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

9. Watchfires

Chapter 9: Watchfires

My apologies on the delay, illness had me bedridden for close to three weeks. Thank you to all the reviews and praise from my loyal readers. This chapter is dedicated to those people who expressed their pleasure in my scratchings. Especially those who, like me, would dearly love to feed the pink haired demon into a woodchipper.

"Ewww, Icky!" Chibi-Usa shouted. Her voice cut through Usagi's dreams and drug her forcefully into the waking world. She rolled over and cast a baleful eye onto her errant daughter. She had been having a truly wonderful dream before the little brat chose to interrupt.

"What's your problem?" Usagi growled.

"Eww eww eww, that's so nasty. I can't believe I just heard my own mother having a wet dream. Eww." Chibi-Usa whined.

Usagi blushed at her daughters words. Chibi-Usa's description of her dream was accurate, crude, but accurate. She shook off the lingering heat and schooled her expression into a glare as she looked once again at her daughter.

"And just what makes you so certain I was having a dream like that? Unlike little pink haired brats that shall remain nameless, I don't have those kinds of dreams. I have Mamoru after all." She finished with a haughty lift of her chin.

"Eww, that's almost as nasty. I don't want to think about my parents getting it on. Thank you ever so much for the visual." Chibi-Usa by this time looked ill at the thought. "And what am I supposed to think when you wake me up moaning 'Oh god yes, right there. Again, more, just like that Mina-chan!'"

Usagi blanched. She couldn't think of anything to say against evidence like that. Personally she blamed Mina and Mori for that dream. She had never even thought of another girl in a sexual way before the stunt they had pulled yesterday. It was terrifying. When she had been pressed between the two of them she had been able to easily feel both of their arousal. She was still somewhat ashamed of the tingle of excitement she felt when Mina's hardened nipples brushed against hers through the thin barriers of her Senshi fuku and the sheet. Of course that had been nothing compared to the sensation of Mori's arousal pressing against her from behind. That was obviously the cause for her strange, graphic and very erotic dream.

"It wasn't what you're thinking. She was. giving me a massage, that's all. See, you're the hentai. Your diseased little hentai mind took something innocent and made it ecchi."

"Sure Odango, that's why you were moaning, groaning and begging for more, oh not to mention squealing, panting, and pleading. You better be nice or I'll tell Mamo-chan about your sick little fantasies about the Senshi."

"Oh shut up and go to sleep you horrible little brat!" Usagi seethed. When Chibi-Usa grumbled and burrowed back under the covers Usagi carefully let out a sigh of relief. At least she hadn't said anything about Mori or Neko. Mamo-chan would be very upset if he ever found out she had dreams about the Primarchs.

********

Ami tapped her pencil against her desk. It was thirty minutes before class and for the first time in her memory she had absolutely nothing to do. As usual her homework was not only complete, but ahead of schedule. She had already finished reading all of her textbooks, and had in fact done the next week of probable assignments last night after Neko disappeared with Mori.

She was used to being ahead scholastically, but this was ridiculous. She was down to needing less than two hours sleep a night, and all that spare time, coupled with how easy everything seemed now, was wearing on her. She looked over at Mina and smiled at seeing the blond girl casually completing her schoolwork. The Sensei would more than likely have an aneurism from shock at that.

She wondered where the boys were off to. Neko hadn't come back to bed last night as was his normal pattern. She felt a little lonely without him, and resolved to interrogate him thoroughly as soon as he showed up.

She again looked around the almost totally deserted room and sighed. There was nothing at all to do. She cast her mind back to the revelations of last night and remembered the look of betrayal Usagi had given her and Mina when they had effectively sided with Neko against her. She hoped that Usagi would eventually understand and forgive her, but she wasn't sorry for siding with Neko. He and Mori were certain that Usagi's plan would have doomed the Human race to destruction, and she wasn't about to doubt their sincerity.

"Ami, I can't get number forty six to work out. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?" Mina asked.

"The book has a misprint. There's no way to complete the problem." Ami answered.

"Ok, thanks."

"You're welcome Mina."

Ten minutes later the class had filled considerably, yet as usual there was no sign of the other Senshi. The day Usagi showed up early for school Ami would take her to the hospital. Several students were warily watching Mina, still convinced she must be a pod person. The Mina they knew would never be in school before the tardy bell, especially doing her assignments. Ami's musings were interrupted by Hiromasa, a boy on the swimming team, coming into the class and approaching her.

"Ami-san?" He asked. He looked very nervous.

"Yes Hiromasa-san?"

"Um, I have something I want to ask you, in private that is," he continued anxiously. "Can I talk to you at lunch?"

Ami was genuinely perplexed. She had no idea what he could possibly need to talk to her alone about. She agreed to meet with him despite her confusion, and he smiled with obvious relief as he left.

"Ami-chan!" Mina whispered harshly. "Why did you say yes? You have to realize what he wants."

"Actually I have no idea." Ami admitted.

"Anno. It was so obvious he was trying to ask you out. He probably was just too scared to ask you with everyone watching."

"Mina, you have to be mistaken. What possible reason would he have to ask me out? He's known me since middle school and never shown the slightest interest in me before."

"Ami-chan, you may not realise it, but you're beautiful. In the last couple of weeks it's become even more obvious. Ever since you became involved with Konjou you've become a lot more self confident. Your beauty isn't hiding anymore, it's kinda out in peoples faces now."

Ami was highly embarrassed by Mina's words. She hadn't realised that she was acting any different from how she had. The idea that people noticed the change in her was shocking.

"Are you sure that's what he wanted Mina?"

"Oh definitely, it was just far too obvious."

"Great. Now I have to dissuade Hiromasa before Konjou notices his interest. Can you imagine how he would react?"

"Yea, we would need a mop for poor Hiromasa."

The other girls filed into the room finally. Usagi seemed in a surprisingly good mood considering what happened the night before. Rei glanced briefly at Ami and Mina sparing them a small smile of greeting. Makoto waved at Mina and took her seat, talking animatedly to Rei the entire time.

The tardy bell rang, yet still the boys had not arrived. Ami began to worry a bit. Yes they were nigh-omnipotent beings, but she couldn't suppress the odd feeling that Neko needed her. Mina's expression stated just as clearly as words that she too wondered where their absent boyfriends were. The teacher was calling roll when the apparition manifested in the room.

"People of the Earth," Neko's image intoned, "the brief reprieve the Senshi bought you with their bravery has ended. Once again we will return to our efforts to cleanse what you have polluted, to repair what you have destroyed. As of this instant we invoke a ban. We will no longer allow wasteful and destructive use of fossil fuel powered transportation. From this instant forward you will find it impossible to burn fossil fuels at all. No longer will your coal or oil power plants function, no longer will you pollute the air with your stupidity."

"We know you have devised other methods to power transportation, and our own Dimensional Power Taps will easily provide all the electricity you could ever require. There will be more changes soon. We would advise you not to be foolish. We will not harm anyone that does not bring harm down upon themselves. Do not provoke us."

The image winked out of existence leaving total silence in the classroom. Obviously it had been sent to the entire human race at the same time. Ami briefly considered how Neko planned to overcome the fact that the vast majority of humans didn't speak Japanese, but realised that more than likely the words it spoke were heard in whatever language the listener understood. She seethed with irritation at Neko's total lack of tact. The very least he could have done was tell her he intended to do this. Makoto, Rei and Usagi were glaring at both Mina and her with unmistakeable anger.

"Just great." She said caustically

Ami started when Konjou and Tenjin simply appeared in their seats. No one other than the Senshi took note of their unique entrance. The Glamour that protected them easily caused the oddity to go unnoticed. Konjou gave her a roguish smile, completely ignoring the death glare she sent his way.

********

Mina was very unhappy. It was perfectly obvious to anyone with a brain that Tenjin was hers, but that didn't seem to be stopping that cow Mika from flirting with him all day long. Ever since classes started, several hours ago, the tart had done everything short of taking her clothes off to get his attention. Of course he didn't even seem to notice her blatant overtures, but it hardly made any difference to Mina. He was hers and everyone knew it, Mika's sluttish actions were a direct insult to her.

"So Tenjin," Mika cooed at him, "I was wondering if we could get together after school today. I was thinking you could come over to my house and we could get to know each other better. My parents won't be home till late this evening."

Mina's blood was close to boiling. The little tramp could have hardly been any more obvious. She thought. Tenjin barely glanced at Mika before dismissing her with the casual response of, "Sorry Mika-san, I have plans." Damn right he has plans. Mina retorted in her head.

"Oh please tell me you've gotten over that frumpy little Mina girl. You can do so much better." Mika laughed.

Mina was far beyond pissed. She wanted nothing more in the universe right then, than to claw the little hussy's eyes out. Only Tenjin's total non-interest in the brunette girl saved her from severe bodily harm.

"Let me guess Mika-san, the better I can supposedly do is you right?" When Mika nodded in agreement Tenjin laughed out loud. "Pardon me," he said still laughing, "That would be like trading in a Lamborghini for a moped. No thanks Mika-san, I'm just not interested."

Mina laughed at Tenjin's reply. Mika's face contorted in anger at his scathing response and she turned around in a huff. Tenjin gave Mina a wink and once again closed his eyes listening to the Sensei. He never took notes. Mina looked down at her open notebook and blinked in confusion. On the top of her desk next to where she had dropped her pen were five deep scratches into the surface. She knew they hadn't been there a few minutes ago, but she was at a total loss to explain their appearance.

Lunch period arrived quickly afterwards and Mina quickly leapt from her seat. She wasn't hungry in the least, but in her opinion it had been far too long since she had a Mori-fix. Ami on the other hand didn't rush like Mina had, but she did gather her things considerably more quickly than usual. She really needed to get outside before Konjou followed her. She had to turn Hiromasa down before her boyfriend noticed him.

Ami made it out of the classroom before Konjou had even started gathering his things. She waited just outside the door to the courtyard for her admirer. She was very impatient for him to arrive, as far as she was concerned his life was on the line.

"Ami-san!" Hiromasa shouted from the hallway. He rushed up to her looking somehow shy and nervous. It was strange for her to think of someone as shy considering how she had been all of her life, but since becoming involved with Neko she had had the shyness burned out of her.

"Ami-san." He repeated when he stood next to her, looking more at the ground than at her. "Can we talk in private Ami-san? I have something important to ask you." He continued. He only looked at her once, and it was only for a second, but she was easily able to tell that he was blushing, and just barely managing not to stutter with nervousness.

"Hiromasa-san," Ami began, "I have something I think I better tell you first. You see."

"Ahh there you are Ami-chan." Konjou interrupted. "You left the class so fast I never got a chance to give you something important."

