Author's Note: I probably should've mentioned this at the end of the previous chapter, but for those who don't know the character of Kaidou comes from a side story of the original Sailor Moon manga focusing on Rei called Casa Blanca Memory. It's definitely one of the better Sailor Moon short stories, and one I referenced more than a couple of times when developing this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft or August Derleth.

Chapter 2: The Chairman

Rei was simply astounded to discover her father's old executive assistant as the chairman of the Cydonia Foundation. It was an insane twist of fate that had brought her to Kaidou on the same day she ended up meeting Jadeite again. Rei found a part of her was happy to see Kaidou again after so long, but at the same time it was a very painful reunion. Kaidou was essentially her first love, or at least the only man she had come close to being in love with. Back in junior high Rei thought she and Kaidou were kindred spirits, but in the end she was proven totally wrong when Kaidou decided to follow in her father's political footsteps.

"Kaidou…you're really the chairman of this foundation?" Rei asked. "How…when did this happen?"

Kaidou chuckled. "It happened only a couple of months ago. I had become good friends with the previous chairman who named me his successor when he decided to retire. As for how I got involved with the Foundation in the first place, I thought you and could talk about that later over lunch."

"…I suppose that'd be okay. I am pretty curious as to how all this happened. I'm guessing you're the reason why my father decided to throw his support behind the Foundation's efforts."

"Your father did take quite a bit of convincing, but he eventually came around."

"Kaidou gave me some pretty compelling arguments for his cause," Takashi interjected. "But then I shouldn't have expected anything less from my old protégé."

"Anyway, I'm sure you've had a long trip getting here," Kaidou told Rei. "I'll let you take a couple of hours to get settled and have Officer Sampson come get you for lunch. It really is nice seeing what a lovely young woman you've become, Rei."

Rei couldn't help but blush at Kaidou's comment. There was definitely a part of her that was still attracted to him. Meanwhile unbeknownst to Rei but noticed by Grete, a frown had formed on Jun's face. Kaidou used the intercom on his desk to call Virginia back into the office. Virginia then handed Rei and the others their card keys to get around the facility and led them out of the office.

The room Rei had ended up in was much nicer than she had expected from a facility containing mostly top-secret laboratories. It was the kind of room one might expect to get at a five-star hotel. There was even a large window showing her a terrific view of part of the island; a window she was able to open up to allow Phobos and Deimos to go out and fly around. Once Phobos and Deimos had been let out of their cage to go spread their wings, Rei set about unpacking her bags. As she unpacked, Rei found herself hoping she wouldn't be on the island for more than a week.

Rei went over to a green electric door she thought was the room's closet. When the door slid open though, she saw another room where Jun had just taken off his shirt. The unexpected sight of Jun half dressed caused Rei to freeze, and she soon found herself gazing at him in fascination. Rei couldn't help but notice how handsome Jun was; he was by no means a bodybuilder type but he was definitely in great shape. Before she realized it, Rei had started to wonder what Jun might look like with his pants off.

Jun at last noticed Rei gazing at her from the doorway and let out a startled cry. "What the hell are you doing barging into my room?"

At last Rei realized what she was doing and blushed. "I-I thought it was a closet!"

"Well clearly it's not! The fact you just saw me in the middle of changing shirts should've been a clue! And what the hell were you doing just standing there and watching me?"

"I…I wasn't watching!" Rei insisted as her face turned an even deeper share of red. "I was just startled seeing you in what I thought was a closet!"

"Please! You looked like you were about ready to start throwing me yen notes to stuff into my shorts!" Jun told her as he finally put on a fresh shirt

"Oh don't flatter yourself!" Rei responded as she crossed her arms. "I'll admit you're not bad-looking, but you're hardly worth getting excited about. Besides, I have no interest in men!"

"Could've fooled me from the way you were drooling a little bit ago!"

"I…I wasn't…look! Why the hell do we even have adjoining rooms in the first place?"

"You can thank Grete and Officer Sampson for this damn arrangement. Since Grete and I are your bodyguards for this little vacation, she and Sampson thought that one of us should have an adjoining room with you as an added layer of protection."

"Then how come you're staying in this room instead of Grete?"

"Believe me, it wasn't my first choice either. Grete ordered me to stay as close to you as possible, and I have to do as she says or else I go back to being dead."

Rei let out an exasperated sigh and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Okay, fine. But you better not get any funny ideas! If you barge through this door without my permission I'll kill you myself!"

"Oh trust me! I'd have to be crazy to step into the ogre's den!" Jun responded as he walked up to her.

