The End of the Beginning.  {1/1}


A Sailor Moon fanfic by Tim Nolan. 
e-mail: nomad@cyberverse.com

Please see the comments following the story.


author's notes
1. Warning! There is a small amount of cursing in this story. 
2. This story is very much tied in with my previous works. 
   They should be read in the following order. 
	Awakening, part 1
	Awakening, part 2
	Obligations
	The End of the Beginning
3. The first part of the prologue happens right after the 
	ending of 'Obligations'. The second part of the prologue
	happens several months after that. The rest of this 
	story happens almost two years after 'Obligations.'
	The Inner Senshi are seventeen and soon to be eighteen.   
4. This story is not following the Japanese school system
   for when classes are in session.
5. The continuity does not include the second part of 
   'Stars', the fifth season of Sailor Moon in Japan. 
   The story presented in 'Obligations' happens shortly 
   after the Nephrenia arc of 'Stars', but after that, 
   the anime goes one way and I go another. 
6. There are ideas and concepts from the manga involved in 
   in these stories even though I do generally follow the 
   anime storyline for the most part. 
7. quick translations of Japanese terms
	ojii-san : grandfather
	hime-chan : princess
	onee-san : older sister	 

***


The End of the Beginning.


	
	There's no time for us
	There's no place for us
	What is this thing that fills our dreams 
	yet slips away from us?
	There's no chance for us
	It's all decided for us
	This world has only one sweet moment 
	set aside for us.

	Who wants to live forever?


	-Queen, from 'Who Wants to Live Forever?'






Prologue.


