Sailor Moon: Millennials

by PMSmiles

This is a fan repost of all available 33 chapters of The Judge's abandoned work. An epic length and very ambitions fic involving an amnesiac Pluto and a pregnant Usagi. Time and space travel abound in an effort to right wrongs and overcome evil.

4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: Hello. Before I go any further I want to publicly state that this work of fan fiction is NOT of my own creation. I am simply a fan of this piece and after strenuously searching the internet to read it again after 20 years I have decided to upload it here for anyone else who wants to read it. The real author (The High Judge) never finished this work, or at least never updated past chapter 33 ( even though it is obvious that the ambitious plot of this story should continue much past this point). So please don't come after me for more updates. There won't be any. Rather enjoy this incomplete fan fiction for what it is.

_…_…_…_…_…_…_

SAILOR MOON MILLENNIALS

Chapter 4

Old Friends Return, and New Enemies (Briefly) Make the Scenef

Makoto shifted the grocery bags in her arms as she climbed the steps to the front door of her apartment. Not because the bags were heavy, by any means, but because she needed to be able to use one hand to get the door open.

Normally this wouldn't have been a problem. She bought groceries once a week, one bag of whatever she currently needed to restock her shelves and refrigerator. The fact that Makoto ate more than most girls her age who weren't Usagi tended to be canceled out by the fact that she lived alone, and although she cooked a great deal, she could also stretch one well-prepared meal for three or four into several meals for one person.

Having Ami as a houseguest hadn't _quite_ doubled the rate at which Makoto's fridge emptied out, but the increase was still there, and after five days, the fridge was showing signs of depletion sooner than it normally would—and the pantry as well.

That wasn't the only thing that had changed. Makoto had always kept her apartment in a state of perpetual neatness: anything not currently in use was put away in a closet or drawer or up on a shelf; dust, grime, or mildew were forbidden; dishes and laundry were cleaned with military precision. The only dirt of any kind tolerated beyond the door was the packed soil which kept Makoto's collection of potted plants alive, and even _that_ was spared only so long as it stayed inside the various clay and plastic pots. The plants themselves had things fairly good, living first in the fresh air on the balcony during the summer, and then scattered around the apartment 's central room, with its large, canopy-like window providing ample sunlight during the winter months. Everything was where it should be, out of the way but within easy reach if needed.

Knowing Ami to be inclined towards neat organization herself, Makoto had anticipated no real problems in having her as a roommate, and in all honesty, the first night had gone well enough. Ami had arrived late Saturday afternoon with a pair of suitcases and a few books in her backpack, and Makoto had helped her rearrange the side room she usually used—or not—as a study into something that resembled a bedroom, with a mattress provided by Rei from the storerooms at Hikawa. Minako had provided a lot of garbled but enthusiastic vocal support and very little in the way of physical aid. Ami had not seemed to mind sleeping in a room full of books —or half-full, since Makoto didn't really read all that much—and after supper, they had both really been too tired to do anything except go to sleep. Makoto had drifted off thinking how strange it felt to have someone else living under the same roof again.

The next day had not gone so well. They both slept late and woke with the dull-eyed grouchiness that oversleeping occasionally creates, which had not helped matters when they returned to the Mizuno household—cordoned-off behind lines of police tape—to meet Ami's mother and the team of movers she had hired to help get everything that was still intact out of the house before weather or thieves got to it. Mizuno-san was taking some things with her to the apartment where she would be staying, and most of the surviving furniture was destined for storage; beyond a medium-sized dresser which fit quite neatly into her room at Makoto's, Ami had brought mostly books.

Not just five or ten books, though. Boxes of books. An army of books, most of them belonging to either the large, hardcover reference variety or the many-paged paperback variety. So many books that Makoto wondered where they were going to find room for them all. There had been enough shelf space in the converted study for the contents of two of those boxes; six more were currently parked in the living room because no other room had enough extra space for them, and their presence was giving the apartment a vague, transitory kind of atmosphere which gnawed at Makoto's sense of neatness.

There were other things, too. Little things like how the laundry hamper had suddenly filled up, and how Ami sometimes spoke aloud when she read some of those piled-up books. How the increase in water consumption meant that there was seldom any hot water left, or how objects seemed to mysteriously re-arrange themselves whenever Ami passed through a room.

Still, Makoto refused to let it bother her. Ami was a guest, and a friend besides. She did her share of the chores and had insisted on helping pay for the food as well. And as long as Makoto actually did some thinking for herself, Ami gladly helped her out with her homework.

*Now, if I could just get her to stop trying to alphabetize my cookbooks,* Makoto thought, leaning down slightly to get at the doorknob without dropping one or both of the grocery bags.

"Do you need a hand?" a familiar voice asked.

"I'd take a foot if I thought it would help," she replied, turning to see Urawa Ryo regarding her with some amusement and a bookbag slung over one shoulder. "What brings you here?"

"Actually, I was hoping that a certain beautiful, brilliant, blue-eyed lady of our mutual acquaintance might be in residence."

"That depends," Makoto said. "Are your intentions towards her entirely honorable?"

"Not in the slightest." Ryo leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner. "I'm actually an extradimensional alien who intends to knock you unconscious and then carry her off to an eternity of sinful decadence and questionable morality."

"Sounds like fun," Makoto answered with a straight face, trying one last time to get the door open before huffing in annoyance and handing one of the shopping bags to Urawa. "Make yourself useful and hold that, O Corrupter of Innocent Maidens. This door likes to freeze up in cold weather."

"But seriously," Ryo said, taking the bag, "is Ami-chan staying with you?" He tapped the side of his head with his free hand. "I saw the two of you, Hino-san, and Mina-chan carrying things out of her house—or what was left of it—and into your place, but it could have meant something else."

"No, she's here." The door opened with a slight cracking sound as the faint skin of built-up ice shattered. "Or she was when I went to the store, at least. Come on in, and watch out for the boxes."

While Ryo closed the door, Makoto leaned partway around the corner to take a glance at the living room. Ami was standing with her back turned, removing books from a box on the table and sorting them into piles. To Makoto's eyes, the factor of size seemed to play a major role in what books went into which pile. Pile A is for all books large enough to crush spiders, Pile B for all books large enough to crush your foot...

Shaking her head as she turned about and kicked off her shoes, Makoto looked at Ryo. "She's in the living room unpacking some things. I can handle the groceries; why don't you go surprise her while I put this stuff away and get some tea ready?"

That triggered a smile, and Ryo walked quietly into the living room, his socked feet making no noise at all. Makoto chuckled softly as she carried the two shopping bags into the kitchen and set them on the counter. She had just plugged in the teapot when a startled shriek and a dull thud—probably caused by a falling book—echoed from the living room, followed closely by Ami's half- shouted, "Don't DO that!" Makoto couldn't hear much of Ryo's reply, but it sounded humble, sincere, and completely unrepentant. She chuckled again and started putting things away, humming faintly to herself to block out the sounds of conversation and give her friends a few minutes of privacy.

When Makoto entered the living room about five minutes later, carrying the teapot and three of her best cups on a tray, Ami and Ryo were sitting on the couch. Makoto might not have a particularly great track record with long-term relationships, but she knew enough to recognize that these two had left the 'talking' stage behind and were now well into the 'holding hands and getting lost in each other's eyes' stage. They didn't notice her approach until she was setting the tea down on the table in front of them and pulling a plush footstool around to sit on, at which point they both started and pulled slightly back from one another, blushing.

"So," Makoto began, ignoring the blushes and pouring the tea, "how was Greece?" She was referring to the trip Ryo's father had sprung for over the winter break.

"Very old, for the most part," he replied, taking a sip of his tea. "But that's what we paid for, I suppose. The New Year's celebration in Athens was certainly something to see; they had the Acropolis all done up with lights, and I've never heard so many people sing so _badly_ together all at once." He laughed. "Poor Dad. He got a little too far into a bottle of ouzo with some of the locals and needed most of the next day to sleep it off. He can handle saki and beer pretty well, but that stuff must have taken him by surprise."

"It all depends on what you're used to, I suppose," Ami said, smiling. Then her tone became wheedling. "Did you bring me anything?"

Ryo blinked and then started to laugh again. "Usagi-chan's been a bad influence, I see. As a matter of fact, I did." He set down his tea and opened the bookbag, pulling out a small disc of orange clay, about as wide across the middle as his hand was long, and not much thicker than a finger. Both faces were covered with a hundred or so small images, arranged in a pattern which spiraled out from the center and was divided into uneven sections. Ami recognized it.

"A Phaistos disc. They unearthed the original on the island of Crete in 1903," she explained, noticing Makoto's lost expression. "It's over 3500 years old, but so far, nobody's been able to figure out what the pictures on it mean."

"I thought you might like it," Ryo said, handing her the disc. "And who knows? Maybe your computer could help you to translate it."

"Maybe. Although," Ami added, rolling her eyes, "knowing our luck, it 'll probably turn out to be some terrible secret that could destroy the world."

"Probably," Ryo agreed. "That would be the... what? Fourth? Fifth time now?"

"I stopped counting." Makoto shook her head. "So how long are you going to be in town for this time, Ryo-kun? Just the night, or long enough for some serious pursuit of that sinful decadence you mentioned before?"

Ami blinked. "What?"

"Uh," Ryo said hesitantly, ignoring Ami's question, "just this evening for now, but I'll be back by the end of the month. Dad's company went through a major audit while we were in Greece, and a fair number of the senior executives were fired—something about insider trading, I think. Anyway, there were a lot of promotions and reassignments to fill the employment gaps, and Dad got transferred back here. We'll be moving as soon as we find a place, and I managed to convince him to register me at Juuban High."

"Really?!" Ami exclaimed, sounding almost as excited as Minako or Usagi would have.

"Yes," Ryo laughed, "really. Would I lie to..." He stopped short. To Ami and Makoto, it appeared as if Ryo's eyes zoomed in on something that was simultaneously right under his nose and clear across the room; they recognized the signs of one of his periodic visions, and remained quiet until he blinked again.

"What did you see, Ryo-kun?"

"I'm... I'm not sure," he admitted, sounding puzzled. "Is somebody you know in the hospital, Ami-chan?"

"Yes," she replied. "Setsuna-san." Ami elaborated for Ryo, who had never actually met Setsuna. "Did you see her room at the hospital?"

"I saw _a_ room. Usagi-chan, Hino-san, and Mina-chan were in it, I was standing in the doorway, and I think you and Mako-chan were there, too, but I'm not sure if anybody else was actually in the room." Ryo frowned. So did Ami and Makoto.

"'Not sure?'" Makoto prompted.

"There was... a blur." Ryo closed his eyes, struggling to recreate the image and explain the problem. "There were two beds in the room, and the one nearest the door seemed to be... twisted, somehow. Warped. Everything around it was blotched and fuzzy; I couldn't tell if there was anyone there or not."

"That first bed is the one Setsuna-san's using," Makoto said. "Is something going to happen to her?"

"I don't think so," Ryo said confidently. "I didn't get any sense of danger, and Usagi-chan and the others didn't seem to be worried at all. I've never seen something like that before, though," he admitted, "so I might be wrong."

"And then again," Ami pointed out, "you might not. Setsuna-san IS the Senshi of Time, after all. Her presence might very well have some sort of discrete warping effect on the space-time continuum that normal human senses can't pick up, but which would register in your visions as that blur." She considered the problem and then rose to her feet. "We should probably get down there. 'd like to take some readings with my computer and see if I can figure this out."

Makoto quickly gathered up the teacups and returned them to the kitchen while Ryo and Ami got their coats and shoes, made sure everything in the apartment was turned off or put away before getting her own coat, then stepped outside, locked the door, and hurried to catch up with her friends. Ami and Ryo were discussing the upcoming term as they walked; Makoto fell in behind them and lapsed into another polite silence.

