Subject to Change: Season 2

by JadeEye

How do you foresee a separate stream of time? It branches off at one event, one thought, among trillions. Moon and Mask confront their pasts, their futures, and the sins that brought them together in this sequel to Subject to Change.

21. Chapter 21

A/N:

A/N: Beware of language in this chapter. Sorry for not putting a warning in Chapter 19.

Another long author's note:

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, especially Elen-Di, whose review was INSANE(ly wonderful) and the ever-warm elianthos! Nimbi-san, I'm very glad to know you're still alive and that you're dusting Kakera off – I REALLY missed it! And a deafening HURRAH as always for Jade-chan!

Next, at least two reviewers have requested a timeline of the series' events, so here is an attempt at an STC Sparknotes. Even if you think you remember everything, it may behoove you to skim this timeline because it may clear up some things about Lanai, Pluto, and Mercury (since I'm aware that a lot of people had trouble keeping them straight due to Lanai's naughty habit of impersonation.

IF YOU WANT TO SKIP THE TIMELINE: Just scroll down until you find the usual chapter title and read from there.

IF YOU WANT TO READ THE TIMELINE: Be warned. It's freaking long. I split it up into Season 1, Fiore Arc, and Season 2, though, so just go to whichever part you need.

(SEASON ONE)

1. When Zoicite died, Beryl filled her corpse with her own aura, rendering her, in effect, a puppet. Zoicite told Moon that she will go to hell for the princess when she dies unless she joins her mistress (Beryl).

2. The Dark Kingdom discovered Moon's civilian identity from a handkerchief left behind at a battle site and used that knowledge to pretend in front of Luna and the other Senshi that Moon was their ally. Luna attacked Moon, and Tuxedo Mask saved her. Moon's growing relationship with Mask further convinced Luna and the other Senshi that Moon has betrayed them. They declared Serena free game.

3. Lita arrived and became friends with Serena. The gang went to the mall, where a youma threw Mask and Moon into a display of men's cologne. Serena and Darien discovered each other's identities. Later that day, Serena discovered that Asanuma had a crush on Rei.

4. At an attack on the arcade, Lita transformed into Sailor Jupiter. Ami, then Luna, attempt to turn her against Serena after telling her that Serena is Sailor Moon. Lita was hurt that Serena had not told her but blew both Ami and Luna off.

5. The Dark Kingdom began to attack simultaneously throughout the city. The youma that gave Mars and Mercury mental disorders returned, affecting Mask as well with a case of kleptomania. When Mask touched Moon's brooch (attempting to steal it), her old tiara exploded and was replaced by a new one. She used the attack "Moon Twilight Flash" to vaporize the youma and heal Mask, Mars, and Mercury of their mental disorders. To her disappointment, healing her fellow Senshi has not removed their belief that she has betrayed them. And, unbeknownst to her, her attack also healed Malachite of Beryl's brainwashing – he now had all his memories of the Silver Millennium (except the princess's identity).

6. In order to keep Malachite loyal to her, Beryl revealed an object that she has kept in Metallia's cavern: the thousand year-old body of Sailor Venus. Using Metallia and energy that the youma have gathered, she revived Venus's body and uses the two lovers as leverage against each other to get rid of the Senshi and find the Silver Crystal.

7. Like Malachite, Minako had all her memories of the Silver Millennium except those of her princess and the prince (thanks to a memory block by Pluto). This meant that she had no memory of Sailor Moon or Tuxedo Mask; thus she saw them both as threats to her princess, especially because Moon may be a High Senshi. Believing that her Senshi also retained their memories and powers from the Silver Millennium, she was sorely disappointed when she discovers the truth and when, furthermore, Lita rejected her in order to fight with Sailor Moon. Venus attacked both Moon and Mask, nearly killing Moon.

8. When Mask healed automatically from Venus's attack with golden sparks, his identity as Prince Endymion's reincarnation is revealed to Venus, Beryl, and Malachite. Beryl commanded Venus to bring Mask to her.

9. Minako told Lita that Prince Endymion, who had seduced the Moon Princess in sheer disregard of a prophecy foretelling destruction if they came together, killed the princess during the fall of the Silver Millennium. Then she told her that Darien was Endymion's reincarnation.

10. Serena snuck out to deliver a prom ticket to Rei's school locker. On her way home, Venus attacked her. When Lita found out about this, she realized that she shouldn't anything that Venus has told her.

11. Lita found out that Serena has been having dreams about dying in which she calls out for "Endymion." She told Sere and Dare what Minako said about Endymion being the Earth Prince who killed and seduced the princess but not that he may be Darien.

12. On prom night, Lita went with Motoki. Serena, who is going so that she can show Darien that she's safe on her own and he can go to Yale, went disguised by the Luna Pen. Without telling her, Darien went to the prom as well, intending only to keep an eye on her. Instead, Miss Lanai dragged them together. Rei also went to the prom, believing that Asanuma was the secret admirer who left her the ticket, but stupid Asanuma recognized Serena's handwriting and told her it must have been a joke. Rei ran off.

13. Venus went on stage and demanded that Moon or Mask show themselves. Dare dragged Sere outside, where Zoicite attacked and dragged them to Beryl in the Dark Kingdom.

14. Beryl revealed to Darien that he is Endymion's reincarnation. He killed her. Zoicite recovered control of her own body and killed herself before Metallia could possess it to hurt her prince. Metallia possessed Beryl's body instead and consumed Serena's brooch. The flash of light from the brooch's destruction blinded Darien's eyes. Metallia absorbed Serena, then Darien.

15. Sailor Lanai entered the time plane to order Sailor Pluto to restore Serena's memories so that she could use the Silver Crystal against Metalli. Pluto refused because the princess would be in too much danger once the crystal was revealed.

16. Instead, Pluto transported Sere and Dare onto the time plane and thrust Darien into a future where the Senshi fought the Dead Moon Circus, whose mirrors could extract the souls of their victims. The Golden Crystal was extracted from Darien's body. Pluto brought him back to the time plane.

17. Luna, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and then Venus entered the Dark Kingdom through Zoicite's portal. When Mars aims an attack at him, Venus tried to throw herself in front of it. She failed. Malachite died; Metallia possesses his body like Beryl possessed Zoicite's before. The possessed body attacked Venus but was destroyed by falling rock. Luna, Mercury, and Mars, now believing Venus to be a traitor, leave her to die in the collapsing cave. Jupiter carried the dying Venus from the caves, and Venus rambled deliriously about Pluto, the princess killing herself, and stabbing the sword into the princess herself.

18. Back on the time plane, Darien transports both himself and Serena back into Metallia, shocking both Pluto and Lanai. With the Golden Crystal, he destroyed Metallia and the Dark Kingdom.

19. With Venus dead and the Dark Kingdom gone, Rei and Ami both left Juuban. Darien's blindness remained while the severe flesh wounds Serena suffered healed into silver scars across her body.

(FIORE ARC)

1. Darien and Serena's summer so far has consisted of hanging out in the arcade, watching Buji, and getting used to life without sight and with scars. Darien has discovered his ability – psychometry – to attain phantom sensations of objects that he touches and practices with it frequently. Serena has worn long sleeves to cover her scars all summer.

2. On a day spent with Buji, Darien discovered Luna's corpse.

3. Rei's grandfather's body was found in the temple. He had been dead for at least a week. The gang has not been able to find either Rei or Ami since they disappeared.

4. On the way home from a group outing, Motoki and Asanuma found two jewel-like rocks.

5. Kisenian Blosom and Fiore attempted to conquer Darien's mind at his apartment. He escaped them by going to Elysion.

6. Fiore appeared at the arcade and almost managed to get a grip on Darien's mind. Serena broke it, and Fiore left.

7. Darien told Serena and Lita about the "imaginary friend" Fiore he had when he was a child and about some of the strange dreams he had during that time.

8. Asanuma and Motoki have begun to manifest powers of fire and electricity.

9. On their way home after Serena's surprise birthday party, Fiore and Kisenian attacked Serena and Darien. Fiore aimed a lethal attack at Serena only to hit Darien; he vanished to Kisenian's comet with Darien. Darien managed to give the Golden Crystal to Serena before he was taken away.

10. Kisenian's flower creatures preyed upon the city. Without her brooch, Serena was able to do little to help Lita fight them off.

11. Rei, in isolation, foresaw the arrival of Alin and Anne with the Makaiju.

12. Serena fell asleep with the Golden Crystal in her hands. In her sleep she went to Elysion, where she found Helios in his unicorn form. In her presence, he was able to regain his human form.

13. Darien found them both in Elysion. Helios told them that Kisenian was sent by Chaos to assassinate Darien so that he could not be with the princess and the princess would not be able to defeat Chaos. He also told them about the High Senshi, the oldest and most powerful Senshi in the universe who command over all Senshi and by whom the Moon Princess was to have been trained in order to fulfill the prophecy of her defeating Chaos.

14. Darien took Serena to her dreamflower in Elysion. When she touched it, its petals opened, and within was revealed a new brooch with which she transformed into Sailor Moon again for the first time since fighting Beryl. Although the dreamflower was Serena's, both Serena and Darien's wishes affected the brooch: Serena had always wanted shorts, and the new fuku had them beneath the skirt; Darien had wanted an appearance that made Moon less recognizable as Serena, and thus her hairstyle was changed from odangoes to a crown of braids around her head. In the transformation, a glamour also concealed Serena's silver scars.

15. Kisenian's true form was a weed in Elysion that entwined itself around dreamflowers. Darien stayed in Elysion to try to find Fiore's dreamflower and the Kisenian weed to detach the two from each other, breaking Kisenian's hold on Fiore. Moon left with Helios, riding his Pegasus form back to her body in her bedroom. Together with Jupiter they flew to Kisenian's comet.

16. As the Makaiju began to put out its roots in Earth's soil, Rei incinerated half of it with a fire attack. Then an attack from the opposite direction completely destroyed it; the source of the attack was Sailor Uranus.

17. Kisenian's attempts to permeate his mind while he was unconscious on the comet triggered Darien to relive his earliest memories. The memories he recalled were of waking up in the hospital, of blood-filled dreams, and of hallucination that were actually attempts by Sailor Pluto and the High Senshi to assassinate Endymion's reincarnation. He recalled Endymion's presence taking control of his body to ward off these assassination attempts.

18. On the comet Fiore was about to kill Moon when Kisenian was abruptly repulsed from him. Darien broke out of the crystal in which he had been imprisoned, Kisenian's weed from Elysion in his hand.

19. Fiore explained to Darien how Kisenian had discovered him with the energy-infused rose which Darien had given to him as a child. In Darien's distraction, Kisenian was able to escape his grip and took forcible control of both Fiore's mind and body.

