As We Were

by VO1

rated R for language, sexual situations, and enormous amounts of underage alcoholic consumption

10. 10

Part 10---holy Moses!

R!

Did everyone see that? This part is so rated R, for several
reasons, but one of them being the fact that the truck-
driver word was kept in its entirety, and variations
of it appear, etc. And, once again, i revert back
to the Dawson's Creek analogy: if you are young and
innocent or deeply religious, don't read this. I say again:
people have sex. It happens. And it's not that bad.
Dawson's creek looks like hard-core porn next to this...but
still, i'm ready to be flamed alive. All disclaimers apply,
including i dont own sailor moon, and ANY brand name (e.g.
Geo Prism, Newports, Subway, etc.) Just to be on the
safe side, i dont' own MLB, any of the team names, players
or managers. If i did, i would be swimming in my money.

Oh, and another note? i think there's only one part after
this. I'm almost done!
Tell me what you think. Be brutally honest: Venusorbit1@aol.com


Crud! forgot this too! I have skipped a huge segment of time,
but once im done with this entire series i might go back and
write kind of like a side story about what happened on spring
break. I felt it the story would have been just filler if i
included it.


***************************************************************
Mina watched the scenery flash by the window,
all of it clouded behind the curtain of cold gray
water falling from the sky. Her window was open a
crack, and occasionally a trickle of rain would
blow in and splatter her across the face. She
welcomed the refreshment, since it was beginning
to get unbearably stuffy in the car. Kevin had
lowered the volume on the radio until it was barely
audible; the repetitive squeaking of the windshield
wipers drowned it out. Miles passed before her
half-lidded eyes; she longed to let them drop shut,
but Kevin was looking a little haggard and either
she or Raye was taking the wheel at the next rest
stop.
Kevin glanced at her quickly, trying to keep
his eyes on the slippery road and avoid killing them
all. Raye and Jay were in the backseat, Jay's head
on Raye's lap while he slept. It was Sunday, and
they were returning to school after Spring Break,
spent rather uneventfully at Junta, California, due
to lack of funds to travel somewhere sunnier and
with easier access to alcohol.
Well, not completely uneventful. Mina had spent
half of her break in L.A., at another shoot, and
had spent the rest of the time at Kevin's house.
She also had the experience of meeting Kevin's
mega-bitchy ex-girlfriend, an incident that
Kevin would have gladly forked over his entire
life savings and a few expendable vital organs
to avoid. Raye had stayed at the Melman
household, which was an experience in itself. He
doubted she had a moment to herself to meditate
with four Melman males occupying the same space in
close proximity to her personal being, and undoubtedly
jostling for her undivided attention.
Lita and Matt had stayed behind, since
Matt's hometown was quite a distance away and
Lita could not bring herself to board a plane
again. Zach and Amy had traveled south, to San
Francisco, taking Matt's new prized possession,
a brand-new Celica. Matt's old Outback (station
wagon!) had been relegated to his younger brother,
Aaron, after Matt had begged his parents for a
new car, based on the grounds of constant ridicule
and personal embarrassment. Matt had given Zach
the keys only after grilling him for two hours on
his driving record, his knowledge of manual transmission,
and the highway laws of California. There had been
a tear in his eye after Zach and Amy had pulled
away from the curb.
Kevin smiled to himself; Matt would have lent
Zach his car if Zach was on the verge of losing his
license and was wanted by the F.B.I. and fleeing the
country. Matt was rich; he knew he was rich and he
didn't have any qualms about sharing his wealth with
the non-rich, mainly, them. Even if Matt were penniless
he would have given the shirt off of his back; he
was that kind of guy. Kevin estimated that altogether
he, Zach, and Jay owed Matt roughly fifteen hundred
dollars. Matt would never ask for it back, though,
and had probably long forgotten about it.
Jay snorted and squirmed in his sleep; he hadn't
been feeling well that day, and Kevin suspected that
he was coming down with something. Mina reached
back and placed a hand on Jay's forehead.
"He's hot," she muttered, and began shuffling
through her purse, searching for some Tylenol.
"Good thing his mom didn't know," Raye said,
leaning her head against the window. "She
probably would have kept him at home until he
recovered."
"He has a game on Tuesday," Kevin remembered.
"Zach, too."
"I don't know if he'll make it," Raye said,
her voice soft and full of concern. She ran a hand
lovingly through Jay's disheveled blond mop. He
shifted again, kicking the back of Kevin's seat.
Mina smiled softly. Raye had mellowed out
tremendously in the last few months; whether it
was because of Jay she did not know. She watched
as Raye stroked Jay's head with the tenderness
that a mother reserves for her child. Kevin had
slumped tremendously in his seat, and she reached
over and felt his forehead, too, and almost scared
him half to death in the process.
"You're kind of hot, too."
"Thanks. I know."
She grinned. "I meant temperature wise.
Do you feel OK?" Her hand traveled down to his
cheek, where she let it linger for a few moments.
"I'm OK," he insisted, which everyone knew
was a fallacy; Kevin would insist that he was
OK if both of his legs were severed and he had
been shot.
"I don't believe you!" she sang. "You're
letting me drive at the next rest stop."
"Yeah right, you're ready to drop off, too,"
Raye said from the backseat. "I'll take over,
if you can stand a forty pound head cutting off
the circulation in your legs."
"I think it's more along the lines of eight,
you big baby," Mina said, unzipping her sweatshirt.
"Jay's not that big a genius." It was getting too
hot, and the Blazer's air conditioner was sporadic
at best, and that was on a good day. They reached
the rest stop a few minutes later, and Raye practically
bolted out of the car all the while frantically
rubbing the pins and needles out of her legs.
Everyone except Jay stopped to pee, and when they
hit the road again, Raye was behind the wheel
(after pulling the seat almost all the way forward),
Kevin was sitting shotgun and Jay's head was on
Mina's lap. Soon, Mina leaned her head against
the window and drifted off to sleep, and the loudest
sound in the car was her heavy breathing.
Kevin put one hand to his forehead and covered
his eyes against the intrusive light, dim and
gray as it was. Somewhere along the halfway
point he had developed a killer headache so
bad that he could feel the blood forcing its
way through the constricted veins in his forehead.
Mina's hand on his face had abated the pain for
a few seconds, but he had the feeling that the
only thing that could completely knock it away
was a couple of Excedrin Migraines and a short,
eight-hour nap.
"You OK?" Raye was looking at him. "I think
Mina has some Tylenol or something."
He smiled wryly. "Tylenol isn't going to get
rid of this one. I'm going to need some fucking
Demerol or something."
Raye swerved casually and cut off a van, who
promptly beeped angrily with as much maniacal rage
as a mechanical car horn could produce. "Screw
you, bitch!" she screamed through the cracked window.
Charming. Kevin thought, instantly
regretting the decision to let Raye drive the
rest of the way home. They'd be sending what was
left of him home to his mother in a contact lens
case.
Raye broke into his mental calculation of Jay's
patience times a fully loaded Raye-bomb. "Mina's
hands took it away for a few seconds, didn't they?"
He looked at her, surprised as the tenderness in
her voice. She had relaxed from the van incident;
her seat was back, her hand hung lazily on the
bottom of the wheel, and black strands whipped
backwards in the current of air blowing in. She
was an entirely different person than the M-80
who disregarded vehicular laws and harshly exploded
at hapless bystanders. It was amazing how much
Raye and Mina were alike; they could both switch
emotions with the toss of a dime. Beneficial in
some cases, Raye-bombed in others.
"Yeah." He spoke the truth; Mina's hand had
taken away the pain, at least temporarily.
Unfortunately for him, it had came rushing back
like water filling a pipe once she removed it,
but those few seconds of pain-free clarity had
been well worth it.
A smile graced her face. "Her hands comfort,"
she explained. "How can I say this without
sounding like a sicko?" She gestured with her
free hand. They give pleasure; they take away
pain, that kind of thing. They comfort." She took
her eyes off the road and looked directly at him,
and Kevin was floored by the sheer amount of gravity
hidden in the violet spheres. She continued smiling.
"If Amy touched you, you wouldn't even have a headache
now. Her hands heal." She raised one palm up for
him to see. "Your hands are like mine."
He blinked, and stared at Raye's small white
palm versus his huge, callous, scarred paw. "How?"
"They protect." He held his hand up to hers,
and felt something like a magnetic field repelling
them away from each other. The current shifted up his
entire arm with a sensation similar to pins and needles.
It hummed along his funny bone, and Kevin realized that
he was touching magic, actual magic, magic that had
existed long before he had, and would continue long
after he was gone.
"I can feel it."
"I know. Zach and Lita would be able to feel it,
too; their hands create."
"What about everyone else? What do their hands do?"
Raye would know. She knows everything. He felt he needed
to know, that by knowing what their hands did, he would
know them better.
She glanced into the other lane and cut across.
"Matt's hands unify." She tried to send him the mental
image of a handshake, but doubted he received it. Kevin
was about as intuitive as a plate of cheese. "He's a
negotiator; he brings together. Jay's hands-" She stopped
suddenly and grinned. "Jay's hands deceive, but not in a
bad way, per se. He's clever, he's quick, and I can sense
there's a higher purpose in his ability to disguise himself."
She really does know everything. Kevin thought
to himself. Raye practically exuded magic; sometimes he felt
like she knew much more than what she let on. "What about
Darien? And Serena?"
Raye put one hand to her mouth, and was silent for a
long time. Finally, she said, "Kevin, all I can feel from
them is power. Unbelievable power. And love. If you could
feel things the way I do, feel people, and then you would
understand. You, for example, positively reek of authority."
"Maybe I should switch deodorants," he deadpanned,
at the same time trying to take in the gravity of her words.
She laughed. "I feel it from Mina, too, and much more
love. Whenever you're around her, you can't help but love her.
You know what I'm talking about."
"I do." Kevin didn't think he was alone in his feelings
for her; one couldn't help but reciprocate the love that she
emanated. People that couldn't feel it simply didn't want to,
they refused the love given to them. The walls they built
around their own hearts were so thick that Mina's golden
magic couldn't penetrate them. Or they could be knocked
down, all at once. Obliterated. On sight.
Raye shot him a shrewd sideways glance. "You better
not knock her up, big guy. She's my best friend, and I'll
kick your ass." She wasn't threatening as much as she was
revealing herself, and her feelings for her best friend, and
how much she meant to her. But the threat was still present
under the concealed sincerity, and one look at the Fire
Senshi's face would tell that Raye Hino was by no means
fucking around.
"Don't worry," Kevin said simply. "And if you have
any problems with Jay, tell me and I'll kick his ass for you.
I've been doing that since…what? Fourth grade? Fifth? You
know, it feels like I've known him forever already…"
As if on cue, Jay flipped over again in his sleep,
bonking his head off of the door in the process, but
amazingly, remaining asleep the entire time. Raye smiled
to herself, not realizing or not caring that Kevin was
there to witness her private moment of contentedness.
"Humor," she said aloud, partially to herself. "He is
humor, it's what he knows."
Miles passed in comfortable silence before they spoke
again.