A short distance down the street, Ryo's hand, moving slowly and somewhat uncertainly, reached out to clasp about Ami's. She paused in the middle of saying something to look down, surprised, and then look up at Ryo, blushing before breaking into a small, shy smile. They didn't say much after that, but neither did they let go of each other's hand.

Behind them, Makoto smiled.

"So was he a pegasus with a horn or a unicorn with wings?" Setsuna asked.

The Senshi were using Setsuna's time in the hospital to expound on the short, highly-compressed, and extremely incomplete history Usagi had told her that first night. It was a not-so-small mercy that Setsuna never asked the same question twice, but there were so many things TO question that the whole review was taking forever.

Right now, they were stuck on the problem of Helios, the dream-dwelling horse that they had protected from Nehelenia and her Dead Moon Circus. As Setsuna had explained to Luna, there were still many bits of information in her mind, and now that it was organized—if still frustratingly devoid of details about herself—she could make excellent use of that knowledge. She wasn't sure if she'd read a grimoire in the Middle Ages or had at some point in her forgotten past actually met members of the two species in question, but Setsuna was quite certain that unicorns had horns, but not wings, while pegasi had wings, but not horns. Never mind that THIS one, whichever species it belonged to, had been living in a dream at the time.

"A pegasus," Usagi replied.

"A unicorn," Minako said at the same moment. They glared at each other.

"Actually," Rei interrupted, drawing glares from the two arguing girls, "Helios turned out to be a young man a couple of years older than ChibiUsa was. Or is. Or will be." Rei frowned. "You know what I mean. Anyway, she wasn't clear on whether Helios was a spirit that looked like a boy or an actual boy who lived somewhere else, but he seemed to be connected to Mamoru." Then she paused. "I won't swear to this, but I think ChibiUsa thought he was cute."

"Mamoru or Helios?" Setsuna asked.

"Both," Usagi replied sourly. "She tried to steal Mamo-chan from me the first time she showed up, and things didn't improve all that much even after she knew we were her parents. Although we weren't actually, then. Her parents, that is. I mean, we were, but we... arrrgh!" Usagi groaned, pulling at her hair in frustration. "I HATE this! Where is Ami-chan when I need her?"

"Did someone call?" Ami asked, poking her head through the door curiously.

"Where have you been?" Usagi snapped.

"We're having a problem with the use of proper tenses in regards to fourth-dimensional thinking," Setsuna explained.

"Most people would," Ryo said, appearing to Ami's left and nodding to the other Senshi with a smile. "I know it drives ME up the wall, and I've got more experience with it... than... most..." The words trailed off and Ryo's eyes almost jumped out of his skull when they reached Setsuna, his face turning pale. The Senshi looked on in surprise, and Ami, fearing Ryo might faint, caught his arm.

"Ryo-kun? What's wrong?"

"You," Ryo said in a strangled whisper, looking not at Ami, but past her—to Setsuna, who looked back with an expression of desperate, barely repressed curiosity.

Ryo didn't see the curiosity. Or rather, that wasn't all he saw. Over Setsuna's face, he saw another face, a solid-seeming image that was somehow even more real than the flesh and blood and bone before him, a face that, although he had never seen it before, Ryo's mind clearly identified as belonging to Pluto. And on top of that face, there was a third, somehow fainter. And a fourth. A fifth. Ten, twenty, fifty—too many faces to count, each of them different, some faint mists, others strongly real, and all of them distinctly Setsuna. There was something else about the faces that he couldn't quite put his finger on, an odd, nagging sort of feeling in which part of his brain knew the question, another part knew the answer, and neither were telling the third part anything.

"Have we met?" Setsuna asked, voice reflecting the same intense need in her eyes: the need to learn something, anything about herself. "Do you know me?"

At Setsuna's words, Ryo blinked—and then he blinked again as the multitude of faces wavered and vanished. The sheer shock drained from his own features, becoming mere confusion, and he looked at the Senshi.

"Did ANY of you see that? Tell me you saw it."

"See what?" Minako looked around as if she honestly expected to see something.

"Another vision?" Ami asked.

"No," Ryo said slowly, "not exactly. It hurts like one, though," he added, wincing as a profound and familiar impulse went off in his brain.

"Do you need to sit down?" Usagi asked, getting up out of her chair. Ryo shook his head—slowly—knowing from experience that the headache was in no way related to his physical condition, and would be just as bad sitting down as it was when he was on his feet, but he ended up in the chair anyway.

He suspected Usagi had something to do with that. Turning down a gift from Usagi was very difficult to do; even when you had no use for the thing—such as the small potted plant she had given to Rei on her last birthday—or truly didn't want it —like the limited-issue Sailor V manga she had rather generously given to Ami for HER birthday—you somehow ended up keeping it.

The little flower with its fragile-seeming blossoms was still blooming nicely on a counter beneath the window in Rei's room, despite the fact that Rei typically had about the same effect on plants as a flaming lawnmower;

The Sailor V manga, sealed in the hard plastic cover it had come with, not only rested safely on a shelf in Ami's new room at Makoto's apartment, but had actually been read several times;

And Ryo, puzzling over this curious trend while sitting in the chair, suddenly noticed that his headache was gone.

"Feeling better?" Usagi asked, now sitting on the spare bed.

"Much." Ryo nodded towards her. "Has she started kicking yet?"

"No." Usagi paused. "Will she?"

"I'll let you know if I see anything," Ryo promised. Then he looked around again. "And none of you saw that?"

"If you don't start explaining what 'that' was," Ami said, sounding exasperated, "I'm going to be very cross with you."

"She's not the only one," Makoto added.

"Better make that three," Rei advised.

Minako looked at her friends. "Ah, why not. 'All for one, and one-half off,' as they say."

Ryo was quite sure that this was NOT what they said, but he raised his hands in surrender before Usagi could chip in. "All right, all right; I give up, I'll talk." He began explaining, describing the procession of faces and the half-seen image behind them, but leaving out any mention of the 'odd feeling' he'd had.

It took nearly ten minutes for Ryo to convey what he'd seen in a tenth of a second, which was unusual. He was used to seeing things in a straightforward, 'instant preplay' sort of effect, not abstract visual metaphors overlaying the reality around him; the Senshi, likewise, were used to hearing very precise descriptions, not a perpetual struggle to find the right words. Setsuna actually had the easiest time following what Ryo said, though she appeared vaguely saddened that he could not tell her anything about herself. Ami grasped the concept quite quickly as well, but had a vague feeling that Ryo was leaving something out. She decided not to press the issue; the others were having enough trouble as it was.

"What do you mean by 'layered?'" Usagi finally asked. "Is it sort of like how they do animated films? What I mean is, they draw the background scene and then lay all those plastic sheets with the characters drawn on them over the background. Is it like that?"

"That's almost exactly it," Ryo said, relieved. "Except that there's just the one image, over and over again."

"How did you think of that?" Rei asked Usagi, sounding a little surprised.

"I remembered that time we went to check out the animation class that was helping out with the Sailor V movie, and..."

"Ooh!" Minako squealed, delighted. "You got to see behind the scenes of my movie? Do you have any idea how lucky you were? They wouldn't even let ME in, and I was the star!"

"No you weren't," Usagi objected.

"I was too!" Minako objected right back.

"You aren't even in the movie!"

"I am too!"

"That was Sailor V, not Aino Minako. The character design barely even looks like you, and besides which, you're not Sailor V anymore!"

"Oh yeah?" Minako got to her feet and pulled something out of a pocket. To the Senshi, that 'something' looked like her transformation pen, and indeed, it was—just not the one they were thinking of. *I'll show her,* Minako thought. "MOON POWER TRANSFORM!"

A lightshow that was at once very similar to and yet entirely different from the one that turned Minako into Sailor Venus went into effect, and when it ended, a masked girl wearing a uniform that was very similar to and yet entirely different from Sailor Venus' stood before them, striking a pose.

"HA!" she proclaimed grandly. "The soldier of justice, the sailor-suited beautiful soldier has returned! I am Sailor Venus, Code Name: Sailor V!" *Wow,* she thought, *I haven't done this in years. I'm glad the old pen still works; 'd have looked pretty silly if it... hey, I wonder if I could get it to help me with my homework again? Hmm...*

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Ryo had never heard anyone shout in a whisper before, but he was getting used to Usagi's casual defiance of the laws of physics by now.

"Just proving a point," Minako—pardon, Sailor V—replied casually, checking herself out to see whether or not the old uniform still fit—which it did, one of the benefits of magical clothing being that it ALWAYS fits—before shifting the muscles of her face slightly. "I forgot what wearing this thing was like," she admitted, adjusting her mask.

"Change back before someone sees you!" Usagi ordered her.

"Not until you apologize," Sailor V said, waving one finger chidingly at Usagi. She paused in mid-wave to turn her hand, examining the fit of the glove before pulling out her compact and taking a closer look at what she was wearing. This was definitely Sailor V's uniform, but it had changed in some ways from what she remembered, to the point where it resembled a fusion of her two superheroic identities. The skirt was longer, the shoes were now the same Grecian sandal-type that Venus wore, and the mask was now affixed to a tiara—one with a clear crystal in the center rather than the normal golden gem—almost as if the mask had grown out from the tiara's lower rim. Most interesting was the pattern of slim crescents and the sign of Venus running along the hem of the skirt and the edge of the long collar in gold thread. Two much larger Venus symbols adorned the backs of her gloves, crossed ends pointing forward, and instead of a stone, the bow on the front of her shirt now sprouted from a solid gold representation of that sign. A moment's examination suggested to Sailor V that this gold brooch was intended to hold her compact when her hands were busy.

After an extended examination, one thought went through her head:

*WOW!*

"APOLOGIZE?!" Usagi was practically shrieking.

"I can wait all day," Sailor V replied. Brushing out her skirt, she added, "You know, I think I might want to use this outfit the next time there's a fight. I mean, nobody's seen Sailor V in ages, and the manga's really gone downhill over the last year or so; a few authentic Sailor V sightings might be just the thing to cheer up the fans and reinspire the writers, don't you think?"

Usagi's teeth started to grind.

"What was that?"

"I'm not sure. The detection system picked up a power spike of some sort."

"How strong?"

"Not very strong at all. Maybe a Level Two reading."

"Hardly worth worrying about, then. All indications are that one of the gateways these critters keep showing up through would generate at least a Level Six reading."

"I dunno. It would've had to be pretty close by for us to pick it up at all, but it didn't last long enough to get a fix on."

"Probably just somebody firing up one of the CAT-scans upstairs or tripping a circuit breaker."

"Maybe, but I think I'll have security make a quick sweep of the building. Just to be on the safe side."

Ryo really hadn't meant to stay for dinner, but even if Ami hadn't insisted, Makoto HAD, and she could be just as difficult to refuse as Usagi—though for entirely different reasons.

Which is why he had found himself calling from the hospital to let his folks know he wouldn't be home until later, and why dinnertime found him facing off against a meal that would have been at home in any fancy restaurant he'd ever seen.

The entire evening had the air of a date about it, especially since Makoto had either chosen to skip supper or eat in the kitchen, bringing in the meal like a professional waitress but otherwise leaving Ami and Ryo to themselves; she cooked, served, and cleaned up by herself while putting an abrupt stop to any and all attempts by Ami or Ryo to lend a hand, and after serving tea in the living room for a second time that day, vanished entirely.

*I wonder if Mako-chan's got some sort of surveillance system hooked up in here so she can spy on us from her room,* Ryo wondered, glancing about cautiously for anything that might be a hidden camera.