20. Defying Kisenian, Fiore impaled himself on Helios's unicorn horn before he could hurt Darien or Sailor Moon.

21. With Fiore dead, Kisenian possessed Sailor Moon. The purity of Serena's mind, along with the intricacies of Pluto's mind block and Serena's concealed past life gave Kisenian great ecstasy. Before she could act on her discovery that the body she inhabited belonged to the Moon Princess, Darien completely incinerated her true form in Elysion.

22. Darien returned from Elysion and stopped the comet from entering Earth's atmosphere by lifting water from the Pacific Ocean into the exosphere, where it froze to the comet and stopped its momentum. Helios took Jupiter and an unconscious Serena back to Serena's home, where her family waited for her to arrive at her surprise Sweet Sixteen party.

23. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune bring an unwilling Rei into their fold.

24. Asanuma sensed the events occurring on the comet but was unable to understand what the sensations signified.

25. In Elysion, Fiore's body dissolved into rose petals. Helios pointed out that Darien had just defeated one of Chaos's most powerful warriors and gained the ability to enter Elysion not only with his mind but also his body. Darien cared only that Kisenian's victims were aware as she controlled their minds.

26. While Kisenian possessed her mind, Serena also saw much of Kisenian's mind. Now aware of the prophecy that Kisenian had known, it was no longer possible for Serena to ignore that Darien must be with the Moon Princess, no matter how much he seemed to currently dislike her. Serena felt defiled by Kisenian's possession and guilted by her discovery. She began to distance herself from Darien, both when he came that night to take her to Elysion and in the days and weeks that followed.

27. Motoki and Asanuma discovered each other's new powers.

(SEASON TWO)

1. The school year has begun, and Darien and Serena still haven't spoken to each other since the Kisenian incident.

2. Haruka, Michiru, and Rei have moved into Juuban.

3. While Serena was minding Buji and the dress shop for Mayuko, she met a girl named Hotaru whose body was as scarred as her own.

4. Darien's battle and psychometric skills have immensely improved after a summer of training in Elysion with Helios. The priest told Darien that he heard word on the wind that the Shittenou had returned. Darien rushed to check on Serena. She felt him and told him that she was avoiding him. He agreed with her that she should. Both misunderstood each other's reasons for what they said.

5. Serena's schedule on the first day of school showed that she had an art class with Miss Lanai. Unnerved and eager to change the mistake, she went to the guidance counselor's office, colliding with Darien along the way. Darien followed her into the counselor's office, growling when he discovered that Lanai lied to the guidance counselor in order to have Serena in a class. Darien's reaction instigated Serena to insist on keeping the class with Lanai.

6. Serena found herself rethinking her decision when she arrived for Art and found that she was the only one in the class. Then Miss Lanai, her French accent gone, revealed that she knew that Serena was Sailor Moon.

7. Lanai introduces herself as Sailor Pluto. She relieved Serena's fears that she was a member of the High Senshi sent to do something to the princess when she told her that the reason no one remembered Sailor Moon was because she had been the Moon Princess's top-secret shadow bodyguard during the Silver Millennium. She also told Serena, however, that during the Silver Millennium she had seduced Prince Endymion and, because of that relationship, been absent during the Fall and failed to protect the princess.

8. Lanai begins to train Serena in extensive sparring sessions, ostensibly to strengthen her Senshi attacks to improve her ability to protect the princess.

9. Pluto forbade Haruka and Michiru to search for the princess on their own but to focus on finding Saturn instead.

10. Asanuma and Motoki – the former more zealously than the latter –have also been training with their own powers.

11. Darien threatened Miss Lanai – who threatened him back and told him to stay away from Serena.

12. Lanai told Serena that the Senshi cannot remember or find the princess because she is afraid that the Senshi will betray her (again). Serena progressed to nonverbal attacks.

13. Rei told Michiru and Haruka about Luna and Venus's suspicions about Serena. The two Outer Senshi directed Rei to search for both Sailor Saturn and the princess with her spiritual powers and to leave Sailor Moon to them.

14. At his monthly doctor's visit, Darien was unnerved by Dr. Tomoe, who substituted for his usual doctor. Tomoe seemed overly curious about the condition of his still-blind and golden eyes.

15. Haruka approached Asanuma about Rei at a campaign fundraiser to make sure that Rei hadn't attempted to contact him since returning to Tokyo.

16. A disguised Sailor Mercury observed Motoki and Lita at the arcade to relay surveillance of their current power levels to Sailor Pluto.

17. Sick of being left out of the loop and not knowing the truth about Rei, Asanuma confronted Serena with his knowledge of her alter identity. Their whispered, heated conversation sent rumors about their relationship rushing through the school. Darien attacked Asanuma at the arcade after school, and Asanuma demanded answers from both of them about their "extracurricular activities." The fight continued into the park, growing in murderous intent, until Asanuma revealed his abilities to manipulate fire. Only Buji's arrival stopped the two boys from severely injuring each other.

18. Rei, Michiru, and Haruka sensed Asanuma's use of his powers, and Rei attempted to sneak off before being foiled by Haruka.

19. During the weekend, Asanuma recognized Rei getting into a car with Haruka and Michiru. A car chase ensued in which Asanuma attempted to stop their car by shredding a tire with one of his crystals. A gust of Haruka's wind sent the crystal shooting back at Asanuma instead. He lost control of his car when the crystal went through the windshield and lost consciousness as well.

20. Mikai, who was at the orphanage with Darien and now works in a garage, came to tow Asanuma's wrecked Porsche. Darien, who didn't believe that the girl Asanuma had seen was really Rei, went with Mikai afterward to have coffee.

21. After Michiru and Haruka told Pluto that Lanai has sunk her claws into Serena, Pluto sent Mercury to trash Lanai's classroom as a warning to her. When Serena came to train that day, Lanai met her outside the door and took her outside to train instead.

22. While wandering around the district in search of Saturn or the princess, Rei was met by Sailor Mercury. Rei could not sense Ami's presence in the Senshi's aura, and the Senshi refused to answer her question about what had happened to Ami. Instead, she said that they would meet again soon. That night, Haruka told Rei that she was not Rei Hino but Sailor Mars, that she was possessing the body of Rei Hino, as all the other Senshi did to their civilian identities.

23. When Darien went to inform Helios that Motoki and Asanuma were the returned Shittenou, Helios appeared frightened of him. He asked him to stay away from Sailor Moon.

24. Serena made virtually no progress in her attacks, unable to bypass Pluto's block. Instead, her dreams of dying only grew more vivid.

25. Lanai told Serena that she was going to America to seek out Senshi. In truth, she was responding to the summons that the High Senshi Council had sent. Before leaving, she told Serena not to transform and to stay away from Darien.

26. To find out more about Serena, Michiru managed to become Lanai's substitute teacher. Lanai left drawing assignments intended to continue chipping away at Pluto's memory block.

27. Serena began to train by using the Luna Pen to transform into Sailor Moon. One night, an unseen attacker sliced her leg severely – Sailor Uranus, unknown to her. Aware only of a wind-manipulating presence, Tuxedo Mask arrived and wrenched control of the wind away from Uranus. When Moon said that he had to stay away from her because she endangered the princess, he told her that he didn't love the princess. He got as far as saying "I love" before he was cut off by Rini landing on their heads.

28. Darien's hostile reaction to Rini unsettled Moon, with whom (in civilian form) Rini went home. Serena tried to convince herself as she went to sleep that Darien changing was a good thing.

29. Rini ran away. No sooner did Serena track her down than a youma attack them both. At the same time, unnatural thunder and lightning filled the sky as the Black Moon's spaceship entered the planet's atmosphere.

30. Tuxedo Mask dispatched the youma. He also summoned a humungous downpour to shove the spaceship – to them, still an unidentified mass – out of the sky. He kept a steady rainfall going to keep the spaceship down.

31. During the day that the three spend together, Rini told Sere and Dare that Asanuma was her relative and she had come to stay with him because a terrorist group called the Black Moon was after her in order to get to her parents. When they got back to Darien's apartment after shopping, while Rini was in the bathroom changing, Darien kissed Serena. Rini emerged from the bathroom, cutting off the kiss, and Serena fled with the little girl.

32. Lita has begun to feel intensely hostile, especially toward Motoki. Her hair has also begun to turn green. When Serena arrived with Rini, she helped the little girl dye her hair back to brown with some of the hair dye that she had been using. She also transformed in front of Rini, prompting the child to agree to stay with Lita instead of Serena.

33. The Black Moon ship required major repairs after Darien's thunderstorm. The Wiseman opened a vortex into which the ship could be moved to await repairs, but any repairs of the ship's vital crystals require large amounts of energy. A youma was sent out to attain it.

34. The effort of manipulating rain for such a long period of time drove Darien into an acute and dangerous state of dehydration, his body mirroring the sky as it wept water. He fell deeply unconscious.

35. Serena transformed to dust the Black Moon youma. In doing so, she sensed Darien through the rope and rushed to find him. When she found his unresponsive body, she called 911.

36. At Haruka and Michiru's house, Rei was also unconscious, her body flickering between the form of Rei Hino and that of Sailor Mars.

37. Lita left Rini at her apartment to go fight a youma. Moon, also at the battle, seemed preoccupied and examined a flower at the scene that was actually a transformed Rini, though neither of them knew it at the time. Afterward, Serena returned to Darien's hospital room.

38. When Darien woke up, he told Serena that the reason that he had kissed her was to figure out if his feelings for her were of a romantic nature. He told her that they weren't.

39. When Motoki tried to talk to Lita at school the next day, she nearly killed him with a bolt of lightning. Her hair turned green, and the gang – minus Asanuma – went to her apartment to figure out what has happening. They couldn't figure anything out, and Darien worried privately that the same separate consciousness that has been rising in his own body has begun to affect Lita.

40. Furious that Lanai's interference had begun to erode Serena's memory blocks and, in turn, those of Rei, Lita and Darien, Sailor Pluto went to reinforce Rei's memory block.

41. Asanuma spoke with Rei's father about the still-missing girl and discovered that he could transform his clothes by using the jewel-like stone that Motoki had found and given to him.

42. Rubeus and the Four Sisters were sent to Earth to gather energy. Prisma and Avery attacked Motoki and Darien. Lita saved Motoki; the two sisters retreated.

43. Disguised as a teenager, Rini went to school with Serena.

44. Sailor Pluto entered Lita's mind to reinforce her memory block. Then she moved on to Darien to rebuild his memory block as well.

45. Prisma attacked the arcade, where Motoki was keeping an eye on Rini. Prisma realized who Rini was and was only prevented from taking her by Sailor Moon's arrival.

46. Asanuma arrived and saved both Moon and Rini from Prisma and the youma, both of whom escaped. Moon's grave injuries caused her transformation to flicker, revealing Serena's identity to Rini.

