The scouts had left Erin there, watched the Celest enter, then pressed the detonator. The mountain had simply deflated; without much noise tons of rock crumbled and besides a plume of dust, the forest around it remained untouched.

Somehow they got home, partly walked but mostly hitchhiked, and stayed at Lita's apartment for the night. As Lita unlocked the door and pushed it in, the television clicked on.

"Mount Desolation crumbled unexpectedly today. Demolitionists have ruled out natural causes in what they are calling an "incredibly clean" demolition. Some footage was sent to us tonight which seems to show the final minutes inside Mount Desolation."

The scouts tumbled into the television room and saw their sailor selves move on the screen. It showed Erin's battle with Acuma, flashed to Sailor Moon's victory over Avula, then blanked out. Only Erin's face was distinguishable; shadows obscured Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask's face.

Mina looked over to Darien, "How could it show you as Tuxedo Mask? You never transformed there?" Darien just shook his head in disbelief.

The next two weeks were slow; Erin's death shadowed their minds but school and respective jobs occupied their time. Amy had put the laptop away and had turned her mind to other things.

She found it again cleaning and turned it on while balancing it on her lap. The screen lit up immediately and six screens popped up. Amy clicked through them, closing each one until she froze. This windowed showed Lita in her apartment, baking a cake or something in her kitchen. The next showed Mina laying on the floor reading a book. The last showed herself, sitting on the bed with an open laptop on her lap. She waved her hand to one side, a few moments later the image also waved its hand. That window closed automatically and a messenger window lay open. A single message read across the top: 'Erin—Amy are you there?'

Amy paused before answering, 'Yes' 'Where are you?' Her response went to the top of the screen and a small hour glass in the bottom right hand corner began spinning. A few seconds later, another message popped up.

'Safe' 'Why did you wait so long to open the laptop?'

'I was busy' 'Was that live video?'

'Yeah, streaming with 1.5 second delay'

'Who are you?'

'I was with the CIA, I'm rogue now'

'Then there isn't another group of scouts?'

'Nothing like you but there is'

'Is this AI? It responds so fast.'

'No'

'I can't be talking to you, I saw you die two weeks ago'

'So did the whole world' ' :) '