	Was it the right decision? He considered the question 
as his brother cast off the guise he had assumed for this 
'visit', as their conversation would have seemed to another 
observer, and vanished. His other siblings had only recently 
begun experimenting with taking human form, something that 
he had been doing for a long time. His experience at it let 
him conceal what he had been doing from the others.
	The room he floated in was small and dimly lit, with 
a cold, bare, stone floor and walls. Several candles provided 
the illumination but the flames that topped them didn't 
flicker. The roof and a few dilapidated benches were the only 
things made of wood until he waved his hand slightly, 
dispelling the illusion below him. A bed appeared, one as 
old and worn as the benches. He put the staff that was 
resting across his knees down next to the occupant and 
considered his problems and his solutions.
	A long, long time ago, even for them, a cry in the 
darkness had made them aware of each other and that it was 
possible to communicate. One of their sisters was dying, it 
turned out, and there was nothing they could do to help 
her. The best they could do was to tell her she would 
always be remembered  for giving them this wonderful gift.
	He hadn't fully agreed with his sibling, however. There 
had to be something he could do, and it took some time for 
his sister to actually die. She had tried not to show that 
it hurt, but the cries of pain she occasionally let slip 
still haunted him even now. The problem came from the fact 
that her corporeal body was being disrupted by it's 
proximity to her largest brother. 
	Without that link to the physical world, she was 
fading away. There was no way for the others to take her 
place, or to share theirs with her. He seemingly ignored 
the others most of the time, garnering a reputation for 
being slow and deliberate as he pondered this problem. In 
truth, he had been devoting his time to searching for 
something he could do to help her. His solution may not 
have been elegant, but it had almost been in time.
	The others were still fascinated by their newly 
found ability to converse among themselves, and weren't 
aware of what he was going to do. It was just as well, he 
later realized. They would have tried to stop him, just on 
the basis of the risk that he was about to take.
	His sister's fate had proved that they could die. Her 
spirit, the essence that made her alive, was fading. She 
could no longer keep it safe, but if someone else couldn't, 
what if something else could? The danger came from the fact 
that he was as tied to his body as much as the others. However, 
if his sister's essence could be separated from her physical 
self, shouldn't his be able to be separated as well?
	He settled his thoughts and gently pushed all but a 
tiny fraction of himself free of the physical, leaving that 
portion as an anchor. The ease of it astounded him, and 
resolving to study this more in the future, he willed 
himself to his sister's remains. They had already started 
to cool, with only the centers of the four largest pieces 
still being warm. He could now see that most of her was 
lost, but not everything. Some of her essence still remained, 
along with most of her power, and he gathered it together 
to work with.  
	Choosing those four pieces due to their size, he bound 
some of her energy and an equal portion of her spirit into 
each one. Those pieces will survive a long, long time. This 
way, part of what was left of her would be in her former 
place if she was somehow able to return, or they found a 
way to return her to life.
	The other four he chose, however, were a tiny fraction 
of the size of the others even though they had as much power. 
These four he brought with him as he returned to his body, 
and was grateful that he was actually able to make it back. 
There had been no way to test his theory.
	It was only later when he and the others who were the 
four furthest out from the center began their watch upon the 
outer reaches of the system that he realized what those four 
items could be used for. The avatars of those four were a 
part of that watch as well, and he fashioned three of the 
four objects into tools for them to use called talismans. 