47. With Toki and Rini, Asanuma took the unconscious Serena to Darien's apartment.

48. Their arrival interrupted Pluto's attempt to renew Darien's mind-block; she vanished. Time, which she had suspended in Darien's apartment, resumed, and Darien used the rope to trigger Serena's transformation and healing abilities. Then he and Motoki went to get Lita.

49. Lita's mind-block had been successfully reconstructed by Pluto; she did not try to kill Motoki.

50. Asanuma denied that Rini was his relative; she revealed that she was from the future, where she lived with Asanuma. She proved this to Asanuma by telling him about a portrait of Rei he had in the future that he had only begun to plan recently.

51. Rini went home with Serena; Darien used his powers of mind-manipulation to brainwash the Tsukinos into believing that Rini was their cousin. That night, Rini tells Serena that the Senshi and their civilian forms are not the same people: the Senshi's souls actually possess Terrans' bodies.

52. Like Lita, Rei's memory-block was successfully restored. With the disappearance of her dreams of the Silver Millennium, her angsty feelings of being unwanted returned in full force.

53. When Serena told the gang what Rini had said, they decide – except Serena – that the princess committed suicide during the Fall . Because the Senshi share a bond with her, when they die, they will all go to hell for the princess's sin.

54. Serena told Lita about Miss Lanai and also told her all that Lanai had told her about Sailor Moon's betrayal of the princess.

55. Relieved by sharing her secret with Lita, Serena made up with Darien.

56. Darien went to Elysion to tell Helios about Rini and the new youma. Helios told Darien about Sailor Pluto, the guardian of time, and told him that she was probably reincarnated with the other Senshi, leaving the time realm unguarded, allowing Rini to travel to the past.

57. When Darien left Elysion, he returned to Serena's windowsill. Both teenagers' bodies morphed into those of their previous incarnations. They began to kiss.

58. Mercury told Pluto that her attempt to strengthen the prince's memory block actually weakened the block instead and that Darien's proximity to Serena and the emergence of his flash-form triggered the emergence of Serena's flash-form. She pointed out that while the Senshi bonds, which were based on the bond between the prince and princess, could be controlled, the prince and princess's could not.

59. Pluto left the time realm to separate Darien and Serena, causing their flash-forms to be submerged once more.

60. The next day, on Pluto's orders, Michiru caused a rain to fall and separate Serena and Darien when they got too close to each other.

61. The gang picked Rini up from school and discovered that Buji's mother was pregnant.

62. Asanuma, Motoki, and Mask have been handling the youma that appear to build Numa and Toki's powers.

63. A suspiciously downed stop sign caused Serena to meet Haruka Tennou as well as Darien's orphanage friend Mikai. Haruka came to meet Serena after school the next day. Rini was hostile to him and angry at Serena for reproaching her behavior toward him. She ran – right into a youma attack.

64. Rini's transformation into a flower and Catzi's calling her "princess" made Serena realize who Rini was: the daughter of Darien and the moon princess. She made Rini tell Darien.

65. Finding out that Rini was his daughter with the moon princess caused Darien to lose control of his powers. He began to transform uncontrollably into different Earth animals and fled to Elysion, where he attacked Helios. With Rini, Serena traveled into Elysion and was able to bring Darien back into his human body by using their connection through the rope. After he had been returned to normal, as he slept, Serena told him that she loved him…but was he actually asleep?

66. Pluto was angered by Rini revealing her identity, which caused the amount of possible futures to multiply immensely. Mercury pointed out that Rini's immense power as the daughter of the prince and princess had allowed her to travel through the time plane without Pluto's help or permission.

67. Sailor Lanai arrived at the High Council headquarters, where she was interrogated about Darien and Pluto. They told her about two planets that had been destroyed hundreds of years apart but both by the same thing: a golden-eyed man who sought a child. The High Council told her that these discoveries mean that Darien has or will ally with Chaos.

68. A prophecy in Elysion some time ago informed Helios of the same thing that the High Council told Lanai, that Darien would side with Chaos. When Darien awoke in Elysion, Helios finally told him about the prophecy. Darien swore to himself that he would stop himself from fulfilling the prophecy.

69. Darien's discovery of the prophecy caused the possible futures to multiply and change once again. Pluto agreed to permit Mercury to take care of Rei so that Uranus and Neptune can focus on preventing Darien and Serena from coming together.

70. Back in the real world, Lita was even more hostile to Darien than before. Serena took Rini home and tried to cheer her up with manga and sweets.

71. For a large sum of money, Dr. Tomoe agreed to let Senator Hino use his daughter Hotaru as a stand-in for Rei in order to help him win elections. What will Tomoe do with the money?

72. Rini told Serena that she had lived with Asanuma almost her whole life because her parents were away fighting Chaos. Serena vowed that nothing would make her leave her kids.

73. Serena went on a date with Haruka. Darien came while she was gone and attempted to apologize to Rini. Rini saw right through him, stating that he had only apologized because he knew that Serena would want him to, not because he was actually sorry. She rejected him and told him that Serena was on a date. Darien retreated to Elysion to control his anger.

74. Sailor Galaxia, the lead councilor of the High Council, bound Lanai to secrecy with a blood oath before telling her that both Endymion and Serenity were targeted for assassination by the High Senshi because they had too much power to be allowed to live.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.

L

Subject to Change

Season 2

Chapter Twenty-One: Fire and Ice

L

Three years ago –

"Yo, Mikai! Check out this car, man!"

Mikai made a final turn with the tire iron and glanced up. Sweat trickled into his eye. He swiped it and squinted at the car on the lift.

Then he let out a whistle.

A fine, shiny red Mustang glimmered in the left of the garage. Mikai didn't see a scratch on the baby. Drawn as though by pheromones, he rocked to his feet and made his way toward the beauty, circling it.

"I don't see a damn thing wrong with her. What's she in for – " He reached the front of the car. The rest of his sentence evaporated on his tongue.

"I know, right?" said Nakamura feelingly from where he stood beside him. "A damn shame!"

Mikai shook his head, tugging at an earring. "You got that right."

The whole front passenger end of the Mustang was blown in, the sides curled and bent and black. The front passenger tire was little more than a smear of black grease on the crumpled hubcap.

"What the hell happened?" Mikai crouched, inspecting the damage to the other front tire. It was almost as bad as the passenger side. The axle on this baby was shot.

"Youma attack, the dude said." Nakamura jerked an oily thumb over his shoulder. "The guy's right over there. You can find out. Boss wants you to fill out the paperwork, anyway."

Mikai scrubbed the heels of his palms down his coveralls and made his way over to the office. He saw the back of the man sitting in one of the office's plastic chairs; he had glossy black hair, a suit jacket on, and a briefcase at his side. Mikai snorted with displeasure. Why had the boss sent him to deal with a businessman?

Mikai opened the door into the relative quiet of the office, and let it fall shut behind him. "Excuse me, sir, are you the Mustang's owner?"

A thick book sat in the businessman's lap. He slid a sheaf of papers into it and looked up through reading glasses.

Mikai realized that he had been mistaken. This wasn't an adult, just a kid still in his school uniform, not much younger than himself. He was wearing the uniform like a mandate to rule, though. His expression was familiar to Mikai: definitely a student government type.

"Yes," said the kid in response to Mikai's question. "I own the vehicle. Is it salvageable?"

"I'm not going to equivocate," said Mikai, having a little fun with the kid and his entrance exam vocabulary. But the kid's bland expression didn't change, the little booger. "The damage is extensive. Not irreparable, just expensively extensive. We'll have to order a new interior, replace the front axle and tires as well as the engine and possibly a new transmission, not to mention all the other crap that goes under the hood."

He filled out the paperwork as he spoke, checking the little squares for each needed part and repair. "You're also gonna need a new paint job, which means ordering in the same shade of paint, which may or may not exist anymore depending on whether or not your car's a special edition. Which, if my eyes did not deceive me, it is." He looked up from the paper in front of him. "A 325i, right?"

The kid nodded.

"Which means you're going to need a new paint job for the whole car if you want it to match because they don't make paint that color anymore." Mikai checked in another box, then straightened up to look at it. More than half the squares on the sheet were filled in. He whistled and looked at the kid. "Hope you have one hell of a parttime job."

"Hell just about describes it," said the kid. No small amount of irony tinted his voice. He fished a checkbook out of his uniform blazer. "I'll pay up front."

Mikai handed him the receipt.

The kid checked the repair shop name on the receipt as he wrote the check out. Mikai glanced at the signature on the check as the boy handed it to him. He keyed a few buttons on the cash register, then paused.

"Hang on a second," he said slowly, to himself, then – "Darien Shields?"

The kid lifted an eyebrow, and suddenly Mikai knew why he'd seemed familiar.

"Darien Shields!" he exclaimed. "You used to kick my butt in Mortal Kombat! At the orphanage, remember?"

"Ah." The high-schooler's expression cleared, though his brows remained aloft. "I'm sorry, Mi – Mita – ?"

"Mikai," supplied Mikai, pressing the key to process the check. "How's life been treating you?"

Darien slid his checkbook back into his blazer pocket. "I've had better days. But I'm sure you could tell that already, looking at my car."

"Life had to have been treating you pretty damn well for quite a while to get you a set of wheels like that," returned Mikai. The check emerged from the processor. "Driver's license…? Thanks. What were you doing that close to a youma attack anyway?"

"It wasn't like I knew the youma was going to make an appearance." Darien wore an annoyed frown.

Mikai smiled a little to himself. "Where was it?"

Darien signed the slip of paper that Mikai slid to him across the counter. "The park."

Mikai grinned. "Shields, man, how often does a youma hit the park?"

Reluctantly, a corner of Darien's lips turned up. "Point taken."

"Pretty soon the insurance companies are gonna be selling youma policies." Mikai put all the paperwork in the filing cabinet. "Okay, the car should be finished two Tuesdays from now. You'll get a phone call, probably from me. Keep this paper, and don't lose it. Show it to the guy in the office when you come in." He paused. "If you do lose it, just ask for me, and I'll vouch for you."

"I won't lose it," said Darien, slipping it into his pocket. "But thanks.

Mikai shrugged and grinned. "Whatever, man. Just saying. You need a phone to call a ride?"

"Thank you, but no."

"Okay, then." Mikai opened the door, letting the deafening racket of the shop roar into the quiet space. "Nice seeing you again, man."

Darien nodded. "Yeah. You, too."

L

" … in other news, the Minato ward was rocked by a small earthquake this morning, the fourth in a series of seismic disturbances in that area in the past few weeks. No damage was done, and while scientists at Tokyo's Seismic Activity Center have yet to find a reason for the tremors, they assure the public that if the disturbances continue, they are unlikely to exceed a four on the Richter scale. Nevertheless, inhabitants of the Minato ward should take precautions…"

Mikai yawned and stretched lazily. Then frowned as he realized that the surface beneath him was much more unyielding than his mattress had any right to be.

