Moon of Destiny

by Lord-Mandrake

Post Galaxia, The Senshi learn the history of the universe before the Moon Kingdom. Powerful enemies and Allies awaken, and destinies are fulfilled

6. War ensamble

Ami Rei and Usagi sat in Rei's room at the Jinja chatting, they were still discussing the previous school week, and the odd behaviour of Makoto. Usagi worried that something was wrong. Makoto had seemed so happy to be with Konjou, and now she could hardly look at him. She hoped Konjou hadn't done anything to hurt her.

Rei only half listened to Usagi. She was still tied in knots about Mina's appearance. It hurt, Rei discovered, to feel so inadequate compared to Mina. Especially when she had finally admitted to herself the truth, she had fallen for Tenjin. She knew it was stupid. Mina had had Tenjin wrapped around her finger from the first day she met him. Rei had never had a chance. It also hurt to know that there was just no way that anyone would prefer her to Mina. Mina looked like a goddess. Rei knew that she was beautiful, but nobody other than possibly Usagi could hold a candle to Mina.

Every time she saw the two of them together it twisted the knife again. He had tried to be her friend from the first time he saw her, she privately admitted. Perhaps, she thought to herself, had she been nicer to him then, she might have had a chance of capturing his heart. It was too late now. She recalled her feelings when Mamoru had been revealed to be Prince Endymion, Usagi's lover from the past. This was even worse. At least with Mamoru she had lost to destiny, with Tenjin she lost on her own. She didn't know why fate felt it would be so amusing to taunt her with feelings for men she could never have, but she wished just once that she could be the woman a man looked at with that amount of love in his eyes.

Ami was fuming. Things were not going as planed. An entire week had passed since she began her efforts to gather a sample of Konjou's tissue. Thus far she had been thwarted on every attempt. She was quickly running out of options. Her silent musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. Rei called her permission to enter, and Makoto opened the door.

Usagi was on her feet before the door was fully opened. The look on Makoto's face explained to Ami why, before she even had a chance to wonder. Makoto looked like hell. Her face was blotchy from tears. Her eyes were red and puffy, and the look of abject misery on her face called out to the protective urges of all her friends.

"Mako-chan, what happened?" Usagi said as she pulled Makoto into her embrace.

"I. I." she tried to speak, but could no longer form words. The emotional fortitude she had managed to scrape together in Konjou's arms had given out. To be fair it had lasted much longer than it should have. It had survived Makoto turning her back on the man she loved, it had made it halfway across Juuban to the Hikawa Jinja. It could hardly have been expected to survive Usagi's compassion. Large nasty monsters hell bent on destroying, enslaving and eating the world had melted under her caring gaze, promising to repent.

"It's over." She managed to struggle out between sobs.

"What's over?" Rei asked worriedly.

Ami already had a very good idea what Makoto probably meant. In a move very unlike her normal actions Ami joined the hug Usagi gave Makoto.

"He broke up with you didn't he?" Ami asked.

Makoto shook her head negatively. Her sobs lessened as she tried to explain.

"I. I broke up with him. I just couldn't keep hurting him like I was."

"What do you mean Mako-chan?" Usagi asked.

"I'm scared of him, myself and my own feelings. You have no idea how scary it is not to be able to trust yourself. I can't go as far as either of us want to. He always stops when I ask, but every time I get near him I start something. I can see how much it hurts him when I pull away from him. Not physically pull away, but pull away emotionally. I know I love him, and he loves me, but not the way I need him to." She said sadly.

"I can't hurt him any more. When I avoided him this week I could see the hurt in his eyes every time. I know even though he said he understands why I broke up with him, that he really doesn't. He can't because even I don't really. I need him, Usagi-chan, I need him but I can't have him." She whispered. Her words took on the tone of a mantra, as if Makoto were trying to convince herself.

"Oh, Mako-chan." Usagi said, hugging the crying girl even tighter.

Ami glared at the wall, as she comforted her friend. Konjou had made his last error. Allowing Makoto to fall in love with the façade of a high school student he presented was bad enough, but hurting her like this, and even worse in Ami's opinion, making her believe it was her own fault, was unpardonable.

Makoto continued to explain her actions to Usagi and Rei, but Ami had long since stopped really listening. Her mind was completely occupied with plans to make Konjou suffer. All she lacked was the opening move. She knew that soon enough inspiration would strike, and when it did Konjou would regret ever crossing the Senshi.

******** Mina was having the time of her life. The candle lit restaurant he had taken her to was one of the premier of Tokyo. Going dancing afterwards was completely over the top, even for him. Tenjin was a wonderful dancer, she hardly felt as if her feet touched the floor. For once, everything was going her way, and it was perfect.

Tenjin led her across the floor in a slow waltz. His steps were completely unfamiliar, but easy to pick up. The candlelight reflected off the slowly turning mirror balls, lending to the darkened dance floor the illusion of floating in space. The entire set up was quite reminiscent of a ball during the Moon Kingdom.

She sighed in pleasure and allowed her head to rest on his shoulder. She could easily feel his heart beating from where she rested. He leaned his head down and brushed his lips against her temple.

"Meethay kondrun assai Mina?" He whispered.

"What?" she asked

"I asked if you wanted to share that thought."

"I was just thinking that tonight couldn't possibly get any better."

"That sounds like a challenge to me Mina-chan."

"I isn't. I love you, Tenjin."

"Sedrul laserin Aino Minako."

"What language is that, Tenjin?" She asked dreamily.

"The only one my father taught me." He said simply raising her head to brush her lips softly.

"You never talk about your Mother. What happened to her."

"My father never mentioned me having one." He replied with a smile.

"That's terrible." She said with a smile at his attempt at a joke. "Ok, if you won't tell me about your mother, tell me more about your father. What did he do?"

"He was a builder."

"Really, what did he build?"

"Oh I'm pretty sure you've seen some of his work around here."

"Like what?"

"It would be a lot easier just to show you. I'll take you to see some of his work as soon as I can, ok?"

"Ok. You are very difficult to get a straight answer out of, you do know that right?"

"Maybe so, but I've never been even slightly dishonest with you."

"Hmm, Tenjin, I think I'm done dancing."

"Can you promise me that you'll remember that?"

"That I'm done dancing?"

"No, that I've always been honest. It's very important to me, and someday I think it will be important to you."

"I'll remember, I promise you." She kissed him to seal her vow.

"If you're done dancing, where would you like to go now?"

"Your place." She said without a hint of a blush.

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"More than I can ever explain."

Tenjin looked deep into Mina's eyes, searching for even a hint of doubt. Her blue gaze wavered not in the slightest under his scrutiny. He led her to their table and collected their belongings. The maître d' appeared almost instantly to settle their bill. Once outside Tenjin pulled Mina closer into his embrace.

"Mina, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"What's that." She asked dreamily.

"Are you taking any precautions against pregnancy?"

"Ummm, that. I don't think it will be a problem Tenjin."

"Really?"

"Yep, I'm one hundred percent safe."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yep, why were you hoping to get me pregnant Ten-chan?"

"No, no not that. Its just we haven't exactly been careful, and I'd hate to see you wind up having a baby before you're ready."

"Well don't worry about it. I doubt you could make me pregnant if you tried."

"Now that definitely sounds like a challenge."

"How about we make a deal, Ten-chan, you can try as much as you like, as long as you don't succeed until I graduate."

"And what happens if I succeed before then, hmm Mina-chan?"

"You don't want to think about it. It would be bad."

"I'll take that under advisement." He said with mock seriousness. "I take it that you mother believes you're spending the night at the Jinja?" Mina simply smiled in response. "Well then, we better hurry back to the apartment before it rains."

"What do you mean rains? The sky is completely clear."

"Call it a hunch."

"Ok."

Words were unnecessary to them as they made their way to the apartment. The trip was much shorter than Mina had expected. She just closed her eyes and leaned against him as they walked, and the next thing she knew they were at the main door to the apartment building.

"That was fast." She said as they made their way up the stairs.

"Yea, it did seem like a short walk didn't it?" He replied, while he unlocked his door.

Once they were inside, he took her hand softly and led her towards his rooms. His expression was both loving and mischievous. She was fairly certain what was on his mind, which was just fine with her. He stopped at the door to his bedroom, a serious expression sliding down over his face.

"Do you mind if I slip into something more comfortable, Mina-chan?"

"Like what?" she asked somewhat confused.

"Mina."

"What?"

"Mina, that's what I want to slip into." He said as he lifted her off her feet, and carried her through his now open door.

******** He hovered above the small blue world his cousin had so long ago formed. The view was truly spectacular, but he hardly noticed. There was complete silence in the airless void around him, yet he seemed to listen to something. His head turned slightly to the side, as if angling to hear better.

"Yes, the time has finally arrived. I wonder how they will feel when they find out." He said to himself, his voice carrying to his ears despite the vacuum. "Oh well, I might as well get started. It's not every day I get to meet my soulmate."

In an instant he black robed man disappeared from his position above the planet, to reappear on its surface.

******** This was one of the few times he envied mortals, Neko thought. If it were possible he would just get completely drunk out of his mind, and deal with his troubles after he sobered up. Say in about forty or fifty years.

He floated a half dozen metres above the core of the new power plant the elementals were building at he and Mori's request. They were three days ahead of schedule and gaining already. The ambient magical energy in the area allowed the elementals to shape the stone much easier. At this pace they would finish almost a week ahead of plan. The humans would be happy to have their power back.

Thoughts of humans brought his mind back to the reason he was out here tonight, instead of enjoying himself, Makoto. There were so many things working against a relationship between them. She was afraid of him, there was no way she could hide that. She needed more than he could offer her. She was mortal. She was a Sailor Senshi.

That was the crux of the matter. As soon as she realised who he was, all hope of her ever coming back to him was over. It was really best that she left now, before she fell any deeper in love with him. She would already feel betrayed when she learned about him. Had they gone any further she would likely hate herself and him for all time.

Maybe if I keep telling myself that I'll eventually believe it. He thought.

Neko firmed his willpower, reaching into the part of him that only he of all the beings in the Universe possessed, and forcibly shaped the raw magical energy into an amazing construct. It appeared before him as a long glowing band, highly reminiscent of scrollwork. The magical construct settled onto the recently constructed inner wall of the primary energy transmuter, and burned itself deep into its surface. Once it was complete Neko nodded in satisfaction. That ward would keep anything shy of an irate Primarch from so much as scratching the wall.

His attention was diverted from further contemplation of his self appointed task by a powerful magical pulse. The feel of the magic was intimately familiar, and very near his home. He considered telling Mori about it but unless he was busy with Mina there was no way he missed that. It looked like they would be having a guest soon.

******** She moaned softly once again as his fingers delved deep into her. His hands and mouth had blazed a path across every inch of her already. He pulled her nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. His other hand roamed her body like musician tuning an instrument, caressing her in all the right places, places she could hardly think about without blushing. Another hard wave of pleasure surged through her, bringing a short cry to her throat. She could no longer hold them back, yet their sound seemed only to encourage him to go further. She knew she couldn't take much more.

Her hands were trapped under his knees, keeping her from either returning or halting his touch. Her entire body was vibrating in reaction to his hands when she finally freed herself. Instead of trying to stop his exploitation she immediately encircled his manhood with one hand and pulled herself to a half sitting position with the other. She looked deep into his eyes as she said her first recognisable words in hours.

"Fuck me." She commanded.

With a truly evil grin he pushed her legs farther apart, and settled himself between them. She tensed in expectation of the intrusion and cried out again when he speared deep into her with a single stroke. The feeling of being filled by him nearly took her over the edge that instant. He rocked in and out of her slowly, allowing her to adjust to his movements, all the while continuing his assault on her breasts with teeth lips and hands.

Her blood heated to the boiling point. The muscles in her stomach and legs began to spasm. She could feel her release only inches away. His breathing was slow and steady. There was no way he would finish when she did, but that simply meant he would continue. Her cries took on a desperate tone, she could feel the flames just beyond her reach she strained her body, trying to get closer to him, and he plunged deeper into her than he ever had before. Her orgasm tore a long loud scream of ecstasy from her.

Ami awoke shaking from her dream, her raw throat quickly confirmed her worst fears, she had been talking, or more to the point screaming, in her sleep. The other girls were wide awake and goggling at her in shock. The smell of her sexual secretions was heavy, and unmistakable in the air.

"Ara." Usagi said.

Makoto and Rei were simply too shocked to speak. Ami knew that their silence wouldn't last. She could have tried to escape to the bathroom, but it wouldn't have done any good. She couldn't stay there forever, and it was the middle of the night, there was nowhere to run. Ami sat waiting for the humiliation only good friends can give you to begin.

"Well," Rei began, "it's obvious you were having pleasant dreams. Care to share any more of it with us?"

Ami hung her head in abject misery, it had begun. She couldn't meet Makoto's eyes. How in the world could she possibly get out of telling the girls who she was dreaming about? She highly doubted Makoto would be happy to learn that Ami had been having frequent, erotic and highly graphic dreams about her boyfriend, even if she had just broken up with him.

"What's the matter Ami? You were all too happy to share with us a minute ago." Rei continued. If looks could kill Rei would have needed her grandfather to perform her funeral services.

"I can hardly control what happens in my dreams." Ami stated flatly. "I'm quite sure you've had more than a few nocturnal fantasies Rei."

"Possibly," She equivocated, "but if I have it never happened at a slumber party." Her grin was positively demonic. "So spill, other than the obvious what happened." The other girls crowded around making escape impossible.

Ami nearly growled at the intrusion. Sure, these were her best friends. Sure, she loved them like sisters, but she was embarrassed, angry, and slightly afraid of just how graphic the dream had been. Besides, she needed to change her underwear badly.

"I promise to tell you more about it in the morning, ok minna?"

"You won't escape without talking Ami." Makoto said.

"I won't try to run, I'd just rather try to put this behind me."

"Ohh, from behind?" Rei asked deviously.

"Not like that hentai!" Ami nearly shouted.

Ami stood and marched over to her bag. She began carelessly throwing things out looking for a change of panties. Once she found what she sought she turned to her friends.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. Try to find something else to amuse you while I'm gone." She said primly. With that she marched out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. She striped her pyjama bottoms and sodden panties off as soon as she closed the door. Her pyjamas were as bad off as her panties. Ami felt like weeping. She would never, ever live this down.

She turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature to something hot enough to scour the evidence of her dream from her. As she stepped under the spray of water she gave a thought to her friends' actions. She knew had it have been anyone else she would have been as curious as they were, only more tactful.

She soaped herself down noticing how slick her nether regions still were. It took all of her willpower to keep herself from doing anything more than cleaning. By the time she was done her body was once again positively humming. She dried off with as little contact of sensitive places as she could and stepped into her clean panties and her pyjama top. He hardened nipples were completely obvious. She hoped, though she knew it was futile, that the other girls would think it was from being cold. Yea right, she thought to herself, its 30 degrees outside. Steeling herself to face the most embarrassing inquisition of her life Ami once again walked into Rei's room.

******** Mina lay sleeping in his arms. Her golden hair was thrown over her shoulder covering her naked breasts with a semblance of modesty. Her arms lay bent in front of her. Her legs were still somewhat intertwined with his as he held her from behind.

He watched her slow even breaths, a smile on his face as he allowed himself to be drawn into the memory of her loving. Mina gave so freely of her heart in this. It constantly surprised him just how much she affected him. He was very close to thirteen billion years old. He had had countless lovers since the rise of the Ulterran, but nothing he had ever experienced had prepared him for this. Being with Mina stilled restless, and lit darkened, places in his heart he hadn't even known existed. When he was near her, he felt complete, as if he had regained some part of himself that he couldn't recall losing. When she was gone, all of his doubts about the rightness of his mission, and his actions throughout his life, returned in full.