The ringed one declined the use of one of them for his 
avatar, as he had a premonition that it could be unwise. 
	Therefore, the other three avatars received the 
talismans he had fashioned into items out of their legends 
since the avatars still didn't know who they received their 
power from. The fourth, however, he fashioned into a 
contingency if the ringed one's fears were not groundless. 
It would be able to call upon not only the power that was 
inherent to it, but also that of the three talismans and 
the four other reserves of power. If it ever came to it, 
the avatars would be even more prepared for any possible 
emergency. 
	" I was a fool," he whispered, looking down on the 
woman on the bed. That same power had drawn one group of 
enemies, and would probably bring more. Her first real 
suffering on his behalf, aside from the drawbacks to her 
long life, had come about because during the attack by 
those enemies, she stopped time to give two other avatars 
the opportunity to finish their mission. He had known what 
was going through her mind as she slammed shut the gates 
of time at the cost of her life.
	She was, in her view, making amends for what she had 
done to them. She knew that they had the other two talismans, 
but she didn't have any idea of how to remove their heart 
crystals in order to gain access to the talismans. The 
Queen's sacrifice long ago had bound the items to their 
souls as she sent them forward in time. 
	Their enemies, however, knew how. By forcibly 
manifesting the souls of their victims in the shape of 
the crystalline constructs they called heart crystals, 
those enemies were searching for the talismans. His avatar 
knew that it would mean their deaths, but she had awakened 
the other two and sent them into battle. It was the only 
way to get the talismans.
	One part of her, the practical side that had grown 
cold and detached over the years, dismissed it as an 
acceptable loss. They would fight on until they were 
defeated, and then the talismans would be obtained. The 
other part of her, the warm side that was usually 
subordinate to the other, finally rebelled, gained the 
upper hand, and she gave up her life so that they might 
live. 
	He had brought her back from the brink of death, 
employing his own control over time to save her. The 
evolutionary path of the humans never intended them to 
live more than a few score orbits of their homeworld. He 
didn't have the luxury of replacing avatars like the 
others. It took most of a human lifetime to train her, 
and she had a natural ability far beyond any of the 
others he had considered. No, he would only have one 
avatar, and had even shown her how to fully make use 
of her talisman. The others hadn't even done that, 
preferring to pass the talismans down from avatar to 
avatar without their knowing the true power the devices 
held.
	In part, it was his way of atoning for all he had 
done to her. She had realized and accepted the dangers 
she would face and the pain she would bear, and had 
agreed to represent him. What he was about to do was 
another part of his atonement. This would be the second 
time he had done this, and he would do it again. He owed 
her that much, at least. She was his first line of defense 
against an encroachment upon the realm of time that he had 
first glimpsed when he tried to save his sister. 
	He reached into himself and took a little of his 
own life, using it to restore her to full health like he 
had done before. He had kept her from truly dying these 
two times recently and brought her back here instead, 
although it was trickier this last time. The first time 
she had merely stopped the flow of time. He had barely 
been able to find her this time amid all the strange 
convolutions in the fabric of time around her. 
	He knew what she had done and took a teacher's delight 
in the progress of a student and her technical skill. The 
reason why she had done it amazed him. He still couldn't 
imagine what it would be like to have that same depth of 
feeling, or to have that much capacity to care so much 
about the welfare of another.
	" Welcome back, child," he softly said to her and 
sank into the floor as she opened her eyes.

