the
little girl behind the closed door, and the memories of
when they were together.

************************************************

" Usagi-chan! Usagi-chan!" the cat softly cried
out. When that didn't wake her up, she jumped up next
to the sleeping girl on the bed. The temptation to use
her claws was great, but she bravely resisted it and
lightly swatted her on the nose. " Usagi!"
" Huh? What?" Usagi murmured, shaking her head and
waking up. " I was having the nicest dream, too. What is
it, Luna?"
A slight tapping sound on the window itself brought
Usagi completely awake, and she instinctively reached for
her broach.
" That," the cat said, sniffing.
" Who is it?" Usagi softly asked. Someone outside
said something, but she couldn't make it out. She was
about to ask who it was again when Luna jumped to the
windowsill.
" It's Ami-chan," she gasped, pulling back the
curtain with her teeth. " Usagi, open the window."
" Ami-chan?" Usagi called out, throwing back her
covers and going to the window. She could just make out
that whoever was silhouetted by the glow of the streetlight
had short hair like Ami. She drew back the bolt and swung
open the windows.
" What's wrong, Ami-chan?" the cat asked, beginning
to get worried. Hanging around on rooftops wasn't her
style. It was a school night, for heaven's sake. Ami
was usually in bed by now.
The girl didn't respond. All she did was slip
forward into the room and stand there. Usagi reached
over and turned on the light, revealing a miserable look
on Ami's face and a bruise that was beginning to turn to
an ugly purple shade.
" Ami?" she gasped and instinctively reached towards
her friend. Ami collapsed against her, sending both of them
to the floor as she began to sob. Usagi could only sit,
watch, and whispered comforting words to her as her friend
lay with her head in her lap and cried like she never had
before.

************************************************

Stopping only to get her fanny pack from the closet
by the door, the girl ran out the door and down the long
set of steps from the shrine to the street below. It was
nice out this morning, and the light from the sunrise was
clear and steady. She turned left at the bottom of the
hill towards another a few kilometers away.
Doing this on a Monday morning was unusual, but it
was spring break. She'd do her usual weekend routine of
exercises every morning for the next two weeks in order
to make up for lost time. The ankle that she sprained a
few weeks ago wasn't bad, but it did keep her from doing
her normal running, and she'd put on a kilo that she
wanted to get rid of.
You should have said no to Mako-chan a few times
about dinner, she reminded herself, or at least shown a
little more control. She'd eaten like Usagi over there,
and the results showed.
" Stop it, Rei-chan," she admonished herself out
loud. It was too nice a morning, even with what had
happened over the weekend. She didn't have the nightmare
about everything freezing over last night, and felt
amazingly refreshed this morning. Those dreams had been
keeping her from doing her morning jog as much as the
bad ankle had been.
Feeling energetic, she made a turn and took the
steps up to the park at the top of the hill two at a
time. She'd been here a few times before, but never in
the capacity that the designers had intended. It was
called Lover's Park, and was the place that Naru and
Umino had won a contest on it's opening day.
She and Yuuichiro had their own favorite spots,
although, and hadn't come to this place together. Still,
it should have been like any park this early in the
morning. It should have been deserted, or only a few
other joggers going through it. Maybe a couple finishing
up a late night, or enjoying an early morning stroll
together.
What it shouldn't have was a cloud of smoke rising
up from the rubble where the heart shaped statue had
been. A young man was standing there in a black school
uniform, idly twirling a long thin braid of black hair
and looking at a young woman with an exasperated look on
his face that clearly asked if she felt that was
necessary.
The woman caught her eye, though. She wore black
with gold trim and highlights on her clothes and the
pauldrons over her shoulders. Her hair was waist length
and auburn, and it was the same hair that she had seen
the previous Friday.
" Hamaji?" she called out, starting forward. The
woman turned towards to her while the man walked over to
the steps of the dais that the heart used to rest on and
sat down.
" Hamaji isn't here," she said, stopping a few
meters away. " Hamaji went away a long time ago, Mars."
" Mars?" she asked, hoping that it was just some
mistake or a joke. Her worst fears were confirmed when
the woman went on.
" I'm not stupid, Rei," she yelled before visibly
calming herself. " I was never stupid. It wasn't my fault
that nuns aren't very good teachers and I got poorer grades
than you."
" Flare," the man called out with a touch of
reprimand in his voice.
" I know," the redhead called out over her shoulder,
and turned her attention back to the priestess. " Call
the Senshi, Mars. We need to have a talk."
" And if I don't?" she asked, needing some kind of
confirmation that this wasn't just a hoax. She didn't
want to jeopardize their lives if this was a trap, either.
Flare turned and pointed at the spire of the Tokyo
Tower. A painfully bright blast of light from her hand
severed the antennae at the top from it's base. " The next
shot will be at the base, Rei. The one after that be at
the nearest refinery. Propane storage tanks tend to
messy when they explode. Lots of casualties.
" It's that, or call the Senshi. Your choice, Mars."
She reached into her pocket, her decision having
long been made.

************************************************

" Ami! I didn't hear you come in."
" I... I came in earlier," was all she could
manage as she took the offered seat at the kitchen
table. She was able to fit into one of Usagi's school
uniforms, so she had something to wear that made her
look like it was a normal morning. She wasn't really
saying a lie, but didn't say the whole truth, either. She
really didn't like that.
" She's real eager to get to school today, Mom,"
Usagi chirped as she sat down next to Ami. " We have a
test today, and then it's two weeks of freedom because
they're re-wiring the place for the Internet."
" Would you like breakfast, Ami-chan?" the woman
asked turning and glancing over her shoulder. " Kenji
left early for work, and Shingo is still asleep because
he doesn't have school today, so it won't be anything
fancy, but... "
Her voice trailed off as she finally saw the left
side of Ami's face. " Ami?"
The blue-haired girl ran through several plausible
excuses before abandoning them for the truth. Usagi's
mother had always been kind and polite to her, and didn't
deserve the deception. " I got into a fight last night
with my mother," she quietly said. " I stayed the night
here with Usagi-chan."
The woman almost began to cry, but instead gathered
the girl into a warm, caring embrace. " I'm so sorry,
Ami-chan. I'm sure she didn't mean it."
Ami stiffened at her touch, but then relaxed and
put her arms around the woman. It felt good to be held,
although she was guilty that it wasn't her own mother
she had been able to go to for consoling.
The reason that she tensed up at first, though,
wasn't just the embrace. She began to feel something in
her dimensional pocket begin to vibrate. Usagi had felt
it, too, since her communicator was doing the same thing.
Their eyes met through the veil of Ikuko's hair.
" Usagi!" Chibi-usa called out as she ran down the
stairs from her room. She was pulling a light sweater over
herself at the same time. Luna was only a step behind her.
" Thank you, Ikuko-mama," Ami whispered, using the
affectionate nickname that some of them playfully used with
Usagi's mother, especially Rei and Makoto. It was her first
time saying it, though.
" We'll get something to eat after class, Mom," Usagi
called out. " We only have to be there for homeroom and to
take a test."
" I'm going, too," Chibi-usa said and smiled at
them. " I'll get some odango and wait for them at school."
" Odango?" Usagi giggled after they left and broke
into a run. " Is that all you could think of?"
" We don't have time for that," Luna reminded
them. " That was Rei's communicator. She hit the PANIC
button."
" She's at Lover's Park," Ami declared, deciphering
the information on the display of her own
communicator. " Artemis' triangulation upgrade is
working fine on giving us her position."
What is she doing up there? Usagi asked herself
as they turned a corner. It was only about five
kilometers away, but it also probably meant missing
school. She'd have to come up with some excuse for
not being there, and ironically recalled that she
was looking forward to the test today. She'd even
studied.

************************************************

" Good morning, my lovelies," he called out,
sliding open the glass door to the balcony and greeting
his latest botanical projects. It was spring, and they
were eagerly growing. Sure, it meant more work in the
care and proper pruning, but the look on Usagi's face
whenever he gave her one of his home grown roses was
worth it.
He'd been busy yesterday after their workout, and
hadn't been able to do this for the plants. It was getting
overdue. At least his daughter was far better at
understanding the demands on his time than she used to
be. Before, she'd have been crying and fighting in order
to be with him.
She went off with her mother instead, and then was
with Hotaru during the evening. His evening had been spent
in the library. The conversation with Setsuna on Saturday
morning had narrowed down his lines of research. As much
as he hated what was probably going to happen, he had to
be prepared for it.
In the early evening, he had physically moved all
the materials that were now extraneous out of the library.
Then, he spent almost four hours working his ideas and
theories out on paper before he was able to construct
the framework of the actual spell.
A sudden, startling premonition hit him like an
electrical shock. The clippers fell to the floor as he
took one of the roses. Such beauty, and such power, he
reminded himself, thinking of all the things that he was
fighting for. Love and life, concentrated into one potent
symbol.
A black cape fluttered in the breeze as he took a
deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling for the siren
call of his heart's desire. Ground and center, he reminded
himself, recalling his lessons and experiments. Moments
later, the roses on his balcony were alone once more,
reaching towards the light.

************************************************

" No, I don't like it," she responded, the slight
raise in her voice a clear sign of how upset she was. The
noise from the engine starting in the garage below rattled
the windows of the room. " I agree with your reasoning,
but I don't have to like it. We'll see you there."
She took the stairs three at a time after closing
the doors, and vaulted over the railing instead of
bothering with the lower half of them. Haruka had just
hit the remote to close the garage door when Michiru
landed next to her and hopped onto the back of the
motorcycle.
" And?" Haruka asked, hitting the throttle and
tearing out of the driveway and onto the street. The
streets were relatively crowded, so she kept her
attention on traffic as she wove in and out of it.
" Hotaru told Makoto to bring her along," she
yelled into Haruka's ear. It was the only way to be
heard over the shrill whine of the engine as it was
downshifted. They both leaned into the turn, and then
Haruka cursed as she skidded to a stop.
" Damn," she screamed out in rage. The road ahead
was totally blocked by an accident between a tanker
truck and another car. There were several police cars
trying to re-direct traffic.
" Feel like living dangerously?" Haruka asked,
taking out her scepter.
" Don't we always?" Michiru produced hers in response.
" Uranus Crystal Power..."
" Neptune Crystal Power..."
" Make-Up!" they cried out in unison as the blonde
twisted the throttle and swerved to the left among a cloud
of cherry blossoms. She bunny-hopped the curb into a hole
in the oncoming traffic, swung around a bus and accelerated
into the large gap she had seen coming.
As they blew past the accident, Neptune waved to their
friend in the traffic division as he watched them go by with
his mouth open in surprise. They only had to dodge one more
car until they were able to pass the accident and slip back
onto the correct side on the road. Uranus took advantage of
the lack of traffic on this side due to the accident to
really crank up the engine in order to make up the lost
time.
" Tsujimoto, Nakajima, go!" the senior officer at
the site barked, releasing the two motorcycle troopers who
had just pulled up to go in pursuit. None of the officers
saw an unusual, ornate set of wooden doors that weren't in
the brick wall when they arrived close and vanish. On the
other side of those same doors, a woman with long, dark
green hair slid down with her back against the door until
she was sitting on the ground.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and began to
cry. Once again, they were going to need her and she
couldn't be there. Knowing the reasons why she couldn't
be with them didn't help with the pain like it used to.

************************************************

Jupiter and Saturn were waiting for them at the
foot of the stairs leading up to the park. Artemis was
perched on the seat of a familiar looking racing
motorcycle. Minako was in Jupiter's arms, and the
tall brunette quickly handed the child over to the
pink-haired girl. Usagi and Ami quickly transformed.
" I've got her," Chibi-usa said, taking the girl. Her
next words were addressed to the two cats as the four young
women ran up the stairs. " I still wish that I didn't have
to do this. I don't feel very useful."
" I know, Small Lady," Artemis replied as Luna jumped
up next to him on the seat to enjoy the residual
warmth. " Usagi-chan wants her protected, though-"
" And I'm the one the one most out of training
with everyone at the moment," she finished for him. " Don't
they understand that I'm not weak anymore?"
" They do, Chibi-usa-chan," Luna added. " That's why
she wants you watching over Minako-chan. We don't know as
much about what you're capable of, so this way you aren't
limited by what we try and make you do."
" Also, they get to play to their strengths by working
together," Artemis said a moment later.
" Thank you, sensei," she dryly replied, turning her
gaze to the top of the hill.