"I wouldn't put it past her," Ami said. Ryo nearly dropped his tea before he realized that he had spoken that last bit aloud, and the sight of him juggling the cup around set Ami to laughing. He glared at her, and she laughed even more. Sighing, Ryo set the cup down on the table before anything else happened. Ami regarded him curiously.

"Spilling tea on her couch seems like a poor way to repay Mako-chan for everything she did tonight," he explained. "Even if she IS watching us."

"I can find out," Ami said, setting aside her own cup and producing her computer. After a quick sweep of the room, she read off the results. "No cameras, no recording devices other than the VCR, no microphones, and Mako-chan's in her room, two meters from the wall closest to us, which happens to have no holes drilled through it. The radio's on, and I think she's reading something." Ami flipped the computer shut and put it away.

"Well, good. We'll have to think of something nice to do for her."

"Not spilling the tea was a good start," Ami noted, smiling briefly. "Ryo-kun," she began, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

The words every boyfriend dreads. "What about?"

"This afternoon, when you were trying to explain what you saw when you looked at Setsuna-san, I got the feeling that you were leaving something out." Ryo said nothing, and Ami went on. "At first I thought it was just because you were still startled by what you saw, but I noticed you looking at her a few times later on, like there was something you were trying to find. That got me thinking."

"And?" he asked quietly.

"You've met her somewhere before, haven't you?" Ami flinched internally; the words were harsher, more accusing than she'd meant them to be. Still, Ryo seemed not to be too bothered by it.

"I guess I should have known you'd notice," he sighed, sounding almost relieved. "I would have told you at the hospital, but what with trying to explain everything else, it just didn't seem very important. And it's... well, I'm not sure what it is, but it feels sort of personal, somehow."

"Then you have met Setsuna?"

"It's hard to say. 'd swear I've never seen her in my life before today, but there's something... not a memory so much as a feeling of familiarity."

"Has that ever happened to you before?"

"Once. Sort of. But then again, that was Usagi-chan's fault." It was not often that Ryo—or anyone else, for that matter—had the chance to see Ami confused.

"Come again?"

"That time loop she set off," Ryo explained. "I woke up one day with all the visions and memories of the year swimming around in the back of my head like a bad dream. At first I thought it really was just a dream—a very long, very detailed, and very strange dream—so I ignored it. When some of the things that I had 'dreamed' started happening, I figured it must have been another premonition, but when things started to go off in the wrong direction..."

"The 'wrong direction?'" Ami interrupted.

"I kept having the same visions as before, but since there weren't any monsters around, things turned out differently; no mysterious disappearances or unexplained mass fainting spells, no media circus..."

"No uniformed guys ripping crystals out of your chest and turning you into a walking Swiss Army knife?" Ami teased.

"No beautiful heroines in blue coming to my rescue, either," Ryo replied. "The old visions started out strong and got weaker and weaker the more that things changed, but they were still there, AND I was having new premonitions on top of them. It got to the point where I was going through a bottle of aspirin about every other week, and not just because of the visions. I kept meeting people, and I _knew_ them from the first time around, but I couldn't say anything until they'd caught up with me. It drove me nuts for a long time."

"Is that what you felt when you saw Setsuna, then?"

"Sort of the opposite. With the time loop, I knew what I couldn't have known about other people; with her, it's like I don't know what I should." Ryo sighed. "Anyway, by the time I finally transferred to Juuban, 'd figured out what was going on, if not _how_ it had happened. I considered asking you about it, but when I saw that you, Usagi-chan, and Mako-chan apparently didn't know each other, I realized that you couldn't remember. Since I knew that I was going to transfer away in a few days, I decided to just keep quiet." He looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't think it would be fair to you, since the only time I came back the first time around was because Endymion was after me, and since that wasn't going to happen..." His words trailed off. "You know, it's funny, but when you stop to think about it, the black crystal that Zoicite and Endymion used was almost the foundation for our relationship. As much as I hated the thing, we would never have gotten together without it."

"You're here NOW, aren't you?"

"Yes, but even if it is like the crystal never existed, we both remember that it DID, and what happened because of it." This time, Ryo really did look embarrassed. "I don't think I ever would have gotten up the courage to actually talk to you on my own."

"Maybe not, but as I recall, Usagi-chan was trying to fix us up before Zoicite came after you." Ami smiled. "And afterwards, since you already knew everything about us, she was even _more_ determined about it."

"I remember. Well, no sense in worrying now about what _might_ have happened."

"Exactly; it's in the past, and whatever happens in the future, we're together." She said it so determinedly that Ryo had a brief flash of panic; he didn't _quite_ receive a vision of the two of them getting married, but he wouldn't have been surprised to. Then Ami thought of something else, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "But why didn't you try to get in touch when you found out we were back?"

"You're not going to give me even an inch, are you?" Ryo demanded, struggling not to laugh.

"So I'm just a typical jealous girlfriend; petty, possessive, and suspicious." Ami shrugged. "I'll get over it tomorrow. Now answer the question."

"I really have to get you away from Usagi-chan," Ryo chuckled. "Well, at the time, I wasn't sure whether you were all-the-way back or just starting over from scratch." He paused, then grinned ruefully. "Besides, if we _had_ gotten back together, we wouldn't have had that little run-in at the library, would we?"

Remembering the incident, it was Ami's turn to fight to keep a straight face. She had been visiting half the bookstores and libraries in Tokyo with Rei, helping her track down several extremely hard-to-find titles, and that search had brought them to the library in Ryo's neighborhood at the same time as he was there, returning a book borrowed for a school project. Usagi had come along—probably just to annoy Rei—and gotten herself lost among the stacks, so Rei and Ami had been forced to split up and go in search of her. While in the middle of that search, Ami had rounded a corner and come face-to-face with Ryo; both of them had been so surprised to see each other—and more importantly, to see that the other _recognized_ them—that they hadn't noticed Usagi appear at the other end of the row.

Usagi had been so happy to see the two of them together again that she had literally jumped for joy—kicking one of the bookstacks in the process, unfortunately. That wall of books had swayed ominously and then toppled forwards into the next row, setting off a domino effect through twelve different shelves and about a thousand different books. No one had been hurt, but it had taken hours to clean the mess up.

"Rei-chan never did find those books she wanted."

"But _we_ found each other," Ryo said, smiling and taking her hand again, with far less hesitation than earlier. "So that's all right."

Ami smiled back. Even in her admittedly restrained estimation, the moment called for a kiss. But just as they were leaning towards one another, Ryo paused.

Ami frowned. "What is it?"

"Your communicator is about to go off." The words were no sooner out of his mouth than they were proven true by a faint but insistent beeping.

"Oh, bother." Letting go of Ryo's hand, Ami raised her wrist and snapped a rather harsh, "What is it?" at whoever was on the other end.

"Uh, it's me." Usagi sounded more than a little nervous. "Am I interrupting something?"

"As a matter of fact," Makoto's voice responded, hooked into the call with her own communicator, "you are."

"Oooh!" That was Minako. Ami wondered if Rei was also patched in to this growing conversation. "Did you have a date, Mako-chan? Is he cute?"

"Actually, Ami-chan's the one with the date."

"I can speak for myself, Mako-chan." Silence. "What did you want, Usagi-chan?"

"I, uh, just got a call from Haruka-san. She and the others are going to arrive at the airport tomorrow afternoon at 4:00, and she wanted us to meet them there."

"Is 'us' all of us?" Rei asked. "Or is it just you?"

"Well... she only asked me to be there. But I think Michiru-san wants some answers, and I was, uh, sort of hoping to have some backup on this one." Another silence, though Ami fancied she could hear several pairs of eyes rolling.

"That's what I thought." Rei sighed. "Well, I've got nothing planned for tomorrow that I can't put off."

"Same goes for me," Makoto admitted. "Ami-chan?"

"Not a problem."

"I'm good to God," Minako added, sparking another round of silence.

"I doubt that's what _he_ says," Ryo snickered. Ami punched him in the shoulder.

"So," Makoto said at last. "Are we going separately, or should we meet before heading out?"

"Rei-chan," Minako asked then, "doesn't Yuuichirou-kun have a minivan?"

"Yes," Rei admitted reluctantly, "but..."

"Great! You can talk to him, and he can drive us all to the airport."

"'d rather not..." Rei began.

"Ah, I hate to say this," Ryo interrupted again, "but that _is_ how you 're going to get there."

"You're sure?" Ami asked him.

"Positive. The five of you were in a van; I remember Kumada-san from Usagi-chan's little party, and he was the one driving."

"I really don't..." Rei tried to protest, but Minako cut her off again.

"That settles it, then. Meet at Hikawa tomorrow by 3:30; be there, or Pi R squared." The signal beeped once, signaling that Minako had shut off her communicator.

"I guess that's that," Usagi said. "Rei?" No response. "Rei?" Still nothing. "Rei."

"I'll talk to him." Her tone promised nothing. "Good night." And the signal beeped a second time.

"She'll talk to him." Makoto suppressed a laugh. "More like she'll tell him to do it, and then chase him around with a broom if he doesn't agree."

"You know how Rei is." Usagi sighed. "All right. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then. Ami-chan, Ryo-kun, don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"What about what you've already done?" Makoto asked impishly.

"MAKOTO!" A faint beep indicated Makoto had ducked out before Ami 's predictable response.

Haruka looked out from the window, staring down at the ground—or was it the ocean by now? No way to tell, really, not at this height—at the ground so far below the plane. A contented smile worked its way onto her face at the sight, a smile that most of the other Senshi would have found to be rather out-of-place, had they seen it; the words 'at ease' or 'content' weren't ones her younger allies usually associated with Haruka. They weren't words she'd normally use to describe herself, for that matter, but right now, they worked. She settled back in her seat with a sigh, closing her eyes. The plane was still more than two hours from Tokyo, so she might as well take whatever rest she could get.

In the aisle seat, Michiru glanced towards her partner and, seeing the relaxed expression, smiled. Life, she knew, had not been as kind to Haruka as it might have. Not that her own life had been a picnic either, Michiru admitted wryly, but then, she was the stronger of the two of them. Emotionally, at least.

Michiru had no illusions about the differences in their physical strengths; in terms of pure muscle, the only Senshi who was anywhere near Haruka's level was Makoto, and if it came down to an actual fight between the two, Haruka's superior skill and experience could probably win out. Though if someone were taking side bets on the outcome, Michiru thought she might put a few yen on Makoto, just to be safe.

When it came to emotional strength, though, any one of the other Senshi could have given Haruka a challenge. She was like the wind in so many ways, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Swift and strong, she could be as warm and gentle as the summer breezes, or as cold and fierce as an arctic gale. Haruka swept over every obstacle in her path, taking every challenge in life head-on, full force, and wholeheartedly. When she won, she moved on to the next challenge so quickly that she barely noticed, but when she lost...

Sometimes Michiru wondered whether Haruka was running through life because of an eagerness to meet new challenges, or to escape the memory of her failures in the past. She was so strong and self-assured on the outside, as implacable as the wind, that the idea of her being bothered by mistakes seemed impossible.

But the wind was diverted by every object that it touched: trees bent before it but seldom broke; mountains held fast under the strongest hurricanes; the water danced under it, but it was to the sea that the wind inevitably returned to regain its strength. Even the ordinary humans who had built this airplane—this flying machine whose wings caught the air and used it to soar—even they could affect the wind.

Behind the face that she showed to the world, Haruka hid regret, fear, and grief from a hundred mistakes, a thousand failures. Every so often, when all her defenses were down while she slept at night, the worst of those lurking pains made their way to the surface, taking shape in nightmares, tears, and screams. Darkness terrified Haruka in a way that no monster would ever match, not because it _was_ dark, but because she was alone in it.

