A/N: To answer your question, NeoChaosCrystal, the one about Sailor Moon… I borrowed the third series off my cousin! I mean, I've already done most of the other series I know back-to-front… I suppose I could do Fruits Basket or Inuyasha, and I could try Yu Yu Hakusho but I don't know that very well, I could try Cardcaptor! or maybe Fushigi Yuugi. I could do Fushigi Yuugi, I suppose, but, well, I haven't seen the third OAV. EVERYONE knows Sailor Moon, it's just easy… and fun to write, when you're a sixteen-year-old cynic who watches that kind of thing. ^_^v Waaay too long an explanation. In truth I didn't actually put that much thought into it. It was automatically Sailor Moon.

PS- I'm sorry if this (Sailor Moon) offends anyone, by the way. If you don't know what/who Sailor Moon is… that must be one damn big rock you're living under. What the hell are Cheerios anyway? Aside from breakfast cereal. We don't have them in Australia but since I'm under the impression 90% of the people on ff.net are Americans …. a matter of convenience. I'm not spending a whole author's note lecturing on Australian breakfast goods.

OH YEAH, VERY IMPORTANT NOTE HERE: the chapters will be going up A LOT slower because I have to go back to school soon, so please bear with me. I promise to get more than one chapter up in two months, tho -_-;; the updates will be pretty sporadic, so it's probably a good idea to put the story on alert or something so you don't miss out or whatever. Sorry about this.

Chapter 7: To Be The Bad Guys! (Is Surprisingly Easy)

'So now the Sailor Scouts think you're some kind of murdering bitch?' Val summed up the next morning. L'risia nodded. It was too early to think seriously about this.

'Yes, I can see them coming to that conclusion.' Rei said, from where he was perched outside on the balcony. Perched was exactly the right word. He was standing upright on a inch-and-a-half thick rail twenty-seven stories above ground, calmly mowing his way through what had to be at least a whole box of Cheerios.

'Probably not employing the strength of language, though.' The young Dark Lord (Val was beginning to get a bit edgy about this) said. 'Well, this could be fun.'

'What do you mean?' L'risia mumbled into her coffee cup. It was just way too early…

'Isn't it obvious?' Rei said, through a mouthful of chomped breakfast cereal. He looked at their blank expressions. L'risia dismally noted that behind Rei, the sun had just cleared the horizon.

'Apparently not.' Rei sighed to himself. He kicked the rail he was standing on, getting their attention. 'We are live in a world where nothing ever happens by accident. To L'risia and myself especially. We are in the world of Sailor Moon currently; a world where people only die from evil causes and love and justice always triumph in the end. What we have- or L'risia, really- just witnessed is the typical opening to a new series of Magical Girl Heroines, i.e., Bad Guy Attacking Innocents. The difference is that this bad guy really killed people. That's never happened before, here.'

'Does this have a point somewhere?' Val said, annoyed at the boy's authoritive tone.

'We have to be the bad guys because that's the way this world works.' Rei groaned, slapping his forehead. 'And at the same time, we have to fight the real bad guy? Do you get it? This is the typical "victimised not-really-middle- bad-guy" plot.'

'And why do we have to do this?' Val said, whose experience of stories was limited to what L'risia could be bothered to tell him.

'You remember Zelgadis talking about round planets and how they had an axis?'

'Yeah.' Val said, looking at L'risia, who was still staring gloomily into her coffee. Val wondered if he should have put something in it, like vodka, perhaps.

'Right. Imagine grabbing hold of that axis, waving it around and then bringing your arm forward so fast the world goes hurtling off into oblivion.'

There was a small silence. Val and Rei sweatdropped.

'I'll… get you another coffee.' Val said, glancing at Rei. 'So we're the bad guys?'

'Yes.' Rei said, giving up. Oh well. At least they seemed to get what they had to DO. Things did become easier when people stopped wondering WHY and just did things. It was just so… frustrating, really.  Now there was school… Rei turned around and glanced out over the city. He grinned. He was kind of looking forward… to school.

'Bai bai!' Roudy yelled, waving from where he was sitting on the fence.  As the rest of them walked down the path, L'risia sighed.

'That looked like fun.'

'Yeah, they were drawing with crayons.' Val said, raising an eyebrow at L'risia and wondering if she was still suffering from lack of sleep or what Rei simply called E.M.S: Early Morning Syndrome.

'Don't knock crayons.' L'risia said. 'When you grow out of something, years later you want it back. Crayons are the little bit of childhood in everyone.'

Val and Rei swapped shrugs, and Rina tossed her hair, walking demurely in front of them. She was a serious student, Val recalled. She walked with both hands in front of her, clasped neatly around her books. She had insisted on ironing her new uniform herself.