He cracked open his eyes and saw that he had somehow once again managed to roll off the bed and onto the floor while he slept.

A groan escaped him. His body was beginning to ache from the numerous bruises with which these midnight falls apparently left him. Maybe it was time for him to check into a sleep clinic…

L

The cold entered her dreams first. Like phantoms a white fog swooped in, shrouding the feverish maelstrom of spirits that whirled around her.

Then came the singing. And with the singing, she was pulled to wakefulness.

"Hush, little Senshi, don't say a word, Big Sister Mercury has returned… Oh, you're up. Excellent."

Rei blinked little flakes of crystallized sweat from her eyelashes and stared.

"I told you it wouldn't be long, didn't it?" The blue-haired woman sitting on the foot of her bed smiled. Then her brow creased, and she touched a gloved finger to her chin. "Although I must say I am disappointed. Your sensitivity was so high last time we spoke, and this time I was here for half an hour before you realized my presence."

Rei sensed it well enough now. An icy burn in her skull, not unlike the pain from cold water touching a cavitied tooth. And a blue aura, smooth as marble, completely still. There was no conflict or uncertainty swirling within it to make it move. It was wrong. No one's aura was like that, not even the other Senshi's.

Not quite stagnant…frozen.

"You're still not Ami," Rei heard herself croak.

"No. Well." The Senshi uncrossed her booted legs, then crossed them again. "Ami's not quite ready to emerge yet."

"You're not ready for her to emerge yet." Rei meant her voice to be an accusation, but it came out weak as a breath, merely weary instead of antagonizing.

Sailor Mercury laughed. Rei winced against the sound, as though it was snow being shoved down the back of her shirt.

"No one is ready to open that bundle of psychotic insecurity, dear Rei," Sailor Mercury informed her when she had finished laughing. "Even I was barely able to keep the child from a complete mental disossiation."

"Was," repeated Rei, staring harder into the unmoving aura. Focusing on auras was difficult because she saw them best by looking at them out of the corner of her eye, and the Mercurian Senshi kept shifting slightly, as though she knew that Rei was trying to examine her and wanted none of it. "Are you what happened when she did break down?"

"I'm what happened to stop her from breaking down." Sailor Mercury hopped to her feet. Rei's bed did not tremor even a tad. "A fate that was not so far from being your own, darling-heart Rei."

Rei could not help it; she flinched.

"That frightens you," Mercury observed. "And that is why you are still Rei Hino." She smiled. "For now."

Rei slid out from her covers, to the floor on the opposite side of the bed from the other Senshi. "Why are you here?"

Sailor Mercury smiled again and held out her gloved hand to Rei. "To make sure that you remain Rei Hino."

L

"Ruka."

Haruka threw the mail on the front hall table and followed Michiru's voice to the dining room. "Yeah?"

Michiru's usually undisturbed voice was tight. "Apparently our custody has been rescinded."

Haruka followed Michiru's aqua gaze to the colossal aquarium that lined the north wall.

"Damn."

The water inside the aquarium was frozen solid, the tropical fish suspended in mid-blink. In the condensation that blanketed the glass exterior, the sigils for Pluto and Mars had been drawn with a finger.

L

"No WAY." Lita grabbed Serena by the shoulders, torn between grinning madly and giving the little blonde a good shake for not telling her earlier! "Why didn't you CALL me?"

"SHHH!" Serena glanced around at the slanted looks they were receiving from their homeroom classmates.

Lita followed her eyes. "Hey, busybodies," she said loudly. "Girl-squealing going on here. Can we get some privacy?"

A few chuckles were heard; people went back to their own conversations; and Lita turned back around to spear Serena on her expectant green-eyed stare.

"I was GOING to," insisted Serena. "But I was still worried about Rini, and I didn't want to…you know… in front of her after the…you know?"

Lita rolled her eyes at Serena's vague phrasing. "I KNOW," she said meaningfully. "How's she holding up?"

Serena regarded Lita for a moment, her lips pressed together hesitantly.

"What?" Lita interpreted her hesitation correctly. "Just because she's his kid doesn't mean I have a beef with HER."

"Well, it kinda seemed like it," said Serena, trying to drain her voice of the accusation that automatically filled it. "Could you show her? That you don't not like her?"

Lita tried to ignore the bubble of guilt squeezing through her. "Yeah, sure." She flapped her hand. "Now, about this date…"

"It wasn't a date…"

"Serena, do I have to pull out a dictionary and show you the definition of 'date?' " Lita faked getting up to go to the bookshelf. Serena threw an eraser her, and she sat back down. "The guy picked you up and took you out. Dress pants and high heels were involved. It was a date."

"Oh, so what are all those things you and Motoki do, then?" returned Serena. "I haven't seen Motoki in any high heels."

Lita snorted, putting her hand to her forehead and shaking her head. "You're SO asking to be strangled, you know that?"

"I don't ask," said Serena, narrowing her eyes to look tough. "I demand."

Lita snatched Serena's lunch from her desk and secreting it safely behind her back. "I demand details about your date. Spill, or Obento-chan gets it."

"Lita!" Serena squealed, making the expected lunge for her ransomed lunchbox, but inside, she was thoughtful. Lita had been uncharacteristically enthusiastic about anything to do with Haruka.

What, and you're complaining? demanded her mind. You'd think you'd appreciate having a guy you best friend doesn't wanna kill. Unless you're just looking for another excuse to go back to Darien.

L

"Hey."

Serena looked up as Darien sat at the cafeteria table across from her.

"Hi," she replied. Although she was still shivering from being out in the cold during gym, she felt a bead of perspiration slide down her neck.

There was no reason for her to tell him about her "date" with Haruka – officially. But it felt like she was hiding something from him if she didn't. At the same time, telling him would seem suspicious, like she was trying to make him jealous or something. Or like she still had feelings for him. Which she did – but no one was supposed to think that, even her.

As she watched his long fingers unscrew the cap from his soda, she felt her mind beginning to muddle. Stubbornly, she shook her head and looked away, out the window, digging her mouth into her palm and her elbow into the tabletop. Where WAS everyone, anyway?

"Do you think they forgot we were eating inside today?" she asked Darien, kicking her feet nervously back and forth beneath the table and still studiously avoiding looking at him.

"Maybe," he said noncommittally, tearing open a ketchup packet. If he noticed her legs' antics, he did not show it. "You had gym with Asanuma, where did he go?"

"He had to turn in a makeup assignment." Serena tried to match Darien's casual tone. Why WAS he being so casual, anyway? Darien was usually either one end of the spectrum of the other: slyly mellow (though with a healthy helping of suspicion) or rabidly enraged, and this didn't seem to be either.

She cleared her throat. "So, did Helios say anything more yesterday?"

"Not really."

He bit into his fish sandwich. She supposed the fact that he was eating was a good sign, at least; she hadn't seen him ingest anything but caffeined beverages in the past few weeks.

"He had me practice transforming only my hands."

"Oh, really?" Serena perked up and looked at him at last, distracted from her worry by intense curiosity. Now that she knew she could bring him back to being human if he ever did lose himself again, the idea of his transforming into different animals filled her with an almost fangirlish fascination. "What kind of animals?"

Darien's eyes met hers for the first time that day. Even though he was blind she could always feel when he was focusing on her, narrowing his senses to converge on her body, like the aura of an attack aimed at her.

He set down his sandwich. "I appear to be partial to wolves," he said carefully. "Or canine creatures in general. My hands kept turning into paws."

"Oh!" Serena clapped her hands, eyes asparkle. "Do you realize what this means? You could be the most realistic-looking Inuyasha cosplayer ever!"

Darien blinked as Serena went off into a babble about ears and fangs and claws. Then he picked up his sandwich again. Serena in Chatter Mode was familiar territory. He could handle that without turning into a bloodthirsty animal.

So, when she paused in her jabber to breathe, he inquired, "And Inuyasha would be…?"

Serena's jaw dropped. The breath she had just taken whooshed out again as though she had been punched in the gut.

"Inuyasha…would…BE?" she echoed. Very slowly and very dangerously. To her,

as well, this – Darien in Superior Mode – was a familiar territory within which she could prowl.

Darien chewed serenely. He found himself smiling internally despite himself. Perhaps he should stop. Adoring the way that she spoke in such a ridiculously predatory voice, like a kitten attempting a tiger's roar, really wasn't conducive to his determination not to interfere in Serena's apparently burgeoning relationship with Haruka Tennou.

"Don't you READ?" she demanded. Darien forced his mind away from Haruka Tennou.

"Sure," he said. "Actual books."

"Manga are actual books!" screeched Serena, pounding her fists on the table.

"TSUKINO!"

Serena and Darien both went pale. They both recognized the voice, as well as its owner, who was now charging through the crowded cafeteria tables with all the grace of an attacking rhinoceros.

Coach Etoukou threw himself into the chair next to Darien. "Thought I heard your dulcet tones, Tsukino!" He slapped his clipboard down on the table. "And Shields, too! Good to see you've dropped Itto, Tsukino. Rotten apple, that one. Easy on the eyes, but mushy center. Not like this one." He clapped Darien on the back. "May not be much to look at, but he's tough. Like beef jerky! Right, Shields?"

"Uh..." said Darien. "Right."

"Anyway!" Coach clapped his meaty hands on the tabletop. Serena's milk carton wobbled crazily, tipping –

Darien's hand shot out and righted it before it could spill directly into Serena's lap.

"Thanks!" said Serena in relief.

"A-HA!" Etoukou stabbed a finger at Darien's hand as though it was a cockroach he'd been hunting for hours and had finally cornered.

"Coach, it's not what it looks like – !" panicked Serena.

"I heard it tipping – " hurried Darien.

"Your reflexes are still as sharp as ever!" boomed Etoukou, ignoring both of them. "I knew you wouldn't let yourself go soft, Shields!"

Both teenagers wilted.

"I have a proposition for you," Coach informed Darien, wagging his finger at him. "But before that – " He swung his mustached head around to look at Serena. " – where's , your cousin from Zimbabwe, Tsukino?"

"Um – " Serena's eyes went wide and darted around. "You see, she, um…"

A strangled sound escaped Darien; her eyes flicked to him for help and saw his lips twisted in a strange shape that she recognized after a moment as him smothering laughter.

"She had to go back," said Serena lamely. "They wanted her to run on their Olympic team, you see."

"ARGHHH!" Coach dug his hands into his thinning fringe of hair beneath his baseball cap with an agonized bellow.

The students around them, accustomed to Etoukou's theatrics, snickered collectively and ignored him.