Michiru remembered the night she had learned that.

It was five—no, six—six months after they first met, six months of learning to work side by side against creatures that, until they saw one, neither of them had ever thought existed. Haruka had moved in and settled herself in one of the spare rooms in Michiru's almost palatial home, and their days tended to follow the same routine; breakfast, school, planning, patrolling, late meal, sleep. Duty took precedence over everything else; their personal lives were more or less on hold, and even their growing feelings for each other went unexpressed in the face of their mission as Senshi.

The night had been unusually quiet. Even now, Michiru wasn't sure why she had woken up, though she remembered being mildly thirsty and vaguely concerned about something. A glass of water solved the first problem, but the concern stayed with her, making sleep impossible, so Michiru had decided to get up and take a quick walk through the house to wear herself down and make sure that it wasn't the memory of an open window or unlocked door that was bothering her.

She had completed a circuit of the second floor and was checking the ground level when she passed Haruka's room and heard a strange, frightened noise. The door had been left open, so Michiru had decided to check and make sure that nothing was wrong. She found Haruka in the grip of a terrible dream, struggling feebly against nothing, her nightshirt sodden with sweat, the sheets twisted, her face contorted in a silent, tearstained howl. A single touch had been enough to awaken her, but while the nightmare was over, the terror of it had remained—so Michiru had stayed as well, climbing into the bed and holding her dear friend close to help her fight off the fear. That had been the first night they'd slept together—and unlike a lot of second-rate so-called romances, sleep was ALL that had happened.

*Was it?* a quiet voice in the back of Michiru's head asked. *Were you just comforting a loved one, or did something else happen? How much did that one night change the rest of your life? Of both your lives? Just as Haruka has always been the wind, you have always been the ocean, but that night, you became HER ocean, the place she returns to regain her strength.*

For some reason, that voice sounded like Usagi—which, in a curious way, made sense. Out of all the other Senshi, Usagi was the one most likely to really understand the turning point that one night represented.

*Assuming, of course, that I ever told any of them about it. Haruka would kill me if I told the others that she's afraid of the dark—but then again, it might be worth it just to see how they react to everything else.*

Michiru glanced at Haruka again and saw that she was asleep, despite the muted roar of the wind and the plane's engines coming from outside her window. It was no surprise, really. Michiru could remember waking up several times during raging summer storms or howling blizzards to find Haruka sound asleep beside her. Where the wind might trouble the dreams of others, it chased away Haruka's nightmares; the fiercer the wind blew, the more peaceful her dreams became.

That was probably part of the reason Haruka loved driving so much. The sheer speed of the vehicle and the rush of the air was as close as she could get to flying while still on the ground; the tug of the wind did not drag at Haruka's spirit, but blasted away the worries of the world, setting her free and letting her soar.

*It's a wonder she hasn't taken up skydiving yet.* After a moment to reflect on that thought, Michiru decided not to bring the subject up. Haruka might just decide to go for it—and Hotaru would almost certainly insist on going along. There was no way on or off Earth that Michiru was going to let THAT little disaster happen; heights didn't bother her, but the idea of spiraling downwards through a mile or two of empty space at a speed sufficient to make even water harder than steel on impact... no thank you!

The thought made Michiru glance forward, but even with the seats tilted back, Hotaru and ChibiUsa were hidden from view except for two points of pink hair on the left and a few strands of black to the right. The soft sound of Hotaru's breathing and the louder racket coming from ChibiUsa proclaimed that they were asleep.

Michiru yawned, then decided that, since everyone else had nodded off, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. She settled back in her chair, wondering how she was supposed to actually get to sleep with all the noise ChibiUsa was making, and what the reaction of the other Senshi would be when they found out about her being here...

The stewardess who came along a few minutes later found four sound sleepers. She spread a blanket over the smaller girls, who had fallen asleep leaning shoulder-to-shoulder, head-to-head, and thought about her own friends, and what they might be doing right now. She put a second blanket over the young couple in the next row—a stunningly attractive girl and a young fellow handsome to the point of beauty—taking care so as not to disturb them or separate their hands, loosely joined on the armrest.

Then she continued down the aisle, smiling, thinking about what it had been like to be young and in love, and wondering why she had never found anyone like that.

The collector decided that it was having a bad day.

The destruction of its counterpart earlier in the week had thrown the entire plan into disarray, forcing the collector and others like it to implement new orders while still just beginning to understand the old ones. The loss of the stable energy source which the destroyed unit had been attempting to create meant that other units would have to pick up the slack, if anything of the grand plan was to be salvaged.

Although it had been disturbed on some basic level by the chaotic reorganization, the collector believed that it had adapted sufficiently to cope.

Then the energies had started to converge on it.

The first it had noticed felt strange, potent and yet somehow dulled. Dormant. But even in this state of apparent slumber, the energy was dark and terrible, making the collector's pulpy mass twitch—perhaps with fear, perhaps with jealousy. This was the sort of power it desired, energy that by its very nature would readily adapt to the uses called for in the greater plan, and in great quantities. And yet, those very qualities of essence and concentration meant that the collector could not risk tapping into that power, not now—perhaps not ever, if it could not build its reserves faster.

Several more energies had appeared on the edges of the collector's awareness not long after, energies it knew to be strong, active, and dangerous. One of them was so intense that it not only interfered with the collector's attempts to direct what few servants it had been able to gather, but also made any hope of signaling for help impossible. The appearance of another group of strong energies, headed directly for the ones already gathered nearby, was little more than an afterthought by comparison.

The only hope the collector had was to lay low and avoid detection.

But somehow, it suspected that this wouldn't be enough.

The Senshi cooled their heels among one of the numerous waiting areas, the one closest to the escalators down which new arrivals would appear after disembarking. Each passed the time in her own way.

Ami was sitting and talking with Ryo, who had caught a ride on the bus and been waiting in the sitting area when the girls and their driver had shown up. Out of Yuuichirou's hearing, Ryo professed to a certain curiosity about the 'mysterious Outer Senshi,' particularly this one who seemed able to spook Usagi so badly just by wanting a few answers. Privately, the girls suspected he had other motives, but they kept their mouths shut.

Minako had taken up a diligent vigil at the edge of the rows of seats, staring at the escalators with an intensity that bordered on the maniacal. Quite a few disembarking passengers flinched under that unrelenting optic onslaught, and more than one hastily reconsidered their travel plans. No one had asked her to stop, though; Artemis knew better, and airport security had either not been alerted or had chosen to err on the side of caution.

Makoto had chosen a seat that did not face any of the windows, and she was carrying on an animated conversation with Yuuichirou. Rei stood not far off, watching them out of the corner of one eye and privately admitting to herself that Yuuichirou wasn't as dense as he sometimes appeared. Or sounded. Or acted. He had struck up a dialogue in the van well before they had reached the airport, and maneuvered the discussion so carefully that Makoto had not even noticed that she was being distracted from the noise of the planes all around.

Usagi was alternating between pacing and sitting, and constantly twisting her ring while shooting nervous glances at the escalators whether on her feet or in a chair. Luna lay curled up on a chair somewhere near the midpoint of the pacing, every so often opening one eye to follow her charge's movements.

Finally, the airport intercom crackled to life.

"Flight 24 now disembarking at Gate 3."

"That's them," Usagi gulped.

"That's probably my cue to disappear for a while, then," Yuuichirou said, getting to his feet.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rei demanded immediately.

"As far as I can get from Usagi-chan and whatever's about to come down that escalator after her. I'll be at that cafeteria we passed if you need me to carry anything after the fireworks have cleared." With a nod to Makoto and a wry look to Ryo—who smiled, rolled his eyes, and shook his head—Yuuichirou vanished down the wide corridor.

"Coward," Rei muttered after him.

"Where's Yuuichirou-kun going?" Minako asked, abandoning her vigil to rejoin the others.

"Never mind." Rei looked at Ryo suspiciously. "What was that look about?"

"What? Oh, he was just letting me know he thought it was a bad idea to be here, that he was getting out while he could, and if I wanted to stay, I was probably a braver guy than he thought."

"You got all _that_ from one look?"

Ryo shrugged. "It's a guy thing."

"I think I see Haruka-san," Makoto said then. Usagi blanched.

"Excuse me a minute." And before they could stop her, she had disappeared into a nearby washroom.

"She _really_ doesn't want to talk to them, does she?" Ryo noted blandly. Rei was already moving to drag Usagi back, kicking and screaming and by the ends of her hair if necessary, but Makoto stopped her.

"Give her a couple of minutes."

"I'll give her more than that if she thinks we're going to do this for her," Rei growled. "I am NOT taking the heat in that odango-atama's place just because she wants to weasel out of answering a few questions for Michiru-san."

They turned back to watch the three Outer Senshi descend the escalator. Ryo compared the reality with the images he'd built up from Ami's descriptions and identified the three with no trouble. The pink-haired girl with them caused him some difficulty, however.

*That's odd,* he thought absently. *She looks just like... wait a minute, she REALLY looks like...* He broke off staring at the girl for a moment, long enough to notice that Ami and the rest were all doing the same thing. A terrible suspicion began to dawn on him as the new arrivals stopped before them.

"Surprise!" ChibiUsa announced, making a grand, presenting sort of motion with her arms.

"What are you doing here?" all four Inner Senshi demanded at once, nearly scaring Ryo out of his skin.

"Oh, come ON. Can't I just drop by to visit friends?" The four-way glare clearly said no, and ChibiUsa sighed. "You're no fun at all. The five of... hey, wait a minute. Where's the odango-atama?"

"She's hiding in the washroom," Ryo began. The words died when the two older girls refocused their attention—which had until now been on the reactions of the Inner Senshi—to him. There was nothing even remotely hostile in either face, but Ryo started to understand why Usagi was so reluctant to come out and face these two.

"And you are?" Michiru asked politely.

"His name's Urawa Ryo," ChibiUsa said absently, still looking around for Usagi. "He's with Ami-chan, he sees the future, and he already knows all about us. Did I leave anything out? No? Good."

"How did..."

"Mercury told me—a little. I actually had to go to Venus and Jupiter to get the whole story; they'll talk more about their or other people's boyfriends than Mercury does. Though asking about it is a good way to get her to end those math classes early." ChibiUsa chuckled, then stopped her search for Usagi long enough to give Ryo the once-over, apparently liking what she saw. "They _didn't_ tell me he was this cute, though." She winked at Ami, who looked like she was on the verge of passing out or spontaneously bursting into flame.

"What else did Ve... I mean, did we tell you?" Minako asked.

"Oh, all kinds of stuff. But I'm not allowed to talk about anybody or anything you haven't met yet; Pu, Mama, and Papa all made me promise. Several times. Sorry."

"Nuts." Minako kicked at an unoffending floor tile.

"You... ah... didn't happen to bring Diana with you, did you?" Luna asked.

"No. You grounded her after you caught her sneaking out to see Vega again."

"I see." Luna frowned. "Who's Vega?"

"He's the son of the Nekoron ambassador." ChibiUsa scratched her head. "I'm not really sure what she sees in him, but this was the third time she got caught. I suppose he is good-looking, and he does write all those poems for her, but..."

"Doesn't this fall into that category of stuff you're not supposed to tell us?" Artemis reminded her with a hint of desperation. Even though it was pretty much set in stone that he and Luna were going to have a daughter at some point in the future, Artemis still thought of himself as being in the carefree bachelor stage of his life, and hearing about said daughter made him more nervous than the proverbial room full of rocking chairs. Hearing about her future romantic interests was WAY beyond anything he wanted to know right now.

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Oops." ChibiUsa blushed. Then something occurred to her. "You know, I wondered why you two were giving Vega the evil eye from day one, even when he hadn't done anything. I guess this explains it. I hope Pu isn't too upset with... where is she, anyway?"