***********************************************

	Ten, twenty, thirty, forty thousand, he finished 
counting to himself as he walked away and began to 
calculate his tip from this bill and how much he would 
have to give to the busboy. This job at a very trendy, 
very upper-scale steak house was a godsend for his bank 
account even if it was only part time, since he filled in 
for anyone who was sick.
	" Here you go," he said to the cashier, letting the 
older man tabulate the totals on the computer and make the 
change. These were probably the last customers of the night,
so after returning the change to the table he ducked into 
the kitchen to get a cup of decaf coffee and review his 
finances. 
	He loved her dearly, but Usagi had literally been 
eating up his savings a little while ago. His last real 
contact in the modeling business had retired a few months 
earlier, and the jobs that had once supplemented his 
other income were gone. He couldn't condone taking her 
over to Mako-chan's too many times, even if the tall 
girl told him to do so if things were getting tight. 
	No, he never liked taking charity very much, but 
it had been a tough battle between his convictions and 
the cash flow until the manager here had called him. One 
of his old friends and co-workers had recommended him 
to the management of the new place when they were short 
handed. The owners were very particular about the level 
of service and weren't hiring just anybody. It had been 
hard work, but very rewarding financially, and things 
were finally starting to look up.
	The manager had dropped by earlier on his way 
home for the night and handed him an envelope with the 
last three night's pay. He was in the process of adding 
up all his tips for the evening when a low whistle rang 
out as one of the waiters came into the kitchen.
	" Gentleman, I am in love."
	The person making the statement was a well known 
womanizer, not to mention one of the full time waiters. He 
glanced into the mirror by the door to make sure his hair 
was absolutely perfect. One of the busboys slightly 
opened and looked out the doors.
	" No way, Ryo. Not with a lady that classy."
	" Five thousand yen says that I take her home, and 
I'll pay anyone else twice what they bet if I don't," he 
confidently stated, and then looked at Mamoru. " Hey, 
Chiba! They're in your section. Can I serve them, and do 
you want in?"
	" Let me see," he smiled and glanced out the doors. 
Somehow, he kept a straight face as he turned back. " Ryo, 
I've got thirty thousand yen here that says you won't 
even make it to the plate if you'll give me three to one 
odds."
	" Just to make it to the plate? Shit, Chiba. Don't 
make me take your money. I'll ask her out in a second. You're 
on, man," the younger man sneered and stepped out into 
the dining area.
	" Are you crazy?" the cook asked him 
incredulously. " That boy needs a four poster bed for 
all the notches he's racked up."
	" No,"  Mamoru smiled back confidently. " He won't 
even try anything. Watch."
	It only took a few moments until the now-shaken 
younger man came back into the kitchen. 
	" They want you to serve them, Chiba-san," he 
stammered, beginning to blush. 
	" And... " he added expectantly.
	" I... couldn't. I expected her boyfriend to 
frighten me off or something, but he didn't even seem 
to notice me. She just looked at me, and I couldn't bring 
myself to say anything. That chick is scary."
	" Hah!" the cook exclaimed in triumph, since he had 
bet against the younger man in hopes of getting the odds. 
	" Don't worry, Ryo," Mamoru consoled him before 
going out into the dining area to see what they 
wanted. " You can pay it in installments."
	" Good evening, ladies," he greeted them. " It's 
very nice to see you today. Is there anything I can get 
for you?"
	" Yes," the sandy-haired blonde drawled back at 
him. The leather racing team jacket with the sponsor's 
patches she wore was a splash of daring, stylish color 
among the dull earth tones that were currently in 
fashion. " Your manager."
	" Haruka," he cautioned her. " Don't do this. I 
need this job."
	" You could quite easily buy this entire chain, 
Mamoru-san," Michiru gently reminded him.
	" Look, I don't want your money," he protested.
	Haruka's eyes went cold and she snapped her 
fingers loud enough to get the assistant manager to 
jump up and hurry over to her. She held up a hand to 
stop his inquiry and began to peel off several ten-thousand 
yen notes from a roll of them in her pocket.
	" We're hiring this gentleman here to be our dinner 
companion for the evening. I assume he can be spared from 
his regular duties for the occasion. I also want three 
rib-eyes out here in ten minutes with all of the trimmings, 
and tell your cook he had better live up to the standards 