"She could have taken us to Nationals!" He sniffled, taking out a lacy handkerchief from his pocket to blow his nose into it with a trumpeting sound, then stuffed it back in his pocket. From his other pocket he extracted a bottle of hand sanitizer and spritzed it on his hands. He rubbed it in. Then he seized Serena's hands.

Serena yelped.

"Tsukino." If she had been able to see his eyes behind his sunglasses, Serena was pretty sure they would be aflame with passion. "You have to join the track team."

Serena laughed nervously. "Coach, really, I'm honored, but I have a lot of extra responsibilities at home right now, and I can't – "

"No, you don't understand. You HAVE to join the track team." Coach reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded square of paper. He unfolded it and slapped it down in front of her, grinning so widely that even his mustache seemed to be smiling.

Unease prickling her spine like a cactus, Serena leaned over the sheet of notebook paper. That unease expanded into full-blown panic as she read the entirety of the contract written on the paper.

"But I – I don't remember signing this!" she stammered, looking up. Except… A sinking feeling filled her.

"I do." Coach was nodding vigorously. "Remember that day you were so eager to skive out of detention?"

Yes, Serena remembered. The day that the arcade was attacked for the first time, the day that Lita transformed into Sailor Jupiter for the first time. The day she begged Coach, offered him anything, to let her leave detention early because she felt Darien through their link.

His laughter finally reabsorbed, Darien intervened. "Hang on, Coach Etoukou – "

"Don't worry, Shields!" Coach clapped him on the back once again. "You get to go with her!"

"Wait – what?"

"Tsukino signed over your participation in the contract, too!" Whistling merrily, Coach folded the paper back up and slid it into his jacket.

"Hang on!" said Darien. "She didn't even know what she was signing – "

"Shields, Shields, Shields." Coach unfolded himself from the chair, picking up his clipboard. "I convince the principal to let you keep coming to school here after you went blind so that you could stay with Tsukino, and neither of you two will run a few easy miles for me?"

His lower lip stuck out, and he began to sniffle. The lacy handkerchief remerged from his pocket –

"Okay!" Serena threw out her hands like a referee declaring 'Safe!' "We'll do it!"

"Says who?" demanded Darien.

Serena threw him a blazing 'Shut UP' look. "Okay, Coach? No crying, okay? Okay?"

"OOOOHHH!" Coach stuffed the kerchief back into his pocket…and they should have expected what happened next.

He swept them both into a hug, squeezing them together despite their positions on opposite sides of the table. Serena let out a gasp. Darien grunted in pain, then groaned as he realized that his cheek was mashed against Serena's.

"I LOVE YOU GUYS!" trilled Coach, giving them one last squeeze before letting go.

They collapsed back into their chairs with a loud racket. Serena's milk wobbled and toppled over again, this time onto Darien's fish sandwich. They eyed each other with resignation and matching flushed faces.

"Ta ta!" Coach flapped a hand in a goodbye wave and exited the cafeteria the same chaotic way he'd came.

Silence was left behind at the table. Darien sighed and began mopping up the milk with a napkin.

"Sorry," said Serena shamefacedly, grabbing her own napkin and helping. "It was that time the arcade got attacked – I felt you being attacked and I didn't look at what I was signing."

"You're a minor. Technically, he can't hold you to any contract you signed." Darien dropped the sopping ball of napkin on his tray. "You don't have to do it."

"Well, but I gave him my word."

Darien snorted. "If you're going to be ethical about it, how about the lack of morals involved in using our superpowers in competitions?"

Serena winced. But the subject of Coach's competitions took the backseat to something else. "Principal Waishatsu wasn't going to let you come back?"

"He didn't think it was a wise idea," worded Darien deliberately. "I thought I had convinced him otherwise, but apparently Coach Etoukou may have had a hand in it as well." He scowled. "Or maybe he's just preying on my sense of obligation."

"So you ARE going do it?" asked Serena, wide-eyed.

"Are YOU?"

Serena fidgeted, again almost able to feel the weight of his four senses – oops, three, I'm pretty sure he's not tasting me. Sigh – focusing on her. "Yes. But that doesn't have anything to do – "

"Ugh! Finally!" Asanuma threw himself into the chair next to Serena. Serena's mouth snapped shut. "Takato would not stop talking at me! Hey." He looked around. "Where're the lovebirds?"

L

Motoki snagged Lita as she was walking out of her physics class, his fingers lightly grasping her shoulder and steering her out of the stream of students exiting the classroom.

She grinned up at him, pleasantly surprised. "Hey."

He smiled back at her. "Hi." He leaned a shoulder against the wall of lockers behind her. "How was class?"

"Boring. Is it ever anything else?" Lita eyed him, now just a little suspicious. "So why the escort to lunch?"

"Well, I was thinking…we could maybe do our own thing for lunch today?" Motoki hooked one corner of his lips at her, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "I made zucchini bread."

Lita winced. "That would be great…except…" She saw Motoki opening his mouth to argue, so she hurried to finish before he could speak. "I'm not leaving her alone with him."

Motoki sighed. "Asanuma'll be there. Eventually," he added in a mutter.

"Eventually?" Lita crossed her arms and lifted her eyebrows at him.

"He just has to drop an assignment off first. And Lita, I really think what they need is a little time together. In some place normal, like school, you know? Not Elysion."

"Time together to do what?" Lita pushed away from the lockers and began walking down the hall. Motoki kept up with her easily, matching her long strides with his own gangly legs. "Decide they're in love again so Serena can get her heart broken – again?"

"They need each other, Lita."

"No, Motoki. Shields needs Serena. She doesn't need him."

"Look." Motoki grabbed her, not by her arm but by her hands. Gently, so gently, he swung her around to face him. "I'll drop it. Okay? I don't want arguing about Serena and Darien to ruin you and me."

Lita studied him, working her jaw, click click click click. She owed him. Relationships weren't supposed to keep records, she knew, of give and take, but she owed Motoki. She had put him through hell these past few weeks, avoiding him and treating him like crap and then trying to kill him and now giving him a hard time about his best friend – and yet he still stayed with her. Still didn't give up on her. He had bags the size of doorknobs under his eyes, and stubble shadowed his jaw, but he was still thinking about her. Still working on the side despite his schoolwork and youma fighting and the arcade repairs to repair their relationship while she sat by cavalierly.

"Okay," she said. "Where are we eating?"

L

Asanuma had a make-up calculus test after school that day ("He's put it off for three weeks, the teacher's threatening to fail him if he puts it off another day," said Motoki), leaving the rather volatile combination of Lita, Darien, Motoki, and Serena to go pick up Rini after school.

Serena would have preferred to go alone, really, or perhaps with only Motoki as he was the only one who didn't seem to have the potential to emotionally damage Rini. But Darien had mumbled something about "my responsibility," an unmistakeable green tinge to his face, and stubbornly kept to her side – albeit at a safe distance. Lita, upon seeing Darien within a foot of Serena, insisted that she come along as well and quickly cut between the two of them with Motoki in tow.

Lita strode purposefully beside Serena, leaving Darien and Motoki to walk behind. Serena searched her mind for a neutral topic of conversation that wouldn't set a spark to either of the power kegs that were Lita and Darien.

"I hope Asanuma does well on his math test," she settled upon saying. "Had he studied for it, Motoki-nii-chan?"

"Even if he didn't, he'll do fine." Motoki smiled. "He's like someone else we know who seems to excel without trying at everything he does."

Serena grinned at the way Motoki lifted his brows at her and flicked his eyes at Darien. "You're talking about Buji, of course."

"Of course," said Motoki, and they exchanged grins, watching Darien listen to them with a furrowed brow.

"I hope you don't flatter Buji like that to his face," Darien said, frowning.

At their responding snickers, his frown deepened. "I'm serious. If you give him a superiority complex, it could severely impact his social interaction."

"Yeah, that's nice, anyway," said Lita, who hadn't been listening at all the whole time, but merely glaring at Darien. She linked Serena's elbow with hers. "Serena, you never finished telling me about your date Saturday night!"

Serena's laughter died; her heartrate spiked.

Her eyes flicked involuntarily to Darien as her thoughts sputtered in shock. Lita had just – she had just said – in front of Darien – !

"A date?" Motoki spoke very lightly. It was clear that he was trying hard to keep the conversation from collapsing, like a single pole left to hold up an entire circus tent. "Was it with Haruka Tennou, Usa-chan?"

"It was," Lita answered for Serena, nodding.

She looked at Serena, meeting her accusing eyes with awareness but without remorse. 'I had to do this,' her eyes seemed to be telling Serena.

Serena roused herself from her horrified shock to answer Motoki herself. "Yes. Yes, with Haruka-san. He was very nice."

"Yeah?" said Motoki, smiling at her kindly. "Where did you go?"

"It was a dinner party, sort of," said Serena. "The people who sponsored his F1 racing hosted it."

"I heard about that."

At Darien's voice, Serena flinched. But his words and his tone were only those of casual disinterest – which made her flinch again.

"It was on the news," he said. "The Meioh Corporation was celebrating their tenth year of sponsoring Formula One racing."

"Lucky!" said Motoki to Serena. "I bet there were tons of drivers there. Did you meet any?"

"If I did, I didn't recognize them. Sorry, Toki," said Serena with a wince that was partially from guilt and partially from disappointment. Why had she even thought that Darien would react to her date? He'd told her outright that he didn't love her. Stupid.

"Would you look at that, we're here." Lita tugged Serena forward, picking up their pace as they headed down the sidewalk toward the entrance to the elementary school playground less than a block away. A familiar set of voices floated out the opened gate toward them, although only Darien's hearing was acute enough to clearly hear everything that they said.

"…are you reading that girly stuff for? Naruto's WAY better!"

"Then why don't you stop bothering me and read it?"

"Why don't you stop yelling at someone who's just trying to help you? If you read that icky girl stuff you'll get cooties."

"…"

"Cooties…"

"…"

"COOties – "

"BE QUIET!"

The quartet of high schoolers entered the gate just in time to see (or hear, in Darien's case) a yellow Inuyasha manga bounce off Buji's forehead.

Serena gasped and broke out of Lita's loose hold to dive for the mulch, snatching up the manga.

"Volume Twenty-Three!" she cried.

She hugged it to her chest and looked reproachfully at Rini. "I know I taught you to respect manga better than this, Rini."

Rini's mouth fell open; then she snapped it shut. "I was trying to READ! And he kept bothering me!" Rini stomped her foot and stabbed a finger at Buji, who still looked a bit swirly-eyed from the manga's impact with his head.

But the second Serena turned chastising eyes on him, the little boy turned on the puppy eyes.

"But 'nee-chan," he began, sniffling, "I was just trying to share how awesome Naruto is with her…"

Looking at his big brown eyes, Serena melted into a puddle of goo. She squeezed Buji into a hug, patting his back. Now it was Rini's turn to become the focus of reproaching blue eyes.

