Disclaimer: I created the Knights, Naoko Takeuchi created the Sailor Scouts.

Chapter XVIII: Somewhere I Belong

Mark was completely astounded by the sheer size of the Tokyo command centre. He had felt more that slightly confused and bewildered at first when Lita had lead him to a fairly old Sailor V arcade machine and for a while he honestly thought that she was playing a cruel joke. However, all was revealed when the machine parted, revealing a dimly lit passageway. Lita had swiftly taken hold of the hand of a very confused Mark and quickly dragged him down the passageway. After a fair walk down several flights of stairs, Mark seemed very taken back by the complete wonder of this place. Not even London's central command centre seemed so elaborate. From what he had seen so far, this was more like the secret base of a James Bond villain.

At the bottom of the dim, concrete-walled stairway was a thick iron door, a silver control panel at the side. Lita quickly tapped in a very long code on the number pad, typing far too quickly for Mark to see what buttons were being pressed. Saying that, Mark also knew his PIN number for central off by heart and was able to type it in at an increadible rate. It was something that came as part of the job. The huge blast door opened after the control panel scanned her eyes to reveal an almost blindingly white corridoor which Mark instantly shielded his eyes from. He cautiously followed Lita inside, the change of contrast a fairly big shock to his eyes.

A rather refreshing cool breeze caressed Mark's face as Lita picked up what looked like a white telephone handset and pressed one of the many buttons. However, Mark seemed more interested in finding out exactly where he was. The large, spotless white corridoors made the fact that they were ten floors below an amusement arcade seem unbelievable. It just seemed like something out of a strange dream, the dream where you are alone or with someone else in a vast field of white. He noticed a fairly large map encased in a gold-framed display case on the wall and naturally checked it out.

"Okay... where am I?" Mark closely examined the map for some sort of you are here symbol, but with such a large map to examine, he didn't know where to start. Placing the portal beacon from under his left arm onto the floor, he ran his finger along the first random corridoor he could find.
"Erm, what exactly are you doing?" Lita had once again crept up on Mark and caused him to jump. Turning very abruptly to face the electric brunette, Mark had a less than pleased look on his face.
"Trying to find exactly where I am." Lita gazed at the map behind the English senshi of fire and shrugged her shoulders.
"They should have that thing properly marked out... You won't believe the number of tourists that get lost in here." Mark dared not to question Lita's sarcasm, instead just picking up the portal beacon and placing it under his left arm once more.

"So, where do we take this thing now we're here?"
"Darien said he's going to meet us in the lab. I'll take you there." Lita began to casually walk down the corridoor on the left. Mark, who feared getting lost in such an apparantly huge place, decided to keep up and stay at Lita's side.
"Is that Darien as in Darien Chiba who I met last night after Raye was kidnapped?"
"The master of corny speeches himself, just don't tell him I said that though." Mark shook his head and laughed at Lita's comments.
"So I take it he's not much of an orator, then?" Mark seriously hoped his Japanese had been perfect just then, hoping he didn't say something completely different. Lita just looked back at him and smiled.
"Well, he's a good speaker, but it's just the things he says as Tuxedo Mask. It just makes you want to burst out into a fit of laughter, and had he not saved us so many times, I think we may just have done that a few times." Mark smiled along with Lita, counting himself lucky that he hadn't heard any of Tuxedo Mask's speeches.

"Is there any more news on Mina?" The smile seemed to vanish from Lita's face at the mention of one of her best friends. She stared vacantly into the distance, still horified by Sailor Mars' actions the night before.
"She's still in a pretty serious condition according to Luna. She's beginning to stablise, but she took a pretty bad knock to the head. She's gonna be out of action until the end of November at the earliest."
"Ah." sighed Mark uneasily. In the back of his mind he knew he might possibly have saved Mina if he had hadn't have closed his eyes for that moment, but he already knew that something that has already happened cannot be changed no matter how hard you try. Mark had learnt that lesson the hard way over a thousand years ago on the fateful night of the Silver Millenium, a memory that had followed him to his new life.

"We're here." Lita turned right into a very large room, slightly greyer than the gleaming white corridoors they had just traveled down. The masses of equipment and computers neatly spread around this huge area tended to suggest that this was some sort of laboratory. Mark cautiously followed behind, taking time to take a look at the array of equipment set out on the various workbenches.
"So where do we put this thing?" Mark was beginning to feel the strain of the portal beacon, which seemed to have become a fair bit heavier.
"In the vaccuum chamber. We just need to wait for Darien so that he can put this thing away for us."
"Why wait? I'm here now." Sure enough, Darien emerged from behind one of the large mainframes, giving Lita somewhat of a nasty surprise.