Hiromasa was torn between anger at Konjou's intrusion, and abject terror at his presence. When he noticed Konjou had put his arm around Ami his heart sank. Everyone knew Makoto and Konjou had broken up. It looked like Konjou had already noticed what everyone else was just beginning to, Ami was truly beautiful.

"Konjou, this is Tanaka Hiromasa, A friend of mine from the swim team."

Hiromasa's heart soared at being called her friend. Before today he had hardly spoken more than a few dozen words a year to her. In fact, he had said more to her in the last five minutes than he had in all of middle school put together.

"Just a moment please Tanaka-san." Konjou said.

Konjou pulled Ami into his arms and drew her into a deep kiss that curled her toes and made her think of teleporting to spend the lunch hour at his apartment rather than on school grounds. An eternity later she felt herself lowered back to the ground with her heart still hammering in her ears. She vaguely heard Konjou again speaking to Hiromasa.

"I'm very happy to meet you Tanaka-san it's like pulling teeth getting Ami-chan to talk about herself. Since you're on the swim team with her I'll have to get together with you and figure out all of her secrets." He smiled in a very friendly manner at the smaller boy.

"Hai Konjou-san, it sounds like a great idea." Hiromasa said sounding like he had just been given a death sentence. His expression failed badly at looking cheerful.

"Well it was pleasant meeting you Tanaka-san, but Ami and I need to catch up with the rest of the girls before Usagi eats everyone's lunch." With that Konjou led a very bemused Ami away from her distraught would-be admirer.

"That was hardly necessary Konjou." She said once they were out of Hiromasa's hearing.

"True, but Enkil that was fun," he replied.

"So where are Mina and Tenjin?" Makoto asked Konjou when they arrived where the other girls where eating. Even the Outers were there today.

"They hopped back to the apartment for lunch." Konjou said blithely. Ami was suddenly glad she hadn't suggested her earlier thought to Konjou.

"Anyone want to bet the only snack he's having is Mina?" Haruka intoned.

"Haruka!" Usagi shouted. For some reason Usagi blushed to the roots of her hair.

"Oh come on, we all know what those two are like. Its not like they even try to hide it."

"Still, some of us are trying to eat here."

"Did anyone see Tenjin shoot down that Mika girl?" Konjou asked. "Man that was cruel. I haven't heard anything that vicious since Kerai and Sierra got in their little catfight over Nilrathin." At the totally blank looks on all the Senshi's faces Konjou replied, "Long story, happened ages ago between a couple of friends of mine. We ever get a few spare years and I'll fill you in."

"Yea, sure." Haruka replied before digging into her bento.

"Well Konjou, perhaps you could explain this morning's announcement. I know you guys haven't talked with Usagi about those concessions." Michiru began.

"Oh that." Konjou said with a half-laugh. He smiled disarmingly as he scratched the back of his head. "Well you know, that was one of the points that Mori wouldn't have bent on. No more pollution, at all. It's not like we didn't bend on how to implement it. Originally Mori was just going to make everything that produced pollution reabsorb into the earth like we did with everything else."

"So that's what happened." Ami said with glee. "You have no idea how curious I was just what you did."

"Reabsorbed?" Usagi asked.

"We broke everything down into its base component materials and returned it to the earth. It's not really that hard. In fact tomorrow were going to do just that to every landfill and junkyard on the planet. Of course if you think that's neat, just wait till we set up the Arcologies and worldwide transportation systems. Of course when we finish with those Mori is going to wipe out every city on the planet," Konjou continued despite the gasps and sputtering of the girls, "but that really wont matter as everyone will have been relocated to the Arcologies by then."

"You can't do that!" Michiru and Rei shouted in almost unison.

"Anno. What's an Arcology?" Usagi interrupted sounding troubled.

"Hmm, well the best explanation would be a super city, a city that is all one building effectively. Imagine a doughnut shaped building with a circumference of about fifty kilometres. Imagine the building standing almost a kilometre tall. The ring of the building would be close to two kilometres thick. Inside the centre of the doughnut would be an enormous park, with a huge lake that supplied the water for the Arcology. The lake would be fed by a river that literally ran through the Arcology."

"Given the sheer size of the thing it could hold half the population of the greater Tokyo area, including housing all the industry needed to support itself. That's Mori's final plan in dealing with Humanity. There are currently about six and a half billion humans on this world. It can only support about nine billion. His plan will allow for the maximum possible amount of cultivatable land to be used, while maintaining the minimum possible ecological damage from humanity and its industries."

The Senshi sat back in total shock. While Mori's plan did make an impressive amount of sense, it would never work. The idea was a complete disaster. There was simply no way he could ever talk the entire human race into moving into these 'Arcologies', and Usagi wouldn't allow him to force them to go.

"Never." Usagi said with vehemence. "I will not allow him to do something like that."

"Excuse me, is this coming from the girl that was going to exile everyone that refused to allow her to 'cleanse' them? You're not really in a position to throw stones little bunny."

Usagi sputtered for a second before calming down. An eerie look came into her eyes and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll just use one of my concessions to tell him no. He can't fight me about it if I have Mordred on my side."

Hotaru smiled at the maturity and wisdom Usagi had just demonstrated. She believed whole heartedly that Mordred would back Usagi up on that completely. Of course they really needed to learn just how many concessions Mordred had given them, before Usagi accidentally used them all trying to thwart problems that might not be as critical as others.

"Ahh little bunny, you forget that any concessions have to mutually agreeable to both you and Mori, and I seriously doubt he'd be willing to bend on the Arcologies. In fact, if you do somehow manage to stop that idea, he will probably reduce the planetary population to something he finds less offensive, and easier to support. Needless to say, that would be a Bad Thing."

It only took a handful of seconds for the implications of Konjou's statement to settle in. Of course the Senshi were very quiet after that. A handful of minutes later the bell signalling the end of lunch rang and the group quickly split up to return to their respective classes.

For the life of him Tenjin couldn't figure out why the girls were giving him such evil stares all throughout the afternoon classes. Sure he and Mina had gone back to his apartment rather than meeting with them, but that hardly merited the sub-arctic shoulder routine. Only Mina, who had been with him, seemed happy with him, and given what he had done to her during their hour long break she had no right to be anything but. Again he intercepted a near death-glare from Rei and wondered what could have possibly happened in such a short time to piss the girls off this bad. He really needed to have a little chat with Neko, but Neko wasn't responding to his psychic questioning.

Rei was livid. This went beyond monumental betrayal, this was. well she couldn't even come up with a word to describe her disgust at Mori's plan. Oh she knew he had more that enough power to accomplish his goal, and there was really nothing she could do other than die a heroic death standing up against it, but she wouldn't just allow him to effectively imprison the entire human race in his 'Arcologies'. The first thing she was going to do was give him a giant piece of her mind, then if he still refused to see reason, things would get ugly.

She was frustrated beyond all reasonability. Ami knew Neko wasn't joking about Mori's goal to settle the entire human populace into Arcologies. Truthfully they were the ideal answer to the world's population problems. They were the ultimate evolution of a city, but could only survive if pollution and crime were held to lows that she simply doubted that humanity could achieve without Usagi's idea of 'cleansing' them.

The entire idea was disturbing in that she also knew beyond the shadow of any doubt that should Mori be placed in the position of wiping out the majority of the human race to protect his world, he would do it in a heartbeat and not have even the smallest pangs of conscience.

Ami would have liked nothing more right then, than to lose herself in some homework, or studying ahead, but she was even denied that. Now that she was flooded with Neko's energies everything seemed so easy for her. She had already memorized verbatim every textbook she had. Worse, the teacher had handed out a one hundred question review for Friday's test, she had finished it in less than three minutes. It just wasn't fair, she thought as her frustration mounted. There was simply no way for her to escape thinking about today's crisis.

Makoto badly wanted to stand up and beat the snot out of Tenjin. His idea was just wrong. Any idiot could see that if you put that many people in those kinds of conditions they would snap. Only the people that lived on the very inside or outside of the doughnut shape would be able to see the outdoors. Sure there would be a big park, but people needed to see the grass and trees. They needed the feel of the wind in their hair and the scents of flowers in the breeze. And though most people in Tokyo might disagree, they needed to see the stars. Mori's idea would drive the vast majority of the human race insane.

She looked over at him again doing her best to communicate her frustration with her eyes alone, and gasped at what she saw. She quickly looked around to see if anyone else noticed, and was happy to find that everyone else was too absorbed in their assignment to have seen. On the other side of Tenjin from her, Ami sat staring off into space. She looked out the window, her posture erect, her body language tense, oh and she was glowing, glowing with a brilliant silver aura at least fifteen centimetres thick. Makoto desperately racked her brain to find a way to get Konjou to notice before anyone else did.

"Usagi!"

"Usagi!" Usagi heard Makoto whispering fiercely to her. She turned around to face her friend and nearly yelped as her gaze fell across Ami. She gaped in disbelief until Makoto again hissed her name.

"Hai?" Usagi whispered back.

"Tell Konjou. He might be able to do something." Makoto hissed.

Konjou looked directly at Makoto and his voice sounded in her head "~What do you need Mako-chan?~"

Makoto jumped at the psychic intrusion. It was a first for her to actually feel the presence of Neko in her mind. She spent a few brief instants wondering if this was like the connection that Usagi and Mamoru shared. She felt Konjou's impatience and quickly returned her attention to the problem.

"~Konjou?... Look at Ami. She's glowing, you have to do something before anyone else sees it.~" She implored.

Konjou quickly turned and took note of Ami's aura. His eyes widened in shock and pleasure. It was obvious that he was impressed by something.

"~Thanks Mako-chan~" She heard him reply in her head. She watched carefully as he turned his attention to Ami.

"~Ami-chan, it looks like my little nickname was more accurate than either of us thought.~" He began. "~Try not to freak out and call any attention to yourself, but look at your reflection~" He said, and held up a small mirror.

Ami quickly looked at the mirror Konjou held in his hand and almost screamed.

"~Konjou! Help, what's going on?~"

"~You're glowing Sprite.~" He supplied unhelpfully.

"~I can see that. Why am I glowing and how do I stop?~"

"~Well the why is fairly easy. You have obviously absorbed enough of my energy to begin to manifest a nice aura just like mine. How to stop is a different sort of problem. You see Sprite, we Primarchs glow naturally. It takes a small amount of concentration to keep from doing so. It gets a lot harder when our emotions are running high. I'd suggest you calm down, and concentrate on not glowing. Just sort of imagine pulling the light inside your skin.~" He finished.

Ami closed her eyes and concentrated hard on the mental image of her normal reflection, the way she looked without glowing. She thought of her slightly pale skin and blue eyes, without the lustre gained by the silver radiance.

"~There you go Sprite. You're not glowing anymore. Now all you have to do is sort of keep that image in your head, or just calm down.~"

"~This is harder than it sounded.~" She complained.

