The End of the Beginning {4/4}


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

" They're breaking up over there," the blonde
observed.
" In more ways than one," Pluto answered her,
looking at the others clustered around Usagi. She and
Uranus had given them a few moments of privacy to step
away and briefly discuss tactics for the upcoming fight.
Neptune was quietly talking to Tuxedo Kamen a few meters
away from them along with the two cats who had finally
come back.
" If she's as tough as you say, this isn't going
to be easy," the woman added. " We don't have much time,
either. All of her attacks have been at noon, local time.
The more time we have to adapt to the change the better."
" You're doing it, too?" the blonde asked, feeling
somewhat surprised.
" I didn't have a family in the sense that you did,
Uranus, but Setsuna Meiou is part of who I am as much as
Sailor Pluto is. I spent a long time as her, learning about
this new world. I may not need the boost in power to change
my mindset, but I'm doing this along with the rest of you.
" I know more than a bit about magic, myself. This
will be stronger if we do it as a group as opposed to one
at a time over a long period. If Usagi-chan was making
the sacrifice also, Mamoru wouldn't have hesitated to. I'm
sure that he's only holding back for her sake."
" You're right as always," Uranus sighed. " If she
knew that, she would do it as well. None of us really want
that, I think. She's the only one of us who had a normal,
happy home to go back to."
" Not even you and Neptune?" she slyly asked.
" My parents weren't able to understand me after I
was six," she admitted. " I think that it was the same for
Neptune. They loved us and supported us, but they couldn't
understand that we were never meant to be part of them. I
only felt like I was part of a family when we were raising
our own little hime-chan."
" I understand you," Pluto replied. " My own flesh
and blood sisters never felt as much a part of me as you
three."
" Thank you, onee-san," the blonde graciously smiled
and gave the other woman a quick squeeze around the
shoulders with one arm. A sparkle of mischief crept
into the smile for a moment. " Does that mean that I
can call you Pu as well?"
" No," the woman quickly responded and stifled
a giggle as Neptune came over with the young man and
the cats.
" We need to get started," the man called out,
getting the attention of the others as well. Saturn
ran back to where they had arrived at to retrieve the
Glaive before joining them as they made a circle where
Tuxedo Kamen indicated.
" This is going to be easier and harder for Usagi
and I than all of you for a few reasons," he started. He
closed his eyes for a few moments and his tuxedo shifted
slightly into a more formal, ornate looking style, but
still in his customary black. He removed and put away the
mask that had appeared. " I can't get used to that shade
of lavender yet, but most of our changes will be simple
cosmetics and how we think about ourselves. Just calling
myself Endymion won't do it all, but it will be a start.
" What the sacrifice will do for you is to force
that change on you. It isn't a matter of cosmetics in
your case. It will only take a few days for you to learn
a simple spell that will let you change clothes back and
forth like what the wands and scepters were for. You won't
need them anymore, and I worked that into the ritual of
the spell."
He looked at them in turn before going on. " I'm
ready."
" We all are," Mars responded, glancing at the
others and not seeing any of them hesitating to meet
her gaze. He nodded and looked at the child that Pluto
was still holding.
" Ar-... ah, Luna, why don't you take Minako-chan
over there so that she's out of the way," he said and
pointed out a spot several meters away. " Artemis,
please keep an eye out from over there on the other
side. I don't think that they'll change their strategy,
but it doesn't hurt to play it safe. Serenity?"
" Yes?" she replied, feeling embarrassed because he
had to repeat himself before she realized that he was
addressing her. At his request, she walked over to stand
next to him.
" Once I cast the actual spell over all of us, your
part is very easy," he told the Senshi. " One at a time,
while you are still in your Senshi form, you say your
planet's name and 'Eternal Power', just like you currently
do. Don't say anything about make-up, though.
" After that, break your wands," he finished.
" Break them?" Jupiter cried out. " They don't break,
Mamoru-san. I accidentally dropped mine off my balcony
onto the sidewalk, and I'm on the third story. It chipped
the concrete."
" They will if you want them to, Jupiter," he
explained to her. " This will symbolically sever the
ties between you and your old life."
" In other words," Mercury added. " It says that
there's no way to go back."
" Is that all there is to it?" Mars asked. When
he nodded, she walked over to the couple. " I'll go first."
Usagi ran into her arms and hugged her, beginning
to cry again for yet another time. She'd lost count of
how often she had cried today. " Rei-"
" Later, Usagi-chan," the Senshi whispered,
interrupting her and steered her back to the man's
side. " We can talk about it later, after we take care
of this."
" I'm sorry, Usako," he said to her and briefly
hugged her. " We have to do this now. I need your help,
remember?"
Joining hands, he began whispering a prayer to the
Light as gold and silver tendrils began to form around
them. The arcane formulae he recited spread them around
to encompass all of them, even the cats and the child.
" Dropped?" Mercury whispered to Jupiter, asking
her about the earlier disclosure.
" All right," the brunette quietly
admitted. " Threw. Right after I lost a boyfriend
due to breaking yet another date to go fight a youma."
" I'm sorry, Mako-chan," the one in blue replied
and patted her on the arm. The threads of light faded away.
" It wouldn't do to have them forget us," Tuxedo
Kamen explained. " I can include the cats and Minako-chan
among the ones who will remember you because of the
common background we have together."
He turned to the Senshi of the fourth planet and
gave her a gentle, almost sad smile. " Thank you,
Mars-sama. It's never easy to be the first one."
She nodded and kneeled before them. Furtively,
her eyes sought out his before she looked down. Once
again, they were trusting each other as firsts. She
gathered and restored her sense of resolve and pulled
out her transformation wand. They laid their hands atop
her head in benediction.
" Mars Eternal Power!" she cried out and closed her
right hand on the wand, and was startled at how easily it
fractured into several pieces.
" I don't feel different," she said, leaving the
pieces at their feet before standing.
" The changes are inside, Mars," Pluto said as she
briefly laid a comforting hand on the girl's arm before
stepping up to the two royals. She went to one knee before
them and bowed her head as well, taking out her scepter.
" Pluto Eternal Power!"
The brunette took her place and did the same as
the others, but gave the couple a warm smile before
bowing her head.
" Jupiter Eternal Power!"
The one who was a Senshi for the least amount of
time stepped up next.
" Saturn Eternal Power!"
A girl in a blue and white fuku followed with a
determined look in her eyes.
" Mercury Eternal Power!"
The last two came forward and kneeled as one. Everyone
smiled a little at that, knowing it to be so much like
them in everything else they did. Together, as always.
" Neptune Eternal Power!"
" Uranus Eternal Power!"
The two woman rose to their feet as the couple let
go of each other's hands.
" It is done," he said and bowed his head.
" He'll have felt that," Usagi decided and walked
first to Artemis and then Luna in order to hold each of
them for a moment. The power levels that she had sensed
during the ritual convinced her that they had just thrown
down the gauntlet. " They'll be here soon."
" Usagi-chan," the black cat said and rubbed the
side of her face against the blonde's in a display of
affection. " You'll do fine. I believe in you."
" Thank you, Luna-sama," she told the cat, put her
down and picked up the child. I never got to say this to
you, Minako-chan, she said inside of herself to the child,
and offered up another prayer that she would get to see her
friend again. I'm going to make you proud of me,
Minako-chan. I won't waste the second chance that you've
given me.
A response was not long in coming. Scant minutes
later a burst of white light from the middle of the
gardens heralded the arrival of Flare.
" So be it," she called out to them, her voice
clearly audible to them despite the distance. " It is
time to pay the price for your refusal of our demands."
" Stay back, Saturn," Uranus growled under her
breath. " Until we see some sign of Sailor Sun, she's
off-limits to you. Pluto, too."
" I understand," the Senshi of the outermost planet
quietly replied.
" This is your last chance, Hamaji-chan!" Mars
called out. This was a part of the ruse and a part of
the feelings in her heart. " Don't make me have to
fight you."
" No, Mars," she responded. " You had your chance
to surrender. From here on in, there is no quarter."
" Nor would we accept it," Uranus shouted. She put
one hand on her hip and pointed at their opponent with
the other. With her best mocking smile, she turned her
hand over and repeatedly crooked the one finger pointing
at Flare in a gesture that was a clear invitation to her
to come and get it.

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

" Scatter!" Uranus yelled and leapt up high as
Flare dropped to one knee and stretched out both of her
hands towards them. The three Inners, recognizing the
attack from the other day, spread out to avoid being a
cluster of targets.
" Flame Stream-"
" Silence-"
" Prominence!"
" Wall!" Saturn yelled, stepping forward and in
front of the cats with the Silence Glaive held out
defensively. Her words drowned out the whisper of her
companion, but her barrier did nothing to impede a ringed,
purple sphere that Flare avoided only at the last moment.
" I do not need to be protected," Usagi protested
as Neptune and Tuxedo Kamen moved a hunk of marble to
form a more secure space for the cats and Minako-chan
to stay in so they would be out of the way of the worst
of the attacks. Saturn had protected them from Flare's
opener, but she couldn't always be on the defensive and
tied down to a particular spot.
" We know, Usagi-chan," Neptune calmly explained to
her. " This may be a ploy to make us expend our energy
before the real fight begins.
" Remember, we still don't know enough about him to
feel that we only have to take her out," she finished and
ran towards Flare as the other Senshi began to
counterattack.
" Usa," the man said to her and helped her
squeeze the child into the space they had made. " I..."
" Just be careful," she told him and sighed.
She knew that he wanted to stay with her, but he also
understood that his flexibility was one of cornerstones
of their strategy against Flare. With a smile, he
followed Neptune into the fight.
" It doesn't get any easier, Usagi-chan," Pluto
gently told her as she moved back to be by her
side. " Holding back when the ones you love are in
danger is the toughest thing that I have ever had
to do."
" I thought that you would have told Uranus no
when she asked you to stay back at first," the blonde
asked, remembering Pluto's earlier words. She also
tried to clear her mind and remember what she felt
like when she did her attacks. If Chibi-usa could do
it with just her crystal, so could she.
" I'm still here at the end," the woman grimly
smiled. " I understand the tactical situation well
enough to understand what she's trying to do. Now, if
she tried telling me to leave, that would have been
another story. I probably would have spanked her."
The resulting peal of laughter sounded very
incongruous on the field of battle.