of the first one of these places in Texas. I eat there 
whenever I'm in the area, and the owner is a good friend 
and a sponsor. Any problems?" she finished coldly, 
dismissing him with her eyes.
	" No, sir," he stammered and fled back into the 
safety of the kitchen. 
	" Mamoru-san, please, sit down," Michiru asked 
and slid over to make some more room for him. He did so, 
but warily. This looked to be another of their recent 
disagreements. They were always too polite towards him 
for it to be called a fight.
	" It's not 'our' money, Mamoru," Haruka began, 
meeting his gaze. " It belongs to both of you. We're 
just the trustees."
	" And you can keep on doing that," he cut in. " Usagi 
said she'd ask for it if she needed it, and I don't want it."
	" No, Michiru," Haruka cut off the turquoise haired 
woman as she began to speak, and then looked back at the 
young man and caught his gaze. " We've been nice to you 
for long enough. It's been six months, Mamoru. Six months 
since we almost lost her. That's enough of a vacation. It's 
time you started properly doing your part in protecting her."
	" What!" he hissed, unconsciously bending the heavy, 
silver spoon he had been slowly twirling between his 
fingers. Michiru put her hand over his as he began to 
stand up and call her out. She took the utensil from his 
hands and put her other hand on his forearm to reassure 
him. 
	" Mamoru-san," she implored him, waiting for the 
flush of anger to fade from his face. " We've told you 
what we found. We can't do anything with any of the books. 
We tried. Ami-chan can almost detect it on a regular basis, 
and I'm only a little better. We use magic somehow, but 
we can't manipulate it. You're the only one of us who can."  
	He sighed heavily, keeping his thoughts to himself 
for the next several minutes until the food arrived. Ami 
and Michiru had been very determined after their encounter 
with the magi to find out just what they all could do, and 
exactly how they did it. They'd drawn a blank, even with 
finding a cache of books related to the subject that were 
in one of Setsuna's homes. 
	It had been during that time that while fighting the 
magi that he began to experiment more with his own 
abilities, and found out that he had much more control 
than the Senshi. He had been meaning to help them more 
in their experiments, but his studies at school, his 
jobs and Usagi had been taking up all his time.
	" We've got a proposal for you," Michiru said 
after they had been served. " You're the only one who 
has a chance of understanding anything in those books. 
You already have the most manifestations of power than 
any of us."
	A puzzled look came across his face. " Me?"
	" Roses, the cane, a ranged attack, two forms, 
and some type of pre-cognitive abilities tied in with 
teleportation," Haruka ticked the examples off on her 
fingers, and then picked up the bent spoon. " No matter 
when or how, you always were there whenever Usagi-chan 
was in trouble. That's magic in anyone's book."   
	" What do you want me to do, then?" he asked, 
carefully looking at both of them in turn. 
	" We want to hire you, Mamoru. Setsuna wanted all 
of  you to be able to go to whatever school you wished 
without having to work at the same time. Therefore, we'll 
take over your tuition, rent and other expenses in exchange 
for your working on figuring out just what you do and how 
you do it."
	" That's basically the same offer I turned down 
before," he said apologetically, and gave them a bleak 
smile. " Why should I accept it this time? I told you I 
don't want your pity."
	Haruka's hand hit his face hard enough to rock him 
back in his seat. It hadn't been a punch, but a stinging 
slap by the back of her left hand. She stood up, eyes 
flashing in anger and looking like she was ready to 
swing on him again as she made a fist of her right hand 
and drew it slightly back. It was several seconds before 
she took a deep breath and let the two pieces of silver 
that were the spoon fall to the tablecloth from her 
right hand.
	" Talk to him, Michiru. See if you can get him to 
start thinking straight. If that doesn't work, I'll try 
hitting him a few more times."
	" You deserved that, you know," Michiru commented 
as she took another bite of her steak while Haruka 
stalked out. A few moments later, the low-pitched roar 
of a sportscar engine sped off into the distance. 
	" I won't do it, Michiru. Not when it's being 
offered out of pity. I had to deal with enough of 
that in the orphanage."
	Her soft, easy laughter distracted him from the 
dark mood his thoughts were in. He had an irrational 
need to push back when Haruka pushed him, and she had 
been doing a lot of that recently. Usagi had designated 
the tall woman the tactical leader of the Senshi, and 