Rei suddenly wanted to find something she could throw and thought better of it. Instead she began to reach for the door switch.

"Hey tell me something," Jun spoke, causing Rei's arm to freeze near the switch. "What's the deal between you and the chairman of this place? Is he like an ex-boyfriend or something?"

Rei gritted her teeth. "That's none of your damn business!"

With those words, Rei practically slammed her palm into the switch, causing the door to close. Letting out a heavy sigh, Rei went over and flopped face-first onto the large double bed in her room. She then turned her head towards the window and gazed out at the view to try and relax. Rei had never imagined her trip to visit her father would end up going so horribly. It was bad enough that she was suddenly having a strange recurring nightmare, but on top of it all she had been dragged off to some strange island that was practically a military base, and somehow one of her worst enemies had ended up as her bodyguard.

Then of course there was Kaidou. It was rather painful for Rei to suddenly see him again after all these years given what had passed between them. Rei couldn't help but think of the old saying about time healing all wounds, but the fact was one never totally got over having their heart broken by their first love, and seeing that love again only served to tear open old scars. Eventually Rei flipped over onto her back and decided to try and doze off for a little bit before her lunch with Kaidou. She felt like she was going to need to gather all of the mental energy she had in order to get through it.

Rei's lunch with Kaidou ended up taking place inside a large indoor garden on the top floor of the facility. The garden was covered completely by a glass ceiling that provided natural light. When Rei had first arrived, Kaidou had explained to her the garden was made as a place for the scientists working at the facility to come and relax for a bit. Rei and Kaidou ended up sitting at a white picnic table in the almost exact center of the garden. Jun and Grete stood guard a few feet away from the table, far enough for them not to be intrusive, but just close enough for them to hear almost everything Rei and Kaidou might talk about.

"Did you ever think we'd be sitting across from each other at a table like this again after all these years?" Kaidou asked Rei.

"Honestly, no. I never thought you and I would ever meet again," Rei answered. "When we last spoke, it seemed clear you were traveling down from a very different path than mine."

"I must've seemed like a real hypocrite to you back then. I told you that I didn't intend to have a family and run for office, but my ambition got in the way."

"Well, the important thing is that in the end you got all you wanted."

At this Kaidou frowned. "Not exactly. My marriage never worked out in the end. My wife and I ended up getting divorced not long ago. In fact it was around the time I got involved with the Foundation. Part of the problem was we couldn't have children; that was very important to my wife. It wasn't for lack of trying of course, we saw every specialist we could think of, but in the end we discovered it was simply because I can't give anyone children, if you understand what I mean."

"I'm…sorry to hear that."

Kaidou smiled and shook his head. "It was for the best. Even if I had been able to have a family I wouldn't have been able to be there for them. I always remembered how your father made you unhappy because he had always put his career before you and your mother. Even today I can see how distant the two of you are."

Rei nodded. "Still, not having a family must've been a setback for your career."

"It didn't help, but I got by pretty well for a few years. Of course the divorce was also something of a scandal, but by then I had found the Foundation."

"It all comes back to this foundation of yours."

"I'm sure you must be full of questions about it. Now's the perfect time to ask."

There had been one question about the Foundation that Rei had wanted to ask ever since she had first heard its name. "This foundation, is it named for that region of Mars where they found that…that face?"

Kaidou chuckled. "Very good! The discovery of the face you're talking about is the very reason why the Foundation was founded in the first place. It was only a week after the photos of the face became public when a man named Randal Livingston III announced he would use his fortune to fund projects that would one day send people to Mars and explore its mysteries. Thus he established a foundation named for the region where the face had been discovered, and Randal Livingston was its first chairman. Over the years though, the Foundation's focus has shifted more from exploration to colonization."

"I never imagined you would be interested in colonizing other planets."

"Well, the previous chairman gave me the same good arguments I later gave your father to try and get his support for funding. The fact is we're wearing this planet down. The damage from climate change is only getting worse, and meanwhile our population is just getting too big. The best solution is to move people to another world and start fresh."

"Do you think this planet is doomed?"

"Not necessarily, but something has to change. Even just sending part of the human race to Mars would be a step in the right direction. I just hope we can achieve that goal before it's too late."

Rei couldn't blame Kaidou for having such a bleak view of the future. There were many people in the world that thought the same way. Of course Rei knew for a fact the future of the planet was actually in very good hands. She didn't know how it would work, but she knew things for the planet would get better once Usagi finally took the throne as Neo Queen Serenity.