"Rini, how could you? Don't you see he was just trying to share his own manga interests with you? Naruto IS really good – "

"That's not what he was saying!" exclaimed Rini. It was hard to tell whether the look of horror on her face was from Serena's betrayal or the way that Buji was smirking at her from under Serena's oblivious chin. "He called Inuyasha icky!"

BOOM. Serena's eyes erupted into twin volcanoes.

"WHAT?" she roared.

Rini crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at Buji, who was too panicked by the rabid blonde in front of him to make a face back at her.

"C'mon, onee-chan," he said nervously. "Even you have to admit that Naruto's better – "

"You do, Serena," agreed Motoki, who was a closet Naruto fan, crossing his arms and nodding sagely.

"MOTOKI!" shrieked Serena, shocked by this defection of the one person she could always count on to back her up. She sniffed and grabbed Rini's hand. "Come on, Rini. These unenlightened beings don't DESERVE our presence!"

She stomped out of the school yard, Rini in tow. Rini stuck her tongue out at Buji one last time before scampering victoriously away with Serena.

As their footsteps faded, Darien sensed Buji cross his arms. "Sheesh. GIRLS."
"Question," said Darien. "What is Inuyasha?"

L

Darien hadn't been brave enough to go after the two enraged girls, so he headed home after an informative – if disturbing – explanation by Buji about exactly what this Inuyasha character was ("He's just this lame dog-demon with a sword who isn't anywhere NEAR as cool as Naruto. Girls just like him because he has DOG EARS. Even my MOM likes him!" They shuddered together simultaneously).

As he was unlocking his apartment door, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He frowned, pushing the door shut behind him and hoping it wasn't a reminder to make another doctor's appointment. "Hello?"

"Duuuuude!"

"Asanuma." Darien stopped stock-still in the doorway to the kitchen, acutely aware that the spot was only a few feet away from where Asanuma had punched him into the wall a few days earlier.

"I gotta talk to you about something."

"...what?"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING LETTING HARUKA TENNOU TAKE SERENA ON A DATE?"

Darien held the phone away from his ear as Asanuma shouted. When he was done, he returned it to his ear. "Is that why you called me?"

"What ELSE would I call you for, you DUMMY?"

"Serena's date choices aren't either of our business." Even he noticed how robotic and unconvincing his voice sounded, but he tried to concentrate instead on the three history essays that he had left until tonight to write.

"What the hell, man?" Asanuma demanded. "Did aliens abduct you?"

Darien didn't see why Asanuma was so angry. It wasn't as though he was the one giving up on Serena. "Asanuma, I'm busy."

"This is because of Rini, isn't it? All of a sudden there's proof that you get together with the moon princess, so you figure there's no point? Why can't you – "

"I'm. Busy."

Darien hung up before the conversation could drive him into becoming a drooling rabid lupine again.

God. His fingernails dug into his scalp.

He was trying to do the right thing.

Why wouldn't anyone LET him?

L

"This is becoming a farce!" Rubeus roared, striding back and forth before the four sisters. His biceps bulged dangerously as he crossed his arms over his vest. "These Senshi are children. And yet we do not have enough energy to repair so much as one crystal!"

He spun on his booted heel to glare at Prisma, Avery, and Catzi. "I will not waste my time explaining to you how incredibly disgusted by your performance our prince has been. Nor will I remind you that your failures reflect on me." He gritted his teeth, looking at them with a pained expression. "The Wiseman has threatened to send Emerald."

A collective, outraged hiss was heard from the three sisters. "No!"

Avery leapt forward. "Rubeus, please! Let me try again! I'll take the princess and enough energy to take us home, I swear it!"

"Silence, Avery!" With merely his burning glare, Rubeus forced her back to her knees on the cold floor. He transferred his hard ruby eyes to Prisma, then Catzi. "Bertie will go. She has waited patiently while the rest of you leapt without looking. If she fails, then you will have one last chance."

Last, his eyes went to the white-haired woman standing demurely a few feet away from the other sisters.

"But you won't fail me," he said. "Will you, Bertie?"

"Rubeus." The white-haired woman smiled. "Have I ever?"

L

As soon as they got home, Serena approached her mother about putting Rini in a higher grade. Ikuko went to the school the next day to speak to the guidance counselor. The counselor, after giving Rini some tests, declared her extraordinarily advanced and placed her in…second grade.

"I could have done better," said Rini defiantly as she and Serena walked home the next day. "If…"

If she hadn't just had the traumatic experience of finding out that her dad kind of wished she'd never been born, Serena knew.

"…if I'd wanted to," Rini finished in a mumble.

Serena tugged one of Rini's pigtails. She understood now why people did that so much to her; those streamers of hair just hung there begging to be pulled.

"What are you talking about?" she said to the six year-old. This tendency, too, was like Darien; he never seemed to realize how very gifted he was.

"You're only six, and you already know multiplication and long division! That's amazing. You're just like your fa – " She froze and scrambled to keep her foot out of her mouth. " – vorite Senshi! Sailor Mercury!"

"Huh." Rini crossed her arms, looking ahead. "Mercury's not my favorite Senshi."

Serena paused in swiping the nervous sweat from her brow to look at Rini with wide, excited eyes. "Do you know Sailor Mercury in your time?"

Rini shook her head quickly. "I don't know any Senshi in the future. I've just heard of them." She hesitated. "And I've met Sailor Mars a couple times."

"Rei's safe…" A colossal weight, the presence of which Serena had nearly forgotten because she had become so accustomed to it, suddenly dissolved from her chest. Rei wasn't dead, lost in some ditch somewhere. But Ami – she whirled to Rini.

Who was looking at her with a crumpled, anxious expression.

"Don't ask me anymore," she ordered. She gripped the straps of her backpack tightly. "I can't tell you anymore about the future. I'm – I'm not supposed to."

Quickly Serena backed off. "Okay. I won't ask anything else."

Rini took a deep breath, hunching her shoulders and striding quickly forward along the sidewalk with a spurt of speed. Serena hurried to catch up.

"Hey!" she said. "I know! I'll buy us some ice cream to celebrate your promotion!"

"It's arctic out here," said Rini, but she followed Serena to the ice cream vendor in the park. They sat in the grass behind a stand of oak trees that blocked the worst of the winter wind and shivered, Rini delicately licking her mint ice cream in a bowl as Serena attacked her triple chocolate cone.

"Hey, it's almost Christmas," Serena realized, taking a pause in her tongue-lashing of the ice cream.

Rini looked at her and wordlessly shoved a napkin out of her.

"Heheheh," said Serena sheepishly, using it to scrub her face. "Oops."

Rini sighed and turned away, but it was mostly to hide the grin that she buried in her jacket sleeve.

"Any ideas what you want for Christmas?"

Rini's grin faded; she shook her head. "Nothing. I'm already taking advantage of your family."

"Are you kidding? My mom loves having you around. And so does Sammy, for that matter." Serena glowered as she thought of the various insults the two grade-schoolers had allied to throw her way. "The little creep… Anyway, think about it! You're definitely getting a present." She grinned. "So you better give me one, too!"

The cutting wind was far too cold against their exposed skin for them to linger long in the grass. The two shivering girls threw their napkins into the trash cans on the path out of the park.

"Wow," said Serena as they walked out of the wall of hedges that framed the park entrance. "I think that's the first time I've been to the park without a youma attacking."

Behind them, a scream rang out.

Rini rolled her eyes. "Way to jinx it, genius."

"Geeze…" Serena's shoulders slumped as more screams scratched the air. "C'mon." She dragged Rini behind the maintenance shed near the trash cans. She pressed a hand against her brooch, triggering her transformation, then studied Rini. "I'm having a thought here."

"Did you know that you're naked when you transform?" cried Rini, throwing her hands in front of her eyes. "You couldn't have WARNED me?"

"Um…oops?" said Sailor Moon again. "Sorry, no one's mentioned it before…" She flushed, thinking of all the times she'd transformed in front of Darien. Of course, he was blind – and! She hastily stopped herself, forcing Haruka's face to the front of her mind instead. "Anyway, I'm gonna put you in my subspace pocket, okay?"

"What?" cried Rini in alarm. "No way! You don't even know if there's air in there!"

"Of course there is!" exclaimed Moon, although she wasn't sure herself. "Anway, I'm not leaving you to be found again! Can't you transform into something that doesn't need air? Like a rock, or something?"

"I'm still HUMAN when I transform, idiot! I need AIR!"

"Rini, trust me on this! You're not gonna suffocate!"

"If I die, I'm coming back and haunting you." Rini stabbed her finger at Moon. "You'll have peanut butter and chewing gum in your hair every morning."

As she spoke, she squeezed her eyes shut tight.

Moon eyed her uncertainly

Rini popped an eyelid open. "Put me in! Get it over with already!"

"Um – " Moon winced. "Could you transform into a flower or something small first? You should fit fine once you're in the pocket, but it'll be kind of hard to get you in there the size you are now…"

Rini glared. In the distance, she heard more shouting, so she sat on the ground abruptly, wrapped her arms around her knees in a tight ball, and concentrated the way that the voice in her dreams had taught her. She felt her body shrinking…

L

Sailor Moon carefully picked up the white gardenia lying on the grass.

"Here we go, Rini," she said, sliding her carefully into her subspace pocket. Hopefully there wasn't anything in there that could hurt her…it wasn't as though there had been time to clean it out and install an oxygen tank in there. As she broke into a sprint, she mentally catalogued the pocket's contents. It should be fairly clean right now, actually: just her Luna Pen and a first-aid kit – oh, and that manga series that she hadn't wanted her parents ever to find her room… she giggled nervously, hoping that Rini wouldn't see them. Did flowers have eyes?

She followed the shouts to the edge of the lake that sat in the center of the park, next to the docks where couples could rent boats to go for a romantic row.

There were three youma: a) a white-faced youma that she took out with a focused Twilight Flash beam from her tiara before she even emerged from the cover of the trees; b) one of the usual buxom, humanoid mutant youma; and c) a woman whose fashion sense immediately announced her as none other than the last of the Four Sisters. She wore what looked like a low-cut blue bathing suit made of nothing but frosted glass, a pair of gloves, a pair of boots, and nothing more. Moon winced, wondering how the woman wasn't covered in goose bumps from the cold temperature.

The water against the dock churned crazily, slopping up onto the shore. The ground from the shore to where Moon stood ten meters away was a swamp of mud. The water came up past her considerably long heels to lick against her ankles through her boots.

