Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, or do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft of August Derleth.

Chapter 6: Subject 631

After picking up Phobos and Deimos from her quarters, Rei had gone with Grete to the indoor garden. The raven-haired priestess let her two birds out of their cage to fly around for a bit while she found a bench to sit down on for a while, as Grete kept a discreet distance from her. Rei was glad that Jun wasn't with her; she needed to be away from him for a bit because she could no longer deny her strong feelings for him. Plus she also had to deal with the whole situation with Kaidou and her father, and the fact this new enemy she was now up against which seemed connected to her nightmares. The whole mess was all just getting to be a little too much for Rei to take.

Eventually Phobos and Deimos flew down onto the bench next to Rei. For the last few days Rei had felt as though her two feathered friends wanted to tell her something important but seemed to be holding back. Rei didn't have a clue about what it might be, but she sensed Phobos and Deimos were agitated about something.

"If there's something I should know, please tell me," Rei whispered to the two birds.

Phobos and Deimos exchanged a look with one another, as if asking each other if they should answer Rei. Rather than give Rei any sort of answer to her request, the two birds simply flew off again. Rei let out a dejected sigh as she watched them fly back into the trees.

"Tell me something," a familiar voice spoke. Rei looked and saw that Grete had walked up to her. "Are those birds of yours crows or ravens?"

"They're crows," Rei answered. "But they're not any ordinary birds. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. They've been my most trusted companions since my previous life."

Upon hearing this, Grete smiled; it was the first smile Rei had ever seen from her dark-haired bodyguard. "Phobos and Deimos, eh? I'd have thought they were called Huginn and Muminn." Grete's response caused Rei to raise an eyebrow. "They were a pair of ravens who served Odin, the ruler of the Aesir. Their names mean Thought and Memory. It is said that Huginn and Muminn would fly around the world and report to Odin on what was going on."

Rei smirked. "I suppose that's similar to what Phobos and Deimos do for me, though ever since I came here they haven't been very talkative to me."

"Why do you suppose that is?"

"I don't know. But I think…there's something here they might be afraid of. Whatever it is must be so terrifying that they feel like if they deny that it exists it won't be real."

"You certainly know your two companions well. Hopefully they will open up to you soon."

Rei nodded. "The thing is I think I already know what they want to talk to me about but won't. It has something to do with that monster from my nightmares."

Grete sighed. "Whatever monster you've been seeing does seem somehow involved in whatever's going on here. I never even imagined something from your previous life might be tied to the enemy I've come here to stop."

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

Grete removed her sunglasses to look her in the eye. "I can at least tell you its name. It's called Cthugha, also known as the Burning One. It is a being of insatiable fire that wants to burn and consume everything in the universe. But just how Cthugha is connected to this monster you've been dreaming of, I cannot say."

"Well, thank you for telling me this much at least."

Grete sat down on the bench next to Rei. "Perhaps you can tell me something now. I couldn't help but overhear most of the conversation you had with Mr. Aragaki after your father departed. Why do you feel you don't have the luxury of falling in love? Is it because of your duty to your princess?"

Rei looked her in the eye. "That's part of it. The other reason though is if I were to fall in love with someone, I'd want to claim everything about that person and keep them to myself, and in the long run end up destroying them. My passion for them would be like an uncontrollable flame which would ultimately burn them to ash."

"So in other words, you feel you need to keep the love you feel for someone contained in order to protect them."

Rei looked thoughtfully up towards the glass ceiling. "All of my people were like that. It's one of the reasons why Mars is known as the Planet of Fire. There was a time when my people let those uncontrollable passions rule them, during the time before the Moon Kingdom rose. Back then, the people of Mars were a warlike and at times self-destructive people, but eventually we learned to discipline ourselves. Still, that fiery passion we all possessed never went away."