"~Well I do have about hmmm twelve and a half billion years of experience over you in it. Not to mention that my psyche was designed with that in mind. Look, I know it's hard for you, but you'll just have to get used to it, ok?~"

"~Neko-chan sometimes I wonder why I ever got involved with you. If I knew then what I know now.~"

"~You still would have seduced me. You can't get over the sex Sprite.~" He thought to her with total confidence.

She didn't bother to think a reply. There were times when Konjou's ego was unbelievable. She didn't know whether to giggle or scream when he got like this.

P.E. class was yet another thing Mina enjoyed even more now. The laughable ease with which she performed the required activities was great. Of course she had to constantly watch herself to keep from doing something obviously impossible for a normal human, but that was a small price to pay.

She looked around the soccer field that comprised the inside of the track and sighed slightly with envy when her eyes fell on Umi. Umi had transferred to the school last semester, and even the older girls were slightly in awe of her. She had long, silky, silvery blond hair, and a bust that rivalled Makoto's. Her skin was a very healthy tan that never faded. Her face was an almost perfect oval, and her lavender eyes twinkled like amethysts when she smiled. She was actually supposed to be a grade ahead of Mina, but due to certain undisclosed difficulties she had encountered in her previous school, the administration felt she would be better off repeating her second year.

Mina knew full well that she was beautiful. Mori told her so often and with fervour, but she was still eaten up with jealousy every time she compared herself to Umi. Even worse was Umi's complete lack of acknowledgement of her own beauty. She was so nice that it was impossible to hate her for it, and she went out of her way to avoid the attention of the boys in the school. That mattered not at all though. Mina desperately wished she looked a little like Umi. It was her hair and bust that Mina envied, and the height, Mina mused. Kami, if she could change anything about herself it would be that.

As they slowly jogged around the track Konjou and Tenjin joked with one another and kept a careful eye on their loved ones. They knew there were other eyes watching as well, and more than likely not all of them were benign. They could easily sense the hidden presence of the guardians they had resurrected. The cats were slightly harder to detect, as it was the nature of a feline to hide and stalk. More troubling though was the sense that there was something else out there, something just on the edge of their perceptions, probably unfriendly, and very, very well hidden. Tenjin had allowed his attention to stray from the girls in order to concentrate his awareness and locate the mystery observer when Konjou got his attention.

"/Shit!/" he swore in Aleph. "/Mori you better take a look at Mina. She's doing something you need to put a stop to in a hurry./"

Tenjin was so stunned by what he saw he stopped jogging and simply stared at Mina. Her P.E. uniform was stretched to its limits. Her short lithe form had expanded noticeably. Mina usually stood one hundred sixty centimetres tall with a slender light build. That was no longer true. Her hips were the same size as usual, but her shorts now barely maintained anything resembling modesty due to her longer legs. They rode up high, nearly exposing parts of her Tenjin would kill people for thinking about. Her usually loose T-shirt stretched tight across her chest. Her breasts had increased at least a cup size, and her chest itself was at a minimum of nine centimetres greater around. Her hair had turned a strange but beautiful shade of silvery-blonde, and her longer legs and body made her far closer to Makoto in height. If it weren't for the fact that he could sense her energies, he would have been very hard pressed to identify her.

"~Mina!~" Tenjin shouted at her psionicly. "~Mina!~"

"~Concentrate hard on this image. Think about you looking just exactly like this.~" He said, sending Mina an image of what she looked like when he met her.

"~I don't understand Tenjin. What's going on?~"

"~I'll explain in a moment, but first you have to hurry. Just imagine yourself looking exactly like that image.~"

Mina furrowed her brow in concentration. Slow, but with gathering speed her appearance shifted back to normal. Last to change was her hair. Its normal golden-yellow colouration washed down from the roots to its ends in a wave of golden light. Tenjin let out a sigh of relief and began to explain what happened to the curious blonde.

"~Mina, were going to have a talk this afternoon. Consider any plans you had cancelled.~"

"~Tenjin!~" She shouted mentally at his presumption.

"~I'm serious Mina, unless of course you want the whole world to see you accidentally shapeshift. Next time you might turn into something more embarrassing.~"

Mina considered the implications of Tenjin's words and decided to agree. The last thing she needed was to do something that would cause her parents to notice anything odd about her. She could just imagine her mother calling up all of her relatives to tell them her daughter was a superhero. Her cousins would descend on her like a plague of locusts clamouring to be seen with her. Her identity would be completely compromised in less than an hour.

"~Fine, but you didn't have to be so demanding about it.~" She sulked.

Tenjin shook his head. He couldn't understand how Mina could have taken offence at his words. Yes he was somewhat demanding, but this was no time for games. Shapeshifting like that could be felt if you were close enough, and knew just what to look for. If it hadn't been for his preoccupation he would have felt her changing instantly.

********

Konjou and Tenjin took no chances at all. As soon as the bell rang dismissing classes for the day they were out of their seats and waiting impatiently for their girlfriends. Mina finished gathering her things and joined them quickly, but Ami took several minutes organizing her school supplies and study materials before joining them. The classroom was deserted save for them by the time she finally made it over. Tenjin scanned the area for any observers and nodded to Konjou. The instant he received the all clear, he teleported the four of them to the apartment with a nearly inaudible pop.

"/Ok,/" Mori said in Aleph as he resumed his normal form. "/It's obvious that your increased energy was a symptom of something greater./" He continued looking at the girls. "/You two seem to be developing abilities similar to Neko's and mine. This could be a serious problem for you two. You have never in your lives imagined the difficulty of controlling anything like what we can do./"

He looked directly at Ami before resuming his discourse. "/According to Neko you demonstrated a silver aura today identical to his own. What we need to see is if it was a temporary aberration, or a continuing effect. If it is something long lasting, or Dallak forbid, permanent, we need to learn just what else is going on. If the two of you are starting to become like us we need to teach you to deal with it. You can not even begin comprehend the changes your lives will undergo./"

"/Ami, I want you to concentrate on glowing. I want you to remember Neko's aura and imagine yourself having the same thing./" Neko relaxed his control of his own aura and burst into soft silver radiance. Ami stared hard at him yet after several minutes remained as normal. Mori frowned and looked at Neko, who shrugged and continued to watch her carefully. After another handful of minutes passed without any noticeable difference Mori took matters into his own hands.

Reaching out faster than anyone could follow he smacked Ami across the face hard enough to throw her into the wall on the other side of the room. The wards carved into the trim at the floor and ceiling flashed protecting the walls from the massive impact. Ami bounced off it and fell heavily to the ground. Tears welled into her eyes as she cradled her face in her hands. Mori had hit her several times harder than he had struck Haruka during their sparing match. Only the anklet Neko had given her save her cheekbones from shattering.

"/Mori what in the fuck do you think your doing!/" Neko yelled. His aura blazed around him like the corona of a star. The wardings on the walls fought against the potent tides of power, barely keeping them from bursting into flame. Totally ignoring the obvious threat Neko made, Mori simply pointed at the fallen girl. Sitting curled on the ground, Ami was once again wrapped within a fifteen centimetre thick silver aura. Neko could already see where it had begun to heal the injury Mori had dealt her.

"/As I suspected, she currently has little to no conscious control. It only manifested when her emotions were running out of her control./" He knelt down before the fallen girl and cast a quick healing spell, erasing the pain of his actions. "/I'm sorry Ami, but I had to get you by surprise. If I would have told you what I intended you would have remained calm. You're just too sensible to be provoked to extreme emotion easily./"

Ami looked at him, anger and accusation in her eyes. She swallowed the remainder of her tears, blinked her eyes clear and nodded to him in agreement. Neko picked her up and cradled her in his arms, their auras combining into a solid mass of light. Mori turned to Mina and she gulped nervously. She had no idea what Mori intended to do to her, but after watching him swat Ami aside like a fly she had vivid memories of how hard she had been hit after her abortive attack with her missing Moon Sword.

"/Mina, I want you to remember whatever you were thinking about this afternoon. Something you saw or thought caused you to change your appearance./" Mina easily recalled her envy of Umi's beauty. She remembered wanting badly to look like her. Mina concentrated on the feelings of envy, and the need she had deep inside herself to be beautiful. She tried with all her will to be Umi.

"/Wow./" Ami said softly as Mina slowly but surely changed. She grew nearly a dozen centimetres, her chest inflated like a balloon, her hair rippled and waved, becoming the sliver-blond of the shy Umi.

"/Stop./" Mori ordered. "/What were you thinking about?/"

"/I was thinking about Umi. She's a girl in 2-C that has our P.E. class./" Mina admitted.

"/What about Umi?/" Neko interrupted.

"/I was thinking about how much prettier and better built she is than me, and how I wished I looked more like her./" Mina admitted at length. She seemed to squirm as she said it, obviously embarrassed to admit to her feelings of inadequacy. "/She has such pretty hair, and her chest is a lot bigger than mine./" Mina continued in a near whisper.

Mori was flabbergasted. He couldn't even bring up an image of what the girl named Umi looked like. He was positive he must have seen her at some point, but in his opinion there was no one more beautiful than Mina. Sure the other Senshi were very attractive, especially Rei and Usagi, but Mina was far and away the most attractive young woman he had seen in his entire twelve and three quarters billion years of life. He really needed to have a talk with Mina about her completely ridiculous feelings of inadequacy.

"/Ok Mina, that's enough of that. Now I want you to change back into your usual gorgeous self./" He said gently. "/It's obvious that these abilities are not one time things. I now want to try to see if you can shapeshift Ami."

Ami concentrated for a moment, there was a brief burst of power and Mori and Neko gaped in awe at Ami's demonstration. Where the usually quiet, pretty, Ami had stood instants ago now stood a perfect copy of Makoto. Ami's school clothes couldn't begin to contain the larger girl's build, and they lay torn and tattered on the ground. She 'eeped' and quickly tried to conceal her nudity. Her embarrassment caused her to lose concentration and Ami reappeared futilely attempting to maintain modesty. Neko took pity on her and with a snap of his fingers her destroyed school fuku reassembled itself and once again covered her.

"/Well./" Mori said after composing himself, "/it seems Ami is quite capable of Shapeshifting, in fact you did considerably better than Mina did. Of course to be fair, you did have the benefit of learning from Mina's efforts./" He said in a mollifying tone. "/Now Mina, I want you to try to bring out an aura like Ami did./" Before Mori had time to say anything else Mina was surrounded by a soft golden glow. It wasn't as bright as Ami's had been, but Mina was obviously not as emotional as Ami was when she successfully summoned it.

"/Excellent!/" Mori congratulated. "/Hmm. I wonder what else we should have them try?/"

"/I recommend we move on to basic magic./" Neko said speaking up.

"/I agree, but that's much more your field than mine. How about we find out if they still have their elemental ties first?/"

"/Good idea./"

Ami looked and Mina and something indefinable passed between the girls. Mina nodded at whatever their shared look meant and reached out to grab Mori by the ear. She twisted and pulled his head down to within inches of her mouth.