'Crayons are for children.' She said coolly.

'That was my point.' L'risia said, rasing her head to look at Rina's back. Val raised an eyebrow. L'risia's expression wasn't one entirely of doom and gloom any more. There was a sharpness in there he recognised, and breathed out. L'risia wasn't easy to deal with in the mornings, but now she was waking up.

'Oh, this is my school.' Rina said, stopping at the gate. She nodded at the older trio.

'I'll see you all later, then?'

'Sure,' Val said. 'Just pick up Roudy and go home, don't wait for us.'

'But why?' Rina asked, looking up at him.

'Well, we don't know when we'll be out.' Val grinned. 'You never knew, L'risia might totally fail to scare people away this time and be incredibly popular!'

'Oh please. The chances of you being drowned under hordes of adoring females is more likely why we'll be late back.'

'Drowning under adoring females…' Rei mused, scratching his chin. 'Déjà vu? Hm…'

'Actually, now that you mention it, I'm beginning to feel like we forgot something.' Val said, looking at L'risia, who shrugged and looked at Rina.

'Do you know?'

'I have no idea.' Rina said a little coolly, taking the first few steps into the school.

'VAL-SAMAAAA!'

'Run!' Val yelped, breaking into a sprint down the street. L'risia held down her skirt as another whirlwind zoomed past. Tears hit the pavement in its wake.

'…oh. Rebecca.'

'I really hoped I'd never get stuck with one of Val's fangirls one day, but… oh well. See you later, Ri- Rina?' L'risia and Val stared at the empty spot where the girl had been.

'… That's weird…'

Fortunately- or not- the senior high school Val and L'risia were going to was separated from Rei's by a single wire fence. It was therefore fairly standard practise to see students in different uniforms walking about the yards, since the teachers had long since discovered trying to, "chain the hearts of the youth of this vibrant and love-filled nation!" was impossible. Lunchtime came, and when L'risia couldn't see Val anywhere she stomped up to the roof.

'Val.' She sighed, opening the door and seeing him jump. 'It's only me.'

'Did she follow you?' Val said, looking hunted. Er, pun wasn't actually intended there, but it's the perfect word, really. L'risia shut the door.

'No. She's looking for you in the cafeteria.'

Val looked puzzled.

'Why would I be in there?'

'Don't ask me.'

Rei had had a much more eventful morning than L'risia had. While her morning consisted of convincing two girls Val wasn't her boyfriend (there'd be trouble if the fact they lived together got out) and trying not to laugh and Rebecca's devised "Val-sama-holding" techniques, Rei's morning had been spent playing with teenage human girls. This was one of Rei's little hobbies. They were so very amusing. L'risia had watched him do this for a little while before and had been so disgusted she'd laughed her head off before going off and getting a coffee. She said later she didn't really have much sympathy left for girls who claimed to love a fifteen-year-old boy who was flirting with every other cute girl within a ten-kilometre radius. Rei liked girls like this. And here was a school full of them… not excluding Makoto, Usagi, Ami and Minako. Raye, sadly, went to another school, but he could have some fun with her later if he took the girls up on their offer to visit her shrine. Which he intended to do. Perhaps he should bring Roudy along. That child was refreshingly evil in such an innocent way…he had great potential. He smiled winningly at Makoto, who was trying not-so-subtly to ask about L'risia. Since they did look very much alike anyway, L'risia and he had agreed to be "siblings". It wasn't entirely a lie, after all.

'L'ri? She can be quite nasty at times, but she hardly ever means it. It's just a self-defence mechanism.'

'Self-defence?'

'Oh, don't you know?' Rei said, watching her melt under his smile. 'It's kind of rare nowadays, I guess, but some people are afraid to-' he stopped. L'risia would kill him. His smile changed to mischievous and he kissed her cheek quickly.

'Actually, I made all of that up! She's a nice girl though, underneath it all. I have to go find her and Val now, see you in a few minutes!'

Makoto's face turned red. Steam radiated off Mina and even a furiously blushing Ami. Usagi wasn't that impressed either, but at least she had a boyfriend.

'You-' Mina growled, throwing her hands around her best friend's neck. 'HOW DARE YOU!'

'Are we interrupting something?'

Mina dropped Makoto back onto the floor, turning around with a dazzling smile.

'Why Val, hello!' she said. 'That was quick, Rei.'

'It was, wasn't it?' the boy agreed, from where he was standing next to L'risia. He looked mildly amused as he bent over the gasping Makoto. 'I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble, Mako-chan.'