"Darien! Will you stop doing that!" Mark began to laugh along with Darien while Lita looked very unimpressed.
"Hey, you've gotta have humour in times like these." Darien quickly noticed the large portal beacon under Mark's arm. "I see you've got the beacon. Could you pass it over here a second? I need to put it in the vaccuum chamber." Without hesitation Mark handed the portal beacon over to Darien while Lita checked the readings on a nearby computer.
"So is that all? Is there any news on what stage two of the Dark Kingdom attack plan is?" Mark seemed slightly anxious at what may be to come. In the back of his mind he feared that the senshi would be only days away from facing an all-out onslaught.

"Energy." replied Darien, placing the portal beacon on a convayor belt leading into a large glass chamber. From where he was standing, Mark could vaguely see another pyramid-shaped portal beacon in the centre of the chamber. "It's outlined in the documents you retrieved last night. They'll probably take their time over this one. They want to collect the most energy with the least amount of effort. The best way they can achive that, I think, is at an event where there will be plenty of people."
"Such as a football match?"
"Not particulary. Soccer isn't the most popular sport here. I'd say something like a J-League baseball game or a pop concert." Realising he'd had only one hour's rest in the past thirty, Mark gave a fairly satified yawn and rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah, probably. Too tired to think of any events coming up though." Realising exactly how tired Mark was and feeling somewhat exhausted himself, Darien quickly cut to the chase.

"Well, you can get some rest soon. Myself, Serena and Luna just need to tell you one thing first. Lita, you can go see Mina if you want. She's in the recovery room." Without saying a word, Lita ran as rast as she could out of the lab and out of sight.

Int. Negaverse Command Centre - September 24th 2002, 2:40 pm

"Great. I'm probably deep in the shit now..." Raye stormed down the halls of the Negaverse Command Centre, enfuriated by her defeat at the hands of her ex-boyfriend and Sailor Jupiter. With a support strip across the bridge of her nose and a tight dressing around her lower left arm, she limped her way to the War Room to address Beryl and Wiseman. The defeat she had just suffered was crushing, overshadowing what she had achived earlier. The dank, dark hallway seemed to last forever as her fear of what may happen began to take her over.

"Raye! Pull yourself together, woman!" Raye tried her best to gain control of herself, she knew that she had done everything that was asked up to the point of the University battle and she knew that the high command couldn't be too disappointed with her. With the entrance to the War Room in sight, Raye took one last deep breath before pushing open the large mahogany doors. Inside the spacious hall, seemingly darker and danker than the surrounding corridoors. Sitting around the large table in the centre of the room, Malachite, Queen Beryl, Wiseman and Professor Tomoe looked up from the masses of papers and maps and focussed on Raye.
"Miss Hino. Please come to the table." Raye reluctantly accepted Wiseman's invitation, slowly advancing towards the end of the large table before standing to attention. Queen Beryl neatened a few files in front of her before addressing the brainwashed senshi.

"Miss Hino, I have to say I am quite disappointed with you. Not only did you fail to recover the beacon at the University, but you also took a seroius beating at the hands of Sailor Jupiter and your precious Mars Knight. That consitutes as a failure, Miss Hino. Do you know what we do with failures, Miss Hino?" The fear was all too apparant in Raye's face. Even though Queen Beryl was no longer her enemy, she still had that great fear factor about her. Trying to keep an emotionless face, Raye searched for a reply.
"No, your Majesty. I do not know what you do with failures."
"I will tell you now. We do not tolerate failures at all. We destroy all failures at the earliest opportunities." A gut feeling took over Raye at that moment. This was possibly going to be the last few moments of her life. She had failed in the final part of her mission and now execution was being discussed she felt absolutely terrible. However, Wiseman quickly cut in with his own opinions.

"You have failed to recover the portal beacon at Tokyo University, but we must not overlook the fact that you have brought the Dark Kingdom a fair amount of success in the past fifteen hours. You have successfully managed to put Sailor Venus out of action and also nearly managed to kill Sailor Neptune. You have been more effctive than any of our Youmas, and for that I personally am willing to give you a second chance." Surprised by what the mysterious cloked figure of Wiseman had just explained, Queen Beryl looked at him in disgust. She had always distrusted all sailor senshi, and to see her fellow leader take pity on Raye was very enfuriating. However, he had a point, and it would probably be foolish to kill her now when she could be exploited further. With this in mind, she kept quiet.