Grete nodded. "I understand you completely, Ms. Hino. Because like you, I must also keep my true passions under tight control." Rei looked at the dark-haired bodyguard in surprise. "There's not much about myself I can truly tell you right now, but I can say I am descended from someone who on my world is considered one of the greatest monsters of all time. That ancestor's blood has run strong in my family for generations, and so I must always keep my true emotions in check lest I run the risk of becoming just like him."

Rei nodded. "That certainly explains why you always seem so rigid. So…is there someone you're in love with?"

Grete gave her a sad smile. "There is. But I can never tell her how I feel or give into my feelings for her, because like you I would likely end up destroying her. Plus if I were ever to get involved with her, she would likely end up suffering the taint of my bloodline and be reviled just for being with me, and I love her too much to let her go through such suffering."

Here Rei could see tears starting to roll down Grete's cheeks. Grete quickly wiped her face with her sleeve and put her sunglasses back on.

"Are you okay?" Rei asked.

Grete sighed and finally composed herself. "I'll be fine. But let me tell you this, Ms. Hino. I may be cursed but you are not. I believe you can afford the risk of allowing yourself to fall in love. At the very least, I think Mr. Aragaki is willing to take the risk of being burned by your passion."

"Maybe…but I don't think I can let him take that risk." Rei sighed. "Let's go and take care of what we need to at Kaidou's office. I'd like to get it over with sooner rather than later."

Grete nodded and rose to her feet. "Then let's be off."

As Rei and Grete set off on their way to Kaidou's office, Virginia was getting ready to go ahead and execute her own plan to find out about her brother. The only way she was ever going to find any answers about Nathan was to go down into Dr. Higgins's lab through the central elevator. In order for someone to get down to the lab though, they needed a special cardkey given out only to a select few. Two days ago however, Virginia had managed to momentarily swipe the cardkey belonging to the chief of security and copy the info on the magnetic strip from it onto a blank. Virginia had been fortunate the Foundation hadn't upgraded to the modern chip technology being used for credit cards and other types of cardkeys. She supposed she had budget cuts to thank for that.

Ever since Virginia had managed to copy the chief's cardkey, she had been waiting for just the right time to sneak off down to the lab; a time when she wasn't on duty and there weren't many people wandering the halls. Th perfect time in question had finally come. Virginia walked the halls as calmly and casually as possible. She knew there were surveillance cameras throughout the facility, so she needed to act as if everything was perfectly normal. It wasn't long at all before she reached the central elevator.

Virginia looked around for a few moments to make sure nobody was coming before entering the elevator. One of the biggest things that could ruin her plans was for some nerdy lab tech to run up, asking her to hold the elevator for him and be forced to get off on one of the earlier floors in order to avoid casting any suspicion while he probably rode down to the one floor she truly wanted to go. Thankfully no such event happened; Virginia had gotten the elevator all to herself. Now came the real moment of truth, which was to try the copied cardkey she had made. Virginia knew her copy of the chief's key could easily be rejected by the system.

The panel for the elevator buttons included a slot for the cardkeys to be used in. All one had to do was insert their card into the slot like an ATM card, and if the green light under the slot lit up, the rider could go down to one of the restricted floors at the very bottom of the facility. Virginia took a breath and inserted her counterfeit card into the slot, holding it for the several tense seconds it took for the system to read the info on the magnetic strip. When the light finally turned green, she exhaled and pressed the button for Dr. Higgins's lab. As the elevator began to descend, Virginia began to think about what she might do once she found out about Nathan. Of course she had long ago decided if it turned out that Nathan had been killed or had something worse happen to him, she would burn the entire Foundation to the ground.

That was the real reason why Virginia had approached Rei and her two bodyguards the night before, not so they could help her with finding Nathan. Virginia knew finding out about Nathan was something she needed to do on her own. But she knew she would eventually need their help to destroy the Foundation and to get revenge for her brother, especially since the Foundation seemed to have those monsters at its disposal. Virginia didn't know where those monsters came from, but she hoped very much they had nothing to do with what happened to her brother, not like it seemed like they could in any way. Eventually the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened on Dr. Higgins's lab.