'It's- all right-' Makoto wheezed. L'risia raised an eyebrow at Rei's smug expression, and sighed. He'd been having too much fun again. She'd hate to see him when he looked in his late teens/early twenties. She wasn't really sure why he didn't look like that, actually. She'd have to ask him. In the meantime- food! She and Rina had both realised they hadn't got lunch after they had left the apartment building, and so had had to run to the 7-11 down the road to get five pre-packed obento. Rebecca had borrowed some money off a boy in their class and had had to eat in the cafeteria. Val had totally failed to keep a straight face when L'risia had informed him of this. Not that she'd done such a great job herself, of course, but-

'You look tired, L'risia-san.' Ami said. 'Did you get enough sleep last night?'

L'risia glanced at the girl. Clever, yes, but not a poker player. It was her eyes that gave her away. Still, L'risia was mildly impressed, though she realised she was probably being a little harsh.

'Not really,' she said, smiling a little worriedly. 'I don't know why; I went to bed early and slept like a rock, but for some reason I only feel like I got a few hours sleep.'

'Really?'

'Didn't you say you had a weird dream?' Val helped.

'Yeah… something about a café.' L'risia said. 'I don't remember it that well though. Kind of fuzzy, like most dreams get. That's what happens when you eat too fast.' She added, hitting Rei on the back as he choked on a lump of rice. Val watched Usagi and her three friends exchange glances from underneath his eyelids from his perch in a tree. Sigh…he glanced at L'risia, who was sweatdropping as some random comment gave Usagi a chance to gush about Mamoru. L'risia had once told Val, after he'd watched an episode of Sailor Moon with her, than if she ever started gushing like that to just kill her. Val had silently vowed to first hunt down and make the object of the gushing regret that Val hadn't killed him. On some distant level, he was aware he should be doing something. The thing was… she wasn't blind. She just pretended to be, and that made it worse. She knew how people worked. She wasn't that good at dealing with emotions of herself or other people because she locked them all up… it was funny, the way light fell through the trees. L'risia said there were worlds where people never appeared outlined against the moon because it would get them outlined against the pavement in white chalk. They didn't stop to preach in the middle of a fight and there weren't sweatdrops and anger-marks and the last minute was hardly ever enough time for anything to get done. She said it was a world that didn't run on narrative causality. She never explained what that meant, but perhaps it had had something to do with what Rei was saying early that morning.

The thing was… he wondered what it would be like in a world where sunlight didn't glimmer through the leaves and danced around her like sparkles of private magic. A world where a warm breeze didn't pass and curl her hairs around her face, making her smile and brush it away, almost slow motion, sound faded. Such things… L'risia had told him… there was a world where it didn't happen. He asked why. She had never answered.

'Where did L'risia go?' Mr Takayama asked Val, who honestly had no idea. L'risia had jogged off somewhere and hadn't come back. Rei had given Val a Look. It said, "Business". Val still didn't know what "business" was.

'I don't know, sir.' Val said.

'You were with her at lunch time, weren't you?'

'Yes sir, but-' Val stopped. The teacher looked at him strangely and was about to insist he continue when the door slid open. L'risia looked more tired than Val remembered.

'Sorry I'm late, sir, I had to see the art teacher.'

'Oh. Well… all right, L'risia… sit down.'

'That's so romantic.' A girl near Val sighed. Val bit down hard on the end of his pen.

'I know, how he just knew she was coming? Isn't that cute?'

Val concentrated on geography. It was a lot less confusing. And embarrassing. Hadn't they ever heard of ki?

'You look,' Rei said as soon as he saw L'risia that afternoon, 'like you are about to go to sleep.'

'All I have to say is thank whatever gods there are in creation they don't get much homework here.' L'risia muttered. She was in a bad mood. Not only was she suffering from severe lack of sleep and overwork but Rebecca had tried to take the stairs five at a time to get to Val before anyone else after the bell, had slipped and knocked herself out as well as breaking a wrist. L'risia obviously couldn't heal it since they'd carted the girl off to a hospital right away and it was confirmed it was broken and everything, so a miraculously healed broken bone was going to look a bit suspicious. L'risia had a feeling she was going to have to knock Rebecca out again when they went to pick her up. And then she'd had to wait until Val's groupies left him alone, which had eventually happened by Val saying he had to go to the toilet, pulling off the air vent and coming out on the roof, leaving L'risia with a bunch if wailing, squeaky-voiced immature teenage girls who didn't realise there was more to life than Valentine and White Day. And THEN the Sailor girls had hunted her down!

Rei and Val looked at the flames in L'risia's eyes.

'I say we buy ice cream and take her home.' Val said, taking L'risia's wrist and tugging her along after him.

'Good idea.'

They were at Tokyo Tower. They didn't DO anything. Really. Okay, so Rei said it looked nicer on fire, but that was Rei and fairly standard behaviour. It was not standard behaviour for the viewing area to blow up at the end of his sentence. Screams echoed from around them, and the place was cleared in a flash, never mind the fact the place was in the middle of Tokyo. It was just clear. The three out-worlders just stared. Rubble rained around them.