Haruka had been quick to try and address her perceptions 
of their shortcomings. She had been especially hard on 
him, in his opinion.
	" Mamoru, we never pitied you," she explained, 
filling the napkin of the spare place setting with some 
ice and handing it to him. " This isn't the two rich 
ones lording it over on you. Haruka and I made a lot 
of money even before we had met Setsuna, but we never 
felt sorry for you because you never had as much.
	" This is about taking care of Usagi, and Haruka 
is scared by what happened. We got lucky again, and 
that's killing her inside. If it hadn't been for 
Minako's sacrifice, you and Rei would be the only ones 
left right now. Hotaru wasn't going to hold back, and... 
well, we won't outlive each other by any great margin."
	" Haruka scared?" he echoed, missing what she 
had just admitted.
	" We're not using to relying on luck, Mamoru," she 
continued after taking a sip of wine and pushing her 
plate several centimeters away. " It worries both of 
us that it came so close to being over. We spent a 
long time getting by on our own when we were dealing 
with the daemons, and she's not used to relying on 
others, or luck. Haruka is also having a problem because 
you don't act as dedicated to the princess as she 
thinks you should be." 
	" That's awfully honest but somewhat convoluted," he 
admitted a few moments later.  
	The turquoise haired woman carefully thought out her 
next words before continuing. " She doesn't doubt your 
desire to protect the princess, but you don't act as overtly 
as she does in regards to it," Michiru explained a few 
moments later. " Haruka pretends that she isn't hurt by 
what happened, but she spent several nights in tears over 
her feelings of inadequacy after we got Usagi back."
	" And you?" he asked a few moments later. " How do 
you feel?"
	" I'm better at hiding it than she is," Michiru 
smiled at him and took a last bite of the steak before 
taking out her purse and touching up her lipstick. " This 
isn't for us, Mamoru-san. It's not a ploy to make you feel 
bad. We're concerned for her safety, and you're the only 
one who can do this. 
	" There have been five golem attacks ever since we 
beat the magi. We can no longer assume that they are all 
gone. Their order has come back from the dead before and 
you are our only hope in learning how to fight them," she 
said, putting one of her hands over his. " Will you work 
with us, so we can do our job of protecting her properly?"
	" All right," he capitulated a few moments 
later. " I'm glad you explained it a little better to 
me. I'm still not fond of doing it this way, Michiru, 
but I'll do it."
	" Thank you," she beamed in gratitude, and then 
got up. He took a quick swallow of coffee and got to his 
feet as well. 
	" Do you need a ride?" he offered as they walked 
out to the parking lot. " I may have driven off your 
escort for this evening."
	" That's all right," she smiled and gave him a 
quick kiss on his cheek, the one without the bruise. " It 
is sweet of you to ask, though."
	She pulled her communicator out of her purse. It 
beeped softly as she pressed one of the buttons, and 
she put it back. " She'll be by in a few minutes. It 
was just a matter of letting off some steam. Why don't 
you go on and head home, and we can work everything out 
tomorrow?"
	He was finally persuaded to leave her, and climbed 
into the white and blue AC Cobra that he had been loaned 
by Haruka while his car was in for repairs and a rebuild 
on the engine. With a jaunty salute, he sped off as she 
waved good-bye. He was as bad as Haruka when it came to 
cars, it seemed.
	Her ride pulled into the lot a few minutes later 
and rolled to a stop next to the woman. There was a 
slight click as the lock on the passenger side 
disengaged and she opened the door.
	" Well?" 
	" He'll do it," she confirmed, taking a seat in 
the white and yellow roadster. 
	" How much did you tell him?"
	" Everything," she confessed. " He won't say 
anything to the others, though.  He's too much the gentleman, 
and I needed to use it as a scare tactic. You did cry a few 
times about it, after all."
	" Michiru?" the tall woman asked hesitantly a few 
minutes later as they waited at a stop light. Her voice 
was unusual; a soft, tentative tone that made Michiru 
realize how much something was affecting her. " Next time, 
I want to be the good cop. I don't want them to get to set 
in their feelings about me. I do care about them and how 
they feel."
	" Haruka!" she gently laughed, despite the slightly 
worried look on her companion's face. " It would never 
work, I'm afraid. It would absolutely ruin my own 
reputation for being the sweet, gentle and cultured 
one.
	" Besides, who's going to believe that I would 
hit them?" 
	 

