AN: WOW!!! ::falls out of chair in shock at number of reviews. DOMO ARIGATOU MINNA-CHAN!!! Gomen nasi for the delay.

RookRaven-Lol!!! Thanks!

Cecelia- Wow. Thank you so much. Will do!

erika- ::grins:: Yeah, I liked writing it.

crossover-to-my-world- I'm a little confused. Do you want to BETA? Cause I do need one (or several ^_^) for this fic.

Tomoyo Sakura- aww!!! Thanks again for being such a loyal reader.

shadow star- yea, I had fun writing the beginning! ::grins:: I'm such an e-vile person! :D And as for the dialogues... well, I sat through DB with a note pad the second time I saw it. The 3rd time, I basically had alot of it memorized. :D

starfury3000- Thanks! Sorry again for the delay.

Vaderboy- ::blushes:: aww thank you!

Sailor Bree- ::grins:: Well, it took awhile but here it is!

Katlin Grace- aww! Thank you so much for reading. Btw, when are *you* going to update. ::glares menacingly:: j/k

sailorbardock1980- wow thanks!

solarmistress17- ::gulps:: It hasn't been that long, has it? ::glances at screen:: No! See, it's been less than 3 weeks. So ha! :P

Clytia- ::grins:: Yep!

Erika- ::shudders:: Noooooo. I despise Mamo-baka. Nooooooo. Not a chance. :D

MarsMoonStar- hehehe. Thanks!

Angel123292- wow thank you! But where's your email? Maybe it's my computer, but I can't read it. Gomen nasi.

Domo arigatou to everyone. I really hope this chapter does disappoint you. ::grins nervously::

"..." is talking, '...' is thought, [...] is AN, (...) is extra info but part of the fic, ... means trailed off, -- means interrupted, ... is Fate. Remember to review and be sure to read the AN at the end. Thanks!

************************************************************************************************************

The silence was unbearable. Though there was no noise the soundlessness seemed to dig into the brain. Many went insane after only a few minutes. But the Shi no Tenshi continued onward.

She was used to the eerie silence of Tizui. Through all her lonely years, she had learned that returning to Tizui not only strengthened her mental capabilities, but also lessened some of the pain of solitude. Though nothing stirred on the dead planet (its inhabitants having died out long ago), the silence seemed a distraction and a temporary relief. Everywhere else there were reminders-- happy families, laughing friends, even her enemies had comrades. But she was alone. Alone forever.

****Flashback****

Sailor Cosmos was on her knees in pain as Chaos laughed maniacally above her. Her senshi lay around her, dead or dying. She could feel their life energy slipping away.

Above, Chaos prepared her last strike.

Cosmos shut her eyes. 'So this is how it ends,' she thought. 'We will all die and the universe will be doomed.'

Is that so? said a voice in her head.

'Nande?!' she thought.

Giving up so soon?

'There is nothing else I can do.'

Are you so sure?

'I... I think so.'

What about your friends?

'I... They.... Who are you?' she asked almost angrily.

You would know me as Fate.

'What can I do? I will do anything for my senshi.'

You should be careful with that word.

'But I really mean it! I would destroy myself if I thought it would save them.'

It won't. But there is something you can do.

'Onegai, please tell me! Their time is running out!'

The voice laughed. If you haven't noticed, Time has been frozen, for the moment.

It was indeed true. Chaos was still with her blast suspended in the air a meter from Cosmos' face. There was no movement, no noise. All was silent and empty. Cosmos gulped.

'Just please return them to their normal lives. Do with me as you will.'

The voice paused and considered this offer. Very well then. They will be taken care of. But you have a different role to play. There is much Evil in the universe. It grows will the Good lessens. You must counter this evil to maintain the Balance.

'Demo that's what I've been doing as a senshi!'

Yes... In a way. But the universe is a large place.

'Just take care of my friends. I will do whatever you command.'

Very well. Your powers will increase and multiply. As soon as Chaos is destroyed, your friends will awaken. And then you will begin your campaign to oppose the Evil.

'Hai. I will. Demo, one last thing.'

Yes? The voice sounded impatient.

'What about my destiny?'

Ah yes. Destiny, my lesser and much less reliable twin. Her ways are a mystery, for destinies are never permanent and always liable to change.

Time was resuming. 'But what about Chibi Usa?' she cried desperately.

But the voice was gone. She was admits the battle with Chaos again. It seemed in slow motion that the blast approached her. She easily got out of the ways as Time returned to its regular measure.

Having put most of her energy into the last attack, Chaos was weak. With little difficulty, owing to Cosmos' new powers and strength, Chaos was destroyed.

The bodies of her senshi shimmered and disappeared. It was then that Cosmos first became aware of her sixth sense, her ability to know things without knowing how she knew them. It was often in finding weaknesses in her enemies, but this time it told her something else. Fate had taken her request literally. The senshi would be returned to normal human lives, without worries of fighting evil or sailor business.

Cosmos turned to face the stars. She would be alone. In her first experimentation with her heightened teleportation powers, she disappeared to begin her new career.

****End Flashback****

Recently, memories had been invading her thoughts and interrupting her ability to think straight. That is why she had returned to Tizui. The Memories-- of her final visit to her father, Pluto taking her away, and the beginnings of her life as Sailor Moon-- kept coming back. She had hoped that the Silence of Tizui would help. Instead, it dispelled all thought but the Memories themselves. After all, the dead planet was a memory itself.

She entered an old cave, the one place in the entire universe that she could even remotely call her home. After all, the few times she was there were usually attempts to entirely forget the rest of the universe-- something she was never allowed to do. Her duty always remained.