"So is there anything else you wanted to know?" Kaidou asked her.

"Well, my father did mention something about your group pursuing other scientific projects having nothing to do with reaching Mars."

"Indeed. Most of the projects you're talking about are ones our scientists discovered purely by accident. Our overall goal is to simply make life better for all of humanity, both on Mars and here on Earth."

"Father also mentioned there are a lot of people who think you're conducting unethical experiments."

Here Kaidou maintained his charming smile, but Rei noticed how his eyes had suddenly gone ice cold. "Yes, well…you can't believe every rumor you hear."

"Sorry. Guess I shouldn't have brought it up."

"Don't be silly. You're just being inquisitive. There should be more young people like you."

As Rei continued to look into Kaidou's eyes, she suddenly felt as though they weren't his eyes at all. It was almost like someone was wearing Kaidou's face like a mask. The man across the table from her looked like Kaidou and even spoke like him, but Rei felt certain he was not the same man she had known and even fallen for all those years ago back in junior high. In fact…Rei sensed there was something about this new Kaidou…something she found frightening.

"Well, I had better be getting back to the office," Kaidou spoke as he suddenly got up from the table. "I still have a mountain of project reports on my desk that I have to read through. If you like Rei, I can arrange for someone to give you a tour of our headquarters tomorrow."

"I'd like that, and I'm sure my father would too," Rei responded.

Kaidou nodded and walked away from the table towards the nearest door out of the garden. Rei couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he left.

Grete walked up to Rei with Jun at her side. "Are you okay Ms. Hino?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rei answered. "Tell me something Grete, did you and Jun decide to pose as my bodyguards just so you could get into this place."

"Your safety truly is one of our top concerns right now, but yes. One of our primary objectives for this mission was to infiltrate the Cydonia Foundation," Grete admitted. "We believe the Foundation is connected with the enemy we've come to stop."

"An enemy you say you can't tell me about, right?"

"I'm afraid that information is still need-to-know at the moment, yes."

"If it makes you feel better, I don't know any more about this new enemy than you do," Jun informed Rei. "Apparently I'm too much of a liability right now for her to let me in on the big secret."

"Well if you think Kaidou's involved in any sinister actions the Foundation might be behind, you're wrong," Rei told them.

"I dunno. That guy seems pretty sketchy to me," Jun remarked. "Were you seriously attracted to that guy once?"

"Mind your own damn business!" Rei shot back before getting up from the table and storming off.

Grete let out a heavy sigh. "Mr. Arakagi, while I share your concerns about Mr. Kaidou, it would've been far better for all of us if you had kept them to yourself. That mouth of yours might end up being our biggest liability on this mission."

Rei Hino had not known how right she was when she thought the man she knew as Kaidou was a stranger using his face as mask, because the man walking into Kaidou's office at was an entity using Kaidou's body for its own. This entity was not some evil spirit who had simply possessed Kaidou, but a powerful intellect that had been operating him by remote control. To this being, Kaidou was no more than an avatar in a videogame. Not only could it perceive the world through Kaidou's senses as if they were its own, it also had complete access to Kaidou's memories, allowing it to fake his identity almost perfectly. The thing controlling Kaidou was quite confident Rei had not seen through him, and even if she somehow had it wouldn't matter much.

As Kaidou sat behind his desk, the thing controlling him couldn't help but reflect upon how fortunate he had been to find his current puppet. Since the early 1900s when another twist of good fortune chose to break the creature free from his prison, he had spent practically every waking moment accumulating knowledge and power all so he could one day return to Mars, take back what had been stolen from him, and bring the galaxy itself into a new and glorious age. When the entity finally met Kaidou though, he felt certain that his long quest had come to an end. For decades the entity had been searching for the reincarnation of the lost Princess of Mars, and it seemed Kaidou had once been very close to the woman who had been his prey. Of course the entity needed more proof to be sure, but at that moment there was little doubt in his mind Rei Hino was the one he had been searching for.

Kaidou swiveled his chair around, and the dark mind operating him used a remote to fire up one of the big monitors mounted on the wall behind his desk. A close-up image of Rei taken by one of the facility's surveillance cameras flashed up on the screen. As the entity looked at this image, he felt more certain Rei was his target. She looked too much like the old Queen of Mars who had thwarted him 20,000 years before the fall of what was known as the Silver Millennium to be just another human girl. Of course the entity knew he needed to perform certain tests on Rei to verify his identity, but he felt confident she would pass those tests.