"Mori-chan." She said in Japanese. "It's really insulting when you talk about us like we weren't here right Ami-chan?" The blue haired girl nodded, the serious look she wore never wavered as she impaled Neko with her eyes.

"Right," Mori said gritting his teeth, "well on to testing you for elemental resonance. Neko, if you would please?"

Neko smiled at Ami, ignoring the cold stare she levelled at him. "Hang on Sprite, this will only take a second." Neko held his hand over her heart, just barely touching her. Despite the serious nature of the conversation, and the fact that they were not alone, she could feel her nipple harden at the light contact of his hand on her breast. After only a mater of seconds he dropped his hand and smiled at her.

"Ami definitely still has her resonance. On the plus side Sprite it will make learning water and ice based magic easy, of course teaching you anything else will be three times as hard, but you take the good with the bad I suppose." Neko moved over to Mina and repeated the process. Ami was clearly unhappy with the idea of Neko having his hand on Mina's breast, but she kept silent for the brief time it took. Neko took his hand away and winked at Mina, drawing a blush from the beautiful blonde. "And just as we suspected Mina is still resonating as well. So I guess you'll be teaching her Metal and Kinetic magic then."

"Assuming you two can actually be taught that is. Are you interested in learning?" Mori asked.

The looks on their faces said it all. Mori had never in his entire life been called that stupid with a look before.

********

"/Concentrate Mina!/" Mori said harshly. "/If you don't control it Dallak knows where it will go. Do you want to accidentally cut one of your friends in half?/"

Mina broke out in a sweat as she fought to control the gathering energy. The intricate finger movements and concentration needed to shape the force as it formed were staggering. At first Mori had been ecstatic at her ability to use magic at all. According to him, of all the beings that were descended from the Ulterran, humans had the least magical aptitude. Less than one one-thousandth of a percent of the human race had the requisite innate ability to learn even the most primitive of magic. Less than a quarter of those had the ability to do more than parlour tricks. And only the tiniest fraction of the human race had what it took to achieve true power. Apparently the all of the Senshi belonged to the last group.

Unfortunately for the human race the rarity of its practitioners, and the time and difficulty required to attain power, had long ago done away with anyone capable of instructing the lucky few. As Ami and Mina were learning, it took a lot more than saying the right words to cast a spell. The only people who could have possibly maintained even the smallest magical training were those extremely rare families that seemed to have an inordinate proportion of adepts, and managed to pass on the knowledge from generation to generation.

This of course put the Senshi in a unique position. For the first time in almost ten thousand years there were true Archmagi around to instruct pupils, and the Senshi had a monopoly on them. Unfortunately not all Archmagi were the most patient teachers.

"/Mina I swear to Dallak the next time you throw that spell too early I'll let it go right through the wall and kill people down on the street!/"

Others seemed tailor made for the task.

"/Good Sprite, wonderful. Now that you have the energy locked into the pattern it's just a matter of channelling it properly. Now repeat after me, but don't allow the energy to escape. It helps if you imagine it trapped in a bubble for now./"

Some spells were easier than others of course.

"/Well finally! You got the basics down for a Kinetic Razor. Do try to remember that it will go where you picture the pattern flowing to. So unless you want to fling two dimensional planes of force around at random./"

"/Nice Sprite! You managed to master the Chilling Field fairly quickly. Now of course it's not that useful for anything more than making your drinks cold, but its best to start small./"

And of course some students simply learned quicker than others.

"/Dammit Mina that was my hand! Could you at least try to remember your basic Senshi attacks will be considerably harder to control when you cast them properly!/"

"/That's right Sprite. You already know the proper patterns for those spells, but when you cast them this way they will be at the very least five times as powerful as you're used to. Be careful of how you. That's exactly right!/"

Four hours later Ami remembered her promise to her mother. She winced in fear of the possible outcomes of what she was about to demand of Konjou. She had never tried demanding anything from him before, and she desperately hoped that he would agree without an argument. She knew her mother was likely already waiting impatiently for her to arrive.

"Neko, I have something really important that I need you to do."

"What do you need Sprite?"

"My mother.well my mother sort of found out about you, and of course she's really rather intelligent, and it didn't take her very long at all to realize that I haven't been spending my nights at home which of course led her to search my room for evidence of where I had been." She was silenced by Neko kissing her gently.

"You're babbling Sprite. Calm down, I'm not going anywhere, and I won't be mad at you."

"My mother knows I've been sleeping with you and she ordered me to bring you home to meet her tonight. She's probably already waiting for us and she won't be very happy if we don't get there very soon." She said relatively calmly.

"So you've been ordered to bring your boyfriend home to meet your mother huh? I've never actually done that before. Well except for the couple of times that I was seeing both mother and daughter, but I'm quite sure you don't really want to hear about that." Neko did his very best to ignore that killing stare Ami levelled at him.

"So just what have you told her about me? I mean I doubt you told her you're sleeping with a twelve billion year old alien shapeshifter, so just to keep our stories the same."

"We don't have time for this." Ami muttered.

"Fine, I'll do it the quick way," Neko said, and before Ami could even begin to imagine what he meant he reached into her mind once again.

"Oh." He said a few seconds later. "Well that was creative. You never actually lied but you can make the truth dance almost as good as Mori can Sprite."

He looked at their sweaty, dishevelled appearance and quickly shook his head. Ami felt the wave of magical energy roll out of him. When it passed they and their clothing were totally spotless and straight to military precision. He grinned at her startled expression and spoke as he teleported them to her front door. "I do hate to make a bad first impression." It was all she could do not to laugh.

********

Setsuna sat alone in the darkness of her room. She had not ventured out all day and was getting quite hungry, but she ignored the growling of her stomach as she had countless other distractions in the long vigil she had stood at the 'Time Gates'.

Time Gates. The name was a laugh. She was one of the greatest of the Senshi. Powerful, wise, trusted with sole guardianship of one of the most dangerous objects in the universe, pffft, her life was a bad joke.

Powerful, hah. She had been ordered around by a cat of all things. Ordered not to do her job defending her princess against a threat more deadly than anything she had ever imagined before the Primarchs awoke. Her princess had agreed with the cat binding her against taking any action that would uphold the vows she made so long ago. Now she had even been stripped of the use of her staff. Without it she was less than nothing. She had no magic of her own, only that which she channelled from the weapon she had held for ten millennia. Her Senshi transformation may make her stronger and faster than any normal human could hope to be, but in a war like this she was worthless.

Wise, she snickered at the thought. She had only known what she had allowed herself to. She had never foreseen the awakening of the Primarchs of the catastrophic destruction of her long crafted plans. She had worked for ten thousand years to bring about Crystal Tokyo. Neko had brought her plan to a crashing halt in seconds. All her wisdom had not been able to lead the Senshi to victory against their foes. Nothing she knew or could find out allowed her to turn the tide against them. She had played with time like a god since the destruction of the Moon Kingdom, and all her efforts had resulted to, was to bring into this time a lonely little girl whose home would now never come into being. Chibi-Usa was stuck here forever, an anomaly in the otherwise smooth flow of time.

Trusted with the most dangerous object in the Universe, her mocking laughter at the thought of her duty was painful. Her charge was about as dangerous as a wiffle ball. She dearly wanted to go back in time and find the person that failed to pass on the information of just that the 'Time Gate' really was. In a few moments the truths the Primarchs had exposed had turned her from the most noble, mysterious and self-sacrificing of the Senshi, into a laughing stock. The others were too kind and respectful to laugh in her face, but she knew what they must have been thinking. 'Poor Setsuna, she simply spent forever in that horrid little subspace pocket guarding something completely worthless. Isn't it terrible?' She neither wanted nor needed their pity.

Her pregnancy was the worst though. She knew Endymion had never touched her. Despite the fact that she would not have complained in the least mind you. She never told him just how badly she craved his touch. During the time of the Moon Kingdom she watched him from afar. Relations between the Earth and the Moon had been strained for centuries. The nobles of the two kingdoms mingled at times, giving her plenty of opportunities to see him, but for one of the Senshi to have an affair with the Prince of the Earth would have caused a tremendous scandal.

The day she learned that Princess Serenity had flaunted tradition, thumbing her nose at the puffed up peacocks of the Lunar Royal Court, and practically ran off with the delectable Prince Endymion she had been torn. Half of her was proud of the spunk the little Princess had shown. There was no question anymore if the gentle girl would have the nerve to take the throne when her time was due. The other half was eaten alive with jealousy. She had watched Endymion for years. Going so far as to sneak away from training to teleport down to the earth and watch him work sword forms with his guardians. He had been the inspiration for most of her hormone driven teenage angst. He was nearly the same age as her, during the Moon Kingdom Endymion was close to ten years older than her Princess.

When Beryl and Metallia attacked and destroyed the Moon Kingdom, she had sat aside, protecting the door that needed no such guardianship. She had watched helpless as Beryl drove a sword through the man she loved, into the girl she was supposed to defend with her life. She would have given nearly anything to trade places with Serenity then. Both to save Serenity's life and to be the one Endymion would sacrifice his own for.

She had deliberately avoided watching Mamoru's life through the Gate. She could have done so much to ease his pain as a child, but her self imposed ignorance was her only defence against the pain she knew she would feel at losing him to Usagi. If she would have allowed herself to fall into the trap of watching him she would have never survived his and Usagi's first kiss.

Usagi would never understand just how hard it was for her not to act when she realized what the other Senshi thought about her pregnancy. For the second time in her life she was torn with indecision about Endymion. Most of her wanted to smack Usagi for being so stupid. Mamoru may have done some foolish things in his life, but he was not and never would be stupid enough to cheat on her, especially with one of her own Senshi. The remaining darker part of herself wanted to lie and admit to being his lover. It would have driven an irreparable wedge into their relationship. Usagi would never forgive him for a betrayal of that magnitude. No woman with even a scrap of self respect would. Endymion would have been free. She could have waited patiently for him to get over the hurt of Usagi's anger, and once the time was right, used the love he would obviously have for the child they shared to bridge the gap between them.

The idea was so mercenary, so cold, she hardly believed she had considered it. It was so tempting she had simply said nothing. She could have told Usagi the truth as soon as she understood what was going on, sparing her a week of agonized suffering over the possibility that the love of her life, her soulmate, had cheated on her. Setsuna allowed herself a brief, very brief, surge of glee at the thought. There were times she felt positively good about herself for allowing Usagi this opportunity to learn the depths of her love for Endymion. Yes she had spent a week wallowing in despair and self pity, questioning everything about herself from her looks to her caring nature, searching desperately for the flaw that would drive her soulmate to cheat on her, but after coming through the fire of doubt their love should burn even brighter. Besides, Setsuna got a thrill from imagining Serenity bawling her eyes out thinking about her with Endymion.