Virginia was stunned to discover that the lab was actually a large cylindrical chamber with pods of some kind lining the walls. The pods were separated from top to bottom by balconies running along the wall to allow access. In the very center of the chamber was a large control station. Not far from there was a large circular pad of some kind made out of a grey crystal. Virginia ignored the pad and went straight for the control station. Once there, she managed to gain access to one of the computers built into the station and began looking through the files.

As Virginia began her search, she made sure to keep a lookout to see if there was anyone coming. Fortunately it seemed like there was hardly anyone in the lab at the moment. After about ten minutes of searching, Virginia found what she thought she was looking for: a list of test subjects. She quickly began scanning through the list and eventually came upon the name she was looking for, Subject 631: Nathan Sampson. There was a notation next to his name that read, "Conversion 87% Complete".

This notation troubled Virginia a great deal, though not as much as the fact her brother seemed to be inside one of the pods lining the walls of the lab. Virginia left the computer and went to one of the lifts that could take her to the upper balconies of the lab. She rode the lift up to the balcony of the section where her brother's pod was and got off. Virginia followed the numbers on the pods. Eventually her curiosity got the better of her though, and she couldn't help but look into one of the windows of the pods that came before her brother's.

What Virginia saw inside that first pod caused her to put a hand to her mouth to stifle a cry. It was one of the monsters she had seen battling Rei and Jun. In that moment it became clear to Virginia what Dr. Higgins was doing down in that lab, he was making those monsters, possibly for the Foundation to use as soldiers of some kind. Just what purpose the Foundation was going to use those soldiers for, Virginia could only guess. It occurred to Virginia though that Dr. Higgins needed raw materials of some kind to make those monster soldiers, and considering that her brother was inside one of the pods that also contained those monsters, she unfortunately had a pretty good idea about what those materials probably were.

At long last Virginia came upon Pod 631, the one containing Nathan. Very hesitantly she peeked into the window of the pod, and what she saw once again forced her to stifle a cry. What she saw on the other side of that glass was her brother's face, but the head it was attached to was bald and showed reptilian scales covering the scalp. Nathan had been almost completely transformed into one of the Foundation's soldiers.

Around the time Virginia had begun searching through the computer in Dr. Higgins's lab, Rei and Grete had arrived at Kaidou's office. They found Jun waiting from them both right outside the door.

Jun noticed Phobos and Deimos perched on Rei's shoulders and was surprised. "What're they doing here?"

"There was no time to take them back to my room," Rei explained.

"It might make what we're about to do just a little bit awkward."

Just then Phobos and Deimos flew from Rei and perched themselves on Jun's shoulders, startling him.

Jun tried to remain motionless. "Um…what should I do?"

"There's no need to get so freaked out," Rei told him. "Phobos and Deimos aren't mere animals, you know. Just act normally and look after them while I do this." She then turned to Grete. "Now how do I use that device you gave me?"

"You activate it by pressing the large rune on the center of the device," Grete answered. "It will light up red when activated. Then the runes around the device's edge will slowly light up red to show the download progress. One all of the runes light up and turn green, you will know the download is finished."

"How long will it take to work?"

"Not long, perhaps five minutes at most. Just keep Chairman Kaidou talking and keep his attention away from the device. We will help you out as needed."

Rei took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

The raven-haired priestess pressed the intercom button next to the door and announced her presence. She soon heard Kaidou's voice telling her to come in and entered with Jun and Grete. When the three entered, they saw Kaidou looking over some papers.

Rei stepped towards Kaidou's desk while Grete and Jun remained by the door. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Not at all," Kaidou answered as he set his papers down. "In fact I needed a break. Looking over these project reports is one of the most tedious parts of my job. Please, have a seat."

