All Right! Thanks Again for the reviews!

As Always: Thanks to Angel Raye and to Naoko Takeuchi!

Here is the 4th chapter. I expect to do two more chapters before the story is finished.

So secure your tray tables in the upright position and fasten your seatbelt. We're coming in and the landing just might get a little rough before it's over...

ALWAYS ME

Chapter 4

"Come in Brooke." Hotaru said with a tired smile as she opened the door. She was fairly certain whatever Brooke had wanted to discuss involved Celine in some fashion, but Hotaru was at a loss to figure why Brooke hadn't gone to Amy or Ariel instead.

It was strange, she thought. As Sailor Saturn, Hotaru had presided over Celine's trial and had been the one to pass sentence upon her six years earlier. Now; as a nurse, Hotaru was one of the people responsible for her care.

Surely Amy and Ariel were in a much better position to discuss Celine's condition, Hotaru thought. Unless... This concerned Celine's trial somehow? But that also made no sense... "Please sit down." She said.

"Thank you. Aunt Hotaru... I think you know I wanted to talk to you about Celine..." Brooke began hesitantly. "But... The truth is that I need to ask you something very personal."

Hotaru could see that Brooke was clearly uncomfortable with whatever it was she wanted to ask, meaning it was probably quite sensitive indeed. But Hotaru also knew that Brooke would not be here unless she believed it to be very important. Hotaru would trust her judgement as she slowly nodded.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Aunt Hotaru?" Brooke asked. "...When you were... inhabited..." Brooke said, trying to choose her words with care. "By Mistress Nine... " Brooke noticed Hotaru tense somewhat as she spoke it.

"Did you have any clues, or any way of knowing what was happening?"

Hotaru grimaced internally. Sensitive spot indeed. Mistress Nine had been Hotaru's greatest nightmare once, made all the worse because she had been real. A being of pure evil and malevolence inside her...

It was something that Hotaru preferred not to think upon much, but Brooke had come to her for answers, needing those answers. Brooke was obviously convinced that those answers were of paramount importance. Only time would tell if the answers were the ones she sought.

"Not really..." Hotaru began slowly. "I remember having fainting spells, blackouts... People would accuse me of having done terrible things I would swear I had no memory of doing...

"A few times... I was actually able to... It was like observing myself from the outside. It was frightening because I could feel myself saying and doing things and not knowing what. As if someone else were directing my body.

"It turned out they were..." Hotaru finished and realized.

"Did you sense something with Celine, Brooke? Something that may have caused her to attempt suicide?" Hotaru asked.

"If I'm right," Brooke said. "It's worse than that..."

Celine looked around her. The cold, orderly perfection of Dark Celine's citadel had been replaced with chaos. One of the towering walls of ice had developed a gaping crack. Another wall had collapsed completely. Trickles of water were beginning to flow and pockets of steam were venting into the air.

In the center of it all, Dark Celine stood. Her face twisted in anger and hate. Her eyes; reflecting her ire, pierced through Celine with their hate.

"I thought we understood each other better than this Celine." Dark Celine said almost conversationally... yet with the coldest of undertones and malice. "We've been so good for each other for so long..." She said in a betrayed manner. "We were symbiotic... sympatico you know...

You offered a home for me, sustained me... You helped me grow stronger every day...

And in return... I protected you... lent you my own strength. I was the one who was there even when all your so called friends..." She sneered. "Abandoned you."

"We were so good together." Dark Celine repeated. "It's a shame it all had to end this way."

"Good for each other!" Celine spat back. "You took everything from me!"

"My family, my friends, my husband, my sons... My daughter! You stole it all from me!" Celine shouted in a tone that was as hot as Dark Celine's was cold.

"I protected you." Dark Celine replied. "The human heart is a weakness Celine. It's the ultimate vulnerability...

"I protected you from that weakness Celine."

"Me? ...Or Yourself?"

"You know Celine... You are becoming a real pain in the neck lately."

"I think I need to teach you a little lesson..." Dark Celine said.

Brooke Hino sat before the fire, trying to clear her mind and focus. As she had admitted to Aunt Hotaru, she only had her own suspicions and feelings at this point. There was no clear evidence to support any of it...

Her mother and grandmother had always told her to follow her heart and to trust her instincts, but they had both cautioned her that she must know and recognize the difference between what was true and what she wanted to be true.

Brooke wished that she could ask her mother to do the fire reading with her. Her mother's ability often exceeded hers and she would perhaps have a more clear mind than hers... Grandmother's ability was strongest of all... but she; like all the original senshi, had been dealing with this for almost a century now and it would have been hard for her to set aside a hundred years worth of feelings.

The problem was that Brooke was very much afraid that time might be fast running out...

Then the images came to her...

"Kami-sama!" Brooke whispered.

Celine smiled as if amused. "And just what are you going to do?" She asked. "You can't control me any more."

"So what are you going to do?" Celine asked again with a smirk. "Bitch and moan at me for the rest of my life?" Her smiled faded as Dark Celine coldly smiled back at her.

"Oh... No... I have something much better in mind than that." Dark Celine's smile broadened as she looked like someone about to share the funniest joke in the world...

"I think Tiffany and I need to spend a little quality time together."

Celine looked at her enemy with a look of hate and contempt. How dare she threaten Tiffany! Still...

"You're forgetting something aren't you?" She said.

"Oh? And what's that?" Dark Celine said with an insufferable look.

"You're stuck in this same worn out old body I am... And even if you could get control of this body, we're strapped down nice and tight."

"We're not going anywhere." Celine said.

Dark Celine shook her head and smiled some more. "Wrong Celine. You aren't going anywhere... I can leave any time I want."

"You see Celine... They took YOUR powers. They have no idea of MY powers!" Dark Celine laughed.

"And thanks to you, I'm strong enough to leave this body."

"I can have MY OWN body now..."

"Forever young..."

"IMMORTAL!"

"And the very first thing I'm going to do in that new body is to pay a visit to poor little Tiffany." She said.

"But I'm going to let you live Celine..." Dark Celine said in coldest satisfaction.

"I want you to live to see what I'm going to do to your family and your world."

"And there isn't a thing you can do to stop me..."