She shook the dark thoughts from her head and reminded herself once again that Usagi was not Serenity, other than in the most basic of senses. Usagi, and even Serenity, had not intended to rip Setsuna's heart out of her chest and stomp on it, but Kami it felt good to get a little back.

Setsuna supposed that she should get something to eat and do something about the critical need she had to use the bathroom, but she just did not feel like facing the pitying looks on the faces of the other girls out there. If she still had her staff's powers she would have just teleported to the bathroom, eliminating any chance of being seen. Of course she couldn't do that without Lor's support.

It galled her that a man she didn't know, had never seen before, could reduce her to this. She didn't know exactly what happened but she did know that much like Endymion, Lor had never touched her. She was not an innocent. There was simply no way she would have remained sane during her long vigil without taking the occasional, and sometimes far more than occasional, lover.

By her most conservative estimate she had probably averaged one lover a year. This of course didn't mean that she had only visited him once during that time, but it did give her a fairly accurate idea of just how much experience she had. She was certain however that Lor had never been one of them.

Since the Senshi's reawakening she had remained depressingly celibate. There was always the tiny chance that Endymion might have preferred her this time around to the Princess. It would have been the bitterest irony had she lost her chance with him by being involved with some temporary and utterly meaningless relationship. It had been nearly three years since she felt the caress of someone else on her body. She wouldn't have forgotten breaking the longest streak of monogamy in her life since the fall of the Moon Kingdom.

"You didn't." A voice intruded into her dark world.

Setsuna was neither stupid nor forgetful. She instantly recognized Lor's voice and turned to face him in the darkness. He stood on the opposite side of the room from her. His aura wasn't in evidence, but he was still far more visible than her in the darkened room. His distinctive red and orange clothing contrasted sharply with his white-blond hair. He towered over her even at this distance. She privately noted that Lor was ridiculously tall and lanky. He looked quite like one of the many types of flightless birds, tall, slender, and somewhat fidgety.

"What do you want?" She asked. Her intention was to sound aloof and disdainful, but she came across sounding like a little girl scared and alone in the dark.

"To be your friend."

"You are a bit late for that. I do not know about what it was like when you last were awake, but friends do not ruin their friends' lives and get them pregnant without their knowledge or consent."

"I only gave you what you wanted. Was that so wrong of me? Setsu- chan, I heard every word you said from the first time you held the Staff. Many times over the centuries you asked why you were chosen out of all your sisters. The answer is I liked you. I could see that you would be able to control the awesome power of the staff without falling into corruption like the rest of them would. True you did eventually succumb, but you held your duty one hundred times longer than any other guardian ever has. You had to watch helplessly while everything you loved was torn away. I can understand your need to try to make sure it would never happen again. I forgive you for abusing the staff." He looked deeply into her eyes, easily seeing the pain she hid so carefully from the rest of the world.

"I could have stopped you at any point had I wanted. I allowed you to do whatever you wanted. You created seventeen paradoxes in the last ten thousand two hundred fourteen years Setsu-chan. Every one of them caused me pain. I allowed it because you needed them. You needed the feeling of working towards a tangible future, without that you would have self destructed millennia ago."

"Why? Why did you let this happen to me? Why did you not tell me about the Gate?"

"Why didn't you help Mamoru as a child? You couldn't stand the pain. I couldn't stand the idea of losing you. Would you like to know what would have happened if you knew the truth about the gates when Beryl attacked? You would have rushed out to defend your Queen and Princess. Beryl would have known the power you represent instantly. You and Saturn were the only ones she feared. Unfortunately for you Beryl knew your weakness. Like you, she was smitten with him. When she drove that sword through his chest she fully intended on bringing him back once Metallia was victorious."

"During the time that the girl who would become Beryl was in the flower of her youth, she constantly watched the Prince. More than once she noticed your presence, and knew you as her rival. If you had shown yourself during that battle she would have used Endymion as a hostage. No matter what you may believe now, at the time you would have lowered the staff to prevent his demise. Once you were defenceless she would have destroyed you. In that instant she would have won."

"Without your presence, and the subtle manipulations you made in the time stream, Beryl would have awoken in this time to face a group of Senshi that were unprepared for her. Luna and Artemis would have never reawakened, Usagi would have known nothing of her destiny, as unlike the Senshi themselves she was never a warrior. The Senshi would have been fractured, lacking the spark of leadership and compassion that Usagi's tender heart provided. Rei and Makoto would have been unable to forge the friendship needed to unite, and Ami would have been destroyed before either of them ever met her. Mina would have died in England, never having become Sailor V. The Outers would have awoken to try to deal with the threat Beryl represented, but again that would have been without you. Haruka and Michiru would have had little difficulty in dispatching Beryl's youma, and even the generals would have fallen to their far greater power, yet Beryl, and Metallia would have devoured them. Finally Hotaru would have awoken far too early. At eleven she would have been completely incapable of controlling the abilities she possesses. She would have succeeded in destroying Beryl and Metallia, but she herself would have died, along with everyone on earth".

"Your pain was not without cause Meiou Setsuna. Every tear you shed saved lives. I used my magic to grant you what your heart has cried for, for ten thousand years. I'm sorry if it hurts you, but I could think of no greater reward I could offer you than your deepest desire."

Setsuna completely broke down. She wept openly from the raw emotional wounds Lor's words had torn in her. He stepped closer to her, moving slowly and carefully making his intentions obvious. She didn't resist when he pulled her into his arms, instead she wrapped hers around his neck and began to cry loudly on his shoulder. For the first time since before the fall of the Moon Kingdom, Meiou Setsuna found comfort, emotional comfort, in someone's arms.

"I really have to go to the bathroom." She complained softly a short while later. They vanished from her room and appeared in a bathroom she didn't recognise. She moved as quickly as her body would allow given the circumstances but was stunned by Lor's continued presence in the room.

"Excuse me." She said. "Can I have a bit of privacy please?" The beginnings of irritation laced her voice.

"I hardly see what the point of that is. I've only been watching you for ten thousand years. I know what you look like naked better than you do."

"That is irrelevant, there are some things that are done in privacy." She was truly in pain now. Whether or not he left she was going to have to relieve herself soon.

"Fine, I'll wait right outside the door. When you get finished in here I'll see to getting you something to eat. The child you carry needs you to maintain healthy eating habits in order to prosper."

Setsuna nodded and sighed in relief when he stepped out. She briefly dwelt on the likelihood that this was Lor's home. The décor was not nearly as ostentatious as Mori and Neko's, but it was very fine. She cleaned up and opened the door Lor of course was exactly where he said he would be. By the time the door was completely open he had already taken her by the hand and led her down a short hallway. The hall terminated in a small but well appointed kitchen. She was mildly impressed by the neat yet lived in feeling it had.

"I'll apologize in advance if this doesn't come out quite right, but I've never actually cooked a meal before. I've seen it does millions of times of course, so I should do ok."

"That depends on what you are trying to prepare." She said nervously.

"I believe its one of your favourites, it's a type of puffer fish. I've seen you eat it many times, so you obviously enjoy it."

Setsuna was truly afraid now. If he was making what she thought he was she was going to die. Only master chefs would even attempt to prepare Fugu, the slightest error and the meal would contain traces of the deadly poison the puffer used to defend itself. It was quite tasty, but she would not risk he life in the hands of an amateur.

"No thank you Lor. How would you feel about a nice simple Greek dish? I can have one prepared in less than an hour."

"No I think I'll just finish this. I mean it would be a shame to waste it once I've already started cooking it, correct?"

Setsuna just whimpered. Half an hour later Lor set two plates on the table. One was considerably smaller than the other, having only a sampling of each of the dishes. He seated her in front of the larger meal and scooted her chair in like a gentleman. She eyed the deadly dinner with fear. Lor on the other hand immediately began to eat with obvious pleasure.

"Lor if you made this wrong it will kill me and the baby." She tried to reason with him.

"I didn't make it wrong Setsuna. I was only joking when I said I've never cooked before. Neko and I taught the Ulterran the art."

She felt truly foolish. She knew he would not risk harming her unborn child. His choice of the most difficult and potentially fatal dish in Japanese cuisine should have been a glowing sign of his skill.

All throughout the meal he kept up light conversation. She hardly noticed how much she had eaten before the plate was empty. Totally satiated she stood from the table and began to gather her dishes. She jumped with surprise when they simply vanished from her hands.

"You're a guest here Setsu-chan. I can't have you trying to do something foolish like cleaning up. For me it's a snap, literally." To prove his point he snapped his fingers and the entire kitchen was spotless. The dishes were done and replaced back into their cupboards. The counters and table were shining and even the floor looked as if it had just been waxed.

"That must come in handy after a party." She observed wryly.

"It's had its uses."

"Lor, answer me honestly. Why are you following me? Why have you been watching me?"

"You don't want to know the answer to that."

"I would not have asked if I did not want to hear it."

"Then it should be obvious to you. I want you. I need you, much like you needed Endymion. For an eon I've felt the shadow of your touch transferred to me through the staff I gifted to your twelfth great grandfather. In that long waking dream I've craved the feeling of holding and being held by you. Most of what I've done since I awoke has been for one purpose, drawing you to me. I showed up for the battle to assure your survival. I will be brutally honest with you Setsu-chan, of the Primarchs I am by far the weakest, but Mori and Neko would have had to destroy me before I allowed them to truly hurt you."

Setsuna did not know what to say. No one had ever said anything like that about her before. She shivered at some of his words. He claimed to crave her. She knew what it was like to crave someone's touch. She understood better than any mortal ever had the depth that longing could grow to over time.

His eyes shone like sapphires in the fading evening light. She could just see the outline of her reflection in them. She thought the symbolism was poignant. She felt like little more than an outline. The need written clearly in his crystalline blue gaze made the decision for her. She stepped forward returning into his embrace and drew his lips down to her own.

"You gave me something I would have gladly killed for, you were willing to protect me at the cost of your own life, and even this afternoon when I had only hatred for you in my heart, you came to me offering comfort, the contact I required to begin to shed my grief. You never asked me for anything, so please let me give you something. All I can offer you is me, and I can't even say for how long, but if you believe that I am the person you want, then I'm yours Lor."

He pulled her deep into his arms and let his lips brush lightly over hers. In the fading light of the late evening, two lonely souls scared and confused by emotions neither had the slightest control over took their first tentative steps into something greater than they had ever imagined.

********

"Ami, Konjou-san, I am so glad you chose to come by." Ami's mother began the instant they came in the door. Ami winced at the less than polite greeting and readied herself for part two of last night's inquisition. "I talked to your father today Ami. I felt he needed to be appraised of what has been happening in your life." She stared hard at her nervous daughter and smiled a greeting at her companion. "I apologize for my temper Nekojin-san, but my daughter knows full well that she should have come straight home after school, and of course I expected she would have brought you to meet me long before getting in such a serious relationship."