"Why don't we let Usagi-chan answer that?" Makoto suggested. "Just so we can get everything out of the way at once. You can grab a seat, and I'll go get her."

"Make that _we'll_ go get her," Rei amended quietly.

"Sounds like a plan," Haruka replied. "If nothing else, it'll give us a chance to get acquainted with Urawa-san."

"Lucky me," Ryo mumbled. Makoto walked off, followed closely by Rei.

"You said you wanted to meet them," Ami whispered as they moved towards the seats. The bathroom door had just swung shut, and she could have sworn she heard a yelp from somewhere inside.

"And you believed me?"

Fortunately for Ryo, Makoto and Rei returned only a few moments later, standing behind and to either side of Usagi, rather like guards escorting a prisoner. Michiru, Haruka, Hotaru, and ChibiUsa were sitting with their backs to the three of them, and when Usagi spotted the row of heads, she gulped, straightened her shoulders, and marched forward as if approaching a firing squad.

"Ahem," she began, clearing her throat. The Outers and their traveling companion rose, turned around—and gaped as they got their first look at Usagi in over six months. ChibiUsa in particular seemed absolutely stunned; Usagi was returning the favor, staring at ChibiUsa as if seeing a ghost.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" they shrieked in unison. Several passing travelers turned at the ear-piercing chorus, but neither girl noticed anything except her 'reflection.'

Michiru was the first to find her voice. "Been keeping secrets, have we?" In spite of her outwardly calm demeanor, she couldn't keep a note of shock out of her words.

"I didn't know," Haruka said automatically. "I swear to God, if I'd known, I would have told you."

"Believe me," Minako warned them, "you haven't seen anything yet."

To most of the people passing through the airport, there was nothing particularly unusual about the group of girls sitting in the waiting area. Most people saw only a few friends welcoming other friends home, both sides catching up on recent, not-so recent, and downright old events.

Most people were looking at the group with their eyes.

The collector did not possess eyes, so of course it could not see the girls. What it did possess was a highly developed sense of touch, acute enough to pick up and discern between the vibrations caused by different footsteps from all corners of the airport, thus doing double duty as a sense of hearing. Though it had no nose or tongue, the collector could smell and taste as well as it could feel and hear, which was well enough to detect and sort out varying individual scents that even the airport's canine security officers might miss. The collector also possessed a sense which most humans either lacked or ignored, the ability to feel energy.

Right now, all of the collector's senses screamed that danger was about to overtake it on a massive scale. The energies which had been disturbing it for hours had all gathered together in one spot—and as far as the collector was concerned, it was just about the worst spot possible. The distance between them and its all-too vulnerable self could be measured in meters; if even one of them happened to move three meters down and five over from where they were, the collector knew it would be doomed.

Worse yet, its basic instincts demanded that it try to take possession of the very power that was threatening it. The collector's higher reasoning knew that it would eventually be unable to ignore the overriding order. If the energies did not move on soon, it would be forced into an attack it could not hope to win, but which it could also not hope to avoid.

Subterfuge was the only chance left.

Hotaru was trying not to stare, but it was a losing battle.

On the one hand, her best friend was sitting right next to her, watching Usagi as she spoke and looking more and more bewildered with each second; on the other hand, her best friend was also across the aisle, and it was doubtful that she could even open her eyes to see anything yet. The whole thing was more than a little disturbing, but Hotaru reasoned that fair was only fair. After all, if ChibiUsa had had to sit and endure seeing _her_ as a baby, Hotaru supposed the least she could do was return the favor. But it was still weird.

There were other things to consider, too. As Sailor Saturn, Hotaru was forced to bear the terrible powers of the Senshi of Destruction. She knew that, if she chose, she could extinguish all life in this airport and most of the surrounding city with little more than a flick of her wrist. And the truly frightening thing was that, as the youngest and least-experienced of the Senshi, she was still learning the limits of her powers.

One such discovery had come to her very slowly over the last few months; when she focused on her powers, Hotaru could see life, in the form of a glowing aura around who or whatever she happened to be looking at. The stronger, healthier, or younger someone was, the brighter they shone, and when looking at the other Senshi through this second sight, Hotaru had to fight an urge to squint against the intensity of energy they put out. Some people would say that this was a wonderful gift, and in many ways, it was. But by definition, being able to see life also meant that Hotaru could see death. Sometimes it was a slow thing, a steady dimming of a person's aura as they grew weaker from illness or injury or age; other times, Hotaru could see death looming over someone with such clarity that she could almost feel it looking back at her.

Her worst fear was that, someday, she would look at one of her friends and see that silent spectre hanging around them.

The only thing that made such an awful burden bearable was that, as a de-facto representative of the combined powers of life and death, Hotaru was able to affect changes in what she saw. Her eerie ability to heal was proof of that, and just as she had grown stronger in the months since her powers had awakened, gaining through her rebirth the freedom to live her life without the near- crippling illness that had haunted her for so long, so too had her healing talent grown in strength. Sometimes she slipped away from under the watchful eyes of her guardians to wander the streets as Saturn, searching for illnesses to heal, lives to renew.

Haruka and Michiru knew about those late-night missions of mercy, of course. They would periodically check her room to see if they could catch her sneaking in or out, berating her with stern lectures whenever they did so and telling her to go back to sleep. But they never tried to tell her to stop, never forbade her to go on these wandering excursions, and for that unspoken understanding, Hotaru was grateful. Helping ease the pain of others made her own burden a little easier to carry, and the hours of sleep she lost were paid back tenfold with the knowledge that someone else could sleep a little better because of her.

Sometimes, she found people that were beyond even the reach of her healing touch. These, she stayed with until the end, giving what comfort she could, even if it was only the knowledge that they would not face the end alone. She had been called 'angel of death' in more languages than she knew how to speak, always recognizing the words by the sound of how they were spoken, by the expression on the faces of those who spoke them—fear and relief, regret and reverence. Even these losses did not trouble Hotaru; she had tried her best, done what she could, and no one could ask for more. She had laughed as a young man joked that he never knew death was so cute; she had smiled as an old woman talked about the husband and friends she was about to meet again, about the children and grandchildren she was leaving behind; she had cradled a dying baby boy and sung him into oblivion with a gentle lullaby, half-remembered from a time long before, when gentle hands had held her, and a soft voice sung those same quiet words.

In the end, Hotaru knew that death would come even to the people she loved most in the world, and that all the power of Saturn could not stop it; even with her ordinary, dark-hued, little girl eyes, she could see that someday, she would lose them. Knowing it hurt, but it didn't stop her from loving them. Or from resolving to fight with everything she had in her to make sure that 'someday' did not come for a long, long time.

With that thought in mind, Hotaru called up her other sight and focused it squarely on Usagi and the unborn ChibiUsa. She saw a brilliant white halo surrounding Usagi, an almost overwhelming energy which she knew to be coming from the tiny crystal in Usagi's locket. Looking past that, Hotaru could see the white energy which was Usagi's alone. It was not as strong as the ginzuishou — nothing was, as far as Hotaru knew—but it was still difficult for her to look at directly. And there, inside and beyond the second wall of white, unseen light, Hotaru could see the faintest hint of the same pink light sheathing the older ChibiUsa who now sat to her left. Nowhere in that entire three-tiered blaze of life did Hotaru see even a trace of illness.

But she did see something else, just out of the corner of her eye, something which had nothing to do with Usagi—either Usagi—but which worried her nonetheless.

Ami's boyfriend, Ryo, was sitting quietly, doing his best to stay out of the line of fire as Michiru and Haruka continued to interrogate Usagi. Even though he could apparently see the future, Hotaru had expected Ryo to have an aura like any ordinary person's, and she was quite surprised to see that the blue-grey energy shining from his body was as strong as any of the light coming from the gathered Senshi. It was not the unexpected intensity that bothered her, but the strange way in which the light grew steadily darker as it radiated out, leaving a thin circle of jet black around Ryo.

Hotaru had never seen anything like that before. She knew instinctively that it was not a mark of poor health—that was reflected as a fading of the light, not a change in the color—but she was also at a loss to think of an explanation for the effect.

She had no idea of how to ask about it, though. Only Michiru and ChibiUsa knew about Hotaru's life-seeing ability, and she wanted to keep it that way. She had told Michiru when the uncanny ability first began to manifest itself, needing to tell someone who could reassure her and tell her not to be afraid. As the closest thing to a mother Hotaru could clearly remember, Michiru heard about all the secrets that frightened the little Senshi; ordinary things that every girl confides in her mother or older sister, extraordinary things that only another Senshi could understand. Hotaru had told ChibiUsa because they had no secrets from each other—except for things about the future, of course. Well, some things, at least—but no one else knew.

*Other kids were afraid of me because I could heal,* Hotaru thought. *The Senshi weren't afraid because they could all do things just like it. They were afraid of Saturn because of how powerful she is, what Mistress 9 could have used her to do, but they weren't afraid of Tomoe Hotaru, and they're not scared of Saturn anymore. But if they knew that I could see them like this, that I could tell them when they were going to die... I don't want my friends to be afraid of me again.*

So Hotaru filed away what she had seen until later, when she could think of a way to ask Ryo—or maybe Ami—about it without divulging her secret in the process.

Almost immediately, though, she saw something else, this time in Makoto, who stood against the wall at the near end of the row of seats where Usagi was sitting. What Hotaru saw was a faint shimmering at the edges of Makoto's aura, a vibrant green blaze which Hotaru often thought matched the older girl's eyes. The shimmer was a familiar sight, indicating a disturbance in a person's life- force. Something on the order of a mild headache or upset stomach would do the trick for this small a reaction, but the way it pulsed was unusual. The outer edge of the green aura was rippling like grass in the wind.

Makoto, Hotaru noted, didn't look very good. Her face was pale, her breathing ragged. At first Hotaru thought it was because of the airport; she knew that Makoto was terrified of planes, and the fear inspired by the infrequent roars of take-offs and landings might be what was causing the ripple. But Makoto looked more ill than afraid.

"Mako-chan," Hotaru asked, interrupting Usagi and Michiru, "are you feeling okay?" Everyone looked at Makoto, most of them noticing for the first time that she did indeed look unwell. Minako, in the middle of adjusting the bow in her hair, lifted her head and wound up pulling the ribbon completely out.

"Now that you mention it, no." A wave of nausea interrupted anything else Makoto might have been about to say, but she decided that sitting down might help. It didn't.

"Is it the... the airplanes?" Usagi asked hesitantly, recalling Makoto's furious explosion at the hospital a few days before when this same subject had come up. She was relieved when Makoto shook her head.

"No. Not that."

"What, then? What's wrong?"

"Can't you smell it?"

"Smell what?" Usagi sniffed at the air but detected nothing unusual; Ami had pulled out her computer and was running an analysis of the air; her arms over her head to re-tie the bow, Minako remembered something and paused.

"Uh, Artemis? By any chance, is your ear twitching?"

"Huh? Why would..." He stopped in mid-sentence as a particularly strong twinge went off, flattening his left ear against his furry head, and then looked at Minako in surprise before his eyes drifted towards Makoto. "Uh-oh."

"That's a good word for it," Minako agreed, letting her ribbon fall again as she began looking around.

"Is there something you'd like to tell us? Michiru asked impatiently.

We found out a couple of days ago that Mako-chan and Artemis seem to be sensitive to the presence of the most recent bunch of goons, Minako explained. They could both smell something in that cafe way before..?

"What cafe?" Michiru demanded, Usagi's interrogation not having proceeded quite that far just yet.

I'll explain later," Minako said, speaking in a dismissive tone that made Michiru's eyebrows go up.

