Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Enchanted Revised

by Starbrigid

Three girls damaged beyond repair. One by her father. One by rape. One by herself. Transformed into soldiers of a Goddess, enchanted, they have been given a mission. To kill the Earth's messiah, also known as Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Revised version

Title- Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Enchanted

Author- Starbrigid

Rating- Strong R for overall series for graphic violence, rape, disturbing imagery, and character
death. And language. Also, another warning- slash. If you don't like it, don't read. Kinda
simple.

Disclaimer- anything I may have taken from Sailormoon is Takeuchi-san's. But the vast
majority of this is all mine- the characters, the plot, the concept.

A/N- This is a series I've been working on for a long time, over the course of several months
(though if you consider the time in which the characters have existed and grown in my mind,
it's several years-) which I just decided to put up in one whole installment. This part is one
of three different parts, and the different chapters and their contents were all planned out
before I wrote them, though the ending I have down here is very different from the one I
originally planned. Also notable is that the storyline was influenced by different parts of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the book Ender's Shadow. I have no idea what I might have taken
from these two incredible things.

The three girls who are the main characters in this story are some of the only major original
characters I've ever created, and have taken a life of their own in the long time they've
been alive. It is also worth noting they were originally a Sailor Senshi team which worked
with the Inners, but now, they're a lot different from any other OCs that I've ever seen.
Please don't claim this as your own work. I've worked very hard on it. Ask before distribution
(Starbrigid@comcast.net.) I'd be glad for it.

The quote for Transformation is from the Bible's Book of Isaiah, the prophesy generally
thought to be referring to the coming of Jesus. The quote for Spiral is from the Waste Land by
T.S. Eliot. The quote for Blood is from the Augeries of Innocence by William Blake. The first
song quoted is "Fuuin Jubaku" (Seal spell), which is one of the duel songs from Revolutionary
Girl Utena, episode 11, I believe. It's the one for the duel in which Utena loses the Rose Bride
to Touga, Conviction. The song quoted at the end is "Nanibito mo Kataru Koto Ari" (No one has a
thing to say) which is also a duel song from Utena. This one is from episode 12, the one right
after. In this duel, Utena wins the Rose Bride back (it's called Self.)

I put together a soundtrack for this, including the two mentioned songs, if you're interested.
Email me and I'll send a list of the contents to you.

Read on.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon
Enchanted

The unwritten seal spell
Iron disguise of misfortune
The blue sky; the sea; furthermore a wind blowing
The plains; rabbits; even the river flowing
Time is the era which does not change
All humans are a "make-believe game" with blood as its descriptor
Even humanity is drowned in lessons
Even as the words of humanity become itself
IT WILL NEVER CHANGE!

Seen in the day, not seen in the night
Seen in the night, and not in the day
The anagram
The riddle of speech, the mask of words
Whose origin is...

You!
Part I
Transformation
And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; a small thing for you to weary men, but will
ye weary my God also? The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son. She will call his name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat,
that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to
refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both
her kings. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house,
days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah-
1. Inferno
Rhiannon sighed, closing the holy book. Today the words of the prophet Isaiah offered no
comfort to her, though they still awakened a feeling of awe and anticipation in her as always.
For as if she was witnessing it with her own eyes, she knew the scene which was going on at her
home. Sure, she was used to it, but it didn't make it living with it any easier. It made it hard
for her to breathe every time she thought of it, yet still it was like breathing for her now-

In the corner of her mind's eye, in the depths of the broken mind, she saw her father- Daddy he
had never been to her, Father he'd always told her to call her- striding through the threshold
of their uniformly constructed brick split-level. More images came to her, and she covered her
face with her hands, but she saw a meek, petite redheaded woman in each finger, a tentative,
scared face reflected in each smooth digit, anger and pettiness in the intricate designs on her
palm.

She could feel his fury growing like a tropical storm into a hurricane, even so far away. She
could hear his ranting about the idiots at work, and how hard his day had been. Rhiannon
felt it climaxing, building up to one moment. The final minor thing would set him off soon.
She felt it. She couldn't see why it was, but she could hear the high-picked scream, and the dull
thud as her mother crashed into the ground.

Echoing uncannily in her head were the footsteps of her father as he neared her mother, light
though they were, they were always amplified as he neared towards and then towered over
Rhiannon's mother's much smaller form. His words... BITCH... You're NOTHING... the slight swish
of leather against khaki at the unbuckling and removing of his wide-buckled belt-

Rhiannon knew what happened. She was a coward for not doing it, despite any excuse she may
have conjured about these being the way things were, and she accepted that. She'd find some
other way to eat. Maybe she could even avoid seeing her father before going to bed.

For she hated the way despite graying, thinning hair and weakening muscles, he still seemed so
imposing, so handsome, so strong. She still admired him, idolized him, subconscious seeked his
approval like every child did of their father. And she hated, hated, HATED it!

She ignored the screams in her mind and set the bible down. She turned her face to the
ground (she knew it was where it belonged) and picked up the black case lying there. Working the
clasps on the case and pulling it open, she withdrew her violin and bow. After applying rosin to
her bow, she placed the light wooden instrument on her shoulder and began to play.

Music was one of her few comforts these days. Every night she came to the church and played,
sneaking her violin in her backpack. It drew her mind away from her home, and drowned out
the little voices in her head.

Father didn't know she played. He considered it a great waste of time, and when she had asked,
he'd said flat-out no. But she had anyway. It was her little rebellion. It was silly, she knew,
the whole thing had been blown wildly out of proportion. But she liked defying him. And he had
looked so SMUG when he said no!

"Music isn't good for ANYTHING," he'd said to her, ignoring the way his daughter's eyes shone
with water and bitterness at that moment, and how she drew one sharp nail across her pale hand,
scratching herself in a form of self-punishment. "There are thousands of people out there trying
to make money with it," he continued, "and some of those people are damn talented. It doesn't
matter. They're still going to starve. When your mother and I get old and I can't work anymore,
you're going to have to support us. Yes, support us. You're a girl, but you do good in your
studies, you're worth that much, and God knows you won't ever find a man to keep you..."

She finished the lament, and was surprised to hear soft, one-man applause from the other end of
the church. The young minister Jonathan stood there, smiling unguardedly. "That was beautiful,
Rhiannon. I swear, you must get better every time I hear you."

Jonathan strode towards her seat in the first row. He was uncommonly young for a full
minister, in his early twenties. He couldn't have been more than three or four years older
than she was, but his church was small and he was dedicated, so he continued.

"You have something really special, I think. God gives us each a gift, and I believe that music
is yours." She could tell he was proud one of his congregation could play like that, so
uncannily, uncommonly, so mournfully and differently, so full of choking and tears, and BEAUTY.

She sighed at that. "Jonathan, I would give all my talent in music- god's gift, you call it-
just to be able to stop my father from hitting her." I've said too much, she thought irratatedly.
Fuck you, Rhiannon. Shut your whinging little mouth.

He leaned over her, eyes full of concern, and she hated him. "How's Mrs. Vestall doing, Rhiannon?

Her violin slid into its place in the velvet case without a sound. Her bow followed, as well
as her rosin. Then she slammed it shut, relishing in a bit of relief of the tension that filled
her.

"Not good. Someday, I think Father's going to kill her. He'll be very sorry afterwards, but I
believe if he gets angry enough, he will." She bit her lip, wondering if it was alright to tell
Jonathan all this. The holy man looked shocked, but gestured for her to continue. She dug her
nails into the skin of her arm, and then began to babble it all out, spilling out in a river of
words.

"Mother's little and worthless physically, just like I am. Maybe if she was strong, she could
defend herself, but she isn't, so she can't. Or if I was, I could. And neither of us want to hurt
him. We love him. He's our blood. If only we could bleed that blood out of us. If I was strong
enough to bleed it all out, I could. But I'm not, yet-"

Jonathan wondered at the way she looked. Her copper hair glowed in the dim light. For a moment
she did not look like the meek, mild girl he knew, Rhiannon Vestall, who read the bible and went
to church regularly. The girl who hid from her father, the one who played the violin so
beautifully. That strange green of her eyes were somehow brought out, and the silvery color
seemed to make her pupils disappear. At that moment, she looked beautiful and terrible, like a
dark queen.

"I want to be strong."

Suddenly, Rhiannon gasped, and the glamour lade over her was gone. She slumped, holding her
hands up in front of her face in disbelief. Her face contracted with something- worry, pain, or
confusion, he couldn't tell.

"My hands!" she exclaimed, sounding distressed. "They're . . . they're . . . they're hot. It's
like... they're burning!" What's wrong with you now, Rhiannon? What's wrong with you now, bitch?

Jonathan rushed to the pulpit and grabbed his water bottle. He took it to her and poured it
over her hands, acting on instinct. It didn't seem to help, only make her condition get
worse. "I burn-" Rhiannon forced out. Her face was becoming unflatteringly flushed, like it
always did, blazing with heat.

Outside, a girl stopped and watched the minister try to help the girl. "Burning hands?" Her face
remained neutral, and no light caught on her long hair. Her eyes lingered on the petite teenage
girl. She was so unusual, so strange and enigmatic, so WEAK. Was she the one that she'd been
sent to find?

Rhiannon's father hit her mother, from what the girl could gather by listening. How... quaint.
Her eyes were once again drawn back to the girl called Rhiannon. Yes, she would possess this
girl, use her, destroy, make her unclean and soulless, and make this Rhiannon Vestall beg for
more once she was finished, because she'd loved every second of it.

Kali pulled out her notebook, let an idle smile cross her face, and wrote with a steady hand,
despite the cool excitement surging through her-

'The Vessel has been found.'

***

Rhiannon slammed the door as she entered the house, wincing at the loud sound it made. Hoping
she hadn't attracted her father's attention, she quickly climbed the stairs and crashed on her
bed. Then she remembered that she had to do something. She crept into her mother's room.

The woman lay there in her thin white nightgown. It made it all the more easy to see the bruises
all over her body. Her nose was swollen, and there was a deep welt across her cheek that was
gently dripping blood.

Merciful God, it had never been this bad before. She stood there at the door, unsure of her
place here.

Mother ran an agitated hand through her copper-brown hair. It had used to be a brilliant red
like Rhiannon's. Over time, though, it had faded to a duller color. Now it seemed lifeless,
tangled and frizzed, lying limp on the pillow. "Hi, honey. How was your day?" Mother asked
gently.

Rhiannon felt a lump growing in her throat. "F-f-fine, Mother."

"Did you have dinner?" Rhiannon's mother asked. "You weren't home."

Rhiannon bit her lip. Hard. "I- I went over to my friend's house. Kelly. Sorry I didn't ask, but
there wasn't time. But Kelly and I had lots of fun together."

"It's okay. I'm glad you had fun with your friend," Rhiannon's mother smiled emptily.

"Sure, Mother," Rhiannon forced out.

Rhiannon's hands burned. She felt whispers coming into her mind. Hurts so much... doesn't
understand... she's next... They all sounded like her mother. She jerked back, placing her hands
on her head, but they burned, you see, and she felt her forehead grow hot. She jerked them away.
She was imagining things. It was perfectly normal. She was tired. It had been a hard day.

Nothing left... oh, god... just hurts so bad...

She clenched her teeth and willed her hands to be cool, her mind to be silent. She still felt
the strange warmth of her hands on either side of her jeans. And she still heard her
mother. It's nothing, Rhiannon. Let it be, she told herself.

She leaned over her mother, forcing a smile. "Goodnight, Mother."

"Goodnight, Sweetie."

Rhiannon tiptoed out of her mother's room and into hers. She dropped her body into her chair,
unzipped her backpack, and began her science homework. Gods, why did things have to be this way?

Over an hour and a half later, she finished. Closing the book, she walked up to her mirror
and began to brush her hair. Then she lay down on the bed, savoring the soft feel beneath her,
let herself finally relax into helplessness.

Rhiannon awoke bright and early. Her hands burnt. They had for the entire week. She had acted
strange, and she had been followed by stares and whispers wherever she went. But no one asked
what was wrong. So Rhiannon's being weird again? Oh, gee, THAT'S new. Friends? She just tried
not to think of that word.

Perhaps if she wasn't so focused in school, always studying... but doing as well she did was so
hard for her. Try as she might, she just wasn't that smart, she knew. So she worked and pushed
herself to the brink. Because of her father, who said academics were everything.

Somehow, deep in her subconscious the belief was buried that if she ever got a fucking B,
he would begin doing to her what he did to Mother. So she studied and pushed and alienated
herself from her classmates, and was Rhiannon the Grand Nerd. She didn't really give a shit
about that.

All of the other girls weren't like her. They only worried about boys and clothes and makeup.
(And she didn't. Alright, maybe she did, sometimes, she was flesh and blood, like anyone else,
but she knew she shouldn't, and hid it well.) For most didn't have problems of her caliber. They
didn't have to hide out in a church for hours, or do what they loved most in secret. They didn't
have to come home to a deserted, asleep house. Their fathers didn't beat their mothers.

But who knew? Maybe, just maybe, Ana "I'm a whore" Henenberry and the rest of her prep bitch
friends who treated Rhiannon like she was dog shit on the heels of their Chanel pumps had
mothers covered in blood and bruises.

She touched her clothes as little as possible as she got dressed. She handled her comb,
toothbrush, and backpack with her fingertips only. Even though her touch hadn't burnt anything,
and her logical mind said it hadn't happened at all, she still somehow believed anything she
contacted would go up in flames.

Was it just her imagination that someone seemed to be following her? Occasionally she caught a
glimpse of silver-blonde hair, or gray combat boots. Sometimes she also saw a pair of steel gray
gloves. She saw these things once or twice each, and only because she was watching for someone.

Could she have just invented a girl who stalked her? Maybe she really did belong in the
loony bin. She knew she was imagining the burning heat of her hands. Stupid Rhiannon.
How could it be true if they didn't burn what they touched anymore?

She forced down the pancakes, touching the utensils as little as possible. There was no
conversation between her, her mother, and her father. He had beat Mother again, not
unusual for Sundays. He seemed to be avoiding both their eyes. Could he possibly be
repentant?

No. NEVER.

***

"What the hell is this?" His voice rang out, loud and clear. Yeah, Rhiannon had been
careless. But she hadn't expected this. How could she have?

Her father turned on her, the expression on his handsome face unreadable. Then he ripped the
backpack off her shoulders, almost savagely. She winced at the slight burn of the material
against her skin, and stared, horrified, as he unzipped her backpack. He pulled out the contents
one by one, dumping them on the floor. Her binder, calculus textbook, history textbook, Lord of
the Flies for English. Then the damning evidence came out. A small white folder. He didn't drop
it like he had the others, but opened it to reveal symphonies, concertos, all pieces of music
that She. Shouldn't. Have.

He raised the violin in his right hand in a sort of threatening gesture. "Do you remember
what I told you, Rhiannon, when you asked if you could play an instrument all that time
ago? I said music was worthless. I said NO. Apparently you didn't listen.

"You don't disobey me. Ever! I'm your father. I support you, I pay for the food you eat and
the clothes you're wearing and the roof over your head." He was getting steadily angrier.
Rhiannon stepped back, afraid. She hated herself for it. She had to be the strong one, she
had to, but it wasn't who she WAS, and she didn't know how to be-

"Rhiannon!" His voice snapped her back to attention. "Pay attention to me, dammit! I'll
teach you a lesson on who's the master!" She immediately saw his intent, and as he raised
the violin, his motions seemed to slow down. She was frozen in some combination of shock
and horror, and then she managed to speak.

"Wait!" He didn't straighten up, but he stopped his motion to break the wooden instrument.
"It's school rented. You can't."

He glared at her with such hate in his eyes. "Alright, little girl. I won't pay for a violin I
never wanted you to have in the first place. I'll give it back to the music director tomorrow,
but I'll make sure you never hold a violin ever again." He smirked. "There's one way to
punish you, though."

Rhiannon's father reached for the discarded music folder. Not taking his eyes from her
once, he put his hand in and pulled out a few pieces of paper. A peppy Irish jig
(fate had a sense of humor)
ripped into tiny little shreds
(shreds of life and death and god she just wanted it all to burn)
and again, again. One by one, the shreds of the music she'd spent hours mastering, lived
in, felt such pride for getting right
(better to burn)

Was it just her imagination, or could she hear their little screams as they died?

Rhiannon's door creaked open. "What's going on?" Mrs. Vestall asked cheerily, but when
she saw the scene, let out a little gasp. Her daughter's fear, her husband's rage. The
second component to this scene was familiar, but the props weren't at all, the wooden
instrument and the shredded paper. She barely could put together what they meant. The
woman was unprepared for what came. She became the outlet of her husband's anger.

She didn't see the fist coming at her face until it hit. She flew into the wall simply from the
force of the blow, and it HURT... wind knocked out of her, she stumbled to her feet... and
the fist came again... and this time she stayed down. "It's all your fault, you bitch! You
didn't raise her right! You raised her to defy me!"

Dimly Rhiannon's mother heard a cry rip into the darkness. "Stop, please! It isn't her fault,
she didn't do anything!"

"Fuck off, worthless, and get out of my fucking sight!" The man didn't look human to
Rhiannon at that moment, he wasn't her father as he turned and snarled, so impossibly
ANGRY and HATING and HIGH ON THE POWER...

Rhiannon turned and left the room. Her footsteps echoed uncannily as she descended the
stairs. They still couldn't block out those awful sounds, the hate and fear and pain that was
in her blood- no, was her blood, etched into everything she was. But she could imagine
that they weren't there.

She could imagine she was the ideal definition of normal, imagine she was popular and
loved. She could imagine she was beautiful, Charlie's-Angels beautiful, Baywatch babe
beautiful, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes and tanned skin and slender long legs.
She could make herself believe she was going to meet some friends for a party, or going to
a movie with her boyfriend, anything instead of fleeing her own house because she couldn't
take what was going on inside.

In the end, it wouldn't change anything. No matter what she believed, the truth would
always come back. This was her world. No changing that. She couldn't wish herself into
another person's body, another person's life. She was Rhiannon Vestall, and she had to
accept that.

Rhiannon realized she had stopped at the door to their house. Slowly but deliberately, she
pushed it open and walked out into the night.

It was a surprisingly warm night for the time of year it was. Even though it was late and the
sun was almost down, she wasn't cold at all. Encouraged by this, she quickened her step and
began to walk away from her house. Suddenly, though, she just couldn't. Something froze Rhiannon
in midstep. It was a silent command to wait.

She didn't know how long she just stood there. It could have been seconds, it could have
been years. Her mind was strangely silent. Somehow, she knew something important was
going to happen. There was no conscious knowledge of what it was, though.

Then suddenly the waiting was over. She heard footsteps approach her, light and yet plodding,
then another person came into view. Rhiannon could feel the air around her get colder, knew she
was paling. Her hands and bare arms began to shake with the sudden drop in heat.

The girl's eyes locked with hers. Rhiannon stared into those beautiful soulless gray eyes and
let out a little sob of relief. "You came," she whispered. "For me."

Her gaze caught on the girl's long shining golden braid, tight and unforgiving, and she wondered
what it would look free over the girl's shoulders, what it would feel like twirled between her
own fingers. She wondered what those proud, haughtily defined cheekbones or that small exposed
spot of tender neck over the girl's jugular would feel like under her lips.

She knew who this person was.

"Goddess," Rhiannon whispered reverently, an undescribable feeling of joy and apprehension
and peace swelling up inside her.

The girl shook her head. "No. You have more of the Goddess inside you than I ever will,
Rhiannon. I've come to realize that now."

She extended a silver-gloved hand to Rhiannon. "I can help you, you know. I may not be the
Goddess, but I can make you strong. That's what you wanted, isn't it? Just take my hand,
and I can change everything for you." Rhiannon stared at her hand, frozen, indecisive.

The girl's eyes narrowed in a calculated gesture of disapproval. "Surely, Rhiannon, you don't
want things to stay the way they are now!"

Rhiannon reached out, shaking, hesitated for a moment, then took the other girl's hand, feeling
the warmth and connection. When Rhiannon withdrew her own, she was holding a pendant she somehow
recognized. It was the Sign of the Phoenix.

"Why are you giving this to me, of all people?" Rhiannon blurted out. "I mean, I'm just some
stupid little girl. I'm too weak to defend my own mother!"

"You know you're more than that," the girl said calmly. "Now put it on, then go back inside
your house." Then she raised her gloved hands and put then on my shoulders. "When you
awaken, Rhiannon, I'll come to you."

Rhiannon watched in a sort of detached astonishment as the coldly beautiful girl strode
away, her black shoes clacking on the pavement. When she awakened, the girl would come
back. Only then. Suddenly, with a startling clarity, the other's girl's name came to Rhiannon.
It was Kali.

Rhiannon fit the pendant around her neck, and then decisively headed back toward her
house. She used her key to open the door, which she had closed and left locked. Then she
closed it again and headed upstairs.

Her mother was cowering on the floor, bruised heavily. Her father was standing above her
mother in a position of dominance. This filled Rhiannon with no remorse, because she knew it
would never happen again. What did feel was overwhelming anger. No, it was past anger. It
was a dark sort of hatred.

Rhiannon's father whirled around. "What are you doing here, girl? I told you to leave!" He was
enraged, Rhiannon noted. But it could never match the rage she felt. "Do I have to show you
who's boss again?"

"Well," Rhiannon said calmly, "I already know that you certainly aren't."

Her father's face reflected pure surprise, then hardened. "Insolent little whore!" He swung his
fist toward her face, but she found her hand catching it. It wasn't any sort of physical
strength that stopped her father's blow. It was disbelief at any physical resistance to him at
all.

"What the hell are you doing?" he screamed at her. He wrenched his fist from her hand, but
made no move to strike again yet. Rhiannon's mother watched in fearful silence.

Rhiannon felt all pretense at control begin to slip away. "What do you think I'm doing, you
bastard? I'm standing up for myself, like I should have done so long ago! And I'm standing up
for my own mother! You have no right to rule over us! You're nothing!"

The sensible part of her couldn't believe she was saying these things. But it wasn't
completely in control anymore. There was something else there, which wasn't completely
her. It was something darker. It was a presence that wasn't entirely her own.

"I hate you more than I've ever hated anyone in my entire life! You're sick, you're deranged,
and I'm not going to take anything else from you! All those times you hit my mother, you had
no idea what you were getting yourself into! Because I'm strong, stronger than you. I'm
stronger than anything you could ever imagine!"