************************************************

" Rei," she whispered under her breath as she
reached the top of the stairs. Her wings helped her
leap the remaining distance to the fallen Senshi.
" Get away from her!" she yelled at the woman
in black who was looking down on her friend. She pulled
her scepter, pointing it at the woman. Jupiter and
Saturn raced in to take up a position between them.
" I didn't hurt her... much," the woman said,
warily backing away. She held a glowing blade of energy
like it was a sword and kept her eyes on Saturn. There
was no trace of fear in her stance. She was simply
being careful.
" One more," Mercury whispered. Her visor was
already out and running, and her voice was low as she
relayed the information " On the steps. No sign of any
powers. The girl's dangerous, though."
" Well, now that almost everyone is here," the
young man said as he rose to his feet. " Sailor Moon,
would you please invite your friends in the trees over
there and there to join us, as well as the gentleman on
the lamp post slightly behind me and to my left."
His tawny eyes hadn't left hers as he nullified
their trump cards by pointing them out with motions of
his hands. At her orders, Uranus and Neptune came out
and formed their skirmish line with Saturn. Jupiter was
helping Mars to her feet. The Senshi of the red planet
looked only slightly worse for wear.
" Anyone get the number on that truck?" she
grimaced, forcing herself erect.
" Mars,-"
" That's the girl I said that I saw last
Friday," the girl with the sable hair interrupted,
rubbing her hip. " Hamaji was never any good at PE,
so I tried surprising her. She's right when she said
she's not entirely Hamaji."
" We wouldn't have let her hurt Mars," Neptune
added over one shoulder as Tuxedo Kamen landed next to
Moon.
" What is it you want?" she called out to the
young man who was idly playing with his single, thin
braid of hair. The woman in black was standing in front
of him at the foot of the steps in a defensive position.
" You might as well have the other three ladies
and the gentleman come up as well, while you're at it," he
replied. " I don't want to have to repeat myself more than
once."
" You can just tell us now," she said, pitching her
voice a bit lower and firmer.
" Flare, the rest of the Tokyo Tower, if you don't
mind. Establish our credentials."
" Wait!" Mars' voice rang out. Flare paused with a
smug look on her face. Mars ignored the smirk she received
from the redhead and turned to Moon. " She can hit it from
here. Easily. She already knocked off the top of it."
" All right," the blonde conceded. *Chibi-usa, bring
everyone up. Be ready for anything*
The girl responded affirmatively and cut off the
connection between them.
" That was very wise of you," the young man
said. " I only wish to talk to you right now, so there
is no need for hostilities at the moment."
Sailor Moon took another deep breath, her mind
desperately racing. Who was he to know so much about
them? They had been doing nothing but following his
instructions so far, and she liked it about as much as
the others did. She could see the tension building in
Uranus' shoulders and felt much the same way herself.
Beside her, her love seemed to be patiently waiting,
although she could see the same signs of tension in him.
Still, his mere presence helped her greatly. His stability
and strength were a balm to her fraying nerves.
" Your Majesty," his clear voice rang out as
Chibi-usa crested the stairs with the child in her
arms and the cats at her feet. She was clothed in her
formal, white gown and the crescent moon on her forehead
shone in the sun. " It is so nice to see you today, and
in full attire, no less."
He sketched a short but respectful bow in her
direction. She responded with a brief, elegant one-handed
curtsey, not taking her eyes off of him for a moment.
" And to whom do We have the pleasure of
addressing?" she replied, shifting for a moment into the
correct form of speech for royalty in hopes of gaining a
slight advantage over the man. His next words, however,
swept away any such hopes.
" You may call me Sailor Sun."

************************************************

He nervously glanced at his watch, noting that
he was going to be a few moments late today. That would
be unusual for him, so he lengthened his stride in an
effort to be on time for the test. His presence at any
of the classes was merely a formality since he already
had the credits needed to graduate, but he'd never been
late before, and didn't want to break his record.
That detour to the bank had taken a few more minutes
than he thought. After the one class he had to attend
today, he was going to take the train across town and
get some textbooks for the classes he would probably be
taking. He could use the opportunity to get a head start
on his work next year.
His glasses had slipped a bit, so he pushed them
back up onto the bridge of his nose and looked both ways
before running across the street at a break in traffic. He
was making sure to be careful, as always. There was no
need to walk into an accident now, not when things were
looking so good.
To help cover the cost of the books, his parents
had given a him a check that he put into the bank
yesterday. His visit to the teller machine this morning
let him verify that the funds were actually credited to
his account. There was a branch of his bank right by the
train station that he was going to after class on the
way to Nekomi. He'd pull out the fifty thousand yen there.

************************************************

" A Sailor Senshi?" she cried out. " If you're
a Sailor Senshi, why are you doing this? We're supposed
to be protecting these people!"
" No," he coldly pointed out. " You are supposed
to be protecting them. I am laboring under no such
compulsion."
Her blood turned to ice in her veins as she
realized what he was meant. He was no different from
any of the others. All he was eventually going to be
doing was hurting the people she was supposed to be
protecting, and then her friends were going to be hurt
as well.
This time, though, her anger melted the coldness
and fear inside of her as she refused to even think
about it happening again. Not again. Nobody was going
to be hurt this time. Except him.
" Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!" she screamed
out, planting the now-extended handle of the Eternal
Tier firmly into the ground and a torrent of silver
light engulfed the two on the pedestal of the ruined
statue as a result of her latest, most powerful attack
through the scepter. It had been so difficult for her
to use before, but now the power easily came to
her. " There won't be any more fighting! I'm never
going to let you hurt anyone here! Never!"
The world went white in the glare of the attack,
making all of them look away momentarily. " Never," her
voice trailed off into a sob as she realized they were
still standing there. A shimmering barrier was holding
back the onslaught of power. Sailor Sun merely stood
there with one hand upraised. He hadn't even broken a
sweat. She fell to the ground, emotionally and physically
exhausted as her attack dissipated. Tuxedo Kamen quickly
knelt beside her.
" There doesn't have to be any fighting, Sailor
Moon," the man went on in a condescending tone of
voice. " My demands are simple for you to meet. If
you do what I say, there's even a chance that none of
these people that you are so eager to protect will be
hurt."

************************************************

The sudden hope that illuminated her face was more
than he ever could have imagined possible. Such hope
didn't have a place in this world, she would soon find
out. The despair that would follow the shattering of
that illusion of hope would be like the finest of wines.
" The people of this planet have forgotten their
place, Sailor Moon, as have you and the Senshi. You have
no chance against me. Absolutely none. I created this
system. I am the source of everything here, but you all
seem to have forgotten your place in the scheme of
things. The whole system is heliocentric, and I'm
here to remind you of that little fact.
" Serenity, you will renounce your position and
forsake your powers."
" What!" Jupiter yelled, starting forward. A
crackling ball of incandescent light appeared in her
hand. She flung it forward at same time as Uranus
drew her sword and leveled it at him.
" Space Sword Blaster!"
Their anger fueled their attacks, but they were as
ineffective as their leader's. Flare stepped forward even
before he bothered to do anything about it. Her sword
batted away the lightning with one swing and blocked the
second attack on her return stroke. The redhead pointed
her other hand at the ground in front of the onrushing
brunette.
The blast wave from her attack knocked Jupiter back
into the others. He could feel Flare's disdain as she
surveyed them one by one. When she spoke, her voice was
low and mocking. " He hasn't finished talking."
" As I was saying," he went on after a few moments
of silence. " Endymion will do the same thing. The Sailor
Senshi will recant their oath of loyalty and give up their
powers. Is that clear?"
" We'll never give up!" the young girl cried out,
shifting her grip on the child in her arms and holding
up a pink crystal. Her form began to glow, but it was
the look on the child's face that caught his attention. Her
eyes, actually. They possessed a coldness that he could
feel from here. The same look was mirrored in Saturn's
eyes as well. " You'll never get the Silver Crystal!"
" This isn't about fighting, and I have no need for
her little trinket," he explained to the girl. She relented
and lowered the crystal, but only after a quick glance from
the man in the tuxedo. " I do not engage in fisticuffs. Your
choices are very simple. You surrender, or this planet will
be destroyed.
" To show you the futility of fighting us and our
power, I will give you some additional time to make your
decision. You can even try and fight back, if it will help
you understand that you don't have a chance.
" On Wednesday, however, another blast will hit
Bikini atoll. If you don't give up by the following
Friday, the city of Nagasaki will be destroyed in the
same way. Hiroshima will cease to exist on Sunday. Your
surrender can save all those people in those cities. You
have only until the next Monday, however, for making your
ultimate decision.
" A week from today, my wrath will fall upon this
planet in New Mexico, and all life will cease to exist. Do
I make myself clear?"
" Yes," Tuxedo Kamen replied, rising to his feet. " But
why do you insist upon hurting the others on this planet? What
have they done to you?"
" Surprisingly little, really. The only real reason
why I threaten them is that it hurts you so much."
" Monster!" Mercury spat out. " What's going to happen
to them when we're gone?"
" Truthfully, I don't know," he smiled at her, sitting
back down and leaning against the broken statue. He
casually crossed one leg over his knee. " It is quite
possible that this planet will survive without you to
protect all of them. That is their one chance, you see.
" If you surrender, they have that chance. If you
don't, they have none. Now, just so you understand the
rest of the rules of this game, let me explain a few more
of the finer points. If there is any sign of an evacuation
beginning from any of these cities, the game is over and
you're out of quarters. No second chances.
" This one little lesson today also has probably
not been enough for you to fully understand the futility
of resistance, so Flare will be making a few more
appearances around the city so she can play for a while."
The redhead must have grinned eagerly at that,
judging from the look on Mars' face. The sight of someone
she once knew acting like that must have sickened her. He
had a distinct feeling that she was desperately trying
to figure out some way of saving her old acquaintance.
" She's been very patient with me up until now," Sun
explained. " Now, she gets to have her fun. When you are
ready to surrender, just come back here and call out for
me. I do hope to hear from you soon."
He laughed once, raising one hand to his forehead
in a jaunty salute before they faded away.

************************************************

" It is certainly ironic that the world will end
on a Monday," Neptune said a minute later, breaking the
uncomfortable silence that was only marred by Moon's
labored breathing after her earlier efforts. The woman
looked around at the others and reverted back to her
regular clothes. " I think he'll keep his word about
the attacks. They're not coming back."
" Usagi-chan?" Chibi-usa asked her mother as she
knelt next to her. " Are you all right?"
" Yes," she smiled at her daughter. After another
deep breath, she changed back and stood with Mamoru's
assistance. " I'm just tired. That attack isn't very
easy for me yet."
" And he shrugged it off," Makoto said from where
she was standing up as well before thinking better of it
and sinking back to the ground, wincing in pain.
" Mako-chan!" Mercury cried out and ran over to
her. She started scanning the brunette.
" Just a sprained ankle," Makoto replied and turned
back to the others. " The question is, what do we do now?"
" If we give up I... I won't..." Chibi-usa began
to cry, unable to complete the sentence. Haruka quickly
interceded, taking Minako from her so Usagi could take
the sobbing, pink-haired girl into an embrace. Mamoru
put his arms around both of them.
" We're not going to let go of you that easily,
Chibi-usa-chan," he consoled both of them. Usagi had
started crying as well in response to the idea of losing
her.
" I don't want to give up," Rei said a few moments
later to Michiru. " But what choice do we have if he's
right?"
" Rei-chan," Michiru admonished her loudly enough
that Haruka came over to see what was going on. " Don't
think like that or we'll never win."
" We're not giving up, Rei," Haruka quietly added. She
was about to say more when Minako started violently
squirming in her arms. Her next words contained a tiny
hint of sarcasm " We just have to convince Usagi of that,
though."
" Senenity," the child called out, still having a
problem with pronouncing certain sounds at times. She
was reaching towards the princess with one hand.
The blonde shushed her and set the girl down on
her feet. She promptly walked over to the trio still
holding each other a few meters away.
" Serenity... sad?" she asked, holding onto Usagi
for stability as much as she seemed to be trying to
comfort the young woman. It was the first time she
had ever put together any words that resembled a sentence.
" No, Minako-chan," Usagi replied, visibly composing
herself. She took an arm from around Chibi-usa and put it
around the child in order to pick her up. " I'm not sad
anymore."
The blonde gently kissed Minako on the forehead and
looked at her watch before sighing. " Haruka-san? We've
still got time to make it there. Can I get a ride to school
from you?"
" School!" Rei barked, feeling an irrational rush of
anger that she tried to contain and mostly failed. " We're
looking at the end of the world here and you're concerned
about school?"
The sudden outburst even got Saturn's attention from
where she was looking out over the city and trying to
figure out where they might be fighting next.
" Rei?" Ami gasped. She was about to say something
until she realized that the priestess already regretted
her hasty words.
" Yes, school, Rei-chan," the princess replied. " I
have a test to take, and no, I'm not running away from my
problems. We'll talk about that later on, though. I need
to think about this right now."
She turned and walked towards the stairs. If she
was the first one down they couldn't see the look of
despair on her face. She couldn't hold it back any
longer.


************************************************

The young lady nervously walked back and forth
in the square. For the fourth time in the last minute,
she glanced up at the digital clock on the bank building.
What she saw made her shake her head back and forth,
causing her auburn hair to gently wave back and forth.
10:03
The old fashioned clocks with second hands would
be easier for this, she decided with a bemused snort. The
digital ones didn't give you any sense that time was
actually passing. Every minute, the numbers would
obediently change, but the effect wasn't the same.
" Maybe some food," she whispered to herself. She
didn't need it, she had long since learned, but she
could still enjoy it. An okonomiyaki shop had just
opened six laps ago, so she went over and into it. She
still had almost an hour and a half to kill, and she
absolutely hated waiting.