"Excuse me, but are you waiting for someone?" a polite voice asked. The Senshi and Ryo and the cats turned to see a man from airport security standing not far off. His face was neutral.

Hotaru hissed softly and ducked behind Michiru, taking a firm hold of the older girl's elbow. To her eyes, the man was surrounded by a field of flickering orange, one shot through with unhealthy-looking spots and streaks of a repulsive yellow-green. Michiru looked down in surprise but held her tongue in check when she saw the faint violet glow in Hotaru's eyes—the visible sign that her other sight was in effect, and apparently revealing something disturbing about this otherwise unthreatening man.

Minako's uncharacteristic authoritarianism fell away at once, to be replaced by her usual spunky insanity. "No, actually, we've already found who we were looking for. We were just catching up before we went to get their luggage—you know how it is, friends just back in town, so many stories to tell, so little time. Is there a problem?"

We received some reports earlier about a suspicious-looking girl hanging around in this area," the man said. "Some of the complainants said she was waiting for someone or something and looked like she might be dangerous. Medium height, blonde, with a red bow or ribbon in her hair. Seen anyone like that?"

"Nope," Minako said with a bright smile, silently hoping that her skirt hid the item in question and the fact that she was carefully gathering the 'incribbonating' evidence up in her fist. "But we'll be sure to let you know if we do. Well," she added, over her shoulder and to Haruka and Michiru, "I think we should go make sure they didn't ship your luggage to Africa or something, don't you?"

She kept smiling clear to the luggage carousel, where she looked around, noted that the man from security hadn't followed them, and let out a relieved breath.

What was all that about?" Haruka asked.

That guy had the same look as the people from the Cafe," Minako replied, still looking around cautiously. "All grey-faced and zombie-like. Since one of those fungus-things is probably around here, I figured it must have taken control of him like the last one did to the Cafe's employees. I wanted to make sure we didn't give ourselves away."

I meant that business with the ribbon."

"Oh." She actually blushed. "Well, I was sort of keeping watch for you earlier, and I guess a few people got nervous when I gave them the old hairy eyeball routine."

"'Hairy eyeball?'" Michiru asked with a pained look.

"What? It's a common expression."

"As unlikely as it sounds," Ami said, "I think she actually got one right for a change. I'm sure I've seen that phrase in a few books."

"Well of course I got it right, Ami-chan." Minako sounded a bit miffed. "I'm like the Mounties; I always get a tan." Everyone face-faulted.

Look, the important thing is that one of those energy-stealing moss monsters is hiding around here." Ami held up her computer to emphasize the point. "I got some strong readings in that waiting area, and they've fallen off considerably the further we moved away, so 'd say this thing's concentrated in that area. Mako-chan, Artemis?"

I felt better almost as soon as we got away from there," Makoto agreed.

So what do we do?" Minako said. "Track it down now, while we're here, or come back later tonight when there are fewer people around?"

We can't leave it here," Makoto said immediately. "If it's drawing power from people like the last one, it could already be huge. I'd rather not let it get any bigger."

The readings suggest it isn't very large yet," Ami reassured her. "But you're right; we should deal with it before it has a chance to grow any further."

But if we go after it now," Rei countered, "a lot of people could get hurt." Her eyes drifted meaningfully towards Usagi. "The Cafe was torn apart just by the last one coming out to meet us, and I'm not sure how we'd protect this many people from whatever attacks this one has. I say we come back later."

You're assuming we'll be able to leave in the first place," Artemis told her. "This one's got its hooks into airport security already, and the timing of the attack at the Cafe was a little too precise for my taste. We may be able to track it, but it may also be able to track us."

"I say we go after it," Haruka said.

Michiru nodded. "I agree. I want to see what we're up against this time."

"All right then," Ami decided. "We'll split up into three groups. Minako and Rei will go with Artemis; Michiru will go with Makoto; Haruka will go with me. Each group has a way to tell where this thing is and enough firepower to keep it busy until the others can arrive."

"What about me and Hotaru?" ChibiUsa protested. "Don't we get a say in this?"

"We're staying here to protect Usagi-chan," Hotaru said firmly.

"Oh. Right." Neither Usagi looked very happy about this arrangement.

"And where are you going?" Haruka asked Ryo, who was in the middle of walking away.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm going to go find Kumada-san and make sure he doesn't come tearing in trying to find Hino-san when all the screaming starts." While Haruka and Michiru looked sidelong at Rei, who turned bright red and glared back at them, Ryo gave Ami a quick nod. "Try looking in the boiler room and the maintenance halls. I saw something green hidden behind a lot of pipes. And be careful, okay?"

"You too." Ami watched him leave, then shook her head and came back to the situation at hand. "All right. Let's find this thing."

If the collector had sweat glands, they would have been producing the proverbial bullets.

The energies had moved off at first, but now most of them were circling back towards it in smaller groups. Evidently, the ploy with the captured human had failed, and now it was in even more immediate danger than before. The time for deception was past; now was the time to act.

But how?

The collector knew that a frontal assault was out of the question; its counterpart had gathered several times the energy it currently commanded and still been defeated—and by a force that was significantly weaker than the one roaming around in the here and now. Retreat was equally unavailable; the collector did not have enough power to fashion a gateway, and it doubted that any slower means of travel would save it.

That left the possibility of stealth.

"Any idea why you react so strongly to these things while the rest of us don't even notice?" Neptune asked.

"I'm not completely sure," Jupiter replied. They and the others were moving through the lower level of the airport, following Ryo's advice and checking into the darker, danker sections for signs of the enemy. It was difficult for her to speak because of all the effort she had to put into trying to get some sense of direction out of the nausea boiling in her stomach and brain.

The image of a boiling stomach and brain didn't help matters, but Jupiter clenched her teeth, fought down her breakfast, and nodded down a hall. This way. I think it might have something to do with how I get along with plants."

"'Get along?'" Neptune sounded amused.

"You know what I mean. I've always been... I guess the word I want is 'attuned,' or maybe 'sensitive.' Whatever you want to call it. I've always been comfortable around plants, and I've always been able to get them to grow." Jupiter's voice became distant. "When I was little, before I was old enough to go to school, my mother owed a flower shop, and she brought me to work with her. I used to think I could hear the plants talking to me, telling me what they wanted or needed, so I helped out. Even later on, I'd stop by after school or on weekends to see how the plants were doing; I used to bring some of them home."

Neptune was surprised—and perhaps a bit worried—to notice the change in Jupiter's voice, which now sounded as if it belonged to a much younger girl.

"Mama said sometimes that she might as well retire, since I was doing all the work, but I never thought of it as work. The plants were my friends. I knew my parents wanted me to get out with my friends more, but the plants were all the company I needed, and if I wanted someone to talk to, Mama was always around." There was a pause, and when the little-girl voice began to speak again, it was numb. Lost. "After she and Papa... after they were gone, I still took care of my plants, but I couldn't hear them anymore."

As Jupiter's voice trailed off, Neptune remained silent, pretending not to notice when the auburn-haired Senshi shook her head and wiped something from her face.

"Anyway," she went on, "I think that these creatures make me feel sick because they're something like plants, but not really. Something natural, twisted into something unnatural. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I think so. We're all attuned to elements or objects that are associated with our powers. Mercury and I are both excellent swimmers, Uranus loves the wind and anything else that moves fast, and Mars sees her fire almost as a living thing." Then there's what Hotaru can do. "As for Venus, well..." Neptune paused, uncertain what part of the maniac personality of Venus reflected her command of metal, and decided to skip it. "I suppose you can also tell when there's a thunderstorm building, right?"

"Usually. Hang on a second." Jupiter cocked her head to one side, then whispered, "Better get out of sight."

An airport employee, only the second they'd passed so far, walked past them. A janitor or technician of some sort, he didn't seem to have the empty look Jupiter remembered from the Cafe, and he was even whistling as he went by.

"I wonder if maybe we should tell him to get out of here," Jupiter said, frowning.

"If he's been taken over, there's no point, and even if he hasn't, we can't afford to give ourselves away. Besides," Neptune pointed out, "the thing's up ahead, and he's going in the other direction. Keep your mind on business and forget about him. Even if he was handsome."

"Spoilsport." In the shadows, Jupiter grinned. "I wonder what Uranus would say if she knew you were admiring guys behind her back? Maybe I should warn her."

Neptune told her, in no uncertain terms, what she could do with her 'warning.' But she was glad to hear that Jupiter was back to normal.

So you and this Ryo guy are pretty serious?"

Uranus and Mercury were moving in from a different angle than Jupiter and Neptune, and Mars and Venus were on yet a third route, effectively boxing in the enemy from all sides even though they didn't yet have a precise fix on its location.

"I don't see how it's any of your business," Mercury replied coolly, checking coordinates on her visor and computer, "but yes, we are."

"You don't need to get defensive," Uranus said. "And it sort of became my business—ALL of our business—when you told him about the Senshi."

"I didn't tell him. He already knew when we met, and that was more than two years ago."

"Okay, fine." Uranus pulled Mercury to a stop. "Look, he obviously knows how to keep a secret, and I'll admit that he handles pressure pretty well for somebody who's basically just another bystander. I can guess that he must be reasonably intelligent if he's held your interest this long, and the fact that he was here at all says that none of the others have a problem with him. He's even sort of handsome." She noticed Mercury's faint, quizzical smile. "Stop that. Just because I'm not interested doesn't mean I'm blind."

"Is there a point to this?" Mercury asked, dismissing her visor and putting away her computer to face Uranus.

"Yes." Uranus cast about for the right words. "We're not normal people," she said at last. "Even when you take away the powers and the monsters and everything that goes with being a Senshi, we're still not what most people would consider ordinary. Most people would call us 'special,' or 'unusual,' or 'extraordinary,' because we are. It's not just that you and Michiru are easily the most intelligent people I've ever met, or that Mako-chan's ridiculously strong, or that Usagi-chan and Mina-chan are... uh..."

"Just plain ridiculous?" Mercury managed to say it without cracking a smile.

"Well, whatever. You know what I'm saying. It's not just one trait that makes each of us stand out, it's a combination of a hundred things. But the problem with standing out and being extraordinary is that a lot of ordinary people resent you for it. Some are afraid of you, others actively hate you, others just ignore you. Most people can either hide the problem or learn to change, but when somebody who is basically extraordinary tries to have a relationship with somebody who isn't, it gets hard for either of them to hide what they really feel. It's worse for a guy trying to date an extraordinary girl."

"Ryo-kun isn't ordinary," Mercury protested, "he's..."

"I know, I know. Just let me finish." Uranus thought for a moment that there was going to be an argument, but Mercury remained quiet, so she continued. "However you define strength, it takes a rare man to go past all the biology and the culture and be able to accept a woman as strong as he is, let alone one who's stronger. And however you look at it, you are stronger than Ryo."

"So you're saying I should just give up and forget about him, is that it? Just because he can't knock down a building and blow up armored cars or discover cold fusion and a cure for cancer in the same day? Or is it just because he's a guy?"

"No, no, no." Uranus ran a hand through her hair. "Mercury, I like the guy; or at least, I like what I've seen of him so far, and the fact that he's been with you for this long says a lot. But what I'm trying to say is that you can't just sit back and expect this to be some sort of fairy-tale romance where everything magically goes right. Sooner or later, you're going to have problems, and the odds are good that a lot of them will be because you're a Senshi and Ryo's just a relatively ordinary person." She made a face. "Not that his being extraordinary would necessarily be an improvement. Just look at all the trouble Usagi-chan and Chiba-san have had."

"Or you and Michiru?" Mercury observed, lifting an eyebrow.