Rhiannon's father and mother were both staring at her in horrified silence. She didn't know it
then, but she had started to glow bright red, but only a few shades lighter than blood. Her
features seemed like they were distorting. Her skin was turning paler. Her hair was becoming
an uncannily bright shade of red. And her eyes were changing from her pale greenish blue to
an unearthly steel gray.

"I'm not even human, did you know that? I'm something worse than you could ever imagine!
I'm going to bring down the Goddess, and she's going to destroy this world, and destroy all
of these miserable humans, because I am the Vessel!" Sparks seemed to be shooting from
her now all-gray eyes, and there was a wildly insane in them. Her hands were clenched to
fists, and her stance was that of war. "Givers of my blood," Rhiannon gasped out, "This is
the end!"

With a sadistic air about her, the petite teenage girl strode over to where her father was
standing. He was staring, motionless. He had thought he was evil, but she was more evil
than anything he could have ever dreamed. She walked slowly, and when she reached for his
hand, it was a calm, sedate motion. Yet the darkness around her was just as visible as
before. She still glowed, her eyes were still gray, her skin still that horrible alabaster.

When Rhiannon's hand touched her father's, he could feel that it was warm. Too warm. His
eyes widened in horror. "Say goodbye, daddy," Rhiannon smirked, and then her father was
burning.

Rhiannon's mother watched, spellbound, as fire traveled from her daughter's hand to her
husband. It was horrifyingly real, the way the flames climbed up his body, and they burned
everything they touched. The smell of charred skin filled the room, and then Mr. Vestall was
completely enveloped by the flames.

Rhiannon didn't stop there. She knelt down, and it was like something out of a horror movie.
Fire flew from her hands into wherever she touched, and the room around them ignited.
Rhiannon was the scariest thing Mrs. Vestall had ever seen in that moment. She glowed even
brighter among the flames, madness in her eyes.

Suddenly, the girl ran over to her mother, and grabbed both sides of Mrs. Vestall's head, and
her mother was burning too. The origins of her body, the makers of her self, and they were
burning, just like she had dreamed of. The flames surrounded her, and she felt the Goddess
clearly both inside her and outside her. Rhiannon would give herself to the Goddess now. This
was what she was meant for.

The blaze tore closer and closer, and Rhiannon screamed in delight, but suddenly, there was
a cold hand on her arm, bringing her back to her senses. Kali grabbed the smaller girl around
the waist and tried to pull her away, but Rhiannon resisted. Kali slapped the redhead across
the face, and it brought her back to her senses a little bit, but not enough.

"We've got to get out of here!" Kali shouted to Rhiannon. "This floor is going to collapse!"
Rhiannon didn't seem to care, but the silver-haired girl dragged her towards the stairs
anyway. Upon seeing flames roaring down them, just like the rest of the house, Kali flung the
two of them from the second floor to the first floor.

The wind was knocked out of the bigger girl, but she continued to drag Rhiannon away.
Finally, Kali shoved her gloved hand into the burning door, and it swung open, then fell to the
ground. Kali pushed Rhiannon out. The girl had almost completely stopped glowing.

"Do you understand, Rhiannon?" Kali screamed in the other girl's face. "You could have died!
You need to learn to control yourself! I DON'T CARE IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANTED! Do you
understand me?"

In that moment, Rhiannon seemed to become herself again. She freed herself from Kali's
grasp and stared at her house, by now completely engulfed by the blaze. "Oh my god," she
whispered. "What have I done?"

Kali's mode abruptly changed. She knew what she needed to do to cement her control over
Rhiannon.

"You were magnificent. You showed them, Rhiannon. You showed them all. No one will ever hurt you
like that again," Kali breathed.

Then she smiled, turning the girl away from the sight of her burning house. She leaned in closer
to Rhiannon, pressing her cool lips to Rhiannon's forehead. Rhiannon's cheeks heated at the soft,
warm touch, at Kali's face so close to her's.

When Kali moved away, holding her face close to the other girl's just for a second and locking
her eyes with the Rhiannon's in understanding. Rhiannon reached up a shaking hand up to her
tinging forehead where Kali had kissed her. "I-"

"You don't have to say anything," Kali whispered into Rhiannon's ear, once again pressing her
lips to Rhiannon's face, trailing them along her cheek, lingering on for a second longer than
necessary. Rhiannon felt a fire ignite there, stronger than the fire consuming her house as they
spoke, crackling in the dim background. "Come on," she smiled, "Let's go," and got to her feet.

Rhiannon stared up at Kali, and from that moment on, she was lost.
2. Killing A God
You'd be amazed just how easy it is to kill a god.

In what seems like a million years ago, Morrigan Cortes would have never even thought up the
concept. Back then, she knew who she was, and had few doubts. She was self-proclaimed queen of
La Brea High in Los Angeles. She was the most popular girl in school, with a totally hot jock
boyfriend, adoring friends who were always throwing huge parties, and grades that wouldn't get
her kicked out of school. Morrigan was beautiful, in a sort of shallow, teenage way, and self-
assured enough to befriend the right people and sneer at the losers. She thought she was perfect.

A million years ago, she was innocent, naive, despite the quite worldly insults she poured out
onto the poor unpopular scum at La Brea. She didn't really know what life was like. If she had
said anything besides insults to the poorer, less popular kids, they could have told her.

See, if she had, she wouldn't have been out so late alone. Morrigan and her friend Anna had
been cramming for the history final in Mr. O'Connor's class, which they shared together. They
had zoned out during all the classes, passing notes and dreaming of boys, and were completely
behind as a result. If they didn't want to have to get tutoring, which would totally destroy
their social schedules, they'd have to pass. Their cramming had gone late. It was nothing big.
It didn't seem like anything to worry about.

If Morrigan, popular diva, had been street-smart, she would have called her mother and asked for
a ride home. She'd walked to Anna's, so she didn't have her car. She wouldn't have walked the
half-mile home at nearly 2 AM. Even in the dim moonlight and streetlights, she wasn't worried.
Why should she have been? She was Queen.

If she had been street smart, she certainly wouldn't have ducked into a long dark alley at
that time of the night, looking for a shortcut. She realized afterwards that she had been a
clueless ditz back then. The horror movie cliche of the blonde chick, you know, the one who
walks right into danger, completely oblivious. The only difference was that she was Hispanic.

It may sound like she hated what she had been before, or at least didn't like who she had been,
and maybe she didn't. But most of the time, she still didn't believe that she deserved what
happened that night.

A million years ago, she felt the first cold touch of life as his warm hands reached out and
took her arm. His friend covered her mouth so she couldn't scream. Reality began to seep in
for the first time as he systematically stripped her dress off, hands roaming where no one
had ever dared touch before. She tried to run. Friend held her down.

She recognized them. Bobby and Jason. Two tall social misfits who were rumored to have both been
in real gunfights, put in the slammer before their mommas came and paid their sky-high bail.
She'd personally made their lives a living hell. It hadn't taken much, really. Not much effort
on her part.

Poetic. Fucking. Justice.

A million years ago, he drove his way inside her. She had read about this but, no, no, wouldn't
happen here, couldn't happen to me- blood stained her thighs. The iron scent offended her nose.
She wanted to scream, oh god, scream and scream, but no she couldn't. She sunk to the wall,
silent tears running down her face, aching and defeated. They looked at her and laughed.

"You deserved it," Bobby called as he and Jason left.

Jason turned back- the one who had raped her turned back with a face of steel. "Tell anyone and
we'll kill you. But we'll fuck you seven ways from Sunday before we do, bitch. We'll see who's
high and mighty then."

Their footsteps echoed as they left the alley. Halfway out, Jason said something to Bobby, and
he laughed.

Morrigan stayed like that for a long time. She knew it could have been worse, Friend could have
gone for a little trip too, but... she, she, she just- didn't-

She doesn't remember what she told her mother when she finally got her wits back enough
to retrieve her clothes and take the damn shortcut home.

She went on with it all. School, classes, homework. None of it mattered, though. As stupid
as it may sound, a part of her had died there, and she wanted only one thing. For ruining
who she was, for destroying her picture-perfect teenage life- for the first time in her life she
wanted revenge.

Especially for when she saw them in the halls and Jason winked at her. She just felt- so- DIRTY-

Had she deserved it?

But she did nothing. It may sound cowardly, but what could she have done then? Nothing.
She was young, and that made her helpless. She was Hispanic, and that made her helpless.
And most of all, more than anything else, she was female, and that made her helpless. She
had never realized that before.

She didn't even think of going to the authorities. Somehow she knew this was beyond such...
earthly means? Was that the word for it? She wasn't sure, she didn't understand, she had always
felt so normal, such a sweet ordinary girl...

Not earthly means anymore. They weren't for her anymore.

She didn't deserve them.

For a week, she was scared. She always went in when the sun went down, and locked her
door, and shut her window. She was afraid of everyone and everything. Then finally, she got
up the nerve to do something.

Kali Minervo and Rhiannon Vestall were two girls who had transferred to La Brea High a few
weeks or so ago. After the first three days or so, everyone pretty much stayed away. Outcast by
choice, they were. All the guys and most of the girls also were scared of them.

Before, she had joked about them, making cracks at expense of Rhiannon's appearance, and
Kali's intelligence, and their strange, unnatural steel gray eyes which were an exact replica
of each other's. Once, she had seen Rhiannon reaching for Kali's hand. For the next month, her
material had entirely consisted of calling them stupid little fags.

Rhiannon had gotten flushed when she heard Morrigan. Her fists had clenched, and she had always
looked ready to spit out an angry retort. Kali, however, had just stood there, quietly, calmly.
She always restrained Rhiannon with a gesture. Nothing Morrigan said had affected her. She could
not be moved.

Morrigan broke all the laws of social class and popularity at her high school and approached
them. They were sitting in the otherwise vacant school library, discussing something in
hushed voices. She asked them to teach her how to defend herself. Without looking at her
at all, Kali announced, "She's the one, then." Rhiannon nodded.

She had no idea what they meant. In fact, she was mildly freaked, and was going to leave.
Then the two of them rose from their wooden chairs and turned to face her. Kali put her
hand in the pocket of her pants and withdrew something from it. Rhiannon turned to her with
a questioning look. Kali nodded slowly, then extended her hand towards Morrigan.

"Here," Kali intoned. "Take it. It's yours. It was meant for you."

For the first time, she saw what Kali was holding. It was beautiful, yet it looked strangely
dangerous. Was amulet the word for it? No, she remembers thinking, it was a pendant. It
hung from a silver chain that shone like sterling. On it was a silver wheel with small pointed
spokes coming out of it.

The center was what drew her attention, however. Attached to the spokes on the inside
was a jewel. Large and dark, it seemed to absorb light rather than reflect. It was a black
diamond. In the center of its many facets was carven a strange, ancient-looking sword.

Rhiannon spoke for the first time. "Go to the restroom and put it on." Morrigan did as she
said, leaving the room. There had been something commanding in her voice which she
couldn't have ignored.

Just as she passed the threshold, she turned around and really looked at the two girls. She
had never paid much of a thought to them before.

Kali's eyes were a strange steel gray. They almost matched her hair, which she wore in a
long braid down her back. It was a shade of silver-blonde more silver than blonde. Her skin
was tanned and healthy-looking, though not in an obtrusive way. She wore a silvery blue silk
shirt, black dress pants, and elbow-length black gloves, all of which screamed money and
class. Her figure was slender and well-formed.

Kali Minervo might have been a beautiful girl, if it wasn't for the cold and danger that rested
in her eyes and radiated from her whole self. It spoke of mind before body and control before
compassion. Most of all, it spoke of survival before all else.

Rhiannon was shorter than Kali, but only by a very little bit. Unlike Kali, though, she was full
of contrasts. She had uncannily pale skin, which Morrigan thought made her look rather
sickly. She could see her blue-purple veins even from a distance. Her sallow complexion
contrasted to hair the color of fire. Morrigan had wondered if the color was real many times.
It was just so unusual to find red hair that bright. Both of her hair and skin color seemed
much more bold and unusual compared to her large steel gray eyes, which were strangely
similar to Kali's. The white sweater and pale denim skirt she wore emphasized these
differences. In retrospect, she thought was an intentional effect. No one could have called
her pretty, any more than they could have called her or her friend normal.

Morrigan's eyes caught on a burn mark near the hem of her skirt that Rhiannon had obviously
tried to conceal. There were more of them, running down her arms and legs and face, faded,
almost healed but not quite. What had happened?

She wrenched my eyes away from them. Following their instructions, she went to the
bathroom and fastened the pendant around her neck. It looked strangely as if it belonged
there. When she returned to the library to ask them about it, they were both gone.

For some reason, she expected something to happen after that. Maybe she thought Kali and
Rhiannon would kill the boys. Maybe she thought the two jackasses would be lightning-bolted and
their ashes dragged to her doorstep. Nothing like that happened. However, the morning after
Morrigan went to Kali and Rhiannon, she began to undergo a sudden growth spurt. Muscles grew
slowly but surely in arms in legs where there had been nothing but skin and bone. She felt
confidence growing in her everyday, and above all, amazing strength.

She began to realize then that Kali and Rhiannon weren't going to do her vengeance for her.
The pendant hadn't been a sign of a promise, it had been a message. She would have to be
the one to make herself right again.

About a week after the pendant came to me, she had her first dream, which is the one she
remembers the most clearly.

***

crept along the side of the alleyway, keen eyes assessing situation. feet made little
to no sound. took another step forward. moon shone dimly in the sky overhead. was a waning
crescent, would soon fade to darkness. was surrounded by ominous dark clouds, promising rain.

wind roared in ears. seemed to be wailing. Whether in anger or fright, couldn't tell. sound
of the crickets chirping intruded upon it. fingers traced the coarse plaster wall, all senses
alert. sniffed, caught only night air.

a footstep sounded. wasn't soft like should have been, but echoed long and clear, vibrating off
walls of alley. tensed and stiffened body, completely still. more footsteps sounded, coming from
both directions. Still waited. would not reveal self yet. knew this was essential.

they whispered among each other tensely. were nervous, could tell. could see them silhouetted in
the dim moonlight, tall and lean. was four, maybe five. one stood tallest and proudest, one who
had entered first. seemed to be the leader.

"where is she?" voice was deep, obviously female, full of strength. she gestured imperiously at
what were now obviously her followers.

"we'll find her," one answered confidently.

"spread out," woman ordered.

they began to search alley, realized that had made serious error. were a lot more than had
originally suspected. realized was breathing heavily and clamped hand over mouth.

felt a groping hand reach in shadows. discovered. "here!" heard the sharp click of gun loading,
saw figure point something-

*And THIS is the way it begins.*

My foot shot out and kicked the gun from his hand. I caught it as it fell, and pulled the
trigger. I heard a female follower scream. The bullet hit his head. He died instantly, crumbling
at my feet.

Instantly, a wave of bullets cascaded at me. The men and women had assumed a formation
around their leader, and all had their guns pointed at me.

"Die," I heard a man whisper. "You can die, can't you?"

I ducked and rolled, barely avoiding one of the bullets. I pulled my stolen gun's trigger
repeatedly, and another follower crumbled. She landed in front of the first one.

Another woman's eyes hardened and she drew back her gun. I grabbed her arm and twisted.
The scream echoed in my ears. Then I drove my fist into her face. Blood spurted out and she
clutched at her nose, continuing her cries. I sent out a wave of bullets. One of them landed
in her shoulder. She screamed again, louder, and doubled over. I pushed my foot onto the
woman's chest and drove her into the wall, then grabbed the shoulder I had shot and
PRESSED.

More of them lunged at me. In the first one's moment of imbalance, I grabbed him and flipped
him. He crashed to the ground. Bullet. I took the next one's feet out. Another one out of the
fight. I let a series of vicious kicks out. My combat boots tore into the woman's head.

Throughout the fighting, the leader had stood watching. I saw my chance and dove at her. I
barely caught the slight flick of the woman's wrist before the knife embedded itself in my
shoulder. I bit my lip to keep from screaming in pain, then grabbed and pulled it out.

The woman drew another knife out and threw it. I caught it, and the woman's eyes widened.

My voice rang out. "I don't know who you are-"

A man lunged at me. I tossed the knife without even looking. It embedded itself in his chest-

"But you can't beat me-"

I drove the heel of my hand into the woman's jaw-

"You see, my friends-"

Their leader's head crashed against the wall, and her eyes went blank-

"No one can."

***

She had many more, and at first they repulsed her, but then she began to cherish them,
because at least she was strong.

She no longer was afraid to go out after dark anymore, and she did it regularly. Her mother
worried. She didn't care. She no longer mattered to her, really. She had given birth to
Morrigan and risen her, completing her requirement. There was nothing else she could give
her.

One of those nights, on impulse, Morrigan stopped at Bobby's house, broke the lock, and walked
in. Jason and Bobby were the only ones there, sitting together.

There was a picture of her sitting in between them.

They were gods, you know. They had been her demons, figures in her mind that loomed over
her, a presence of terror. She had feared them and hated them and wanted revenge and
been powerless before them. They had taken her virginity and her hope and her old life, and
introduced me to my true one. No human could have done that.

To her, they were gods. But she wasn't afraid.

Her body knew what to do, just like it had in her dreams. When they sprung for her, she
ducked and rolled away. Her foot caught the first man's face and broke bone, causing a
sickening crunching sound. He screamed. She has never been ashamed to say that she loved
that sound.

When Kali and Rhiannon gave her that pendant, it turned her into a different person. This
person hated, this person was strong. She had no mercy, hands and feet and elbows causing
the most pain they could and loving it. Even though the whole thing lasted only a minute, it
was still much longer than it had to. It was her revenge, see.

She caught the first man in a death hold. In a fraction of a second, she had broken his neck.
He crumbled to the ground. Behind her, she heard a sudden change in the other man's
footsteps. She saw the soft glint of a knife. Her hand reached out and took the knife from
him, wrestled it from him with sheer superior strength. Then she pushed it into his chest.

She knew that he was dead, as certain as the other man had been. It was the blood, you
see, the blood pouring from the center of his body. It dirtied his jacket and shirt and jeans,
and began to dry where it landed. It was a crimson river. An eye for an eye. Her blood for his
blood. She had bled too. Less of it, less fatal, but no less traumatic.

She made no effort to hide their bodies. She dropped the knife, dusted off my clothes, and
walked out of the alley. It's amazing how easy it is to kill a god.

Kali and Rhiannon were waiting there. Somehow they had known. For the first time, she saw
they were both wearing pendants. They looked exactly like hers, only Rhiannon's was ruby
with a bird's head carved on it, and Kali's was blue diamond with a book carved onto it.

She felt a wave of fear and excitement wash over her as Rhiannon stepped forward and
reached into her pocket for something, possibly deadly. Had they decided to kill her, just like
the woman had in her dream? Would it be a knife or a gun?

She withdrew the last object Morrigan had expected. A small, completely ordinary pocket
mirror. Rhiannon held it in front of Morrigan's face. Her eyes were no longer dark brown, but
an unnatural steel gray, a reflection of Kali and Rhiannon's own.

Kali stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome, Morrigan. You're one of us
now."

"What- I don't understand," she stammered. At that moment, the other girl's presence
seemed so powerful. Morrigan was nearly six inches taller than her, now at her true height.
But Kali seemed to tower over her.

"We are the soldiers of the goddess," Kali began. Her gray eyes shone with an unearthly
glow. "I am the Leader. You are the Warrior. And Rhiannon is the Vessel. We are the
Enchanted Senshi."
3. Vessel of the Flames
Waking. Finally waking after so long a time.

Waking to become...

Who is it shining there? Becoming who?

I am-

Watashi wa-

"It's good that you've finally woken up. It certainly took you long enough," a female voice
remarked casually. Morrigan couldn't quite place who was speaking, but then dimly
recognized it as Rhiannon Vestall. Yeah, she knew who Rhiannon was. But, opening her eyes
and gazing into pasty skin and frizzy, tangled fire, did she really know WHAT Rhiannon was?

"How did I get here?" Morrigan asked, trying to push herself up from the unfamiliar bed she
had evidently been placed in. Rhiannon leaned over and pushed her back down, using all her
fragile, slight strength.

"After your awakening, you just passed out. Eyes rolling back, falling in an ungainly heap, the
works." Rhiannon raised an eyebrow. "Really, it was rather embarrassing. Kali and I had to
both carry you back to this place where you are now. And," her pale hands kneaded
together, "I had to wash the blood off your hands."

Rhiannon carefully watched for Morrigan's reaction, but for the most part, there was none.
Morrigan finally spoke. "Where's Kali? Can I see her?"

A small frown passed Rhiannon's face. "Kali-sama's out," Rhiannon said, and hurriedly changed the
subject. "You know this room you're in? It was done to match your tastes and to make you
feel at home." As if she hadn't liked what she said, she stopped.

Morrigan winced at Rhiannon's sudden aversion to the topic of Kali. Was the silver-blonde girl
doing something she wasn't supposed to know about? More wide-scale questions began to
enter her mind. What was she supposed to do now, anyway? How did Kali and Rhiannon get
this place, wherever it was? Somehow, she couldn't make herself to ask those questions,
though.

"Rhiannon," she blurted, "How did you transform? Who were you before you became what
you are now?"

Rhiannon's steel eyes hardened, and without a word, she stalked from the room. What WAS
she?

Morrigan got up and surveyed her new room. Covered in jazzy shades of purple and red, it
reminded her of the room she'd had before. Her bedspread was a vibrant fuscia. Pink
highlights screamed at her, neon on the dresser, the lamp, the wall. A big screen TV and a
stereo system resided in one corner, along with all the CD's she liked. She wasn't entirely
sure if her benefactors had taken the CD's she'd already owned and brought them here, or
bought new ones for her.

Seemingly out of place, an antique-looking, gold-framed mirror leaned against an empty wall.
Biting her lip to assure herself, yet unsure why she was afraid at all, she crossed the room to
stand in front of the mirror. Unbidden, a startlingly clear image of the Mirror of Erised from
Harry Potter came up. She had read the first book when she was a lot younger, and
remembered the concept of THAT mirror. Yet somehow, it had come out warped: I show you
your worst nightmare.

Morrigan gradually became aware of what the glass was showing her. She was still wearing
the clothes she'd put on who knows how many mornings ago. The denim jeans she still
donned were now hanging several inches above her ankles, and though they had been
slightly loose before, now they were almost past skintight. The trendy, short-sleeved red
sweater hung too short and too tight as well, but another distressing development caught
her attention. The sleeves had literally burst into shreds from her expanding muscles. Funny.
She wasn't used to thinking of herself as having muscles, but damn, she had them now. She
was the Incredible fucking Hulk. To her brain, which had judged beauty by femininity, she
was grotesque.