************************************************

It turned out that Haruna-sensei hadn't even
been too mad at them for being late this morning. They
had done better than many of the other students. The
class seemed vacant with so many absences. The school
regulations required them to come in at least once a
week despite the construction that was starting that
day. It was a scheduled vacation next week, however,
so that rule wouldn't apply later on.
A good number of her classmates had either suddenly
become sick, or had parental excuses to miss class. The
teacher only slightly scolded her for being late before
handing her a copy of the test. The excuse they decided
to use was a sudden breakdown of Haruka's car, and it
seemed to work.
Ami didn't seem to be very bothered, at least in
terms of the test, but Makoto was another story. The tall
girl seemed absent-minded and spent much of the period
blankly staring at an unmarked sheet of white paper that
should have held her answers.
They made it back to Usagi's by a little after
ten-thirty. Hotaru had bribed Shingo to go off and spend
some time at a friend's under the pretense of the whole
gang coming over for a session of girl talk after the
tests were over. Neither she or Rei had classes today,
she explained to him, although it wasn't that hard to
convince him to go since he had planned to be there
later in the day anyway. Ikuko was running errands, so
they had the place to themselves for a little while.
Mamoru had just brought out tea when they arrived
and took seats in the living room. Ami stopped Makoto
from making a beeline to the security of a kitchen, even
if it wasn't hers, and made her sit with the others. Rei
had left a half hour earlier to get something for them to
eat and returned a few minutes after them with an armload
of bento boxes from one of their favorite places nearby.
" She's awfully powerful," Ami began after they took
some time to eat. Most of them hadn't the chance to have a
proper breakfast and put off discussing what had happened
for a little while.
" No kidding," Rei tried to joke. " How much more
than us?"
" I don't know," Ami apologized. " I don't have
anything to compare her against since we just met her."
" I couldn't determine anything about her power," Luna
added. Artemis nodded in agreement with her but kept
silent. " I can tell the difference between the Inner
and Outer Senshi's powers, for example, but I have no
idea about where hers is from."
" What about him, though?" Mamoru asked. " He
seems to be the one in charge, at least judging from
how she deferred to him."
" Nothing, I'm afraid," Ami went on. " I didn't
get a trace of power from him, even when he erected that
barrier or teleported."
" The barrier was centered on him, right?" Rei
asked. " What if she was the one who put it up around him?"
" Also, there's a pattern to where they're attacking
at," Ami added. " The attacks will be coming in the same
places where the first five atomic bombs were exploded. I
don't know what that means, though."
" Aren't we kind of missing the point?" Michiru
gently asked. " Which one of them is the more powerful,
and where they're attacking isn't the important thing
right now."
Haruka nodded, silently agreeing with her partner. She
also kept a close look out of the corner of her eye on
Usagi, who was sitting next to and trying to convince
Makoto to eat something. That was where she expected
the problem to come from.
" She's right," Luna said. " We have no idea who
this Sailor Sun is."
" Does anyone have any memories about him from the
past?" Artemis asked hopefully. Nobody said anything, and
an uncomfortable silence filled the room.
" I'll fight if we have to," Makoto suddenly said,
her voice low and thick.
" Have to?" Haruka echoed sarcastically. " Who's
thinking about giving up?"
" I am!" Makoto snapped back. " Hiro is in
Nagasaki. He might die if we don't."
" We're not going to lose," the tall blonde growled,
beginning to get angry before Michiru put a hand on her arm.
" What if we do?" Makoto tearfully countered, her
voice starting to rise. " What if we do lose? I finally
find someone that I like; someone that I might be able to
love, and I'm going to lose him like I did my parents. I'm
tired, Haruka. I'm tired of being like this.
" What more do we have to do? When do we finally
get to be happy?" she screamed out before beginning to
cry and slumped down onto Usagi. Haruka closed her eyes
for a moment and turned away from Makoto. The anguished
self-reproach on her face was clearly visible to the
others for a moment before she shrugged off Michiru's
hand and went over to kneel by Makoto.
" I'm sorry, Mako-chan," she began, pulling the
brunette to her and holding her tightly. " We won't lose.
You'll get your chance. I promise."
" Speaking of chances," Usagi began, and waited
until all of them were looking at her before
continuing. " Don't you all realize that he hasn't
given us a choice?"
" He did say we could give up-" Ami began to
speak.
" No!" Usagi shouted, cutting her off. She took
a few breaths and a sip of tea to give her a moment to
regain her composure. " Stop thinking about that. You
can't give up like this. It looks like he's giving you
a choice, but he's not. Don't you understand?" she
finished, her voice trembling.
" Usagi-chan?" Luna jumped over onto the blonde's
shoulder. " What is it?"
" Understand what, Usagi-san?" Hotaru gently added
in a compassionate tone since the pain on Usagi's face
was so obvious. " You said that we can't give up. Does
that mean that you don't want to fight him?"
" No," she whispered, put Luna down and rose to her
feet. " You just can't give up to him in the way that he
wants. To you, to all of you, being a Senshi is so much a
part of you that it's like breathing. If you don't do it,
you'll die. That's what Minako did to save me. She gave up
her life for me.
" I don't have that problem with my powers, but I'm
not giving up. I will not live in a world where my friends
gave up their lives for me. I will not live in a world
where I will not have my daughter."
The telephone rang. Most of them started because
they were paying so much attention to Usagi, who actually
growled at the device before walking over to it.
" Of all the times," she whispered before taking a
deep breath, exhaling and answering in a sweet tone of
voice. " Hello?"

************************************************

He had wanted to go and hug her as soon as she
stood up. The pain was so obvious to him that it hurt
to not to be able to console her, but he knew that she
needed to say this to them. She was determined that
none of them would be hurt again.
Chibi-usa jumped in surprise as well when the
phone rang. She giggled and leaned against him. It was
apparent that Usagi's reassurances were making her feel
much better, and he put his arm around her to let her
know that he felt the same way. He wasn't going to give
her up, either.
" Hello?" Usagi said. Moments later, the slight
irritation on her face gave way to fear. " Naru-chan?"
The other quiet conversations quickly died
down. Usagi closed her eyes, nodded once, and then her
eyes shot back open. " Umino? Tokyo Memorial? Oh, my
god! Naru-chan, I'm on my way," she blurted out and
hung up the phone.
" Hotaru-chan, Mamo-chan, hurry!" she implored
them before reaching up to her broach.
What happened next was certainly something they
did not expect. A radiant gown appeared around her in
a shimmer of white just before she vanished in a flash
of light from the crescent on her forehead.

************************************************

" Miss! Miss!" the proprietor called out to the
young woman as she walked out of the restaurant. She
ignored him and the bill he was holding out towards
her and stretched her arms out over her head.
" There," she smiled as she felt the tense muscle
begin to relax. Her arms came down and straightened out
the black shirt she was wearing. She negligently pointed
back over her shoulder with a thumb and blew apart the
shop she just came out of. That would serve them right
for trying to give her something made out of the batter
left over from last night.
The woman lightly jumped up to the top of a
streetlight to give her a good vantage point overlooking
the square. Five glowing balls of energy were randomly
tossed out, causing little damage but making everyone
else begin to flee in terror at the deafening explosions.
It's a start, she decided, and settled back to wait.

************************************************

" Usako!" he called out just after she left. The
others were surprised as well, or almost all of them. The
exception jumped off of the couch and ran to the hallway,
returning a few moments later with Mamoru's jacket.
" Mamo-chan," Chibi-usa cried out. " Hurry! She
needs you."
" What did she do?"
" Where did she go?"
" She used the crystal," the girl replied to the
questions. " She's at the hospital. Umino's been hurt,
but that's all I know right now. She's concentrating too
hard for me to reach her."
" I know where that is," Hotaru added. Haruka
wordlessly tossed the keys to her motorcycle to Mamoru.
He would have caught them if the ground hadn't
begun to shake.
" Look!" Makoto cried out, her earlier worries
fading as she pointed towards a column of smoke
outside. It looked to be about a kilometer away.
" He did say Flare would be back," Ami added a
moment later.
Rei saw the indecision on Mamoru's face and grabbed
him with one arm and the keys with the other. " Go! We'll
take care this. Go to her."
He gave her a quick smile of gratitude and ran out
with Hotaru in tow. The others ran out as well, leaving a
young girl to watch the child, clean up, and mildly
complain to the two cats about how much she really hated
this part.

************************************************

The nurse could only stare in shock as an absolutely
regal young woman in a white dress that belonged in a
dream appeared before her in the emergency ward. She
blinked, not fully believing her eyes, and suddenly it
was only a worried looking schoolgirl.
" You have a patient here named-" the girl began.
" Usagi!" Naru called out, running into the ward
from the hallway and grabbing the blonde by the arm and
tugging her along towards a room. " It's all right. She's
family."
The nurse didn't fully believe the story, but her
attention was diverted when two orderlies burst in from
the parking lot pushing a stretcher with a very pregnant
and very loud young lady on it.
" Usagi-chan, " Naru sobbed as she closed the doors
behind them. " The doctors say that he won't make it. It
took so long to get to the next train station. They say
that there's nothing more they can do except wait."
" What happened, Naru-chan?" Usagi asked, looking at
the pale figure on the hospital bed. Vulnerable was the
word, she realized. The IV tubes and the monitors clustered
around him made him look so frail. He looked better than
she would have thought with his glasses off, however.
" He wanted to go get some textbooks from the
college. He needed to go to the bank to get the money,
and I was delayed running a quick errand for my mom after
class, so I told him to go on ahead and I'd meet him over
at Nekomi. The police say that he must have been followed
from his bank and the suspect got on the train with him.
" Someone stabbed him and took his wallet right
before the train left one of the stations on the way. There
weren't many people on the train since it was during the
day, and nobody noticed him until the next stop," she
managed to say before the tears started.
" Naru-chan," she whispered, putting a hand on her
friend's shoulder for a moment to reassure her. " I'll
try to do something."
" You're the only person that I could think of,
Usagi-chan," she replied, a ghost of a smile on her lips.
Usagi took a deep breath and turned back towards
the bed. She wasn't too sure of how she even got here,
let alone what to do, but her friend was depending on
her. Her friends, she reminded herself. Umino was still
one of her friends.
She knew what Mamoru had done once to save Chibi-usa,
and she had also brought some of the Senshi back to life
before, so this had to be possible as well. Taking one of
Umino's hands in hers and closing her eyes, she began to
concentrate. Her mind went back to what she had done to
save the others.
She had been perceiving the energy in a person, so
she concentrated on doing that again. Her efforts were
rewarded when she was able to see a slight shimmer of light
in his body. What worried her, though, was that it was such
a tiny, flickering flame compared to the steady bonfire it
should have been, like the one she saw in Naru-chan. Still,
it gave her a measure of hope. Now that she could see it,
she could do something about it.
Drawing on her own power from the crystal, she gently
nudged a little of it towards Umino, and held it in him. The
light brightened slightly, and stopped shaking so much. It
seemed a little stronger.
" I think I've stabilized him, Naru-chan," she softly
said. " I can't heal him, but I think he'll last long enough
for someone who can to arrive."
" Usagi," she whispered in gratitude, wrapping her arms
around the blonde in a joyful hug.
" Naru!" she gasped, feeling the flash of emotions from
the girl disturbing her control and the flame stuttered. She
quickly bore down on it, forcing it to be calm.
" I'm sorry," she apologized and sheepishly pulled
back from her. " I need to concentrate on this, I guess."
" I'm sorry, Usagi-chan. What can I do to help?"
" Could you slide that chair over here," Usagi asked,
realizing that it would be easier for Naru if she made her
do something to take her mind off her anxieties. Her friend
did that and hopefully looked at her again. She smiled at
Naru to reassure her. " And maybe a cup of tea, perhaps?"

************************************************

" Are we rolling?" the announcer shouted to the
cameraman in order to be heard above the noise as thunder
broke out above them.
" Yes!" the cameraman shouted over the tumult,
panning right with the video camera they had salvaged
from the van " This is great!"
" Great my ass," the sketch artist grumbled,
poking his head above the wreckage of the TV station's
van. When the news came in that someone was fighting and
challenging the semi-mythical Sailor Senshi, the media
had descended on the scene like a veritable plague of
locusts.
He normally did safe things, like courtroom
sketches or a little bit of still photography when
things were busy. He'd been in the area, and was pressed
into service to cover this battle. There were few actual
recordings of the Senshi due to the brevity of their
regular battles, and they wanted to get as many
impressions as they could. He never expected to walk
into a war zone.
" Duck!" someone screamed from across the square
as the girl the Senshi were fighting batted away a pair
of ringed spheres. The deflected energy just missed the
crew from Channel Six where they cowered in a long trench
that had earlier been gouged out of the street by the
newcomer as she tried to kill Mercury. Several men in
the trench made a mad dash for the new foxholes behind
them.
" Did anyone have anything on who she was?" the
announcer asked as they ducked under a sheet of flames. This
had been going on for nearly fifteen minutes now, and there
had to be a story behind this girl. There had been little
news about the Senshi since their possible ally, Sailor V,
made a one night reappearance nearly two years ago. He was
sure that this fight would get top billing on the newscast
tonight, but with some luck the feud may keep going on for
a while.
Damn, business is going to be good for a while, he
smiled.
" Go in for a close-up!" he yelled to the cameraman,
who gave him a thumbs-up while complying. " Look at that
smile on her face. This is great!"
She's playing with them, the artist said to himself,
looking at the redhead through his camera lens. He'd seen
that look on some of the psychopaths he'd drawn in
court. This was just a game to her.