He was no longer exactly stable without her, he mused as he held her. His emotions were becoming far more difficult to control. He believed the cause was quilt. In her presence the joy she gave him overpowered all else, but when she left the hidden feelings would again surface.

Mina interrupted his thoughts by rolling over and snuggling deeper into his arms. The feeling of her lush softness rubbing against him awoke other urges. Tenjin wondered briefly if Mina had had enough rest for what he was planning. In less than an instant the decision was made, it was time to give Mina an unforgettable wakeup call.

******** Half seven on Monday morning arrived in a blur for Ami. She woke as normal, ten minutes before her alarm and set out to prepare for her day. After her shower, she dressed in her school fuku as if she were donning armour. She had finally hit upon the perfect plan. It was her dreams that gave her the idea. It was such a simple plan she couldn't understand why she hadn't thought of it before. She was going to seduce Konjou. Not only would she be able to get the sample she wanted, but in the process she could get revenge for his breaking Makoto's heart. She grabbed her breakfast and headed out the door, with a spring in her step unseen in weeks.

The girls met up outside the school. Mina had already attached herself to Tenjin's arm, and Makoto stood on the other side of the group from Konjou. The sad glances that they cast at one another when the other wasn't looking were heartbreaking. Haruka and Michiru seemed in deep conversation with Mina, Tenjin, and Konjou. The topic of conversation was music.

"So you say that you actually play then?" Michiru asked politely.

"Yea, I spent a long time learning how to play the hammered dulcimer, and Konjou here can play just about anything with strings." Tenjin responded.

Konjou looked as if he wanted to add something but held back. Haruka smiled at the love shining so brightly in Mina's eyes. She was happy for Mina, even though she knew Mina would far outlive any lovers she took. She seemed to almost glow with happiness recently.

".have to get together and play sometime." Konjou was saying.

"I would very much like that." Michiru agreed.

"Ohhh. I really don't like those boys." Hotaru commented looking away from the gathering of friends.

About a dozen metres away, a small group of second and third year students were gathered around a young and very small boy. The boy was obviously not a part of the older group, and was equally obviously not in the crowd by choice. He seemed to be attempting to get away from them, but kept being pushed back.

"Mouu, those boys do that all the time. They're always picking on one of the first year students." Hotaru complained. Everyone could tell that she had first hand experience with their adolescent torments.

"I don't understand why people do things like that." Haruka said as she looked again at the group of boys. She was becoming agitated at their actions, and the girls could tell she was about to walk over and help the first year student out.

"It's a condition of all sentient life," Konjou added barely glancing at the crowd. "For growth to happen there must be struggle. Strife creates the conditions for improvement. Without conflict, life would have never gotten past bacteria. That behaviour is the unfortunate side effect of the natural course of evolution. The weak in any specie get weeded out, and since humans are the top of the food chain, the have to do the weeding themselves."

"That's disgusting." Michiru said, indicating both the behaviour and her opinion of Konjou's words.

Haruka had taken but a single step towards the boys when Tenjin spoke.

"Steth're!" Tenjin said harshly. He quickly grabbed Haruka's wrist and halted her movement.

"Konjou, take a good look at that boy." He said ignoring Haruka's sputtering and futile attempts of getting loose.

"Oh shit," he swore, "is that who I think it is?"

"I think so."

By this time Haruka was quite angry at Tenjin. He still hadn't let go, and didn't even seem to notice her attempts to free herself. Hotaru frowned at the upperclassmen, while Michiru tried to calm Haruka.

"Excuse me!" Haruka almost yelled in Tenjin's face.

"Oh I'm sorry." Tenjin said as he let her go. The unexpected loss of resistance caused her to overbalance and fall.

Haruka muttered vile oaths as she stood and continued her plan to extricate the first year student from his tormenters. She glared angrily at Konjou when he stepped in her way.

"Get out of the way Konjou." She growled.

"No way Haruka, you don't want anything to do with what's about to happen."

"I'm gonna stop it from happening. I hate bullies."

"Look Haruka, you have no idea what your trying to get yourself into, so for your own safety, butt out."

"What you think I can't take those punks?" She sneered at him.

"Oh I have every confidence you could put them down before they had any idea what happened, but you still don't want in there."

The argument between Haruka and Konjou quickly cleared the area around them. Only their friends remained anywhere near what looked to be shaping up into one of the worst fights the school had ever seen. The Upperclassmen could now be easily heard as they tormented the younger boy.

"What are you gonna do, cry if we don't?" One of the larger boys said, his face only centimetres from the underclassman.

"No," his target replied in a very steady voice, "but I'm only going to ask you one more time to leave me alone."

"Oh really? Hey Kenji, I think this snot nosed little brat is getting angry, oh whatever shall we do?" He finished sarcastically.

"I say we find out if he screams like a girl." Another boy taunted.

Tenjin winced at the words. His body language was almost fearful. Mina knew Tenjin wasn't afraid of the upperclassmen, and though it disappointed her, seemed unwilling to help the little boy. She was at a loss to explain his nervousness.

"Tenjin, I'm afraid to look, how bad is it?" Konjou said, still blocking Haruka's path.

"Really bad."

"What do you think he's gonna to do?"

"On a guess? He already warned them to leave him alone, so he's obviously not in a good mood. I'd say he's gonna give them a few more seconds to go away, then he's gonna start ripping off arms and legs. That's assuming he doesn't just kill everyone within two hundred metres for grins."

All of the girls paled at Tenjin's completely serious sounding statement. Haruka stopped pushing on Konjou's arm and began to step back. Mina clung tightly to Tenjin, and Usagi began to wail.

"Last chance." The underclassman said simply.

The larger boy in front of him snorted with laughter and took a swing. Less than a second later the sharp report of snapping bone echoed sickeningly through the courtyard. Haruka's eyes bugged out in shock at what she saw.

The small boy stood with his hands behind his back, while his attacker stared stupidly at his arm, which was bent nearly double backwards against his elbow. Shock had obviously set in for the older boy, for he was still silent despite the obvious pain he was in. The younger boy's arms seemed to blur for an instant, and another sharp crack followed as his opponent flew backwards through the air. He landed quite some distance away and was already unconscious. Suddenly the upperclassman's friends had lost their interest in picking on the smaller boy. They ran as if they feared for their lives leaving their comrade where he landed.

"Is it over?" Konjou asked once silence again ruled the courtyard.

"Uh huh. Tenjin said distractedly. The little boy was walking towards them.

"How bad was it?"

"One probable casualty, six needing a change of shorts, and something else for people to wonder about."

"Oh, that's good, it could have been a lot worse."

"He's coming this way."

"Ok, it's a lot worse."

The little boy was now very near to the group. Haruka took a defensive posture in front of Hotaru and Michiru. Tenjin pulled Mina behind him, and Konjou stepped in front of the rest of the girls.

The boy was very small, not much taller than Hotaru. He had light brown hair and dark brown eyes. He was very skinny, to the point of looking underfed. His school uniform seemed to hang off of him, appearing several sizes too large. It was very hard to believe that he was old enough to be in high school.

"Tenjin, Konjou, it's a pleasure to see you again." He said with a far too innocent looking smile.

"Hikage, what a surprise to see you here. When did you get in?" Tenjin asked nervously.

"Saturday night. I was going to go over to the apartment, but I decided to give you some warning first." His expression spoke volumes. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" He asked politely.

"Oh I'm sorry. Minna this is my cousin Kisei Hikage, Hikage these are Konjou and my new friends. The tall pretty brunette is Makoto. The frowning blue haired one is Ami, the cute one with the funny hair is Usagi, the fiery tempered black haired one is Rei, and the lovely goddess on my arm is Mina. Over there, the aqua haired beauty is Michiru, and her serious looking partner is Haruka. And of course I can't forget to mention."

"Hotaru," Hikage spoke softly directly to the younger girl, "my cousins have spoken often about all of you, though I must say their descriptions hardly did you justice." He reached out and gently took her hand, brushing his lips across her knuckles. She gasped when he pulled a soft pink rose from his bag and presented it to her.

Hotaru blushed prettily and stammered her thanks. Haruka glared at Hikage like she would a snake, or rabid animal, as he smiled at Hotaru.

"So, Kisei-san, what are you doing here?" Haruka stated more than asked.

Hikage looked pointedly at his loose fitting school uniform and returned his gaze to Hotaru before answering Haruka.

"Getting ready to attend an English class if I'm not mistaken." He said in passing.

Haruka reddened in embarrassment and anger at the foolishness of her question, and the flippancy of his answer. She didn't like this boy one bit, and the blatant way he stared at Hotaru was making her angry.

"Um Haruka? Before you do something foolishly precipitous I should finish introducing you to Hikage. Remember when you asked me where I learned self defence? He's my Sensei." Tenjin said in warning.

Haruka laughed at the absurdity of Tenjin's words. There was just no way this little kid taught those two how to fight. Sure, she thought, she'd just watched him take down a bully hard, but that was nothing compared to what his older cousins could do.

"Haruka-san," Hikage said still not breaking eye contact with Hotaru, "I realize that you must have difficulty believing that, but I would appreciate it if you would hold back from challenging me for a few weeks. It would do you no good to be injured in the next two weeks would it?"

Most of the Senshi stood in shock at his statement. There was no way he could know about their upcoming battle. Haruka's glare intensified as she considered the implications of his words.

"Hikage, how many times have I asked you not to say things like that?" Tenjin said quickly. "You'll have to excuse my cousin. You see he's always going around making predictions like that. Of course he's quite often correct, but that hardly makes up for it. Most people just don't know what to think when faced with an amateur psychic." His smile took the sting out of his words, and made most of the girls laugh softly.

"Excuse me Hotaru-san, but as I have never been to this school before, I wonder if I might impose upon you to ask you to show me around?" Hikage asked her with a very formal bow.

"Hai." Hotaru said in a very small voice. She was still quite red from earlier, and now seemed even more embarrassed.

"Excellent," Hikage replied, "I think we should hurry along, class will be starting soon."

Throughout the rest of the day and over the next week it was impossible to find Hotaru at school, without running into Hikage. They quickly became friends, though any close examination would see that Hikage was clearly trying for more. Haruka spent every spare moment either warning Hotaru how little she knew Hikage, or trying her very best to glare Hikage into submission. Neither tactic was very effective.

Usagi thought the whole thing was perfect. The few times she had spoken with Hikage she found him pleasant, friendly and very polite. He was quite a bit like his older cousins, only far more formal. He seemed to instinctively know what Hotaru needed and was always doing his best to make her smile. Usagi was seriously considering asking them to invite their other cousins over. If the three of them were this perfect for her friends, and she still considered Konjou perfect for Makoto despite their current problems, then it was quite possible in her opinion that their other cousins might make more of her friends happy.

According to Konjou they had an older cousin, Koden, and one a bit younger then Tenjin, Zekkou. The older cousin she would try to set up with Setsuna. Setsuna pretended to be so strong, but Usagi knew she had to be sad and lonely inside. The younger cousin she would either set up with Rei or Ami. It would all depend on what he was like, but both of them needed someone to love. Usagi resolved to talk to Konjou and Tenjin about doing just that as soon as she could get them both alone

The week passed with wondrous quickness for Hotaru. Every time she turned around, Hikage had some new surprise for her. First was the little fluorite firefly pendent he gave her on Tuesday. He said it was a gift for her being kind and showing him around. On Wednesday he gave her a matching pair of earrings. Thursday saw a gift of a model of the solar system. Friday was the clincher though, he gave her a copy of the Saturn symbol, done in some odd purple metal. Sure the symbol looked like a stylized version of her initials intertwined, but there was no mistaking the meaning of his gift. He knew who she was.

She really should have been worried by that, but she wasn't. He seemed completely comfortable with the fact that she was the Senshi of Destruction. He didn't appear at all worried by the knowledge that she was different from everyone else. He seemed to like her anyway. He was odd in his own way. He got every question correct, even when the teacher tried to stump him by asking something that he shouldn't have known. He was much like the Inners described Ami's ex-boyfriend Urawa Ryo. Only he didn't attempt to hide his gift. She wasn't exactly sure of what she thought about his obvious romantic pursuit of her, but the attention was flattering. She only wished he looked more like Konjou, instead of a little boy.

Haruka was livid. That little brat Hikage had been sniffing around Hotaru all week, and it looked like Hotaru was encouraging him despite all of her warnings to the contrary. She had told Konjou and Tenjin to keep the brat away from her daughter, but they had actually laughed at her. They had told her if he wanted to flirt with Hotaru, they for damn sure wouldn't get in his way. Then they had said something about Hikage hurting them if they made him angry. If the entire idea weren't ludicrous she would swear they were afraid of him. That was unimportant however, she needed to find a way to convince Hotaru to stay away from Hikage before she did something completely stupid, like start to fall for the little creep.

Ami opened the journal she had started when she began this plan. All of the notes she had taken in the last week on both her target's activities and the interaction of all the couples she knew. Starting on Monday she had began jotting down her observations of Konjou's activities, likes and dislikes, basically any and everything she could learn that would aid her in her seduction of him. It was the kind of information she would have more expected Mina to have gathered, but was far more complete than even the self proclaimed Senshi of Love had ever managed to collect on a boy. She had followed him everywhere she could.

********

Monday had seen the start of her plan. From the beginning of school until she had dashed home to sleep she had followed him. She waited for hours in the lobby of his apartment complex. Her disguise had made her unrecognisable and she used the long wait to study for the next day's classes. Unfortunately he had done nothing useful to her cause that day other than express a strong dislike for the instant ramen he had brought for lunch. Apparently both he and Tenjin had been too busy to prepare bentos that morning.

On Tuesday she had forgone monitoring Konjou to watch Mina and Tenjin. She studied carefully the loving touches and secret glances. Even knowing that Tenjin was actually Mordaki did little to dim the softening she felt towards him at the way he made Mina happy. Mina seemed to almost glow with joy. Her observations did little to show her how to seduce Konjou though, as she discovered that neither Mina nor Tenjin demonstrated any need to be seduced by the other. Their romantic actions would help Ami in the later stages of her plan though.

Ami did notice one odd occurrence. All day long she kept running into Rei. It seemed strange to her that Rei would be skulking behind corners, but she dismissed it as unimportant to her mission. It did intrigue her however that Rei seemed to be watching Tenjin. Ami hoped Rei suspected the same thing she did, and was watching Tenjin for proof.

Wednesday went little better. Since watching an already developed relationship did little to teach her seduction, she chose to examine the interaction between Hikage and Hotaru. There was little doubt, even to Ami, that Hikage was attempting to attract Hotaru's interest. It was cute and more than a bit embarrassing to watch the innocent seeming flirtations between them. It was also obvious to her that Hotaru was highly flattered by, and a little nervous of Hikage's attention. His little presents to her were adorable, he reminded her of Urawa-kun in the way he seemed to anticipate Hotaru. She made careful note of all of their actions, but privately believed that the situations were too dissimilar for her to really use them as a template.

Thursday saw her again shadowing Konjou. He was far more difficult to follow then. Instead of just remaining at home he spent the evening wandering around various shops. She learned that the boys ordered all of their groceries and had them delivered rather than dealing with the irritation of carrying them on public transportation. She also learned that they needed a healthier diet. The boys order seemed far closer to what she would have expected Usagi to make rather than a pair of near omniscient beings. She made a note to examine the data she had previously collected on their cellular and DNA structure to determine if their diet was a matter of choice or necessity. Anything she could exploit for the benefit of her mission and the Senshi she would use. Other than his shopping trip he spent several hours at the park just watching the water. She also enjoyed the view, but that had not been point of her excursion.

Friday was the strangest activity for him. She had once again set out to shadow him. Directly after school he headed home and when he came into the lobby of his apartment a few minutes later she noticed that he had changed into a simple T-shirt and shorts attire. She followed him as he set out for a jog. It was sheer hell keeping up with him, but his physical activity was just within the possibility, however improbable, of what a human could do. After an hour of such activity she was sweaty and completely out of breath. He returned to his apartment and cleaned up.