Up to her face, and sharper, harder features greeted her. What Morrigan didn't realize,
though, was that they were barely any different from the ones she'd considered her own.
Her hair was thankfully identical, still short, shiny, fashionably cut. She ran her fingers
through it to steady herself, and was hit by a wave of painful nausea. Apparently, Rhiannon
hadn't done a complete job.

There was dried, crusted blood covering her hair, matted in the dark strands like a cancer.
She wanted to start retching right then, screw her oh-so-beautiful new room. Some warrior
she was. Instead, she drew back her powerful right fist and prepared to shatter the
offending mirror. The only thing that stopped her from doing so was Rhiannon, reflected
behind her. She was mocking her, laughing hysterically but silently.

Morrigan unclenched her fist, swirled around, and let loose a slap that echoed throughout
the room. The new strength behind her blow sent Rhiannon crashing to the ground, several
feet away. A strange sort of rage-anger-bewilderment-hatred passed over her. "Now who's
beneath who, bitch?" Morrigan hissed. "Don't you presume to judge me."

Rhiannon didn't respond, but picked herself up, face unreadable. Then her countenance
hardened into something beyond any sort of anger, which truly seemed like madness. The
small girl began to GLOW, a pulsing, fiery red, the phoenix pendant on her neck shooting up
and waving, shaking, as if blown by an otherworldly wind. Her skin became impossibly white,
her hair turned from bright red to a living inferno. She thrust out her right hand, palm facing
the larger girl. Morrigan felt an invisible force slam into her, and she was thrown into the
adorable, girly purple wall. The blood from her head slid down the wall, a slow river, along
with her own, unfamiliar body (it was all about blood) and then she felt herself once again
fade to vulnerability. Fade to black.

Waking again. Waking after so short a time.

She was shining, she was becoming, she was the Warrior, and the last of the Enchanted
Senshi. But she was also Morrigan, Morrigan Cortes, and that was who she TRULY was.

She felt her mind reacting the way it always did. And, note to self- don't pick fights with
Rhiannon. Yet she wasn't quite sure what had happened. What had Rhiannon used in their
brief, ridiculously unmatched fight? Could that have been called magic? She was pretty sure
she didn't have any magic which she could defend herself with, if Rhiannon attacked her
again. Did Kali have magic, too? Was she the weakest of all of them?

She found herself squeezing the katana pendant Kali had given her so long-short ago, as if
asking it for protection. Like it was an amulet. She found it oddly comforting.

What was she supposed to do now? Sit in her room? Wary of running into Rhiannon, she
tiptoed out of the room, feeling strange and silly in the new, heavier body. She could now
clearly see that it was an apartment, but a spacious, expensive-looking one. Her cohabitants
were nowhere in sight.

She descended the carpeted staircase and made her way into the kitchen. Microwave.
Refrigerator and freezer. There was an assortment of fruit on the counter, as well as a loaf
of bread and a jar of peanut butter. She opened the fridge. There was a good number of
vegetables, leftover Chinese takeout, eggs. She opened the freezer, already bored with the
fridge. It was packed to bursting with various kinds of frozen dinners. Apparently neither Kali
or Rhiannon were that big on cooking. She momentarily toyed with the idea of heating up the
Chinese, which would definitely make her feel more like she belonged. But she wasn't even
hungry, so she decided against it.

After a little more searching, she left the kitchen. Her attention was drawn to a room on the
other side of the living room. She entered it, and somehow knew it was Kali's. It was full of
books, numerous full shelves covering the neat white walls. A maple wood desk was the clear
center of the room, covered with paper and a prominently-displayed PC. Morrigan set herself
in the chair in front of it. After waving the mouse and deactivating the screen saver, a
Windows desktop appeared, with various icons. The one which had been used last was a
program which appeared to be something to find people. She had no idea who Kali would
want to find, but she didn't really care particularly, so-

Inspiration struck her, and she could have sworn a cartoony lightbulb appeared over her
head. She double-clicked on the people-finding program, and it loaded in seconds. Grinning
madly, she typed in the name Rhiannon Vestall.

The search results appeared within a few moments, and Morrigan peered at them. According
to the program, Rhiannon was deceased. She, along with her parents, had been consumed
by a fire of indeterminate cause. It also loaded a picture, but it looked nothing like the
wraith-like bitch Morrigan was familiar with. She was definitely more healthy-looking, with
skin of an almost normal pigment. She had rather unremarkable blue-green-gray eyes,
contrasting the striking gray ones Morrigan thought she had. Her hair was a less bright red,
though it was still quite obtrusive. Morrigan wondered at all this, but then mentally smacked
herself. Of course. This was Rhiannon, pre-transformation.

The sound of a door creaking open assaulted her senses. She quickly readied herself for
escape, but something made her stop. She hastily grabbed a small piece of paper from Kali's
desk, then fled, up the stairs and into the room she'd already began to think of as hers.

Crashing onto the reddish-purple bed, she studied the paper she had stolen- ahem, liberated.
It had gotten a bit wrinkled, but the contents were still perfectly visible. Written in small,
precise print was a list of what Morrigan thought were names. They sounded foreign, and all
followed a similar pattern. They were almost completely alphabetized by the first word. Were
these people Kali had been searching for with that program? Frowning, bemused, she read
them to herself, hoping to gain some sort of clue.

"Aino Minako, Chiba Mamoru, Hino Rei, Kaioh Michiru, Kino Makoto, Mizuno Ami, Meioh
Setsuna, Tenoh Haruka, Tomoe Hotaru, Tsukino Usagi."

On closer inspection, a tiny star had been placed beside Tsukino Usagi. Mentally shrugging, she
turned on the TV. She got full cable. Cool.

***

A clear knocking on the door interrupted her vegging out. She wasn't annoyed or alarmed at being
disturbed, though. She actually was glad. She had no idea what their address was, whether she'd
see her parents again, anything. Yet somehow, a sense of something completely intangible yet
completely powerful had spread over her, and so she was confined to this apartment, this room,
this place.

"Come in," she called, hoping like hell it wasn't Rhiannon, come to administer another beating.
Her wish was granted when Kali Minervo entered her room. Cautious, Morrigan snuck a stare
at her. She had expected that, when she would see Kali again, the girl would seem more
human than she had right after Morrigan's transformation. However, Kali was so impeccably
neat, and so potently cold and burning-

She wasn't any more human. If anything, she was less. Rhiannon had seemed at least a bit
reachable. Kali was a force of nature, pure, perfect, untouchable, and totally beyond her
own petty, stupid, Incredible Hulk self.

Neither of them spoke, but Kali was the first one to act. She leaned over to Morrigan's
dresser, picked up the stolen note, and put it in her own pocket. Morrigan felt her cheeks
redden. "I'm sorry, I just wasn't thinking-" she began, then fell abruptly silent when she
noticed Kali's complete indifference. Save it for someone who cares, her whole demeanor
said. "Why are you here?" Morrigan asked, a bit nervously.

Kali reached out a white gloved hand to touch Morrigan's shoulder. "I'm here to answer any
questions you might have." Morrigan's heart leaped in excitement. "And," Kali continued, "To
ask you what happened between you and Rhiannon."

When her voice finally came out, it sounded panicked and defensive, and Morrigan hated it.
"Did Rhiannon come to you about it?"

Kali shook her head no, then turned her gaze on her charge once more. "She didn't tell me.
However, it was hard to miss the huge, rather disquieting bruise on her pale face. Even
though she appeared hurt, I assume she came away from the fight better than you did? I
also understand that you were the one who initiated it in the first place?"

"I-I'm sorry," Morrigan stuttered, feeling she was losing control of the conversation, and
finding herself unable to answer Kali's questions.

"Forget it. It's understandable that you make mistakes while adjusting to a strange
environment. However, I expect them to stop. Now." Morrigan knew she would obey. Kali
was impossible to defy. "And as for your questions, I can already guess a lot of them. In
answer, you will not see your family and friends ever again. You will not go to school. And,
we live in an apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City."

They were in New York? "Rhiannon said you only had to carry us to this place," Morrigan
said, and instantly felt foolish. And she had BELIEVED her?

"It was quite a hassle to transport you across the country in your state," Kali told her.
"Really, you were practically in a coma. It's interesting that your body reacted that way to
the transformation. Neither Rhiannon or me did."

Why did Morrigan get the feeling that she had just failed some important test?

"What do we do if we don't go to school?" she said.

"We are the servants of the Goddess. We follow whatever path she leads us," Kali stated
emotionlessly.

"How do you know what she wants?" Morrigan felt like a big chunk of stupid, asking so many
questions.

"Remember when I told you Rhiannon was the Vessel?" Kali looked at her expectantly. Truthfully,
Morrigan didn't remember, but she nodded anyway. "The Goddess has been sending her feelings and
visions. It was through one of those that we found you. However, now that we are a complete set-"
Kali smirked at the irony of her phrasing- "We can step it up a notch, if you will. There is a
ritual we can perform. We can make the Goddess come down and inhabit Rhiannon's body. Then she
can tell us what to do."

Morrigan felt her breath taken away. "When are we going to do this?" she whispered.

"I'll come for you when it's time," said Kali, and then she left quietly. Morrigan could only
stare after her silently. Waiting.

***

Sitting on the ground, clad in clothes Kali had picked for her to wear, she didn't feel like
herself. She was a stranger, participating in some strange pagan ritual to a goddess she
didn't believe in. It wouldn't work. Heavenly beings didn't come down to Earth and inhabit
random ugly bitches like Rhiannon just because some barely-special girl said a few magicky
words...

Yeah, and a silver pendant couldn't change a girl's appearance completely, and it couldn't
give her the strength to totally trash two homies as if they were nothing.

Okay, point.

They were positioned in a triangle, with she and Rhiannon sitting, and Kali standing, her head
tilted up towards the ceiling. They were surrounded by candles, and smoky incense clouded
the air. Kali had explained they were there solely to harness the magical energies, but they
sure made it seem more like the movies.

Morrigan listened with dull ears as Kali appealed to the Goddess to come down and visit her
servants, beseeching her to instruct them on what to do. The silver-haired girl was
magnificent. Ice-blue suit and steel eyes made her seem like past cold, past absolute zero,
and yet she was a pillar of fire, bright and beautiful and terrible. She wasn't glowing like
Rhiannon had, but shining. She was possibility and enchantment and the world changing, a
revolution, and with her eyes and their steely, unfeeling intelligence, she was absolutely
nothing.

At that moment Morrigan suddenly believed that both Kali and Rhiannon were wrong. They
didn't need to perform a ritual to bring a goddess down, into Rhiannon's cold dry vessel. Kali
was a goddess herself.

But then Kali sat down, and Rhiannon stood up. Morrigan could suddenly feel magic pulsing
around them, centered around the Vessel. Her own magic poured into Rhiannon, giving her
strength. Oddly enough, she couldn't feel any magic from Kali at all, but it didn't matter. She
was witnessing a silent, invisible miracle.

There was no visible change. Rhiannon's visage had changed before when she used her
power on Morrigan, but now she looked no different. When she spoke, her voice was the
same meek alto-soprano. Yet it was clear as the night itself- the Goddess was the one
speaking.

"My servants. I desire to enter this world, not temporarily through this vessel, but fully and
truly. Too many do not know me, and that has to change. You will change that. You are the
only ones who can restore me back on Earth, and this is how I command you to. When the
blood of this planet's messiah flows like a river onto this land and is dead to the world, then I
will awaken, just as I awakened the Leader, and the Leader awakened the Vessel and the
Warrior. Those are my orders- to kill the Messiah."

Morrigan at this point had begun to shake, trembling in seizures at the sheer, invisible power
shooting from Rhiannon. She just barely noticed Rhiannon's form turning toward an oddly still,
silent Kali. "And, you, Kali, the leader of my servants. Remember what I told you. It still
holds. Follow my orders, or it will become reality."

Rhiannon's body pitched forward into a graceless heap. After a moment, wide-eyed and
speechless, she took control of herself again. Without warning, a name assaulted Morrigan's
mind, so hard it was almost painful. She had no idea why it came then, and tried to push it
away, but it stubbornly remained, its presence as real and tangible as the two girls standing
around her.

Tsukino Usagi.

Kali still sat exactly as she had before, and Morrigan snuck a troubled glance at her. For
once, emotion was apparent, even through Kali's hard, cold shield. What had the Goddess
told her so long ago, Morrigan wondered, and why did being reminded of it affect Kali so
deeply? And yes, she was affected.

Morrigan saw the rare weakness in the smart, cool, collected girl. It showed in the worry and
fear present in her eyes. Kali had the air of someone who had been humiliated and violated
and could do absolutely nothing about it. Morrigan knew it because she had felt it herself
after she had been raped. What could possibly make Kali feel that way about her own
Goddess, who she supposedly worshiped and loved?

Rhiannon seemed not to notice anything different about Kali. She stumbled to her feet and
lurched over to Morrigan. "That was so incredible!" Rhiannon raved. "The Goddess is so
powerful, and I can be that powerful, too! Oh, Morrigan, did you see it?" She reached out
and grasped the other girl's broad shoulders in a moment of uncharacteristic friendliness.

Rhiannon's face was shining with excitement. It animated her features. It even made her
seem almost beautiful, when she had never even seemed close to pretty before.

Morrigan watched Kali leave the room. Shaking Rhiannon off her, she followed Kali up to a
sparsely decorated, efficient-looking room. Kali set herself down on the gray bed. Then, nearly
choking with the effort of keeping herself quiet, she began to shake with silent sobs.
Part II

Spiral

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
4. Identities

Once again, Morrigan felt, she was useless. She missed her active, social life, where she was
never lacking something to do. But now, her life was basically sitting around in places she
didn't choose, never knowing what was going to happen to her, broken up by little periods of
magick so breathtaking she felt like she wanted to die.

She had almost forgotten the words of the Goddess that Rhiannon had spoken,
overshadowed by the event itself, and the frustratingly vague threat that had sent Kali into
such... the closest word she could think of was fear.

Killing the Messiah was the real point to all that. Yeah, but what the hell did it mean,
anyway? Kali had explained to her and Rhiannon that the Messiah wasn't referring to the
Christian Jesus Christ. It was using the word in the Japanese meaning, which was simply
Chosen One. How would Kali know any of this?

The Messiah, Savior, Chosen One, Target, whatever she should be called, apparently lived in
Japan. Morrigan had pictured a beautiful, shining being, not actually solid, but floating like a
spirit over the country. How would you slay something like that? Then she had thought of a
real, flesh-and-blood woman, living in a temple far away from civilization, attended by many
lovely priestesses, casting magnificent spells from her tower of nature and light.

Maybe they had just gone to Tokyo, Japan just because it was the easiest place to find a
quick flight to, and they would soon relocate from this frustratingly meaningless place. She
wished that they hadn't taken such a public, crowded flight, though. She had worn the most
baggy, unobtrusive clothes that had been in her Kali-sponsored closet, but she still had felt
horribly exposed. Everyone had been staring at her with fear and hate and disgust. She had
been on edge the entire flight, trying not to meet anyone's glance. Who would want to have
anything to do with such a muscle-bound freak?

It had been late when their flight arrived, and it had taken a while for their luggage to arrive.
Even her companions, the terrible twosome they were, hadn't been able to control that. Kali
had hailed a taxi for them, which had taken them to an uninteresting little hotel which wasn't
low quality or anything but wasn't special either. It had only had two beds, and Kali had
(rather uncharacteristically) taken the couch. In Morrigan's opinion, it didn't seem to fit with
her massive in-control diva image she'd had going on this far.

When she'd finally woken up, Kali was gone. This time, she didn't have to ask Rhiannon
where. She knew all she would get would be a vague "out", and she really didn't feel like
dealing with that. Surprisingly, though, Rhiannon had approached her. She was fully dressed,
wearing one of those outfits that suggested she didn't care what she looked like. She had
gestured for the weaker girl to come near her. Morrigan had gotten out of the bed, still
wearing her clothes, tennis shoes, and all. It was a disturbing habit she was beginning to
develop, sleeping in her clothes.

She had quickly forgotten about that, anyway, once she saw what Rhiannon showed her. In
one of the drawers was a big hulking heap of weapons. Not guns or anything, but really
medieval stuff, like axes, daggers, swords. Some of it looked really old. Seeing her hesitation,
Rhiannon had muttered how they were from Kali, for her to use.

I have no idea how to use any of these," Morrigan had protested. Rhiannon had smirked,
then reached into the drawer. She had withdrew a large, well-crafted axe, which was
obviously difficult for her to lift. She had heaved it into Morrigan's hand without any warning.
Morrigan had instinctively caught it and held it. It hadn't been heavy it all to her. In fact, it
had felt comfortable and familiar in her grip. Her body knew how to use it.

Rhiannon had smirked, obviously enjoying yet another victory over her. Why did she hate
Morrigan so much, anyway? She already had total superiority over her. Morrigan felt
completely separate, like Rhiannon and Kali were a different group entirely, like she wasn't an
Enchanted Senshi at all. But Rhiannon was always unnecessarily cruel in her body language
and her silent messages. You're beneath me. You don't belong here.

Did she hate her for the way she'd treated her before she'd awakened? She hadn't really
targeted her or anything, only taunted her a little. It hadn't been anything big. What was her
problem?

Morrigan watched Rhiannon out of the corner of her eye. She was once again sadly lacking,
clueless, helpless. Would things ever stop being this way? Would Rhiannon ever be her equal?
Morrigan knew Kali was the leader, the one in control, the one who really made the
decisions. Yet Rhiannon was the one who she feared. She couldn't bring herself to fear Kali.

"What are you doing?" Morrigan called to Rhiannon. The pale girl was sitting on the bed which
had been deemed hers, legs crossed, gray eyes staring like daggers at the wall. There was
something strange about the seemingly informal position.

Rhiannon turned to her, face full of sneering and cruelty. She raised a thick red eyebrow at
Morrigan (could she be any more infuriating?) and said gleefully, "I'm communing with the
Goddess." Morrigan wanted to hit her, though she was too afraid to. Why? Because Rhiannon
was shitting her. She could tell. The Vessel would never give her a straight answer unless it
was for Kali, or it served her own stilted, under intelligent ends.

Fuck this. Morrigan strode out of their hotel room. Rhiannon didn't give a shit if she stayed or
not. She was probably celebrating that she was gone right this moment. She wondered idly
what Rhiannon would think about the decorative knife she had slipped in her pocket, then
threw aside that train of thought.

She really did have nowhere to go. Breaking into a run simply because it felt good with her
strong, powerful body, she raced down the streets of Tokyo. There were plenty of kids on
the streets, even though it was a Monday in March. Maybe the school year was different in
Japan. Who knew? Not her. Who cared? Not her.

When Morrigan finally stopped, slightly winded from her long run, she realized her feet had
led her to a Shinto shrine. Though she had no way of recognizing them, she remembered the
characters on the arch entrance from somewhere. This place was called the Hikawa Shrine.

***

They had met in a place she had chosen, at a time she had chosen. Now she stood at the
random street corner. It was a bad part of town, but she had her sweet protection with her.
She had mapped out all possible escape routes before coming here, and had donned her
most business-like outfit, for she knew the power of first impressions. She was also fully
loaded. Once they had found each other, she had phrased her demands. The ball was in his
court.

The man stared at her, unblinking. Well, if he wanted to have this deteriorate into some
juvenile staring contest, let it. In the end, she'd still get what she wanted.

"No one's ever heard of you, little girl." He finally broke the silence, smirking at her insolently,
obviously without any respect. "No one's gonna do anything you want if you're not backed
up."

Kali sighed and prepared for a short struggle. "I have a whole lot of yen that says
differently." Her Japanese was good, but it wasn't perfect. Her phrasing was weird, but he
still got her message.

"Yeah," the guy drawled. "I haven't seen any cash. And if I believed everyone of your kind
who tried this sort of thing... I believe you'd be called 'poor white trash?' I wouldn't still be in
this business, girl."

"And you wouldn't still be in this business, either, if you accused all of your customers of
fraud. My gender, my age, or my reputation don't matter. What does matter," she reached
into the pocket of her jacket, "Is this."

Kali wasn't as strong or as fast as her new warrior was, but over time, she had learned how
to handle a gun. She pointed it between his eyes, and ignored the way her stomach
churned. It had always done that, and wasn't likely to stop. "Even 'poor white trash' like
myself knows how to handle these. Now, would you like to obey my demand?"

The man's dark eyes reflected both disbelief and humiliation. If Kali had given him any real
way to track her, she knew that he would have her dead only hours after this was over. But
he didn't have anything on her. At this moment and in the future, too, she was in control.

"So you want a plane sabotaged, eh?" he said, wincing from the closeness of her weapon.
"I'll get that done for you, lady. Whose plane was it? Don't want to mess up, eh?"

She reached into another side of her jacket and withdrew a bag of money. "For this, take
down Tenoh Haruka's plane when it leaves tomorrow. Make sure all three of the women are
on it, not just Tenoh-san. And watch out especially for the Tomoe girl, too."

"We can get it easier done by a hit," the guy began. Kali shook her head, feeling the power
of being the one in control.

"You don't know what you're dealing with. Now go and work my will."

She was pretty sure that he muttered "bitch" as he slowly backed away from her and her gun, but
it didn't matter. What mattered was if he had been scared and paid off into submission, and it
appeared that he had.

Rhiannon would be pleased, and Morrigan would be blissfully clueless. The Outer Senshi wouldn't
be coming back to Japan, and that was one more obstacle taken away from the path to their
Goddess.

***

Morrigan entered the shrine hesitatingly. There were several buildings, and she wasn't sure
where to go. She stood slightly past the gateway, feeling awkward. Finally, a girl in some
sort of uniform-like robes walked out towards her. She was probably a priestess, Morrigan
decided. She was unprepared for the long stream of Japanese that poured from the girl's
mouth. She didn't know any Japanese. It all sounded like gibberish to her.

"You... speak... English?" Morrigan asked her slowly. The raven-haired priestess nodded, a bit
hesitantly. Morrigan cast an evaluating glance at her. She was quite beautiful in an exotic
way. But something about her- maybe it was her pale skin- made her think of Rhiannon.
Despite her lack of any sort of psychic skills, Morrigan could feel an aura of menace from her.
Don't run, she told herself. You'd look like a freak, and where else could you go, anyway?