"I'm afraid most of that is probably my fault Mizuno-san. I asked her to help me deal with a problem that came up in school today, and she forgot entirely about our meeting."

The elder Mizuno lifted an eyebrow at that and spoke again in a tone of voice nearly identical to Ami's own when mildly irritated. "And should I also assume that you are responsible for the rapidity in which my daughter has entered such a serious physical relationship?"

Ami was doing her best to sink into the floor with embarrassment. She was clearly uncomfortable with her mother's directness. She would have given nearly anything to have kept the fact that she and Konjou were lovers from her mother. She just knew Konjou was going to say something to that would mortify her.

"Actually no Mizuno-san, she decided all on her own to seduce me." He continued despite the look of horror at the admission on Ami's face. "I was just minding my own business when she started stalking me, then there was the hiding in the boys' locker room to peep, and of course the little bit of breaking and entering she did to actually get into my apartment. Believe me Mizuno-san I was completely innocent of doing anything to encourage her at first. Of course I have to be honest and say I didn't put up much of a fight once I noticed. Who wouldn't want a young woman as intelligent, beautiful and well. naughty as her?"

Ami looked like she was about to die. Every bit of colour had drained out of her face and her eyebrow was twitching madly. Her hands ached to wrap themselves around his neck. Inside her head thoughts of how to extract herself from the hole Konjou had dug for her warred desperately with her desire to kill him. He mother seemed in complete shock, from both her daughters supposed behaviour and from the casual way Konjou had told the story.

"Konjou." Ami gasped as the first semblances of control returned to her voice. "We need to have a bit of a talk about the things you said." She hissed fiercely.

"Why it was all true, and besides there's really no reason for you worry about it. She knows your Sailor Mercury."

Ami heard a soft thud just as she lost her grip on consciousness. Her remaining thoughts were that her mother must have fainted from shock. Good, she would have company.

Ami awoke some time later. The familiar feeling of being wrapped in Konjou's arms comforted her somewhat, at least until she remembered the last thing he had said to her. Her eyes snapped open and scanned the room. She was still in her house, and was in fact curled into Konjou's lap on the large plush chair she loved to read in. Her mother sat on the other side of the room shaking badly while sipping a glass of steaming tea.

"Ahh good Ami is back with us." Konjou said. He turned her face towards him and kissed her softly. She twitched in discomfort at being held so intimately in front of her mother.

Mizuno-san lifted her eyes and stared disbelievingly across the room at her daughter. A small amount of guilt seemed to play at the edges of her eyes. Ami couldn't imagine what her mother had to feel guilty about.

"Good," her mother began unsteadily, "I think I need to hear the truth. I already know bits and pieces but I am probably more confused now than I was yesterday." She admitted.

Ami did not want to have this conversation. By telling her mother the whole truth she would be betraying her Princess and the rest of the Senshi, but one look at Konjou told her clearly that if she didn't tell her mother, he would. The last thing she needed was to have Konjou start conjuring illusions of past monsters and battles for her mother.

Ami started at the fall of the Moon Kingdom, her explanation took hours, but once she got started the words seemed to flow of their own accord. Her mother's filled with tears at the heartbreak Usagi must have felt when Mamoru was taken just as they realized what they meant to each other. Her face contorted with pride and grief when she told of the final battle with Beryl. She shook her head in sorrow for the misguided children of the Doom Tree. She laughed at the little girl antics of Chibi-Usa, and again wept at her conversion into Black Lady. She narrowed her eyes when Ami described Crystal Tokyo and its founding, but looked on in wonder when Ami described the childhood connection between Usagi and Mamoru. When she told of the Death Busters and the horrors inflicted on the gentle Hotaru, her mother looked ill. She practically snarled at the callous actions of the Outers. She looked on her daughter with pride and love when she told of the Senshi's involvement with the return of the Missing children last year. The violence and hatred of Nehelania and her people shocked her and Ami's description of the Yuki's attack explained last year's odd freezing spell. Galaxia however shook her mother to the core.

"Ami-chan." She whispered. Mizuno-san couldn't stand to be apart from her daughter any more. The long story had tugged on her heart in every way it could. She crossed the room and pulled her daughter, her only child into her arms. Konjou sat quietly as Ami's mother came to grips with the facts of her daughter's life. He could only watch in awe as the comforted each other. Mizuno-san had taken hard the information that twice her daughter had sacrificed all for the good of the world.

"I knew you had to take risks as Sailor Mercury, Ami-chan, but I never knew just how bad it was." She whispered and kissed Ami on the forehead. After some time Mizuno-san was able to bring herself back under some impression of control. She shifted her attention to Konjou.

"I did not hear her mention you in her story. How did you manage to come into her life and learn her secrets so quickly?" Mizuno-san seemed slightly hurt that he obviously knew her daughter better than she did.

"Hmm. How to put this properly." Konjou thought for a moment and a small smile split his face. He threw a wink at Ami that had her looking at him in terror. In a flash Konjou was gone, he had resumed his proper form. "We met when your daughter was trying to kill my cousin. Of course she didn't notice me until later, I looked like a cat at the time, but that was where we first met."

It took Neko less than ten minutes to paint a brief yet vivid picture of his involvement with the Senshi. His descriptions were laced with humour that almost completely hid the seriousness of his tale. Mizuno-san stood in awe of the casual tone he took as he described their meetings and a brief glimmer of the motivations.

"So you can understand of course why Ami-chan decided to seduce me. Now that I let her catch me, I think I'll just keep her. In all my life I have never met anyone like her. Besides," he commented, "we need each other."

"How old are you" she asked in a near whisper.

"About twelve and a half, I'll be thirteen fairly soon."

"You are only twelve! Ami how could you seduce a child! Just because he looks your age does not mean much, if he can change his appearance like that."

"Mother, Neko is not talking about the same kinds of years you are. He's having a bit of humour at my expense. Neko, would you please stop trying to shock my mother and tell her how old you are in earth years?"

"Ohh, you meant that. Sorry Mizuno-san, we Primarchs sort of measure out lifespans by the age of the Universe. To be honest I can't give you an exact count of earth years. The earth wasn't even a glimmer of an idea in Mori's head when I came into being. Also celestial mechanics was never my strong suit, and the earth is slowing down in both rotational and orbital speed over time. I can tell you that I'm nearly one third of our year's measurement younger than the other Primarchs, and Mori, who knows more about celestial mechanics than. well anyone. Says he's about twelve and three quarters billion years old. According to him it takes the universe about a billion years to complete a single rotation. Of course your scientists would probably disagree, but I know who I believe. The salient point is this. Lor, Mori, Jander, and Mordred are less than an attosecond younger than the Universe, so I've been around a long long time."

"What are you." she whispered rhetorically.

"The avatar of free will and conscious choice. The last thing Enkil, my father and one of the five beings that forged the Universe itself, made."

Mizuno-san looked back and forth between her daughter, and the being she had brought home to meet her. She was so far out of her depth she couldn't even begin to start sorting out her feelings. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts she almost missed the look of longing Ami cast at him.

The expression on her daughters face was heart-warming. Ami looked almost exactly as she herself had when she fell in love with Furuu. Her heart broke a little at the realization of how much her daughter had grown up, and how little time she had left before Ami started her own life. When the realization that the most normal thing in Ami's life was her obvious love for Neko, and the problems that love is universally known for, she knew what to do.

"Niccolai-san? Our cultures are obviously very different and it worries me, I need to know what you intend to do about all of this."

Neko knew what she was really asking. She was worried about her daughter, and the possibility that he would hurt her, not physically, emotionally. He smiled his reassurance to the wonderfully brave woman.

"I love her Mizuno-san, for as long as she wants me, I'll be here."

"In that case I think you should call me Joi," she replied. She reached out her hand and drew Neko into the circle of her arms along with her beloved daughter. It had happened far sooner than she had expected, but Mizuno Joi was happy for her daughter Ami. She held the amazing young woman she had long ago given birth to, and the incomprehensible being her daughter have given her heart to, and gloried in the love they shared.

********

Chibi-Usa sat on her mother's bed, her legs crossed and her chin resting in her palms which were propped up on her knees. She was frightened, confused, and worst of all, bored. Usagi hadn't come home from school. She called from Mamoru's over an hour ago to say she would be staying there for dinner.

Chibi-Usa didn't want to face her parents or the Senshi just yet. She had a lot to think about. From what little she had been able to learn so far the Senshi were in trouble. They had lost against the Primarchs, and had pretty much given up. Ami and Mina seemed to have sided with the enemy, and Hotaru looked like she was cosying up to the scary red head. Only Rei looked like she was ready to continue the fight, and even she looked like she was mooning over that Mori guy. What she needed was to talk to Artemis and Luna. There was no way they would have really surrendered. They were probably just getting the Primarchs to trust them so they could learn how to defeat them.

She knew somewhere in the bag Setsuna had stuffed into her hands when she pushed her through the Gates was more than likely some clue why she was really here. She didn't claim to know as much about time as Pu, but it didn't make any sense to her at all how she could be here if the future she came from didn't exist anymore. She remembered what happened when Nehelania captured Mamoru. She had begun to vanish. If her timeline was truly gone she should be too.

The thought that things were obviously still on track for Crystal Tokyo cheered her immensely. She reached down to the floor and picked up the cute pink backpack Pu had given her. She got the shock of her life when she finally worked its zipper open. Curled up and hissing in the mostly full bag was a very obviously angry grey cat.

"Usa do you have any idea what its like to be trapped in a bag all day?" Diana hissed in fury as she crawled out of the small bag.

"Umm no?"

"Die!" the cat screamed as it dived on the pink haired teen with all claws extended.

Even through her shrieks of pain Chibi-Usa felt relieved. Diana was her advisor and confidant together they would find a way to help the Senshi overcome this threat. She grinned at the thought of telling Diana about Elios. Diana knew Chibi-Usa was smitten with him last time she was here. Now that he was grown up he looked even better. Maybe that's why she was here, to meet the man she was to marry, and to use their combined power to overthrow the evil Primarchs. She giggled at the romantic thought and fell into her daydreams of heroic actions and stolen kisses.

********

Elios floated within the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds where he spent much of his time, as usual he was observing the goings on in the physical world. In this instance he was watching his bride to be, covertly. She was undeniably beautiful. Her laughter was like the sound of bells and her red eyes were soft with warmth and compassion.

Like her mother she wore her cotton candy pink hair in the strange hairstyle the Lunari women had used since the founding of their line. It was odd but it seemed somehow right for her. Physically she was everything he could ever want in a bride. Even as a child it was obvious what she would grow up to look like. Privately he admitted that she had been the star attraction of countless wet, sticky, fantasies since he realized what she would one day become. All that would be perfect except for one dramatic down side. She was a total flake.