She had desperately wished for the chance to do the same, but her mission gave her no such opportunity. In a strange turn of events after he had already cleaned up he went to a public onsen. She had worried how to afford the exuberant fee she would have to pay to follow him inside, but the woman at the counter had simply waved her in without even charging her. She had used her time wisely. Though she couldn't monitor him as he relaxed on the men's side, she had quickly and efficiently cleaned herself and watched the men's exit as she relaxed in one of the hotter pools. He left an hour later, and Ami found when she followed that the onsen had a cleaning service. Her clothing was freshly laundered and even her shoes shined with fresh polish.

He had then gone to the movies. In order not to completely collapse the Japanese movie industry theatres were allowed to be open one day a week in the energy crisis. Saturday was the day they had decided on. It was strange to think of him watching a love story like the American film "One Fine Day". Several times she had found herself so drawn into the interaction between George Clooney and Michelle Pfeifer that she forgot the real reason that she was there. As she left she again wondered at the reaction of the lady at the ticket counter. She had simply given Ami a ticket without charging her, and had in fact seemed insulted when Ami had attempted to pay anyway.

She had gone home that night in complete confusion. Konjou had acted very strange that night. She had once again failed to gather any data she felt was relevant to her mission. She unlocked the door to her house and walked in, ready to fix herself a late dinner. She hadn't eaten since lunch at school and her stomach was quite forcefully reminding her of its existence. She had gotten less than a foot from the door when the knocking started.

Ami looked through the peephole and saw a strange sight, standing on her porch was a delivery boy from a local restaurant. She answered the door and he simply handed her a take-out bag and walked away, again never asking for payment. Confused even more she walked inside and revealed the contents of the order. Inside she found several vegetarian sandwiches, exactly what she would have ordered had she have placed the call. Ami had just decided that her mother must have ordered out for her as a gift when she found the note.

A pale blue envelope closed by a metallic blue heart sticker sat horrifyingly between two of the wrapped sandwiches. Steeling her nerves to face one of her greatest fears Ami carefully opened the note. The thick off-white paper inside was folded into three sections. When she completely unfolded it she screamed in rage. The note read 'Hope you enjoyed our date as much as I did, K'.

********

Ami mechanically ate the meal before her. Today was Saturday, it had been almost a full day since she realised that Konjou knew she had been following him. All of her plans were worse than useless on someone that was aware of her intent. The simple fact that he had been aware of her was unnerving. She had done everything within her power to conceal her activities. She had never followed him any closer than forty metres, and had even worn very effective disguises. She was certain he shouldn't have been able to recognise her, yet somehow he had.

He had taunted her with his statement about last night's activities being a date. To her that signified that he knew her intent. She was insulted and ashamed that she had been discovered. It just wasn't fair, she concluded to herself. She had no idea how he had discovered his activities, but he had. Now she was left with but a single option. She had only one thing she could do to complete her mission. Ami left a note to her mother that she would be home late. She implied without actually saying it that she planned on assisting Usagi and Minako with studying for an upcoming mathematics exam. Once she had completed the note she called Usagi and informed her that she would be visiting her mother at the hospital and would be unable to attend the get together at the temple. With her multi-layered cover story in place Ami began her seduction of Konjou by donning an impenetrable disguise.

"Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!"

******** Neko stood in the one room of his apartment visitors were unlikely to see. The magic practice room he and Mori had set up was warded heavily enough for the two of them to actually spar with one another without danger of levelling a good portion of the city, or being detected by overly enthusiastic Senshi. He swirled the wine in his glass as he watched the slow process of magical transmutation happening on the table before him. The gift he was making would undoubtedly be less than well received, but she would wear it anyway.

Despite being not entirely in the same dimension as the rest of the apartment, Neko could still easily sense it when someone picked the lock on the northern balcony. He smiled with wry humour as the flavour of the intruder's aura came to him. He shifted back into his Konjou appearance as he stepped through the invisible door back into the dojo. It seemed he had a visitor to deal with.

Ami used the enhanced strength and reflexes of her Sailor Mercury form to gain access to the balcony, picking the lock was a simple matter of magnetizing the latch bar and creating a small opposite polarity point of air just above it. Moments later she had access to the apartment's interior. She snuck down the hallway to the front room. There she found the choice of which of the two other hallways to take simple. She knew from Makoto that Konjou liked cooler colours. The Metallic décor of the eastern hallway was exactly as Mina had described Tenjin's rooms.

As she crossed the front room to the southern hallway she noticed a group of statuettes on the mantle. There were seven of them, all done in various precious gemstones. If she had not known for certain that they were the Primarchs, this would have convinced her.

There was a sapphire statuette of her, a topaz one of Mina, Usagi was carved of what appeared to be a single pearl, one of Rei made of ruby, an emerald one of Makoto. There was one of Hotaru carved of amethyst, and one of Setsuna made of a flawless garnet. The value in gemstones alone was beyond calculation. The fact that they were single piece foot high statues made their very existence an impossibility. Especially when one considered that the statues were completely lifelike. It was simply impossible to carve those kinds of curves into a single piece of gemstone.

Ami shook her head at the complete obviousness of the statues. It was almost like they didn't care if they were found out, which was completely at odds with the rest of their precautions. She wondered why neither Mina nor Makoto had noticed the significance of those statues.

She continued down the hallway, following her memory of the interrogation Usagi had given Makoto about her night spent here. Locating Konjou's room was trivial when she had inside information. She opened the door and slipped inside, the room was thankfully currently unoccupied. She hurriedly closed the door and began her preparations.

Konjou silently followed Ami down the hall, with her totally unaware of his presence. Stealth was one of his primary gifts. Erasing his presence from observation was pathetically easy, even from her scanners. He almost laughed at the sigh of relief she released when she found his room empty. When she shut the door behind her he decided to give her thirty seconds before he entered. She did deserve a sporting chance after all.

After his self imposed time limit Konjou once again allowed himself to become noticeable. Making sure to do so loudly, he casually opened the door to his bedroom. What he saw made him question his sanity.

Ami stood in the middle of his room her Senshi fuku tight as always against her body. Her visor and computer were not in evidence, but he could still feel their magical probing. Her posture was that of a predator, like a lioness waiting patiently for an antelope to wander carelessly into its vision. The look on her face was frankly sexual. Konjou was at a loss for how to react. The decision was quickly taken from him.

Ami nearly jumped out of her skin when Konjou pulled open the door. It took all of her willpower not to flinch as his eyes raked her form, she could almost feel him undressing her with them. When he finished his perusal he stood still, as if unsure of what to do. She gathered her courage and once again took control of the situation she had created.

Ami managed to sway as she sauntered over to him. Her eyes imprisoned his like a snake would a mouse. She stopped just inside of her reach of him and quickly struck out. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, spun him around and pressed him against the wall. While he was reeling from the unexpected movement she took further advantage by pressing herself against him as she drew him into a deep kiss. Ami had very little, in fact no practical experience with the art of kissing, but she was a very quick study.

Konjou was surprised, not dead. In less than a second after she inexpertly pressed her mouth against his, he began to regain control of his actions. He started asserting himself by deepening the kiss. He both heard and felt the moan of shock and pleasure as he lightly sucked her tongue into his mouth and stroked it with his own. He could feel her nipples harden instantly through the unimaginably thin bodysuit of her Senshi fuku.

"So," he said when she pulled away to breathe deeply, "to what do I own the pleasure of a personal visit from the Senshi of Mercury?"

"I'm not here for talk." Ami said. She was thankful for the strange huskiness in her voice. It made her attempts to disguise it even more effective. No one hearing her would think of Mizuno Ami with that voice.

"Oh," he said, sounding slightly strange, "just what are you here for?"

"You'll find out in a minute."

Ami took a half step back her hands still on his shirt from before and without further thought to the consequences, jerked her arms wide open, tearing his shirt to shreds and sending buttons flying. She enjoyed the shocked look in his eyes at her actions.

"Do you understand yet Konjou?" she asked as she reached down to cup his manhood through his pants. She nearly laughed when he shuddered at the contact as if he were punched in the stomach.

"I think I have a fairly good idea about it now." He said fiercely. His arms wrapped around her and drew her close. She gasped at the contact of his hands on her butt. His grip tightened pressing her against his now hardened manhood, which was completely obvious to her through the terribly thin barrier of their clothing.

"Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into, Sailor Mercury?" He nearly growled as her hand continued to stroke him from between their bodies. He leaned down and captured her neck with his lips. The wet heat seeped into her making her feel almost boneless.

"I am fairly astute Konjou, and I did start this. It's foolish for you to question my knowledge of my own actions." She squeezed him firmly through his pants, making him gasp in response. She was very surprised when he spun around and pressed her against the wall.

He gathered both of her wrists in one hand and pressed them against the wall above her head. She marvelled at his strength, she was honestly trying to prevent him from restraining her, and couldn't. Her plans were nearly ruined when she realised that he didn't need to assume his Neko form to overpower even her Senshi abilities. She gasped when he used his other hand to stroke her entire body from her breasts to her crotch.

She marshalled her strength and pushed him away. He grinned in response and stood still when she reached for the closures of his slacks. He jumped when the backs of her fingers brushed his length as she removed his pants. His underwear was similarly death with and finally Konjou stood before her naked.

Ami silently appreciated his body. He was very handsome. She had no difficulty understanding what had drawn Makoto to him. In fact if she hadn't known the truth of who he was, she might have eventually tried this with other reasoning in mind. She returned he gaze to his when she finished her slow perusal of his body. His eyes were nearly burning with unbridled lust. It was a heady feeling to know that she had inspired it in him.

"Sailor Mercury, this is your last chance to get out of here untouched. I recommend you take it." He said suddenly serious.

"I'm a big girl, I make my own decisions." Her voice sounded a lot more confident than she was. She had read hundreds of romance novels, but the reality of the situation was far more intense than she expected.

She took him by the hand and led him to his bed. With a light shove she pushed him onto it and straddled his hips. The feel of his hardness pressing against her belly did strange things to her insides, she felt as if they were melting. She stroked her way up his sides and pressed him fully against the headboard. His arms were outstretched over his head when he felt the pulse of magic. Before he had a chance to ascertain what had happened she snapped the handcuffs she had pulled from her subspace pocket on his wrists, cuffing him to his own headboard.

"There," she said, "that will keep you where I want you." She grinned as she slid down his body.

Ami had gone through all of what she remembered of her books and most of them agreed on one thing. If she really wanted to turn him on she would need to use her mouth for something she was quite certain it was never intended for. She wanted him so far gone with lust that he wouldn't be able to think clear enough to recognise her once her fuku came off. She was fairly certain that without it, the glamour that protected her identity would deactivate. It was never intended to disguise the Senshi from a lover.

She heard the handcuffs rattle as she faced his manhood. Medically speaking she knew how large an average human male member was. She didn't have any measuring devices around her at the moment but Konjou's was obviously above that. His breathing was heavy enough to be heard clearly as she contemplated the object before her. He seemed to twitch when she exhaled her hot breath onto him. She could see the muscles in his hips straining against themselves.

Deciding it would be best to start before he lost interest Ami leaned forward and wrapped her lips around the engorged head. She pulled back quickly as his hips jumped forward involuntarily, and narrowly avoided choking on him. The taste was neither good nor bad, despite the many complaints the women in her novels had about it. Feeling his urgency easily she drew her tongue across the head and began to slowly slide him further into her mouth. When she had him in as deep as she could accept she slowly pulled back, licking his length while maintaining hard suction the entire time.

As she had expected from her studies, his reaction to her actions was gratifying. She could hear him rattling the handcuffs in a desperate attempt to reach her. She quickened her movements and giggled slightly at the frantic oaths and rocking motions of his hips. She very lightly allowed her teeth to graze the supersensitive crown and again nearly choked as he speared himself deeper into her throat than she believed she could tolerate.

She brought her hands into play one pumping on his shaft while the other lightly squeezed his testicles. For several long minutes she continued her actions, his moans took on a tone of pleading and supplication. She was forced to continually be aware of his hips, on more than one occasion he had convulsed causing her no end of trouble.

She was finding it harder and harder to maintain concentration on what she was doing. Her own nether regions were very wet now. She could feel moisture soaking into her fuku through her panties. Her nipples were painfully tight, she needed to finish this before her body betrayed her and took her farther than she intended.

She more than doubled the speed and suction of her movements on Konjou. She could feel his pulse racing both with her mouth and her hand on his manhood. The sounds in the room were highly erotic, adding to the highly charged atmosphere. His moans intermixed with the wet suction sounds from her attentions. His motions became truly erratic, she could feel him straining the metal of the handcuffs she had stolen from the hospital. He began to emit a continuous purring sound and the ping of metal was the only warning she had of the destruction of the handcuffs before she felt his hands in her hair. He tried to pull her away but she refused and continued her self appointed task. He pleaded with her to stop, to continue and made other wordless sounds, she ignored them all.

She had Konjou completely at her mercy and the feeling of power was indescribable. Every muscle in his body strained against itself and he called out a warning to her. Again she ignored it and suddenly her mouth was flooded with a slick heat. She quickly agreed with the opinion of the women in the novels. The taste was memorable, and very unpleasant. She quickly took a plastic bag she had prepared for this eventuality from her subspace pocket and spit the results of her labours into it. She quickly sealed it and dropped it back into subspace.

Ami lay against his chest for a moment, enjoying the feeling of his deep purring. She understood now what her novels had meant by the moment of peace after such intimacy. A warm languor stole over her at her accomplishment. She had partially succeeded, she had enough of a sample now to prove conclusively that he was Neko, but she might not have enough to test for his allergen. Besides, she thought ruefully, she doubted she would be able to leave if he didn't let her, and though almost every believable novel she had read had mentioned that males needed a small break between sessions, Konjou was still as hard as ever.

"Wow, Mercury-chan," he said as soon as his laboured breathing allowed, "that was just, wow."

He pulled her up to his face and kissed her deeply, completely unmindful of the taste of himself still in her mouth. She vaguely noted the presence of the handcuffs still on his wrists despite their broken chain, yet such concerns faded when he once again began to run his hands over her body.

"You really need to take off this fuku." He said with a hint of something indefinable in his voice.

"Oh, and why is that?" She said teasingly. She had no idea why she had said that, but she had to bite her lips to keep from giggling at his response.

Konjou sat up and pulled her fully onto his lap. Hid hands continued their relentless exploration of her body, yet were thwarted by her fuku. No matter how he tried he couldn't get his fingers under the fabric. She did giggle finally as he swore at the stubborn clothing.

"Now would be a really good time for you to take that off." His tone carried warning and nearly liquefied her bones with its heat.

"What is it you want me to take off?" She asked playfully as she ran her hands up and down his chest. She was really beginning to enjoy the light teasing she was giving him. His response to it was wonderful, and erased many long held doubts she had about her desirability. After all if she could incite lust in someone that had dated Makoto, well maybe she wasn't unattractive after all.

He stilled at her words. All movement save for the rise and fall of his chest halted. The look he gave her could have melted steel. It did draw an involuntary whimper from her throat.

"Take off the fuku." It obviously wasn't a request.

She slid backwards off of his lap and stood a step or so away from the bed. She had begun to shake slightly, both from nervousness of his intensity, and her own desire. She nearly sent her outfit back into subspace where she summoned it from when it occurred to her what that would do.

"Close your eyes." She commanded him softly.

When he complied she quickly willed away her fuku concentrating hard on maintaining her transformation despite its loss. She felt a sense of relief when she could still feel the magic flowing through her once the fuku was gone. She had been a bit unsure of how exactly to do what she had just done, and it wasn't the kind of thing she could have asked Setsuna or the cats about.