************************************************

" Mamo-chan!" she whispered, sinking back into
her seat as the two people she had been waiting for
slipped into the room. Sustaining Umino had been more
taxing than she thought, and she wasn't sure if she
could hold him any longer.
" Where's Naru-chan?" Hotaru asked, nervously
glancing around.
" She's trying his parents again," Usagi replied,
accepting a brief hug from Mamoru and relinquishing the
hand she had been holding. She gave both of them an
apologetic look. " Naru-chan knows about us. That's why
she called me."
" Usagi-san, isn't it supposed to be a secret
identity?" Hotaru said teasingly for a moment before
smiling and taking Umino's other hand. " Let's see here."
Both of their hands glowed in a warm, buttery
yellow color for a few moments before Hotaru looked
back at her. " He's pretty bad, Usagi-san, but between
us we should be able to stabilize him."
" He'll be here quite a while, though," Mamoru
added, giving the blonde a little smile. " You did a
good job, Usako."
" I'll go head off Naru-chan," she decided. " You'll
need the privacy, right?"
Hotaru nodded and closed her eyes. Usagi quickly
gave Mamoru a peck on the cheek and walked over to Hotaru,
gratefully squeezed her shoulder and left them to their
work. The hospital staff had looked in on Umino
periodically, so they would have some time to work.
She walked outside to the main lobby and found Naru
at the last in a line of pay telephones. Usagi's heart went
out to her in that moment at the forlorn expression on the
brunette's features. Her heart had been shattered by what
happened to Nephrite, and it had been slow to heal.
Umino may not have been one of the most attractive
of the boys at their school, but his feelings for her
friend had been honest. He did have a good heart, and
had done much to help her friend get over the warrior
from the Dark Kingdom. She had been fortunate to find
him, actually, and the prospect of losing Umino had
genuinely scared her.
" There's still nobody home," she said when she
realized the blonde was standing there. Usagi went over
and gave her the hug that she hadn't been able to wrap
around her for the thirty minutes it had taken Mamoru
and Hotaru to get here.
" I think he'll be all right, Naru-chan," she
whispered into her ear, feeling tension draining
away. " They're with him right now."
" The doctors?"
" No," she smiled. " Ones who can help him, though."
" Who?" she asked, and then blushed. " Am I supposed
to know?"
" I'll let them decide that when they're done," she
replied, and steered them off away from the emergency
ward. " They need some time to work undisturbed, though."
" I trust you, Usagi-chan," Naru happily beamed at
her. A moment later, though, the smile faded away.
" Naru-chan?"
" Why do people do things like this, Usagi? He's
never hurt anyone in his life."
Oh, boy, she sighed to herself and steered them
away from the exit like she had been planning. The signs
that she had been using to navigate by said that there
was a chapel on the premises, though, and that might be
the right place for this. It should be quiet and empty at
this time of the day.
She led her friend in and detoured into the small
Christian chapel on the left. There was a Shinto shrine to
the right, but she heard low voices in that room. They took
seats in a pew in the back. To her surprise, Naru
genuflected and crossed herself before sitting.
" I'm not," Naru explained before she could ask.
" It's all right," she replied. " Naru-chan, there
are a lot of people in the world, and some of them aren't
good people. They don't care what they do to other people.
All they want to do is take whatever they can, regardless
of the consequences."
Her mind flashed back to the ones she had fought.
Beryl standing over her with the ominous presence of
Metallia behind her. The Wiseman chortling as Black Lady
prepared to destroy the world. Pharaoh Ninety's glee as
she placed the Holy Grail into the hands of Mistress
Nine. Nephrenia smiling from one of her mirrors. Jason
triumphantly gloating as he clutched the crystal in one
hand while her body floated next to him.
She scowled briefly, recognizing the last as one
of Minako's memories surfacing from the depths of her
mind. " They simply don't care. They just take. Umino
didn't do anything wrong. What happened wasn't his fault.
We have to accept that there are selfish and amoral people
in the world. No matter what I do, it won't change that
basic fact."
" You sound like there's something you could do,
Usagi," her friend replied a few minutes later.
" I could, Naru," she replied, sighing and pointed
towards the altar at the far end of the room. " Do you
see that cross up there? I could climb up there with him,
Naru, and give my life for the sins of the world. I could
make everyone perfect, and loving and caring.
" I could do it, Naru-chan," she bitterly went
on. " I would have given up my life, and nothing would
have really changed. At some point, whatever I did would
wear off, and everyone would go back to being what they
were before. Nobody would have changed.
" I had a long talk with my mother about that right
after Minako died. I was going to do just that and make
everything perfect. I understand it now. It hurts, but I
understand all too well now.
" People have to be able to make their own choices,
and I would be taking that choice away from them. I can
only lead them towards enlightenment by example. If I
force someone to be good, they never will be. They have
to learn to do that on their own. If I made them be good,
I would be no different than the ones who hurt other
people."
" You really have changed, Usagi-chan," Naru said
a few moments later. " What happened to the carefree,
happy girl that I used to know?"
" She's growing up," Usagi sadly replied, putting
an arm around the brunette and holding her. " I have had
a lot to think about the last few years. I'm only one
person. No matter what I did, there would be no way for
me to stop all the wars going on. I couldn't end all the
suffering. I can't be everywhere at once. All I can do
is to show them the way."
" Usagi?" Naru asked a little later. " I thought
your mom didn't know about you. I mean, who you are."
" No, not Ikuko-mama," she smiled. " My other
mother. Remember what I told you? She's the one I talked
to about this."
" You live in a strange world, Usagi-chan. I'm not
sure that I could do what you do. Thank you for saving him."
" He makes you happy, Naru-chan," she replied
before smiling. " It was the least I could do." Then,
the smile became mischievous. " You do have to promise
me one thing, however."
" What?" Naru asked, feeling confused.
" Contacts, or get him in for eye surgery," she
giggled. " He looks a lot better without those glasses." Naru
began to furiously blush as the doors opened. Mamoru walked
in, looking tired but pleased.
" There you are," he softly said to them and sat next
to the girls.
" Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked, not needing to say the
rest. Naru looked expectantly at him as well.
" We've got him to where the doctors can help him,
Naru-chan," he answered them. The brunette squealed in
delight and threw her arms around him.
" Thank you," she said, and then pulled back, a
little embarrassed. " Mamoru-san, are you... ?"
He weakly grinned and handed her a rose that he
produced with a flourish of his hand in mid-air. " Why
don't you go to him, Naru-chan? I'm too tired for
bouquets right now, but I'm sure they have a vase that
you can use for this."
She rose with a happy smile on her face and bowed
deeply before taking the flower and turning to leave.
" He looks a lot better right now, Usako," he
added after she left. " He'll probably wake up a little
later on today, or maybe in the morning. We were able
to bring him back from the brink, but it wasn't easy.
Neither of us is used to dealing with anyone hurt that
badly."
" How are you and Hotaru?" she responded, feeling
concerned.
Mamoru stretched his arms above his head before
answering. " She wasn't comfortable with Naru-chan
knowing, so she went outside to rest for a little bit."
" What is everyone else doing?"
" The last I heard," he said while pulling her
to him. " They were just starting to fight against
Flare. She made a dramatic entrance right after you
left."
" They shouldn't have," she replied. She started
to reach for her communicator, her response confusing
him. " He doesn't want us to get killed right now. He
wants us to give up, remember? They aren't in any real
danger."

************************************************

Mamoru was asleep on the couch where they had
left him when they came in. She wasn't in the kitchen
when she looked. Did she leave while I was in the
shower? she asked herself. That wouldn't be like her.
Actually, now it would be. The girl Usagi used
to be wouldn't have left her here alone with Mamoru at
his apartment.
" I'm out here, Rei-chan," her voice softly called
from the balcony. The raven-haired girl grabbed a pair of
cans of soda and walked out to join her friend. They all
had a long, tiring day today, and maybe this would help
her relax.
" Thanks," Usagi said, taking one can and carefully
working a fingernail under the tab to open it. " How are
you doing?"
" A lot better after that shower," Rei replied,
sitting next to the blonde on the old sofa. " He's still
asleep."
" He's just tired, Rei-chan," she pointedly
replied. " He wasn't shot at all afternoon."
" It was only a half-hour, Usagi-chan," she
explained, trying to lightly brush off the earlier
battle. " Mako-chan even admitted that she was enjoying
it after a little while."
" She enjoyed getting beat?" the princess
replied. Her voice was slightly sarcastic, but it
was a joke and not directed at her companion.
" No," Rei laughed, taking a sip of her
drink. " She's as bad as Haruka-san about hating
to lose. What she told me was that it was nice to
be able to cut loose at full power for a change."
" Well, Haruka-san wasn't all that happy when
I ordered a retreat."
" Please, 'strategic withdrawal'," the priestess
laughed. It took all of Michiru's wiles to get Haruka
to disengage from the battle today. Fortunately, the
fatigue affecting Mamoru and Hotaru due to saving Umino
was the worst they had suffered today, as long as one
didn't mind a blow to the ego. Flare had not been
sorely pressed by their efforts today.
That made her remember one of the things that
she wanted to ask Usagi about, though. Her friend was
taking this far too calmly, in her own opinion.
" I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier today,
Usagi-chan. I shouldn't have done that," she began.
" That's all right, Rei-chan. I must have really
startled you by saying that I wanted to go to school to
take a test."
" Well, yes," she admitted and blushed. That part
was also true. " You're the most powerful of us,
Usagi-chan. He wasn't even phased by your attack today.
How can you take this so calmly?"
She waited a few minutes before answering. " I'm
not calm, Rei. I'm so scared that I want to scream, but
I can't afford to do that now. I have to be strong."
" What?" she asked, turning towards her friend.
" Is it wrong for me to want that future that
we've seen? I'm desperately afraid of losing Chibi-usa. I
can't imagine... , no, I don't want to imagine a future
where she doesn't exist. I'm not denying what happened,
Rei-chan. I saw how powerful he was as well as any of
us. All I can hope is that we can get a Planet attack
on him or something, and it works."
" That might be tough, Usagi-chan. We haven't done
one of those yet without Minako-chan, and it takes us too
long to synchronize with the Outers to boost you up for
it to be practical in a fight."
" I know," the blonde admitted. " As well as they
work together, they don't have a counterpart to the Planet
attack. Michiru thinks that because they were so far apart
most of their time in the past that they never developed
a group attack like that.
" Still, I have to believe that we can do it,
Rei-chan. If I don't take this seriously this time,
we might fail. I'm far too aware of the price of failure."
" We'll do it," she replied, putting her hand over
Usagi's and giving her a reassuring squeeze. The pain her
friend was in, and the maturity she was showing in dealing
with it only strengthened her resolve. They would beat
him. They would have to beat them.
Idly, she wondered if the legends of a bird known
as the phoenix were true. Could she rise, reborn from
the ashes like Hotaru if she decided to pay the ultimate
price?