Unlike Usagi, Chibi-Usa had grown up knowing she was a princess. Never in life before or after her arrival here was she required to do anything for herself. Where she came from she was everyone's darling. Pampered, spoiled, and demanding she had gotten everything she had ever wanted. In her mind she was the star of her own little melodrama that was her life. She couldn't conceive of the reality that she might actually have no control of the situation.

Part of Elios was overjoyed at the thought of the little princess. Her caring nature and he looks stirred both his heart and his manhood, but they were both Ulterran. They would live for thousands of years, assuming he found a way to shut her up. If he didn't she would drive him insane within six months, and he would just have to kill her.

Mori has a sick sense of humour, he thought once again and sat back watching his bride to be with her closest friend. He wondered when she would decide to shower.

********

Mina stared angrily at Mori. He had to be the worst teacher in the universe. She knew she wasn't as smart as Ami, but she was doing her best.

"Mori, I'm trying to do what you're telling me to, but it's really hard. Please don't scream at me." She said. The beginnings tears filled her eyes. She was frustrated by her own lack of success and hurt by Mori's callous attitude.

"Mina that's the problem, this isn't hard. This is easy magic. The spell Iria used on you. Prism Lance, that's hard. If you tried casting that spell like you've been with the simple Force Chains or Kinetic Razors it would flash boil your blood from the backlash."

"Well I'm sorry!" she screamed bursting into tears. "I'm just not that good ok. I'm not smart enough for you to teach me magic I guess."

"Oh Mina," he said pulling her into his arms. She struggled for a few seconds then held still with anger and self pity. "I know it's hard for you, I have trouble thinking about it from your perspective. We were created knowing how to do things like this Mina-chan."

"It's not just you." Mina wailed turning into his embrace. "Ami did so much better than me, she always does. She made a brighter aura, she changed faster, and she turned into Mako-chan exactly, even down to the little birth mark on her. err forget about that. Its just I can't compete." The sounds of her sobbing drove sharp daggers of shame into Mori.

"Mina, do you know why she was glowing brighter than you?"

"No." she sniffed

"Because she was angry, very angry with me. Right now neither of you has that much control of those powers. The more out of control your emotions are the more your subconscious mind can guide and control the energies. Do you want to know how she changed so quickly?" When she nodded Mori continued gently while stroking her hair. "Because no matter how needlessly jealous you are of Umi, you have nothing on the jealousy Ami has for Makoto."

"Makoto was the first girl Ami knows that touched Neko. They were obviously happy together, and you saw how much they wanted each other. The only reason they broke up was Neko messed up and scared her. Ami is terrified that deep down Neko still wants Makoto instead of her." Mina's eyes widened in understanding at Mori's words.

"Ami has always been the girl in the background. Hardly anyone even noticed she was there before you girls came along. When she thinks about herself all she remembers is a shy, overly intelligent girl with few friends and nothing that would attract and hold a person like Neko. We both realize how silly that is. Ami is a beautiful sweet girl that could have nearly anyone she set her sights on, but she looks at Makoto and sees someone she believes is infinitely more attractive than herself, and remembers that Neko was hers first."

"Mina you didn't do as well because you have more self confidence. You realise you're beautiful and parts of your mind were fighting against your attempts to become Umi." He paused to plant a kiss on her forehead and looked down into her wondering expression. "By the way, just what delusion makes you think that Umi is more attractive than you anyway?"

"Well, she's taller." Mori grinned and shrank down in height until his head was just even with her shoulders. "She's better built." Mori giggled when he tried to place his now much smaller hand over her breast. Given his truly small size even at full span his fingers couldn't completely cover it. He looked pointedly at her and rolled her nipple once he made sure she noticed. "And she has such pretty hair." Mori laughed outright as he resumed his normal size.

"Her hair? You're jealous of her hair? Mina you look like a sunrise, all golden and beautiful. Your eyes are the colour of the summer sky. You have no idea how long it took me to get the air and sun just right to make it that particular colour. Your breasts are perfect. I love the way they stay firm against you. I love the way your small candy pink nipples tighten into pebble hard peaks when I touch you. If I was disappointed in you do you think I would have ever touched you in the first place?" Her body was humming with desire from the way his hands and words had combined as he caressed what he described.

"You're like a little piece of perfection Mina-chan. Dallak, you make me hot just by looking at me. It was everything I could do not to take you across your desk in Math class today when you started chewing on your pencil." He drew in a deep breath as he continued. "And it's not just a sexual thing either. You are the first person I have ever stayed with in bed after the deed. I think about you at least half a million times a day when you're not with me. When I look at you I have concentrate to keep my heart beating. You drive away the violence that I can always feel bubbling just under the surface of my skin. Most important though is this. Until I met you I never really understood what my servitors meant when they said they were lost in love with someone. I knew the words, but not the feeling. Ever since you came into my life it's been like an epiphany. It all makes sense now. I love you Aino Minako, now and forever."

"What about Rei."

"Huh?"

"I asked you what about Rei. I know what happened at the park the night before our battle. She told me. I don't know if she did it to try to get me to break up with you, or to try to make herself feel better about wanting you, but she told me."

"I see."

"Do you know how bad that hurt Mori?"

"Yes."

"How? How could you know? I have never done anything like that to you. I didn't throw myself at Neko or Mordred. I haven't gone around the school passing around sexual favours like gum drops. How could you know?"

"Because Mina-chan I have been inside your head. I know every memory you have, from your vague fuzzy images of watching birds sing outside the sitting room window where you first lived, to the instant I probed your mind. I remember not only your own feelings for the boys you repeatedly fell for, but how it made me feel to see you trying again and again to find someone that could fill the empty space in your heart."

"You will never understand how futile I felt as I watched you attempt over and over to find love. I'll tell you that the man in England, Allen, is still alive because he didn't realise that you cared for him. The worst though for me to see was Yaten. There's only one reason I haven't gone to Kinmoku and erased Yaten from existence. Jander already did. Had I have gotten my hands on Yaten I would have skinned it alive and filled the skin with helium and carried it around like a balloon. Make no mistake Mina- chan I know how badly that hurt."

"Do you still want her?" Mina said in a near whisper. Mori felt a hard pulse of magical energy and in a fraction of a second he found himself holding Rei, or at least a Rei shaped Mina. Her lavender eyes looked up at him filled with hurt fear and longing. The potent combination of vulnerability and desire curled together inside of him. He leaned his head back and growled deep in his chest.

"In some was yes I still want her Mina-chan, but you really should take notice of with whom I spend my time. Whose lips do I kiss? Who do I say I love you to?" He was becoming agitated. Rei's face wearing that trembling fearful and aroused look, with Mina's spirit behind it was drawing on two of his desires at the same time. "Mina I suggest you change back before I do something to you we will both hate me for. Right now you're offering me yourself and Rei at the same time."

"Do you think Rei is more beautiful than me?'

"No Mina-cha that's not what I said." He growled. His control was wearing very thin. "I said I love you. Yes I think Rei is beautiful, yes her body turns me on, but even if I pushed you against the wall and did unspeakable things to you right now." He paused momentarily to try to compose himself. "It would still be you I was making love to. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She said simply and Mina still wearing the appearance of Rei brought her mouth down onto Mori's neck and began to kiss him in a way she knew from personal experience was guaranteed to please him.

Mori spun around and slammed her against the wall roughly. Her bracelet flashed as it absorbed the bone crushing force, and neither of them even noticed. His eyes flashed and her school fuku disintegrated, along with her underclothes. She was instantly gloriously naked.

Mori paused and drank in the sight of Rei's body. Her long legs were just the tiniest bit more muscular than Mina's Her hips were the exact same width, her flat belly just a tad longer than Mina's, and her skin was a few shades lighter. Her long silky black hair shimmered down over her shoulders and back, held in place incongruently by the silver ribbon she would never wear.

"Like what you see?" she asked. She thrust her chest out slightly despite the tight hold he had on her. Rei's breasts were a little larger than her own and her nipples were considerable darker, though not much larger.

"You have no idea how close you are to me completely losing control Mina. If you want to be assured of not needing healing magic in a few hours I recommend you change back." His voice was tight with the strain.

"I'll take my chances." She said. She had never seen him like this before. She wanted to know what it would be like to be with him when he lost control.

She would never complain about their lovemaking, but always when they came together it was gentle, if intense, and she could feel the tight control he kept on his passion. She wanted to break that control.

She squirmed free of his grip enough to bring his head down to hers, she could feel him trembling with suppressed desire. She allowed her now slightly callused hands to stroke down his chest. He quivered at the contact and clenched his eyes shut.

"Mori," she said knowing that even her voice sounded like Rei's, "Don't you want me? Don't you want to know what it would feel like to have me wrapped around you? To be inside me feeling the heat we make together?"

A rumbling growl resonating deep within his chest was her only warning. They vanished from magical practice room they had been in all evening and materialized in Mori's bedroom. He threw her on the bed with a violence that was no longer restrained in the slightest. His mouth attacked her neck and shoulders, drawing the sensitive skin between his teeth where he bit down hard enough to frighten her. The sensation was part pain, part ecstasy, and she couldn't even begin to separate the two.

Her rolled her onto her stomach, and pinned her to the bed with his body. He fisted his right hand into her hair and pulled her head back to his lips. Her back bowed from the movement, allowing him to trace the fingers of his other hand over her ribs. Normally the contact would have caused her to dissolve into helpless giggles, but right then it nearly caused her to come unglued. She gasped at the force of feelings the simple contact had brought about. He craned his neck and captured the front of her throat with teeth and lips. He grazed dangerously hard, shaking her with the duality of fear and arousal.

"Mori, Kami-sama this is." She never got a chance to finish her words.

He let go of her hair and her head fell back to the bed. He drug his hand down her back, his fingernails leaving long white lines just short of being scratches. She convulsed at the sensation and once again tried to gather her breath to speak. Both of his hands moved to her sides and scraped up and over the sides of her breasts. He cuffed his hands over her arms and rubbed all the way down to her fingers.

"Mori." she moaned.

He flipped her over onto her back and buried his face into her belly. The combination of hot breath, wet lip, and teeth had her rubbing her legs together trying to ease the almost painful yearning he had aroused. With a quick movement he was on his knees poised between her thighs. Deprived of the ability to rub her legs together she thrashed back and forth whimpering with need.

"Please Mori, Kami-sama please." Mori was still totally silent save for the sound of his breathing.

He leaned down and brought his mouth to bear on the skin just beneath her breast. The feeling was indescribable, she tried to scoot down and rub her heat against his thigh but he stilled her with his hands. Just when she thought she would die from the attention, he moved up to take a nipple into his mouth.