"You can open your eyes now." She said softly.

Konjou opened his eyes and stared at her. His gaze softened from its previous intensity as he took in her appearance. He reached out slowly placed his hands on her sides and drew her closer to him.

Now that she was completely naked she was far less certain about her decision. The look he was giving her was doing curious things to her. She felt hot yet she was shivering. She crossed her arms shyly over her chest to block his view.

"Don't," he commanded softly, "there's nothing to be ashamed of. You're beautiful." His simple words went a long way toward reassuring her.

Konjou gently took a hold of her arms and moved them out of the way of his gaze. She could feel his eyes move down her body from her face all the way to her toes and back again. She squeaked in surprise when he placed a hand palm down on her belly.

His hands slid upwards, his palm lifting until only his fingertips remained in contact with her. With deliberate slowness he slid his fingers up, over her belly and onto her breasts. Her legs nearly buckled as he traced feather light circles on her already hardened nipples. She gasped and began to softly whimper at the feeling.

"Come here." He said.

He guided her until her knees brushed against the edge of the bed between his own. He slid his hands back down to her sides and lifted her gently into his lap. The feel of his manhood against he naked hip made her earlier nervousness return in full. He drew her into a soul searing kiss, and sent his hands on a scorching tour of her body. Only his arms around her kept her from running when his fingers brushed over her meike.

"Oh Kami-sama." She cried at the sensation.

He chuckled at her reaction and traced a finger down the divide of her folds and back up again. She was very wet already and she began to whimper and thrash softly at his actions. He moved his mouth to her neck placing a scattering of sucking kisses across it as his hand continued its relentless torment of her most sacred of places.

He parted her folds gently with two of his fingers and drew his thumb down the freshly exposed softness. Her cries became loud and frantic at the attention. His thumb traced back up its previous path, yet going higher. His nail scraped softly a line of fire all the way to the very core of her sensations. He flicked the engorged centre of her desire then pressed and rolled his thumb against it. She shook and quivered under his caresses.

"Please Konjou." she began, not really knowing what she wanted anymore, only that Konjou was her only hope.

He pushed her back against the bed. He knelt between her parted legs, his manhood standing proud and firm over her. He leaned down, his body covering hers pressed full length against her, and drew her once again into a deep kiss. His hands stroked up and down her sides his thumbs just brushing the sides of her breasts during each passing.

His weight pressing her against the mattress brought her back to herself. She suddenly realised just how far out of her depth she really was. She knew beyond the shadow of any doubt that this had gone too far. She tried to sit up, to begin to talk her way out of this before she lost herself again, but a cold feeling on her wrists and a metallic ratcheting sound drew her attention. She looked disbelievingly at the handcuffs now repaired and restraining her against the headboard of the bed. He grinned positively evilly at her shock.

"Konjou," she said warningly.

"There," he said, "that will keep you where I want you." His words mimicked her earlier ones.

"Konjou!" She shouted her voice had strong overtones of terror.

"Don't worry Mercury-chan. I promise you this won't hurt a bit."

Ami pulled at the handcuffs with all of her strength as he moved down her body, blazing a train of kisses. His arms wrapped around the outside of her legs stilling their frantic movements easily. His fingers carefully spread open the petals of her womanhood in preparation for him.

"Konjou, please take these off me." She begged him looking at the handcuffs.

He gazed directly into her eyes. His caramel brown orbs capturing her blue ones in a paralyzing stare. She felt much like she imagined a mouse caught by a cat did.

"No, I think I like you like this." He said and dipped his head to her opened petals.

She nearly crawled out of her skin at the first contact of his tongue against her. Makoto was an idiot, she thought, there was no way she should have missed how rough Konjou's tongue was. It was far more like a cat's than a human's. Its rough surface lapped slowly up and down inside of her. She could feel her body becoming wetter in response to him. Her dragged his tongue up to the apex of her meike and scraped her swollen nub with it.

His unbelievable strength kept her legs imprisoned as he continued his assault on her senses. For long minutes he traced complex patterns on her inner lips, occasionally spearing between them to taste her nectar. Her drew her nubbin into his mouth and remorselessly attacked it with gentle teeth, hard suction and wet sandpapery tongue.

Her breathing was completely erratic, her voice hoarse from her moans. Her wrists stung from her frantic attempts to tear free from the imprisonment of the handcuffs. Every muscle in her body was pulled tight as a bow string as she straddled the edge of oblivion. When he bit down lightly on her captured nub and purred deep in his throat she lost all vestiges of control.

Ami screamed loudly as her orgasm ripped through her like a tsunami. The sound of the cast iron headboard bending under the tremendous force she placed upon it went unheard. Her legs stayed perfectly still in his grasp. Her screams went on and on lasting what seemed like forever to her as the tide of fire washed through her. Finally the surges slowed to the point that she could take a breath.

Just as she inhaled, with the mild aftershocks of her orgasm still washing through her, he pushed a finger into her, bit down a little harder on her already over stimulated nub, and purred again. Ami was again tossed into the firestorm of orgasm, this time without the benefit of long preparation. Her heart stuttered at the violent release. She cried out for mercy, and vainly tried to ride the waves of sensation. He changed depth of his purr and another wave of orgasm crashed down upon her, this one before the other had even begun to abate.

The terribly overstressed cast iron headboard snapped under the strain and Ami pulled Konjou away from her lower body and into a deep kiss. He could taste the saltiness of her tears on her cheeks and lips. She showered his upturned face with kissed as she continued to sob with some inexplicable emotion.

Konjou drew her into his embrace her still manacled arms settled over his head to wrap around him. He held her tightly and gently stroked her sides for several minutes until she recovered from the shudders that wracked her. Her kisses of joy and gratitude, though feather light, were reminding him of just how ready he was to continue.

"Mercury-chan," he called lightly, "Mercury-chan." He said again when she failed to respond.

Ami finally took note of his voice and stilled her kisses to meet his gaze. His expression needed no words to translate it. She nodded in agreement with his unspoken request.

She removed her hands from behind his back and looked pointedly at her still bound wrists. He took her hands in his and less than a second later the cuffs fell open and landed, already forgotten, on the bed. Ami reached once again into subspace and withdrew a condom package. He grinned at the slightly ashamed expression on her face when she thought of what Luna would say about that.

They sat up and she took his still hard manhood in her hand. She opened the package with her teeth and stroked him slowly as she rolled the condom down his length. Once she was satisfied that it was in place she took her hands away and smiled nervously at him.

"Please be careful Konjou-chan," she said in a very small voice. "I've never done this before."

"Oh Mercury-chan," he said, and pulled her once again into his embrace.

After a few moments of silent reassurance he guided her down onto her back and positioned himself between her slim legs. She trembled slightly as he ran his hands up the insides of her thighs. Her nipples hardened once again at the feeling of anticipation. She clutched the bedspread at her sides tightly when she felt the tip of him brush her.

He parted her outer lips with his fingers with one hand and guided himself carefully to her with the other. His eyes locked with hers as he sat poised at the brink of claiming her.

"Are you ready Mercury-chan?" He asked seriously. At her stiff nod he began to push firmly but gently into her.

Ami felt like she was being pried apart. The pain was excruciating. She had to bit her lips to keep from screaming. After a few seconds he stopped pushing and her body seemed to sag around him. His breath was nearly as short as hers, and a fine sheen of sweat covered him.

"Oh Kami-sama Mercury." He said breathlessly. "You're so tight its killing me." His strained smile took any insult out of his words, and the little laugh it provoked allowed her to take her mind off his partial intrusion. Once her nervousness partially abated she loosened up some.

Konjou once again began to push into her, this time whispering words of encouragement and compliment to her while his hands raced over her body, all in an attempt to keep her calm. He was only a short way into her when he hit a barrier he hadn't expected. He was truly shocked that her hymen had survived all the combat she must have faced.

"Mercury, this might hurt a little." He said as kindly as he could. "You're still a virgin in every sense of the word despite your lifestyle."

It took her a second to understand his meaning, and a feeling of fear and wonder nearly overcame her. Now that he had mentioned it, she did find it somewhat surprising that she hadn't torn her hymen during the course of her life as a Senshi. She was the least combative of them however, so perhaps it wasn't as odd as it could have been. She consciously attempted to relax herself and nodded to him to continue.

Konjou knew she knew who he was at this point. There was simply no way someone as intelligent as her would have failed to figure it out. He reached up and traced a highly complex pattern onto her forehead. While he did so he spoke softly words in the native language of the Primarchs.

Ami shivered as Konjou cast some sort of magic over her. She knew she should have been afraid, but at this point there was no room in her emotions for something as trivial as fear of his magic. She was already naked underneath him, with only the thinnest of barriers separating her from his total possession.

"That will ease the pain." He said simply. He captured her lips once again and thrust quickly into her.

She didn't really mean to doubt his words, but he was obviously mistaken if he believed whatever he had done would ease the pain of that. She screamed as a lance of agony speared through her when he tore through her maidenhood. She gazed into his eyes, her dripping with tears from the pain and obvious betrayal she felt.

"I thought you said it would ease the pain." She accused tearfully.

"It did, that could have been a lot worse."

She really had trouble believing that, but had no time to say so before he started to move. No matter how badly she had hurt a second ago, once he started moving, trivial things like soul drenching agony were forgotten. The feeling of him moving inside of her, filling her beyond anything she could have imagined, made her heart soar and her blood sing.

He continued to move slowly within her as she heated degree by degree. His hands never stilled on her, with their stroking, light scratching, and tweaking in counterpoint to his rhythmic thrusts. After a few short minutes she was already back to the heights she felt before.

With her hands unbound she was not a passive participant of the lovemaking. She drew him close and stroked his back and neck while she rolled her hips in time with his thrusts. He growled and purred when the pulses of pleasure slowly washing through her caused her to claw at his back. He hissed like a cat when she bit his shoulder. She curled her legs around his hips and thrust herself against him violently.

She pulled his head backwards with one had while the other curled between their legs to cup his genitals. His eyes were glowing cobalt and slightly out of focus as she forced him to meet her stare.

"Neko," she said dropping all pretences of not knowing who he really was. "Harder Neko, take me. Give me everything you've got. Fuck me."

Konjou hissed at the mantra like words she spoke, and increased both the pace and force of this thrusts. She gloried in the feeling of control she had over him. She cried out as the sensations in her body flared higher than ever before, yet still she held on to control. Konjou's face was scrunched up as he fought to hold in his pleasure.

"Neko," she crooned. "Let go. Just let it go." She whispered into his ear.

She squeezed his testicles just his side of hard and rolled them in her palm while simultaneously blowing her hot breath into his ear. His trembling reached a crescendo and his thrusts into her came hard enough to nearly bruise her hips. She screamed in ecstasy when she could no longer hold back the crash of her orgasm. The motions of the muscles inside her tore the control from him and with one last powerful surge into her and cried out a near yowl and burst into brilliant silver light. Konjou's features changed in a flash into that of Neko and the feeling of fullness increased again, sending her over the edge one more time.

"Oh Ami!" he bellowed and she could feel the pulsing

"I knew it." She said softly tracing his face with her hand. "I knew you were Neko." She felt somewhat giddy at the total confirmation of her belief.

"Yes, your computer continually reassured you of what you were seeing. The glamour that protects us wasn't designed with that in mind. Every time the glamour tried to convince you that there was nothing special about what you were seeing, your computer reminded you of the truth."

"Your aura is amazing." She said softly. She felt warm, safe inside the silver glow.

"Yea, I'm sorry about that." He said reigning in the silver radiance. "I have a tendency to lose my control of it when I get over emotional. It's a lot like your Mercury symbol really."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, feeling somewhat cold and alone without the beautiful silver light. Neko looked at her strangely, then a flash of comprehension moved over him.

"You don't know do you?" he said more to himself than to her.

He held his hand up and a small silver mirror appeared in it. Ami looked on in shock at the blue glow of her Mercury symbol on her forehead. As far as she knew it only appeared to announce her activation as Sailor Mercury, and in times of great need. She could hardly classify an orgasm as a time of great need.

"Oh Kami-sama, this is bad."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say it's bad, but it definitely means any lovers a Senshi takes will know about them."

"Wait, you mean you think this would show up if I were in my normal form?"

"I don't think it, I know it."

Ami felt like crying, if what he said was true, than Tenjin must know that Mina is Venus. She had to warn the other Senshi. She felt irritated that none of the older girls had told them about this little fact. Usagi might not have realised the significance of it, but Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru should have said something.

Ami stood on shaky legs and stepped out of reach, ignoring the odd look he gave her. She summoned her fuku back and he pouted at her when she was once again dressed. She gathered her computer from under the bed and began slowly walking towards the door. She truly dreaded trying to get down from the apartment unseen. She could hardly be caught coming out of his apartment in any form. She winced once again at the pain in her hips and legs and pulled open the door.

"Ami?"

She turned around at the sound of her name before really putting together the fact that he had called her than instead of Mercury.

"Consider this a gift." He said and the world turned on its head.

******** Ami awoke the next morning with the worst headache she could imagine. Even through the pain several things seemed out of place to her. The last thing she remembered was fainting in Neko's bedroom.

She organised the discrepancies into points of order. Point one, she was in her own bedroom at home. Point two, she was dressed in a silky blue piece of negligee she knew very well she had never seen before. Point three, there was a beautiful silver bracelet laying on her nightstand. It had a very well detailed sapphire charm on it shaped into the perfect likeness of a dolphin. Point four she remembered her last thoughts before passing out, he had called her Ami, twice. Point five, he knew who she was, this was very bad.

The next few points were also bad, but not nearly the personal tragedies that the first group were. Point six, he knew for certain that the planetary symbol appeared on untransformed Senshi. Point seven, he knew the Makoto was Sailor Jupiter. Point eight, Tenjin knew Mina was Sailor Venus. Point nine, they were more than intelligent enough to figure who the other Senshi were given the information they had. Point ten, oh Kami, Hikage must be a Primarch as well.

Any further wallowing in abject misery was interrupted by her mother knocking at her bedroom door. Ami quickly jerked her bedspread up to cover the strange negligee as she called out to her mother to enter.

"Good morning, Ami." She said.

"Good morning mother, how was work?"

"Fine dear, I just wanted to tell you that I've been called in again. This power shortage has led to so many injuries that I hardly see you anymore." Her tone was very sad.

"It's not your fault mother." She said immediately. "I know you try your best to be there for me, but your patients need you."

"You need me too dear. I just hope I don't miss anything important in your life taking care of other people."

"You won't mother."

"So what are your plans today Ami?"

"Oh I'm not feeling that well. I had a bit of a rough night."

"Yes, you must have, it's near ten and you're still in bed. I never even heard you come in last night."

"Well it was a bit late."

"Well, I need to be off. Try to get some rest today, you wouldn't want to miss school tomorrow."

"Goodbye mother, I'll see you when you get home." Mrs. Mizuno left her daughters room and soon Ami heard the front door open and close indicating she had left for work.

Ami winced at the pain in between her legs. She could easily feel the effects of her activities last night. She was glad that her mother hadn't noticed the scent of sex she could easily still smell coming off of her. She slid her hand down to her womanhood and pressed lightly into it. She hissed in pain at the contact. A quick look proved to her that she was bruised, chaffed and still a little swollen from last night's lovemaking.

She shook her head in denial of her own thought. She hadn't made love to Neko last night. She had had sex with him. There was a difference. You have to be in love to make love. She was anything but in love with Neko, she had sex with him to gather a sample. A sample that was even now sitting in her subspace pocket waiting to be analyzed. She needed the evidence of her computers readouts to prove to her friends that Konjou was Neko.