"You here pray?" the girl asked, looking a little embarrassed at her bad English, and unsure if
she had said the right thing.

Morrigan nodded just as she had, then impulsively pointed to herself. "Morrigan," she
announced. The girl responded in type.

"Rei."

Rei gestured for her to come with her. They entered a building that resembled a shed a bit.
Inside it, however, it was neat and attractive in a simple way. There was power in this room,
lingering in the air and clinging like condensation to the bare walls, emanating from the huge
blaze which seemed the centerpiece of the room.

Rei wasn't sure what made her bring Morrigan with her to the Great Fire. There were other
rooms for visitors to pray in. But in the tall American girl she had felt a strength not unlike
that of one of her senshi friends, especially Mako-chan's. She tuned Morrigan's presence out
of her mind and kneeled before the fire. Closing her eyes, she began her appeal to it, using
the sacred signs.

Morrigan didn't begin prayer. Instead she stared at the Great Fire, spellbound, in the same
way a man might stare at the blood-encrusted knife which had been plunged into his chest.
She felt repelled like a vampire from a cross, but she was drawn to it (everyone has a death
wish) drawn to the impure feeling about her.

It was an abomination, her being here. The... thing she was, she desecrated this sacred
place, this sacred power, this sacred priestess.

She doesn't know what exactly made Rei realize it at that moment. The Great Fire blazed
upward suddenly, and then Rei turned, violet eyes blazing with a fire that they naturally
couldn't still be reflecting anymore, and Morrigan realized that this, this was how she was
going to die. Burning in the flames, burning by This. Girl. as Rei pulled a parchment with
Japanese characters out, and shouted a Japanese phrase.

Morrigan just barely managed to duck the anti-evil parchment thrown at her, and then fled
as the raven-haired girl ran towards her. From above, two ravens flew towards her
screeching, and attacked her with uncommon direction for birds. Rei was screeching at her
too, holy and horrible Japanese words she still didn't recognize, and she had another
parchment in hand.

Morrigan tore away from the shed, and then away from the shrine, running as fast as her
legs could carry her. It wasn't until she was over a dozen blocks away that she could stop,
heart pounding like crazy, hair and eyes wild, dark-skinned body coated with cold, fearful
sweat. She was breathing so hard she felt like she was going to have a heart attack right
there, despite her strong yet completely worthless Warrior body, despite being only
seventeen years old. She had thought she was going to die.

Her mind was nearly delirious, and she felt it rave, threatening to make she herself
hysterical. "Rhiannon. Rei. Not that different names, were they? Same letter at the
beginning. If you put 'em together, Rhiannon and Rei, Rei and Rhiannon, sound like two best
friends don't they, you get... aw, wussitcalled, alliteration, yeah. Rei and Rhiannon- twins-
the same."

Only wasn't Rhiannon Darkness and Evil and the Vessel? At that moment Rei was the fucking
Messiah, Burning and Judgment and Eternal Damnation-

But, oh, bloody hell- they were all the SAME!

***

"There they are. The Messiah and her little entourage," Kali announced to Rhiannon. They
were sitting at a table in the mall food court, which is where Rhiannon had announced they
would be. She didn't remember announcing it, of course, but she rarely ever did.

Kali had told her all about who the Messiah was. Her name? Tsukino Usagi. When she had
seen the picture, Rhiannon hadn't believed it, but after taking one look at Kali's face, she
had instantly begun to believe. She more than anyone knew that sometimes inside a rotting,
ugly corpse, there could be found the brightest light in the cosmos, one that could change
the world, change the course of the future...

And Kali-sama wouldn't lie to her.

Rhiannon strained to see where Kali had casually gestured. Four girls, all at a table like the
one she and Kali were sitting at. The Messiah was easily recognizable from the picture,
especially with her ridiculous bun hairstyle. She also stuck out because of how much and
how fast she was eating, which the other girls were good-naturedly teasing her about.

Usagi/the Messiah may have on first glance seemed like a ridiculous choice for a Chosen One,
but Rhiannon could feel the power of her love coming off her in waves. Dammit, how could
anyone not feel it? She was the kind of person that everyone instantly loved, because of
how she loved everyone around her too, so much that she shone with it. Despite her very
visible shortcomings, Rhiannon felt her heart instantly fall towards the Messiah.

God, how could she kill this girl?

Ignore the Messiah, Rhiannon, she told herself. She did that, focusing on the other girls. She
hadn't looked at their pictures as long as Usagi's, and couldn't recognize them. Kali instantly
sensed her trouble, as she always did, and began to point them out.

"The brunette with her hand on Usagi-san's shoulder is Kino Makoto, Sailor Jupiter," Kali
whispered to her. Rhiannon nodded. The brunette looked strong, normal, and happy, and though she
wasn't any Usagi, she was absolutely nothing to dislike. "The blue-haired girl who's sneaking
glances into the textbook is Mizuno Ami, the Mercury Senshi. I'm taking that one," Kali
continued, announcing it with much more interest.

Rhiannon didn't see what could draw Kali's interest in Ami. She was sort of pretty, but not
very. Probably the least pretty at the table. She seemed maladjusted, really- supposedly
hanging out with her friends, but being more interested in studying. Kali's glance was fixed on
her, though. She almost seemed to find her more interesting than Usagi. Oh well, Rhiannon
thought, rather distastefully. Whatever rocks her boat, eh?

She could feel a sort of clenched feeling growing in her, though. The blue-haired bitch? She's
the one who Kali stares at so transfixedly? What did Kali see in this Mizuno Ami that she didn't
see in Rhiannon? What's wrong with me, that Kali doesn't worship me with her eyes like that? I
just don't see-

Snapping out of the trance she had seemingly entered, Kali continued. "The last one, the
blonde who the boys are staring at. That's Aino Minako, Sailor Venus. She's been a soldier
longer than the others- she became Sailor V at age 13 before becoming a guardian of the
Messiah. She'll be deceptively dangerous."

Rhiannon surveyed the Venus Senshi. Minako stood up to give a jaunty wave to the guys who were
obviously checking her out. It was quite rightly, Rhiannon thought jealously. She was
offensively pretty, with her long silky blonde hair and baby blue eyes. Minako issued a rather
loud "Ja ne" to her three friends, and then strode over to the guys, long legs flashing under
her short, short skirt. Minako reminded her so much of the old Morrigan it was oppressive, only
even prettier.

Kali no doubt noticed it, too. Was she noticing Minako's beauty with a calculative detachment,
or with the same awe and admiration she'd stared at Ami with? If she was beautiful like Minako
and Kali, or smart like Ami, would Kali stare at her too?

Kali was speaking. Why wasn't she listening? Rhiannon forced her gaze on Kali's. "Anyway,
from just this preliminary analysis, it seems that their circle of friendship is their greatest
strength, in addition to their planetary magic. It would be very hard to get to the Messiah
with her guardians around. I suggest that we find one of the guardians alone- not the
Messiah- and capture her. If necessary, we can interrogate her. By taking her down, we'll
hopefully be able to judge the other's power, too, to at least some extent. Also, it weakens
the circle of friendship." What an incredible leap of logic all that was, yet quick and
ultimately accurate.

Rhiannon grinned at Kali, trying for a second to make the other girl realize her casual
friendship. No sign of realization. Look at me, she thought frustratedly. I'm the one sitting
here at the table with you. Where's the tenderness, the pride you showed after I killed my
fucking parents for YOU? Stop looking at Mizuno Fucking Ami and remember the girl BESIDE you!

"And yeah," she began after a short silence, "You took down the Outers, the first barrier. Her
guardians are the second barrier, and though they're probably less powerful, they're overall
more of a problem. Once they're both out of the way, enter Goddess." See, Rhiannon thought. I
can make tactical assessments too. See? SEE?

Kali nodded. She seemed almost bored with Rhiannon, staring at the Mizuno Ami girl with
total fascination. Rhiannon felt an wave of hot, hurt jealousy sweep over her, and quickly
began speaking again, hoping to regain Kali's attention. What could Ami possibly offer Kali
that she couldn't? Ami wasn't here by Kali's side. Ami couldn't see Kali like she did, didn't
know Kali like she did. LOOK AT ME! her mind screamed. SEE ME!

"Anyway, I'll capture the first one, unless you want to. I think my magick is strong enough to
counter any of theirs, but no offense, you could get hurt." Kali had no objections to that.
She was also completely unchanged. "I'll take down Venus."

"Of course," Kali muttered. "That's wise." Wise, how? It wasn't clear what Kali meant. Did she
mean it was wise to get Venus out of the way for some tactical reason? Or did she mean
that it was wise for Rhiannon to get in a good spot of violence to work off her frustration,
which would keep her from hurting Morrigan again? Because Goddess knew that Kali couldn't let
precious little POPULAR Morrigan get hurt.

Rhiannon got up from their table and began to walk away, expecting Kali to follow. Despite
the loud screeching noise her chair had made when she pushed it back, Kali's gaze remained
fixed on the Mercury Senshi. She still didn't see her at all.

***

Morrigan had put the knife back in the drawer she had taken it from. In it she could see fire
dimly reflected. Through a glass darkly, like she remembered from whatever bible verse she
had gleaned that from.

Still slightly trembling, she leaned back on the bed. The hotel room wasn't that bad, really.
Comfortable beds. The management had installed a cot in their room at her request. She
wasn't sure what had prompted that act. Well, she did sort of like Kali, even though she
knew absolutely nothing about her.

Come on, she said to herself. After that experience, one act of kindness was essential.
Because then maybe she could stop believing she was so evil. Stop believing she should be
dead. That Hino Rei should have killed her.

Hino? Where had she gotten Hino? From that list, she recalled, the one she'd pinched from
Kali's desk. It had been one of the names. Hino Rei.

Morrigan felt her consciousness resting inside the drawer of her oh-so-perfect weapons, on
the shiny, shiny knife thrown in there haphazardly, desperately. What would it have been
like, she wondered, to have taken the knife out, gone back to the shrine, and pushed it
through the fire girl's chest?

She put her head in her hands, wondering what the hell was wrong with her, as only a
matter of a few miles away, Aino Minako answered the door at her empty house, and
Rhiannon Vestall, smiling politely, stepped inside.
5. The Cold Fire
"So you're... Rhiannon, right?" Aino Minako chirped, annoyingly cheerful, and in infuriatingly
picture-perfect English. "Why are you here?" She grinned and flashed her trademark
V-for-victory sign. "Here for the famous love advice of today's Aphrodite?" She giggled, and
Rhiannon hated her.

She gave the other girl a grim smile. "Yeah. That's exactly why I'm here." Without warning,
Minako was slammed against the wall. The supposedly powerless schoolgirl's eyes flashed,
and the hard plaster surface ground against her back, painfully hard as she was held in place
by some invisible power. Rhiannon's steel gaze swept offensively over the helpless girl, who
was resolutely silent, and she murmured, deliberately infuriating, "Goddess how I'm going to
enjoy killing your princess, and making you watch..."

Rhiannon's appearance began to grow more extreme, and a glow gathered around her in
what, to Minako, was an obvious power-up. So when Rhiannon opened Goddess eyes and
readied her power to strike the girl she had written off as a simple blonde ditz, there was
nothing to strike.

She felt a surprisingly strong fist slam into her jaw, sending her stumbling back, and then
beams of light began to emanate from the now Sailor Venus. The pain wasn't enough to
make her scream, and her shields caught most of the magical blast, but she was quite
annoyed by the wayward blasts that cut across her sallow skin.

With a bellow of rage, or perhaps boredom, Rhiannon sent out tendrils of fire to hurt and
catch the sailorfuku soldier, but Venus was too quick for her, dodging back and forth with
the ease of many years' experience. Rhiannon recalled Kali's words that Minako had been a
soldier since age 13, before any of the others.

As another blast of golden energy threatened to breach her shields and make her abandon her
contact with the Goddess, she realized she had underestimated Minako. She should have listened
to what Kali said, but all her attention had been fixed on how Kali's eyes lingered on the
Mercury Senshi.

How could she have been accurate in any sort of assessment, though? Minako, on the surface,
seemed like such a rotten valley girl. She had been disgusting to Rhiannon, strutting around
with her ridiculously long golden hair and all her five feet no inches, four and a half feet of
which were legs... it was been so easy to forget that the Aino girl wielded the power of a
planet.

But I have the power of a Goddess behind me, Rhiannon told herself firmly. I won't lose. If I do,
I'm absolutely worthless to Kali.

Venus had almost reached the back door of her unremarkable but now quite thoroughly
trashed house. The pretty soldier lifted her foot to kick the door open, and Rhiannon raised
her hand and sent the metal exit crashing down on her. With a little gasp of pain and
surprise, Sailor Venus was knocked down to the ground, pounds of door covering her.

When she managed to blast her way out of the rubble, which only took her a few seconds,
she found that Rhiannon had already moved in on her, effortlessly, unconsciously teleporting
there. The Vessel gave a majestic gesture, and a wall of fire surrounding Minako's three sides
of escape. Rhiannon grinned madly at the fear on Venus' face. It was the first hint of it that
the girl had shown.

Despite hating her, Rhiannon couldn't help but respect the senshi who was she was slowly
piling metallic rubble back onto, held in place by the Goddess' power, not even wincing as
the heavy blocks fell onto her ribs, her legs, her so-prided face. This is a warrior, Rhiannon
thought unwillingly, this girl here before me who gazes at me with only a soldier's acceptance.
What Morrigan thinks she is, or even what she really is, that's nothing compared to this.

In her mind's eyes, the girl helpless before her, trapped, under her power, was suddenly clad
not in a ridiculous school uniform-like fuku, but in a sleek navy suit. Her long pale gold hair
turned to a impossibly beautiful shade of silver, her eyes turned from bright blue to steel
gray, and her body lengthened, torso expanding. Those large, now gray eyes were filled with not
almost stupid bravery, but a cool, dominating intelligence. The long, garish white gloves turned
into wrist-length, sleek silver ones, and the hands underneath them were no longer Aino Minako's
tiny, careless ones, but Kali's powerful ones, long and slender, which so many times she had
fantasized about peeling the gloves off of and simply holding intertwined with her own-

What the fuck was she thinking? Rhiannon turned to Minako again, now fully Sailor Venus in her
mind, not Kali, shaking the vision off. Don't think that way, she scolded herself. Focus, you
stupid little bitch, focus. If you fuck this up, Kali won't need you anymore for ANYTHING.

"Not gonna kill you," she whispered, feeling the awful twin monsters of guilt and compassion
creep up within her. "My leader, she wants you alive." Sending what she and Kali had
whimsically dubbed the brain-fry over the helpless Venus, she ordered, "Detransform." The
fuku faded away in a stream of golden ribbons, and once again she was just an ordinary girl.

"Now, give me whatever you use to turn into Venus," she continued. Eyes barren and blank,
Minako made a pink pen topped by a golden ball appeared, garishly adorned with the symbol
of the planet Venus. Rhiannon could instantly tell that yeah, this was the real deal that she
held in her hands.

Disturbed by the thoughts that suddenly entered her mind, Rhiannon forced herself to feel
contempt for the enspelled fighter, stripped of her power. This, this is what I'm giving to Kali,
not the awe-inspiring golden warrior who fought so well despite odds she could have never,
ever won against.

***

Morrigan hated their new hideout. She understood why Kali had them relocate. She got what
Kali meant in her speech about how it would be necessary to have a secure base to carry
out their plans. But knowing what those plans were would have made her a little more
content with the cold metal walls that surrounded her.

Rhiannon was out. Kali was scribbling calculations down onto a pad of paper, probably for the
incredibly creatively named "Plan," which Morrigan generally assumed was a way to kill the
Messiah, as per the Goddess-through-Rhiannon's orders. And, ever so predictably, she, Morrigan,
was in the dark again. Just simply sitting. And contemplating her endlessly fascinating
collection of knives.

Rhiannon entered the room the two other girls occupied, announcing her presence with the
heavy door slamming. Both Kali and Morrigan looked up at her arrival. Morrigan noted, rather
sarcastically, that Rhiannon had acquired a interesting new plaything, a comment which both
the others naturally ignored. Still, Morrigan's nerves were tensed at the new variable added
into the equation. Was captive girl going to be a blood sacrifice? She'd read about those,
and... her thoughts trailed off inadequately.

Morrigan lifted herself out of her chair and headed towards Rhiannon, intending to question
the smaller girl, but she was given the professional brush-off as Rhiannon turned toward Kali.
Unceremoniously, Rhiannon dropped all her magical bonds from the blonde girl and dumped
her at Kali's spotless silver boots. "Like you ordered, Kali-sama. I wish you'd let me kill the
bitch."

You're not mine, Rhiannon suddenly realized, staring at Kali. And you NEVER WILL BE.

Kali turned to Rhiannon, not perturbed in the least bit by her coconspirator's sudden surliness.
"Rhiannon, you understand why we're taking hostages. Now, go bind her in the room we
chose." Rhiannon, scowling ever so NOT slightly, turned, magically heaved up the blonde,
and carried her into an adjacent room. Morrigan followed, despite the death glare the other
girl gave her upon noticing her presence.

Morrigan watched, a series of unidentifiable feelings parading through her head, as Blondie
was telekinetically placed up against the wall. Then, she observed, Rhiannon placed her
hands on either side of the unconscious but still held upright Blondie. The metal wall heated
and writhed around her, and when it cooled down, multiple steel restraints bound Blondie to
the wall. She was still completely out of it, with that beautiful silky hair of hers cascading
around her slight frame. Morrigan stared at the so far nameless and identity-less girl
Rhiannon had brought in, and rather uncomfortably realized something.

This girl wasn't normal. She was someone special, someone much more important and
worthwhile than Morrigan herself was. God, what was the word for somebody like her? Yeah.
Blondie was a, a champion.

Rhiannon left Morrigan and Blondie abruptly, not sparing a second glance at either of them.
The conscious, unbound one of them sent a disturbed glance at the one who wasn't, then
Morrigan followed Rhiannon back out (in retrospect, what the hell was she? A dog?) to Kali.

Kali asked the boring, predictable question of whether the captive was secure, which
Rhiannon affirmed. It was interesting, though. Kali had called the girl Minako-Venus. Morrigan
finally knew what to call her.

Rhiannon suddenly turned wildly to face Kali, who was still sitting, like a queen on her throne
observing the jesters. "So what now?" Rhiannon asked, who was looking rather pissed at Kali
for some unknown reason. "We got the Venus Senshi, we're holding her captive or hostage or
whatever you, Miss Technicality, wants to call it. And our next course of action is... or do
you even know?" Rhiannon stared pointedly at Kali, which matched the downright insubordination
she had just executed.

Fuck you, Kali Minervo, Rhiannon thought fiercely. FuckyoufuckyouFUCKYOU. I don't need you
after all.

Kali, still not angry or indeed moved at all, was the very image of ease and control. "To
determine our next course of action, I'll need a full report from you, Rhiannon, on your
encounter with Minako-Venus. Morrigan, if you would please wait outside for a moment?" Kali
raised a pale eyebrow at her, and she felt pure, simple fury burn within her. Goddess, why
were the two of them still making her an outsider?

A thought occurred Morrigan that made her giggle in spite of her rage- Kali was sure pissing
everybody off today, wasn't she? That made her a pretty sucky leader, if you thought about
it.

Hell, though, it didn't matter what she and Rhiannon felt. Kali was still the one with the
power, and it was that same power in Kali's frosty gaze-glare that sent Morrigan away, and
closing the door behind her. She paced around, waiting, for what seemed like a least an
hour, until Rhiannon (of course it was Rhiannon) finally came to retrieve her from her
extremely mini exile.

When she stepped back into the room, Kali was still being all queen-diva, but to Morrigan's
delight and Rhiannon's mass scowlage, Leader Girl announced that she would be informing
Morrigan of all the details of their plan. And she immediately did, describing and naming the
messiah Usagi (so that's why that name had seemed so important) and all her guardians. She
had Rhiannon once again summarize her fight with Venus, which she did extremely sourly. Morrigan
noticed that Rhiannon was constantly stealing glances at Kali, then forced herself to listen to
what Rhiannon was saying.

Kali then spoke, emphasizing that the major point in fighting with the guardians was making sure
they couldn't take out their pens and transform. In her typical check-out-my-amazing-smartness
way, she told them that their major advantage was how the guardians were relatively powerless
in their regular form. Since they were the attackers, they could hopefully surprise the
different Inners and subdue them before they could transform and gain the ability to fight back.
Morrigan recognized what Kali was saying as good sense, though her stomach was making with the
butterfly mass-production. No wonder they kept me an outsider for so long, Morrigan thought
ashamedly. I'm such a wuss.

"Rhiannon and I have agreed we're going to take down the next one of the senshi together.
Hopefully we can do it quietly and quickly, before they realize Minako-Venus is gone,
implementing all the strategical things I've said," Kali told Morrigan, which made the Warrior
wince ever so slightly.

"I shouldn't come and help?" It was phrased as a question, but it was more like a simple
statement of the facts, and was treated such, and ignored by both her fellow senshi.

"We'll be taking down Sailor Jupiter, Kino Makoto-" Kali began, but was immediately cut off by
an increasingly pissed-off Rhiannon.

"Kali-sama, I thought we agreed we were taking down Mizuno Ami," Rhiannon said, cheeks flushed
an extremely unflattering shade of red. Why can't we just take the bitch out of the picture? Are
you too worried I might hurt your Mizuno-SAMA?

"There was no such agreement," Kali stated. Her eyes narrowed at Rhiannon, and Morrigan felt
uncomfortable. Was she supposed to play peacemaker between the two? That idea, though, was one
of those most bizarre things she could think of, so she remained a silent, uncomfortable
observer.

"Makoto's stronger than Ami, and you know that's true!" Rhiannon shouted. "Ami's also too
intelligent to leave out free, she'd figure us out in no time, or is that what you want? You
just don't want to hurt your little blue-haired pet!" Morrigan winced at Rhiannon's sheer
anger, and the definite shrillness of her yell. Can you say, Rhiannon's having issues? What's
with that, anyway?

"You don't accuse me of anything. You don't," Kali stated, unmoved by Rhiannon's fury and
unwilling to match it with any of her own. "We're going after Makoto-Jupiter. I am our
Goddess-appointed leader. My word is law to you, Vessel."