* * * * * * * * * * *

Beryl's rage was so thick it was practically palpable,
and her minions were not ignorant to the fact. The remaining
shrunk back, out of sight, trying to keep out of sight as
one of them presented the newest information to their queen,
and faced her wrath alone.
She stared at him through half-slitted eyes, strongly
resembling a snake or some other reptile as the details turned
over and over in her mind. Her red eyes bored into his, and
for a long moment she was silent, and thinking. Finally she
spoke.
"And approximately how many students received the vaccine
in the last year? Your life depends on your answer, Zoycite,
so I would advise you choose your next few words VERY wisely."
"Less than five percent," he said at last, hoping his
own oversight wouldn't come back to rather harshly bite him
in the ass.
Beryl's hands unfurled; her long red nails flashing.
"Less than five? There are four numbers less than five, Zoycite,
don't try to insult my intelligence. Give me the straight odds;
what are the chances our pretty little Senshi will come away
unscathed?"
Zoycite smiled grotesquely, for it was the only way he
knew how. "Slim to none, your Highness. Those airheaded Senshi
don't even know how to spell the word 'vaccination.'"
There was a tense moment, as Beryl remained motionless,
fixing Zoycite to the spot with her murderous gaze. Finally she
relented.
"Zoycite you had better be right on this one. I'm going
to allow you this one, simply because I'm going to need you
in the future. When did you plant the virus in the water
supply?"
"It's been two weeks now, your Highness. The students
should be symptomatic by now."
"Hmm, maybe you're not as idiotic as I thought you
were." She smiled at him, the smile of an executioner before
he raised his axe. "If the Senshi are sick, then they won't
be able to fight, but knowing them and their overblown sense
of humanity, they'll try. And when they do-" The three generals
emerged from the shadows and joined Zoycite in front of the
throne. "You four will eliminate them. ALL of them. And bring
me that crystal, do you understand?"
They bowed. "Yes, my Queen." They said in unison.
"One more thing," she snapped. She stood to her full
height. "Do whatever you want with the others, including the
Moon Princess, but do not touch Endymion. He's mine, do you
understand?"
"Yes, my Queen."

* * * * * * * * * *

"How are they?" Darien asked, sitting in between Zach and
Artemis on the couch to watch the game. He unwrapped his
Subway on the coffee table and dug in.
"Who cares?" Zach answered through a mouth full of turkey.
"I was smart enough to get the flu shot, so screw them."
Darien blanched as his pick for the Final Four blew a ten-point
lead. "That's probably because you're grandmother made
you." Artemis snickered along with him.
"Eat me, Chiba. And Stanford sucks!"

* * * * * * * * * *
Mina entered the apartment without knocking as quietly
as she could. The shopping bag she carried strained under
the weight of its contents. They are such idiots!! They're
all bedridden, so of course they leave the door unlocked so
that anyone with two brain cells and a raging crack addiction
could just waltz in and clean the place out! She tiptoed
into the kitchen and started unpacking her giant bag.
She entered Matt and Jay's bedroom first, and finding
it unbearably stuffy, made a beeline right for the window
and opened it, letting the warm breeze suck out all the
stale sickness air. This was her second visit to the
apartment that day, since Zach had opted to stay at Darien's
until his roommates recovered, lest he too fall ill and
miss a game like Jay did. Of all the girls, only Amy had
the misfortune to catch the flu on its infectious trip
around Bryce University.
Matt had entangled himself in his comforter so badly
that a section had wrapped itself around his neck and
was threatening to cut off his air. He had most likely
done it to himself while turning in his sleep; Matt slept
like an eggbeater. Mina untangled it and made the bed
over him again; ten seconds later he flipped over in his
sleep and pulled them all sideways. She gave it up as a
lost cause, and spread another blanket on top of him.
Before she had left for class, he had had the chills. She
laid the heating pad next to him just in case he woke up.
Jay was softly snoring, a sure indicator that he was
indeed very ill, since Jay rarely if ever snored, and only
when he was in extremely deep sleep. His coach took the
news of his illness quite in stride, since he too was
plagued with the killer virus, as was nearly half of the
baseball team. Mina pulled a bunch of bananas out of her
bag and laid them on the bedside table next to the water
pitcher; Jay had asked for bananas no less than thirty
times before she left that morning, and she didn't know
if it was genuine or delirious rambling. She brought
some just in case. I could definitely not handle him
begging for goddamn bananas again like a little girl…Oh
what am I saying? I take that back! He's so sick, let the
poor guy have his stupid bananas! She checked his
forehead again, and was pleased to learn that his
temperature had gone significantly down. She busied herself
with replacing tissue boxes and refilling water glasses,
her heart practically bursting with pride. This is what
she was meant to do: comfort if she could not heal. Amy
was the doctor; she was the nurse.
Matt stirred again and slowly awoke. "Lita?" he
whispered, his voice hoarse and weak.
"No, Matt, it's me." She stood above him so he could
recognize her face. "How are you feeling?"
He sighed heavily and smiled at her. "There was
this one game last year, against USC," he began. "It was
the third period already, and I had been playing the entire
game with a broken finger, right? On top of that I had a
sinus infection, my head was killing me, and then this
huge, HUGE motherfucker checked me on the glass so hard
it knocked the wind out of me."
Mina blinked. "Yeah?"
He closed his eyes. "That was a friggin' love tap
compared to this."
She laughed briefly and handed him two white pills.
"Here. Take this."
"These roofies?" he asked, grinning slyly.
"Yes, Matt, they are. I'm planning on knocking you
unconscious and then having my way with you. With Jay in
the room."
"You probably already drugged him, didn't you?" He
popped the pills in his mouth, and, to Mina's horror,
swallowed them dry.
Jay stirred and picked his head up. He was silent
for a few minutes, collecting himself. "Mina?" he whispered.
"Hi there." She bent down and checked his forehead.
"Do you want anything, hon?"
He stared at her blankly for a second, his eyes
half-lidded and innocent, before flashing a conniving smile.
"Yeah, I want you to sit on my face."
Deathly ill or not, Mina smacked him in the head with a
pillow while Matt split his side laughing. "Jerk! And I
brought you your damn bananas!"
"What bananas?"
Kevin was sleeping when she entered the room, sprawled
out on his back with his mouth hanging completely open. Mina
giggled softly at the sight; she didn't know how he managed
to look so adorable while revealing his molars. She tiptoes
around the room, picking up stray tissues and clothes and
whatever else happened to be obstructing the bathroom path.
She was about to exit quietly when Kevin awoke.
"Hey," he mumbled through the gag of exhaustion.
"Don't go yet."
She was at his side almost immediately. "Hey, how
are you feeling?"
"Like I just got sacked. This one time, when we
were playing UCLA…"
Mina rolled her eyes. "If this is another sports
analogy, save it, please."
Kevin smiled. "You're not the one who played with…"
"Yes, I know! With a broken finger or a pulled muscle
or a brain hemorrhage or no heartbeat! Jay and Matt have
basically run the gamut already." She pressed a hand to his
forehead, testing it. "And if you didn't want to get sick,
why didn't you get the flu shot at the beginning of the year?
The nursing program was giving them away free. Zach came by,
I gave him one."
"That's because Zach is whipped by his grandmother.
And if I had known you were there I would have gotten two."
She smiled and blushed at the same time and let her
hair fall softly in front of her eyes. Kevin reached out and
touched it.
"Mina?"
"Hmm?" She responded, clearing tissues and paper off
of the miniscule bedside table.
"Why did you want to become a nurse? Shouldn't you be
majoring in like, runway or something?"
She stopped as her eyes grew far away, and she spoke to
the table as she shuffled its contents around. He didn't speak;
he could tell her mind was in the past. "I used to do this
all the time, back in Japan," she started. "Whenever one of
my friends got sick, I felt like I had to do something, like
I had to help them in some way or another. I hated it when
people were sick and miserable, and I thought I could cheer
them up and make them more comfortable. At first, I sucked
at it. I had all good intentions, but I was a total klutz!
Ask Raye, she'll tell you some stories." She laughed shortly
and continued. "I just couldn't stand to see people suffering,
especially my friends. As I got more practice I became good
at it, and I would actually relieve their pain instead of causing
it."
"Causing it?" he echoed, suddenly afraid for his own
safety.
"Don't worry about it! I'm over my klutz phase!
Anyway, when the time came to choose a major I realized
that I might not make it as a model, and I needed something to
fall back on, and the only thing I could see myself doing was
helping people. I couldn't really make a career out of being
a Sailor Senshi."
"It would be a bitch to claim on your taxes, too."
"That was Jay-ish! ANYWAY, I knew that I didn't have
the discipline or the brains to be a doctor, and besides,
that's Amy's thing. She's the doctor-" She placed two Tylenol
in his hand and handed him the water glass. "-I'm the nurse.
"Do you want anything else?"
He swallowed his water. "Yeah, could you drag the TV
in here and hook up the Playstation, change the oil in my car,
and then give me a back rub while topless?"
Sick or not sick, she couldn't believe that he had just
said that. "How 'bout not?"
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto the
bed with him. "Yikes! Kevin! You're going to stroke out or
something!"
He kissed her neck, her face, anywhere his lips
touched. She shrieked and wiggled out of his grasp and
propped herself up on one elbow. "How 'bout you get better
so if we get a surprise from our otherworldly friends we won't
totally get our asses kicked?"
He pulled her close to him. "I'd kick their ass even
if I had the Ebola virus."