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

Yes! she cried out in her mind. It was working. The
'Sparkling Vital Pressure' that Flare hadn't noticed on
Monday had just forced her back two steps. They actually
had a real chance.
Sticking to the plan, she fell back away from her
after scoring the hit. As they had expected, Flare was
getting angry and turning to face whoever hit her
last. The same tactics were used by wolfs when they
hunted in packs, Haruka had told them. Flare would
figure it out sooner or later, so they had to press
home their advantage.
Mercury ran in behind Flare as she turned and hit
her with a blast from the glowing blue harp that appeared
in her hands. The redhead screamed in pain and fell to
the ground, and was barely able to avoid an arrow made of
red flames that would have entered her cheek.
" You idiots!" she screamed and rolled to her
feet. " This isn't going to be settled like this. You
don't have any choice in the matter!"
As quick as a cat, she turned and caught Tuxedo
Kamen in the stomach in the stomach with a thin, white
needle of light as he closed to attack in a fashion
similar to Mercury.
" Tuxedo Kamen!" both Mars and the blonde who
wasn't in the fray screamed out, but it was the Senshi
who was caught by another attack from Flare as she
stood and gaped, and fell to the ground.
" Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!" Usagi
shrieked and flung a torrent of energy between Flare
and the two casualties. All of the combatants turned
their faces away from the conflagration of power for
a moment.
" Jupiter!" the sandy-haired blond yelled and
reached into her dimensional pocket to take out Venus'
sword. It may not be right to use it, but the brunette
was more familiar with it than Endymion's, and he was
out cold. They had to take her down fast, and their
ranged attacks weren't going to do it.
" World Shaking!" she called out and tossed the
sphere at Flare as a cover for hurling the sword over
to Jupiter. She then whipped out the Space Sword and
unsheathed it, allowing the scabbard to fall to the
ground.
" Shabon Spray!" Mercury cried, trying to provide
some cover for the two with a cloud of mist. She did her
best to keep it tightly centered around Flare because
it would make it easier for the next maneuver.
" Why don't you just give up?" Flare yelled from
inside the fog. With a cry of rage, Jupiter caught the
sword in mid-air and went into the fog on the same
leap. Uranus ran towards it as well.
" Now!" she yelled out and Neptune popped up
from behind the remains of a shattered column with the
Deep Aqua Mirror held before her. Before she could say
anything, however, Jupiter and the sword came flying out
of the mist. Jupiter only flew a few meters, but didn't
move after landing. The sword was flung much further
away in another direction and landed behind some rocks
with clear, bell-like tones.
" Submarine Reflection!" Neptune managed to finish
and dispersed the fog. Her partner didn't have much time
to react, but she didn't need it as she started her
strike and savagely grinned. Flare didn't have her
sword out.

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

Usagi started forward after just missing Flare
with her attack. Her heart was pounding so loudly after
she saw Mamoru go down that she didn't hear Pluto's
cries. She didn't hear Saturn, either, but the hand
that grabbed her wrist and stopped her finally broke
her out of her panic.
" No!" she cried out as Flare neatly sidestepped
Uranus' attack. The redhead's right arm was drawn in
slightly to avoid the attack, and then she swung it
out and over the back of the sword as a continuation
of the circular motion she had started. Before Uranus
could do anything to counter it, Flare grabbed the
blunt back of the blade and plucked the sword from
her grasp.
" Uranus!" Neptune cried out as well and began
to charge at the woman in black, who kept on turning
with the surprised Senshi and placed her left hand
square in the back of her target. The flash of light
was hardly visible, but the Senshi fell to the ground
like she was struck down the weight of a mountain.
" Saturn!" Pluto yelled and waved her forward. She
did as told, releasing Usagi who slumped to her knees. As
usual, the first casualty in this or any fight was the
plan for the battle. Uranus had said to hold back, but
now it was time to change tactics. So far, none of them
looked seriously hurt, with Uranus perhaps being the
exception.
In a few more steps, however, Neptune wasn't
going to be so lucky. She had stumbled when she saw
the blonde go down and was in no position to avoid the
sword thrust that Flare was aiming at her heart. A mental
command activated the Garnet Orb at the end of her staff
and she held it with both hands while she saw Neptune's
eyes go wide with fear as she realized what was about
to happen.
" Gather," she whispered, invoking the power that
was hers as one of the carriers of the three talismans. In
response, both the Space Sword and the Deep Aqua Mirror
vanished in a sparkle of golden light and reappeared a
few meters away from her, the two talismans forming the
other points of a triangle with the Garnet Orb.
She imagined that the same surprised look that was
on Eudial's face was now on Flare's as well, but she didn't
stop to stare like the witch had. Her hand didn't hurt
Neptune as it hit her, but Flare quickly recovered and
slammed the heel of her hand into the Senshi's chin
before Pluto could finish the longer command to shift
over their bodies as well. The shock of being teleported
on top of the blow combined to knock out the Senshi.
Mercury hesitated a moment as Neptune vanished. It
was all the time that Flare needed to raise an arm and cut
down the blue-clad Senshi before Saturn came plummeting
down at her with the Silence Glaive glowing like the sun.

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

" Mamo-chan," she whispered as Saturn released her
and she fell to her knees, still not wanting to believe
what she had seen. The pebbles and grit that Saturn
kicked up in her wake when the Senshi ran forward weren't
even noticed as they hit her in the face.
Neptune staggered back as she was hit and her head
was snapped upwards before she shimmered and vanished.
She opened her mouth to cry out and warn Mercury, but
Flare beat her to it, spinning and shooting the one in
blue as she hesitated.
Suddenly, there was a moment of silence. Pluto had
just finished moving Uranus and Neptune and was turning
towards their enemy. Saturn was falling towards the
redhead and beginning to glow. For one brief moment,
it was ominously quiet.
Crying. It was faint, but she heard crying.
" Minako-chan!" she screamed and jumped backwards,
twisting as she did and landed in front of the opening
to the hiding place where they had put her and the cats
earlier. From behind her a wave of light, heat and noise
swept past, making her whimper in pain as it continued to
escalate.
" No!" she cried, her voice drowned out in the
roaring sound. This wasn't how it was supposed to
happen. The sound and the pain doubled, and then
doubled again. She had to protect them. " No!"
Her eyes were closed, so she was unable to see
the silvery auras that surrounded all of the Senshi,
Tuxedo Kamen and herself. In one last pulse of energy,
the maelstrom around Saturn and Flare cleared away,
revealing the Senshi standing there with the Silence
Glaive bearing down on the woman in black. Flare was
managing to hold a hemispherical barrier that was
blocking it, but only at a great effort as translucent
ribbons began to ghost in and out around Saturn.
The last wave of energy destroyed the protective
nimbus that protected each of them, but they also bore
the worst of the blast. Pluto, since she was standing
and offering the most area to be affected by the
explosion, was dashed to the ground and slid several
meters before stopping. The others were hardly affected.
Usagi managed to push herself to her feet and
turned around. Her back hurt. The pain was like when
she spent too much time at the beach and got a sunburn,
but this was a whole new level of magnitude.
" This isn't quite what you expected, is it,
Serenity?"
She spun around and winced at the pain it
caused. Sailor Sun was standing behind her on the
other side of the barricade they had made for the
cats.
" I underestimated Hotaru's stubbornness," he
said, leaned forward against a marble block, folded
his arms on the top of it, and rested his chin on his
arms. " And her power as well.
" A pity, really. I sort of liked her, even
though I only met her a few times. She can't beat
Flare, you know. Even that new Senshi can't help
you win," he added, pointing over at an unmoving
Pluto.
" I won't let you do this to them," she
declared, forcing herself to stand upright despite
the pain. She'd done an attack earlier without even
thinking about how she would do it, so she decided
to do another and let her power accumulate like it
normally had done back when she was Sailor Moon and
was beginning an attack.
" No," he sighed, leaned forward and quickly
tapped her on the forehead, right on the crescent,
before she could react and the energy dispersed. " This
isn't about fighting, remember?"
" Then what is it about?" she challenged him. " All
you do is say that we've wronged you somehow. I never saw
you until last Monday. We were nice to Shino when he
didn't have any other friends. Why do you hate us so
much?"
" It is about choices, and regarding the last, I
simply do," he replied and began to walk around the
rocks. He stumbled slightly and grinned for a moment,
slightly embarrassed. The sight was so familiar that
she missed the opportunity to attack him like she should
have. She thought about doing it and all she could see
was the friend she had made standing in front of her.
" I think that I'll keep you alive for a while," he
told her as he leaned back against the rock next to her,
acting as casually as if they were old friends. " You
wear your heart on your sleeve so much that it should
be interesting to watch you observe the passage of years
and all the mistakes that they will make as time goes by."
" So, you're not going to kill everyone, then?" she
asked.
" As I said, your friends and your dreams will
die," he responded, glancing over at the fight while
he talked to her. It was much as it was a few moments
ago, but it was also becoming clear that Saturn couldn't
keep this up for too much longer. " The people down
there; their own stupidity and short-sightedness will
be my reward. Eventually, they are going to destroy
each other by fire if they don't poison themselves first."
" Why do you want to hurt me like this?" she
almost sobbed, trying to hold back her tears.
" You usurped my position," he chuckled. " Of
course I... I... I want to hurt you."
She looked at him in surprise as he stammered...
no, forced out the last words, like it was the most
difficult thing in the world. His tawny eyes lost
some of their golden color.
" Of course I... want... don't... want..."
" Shino!" she yelled at him, feeling a spark
of hope. Maybe he wasn't entirely gone like Rei
thought that Hamaji was lost inside of Flare. Rei's
attempts to reach Hamaji may have failed, but that
didn't mean that this would. She had to try and reach
him. "Shino!"
" Want... don't... want...," he continued to
struggle with the words as she took his hands in hers. He
pulled free and ran away from her in a stumbling, awkward
gait that she easily could match, and after he had gone
about fifty meters he slipped and slid into a shallow
gully running across his path. He tried to stand and
stumbled again as she grabbed his hands. She thought
back to one of her earlier attacks, remembering the
things the 'Moon Princess Halation' had done aside
from causing damage. Hurting him wasn't on her mind
right now.
Another idea occurred to her at the same
time. Perhaps she was too worried about using her
powers without the broach to help her. She had been
worried about Flare being too close to Tuxedo Kamen
and had attacked the woman without even thinking about
how she actually did it. Maybe it was that easy, she
realized. Maybe all she had to do was to just think
about what she wanted, and the power would respond.
" Moon Princess Halation!" she whispered, using
the familiar mantra to help her remember what the old
attack was like, but she was concentrating on getting
a similar, but very different result out of it.
Defend, protect, shield, she told herself, trying
to think of all the different ways to say what she was
trying to do. Support, aid, assist, sustain, and nurture,
she added, hoping that it would be enough. She remembered
the happy times they had together and tried to force all
of her will upon the single idea of freeing him.
" Don't... want... don't want... to... hurt
you... Usagi."
" Shino?" she gasped and looked up into eyes
that were now green.