************************************************

He had been surprised Makoto was in a good mood
after the day's events. None of them had been too pleased
about the TV coverage, and the opinions voiced by the
media when they had pulled out of the fight. Usagi had
asked for something that was very difficult for the
brunette to do.
Flare had stopped attacking when she realized what
was going on. She left right after a few choice words. They
had lost the battle, technically, but they won the war. The
fighting had stopped, and the only serious injuries had
been in a restaurant. She had the opportunity to hurt a
lot more people before they had arrived, so perhaps Usagi's
assessment of the situation was correct.
What he had been doing most of the night was
examining the records of the fight in Ami's computer. She
had followed her usual practice of recording the battle,
and although she was no closer to figuring out Flare's
power, he had been able to get lot of information from it.
For all her intelligence, Ami didn't have his
tactical training. He remembered many years of instructing
at the Guard Academy on the moon. While many of those
memories were still vague, the uncertainties had nothing
to do with the subject. He didn't remember his students,
but he remembered the subject.
Flare had taken all their best shots today. Well,
almost, he reminded himself. He wouldn't ask that of
Hotaru or the princess. That left them with only a few
options.
The prince was a crafty fighter, he well knew. While
the extent of Mamoru's gifts still weren't known, it
probably wouldn't be enough in terms of the raw power
needed to stop Flare. Mamoru had a lot in him, but wasn't
able to use all of it in an attack, they had discovered
during their practices.
His attack generally was much on the same power
level as the girls, although he had several ways of
delivering it. They had found out that what he was doing
when he stopped the second golem they fought was using
most of his power in one blast that left him nearly
comatose due to his lack of experience at controlling
it. Mamoru still could exceed his normal level of power,
but only at a great price for a small gain.
Speaking of raw power, Saturn hadn't been there
today, either. She might be able to make a difference,
but he wasn't sure. Usagi's new attack had been the
equal of Hotaru's Silence Glaive Apply as far as they
had been able to determine. They couldn't be perfectly
sure, however.
They both admitted to needing to hold back from
fully exerting those powers to avoid certain
consequences. The last thing any of them wanted was
for Usagi to go too far with the crystal. Nor did they
want Hotaru to approach the level of power needed for
the Death Reborn Revolution.
Power, he decided, was the key. They simply needed
more power. He jumped down from the back of the recliner
and padded over to the couch. Sleeping on it was the
reason that they couldn't do what they needed to do. Makoto
had left her out here at his request, and left her door
ajar. She was tired from her efforts today and didn't mind
the chance to get a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Flare had shrugged off Neptune and Uranus' coordinated
attacks. The other Senshi's attacks had been similarly
ineffective. If Usagi or Hotaru couldn't do it, that left
only the riskier Planet attack. With the Outers running
interference, the Inners would have the time to do it.
The question was would they be able to employ the
attack without Venus. They had tried after her loss, and
they hadn't been able to make it work. Group teleports
were about all they could manage, and those had been
difficult enough.
This was all his fault, he knew. They couldn't do
what they needed to because they didn't have Venus. They
didn't have Venus because of him and his failures to wake
her up from her slumber. She was asleep because he hadn't
trained her well enough, or because he hadn't remembered
something important.
" Venus," he whispered, preparing himself. It wasn't
his Minako he was calling out for. This time, he was going
to find her. Gently, he brushed his consciousness across
hers.
At first, there was only the need for sleep. She was
still young and tired easily. The only things he found
there were the tangled skein of her dreams and a haunting
image of Usagi's sad eyes.
As he feared, there was nothing else. Phase two, he
said to himself and closed his eyes. The crescent on his
forehead began to glow with the painstakingly accumulated
energy from the last full moon. He had let her old crescent
compact absorb what it could in a window at Makoto's while
he had frantically ran from one patch of moonlight to
another on that cloudy night.
He cast his memories back as far as he could. If the
cat could not do this tonight, then perhaps the man could. He
truly didn't remember which he was at first; a man or a cat,
but he did recall Queen Serenity changing them in some of
his earliest memories.
" Luna," he whispered, remembering her as a human and
how radiantly beautiful she had been. Usagi had briefly
changed them into humans during their first battle with
Nephrenia. He concentrated on Luna's glorious eyes, making
his self-image into the one he saw mirrored in hers at
that moment.
The brief shock of pain was worse than he
remembered. His skin felt like it was crawling as his
perspective changed until he was looking down on the
sleeping child.
" Venus," he said softly, picking her up and cradling
her in his arms while marveling at how small she was
compared to him right now.

************************************************

He closed down the computer and leaned back in
his chair to consider some of the things he had just
read in the reports. There was no urgency involved since
it would still be many years before he sprang his trap. He
wasn't planning on repeating Jason's mistakes.
No, he'd be far more direct about it when he
attacked. There would be no convoluted plans or tricks
involved that could, and invariably did go wrong. Most of
them would die at night, or be otherwise caught by
surprise. The ones he couldn't deceive would fall under
the weight of numbers.
One of his old colleagues, Gabriel, had planted a
number of golems in and around the city of Tokyo. They
were part of a plan to observe the Sailor Senshi in
battle. Most of the first batch had already been used,
but he quickly sent in more of them after getting his new
base set up.
He lacked Gabriel's gift at making powerful golems,
but his were more subtle ones that weren't designed for
combat. They didn't attack the Senshi. They merely tracked
them as long as possible when one came close enough to
activate the dormant construct.
Eventually, he would be able to establish a pattern
to their actions, and that would lead to who they were. Given
that, it would be child's play to kill most of them without
a fight. They looked like young girls, and tended to act
like them from what he had seen of them through the scrying
spells. Since he had already had set up the spells on the
golems when he made them, there was no way for the Senshi
to detect that they were being observed like they would
have if he directly watched them through a spell.
Yes, things were going well. He lit up a cigarette
and put his feet up on the desk he sat at. His recruitment
of new talent had already made up for most of his losses
from the debacle at Jason's stronghold, and they would be
far stronger in time. He had plenty of time to make sure
that everything would go as planned.

************************************************

She woke feeling like something was wrong. It
was quiet around her, though. The only sounds in the
Tsukino household were the normal ones of a peaceful night.
The faint howl outside instantly told her what was
going on, and she slipped out of the room and down the
stairs to leave by the pet door. She recognized his voice,
and the pain he was in. He wasn't anywhere she could see,
and it hadn't been too loud. That left only a few options
since he generally wouldn't be doing this on anyone's
property. He would want to be alone, and that left only
one real choice, which she ran towards.
She found him curled up into a small, miserable
ball in the middle of the soccer field. Every few minutes,
he would let out a mournful howl.
" Artemis?" she softly called, keeping her voice low
enough so that nobody else would hear. " Artemis?"
" I blew it again," he admitted, looking over at
her. Defeat was etched into every feature on his face. He
stood, stretched and walked over to sniff at an open bottle
lying hear him. She almost laughed as he made a face and
intentionally tipped it over.
It was funny until she realized that he smelled
like the contents of the bottle.
" You've been drinking," she angrily started before
the absurdity of that statement hit her. " Wait, how did
you even get...?"
" It's easy when you have opposable thumbs," he
announced and walked over to stand downwind of her. He
let out another mournful yowl. " I wish we could cry."
" Opposable thumbs? What are you talking about?"
" I couldn't do it, Luna. I even managed to turn
myself into a human for a little while, but I even then
I still couldn't wake her up. We're all going to die
because this stupid white cat who stands before you
screwed up once again."
" That is nonsense, Artemis, and it's wrong."
" No, it isn't," he politely disagreed. " It's
the simple truth, and I should have drank more of that
sake while I had the chance. It smells too vile now to
go near it. Maybe it would have killed more of the pain."
" We haven't lost yet-"
" And we can't win," he coldly interrupted her. " We
can't win without either losing Usagi or Hotaru. Even if we
win, we lose. The reason for it is that we don't have Venus,
and the reason we don't have Venus is me. Do the math, Luna."
" I am not going to stay here while you wallow in
self-pity and insult me, Artemis," she announced,
disdainfully turning her back on him and preparing to
leave.
" Luna, don't go. Please. I'm the only one I've
been insulting, if you recall," he said a few moments
later to her, giving her a sad smile. She relented and
walked back over to sit by him, but stayed upwind. " I
still can't help but feeling responsible for whatever is
going to happen. I should have seen it coming somehow."
" It's more polite, but you're still talking
nonsense," she replied in a gentle tone of voice. " You're
using hindsight to look at the situation and punishing
yourself for not having been perfect and seen all the
problems before they happened."
He sighed deeply. " I know that in my mind, but my
heart hasn't quite got the message yet."
" So that's why you were drinking?"
" Trying to drink," he laughed. " I brought the
bottle with me from Makoto's. The first sip tasted so
bad that I changed back into a cat. I ended up wearing
more than I drank since I could no longer hold the
bottle and dropped it."
" Was it hard to do?" she pensively asked. He knew
she didn't mean drinking.
" Not as hard as I thought," he replied and wrapped
his tail around her. " I think that we're going to have a
lot of fun a few full moons from now."
" Your mood certainly got better quickly," she teased
him and leaned into him for support and security. He
rested his head on hers.
" You do that to me, dear."
" Now, that is definitely the Artemis I'm used to
hearing," she smiled.

************************************************

" Burning Mantra!" she screamed out, sending a
barrage of flaming rings through the air towards her
target. Mercury cried out as well, sending a blast from
her 'Mercury Aqua Rhapsody' just to the left of Flare as
she avoided Mars' attack. That's it, she grimaced. Let
yourself get herded into this.
" Jupiter Oak Evolution!" the green-clad Senshi
yelled, popping up from behind the bushes she had been
knocked into a minute ago. Jupiter had been letting this
one build up for longer than normal, judging from the number
and brightness of the leaves of energy that flew towards
the redhead as she spun around.
Flare got her arms up to block the worst of it and
was only knocked back a few meters. Catlike, she landed
on her feet.
" Damn," Mars whispered under her breath. This wasn't
what was supposed to be happening. They had been too tired
after the fight yesterday to really finish their discussion
of what went on Monday. Usagi had suggested they meet today
at this park to decide what they wanted to do.
It was either karma, fate, or Murphy's Law that made
Flare attack them when she, Makoto and Ami reached the
park. Like the day before, Flare's sword was blocking or
deflecting their attacks. One thing they had decided on
the way to the park was to surprise her in the next fight
and see if her ability to block their attacks had any
limits.
Apparently, it did, but they were in no position
to exploit the weakness. Ami had tried to hit the panic
button on her communicator before she transformed, but
Flare hadn't given them the chance. None of the others
had shown up yet. Usagi and Chibi-usa were a running a few
minutes late when they had arrived, and Usagi had told them
to go on ahead. They were supposed to be here by now, she
knew. They really needed the reinforcements.
" That wasn't very nice of you," Flare growled,
flinging a bolt of light that caught Jupiter full on,
knocking her to the ground in a smoking heap. Then, she
turned towards the other two and smiled. " Care to give
up yet?"

************************************************

" Look out!"
Screams rang out ahead of them just in time to
give them a chance to dive out of the way as a bolt of
fire tore between them. Mars' arrow, she realized, the
bag of groceries forgotten as she looked at the molten
scar that now ran the length of the street as far as she
could see. The median that they were walking along was
now a low pile of rubble.
She glanced over to see Chibi-usa looking towards
the park from the entrance they were standing near. She
still held on to Minako's hand, thankfully. She didn't
want the child to be hurt.
" Senshi!" was the only part of someone's yell that
she could make out as another explosion made the ground
begin to shake. A bird made of fire rose out of the pall
of smoke hanging over the park. It cried out once before
banking into a tight turn and plummeting down into the
gloom. Another explosion was felt, knocking her and several
others to the ground. She still couldn't see the combatants.
" I'm going up there!" she yelled out to the girl
as a low rumbling began to be heard. It rose in volume
like something that was far away but rapidly approaching.
She flashed a quick smile at her daughter to reassure her
and stood up, reaching for her broach. She knew that
sound. The cavalry had arrived, just like in the movies.
" Are you crazy!" a voice rang out as she was
pulled down to the ground by a young man in a black
uniform. " You'll get killed in there."
" Shino-san?" she gasped out, and then cried out
in shock as a blue sphere passed right over their heads
with a roar that reminded her of the sea. She started to
protest his restraining her when she realized that
normal people didn't run towards a fight involving the
Senshi.
This secret identity stuff really has some
drawbacks, she bitterly decided.
*Chibi-usa-chan! I can't transform right now. He
knows who I am. Can you come over and distract him?*
" Stop biting me!" a shriek rang out on the other
side of the debris. * I can't, Usagi-chan. She's going
nuts over here*
*The poor thing must be scared* is what she sent,
although the picture in her mind of the struggle going
on between the two young girls brought a smile to her
mind.
*Scared my-* her daughter replied, quickly biting
off the last word. *I can barely hold her down. I think
she wants to either get into the fight or to go to you.*
*Bring her over* she sent and began to look around
the rooftops, hoping that her love would be there soon.
Technically, she hadn't been in any real danger yet, so
he might not know what was going on.
" Have you ever seen them before?" Shino asked,
peering up over a car towards the park.
" Who?"
" The Senshi. I've heard stories about them and seen
them on TV, but I've never seen them."
" I've seen them," she admitted. That much was true,
at least. Chibi-usa stood and clambered over the remains
of the median with a struggling Minako-chan in her arms.
*We don't know each other* the girl quickly sent. She
ran over next to them and put on her scared look.
" I'm frightened," she blubbered, huddling close to
them as yet another explosion came from the park. The fight
was still going on.
Minako burst from Chibi-usa's arms as soon as her feet
were on the ground and tried to push her way in between
Usagi and the young man, but ended up falling down instead.
Chibi-usa scooped her up before she could do anything but
begin to cry.
" I'm so sorry about my sister," she began when a
figure in black landed beside them. Somehow, she kept from
calling out his name in gratitude.
" I've got these two, " Tuxedo Kamen said to the
young man, picking up the two girls. " Get her out of here."
He pointed down the street away from the park and
jumped to the top of the building and out of sight.
" He's right," Shino admitted and pulled her to her
feet. He tugged on her arm and they began to run in that
direction. She followed him for a couple of blocks, and
then slipped away and into an alley before he could react.
Her wings unfurled as she changed, and she leapt up to the
low rooftop on her left and started making her way to the
park.