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

Serena pulled her light jacket tight around her body
trying to block off the chilly breeze, but it cut through the
fabric and froze her skin anyway. "Goddess! Mamo-chan, if
it's almost April, shouldn't it be getting hot or something?
I'm freezing to death!"
"Here," Darien said, unslinging Luna from around his
neck and draping her over Serena's. "Luna's good for an
extra hundred degrees."
"I hope that's not all I'm good for," Luna muttered,
curling her warm, fur-covered body around Serena's exposed
neck. "Serena, the next time you leave the house, please
consider the weather before you choose your outfits. I'm not
a fashion accessory, you know."
"I'm sorry, Luna, I'm cold!" she whined. "And scootch
down a little; the back of my neck is freezing!"
"Oh for Heaven's sake," Luna grouched, but obliged.
"How's Amy?" Darien asked. "Zach finally went home today,
I guess the guys are feeling better."
"She's doing OK, but she's still a little weak. How
did you keep from killing Zach, anyway?"
Darien gritted his teeth at the memory of Zach squeezing
the last of his Crest out onto his toothbrush and happily popping
it into his mouth while chucking the empty tube. "He had two
games and a few practices, so I didn't have to put up with him
that much."
Serena smiled from behind Luna's abdomen. She knew her
boyfriend like the back of her hand, and she knew that he was
talking out of his ass. He had probably had the time of his
life in the week that Zach stayed over, watching March Madness
and drinking beer. General male-bonding. She looped her arm
around his. "Darien, I'm so happy!" she gushed. "My friends
are finally happy, truly happy, happy in a way that I couldn't
make them no matter how hard I tried. Raye's mellowed
out soooo much; she's like a whole different person, and
she just LOVES all the attention that Jay gives her, I can
tell. Of course, she'll deny it if you ask. And Amy! Do
you see the way she even walks anymore? Plus, I got her
to skip class one day to watch the baseball team practice;
uh, I mean, to watch Jay and Zach practice. Do you even KNOW
how long I've been trying to get her to cut class? Since
like, junior high!"
A girl with spandex and headphones jogged past them,
her arms and legs bare. She gave them a long look as she passed,
and narrowed her eyes strangely. She was panting from effort,
and in that instant Darien noticed that while he was shivering
in what felt like forty degree weather, the girl's breath was
not coming out in vapors and she seemed perfectly content.
We're the only ones who can feel the cold, because it's not
really here, it's just--
"Serena," he barked after the girl rounded the block.
Overhead, the streetlights clicked on for the evening. She
looked up at him, half her face hidden behind Luna's black
furred body. Then they heard the scream.
"Damn!" he swore as they took off down the street.
Rounding the corner, he almost tripped over the prone body
of the girl jogger who had just passed them. A blast of energy
hit the pavement no more than five feet away, kicking up
asphalt and sending a shockwave rumbling up their legs.
A youma, a smaller one compared to some of the twelve-foot
monsters they had faced, zipped back and forth on the street,
frequently jumping curbs and sending the few remaining
passer-bys diving for cover. It emitted high squeals and
low rumbling noises, much like…
"It's a car!" Serena screamed. The youma turned to
the source of the noise and revved its engine. She shoved
her hand in her pocket and pressed the emergency call so hard
that the button left an indent into her index finger, which
had gone white under the pressure.