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

She woke up after what felt to only be a few
moments. Instinctively, she'd held on to her staff
despite getting knocked down and knocked out. That
much was good, at least, she told herself as she took
stock of what she remembered. Saturn! the thought raced
across her mind. Still not able to stand, she did manage
to turn around enough to look at the girl.
What she saw she distinctly did not like. Saturn
had Flare in a bad position, but it was still a case of
having the tiger by the tail. Flare couldn't attack her,
but nor could she attack Flare, and Saturn was not going
to be able to hold out like this for much longer.
From what she knew of the girl's powers, she was
right on the verge of crossing the line of calling upon
her full power. The consequences of that would be fatal
for Saturn, and none too easy for them to deal with
either. Not this close to ground zero.
She knew that she herself wasn't enough to make
a difference here. Not when they needed so much force
to hold Flare in one position and an almost equal amount
to have a chance of damaging her. If the redhead was
worrying enough to block Saturn's attack, it would be
proof that she could be hurt by it. The princess was the
only other one who could approach that level of power,
but she couldn't see her.
What other options were there, she asked
herself? Uranus was hurt, she knew, but not the
extent of the injury. Neptune had passed out. The
prince and the other Senshi had been taken down earlier
in the fight, and she doubted that they were going to
be able to get up soon.
Grimacing at the pain, she tried to stand up and
fell again before she could get her staff under her for
support, spots swimming before her eyes. A wave of
dizziness passed over her and her vision got more
cloudy before beginning to clear up.
Think, she yelled at herself and concentrated
on looking down at the hem of the black skirt of her
fuku in an attempt to get back her full sight. Who else
was there? They needed something to throw at Flare right
now, something to hold her down long enough for them to
regroup and attack.
Her gaze fell upon the fortification that they
had hastily erected right before the fight started. Bodies,
she reminded herself and crawled over to it. We just need
to throw enough bodies at her. All she has to do is to
hold her off until we regroup.
" Forgive me," she managed to whisper as she looked
in on the two cats and the little girl before offering up
a silent prayer that if she had a soul, what she was going
to do would not be a black stain upon it. Her conscience
was already condemning her well enough as is for what
she was considering.

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

" Usagi-chan," he gasped out and fell to his
knees. " I'm so sorry."
" Shino, what's happening?" she asked him,
kneeling as well. " Who is doing this to you?"
" It's Sailor Sun. He started right after the
accident," the young man explained to her. " He was
controlling what I could do, Usagi. He made me go to
school with you, and he used me to find out what you
were like, what you did, and who your friends were,
just like he has done with Flare.
" I wanted to be friends with you, though," he
added with a small, sympathetic smile in an attempt to
cheer her up. " That part was always me. You were so
nice to me despite what had happened, and you were so
pretty. I couldn't help but like you, and he took
advantage of that."
" If he's gone, why isn't-"
" He's not gone," he quickly interrupted
her. " While you've been fighting Flare recently,
he's had to give her more and more power, and I was
the only other source. He underestimated Hotaru-chan's
power, and he has to concentrate more on controlling
Flare to keep from losing the fight. His ego won't let
him lose a real fight, and he wasn't paying as much
attention to me.
" You helped me to regain myself, Usagi-chan,
but I can't hold him off for too long," he finished, and
the smile grew more sad. " We need to stop him. I can
only hold him at bay for a little while longer. You'll
have to kill me before that happens."
" No, Shino!" she cried. " I can't! We can beat him."
" You can't, Usagi," he sighed. " He's too
powerful. Hotaru-chan only has a few more minutes
left before she gives up or kills herself trying to
stop Flare. I'm holding onto a part of his power and
keeping him from using it, but only for a few more
minutes.
" He never explained his answers, but he was
right about this when he said that this really isn't
about fighting, Usagi-chan. I can answer you, though. This
is about choices. We have him in check right now, but if
he beats Hotaru or gets me back he'll win. If he gets
just one of us, he's going to kill everyone on the
Earth. The sun puts out enough energy to burn away
the entire planet. Everything will die.
" Don't make me do that, Usagi-chan," he implored
her. " I don't want to be the one who kills everyone that
he liked. You wanted to give yourself up so that your
friends would live. Why can't you let me do it so that
mine can?"
" I don't want to lose another friend," she pleaded
with him. " All my life, everyone has always given
themselves up so that I would live. I lost my mother
that way. Then, one by one, I lost most of my friends. I've
been lucky enough to have gotten some of them back, but
what if I don't this time? I don't want this to happen
again, Shino."
" Do you think that I wanted this to happen,
Usagi-chan?" he replied and gave her a ghost of a
smile. " I lost my parents, but I found others who
cared for me like I was their own. Most of the other
students didn't like me very much, but I met you and
your friends, and you all tried to get to know me for
who I was, and you weren't bothered about what had
happened to me. I even met someone who, if the
circumstances were a little different, I might have
been able to love."
" Me?" she gasped, blushing. " Shino... I..."
" I said might, Usagi-chan," he explained and
the smile grew clearer. " You had Mamoru-san, and you
seemed so happy together. Still, if I could feel like
that about one person, I could probably feel that way
about someone else, too. Suddenly, I had realized that
I wasn't going to be alone for the rest of my life like
I first thought when I got out of the hospital.
" My point is that you helped to give me hope,
Usagi-chan. I would have had a chance, and that's all
I ever could have asked for. I've had a hard life, but
it wasn't a bad one. There are so many people who have
done so much for me. I can save them like this, and I
can save you. The feedback from my death and the loss
of power will weaken Flare enough for you to be able to
beat her."
" I don't want to win like this, Shino," she
cried. " It isn't winning if you die."
" It is, I'm afraid," he said, reaching over to
wipe away one of the tears gathering in her eyes. " You
can only stop one of us, Usagi, but not both. There
aren't any good ways to die, but this is better than
most."
" Why me, though?" she asked, her voice catching
in her throat. Shino sighed and let go of her hand
before glancing around. He spotted something a few
meters away, scurried over to get it and returned to
her. She recognized it as Venus's sword.
" I'm afraid, Usagi," he admitted. " I'm not very
devout, but I was raised as a Christian. Suicides don't
get into heaven, or so I've heard. I don't think that I
can kill myself."
She instinctively moved to embrace and comfort
him. His left hand pressed against the front of her
shoulder, stopping her, and he leaned down towards her
with his eyes half closed.
" Shino," she breathed, her voice not even a
whisper, and tilted her head up slightly before closing
her eyes. She could give him this much at least, she
told herself as she felt his breath on her skin.
He kissed her lightly on the cheek, much to her
surprise, his lips only touching hers for a moment, and
so softly that it made her think of a butterfly. Then,
he stepped back and reassuringly smiled at her before
positioning the tip of the heavy blade directly over
his heart. " Just push as hard as you can, and don't
tell me when you're going to do it."
She choked back a sob and reluctantly put her
hands on the hilt.

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

At first, the newness of her surroundings scared
her as she woke up, but then she felt the familiar shapes
of the two kitties with her and was relieved. She
implicitly trusted them because she felt good when
they were near her.
Luna was furthest from her. She almost couldn't
see her in the sharp shadows inside the hiding place. The
other kitty was next to her, but he seemed to be asleep
just like Luna was. She struggled with trying to remember
and say his name before falling back on the thought that
came to mind.
He was the kitty who was always sad when he was near
her, and that troubled her greatly. He was one of her
favorites, and she always tried to make the sad kitty
happy whenever he was with her. She liked being happy
more than she liked being sad, and wanted him to be that
way, too.
A shadow falling across the opening startled her,
and she cried out before she could stop herself from
doing it. They were supposed to be quiet, she knew, and
the kitties were asleep.
It was only her friend, however, the one who would
sometimes visit her at night and hold her. The woman
whispered something that she couldn't make out, but she
still gurgled happily and held out her hands towards the
woman in an attempt to get her to pick her up like
before. She felt safe in the woman's arms and wanted
to be there right now.
The woman avoided her grasp and gently shook the
white kitty. " Artemis. Artemis!"
" Huh? he groggily said and shook his head. His
movements woke Luna and she began to stir as well, and
slowly opened her eyes. The girl smiled, having been
reminded of the sad kitty's name.
" Artemis," she giggled, calling out to him as
well and feeling pleased with herself for getting it
right. She reached her hands to the woman again and
remembered what the girl who had left earlier had
called her. " Pu."
" I wish it was different, little one," the woman
admitted and affectionately brushed back the hair over
the girl's forehead. " It isn't fair to you to have given
so much, and be called on again so soon."
She turned her gaze to the cats. " I need her wand,
Artemis."
" I... there's only a few pieces left," he stammered
as Pluto forced herself to a kneeling position and used
her staff as a lever to push away the smallest rock
forming the back of the shelter. He closed his eyes
briefly and produced the few fragments that they had
found among Minako's things after they fought the magi.
" As long as it's something. I haven't done this
before," the Senshi admitted.
" What are you going to do, Pluto?" Luna asked while
she looked around for some sign of Usagi. Her eyes grew
sad as she saw the limp forms sprawled on the ground
between them and the continuing struggle between Flare
and Saturn. The former had managed to get one knee up
off the ground, and was trying to get herself to a
standing position.
" Force Venus to wake up," she replied and turned
to the child. She placed the pieces of the wand into the
girl's hands and folded one of her own around them. The
violet sigil of Pluto began to glow on her brow.
" I couldn't reach her," Artemis confessed as he
reigned in his fears. If there was any chance of his
Minako coming back, this would probably be the end of
it. He remembered how disjointed her memories were when
she first awoke to her true identity, and that the same
thing had happened after the victory over Beryl and
Metallia.
If she was coming back on her own, this would
surely disrupt the healing process and she would be
lost forever. On the other side of the ledger, however,
was the fact that they were losing. Usagi was still alive
right now, and both Venus and Minako had sworn an oath
to protect her. He reluctantly nodded in acceptance.
" We're more closely linked with each other than
you were to her," Pluto explained and tilted the child's
head back with her free hand so their eyes met. She made
her sigil fade away and return again a few moments
later. " You remember this, little one. We play the
same game each time we meet, Venus."
The blonde girl blissfully smiled back at the
woman and a golden sigil began to shine on her forehead
in response. Pluto leaned down and touched her sigil to
the child's.
" It is time, sister," she prayed and focused her
considerable will into thinking of just this one
thing. " We need you, Venus. Please come back to us."