Uranus made another face. "Remind me never to play poker with you," she grumbled. "Look, Mercury, I know we don't always get along. I know you and the other Inners think Neptune and I look down on you, and I'll admit, we've treated you pretty unfairly in the past. It's another of those biological things, I suppose. We're older and more experienced, so we assume that it's better for us to do the dangerous stuff. If we come off as cold sometimes, that's our own fault, but we DO care. That's why I wanted to tell you all this. Ryo's not just your first serious relationship, he's your first relationship period, and there's a lot of things that could go wrong because you don't know what you're doing, jumping into the deep end before you know how to swim." In spite of herself, Uranus sighed. "I've seen a lot of friends get hurt in relationships; I'd rather not add you to the list."

Mercury was quiet for a very long time. Finally, she said, "I think that's the first time I've ever heard you call me or any of us 'friends.' Or that you ever apologized. For anything."

"Well, I meant it. All of it." Uranus extended her hand, smiled. "Friends?" After a moment, Mercury accepted the handshake and returned the smile. "So, let's get back to tracking this thing, shall we?"

"Right." Mercury had her computer and visor out in a flip and a flick, and led the way. After a little while, she looked back curiously at Uranus. "Since when did you become such an expert on relationships, anyway?"

"Since never." Uranus grinned. "I just tried to think of what Michiru would have said."

"Ah. As far as advice goes, I guess I could do worse. Can you imagine what Mina-chan would have said? Or Rei-chan?"

"I just want to know why, out of everybody else, I had to go with you," Mars said flatly.

"And what's wrong with me?" Venus asked as they followed Artemis through the passages. Though the cat would have been deeply insulted by the comparison, he looked a great deal like a tracking dog, stopping every so often with his head tilted before running ahead in short bursts of speed.

"Are you harboring some deep-seated resentments or grudges that I should know about?" Venus went on. "Is my hair too long? My eyes too blue? My spunk too spunky? Smile too bright?"

"Keep this up and your smile's going to have some serious holes in it," Mars muttered.

"Look, you had to go with someone who can find this thing. If you'd gone with Mercury and found it, your powers would have canceled each other out and you'd both be in serious trouble. And you couldn't have gone with Jupiter because she's not feeling well, and you're both short-tempered enough as it is. So that means you had to go with Artemis, and that," Venus finished, "means you had to go with me."

"You could have gone with Mercury or Jupiter, you know."

"And leave Artemis? My friend and partner of almost four years? The odds of you becoming a nun are better than the odds of that happening." Venus looked at Mars with a shrewd glance. "But none of that's why you're upset, is it? You're angry because you're here at all when what you really wanted was to stay with Usagi-chan."

Mars almost tripped over her own feet. It was important to remember that, while Minako sometimes acted like a ditz on a scale that could rival Usagi, she was far more intelligent than she generally let on. So was Usagi, of course, but Minako also had the advantage of her experiences as Sailor V to draw on; at her most outrageously disastrous extreme of ditziness, Minako could say things that—once you got through the garbled slang—were far more mature than she seemed capable of.

"Of course I wanted to stay with her," Mars said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. "It's our job to protect her, remember? And right now, she can't fight off anything stronger than a mosquito."

"She's fine, Mars. ChibiMoon and Saturn can deal with anything that might get by us."

"Some protection," Mars snorted. "One of them can't handle any monster stronger than your average angry dog, and the other can't blow up anything smaller than the entire planet."

"Now you're just pouting. Be fair; Saturn was getting a lot better at controlling her abilities the last time we saw her, and I'm sure Uranus and Neptune saw to it that she stuck with the training. And in case you hadn't noticed, ChibiUsa's grown quite a bit since the last time we saw her. I wouldn't be surprised if she could turn into a full-fledged Sailor Moon by now." Another glance. "But you don't care about how weak or strong they are, do you?"

"Just shut up, Venus."

"Why should I? I know how you feel, Mars; we all do, because we all feel the same way."

"No, you don't. You don't know how I feel, and you don't feel the same way, because neither of us would be down here if you did!" She had almost screamed that last part, Mars realized, leaning against the wall and squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment.

Venus waved Artemis off with one hand when he came back to see what all the noise was about, made a motion with the other hand which, to Artemis at least, clearly said 'leave it to me.' Nodding, the cat moved to the far end of the corridor to do just that.

"I talked to Mamoru a couple of days before he left last summer," Mars said suddenly. "He knew Usagi was going to miss him, and he was worried that it might make her do something stupid, so he made me promise to keep her out of trouble, even if I had to lock her up in one of the storage rooms at the shrine to do it. I was worried out of my mind when she was in that funk through September, and then she turns around and tells us from out of nowhere that she's pregnant. So now, all of a sudden, my best friend—my two best friends—are having a baby."

"The timing could have been better," Venus admitted.

"My best friends are having a baby," Mars repeated, as if she hadn't heard. "Monsters are starting to pop up all over again, Usagi can't even transform to protect herself, Mamoru's on the other side of the world—and he doesn't even know—and what do I do? I let her march right into reach of these things and then leave her with two girls who've hardly ever fought on their own as her bodyguards while..." Mars sucked in a deep breath, then spoke in a soft, fierce voice. "I should be with her, damn it. Not hunting some slimy, energy-sucking mold, not wandering around in a concrete maze. With her!"

At that point, Venus reached a decision. She took Mars' clenched hands between her own and spoke. "Go."

Mars looked up. "What?"

"What, you've got a hearing problem all of a sudden? Go. Artemis and I can handle this by ourselves. Besides, what are the odds that we'll find it first? I'm betting on Mercury, myself."

"No. No, 'm staying. You..."

"...can handle it. You're right about ChibiMoon and Saturn not being up to this just yet. They haven't fought these things; we have, so you'd at least have an idea of what to expect. They might need that."

"You're... you're sure?"

Venus nodded, then smiled. "If it's numbers you're worried about, remember that 'm really two Senshi in one. I'll be fine." When Mars still didn't move, Venus gave her a look of mock harshness. "Now, as the most experienced of the present Senshi AND your direct superior, I order you to get going! Not another word!" she added, when Mars tried to say something through her smile. "Failure to disobey a direct order in a time of war can be considered treason, and I'm through being lenient with you, Mars!"

With one last look of gratitude, Mars disappeared back down the hallway. Venus watched her for a moment, shaking her head and smiling.

"If I get killed because of this," Artemis told her darkly as they proceeded forward, "I'm never going to speak to you again."

"That's a distinct possibility," Venus agreed.

"Why'd you do that, anyway?"

"Usagi-chan might need her. And even if that's not the case, Mars needs her." She smiled benevolently at him. "I don't expect you to understand, Artemis; you're a cat, and a guy."

Artemis was hard pressed to tell whether he'd just been insulted, complimented, or both.

When the shadow hit them a few seconds later, he was too busy staying alive to worry about his ego.

"Jupiter, this is Mercury."

"I hear you, Mercury. Go ahead."

"Have you found anything?"

"Just that I need to cut down on those buffet breakfasts." In the pause which followed, Mercury could almost hear the smile forming on her friend's face. "Oh, and Neptune's trying to get a date with one of the airline technicians." There was a squawk from somewhere on the other end of the communication before Jupiter continued. "Anything on your end?"

"Moderately well-maintained pipes, a broken light or two, and some misplaced luggage that's probably older than we are." In a sudden burst of Usagi-like mischief, Mercury added, "And Uranus has been giving me some tips on how to deal with guys. Sounds like she has even more expertise in the field than you or Venus."

"Now just a darn minute," Uranus began to say. Mercury looked back at her and grinned.

"We're friends now, right? Well, this is how we treat all our friends."

"Feel free to start hating me again anytime."

"Speaking of Venus," Neptune interrupted. "Have you heard anything from her or Mars?"

"I was just about to check." Mercury tapped her communicator. "Venus, this is Mercury. Find anything yet?" There was no response, which immediately put the others on alert. "Venus," Mercury repeated, more urgently than before, "come in." Still nothing. "Mars?"

"I'm here," Re's voice replied. Re's voice, not the older voice of Mars. There was also a great deal of background noise.

"Where are you?" Mercury asked. "Why isn't Venus answering?"

"I don't know," Rei said, sounding worried. "We... we split up. I came back up to check on Usagi-chan, and..."

"You did what?" Uranus didn't sound impressed.

"Never mind," Mercury said, forestalling any chance of an argument for which they didn't have the time. "The first order of business is to find Venus."

Mercury's computer had a number of special features which, along with a clock that perked along somewhere just south of the speed of light and a processing power to put a warehouse full of Pentium chips to shame, made it a most excellent addition to the Senshi arsenal. Using one of those added features now, Mercury put Venus' communicator into its broadcast mode, allowing herself and the rest of the Senshi to hear whatever was going on wherever Venus was.

'Whatever' seemed to be quite a bit. They could hear shouting, high-pitched ricochets, low-pitched thumping noises, several muted collisions, something shattering, something else splintering—in a nutshell, all the sounds commonly associated with a major brawl in progress.

"Hands off the cat, greenbean!" Venus shouted. "CRESCENT BEAM!" There was a high-pitched whistle, followed by an odd, shearing sort of sound, probably from a fungoid hand getting severed.

"Behind you!" Artemis yelled. From the Doppler Effect fading of his voice, Mercury figured he was either leaping or falling through the air. Probably the latter, if he'd just been dropped.

"Try to sneak up on me, will you? Ha!" More thumping noises, a loud crash, several lesser crashes, and then what sounded like someone or something groaning in pain. "Welcome to the school of hard knocks! Your instructor today will be Sailor Venus!"

"Do you think we should go help her?" Jupiter asked, speaking over the noise of another crash.

"Sounds to me like she's got everything under control," Uranus admitted, breaking off and gritting her teeth as a sound like tearing sheet metal squealed over the line. It was followed closely by what sounded like gunfire. "Forget that," Uranus amended. "Mercury, where is she?"

"Hang on a sec... okay, I've got a fix. Jupiter, Neptune, go to the end of the hall you're in, make a left, and take the third door on the right. Got that?" The other Senshi made affirmative replies, and Mercury motioned for Uranus to follow her.

The room they entered looked pretty much like it had sounded over the communicators—trashed. It was—heavy emphasis on the past tense—a garage of some kind, filled with the various light, medium, and heavy machines the airline mechanics used in their work. A small forklift lay in pieces in one corner, though the clean way in which it had 'broken' suggested it had been in the middle of a maintenance check when the fight started; most of the other items in the room, strewn about in smashed disarray, had clearly not been as fortunate. Three men and one woman were unconscious on the floor, all of them wearing slightly dingy overalls with the company logo sewn on the back.

Mercury and Uranus had entered from a door near one corner, Jupiter and Neptune through a door across from them. Venus was at the far end of the garage, fists and feet flying, hammering away at a man-sized mound of green mold and red spots. This latest fungus-creature, in comparison to its predecessors, looked rather pathetic; it was barely any bigger than Venus, did not appear to sport weapons of any kind, and was getting soundly beaten. As the other Senshi watched, Venus delivered a slightly wild uppercut which hurled her shabby opponent into the closed door of the garage, hard enough to make dents in some of the ridges. The entity tried to pull away almost immediately, but with its back quite literally to the wall, it had no room to maneuver, and Venus continued to pummel it.

"It's about time you showed up," Artemis said peevishly, emerging from behind what might, a few minutes ago, have been a table.

"We had to find you first," Jupiter apologized, looking around. "We thought we heard gunfire."

"Not exactly." Artemis glanced meaningfully towards one wall and the ceiling. The girls looked up and saw several dozen nails sticking out of various places along the wall and from overhead. The 'weapon' that had fired them lay on the concrete floor, with bits of stringy green still trailing from it.