* * * * * * * * * *

Venus internally panicked when she arrived on the scene
and was almost promptly flattened by the car youma. As their
luck would have it, the youma wasn't born from a Geo Prizm or
some other dinky car but a full-size Dodge Four by Four with
a full tank and gigantic tires. No one had gotten a good shot
in yet, and the property damage alone was enough to send her
into a low-level shit fit. And the icing on the cake was
that they were without Jadeite and Nephrite, extra muscle,
Mercury, their intelligence, and Kunzite, their other strategist.
Luna and Artemis hid behind a garbage dumpster, watching
the battle take place.
"Hey!" Jupiter screamed. "Over here, ugly!"
"Sailor Moon, duck!" Mars shouted. Moon ducked her
head as the intense heat scorched past her and singed the
fine baby hairs on the back of her neck. The fireball collided
with the shiny red sides of the youma, erupting into a splash
pattern of flame that looked magnificent, but did little to
slow it on its collision course with Zoicite.
"Shit!" he screamed, sticking Mercury's mini-computer
in his teeth and jumping straight into the air at the same
time. The youma zoomed underneath, and he managed to grab
onto the neck of a streetlight to keep from falling back
into the foray. "Yo, somewuff et meef dawn!" he shrieked
around the impediment in his teeth.
"Just jump, you pussy," a male voice announced.
Moon swiveled around, nearly leaping out of her skin.
Oh no they're here, and we're short on manpower! she
thought for a split second before a flash of white brushed
past her.
Zoicite sacrificed half his grip on the streetlight
to flip off Jadeite with one white-gloved finger. "Eff you,
ash-hoe!" He let go, falling like an ungainly cheerleader
into Nephrite and Kunzite's interlocking arms. "What the
hell are you guys doing here?! You're friggin' sick!"
Nephrite wiped the beads of sweat that had formed on
his hairline. His face was pallid. "Yeah, well, there was
nothing on TV, so we decided to drop by. Holy crow, what is
that!?" Tuxedo Mask and Jupiter were in the duel process of
trying to distract the youma and fry it.
Kunzite closed his eyes; he replayed the image of when
they had first arrived scene by scene, and paid attention
to the background. "Nothing's working yet."
"Nope," Venus joined the circle. "And what the
hell are you doing here? You're sick!"
"You think?" Jadeite's tone was much more smart-ass
than usual. He bent over and put his hands on his knees.
She nearly self-combusted with anger. "So what happens
if you're too weak to fight? You're a liability here, not an
asset to the team! Kunzite, you should have known better!"
He puffed out in a distinctly machismo, male way.
"We can hold our own."
She raged on. "Sure you can! So when you collapse
in exhaustion, we're going to have to formulate a new bloody
plan to dust that youma and save the entire street and
your sorry ass at the same time!"
Mars breezed by, making sure to smack Jadeite on the
back of the head as she passed. "Save this for later, guys,
we have to dust this thing!"
"She's right," Nephrite said. The familiar white energy
was pulsing in his hands, humming in anticipation. He lined
up his shot at the youma's chest/windshield and relaxed his
arms as much as he could. Remember what Darien said.
They had spent an entire afternoon trying to fine-tune his
attack at, get this, a shooting range. Matt Haberman had
never even held a gun without the word "Mattel" stamped on i
t, much less fired one, but after he squeezed the first shot
out of the borrowed .22, he knew the meaning of the word
"recoil." And in the process, he surprised himself by actually
liking the feel of the weapon kicking back in his hand while
the intense power hidden in the folds of metal leapt out and
whuffed a hole through the paper target before he had a chance
to hear the crack. Maybe he'd take Lita there someday.
His hands positively hummed now, and, biting his lower
lip, he took the first shot, holding his arm slightly slack
to catch the recoil from the killer comets. Squeeze, don't
pull. He let go, and the restrained comet leapt out, free,
pushing his elbow back but allowing him to keep his balance.
It whirred through the air and pounded against the side of
the youma, burning its side black. It screeched in pain
and fear.
Good call, Darien. He was the one who noticed
that Nephrite held his arms straight out like a sleepwalker,
leaving his body no other choice but to absorb all the impact.
Everyone cheered. "Nice, shot, Nephrite!" Mask whistled,
impressed. "Told you it would work!"
The youma swiveled around, maddened and injured, a bad
combination for that particular breed. It roared in pain
and gunned its engine, aiming right for Moon, Jupiter, and
Mars, who happened to be the closest in proximity to each
other and therefore, the best target. "Crap!" Moon screamed.
Luna almost leapt out from her hiding place. "Sailor
Moon! Look out!"
"Here!" Venus sent her chain flying across the tight
space, stretching across the street like a tightrope. Only
Jupiter managed to catch one of the golden links like a handle
in a subway car as it sailed over her head.
"Grab it, guys!" she screamed, a second too late. She
was pulled along with the chain to safety, leaving Sailors
Moon and Mars stranded in the path of the killer youma.
"NO!!" screamed seven other voices, two particular male
ones the loudest. Mars had no choice but to watch helplessly
as the youma careened towards her and her princess. She
instinctively shoved Sailor Moon behind her and clapped her
hands together, knowing that she couldn't ready a Burning
Mandala in time to save them both but she had to try even
though it was too late and if she was going down she was going
down fighting but she prayed that Serena made it out OK…
Suddenly, less than three feet away from them, the y
ouma jacked up and sailed over their heads, spraying sparks
in the air as its body twisted and tore, and landed on the
other side with a deafening crash, sending up clouds of gray
dust and flying metal pieces. Glass shattered in the air and
rained down harmlessly on the energy dome encasing the two
shell-shocked senshi.
Kunzite let out his breath and dissolved the dome once
he felt the shrapnel had ceased to fly and the girls were out
of danger. His face was ash-white from the incredible effort.
Tuxedo Mask and Jadeite shared the urge to run up to
Kunzite and hug him. "Holy shit, buddy, great save!" Zoicite
hooted, pounding his friend and commander on the back.
"Way to go, Kunzite!" Jupiter screamed, lightening
crackling off her hair in excitement. "Ready to send this
bastard to hell, guys?"
"Pleasure's all mine! Hey, dickface, eat Jade-bomb!"
Jadeite released his white, smoke-like spiral before it was
fully formed; it came out significantly smaller but better
controlled and more punch to the ounce. And he saved a literal
ton of energy in the process, and was proud to remain standing
and conscious after his attack.
The spiral swirled towards the pulverized youma, whose
slitted mechanical eyes were round with terror. Sailor Moon
was halfway to a high-five with Venus when a stream of black
energy hit the white swirl at an angle and successfully pulverized
it.
"How…cute," a scathing, effeminate voice tittered. "The
little boys have learned to use their little baby weapons.
And we thought they couldn't find their dicks with both hands!"
Jupiter's spine went rigid. They hadn't heard from the
Dark Kingdom Generals, in, well, months. It seemed a lifetime
ago, but the old fear returned. The fear that this battle
would be their last.
All four of the Dark Kingdom generals balanced on a ledge
on the side of one of the buildings; Zoycite and Malachite
tangled into an embrace. Tuxedo Mask snuck a quick look at
his Generals, and sure enough, Zoicite was turning green while
his face contorted into a mask of horror. Jadeite looked like
he was stifling laughter.
They leapt down, sending everyone backpedaling a few steps
except for Venus and Kunzite. It must have been the leadership
instinct, or blind courage, or an incredible amount of stupidity,
but they were actually walking towards the threat. Kunzite
had his game face on, and Venus looked mad enough to spit nails.
"Ready for another round, are you?" she said, fists
clenched. Nephlite snickered.
"I've heard enough of these petty threats, Senshi. Hand
over the crystal and spare yourself the embarrassment of thinking
up an intelligent sounding threat, Moon. We've heard them all,
and quite frankly your vocabulary isn't nearly as plentiful as
the air in your head."
For a second, Mask was sure that she was about to cry,
but she collected up her stray tears and tried her best to
look intimidating, an endeavor that he thought was irresistibly
cute. Jadeite's voice cut into his daydream of some sexual
game where he was a Dark General.
"You'll have to get through us first, asswipe."
"That," Malachite said, "was precisely our plan."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the air
was suddenly saturated with crackling black energy so thick
that no one could see more than a foot in front of them. It
shaved into their skin like grated glass, stuffed up into their
nostrils and ear canals, tore at their scalps. Venus pressed
her lips together to keep from screaming.
When the dust cleared, the Senshi and generals were on
their knees, save for Kunzite and Jupiter, who, incredibly,
remained upright while they coughed the residue out of their
lungs. Nephrite inhaled deeply while on his knees.
"Hey, that tasted like Newports." He got that sentence
out exactly two seconds before the youma, doing at least
eighty, nearly flattened him while shaving by with inches
to spare. It screeched its brakes, swerved around, and
revved its engine for another go.
Sailor Moon stopped to look at it, and her second of
indecision was rewarded with a barrage of dark energy
knocking her back into the pavement. "Ugh!" she screamed as
her forehead impacted against the unforgiving asphalt.
Tuxedo Mask was by her side in a second. She put one
hand to the slash on her forehead, her white glove stained
red as it absorbed the dripping blood. "I'm OK, I'm OK,"
she insisted.
"You FUCKER!" Jupiter screamed, raising her hands.
"OAK EVOLUTION!"
All hell broke loose. Dark energy slashed through
the air, clashing with whatever light energy happened to
block it. Jupiter got off another Oak Evolution before
she was blasted ten feet back by a crackle of black lightening.
"Oww," she moaned.
Someone grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet.
"Come on," Zoicite said urgently, pulling her along by