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

" What?" she murmured, feeling something strange
as she woke up and took in her surroundings. Gray dust,
she wondered for half a moment before forcing herself to
her feet and falling back down from the wave of dizziness
that was the result of the sudden movement.
When her head cleared, she was able to determine
that the thing poking her in the ribs was the handle of
the Space Sword. Next, she had to find her partner. Her
instincts told her that she was to her left. Her head was
pointed in the other direction, so she lifted it slightly
and started to gingerly look in that direction-
And stopped halfway there.
" What?" she exclaimed, seeing Pluto kneeling down
in front of Minako-chan and holding her hands. Their
foreheads were touching and a glow emanated from their
respective sigils.
The other thing she saw made her think that she had
been hurt more badly than she first believed. She shook
her head despite the pain to make sure that she wasn't
hallucinating. Behind the child knelt a translucent figure
with long, blonde hair and a white and golden fuku. The
apparition had her arms around both the child and the
Senshi in what looked to be a heartfelt embrace.
A moment later, the phantasmal image and the child
melted together in an outburst of golden light. Pluto
collapsed heavily to one side, gasping for breath. The
glow faded enough to make out an indistinct, kneeling
form who began to stand. Luna cried out as the image,
now distinguishable as a person, impossibly continued
to rise up and get taller and taller than the child
should be.
" Venus?" Artemis asked in amazement as the young
woman shuddered and looked at her hands like they weren't
her own and didn't belong there. Her eyes glazed over for
a moment like she was going to faint and she stumbled back
a pace. She recovered her balance and looked down at
herself. A few tentative steps were taken with confidence
that grew after each one was completed. Ignoring the cat,
the Senshi looked around with a sense of rising panic
becoming painfully clear on her face.
" Serenity?" she whispered and screwed up her face
in concentration. " Where are you, Princess?"
" Wait," Pluto groaned as the blonde's head
snapped to the side and she made to run in that
direction. The call stopped her in her tracks. " Help
Saturn... if she falls, all is lost. We'll protect the
Princess." Venus mulled it over for a moment, nodded
and broke into a hesitant run towards Saturn with a
glow forming between her hands.
That's one part down, she told herself and took
hold of the sword. The only thing that would keep Venus
from helping the others like that would be Usagi. She
forced herself to stand and begin to go in the direction
Venus had indicated. Pluto had given her a job to do.

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

He closed his eyes.
She closed hers.
The worst part was that he was right, she
realized. His arguments made perfect sense to her. To
the best of her understanding, both she and Saturn were
roughly on the same level of power. The worst case was
that both she and Saturn would be lost while stopping
Sailor Sun and Flare. She couldn't ask that of Hotaru. She
didn't want to die, either, but it was far preferable in
her mind to put herself at risk instead of someone else.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't work here. She could
only stop one of them on her own if it came down to
fighting. It was either kill Shino now in cold blood or
kill Hotaru later on. Mamoru as well, along with
Chibi-usa. His heart would have been ripped out, and
the daughter who she had come to value so much would
never have the chance to be.
All she had to do to save them was to do something
that contradicted everything that she had come to believe
while she was growing up. She had long since stopped
rationalizing away the deaths she had caused by saying
that she wasn't really killing anybody. The looks of
pain on the faces of the youma, or the shrill cries of
the broken daemon eggs had convinced her of the lie in
the argument she had first used. Instead, she had been
able to get over it by understanding and accepting that
losses in combat were more acceptable. When you fight,
people get hurt, and sometimes they die.
This wasn't a fight, however. Shino wasn't
endangering her like the others had. He wasn't trying
to hurt her friends. He wanted her to do this to him. This
was an act of mercy in that it would keep him from being
the one who destroyed the world. It was murder according
to what she believed.
Every fiber of her being told her that it was
wrong. On the other side of the ledger was everyone
she knew and loved, and the entire population of the
planet. The math was easy, but it was not morally
correct. One of Shino could cancel out all of the
others in this case. Even his wanting her to do it
wasn't enough to tip the scales enough to set her heart
at rest.
Unbidden, the physical details came to mind as
she tried not to think about that part. Drive forward
with your whole body, she remembered from her
lessons. Don't just push with your arms, but with
your entire body. Start with your legs and get the
hips into the thrust as well in order to get the most
power out of the move.
The sword was sharp enough, too. She had been
there when Ami cut a diamond with it while they were
trying to figure out what the sword was made of. It
would be simplicity itself to run him through with such
a weapon, and it was positioned right over his heart.
She mentally shouted at herself make her stop
thinking about that and went back to the ledger. Was
one person worth more than everyone else? This was not
something that just numbers could resolve, no matter
who was on what side of the books. She remembered her
conversation with Haruka and Rei last night and scowled
slightly. They might feel like the ends justify the
means, but she didn't. Usagi let out the breath she
realized that she was holding and took a few breaths.
" I'm sorry, Shino," she whispered, snapped open
her eyes and began to move in time to see the golden
blade of the Space Sword fly past her and plunge into
Shino's chest right above the one that she held onto. He
jerked in surprise and his eyes flew open.
" Haruka?" she gasped and almost turned, but her
eyes met his that shone in gratitude and were caught.
" Thank you, Usagi-chan" he said, not realizing
that she wasn't the one to strike the blow. One of his
hands reached for her and glanced off her arm, and she
let the sword she held slip from her fingers. He started
to smile when his eyes glazed over and he slumped to the
ground.
" I-" he breathed and was silent, laying there and
staring up into space with eyes that no longer saw. She
knelt next to him and gently pushed his eyelids closed.
" I'm sorry, Haruka-san," she said without turning
to the one who had thrown the sword. " I hesitated, and I
shouldn't have."
" I think that we can let it slide, just this
once," a voice other than the one she expected replied,
making Usagi turn around in surprise just in time to see
Neptune lean against one of the larger rocks at the top
of the gully for support.
" Michiru?" she cried out in shock, not really
believing it was her. The other woman had always been
so refined and dignified that the thought of her killing
someone seemed too crude to be considered. Haruka, yes,
but not Michiru.
" How long...?" she wondered aloud. A wave of a
gloved hand cut her off, and the turquoise haired woman's
eyes grew serious.
" Long enough. I saw your shoulders tense as you
started to change your stance."
" Michiru-san," the blonde tried to explain and
was cut off again.
" No, Usagi-chan," she protested. " You're too
good a person to dirty your hands with something like
this. That's our job," she added as she walked over to
her. "The world needs innocents like you as much as it
needs us."
The ground shook beneath their feet and the sound
of an explosion reached them a moment later. " We'd better
get back," Neptune decided as she pulled the sword from
the young man's body, and nearly fell in the process. She
smiled at the blonde. " Can I borrow a shoulder on the way?"

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

Sweat was matting down her hair and her soaked
through her fuku.
She didn't know how much longer she could hold
on. When she had first attacked, she had driven Flare
down to her knees. Now, one foot was on the ground, and
the redhead had just gotten the other one planted as she
began to stand. She desperately tried to force Flare
back down, or hoped for the barrier holding back the
Glaive to break, or something to happen in her favor.
It was painful to have her opponent in a position
where she could actually hurt her but not be able to
disengage quickly enough to attack. She seemed to be
their only chance here, and she wasn't going to win it
this time. Her concentration on holding her attack at
the highest level of power she could reach without crossing
the critical threshold prevented her from looking behind
her to see what was happening.
So far none of the ones who had fallen had gotten
up to help her. She could see Mercury easily enough, and
Tuxedo Kamen was partially in her field of vision. Hurry,
Setsuna-mama, she prayed. Or Michiru-mama, or Haruka-papa,
or any of them. She needed help.
Flare forced herself up until she was standing on
both feet now, and she was losing the advantage of her
position to give her the leverage to hold her there. The
higher the Glaive went, the less strength she was able
to put into it. The redhead was taller than her, although
not by much, but when that was combined with the barrier
twenty centimeters above her hands it was becoming
insurmountable. In a few moments, her only option would
be to end the fight at the cost of ending her life.
" Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" a voice cried out
as a cloud of hearts slammed into the barrier. Saturn
fell back, surprised and too weak to stop herself from
falling as she jerked back by reflex at the torrent of
sound. Flare was startled as well and was forced backwards
a few steps as her shield wavered under the steady stream
of hearts that Venus kept firing at her.
" Venus?" the girl asked as she tried to stand and
failed, unable to find the will to do so. The blonde didn't
say anything but shrugged her head back behind her,
obviously concentrating on their foe. She turned her head.
" Saturn!" she saw Pluto waving and pointing at
the still form of Uranus more than she heard her yelling
over the din. The girl shivered, realizing that Uranus
still was in the same position that she had fallen in. It
must have been bad.
Fear lent her the strength to run back to the two
Outers. There was no sign of Neptune or Usagi. The worry
on Pluto's face made her put aside her questions about

Venus and she dropped to her knees next to the blonde.
" This will have to be enough," she told Pluto and
positioned her hands over Uranus' lower back. They were
briefly outlined in a yellow glow as she channeled
everything that she had left into this before falling
backwards in a near faint. " I'm exhausted, Pluto. I don't
have anything more in me."
" You've done enough," the tall woman smiled at her
as she lifted her up and leaned her back so she rested
against one of the smoother pieces of marble. The Silence
Glaive was placed nearby, and then she pointed over to the
blonde, whose was beginning to stir. " She's moving. You
got us this far, and we'll take it the rest of the
way." Pluto tapped her staff upon the ground and vanished
along with Uranus.