************************************************

They didn't need to count it off or give any
signal. They were beyond such simple means. One moment
they were watching Flare finally break through Mars'
defenses and preparing to administer the coup-de-grace. The
next, Uranus was off like the wind, her feet kicking up a
cloud of the last of the cherry blossoms from the ground.
Her own attack did what they expected.
Flare brought her sword up to deflect it away.
Uranus' shoulder caught her in the chest, driving her to
the ground. The redhead snarled a curse and rolled to her
feet just as the Space Sword came down where her head had
been a moment before.
They began to square off when she silently came in
from behind and caught her off-guard with a brutal side
kick into her lower back. Ignore me at your peril, she
warned her opponent, pulled out her mirror and stuck it
in front of her face. Just because I don't lug around an
obvious weapon doesn't mean that I'm not a threat.
" Submarine Reflection!" she whispered. The
resulting blast sent her flying, but she wasn't on the
receiving end. Her target screamed in pain and vanished,
reappearing about twenty meters away.
Their foe snarled in rage and began blasting away,
carving long, deep furrows into the ground. They dodged
easily, each backing away and to one side to draw her
fire.

************************************************

The diversion had almost worked perfectly. Flare
was so busy trying to hit the other Outers that she had
been able to sneak up within five meters of her.
To her surprise, though, she was noticed. Her foe
dove to the side, rolled out of it, and neatly hit her
partners with two short bursts of energy.
" Sorry about that," she said, turning to face
her. " It's tough giving those two a false sense of
hope. I've been waiting for you."
" Oh?" she replied, bringing her Glaive to the
ready. Flare only smiled and created her sword again.
" Is this how you really want it?" Saturn asked,
looking over the redhead's shoulders. The others were
still down, but Mars was beginning to stir. C'mon,
Rei-chan, she encouraged the priestess. Please don't
miss this opportunity.
" Yes," Flare grinned and attacked. Their weapons
were a blur of ripostes and blocks as they tested each
other for nearly a minute until she was able to lever
her opponent's sword into the position she wanted.
" You know what they say in some Chinese martial
arts philosophies?" she grunted, straining to hold the
position. " They call the sword the queen of all weapons."
She waited until the grin started on Flare's face
and disengaged, but not in the way expected. Using the
two blades on her weapon to trap the sword blade, she
shoved it down towards the ground and brought the haft
of the Glaive around and into her face.
" But the staff is the king," she finished,
disarmed her and jumped back to give a clear field of
fire. " Mars!"

************************************************

Saturn's shout brought her fully to her senses, the
haze fading in the rush of adrenaline. An opening! her
instincts screamed at her, and she got herself up to where
she was kneeling.
" Mars' Flame Sniper!" she cried, bringing her hands
into position just like she was using her own bow back at
home. Saturn was leaping back and away from Flare, her
Glaive held out in front of her and creating a barrier.
Flare was looking straight at Saturn, and hadn't noticed
that she was up. A scintillating beam of energy bounced
off of the Senshi's shield.
This was too easy, she realized. She was a crack
shot, and this shot was mere child's play. She concentrated
briefly, bringing her point of aim onto the redhead's face.
Without warning, all she could see were a pair of largish,
brown eyes on the face of the new girl. Hamaji was a little
nervous at first, with it being her first day at a new
school, and a Catholic one at that. She took it onto
herself to at least be nice to her, and didn't make fun
of her like some of the others. It led to a brief case
of hero worship, naturally.
She sort of liked the adulation at first, since
she was never really popular with most of the other
girls. She had a reputation for being different due to
living at the shrine. While they never became close, or
even friends, Hamaji was never as distant as the others.
She lowered the arrow and let it dissipate with a
frustrated sob.
" Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"
" Tuxedo Smoking Bomb!"
The two cries rang out, heralding the arrival of
the Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen. Flare had the opportunity
to recover, thanks to her hesitation, and nimbly jumped
away, avoiding the attacks. She was about to go back on the
offensive when Sailor Sun appeared behind her.
" Enough, Flare," he said, putting a hand on her
shoulder to restrain her. " That will be enough for today."
The redhead didn't look happy about it, but stopped
anyway. She turned towards Saturn, who had made her way
over by the other Outers. Her sword was brought up in front
of her face and held there a moment before she slashed down
and to her right in a brief salute, and they left, fading
away in the sunlight.

************************************************

The blonde dropped the hair she had been trying
to pin up on top of her head, went over to Rei and put
an arm around her. The girl with the black hair had
been standing there for nearly a minute and staring
into the mirror after she finished putting up her hair.
She gave her a reassuring squeeze. " Rei-chan, come on
and get undressed. A hot bath will make you feel a lot
better after everything today."
Usagi began to undo the sash of the white robe that
Rei was wearing. The action seemed to wake her up at
least, and she pulled away and began to undo it on her own.
" I couldn't do it, Usagi-chan. I had her in my
sights and I couldn't do it."
" Rei," she pleaded with her. " Don't feel so bad
about it. I know that I couldn't shoot you if I had to."
" Thanks," she grudgingly admitted. She went around
behind Usagi, put her hair up for her, and gave her a
gentle push towards the tub. " I'll be all right, silly."
Usagi smiled and turned on the shower before taking
a seat on one of the small, wooden benches. " Wouldn't it
be great to have one these at home?"
" Usagi-chan, that tub alone is bigger than Shingo's
room," she pointed out. One thing these safehouses of
Setsuna's had in common was certain creature comforts,
and this was the most opulent of them. The bath on the
other side of the room could easily hold a dozen people,
and a lot more if they were friendly. She'd seen smaller
ones in some public bath houses.
" I know," she sighed and began to lather
herself. " Still, it would be so nice."
" Yeah, and your father would have to get another
job to pay for the gas bill," Rei laughed and sat down
by her friend. " Or maybe Shingo."
" Hotaru says dinner will be ready in about thirty
minutes," Michiru said after sliding open the door and
poking her head in. " May I join you?"
" Certainly," Usagi smiled, beginning to rinse
herself off. She wanted to spend a few hours soaking,
but thirty minutes would have to do. Michiru smiled
back and came in, slipping out of her robe and putting
it by the door. She already had her hair up in a clip.
" Haruka?" she called out, rapping lightly on a
wooden door as she walked over to the shower. Usagi
and Rei finished and got into the tub to soak. A few
moments later, the door to the sauna opened up and
Haruka came out.
" Dinner in half an hour," Michiru reminded her,
and then playfully sprayed her with a bit of cold
water that made the tall woman jump and the others
giggle.
" I'll get you back, Michiru," she smiled back
and began to rinse off before getting in the tub near
the others. " I wish we had a sauna at home."
Usagi grinned as Rei closed her eyes and sank down
into the water as far as she could without getting her
hair wet.
" Don't mind her," Michiru told them while slipping
into the water. " She's addicted to those things. She
likes to sweat, I think."
" You've got that right," Haruka grinned and
flicked a bit of water at Michiru before her face got
more serious. " Rei-chan?"
" Yes?" she replied, pushing herself back into
a more upright position.
" I'm sorry, but I heard you talking earlier," the
woman admitted. " You did a good job today, and I wanted
to make sure you knew that."
" Haruka," she protested. " I froze."
" Rei-chan," she gently went on. " We were watching
you, remember? You did a good job against her on your
own after Jupiter and Mercury went down. The only time
that you froze was when it wasn't important."
" Usagi-chan seems to be right about their not
wanting to hurt us," Michiru added, giving Usagi a
brief nod of acknowledgment. " It didn't matter today."
" When it matters, you won't hesitate," Haruka
finished. " I have faith in you."
" Thank you," she whispered, grateful for their
encouragement.
" Speaking of when it matters, though," the tall
woman smoothly steered the conversation on to her next
item. " What are you thinking of doing, Usagi-chan?"
The other blonde made a face and sighed. " I'm not
really sure, Haruka-san. We did a lot better against her
today. Maybe if we can get everyone working together on
her at once we can stop them."
" Tactically sound, but I was wondering about
tomorrow."
" I think we should make sure that they're not
bluffing," she decided. " I'd hate to do all this
just because they're good at poker."
" Usagi, should we let them attack tomorrow,
then?" Michiru asked.
" Better tomorrow than Friday," Rei chipped
in. " There are a lot of people in Nagasaki."
" That's what I'm hoping to avoid," Usagi
grimaced. " We'll just have to hope that something
comes up before then, or they make a mistake somewhere.
The alternatives aren't very promising. We either figure
out how to get a Planet attack to work, or I use the
crystal and hope for the best."
" No," Haruka growled. " That isn't a viable
alternative. Hotaru first."
" Haruka!" Usagi raised her voice. " We will
have none of that kind of talk here. I will not allow
you to do that. Do you understand?"
" All right," the tall blonde sighed and slumped
down into the water. " I don't want that to happen
either, Usagi-chan. I don't want to have that happen
to either of you."

************************************************

" I'm ready, Usagi-chan," the girl replied, pushing
her glasses back into place. They always chose the most
irritating time to slide down her nose.
" What about passwords and stuff?" she asked,
recalling what she had seen in some movies. " Aren't
they going to think it is just a prank if it isn't in
the right code?"
" We don't have the codes, Usagi-chan," she explained,
opening and closing a few more windows on the monitor
screen. " They way they make the recent codes there is
no way for me to get those. What will happen is that this
will not be in code, but it will be coming in on their
most secure communications lines."
"So, it's how the message gets there that convinces
them?"
" Exactly," she smiled. " Setsuna's got a back door
that will let me tap their satellite links and insert the
message. Our next window is pretty soon, though. It can't
be very long, either."
" Well," she replied, and leaned over to type several
words into the computer before looking at Ami. " How about
this? Short and sweet enough?"
" Short and succinct would be a better description,"
Ami added, entering in the message. " But it should work,
and at least we tried to warn them. Any signature?"
The blonde thought about it for a moment, and then
tapped in three more letters.
" Are you sure?" Ami asked.
" They're going to have to get used to it sometime,
right?"
" That's true," Ami decided, and hit the ENTER key.

************************************************

" Not a threat?" he chuckled, holding out the bag
of peanuts to her.
" Shut up!" she snapped at him but took a couple. She
was still sporting a bruise on her nose, but the one to her
pride had been the one to sting. " Remember, it is your idea
to play with them like this. I would have killed them already
if it were a real fight."
" I know, Flare," he quickly replied, soothing her ego.
She had been sulking earlier when he went to talk to her, so
he let her cool off for a while before meeting here. His
partner was a skilled combatant, even if she was a bit
overconfident, and he still needed her help. " You've done
well against them."
" Thanks," she grudgingly admitted, and let the wind
take one of the empty shells away and over the edge of the
tower. The last work crews fixing the damage she caused
earlier had left when darkness began to fall. " Why are
we meeting here again?"
The tone of her question surprised him more than
the question itself. Her voice was thoughtful, or maybe
even introspective. Her usual anger was curiously absent.
" I remembered liking it here," he replied and
decided to open up a little more. In part, it was the
desire of his old self to have a friend that made him
do it. If nothing else, he'd get to see how she reacted
to his gesture. " I used to come here before, I think."
" Does what we have to do bother you?"
" It would have at one time," he admitted, and then
wondered why he had agreed to let so much of his feelings
show. Time to turn the tables. " And you?"
" Nothing bothers me now," she flippantly responded,
but had hesitated slightly before saying it. She was
feeling much like he was, he guessed. Maybe she wasn't
such a cold fish after all.
" That's good," he said and regretted the lateness
of the hour. This exchange promised a new level of their
relationship together. " I don't have much time since I
still have to keep up appearances. Take it easy tomorrow
and rest for a little while. Even you need to now and
then, and they'll have to after today."
" Just hit the remains of the atoll, then?" she
asked him.
" Yes, that should be sufficient," he answered her
and watched her leave. It struck him as he faded away
that he didn't even know what she did in her spare
time. He'd have to remember to ask her about that.