the hand. "I need your help."
The ducked and dodged their way across the battlefield
before joining Nephrite on the other side. "What are we doing?"
Jupiter asked, dazed.
Nephrite stepped away from the car he had been hiding.
"We don't stand a chance of kicking their Negaverse asses
with that car-mutant buzzing around. We need to even the
playing field."
Jupiter peeked at the car and blanched. "What are
we…?"
Zoicite typed something into Mercury's mini-computer,
and the car let out a soft click as its doors unlocked.
"After you, madam," he said with a flourish.
Jupiter climbed in the Jaguar with the solemnity one
feels when they enter such places as the Coliseum, or
maybe the Louvre. "You're kidding, right? Who the hell
leaves an eighty-thousand dollar car parked on Graduate
Ave?"
"That guy," Nephrite said, pointing to an unconscious
middle-aged man wearing a three-piece suit and toting a
briefcase and a bag of take-out. Sliding into the driver's
seat, he made a face like he was being caressed in the most
erogenous zones of his body. "Oh my God, never in my natural
life did I think I would even SIT in one of these, much less
drive it." His expression reflected pure bliss.
"Fuck you, Neph, your parents probably have a couple
parked in their garage," Zoicite grumbled. Nephrite made
a face but fell silent.
Sailor Jupiter was still frozen with shock. "So,
we're just-TAKING--this guy's car while he's out cold, like
that? Isn't this like, a C felony?"
"Probably," Nephrite responded. Zoicite nodded in
agreement.
She crossed her arms. "Why did you bring me in here?
I'm not taking part in any of this. You two can sharpen
toothbrushes and share soap in jail; I'm outta here." She
was about to pop the door of the delicious car open and
escape when Nephrite leaned over and grabbed her wrist.
"No! Please, um, you really have to help us with this,"
he begged. He squeezed her wrist as hard as he could, almost
cracking the bone underneath. She yelped, and a single crackle
of electricity escaped and hit the ignition. The Jag
turned over and roared to life.
"Yes!" Zoicite roared as Jupiter's mouth dropped
open. Nephrite immediately launched into a litany of
apologies.
"I can't believe you just did that!" she shouted.
"Why didn't you just take the keys off the guy?"
Nephrite and Zoicite exchanged looks; neither had
even entertained that possibility. "Yeah, that would have
worked."
Nephrite shrugged and rolled the car out of its space.
"Here goes."
He navigated the Jag around the outskirts of the
battlefield, careful not to get hit lest he damage the
paint on the tremendously expensive vehicle. Zoicite and
Jupiter leaned out the windows and began deflecting attacks
that were headed their way.
Jadeite noticed them first and whistled approvingly.
"Nice ride! Neph, where'd you jack that from?" Next to him,
Venus smiled dryly.
"Way to go, guys," she whispered, and turned her
concentration back to fighting.
Nephrite smiled as he passed Kunzite, who was wearing
an expression of either murderous rage or mammoth jealousy.
He preferred to think of it as the latter. "OK, we've
got Kunzite's attention, now what about the youma?"
Jupiter leaned out the window and delivered a
Sparkling Wide Pressure to the double boomerangs that
were headed their way, and was almost decapitated by the
monstrous heap of animated metal. She pulled her head
away just in time. "Uh, I think it knows."
"Donuts!" Jadeite screamed.
"No!" Mars screamed.
As much as he wanted to do donuts at that moment,
Nephrite swiveled the Jag around and peeled out down the
street, away from the battle, the youma in hot pursuit.
The Jag accelerated from zero to sixty in about four seconds.
Jupiter's head was practically plastered to the back of her
seat. She could practically feel the power of its engine
rumbling through the seat and into the flesh of her cheek,
where it jack hammered like an atomic hummingbird.
"I'm still in fourth!" Nephrite screamed triumphantly,
and began laughing. Jupiter reached over with shaking hands
and pulled her seatbelt on.
They barreled down the street, a blur of panther-like
black and chrome pursued by a grotesquely human-like facsimile
of a truck. The youma's already battered engine had a hard
time keeping up with the sleek Jag.
"We're kicking its ass!" Zoicite laughed. Nephrite
gritted his teeth together and slowed the car down.
"We have to have it right on our tail," he explained.
Suddenly, the youma lurched forward with an enormous burst
of speed, and he was forced to downshift and regain their
previous speed.
"Holy crap! Didn't see that coming!" Zoicite reported
from the backseat. The mini-computer reported that the
youma had been fortified with a hit of dark energy, one
with Jedite's signature all over it. "Crap, they juiced it!
What's the plan, Neph?"
He ran it by them, and watched as the color drained
from both of their faces. "What?"
Jupiter put a hand to her forehead. "You're kidding,
right? We're going to die."
"No we're not! It'll work, at least in theory."
"In theory!" Zoicite was screaming, but he wasn't
even aware of it. "In THEORY, Communism works. In THEORY,
Neph, I could tape myself to a bottle rocket and blast off
to the moon! This is your big plan!?"
"Hey, hey!" he held up one hand. "It's going to
work, OK, trust me! Just-" He reached over and pulled
on the beige strap. "Just put your seatbelt on."
The Jaguar roared down Graduate Ave, surprisingly
not encountering another car or human being as it whizzed by.
"Ready, guys?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer, he
jerked the wheel and headed right for the side of a large
gray building.
"What are you…!" Jupiter screamed, grabbing onto the
Oh-Shit handle for dear life. Nephrite checked the rearview
to make sure the youma was still on their bumper. It was.
"Guys?" The speedometer read eighty.
"Yeah?" they responded in little more than whispers.
"Pray." Less than forty feet from the side of the
building, he jerked the wheel to the left, sending them
all smashing against the side of the interior. The Jag
spun around in a nauseous half-circle, its tires squealing
like a woman being murdered, coming around 180 degrees
until it pointed in the opposite direction. He slammed
his foot down on the gas and peeled away, the tires smoking.
The youma took the bait. Unable to stop at such a
short distance, it had no choice but to slam into the
building with an earth-shattering THUMP, cracking the gray
concrete and crumbling onto itself like an accordion.
Zoicite looked back in time to see it burst into flames
as its gas tank erupted.
He turned back and patted Nephrite's shoulder. "I
shall never doubt you again, my friend."
They drove back in near silence, quietly relishing
the fact that they were still alive and not a smear on the
wall along with the youma. They returned to near chaos.
Mercury had undoubtedly made an appearance despite
her near-bedridden state; the entire area was covered with
a fog so thick that only the brightest flashes shone through.
Gold light and flame pierced through, and Jupiter's heart
leapt in gratitude.
They abandoned the Jag and joined in the foray. Mars
was injured; her Burning Mandalas were missing their mark by
miles. Sailor Moon had reverted to her very first attack;
she was trying to decapitate Zoycite with her tiara.
"Shit!" Jupiter swore, flinging a ball of electricity
to join with Moon's tiara. The combined attack picked up
speed and caught Zoycite in the leg.
He screamed high and loud, like a girl. Malachite
immediately swooped down to his side and embraced him.
"Kill them, please lover," he begged. "Do it for me!"
Zoicite made a gagging noise. "Oh my God, please DO
kill me!"
"As you wish," Malachite hissed, and launched his
boomerangs straight for Zoicite.
"NO!" Sailor Moon screamed. Before Tuxedo Mask or
Venus could restrain her, she bolted forward and shoved
Zoicite out of the way before he was hit. By some fluke
of physics and coincidence, one boomerang nicked at her
fuku in the middle of her chest, ripping the Silver Crystal
from the fabric. It flew through the air like a tiddly-wink,
landing straight in the hands of…
"Why, thank you," Malachite chuckled malevolently.
Zoicite covered the now-detransformed Serena with his body
so that the Dark Kingdom generals couldn't see her. Trembling,
Serena pulled her Disguise Pen out of her pocket.
"Disguise Pen, turn me, um, oh hell, just turn me
into someone else!" A brief flash of light, and a brunette
was tucked under Zoicite's arm.
Venus felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach
when the crystal landed in Malachite's white-gloved hand.
No, no, without the crystal, we're done for…what do
we do now…we don't stand a chance now…
A flash of white broke into her thoughts. It clipped
Malachite's hand, which started gushing with pink blood.
His face screwed up in pain and shock, and he released
his hold on the crystal.
It fell.
Kunzite watched it as he caught his boomerang, Darien's
instruction still echoing in his mind. It says here to
hold it vertically, not like a Frisbee. Did you just hear
me? NOT like a Frisbee!
To everyone present, it seemed like time had stretched
itself out like a rubber band, expanding to a length beyond t
he regions of what the human mind could process. They
could hardly move through the viscous liquid that seemed
to surround them and pin their limbs to the side of their
body. Even the Dark Kingdom generals seemed to freeze in
shock, and could only watch as the coveted crystal descended
through the air, turning over and over to display its
brilliance.
No one could move.
Except Kunzite.
He bolted forward, knocking whoever stood in his
way aside. Kevin Belles had been recovering fumbles since
the age of eight, and there was no way he was letting this
one get by him. The vision in front of him blurred and
another one replaced it: green turf and dark green and white
Washington State jerseys, faceless heads buried under helmets.
The crystal was a regulation brown pigskin skipping across
the hard turf, across the white chalk yard lines, taunting
him.
Nephlyte swooped down from his perch; number fifty-four
saw only Washington State green. He threw him a shoulder,
knocking him down.
"C'mon, Kev," Jadeite whispered to himself.
Time seemed impossibly still those last few steps; as
he reached down to recover an object much smaller than
what he was used to. His fingers closed around the crystal,
and he gripped it so tightly that it would have cracked if
it were made of any other material. Serena's heart leapt
in her throat, and she gave a shout of pure victory two seconds
before everything exploded into white.