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

" You're stronger than the others," the woman in
black savagely grinned at her opponent. The flurry of
reddish-gold hearts had held her at bay initially, but
she was quickly able to shore up her defenses and start
advancing on Venus. " Almost as strong as Saturn,
actually.
" Still," she sneered. " Saturn couldn't stop
me. What makes you think that you even have the
slightest chance of beating me?"
" I will not lose," was the slow reply, each
word bitten off in emphasis. " I swore an oath to
protect her, and I've served her family for almost
thirty years. I'll take you with me to Hell before I
let you hurt her."
" Then," Flare sneered and suddenly shot a blast
of energy at Venus that knocked her to the ground. " I
would suggest that you get ready to go there. It's time
for this farce to end. No more games."
Her sword appeared in her hand and she took a step
towards the Senshi. Three golden points of light appeared
around her, forming the corners of a triangle. A fraction
of a second later, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto were standing
around her. Neptune tossed the Space Sword over to Uranus,
who caught it and gave Flare a grin that was devoid of any
trace of humor.
" The only one who will die this day is you,
Flare," Pluto announced, detached the Garnet Orb from
her staff and let the rest of the staff fall to the
ground. " Get the others to safety, Venus. We're the
anvil; you're the hammer."
Then, finally, she gave Flare the smile that she
had been saving up for so long. Like Uranus', it held no
trace of warmth. She channeled into it all the
frustrations she had felt from being left out of the
parts of the battles that truly mattered, and all the
pain she had felt as she watched the ones she cared
for get hurt because of her not being there at the end
like had happened so many times before.
This time was different. Uranus and Neptune were
low on energy, but not on the desire to stop this
madwoman. She could carry them along through their link
through the talismans. Nothing was going to keep her away
from this fight, and Flare was now the surrogate for the
others who had hurt her sisters.
" Chronos Typhoon!"
" Submarine Reflection!"
" Space Sword Blaster!"

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

She saw Jupiter staggering to her feet as she ran
around a clutter of larger rocks that were probably once
part of a building's foundation. The blonde just got her
hands on the Senshi to help her back toward the others
when they were thrown to the ground and a nova of light
erupted from the place where the fight happened.
" Hotaru-chan?" she whispered and dragged Jupiter
to her feet and along with her towards the source of the
explosion. She'd get Makoto to stay with the cats and put
an end to this. A few steps later she stopped so quickly
after rounding a rock that was too tall for her to see
over that Jupiter plowed into her from behind and knocked
her down, along with sending the sword she carried flying
from her suddenly weakened grip.
Three of the Outer Senshi had Flare surrounded and
were attacking her with the talismans. Flare was screaming,
and in obvious pain, but she was not down. The talismans
each cast a cone of blindingly intense white light on the
woman in between them, but she kept on moving and trying
to fight back. The Outers were taking hits from the blasts
of power she threw at them, but they refused to back down
and stubbornly stood their ground.
Saturn lay with her back propped up against the rocks
that had sheltered Minako-chan and the cats, but one of
the ones in the back had been rolled aside. She had her
Glaive held across her lap, but her attention was on her
partners, and Usagi turned her eyes back towards the
fight. Something had caught her eye.
Mamoru had been moved, she gratefully realized. One
of them must have dragged him away from the actual fight,
because Flare was still about where she was when Saturn
attacked her.
" Mamo-chan," she whispered, partially closing her
eyes to try and determine how he was. The maelstrom of power
from the talismans blocked her ability to perceive energies
about as much as the glaring light affected her normal
vision, but she was able to find out that he still was
alive, and not as badly hurt as she feared. Then, a shape
walked out from behind Neptune, dragging both Mars and
Mercury along besides her.
" Mina?" she stammered, her voice trembling. Usagi
sprang to her feet and sprinted over towards the woman. She
was crying again, but these were the first ones today that
were caused by happiness. " Minako-chan!"
" Serenity?" Venus replied, startled and spun around
at the vehemence of the hug she was wrapped up in by the
sobbing blonde. Despite her surprise, she still took hold
of the girl and steered her back and away from the
fight. " What are you doing here? Get back with Saturn
this instant! She can do the best job of protecting you."
Usagi dug in her heels to stop them. A tiny
tendril of dread had insinuated itself deep into her
heart. She looked up and caught the eyes of the person
she thought was her friend. " Is that all you remember
me to be, Minako? Am I just Serenity to you?"
" Minako? Who is-" she began to respond and nearly
collapsed, and almost dragged the other girl down. Her
eyes grew wide and lost focus for several moments before
she screamed hoarsely.
" It's all mixed up. That's not right," she babbled,
and her voice took on a hysterical edge. " I don't live
there. I never lived there-"
Usagi pulled away from Venus and slapped the Senshi
across the face. The echoes from the blow seemed to last
an eternity. Jupiter came up behind them and grabbed the
Senshi by the shoulders. " Venus! Stop it right now. We
don't have the time right now."
" I... " Venus paused a moment and her demeanor
returned to normal. " Thank you, Jupiter. Go get Prince
Endymion and get him back by Saturn. I'll get Mars and
Mercury together and try to wake them up. The Outers
can't hold her forever."
The brunette nodded her agreement and went to
pick up the young man, and was glad that he wasn't
wearing his armor right now. He was more solidly built
than he looked.
" I'll help," Usagi added, ran over to Mercury
before Venus could stop her, and began dragging her
back towards Jupiter and Saturn. She gave the blonde
a defiant look that actually made her back down.
" I'm sorry, Princess," the Senshi said softly
as she picked up Mars. " You're obviously not the same
Princess I remember."
" In what ways?"
" Nothing's right, it seems," she explained as
she started moving back towards the others. " All the
things that I remember don't feel like they belong. I
grew up here on the moon, just like you did, but it
doesn't feel right. There's no sense of attachment to
it, and to all the other things that I remember."
They reached the others and found Jupiter had
managed to start to bring Tuxedo Kamen about. Venus
gently set down Mars and helped get Mercury over and
placed next to the red-clad Senshi. Usagi started to go
over to her love when Venus' hand shot out and caught
her wrist. " Venus?" she asked, feeling concerned as
she was drawn in closer to her while Venus looked at
her, then at the two on the ground and back to her.
" Your clothes," she said, looking down at the
gown the princess wore. " I remember this dress. You
had it made especially for the ball to celebrate Mars'
return from her home. Why do I keep recalling you in
such plainer clothes?
" Ones more like ours, but like the ones the
commoners wore," she added, and the sight of her trying
so hard to remember brought a tear to the princess'
eyes. Venus was almost in pain from the effort she was
putting into it, and suddenly brought her free hand up
and covered the crescent on the other girl's forehead
with one of her fingers.
" Is it... " she stammered and tears began to
run down her face. " Usagi?"
" Mina," she sighed, feeling a heavy weight slip
from her shoulders, and this time her fervent embrace
was wholeheartedly returned. " I don't ever want to let
you go," she giggled and happily watched the resulting
smile that she had missed for so long.
" Afterwards, Usagi-chan," she told her, reluctantly
let go of the shorter girl and turned her towards the
others. " We need to get them up so we can put an end
to the battle. It will take all four of us together to
destroy Flare."
" Five," the princess quickly inserted.
" Six," the prince added, rose and came over to
them. He quickly hugged Usagi and then knelt by the
two Senshi on the ground. A glowing hand was placed
over each of their wounds for several moments. " Things
are different now, Venus. We work together as a team. She's
fought alongside you for some time recently."
Both Mars and Mercury's eyes fluttered open as
Jupiter took the opportunity to welcome back the blonde
Senshi with a quick hug before helping the two others to
their feet.
" I'll cover you," Saturn announced and took up a
position in front of them and slightly to the right of
the direct line between the gathered Inners and the
Outers. Her Glaive was held out in front of her in
preparation for putting up a defense. " You just
concentrate on attacking."
Tuxedo Kamen shifted his clothes to his armor
and sword, and took up a position on Usagi's right with
one arm around her shoulders and took her hand with the
other. By instinct, the Senshi took their places around
them, with Mercury and Venus kneeling in front of the
couple and Mars and Jupiter flanking them.
The joined hands of the two royals began to glow
as they called upon their respective crystals for their
power. Usagi waited until she had adjusted to the extra
power he gave her, willing it to stabilize and synchronize
with hers. At her slight nod, the others began to summon
up their own and stretched their hands out towards the
target.
" Mars Eternal Power!"
" Mercury Eternal Power!"
" Jupiter Eternal Power!"
" Venus Eternal Power!"
The four Senshi began to glow in the colors of
their tiara stones, and when they had built up enough
power, they cried out along in unison along with their
princess at an unspoken signal.
" Sailor Planet Attack!"