************************************************

" Skipper?" a voice accompanied the knocking
the second time.
" Yes," he called out, shaking his head in an
effort to bring himself more fully awake. It was his XO,
but his voice didn't indicate it was an emergency.
" Sir," the younger man began, closing the door
behind him. " We just received an unusual message, and... "
" Go on, Frank," he gently prodded him. " You wouldn't
be waking me up if it wasn't important.
" This came in on the routine dispatches from the
Pentagon," the XO said, holding out a clipboard. He took
it and glanced at the message.
" 'Another explosion imminent. Leave ASAP. Signed,
NQS.' What is that supposed to mean?" he read out the
message and looked at his second.
" It was in the clear and uncoded. Normally, I
would have simply dismissed it as some crank, but it
came in sandwiched between test orders to confirm the
authorization protocols to begin a nuclear exchange."
" What?" the ship's captain exclaimed, biting back
a curse. " Are you sure that this isn't one of the kids
in Communications playing a joke?"
" Yes, sir. I didn't believe it myself, but Captain
Tyler was the officer in charge of that section and he
personally transcribed and decoded the messages. We already
checked with the Pentagon, and they confirm sending
everything else we received. The National Security Agency
is looking into the matter as we speak."
" I've known Tyler for years," the captain
mused. " We went to Annapolis together. He doesn't
have a sense of humor on the job. If he says this came
in with those transmissions, this message did. It will
take the spooks in Washington another day just to decide
what happened, and we don't have that time.
" I want the fleet two hundred nautical miles to
the north of the blast site by sunrise, and that includes
any other vessels in the vicinity. Evacuate any people on
any of the other islands in the vicinity as well. Begin
the air operations at once."
" Are you sure about this, Skipper?"
" Yes," the older man mused. " If someone can break
into those communication systems, we're in trouble. No
matter what happens, the fleet is safer out in open
waters, and we've got a lot of civilians on board we
have to keep safe as well. We can do our job just as
well from that distance."
" Aye, sir," the exec saluted and turned to leave.
" One more thing," the captain called out. " Tell
Tyler to get on the horn to the Pentagon. I'm feel like
I'm going to have a long day explaining this."

************************************************

" I wanted to thank you for coming back tonight," he
started, looking around at the other three women. They were
all sitting in the darkness of the observation room at the
summit of the roof of the mansion. The only light was from
the city below them and a few candles. Ami was to his left
on one of the couches, and Michiru and Haruka occupied the
other. He was in one of the chairs and swirling around a
glass containing a shot of Glenfiddich that he still hadn't
drank from.
" What can we help you with, Mamoru-san?" Ami
volunteered.
" I need someone to talk to about a few things," he
admitted.
" Not just someone," Michiru added. " You
specifically asked for us."
" That's true," he sighed. " I have some ideas
about something that might help us in our upcoming
battle. I can't talk about it just yet, though. I want...
I need to work everything out first, and I need some more
information from you three."
He looked at each of them, waiting for them to
agree before he continued. " Ever since we all met, I
was confused about why the Outer Senshi were more
powerful than the Inners. At first, it was only an
idle thing that I used to consider now and again, but
when I started working in the library here that same
thought started nagging me.
" I made up a list of everything that I knew about
you that might be a clue to explaining it. I knew that
you were active before we met. When did you first become
Senshi?"
" It was about six months before we first heard of
Sailor Moon," the blonde replied, finally speaking as she
mulled over where he might be going with this line of
conversation.
" And that was about the same time that Artemis
told me he first knew of Minako being Venus," Mamoru said.
" Something Setsuna told me made me feel that she
started on the same night that I became Neptune for the
first time," Michiru responded after a moment of thought.
" It can't be the total amount of time that they've
been Senshi," Ami protested, shaking her head. " If that
was true, Minako-chan would have been comparatively that
much more powerful than we were when we first met."
" I see that you've been thinking about this as well,
Ami-chan," Mamoru smiled at her. He really wished that the
real proof of that idea being wrong was here. If it was
only a matter of time as a Senshi, Setsuna would never
have needed their help.
Ami probably understood that as well, but didn't want
to remind the two other women of a painful subject. " No,
that isn't the answer. Usako told me about some of your
first practice sessions together. Minako-chan had a much
different approach than the rest of you about fighting
since she had done more of it than you, but she was still
at around the same level as you."
" If it helps," Haruka spoke up. " We saw Minako-chan
fighting a daemon once-"
" A daemon egg!" Ami gasped. " She never told us
that."
" I don't think she realized it was a daemon egg. It
took her several hits to take it down, but she didn't seem
to be aware of the fact that it was different from a youma."
" Also," Michiru started talking, taking over from
the blonde. " We did fight a few youma, it turned out. They
were probably scouts. Until we got to compare notes
recently we thought it was a defective batch of daemon
eggs since they weren't as powerful as the others and
were acting differently from the others. We usually
destroyed a daemon in one or two hits at most, but these
were comparatively fragile. Haruka got one on a near miss."
" I didn't miss," the blonde pointed out. " It was
a warning shot."
" That helps to explain a little bit," Mamoru quickly
cut in. " But there's a few other things as well.
" When you were reincarnated after Beryl," he said
and saw Ami shudder at the unpleasant memory. " Sorry,
Ami-chan. After that, the Inners were generally the same
for a little while. During the time I was moonlighting,
you managed to boost your power levels for some reason. Right
after that, you all got new transformation wands from Luna
and Artemis and powered up a second time. A little while
later, the same kind of thing happened again thanks to Elios."
" Hotaru-chan did the same for us when we started
fighting Nephrenia," Michiru interjected and grew
thoughtful. " She disproves most of your theories, doesn't
she?"
" Yes," the young man chuckled. " She's the monkey
wrench that is fouling up the gears, if you'll pardon the
pun. If I include her in my comparisons, I can't make any
theories work."
" Did you know she doesn't change in size like the
rest of us when she transforms?" Ami asked them. While
the two other women were slightly surprised, the man
wasn't.
" The subject came up when we were talking once
several months ago. I asked her what it felt like when
she transformed," he explained. " Her answer was not what
I expected. She said that she didn't change inside. It
was more like she was changing clothes rather than
becoming someone else."
" That feeling of being someone else is something
that all of us have felt, Mamoru-san," the girl with blue
hair said after she thought about what he just revealed.
" I've been down that road as well, Ami-chan," he
reassured her and steered the conversation away from what
he was trying to skirt around. He still didn't like what
he feared they would have to do, and this was getting too
close to it for his comfort. " The other thing I wanted to
ask, though, was about the talismans. Is there anything
else to them that we don't know about?"
" You're just full of questions tonight," Haruka
smiled and leaned forward to pour herself a shot of the
scotch. She used a brandy snifter, however, and swirled
the amber liquid around and inhaled it's aroma before
going on. Her voice held none of the guarded edge that
they used to expect from her in response to the implication
of her holding back information. " No, at least not to our
knowledge. Setsuna was the one who knew about them and what
they could do.
" They might have been able to do something together,
but we don't have all three of the talismans. I'm sorry,
Mamoru-san."
" It isn't your fault, Haruka-san," he replied. While
it wasn't what he hoped to hear, every little bit of
information, even the negatives, eased his troubled
spirit. He didn't want to miss any possible alternative
to his plan. " I really wish Setsuna-san was here, too."
" We all miss her," Michiru added.
" You've all been a big help to me, even if it
doesn't seem like we accomplished much," he told them
after looking at his watch.
" Sounds like a dismissal to me," Haruka dryly
observed, stood and pulled Michiru to her feet. " The
morning, then?"
" Yes. I still have some work to do tonight, so
we'll go over it tomorrow," he decided. He'd talk to
them at that time about this. Finally, he took a sip of
the scotch and walked the three of them downstairs and
to their car. After they left, he returned to room they
had been in and sat still for a little while composing
himself.
He took from the same place he stored his cane and
roses a glass jewelry case that held four old, age-worn
stones resting on a bed of velvet. The case was put onto
the table. Next, he took out five glasses and a bottle of
a very fine, old, red wine that he had uncorked a little
while ago to let breathe.
He didn't shake as much this time when he reached
inside of himself and took out a crystal sphere the size
of a tennis ball that glowed a warm golden color. In the
darkness, the glow was all the more noticeable.
" Come join me one last time, my friends," he called
out while drawing upon the power inside the sphere to help
establish contact and power the spell. It unfolded like a
flower in response to his actions. " It is said that power
corrupts, and it does. What they don't warn you about is
how as your power increases, the number of limitations on
that same power seems to increase as well.
" I need you tonight. I have a difficult choice to
make and your guidance would be a great blessing," he
added, and then smiled at the four men who were now in
the room with him. Their near identical, gray uniforms
brought back many memories, and most of them were fond. He
took the bottle and began to pour.

*********************************************

" How are you feeling, Mako-chan?" Hotaru asked
as she eased the minivan into traffic on the freeway.
" A little sore, but other than that I'm all
right," the brunette replied, nervously watching the
other cars in their mad dance for position at a break
in the rush hour congestion. She had never been on the
freeways this time of the day on a school morning and
wasn't fully prepared for it. " Are you sure that you
have a license for this?"
" The same as you do," she laughed, handed a
laminated plastic card over and switched to a creditable
imitation of one of Haruka's racing friends that had
helped them to learn to drive. His heavily accented
English had been a source of amusement. " Hello,
officer. My name is Christine, and I'm visiting here
from the United States."
She even wished him a good evening in halting,
awkward Japanese that made Chibi-usa break into a fit
of giggling in the back seat. Makoto laughed and handed
'Christine' back her license. She had one as well, but
she didn't have a car or much time driving. Nor could
she speak English well enough to pull off the
deception. It was a good thing it was only supposed
to be for emergencies.
" Hotaru-chan is a good driver," Chibi-usa
finally was able to say from the back since she had
recovered her breath. Traffic was easing up now that
they were past the last freeway interchange that led
to the business districts. " Did we get all the right
things at the market?"
" I think so," Makoto smiled. It was nice to have
some volunteers to help her out in the kitchen. It was
also nice to see that Usagi's relative ineptness in the
kitchen didn't seem to be hereditary. The young girl had
good sense in the kitchen.
Speaking of Usagi, she had called them this morning
and set up a meeting at the estate they were at last
night. If she had known about it beforehand, she would
have simply stayed the night there. Maybe she'd have the
time to catch another soak in the tub and loosen up a bit.
" I'm sorry," she said, realizing Hotaru had been
talking. " My mind wandered."
" That's all right," Hotaru flashed her an
understanding smile as she took the off ramp and began
the climb up into the hills. " I wanted to warn you about
something. We'll probably be fighting Flare again soon. I
think she was just playing with you earlier."
" I was afraid of that," she said, unconsciously
pressing her hand against the bruise on her stomach from
yesterday. " She wasn't really getting close to me until
I tagged her and she got her pride hurt."
" Well, she did the same thing to Haruka and
Michiru. She's better than she lets on, Mako-chan. Don't
let your guard down."
" She must be good to hit them," Chibi-usa
agreed. " I can't even get close to them in practice."
" Thanks for the warning, Hotaru-chan," Makoto
replied. " Did you have any special reasons for giving
it to me?"
" I'm just feeling guilty. I'm the only one who
really has a defensive power."
" At least it's not because she keeps on hitting
me," the brunette joked. " I feel like her punching bag."

************************************************

" That was a good job on breakfast, Mako-chan," Usagi
said to the tall girl as she finished putting the cups on
the tray.
" All I did was supervise," Makoto chuckled. " Chibi-usa
wanted to do it on her own today. The only thing I was
allowed to do on my own was make sure she didn't make
any mistakes. Other than that, I was following her orders."
" Well, it still hit the spot," the blonde
giggled. " Will you show me how to make the waffles
like that?"
" The waffles are one of the most dangerous parts,
Usagi-chan," Makoto heartily laughed. " They're like most
things in a western breakfast. One or two of something is
pretty safe, but it's what you put on it that kills you.
Do you know how bad all that whipped cream is for you?"
" I don't want to know!" Usagi complained. " They
taste too good to worry about details like that."
" You'll never change, Usagi-chan," the brunette
told her, picked up the tray and handed it to the
blonde. " Mamoru-san looked pretty tired-"
" Mamoru is pretty tired," the subject of their
conversation grinned as he walked in and poured himself a
cup of coffee. " I was up most of the night, Mako-chan.
Would you excuse us for a few moments?"
" Certainly," she agreed and took the tray from
Usagi and picked up a pitcher of tea before going onto
the den with the others.
" Mamo-chan?" she asked, beginning to feel
worried. He hadn't told her that he was up all night.
" I'm all right, Usako," he reassured her. He
took a sip of coffee before putting down the cup and
taking her hands. His eyes caught hers before he
spoke. " Usa, I need to tell you a few things before
I talk to the rest of them. Would you hand me your
broach?"
She was puzzled but complied. He put it down on
the counter next to the spherical crystal he removed
from his pocket.
" I love you, Usagi Tsukino."
" Mamo-chan," she whispered and put her arms around
him. He stroked her hair once and nestled her head down
onto his chest.
" What I'm going to say in there will hurt us. All
of us, I'm afraid. Yes, I should have told you about this
before, but I couldn't bear to do it. It hurt too much to
think about it. I never doubted you for a moment, Usa. I
would never dream of not trusting you.
" I'm the reason that I delayed. Perhaps it was
selfish of me, but I had to try anything else that I
could think of before it came down to this."
" Mamo-chan, what-"
" Shush," he gently interrupted her and gave her
a brief kiss. " Be patient. You'll learn what I mean. All
I want is for you to listen to everything I have to say
in there, but I had to tell you that I loved you beforehand."
" I'll wait, Mamo-chan," she replied, deciding to
trust him. She knew that he loved her and would never
intentionally hurt her. She accepted her broach when
he handed it back to her and picked up the other pitcher
of tea. " Shall we?"
" Yes," he decided, putting away his crystal and
followed her into the other room.