Oh who did she think she was kidding, she thought to herself. She couldn't possibly explain to the other Senshi how she had obtained the evidence. Makoto would kill her for seducing Konjou. Luna, Artemis and Setsuna would kill her for doing it as Sailor Mercury, and she didn't even want to think about what Usagi, Rei or Mina would do. Suffice it to say she would rather lie to Makoto and say she seduced Konjou just to hurt her, rather than face the inquisition those three would give her.

Still she needed to find a way to warn Mina, Makoto and Hotaru about the boys.

"Kami, how am I going to tell Mina?" she spoke aloud.

"Well, I recommend that you don't bother, she'll learn soon enough, and when she finds out she's not going to be happy." Konjou said from next to her on the bed.

"Ahhh!!!!" Ami screamed and fell off the bed.

"Well that's a nice greeting." Konjou said sourly as he reached down to help her up.

She scuttled backwards across the floor trying to stay out of reach. He frowned at her behaviour and rolled to his feet.

"How did you get here?" she snapped at him. The look he gave her was very easy to decipher it said 'Are you really that stupid?' "What I meant to say," she responded to his silent insult, "was what are you doing here?"

"Well," he said drawing the word out. "I was in the neighbourhood and decided to see how you felt this morning. We did have a bit of a sedate lovemaking session last night, but it was your first time, so you might be feeling a little sore. Even taking into account how easy I went on you." His grin was demonic. "Besides, I thought I should meet your family. Do you realise how much like your mother you look? You're a very lucky girl to know that you'll still be beautiful when you're middle aged."

"It's none of your business how I am." She said primly.

"On the contrary, I'm the one that put you in whatever condition you're in this morning, so it is most assuredly my business."

"You won't leave until I tell you will you?"

"Correct."

"Fine, I hurt all over. I have bruises bite marks and scratches on places I don't like to think about, let alone be constantly reminded of their condition. I'm sore in places I wouldn't allow my gynaecologist to touch. And its not you're fault, I'm the one that set out to seduce you."

"Yea, you did a good job too." He said with a happy little smile.

He took the strange bracelet off of her nightstand and stroked it with his fingers. She tried not to be jealous.

"Well, you know how I feel, so go away now."

"Did I say I would go away once you told me? No. I said I wouldn't if you didn't tell me, there's quite a difference."

Ami nearly growled in frustration. She knew there was nothing she or anyone could do to remove him until he wanted to go. She decided to ignore him and go on with her plans for the day. Since modesty in front of him was a complete joke now she stripped out of the negligee and headed towards the bathroom.

"Wow, you are even worse off than I remember. Come here."

Ami stopped, she refused to do as he bid, but there was no point in trying to escape. She shivered at the touch of his hands on her. He lightly stroked her back as he spoke in Aleph. Suddenly her body flooded with energy. She could feel the healing energy washing through her, and it brought an involuntary shudder of pleasure to her still raw senses.

"There, that's much better." He said as he once again looked her over completely.

She felt like blushing under his stare despite last night's activities. She knew that it was foolish to be modest in front of a man that knew her as intimately as he did, but she felt it anyway now.

"Please don't look at me like that." She said softly.

"Like how?"

"Like you want me."

"Well then we have a problem. You see I do want you, but before I have you there are a few things we need to do."

"You're not going to have me so I guess we can just skip those steps." She walked into the bathroom and closed the door in his face.

She adjusted the spray and stepped under the steaming water. She began the process of scrubbing off the evidence of last nights indiscretions. Now that she was alone she admitted to herself that she was very thankful for his healing of her. She also knew that she had enjoyed the feel of his hands and eyes on her again. His touch should have a warning label, it was highly addictive.

"I am so glad you feel that way," he said from behind her in the shower. "If you didn't it would be a lot harder to get you to let me wash your back."

She knew she hadn't said anything out loud. Obviously he could read minds, on top of all the rest of his abilities. It hardly seemed fair to her.

"Get out Konjou."

"You know, I liked it a lot better when you called me by my real name."

"Good, then I won't do it anymore."

He grinned at her in challenge to her statement. He took the lather builder from her hand and began to rub vigorously on her back. She sighed in pleasure at his touch. She knew she should complain, scream, and even attack him, but all of those things were pointless unless he chose to allow them, and besides, it just felt so good.

"I want you to wear this." He said dangling the strange bracelet in front of her.

"No."

"You don't even know what it is."

"I know you gave it to me, that's reason enough not to wear it."

"It's a protective charm, much like the one Mori gave to Mina. He got the idea from me actually."

"No thank you, I don't want any gifts from you."

"You're going to want it in a few minutes."

"And why is that?"

"Because once I start to make love to you again you'll want all the extra toughness you can get."

She moaned as he kissed his way down her now clean back. He bit her sharply on her butt causing her to jump and squeal. He ignored her sputtering protests and traced his hands down from the rapidly moistening apex of her thighs to her ankles, where he fastened the charm around her right leg.

"That anklet will increase your resistance to physical impacts more than your Senshi transformation does, and it will work in conjunction with it. I'm working on a few other charms to add to it, but they're not ready yet."

"I told you I'm not going to wear it." She said breathlessly. He had done an excellent job of heating her blood with his caresses.

"We'll see." He answered.

******** Ami sighed and rolled over into the recently vacated spot on her bed where Konjou had been. She had been wrong about many things today. She had made love to him again. She had called him by his real name, loudly and often of the last several hours. And finally she was very happy to wear the anklet.

She luxuriated at the delicious feeling of languor that had settled into her after the intense loving. She had the magical protection of the anklet to thank for her current ability to move. Konjou was far more like a cat than she would have thought.

She sat up and summoned the bag of his semen from subspace. It was past time for her to begin the analysis of it for a weakness. Her computer quickly scanned it and began to compare it against the previous records from his blood. The analysis was completed in seconds interrupting her stretch and bringing a frown to her face. She called up the results with a frown, and stared disbelievingly at the preposterous results. The computer registered the liquid as plain ordinary pure water. She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that it hadn't been water last night.

Ami nearly screamed in frustration. Konjou had had the last laugh this time but the game was far from over.

******** Monday brought many surprises. Tenjin and Mina seemed even more inseparable than they had on Saturday. Apparently Mina had told her mother that she would be spending Saturday night and all of Sunday at the Jinja, and had been with Tenjin the entire time. The girls worried slightly about how much time she was spending with him, but her obvious happiness, and the remarkably healthy look to her belayed most of their fears.

Hikage had show up at the Outer's house on Sunday and invited Hotaru out on a date. Haruka had objected strongly, but was overruled by Michiru and Setsuna. They found the childish flirtation between the two to be wonderfully romantic, and Hotaru seemed far happier since meeting Hikage. Haruka growled the entire time she was out, and practically striped her looking for hickeys or other marks when she returned, but she still had a good time.

Hotaru blushed every time she thought of the creative way Hikage had found to express his attraction to her without leaving evidence her over enthusiastic guardian could find. His odd psychic abilities had came in quite handy.

Ami did her best not to look Konjou all of Monday, her efforts were futile though as she caught herself gazing at him every time she forgot to consciously look somewhere else. She knew that Usagi and probably Rei had noticed her preoccupation, but prayed that Makoto was unaware. Makoto would take her seduction of Konjou hard, and she didn't want to hurt her friend. Besides, Ami thought, Makoto had been expelled from several schools for fighting before joining the Senshi, and had only gotten better since. She would undoubtedly pound Ami flat for stealing her boyfriend.

The three boys vanished during lunch. Supposedly they had a meeting scheduled with the nurse to discuss something, but Ami knew that something else was happening. At a few minutes before noon the power once again began to flow to the country of Japan. It took hours for the full implications to set in. Things would soon be back to normal.

A few hours later the first television news programs broadcast a startling discovery. The people that had vanished during the disappearance of the oil derricks, power plants, and logging companies had been located. They were hundreds of miles into the Chinese interior, The loss of power worldwide had been solved everywhere at the same time, and once they had power to the radio transmitter they had located in the small out of the way village they had found themselves in, they called out for rescue.

The rest of the week passed in a blur. Ami made constant excuses not to spend time after school with her friends, and instead spent it with Konjou. It was difficult for her to lie to her friends, especially to Makoto.

She wasn't sure when it happened, but it was Wednesday when she finally admitted it to herself. She was in love with Konjou. She knew it was stupid, she knew it would only cause her heartbreak, but it was a fact. She theorized that she had loved him since before her foolish decision to seduce him. In all likelihood it had been her attraction to him that had prompted her to do something that idiotic. Makoto would feel betrayed when she learned of it, but she wouldn't give up what she had finally found.

Mina spent every day with Tenjin. She had practically moved in. Tenjin's closet now had more of her clothing in it than his. She treasured every instant she spent with him, knowing that it would more than likely come to an end on Saturday. Ami had told the Senshi that she had been contacted by the Primarchs and notified that they would meet the Senshi in the evening rather than in the morning when the challenge had been issued as far as Mina saw it, they were giving her a few more hours to spend with the man she loved.

She debated telling him who she was, she needed him to understand that she may never see him again after Saturday, but couldn't bring herself to betray the confidence the other girls had in her. One thing she had done that week was to introduce Tenjin to her Mother. As expected he had made an excellent impression on her, and had in fact impressed her so much that she had immediately began plans to introduce him to the rest of the family as 'a perfect match for her darling Mina'. Mina had nearly died of embarrassment, but Tenjin had simply smiled at the crazy woman and nodded at all the right parts.

Konjou had done an excellent job throughout the week of hiding his growing attraction to Ami. He was anything but stupid or unobservant. He knew that Makoto would be hurt by, in her opinion, being replaced with one of her close friends, especially with it coming so soon on the heels of their break-up. In public he treated Ami no different than he had previously, but in private he did everything he could to please her.

She did make one curious statement. She had commented on feeling safe and warm in his aura when it had once again slipped out of his control. He knew from long eons of experience that no one felt like that. Even the other Primarchs felt a sense of cold, and menace within the glow, but according to Ami that didn't hold true for her. She mentioned in passing that Mina had said much the same about Mori's aura. That bore looking into.

Rei stared once again into the Sacred Fire, seeking answers to her dilemma, a salve for her pain. It was Friday, and tomorrow she would die. There was no doubt that they would lose. Ami and the cats had been unsuccessful in finding the Primarchs weaknesses. Luna and Artemis had returned just this afternoon with the sad news.

Central was completely silent on even speculation of the Primarchs' allergens. It was very likely that Lunari would have known Niccolai's and Earryn probably knew Mordaki's, but it hadn't been recorded.

That thought brought another depressing fact to mind. Elios had point blank refused to even discuss Mordaki with Mamoru. When Mamoru had told Elios about the reawakening of the Primarchs Elios seemed to nearly wet himself. He refused to explain his reaction, and had even begged Mamoru to give him back the Golden Crystal. Mamoru had of course refused, and Elios had left not long after, seeming very afraid.

All of this would have been enough to depress Rei on its own, but she had a more personal reason. She was about to die without ever tasting love. Her heart sank in despair at the realization. Almost all of her friends had someone to hold onto in their final hours, but she was alone.

She wondered at her destiny. She seemed cursed to only fall for men she couldn't have. Even in her last life she had been robbed of love. Her fiancé then had betrayed and killed her. She knew that he had been under the control of Metallia, but it hardly halted the feelings of betrayal. Ironically she had been instrumental to his death in this life. The circle was closed.

Further wallowing in self pity was interrupted by a polite knocking at the door. Quickly wiping the tears from her eyes she called out permission to enter. She was glad for the sweat the Sacred Fire caused her, it would help to mask her tears.

"Rei?" Ami called out to her from the doorway.

"Hi Ami." Rei said hoping Ami wouldn't notice the despair in her voice.

"Oh Rei." Ami said as she rushed over. Ami pulled her into her embrace and the tears began to fall.

"What's wrong Rei?" She asked caringly.

I took Rei hours to explain. How she started off believing she hated Tenjin. She told Ami about the angry moments when she had found him accidentally looking up her skirt, or how his teasing in the first few weeks she had known him had made her so angry. Then how later, after he and Mina had started dating, they had started to get along. They had spent many hours during lunch or study hall involved in deep discussions about anything and everything, clicking in a way she never had before, with anyone. She moved on to the feelings of despair that had accumulated over the last month, knowing that her time was short, and that she had spent it alone, pining for one of her closest friend's lover.

"Why me, Ami-chan? Why can't someone ever love me?" Rei broke down into fresh tears at that, and sobbed weakly in Ami's arms.

It took surprisingly little time for Ami to come to a decision. She was quite sure the consequences of her idea would be severe. It was quite likely that Mina would hate her until her dying day for it, but Rei needed something, someone, to make her remember that she was important too.

"Rei, there are some things I need to tell you."

"What Ami-chan." Rei said in a small voice.

"Do you remember the day you met Tenjin?"

"Yes." She said cautiously.

"Do you want to know what he thought about you? That very first day? Tenjin said you were one of the most beautiful girls he had ever met. I've personally heard him say that had it not been for Mina giving him little choice he would have probably asked you out."

"Ami-chan? Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes. He liked you first. Mina came on so strong that she almost scared him off. The only reason he started dating her was he didn't think you liked him."

Rei's eyes were larger than dinner plates at Ami's words. She remembered the laughter Tenjin and she had shared over some of the sillier knots the Japanese code of honour could create. She remembered how ever since they had stopped fighting, that he always had a kind word for her. She remembered when he gave her his umbrella so she didn't have to walk home in a sudden rainstorm, and she remembered Tenjin laughing and hugging her after the two of them had played a prank on Usagi .

Ami smiled as the information sank into Rei, brightening her expression. She had a few things to add, but Rei was already well on the way to recovery.

"You see Rei, you're not unlovable, you just tend to push people away. I'm sure you will find."

"I still have a chance Ami. He still likes me I just know it."

"Rei, he's dating Mina."

"No she's dating him, there's a difference. He might want out of it and not know how. As long as he still has feelings for me I have a chance."

"Rei, there's something you should know about before you do anything you might regret." Ami was in a panic, this was not what she had intended. She was just trying to get Rei to realize that it was her own temperament that kept her alone, not send her on a seduction mission of Mina's boyfriend, who just happened to be the enemy they were going to fight in less than twenty four hours.

"What's that Ami?" Rei asked as she stood.

"You might want to sit back down for this." Ami cautioned.

"I'll be ok."

"Tenjin is Mori, err Mordaki. He's the enemy Rei."

Rei stopped moving, and stared at Ami. Ami could feel the disbelief rolling off of Rei in waves. She supposed that it must be difficult to accept the information that the boy you have a crush on is an enemy that wants to kill you and destroy the world. Ami wouldn't know personally, she had known all of that before she realized that she was attracted to Konjou.

"You're lying." Rei finally replied.

"No, actually I'm not. Tenjin is Mordaki, Konjou is Neko, and Hikage is either Jander or Mordred. I'm not sure which with him, but I know he isn't Lor because Mori said that Lor was tormenting Setsuna, and Hikage seems attracted to Hotaru."

"Where would you get a crazy idea like that?" Rei practically yelled at her.

It was then that Ami remembered the Glamour. Without evidence nothing she could say would convince Rei of the truth. Ami quickly summoned her computer and began typing commands furiously into it.

"Look Rei, look at the energy readings. Look at the physical capabilities. Think about how they do in school. They know more than the teachers do." She pleaded.

"You're just jealous that they do better than you do." Rei snapped back at her.

Ami was getting angry now. She knew it wasn't Rei's fault but that last comment had been low. The Glamour that protected the Senshi would have crumbled by now, it was just further proof on how powerful the Primarchs were. She grabbed Rei by the arm and shook her.

"Rei, they have a Glamour like ours, you have to fight it. Think of your miko training, don't let their magic control you."

For an instant she could see the struggle in Rei's eyes, then the fire of her faith in Ami's words died out under the force of the Glamour. Ami growled in rage and accessed the magic of one of the charms she now had on her anklet. The world lurched around her and she materialized in Konjou's kitchen, teleporting Rei along with her.