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

One moment, Flare was continuing to keep up the
barrier that was keeping her alive with an inhuman
determination. The next, she turned towards Pluto and
started to smile, except that something seemed to stop
her from finishing it. Her eyes, however, spoke of
forgiveness, and the oldest of the Senshi knew that
the smile would have been slightly sad, and perhaps a
bit wistful.
The Planet Attack ripped through the space where
Flare had stood and carved a furrow in the lunar soil
clear to the horizon and continued on out into the depths
of space, and there was no trace of the woman in the wake
of it's passage.
Pluto leaned heavily on her staff. Neptune and
Uranus met halfway and Neptune put her head down on the
blonde's shoulder. They traded smiles as Saturn came
running over to them, hugging Pluto and helping her to
join the other two. They simply stood together for a few
moments, simply enjoying being together once more before
they turned to move over by the others.
The Inners were a far more demonstrative group. Usagi
was torn between holding Mamoru or Venus until the young
man gave her an understanding smile and pushed her over to
her old friend, who was still fending off a surprised
Mercury.
" I don't know what that is, Mercury," Venus
protested with a smile. " But I do know that look in
your eyes. No questions or experiments until tomorrow." She
grabbed the blue compact from her, closed it, and handed
it back.
Artemis and Luna jumped up onto their preferred
shoulders as Usagi put one of her arms around the other
blonde. " Venus!" he happily cried out, but quickly grew
serious. " What else do you remember about us?"
" Not much," she admitted to him and looked around
at the rest of them. " I'm sorry, everyone, but I don't
recall much other than your positions."
" Positions?" Jupiter asked.
" Titles," she responded, looking at the brunette
mischievously. " You're Jupiter, for example, but for
some reason, I get this funny idea that your name is
Haruka. It's a good name for a tomboy like you."
Jupiter groaned, but Uranus laughed, and Mars smiled,
stepped up and hugged Venus and the princess at the same
time. " She's our Minako-chan, all right. Nobody else is
as good at bad jokes."
" Venus, would you mind if Artemis or Luna looked at
your mind?" Mamoru asked. " I'd like to find out if one of
my theories are right about what happened to you. It has
some bearing on something we need to do later on today."
" No," she said." But can we all sit down first? I'm
feeling awfully tired, and some of you look like you're in
as good a shape as I am."
" I'll second that," Uranus laughed. " I just wish
we had something comfortable to sit on. We'll be a mess
with all this dust."
" I don't know about furniture," Usagi giggled." But
maybe I can do something about the other part. Hold on a
moment," she added, put one of her hands over Mamoru's
eyes, conspiratorially winked at them, and changed all
of their clothes into what she remembered was their
favorite casual outfit that was up to the conditions.
" Usa?" Mamoru asked, feeling her do something
using magic. She took her hand away from his eyes so he
could see her handiwork. Jeans and hiking boots, mainly,
with lightweight, long-sleeved shirts seemed to be the
predominant choices. She had even cleaned up the fine
dust that had clung to them.
" Pretty good, huh?" she giggled at him. " This magic
stuff is a lot easier than I thought it would be."
" 'Easy' she calls it," he groaned and pulled her
down next to him on the ground, and the rest of them sat
as well, arraying themselves in a loose circle. " You try
doing something that isn't an extension of your
transformation pen and then we'll see if you call it easy."
Luna leapt clear and looked around the circle, not
noticing the compact in Ami's hand. " Don't think that I'm
going to let you go home real soon," the black cat
announced. " Despite the change of clothes and an
apparent bath, you're far too tired for a teleport
right now. You might as well rest for a while," she
added and walked over to sit on Venus' knee as she sat
cross-legged. " If I may?"
" I bow to the expert," Artemis teased her as the
blonde nodded her agreement to the cat's request. The
crescent on Luna's head began to glow, and the sigil of
Venus shone in response. Both were silent for several
minutes in a silent communion. Mamoru reached into his
dimensional pocket and took out his backpack, and passed
around a few bottles of water from it.
" Oh, my!" she gasped suddenly. " Artemis, come in
here and verify this." The white cat joined them in their
rapport, and came out as shocked as Luna a few minutes
later.
" What did you find?" Michiru asked.
" The arrangement of her memories," Artemis began,
and then sheepishly looked over at Luna. " She's better
at this than I am."
The black cat acknowledged him with a grateful
nod. " After the girls defeated Beryl and Metallia,
there was a re-submergence of the old memories about
the past and the Silver Millennium. Since Artemis and
I carefully examined them after we reawakened them,
we're familiar with what we found.
" Her memories of her time in the Silver Millennium
are now in the forefront of her mind, just like the ones
of her time as Minako were right after Beryl. It's like
her personality as Venus is now in control. She still
only remembers as much about the Silver Millennium as
the rest of you do, but those parts of her memories
weren't affected by whatever happened."
" That probably happened when I called out for
her," Setsuna pointed out. " I wasn't trying to reach
Minako. Venus is who we needed."
" I think that you may be right, Setsuna-san," Luna
replied, and looked around the circle with a smile. " The
important thing, though, is that her memories of this
time and life are not gone. They are just disrupted
like all of ours about the past and the Silver Millennium
are. It may take a long time, but our Minako-chan will be
back with us."
" Yes!" Usagi crowed in delight, much to the other's
amusement. Artemis merely jumped up to Venus' shoulder with
a pleased expression on his face like a cat that had just
had a very large bowl of cream placed in front of him. Venus
reached up and gave him a scratch under his chin that made
him happily purr.
Mercury's compact beeped.
" Ami!" some of them laughed and protested her
working. They stopped cold when she didn't get embarrassed
by it, but instead slapped her ear to hastily bring up her
visor. It was solid black instead of translucent blue. The
reason why was clear enough when she spun and stared
directly at the sun.
" No!" she whispered and began to frantically type
at the keyboard of her compact, still looking at the sun
and muttering curses at herself under her breath for each
mistake she made due to the small keys. It beeped at her
several times, was silent for a moment as they waited for
her to say something, and finally displayed something.
She physically took off the visor and looked at the
others. Defeat was written all over her face. She lowered
her head to gaze at the ground in front of her, unable to
look at them and say it at the same time. " The sun's
starting to cool off."
" What?" Usagi shrieked.
" Ami, explain," Haruka angrily demanded.
" I set my computer's scanners to look at the sun
while we were out here," she began, not looking up at any
of them. " I have a better sensor suite than anything in
orbit, and I wanted to get a recording from out where we
don't have to worry about the Earth's magnetic field
getting in the way. The Moon's is a fraction of the Earth's.
" The sun isn't producing as much of certain high
energy particles as it was when we first got here. The
output has slipped a fraction of a percent on average
and is showing no signs of going back to it's normal
state."
" Couldn't it just be part of a cycle,
Ami-chan?" Michiru asked while removing the Deep Aqua
Mirror from her pocket. The blue haired girl shook her
head.
" No," she replied. " The rarest type of particle
probably needs the highest temperatures to be produced,
and that one is down nearly one percent. That's too big
to be a normal fluctuation. Not in such a short period
of time."
" May I?" the woman asked and took the dark visor
and looked at the sun's reflection in her mirror with it
as a safety precaution. She frowned and handed the visor
back to Ami, who absent-mindedly put it back on and
stored it away. " It feels wrong to me as well."
" What's going to happen, Ami-chan?" Usagi asked,
feeling a sense of dread. Was this some horrible
revenge by Sailor Sun for their victory?
" Worst case is that it goes out and we all
die," she glumly responded. " At best, the sun is too
big to cool off quickly and this is a temporary
thing. We'll still be looking at an ice age like
nothing else we've seen."
" The winter I foresaw!" Rei gasped.
" Damn it!" Hotaru screamed and sprang to her
feet, her face livid with rage. The Silence Glaive
appeared in her trembling, white-knuckled hands. " After
everything that we've done and after everything I had
to give up, we're still getting the fucking Silence
anyway and that bastard Pharaoh Ninety is going to win!"
She looked like she was mad enough to use the
Silence Glaive for several seconds before she screamed
in frustration, threw it to the ground and collapsed
in tears. Setsuna waved off the others and went to her,
sat down and held the girl while she sobbed.
" We should have realized that this was
coming," Makoto quietly said. " We saw all the
clues when we were in the future."
" The future is never certain," Venus gently
reminded her. " That was Pluto's favorite saying."
Haruka walked over to Ami, kneeled and put a
hand on her shoulder. " I'm sorry for snapping at you,
Ami-chan," she apologized. " Do you have any idea of
how long it will be?"
" Twenty years, a hundred maybe. I just don't
know enough right now," she sniffled. " I'll start
boning up on my physics and take more readings. I'm
sorry that I don't know enough right now to give you
something more accurate. I can narrow it down in a
little while."
" You're not alone, Ami-chan," Michiru said as
she took a seat near the girl. " We'll be glad to help
you out with this."
" Mamoru-san, too," the girl insisted. " After
seeing how we worked together, I have a few ideas on
how we may be able to combine our powers together on
a much larger scale. Maybe even enough to get us out
of this mess."
" That's the spirit, Ami-chan," Haruka smiled
and hauled the girl to her feet. " We'll get through
this together. Is there anything else we need to do
here right now?"
Ami shook her head and Haruka looked around the
area in order to remember what it was like. They'd
probably return here at some point in the future, but
it was best to play it safe. She smiled and walked
away from the others to pick up something that had been
forgotten.
" Here," she told Venus, tapping her on the
shoulder and handed her sword back to her. " Don't
forget this."
The blonde gave her a warm, understanding
smile. " Do you remember how much you used to want
this?" she asked.
" That particular blade is too damn heavy for
my liking," she chuckled and called the others over
to her. There were things that they had to do down
on the Earth.