"Thank you, your highness."
"Miss Hino, you will be involved in the second stage of the invasion of Tokyo. For this stage, we need to gather energy for the third and final stage of attack. Should this go to plan, we anticipate the final attack to go ahead at the end of December. We understand you will be hosting a pop concert within the next fortnight." Raye seemed surprised that Wiseman had even heard of her annual concert. It had also dawned on her that she hadn't practiced her singing that day. However, that was not the main thing on her mind at the moment.
"Yes your higness. Friday 8th November, two weeks tomorrow."
"Good. That will be our first main opportunity to amass energy from the public. We will discuss tactics and technology tomorrow at fourteen hundred hours. Remeber that failure this time will not be treated so lightly. You are dismissed."

Raye swiftly turned around and left the large hall, jolting in pain as she ran her hand across her face. She seriously needed to relax, she had a whole two weeks before she would be in action. As she closed the huge doors behind her she unfolded a small piece of paper from her pocket to find her quarters.
"Geeze... I hope this place has a bath. My legs are killing me."

Int. Conference Room 1, Moon Kingdom Central, Tokyo Branch - October 24th 2003, 2:50 pm.

Darien had lead Mark deeper into the lair of Central, taking almost ten minutes to reach the conference room. Still feeling extremely tired, Mark felt almost overjoyed when they finally reached the large and, unsurprisingly, gleaming white room. Sat at the large pine table in the corner were Serena, Luna and Artemis. Darien swiftly pulled out a chair opposite Serena for Mark before sitting himself down next to his long term girlfriend. Sitting there in front of his future King and Queen made Mark somewhat nervous, but he knew that this had to be something to do with Raye. Shuffling about in his chair slightly to get comfortable, Mark waited in silence for someone to speak.

"Mark, a few moments ago Sailor Pluto delivered to us a fairly important report. We understand you came here to try and find your destiny. Is that true?" Mark began to shift around a little more, feeling even more uncomfortable by Luna's questioning.
"Yes Luna. I was not a part of Crystal London in the thirtieth century. I came here in the hope of finding answers as to where I would be in the future."
"Ah. As it turns out, we've discovered that you have a chance of living in Crystal Tokyo in the thirtieth century. We don't know the chance of you just being in Crystal Tokyo, but the chance of you finding true love there is ten percent." At this point it had seemed that a huge weight had just been taken off his shoulders. Finally he had a clue as to where he would end up in the future, but was she talking about Raye when she mentioned true love?

"When you say true love, do you mean Raye?"
"Yes, although I won't go into any further details. Destiny can be affected by the slightest of things."
"I understand." Artemis quickly cut in at that point, ready to explain what exactly that meant.
"What that means is that you're our best shot at getting Raye back." Confusion and nervousness once again invaded Mark's mind. He was the best bet for bringing Raye back?
"Erm, I don't quite get you there. How can I be the best chance of getting Raye back if I've known her for little over a month?" It was now Serena's opportunity to explain the plan to Mark.

"I don't know if you've already heard the story of the Day of Destiny or not, but I'll tell you it now. Six years ago we faced Queen Beryl and Metallia in the Arctic. For the few months previous, Darien had been captured and brainwashed onto the side of the Dark Kingdom. However, in the final battle I managed to bring him back to normal after reminding him of our love for each other. Beryl had lost her key weapon against me, and in the end the Scouts sealed the victory. We believe that this is a similar situation, so that's why we need you. If you are destined to be with Raye, you are the one to free her." This all seemed a little much for Mark. He would be the one to save the woman he loved most from the clutches of the Dark Kingdom? Mark just sat silently trying to take this all in.

"Maybe you need time to think about it. You look like you need some rest." Darien stood up from his seat and strided over towards where Mark was sitting.
"Yeah..." yawned Mark. "I guess I need a few hours' kip."
"I'll drive you to your apartment then."

It was a clear, crisp evening, and inside the main auditorium of T*A Private girls school the masses of people that had attended Raye's annual concert had erupted into cheers at the climax of the penultimate song. Mark, dressed in his black tuxedo, searched through the pad of music for the final piece, Eternal Melody. On the stage Raye, wearing a red dress that could only be described as completely stunning, thanked the crowd for their support.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'd like to dedicate this final number tonight to someone very special to me. This particular person is here in the building tonight, in fact he's sitting at the piano right now. Mark, if you'd please stand up." As the spotlight shone down on him, he cautiously stood up and waved to the audience, noticing that the five other senshi were sat down on the front row - Mina, Hotaru, Amara, Serena and Darien. However, not everything seemed right. A few rows back he noticed a man with long silver hair. He had a gut feeling that he seen him somewhere before, but he just shook it off as he sat back down at the synths. As he looked towards the strings section, he noticed Michelle smiling at him. He simply smiled back as Raye introduced the song.