************************************************

All of their eyes were on him when they walked
in. It didn't surprise him too much since he asked them
to be here. It was understandable that they were curious.
Usagi took a seat and gently pulled him down to sit next
to her.
On his left was a large window overlooking the
gardens and a view of Tokyo that belonged on a postcard.
Luna and Artemis were sitting comfortably near each other
on the low windowsill and enjoying the last of the mild
morning sunshine. Rei was kneeling on a cushion by the
long coffee table and making tea for the others. Apparently
she had volunteered to be mother.
To the right of the table were a pair of small
couches. His daughter and Hotaru were sitting together
on the first one, with Ami and Makoto taking the other
one. Across the table, Haruka was laying across the back
of another long couch and would occasionally make a face
at Minako, who was sitting on Michiru's lap.
He closed his eyes for a long moment to try and burn
the image of them into his mind. They really were his family
here, he had come to understand. There were no others whose
welfare he placed higher than the people in this room.
Usagi handed him a cup of tea that Rei passed over
to her and he took a drink and a deep breath. " I'm very
glad that you've been bearing up so well from all the
stress and pressure that we've been under lately. I know
that what has been going on with fighting Flare has not
been easy to deal with. What I wanted to talk to you
about is that there is a way for us to have a better
chance against her."
"What?" Makoto exclaimed and he looked away, not
wanting to meet her eyes, or those of any of the rest. " Why
didn't you tell us before this?"
" It isn't that easy, Mako-chan," he explained in a
bleak voice. " If it was easy to do, I would have told all
of you much earlier. Will you listen for a little while
before you pass judgment on what I have to say?"
" Of course, Mamoru-san," Michiru called out in
support. The others agreed and settled down. Usagi put one
of her hands on his to comfort him.
" As you know, I've been studying a lot about magic
recently," he began. " I've been trying to learn how we do
what we are able to do. In order to do this, I had to learn
a lot about the basic theories behind just what magic is
and how it works.
" There are two things I need to explain to you and
make sure you understand about this. Aside from Usagi-chan,
who really knows what Queen Serenity did back in the Silver
Millennium during the last battle?"
" She gave up her life for us," Ami volunteered and
Chibi-usa nodded in agreement.
" What she did is one of the most basic forms of
magic," Mamoru went on. " If you give up something of
value, you can get something in response. That has led
to, over the years, the idea of giving sacrifices and
offerings to gods, for example.
" But we can't do anything except our normal
attacks, Mamoru-san," Makoto asked him. " We don't
know anything about magic."
" Actually, one of you already has done this,
Mako-chan," he replied and pointed across the
table. " She did."
" Minako-chan?" Makoto asked, puzzled.
" So that's how she did it!" Usagi gasped. " I
knew what she did, but not how."
" That's correct, Usagi-chan. I still don't know
how she was able to use the crystal, or why she is still
alive, but we know what she did. That leads us to the
next thing I wanted to discuss."
He looked over at the two cats. " Luna, Artemis. I'm
sorry if this is a little blunt, but we made a mistake at
the beginning. We _all_ made a mistake, but I especially
don't want you to think that it is your fault. We were
never meant to be like this."
" Mamoru-san?" Rei asked, nearly dropping the cup
she was filling for Ami.
" This was the hardest part for me to accept, I'm
afraid," the young man continued speaking. " When... when
we were reborn in this time, we should have fully awakened
to who we were in the past. There shouldn't have been any
piecemeal memories of anything like we have now. What hurts
is that we brought it on ourselves."
" Oh, my heavens, Mamoru," Luna gasped. " You don't
mean that..."
" I'm afraid so, Luna," he grimly smiled. " Our
subconscious didn't want to be totally replaced by this
new part of us from the past. What we did to trick the
new part was to place it off to the side and only let it
take control part of the time. Instead of becoming who we
should have been, we transformed."
" It's so damn obvious!" Haruka growled, one hand
clenching into a fist. " Why didn't we see it?"
" Haruka, dear, you've never given in to
anything," Michiru consoled her, leaning her head
back against the blonde. " I knew you before we
changed. Why would you have given in for this when
you never gave in to anything before?"
" It must have happened while we were learning
about this new world we were in, Luna," Artemis said
to her. " We must have learned that it could be that
way so we'd accept it later on when we met the girls."
"It's simple, Artemis," she sadly smiled. " I had
to listen to Usagi-chan going on and on about all the
different manga that she read. The idea of a secret
identity is well established in literature and has been
for years. We both read, listened to radio and watched
television as well as people."
" Mamoru-san, am I the proof of your second
point?" Hotaru asked.
" I think so, Hotaru-chan," Chibi-usa said from
besides the young lady.
" Yes, Hotaru, you are the proof. We should all
be more like you," Mamoru paused to take a drink after
telling her that. " Hotaru somehow understood the point
when she was growing up, or at least on the second time."
" Setsuna!" Ami exclaimed. " I bet that she knew,
and she helped raise Hotaru-chan."
" That's a good point, Ami-chan," the young man
agreed with her. " That is probably true. What I want
to emphasize, however, is that she doesn't think like
you do about it. To her, her transformation scepter is
merely a tool that changes her clothes rather than turns
her into someone else.
" That is the reason why she's been getting more
powerful as time goes on," he went on. " Without that
internal conflict limiting her development, she's been
able to continue to grow at a steady rate. She's never
had a sudden power up like the rest of you."
" How can we do this, Mamoru-san?" Haruka
thoughtfully asked.
" I think I know and I don't like it," Usagi
added. " Not one bit."
" Usako, please?" he implored her. " I'm not
going to ask anything like that of them. Nobody is
going to have to die to do this."
" What is the price for all this, Mamoru-san?" Makoto
asked. " You said that it wasn't easy."
" The whole point of a sacrifice spell is to give up
something of value in order to get something in return," the
man started explaining. " The higher in value the sacrifice,
the more you get out of it. Usagi-chan has already told you
that you can't give up being Senshi-"
" So we give up the other part of us," Rei finished
for him, looking around at the others.
" My god," Makoto whispered.
" No!" Usagi shouted, seeing the looks on her
friend's faces and jumped to her feet in protest. " I will
not allow this! They will not do this!"
" I'm sorry, Usako," Mamoru said, taking her
hand. " I told you this would be painful, but this isn't
the worst part."
" Mamo-chan?" she whispered to him, seeing the tears
on his face. Her anger drained away at the sight of his pain.
" This isn't just your decision, Usako. You see, the
Senshi were never meant to be like this. It's worse for
you, I'm afraid. Sailor Moon was never meant to be at all.
That would be what you would have to give up."
" No," Chibi-usa gasped and began to cry as
well. Hotaru put an arm around her and hugged her.
" What do you mean, Mamo-chan," Usagi finally
asked, still not believing what she heard. If she had
heard it, she didn't want to believe it. She let him
pull her back down onto the couch.
" We've seen the future, remember?" Mamoru bitterly
laughed and looked at his love. "We know that you will
become Neo-Queen Serenity. Diana told us once that Eternal
Sailor Moon's power was the closest to that of the Queen.
You've got nowhere else to go but up, Your Majesty.
" Why do you think that I didn't want to tell you?
The only thing that I can see happening is you agreeing to
do it, Usako. You'll become the Queen, and the Queen isn't
Usagi Tsukino. For me, the price that matters is losing
the woman that I love."

************************************************

She gave Ami an imploring look and nodded her head
towards the door as Mamoru slumped against her and openly
wept. Ami got the other's attention and ushered them out
of the room.
" I have a right to be-" she heard Chibi-usa's
protests cut off as Makoto bodily carried her from the
room.
" Mamo-chan," she whispered to him and let the
tears flow as well now that they were alone. They stayed
that way together for some time and she let him get all
the pain out. He hadn't lied when he said this would hurt.
" Thank you, Usa," he finally told her and sat up. He
noticed the tears on her face and gave her a little
grin. " We must both look horrible right now."
" Men shouldn't cry in public, Mamo-chan," she , now feeling much better since he was smiling
again. " You don't have the right complexion for it."
" Do you have a better idea now of why I was so
reluctant to bring this up?" he asked and got up to get
some tissues for them.
" I think so," she replied and loudly sniffed. " I'm
sorry that I didn't wait to hear everything, Mamo-chan."
" I understand what you're feeling, Usa. We've
discussed it, remember?" he reminded her and blew his
nose. " I don't want to see them hurt, either."
" What is going to happen to them if we do
this? What's going to happen to us?"
" In terms of everything else, I have the least
to give up, except for what I feel about you."
She smiled at him and dabbed at her eyes
briefly. " I love you, too, Mamo-chan, but why were
you so worried about this? I'll still love you no
matter what happens."
" I never doubted that, Usa," he murmured as he
sat next to her. " I never doubted you for a moment. That
was part of what I was afraid of, however. You've given
so much of yourself to help protect this planet and it's
people that I knew you would do it again if it came down
to it.
" I'm scared of losing you. When we saw our future
selves, when I saw the Neo-Queen, I couldn't imagine you
in her place. She seemed to be colder, or more distant
somehow. As soon as I realized what would happen to you
if we did this, I was sure that my Usagi would be gone
as a result."
" You are not getting rid of me that easily,
Mamo-chan," she playfully scolded him, making him grin
in despite of himself. " Why do we give up less than them?"
" In a way, we have less to gain, and less to give
up. I'll become what Endymion will be in a matter of time. Now
that I know more about magic, I understand more of what he
was doing in the future. I don't have to make any drastic
changes. You don't really have to do much, either."
" Me?" she shook her head. " She was so regal and
beautiful, Mamo-chan. I'll never be like her without help."
" You, my dear," he laughed. " You need to look in
a mirror more often. I can even prove that you're more
like her now than you will believe. Hand me the Silver
Crystal."
She did so, but he made her hold onto the empty
broach.
" Change. Do something. Anything."
" I can't, Mamo-chan. You know I can't do anything
without the crystal."
" My point exactly," he told her, trading her the
crystal for the broach. " Don't you remember what our
daughter was doing during practice on Sunday morning? She
was doing everything she used to, and a far better job of
it as well, and the only thing that she was using was her
crystal.
" This is a crutch, Usako," he explained, holding
up the broach. " You've always had some kind of broach and
the crystal when you were Sailor Moon. The broach has
changed each time you take on another form, but the crystal
stays the same.
" The broach is an interface device, I'd guess, or
maybe it was just your version of the other's wands. It let
you use the crystal at first so you could understand and
accept the concept. It's time to take the training wheels
off, Usako."
" How will I use it, though?" she asked him, looking
at the crystal in her hand. " I was never able to make it do
anything except once or twice, and that was when I was
really scared."
" Mama no baka," a voice said from behind one of the
other couches, but there was only warmth and sympathy in
it. " You've already started."
" Chibi-usa-chan, come out here," the young man called
out. The girl stood up and hopped over the couch to join them,
and took her mother's arm. " It isn't very polite to listen
in on people. Mako-chan was right when she carried you out."
" I pulled rank on them," the girl replied, manifesting
her gown for a few moments to make her point. " This is
important, Father."
" Not that important, young lady," he disagreed and
picked her up much like Makoto had done earlier. " We are
not going to do something that will jeopardize your
existence, and that's all you need to know about what
we are discussing right now."
He returned after setting her down outside of and
closing the door. After stopping at the stereo to put on
some music to give them some background noise that would
prevent her from listening in on them, he rejoined her.
" A princess may beat six Senshi, but a king beats
a princess," she giggled.
" Six Senshi? You play a funny game of poker," he
laughed before growing serious again. " She's right,
though. You have started to use the crystal for more
things lately. Going to see Naru-chan at the hospital,
for example, and saving Umino's life are things that Sailor
Moon was never able to do before. It is time for you to
spread your wings, my lovely angel."
" And what of them, Mamoru? What will happen to my
friends?"
He sighed and looked away for a moment. " They won't
have it so easy, Usako."
" Will they forget who they were? That's the part I
don't think I could bear," she admitted, feeling more than
a little sad. They had already gone through so much already.
" No," he went on. " If they did, they wouldn't
understand everything that they had given up. It doesn't
work that way. They just won't be related to their past
anymore."
" I don't... I don't understand."
" The people they used to be with wouldn't remember
them as being someone they knew," the man explained. " If
you did this, for example, you could go home, and your
family wouldn't realize that you were once part of
them. They'd see you, but they wouldn't recognize you
as Usagi Tsukino, even if someone pointed out the
resemblance."
" That means..." she sniffled, getting ready to
cry again. " No."
" I'm sorry, Usako. We'll remember them because
of how I'll get you to help me to cast the spell for
them. They'll remember each other due to how they're
related since they're all Senshi. But nobody else will."

************************************************







The End of the Beginning {2/3}