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

" Greetings, Father," he said, acknowledging the
presence in the room. " You are welcome to join me if
you so desire."
" Even after all I have done?" the presence asked,
the words coming from the empty air inside of the small,
cold room with bare stone walls.
" Yes, Father," he replied. " We are still willing
to speak to you."
" I'm not sure that I deserve the respect that
title demands," the voice said. " I may have sired you,
but my actions have not been that of a parent."
" In that you are correct," the man admitted. He
waved a hand around, indicating the rest of the room. " I
believe that I know why you are here. You may gain a more
complete understanding of them if you take on their
form. We have found it to be helpful."
A young man with green eyes, black hair and
glasses walked in through the door, wearing black
clothes. A cold and bitter wind swirled around the
tiny shrine and through the open door but failed to
blow out any of the flickering candles. After closing
the door, he took a seat on a bench next to one of the
walls and leaned up against it with a sigh.
" That is the one that you were recently
empowering, is it not?" the other man asked the
newcomer, who nodded. The features on the one sitting
above the bed shifted slightly to take on an older,
more mature look to them as opposed to the indeterminate
quality that they usually were.
" It is his guise, and I am more comfortable with
it for now," he said and paused a few moments to gather
his thoughts. " I will confess that I do not understand
them," the young man said. " Her most of all. She seemed
so weak whenever I looked at her, but her true strength
is concealed in the strength she inspires in others. And,
despite everything I did to her, I feel that she would
forgive me even now for my actions."
" They surprise us every day, Father," the man
laughed; a low, deep laugh full of humor. " She more
so than many of the others. There is much that you can
learn from them with us."
" I'm starting to understand why you have been so
interested in them," the young man replied.
" Since we lost our beloved sister there are but
nine of us left, Father," the man quickly interrupted
with a gentle smile on his face. " Ten including
yourself. Man alone numbers over five billion at this
time, and many times that if you look at how long we
have watched them and how brief their lives are. They
give us so much to learn that we are eternally in their
debt for their diversity."
The younger man nodded, conceding the point to the
one who still floated in the air above the bed. " And that
is why you all stand watch over and protect them, correct?"
" In part, although we only protect them from
interference by others," the older man replied. " Our
avatars are only a few among many, nor do we choose any
who would misuse their power. They can only try and
inspire others to follow their path."
" I see where she gets her philosophy from," the
young man ventured a smile. " An accident, or was it
intended?"
" Their beliefs are why we choose the ones that
we do. That they feel the same as us gives up hope that
they will prosper and survive. It was a fortunate
accident, but an accident none the less."
Time passed as they each considered what had been
said.
" I would ask you about forgiveness as well."
" Do you wish ours or theirs?" the one over the
bed asked.
" I seek both. I would ask her about theirs, but
I now see the wisdom in your approach to dealing with
man through intermediaries. I will not directly approach
them."
" They would be most unsettled by your current
looks," the man chuckled. " I can not answer for them,
but I think that one act may satisfy both parties. Will
you join us in learning from them and looking after them?"
" I am honored that you would ask, child," the
younger looking one said. " I had feared that you would
deny me that opportunity. I will aid you to the best of
my abilities."
" Speaking of that, Father, how do you fare? We
know that you are physically hurt by what transpired
recently."
" I think that it is a minor wound caused by my
overexertion, but I have nothing to compare this
against. Nothing has ever hurt me before, at least
not in the physical sense, so I am not sure of what
is happening. I have tried, and I cannot keep myself
from slowly losing my power."
" You have my condolences, Father."
The young man smiled at that, although the smile
was self-deprecating. " It would be ironic to have
learned so much in losing to them and still gain the
hollow victory that I had mistakenly thought would
appease my pride."
" Do not be too hard on yourself," the other
consoled him. " Our avatars are resourceful beyond
their years. What they have done recently is to find
a way to make even more use of the power we give them. I
will not be surprised if they find a way to deal with
anything short of your actual demise."
" What of their leader, the one who is not an
avatar? Is she not going to be eclipsed in power by the
others due to this act?"
" She will be, eventually. We have agreed to give
our avatars even more of ourselves to give them a chance
to overcome this, but over a period of time so that they
do not become aware of us as the source. They will feel
it is a result of their actions, and not question it
further."
" That is not fair to her," the one in black
responded, shaking his head while sifting through the
memories he had from the time spent observing her. " I
have but a small part of my strength remaining, but I will
give it to her in the same fashion in order to make
amends. I am responsible for their predicament, and I
will do what I can to help."
" You are most kind, Father," he warmly smiled
and started to continue speaking, but stopped when the
young man raised a hand.
" I am not comfortable with that title, I have
decided. To borrow a phrase from the humans, my position
was merely an accident of birth. I would prefer that
once I have earned the trust and respect that the word
implies, you would call me brother."
" Certainly," he smiled in response and stepped
down from his position over the bed. He walked over and
held out a hand to the young looking man. " You have
made much progress towards that goal today, I
believe. Would you like to come with me and meet
the rest? They would be glad to greet the one who
may soon become their new brother." The one in black
nodded, stood and followed him out the door to a new
place and new challenges.

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

They arrived in the park they had left from. Thanks
to the closure of this section, nobody was near enough
to notice the flash of light that heralded their return.
" Thank you, everyone," Usagi said, looking around
at them. They still wore their regular clothes, a clear
statement that things had changed from before. Haruka
looked up at the sky, and noticed that the sun was
almost at it's zenith.
" I'd better get going with the rental van," she
said. " I've got a bit of a drive to the house, and all
I want to do afterwards is sleep through the weekend. You'll
need to show me what I'm supposed to leave up there."
" Be careful, Haruka-san," Makoto told her as
they started walking towards the street where the van
was parked.
" It will probably be best if we get out of Tokyo
for a while," Setsuna added and turned to face
Haruka. " Our summer house where we raised Hotaru-chan
is big enough for all of us and on your way. You can
drop off everyone's personal belongings, and there are
enough spare suitcases to take up some additional
clothes to make it look like we were actually staying
there."
" We'll meet you there, love," Michiru whispered
and went up on tiptoe to give her partner a peck on the
cheek. " We'll walk to the other cars from here. Be
careful."
" I will," the sandy haired blonde replied and
turned to look at the couple holding hands. " Can I
give you two lovebirds a ride?"
Usagi stopped in her tracks, sighed, and put
her head down. Her hand dug into a pocket and came
out with a calling card. " I need to make a call," she
explained and walked a few steps away to a pay phone
located at the joining of two paths.
It wasn't fully enclosed like most of the public
ones, so they were able to hear the buzz of the machine
as she inserted the card and her nails clacking against
the number buttons.
" Hi, Mom," she said. " I just finished getting
Chibi-usa-chan onto the train going back home," she
began. The repeated hypnotic suggestions had made her
family very susceptible to believing that her daughter
was actually a distant cousin, and her mother would
accept this without hesitation.
" It's not an emergency, but she had to go back
suddenly, Mom," she patiently explained. " Yes, she
missed saying good-bye to you and dad," she said and
paused a moment. " Even Shingo," she smiled playfully.
" Listen, Mom," she said a few moments later
and swallowed nervously because her voice was beginning
to thicken and catch in her throat. " I changed my mind
about something. I'm going along with my friends on
that trip."
" No, Usagi!" Rei hissed and started forward. Mamoru
put his hand on her shoulder and forced her to stop. He
shook his head, his eyes sad.
" This is her choice, Rei-chan," he whispered. " We
can't make it for her."
" I'll be fine, Mom," Usagi went on and a tear
worked it's way down one of her cheeks. " It is only
for the weekend, and Ami-chan and Rei-chan are about
my size. I can borrow something from them to wear. I'll
be all right.
" Tell Dad and Shingo that I love them, okay?" she
smiled. " Yes, I'll see you on Monday. I love you too,
Mama," she finished and hung up the phone. At first, she
looked like she was going to collapse and cry, but she
stood up straight and faced them.
" Usagi, why?" Rei nearly sobbed. " You didn't
have to do that. At least one of us should have been
happy."
" This was eventually going to happen, Rei-chan,"
she explained and gave the priestess a consoling
embrace. " We know that I'll have to become the
Neo-Queen sooner or later. This way is best. It
isn't the easy way, but is for the best."
" Haruka-chan was explaining this to me, " Makoto
added, put her hand on the blonde's arm and gave her a
reassuring squeeze. " I think I understand what you
mean, Usagi-chan."
" What is there to understand?" Rei
protested. " Why don't you want to be with them
and be happy?"
" I love them, Rei-chan," the blonde
replied. " I love them so much that I don't want
to see them hurt. I've seen too many of the ones
that I love get hurt because of me lately, simply
because of who I was. Soon, they'll get hurt
because of who I am to become.
" This way they can adjust to losing me
and get on with their life. They'll be safe later
on because nobody will be able to connect me to
them. There are going to be people who will not
agree with us when we create Crystal Tokyo. What
better way for them to try and stop us than to use
my family as a hostage?"
" Why do you have to be so damn right at just
this moment?" Rei sighed into her friend's
shoulder. " What happened to the Usagi I used to know?"
" Wait until our next math class," the blonde
giggled for a moment before growing more serious. " This
hurts, Rei-chan. It hurts more than I imagined it
would. They know that I love them, however. My mother,
the Queen, told me to make sure that I didn't ignore
them as being my family as much as she was. I haven't
done that. I've made sure that they know that I cared
for them, and that they were important to me. This is
as difficult for me as it is for all of you. It is not
the easiest choice, or the happiest. It's the right
one, though."
" I understand, Usagi-chan," Rei sniffled and
let herself be gently pulled back from Usagi by Makoto.
" We'd best be going, then," Usagi said and nodded
at Haruka, who turned and went on alone to do her part
after she was told the items to take with her. The blonde
then slipped under Mamoru's arm and started walking
towards the park exit. She whispered something to him
that was too low for the others to hear. He laughed in
response, the ease and lightness of it making the
others following them smile.
" Are you sure that this is for Minako-chan?" he
asked her with a broad smile across his face.
" Of course!" she cried out, pretending to be hurt
by the words that expressed his sudden lack of faith
in her. " They didn't have ice cream in the Silver
Millennium."

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

" That's twice now," he softly remarked as he
finished going through the motions of reading the
entire paper for the second time that night, neatly
folded it and put it on the table. He hadn't been a
parent for nothing these past seventeen, no, almost
eighteen years now. It was nice to see his son being
so concerned about his sister, but the boy wasn't
being very subtle about it.
" I saw him, too," his wife replied as she kept
on working at her sewing. She had heard Shingo make
his way partially down the stairs as well, looking to
see if they had moved yet from their usual place in
the living room. " He knows that it is well past his
bedtime."
" If it was just Usagi-chan off on her own I
would have been worried a lot earlier than this," he
admitted.
" I know," she sighed. " Ami-chan and Rei-chan
are with her, and they won't do anything too
foolish. I'm sure that there is a good reason
for them to be this late without even calling."
They had been sitting there since about five
in the evening. Usagi and her friends were supposed
to be back earlier in the morning from their weekend
in the mountains. A delay of a few hours would have
been understandable due to a number of reasons, but
they at least had expected to hear from her or see her
by noon. It was now approaching eleven.
" I know who you would have been blaming a few
years ago," she gently teased him with the reminder of
his past feelings. He blushed slightly, embarrassed at
the memory. The fact that Mamoru was four years older
than their daughter had been a source of concern for
both of them. Usagi had really surprised them by
introducing him to them a little bit after her sixteenth
birthday and being truthful with them about his age.
They had heard about her Mamo-chan, as she called
him, but had thought it nothing more than a simple
friendship combined with a dose of infatuation. The
talk on that night had been a surprise for all of them,
and given them a good idea of the sincerity and depth
of the relationship between their daughter and the young
man. Usagi's impassioned defense of him and her calm,
steadfast refusal to break it off had been the first
real sign of her beginning to grow up.
" We were both worried, but you were the one to
get a crush on him," he reminded her and made her blush
as well since it was true.
" I just said that he was handsome," she protested
and giggled as he put an arm around her and pulled her
head down on his shoulders. " He had that same sparkle
in his eyes when he looked at Usagi-chan that you have
when you look at me, Kenji-san."
He chuckled, kissed the top of her head and nuzzled
her hair. They had worried about their girl, but Mamoru
had been exemplary in his behavior. Mamoru had been
respectful of them, properly deferential, and in all
things a fine young man. He wasn't deceptive, nor was
he doing it to impress them in order to earn their
approval.
" Well," he whispered to her and grinned. " If he
is anything like I was, we do have some things to
worry about."
" She was with all of her friends," was her
quiet reply. " Rei-chan and Ami-chan wouldn't let
her get away with anything like that. Some fooling
around, perhaps, but nothing to that extent."
" I trust her to make the right decisions about
her virtue," he said and his smile grew a bit wider as
he felt her barely suppress a giggle. " Yes, I trust
her when I think of her and him together. She's almost
eighteen now, Iku-chan. If it was her and some other
boy, I'd be following her on her dates with a baseball
bat. I can hardly believe it myself, but that's how I
feel."
" I think that you're starting to trust her,
Kenji," she laughed softly. They kissed and she stood
up. " I'm going to try Ami-chan's again. It's closer
to the way they'll be coming home," she said over her
shoulder as she walked down the hall towards the phone
by the front door.
She hit the redial button on the phone and waited
a few moments for the connection to be made. It rang
twice, clicked, and the answering machine started up
again with the same message that she had hoped not to
hear. " Nothing," she called out to her husband and
started to go back to him when the sound of the front
gate closing made her look towards the front door. Two
policemen with grim faces were walking up the path.