The entity was very excited to finally have the Princess of Mars in his grasp, because he could use her power to return to Mars and take back his true body. And the discovery of Rei couldn't come at a better time, because at long last the stars were right for the prison of the great flame god, Cthugha to emerge from its phantom dimension into its close orbit of the star, Fomalhaut. Once the entity had his true body back he would use his power to undo the seal on Cthugha's prison, which he had failed to do 20,000 years before the fall of the Silver Millennium. Cthugha's power would turn the universe into a glorious sea of flames, and through the god's power he and his people would be reborn as a brand new race. The current universe would at last be burned away like so much dead wood.

As the entity looked through Kaidou's eyes at the picture of Rei, he suddenly realized his puppet's sex organ had become erect. Apparently the picture had aroused Kaidou. This hadn't been the first time this had happened with one of the entity's puppets but it had been a while, especially since all of the previous puppets the entity had used to run the Foundation were all quite a bit older than Kaidou. In the past the entity ignored these moments of arousal and let them pass on their own, but in this instance the entity decided to satisfy his puppet's sexual urge.

Kaidou swiveled his chair back around and hit the intercom button. "Ms. Yagami, could you come in here for a moment please?"

Entering the office through a side entrance to another office was one of the secretaries that Kaidou employed, a young woman with long raven hair. When the entity had first met Ms. Yagami through Kaidou, he had thought for a time she might be the Princess of Mars, but it turned out she had just been another human. For his current purposes though, Ms. Yagami suited his needs perfectly.

"How may I help you, sir?" Ms. Yamagi asked.

"Strip for me," Kaidou commanded.

Ms. Yagami nodded and began removing her clothes, letting them fall carelessly to the floor. The entity operating Kaidou smiled and tented his fingers as he watched. In addition to controlling humans directly like he was doing with Kaidou, the entity also had the ability to program them like machines using a form of brainwashing and hypnosis. The politicians and businessmen that the entity used to obtain money and support for the Foundation only required simple brainwashing, with him only ever having to telepathically upload new programming every now and then to serve his needs. In order for those people to do their jobs properly, they needed to retain most of their personalities.

Other subjects such as Ms. Yagami on the other hand were humans the entity had taken complete control of. She was essentially in a constant trance and programmed to do anything the entity requested. Any free will the woman once had was completely and totally repressed. In the next few moments, Ms. Yagami had stripped down to the black bra and panties she had been wearing.

"All of it," Kaidou commanded. "I wish to see everything."

Ms. Yagami automatically did as Kaidou instructed. In moments she was standing in the middle of Kaidou's office wearing nothing but a blank expression on her face.

Kaidou smirked and rose to his feet. "Good. Now get behind the desk and bend over it."

As Ms. Yagami mindlessly complied with Kaidou's wishes, the entity undid Kaidou's belt and removed his pants. In another few moments, Kaidou inserted his manhood into Ms. Yagami and began bucking his hips into her. The entity had not expected human sexual contact to be so pleasing, but he was really getting into the experience. There was a completely blank expression on Ms. Yagami's face as Kaidou continued to plow into her. In another few minutes, the entity experienced Kaidou's orgasm as his seed erupted into the mindless secretary.

The entity was surprised at how exhausted he felt as he withdrew Kaidou's rod. It was a much more intense experience than he had expected. As the entity had Kaidou put his pants back on, he wondered if perhaps at some point he should take direct control of one of his female servants and experience what human sexual intercourse was like from the other end, but he thought that such a thing could wait for another time.

"Thank you Ms. Yagami. Now get dressed and return to your original duties," Kaidou ordered.

In the next few moments, Ms. Yagami got dressed and went back out through the door to the secretarial office. Kaidou meanwhile sat back down in his chair and went back to gazing at the picture of Rei that was still up on the monitor.

"I know it's you, Princess," the entity spoke in Kaidou's voice. "Very soon I shall have you, and with your power I shall reclaim my real body and bring an end to this filthy age of the cosmos. All for the glory of Great Cthugha, and for my kingdom of Cydonia!"

Author's Note: For those who don't know, Cthugha is one of the Cthulhu Mythos deities created by August Derleth. I confess though that I haven't actually any of the stories he wrote involving this particular deity, but I have read a little about Cthugha online. I have at least read one old paperback edition of August Derleth's Cthulhu Mythos stories, and honestly with the exception of this one story at the end of the collection, his work wasn't that great. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that I may end up taking a few liberties with Cthugha's depiction in this story or its future sequel.

I'll be back next week with another chapter to this story. Until then, please review and let me know what you think.