Moon ignored this discomfort, her attention fastened instead upon the dozen-odd unconscious people who lay, many face-down, in the water. They would suffocate, but if she moved from her cover in the trees to pull them out, the youma would attack her before she got to more than one of them. She bit her lip –

A violent wind swept through the trees, descending upon the mudded area with a snarl. Moon clung to the tree branch, feeling the violence of the wind tear the earrings from her earlobes. But almost as quickly as it had begun, the gale ended, and Moon opened her eyes to find the several inches of water blown from the ground, leaving the youma victims covered in mud but able to breathe. Moon brushed her hand over the rope connecting her to Darien, remembering the almost hypnotic control of his golden eyes and the way he had seemed able to read minds, checking to see how he had known to send a wind to help her without her asking him, but he was occupied, she discovered, fighting a youma near the fish market downtown.

But then… who? She looked around – and was slapped in the face by a slosh of icy water.

She leapt out of it, gasping and spitting, wet bangs pasted over her eyes.

"What's the matter, Moon-girl?" called a lightly-accented voice.

Swiping her hair from her eyes, Moon saw that it was the Sister speaking. A ribbon of sparkling water undulated around her extended hands.

"Do you plan to stand there gaping, or will you fight?"

"Right backatcha." Moon widened her stance and eyed both the youma and the sister warily. She did not yet know the youma's mode of attack (although the sharp icicles that capped its arms and legs gave her a good idea), and if they both attacked her at the same time…

She pulled off her tiara and stretched it into a shield, wishing that there was a way to make both a shield and a sword from her tiara at the same time. Wouldn't Miss Lanai be impressed if she returned and found Serena able to do that! Ignoring the fact that Miss Lanai had told her not to transform while she was gone, of course…

The youma lunged forward. Its attack was as Moon had suspected – it stabbed the sharp icicles at the end of its limbs at her in a rapid cartwheel of motion. Moon alternated between blocking them with her shields and dodging, but a new challenge was presented to her: the youma chased her straight into the midst of the unconscious bodies littered on the ground.

Moon leapt and spun among them, trying to prevent both herself and the unconscious victims from being speared by the youma. And straining her senses to be aware for the sister's inevitable participation in the fight as well…

Then a body directly in front of her bolted upright. Moon toppled into it and fell in a tangle of limbs – she rolled her own body over the smaller one beneath her to shield it.

Immediately she felt a cold, sharp icicle push through the muscle on the back of her thigh. A curtain of hot blood gushed down her leg.

Then a familiar voice cried out, "Sailor Moon!" right in her ear.

She rolled to the ground, thinking blearily, Rini?

But then a curly dark head rose in her vision. Below it a pair of arms spread out. "Stay away from Sailor Moon!"

Buji! Moon lunged to her feet, ignoring the wound in her leg. "Get down!"

She grabbed him and heaved her shield up just in time to block the icicle-arm rushing toward them. She panted, struggling both to hold the shield against the force of the youma's push and to understand how Buji was awake – "Run!"

"I'm not gonna run!" he shouted back at her as the youma rammed her shield again. Moon grunted, heaving her shoulder muscles against the force, and felt a fresh gush of warm blood down her leg. "My mom's here!"

Mayuko-san? Moon peered from the corner of her sweat-blurred eyes and saw the round swell of Mayuko-san's belly in the grass only a few feet away…and she, too, was stirring!

"On the count of three," she breathed harshly at Buji, "get her out of here!"

She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, concentrating –

"One" – willing her energy to gather at the surface of the tiara like with her Twilight Flash –

"Two" – she had done it with the sword against Prisma, she could do it here, she just needed to –

"THREE!"

Silver energy rocketed from the surface of her shield to stab up into the sky like the Bat-signal.

The icicle-armed youma bearing down on her shield disintegrated like a shadow in light.

Moon wavered to her feet, panting and dripping sweat. From the side of her eyes, she saw Buji crouching over Mayuko-san, but she forced her bleared eyes to focus on the pale white blur that was the Fourth Sister.

But even as she watched, the woman disappeared in a swirl of black energy.

Moon tensed, backing toward Buji and Mayuko-san. She held her shield still up on her trembling arm as she glanced around. Two full minutes passed without her sensing the youma. Slowly, she lowered the shield.

"Sailor Moon!" She turned to see Buji and his mother gaping at her. "You're hurt!"

Moon looked behind her, down at her leg, ignoring the lack of dignity in her twisted position.

"What, this?" she said with a bright smile. "It's nothing. Look."

She tore the butt-bow from her fuku and swiped it across the mess of gore. "It's already healing."

But she grimaced internally. It was healing all right, but not as quickly as it should have been. The palm-sized hole still wept beads of blood. After two minutes of stillness, it should already have sewn itself up completely. That shield-flashburst had really drained her…

She needed more conditioning.

Moon shook away her self-concerned thoughts. "Are you both alright?"

As she asked, she looked around, seeing that the other youma victims were stirring faintly. But none of them were anywhere near being as awake and alert as Buji and Mayuko-san…

Moon turned her gaze back to them. Then she blinked and squinted. Had she just seen…?

She shook herself again. "Ma'am, you should go to the hospital and make sure the baby's okay. Do you need help?"

Mayuko-san stared at her with narrowed eyes. Moon took a step backward despite herself. She was used to seeing looks of distrust – but not from Mayuko-san!

Then she remembered something she had heard Mayuko-san say the first time she met her. "Where were the Sailor Senshi when you needed them, honey? Or when Daddy needed them?" Buji's father, Mayuko-san's husband, had died in one of the youma attacks that Moon had not stopped.

Sailor Moon knelt, ignoring the twinge from her thigh, and bowed her head, pressing her palms flat to the ground.

"Iwara-san," she said quietly. "I know that forgiveness is too much to ask, but please accept my deepest apologies for not saving your husband."

A strangled sound emerged from Mayuko-san's mouth.

Moon squeezed her eyes shut tight, her fingers clenching in the grass of the ground. She felt so unworthy. All this time acting innocent and playing with Buji as if he were her own family and not as if she was the one who had failed to stop his father's death… if Mayuko-san only knew…

"I never realized before," Mayuko-san spoke, her voice swollen and cracking like pottery left too long in a kiln, "how young you are."

Moon lifted her head, looking up at Mayuko's tear-filled eyes with confusion.

"I am the one who should be asking for your forgiveness," said Mayuko-san. She hugged Buji to her tightly as she gazed at Moon.

"I've blamed you all this time for Daisuke's – for my husband's death. But you've saved Buji's life so many times, and you – you can't even be much older than Serena..." She was whispering, as though to herself, but Moon heard her and stiffened.

"I…I'm so sorry," Mayuko-san said, louder. "And so thankful."

She squeezed Buji tighter, tears running down her face, and knelt to mirror Moon's supplicating position.

"Oh – no!" Sailor Moon jumped to her feet, pulling Mayuko-san up also. In the distance she heard approaching sirens. "You can't kneel in your condition, Ma – Iwara-san! Wait for the ambulance so you can go to the hospital and make sure the baby's okay!"

Mayuko-san smiled genuinely up at her. "Thank you, Sailor Moon."

Sailor Moon smiled back and looked down at her side, where Buji stood with his arms around his mother's legs as though to brace her. He grinned at her as brightly as a star, eyes crinkling at the edge.

She smiled back and couldn't resist saying, "You were super-brave, Buji."

Buji's grin grew, if anything, kilowatts brighter. "Guess you'll have to make me an honorary Senshi, Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Moon laughed, and a chuckle joined her.

Turning, she saw a dark shadow dropping from a tree branch. So he had taken care of his youma.

"Tuxedo Mask!" breathed Buji.

Mask, approaching, tipped his hat at the boy. Then he turned toward Moon, lips parting to say something, when a police car burst suddenly through the trees.

In silent unison Moon and Mask shot into the trees.

"Bye!" Moon called to Buji as they fleet-footed away.

Mask followed her to the clearing that they had found with Buji during the summer.

"Report," he said, only half-jokingly.

"Hang on." Moon reached into her subspace pocket and pulled out the white gardenia. The petals looked rumpled but otherwise no worse for the wear. She set it carefully on the grass, ignoring Mask's lifted eyebrows.

"Okay, you can change back now," she told it.

The gardenia twitched on the ground. Then it grew and unfolded into Rini, her hair mussed and her face flushed.

She glared at Serena. "You couldn't have put a warning on those manga?"

"You read them?" gasped Moon, horrified.

"There wasn't anything else to do!" exclaimed Rini. "Argh! Between those manga and you transforming right in front of me, I'm mentally scarred for life!"

Sailor Moon crossed her arms, just as embarrassed as Rini. Defensively, she said, "I refuse to believe that someone who was raised by Asanuma hasn't heard much worse."

"Heard, maybe!" retorted Rini. "But seeing it's a totally different traumatic experience."

Mask, who had reacted fairly well first to hearing Moon talk to an inanimate object and then to realizing that said inanimate object was Rini, placed in Serena's subspace pocket, was looking a little uncomfortable with this topic.

"Are these the Inuyasha manga you were talking about?" he dared to ask.

"NO!" blurted out Moon, as red as Mars' high heels. Bad enough that Rini knew about about the manga, but DARIEN? "It's not what you think – I'm just holding onto them for Molly!"

"For Molly?" echoed Mask. His brows were in the same position they always were when he was training every one of his senses on her.

"Yes!" Moon jerked her head in one vehement nod.

In a perfect, monotoned unison, Mask and Rini said, "You can't lie."

Then they glared at each other. Rini went "Hmph!" and reached up to wind her little arms around Moon's neck.

"Let's go home, Serena," she said, chin jutting. "It's cold."

Moon was too relieved to have escaped that embarrassing conversation to do anything but do exactly as Rini said.

L

"Hah! Looks like Rubeus's faith in you was misplaced after all, Bertie." Avery tossed her head as she turned from her mirror to watch the white-haired woman step out of a portal.

Bertie fiddled with the inside of her wrist, her serene expression unaffected. "Believe what you will, Avery."

"Imbecile, Avery." Prisma spoke up from her position in the corner. "Bertie wasn't trying to kill the brat, were you, Bertie?"

Bertie succeeded in extracting two small crystals from her wrist and looked up with a smile touching the corners of her pale lips. "No."

"Then what WERE you doing?" Catzi huffed, leaning forward to peer over Bertie's shoulder. She reached for the glowing blue-white crystals that hovered just centimeters above Bertie's gloved palm.

Bertie closed her fingers, neatly protecting the crystals from Catzi's seeking grasp. "Ask Prisma. I need to give one of these to Rubeus before I study it myself."

She stepped into another portal. Catzi and Avery looked over at Prisma. The dark-haired Sister smirked, splaying her hand in front of her to examine her nails and enjoying her superiority over her younger sisters.

"Ugh, cut the smug and tell us," Catzi groaned.