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

"This is NOT Graduate Ave!" Jadeite announced, rubbing
the toe of his boot into the gray gravel. Nephrite made a
face at him.
"Death grip on the obvious, Jeddy," Nephrite muttered,
flipping a loose rock at his friend's backside. He shook
his head and walked away, muttering to himself, not realizing
that Jadeite had flipped him off behind his back.
"OK," Sailor Moon said. Her crystal was back, securely
fastened to her chest. "Where are we?"
It hit Venus all at once, and she straightened her
spine like she was standing at attention. "Artemis?"
"Yeah?" he asked from Mars's arms.
"This is the Moon."
Luna nodded. "Yes, Venus, it is."
She turned in a slow circle, taking in the horrible
emptiness that whistled through the last few remaining towers
and columns, none of which stood taller than ten feet, even
though the original architecture probably called for much
taller structures. It was like walking through Hiroshima
after the bomb was dropped. The ground was covered with
rubble from the collapsed architecture, most of it what
seemed to be white marble that glowed eerily in the dim
light. It was covered with layers of dust, like a crypt
that had never been disturbed. She knelt down and traced
one finger down the side of a felled column, exposing
the smooth marble underneath. The finger of her glove
was stained black.
"Uh, I hate to sound like a total moron,"
Jadeite started. "But if we're on the moon, why can
we breathe? According to the laws of Warner Brothers
cartoons, our eyes should be popping out of our heads
right now."
An exhausted Mercury, sitting next to Zoicite on
a slab of stone, wearily punched into her computer.
"According to my readings, the atmosphere is about
seventy percent nitrogen, twenty percent oxygen, two
percent carbon dioxide, one percent hydrogen, one percent…"
Jupiter cut her off. "So it's just like the
Earth's?"
"Correct."
"Because!" Sailor Moon shouted. They all looked
at her. "Because my mom designed it that way." She
pointed to the black sky above, peppered with glittery
stars. "She created an atmosphere and an ozone for
the moon so we could breathe. It stops about two miles
above us, like a glass ceiling!" She turned, excited.
"She never properly figured out how to make wind, since
there's no oceans on the moon…"
"Likewise, no jetstreams," Mercury interjected.
"And sometimes there would be tornadoes…"
"And they were always inverted!" Mars finished.
"They stuck to the bottom of the ozone layer and would
hang down! I remember watching them!"
"Hey," Nephrite started. "Hey!"
"What?" Tuxedo Mask asked idly, devoting most of
his attention to the crumbled ruins in front of him,
all the while remembering. There's the Praying Shrine,
or what's left of it…only the Queen could go there. And
I'm standing right in the middle of the Reflecting Pond!
Nephrite ran over about a hundred feet, climbing
over slabs of crumpled marble to get to his desired
destination. "There used to be a tree here, a big one.
It was all twisted and gnarly because…"
"Vegetation didn't do so well," Jupiter explained.
"We only had eight hours of daylight."
"Yeah!" I remember this. It's all coming back
now.
"It was all magic," Moon sighed, kneeling down and
gathering a handful of gravel. "Everything was kept alive
with magic. There was so much of it; it was so commonplace
that we never thought we'd run out. And we wouldn't have."
Jadeite, who had been staring at the remains of what
could have been a very high tower, suddenly dropped to his
knees as memories assaulted him.
White tower very high smooth marble a single
WHITE rope falling down a black-haired girl staring up
from the balcony above.
"Rei," he said.
"What?"
"REI THERE USED TO BE A TOWER HERE THAT I WOULD
CLIMB WHEN I WOULD COME TO SEE YOU!!!"
He screamed loud enough to raise Civil War casualties,
but his extreme volume had the benefit of opening mental
vaults. Sailor Moon smiled as the weight hit all of her
friends in turn.
"We knew each other," Nephrite said, not to the
general populace, but only to Jupiter. He ran back to
his previous spot. "That tree that used to be here…it
used to be our tree! It was in your garden!"
Tears swam in her eyes. "I remember," she choked,
brushing the water out of her face. "I remember you."
"Holy shit," Zoicite mumbled his seemingly phrase
of the day. He touched Mercury's hair as she looked down
and blushed. "Holy shit. Ami."
Venus stared at Kunzite, her body shaking despite
all of her intentions to stop it. She remembered it all:
the first time she saw him, how she almost arrested him,
how he would take her to Earth. It was a lifetime ago,
and yet, it was here, and now.
"Oh Goddess," she whispered, falling into his arms.
He stroked her hair as her tears fell onto his uniform
and dotted it darker gray. "I found you again."
Tuxedo Mask smiled as his Generals embraced her
Senshi, their happiness radiating like an A-bomb. Sailor
Moon sidled over to him and slipped her hand in his.
"They're together again, Endy. Just like you and me."
Jadeite grabbed Mars's hand and pulled her over.
"Here's where your suite was." He pointed upwards. "You
used to have a tower and a balcony up there, and I couldn't
enter from the inside, so I would have to scale it."
She laughed, a sound of pure glee. "You took your
life in your hands to do that, buddy. Minako wouldn't let
me borrow her chain, so I stole that heavy rope that used
to tie back the curtains in the hallways."
"And it was slippery! You don't even know how many
times I almost fell!" He slipped one hand around her waist.
"You were worth it, though."
"Ah," she said when he kissed her head. "You were
expendable."
Shock waves hit his body with tidal-wave force.
He sputtered for a few seconds, too excited to give birth
to the words that sat on the tip of his tongue. Finally:
"You're right!"
Everyone gave him a curious look. "Well, Jadeite,
everyone is special in their own way," Nephrite started,
inadvertently quoting Mr. Rogers.
"No you don't understand!" Jadeite shouted. He
looked directly at Tuxedo Mask and hand his hands over
his face. Blue deepened; blond turned to black. "I was
Endymion's body double, don't you guys remember? It was
the whole reason I was brought to the castle, because I
could change my appearance! I would stand in for Endymion
in public so that if there were an assassination attempt,
they would kill me and not him! That's why I could never
let my hair grow like you guys; I couldn't change hair
length!" He laughed with Endymion's face on. "I was
extremely expendable."
"Get off it; we were all expendable," Kunzite said.
"You just more so than us."
"Thanks buddy. I'll remember that the next time
you call me from jail."
Nephrite was running around like a maniac. "We're
standing right on the east gate, aren't we? This is where
we used to enter, you guys! Don't you remember?"
"Yeah!" Zoicite shouted. "Except for-Kunzite you
dumbass! You used to come in through the north gate! The
most heavily guarded one!"
He bristled. "That's the only one I knew! You
four never told me about any others!"
Tuxedo Mask spoke before Jadeite had a chance to
open his mouth. "Well if you weren't such a tight-ass
and would sneak out with us once in a while, then you'd
know about the other ones." Nephrite and Zoicite snorted
with laughter. "What? It's the truth!" he protested when
Kunzite threw him an "I don't care if you're my boss, I
might still beat you to a bloody pulp" look.
Mercury sent a stream of water over a five-foot high
block of marble, washing away eons of dust. "Look," she
said, pointing to two stumps resting on top. They were
sandaled feet, carved out of marble and so lifelike that
they could make out creases in the toes. They were broken
unevenly above the ankle; obviously at one point, they had
been part of a complete statue. "Mars, this was you. Do
you remember?"
The fire Senshi's eyes swam in the past. "Yes,
yes I do. This was my part of the castle, and the statue
of me was planted right outside of the entrance. It's
the first thing you saw as you approached the east gate."
"We each had one," Jupiter continued. "Mine was
at the west gate, Mercury's was at the south, and Venus's
was at the north. I was…" She stopped for a minute and
thought. "The statue of me was holding thunder bolts.
I remember it now."
Venus blushed. "Mine was nude."
"Yeah I remember that," Zoicite sniggered. She
elbowed him.
"So what? Mine was too." Mars dusted off her hands.
"We all had statues and paintings and shit." She suddenly
grinned. "And when they got to Earth, you dorks would
worship them. Gods, if I knew then what I know now…"
Venus nudged crumbled marble with her foot. "This
used to be your fountain, Mars. Your Prayer fountain."
After the initial celebration, they fell silent for a
while as they explored more of what used to be a glorious
kingdom. "Oh God," Zoicite said solemnly at one point.
"This is like the Apocalypse. No, I'm sorry, it WAS an
Apocalypse. No one could survive this."
"We didn't," Venus said simply. Mars looked at her,
concerned. Venus returned the glance.
"I'm serious, we didn't. Everyone died out here,
including the Princess."
Sailor Moon put a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Oh, Venus, are you still beating yourself up because
of that? You couldn't do anything to stop it."
"She's right, Venus," Artemis said. "Metallia was
too powerful for us. There was nothing we could have
done to stop her."
"How do we know that?" she snapped, irritated.
"I barely remember what happened that night, so what am
I going to do different this time? I failed to protect
Serenity once, and I don't even know where I went wrong!"
Someone touched the back of her head, and she swiveled
around to face Kunzite. "I failed to protect Endymion,
Venus. You're not alone in this."
She rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about?
You couldn't do anything about it, you were dead."
You were dead. Her words echoed in the stifling
silence, hitting everyone in turn and opening the floodgates
that held back an ocean of memories. Venus clapped one
hand over her mouth after she realized what she had let
slip, a seemingly casual explanation that carried with
it a mountain of information. Jaws dropped as realization
drilled through layers of dormant memories.
"Oh my GOD!" Zoicite was the first to speak. "We
WERE dead! We were dead before any of this Apocalypse shit
went down! We didn't even live to see it!"
"You're right," Tuxedo Mask said. "Without you four,
we didn't even have a fighting chance."
"We never had a fighting chance," Kunzite said quietly,
one hand tracing the invisible scar on his neck that existed
only in his mind.
"If it wasn't for me, we would have," Zoicite said
miserably, sitting down suddenly and hard on an uneven section
of marble. Before anyone could persuade him otherwise, he
burst out. "And don't even tell me it wasn't my fault, OK?
I know it was. None of you had the knowledge or the magic of
that caliber! It was my friggin' idea from the get-go, and it
just ended up biting me in the ass, hard. It's my fault we
died and those mutants exist. In fact, it's probably my own
stupid fault the whole moon kingdom to fell in the first
place."
"Don't say that!" Sailor Moon shrieked. "It's not your
fault, none of it is! I was the one who gave you the idea,
remember?" Tears streamed down her face, and she hurriedly
brushed them away. "I found that book in the Ami's library,
and I thought it was a good idea, so I left it on Earth when
I came to visit Endymion! I left it where I knew you'd find
it, Zoicite!" She was sobbing now. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry!
I never thought what would happen! I just wanted you all to
be together for Carnival! I'm so stupid; I'm so sorry everyone!
I never meant for any of this to happen! I'm so sorry, Mother!
It's all my fault the Moon Kingdom fell!"
Tuxedo Mask was comforting her in a second, but was joined
this time by eight people and two cats who offered their
consolations.
"Don't say that, Sailor Moon!" Venus said gruffly. "It's
not your fault and you know it!"
"Listen, we would have found out a way even if you
didn't drop the hint! Zoicite had tons of books; we would
have found it sooner or later!" Jadeite blubbered.
"We never tried to stop him! We're guilty by association!"
Kunzite provided the most reasonable explanation. "If
it wasn't us, then it would have been someone else. Metallia
was an equal opportunity destroyer."
"You think?" Sailor Moon sniffed, wiping her nose on
Tuxedo's cape.
"I know. Beryl told us so before she executed us."
She threw her arms around him and sobbed in his chest
for a while. "Hey, stop crying. I'll buy you ice cream
when we get home."
That perked her up. "You will?"
Tuxedo Mask leaned in and whispered, "You don't know what
you're getting yourself into." Sailor Moon merely bounced
away with images of brownie sundaes in her head.
They traveled on; passing what was left of Mercury's
statue positioned at the south gate, and began penetrating
into the center of the ruined castle. "What's that?" Sailor
Jupiter asked, pointing to an object in the distance.
Venus squinted.
"I don't know. Let's find out."
"That" turned out to be the very shiny handle of a
sword, buried up to the hilt in a slab of stone, ala "The
Sword in the Stone." Tuxedo Mask grabbed the handle and
gave a tug.
"Yeah, that's stuck," he said. "Wonder how the hell
it got in there."
"The Queen put it in there," Luna explained. "It
belongs to you, Senshi. For you to protect your Princess."
"Wonder what it's made from," Zoicite said, rubbing
his finger down the exposed part of the blade. "It doesn't
look like an ordinary alloy. Sailor Mercury?"
She consulted her computer. "It's nothing of the
Earth's, and it seems to be infused with a considerable
amount of magic. It doesn't say how to get it out, though."
She reached over and gave a small tug. "Nope. Not happening."
"So it's made of stone?" Jadeite repeated, elbowing
a snickering Nephrite. "Hmm, Kunzite, you're the rock
expert, why don't you tell us what it's made of?"
"Shut up." Sailor Moon was puzzled.
"Why would Kunzite know?" Meanwhile, the subject
was turning various shades of crimson.
"I needed science credits!" He burst out a second
before Nephrite did.
"Because he took Geosci one last semester!"
Venus looked at her boyfriend in a whole new
light. "You took Rocks for Jocks?" she asked incredulously.
He made a face at the three hysterical generals,
four if you counted Tuxedo snorting behind his cape.
"I needed science credits," he feebly offered again.
"But--?"
"All right!"
Mars grabbed the handle and tugged on it. "Holy-ok
I'm not King Arthur. Next!"
"What's that written on the handle?" Zoicite said,
leaning over. "It's not English, that's for sure. In fact,
it doesn't look like any modern language."
Artemis jumped on the stone and stuck his face down,
as did Jadeite and Nephrite. "I think I can make out a
'C,'" Nephrite reported.
"OK, it's says, 'C,' three wavy lines, uh, isosceles
triangle, swirly thing…"
Venus bent down next to Artemis. "It says how to
use the full power of the crystal."
"You can read 'C three wavy lines isosceles triangle
swirly thing'?" Jadeite said.
"It's the ancient moon language," Luna explained.
"Venus, why don't you give it a try?"
She wrapped one hand around the handle of the sword
and pulled. Electricity shot down her arm as the sword
eased its way out of the stone base inch by inch, all the
way to the point. As soon as the tip of the sword left
its stone house, it flashed white, blinding white light
that shocked their optic nerves but at the same time, didn't
even hurt…

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

They were delivered to the spot on Graduate Ave.
where they had previously stood, everything the same as
they left it save for the absence of Negaverse Generals.
The victims of the youma attack still lay unconscious on
the street, but almost every storefront was trashed.
"Looks like they had a little fun before they left,"
Artemis said, staring into the shattered glass window of
Lola's. "I wonder why they'd bother to ruin everything.
They're only after the crystal."
"Are they?" Venus asked, staring at the sword in her
hands. A phrase was seeping into her unconscious. Wink.
Wink Chain Sword.
Mars's face was radish-red with rage. "Why would they
do all this? I mean, Hello? We're not here anymore to beat
on? Why trash the entire neighborhood?"
"I don't know, maybe they wanted to grab some food
and Gap shirts before they went back to the Negaverse." Jadeite
pulled off his gloves and detransformed into a yawning Jay.
"I've got to get to bed, I've got a game tomorrow."
"Think you'll play? Zoicite said, removing his gloves.
"I'll try. I just have to get some rest."
"I don't think that's happening," Darien said as they
rounded the corner. People were streaming into 22 Boris St.
like ants to a picnic. Pounding music blared out of the
open windows, and two guys carried a keg up the fire escape.
"No way!" Zach bitched. "Dammit! It's Musto and those
assholes in 5C. No one better be in our place."
"You can stay with me tonight," Amy offered. Serena
giggled as she watched her friend's ears turn red.
"Yeah, why don't you just stay at my place?" Raye said
to Jay. "Just give me a few minutes. After tonight, I'm
really going to need a beer."