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

It was a gray, gloomy morning. The sunlight had
yet to burn through the morning fog in the foothills
to the north of Tokyo. The weather certainly matched
the blonde's mood on this Wednesday morning as she
dejectedly sat cross-legged on an old tree stump that
was about two-thirds the way up the low hill behind the
large house they were staying at. It was on a good-sized
parcel of land with large, lush lawns and a pool in the
back of the house near the base of the hill.
They had gotten there late at night on Friday right
at about the same time as the story broke on the news. It
was morbidly fascinating to watch the coverage as firemen
put out the fires caused by the explosion that had
supposedly killed them. Haruka came in about an hour
later with a few small cuts on her face and arms.
" I didn't even hit it that hard," she had
protested while Michiru fussed over her and Hotaru
healed up the cuts. Haruka had jokingly threatened
to hold a practice session early the next morning in
order to find out what was happening to their powers
when she was teased about losing control, but also
admitted that she was too tired for it.
It was a common problem that night for all of
them. They were tired for some reason even beyond the
level that their efforts earlier during the fight would
have called for. Sleeping arrangements were quickly
made and most of them were out as soon as their heads
hit their pillows. She had spent a few hours cuddling
with Mamoru and talking about what had happened during
the day, and what the future might hold for them before
they fell asleep in each other's arms.
She had almost screamed when somebody crawled into
the bed with them. When it turned out to be a sleepy,
flannel pajama-clad Minako nervously asking if she
could stay with them and seeming to be nothing more
than a taller version of the child she had been earlier
in the day, she quickly relented and let her join
them. Minako was asleep in moments while she and
Mamoru looked at each other and broke into soft
laughter, remembering how often their daughter had
done that to them.
That was a good memory, as was their wake-up
call at noon the next day. Makoto and Setsuna had
woken earlier and went shopping. Makoto had picked
up enough to feed them for several days and promised
a truly lavish meal for dinner. If it was anything
like the late breakfast the brunette assembled they
were in for a culinary delight that evening.
As they gathered around a large table and ate,
the others had a good laugh over what had happened with
Minako the previous night, and Luna and Artemis were
able to determine that she was not regressing on them. It
only seemed to be a side-effect of the disruption of her
memories as everything in her mind settled into place. The
young woman had been a child for quite some time, and it
was only natural that she would still act like one in a
few ways for a little while. Hotaru blushed and admitted
that she had done some things like that as well when she
had her sudden and pronounced growth spurts.
Setsuna had been busy herself while Makoto was in
the market. She had picked up a variety of clothes for
them in order to have more than a few outfits until
they did some more serious shopping later on. The woman
only smiled when they all found out that everything fit
perfectly and asked her why.
After the meal, Setsuna had spent a few hours on
the phone making some financial arrangements. When it
was formally announced that they were dead, one of her
representatives would approach Trevor Edwards, a British
millionaire and philanthropist who lived in Tokyo most
of the year. He had hosted a party that most of them
had gone to once, and had remembered them although he
had mercifully forgotten nearly losing his heart crystal
to the Deathbusters.
Edwards would be asked to administer a trust to
financially help their families, and several of the
companies that Setsuna held controlling stock in would
be used to funnel a large amount of funds into the
trust. Coupled with the settlement of the claims that
would probably be filed against the manufacturer of the
propane tank, their families would not want for anything
for the rest of their lives. Naturally, no amount of
money could replace them, Setsuna explained, but this
would help take care of their families.
That part went well, she reminded herself and
returned to the present. She had asked Setsuna to also
make the arrangements for a pair of headstones for Hamaji
and Shino. They were as much victims of Sailor Sun as any
of the Senshi were. Rei had told her that Hamaji was still
listed as missing by the police, and Shino was never going
to return home, either. Their parents would be left
wondering what had happened to their children for the
rest of their days.
The headstones would be in place in a distant
cemetery in a few weeks. The remoteness would ensure
that there was little chance of anyone making the connection
between the two who had disappeared from the same area of
Tokyo and now were apparently buried together. She would
have to remember to thank Setsuna and to make the time to
go there and pray. They had to be in a happier place now
since they had gone through so much already.
Not like her, she knew. It was no longer a certainty
that she felt that she would be going to heaven. She
looked down at her hands. They were painfully clean,
and the skin was starting to dry out from repeated
washings. No matter what she did, they still felt like
they were covered in blood. Shino's blood.
It didn't matter that Neptune was the one to
actually strike the blow. She knew with a grim
certainty that she had been about to kill her
friend. Haruka had explained to her how the Outers
felt about killing. Distasteful, but sometimes
necessary. Michiru had graphically demonstrated
that she felt the same.
She shivered and leaned her head forward,
her long, loose blond hair falling forward around
her face as she closed her eyes. Before that moment,
she would have sworn on anything that she couldn't
have done that to anybody, let alone kill a friend
in cold blood. She had been able to stand firm on
her belief that she was not like them.
Now she wasn't quite sure. Mamoru had been so
worried that she was going to change as time went
on. She had flippantly brushed aside his worries at
the time, and only two days later had taken the first
step down the path that he was afraid she would follow.
Once again, she felt the blood on her hands. Slowly,
deliberately, she opened her eyes and stared at them. No
blood, she reminded herself. The only sign of red was the
nail polish she was trying out. It is all in your mind,
she reminded herself and started making her way down the
hill towards the house. Any thoughts of soap and water
were forced from her mind as well as she could as she
sought out Mamoru. She knew that she would need his
help to make it past this.

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

" Hi!" she called out as she came through the door
and put her jacket over the back of the chair by the
hospital bed. " How did physical therapy go?"
Umino groaned in response and seriously
contemplated throwing a pillow at her, but he was
too tired to get up and retrieve it if he
missed. " Better," he finally said. " I did a
sit-up on my own for the first time."
" That's great!" Naru smiled and clapped
her hands. She took a seat in the chair right by
his bed and took one of his hands in hers. " The
doctors say that your stomach muscles are healing
up very nicely. You should be able to be out of here
in about a week."
" Now that is great news," he grinned back at
her. " This was no way to spend a summer break. I won't
even miss too much in class," he said lightly, but he
also hid his concerns for her. She had been in here
with him every day when she should have been off having
fun and enjoying her vacation, even though he did
treasure the fact that she cared so much.
" Umino!" she scolded him with a grin on her
face. " You've already completed your homework for
the rest of the semester. Take the time now to rest
while you can."
" That's not a bad idea," he agreed and hid a
yawn behind his free hand. " I'm awfully tired from
therapy. Would you mind if I take a short nap?"
" Not at all," she replied and pulled out a novel
to read while he dozed off. The book held her interest
for fifteen minutes or so before she grew restless. She
put the book down and tapped the controls at the side
of his bed, turning on the television. The sound was
low enough to not bother him but loud enough for her
to hear.
The main stories were ones she had heard earlier
or read about in the papers that morning. She let her
mind wander through a commercial break and only began
to pay attention a few seconds into the next story.
" Scientists have announced an unexpected drop in
the rate of global warming," the announcer was
saying. " While the average temperature continues
to rise, the rate at which it is doing so has dropped
slightly, according to a group of international
experts. It is hoped that the continuing efforts
towards reducing pollution worldwide are a factor
in this, but it is too early to tell. All of the
scientists involved in the report say that more
studies are needed.
" In other news, the Juban region of Tokyo is
mourning the loss of several of it's own. The police
have just released the names of the nine people lost
when the mountain home they were staying in exploded
two weeks ago. Police are still investigating, but do
not suspect any wrongdoing at this time. The cause of
the blast is thought to be a faulty valve on a propane
tank.
" Among them are two of Tokyo's own
celebrities. Michiru Kaioh, an internationally
recognized violinist and painter, and Haruka
Ten'ou, a well known professional racer on the
Formula One circuit. Both lived near Juban along
with the child the couple had recently adopted,
who was with them at the time.
" Also lost was Rei Hino, the daughter of
the secretary to the head of the Liberal Democratic
Party. The other five were all residents of that
suburb and students in local high schools or
universities. They have been identified as Mamoru
Chiba, Makoto Kino, Ami Mizuno, Hotaru Tomoe, and
Usagi Tsukino."
The young woman didn't hear any of the rest. She
put her head down on his chest and began to silently
weep.




The End.



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

All characters are copyrights of the respective
holders.
Please send comments, etc. to the above e-mail
address.

Special thanks to the following...

Naoko Takeuchi, of course.
The depth of her creation still continues to amaze me.

Luna and Artemis for kind words, support, and being
good friends for so long. Through good times and
bad, they have been there.
check out their page at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/9897/
for the best Sailor Moon fan-fiction collection.

Greenbeans for so many things, especially for showing
me with her own works all the things I should have
done better in mine.
check out her page at
http://www.kfalls.net/~gbeans

Tamex and Silver, aka Jen Burns and Troy Stanton of
Sailor Moon V fame. good friends with a good story.

Jackie Chiang, sage advice, good fics and for being
as much of an Outer Senshi fan as I am.
check out her page at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3741/

Alex Glover for his wonderful work on manga synopsii.
unfortunately, at the time of this writing, the
status of those is up in the air. check out his
page for the latest information.
http://www.nwlink.com/~kurozuki/manga.htm

and last, but certainly not least, to Andrea Lam, a.k.a.
Chibi-mika at the dolly station on O+-, for being a
test reader and making sure I saw many of my mistakes.

Without all their help, this story would not be as good
as it is.

Many thanks,

Tim Nolan.
6-30-97.


The End of the Beginning
end {4/4}