"Konjou," she said her tone deadly cold, "don't you think it's about time to stop playing around."

Konjou looked up from the bubbling sauce he was preparing and paused in surprise at seeing Rei there. His eyes narrowed dangerously at Ami, who stood her ground without fear. Rei seemed nearly catatonic at the teleportation.

"Ami, I didn't give you that butterfly charm to take your friends on rides." Konjou said coldly. "And somehow I doubt that you brought her here for a threesome, so maybe you might want to start explaining to me what this is all about, before I decide to spank you." His voice carried definite threat.

"Excuse me," Rei said, "but how did I get here."

She was genuinely confused. It would have taken more than just her and Ami to have enough power for a Sailor Teleport, and she knew that Ami would never appear in front of a civilian, even if they could have teleported. The fact that they were both still untransformed made the situation even more confusing. With her brain overloading trying to process impossible data she did the only thing she could. She fainted.

Ami caught Rei before she got anywhere near the floor. Once Rei had been safely dealt with she turned her attention to Konjou.

"As I was saying, don't you think its time for childish games to end?"

"Maybe you might want to start at the beginning of this rant, sprite, and don't forget to include the part about teleporting Rei into my kitchen."

Ami growled in frustration and fought to keep from throwing something at him. She was having far more trouble controlling her temper since becoming involved with Konjou. Speaking in clipped tones she managed to explain the situation to him. He laughed aloud at her frustration in trying to break the Glamour on Rei.

"The computer helped you from the beginning Ami-chan. It kept the Glamour from ever really getting a hold on your mind, but it can't break it once its already entrenched. She needs to be told by one of us, or have the spell removed."

"Then break it. She needs to see the truth, unless of course you want Mori getting mad at me for telling her about what I found out in the locker." Konjou seemed to consider that for a moment then nodded.

"I'll break the Glamour, as long as you have her go to the park at midnight. Oh, and you have to tell her the truth about us. If I have to deal with Mori chewing me out about giving away our secrets to the enemy, then you have to deal with your friends knowing you're a closet, or locker, hentai."

"Konjou." she said warningly.

"All of it too, no skimping on the details. You have to tell her about all of your little games of trying to get a sample of me." He laughed at her surprised look. "What, you think I didn't notice all the stuff you did? Ami, I'm only a few million years younger than the universe. It's a bit harder than that to trick me. Mostly though, I want you to confess to her about becoming my lover. If you feel that it's important enough to do that, I will remove the spell."

"Fine, I'll do it."

Konjou seemed slightly shocked, then he smiled. He walked over to where Rei lay on the floor and snapped his fingers over her face.

"There, I've removed the spell."

"Just like that?" she asked. He nodded happily at her disbelieving stare. "No tracing mystic symbols, no chanting in strange creepy sounding languages, no lights, not thunderclaps. You just snap your fingers and she's cured?" He continued to nod his grin getting even larger. "That is so unfair."

"I am the absolute master of will magic Ami-chan, I didn't even need to snap my fingers, I just did it so there would be something for you to see." He laughed at her growl and drew her into his embrace. "Are you teleporting back over tonight?"

"Yes, I'm not spending another night that I don't have to alone."

"You know nothing terrible will happen to you tomorrow, right? Neither Mori nor I are going to kill anyone."

"You can't be sure about that. You might have to."

"The only way we would have to kill anyone was if they put our lives or the mission in dire peril, and unless you happen to have weapons made out of either of our Allergen then that won't be an issue."

He kissed her deeply, and was rewarded by the feeling of her nipples tightening against his chest. Their hands had begun to wander out of anything that could be mistaken for platonic, and into pornographic when they heard the front door being unlatched. Ami's eyes widened frantically at the sound of Mina's voice.

"Oh Ten-chan, that was just wonderful. I'll never understand how you get us in places without reservations."

"Call it a gift, koishii. Now, what was that you said in the elevator, something about this." Tenjin's voice carried into the kitchen, followed by a squeal of pleasure from Mina.

"I have to get out of here." Ami said as she grabbed Rei. "Well, any time you're ready." With no obvious motions by Konjou, she and Rei appeared once again in the fire room of the Jinja.

Ami layed Rei back down on the floor and waited patiently. Things were about to get interesting.

******** "You did what!" Rei screamed.

"I seduced him." Ami repeated. "It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. I mean I knew who he was, but had no way to prove it. Of course I know now that nothing I did would have convinced any of you who he is, but the plan seemed sound."

"But. but. You slept with an enemy!" Rei shrieked.

"Would you get over that. It's far more important that you realize what that means for you." Ami said sounding exasperated. "If Konjou is actually Neko, what does that mean for Tenjin."

"Oh Kami-sama, Niccolai must have killed the real Konjou and replaced him, we have to warn Tenjin."

Ami felt like crying, even with the Glamour shut off she still had to pound the truth into Rei's head. That must have been some spell, she thought.

"No Rei-chan, Neko didn't kill the real Konjou, there never was a real Konjou, just like there was never a real Tenjin. Tenjin is Mordaki."

"No."

"Yes, you have no idea how tired I am of trying to convince you of this. Look, I know that you don't want to believe it, so I have a couple of visual aids ready for you."

An hour later Ami smiled as a shell shocked Rei fully digested the truth of the situation. After a few minutes of shaking her head and shivering, Rei looked up at Ami with a horrified expression. She seemed highly disturbed by something.

"Does Mina know?" She whispered.

"No, according to Neko, Mori hasn't told her."

"It's going to kill her when she finds out. She loves him Ami. Really loves him, you have no idea what this is going to mean to her. She's been talking about him like Usagi does about Mamoru. I think she's honestly planning to spend the rest of her life with him."

"Weren't you planning on trying to steal him less than two hours ago?" Ami commented at her defence of Mina.

"That was different. If he left her for me it would have proved to her it wasn't real love. This doesn't end the love, it just means he's been lying to her from the beginning."

"It's not like she was exactly honest about who she was either."

"How long has he known who she was?" Rei wondered.

"Since the first time they made love I believe. You see, the other girls forgot to tell us that our planetary symbol glows when we. well when we have an orgasm."

"It what?" Rei asked too calmly.

"You heard me correctly."

"I'm going to kill them, all of them. Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, Usagi, Mamoru and the cats, they had to have known that. Why didn't they tell us?" She yelled.

"I don't know, but I plan on taking it up with them fairly soon. I'm just waiting until after tomorrow." At Rei's questioning glare she continued. "It would hardly have been a good idea for them to realize I was sleeping with the enemy before the battle. They might have tried something foolish."

Ami looked down at her watch and grimaced. She quickly gathered her bag and stood. She looked directly at Rei and made it clear she would hear no argument as she spoke.

"I promised that you would be at the park at midnight, don't make a liar of me." With that she said goodbye and left, leaving a very confused Rei sitting alone in the room.

******** Rei leapt from roof to roof crossing the city at an amazing pace. She wasn't exactly sure why she had decided to do as Ami asked, but she knew why she hadn't told the other Senshi. She could clearly remember the power of the Glamour that had held her in thrall. She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the others wouldn't believe her.

She could see the park just ahead of her now. She leapt down and crossed into it. Finding who she was looking for was not difficult at all. Tenjin stood by a park bench next to the lake, his hands in his pockets and a sad expression on his face.

"Hello Sailor Mars." He said quietly. "If you need the park I'll leave." Tenjin began to slowly walk past her towards the path to the road.

"And just where do you think you're going?" she asked hostilely.

"I was getting out of your way, I don't really want company right now, and you look like you don't either."

"Stay where you are Tenjin, or should I say Mordaki." He seemed unsurprised by her use of his real name.

"I don't want to fight you Mars. I really just want to be alone."

"Why, plotting what to lie to Mina about next, or are you satisfied with this batch. Tell me Mordaki, do you get your pleasure from actually fucking them, or just from breaking their hearts." Her words dripped venom.

Tenjin exhaled deeply and continued to walk away, ignoring her and her words as best he could. The only sign that he heard her was the way his hands had clenched into fists.

"Well Mordaki, which is it. Or better yet, why don't you tell me how much magic you had to use to get her to sleep with you. I know she." There was no warning, one instant Tenjin had been walking away from her, and the next she was pressed against a tree so hard she could hear the trunk cracking under the strain. Mordaki had dropped his Tenjin appearance and was now surrounded by a golden radiance so brilliant it was painful to look at. Most odd was the fact that he had never moved. He was still standing twenty or thirty metres from her, holding her against the tree with his will alone.

"I didn't need to use magic to win her heart Rei. She loved me of her own free will. I bet you want to take her place don't you? It must eat at you to know that you'll always be second place to women like her." His voice was filled with pain and hate. "I know why you asked about magic, you were hoping I'd do the same for you weren't you. I heard all about you and that fool Mamoru from Mina, were you going to ask me to make him want you?"

Rei screamed in rage at his insults, and clawed desperately against the force that held her against the tree. The feeling of being held faded and she launched herself across the distance to Mori. She swept out with her foot, hoping to knock him off balance. She knew intellectually she had no chance against him one on one, but she was far too angry to care. He ducked under a sloppy circle kick and twirled out of range.

"Not bad, Rei. You get a little faster an the old men in the walkers wont be able to dodge you anymore." He leaned to the side avoiding another kick and tripped her with a lightning fast sweep. She rolled to her feet and struck out with a palm strike to where she expected him to be in follow up to the trip. He was five metres away with his hands behind his back.

She shrieked at the insult and hurled herself at him again. Her strikes never even got close to him, unless he used it to throw her. She was panting with anger and exertion in less than a minute. She tried another knife hand strike, and followed with a circle kick into the expected dodge. He ducked down under the foot as if he had known her plan.

"You know, if that skirt were any shorter I'd know for certain if black was your natural hair colour." She growled low in her throat at the comment and redoubled her efforts to kill him. He taunted her by flipping the front of her skirt up as he dodged her next attack, his eyes lingered on the crotch of her fuku and he laughed. "Why Rei-chan, that fuku is so tight I can tell you shave. Unless you just haven't finished puberty."

She threw all caution to the wind as she attacked him all out, giving absolutely no thought to defence. He quickly captured her and pulled her against his chest. She struggled with all of her strength but couldn't even manage to wiggle his grip. She stomped down onto the instep of his foot but might as well have kicked a rock. The way she was held kept her from utilizing a woman's last resort. Her struggles became even more frantic when he ran his hand over her chest.

"No, you've definitely finished puberty. That only leaves one option."

"Let me go you hentai psychopath." She snarled.

"Why, so many of your thoughts seem to want me to do this." He said as he rubbed his hand over her chest again. To her horror she could feel her nipples tighten from the sensation.

She turned her head and bit his arm as hard as she could, he didn't seem to notice and went on with fondling her. His hand traced down her side and drew over her hips. It was all she could do not to cry out in pleasure at the contact.

"Let me go, now. This is not what I want." She said harshly.

"You know, if I couldn't read your mind I'd do it, but since I can read your mind, and I know just how much you actually want me to continue." his words trailed off and he leaned down and began kissing her neck. She shuddered in pleasure at the contact and unconsciously began to rub her butt against his crotch. She could feel the instant reaction and gasped at the firmness now pressing into her.

He pinched her nipple and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. She threw her head back and moaned at the sensation. She knew this was wrong, but it felt so right. She didn't really want this, despite how her body reacted. Yes part of her wanted Tenjin, or Mordaki as she knew he really was, but it was completely outvoted by her common sense, and her loyalty to Mina. As if he had heard her thoughts, he halted his touch immediately when she considered Mina's reaction.

"Oh my god, what am I doing?" he asked out loud. He pushed her gently away from him and released his hold on her once she was at arm distance. "I'm sorry, Rei-san. My actions are inexcusable."

She didn't know what to say. He was the enemy, it was her duty to defend the people of earth from him, but he was also Tenjin, the man she loved. She was torn between her feelings and obligation until she looked into his eyes. They were filled with regret.

He was at fault here. He had almost cheated on Mina, and she hadn't exactly been willing, but to be honest she wasn't exactly opposed either. It was a very strange situation to be in. How should you feel when the man you love nearly rapes you? She wondered. She came to her decision fairly quickly. She stepped closer and drew him into a hug, after a few minutes she felt they were both ready to talk.

"So do you want to talk about it?" She asked looking up at him. From the angle she was at she could see many similarities between his Tenjin and Mori appearances. It was a bit odd to have to look up like this at him, but it was easy to recall the many friendly conversations.

"Where do you want to start." He said in his traditional question. She bit back a laugh at the strangeness of hearing it after what had just happened.

"Why are you here?"

"I come here every night around this time."

"Well, I actually meant why are you here on earth, but we'll start with the park. Why do you come here every night?"

"Mina, I can't stand deceiving her, but she'd hate me if she knew the truth. People don't generally like Agony Bindings."

"I think you might be surprised by her capacity to forgive, she a lot like Usagi in that. But I'll ask you, what is an Agony Binding, and why did you put one on her?"

"An Agony Binding is a spell that makes you hurt, that's it. It can just make you hurt until you die, or it can have triggers. The one I used had a trigger. I bound her against trying to harm me and we both saw it happen. It's why she had those seizures during lunch that day."

"Oh Kami-sama, I thought she was going to die."

"She would have, I healed her and of course that halted the progression. She must have been thinking about the fight or something, it wouldn't have triggered without her choosing to hurt me. I didn't know what happened to Mina that day. I didn't dare use too much magic out in the open. The Kami only knew where those nosy psychotic Senshi were." He smiled at her as he said that.

"You mean you couldn't tell she was under a spell?"

"Not without probing deeper and I wasn't about to do that in my Tenjin disguise. It would have been like holding up a sign."

"Do you love her?"

"Yes, it's scary really. You have no idea what its like to watch the passing of eons. I've been alive since the beginning of the universe Rei. I watched the first stars born. I've never been in love before though. It's like.like suddenly realising that I've only been half alive all this time. When she's with me everything is brighter, more beautiful, everything makes sense. But when she gone it's like I'm slowly wasting away. There's no point for my existence without her anymore it seems. And I'm going to loose her because it's all based on deception."

"That won't happen. No matter what you believe, I know Mina. I swear to you that she loves Tenjin more than she hates Mori. She may be angry, she may scream, cry or any number of bad things, but she'll come back because she loves you. And once she remembers that, she won't care what your name is, or how old you really are. All she'll care about is that you love her too."

"Thank you Rei-chan, I can't tell you how much I needed to hear that."

"Next question. Why are you doing all of this?" She said with a wave of her hand. He knew she was asking about his attacks on the humans.

"Do you love your Jinja?" he asked.

"Yes."

"How would you feel if you laid down for a nap and when you woke up a visitor had chopped down half the walls, used them for firewood and started a porn shop in the courtyard?"

"I'd be very angry."

"Would you kick them out?"

"If they were lucky. I'd probably beat them to death with a broom."

"Then you can understand how I feel about the earth. Its mine Rei- chan, I made it. It's the closest thing to a home I have. I spent a billion years in the blackness of space before there were any planets. I remember when the first world appeared. We didn't know what to think of it. It wasn't a star, it was very cold in comparison, and it was so tiny. It was hardly a mote next to the star it orbited. I landed on it while its surface was still nothing more than molten rock. Much closer to plasma really. I knew it was something significant. This world was modelled after that first one. It was billions of years after the star that held it world went nova and destroyed it that I made its copy."

"You actually made the earth?" she said with awe and more than a little disbelief.

"Not just the earth, the entire solar system. I made it as a place for me to go, to be alone. The other Primarchs knew this was my territory, and the early Ulterran were too terrified of us to even think of disputing my command to stay away."