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Oh my God!" Lita shrieked. "Where did she get that?"
"In L.A.," Raye replied calmly, killing the rest of
her cup. "I told her I get to borrow it next time."
"It" was Mina's extremely revealing crocheted halter-top,
paired with dark jeans so low that the straps of her thong
poked out. She worked the whole thing pretty well as she danced
with T, a wide receiver, and Kevin would have been very opposed
to the whole thing if he wasn't busy pounding a pitcher with
two defensive linemen in the kitchen. "Go! Go! Go!" the room
chanted.
"Kevin's not going to be walking in a straight line,"
Matt said as he brought a pitcher over to the couch. "That's
the second pitcher he slammed." Two girls squeezed past him.
"Wow. It's like a Delta Zeta invasion in here."
"Hey! Jackie! Melissa!" Raye shouted over the deafening
bass. "Be right back, guys, I have to talk to my sisters!"
Lita caught Matt staring at Raye and her two sisters
talking in a corner. "Matt?" He didn't respond. "Hey MATT!"
"Huh?" he grunted, squinting and staring at them with
the same intensity.
It dawned on her. "Are you trying to see through
their CLOTHES?" Lita screamed, wacking him on the side
of the head.
"Huh? NO!" he said a little to quickly. When she
didn't relent, he muttered, "Well, it wasn't working anyway,"
and tried his best to dodge the subsequent blows.
"See you guys, later," Raye waved to Darien and Serena
as she and Amy headed out the door. "Tell Jay to meet me
downstairs at 11:30."
"Gotcha," Serena waved. "Bye you guys!"
Kevin had somehow stumbled out of the kitchen and
had retrieved Mina, and was now grinding against her as
they tongue-wrestled. Serena noted that Mina was pretty
drunk, too.
"I wish I had her clothes," she sighed.

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Raye yawned and signed
the sheet in front of the stern-faced R.A.
"I wasn't here long," Jay replied, staring at Raye's
behind with such intensity it was a miracle he didn't burn a
hole through her gray dorm pants. They sat extremely low on
her hips, and covered just enough ass to make him think.
Her white t-shirt was cropped, revealing her flat stomach,
which didn't help matters. You have a game tomorrow.
Think baseball. Think of unattractive baseball players.
He followed her into the elevator, his eyes glued to
the four or five inches of revealed skin that proved more
erotic than if she was walking around topless. Focus,
Melman, focus. Randy Johnson. Scott Brosius. Barry Bonds.
The entire Mets bullpen. All of the Pirates. Oh God this
is not working.
Raye practically threw herself on her bed. "Oh my
God what a night," she muttered, curling up with her bear.
"What's wrong?" she asked after seeing his face.
"Joe Torre!" he squeaked. "I'm trying to think
about baseball."
"Oh that's right." No sex before a game.
It affects his performance. "I'll try to be very
Major League."
"Speaking of baseball," he said hurriedly, and
flipped on the TV. "Ah, 'Baseball Tonight.' There's
nothing erotic about this." He settled onto Mina's bed.
"Goddamn, if the O's drop one more to the friggin' Twins
I'm never going to shut Kevin up."
They lay in silence for a while until Raye was
half-insane from hearing baseball stats. Jay glanced over
at her, curled on her bed cuddling her white teddy bear.
His new memories drowned out the Cubs-Reds highlights: Rei
bathed in white moonlight, the smell of her hair, the feel
of her warm skin and she embraced him when he reached the
top of the tower…
And at that moment, while he was drinking in her form
like a dry sponge sucking up a beer spill, she chose to scratch
her stomach, pulling her shirt up another few inches.
"Fuck this," he said, leaping up from Mina's bed and
throwing himself on Raye so hard the headboard slammed against
the cinderblock wall.
"Whoa! Jay!" Raye's resolve was crumbling with every
kiss he planted on her neck. He yanked her shirt up. "But,
you have a game tomorrow! Remember?"
He threw off his own shirt. "I love you Raye. I've
loved you then and I love you now. And now that I've finally
found you, fuck my game." He pressed his lips to hers.
She kissed him back, and let his mouth travel down to
her chest. "I love you too. Oh God, I love you." She pressed
her hands against his back. "Are you sure? They don't have
another catcher…" She felt his hands on her thighs and she
moaned. "You're right. Fuck your game."

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

"Amy? What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Amy said, swallowing the rest of her Bailey's
and milk. God, when did I become such an alcoholic? I'm
always drinking something anymore!
"You're awfully quiet." Zach pulled his glasses off and
chucked them on her bedside table, where they skidded across
and landed on the floor. Since his first pair of thick, brown
plastic Nickelodeon brand at age four, Zach had always been
extremely careless with his glasses. Two had been crunched under
Matt's feet his first year when they dormed together, and another
had been lost right before Christmas break. Matt had graciously
replaced the pairs he damaged; very graciously, since the frames
he bought for Zach ran a good two or three hundred dollars a
piece. He had taken to wearing contacts in high school, yet
still, there were mornings (or afternoons) that he would
completely forget to insert them and wouldn't notice until
he tried to view something at a long distance (read: two feet
from his nose) and couldn't. The concept of wearing corrective
lenses had never taken off with him, and he suspected that
Zoicite had something to do with it. The inner general, when
poking his head out occasionally, would simply forget that
the body that he had been born into was equipped with
spectacularly poor 20/80 vision.
Amy picked them up and put them back on the nightstand.
"You're going to step on these."
"So what? I'll just tell Matt that he did and he'll
buy me a new pair."
She smiled, and Zach caught himself staring at the
way her light freckles would move into the creases of her
smile. "Your nose is cute."
"What? I mean, thank you." She put one hand to her
face. "My nose? It's kinda small."
"It's cute," he repeated. She smiled again, her
pale skin the perfect match to her navy eyes and hair, and
the reason that he found Amy so attractive hit him right
there. Raye was exotic, mysterious, the kind of girl you
would be afraid to approach. Lita, with her bright smile
and brown curls, was so refreshingly girl-next-door she
could be in Noxema ads. Mina was so stunning she temporarily
knocked your breath away. But Amy, she was so beautiful, the
way her eyes would glitter under her dark eyelashes, which,
by the way, were about as long as his arm. Her face was so
flawless it could be made of porcelain. Freckled porcelain.
She had such a sad, sweet smile, the smile of someone whose
life still hurt, from what he didn't know, but he declared
the mission anyway, the mission to change Amy's smile from
a bud to a bloom.
"Ami," he said, touching her face. She shuddered at
the way he said her name, her real name. It was like hearing
a nickname anymore.
"Yes?" Her voice trembled; she knew it but couldn't
stop it.
He rubbed her cheek. "Something's wrong; I can tell.
What is it?"
She wanted to tell him, but the stifling cloak of
shyness was thrown over her head, blocking her vision and
stifling her voice. She could picture the scene again in
her mind, down to the last detail, even the way Mina sawed
at her stringy Salisbury steak like she was hacking down a
pine tree with a penknife. Erin and Hollie had joined them
that day, and Erin was trying to convince Lita to join the
basketball team. Erin herself was a guard. Lita was saying
something, whatever it didn't matter, but she heard Crazy
Kristen's voice above the clinking of the silverware.
"Check out Supermodel and her friends, Gigantor
and The Big V!"
Typhoon Lagoon and two other equally Revlon-spackled
friends had erupted into giggles like microphone feedback.
"Kristen, you're so bad!"
"I don't care, I just can't believe she landed Zach
Straub. I don't know why he even stays with her; you know
she's not putting out. He should give me a call; I'd fuck
him anytime."
Hollie and Mina wisely held Lita firm to her seat,
but Amy wasn't that quick or effective in restraining the
powerfully built Erin. Erin jumped to her feet. "Hey
you fat bitch, shut your friggin' mouth before I shut it
for you! Straub wouldn't touch your cellulite-filled,
syphilis-infested, skanky ho ass if Regis Philbin paid
him a million dollars!
Then Lita was up, shouting, until the Seventh Floor
Bitches and their cohorts decided to vacate the premises
lest their diet sodas and fettuccini alfredo end up on their
Sears stretch pants. Amy had been grateful for her friends',
well, rather vehement support, but the hateful words were
still burned into her brain. Gossip was gossip, but sometimes,
it had a grain of truth.
Zach was rubbing her shoulders now. "You don't have
to tell me if you don't want to, but, you know, I might
be able to help." He stopped and thought for a minute.
"Unless it's girl stuff. I can't help with that, and
furthermore, I don't think I want to know."
She smiled a little, but it was still sad. "Well,
it's kind, it's sort of, it…it's somewhat about you."
"Me?" Cool. I like to talk about me.
Amy took a deep breath and turned to look into
his eyes. They were so deep, so green; it was like gazing
into an emerald at Tiffany's. He's so beautiful. Her
mind cross-referenced him and Zoycite, and the differences
that came through were so obvious it was hard for her to
believe that she had once mistaken him for a Dark Kingdom
general. Zach was powerfully built, his right pitching
arm bigger than his left. His face and jawline was more
angular than his evil counterpart's; overall he was much
more masculine. She watched as he picked up one of her
trembling hands and kissed it.
"Do you think I'm prude?" she burst out, courage
sweeping the words out of her mouth and then dissipating
to nothing once they were gone.
Zach cocked his head. "No! Of course not! Did I
make you think that?"
"Um, no." She swallowed nervously. I can't
believe I said that! Oh God, if the girls could see
this now! "Ami Mizuno talks about sex!" "I-I
just…that is, someone said-"
"Was it Crazy Kristen?"
"Yes. How did-"
"Because she's a bitch and she'd say something
like that because she's jealous that no one will touch
her syphilitic ass. Don't listen to anything she says,
since none of it's true."
She giggled. "That's funny; Erin said the exact
same thing."
"That's because she's right. Amy?" He moved his
face closer. "Is it bothering you?"
The cinderblock wall melted away, replaced with
white marble covered with forget-me-not blue drapes.
Amy spoke the same words to Zach that Mercury had to
Zoicite, and the fringes of time pulled together, melding
together a millennium. Zoicite was Zach, and vice versa,
and she had loved both of them.
"It's just that, you never try to touch me, like,"
her mind reeled for a suitable example. "Like how
everyone else does." Ami, that was about as vague
as you could get it. No wonder one of your elements
is fog.
He touched her face again. "I just thought, well,
I thought you wanted to take it slow. I don't want to
rush you into anything."
"I-" she said, then stopped. "I do. I just thought
you didn't want to."
He laughed tenderly. "I do. All the time, in fact,
you'd be sick if you knew the true amount." He pecked her
on the lips. "To quote the great philosopher Oprah, I
think we need to communicate."
She smiled then, and it was the one he was looking
for: Full, bright, and completely blissful. "That's what
I was looking for," he said, and moved into kiss her.
She kissed him back, her mind swooning, the last
traces of nervousness brushed away like old spiderwebs.
This was Zoicite with her, the same man she loved a thousand
years ago; the only man she ever loved. She was completely
at ease.
"I love you," he whispered, kissing her behind her
ears. Tears spilled over her tears at his declaration.
"Hey, hey, don't cry," he said, rubbing the moisture
away with his palm in a totally male, oblivious way.
"What's wrong, Ames? Why are you crying?"
She sniffed and brushed the tears away, and tried
to smile. An ache had developed in her chest, a strange
balance of pain and elation. Tentatively, she reached out
and touched his hand. It felt the same as it always had.
"I'm not alone anymore," she whispered, pressing her
open lips against his. They kissed under the dim yellow
glow of her bedside lamp, breathing in synchronization.
When they parted, she whispered, "Can I touch you?"
"Sure. You can touch me anywhere you…ah!" Of all the
places on the human body, Zach had no idea that his sweet,
shy girlfriend would choose to touch him THERE.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and lay down,
pulling him on top of her. "I'm not alone anymore," she
repeated.
He reached up and unbuttoned the first button of her
shirt. She sucked in her breath at the feel of his hands
and his next words.
"You never will be again."