Rhiannon's fists clenched in shame, and Morrigan felt dissapointed, despite much she hated
her. Goddess, we're all just Kali's puppets, aren't we? We can't see the strings, but Kali is
sure as hell pulling 'em, and every fucking chance she gets, too!

Morrigan inwardly cheered as Rhiannon seemed to change her mind, lifting her gaze from the
floor, giving Kali a defiant glare. "I'll only go with you to take down Ami-Mercury. No one
else."

If you won't give me anything, not even a crumb, I won't give you anything, either.

Kali seemed about to pull some more strings, but then relented. "Very well," she said, "I'll go
capture Makoto-Jupiter myself." To emphasize her point, she withdrew a hidden pistol and
cocked it, then put it back where she'd found it. Merely seconds after that, she stalked from
the room, off to wreak hell on one Jupiter senshi, no doubt. Just a matter of minutes ago,
Morrigan would have followed the silver-haired girl, begging to help, to do anything, but she
wouldn't hand the strings to Kali now.

She hesitantly approached the still red Rhiannon, who had actually starting breathing heavy
during the confrontation. "Um... Rhiannon?" she ventured.

The girl who wasn't that far from a foot shorter than her whirled around, murder on her face,
and she was the one in control. "What?" she snarled, and if Morrigan's wasn't imagining
things, there must have surely been a slight red glow around her.

Morrigan took a step back. "Nothing," she muttered. "God." Rhiannon turned her back on her
and ignored her after that. Morrigan watched Rhiannon disappear... into Kali's room. There, she
sent a warning glare at Morrigan and slammed the door and locked it shut.

Once again, Morrigan was totally bored. Maybe I should enroll in school, she pondered. Cause
I'm always sitting around doing nothing while either Kali or Rhiannon or both are off
somewhere being fabulous. It's getting OLD, she thought violently.

Suddenly an idea struck her. Maybe she could read. Rhiannon might have some books, and
she was certain that Kali would. Her old self had never read, but... mental shrug. Morrigan
ventured a glance at the still-freaky Rhiannon, still all sniffing and stuff, then checked out
Kali's room, where she found a multitude of books. The trouble was, they were all kind of
messed up. A lot of them were in foreign languages, like Japanese, and Latin. The majority of
the ones she would actually have been able to understand were all ancient and stuffy and
Britishy. Did Kali have NO life? What kind of girl read this kind of thing?

What kind of a girl is a killer, dear Morrigan?

She made a face, then picked out Jane Eyre as the best prospect. It was either that or
Dante's Inferno. Going back to the main room, she settled down in a rather uncomfortable
chair that Kali had acquired. It was amazing, though, how when you lived in a place, even if
it was an abandoned factory (turned hideout for murderers of magical girls) it still began to
seem like home.

She hadn't gotten very far in Jane Eyre (Goddess, that girl was stomped on by just about
everyone) before Kali returned. She carried a body, much like Rhiannon had, only with quite a
bit more difficulty. Kali wasn't physically enhanced, despite all her intelligence. The girl Kali
carried was obviously much bigger than Minako, too, and looked at least the size of her
captor. Captive-girl had long dark hair in a ponytail, green eyes, pale skin. Not nearly as
pretty as Minako, but she was clearly a fighter, too. This must be Makoto, Sailor Jupiter.

Rhiannon nodded to Kali in recognition. Kali's victory had definitely restored her to her former
place- obedient girl. She did, however, smirk at something. Morrigan didn't notice it until
Rhiannon flat out pointed and asked how it had happened. The detransformed Sailor Jupiter's
dark brown pants were coated with blood, and there was a bullet hole through the left thigh.
Morrigan didn't see how Rhiannon's eyes lingered a bit longer than necessary there.

Kali didn't comment on it, but ordered, "Rhiannon, take the body, bind it next to Minako-Venus."

Rhiannon complied, magically taking Makoto away from Kali and entering the holding room
with the Jupiter senshi in her grasp. This time, Morrigan didn't follow, but watched Kali. Kali's
gloves were both soaked through in blood, which Morrigan was pretty sure was Makoto's,
judging by the wound Mako had sported. The silver-blonde girl also had several bruises
marring her perfect face. Quite the makings of a black eye were there too, which would look
really funny on Kali.

Kali wouldn't have fought fair in a million years, Morrigan grudgingly acknowledged. But at
least Makoto had still left a little reminder of her freedom. The girl was probably a physical
fighter like her. Idly, she wondered what the outcome of a fight between them would come
out like, but Makoto's dark brown ponytail kept getting replaced with a raven-colored mane,
and green eyes turning violet and fiery in her mind, so she returned to her book, shuddering
slightly.

Kali disappeared into her room, and returned wearing clean gloves. Rhiannon emerged, having
apparently imprisoned Mako satisfactorily, and this time no one asked if she was sure of her
job. The two of them exchanged a glance, looked her reading, and then Kali broke the
silence.

"In addition to bringing our hostage, I brought dinner," she announced, and to punctuate
that, she walked over to a corner near the door and pulled several bags. "Chinese take out."
She placed the food on a dinner table set up, which looked particularly bizarre in their
surroundings. Rhiannon grinned at Kali, all hostility between them apparently gone, and
thanked her for the food. Kali and Rhiannon both sat themselves at the table and unloaded
the food. Rhiannon's eyes stayed on Kali, watching the girl when Kali wasn't looking.

After a moment of hesitation, Morrigan joined them. Kali had apparently either bought or
stolen some paper plates, and the three of them served themselves fried rice, wontons, and
egg foo young. While she chowed down, if Morrigan closed her eyes, she could picture
herself back with her old family, a million years ago, eating with them. The differences were
there, though. The chair felt different underneath her form, the table unusually cold on her
wrists. Conspicuous in her absence were the little brother making jokes, the pious grace
before eating (as if THEY'D ever do that), and the parents commenting on how she should
eat vegetables.

Still, it was a nice moment. Just sitting there eating with them, watching Kali lick sweet and
sour sauce off her chin, watching Rhiannon slurping her hot and sour soup, they seemed
more human. They were reachable, touchable, and could be her friends, even. It was a rare
moment of camaderie between them, Morrigan felt, doing something normal instead of
magical and strange. She was sorry when it was over, and it wasn't because of not being
able to eat any more food. They disposed their dishes in a trash bag, stashed the various
leftovers in their refrigerator (how had Kali gotten all this stuff, anyway?) It felt so surreal,
but so, so good.

Kali informed them that it had already been dark out when she was returning. She didn't
mention her captive she'd had. She suggested they go to bed early to get ready for their
plans tomorrow. Did Kali and Rhiannon both know the plans and not her, Morrigan wondered,
or was Rhiannon clueless too? Kali being clueless never occurred to her. How could it have?

Rhiannon agreed to Kali's suggestion, so Morrigan went along with the two of them. Again,
Morrigan felt the surrealism of it all as Kali switched off all the lights, like a camp counselor.
Kali, Rhiannon, and Morrigan all went to their Kali-sponsored beds. Morrigan was going to
change into pajamas or whatever, but then she realized both Kali and Rhiannon were sleeping
in their clothes. It made sense. Rhiannon didn't care how she looked, Morrigan was sure of
that at least, but more to the point, being dressed meant being ready.

Morrigan slept in her clothes. She had done it for the past few nights, anyway, so she was
getting used to it.

It took her a while to get to sleep. She knew she was imagining it, but she could hear
Makoto and Minako breathe in the other room, feel the scared pounding of their hearts.
Morrigan was torn between the desire to let them loose, and the desire to stand watch over
the two girls, so they couldn't murder them in their sleep. But that was silly, she told herself.
Rhiannon's method made them a literal part of the wall. Kali and Rhiannon possessed Jupiter
and Venus' henshin pens, respectively, so neither of them had any of their magic. Sleep,
dammit, she yelled inwardly.

And she did, uneasily, a strange light sleep. And she dreamed. She had dreamed frequently
before her transformation, though she had rarely remembered any of her nonviolent dreams.
She had dreamed post-transformation before now. This was different, though.

Morrigan found herself at a place she didn't recognize, but it struck her like a lightning bolt.
Fire before her, not orange-yellow-red and pure like Rhiannon's kind, but a bed of coals, deep
and promising heat and danger. Surrounding the coals were tongues of flame, so severe they
were almost completely blue. They weren't permanent features, but leaped up and down
sporadically, like an indecisive crown.

She realized after a harrowing second that she was staring at a campfire. It was very dark
around her, but the dim outlines of picnic tables and dome tents were just barely apparent.
More pressing, though, were the people, only dim, blurry figures, silhouetted by the fire they
surrounded. The sky was that of summer, and clear as day, Vega in particular sticking out
among the other stars. Cassiopeia in her throne loomed above her, dominating all the other
constellations, its luminance improbable, considering the torrent of hissing, stinking smoke
that saturated the air.

It began with no warning. Cassiopeia, already ungodly bright, seemed to increase its
brightness hundreds of times, and the sky around her began to flash, pulsing like strobe
lights from another world. The world pulsed to that alien rhythm, and then as if cued the
figures started forward. As they drew closer to her and the fire with her, their identities
became suddenly, tremblingly clear. They all had the face of the man who had raped her.

They reached out and grabbed her with bony skeleton hands, and there was no time to
react or even think before they hurled her into the blaze. The little cutie blue tongues flared
up and turned to killers, and with dim, mindless detachment her mind received her body's
cries of amazement. It wasn't hot like fire should be, but cold, wonderful sleek thin ice,
crawling into her body like a cancer, a revelation. She at once could feel the Goddess pulsing
in her like She never had before, pulsing to Cassiopeia's grotesque sky-rhythm. The men
drew back, afraid of what they had unleashed upon themselves. That's right, every single
pore of her body screamed, fear me!

She opened her eyes slowly, power running off her in waves of darkness, and the men before
her literally turned to dust. But three of the many remained intact, and empty eyes fixed
upon the frowning, bemused Morrigan, one of them stepped forward.

She felt every single happy thought she had ever had stripped from her as the face he wore
was revealed to be only a mask. Felt all the walls she had built around the shame of being
violated crash and burn around her as Kali Minervo's contemptuously beautiful face was
revealed like a black enchantment.

"You know this can't be." Kali's deadly-frozen voice had a silky beauty as it echoed in the
night. "It can't be you." Kali made a wide, sweeping gesture, and the two other skeleton's
faces melted into Rhiannon's and Rei's. "It could NEVER have BEEN you."

Morrigan was helpless as the two fire-girls stepped forward, and fell to her knees in defeat
as every single grain of power, every hint of the Goddess was stripped from her, leaving her
barren, a pile of ashes. But it didn't stop there. Grinning identical monster-smirks at her,
Rhiannon and Rei gave identical indifferent gestures, and then everything changed from the
cold fire to the burning blaze of Hell. The smoke, in an apparently delayed reaction, began to
rise up and choke the life from her.

Rhiannon and Rei cackled as they watched, living evil-witch cliches, hands creeping sensually
up each other's bodies, united in, into the blaze. Kali was silent, though her eyes were
glittering with little-girlish glee... Goddess, a little girl...

"Wake up."

Morrigan screamed, high and piercing. Rhiannon looked annoyed and rolled her eyes. At that
moment, the small redhead could have been any teenage girl, annoyed at some stupid thing
one of her parents had said or done.

"What's wrong with you, Warrior?" Morrigan didn't like the way Rhiannon said Warrior. It had
been a far cry from a term of respect; rather, it had sounded more like a taunt.

"I'm fine," Morrigan snapped, silently adding "bitch" to the end of the sentence.

"You had better be," Rhiannon announced, her entire demeanor broadcasting boredom with
this encounter. "You'd better be," she repeated. "Because Kali-sama's orders have changed. She's
going to include you in our plan now."

Morrigan struggled to conceal her excitement and fear. "What is she having me do,
Rhiannon?" she asked, trying to keep her tone casual.

Rhiannon gave her the most dazzling grin someone as blatantly unattractive as she was
could. "Congratulations. Kali-sama's having you kill Hino Rei. The Mars Senshi."
6. Choices
How do you do dress to go kill someone?

It was a legitimate question for sure, and worth much consideration. In fact, Morrigan still
hadn't thought of a clear answer to it. Well, she pondered, she supposed it depended on
who you were, what you looked like, and what kind of murder you were going to try to
accomplish.

Goddess, this was insane! Inwardly scowling at her own pathetic denial, the tall girl grabbed
a pair of black jeans and shoved them on. A tight black tank top followed. If she was going
to go- goddess, kill someone- she might as well be hot. That was the old popular her
speaking, not the newly self-conscious, cynical her. But what the hell. Embrace the popular,
she told herself, smirking. It wasn't like there was anyone else to draw from. Kali and
Rhiannon had been off in parts unknown when she woke, leaving her only with her orders.

She was gonna die. She was gonna go to the Mars Senshi, try to kill her, fail miserably, and
be burned alive. Yeah, she was gonna be taken out. But if she was gonna be taken out, she
would be taken out hot. If she was going to die, she'd die with some semblance to Morrigan
Cortez, instead of this new twisted warrior.

Why was she being so negative? Kali's sensible words about offense and henshin pens filled
her head in a logical muddle. Hino Rei. Priestess at a Shinto temple called the Hikawa Shrine.
Attended a private girl's school. Catholic. Wishing she could find the blatant irony funny,
Morrigan grabbed a long leather coat which she hadn't even known was there. Suddenly, she
gazed down at herself, and burst into hysterical, self-conscious giggles. Was she trying to
look like someone from the Matrix, or what?

Okay. Weapons. Weapons were always of the good, right? She loaded herself down with her
collection. She concealed her knives inside her jacket. Then, she glanced dubiously at the
swords, axes, throwing stars, and other such incredibly antique contraptions that still
remained. How would she ever find use for those? A gun would be most useful, and she knew
for a fact that Kali owned multiple guns, and Rhiannon probably did too, but she had no idea
how to use one. She picked up an axe, tossed it around a little. She liked its heft.

Whatever. Useless, maybe, but cool. She stashed it in her jacket- had Kali gotten it for
concealing weapons, because it sure did the job well- and added a katana, too. Grinning, she
launched into an unabashedly hokey Kung Fu stance from the Karate Kid and gave a few
karate whoops just for good measure. Goddess, she was going out to KILL someone-

Hey, why was she killing Rei, anyway? Makoto and Minako were being kept alive.

Yeah, as hostages. But two hostages was probably enough. A body, all bloody, would disturb
the Messiah much more. And she could see the logic in sending her and not Rhiannon or Kali.
Kali would do it cleanly, a bullet to the head. Rhiannon would fry her victim with her magick.
But she, Morrigan, Warrior of the Goddess, she could be expected to do it bloodily.

Would she be considered a complete wuss if she threw up right then and there? Yeah, she
decided, throwing up would not be a smart move. Especially if she got any barf on her new
assassin-chic outfit.

She wondered. After Rhiannon dropped the bombshell, Kali had come in too, offered a few
meaningless words and phrases which gave no comfort. They really hadn't been intended to.
She wondered, though. After her orders had been given to her, Rhiannon had watched her
like a hawk. Morrigan knew that the little bitch had seen her indecision, seen how she
flinched at the thought of killing anyone again. Rhiannon had watched it, and filed it to use
against her.

Kali, though. It had seemed like Kali hadn't noticed a thing. Leader-girl had almost seemed to
take her for granted, and take Rei as already dead. Had Kali been more aloof, more
contemplative than Rhiannon that night? That was the only thing Morrigan could think of.
Because Kali was painfully smarter than her coconspirator.

Smarts didn't really have that much to do with it, she realized. Despite all the blonde girl's
super-intelligence, Kali didn't know her as well as Rhiannon did. That made Rhiannon much
more dangerous to her personally than Kali could ever be.

It took her at least fifteen minutes to find the exit to their damn hideout. In the movies, the
villains always had better hideouts than their own, which was totally lame. Because that's
what they were, going after the Messiah or Savior or whatever and her guardians. Villains.

She located a map, and painstakingly navigated the streets of Tokyo with it. She attracted
some weird looks. She was dressed quite conspicuously, she knew, and would have drawn
stares in American streets, and this was Japan. And she towered over pretty much
everybody else. Why should I care, she told herself firmly. Hell, stares are good, remember?
Stares mean you're... special.

TA Private Catholic Girls School. Something like that. She stood at the gates of it. School
had undoubtedly started hours ago. Where would Rei be? The only place that looked like the
public could enter was the chapel. When she walked in, no one paid much attention to her.
It looked like a service was going on, because there was a large amount of people there,
though none of them wore schoolgirl uniforms. They were lining up to go to confession.

Morrigan didn't know why, but something pulled her to join the line of pious churchgoers. She
had to wait for a long time- she didn't know how long, she didn't have a watch- before it
was her turn. By then almost all the people had settled back in their seats. When she
plopped herself down in the confession box (whatever it was called) the small priest within
gave her a weird look, but rattled off some Japanese phrase to her. She didn't speak
Japanese, not a word, so she simply gave him an odd look, then began to- confess.

"Okay. I'm Morrigan, but you didn't really need to know that, did you? I'm supposed to tell
you my sins, and you're supposed to assign me penance or some other crap, right? I'm sorry,
I'm kind of new at this. Back when I actually attended church, my family was Protestant."
She didn't wait for the little holy man to respond, but continued her monologue.

"So, um, anyway. My sins. They're kind of nasty. To start off with the little stuff, I've never
really attended church regularly, and that can't be good. And I have lied a lot. In the past.
Um, and I guess my friends and I shoplifting is a sin, but we only did it for thrills once or
twice, and we never got caught, so it's kinda like it never happened. Um... before I continue
the small stuff, I might as well get the biggie over with. I've killed two guys. I'm actually
going out to kill another person right now." She snuck a glance at the priest. He didn't look
too disturbed. Did he usually get confessions of this caliber?

"Um, laziness, I guess. Maybe gluttony. I'm not sure. Oh, I'm not a virgin, though that totally
isn't my fault. Violence, and yeah, it's aside from the whole killing guys thing. Plotting to kill
the Messiah, though I'm pretty sure the title Messiah is meant just in the whole Chosen One
sense, not the whole biblical revelations thing. So I guess that, um, I'm really unclean. And if
I follow my orders, that's like, lots more sin and stuff. But, on the bright side, even though I
have killed two guys, and intend to kill more, I have never used drugs, and you don't
understand a word of English, do you?"

Nope. Guessed not. Morrigan scowled, got up and walked straight out of the church, not
caring if she was a disturbance. Suddenly an idea struck her. What if the Japanese school
year was different from the American one? After a brief conversation with the first
English-speaker she could find, she realized that school was currently out. Wow, she was
such a dangerous assassin.

***

She had narrowed the places Rei would be down to her shrine, the mall, or one of her friends'
house. She waited, though. She wasn't stalling for time. It was just that she needed to
catch Rei alone to be able to carry out the whole killing-her plan, and that she couldn't take
her down in a public place, either.

Oh yeah. She was stalling, but hell, she didn't wanna die. And she didn't wanna kill a girl
either. But maybe she could kill Rei. Rei of the screeching crows and the scary huge fire and
the death portents. Yeah. She'd walk away, leaving the raven-haired girl's dead body on the
steps of her shrine for Mizuno Ami and Tsukino Usagi to find. She'd walk away unharmed
excepting the fire girl's blood on her hands, walk back to Rhiannon and Kali and give a
respectful little report of how she had snuck up on the girl, detransformed, snuck up behind
her and before Rei could react, plunged the knife through her chest.

But she would have to wait. Wait until night when Rei would be home, and without the
Mercury Senshi and the Messiah with her. They'd be cautious, because of their two friends'
disappearance, but not cautious enough. She'd slip into Rei's room when she and whatever
family she had were all sleeping peacefully, and do what she had came for.

The sun was high in the sky, and she realized that her stomach was growling. She decided
to go get some lunch. She walked a few blocks from the girl's school, then scanned the
restaurants. She was instantly put off by all the sushi and raw seafood places. She finally
settled on a place which seemed to offer American-style food. She entered the place,
walked up to the counter, ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and brooded.

***

Fingering the new money in her pockets, Rhiannon turned to Kali. "So what do you think
Morrigan's doing right now?"

Kali's face was a stone mask. "Doing what we ordered her to."

Rhiannon pouted. Why didn't Kali see? Why didn't Kali see Morrigan's remaining squeamishness,
or the way Morrigan twitched every time Rei's name was said? It was so apparent.

How could Kali have so much faith, and so much blindness? Granted, Rhiannon's judgment
might have been tainted by the fact she hated Morrigan and wanted her to roast in Hell,
but... Wasn't Kali worried at all? How could the cool blonde's attention truly be fixed on here?
The Goddess knew Rhiannon wasn't thinking of anything but a certain raven-haired priestess
and the bitter Hispanic girl sent to kill her. But Kali's attention seemed firmly fixed on their
activities, which were practically a delightful garden party in comparison. Why?

Rhiannon was suddenly struck with a virtual epiphany. What if she was the blind one, she
was the one who didn't see something? Maybe Kali understood something she didn't. Of
course. Kali was never wrong, never vulnerable. Kali was always in control of everything.

She was lucky, just to be here with Kali-sama, without Morrigan or anyone. She was... was...

Yeah. Lucky.

***

All the men's attention turned toward her when she entered the low-scale bar. Despite it
being the middle of the day, the place was pretty well packed with the no-doubt regular
lowlifes who drunk themselves into oblivion here. She was the only woman, and she knew
she still had it from how they hungrily eyed her, especially when she removed her coat.

She sat down at the counter, much as she had at the lunch place, only this was different,
already more exciting. She ordered a Coke, smirking at the irony of it all. Probably it was that
naive, innocent choice that caused some of the guys to finally approach her. Ripe pickings,
huh? She wasn't the tiniest bit afraid of them, not the way she feared Kali, certainly not the
way she feared Rei or Rhiannon. It was invigorating.

Two of the guys took the stools surrounding her, and the rest hovered behind. She gave
them a bright smile, despite the sudden slide show of images the number of two guys caused
her mind to emit. Encouraged, the first guy slid a little closer to her and said a honey-coated
Japanese phrase.

She gave him her most innocent look. "I no speak Japanese."

The gang of guys surrounding her sure wouldn't speak English, she thought. She was
surprised when the second guy repeated the phrase in her language. "What's your name,
sweetie?"

She pointed to herself, still trying to seem as innocent as possible. On a whim, she dubbed
herself Sally.