'…okay.' Val said eventually. 'Was anyone in there?'

'Three security guards.' Anika said. 'No one else.'

'How do you-'

'I think that was our cue.' Rei said, cutting in front of him.

'I refuse to wear spandex.'

'No one's suggesting you do.'

'Oh no!'

'This is terrible!' Sailor Mars gasped, staring in horror at the flames. 'Who would do something like this? Killing innocent people!'

'You can't think about that.' Luna said sharply. 'You have to capture whoever did this before they can do it again! Real people died!'

'And don't stop to wonder about their true identities.' Artemis groaned. 'Please!'

'Look, in the flames!' Sailor Mercury said, pointing a perfectly gloved hand. The Sailor Scouts looked. Just above the crimson flames, on the red mist between them and the night sky, were three figures. Flames roared around their feet. Sparkles of flaming metal caught the colour in their eyes and hair.

'Oh no-' breathed Sailor Mars. 'That's-' she broke off into a scream as a fireball rocketed at them from behind, scattering them in all directions.

'How rude!' Sailor Moon squeaked, and stood up. She pointed a finer at the three figures.

'How DARE you kill innocent people! And not only do you do that you commit and act of vandalism! For Love and Justice! The-'

'Will you shut up?' A well-placed boot squashed the girl into the dirt. Rei stepped off her head, quite calmly.

'Much better.' Rei said, and heard a scream from someone that sounded like Sailor Mars. 'Now…' Rei helped a now very shocked Sailor Moon to her feet and gave her a dazzling smile.

'R-Rei?' Sailor Moon stammered. The boy's smile widened as he titled his head to the side, watching her with laughing eyes. He'd changed his clothes. This was a very simple matter to do. He now wore a long black shirt with a high collar that reached his knees, and trousers. The coat looked almost like a trenchcoat. He was quite impressed with L'risia. She did in fact have a .. uniform, for occasions where she had to conform to social expectations and wear something a powerful, dark and mysterious Agent of Chaos would wear. Needless to say this included black clothing. Very little of it. Well, that was the specification. L'risia had given that outfit to Cleo and now wore black leather pants, boots and a thigh-length jacket over one of her more revealing blue shirts. Val had never seen it. Rei was impressed he hadn't drooled. L'risia also had on a strange silver-blue lipstick. She was the only woman Rei had seen pull hat look off perfectly. Val couldn't change his appearance when he wished so L'risia had made a few adjustments to the clothes he wore back in his home world. They were very similar to what he had worn in the life he didn't remember, as Gaav's servant. The shirt had been lengthened, fortunately. Male midriffs were a definite fashion no. L'risia just changed the colouring a bit and made the sleeves different lengths, saying that for some reason this looked okay. And they did, Rei had to admit, look quite evil. Val and L'risia were both disturbingly good at looking evil.

'Rei?' he murmured. 'Yes, perhaps.'

'Eh?' Sailor Moon said, round-eyed.

'Who are you?!' Sailor Mars demanded.

'Val? L'risia?' Sailor Venus said, looking shaken.

'Yes.' L'risia smiled. Her fangs glinted. 'And then again no.'

Sailor Mars was getting fed up with being ignored.

'BURNING-' she yelled. Val watched the spiral-and-light routine with interest. 'MANDALA!!!!'

'Ooh.' He murmured, and teleported. L'risia and Val flickered out of existence, and Sailor Venus, Moon and Mercury got fried.

'… they're dumber than I thought.' Val said. 'How do they end up winning all the time?'

'They're the good ones.' L'risia sighed bitterly, and brought her hand around, hard, on the back of Sailor Mars' neck. The girl crumpled. Val glided around Sailor Jupiter's flung kicks, and grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her up against him. She blushed furiously.

'Way too slow.' He murmured, driving his fist into her stomach. Then they disappeared. Sailor Moon's fingers gripped her rod tightly. They had… killed people…murderers! And.. she had let them get away!

'They'll be very angry.' L'risia said, as they walked along to the hospital to pick up Rebecca. 'They always are when someone has to die. They get very determined and strong.'

'Half of humanity do. The rest of them crumble.' Rei said calmly. 'They stop thinking; react on what is engraved in their hearts and heads. That's how it is… most things come down to instinct.'

'Why can't they learn people die? They die all the time and yes it's sad, but it happens?'

'Because this is Sailor Moon.' L'risia said darkly. 'And here… it doesn't. Besides blowing up national monuments, with or without people in them is a terrorist act. I suppose little girls in shorts skirts have a better chance of catching the criminals than the police do.'

'If you're going to be patronising, L'risia, sound like you mean it…'

.