"This is a ballad I composed a few months back when I was relaxing on a beach in Osaka. This is the Eternal Melody." The entire auditorium started clapping as Mark started the intro. As the clapping stopped and the hall fell silent, Raye began to sing.

Living life under the golden sun
In my heart you are forever with me
I need no words, only your love
Your touch, your soul, everything that you may be

Oh, your bravery sweeps me off my feet,
In my heart, I believe we were destined to meet,
The light of our love, shining bright,

As Mark managed to find two bars' rest, he quickly looked up to find that the guy with the long silver hair had disappeared. Quickly realising he had just missed the point where he came back in, he found where he was supposed to be and continued.

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
The Eternal Melody of us
Our song we send.

Brought to me by destiny
You and I, always together 
Whatever happens to us
I'll be with you forever
Oh, remembering the day when we first met,
Oh, something I don't want to forget
The days of sorrow, gone away

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
Our Eternal Melody

Something was definately wrong. Mark looked up from the sheet of music again to see most of the audience yawning as if they were extremely tired. Some of the musicians also seemed extremely fatigued. Still, he couldn't do anything about it halfway through the final song of the night.

Where there is no sound in the corners of space
Everybody is alone
When at least our feelings of love meet
I can go on to tomorrow

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
For our Melody

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
Our love we send

As the clarinet began the final phrase, Mark looked around to see that the entire audience was now unconcious, as was the entire orchestra. He was the only one still concious. As he looked up to the stage, he noticed Raye laughing manically on the stage, seven coloured seeds in her hand. Instantly realising what was going on, Mark ran out from the orchestra pit and dashed as fast as he could up to the stage stairs. However, as he reached the steps he saw the figure of the silver haired man standing in his path. It was clear this time who it was.
"Malachite!" The figure whipped out a silver handgun and in an instant pulled the trigger. After the loud bang, all went black.

Black, except for the glow of the red segment display in his bedside clock.

Int. Apartment 211, Hiwaka view apartments - October 29th 2002, 4:20 am.

That was the third time that Mark had suffered from that nightmare in as many nights. The first and second time he simply shrugged it off, telling himself that he'd been thinking about Raye too much. However, now that it had happened for the third time, he was sure that it was some sort of vision. There was no disputing that - the Mars senshi were famous for their predictions and visions. Reaching up to turn on the lamp above his bed, Mark locked his bedroom door and grabbed his DataPad, opening a channel with Central.

"Central. Luna speaking."
"Luna, I'm certain about that concert thing. I've just had that nightmare again, and I'm pretty certain that it's a vision." Mark sounded fairly rushed, the nightmare affecting his breathing rate.
"Yes, we've suspected that Raye's concert may be a prime target."
"I guess you must think I'm kinda crazy for calling you up like this every night." Reaching over towards his work desk, Mark grabbed a framed photo of himself and Raye at the temple, staring into the happy portrait with great sadness.
"On the contrary, we're taking your nightmares very seriously. Back when we were fighting Professor Tomoe for the first time, Raye had many nightmares which later turned out to be premenitions. All the Mars senshi have a sixth sense on these things." Mark had calmed down, but he couldn't help but think that a part of him was missing. He couldn't quite believe the fact that he might be Raye's true love, nor could she believe that she was evil. Still, she was no longer in control of her true self, and in the end was being held against her own true will.

"So, is there some sort of plan for what's gonna happen?" Mark placed the photo frame back on the desk, carefully placing it down next to his laptop. He flicked through his pile of CDs, looking for something that seemed very distant and haunting.
"Nothing's confirmed at the moment, but we will keep the event under tight security in case she does attack. We're going to have to stay low key though."
"I see. Thanks for everything." Mark flipped open his laptop, yawning with uncertainty. As the desktop appeared on the screen, Mark placed Raye's CD in the CD drive.
"Goodnight Mark."

Crashing back on his bed, Mark stared wide-eyed out of the window, the moonlight and the stars gracefully outlining the silhouette of the Hiwaka Shrine. As the serene melody of Oh Starry Night flowed from the laptop's speakers, Mark remained motionless, the recent events flowing through his head. Raye's capture, the University battle, finding his possible destiny and the nightmares of the past three nights. With the anxiety of the concert in his mind, he started to reassure himself. Still, all he could see in his mind was her smiling face, a look of pure innocense. The magical red aurora surrounding her. Finally lying down on his bed, his hands over his eyes, Mark reflected upon his inner self, searching deep inside for his courage.

"Raye... I will bring you back... I promise..."

End Of Chapter 18