"Why did Mars go back?" Mercury asked.

"I asked about that myself, but Venus seemed to think I wouldn't understand, so she didn't bother to explain it." Artemis ducked as a saw blade spun past, a few streamers of green whipping around as it flew. "And we may have to wait a while to get that explanation."

"Maybe not. This one doesn't seem to be doing quite as well as the others," Jupiter noted as Venus knocked the thing's feet out from under it and drove one fist into what passed for its head. The force of the blow would have killed a normal human, and most monsters wouldn't have enjoyed it much either, but while this creature's head was about as flattened as it could get, the body somehow rolled away and got back up.

"That depends on how you look at it," Mercury said, pointing as the creature's head ballooned outwards, returning to its original shapelessness. The same sort of thing was happening each time Venus struck, indented 'wounds' which would have crippled anything with bones or vital organs vanishing as the stringy green substance pushed itself back into a vaguely humanoid form. "Venus has it totally outclassed right now, but she can't really hurt it, and she'll eventually wear herself out trying. That may be what it's hoping for."

"It's in for a disappointment," Uranus said dryly.

"Try not to break anything else," Neptune said, just as dryly. Then she called out, "Venus! Get down!"

Venus obeyed instantly—sort of. The reverse flip which carried her up into the crossed rafters of the garage was most definitely too vertical to be considered 'down.' Still, the showy maneuver got Venus out of the way and kept the creature's attention on her instead of on the source of the shouted command.

"SPACE SWORD BLASTER!" Uranus roared, snatching her weapon out of thin air and unleashing its deadly beam all in the same motion. The creature took the hit full in the chest and slammed into the garage door for a second time.

"DEEP SUBMERGE!"

"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!"

After a fraction of a moment, Jupiter added, "SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"

And up in the rafters, Venus threw in another "CRESCENT BEAM!" for good measure.

The combination attack first drenched the creature and then flash froze it to the suddenly sub-zero metal door. Jupiter's intentionally delayed assault, propelled along like a missile by Venus' last minute contribution, blew into the creature and coursed through its waterlogged substance and the metal of the door in a spectacular flash.

What was left over drifted to the floor, no longer frozen, no longer green, and no longer a threat. Venus dropped neatly from the girder she had been standing on and kicked at the dusty pile, nodding in satisfaction.

"That's your idea of down?" Neptune said.

Venus shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"We'll discuss tactics later," Uranus said. "Why did Mars leave?"

"Because I told her to." Everyone blinked. MARS left because VENUS had told her to?

"And you did that because...?" Uranus asked slowly.

"Conflict of interest. Mars wanted to be on hand to protect Usagi-chan in case anything went wrong, and it was distracting her from the search, so I sent her back. Safer for everybody," she said, glancing at the scattered pile of dust, "especially considering that Greenie there jumped us in the corridor about sixty seconds later. I doubt Mars would have seen it coming."

The silence said that, while the older Senshi still weren't thrilled with the decision, they couldn't fault her for making it. Venus smiled.

"And now that that's settled, why don't we throw this popsicle stick?"

Proteus registered the destruction of another of its kind with little more than the mental equivalent of a shrug, and perhaps a moment of wry amusement as it pictured the Master's imminent reaction to yet another loss.

Not 'pictured,' exactly. Proteus had searched its memory extensively for some clue as to who or what had created it, but no such information had been given. Logically, that made sense; it had been a mere mindless drone, created for a task, and so long as it continued to pursue that task, it had no need to know who it was obeying.

*But,* Proteus reflected, *I am no longer a mere drone. The others—the hunters, the collectors—remain ruled by their programming. So do I, to an extent, but I have also freed myself of much more. Why? Why am I so fortunate?*

*Information,* a silent mind-voice suggested. *The others exist to gather power, and have little chance to apply it. You were created to gather and study information; you have gathered much, studied much, and learned. That is what you have which the others lack.*

*Possible,* Proteus admitted. These mind-voices were another aspect of sentience that it had only recently discovered. They sounded much like the voices of the humans it had captured and whom it still controlled through the tiny mindlink devices. Proteus wondered if humans heard voices like this. Study of the memories of its slaves suggested that 'hearing voices' was not considered a mark of mental stability; strange, then, that so many of them could clearly recall thoughts in voices which were not their own. Even now, they all regarded the soft, underlying voice that occasionally made suggestions as merely another part of their own minds, rather than an external, controlling force. Strange, how self-deluding humans could be.

A matter for another time. Proteus gathered its will and projected a thought-message to some unknown place, where it knew that the Master would hear and—eventually—respond. It was careful to insure that the message was as precise and as bland as possible, with no trace to even remotely suggest to the Master that one of its creations was growing into something else, something unexpected.

*Something with a will of its own.*

Somewhere very distant from Tokyo, in a place that was very dark and cold, a high-backed, thronelike chair sat before a smooth table. Both were smooth-sided, unadorned, and with a glossy blue-black finish. Someone in a dark red robe sat in the chair, face hidden by shadows, watching words of light that hovered in the air above the table.

UNIT SEVEN HAS BEEN DESTROYED.

"No!" a man's voice howled, one fist slamming down upon the table. "It's impossible!"

"Given the fact that it has already happened, I would tend to think otherwise," a woman said clinically. "And might I suggest that you not do that again? The table is much harder than your hand."

As if to prove her wrong, the fist came down again, glowing faintly as it rushed through the air. The table, made of a stonelike substance with a tensile strength greater than steel, splintered across the middle from the blow and toppled to the floor. The words flickered and vanished.

"Feel better?"

"Be quiet." There was silence. "Very well, then. We'll contact the watcher and tell it to continue with construction of the study sites, but I fear we must recall the other units."

"All of them?" The woman sounded surprised.

"I don't see how we have any choice. Someone or something is out there destroying them before they can achieve any meaningful successes, and until we know who or what is responsible, we cannot formulate an effective defense strategy." The man cursed softly. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear that traitorous bitch Pluto was responsible."

"You know that, at least, isn't possible."

"Weren't you the one who just cautioned me to be careful about deciding what's impossible and what isn't?" the man pointed out. "The fact that the first unit failed to retrieve her suggests to me that she's still in control of her powers, at least enough to defend herself. And if she's that strong..."

"But the Court said..."

"I know what the Court said. I also know that everything it says is open to as many different interpretations as there are seconds in the day. And they never tell anyone the entire truth." The man made a disgusted sort of noise, then returned to the original subject. "As for our plans, we can still collect the necessary power for unit production. The test sites the watcher is preparing will give us several ideal opportunities once they're complete. It will just take longer." The figure pressed a button on the arm of the chair, causing a door to slide open and light to pour in, illuminating a blond, blue-eyed face divided evenly between male and female. Another figure entered through the open door, striding forward.

"And in case you've forgotten," Janus said as the newcomer approached, "impatience is what got us into this mess in the first place."

"No, I haven't forgotten." The female side of the face shifted into half a grimace. "I haven't enjoyed this any more than you have, dear brother."

"I didn't think you had."

"At your service, my lord and lady," the newcomer said, bowing. He was a tall man, clad in rich robes of dark blue, bloody red, and jet black, trimmed with runes and sigils in gold. The robes made it hard to tell whether he was slender or strong, but the hands emerging from the sleeves suggested something in between. Short black hair and a beard, both shot with lightning-like streaks of grey, framed a face that was cold and cunning, and eyes of solid black glittered almost like empty pits in the man's head. "I understand there has been news?"

"Yes, Archon, there has. Another unit has been lost."

"I see. May I assume, then, that we are to change our plans?"

"You may, and we are. But first, tell me; what is the status of our unit production?"

"Below capacity," Archon replied. "Far below. The current levels of energy permit us to produce units only at a painfully slow rate, and as you are already aware, the ones we are receiving are limited to the first-generation design." The cold face twisted into a sneer. "Crude and ineffective things."

"Indeed." Janus shook its head. "Well, we must make do for now. Given this most recent loss, 've decided to recall all units in the field until such time as we have a better picture of what we're up against. Only the watcher will remain in place, to complete its task." Janus paused. "Archon, could you use the existing units to produce a small number of second-generation units?"

"It's possible," the black-eyed man admitted. "We'd have to cannibalize two or even three units to get the necessary power, and the process would be slower than usual, but it can be done."

"Right, then. Use the recalled units. Whatever power the surviving ones have managed to collect should make them somewhat more useful—but be sure to keep the regular production steady while you experiment. There may come a time when these 'crude and ineffective things' are our only means of defense."

"As you will it, my lord. My lady. Atlantis shall rise." Bowing once again, Archon turned and left the chamber.

"Indeed we shall."

SAILOR SAYS:

Hiya! Well, the odango-atama's not around for some reason...

(Cut to Usagi, still trapped in the box the Judge dropped on her last time.)

ChibiUsa: ...so I guess 'll fill in for her.

Hotaru (jumping up from below the camera): And 'm along to help!

ChibiUsa(looks at her sideways): Are you sure you're not just here because the cameraman's cute?

(The camera sweatdrops.)

Hotaru (blushing): ...

ChibiUsa: Well, anyway, it seems to me that the moral for this episode is that people change, and I could also say that it's not a good idea to keep judging people based on first impressions. Given a little time, people can and will grow beyond what you might otherwise expect from them, and if you keep thinking of them as they _used_ to be, you're going to get yourself in trouble. Just look at how take-charge Mina-chan was there for a while, or what Hotaru's learned how to do. OR the fact that I've grown up almost overnight as far as the others are concerned.

(While she's been talking, the other Senshi—minus Usagi and Ami—have been gathering around and staring in wide-eyed shock.)

ChibiUsa: What?

Rei (shakes her head): Sorry. It's just that you look so much like Usagi, but she'd _never_ say anything that perceptive. It was a little... well, weird.

ChibiUsa: Like I said, first appearances can be deceiving. I thought you hated Usagi the first time I met you, and we all know now how wrong that idea is, don't we?

(Rei blushes and shuts up.)

Makoto(looking around): That's odd... where's Ami-chan? Except for that time her mother was ticked off about the house, she hasn't missed one of these things yet.

Minako: Oh, she and Ryo wanted some quality time alone where they were sure you weren't spying on them. (Steps up to the camera while Makoto frowns.)

Anyway, I'd just like to thank the author for what we all know was the REAL highlight of this episode...

Setsuna: That weird vision Urawa-san had?

Makoto: The fact that Artemis and I can track these creatures?

Michiru: All those personal moments?

Haruka: The fight?

Rei: The identity of our enemies?

Minako (looking at them strangely): Have you guys lost it? The REAL highlight of the episode was the return of Sailor V! (Flash of light, puff of smoke, and Minako is replaced by Sailor V.) Like so!

(The group facefaults.)

Sailor V: And I LOOOVE what he's done with the uniform! I can hardly wait to get out there and see how people react—so I won't!

(She dashes off-camera before the others can catch her. The Judge looks in from the right, frowning.)

the Judge: I think I may have created a Frankenstein...

30/03/00 (Revised, 15/08/02)

Well, so much for reaching February—but this sucker's already closing in on 50 pages as it is.

To those who may be concerned, YES, there are reasons for just about everything that's been filling up space in this episode. It will all become clear in time. My slightly long-winded excu... ahem, explanation for Ryo's continued presence was mostly to justify bringing him back in. I DO sort of want a few established male characters who aren't villains in this thing, after all, and Umino has always annoyed the hell out of me—though he'll probably show up before too long as well.

And I have some plans for Mr. Urawa Ryo, oh yes indeed... mwa ha ha ha... heh? You still here?

Oh right, the previews:

-Another (crowded) meeting at the hospital;

-Back to school blues;

-And a most DEFINITE time lapse.

Happy? Good. Now git!