She looked down at her scarred and calloused hands. Her once creamy skin was tanned and more durable, hardened from ice and fire alike.

With physical and mental scars, she was reminded daily that she was not immortal. Though gifted, or rather cursed as she saw it, with a long life and many superhuman powers, she would still die one day. Being cursed also with the inability to kill herself and to almost always destroy her foes, it would likely be from old age than from the hand of another. But she often looked towards that day with longing, seeing it as a way out of the horror she called life.

~o~o~

It was the next morning. She was out walking and trying to clear her mind when she sensed it. Or perhaps felt it is the better word. For she did not sense by ki or anything connected with a life force or using the mind. Rather, her very skin tingled. There was a new threat in the universe.

In an instant, she summoned her staff, and with a flash she was gone. If someone had asked, she could not have said where she went. She merely followed evil's trail.

~o~o~

In a shimmer, she reappeared on some distant planet. She glanced around for the enemy and noticed the smoldering remains of houses.

"Not again," she sighed. "Another primitive people that can't stop a wild monster on a rampage. Why am I here? It's not a threat to the universe! Sure it'll kill some people, maybe even destroy a whole nation or threaten the entire country, but it couldn't leave the planet if it wanted to. They're always the same. And it gets old very fast. Why can't there be more variety?" she pleaded to no one in particular.

It didn't take long to find the creature. She did get a bit of a surprise though. Before her seemed to be something out of childhood legends. She had never before been so clearly reminded of a part of her past when facing an enemy. Yet the mauve creature before her, with the exception of a second neck and no visible wings, was what would clearly be called a dragon.

Most of her other opponents had varying descriptions. They ranged from enormous to microscopic, stupid to ingenious, powerful to pitiful. She once had to destroy an entire race of turtles that burped explosive bubbles as well as a group of giants that lost on of their two million heads every time they gained a grain of intelligence. (Combined with their stupidity and ability to not get any smarter, these randomly falling heads became very threatening to the people living there).

Of course, there were the occasional truly evil ones. They usually came every three years or so, and the Shi no Tenshi had to work her butt off to stop them. She always succeeded, though.

The most recent still gave her chills. She had been captured while battling a lesser villain. It seemed to true mastermind, a short feminine-sounding creature called Frieza, wanted to use her in his evil plot to control the universe. She was kept locked up and tortured daily. After a few weeks, a lucky break gave her the chance she needed to escape. She had hidden in meditation for almost a month, gathering her powers and strengthening herself to destroy him.

But as she was about to set out, she suddenly could no longer sense him. She waited for the Feeling, for that is what she called it, to return, but it never did. By this she theorized that he, whether dead or not, must no longer be a threat to the Balance and the universe, for whatever reason.

That was ten years ago. An evil villain was long overdue.

About three years after that, the Feeling came again. It began as an almost unnoticeable tingle and gradually grew. Eventually it became like a constant stab in the back. The Shi no Tenshi was forced to pay attention.

But there is a limit even for the Shi no Tenshi. Even she cannot jump instantaneously across the vast and seemingly endless universe. She hurriedly teleported from galaxy to galaxy, but as she neared the Feeling vanished. Not even a tingling sensation remained. She lingered for days, but it never returned.

And now she stared up at the mauve dragon before her. What a pushover.

She shoved her way through the shocked crowds and pushed the brave male who poked at the creature (and was about to be toasted) roughly aside.

She looked up at the dragon and began to twirl her staff in a blur of colors.

"Celestial . . . . . . Moondust . . . . . . Elimination!"

She slammed the glowling staff into the earth not far from the dragon's scaly foot. The ground split and yawned to form a crack, which traveled like wildfire along the ground. When it reached the scaly monster, it changed course. The crack began to travel up the dragon's leg. The creature howled in agony as the crevice split it into two. The gap yawned and widened, and the entire creature became two pieces, which dissolved into iridescent sparkles and floated away.

She sighed and turned, preparing to leave, when she met a girl with deep violet orbs staring up at her. The Shi no Tenshi was suddenly painfully reminded of another young girl she knew long ago.

"He was only hungry," said the girl accusingly.

"Wh-What?"

"He was looking for food."

"Girl, I just saved your life. He could have killed you!"

"So? It was our fault that we were greedy and destroyed his food supply. Besides, he doesn't like the taste of my people."

". . . Why are you accusing me?"

"Because you killed a perfectly good creature due to a problem which could have been solved easily if you'd bothered to be patient and listen."

Something suddenly dawned in the mind of the Eliminator, and she almost ran from the scene, teleporting as she went.

Back on Tizui, she let her mind sift it out. So that's why she was the Shi no Tenshi: Her solution was always destruction. She'd never even considered other solutions.

Of course, elimination guaranteed no return. It was the best solution after all, though most peoples didn't favor it too much.

But it wasn't the words of the girl that bothered the Shi no Tenshi-- they were enlightening, but she didn't care much about what people thought. She would do her job and do it well. No, it was the girl's eyes, the deep purple orbs. Hotaru's eyes. Except, this Hotaru hated her. A single tear slid down her cheek. What had she done?

************************************************************************************************************

AN: Well that's the first chappie of My Duty. Next chap is Back to Earth, but will be some delay. If there's any Buu experts out there, I need your help. I'm looking for fans who know the Buu saga well to BETA read for me. I'm currently cursed with only access to the dubs, and I've missed quite a few episodes. So, as this fic will be following the Buu saga in later chapters (What? You hadn't guessed? ^^;; ), I want to make sure I get it right. Please email me at Callistostar786@hotmail.com if you can help! Domo arigatou.

Thank you to everyone who read this. Please leave a review! Arigatou. Ja!

~Calli-chan