"I understand, sort of, but it's been twenty thousand years since you went to sleep, you couldn't have expected it to remain unchanged for that long. You had to know humans would progress."

"Rei, the Ulterran culture remained static for six billion years, why should the mortals have been any different? Twenty thousand years was nothing compared to that."

"Why did you come to Juuban?"

"Neko and I felt the recent presence of four of the five Crystals, and the energy residue of the fifth. It was a pretty good bet that we could find the decedents of our servants here."

"Five? I only know of four crystals."

"Jander's emerald was never actually here, but I could feel its corruption and chaos energies. Probably someone that had been infected with its power was here. Someone so far gone there was no chance for redemption." Mori stopped and looked at the moon, it was nearly full. "I have to get back, Mina will wake up in a few minutes and I don't want her to worry about me."

Rei leaned up and brushed a kiss across his lips, before backing out of his embrace. It was harder than she had expected. She reached out and took his hand. For one last instant she pressed it against her cheek then she let go.

"Go." She said. "Get out of here before Mina wakes up."

Mori vanished in a little flash of golden light. Rei stood staring at where he had been only moments before. Her composure hardly lasted longer than the after image of his light. Rei fell to the ground crying at the injustice of a universe that would repeatedly offer her what she needed only to snatch it away when she tried to take hold of it.

******** By unanimous consent all of the Senshi chose to skip school on Saturday. Not even Ami wanted to spend the last hours before a battle like this in class. They had gathered at the Jinja early in the morning to discuss strategy. It wasn't difficult to decide who would take on which Primarch. Only four of the Senshi had the ability to harm Mordaki with their magical attacks, and only Haruka stood any chance at all of surviving hand to hand combat with him. That left the other four Senshi and Mamoru to take on Niccolai.

Ami had surprising revelations about the capabilities of the Primarchs. According to her she had learned much about them from her computers scanners. She claimed there was no real chance of defeating them without a miracle, but she had many sound pieces of advice for injuring them.

After several hours of planning the meeting dissolved into a gathering of friends. It didn't take long for Mina to call over to Tenjin's and invite him to join them. She had made her intention to skip school known to him and he had chosen to join her in her truancy. What was surprising was that Konjou and Hikage had also done the same. Less than fifteen minutes later the boys arrived at the Jinja and the fun began.

The girls tried their hardest to crowd nearly everything they had ever wanted to do in that single day. It seemed that they would hardly arrive somewhere before they were off to do something else, amidst laughter and companionship. Even Haruka seemed on her best behaviour. Not once during the entire day did she complain about Hikage's presence or his proximity to Hotaru, it seemed that her belief that this would be their last day allowed her to see what everyone else already knew. He made Hotaru happy.

The sun began to dip towards the horizon when Ami's communicator went off. She looked curiously at Konjou and went to discover what her computer was trying to tell her. The other girls did their best to distract the boys from Ami's actions while she checked the readouts. Her computer was picking up massive pulses of Neko's energy from the vicinity of the Park. She glared at Konjou, who returned it with an innocent expression, and quickly took the girls aside to explain the information.

They made their excuses to the boys and quickly dashed off towards the park, with only one stop along the way. A few blocks from their intended destination, with the Mercury computer now emitting a constant warning about the presence of massive amounts of energy, the girls readied for battle.

"Mercury Crystal Power,"

"Venus Crystal Power,"

"Mars Crystal Power,"

"Jupiter Crystal Power,"

"Saturn Planet Power,"

"Uranus Planet Power,"

"Neptune Planet Power,"

"Pluto Planet Power,"

"Moon Eternal,"

"Make Up!" they all shouted in unison.

Seconds later the alley was filled with chromatic bursts of light, and flashes of magical energy. Nine young women and one male assumed their magical disguises and prepared themselves for war. They left the alley as soon as their transformations had stopped and dashed the remaining blocks to the park.

The Senshi entered the park alert for anything that might possibly be an ambush. Though Sailor Moon and gotten them to agree to a formal challenge, most of the Senshi couldn't believe that this enemy would behave differently than their previous foes. As of yet in their careers as Senshi they had never battled anyone that could have even been confused with having honour, so their precautions were quite well ingrained.

They needn't have bothered however for their opponents stood casually before the lake watching the recently restocked fish jump. The Primarchs turned at their arrival and bowed formally to the Senshi.

"Ahh, so good of you to be prompt." Niccolai said with a smile.

Sailor Moon stepped forward and took on a look of pleading, her large blue eyes filled with tears and even her hair drooped like sad bunny ears.

"Please, have you considered any other way in the month since we last talked? We don't have to fight. We don't want to be your enemies. All we want is to protect people. You know about defending life. I know you don't really want to hurt people, you didn't kill anyone at all when you did all made the oil derricks and power plants disappear."

"Our paths are set." Neko said firmly. "Were the people you defend so adherently less destructive, we would agree, and even comply, but that is not the case."

"Despite everything, it seems we must do battle. I do not wish it, but it is unavoidable." Mori said.

The Senshi quickly split into two groups, with Venus, Moon, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto arraying themselves against Mori, and Mercury, Endymion, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune forming up against Neko. The atmosphere was highly tense, anything at all could have triggered the battle. When a beam of light emitted from the Garnet Orb in Setsuna's staff it nearly started.

The light shined away from the two groups. No mater how Pluto oriented the staff, the light continued to illuminate the same place. After a few seconds an enormously tall man stood in the beam. He was close to two and a half metres tall, with long dark blond hair gathered in a loose ponytail, and very very pale blue eyes. He was dressed in the same style clothing as Mori and Neko, making it quite simple for the Senshi to determine he was a Primarch, as if the metre thick red aura weren't enough of a clue. The Senshi quickly recognised him from the memory crystal, it was Lor.

Fire began to spiral from the ground in three points next to the new arrival. The three spirals converged at a point somewhat under two metres in the air. The spirals increased in speed until they seemed a solid roughly man shaped fire. The flames vanished all at once leaving a red haired man with a complexion very much like Setsuna's his violet eyes stared impassively at the Senshi, sending a chill down more than one spine. His aura was pulled in tight around him, but there was absolutely no mistaking, Mordred, the Primarch of Entropy, the only being in existence Mori and Neko feared, had arrived.

A bolt of lightning struck the ground on the other side of Lor. A negative image of a man seemed to appear in the brief instant of the bolt's existence. A fraction of a second later the phenomenon repeated itself, again the Man shape was visible, but only inside the bolt. More bolts began to fall, faster and faster constantly bathing the area in blinding light save for the small area of blackness in the shape of a man. The bolts halted suddenly and there was calm. The Senshi looked around, but saw no trace of the shadow figure. Three bolts struck the ground as one and when the glare faded a tall violet haired, heavily muscled man stood with a smirk watching them. A large green aura surrounded him. Even without it or the obvious style of clothing the Senshi would have recognised him. The smirk was identical to the one he wore twenty thousand years ago during the presentation.

Their attention was drawn by Mori clapping lightly as he looked at the other three Primarchs.

"Oh good one Jander." He said. "He's got my vote for best entrance."

"I'm going to have to agree, sorry guys." Neko said.

"Yea, Jander gets the cool point. That puts him tied with Lor right Neko?"

"Umm, I'm going to have to check later, it's been a bit."

Sailor Uranus seemed irritated by the lack of concern and attention the Primarchs were paying her. She took a step forward and readied her talisman to release its attack on the unsuspecting Mori.

"I would not do that Uranus," Mordred said without even looking at her. "I was about to do something nice for you Senshi, but if you continue with that action I will just kill you where you stand. Nothing personal."

Haruka froze in mid action, something about his pleasant tone made her take him very seriously. It was much like the tone Hotaru had used when she informed Nehelenia of her willingness to destroy them both to save the Princess.

"Mori, Neko, You will not use the greater powers that are your heritage in this contest. There is no question that they stand no chance against you should you wield your full capabilities. You will limit yourselves only to those powers that you can not halt, and those skills you have learned in the long experience of your lives. As your opponents utilize magic so may you, but only that magic that you call upon in the manner of mortals. Further they need not actually defeat you to be judged the winner of this contest, merely give you sufficient difficulty. Do you understand?"

"That's completely unfair Mordred. They challenged us, we get to choose the weapons."

"They challenged the Primarchs, and I chose the weapons. Only if your life is in danger may you violate my restrictions."

"Fine." Neko said with irritation.

"Agreed." Mori replied.

"Go." Mordred spoke.

The words had hardly left Mordred's mouth before the magic started to fly. Pluto fired a Dead Scream at Mori and Endymion summoned the unimaginable power of the Golden Crystal. Their attacks had gotten no more than a few centimetres from them when the rest of the Senshi released theirs in a prismatic shower of deadly radiance.

Neko was more than ready for the incoming assault. Unlike the last time he had battled them, he now knew about the Golden Crystal. He was thirty times stronger and more than ten times faster than his opponents. He knew their tactics and capabilities. Most important, he never made the same mistake twice. Before Mordred's words had finished, before Endymion's eyes could register the change in his location Neko leapt eight stories nearly straight up. The deadly magic crossed harmlessly underneath him.

Mori had been planning his actions for this battle for a month. The Senshi were highly predictable. They only had access to a few magical abilities, and even fewer of those had any chance of causing him the slightest amount of harm. Mori rolled out of the way of the slow moving attacks and crossed the distance to his primary target, Sailor Pluto. He had nearly struck when two things halted him.

Usagi watched as her attack flew through where Mori had been. He had easily dodged it and everyone else's. Only Mina had yet to release her magic, and Usagi knew why. There was no way to tell if it would react like it had last time. Mina needed to be sure of a hit on him before wasting what might easily be her only contribution to the battle. He closed in on Setsuna, clearly intending to take her out of the fight now. She saw him hesitate and attempt to stop his fist for some reason, but it was too late.

Makoto dived out of the way of Endymion's failed attack, and came up spitting dirt. Neko was wicked fast. He had dodged their attacks with casual ease, but now he was falling towards Endymion, and had no way to manoeuvre out of the path of her attack. She called on her power once again and leaflets of energy screamed towards him.

There was little Hotaru could do this early in the battle. Her attacks were simply too indiscriminate to use before it became imperative. She had instead decided to stay near the Princess and defend her with the Silence wall, should it become necessary. She watched in despair as Mori ignored the Princess to attack Setsuna. There was nothing she could do but watch as the first Senshi was doomed to fall.

The wave of her Deep Submerging passed harmlessly underneath Neko and impacted with Mars' flame sniper. The resultant explosion of energy was ignored in the greater scheme of the battle. Neko's intentions were obvious to her, but there was nothing she could do at this point. Her attack was too slow to reach him before he struck Endymion. Knowing that she would have to answer for her actions later, Michiru began her attack with Endymion himself as the target. If she was correct Neko would be in the way before it landed.

Haruka chased after Mori, her magical attacks were worthless against him, but she still had her sword. She was confident that no one could defeat her in hand to hand combat while she was transformed. She was easily the strongest and toughest of the Senshi, her skills had been honed in countless battles during the time of the Moon Kingdom. She refused to be defeated. She was no more than a half a dozen metres from him when that attack struck.

Rei rolled away from the explosion caused by the impact of her and Michiru's attacks. The shockwave did little damage but caused her to loose where Neko had gone. She had no fear of dying now. Last night had proven to her that Mori wouldn't allow them to be killed, but she still had a job to do. Usagi was depending on her to help save the people of earth, and from how Mori had explained himself last night, she knew they needed defending. She finally found Neko streaking down on Mamoru like a meteor. She winced in sympathy for the upcoming pain.

Mina had to try it, there was no other choice. The battle had long since receded into slow motion for her. Only Mori and Neko seemed to be moving at normal speeds, but she knew it was the other way around. She was once again accelerated to a blur. Mori was almost within reach of Setsuna when she reacted. She prayed desperately that she would somehow remain standing despite the terrible backlash of her attack, and released her Love and Beauty Shock.

Ami watched in wonder the slow motion ballet of the battle. She knew what was happening, Mina had described the effects far too accurately for her to mistake this. Somehow, her power was surging like Mina's. A quick look around showed everyone save Mina and the Primarchs slowly reacting to the changing course of events. She came to the decision to risk using her magic despite the disastrous results Mina had encountered. Changing tactics quickly she used the strongest attack she possessed that had no recoil, the Mercury Aqua Mirage.

Setsuna didn't need the Time Gates to see her future at the moment. She was about to get her ass kicked. There was no time to dodge, no time to block, or counter, and no one to save her. For some reason Mori had chosen to remove her from the battle first, and there was nothing she or anyone could do about it. She had just resolved herself to possibly never waking up, when the wave of kinetic energy batted Mori aside like a toy.

Endymion's eyes widened when he finally realised where Neko had gone. It was too late to avoid the attack, but he braced himself for the pain. Neko's flying body check slammed him into the ground and his head rebounded off it. He saw stars but was still conscious. He fought his unresponsive limbs trying to get the crystal oriented at Neko. He needed to do something to injure him before he was taken completely out of the fight. His arms stubbornly refused to lift, indicting just how injured he was.

Mori tried his best to halt his momentum, but with Mordred's order not to use his full abilities, he couldn't overcome his inertia quick enough to save Setsuna from the attack. He hadn't noticed until he was very close, her Glamour and the massive amount of magical energy in the air had made a very effective screen for it from his senses, but at this distance nothing could have blocked this kind of information from him. Setsuna was as of this second a non-combatant, she was pregnant. He would not hurt her if he could at all help it. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't stop himself. He was actually relieved when Mina's hyper- accelerated magical attack knocked him out of attack range of Pluto.

"Kalsandra Kalrah!" He shouted when he finally stopped rolling. He teleported directly behind Pluto and caught her as she fell into the deep enchanted slumber he had placed her in. "Sleep well little Senshi," he said as he kissed her lightly on the temple. A worried look crossed his face as he looked at Mina. She wasn't moving in slow motion like the rest of his opponents. In fact she appeared to be staying up with him. The thing that frightened him though was what he felt from her. In the instant of her attack the local gravity around her had increased ten fold. It was absolutely impossible for anyone to alter natural forces within several kilometres of him, but somehow she had done it. He screamed in pain as a line of agony sliced across his back.

Neko was moderately surprised that Endymion was still conscious after that hit. In fact not only was he still conscious, he was still trying to fight. It made him happy that the however many greats granddaughter of Lunari had chosen such a strong lover. Of course he couldn't allow him to remain awake and possibly strike back with that damn crystal while he was dealing with the other Senshi. Neko struck out quickly, with just this side of enough force to crush Endymion's skull. Endymion's head was driven into the ground like a tack, he was obviously out of the battle. The delay cost Neko though, as a dozen or more spears of elemental water magic ripped through him.

Haruka had gotten behind Mori in the confusion caused by Mina's attack. He seemed preoccupied with staring at Mina which was fine with her. If Mina's beauty could be used as a weapon against Mori then she wouldn't complain. She slashed out viciously with the Space Sword. Its glowing crystalline blade sliced a line across his back, but failed to create more than a shallow cut. Still that was far more effective than any of her magic had been.

Michiru's Deep Submerging interlaced with the amazingly fast Aqua Mirage, forming an attack of a power never before seen. It ripped through Neko, piercing his body in a score of places. When the magic dissipated he was still standing, though leaning heavily over. She quickly fired another attack, and prayed that he wouldn't recover in time to avoid it. She cast a quick eye to where Ami had been standing, and found the place empty. She marvelled at the power displayed by the younger girl, and gave up looking for her. Ami could always be trusted to do her job.

Usagi watched in sick fascination as Mori counterattacked against Haruka. His fist hammered into her stomach hard enough to make her immediately throw up. He spun in a graceful circle so quickly he seemed a blur to her, and Haruka was down. Usagi had finally had enough time to recharge her magic enough for another attack. It flew towards him, seemingly unseen, only to be dodged at the last possible instant.