* * * * * * * * * * *

WHUFF!
Lita toppled off the bed when the pillow impacted against
the side of her head and she lost her balance. She landed
on one of Jay's sandals, the metal buckle digging into her
ass. "OW! My ass! That was such a cheap shot!"
Matt merely laughed and whomped her again with the
pillow. "Yeah, and hitting me in the balls wasn't?" He
jumped off the bed and landed on top of her, pinning her
to the floor. "HA! Submit! OOF!" Lita had used her
longer than average arms to maneuver a direct hit to
his head.
"Yeah, how's that feel?" No sooner were the words
out of her mouth than Matt had her pinned again. "Hey!
Let me up!"
"Nope." They tussled back and forth; Lita's strength
almost matching Matt's, and he used the temporary advantage
as an opportunity to kiss her, hard. "Time out!" Thus,
their game of Coed Naked pillow fighting was, how shall
we say? Interrupted for a few moments. Delay of game.
"Oh my God I love you so much," he panted, wiping
perspiration from his hairline, as they lay in a tangle
of sweaty limbs on the bedroom floor. She wiggled out
from underneath him and pushed her tangled curls out
of her face.
"Why? Because I screw you all the time?" She stood
and climbed onto the bed and pulled the sheet up to her
chin to block the sudden feeling of exposure, physical
and emotional. He promptly slid in next to her.
"No." He began kissing her neck, something she
found simply irresistible. "I love you because I can
pillow-fight with you naked and not care. I love the
way you can look at me across the room and forget that
anyone else is there. I love how you take care of
everyone." He squeezed her body to him. "I love the
way that one piece of hair always sticks up when you
pull it back. I love the way you arm-wrestle me."
"I should have won," she mumbled. Jay and
Darien making faces behind his head definitely counts
as outside interference.
His low laughter tickled her ear and sent chills
down her spine. "I love the way you look and smell and
walk and shoot a trey, everything. I love YOU, the
complete package."
She closed her eyes. " No one's ever said anything like
that to me." A stray tear leaked out. "I love you too,"
she said to the wall.
"Excuse me, what? I couldn't hear you."
You can so, you liar. She turned and looked
into his eyes, warm and brown and inviting. "I. Love.
You," she enunciated, and kissed the satisfied smile on
his face.
They lay there for a while, their faces inches
apart, and listened to the continuing roar of the party
going on outside of their locked door. Something thumped
heavily against a distant wall. All of a sudden, Matt
propped his head up with his arm. "So, what do you love
about me?"
"Excuse me?" She started giggling.
"Come on! I just told you everything I love about
you. What do you love about me? My incredible physique?"
She traced one hand down his six-pack. You're
right about that, buddy; you DO have an incredible
physique. "Yeah, that too," she started.
"And?" he said like an overeager child on Christmas
morning.
She traced circles on his tricep. "I don't know;
I just love you. Your eyes, your hair…"
"Yeah I know; you dig my bod. What else? Mental
things."
Lita smacked his arm. "You know. Your personality…"
"That's so generic. Think specific."
"All right!" Jeez, this is like being interrogated
by the police! "I love the way you can be serious
and lighthearted at the same time. I love the way
you know every single line to all the 'Rocky' movies. I
love you because you're a good friend. I love it when
you sit there with me when I'm bummed out and don't say
anything because you don't have to. I love how generous
you are with your money and your feelings."
"I KNEW the money was going to fit in somewhere!
You're so typically female."
She punched him in the gut. "And most of all," she
said, drawing her face closer to his. "I love the way I
now compare my ex-boyfriend to YOU, and not the other way
around."
They kissed, softly at first, and then fast and
hard and furious, until they were both ready for another
round. Matt broke away, gasping for air.
"You know what? If I ever run into this venerated
ex-boyfriend, I'm going to thank him."
She was puzzled. "Thank him?"
He pulled her on top of him. "Yeah, for letting
you go so I could have you."

* * * * * * * * * * *

There's slow honeymoon sex, there's playful sex,
there's loving sex… Mina gasped as Kevin grabbed her
behind and squeezed, all the while his tongue practically
down her throat. He tasted like beer, and Jack. And
then, there's drunk sex.
She hadn't exactly been stone cold sober herself,
that is, until Matt cured her. She had been hanging over
the toilet, Lita holding her hair back, wracked in agonizing
nausea but unable to vomit, saliva dripping from her lips.
Matt had strolled in.
"You need to puke?" he asked. She had weakly nodded.
"Open your mouth."
Stupidly, she had obeyed, and the next thing she knew,
Matt's finger was touching that punching-bag thing in the
front of her throat, and she gagged and threw up. "Feel
better?"
"Yes," she said truthfully. The queasiness was gone,
like magic.
He stood up and smiled. "Crude, yet effective."
Kevin was completely polluted. Granted, he was close
to a foot taller than her and outweighed her by a deuce, but
the sheer amount of alcohol that he had thrown back was
staggering, even by football player standards. She had
exited the bathroom feeling a whole hell of a lot better,
albeit a little disoriented from the alcoholic haze covering
her mind, when suddenly he had grabbed her and pinned her
against the wall and attacked her with his lips. Somehow,
between kissing and groping and everything that comes in
between, they had made their way down the hall and into the
bedroom, where they presently continued their hallway seduction.
"Kevin?" she whispered, her eyes half-closed. The
smell of alcohol was leaking out of his pores.
"Huh?" He pulled her shirt over her head, his movements
slow and fumbling. She doubted she could carry on a conversation
with him, since he currently seemed unable to articulate more
than two syllables at a time.
"I love you, hon." He crashed heavily to his knees with
such force Mina was surprised he didn't break right through
the floor. She sighed as he unbuttoned her jeans.
"Love you too," he mumbled, even though it sounded like,
"Luh ya too." Close enough.
"God you're beautiful," he continued (slurred). If there
was one thing in the world that Mina loved more than banana
ice cream and volleyball, it was compliments, and her ears
perked up like a rabbit's.
"Really?"
"Yeah." He slid his fingers under the straps of her
thong. "You are so fucking gorgeous. You're like an angel."
"Go on," she said, a grin spreading on her face.
He looked up at her face, her eyes blue and sparkling,
her perfect teeth, her blond hair hanging in soft waves around
her face. "Mina, I want to say something really deep and
profound and original so that you feel really great and
I'll look really awesome, but I can't think of anything right
now. I just want you really, really bad." His eyes were
completely glazed over.
She giggled. "Well, it wasn't exactly poetry, but
thank you." She kissed the top of his head. "I love you
so much, and I know it's the alcohol talking. You're never
this straightforward." He stood up and lifted her off
the floor. "Standing? OK, I guess, if you want it this
way."
The first hour was fun…the subsequent hours after
that-ouch.

* * * * * * * * * *
Such a simple, common object saved their hides.
Beryl was a hurricane of rage when they returned
empty-handed, even though she had been witnessing the
entire scene through her globe, and any person with a
hint of brain could tell that her minions couldn't have
done anything to prevent the Senshi and Generals from
vanishing in an explosion of white light. She was a
hairbreadth away from vaporizing the four of them when
Malachite presented the item they had retrieved from
one of the local businesses.
"Well," she said simply, waving her hand. The
glass square floated out of Malachite's hands and soared
over to Beryl, where it hovered in front of her face.
Another wave, and the wood and glass shattered, leaving
the single sheet of glossy paper. She plucked it out
of the air and turned it over. "Are you sure it's
them?"
"Without a doubt, my Queen."
Her fangs exposed as she smiled. Beryl cackled
again, black lightening coursing around her body.
"Hello boys. I guess that Mercury forgot this little
detail in her plan to hide your identities." The
names, printed on the back of the black and white
photograph of four boys, dirty and posing in front
of the camera after a game of football, was a death
sentence written in blue Bic. "Starting lower center,
L to R: Zachary Straub, Jason Melman, Kevin Belles,
Matthew Haberman."

* * * * * * * *

hello, can you say "prequel"? im starting it soon!