Rei sat down in the chair in front of Kaidou's desk and discretely took the device Grete had given her out of her pocket and placed it on her lap. She then pressed the central rune on the device and saw it light up red. The first small rune along the device's edge then lit up followed by the second one next to it on its left.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Kaidou asked.

"I mainly just wanted to see how you were doing," Rei answered. "We haven't actually talked since we had lunch the other day."

"No, I guess we haven't. Well, you can blame that on my workload. You have no idea how much effort it takes to keep this whole organization running."

Rei nodded. "I suppose a job like this really would be a demanding one. It makes me think you wouldn't have time for a family."

Kaidou raised an eyebrow. "Where's this coming from all of a sudden?"

Rei took a breath. "Father and I had breakfast this morning. He pretty much confessed the reason he dragged me out to this island was because he's trying to set you and I up for marriage."

"I suspected as much. You can't fault him for trying to provide you with a good future."

"No, I suppose not." Rei glanced down at the device on her lap for a second – saw that it was fifty percent of the way done – and turned her attention back to Kaidou. "I should tell you though that despite my father's wishes I have no intention of marrying you."

Kaidou let out a brief chuckle. "That's just fine. Because honestly Rei while I admit I am fond of you, I'm not the least bit interested in marrying you."

Rei couldn't help but feel as though she had been pricked in the heart. "What do you mean?"

Kaidou leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers. "What I mean is that you're too much of a child, even now after all these years. All of those times I kept you company on your birthday in place of your father? I mean sure, I did find you to be very attractive. I still do in fact, but those dinners we had together were nothing more than a job to me. You were foolish to ever believe there might've been anything romantic between us."

Rei had been left stunned by what she had just heard. Of course a part of her had long ago realized Kaidou had probably always felt that way, but Rei was so shocked by how coldly he had confessed things to her. Just then Rei took a good look at the eyes staring at her from across the desk and once again got that feeling she was talking with someone who was wearing Kaidou's face as a mask. She felt there was something alien lurking in those eyes…something that was horribly familiar to her.

Just then Phobos and Deimos began to caw like mad from where they were perched on Jun's shoulders. Rei looked back and saw how the two birds seemed terrified about something. She wondered if they were sensing the same thing she was sensing from Kaidou.

A look of anger formed on Kaidou's face as he rose from his chair. "What the hell are those two things doing here?"

"Uh…I'm sorry! They're my pets!" Rei quickly explained. "I shouldn't have brought them here. I apologize."

"Get those vermin out of here at once!" Kaidou bellowed as he pointed for the door.

At this very moment Rei felt even more certain the man before her was not Kaidou. What Rei felt from him was something far more extreme than finding out that an old friend from years ago had gone through a major change. Kaidou had developed a distinctly alien personality. Rei looked down at the device on her lap and saw all of the runes had turned green. Relieved that her task was finished, Rei got up from her chair and headed for the door. In moments Rei and the others were out of the office and standing in the hallway outside.

"Did you get the data?" Grete asked Rei.

Rei held out the disk to her. "I got it."

"Great. Now can I go back in there and punch that bastard?" Jun asked.

"Mr. Aragaki!" Grete protested.

"What? He deserves a beating after talking to Rei like that!"

"That man…he's not the Kaidou I once knew." Rei told them. "I don't know how, but it's like he possessed by something. I could see it in his eyes."

"Phobos and Deimos seemed to sense the same thing," Grete observed. "It's why they became so agitated."

Rei looked to her two feathered companions still perched on Jun's shoulders. "If there really is something I should know, please tell me."

Phobos and Deimos looked to one another before flying from Jun's shoulders towards the ceiling. They flew in a circle above the three for a moment before a red light accompanied by a feather flew from one of Deimos's wings towards the floor. The light turned into a tarot card that the feather pinned to the floor. As the two crows flew back over to Jun, Rei picked the card off the ground and looked at it.

Rei showed the card to Jun and Grete, revealing it to be the card for The Devil. "I guess there's no denying it anymore. Somehow Kaidou has become the enemy."