"Well, Sally," the guy leered at her rather predictably, "How you feel about little party with
me and my friends here?"

She fought the urge to hit him right then. "What kind of party do you mean, mister?"

To answer her, one of the cronies grabbed her butt. She pushed his hand aside, very calmly.
"No thank you."

The men scowled. The leader signaled to his cronies, then leaned in closer to her. "Yes," he
said, enunciating the word very clearly. Morrigan winced, trying to make herself look little
and frightened. She was no actress, but she managed to add a very convincing tremble.

The guys formed a circle around her, and what they intended to do should have filled her
heart with fear, especially because none of the other patrons seemed to care about it,
especially because of her previous experiences. But instead she felt sick, sick excitement.

Leader boy reached a wrinkled Japanese hand towards her, firmly grabbing her arm. Smirking
challengingly, she pulled her arm out of his grasp effortlessly, kneed him in the groin, and
flipped him to the ground. For a second his minions gaped in shock, then they charged her.

This was what she was made for, she realized, as black combat boots tore into nose and
stomach and balls. She loved the sound of her fists contacting flesh, loved the expression of
shock on their faces at her strength, loved the sound they made as they crumpled to the
ground.

She shrieked and twirled and died beautiful deaths and she was an inhuman blur, tearing into
the men, because in this violence, she could equal the other two Enchanted Senshi, be Kali,
be Rhiannon, not be pathetic, not be human.

It was beautiful, it was terrible as the last of the gang crumbled at her feet. It was what she
was made for as the patrons of the bar, the bartender, all gaped at her because they could
see. "God, oh god. You- you can't be human," the English speaker, who was remarkably still
capable of speech, choked out. "What are you?"

"Lucky day, boys," Morrigan said wickedly calmly, casually kicking in the ribs of one of the
men on the ground. She didn't care that only one of the men could understand what she was
saying. They got the message in her smirk and swagger. "Today, you got something better."

***

Rhiannon turned to Kali, an "I wonder what Morrigan is doing?" lingering on her lips. Then she
erased it, and turned back to the movie they were watching, wondering what was going on
as the hero yelled "aishiteru" at the departing heroine.

"Good movie," she stated, watching her companion stuff grains of popcorn in her mouth as
she stared at the screen, absorbed. Kali nodded, her attention fixed on the show. Rhiannon
flinched a bit. Watching Kali like this wasn't exactly disturbing, but it was strange, to say the
very least.

What was she doing here, anyway? She had no idea what this movie was about at all. Like
Morrigan, she didn't speak a single word of Japanese.

***

Darkness had fallen, remarkably quickly. Where had the day gone, Morrigan wondered, her
stalling time? Darkness meant that Rei would be home. Darkness meant that it was time to
fulfill Kali's orders.

It took her a pretty long time to reach the Hikawa Shrine, especially because she wasn't
rushing. She could have been there in minutes if she had ran, given it her all. But why would
she have ever wanted to?

The shrine's familiar entryway loomed above her, the character for fire sticking out- that was
her imagination, of course. There was no one outside, and the unsteady chorus of crickets
echoed in her ears. Morrigan was hungry, but that wasn't an excuse. No more stalling.

Step. Another step. Another step. Three steps forward. Progress, right? And progress was
good. Progress towards her goal, because she was following orders, and that's what she did,
that's what she had to do. Following orders because she was evil, she was corrupted, she
was a villain. Step. Another step.

Screw this. Morrigan practically ran up to the door of the house, destroyed the lock with one
strong sweep of her hand. She walked down the dark hallway, fear and the feeling of how
decisive this moment was making her senses go haywire. Her shadow was magnified
thousands of times in height, heartbeat millions of times magnified. Why wasn't Rei rushing
out to deal with the danger? Surely she could hear it.

The door marked Rei loomed before her. A banshee's wail filled her head, and she clutched it,
then ignored it. Every nerve in her body was jumping up and down. What was happening to
her?

She reached forward with a trembling hand to quietly push the door open, then, fuck all,
drew back her foot and broke the door down.

***

Sitting in their hideout just like the night before, once again chowing down on Chinese
takeout, Rhiannon reached for a piece of deep-fried chicken with her plastic fork, then
suddenly dropped the utensil, eyes widening. Kali didn't turn to investigate the slight sound
she had made, and indeed seemed completely unmoved, completely oblivious to what her
companion had just realized.

"Goddess," Rhiannon whispered, spell struck. "It's finally happening."

***

Rei wasn't alone. The Mizuno girl and the Messiah were sitting with her, discussing something
with worried expressions. No doubt they were talking about Minako and Makoto's
disappearances. On closer inspection, two cats, black and white, both with crescent moons
on their foreheads, were sitting with them apparently listening to Ami's long speech on the
situation. With dull detachment, she noticed her katana pendant glow, and she could
understand the Japanese they were speaking.

Morrigan tensed. They were too absorbed in their discussion to have noticed the door open.
Shaking fully by now, she reached into her coat.

She couldn't do this. She could not do this. This wasn't her being stupid, or weak, or any of
that... This wasn't about how she was scared of Rei, or anything petty like that. She
couldn't do this, couldn't be bad, couldn't be a villain. This wasn't weakness, this was her,
making a choice.

Two loud thunks sounded, and the three girls and two cats all gaped as two pens were
placed on the table, one gold, one green. Morrigan withdrew her hand from the Venus and
Jupiter henshin pens she had placed there, and turned her face to the surprised soldiers
there.

"My name is Morrigan, and I know what happened to the Jupiter and Venus senshi."
Part III

Blood
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night,
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Through the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light.
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night.
7. Innocence
It was probably deep night by now. Kali was sitting, reading a book calmly. Rhiannon was
pacing, threatening to wear down even the strong steel floor they were on. Morrigan wasn't
back. Morrigan wasn't back. Morrigan wasn't-

"I think we should go to sleep now, save up our strength for an offensive." Kali's voice cut
into her mantra, and Rhiannon blinked. Her mind took a moment to process what Kali had
said, then she visibly flinched.

"Kali," Rhiannon said with a long-suffering air, "Morrigan isn't back."

Did Kali smirk, or was that just Rhiannon's imagination? "I actually had noticed that." She
shifted on her throne-like seat, as if getting slightly more interested in the peasants below.

"So we should wait for her to come back," Rhiannon said, trying to keep calm. God, what was
Kali's problem? Was she being so blind deliberately? "We shouldn't call it a night before
Morrigan is back here, with confirmation that Rei's dead."

"Rhiannon." Kali got up off the throne and crossed toward the other girl. She laid a hand on
Rhiannon's shoulder. "Is there anything you wish to tell me? Any concerns you wish to
express?"

This was logically Rhiannon's chance to express all her fears about Morrigan turning. But she
found her mouth sealed shut. She bit her lip, feeling an unflattering shade of red creep onto
her face. Why couldn't she bring herself to say it? Goddess? "Nothing," she mumbled. "You're
right. You can go sleep. I'll guard the prisoners."

Kali turned her razor-sharp gaze onto Rhiannon, and the smaller girl squirmed, feeling all her
mental barriers violated, the contents of her mind laid out to see. Then Kali nodded, turned,
and made her way towards her room.

When Kali was gone, Rhiannon realized that she had been breathing hard. Still panting, she
focused her mind on Morrigan. If she wasn't back, she'd probably turned. And either Kali
didn't know or didn't care.

She closed her eyes (Goddess?) and reached out. Grinning evilly, she poured her mind out,
and floated out of their hideout, past dark streets and trees, and into the Hikawa Shrine.

***

They had gaped at Morrigan for a while, then both Rei and Ami had drawn out their henshin
pens and began to shout out different phrases. She had quickly stopped them, not out of
any concern for them, but for her own personal safety.

Feeling a need to validate her claim of knowing Minako and Makoto's fate, she began to tell
them. "Your friend Minako, Sailor Venus, was the first one taken. She was attacked,
transformed into Venus, and was magically overwhelmed. As far as I know, she's physically
unharmed. Makoto, Sailor Jupiter, was the next one taken. I'm not sure if she was able to
transform, but she was shot in the leg and knocked unconscious." It all poured out of her, in a
stupid, incoherent wave, and she was left naked before them, insufficient, having given all she
had ever had to give. To Kali.

Rei and Usagi both looked confused, but Ami, the Mercury Senshi, was already looking up at
her with intelligence, reminding her of Kali. It was quite unnerving.

"How exactly do you know all this? What was your role in these proceedings?" Morrigan blinked,
then chose to continue as if she hadn't heard the blue-haired girl.

"They are being held in an abandoned factory. Their captors are two girls, both human.
Supposedly, they're both senshi, like you three are. The one who took Minako is named Rhiannon.
She has various strong magics. The one who took Makoto is named Kali. Kali's extremely
intelligent, but as far as I know has no magic, but uses guns."

"You were working with them," Ami announced. Morrigan winced at the truth being revealed
so suddenly. "That's the only way you could have known all that. Why are you telling us
this?"

Usagi had been completely motionless throughout all of this. She only then entered the
discussion, eyes filling with tears. "So Mako-chan, Minako-chan... they're both okay?"

Morrigan smiled at the Messiah, instantly liking her. "Yeah, they're fine." She couldn't help
but grin at Usagi's sudden joy.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Rei asked, violet eyes narrowing. "I recognize you.
You're the evil girl who desecrated the temple." Ami and Usagi stared at Morrigan.

"I'm sorry about that," Morrigan said uncomfortably. "I didn't know." None of the girls were
looking particularly friendly now. "And, and, I'll prove you can trust me." One by one, she
removed the weapons she had stowed her coat and placed them on the table.

Rei snorted. "Oh yeah, that's really gonna make us trust you. Walking arsenal girl."

Usagi watched, interested, as Morrigan's unnatural eyes flashed with fear, and she moved a
few steps back. "Morrigan," she asked thoughtfully, "Why are you afraid of Rei?"

Everyone was staring at Morrigan openly. "It's nothing important," she muttered. "What is
important, though, is that you know what Rhiannon and Kali look like. They're both really
distinctive. Rhiannon's about as tall as Rei here, medium-length wavy red hair, really pale
skin, eyes like mine. Kali's taller than Rhiannon, normal skin, eyes like mine, long silver-blonde
hair."

"That's good to know," Rei said, still looking at Morrigan with a combination of contempt and
fear.

"What would be better to know, though," Ami cut in, "Would be what exactly your two
friends-"

"They're not my friends!" Morrigan interrupted hotly.

"This Rhiannon and Kali want. Why exactly they're doing this."

Morrigan bit her lip and shot a quick, doubtful glance at Usagi before speaking. "I'm not sure I
should say this with Usagi in the room-"

"We're not leaving her alone," the black cat said hotly, then flushed at having revealed its
ability to speak. Morrigan was too preoccupied to care.

"Fine, then. The three of us are supposedly called the Enchanted Senshi, and we're servants
to some Goddess. Rhiannon is the Vessel, and we called down the Goddess through her, who
told us-"

"How did you know it was really the Goddess in there?" Rei interrupted, eyes narrowed. "How
do you know that this Rhiannon wasn't faking it to influence you and Kali?"

"I could tell, okay?" Morrigan groaned in frustration. THAT was what she found questionable and
strange in her story?

"The Goddess told us to kill the Messiah, which is supposedly her." She pointed to Usagi.

Instantly, Rei stepped in front of Usagi to shield her from Morrigan. "We won't let you hurt
her!"

Overprotective much?

"I don't want to!" Morrigan shouted, trying, somehow, to make herself heard. "That's why I'm
here! Kali's strategy, which she and Rhiannon are using, is to take you senshi by surprise
before you can transform, then knock you out and take your henshin pens away. They took Minako
and Makoto away to weaken the Messiah's guard, and they ordered me to kill you, Rei." She winced
at having to say this. "Supposedly they were going to take you all down, then kill Usagi to bring
the Goddess down."

"Then why would they take Minako and Makoto captive, instead of killing them?" Ami asked,
brow furrowing.

"I don't really know," Morrigan confessed. "Maybe if they had trouble taking down or finding
any of the three of you they could use Minako and Makoto to threaten you into submission.
Or they could also use them to threaten you into submission if you found them and launched
an offensive."

"Then maybe we should launch an offensive," Rei said, eyes glinting with dark promises.

Ami sighed. "Do you think they know by now, Morrigan? That you turned to our side, and therefore
we know their identities and where they're hiding? Not to mention that Rei's still alive."

"I don't know," Morrigan blinked, considering. "Actually, they probably don't. Rhiannon suspects
something, though." She remembered the way the little snake had looked at her.

"An offensive might be wise, then," Ami said decisively, "while we still have the advantage."

"If we strike now, wouldn't they hurt Minako and Makoto?" Usagi asked, looking worried. Morrigan
sighed. Even though she didn't think much of this so-called Messiah as a fighter or strategist,
the girl had a point.

"They can do that at any time, anyway," Rei said tartly.

"No," Morrigan announced, which caused everyone to turn and stare at her. "I don't think an
offensive would work. Like Usagi said, it's possible they might kill your friends if we outright
attack. And are you three comfortable with killing humans?"

Ami looked perplexed at this, truly not understanding any such concept. Rei was thoughtful,
eyes darkening, gazing down at her hands.

Usagi made a face and answered within seconds. "No, we're not," she said firmly, eyes sweeping
over Ami and Rei.

Bad news, that. "Rhiannon and Kali both are," Morrigan sighed. As if that needed announcing by
now. "Also, I have no idea how magically strong Rhiannon is, but with the Goddess behind her, we
have no idea how to predict what exactly she can do." She'd certainly kicked Morrigan's ass
whenever they'd had quick, angry encounters early in her time as a senshi.

"What are you suggesting, then?" Ami asked. Rei and Usagi and the cats at their sides waited with
bated breath for the declaration of their fate.

"We can't just stay here," Morrigan pointed out, unsure but determined not to show it. "They
know we're here, and sooner or later, Rhiannon will have Kali convinced I'm a traitor. The only
thing I can think of to do is hide."

"I hate the idea that we're helpless against them," Rei said, glaring at her new ally.

"No, we aren't," Morrigan countered. "But we are weaker than they are, for the moment, and
so we logically have to retreat." Shut up, Hino Rei. This is hard enough without you influencing
the Messiah. If you turn her against me... you'll go the way of Bobby and Jason.

"Where can we hide, then?" Usagi questioned.

"I'm sure I can find some hotel or something we can run to. Somewhere far away from
Tokyo," Ami said. "But we're going to need money for that."

"I have several ten thousand yen bills here," Morrigan volunteered. "I filled my wallet with
Kali's money. I have no idea where she gets it, but? Do I care?" She shrugged. "The money's not
much, but it's something."

"What are they going to do about their families?" the black cat asked. "They'll worry if they
just disappear. They'd probably call the police, and that's the last thing we would need."

"You three are probably going to have to tell them," the white cat addressed the Inners. "It
seems like that's the only way."

"We'll go one by one," Ami said. "It probably would be better if we didn't split up."

Everyone nodded. Morrigan thought what an odd crew it was. Three teenage girls who
secretly fought evil, two talking cats, and... her. Rei quickly packed a duffle bag, then they
exited the room.

Rei's grandfather and the man called Yuuchirou were sitting together, discussing a little bit of
nothing. Morrigan made an ahem noise, and they turned. Rei stepped forward and began to explain.
"So see, I'm Sailor Mars," she finished, looking distressed. Usagi put a hand on Rei's shoulder.

"Rei-chan..." she whispered.

Rei's grandfather was unchanging. Yuuchirou, however, looked as if struck. "Huh?" he blinked.

"Rei, it might be good if you transformed," Morrigan said, feeling the fear she'd had towards
the fire girl dissipating. Why, she was nothing. Look at how weak this made her. She still hadn't
discarded the things precious to her. Not like Morrigan had.

Rei screamed out "Mars Crystal Power!" and seconds later, she was Sailor Mars. Yuuchirou
face-faulted and let out a loud, high scream. The now Sailor Mars gave him a sympathetic
look, then turned to her grandfather. "Why aren't you surprised?"

"You really thought I didn't know?" the little old man said gently. "I could sense it. I always
knew you had a higher destiny." Morrigan watched, awkwardly, as Mars embraced her
grandfather, seeming on the verge of tears.

"Why are you telling us now?" he asked, showing rare wisdom and seriousness. Rei had now
burst into silent sobbing, and was backed against the wall, out of the picture.

"Usagi and Ami are Moon and Mercury," Morrigan told him, throwing all sort of caution to the
winds. "A dangerous enemy is after them, and they have to go into hiding."

Rei's grandfather nodded. "Alright. I understand." He waddled over to his granddaughter, still
in the form of a powerful warrior. "Be careful, Rei."

Yuuchirou also approached her. "I hope you'll be okay," he muttered, red with
embarrassment. "Please- please come back."

Rei smiled at him. "I'll try to. Goodbye." She turned to her fellow senshi, the cats, and
Morrigan. "Let's go."

Come on, Hino Rei. Throw it all away, if you have the strength. See what it's like to be free of
that which constrains you.

That... which constrains you...

Rei detransformed simply to make herself less conspicuous. They went to Ami's apartment
next. When Ami revealed herself, her mother was obviously shocked and a bit freaked out.
But Ms. Mizuno, the intelligent doctor, coolly accepted it, and even helped Ami pack her bag.
She said goodbye to her daughter, Sailor Mercury, with a hint of skepticism, but with sure
love.

Usagi's family was very different. Her father was immediately protective, worrying about her
vaguely described enemy. Her mother marveled at her accomplishments and the secret
strength her klutzy daughter had really held, but worried just as much as her husband.
Shingo, her brother, was almost comic in his wide-eyed astonishment, then eager embracing
of the idea. He didn't really understand the danger. He just wanted a superhero sister.

Her father and mother were reluctant to let her go, so Morrigan gave them an unnecessarily
detailed description of what would happen to their daughter if her enemy found her. A bit
green-faced, the two parents gave Usagi a tearful send-off. Shingo gave her a thumbs-up
and the words of encouragement, "Kick their asses for me!" He in turn received a smack from
his indignant mother. Usagi detransformed like the others had, then walked away, casting a
sad glance behind.

Now that they had done their duty, the girls were all business. They took Morrigan along as
they found a deserted alley to transform in. Once they had taken the forms of their senshi
alter egos, they formed a circle.

"Listen, Luna, Artemis," Sailor Mercury leaned down to the two cats' level, "We can only take
one person in our Sailor Teleport, so you can't go along. Find somewhere safe, okay? Kali and
Rhiannon will leave you alone."

Sailor Moon hugged the black cat named Luna, then the three girls formed a circle, which
Sailor Moon instructed Morrigan to stand in the middle of their circle. Then the girls linked
hands, and Artemis yelled, "Sailor Teleport yo!"

The three senshi screamed out, "SAILOR TELEPORT!" and instantly they were outside a dingy
motel. They quickly detransformed, then Morrigan led the way in. It was an easy matter to
get a room for the night. There were only two beds in the room, it was dirty, and there were
probably bugs, but it was a place that Kali and Rhiannon would never think to look for
Morrigan.

After a brief consensus, they gave one of the beds to Usagi permanently. The three
remaining would take turns sleeping in the other one. The two girls who weren't sleeping
would stand guard, one at the door, one at the window. The three sailor senshi would stay
in their senshi forms constantly.

Moon and Mercury were the first to sleep. It was long past midnight, and Mars was
exhausted, but the fiery girl had still asked for the first shift. It was something that Morrigan
had to both admire and fear about her. The fear didn't bother her. She already had enough
fear for Mars, though not as much as she'd had before. The blind terror she'd first felt for the
girl was almost gone, now that they were on the same side.

This side sucks, an uncontrollable part of her mind said. This is a stupid plan, anyway. This
place isn't easily defendable. We can't hold this up forever, either. We have a finite amount
of money, and people are going to notice the three other girls' disappearance- they have
lives.

I don't know what to do, she thought desperately. I have no idea what to think or say. I
don't know how I'm going to protect the two senshi and the Messiah. I don't know how I'm
going to hide them and me from Rhiannon and Kali. I don't know what to do if they attack. I
don't know how to stop them and myself from getting killed.

Her head become hundreds of times heavier, and her sight became blurry. She felt a force
pass over her mind, and then her sight went black, head falling onto the low table.

Mars felt the same, but she had trained herself to resist things like that. She shook it aside,
and rushed forward. A pale redheaded girl, glowing fire shades of gray, had entered the
room, steel eyes flashing with anger. She recognized her from Morrigan's description as
Rhiannon. Mars raised her hands to summon her flame sniper attack, and let it fly. Rhiannon
hadn't been expecting any sort of magical resistance, and was knocked back, taking the full
front of the blast.

Mars, she can hurt me the most. I can do the least against her power, because it's the most
like my own, Rhiannon realized as she crashed to the ground.

Encouraged by her success, Mars ran over and shook Mercury. "Wake up, Ami-chan!" she
shrieked. Mercury rose quickly, and the two of them stood over Usagi, ready to protect her
with their lives. Rhiannon, blistered and hurt by the Flame Sniper, stood there, unable to
attack just yet. Mars gestured for Mercury to cover her, then she launched a ball of pure fire
at Rhiannon. The girl was unable to bring up her full shields, so she had to just stand there
and take it. She screamed.

"Ami-chan," Rei whispered. "Do you think you can trap her in ice, just for the amount of time
it would take to grab Usagi and retreat?"

Ami shook her head. Her visor was out, and she was typing in her computer frantically. "No,
she'd burn her way out of it too quickly. We're going to have to duke it out right here, right
now."

Mars nodded. Over on the other side of the room, Rhiannon was powering up, calling on the
Goddess. Mars and Mercury didn't have Goddesses to call upon, but they did have planets.
Mars began to glow red, and Mercury began to glow blue.

"Mars, protect me now!"

"Mercury, protect me now!"

Rhiannon began to launch her attack, but twin spirals of light, red and blue, launched out
from Mars and Mercury's tiaras, and stopped it. The two group's attacks stopped, both
absorbed by the other one.

Mars stole a glance at Mercury, then Rhiannon, then realized something. They could win this.
They could actually win this. Rhiannon may be stronger magically, but they had so much
more experience fighting that Rhiannon was laughable compared to them. Sure, their enemies
had taken down Minako and Makoto, but the two girls had been separate. She and Mercury
were together.

"Mars Crystal Power!" she screamed out.

"Mercury Crystal Power!" her friend echoed her.