Makoto couldn't keep track of her opponent. By the time she prepared her attack, he was already elsewhere harassing one of her partners. At the moment she was almost as afraid of Ami as Neko. Ami had rushed past her, fast enough to be nothing more than a blue blur, and attacked Neko hand to hand. It was a suicide manoeuvre. She knew how pointless it was to take on Neko like that, but not only was she doing it, she was holding up better than Makoto could have. Makoto took the opportunity to fire an Oak Evolution at Neko's back, and nearly jumped in elation when it struck and staggered him.

Hotaru knew that either she or Usagi was next. Mori seemed to be avoiding conflict with Mina. She was at a loss to explain why, but it was easy to see. She brought up her Silence Wall, and hoped it would hold against the titanic energies her opponent possessed. She caught a bit of movement from where Haruka lay, and schooled her expression to impassivity. She would not allow her face to betray the fact that Mori had left a conscious opponent behind him.

Rei again missed Neko with her flame sniper. Even wounded he moved too quickly for truly accurate attacks. The arrow of fire narrowly missed Ami, who was really far too close to Neko for any of the scouts to actually use magic on him. She yelled her apologies, and readied another Flame Sniper.

She gathered the energy for another attack. Mina knew that the surprise of her enhanced speed and power had already worn off. She needed to try something new on Mori, or he would simply dodge her attack. The amount of power it took to keep herself from flying backwards with the recoil of the Love and Beauty Shock, was nearly prohibitive. Switching to an attack she rarely used Mina unleashed the Rolling Heart Vibration.

Ami felt the nearly uncontrollable desire to laugh, to cry, to cheer at the feeling of power flowing through her. The high of her enhanced energy was much like sex. It surged through her, allowing her to engage Neko in hand to hand combat in a way no other Senshi save Mina could have matched. She shrugged off the hammer blows of his hands like they were nothing. She smiled secretly at him, and knew he returned her sentiments. The feeling of freedom and joy turned their duel into something closer to a sparing match. Her joy turned once again to a competitive spirit when he used her distraction to flick her on the nose.

Mori flared his aura, adding a minor regenerative spell to the already complex overlapping layers of magical defence enshrouding him. He dodged another of Moon's oversized heart shaped magical attacks, and strode up to the extremely powerful barrier spell erected by Sailor Saturn. He had it analyzed long before he arrived, and knew it would require ridiculous amounts of power of overcome it. Instead of wasting that amount of power, he pulled a trick only he of all the beings in the universe could do.

The gate he opened was not much larger than his arm. He smiled as he waved to Saturn with his off hand. While he did so he reached through the gate, and grabbed the back of her neck through the opposite end of the gate, which he had placed behind her. He quickly applied a powerful electrical charge directly to the top of her spine, switching her off like a light. She slumped to the ground unconscious, and the barrier she had made winked out of existence. He was still smiling when Mina's attack slammed him through a tree reducing it to matchsticks.

The battle was moving very quickly, Michiru couldn't recall ever being in anything quite this fast pace yet intense. She dodged out of the way of one of the small bolts of power Neko had been throwing in the last couple of seconds. He wasn't really trying to hit anyone directly with them, merely disrupt any attempts for them to organize against him. The tactic was highly effective. So far only Rei had been grazed by one of them and she was still cradling her burnt arm from hit.

She darted closer, trying to get a clear line of fire that wouldn't include Ami. She wondered about Ami's change of tactics during the fight. Ami was nearly always reluctant and cautious in a battle. Her normal role was as support firepower. Currently she was toe to toe with the enemy and moving at speeds that beggared the imagination. Obviously something had changed about her. Michiru's momentary distraction proved to be disastrous, as one of the power bolts struck her directly in the face. She fainted from the pain long before she hit the ground.

Haruka slowly crawled towards her Princess, doing her all to ignore the overwhelming pain. She had to tell her what she had learned. No two people fought the same, even if the had the same Sensei. It had taken her far too long to realise it, but she recognised Mori's combat style. She had fought him before, only they had both been disguised. She maintained crawling hoping to remain unnoticed until she finished her new mission. Only one phrase repeated itself in her mind over and over again, giving her the will to continue. Mori is Tenjin.

He avoided yet another of Ami's fast but unskilled attacks, slapping her on the hand as it passed him by. She hissed at him in frustration at yet again being unable to either score a hit, or prevent him from attacking her friends. He fired yet another powerbolt this time at Jupiter, who was beginning to attack again. Those stupid leaves hurt, he thought. The bolt missed Jupiter by millimetres but it server its real purpose, the attack was averted.

Neko grinned as he stepped closer to Ami, inside her guard and puller her into his embrace. She kicked at him and managed to score several bruising successes before he claimed her lips in a kiss. She quickly started to go lax in his arms, and he used her distraction to take Mars out of the fight with an unfocused kinetic burst, without Ami's interference. Sure she would hurt like hell when she woke up, but it wouldn't leave any marks.

Usagi watched as Mori stood from where Mina's attack had blasted him. He slid impossibly to the side before he even completed the manoeuvre dodging her follow up attack. It was painfully obvious that her abilities were useless against him. She was just too slow. Usagi knew of only one way for her to achieve the power she needed to aid her quickly falling comrades. She withdrew the Sliver Crystal and began her transformation into her Moon Princess form.

Mina allowed a smile of hope to light her face at seeing Usagi taking on her Princess form. Mori was about to find out just how powerful they really were. She savagely suppressed a moment of depression at having to hurt such a cute boy. She had Tenjin, assuming she survived, and that was more than enough. Still, she thought, Tenjin surely wouldn't fault her just for looking.

She moved on to another attack and summoned her Love Me Chain. Mori was taken completely by surprise by its strength and appearance. Before he had a chance to move out of the way, she grabbed him with the chain and slammed him once again into the ground. She jumped for joy and brought him up for another bashing when the chain just disintegrated

Makoto froze in absolute shock at seeing Ami wrapped in Neko's arms, getting the daylights kissed out of her and showing every indication of enjoying it. It was an unbelievable enough sight to make her question her sanity. She could hear Ami purr with pleasure when Neko's hands slid down her back to cup her butt and pull her tighter against him. Makoto couldn't attack him with her like that, so she simply tried to find a better angle of attack. She nearly fainted when Neko tilted Ami's face up to meet his eyes and spoke.

"I'm sorry about this Ami-chan." He said, and quickly struck several nerve clusters on her neck and shoulders.

"Neko-chan?..." was all she had time to say before she passed out.

Usagi saw Haruka slowly and painfully crawling towards her. Her heart went out to the older girl that would fight on despite the unimaginable agony she must have been in. Usagi raised the Silver Crystal and poured healing energy into Haruka. She watched as the wounds healed in instants. Haruka stood and called out some kind of warning to her, but it was far too late. Mori had already struck by the time she realized her peril.

Mori finished with the little Ulterran, and eased her quickly to the ground. He'd hated taking her down like that, but she had begun to heal her friends, and he just couldn't allow that. The only opponents left standing now were Mina and Uranus. He thought about finishing taking Uranus out of the fight, but Mina seemed the far greater threat. He changed his direction in mid step and moved to deal with his errant lover.

Mina saw him begin to move towards her, and knew the time was now or never. She was much stronger and faster than any of the other Senshi. Her powers had somehow been magnified, and Setsuna's explanation didn't seem correct to her. She had never gone through anything like this during the time of the Moon Kingdom. Mina sighed and prepared to meet her cute enemy in combat.

"If you're thinking I'm just a pretty blond, then in my case what you see is definitely not what you get. Sailor V is for victory!" She said to her opponent with an overly cute smirk. "Venus Chain Sword!" She screamed withdrawing the sword traditionally wielded by the leader of the Senshi from her subspace pocket.

Every Primarch's head snapped around to look at Mina as she withdrew the sword. Lor, Jander, and Neko wore looks of shock, and in Neko's case more than a little guilt. Mordred had a look of confusion, something that would have made anyone who knew him run. Mori on the other hand had on an expression of fear and disbelief. Not only did he sense the sword was composed of a material he knew very well didn't exist in this solar system, but Mina, his lover and constant companion for the last month, stood proud before him, wrapped in a three centimetre thick aura of golden light, exactly like his own.

His distraction was severe enough that he hardly noticed her move to attack. She swung the deadly Silverran sword at his chest. Only luck had his arm up in the proper position to block the blow, but it was at a severe cost. The instant the Blade encountered his Aura, the light gutted out and died like a candle in a hurricane. The sword bit deep into him, slicing into the bone. In a single strike Mina had accomplished a hundred times the damage of the rest of the attacks he had received today combined.

It wasn't just his physical body that had been damaged by the sword. His aura itself, arguably the true form of a Primarch had been severely wounded. Mori howled with rage and pain, and struck Mina in a bone crushing reflexive action. She flew out of the park and slammed through the outer wall of an apartment building two hundred metres away. The sword fell to the ground where she was struck, she had been unconscious before she ever left the ground.

Neko quickly struck the mesmerized Makoto with a powerful sleep spell, more to defend her from the backlash of Mori's pained psychic screaming then to eliminate her as a threat. He darted over to Mori, knowing the survival of every mortal within thousands of kilometres depended on the next several minutes. He watched in horror as Uranus grabbed the sword from where it lay and struck again at the wounded Mori.

Mori just managed to collect himself enough to teleport out of range of the deadly weapon. He wasn't sure where Mina had gotten a Silverran weapon, but the responsible party was probably going to die. Only twice before in his existence had he actually came into contact with the organic metal. It was probably the only thing that could actually destroy him. Mordred had said that he couldn't access his greater powers unless his life was in jeopardy. This fit the description if anything did.

His flesh bubbled and rapidly expanded. His form quickly stretched to over one hundred metres long. The amorphous mass solidified into a shape no one on earth had seen in thousands of years, but was still completely unmistakeable. The horrific fear that dragons wielded over the subconscious minds of mortals everywhere in the universe had caused the tales of their destructive activities to be passed down even in a world where such things were scoffed at.

Haruka remained outwardly calm despite the gibbering horror that bubbled up inside of her. She was a mote next to the immenseness of her opponent. The sword she had placed such faith in seemed pathetically inadequate now. The beast roared its challenge into the air, and it was all she could do not to wet herself.

Mori thrashed his tail back and forth, waiting for Uranus to take any action he could even misconstrue as hostile. The terrible wound on his front leg leaked steaming blood onto the ground. His claws dug deep into the soil, and the acidic smog of his breath hung in a cloud over the park choking the sleeping and unconscious Senshi.

"Mori, calm down. There's no way they knew." Neko said as he directed the full power of his will magic into soothing Mori's wound. There was nothing he or anyone could do to actually heal the damage. Mori would spend weeks slowly recovering from that single hit. "Don't do this Mori."

The sky had become completely black. Lor and Jander quickly erected magical shields over themselves, while Mordred simply put barriers over the downed Senshi. Lightning was falling more frequently than the raindrops in this powerful temper storm. Haruka unconsciously raised her hands to shield her ears from the continuous roar of thunder. All Mori saw was the sword coming up. Instantly Haruka became the target of choice for every bolt of lightning in the storm. The sword absorbed harmlessly every bolt that came within a sixty degree arc of its blade, but that hardly saved Haruka.

Literally thousands of lightning bolts struck her simultaneously, and the assault continued for long seconds. Finally Mori ended the grotesque overkill by exhaling a cloud of concentrated sulphuric acid onto her remains. Neko stared in horror at Mori and the charred mass that had once been Haruka.

"Holy shit Mori, overkill much?" Jander asked in an attempt to lighten the mood. No one other than Mordred could hope to remain impassive after that display.

Mori returned to his normal form and materialized a length of cotton wrapping. He quickly and efficiently bound his wound and started off to go check on Mina. The sword that had started all of the trouble still lay untouched amidst the remains of Haruka.

Ami began to stir, and the sound of her voice galvanized Neko into action. He ran over to her and quickly helped her to her feet. He did his best to shield her from the sight of her obliterated friend, but it was to no avail. One glance and a whiff of the air later and Neko was patting her back as she lost her last several meals.

Ami stared at the remains for several seconds, once she regained her composure, trying to ascertain who it had been. She came to her decision through process of elimination rather than any actual physical evidence. When she began with the assumption that, despite the Moon Sword laying on it, it wasn't Mina, a quick look around determined who else it wasn't.

"Neko, you have to fix that, before the rest of them wake up. Michiru and Usagi will not be able to handle it."

"I assume you mean you want me to bring her back, rather than just discreetly teleporting her remains into the sun or something right?" When she nodded he shook his head wearily. "You want a lot. Mori went quite a bit out of his way to kill her you know. When he comes back if he sees her he's likely to do it again. I haven't ever seen him that angry before. I'd guess the only reason the planet is still here is he didn't want to hurt Mina."

Despite his words, Neko began the difficult process of reassembling and restoring Haruka's body. It was almost a hopeless endeavour, but he persevered and soon the corpse looked as if she had simply died with no cause. Reviving her then was a simple matter. Haruka came up screaming in terror, her last thoughts and visions had yet to fade for her and Neko winced in sympathy for anything that had to face Mori's unbridled anger.

"Haruka, you're safe now," Ami shouted to her. "You're ok, it's over."

Haruka eventually stopped screaming, and looked around. When she found no sign of any one hundred metre reptiles she began searching for her fellow Senshi. She found them lined up in front of Mordred. He moved from Senshi to healing their minor wounds and gently waking them up.

"What happened?" Endymion asked as he sat up.

"We lost." Ami supplied helpfully.

Just then Mori appeared carrying a badly wounded Mina. The wrapping on his arm had already turned red from blood seepage, and he seemed unable to hold Mina's weight very well with his wounded arm. He gently laid her down and traced his fingers over her forehead.

"Wake up Mina-chan." He whispered. The other Senshi could just make out his words, and were very shocked to hear both her name, and the tone of affection come from him. "Come on koishii, wake up. I didn't mean to hit you like that."

Haruka was watching every movement Mori made like squirrel watching an avalanche. There was nothing she could do but hope he passed her by. Michiru noted the look of fear, so foreign to Haruka's normal appearance, and asked her softly what it was about.

"I'll never be able to explain it anata." Haruka said softly. Her choice of endearments, one a wife calls her husband, told Michiru much about the current state of her confidence. Something had shattered her confidence in a way nothing even had.

Mina began to open her eyes, and Mori instantly assumed his Tenjin form. Loud gasps of surprise echoed over the park. Only Ami, Haruka, and Rei were unaffected. Mina, who had not completely opened her eyes before the change, easily allowed herself to be pulled into Tenjin's embrace.

"I'm sorry koishii. I'm so sorry for hurting you." Tenjin rained kisses down on Mina's confused cheeks. She started in surprise when she realized that she was still in her Senshi fuku, and the rest of the girls around her were staring at Tenjin in wide eyed shock. She nearly leapt back out of his embrace when she noticed the bloody bandage on his arm, but he held her close to him.

"What happened?" she whispered. She could see Ami standing with her arm around Neko, and the other Senshi huddled in a tight group around the princess and the still sleeping Pluto.

"Allow me to answer that." Mordred said moving forward. His appearance rippled and became that of Hikage. He gave a short bow to the assembled Senshi, and pointed at Ami, who now had her arm around Konjou. Mina looked wild eyed back in the direction of Mordred/Hikage and noticed Lor become the new female P.E. Sensei Nakoudo-san. Jander just wiggled his eyebrows and shrugged.

"The first thing you should know is you didn't exactly lose." Mordred continued. "But more important to you perhaps is the truth of who we are."

It didn't take anyone very long to understand. With Ami nodding at them in confirmation, the Senshi came to the correct assumption within seconds. Mina summed up their reaction nicely.

"You asshole!" she said as she smacked Tenjin across the face.