Virginia was at a total loss as to what to do as she stood before the pod containing the thing that had once been her brother, Nathan. She had never at all imagined things would turn out like this. When she started this search for the truth, Viginia had expected to find out Nathan had been killed during one of the Foundation's unethical experiments and that his body had been buried somewhere in secret as part of a cover-up. But if the readouts on the lid of the pod were to be believed, Nathan was still very much alive. The trouble was he wasn't human anymore, at least not totally.

"Well, this is certainly inconvenient," a voice spoke, causing Virginia to flinch. The blond guard turned around and saw Dr. Higgins standing before her with his hands behind his back. "I really wish the Master had listened more to me when I said we needed to upgrade our security system."

"What the hell did you do to my brother, you bastard?" Virginia asked, pointing at Nathan's pod.

Dr. Higgins raised an eyebrow. "Subject 631 is your brother? My! This is indeed a small world."

"Answer my damn question!"

"What I've done is take your brother beyond the current limits of human evolution."

"He never asked for anything like that! The only reason he signed up with you people was so that you could cure his heart problem and allow him to be an astronaut!"

"Well, I have in fact granted his wish," Dr. Higgins respond with a large grin on his face. "You see I've long believed the only way we as a species can thrive on other planets is for us to transform ourselves. What I have done for your brother and all of the subjects in this room is evolve them into a life form that can thrive in the harsh environments of other worlds."

"I saw some of your other lab rats in action last night, you psycho! And they weren't human at all! They were animals!"

"I'll admit my process could use a little refinement, but it's a step in the right direction. You should actually be honored, my dear. For your brother now carries the genes of a long dead race from wastes of Mars, the Cydonians. It was by taking a DNA sample from the last surviving member of that noble race and splicing it into your brother's genetic makeup that I was able to transform him and all of the others in this room! They are the successors of a race which eons ago came close to ruling all of Mars."

Virginia pulled the sidearm hanging at her waist and aimed it at Dr. Higgins's head. "You had better reverse what you did to my brother, right now!"

Dr. Higgins merely shrugged. "I'm afraid it can't be reversed, at least not without a few years of research and I have no intention of wasting my time on such a pointless pursuit. I might add though that shooting me will do you no good. I've long been prepared to die for my work and for the efforts of the Master."

"Fine! Then I'll just take my brother out of her and find someone who can reverse whatever this is!"

Before Dr. Higgins could stop her, Virginia pressed the button on Nathan's pod that caused it to open up. Some sort of mist poured from the broken seal of the pod as the door swung upward. The mist cleared and Virginia stood looking at the sleeping form of what had once been her brother. The face still belonged to Nathan, but the body was definitely that of one of the monsters that Virginia had seen Rei and Jun fighting the previous night.

"Nathan? Nathan, it's me, your sister," Virginia spoke. "Can you hear me? Wake up."

After a few moments, Nathan's eyes snapped open. He staggered out of the pod and stood before Virginia for a few moments before suddenly letting out an inhuman shriek. Nathan knocked her to the floor and jumped over the railing to the ground floor of the lab, landing on his feet. As Dr. Higgins pressed a button hanging from his belt calling for security, Nathan ran onto the crystal pad near the control station and suddenly vanished with a flash of crimson light.

"I hope your happy, my dear," Dr. Higgins told Virginia. "Because now it looks like I'm going to be forced to destroy a perfectly good specimen. For your sake, let's hope he doesn't end up killing any of our own people before we can stop him."

Author's Note: Overall I'm pleased with how this chapter turned out, particularly the opening scene with Rei and Grete. What I did was try to expand on the things Rei said towards the end of the Casablanca Memory story from the original manga. It occurred to me perhaps Rei's people (the Martians) had once been a savage warlike people not unlike the Vulcans from Star Trek before they found logic.

I should be back next week with yet another installment to this story. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.