Their two waves of power slammed against Rhiannon's wave of fire-colored light, pushed it
back, and then they slammed into Rhiannon. With a high shriek, Rhiannon fell, and then there
was a loud explosion of colors.

Powers spent, Mars and Mercury weakly turned to each other. "Is she dead?" Mars asked
Mercury. Mercury wearily checked her computer, then her eyes widened.

"No, she-"

Rhiannon stepped out of the explosion, looking worn, tattered, and drained, but very much
alive and kicking.

"Isn't."

Rhiannon didn't attack at first, but simply surveyed their reactions, enjoying their realization
that they had used all their power. They couldn't protect their Princess now. Yeah, she
thought, relishing it, no matter how much experience they have, the Goddess is still
stronger.

Then Mars ran forward, and Rhiannon frowned. What was the girl doing? She appeared to be
chanting, and had a ... piece of paper out? Then Mars slammed the parchment smack
between her eyes, and she felt her vision clouding, and her body doubling over-

Growling, she reached up and pulled the parchment off, the offending paper which had
drained her strength even more. This time she had no reservations, but gestured to knock
both of them unconscious. Mars went out like a light, already having been hit, but to her
annoyance, Rhiannon discovered that her power wasn't strong enough to completely subdue
Mercury. Forget about killing the two guardians, she'd be lucky to walk out with the Messiah
at all.

She walked over to Mercury, ready to subdue her physically. The weak but persevering blue
senshi struggled to her feet and tried to trip her. Rhiannon stepped on the booted foot.
Then, Mercury reached out with a trembling arm, and bonked Rhiannon over the head with
her computer.

"You girls, you never give up, do you?" Rhiannon murmured. Then she pulled her fist back and
slammed it into Mercury's face. It wasn't a very strong blow, and Morrigan would have
laughed at it, but with her spell also on Mercury, it did the job.

Rhiannon tiptoed over to the other bed. Sailor Moon, Earth's messiah, lay there, helpless.
Despite the incredibly short skirt, with her blonde hair haphazardly strewn all over her and
long eyelashes fluttering, she looked the very picture of innocence.

She felt a rare, unsettling smile come over her face, a smile of fondness. Such innocence...
Had she been that innocent? Ever? She couldn't remember, only a wary, defensive young
girl, crouching in the shadows... Only for such innocence... She shook the feelings she had
become unaccustomed to away. They didn't mean anything. Random firings of her synapses.

She knelt beside Sailor Moon's bed and stroked the girl's golden hair. She woke slowly,
mumbling to herself. "Uh, what is it?" the girl said quietly. "Luna, stop waking me so early."

"Look at me, Sailor Moon," Rhiannon intoned. Moon didn't, but rolled over, intending to go
back to sleep. Rhiannon turned the girl so she was facing her. "Look into my eyes. Can you
see the light? HER light?"

kalisamanolight

Sailor Moon had suddenly realized who the strange girl was, and opened her mouth to let
loose an ear-curdling scream, then reconsidered, and reached for her tiara to use as a
weapon. All these girls, no matter what circumstances or how overwhelmed they were, were
warriors to the end.

Rhiannon gestured, and her screams were muffled and her hands bound. "Can you see Her,
Sailor Moon? The one who wants your death?" The girl shook her head, eyes huge with fear.

"Come with me, Messiah. Come with me to your doom," Rhiannon said, her voice taking on a
hypnotic quality as the thrall began to pulse in her eyes. "Come with me. Come. Come to the
Goddess."

Without a single word of protest, the Messiah of the Earth, the one whom the Goddess
wanted dead, followed Rhiannon out of the door of the hotel room.
8. Into the Blaze

It was supposed to be simple, really. Get the Messiah, take her to Kali, bleed her, ignore
Morrigan and remaining guardians, get Goddess. And she had gotten the Messiah, though it
had been a bit more complicated then she had anticipated. Even though she'd known of
Morrigan's ambiguous loyalties, Mars and Mercury had been SO MUCH stronger than she'd
expected. Hell, they'd almost beat her. But the thing that really topped it all off was simple.
Kali wasn't there. How was she supposed to bring the Goddess down without Kali?

Why was she cursed with such an incompetent partner? Kali was so smart, why was she
never there? Why did the other girl seem so determined to stay out of the course of events?
Am I that unlikable? Rhiannon wondered, fists clenching. Am I that repulsive?

Take your precious little smart Ami-chan, she thought venomously, and I'll take the world
away from you. Hands stretching out and glowing with wicked goddess-power (even though
she couldn't afford to waste ANY, she was so drained from her past battle) she reached
forward with inhuman speed. The blank-eyed, enthralled moon senshi was standing before
her, and Usagi did not react as Rhiannon's hand darted forward and snatched her brooch
away from her. She gave no reaction as her fuku pooled out into ribbons, then formed into
her ordinary street clothes.

Rhiannon backed away, panting, eyes wide, still holding the heart-shaped object with her
blistered hand as if it were a bomb about to go off. It was that easy? It was that easy to
strip the Messiah of her power? She glanced at her surroundings, the sparse metal room of
the hideout. She looked at Usagi, then the side room where Minako and Makoto were being
held, still rendered unconscious by her power.

"Come," she ordered, and Usagi followed. She led the petite blonde into a room of her own.
"Stand up against the wall," Rhiannon continued, and Usagi obeyed without hesitation.
Rhiannon sent out red-orange tendrils of power, binding Usagi to the wall. Within a second,
she could feel her body protest. She had used a great deal of power in the past half hour,
been greatly hurt by Mars and Mercury's various magical strikes against her, and she was still
holding Usagi, Minako, and Makoto docile with her magic. It was draining her. She was used
to this feeling of sudden weakness, but it never had been this STRONG before.

Rhiannon shifted uncomfortably, eyes on Usagi. It was a very bad time to be so vulnerable,
with the current state they were in. Where in the world was Kali at this time? She could feel
the sun creeping up over the horizon, the night almost spent. When Kali came back,
everything would be fine. When Kali came back, the worry would stop. When Kali came back,
they'd bring the Goddess. They had won. They'd won. When Kali came back. Morrigan could
just go strangle herself. She couldn't do anything now.

Morrigan. How long would her spell holding the three girls in the motel room last? She tried to
reach out with her mind and see, but she was already using too much of her power. That
door remained frustratingly closed. Rhiannon sighed and slumped down to the floor. Goddess,
she was tired, drained physically, mentally, and magically. She just wanted to sleep, but she
couldn't. Had to stay awake and watch Usagi. Had to stay awake and wait for her Kali-sama.

This was their day of glory. This is what they wanted, what the Goddess wanted. When the
Goddess came down, all the senshi and Morrigan would die. No one would hate her or look
down on her. All the Morrigans of the world would be eradicated slowly, painfully. The people
the Goddess chose to keep alive would look upon her with awe, and if she thought about it,
they'd look upon Kali that way, too. Kali would see her as an equal partner, and they'd be
finding the Mercury bitch's body for years.

She could feel her brain nodding off, heading into the dull unawareness of slumber. She tried
to shake it off, but it persisted. No, Rhiannon faintly whispered to her mind. I can't slack off
now. Gotta be persistent. Gotta be right, gotta be worthy.

She was no less tired. Glaring mentally, she clenched a pale fist and smacked herself in her
denim-clad leg. No reaction or pain. Annoyed at her body's weakness, she let her hands flash
with fire power.

Rhiannon felt her waves of red light slam into her gut, pushing her against the wall. They
flickered again, dancing across her arms and legs and face, burning them. She closed her
eyes, breathing hard in ecstasy. As the sensible part of her brain screamed what was she
doing, she let a sudden blast spurt out. Beneath her, impossibly, the floor had caught flame,
and little tongues of fire licked at her denim-covered legs and sneaker-clad feet.

Fire, fire crawling up her body, fire burning hot and wild across her face, in her hair and
shoulders, between her thighs. Moaning now, she climaxed in a wave of bright, aching light,
writhing in pleasure and pain (Kali...sama...)

She slumped to the ground, body covered in hot sweat, thighs wet and sticky. She at last allowed
herself to close her eyes, wonderful, wonderful fire dancing in the darkness behind her eyelids,
and Kali's face.

Usagi waited, bound still, eyes completely unfeeling. Rhiannon wondered suddenly, out of the
blue, what it would be like. Would her blood be sweet and rich, or would it be thrillingly sour
and bitter, barely tangible waves of iron and sex hovering within? She gestured and Usagi's
neck ripped open, a gash appearing there. She crawled forward like a disciple towards the
Holy Grail, then got up from her knees, hand tremblingly reaching towards the blood, which
was gushing in a tantalizing river-

"Get away from her." Morrigan. Of course. Rhiannon had known from the moment she left
that her fellow Enchanted Senshi would shake off the spell and come to defend her new
princess.

"Hello, Warrior," Rhiannon intoned, then burst into hysterical laughter. She dipped her hands
in Usagi's rapidly pouring blood, and offered them out to Morrigan. "Wanna taste? It's the
Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life. Just one taste," she burst into a fresh wave of twisted
giggles, "and you have it all. Riches and immortality."

Morrigan smirked, eyes cold and hard. For the first time, she reminded Rhiannon of Kali.
"You're pathetic, Rhiannon. You disgust me."

"High words. Let's see how low they can FALL."

"Give me Usagi, and I won't hurt you," Morrigan said calmly, showing strength she never had
before. "Take Kali and leave this country, and I'll let you live."

"You can't do anything to me," Rhiannon stated. Placing her hands on Usagi possessively,
she shot a challenging glance at Morrigan.

"I never liked you, you know," Morrigan muttered. "From the moment I saw you, I knew you
were nothing. You're just a shell now. Disgusting, vile, and worthless."

Letting out a little yell of rage, Rhiannon shot a sizzling wave of energy at Morrigan, but she
miscalculated, and her target was able to dodge it easy. It was foolish to commit to a fight,
she would probably lose. She knew how drained and spent she was. But she hated Morrigan,
so, so much. She couldn't help it.

Taking advantage of Rhiannon's distraction, Morrigan leaped in closer, drawing her fist back.
She put every ounce of strength she possessed into striking Rhiannon, and as her fist
collided, there was a loud, haunting crack. Rhiannon flew back into the wall like a limp,
helpless rag doll, limbs flying in every direction. On the opposite wall, Usagi fell to the
ground, bindings released, and her big blue eyes shot open.

Rhiannon lay there on the ground, her hopeless mess of hair strewn haphazardly about her
body. She shot her razor glare at Morrigan through it, and then began to scream. There were
no words to it, only pure, animalistic fury. Morrigan shot a worried glace at the shrieking
Vessel, then stumbled over to Usagi, who was lying on the floor, eyes wide with amazement
and fear.

"Hurry," she whispered. "Run." How could she make Usagi understand her urgency? "I won't
be able to hold her off for that long." Morrigan's eyes met Usagi for a desparate moment,
accompanied all the while by Rhiannon's otherworldly, high-pitched shrieks. There was a split
second of understanding, then, trembling but brave, Usagi slowly made her way to her feet.

Fire flew from Rhiannon's hands, pure and elemental, though definitely not at its full strength.
Morrigan had to tackle Usagi at the last moment to keep the girl out of harm's way. The
fireball created a gaping hole in the wall. Even from meters away, Morrigan could feel the
deep, scorching heat emanating from deep within Rhiannon's core.

Rhiannon raised her arms, the high and majestic gesture seeming unfitting for someone like
her, and the entire room filled with the Goddess glow. Power surrounded them, and bolts of
fire flew from Rhiannon's hand, constant and unrelenting balls of heat and light. It was
impossible to avoid them, and watching them creep towards her in seeming slow motion,
Morrigan shoved Usagi behind her and protected the Princess with her body.

The bolts hurt Morrigan terribly, but not as much as she would have expected. Belatedly, she
realized her katana pendant was hanging out, fluttering in some unseen wind. It was glowing
with darkness, and it absorbed the blasts, holding Rhiannon's power back. It was funny to
Morrigan. Rhiannon was supposedly so strong, but now, the girl was so exhausted that even
a novice like her could oppose her in the girl's current state. Yet the raw magic did emanate
from both of them, red versus black light clashing in a grim face off which could only have
one possible ending.

"Go!" Morrigan shrieked, voice impossibly amplified, and Usagi stumbled away from the two
battling girls, the bright fire power threatening to catch her and burn her in its deadly web.
Usagi darted out and was gone. Morrigan noted this with grim satisfaction, but Rhiannon was
oblivious, all her effort focused on overthrowing the object of her hate. And it was paying
off, Morrigan realized. The fire power was slowly but surely pushing her black stream back.

The other senshi were left. They'd find Usagi and protect her from Rhiannon and Kali. Her
work was done. She turned her gaze to Rhiannon. "You're going to kill me."

Rhiannon lashed out with a knife-hand to the air, and Morrigan's nose began spewing out
blood. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

Morrigan's fist clenched, and she stood before Rhiannon, proud and strong, even as her
power waned more and more. "I don't care what you do to me. I've already won."

"Shut up!" Rhiannon hissed.

"See, I know who I am now," Morrigan called out, feeling her blood flow into her mouth
steadily. She coughed, trying to hack as much of it up as she could. "I'm not a villain. I'm a
champion, just like Usagi. When you kill me, I'll go to heaven, or whatever the equivalent of
that is up there. I've made the right choice. I've won." Only a little bit of Morrigan's power
remained, and she knew it would be over within seconds. "And you," she choked out, feeling
the cold hand of death upon her. "Rhiannon... you'll burn in hell for what you've done."

With those parting words, the last bit of dark light was consumed, and Rhiannon's
Goddess-sponsored energy slammed into her, a wave of huge power, amplified by the
Ginzuishou, held open in the Vessel's hands. Morrigan could feel her body spontaneously
burst into flames, and she screamed in pain. Smoke curled around her, obfuscating her vision
of Rhiannon, but before her executioner faded from view, she could see hot, angry tears filling
her executioner's eyes, oddly anticlimactic against the girl's triumphant smile.

"Live, Usagi!" Morrigan screamed out, before the blaze reached her brain and destroyed all of
Morrigan Cortes that had been left.

Rhiannon fell to her knees before the burnt carcass that was the Warrior. Goddess? Are you
there? Goddess? She stroked a tentative hand across Morrigan's charred face (she was
barely recognizable now) then drew it back. Face breaking down, she buried her head in her
arms. Goddess...

"Kill Minako and Makoto." Kali's voice rang out, as if cued by her breakdown. At first Rhiannon
thought it was a figment of her imagination, but then she looked up and saw her leader,
standing cold and impeccable as ever. Had Kali just gotten back, or had she been there the
whole time?

"Kali-sama-" Rhiannon began, biting her lip.

"We're moving forward, Rhiannon," Kali said. Before Kali, Rhiannon was nothing and nobody.
She was used to it, but it didn't make it hurt any less. "You lost Usagi."

Rhiannon felt her cheeks heat up. It was piercingly true. "Yeah," she muttered. "But I got
her henshin brooch." She pushed the brooch into Kali's vision. Kali pushed it back.

"Keep it. You'll need it." Kali then pointed in the direction of Minako and Makoto's room. They
had come awake, Rhiannon's power too far gone to keep them unconscious any longer. They
had screamed for a little while, but now had fallen silent. "If you're too drained, I can just
put bullets into their skulls."

Rhiannon shook her head, and left Kali. After a few minutes, Rhiannon emerged from the
room, looking even more tired. Kali pushed past her, took one look at the scene, where she
saw only dust, then left the room and faced Rhiannon.

"You need to sleep. You must be exhausted," Kali said, showing rare concern for her
partner's welfare. Rhiannon's eyes narrowed, and she shifted uncomfortably.

"But what about Usagi?" she asked.

"The Messiah will run," Kali said, lips twisting into a sadistic smile, "But she won't ever be
able to run fast enough. We'll find her, and take what we came for."

***

Once Usagi was far away from the metal hideout, her fear calmed enough that she was able
to stop running. Suddenly coming to her senses, she remembered she still had her
communicator. She flicked it open. "Ami? Rei? Come in, please!" There was no answer. "Oh
god, please answer! I can't do this alone..."

I want to be something real, I want to be strong, she thought desperately. Please. I want to be
an angel, I want to be faithful. God, I want to shine. I want to reach for everyone, to be
something people can hold on to. I don't want to run away anymore.

I want to be the Messiah.

But I can't do any of that. I was never really that strong. I always had Luna breathing
instructions down my ear, and then I got my friends... without them, I fell apart, always. I
could never do anything without them.

"Ami-chan... Rei-chan... please..."

I want to be a fighter, a warrior, a messiah. I have to be strong without being Sailor Moon.
Tsukino Usagi is a ditz, a crybaby, worthless. But Usagi has to fight. If I ever want to get my
life back, I have to stop running.

"Ami-chan, Rei-chan, if you're somehow listening," Usagi breathed into the communicator,
"I'm done hiding and letting other people defend me. If you want to, you can come and help.
If you don't, that's okay-" Usagi could feel her voice break, but she forced herself to breathe
and stand tall.

***

Rhiannon and Kali lay in their respective beds, each in deep but uneasy sleep. Kali giggled,
just for a split, exposed second, letting the remaining fragments of the silly little girl emerge.
Rhiannon curled up, and, full of longing, reached out for Kali, and when that failed, to the
Goddess.

Neither answered.

***

"That's okay," Usagi repeated, voice firmer. "Because I don't need protection from you, or from
anyone. Let Rhiannon and Kali come. I'll show them what a messiah really is."
9. Sacrifice to the Goddess
Tsukino Usagi stood before her.

How did she know this was Usagi? The Goddess. The Goddess told her. It didn't matter that
instead of being short and small, the girl in front of her was tall and muscular, or that the
girl's eyes had a steel gray that mirrored her own. It didn't matter that instead of long blonde
tails, there was a coarse black bob. It didn't matter that contempt shone instead of
heartbreaking innocence.

It didn't matter that this was a body she hated. The Goddess, the Goddess told her it was
Usagi. And she could tell. The true essence of good was shining from the tall girl.

"You'll burn in hell."

"You'll burn in hell."

"You'll burn in-"

"Shut up!" Rhiannon screamed, and reached for her power, but there was none. Usagi smiled.
Don't you understand, even now? After what you did? Your power IS from the GODDESS, you
know.

"Understand what?" Rhiannon whispered. She desperately wanted to fall to her knees. The
landscape around her fluctuated. Their hideout, Minako's house, the Inners' old hotel room,
and then finally to her old house back in America that she had burnt to nothing. They stood
in the steady pyre, flames completely unreal, translucent before her. It was like they were a
hologram.

Kali appeared behind her, fluttered into the air. The smart girl wrapped her arms around
Rhiannon, putting her head to the Vessel's ear, and Rhiannon let out a soft, disbelieving gasp
at the sudden press of Kali's body against hers.

Kill her, Kali whispered. Kill her. Killher. Killherkillherkillher. KILL.

On her other side, but less close, her father appeared. "You're dead," Rhiannon gasped,
reddening, turning to gaze at the man accusingly. He ignored the fact.

"You can't kill her. If you kill her, you kill anything worthy in you, anything good. Anything
CLEAN."

"Shut up!" Rhiannon screeched, and she threw Kali off her suddenly. The blonde stumbled
away into Usagi. Usagi's steel gray eyes regarded Kali kindly, and she uttered a soft 'that's
okay.'

That's okay. Everything's okay.

Rhiannon's hands clenched to fists, nails digging like hot pokers into her long pale spiders
of appendages. "Shut up! What do you know about any sort of morals or anything? And you're dead!
Go away! I killed you!" She felt hot tears spring to her eyes. "Stop haunting me!"

Haunting? Is that what it was called? Hovering around her, staring out of the eyes of everyone
she ever saw? Her flesh and blood that he had been, shining through Usagi's blue eyes and Kali
and Morrigan's (no no Morrigan was dead she'd killed her) enchanted, false ones?

As if summoned by her impassioned words, a woman appeared, lying on the ground, more
bruised and beaten than she had ever been in real life. She looked like a corpse. And indeed,
the image of a coffin fluttered around her, the coffin that Rhiannon had put her in, the coffin
she would have been placed in if anything but her ashes had remained.

"It hurts so much," Mrs. Vestall said dully. "You don't understand. You're next."

"Kill her. Kill the Messiah. Kill everyone."

"WASN'T MORRIGAN ENOUGH!?" Rhiannon shrieked, face contorting, eyes stinging, entire body and
soul wrecking and pouring out in waves of molten, dirty fire out of her mouth and nose and arms
and feet and body and brain and burning, burning!

shefuckinglovedherlovedherlovedherwantedtofuckkali-sama'sbrainsoutbutshedidn'twanttoKILLanymore-

There was an absolutely still silence, and for a moment Rhiannon's world stopped, her heart
stopped beating, eyes stopped seeing, ears stopped hearing, and everything was quiet. Then the
voices started again.

"Nothing's left," Mrs. Vestall choked out. "Oh god, it just hurts so bad..."

Rhiannon collapsed in an undignified heap, her mother, father, Kali, and Usagi-Morrigan
crowded around her. Usagi was the first to reach her. Morrigan's lips spoke in Morrigan's
voice. "Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Kali shoved Usagi off Rhiannon and forced Rhiannon to look at her. "Listen to me. I don't care
if you want redemption. Silly little human, listen to me. If you kill everyone, you bring me the
Goddess."

The Goddess? What kind of Goddess did she serve?

Or maybe there was no Goddess. Maybe there was just Kali fucking Minervo, those cool eyes that
violated her, that perfect body that left her envious and hot, that sharp brain that
astounded and embarrassed her in its superiority, the girl who saw the entire world spin in
burning waves around her head, those cool, cool, violating eyes a kaleidoscope of darkness.

Dimly in her vision, Rhiannon could see Usagi offer a hand to the fallen Mrs. Vestall, and lift
the broken woman up. Before her eyes, her mother was healed, restored to her bright glory.
Mr. Vestall's eyes narrowed, and he drew back his fist, but Usagi whispered, "You're not
alone," and a bright light shone. He too, was healed. Rhiannon's two parents looked at each
other, and they reached out to each other, and, forgiveness shining, they held hands.

"You can have that," Usagi said, voice musical and beautiful. With a wave of her hand, the
inconsistent, empty Kali was removed from the flaming house, no more than a memory. "I
can heal you. I can take it all away. You didn't know. You couldn't have known. Just take my
hand, and I will redeem you."