At that same instant he began to run his hands over and across every inch of her body. She was coated lightly in sweat and the dampness allowed him to move quickly. No part of her was spared his caress except the one part she would have slain worlds for him to touch. He worked her into a fever pitch she couldn't stay still in the least. Her hands pushed weakly against his trying to guide him to where she desperately needed him to be, but it was futile.

He bit down on her nipple and the lines between pleasure and pain vanished, there was only need and sensation. She screeched and arched her back as hard as she could, seeking more, demanding that he give her what she knew she would die without.

There was no warning, one instant he was wrapping his arms around her lifting her higher to feast deeply on her breasts, and the next he was fully inside of her. She peaked instantly, shaking screaming and crying in his arms. All throughout her spasming he pumped quickly and fiercely into her.

The feeling was strange. Her borrowed form wasn't quite the same. Her channel was slightly shorter than she was used to, making her insides stretch and ache as he drove remorselessly in and out of her.

He sat up on his knees pulling her into his lap and the sensations changed again, with a violence that shook her like an earthquake. His long fast strokes into her now rubbed across her centre with every motion. His every breath and heartbeat was channelled directly to her core. He abandoned her nipples and again moved back to her neck. He bit down on the sensitive skin above her collarbone, and she squealed and her contracting muscles brought her right back to the edge of the world.

She began to hyperventilate and her gasps for air drew his lips back to her heaving breasts like a magnet. Again he began to feast leaving reddened marks of passion in his wake. His thrusts became erratic and she knew he was at the brink she squeezed down hard on him with her inner muscles and an instant later he was lost. She felt him explode inside of her, and the golden radiance that surrounded them was incredible. She briefly took that she also was glowing, before he resumed his rapid deep thrusts.

"Mori?" she questioned worriedly. He ignored her tone and with a light pop she found herself supported in mid air by his arms and hips. Mori stood facing the wall. When he noticed she had taken in her new surroundings he turned her to face away from him without ever pulling out. She pushed her legs down to the ground to help balance herself and quickly found her face and hands against the wall.

"You're in for a long night Mina-love" he said and resumed his plundering of her body.

********

Ami watched as Neko entertained her mother with simple little tricks during dinner. Causing the silverware to dance was a cute idea, but he went a bit overboard when pieces of the meal started acting out bits from Noh theatre. Still he had made her mother laugh, and that was something she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Joi-san" he said once the dishes had washed themselves and taken a bow. "Ami-chan tells me you're a doctor, and that your greatest regret is that there are people that despite your skill there is nothing you can do. I want to help you."

"Neko-san, I really do not believe my patients would be very happy to see you. It is not like I want to be rude or refuse your assistance, but it would probably be better if you do not."

"No no, what I meant, was will you allow me to teach you what I know. I know more about human anatomy and physiology then you're specie is like to learn before it self destructs."

"My that was pessimistic." Ami said with a smirk.

"Just being realistic Sprite." He said and kissed her. She blushed in embarrassment at being kissed in front of her mother. "Joi-san There's something else I can do to help you as well. Can I borrow your hand for a second?"

Joi held out her hand with a strange expression on her face, and was very surprised when a plain silver ring appeared on her middle finger.

"Don't take that in the wrong way, it's not a proposal." He said with a grin. "That ring will allow you to heal people by touch. It will only work a couple of times a day before going dormant, and it wouldn't be a good idea on people that had a limb cut off or anything, but it would do wonders in the emergency room, and there's no disease or infection you're likely to encounter that it couldn't cure, unless of course Jander shows up for a visit."

"How."

"You just touch them, making sure that the ring is in contact with you and them at the same time, and you think about healing them. You picture them being healthy, and it happens. Of course it will only work for you or Ami. Anyone else in the world could put it on and all it would do is look pretty."

"Thank you Neko-san." She said still looking a little stunned.

"You're very much welcome. Now, do you want me to teach you what I know?"

"Yes."

"Neko, just how are you planning to teach her? You're not going to do what you did to teach me Aleph, are you?" His grin was answer enough. "Masaka. mother I'm going to go get you some aspirin, you'll need it."

Neko leaned down and lightly brushed the seated woman with his hand. Flame and waves of agony raced through her. She screamed again and again, and the pain continued unabated. Finally after what felt like hours of torture she opened her eyes. Neko was standing there with a smile on his face.

"There that wasn't so bad was it?" She had the sudden desire to perform a tracheotomy on him with a spoon. "It only took a couple of seconds to teach you everything there is to know about the human body. Can you believe it took almost an hour to teach Ami Aleph? Compared to human anatomy Aleph is nearly impossible."

Joi's heart went out to her daughter. If that was what a few seconds felt like she did not want to even think about an hour. She would have either gone mad or died from the pain if that had gone on much longer. Strangely she didn't seem to have the residual headache she would have assumed she would from her daughter's statement. She was however very thirsty.

She stood to get a drink and the headache she believed she escaped slammed into her. A wave of pain induced vertigo slammed into her, and she reached out blindly for something to break her fall. She just managed to catch herself on the display case she kept her collection of ornamental plates in. It shook with the force of her impact and one the plates at the top, a sharp edged bronze platter painted with Shinto phrases, fell off. She tried to call out a warning to Neko, who was moving to assist her, but it was too late. The sharp edge of the bronze platter struck on the shoulder and sliced in deeply.

Neko had a look of complete shock on his face. He couldn't believe it. The bronze went through every defence he had and carved his flesh like a scalpel. He threw his head back and screamed in agony. He leapt away from the still falling platter and was on the other side of the room before it ever hit the floor.

He was in unbelievable pain. Unlike the rest of the Primarchs his allergen was a highly common metal, also unlike them he could actually touch his allergen without a real adverse effect. It could still slice through any defences he could erect, and even the smallest traces of it in him would render him powerless. Worst of all though was just how long it took to heal. Among the Primarchs he was easily the fastest healer. The Senshi could have torn him apart coated his body in gasoline and lit him on fire, and he would have been perfectly healthy before the smoke cleared. The agonizing seven centimetre long bone deep cut would take a week or more to heal.

Ami was in the room like a shot out of a gun. The sound of the platter hitting the floor had yet to die in the air before she realised what happened. She dashed over to Neko and began to take him into her arms. She was shocked when he literally slapped her hands away.

"Don't," he said through clenched teeth, "Remember what happened to Mina. If you touch this thing it will drain you."

"Bronze?" Ami asked with a hint of disbelief.

"Can we not talk about it."

"Mother I have to get Neko home, and can you make sure we don't have anything else made of bronze in the house. Neko has a bit of trouble with it."

"Sure," she said vaguely and wandered off in the direction of the bathroom still clutching her head.

"Well are you going to teleport us back to your apartment?" Ami asked after a moment.

"You're going to have to hang on a minute Sprite, this hurts bad enough that I'm having a bit of trouble concentrating. If I tried to teleport us we'd probably end up in the floor, or on Mars."

"Who knows, she might like it." Ami said trying to lighten them mood.

"You are so not helping."

"Sorry, there is one thing that might. I can guarantee you I like it when your on Mercury." After a moment she stood and helped him to his feet. "If you can't teleport we'll just walk. It's a nice night anyway."

The got less than two blocks from Ami's house when the sky suddenly filled with clouds and the downpour began.

"Remind me to kill Mori when we get back." Ami said pushing her wet bangs out of her eyes.

Fifteen fun filled minutes later they arrived at the apartment, soaked to the skin and very annoyed with the obvious cause for the supernatural storm.

"You know it was kind of strange, normally Mori's storms have a lot more lightning in them." Ami mused as they stripped out of their wet clothing in Neko's bathroom.

"That's because this storm is coming from something besides anger." Neko muttered still in quite a bit of pain.

"Really?"

"Yes, I've seen something like this more than a few times. Let's just say Mina might not make it to class tomorrow." Ami suddenly became very interested in her toes.

When Neko had finished removing the last of his sodden garments he trudged over to the bed and lay down heavily. He looked through the still open door to his private bath at a sight he would never grow tired of. Ami slowly and carefully dried herself off with the fluffy blue towel. With long seductive strokes she seemingly caressed herself all with the nominal excuse of getting warm.

"Sprite, you're killing me here."

"Why don't we do something about it?" She said softly, he words were like a caress on his skin, even from across the room.

"Because no matter how badly I want to make love to you, I'm in no condition to get physical?"

"My, that could be a problem. I really want you right now." Her voice had taken on a teasing, seductive tone, and while he was most assuredly not up to playing an active roll, certain parts of him were patently unaware of that fact.

"Sprite." he said warningly.

"You could always just lay back and let me do the work." She suggested mischievously. "I even promise not to touch your shoulder." She had swayed into the room and up to the bed during her suggestion. Her movements drew his eyes irresistibly to her. "What do you think Neko- chan?" She whispered as she crawled across the bed to straddle his hips.

"I think that if you don't I'll probably die from wanting you."

For the first time ever in their lovemaking Ami led the dance. Their sighs mingled and bodies intertwined, but the heat built slowly. As they neared the edge of oblivion their aura's emerged and mingled, lifting them higher than they had ever flown before. When the gentle loving spasms finally subsided Ami curled on this chest and gazed out towards the balcony doors with tears of joy in her eyes.

It was the tears that almost caused her to miss the shadowy figure peering through the blinds. She screamed in warning and reacted in a surprising manner.

Ami had spent a good portion of her day being instructed in magical theory. She had almost three years of battles with nasty otherworldly creatures guiding her reflexes. Ami rolled off of Neko and quickly chanted in Aleph, making sure to force the energy she summoned into the proper mental construct.

"/Cryosurge!/"

The person hiding on the balcony was fast, but it was just shy of impossible to evade a properly cast spell. He had hardly taken a step before finding everything below his chin encased in a solid block of super- dense ice.

"/Phaselock./" Neko growled preventing the intruder from escaping magically by teleportation.

Ami stalked over to the door, heedless of her nudity, and whipped it open to see what they had caught. She expected to see a 'loth, or possibly a demoded, what she saw was even worse.

"You!" She growled, quickly summoning the power for another spell. She wouldn't worry about sparing his life, as far as she was concerned he was already dead. She had no idea what had happened, or how he was resurrected, but there was no way she would let him get away.

"Mercury-chan, please I'm not here to hurt you. I haven't done anything wrong." At her cold expression he looked past her to Neko with a terrified expression.

"Do you have any last words before I kill you, again, and hopefully for good this time Zoicite?"

"Neko-sama! Please help me!" The bishonen one time general of the Dark Kingdom pleaded with the man who had offered him and his fellows a second chance.

********

Iria popped into being with no fanfare this time. She couldn't risk alerting the Senshi to her presence before she completed the first part of her plans. It wouldn't take them long to find her once she began a summoning, so that too was pushed back for now. First she had to gather the one crystal she was certain of the location to.