"It's clear, Catzi, that she doesn't actually know," Avery cut in, eyeing her older sister insolently from beneath her eyelashes. "She just wants us to think she's more clever than she is."

"I do know, Avery!" Prisma shot to her feet, snapping. She stumbled and caught her seat to keep herself upright.

"Tsk, tsk, Prisma," said Avery. "You know you're not well enough to stand on your own yet after what that little girl did to you."

"Not a little girl," ground out Prisma. "A Senshi. A High Senshi, with all the power she had."

Both Avery and Catzi rolled their eyes; they had heard this rant before.

"Yes, because a High Senshi would really be sitting back and letting us prey on the planet like this," said Avery. "Just tell us what Bertie was really doing. Unless I was right and you really DON'T know."

Prisma mustered a sneer of her own, lifting her nose in the air. "Well, wasn't it obvious? She recorded Sailor Moon's fight with the youma to analyze her attacks and fighting style. With that information, Bertie'll be able to counter any of the brat's attacks and chew her up easy."

"So you explained to them, did you, Prisma?" Bertie stepped back out of the portal and smiled at them. "Sorry, girls. Rubeus always did like to save the best for last."

L

"Forgive the hackneyed pun, my pretty Rei, but your fighting lacks fire." Mercury lowered her gloved hands. "You will uncover no more attacks if you lack the motivation to do so."

Rei, in her fuku, also lowered her hands. But she regarded Mercury expressionlessly.

Mercury summoned a pointed icicle and prodded Rei with it. "Come now, unleash your inner demons on Mother Mercury."

Rei moved backward out of the icicle's reach but made no move to bat it away.

Mercury's eyes hardened as her smile widened. The icicle's length suddenly doubled, lunging forward to press its sharp tip against Rei's white throat.

"Come now, Rei. It'll be just like confession."

Rei's violet eyes fell to the icicle resting against her throat. But she said nothing.

"Oh, it slipped my mind," said Mercury flippantly. "You're a heathen, aren't you? A blaspheming, Jesus-hating infidel who will burn in hell along with your pagan grandfather – "

Fire erupted at Rei's throat. It roared down the length of the icicle with the speed of a jaguar. Mercury dropped the vaporizing icicle just before the flame could leap to her fingers.

Then she spun, shooting a wall of smaller, sharper icicles at Rei. They hissed out of existence in a wall of fire that swirled up in front of her.

"Of course – " Mercury shot another flurry of icles at her, then blurred and shot them at her from the opposite direction. " – what does it matter if you go to hell? There wasn't anyone in heaven waiting for you. Your grandfather wanted you to be your mother, and your mother hated you for being the child of the man she had learned to hate – "

Mercury cut short as a volley of fiery arrows pinned her to the wall. Rei stood directly in front of her, a bow of flame crackling in her hands and an arrow notched in it – aimed at Mercury's throat.

"There are two people in this world who love Rei Hino. And they are both alive." Mercury smiled past the flaming arrow, at Rei. "Shall we find you the power to keep them that way?"

L

Asanuma yanked the sweaty bandanna from his head. His shoulders and vertebrae popped as he straightened.

He stepped back to inspect the canvas. Two weeks' worth of meticulous sketching had resulted in this, her face. Shadowed and distant, her lips pressed together as though biting down on them to suppress a smile – this image was the first and most cherished memory he had of her, that night at the diplomatic function to which her father had brought her.

A vivid memory that made his clumsy sketch look as though a kindergartner had drawn it.

He groaned and dug his pencil into the corner of the canvas, pushing it until the tip broke.

What had he been thinking? What was he STILL thinking right now? He couldn't believe that he had been idiotic enough, conceited enough, to think that he would ever be able to capture her likeness on paper – it was enough to make the back of his neck flush. And that he'd been obsessed enough, creepy enough, to paint a portrait of her, much less to spend so much time on it, like a stalker…

But did these thoughts slow him down at all? No! He was still gazing at the potrait wondering if he dared to risk ruining the sketch by painting it!

He had to paint it, of course, or how else would he be able to remember the faint flush from cold that had suffused her translucent cheeks like the blush just beneath a red apple's skin? Or the spot where her lips had turned the faintest shade of white when she bit down on her lip to keep from smiling at the jokes that he had made in an attempt to break her Spartan mask?

It wasn't good enough.

He pushed away from the canvas to sit on his paper-strewn bed. It wasn't good enough, whether in color or black and white or well-drawn or not. He could paint a portrait of her more perfect than the Mona Lisa, and still it would not have her voice or her razor tongue or that heartbreaking veneer of condescencion and resentment that coated her like a chrysalis too strong for her to escape from on her own.

And he'd been so close. That night at the prom, right there, she had been close enough for him to touch. If he hadn't waited or worried about what to say, if he'd just said it –

Asanuma stood up and wrenched the canvas from its easel. Then he kicked open his closet and stuffed the canvas, inside, against the wall, and buried it from his sight behind a pile of shirts and jackets.

He didn't want a charcoal-smudged, paint-smeared, imperfect two-dimensional representation of Rei.

He wanted her.

L

Rei was coming along swimmingly. She was making exponentially more progress than she had under those clumsy, heavy-handed Outer Senshi. But even Satan-spawn needed sleep, and Mercury had left the girl for some well-deserved rest.

Meanwhile, she herself – who was perhaps a little bit more wicked than Satan-spawn – was threading the next needle for her web.

In the weeks that she had spent observing Kentaro Mikai, she had discovered that he had an honorable streak as wide as the Centauri asteroid belt. She had seen him clock out but continue to work helping a younger mechanic and watched him cover the bill for a struggling father who couldn't afford to repair his windshield.

He would not, she felt quite certain, hesitate to rescue a damsel in distress. He was like Minako in that compulsory honor code, and Mercury positively cackled to think of the sorts of scrapes into which she would be able to trick the two goody two-shoes once this Shittenou and Minako's reincarnation met and paired off.

Her wait for a suitable youma to appear did not last long. The computer program that she had created to detect the dimensional rifts created by the arrival of a Black Moon creature alarmed her to the existence of a lower-level youma, one of the white-faced legion.

She teleported to the rift's spot, a busy intersection on the outskirts of Juuban, far from the other Senshi's usual haunts, just as the mini black hole behind the buxom youma swirled out of existence. Mercury caught the last readings from the rift on her computer and swiftly backed up the file for later analysis.

Then she slid her computer into her Subspace pocket and transferred her attention to the youma.

She did not transform, for that would have advertised her presence as obviously as a signal flare. Instead she aimed a tendril of concentrated aura at the youma's white skull. Its faceless head immediately swung toward her. She smiled and took off lithely down the street.

The youma bounded after her with an agility that would have been surprising had she not already studied dozens of its fellows in detail. The white legion youma moved with a curious, awkward yet swift movement as though their joints were rotational and not hinged. As soon as this stage of her plan was carried out, Mercury would obtain one of these youma to dissect it and determine whether her hypothesis concerning their joints was correct…the question, of course, would be where and how to dissect the youma without Pluto discovering. And of course, how to immobilize it without dusting it and without encasing it in a solid block of ice, for she doubted that traditional tranquilizer injections would work…

These thoughts pleasantly occupied her mind on the fairly long sprint to the garage where the third of Endymion's Shittenou spent his days.

Once there, Mercury neatly cut the string of aura that led the youma to her. She transformed then into Ami Mizuno's civilian persona: shoulder length dark hair, a killer set of ankles, and both a frame and face that quite accurately displayed the golden proportion that so appealed to the Terrans.

Then she began screaming.

The Shittenou emerged first from the garage, and this pleased her, for it meant that his superior and auditory senses had already begun to manifest.

His reaction time, however, was not what she had expected: instead of lunging between her and the youma, he stood in the garageway, watching.

This pause gave the youma time to dart for her. Unwilling to reveal any of her skills, Mercury screamed and ran. Then she stumbled deliberately, sprawling on the sidewalk.

But then the Terran disappeared altogether!

Watching through the reflective surface of her sunglasses, Mercury saw him retreat back into the garage. Her reckoning of Terra fell yet a notch lower. First the prince who put his personal romance before his planet, then a Shittenou who disliked fighting – Jupiter's counterpart, no less! – and now this cowardice?

She rolled over on her back, snapping her legs in to her chest as the youma bounded over to lunge at her. Her legs snapped out straight, planting a solid kick in its chest and bringing herself to her feet in the same motion.

The movement had been carefully calculated; the youma stumbled backward only far enough to give Mercury room to stand and not to reveal any of her Senshi strength to any bystanders. Mercury cowered back into her scared-Terran-female pose, backing away from the youma as her mind calmly progressed through a series of decisions. This would be the youma she would use as a specimen to observe, she decided, since the Shittenou's spinelessness had nullified her original plans for it.

Preparing to lure the youma away again, Mercury suddenly detected a sound behind her. Her eyes returned to the reflection in her sunglasses; there was an orange glow there to which she had become quite accustomed in her past few days with Rei Hino. Yet she had not sensed the arrival of the fire Shittenou…

The sound grew, the youma lunged for her again, and Mercury threw herself backward.

Now, on her back, she could see what she had not been able to before – the third Shittenou had returned outside with a blowtorch in his hands. He hulked in front of her with a grunt, and Mercury had to lean on her elbows to see around his body as the flame from the blowtorch licked the youma's arm and then climbed voraciously up the rest of its black frame, until the whole creature was a poor parody of Jadeite in his fire-shield technique. Its black mouth opened mutely as it melted into black sludge a meter from her feet.

She looked at it, reminded herself to palm a sample before she left, then looked up at the Terran who had failed her entire plan through sheer idiocy or ingenuity – when she was less annoyed she would decide which one it was.

Turning around, the Shittenou swiped a hand across his pierced eyebrow. "You okay?"

Forcing herself back into frightened-Terran mode, Mercury nodded shakily. He reached a hand down to help her up. Swallowing her distaste, she allowed herself to put a trembling hand in his and be pulled up.

"Are you okay?" he repeated again.

"Y-yes," she stammered out, trying to pull her hand away in an imitation of what any adolescent female with a sense of preservation would do in the presence of a pierced and dyed male like Kentaro Mikai. "P-please let me go!"

He released her. She pivoted and fled, taking care to scuff her shoe through the youma's remains as she did so.

It was just like Minako's partner to do such a thing, to be so contrary, she fumed later as she paced in the bedroom across from that of Mars's reincarnation. Always requiring her to do more, do more, do more…

But that was fine. She grinned evilly into the time-window that now hovered safely in the dimensional pocket that she had created for it. There was nothing that Mercury enjoyed as much as a challenge.

L

A/N: Sorry for the delay and the lack of editing in this chapter. Also for the lack of Sere/Dare. Please tell me what you thought of Coach and of Rei, Numa, and Merc, though. Please?