Rhiannon reached for Usagi, extending her hand. She had never wanted anything more in her
entire life. It didn't matter that peace was being offered from Morrigan's form. Peace was
peace-

Usagi's body collapsed, lifeless. In her hand, Rhiannon held a knife that was clean through
Usagi's lungs. Rhiannon's savior gasped, wheezed, and was still.

No Goddess came, only Kali, wearing the clothes that she had been the first time Rhiannon
saw her, the first time Rhiannon sold her soul. Kali's eyes were no longer gray, but pure
black. It didn't match her beautiful long hair. All of Kali was beautiful, unlike Rhiannon.
Rhiannon would always be ugly and worthless and never measure up to anything. She'd
always be the girl who hid in the corner while her father beat her mother.

Kali stepped forward, shot an offhand glance at the body on the floor. Flickering in and out
beside Usagi's body were her four guardians, all of which Rhiannon had murdered. Then Kali
turned her head away from the gruesome sight, knelt beside Rhiannon's collapsed, sobbing
form, offered her the beautiful gloved hand that Rhiannon would have died for only days before,
and spoke the two most beautiful, horrible, words in the world.

"Thank you."

A scream pierced through the vision of Kali's smug gray eyes, and it shattered into ashes.
Rhiannon was used to screaming, but she had never heard a scream from this particular
voice. It was Kali's. Heart suddenly pounding a thousand times harder in her chest, she
jumped out of her bed and raced into the main room. It was completely empty. Not missing a
step, Rhiannon raced into Kali's bedroom.

Usagi, the Messiah, stood in a ridiculous pink miniskirt which was somehow transformed into
billowing robes of white. She was glowing with beautiful, pure power, so unlike Rhiannon's,
emanating from her Ginzuishou. Kali had wondered how the girl had gotten her crystal back,
just before the girl had attacked her with it.

Also, how could Usagi even use the Ginzuishou, either, now that she had it? Usagi was just an
ordinary girl when she was detransformed- or was she? Something had changed within Tsukino Usagi,
pushed into the next awakening. She could see the power of it, much stronger than any she had
ever felt before. It was blindingly bright, flying in tendrils and waves-

Into her, crouched on the ground, fear in her eyes, hands trying in vain to cover herself,
especially her head. (Of course her head, that was her brains, her intelligence, that was Kali
Minervo up there, that was who she was.) It was clear Usagi's power was hurting her by the
way her body convulsed with each blast, and the way she threw her head back and
screamed her pain out without abandon.

"Please, Kali," Usagi pled. "Look at me. Look into the light. There's another way. You're
not alone, you're never alone. I can help you. I want to help you. I understand you. I accept
you." Rhiannon's brain noted ironically how similar it was to her thrall, and yet so different.

Usagi's blue eyes shone with such beautiful sincerity at that moment. "I love you, Kali. I love
you."

Kali, though she was screaming openly, not even trying to hold it in, was still dry-eyed and
reasonable on closer inspection. She was panicked but still composed, and not a word Usagi
said touched her. When she spotted Rhiannon standing in the doorway, she immediately
reacted. Unlike almost always, she acted impulsively, without thinking. "Help me, Rhiannon!"
she screamed out.

Sure enough, her Vessel came to her defense. Just like Kali had seen her do countless times,
Rhiannon glowed of fire and Goddess, and raised her hands. They crackled with raw energy,
and then Rhiannon sent red-orange lightning at Usagi. The Messiah just let her Ginzuishou
absorb it, but it forced her to stop her wave of purity for a second. It was enough for Kali to
break free and scramble to safety, then watch the ensuing battle.

Rhiannon didn't give Usagi a chance to regroup her wits. She quickly fell to her knees in a
position of prayer, a split second before Usagi resumed her waves of purity energy. They
didn't touch either Rhiannon or Kali. Rhiannon's fire glow expanded, intensified by an infinite
number of times, AND THEN SAILOR MERCURY, VENUS, MARS, AND JUPITER APPEARED AROUND HER,
standing strong and tall. Usagi gaped, and so did Kali, but Rhiannon smiled at the four girls.

"Here. You save your Princess now. I've changed my mind, I have." The six other girls in the
room stared at her. Usagi was happy for Rhiannon, and the four senshi were just glad that their
princess was still breathing.

Then Rhiannon turned to Kali, glared at her with the utmost hate. "You never saw me, not once,
did you? Well, take a good look at me now." Power blossomed out from between Rhiannon's hands,
shining and burning. An aura of beautiful fire surrounded her, and she was made so much more,
the true Goddess before Kali.

Kali still didn't see.

"Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou," Rhiannon shrieked, and she slumped, just a girl again. "Kali, goddess,
why can't you ever SEE?"

Kali looked up at Rhiannon, then reached into her suit pocket and pulled out one of Morrigan's
knives, let it shine in the light, then threw it at Rhiannon's feet. "Here, Rhiannon. Is this
what you wanted?"

Rhiannon stared down at Kali, the visions of a thousand dreams and promises breaking behind her
eyes. "Come on," Kali whispered. "You know you want to." Still Rhiannon made no motion.

Kali smiled darkly. "Fine, I'll give you motivation. I never saw you at all. You've always been
my pawn, completely worthless. I never could have loved you at all, shown you any kind of
affection. You are so completely below me. You disgust me, you repulse me. You're stupid, you're
empty, you're just a shell, only the Vessel to me, or less, because you've denied that part of
you also."

All the senshi stared, mouths open wide in horror. Rhiannon began to shake. Kali looked up at
her. "Go on, then. Haven't I just confirmed all your worst fears? Do you understand? Do you hate
me now? Kill me now or I swear I'LL KILL YOUR MESSIAH!"

Kali reached for the knife at Rhiannon's feet, but Rhiannon was quicker. With a pained yell,
Rhiannon snatched the knife from where Kali had thrown it and drove it into chest of the girl she
loved.

There was a blinding explosion, magic wild and out of control. Then the world imploded, and
there was Silence.

The sound of Usagi gasping penetrated the darkness, as her innocent, wasted eyes fixed on
the knife clean through Kali's chest. The Kali gagged, her empty eyes rolled up into her head,
and then the room burned into the color of fire. The world centered around Kali's face, and
then to Usagi, Rhiannon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, the truth showed itself.

***

"Honey, you're starting first grade tomorrow. I just can't believe it!"

"She's getting so big, isn't she?"

"Yeah! I'm a big girl!"

"We're proud of you, you know..."

Already bored with the train of discussion, the lively girl's attention turns to the obvious.
"Mommy, can I go get a cookie?"

"You mean, May I get a cookie, Lauren."

"May I get a cookie?"

"Yes." Granted with a smile. Smile grows wider as the six-year-old sprints away into the
kitchen. The blonde man and woman take each other's hands, watch as their only daughter
jumps, trying to reach the jar, then finally makes it.

"Oh, George. Sooner or later she's going to go away from us."

"No, Ellen. She's only just beginning to grow. We'll have her for a good many years yet."

Called into the kitchen, "Lauren, I love you! You know that, right?"

"Love you too, Mommy!"

***

"Hi. I'm Lauren. What's your name?"

"Katrina. Wanna go play dollies?"

"Okay. Can I have Barbie? You can be Ken."

"Sure. I think we're gonna be good friends." The two girls smile and nod, bonded by the
childish words.

***

"Today at school, we practiced cutting and pasting. Can you cut and paste, Daddy?"

"Not as well as you can, I bet. Why don't you show me?"

***

"Wanna come over to our house and play, Trina?"

"Okay, but my mommy has to call your mommy and make sure it's okay."

***

"This is really impressive, Lauren. I'm sure Mommy would want to see this too."

"See what?"

"Lauren's got her first report card."

"Yeah. See, Mommy?"

"Wow, this is impressive! I think this calls for a celebration!"

"Ice cream?" Big, hopeful, grin.

"Ice cream."

"Yay!"

***

"Daddy, can I sign up for soccer?"

"What's all this about?"

"Well, a lot of the other girls are signing up on the team. Trina and her new friend are both
signing up, and if I don't, I'll be left out."

"Do you really want to do this? For yourself, and not just for your friends?"

"Yeah! Soccer's fun!"

"Okay. We can go to the school and register you tomorrow. Now why don't we help Mommy
make dinner?"

***

"Who here knows what six plus ten plus six again is?"

"No one? How about you, Lauren?"

"Uh... six?" Laughter, widespread.

"Good guess, but no."

***

"We lost our game today, Daddy."

"Oh, that's too bad, honey. But think happy!"

"Yeah. You'll do better next time, pumpkin."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Want to help me practice?"

"Sure. Maybe in a little while."

"Okay."

***

"Trina, want to come over to my house tomorrow after school?"

"No thanks. I'm already going to Mary's house. Maybe I can come over the day after
tomorrow?"

"It's okay. Forget it."

***

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Lauren, happy birthday
to you!"

"Make a wish!"

I wish that I would be Katrina's bestest friend in the whole world.

Woosh. Seven candles blown out in one breath.

"Yay!"

***

"Who can tell me what twenty minus twelve is? Now this one is pretty advanced, so take a
second to think- Lauren?"

"It's eight. Easy." Uneasy stares.

"Wow. Good job."

***

Who are you?

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW, LITTLE GIRL?

***

"Lauren, you seem kinda different lately."

"What do you mean, Trina?"

"Well, you're all serious. And smart."

***

Why are you here? Are you like a ghost, or a monster?

I AM EVERYTHING. DO YOU WANT TO BE SPECIAL, LITTLE GIRL? DO YOU WANT TO BE
EVERYTHING, TOO?

***

"Lauren has improved incredibly. Just from her performance in class, which I can only gather
limited data from, I can tell that her intelligence is astounding. And what's more, she's never
seemed that bright at all. In any way. Has anything changed at home? Have you been
reading to her more, maybe? Helping her with her schoolwork more?"

"We haven't done anything. But you're right, we've noticed the change. It's like she's a
different person."

"She seems older."

***

"Lauren, I don't think you're my friend."

"Why?"

"Well, you never want to play with me or do anything with me anymore. And you're not any
fun, either. You're always reading some hard book."

"So you don't like who I am."

The words were beyond Katrina's simple understanding. "Lauren, if you were a little nicer,
maybe-"

"We don't have to have any sort of special acquaintance with each other," Lauren said, eyes
hardening. Her tennis shoe's heel ground into the playground sand. "I don't need friends,
anyway."

***

Why are you making me do these things to myself?

YOU NEED TO. YOU'RE IMPURE, INSUFFICIENT.

Make me pure. Make me strong. Make me what you need me to be.

ARE YOU SURE THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT?

***

"You called us to another conference. Is our daughter in trouble?"

"Well, not exactly. I'm here to inform you that your daughter is smart enough to be
transferred up a grade, possibly more. She absorbs knowledge at an astounding rate."

"Wouldn't that be damaging for her emotionally?"

"Socially, too," Lauren's mother added.

"That's another thing," the teacher said, brows narrowing. "Your daughter has changed in
that way, too. I can't explain it. She's become completely antisocial, an emotional recluse.
She's considered untouchable, the class nerd. She has no friends."

***

"Little know-it-all girl. Thinks she's better than us."

"I am."

"You want to say that one more time, a little closer, little girl?"

Lauren Green stepped closer to the fifth grade boys from her class, light blue eyes without
fear. "I'm better than you."

"Weirdo."

"Your insults mean nothing to me. I'm above you. And if you strike me, I'll make you pay
more than you ever could have imagined."

They tried to hit her. She bit them, stomped on their feet. They were wounded, walked
away, muttering among themselves.

***

ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE IT ALL UP? WILL YOU ACCEPT THE PRICE?

I will.

***

"Your teacher says you're getting into fights at school. And you come home with bruises."

"It's none of your business."

"It is my business! I'm your mother! God! Fighting? What in the world are you thinking? You're
just a little girl, honey."

"LEAVE ME ALONE." The words were spoken, hard, loud, full of contempt and loathing. You
have nothing to offer me, they said.

"God, Lauren! What's happened to you?"

Lauren shoved her bedroom door in her mother's face.

***

"She doesn't act her age at all, George. Physically, she's seven years old, but mentally, I
don't know how old she is. I don't know if she's human in there."

"Ellen, it's your daughter that you're talking about..." he reminded her. He sighed, worried
and discontent.

"My daughter had friends. My daughter wasn't a freak. My daughter loved me!" The last
words came out as an unholy shriek, and Ellen Green buried her face in her hands.

***

DO YOU WANT TO BECOME ONE WITH ME? DO YOU WANT TO BECOME YOUR TRUE SELF?

"God, yes." Lauren spat out venomously. "I've never wanted anything more in my ENTIRE
LIFE."

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

Lauren nodded, innocence completely erased from her tiny body and cute girly face. She
walked over to her door, checked that it was locked. Then she settled back down on her
pink bedspread. Breathing hard at what she was about to do, she tried to steady herself.
Then she reached into the pocket of her overalls and pulled out one of her father's razor
blades.

Slowly, methodically, Lauren Green slit her left wrist, then her right.

***

Blood, blood pouring down her arms, her legs, onto her face, her soul, her self, and the
Goddess' face imprinted in the blood. As her lifeblood poured out of her, she could see the
Goddess become more clear. When everything faded to black, the Goddess was waiting.

The darkness pulsed white, blue, black. The Goddess floated in the center, silver pendant in
her hands. Lauren reached out and took it.

THIS WILL MAKE YOU TRANSFORM, MAKE YOU YOUR RIGHTFUL SELF. IT WILL TELL YOU
HOW TO FIND YOUR COMPANION.

What should I do? How can I understand this? Before you, I'm nothing.

YES, YOU'RE NOTHING. NEVER FORGET. YOU'RE POWERLESS. YOU HAVE NO MAGIC. NOTHING.

AND IF YOU EVER DISOBEY ME, I'LL DESTROY YOU. RIP YOU APART SO THOROUGHLY THAT NO ONE WILL BE
ABLE TO FIND A SOUL IN YOUR STUPID, UGLY LITTLE CARCASS. REMEMBER THAT. FOLLOW ME, AND I WON'T
HURT YOU, BUT IF YOU DISPLEASE ME, I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER WORSE THAN YOU COULD EVER HAVE IMAGINED.

YOUR NAME IS KALI NOW.

blood poured in lovely red rivers, awakened in a flash of fire- a fire girl-

***

Eyes getting adjusted to her surroundings, fading from white to her girly, pink and white
room. Her bedspread was soaked with blood. She got up, got to her feet. She walked over to
the mirror, looked in it, sighed in gratitude.

She was clad in a gray business suit. Her body was no longer a child's, but practically grown
up, sixteen or seventeen, physically accelerated or downright replaced. Her hair was more
silver than blonde now, and incredibly long, almost to her knees. Her eyes were a dull steel
gray as opposed to blue. She was herself now. Her name was Kali.

She nodded at her reflection, then unlocked her door and went downstairs. When her
parents saw her and the open door, they immediately cried out. The mother in particular was
distressed. "What have you done to our daughter?" Obviously, they didn't realize that Kali
was her.

Kali ignored them, walked towards the door, but the father blocked her path. "No. You're not
leaving."

"What did you do?" the mother cried, joining her husband in blocking Kali's way. Kali gritted
her teeth, then reached into her coat and withdrew the object she had slipped there before
going downstairs. One of her father's guns.

"Okay. I'm walking out of here. Hands up, no sudden moves." They put their hands up as she
ordered, stared at her in fear and horror as she backed towards the door, then finally
disappeared.

The moment the strange girl was gone, Mrs. Green ran up the stairs, followed closely by her
husband. She screamed, high and heartfelt, at the sight that greeted her in Lauren's room.
The blood on the bedspread confirmed her worst thoughts.

Lauren Green was dead.

***

The color of fire disappeared, leaving the six girls staring at the body, which was still
shining. Above it they could see a faint presence- Morrigan Cortes hovered above Kali.
Slowly, achingly, Kali's body changed. Her hair shortened itself and became more
white-blonde than silver, a child's shade. Her eyes turned from steel gray to light powder
blue. Her clothes changed to blood-stained overalls. Her body shrunk, leaving her barely four
feet tall. Her hands and feet grew small, a child's.

She was a child. Lauren Green was the person the two girls gazed upon, and Lauren Green
was the child whose skin paled, eyes clouded, and who slumped on the floor. Rhiannon could
tell she would never move again, just by looking.

Usagi acted before Rhiannon, crossing over closer to the other girl. None of her guardians
tried to stop her, understanding now. They just watched, spellbound, as she took Rhiannon's
hand and locked her blue eyes with Rhiannon's own Goddess gray ones, which saw confusion
in those sapphire depths.

"Why did you do it?" Usagi asked quietly. "Why did you turn against Kali?"

Rhiannon looked up at Usagi, pain beyond anything Usagi could have ever imagined shining through
her still unnatural steel gray eyes. She was silent.

Usagi sighed. "Come on, then, Rhiannon. I think that I understand. "I'm going to take you home."
She smiled at Rhiannon hesitantly, abandoning her former line of questioning. She wouldn't say
anything that she'd guessed and wondered about from what Rhiannon and Kali had said to each
other in those last decisive hateful moments-

Because there were some things you just didn't say.

***

Tsukino Ikuko opened the door. It was late afternoon, and she was just beginning to prepare
dinner for her family. She loved Kenji and Shingo, she did, and she was happy with them
here, normal, healthy, not in danger. But Usagi-

Was right here, standing at the door to their house, bruised and exhausted-looking. There
was a wild look in her eyes, but something else, something beautiful and strong. Something about
her said that she'd matured amazingly since Ikuko had last seen her. Near her, standing several
hundred meters from their house, were her four friends, Minako, Makoto, Rei, and Ami, waving
goodbye. Usagi waved back, yelled something, and they left.

At Usagi's side, there stood a girl unfamiliar to Ikuko. The girl was also bruised and
exhausted. She was striking, with tangled, matty red hair flowing down her back, uncanny gray
eyes, and unhealthily pale skin, like a vampire's. Something in Ikuko broke as she stared at
this girl, this horrible, terrible girl, who had obviously suffered so much, this wonderful,
beautiful girl. Suddenly something struck her, by the way she was uneasily eyeing her and Usagi.
She had fought against Usagi, been her daughter's enemy.

"Hello," the girl said, and stopped, hesitant. Usagi gave her a reassuring smile. "My- my name
is Rhiannon."

Ikuko nodded, face tense, but she saw the cool acceptance Usagi gave her, and she saw
how the two girls were really the same deep within, the exact same. So she walked forward
to them, and embraced the girls home from war, embraced her two daughters, (one the prodigal,
one the faithful, was it) and there would be complications later, explanations and pain and
heartbreak, but for now, there was only this moment, and the truth so staggering it was beyond
anything she could have ever imagined.

I'VE been chosen for a destiny, too, she realized. I'm the mother of a Savior and the mother now
of a a Destroyer. Christ and Antichrist. My dear little girl and a stranger she brings named
Rhiannon. Both their mothers.

"Come on, let's get you inside," she said kindly, smiling without a doubt of what happiness
waited for her and her daughters.

"Welcome home."

***

Lauren Green opened her eyes.

Welcome home, my daughter.

She waved a hand, and she was Kali Minervo once again. Only not only Kali. After having seen her
memories, how could they still have failed to understand? Through killing herself, she had
transformed herself once. That was her magic. And now, she had gone through another baptism of
blood.

This was all that she had wanted, why she had let things go so horribly astray. Because
now she was the one with the Goddess inside her, gifted by Rhiannon herself. The former Vessel,
the girl who murdered her second awakening, her pawn. All of them her just her pawns in the end.

Even the Goddess.

Kali could feel the Goddess struggling inside her, but she reigned the presence in easily. She
felt the power of ages and worlds swirling at her fingertips. Rhiannon, in killing her? The girl
had given her everything.

Once again, her blood (the entire world had always rested in the balance of her BLOOD) had been
pilled onto virgin ground, more potent than any Messiah the Goddess could have ever dreamed of.

The Goddess herself miscalculated in making a servant like her. Kali was too smart, too deeply
rooted in the Earth, too powerful in herself, in the purity and instrinstic uncleanliness she
had held (like every tiny innocent little girl holds-)

Before the Goddess had ever found her, in her BLOOD, it all came back to her BLOOD. The Goddess
had made a mistake, and now was a slave to Kali.

She was the Vessel now.

***

*The Lord himself shall give you a sign.

That you may know to refuse the evil.

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou
abhorrest-

Shall be forsaken of both her kings.*

THE EN-

No, stop. That part above. It's wrong. Sorry, sorry. I just hate it when I mess up like that,
don't you?

*forsaken of both her goddesses*

Now. RHIANNON?

I CAN help you, you know. Because I AM the Goddess now. I'll make you even stronger. That's what
you wanted, isn't it?

Take my hand.

(you have always had more more of the goddess in you than i ever did- i don't care if that's
what you wanted- no one will EVER hurt you again- there's the messiah- SEE ME- you're not mine-
you'll never be- you'll never see me- you'll not mine- just a crumb- if you won't give me a
crumb, i won't give you anything- take the body- what do you think morrigan's- kill minako and
makoto- you look exhausted- kill her- wasn't morrigan enough- THANK YOU- take a look at me now-
why can't you EVER see- do you want it- is this what you wanted- IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED!?)

What I wanted, Kali... sama?

NO. all i ever wanted-

was YOU.

There. That's what's right.

Forsaken by the goddess named Kali Minervo.

***

And so things took their course, as they always have.

Tsukino Usagi, but better known as the soldier of love and justice, the pretty sailor soldier,
(Seeraa Moon) won as she always does, with a strange, sad-looking red-haired girl standing at her
side.

***

No one has anything to say
There is nothing to be said
Only with the secluded darkness known as yesterday
Only with the flash of a moment known as now
Only with the darkness waiting for tomorrow's light, in the theater-

I can become anything
I can become anyone
Only with the secluded darkness known as memory
Only with the flash of a moment known as creation
Only with the darkness waiting for tomorrow's light, in the theater.

Dancing; the performers who wore the mask of time
In the ancient continental theater
Dancing; Those of you who come on the Milky Way Railroad
All of your aspirations, three of the seven Ancient Wonders
And so as a star,
So as a firefly,
Shining as born, shine then disappear
Shining as born, shine then disappear
We who will shine and disappear
Shining as born, now shine and disappear!
Now shine and disappear, the self-sphere
Shining as born, it has shone then disappeared
Shone and disappeared, the self-star
The evening star, the self-star

Shine then disappear, firefly star!