End - Prologue.


************************************************


The End of the Beginning.


	" Here you go, Hotaru-chan," the young woman said, 
setting down the tray that held two cups of steaming 
Oolong tea. Ami waited for her to take one, and then 
picked up the other and gently blew across the surface 
to cool it a bit, enjoying the initial feel of the warmth 
of the tea through the ceramic cup.
	" Thank you, Ami-chan," she replied to the blue 
haired girl with a polite smile. " I still don't know 
why you need to keep on doing this, though."
	" I do it for almost all of us, Hotaru-chan," she 
explained. " We're not precisely the same as everyone 
else, and I need to keep the records in case we ever 
need the medical information." 
	" You said almost back there," the raven-haired 
girl said, seizing a potential opportunity with a quick 
smile. " What would it take to be 'almost'?" 
	Ami laughed in response, taking a sip of tea 
before putting it down and opening her computer. She 
tapped a few keys and handed it over to the other 
young woman. 
	" Hit ENTER, and you'll see what I mean."
	Hotaru did, and watched the computer flash up a 
warning and beep at her in an almost annoyed tone.
	< REQUEST SCAN OF SUBJECT: MEIOU, SETSUNA >
	< REQUEST DENIED >
	< PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD FROM SUBJECT TO CONTINUE >
	" It did that to me anytime I tried to get a recording 
of anything about her," Ami admitted, blushing. " Trust me, 
I tried. I started keeping a medical file on each of us right 
after Usagi-chan and I first met Rei-chan. Setsuna-san 
thought it was a good idea, but wouldn't talk to me about 
why my computer says that every time I tried to scan her."
	" I miss her," the other young woman admitted with a 
sigh. 
	" We all do, Hotaru-chan," Ami said, putting a 
reassuring hand over one of the other girl's. " There 
still hasn't been any sign?"
	" No. The financial people keep on getting 
instructions that they say are hers. It's good advice 
as well."
	" That's too bad," Ami responded a few moments 
later. " Chibi-usa still hasn't gotten over finding out 
that the time keys can work without her. She was certain 
that when she got called to return to the future that Pluto 
was back."
	" I know, Ami-chan," she said flatly. " Chibi-usa-chan 
will be back in a few days, too, and her heart will break 
if there still isn't any sign of her. What do you need me 
to do for this, anyway?"
	" Well," Ami started, looking around the sitting 
room of the penthouse suite in one of the three towers 
that overlooked the large, tree-filled park that marked 
the remains of the Infinity Academy. " We should go into 
your room. It will be a lot more private there."
	" We're on the top floor of the tallest building 
for kilometers around," Hotaru laughed. She stood up and 
slipped the plain black dress she wore over her head. " The 
only people who could possible see me would need to be in 
a helicopter, Ami-chan."
	Ami giggled nervously, blushed and took a drink of 
tea. " I guess you're right, but you'll need to take 
everything off, Hotaru-chan. You may have stopped growing 
again, and I need to have the most accurate information 
possible. You're still a unique case."
	" All right," Hotaru replied, managing a small 
grin. " At least you won't try and make me wear one of 
those silly paper robes like my regular doctor will."
	She finished undressing as Ami resolutely kept her 
eyes on her computer screen and began typing, her many 
years of experience offsetting the difficulty of using 
the small keyboard. The scanners were already working, 
compiling another set of statistics in the memory, and 
she pulled up a window with the summary of the last scan 
she had of Hotaru from three months ago.
	" I'm a little surprised that this bothers you, 
Ami-chan," she said, startling the other girl, and then 
risked a mischievous smile. " Don't you want to be a 
doctor?"
	" Well," Ami blushed again and took the 
defensive. " We don't have the normal doctor and patient 
relationship that the medical programs train you for, so 
it does seem a little strange."
	" I'm sorry, then," she replied. " I was never 
really modest after the accident. After the first few 
dozen doctors prod you for a while, you don't care about 
it anymore."
	Ami hazarded a glance at her. " You don't even 
look like it ever happened."
	" I look that way now," Hotaru replied, referring 
to the accident twelve years ago where her mother was 
killed and she was fatally injured. It was only by the 
bargain her father made by selling his soul to Pharaoh 
Ninety that she survived the explosion in the laboratory. 
	" Before, most of my major joints were artificial, 
or held together by lots of plastic and metal. Most of the 
larger bones were broken and had pins in them. I used to 
set off the detectors at the airport when we went to the 
orthopedic clinic in Los Angeles for the second and third 
operations. I wore those body suits all the time when we 
first met because the scarring was so bad after all the 
surgeries."
	Ami started to express her condolences when her 
computer beeped at her.
	" This is sickening," she muttered. " I think you 
look like you're about sixteen or seventeen, but in the 
past three months you've put on another twelve centimeters. 
You're already taller than I am, and I don't think you've 
stopped yet." 
	" Yes!" the girl exulted, and then reigned in her 
excitement. " I'm sorry, Ami-chan. It's just that I've 
always been the shortest one and Michiru and Haruka are 
so tall. I didn't mean anything by it."
	" That's all right," she responded. " You just 
might catch Michiru at this rate. Can you keep a secret?"
	Hotaru nodded, picked up her underwear and glanced 
at Ami, who nodded in reply before continuing. " Usagi 
has been wearing heels a lot more recently, and I've 
taken to wearing flats most of the time so she won't 
notice. She's the shortest of us now by a total of two 
millimeters."
	" You didn't tell her?" Hotaru asked as she began 
to dress.
	" No," was the reply as Ami set up a new program 
and started it. " It isn't as important to me as it is 
to her. I had gotten just a little bit taller than her 
a while back, and then she caught up and passed me. She 
knows that I'm almost her height, but not that I've 
surpassed it. Would you please change into Sailor Saturn 
now?"
	Astonishment and surprise filled her voice a few 
moments later after Hotaru complied with her request, 
a scepter appearing in her hands and a cascade of purple 
light falling on her from the ceiling. 
	" Would you change back and forth a few times?" Ami 
asked, getting a puzzled look on her face. Hotaru did 
as asked, wondering what was wrong.
	" Well?" 
	" That's really strange," Ami said a few minutes 
later. " You didn't gain in height or weight when you 
changed."
	" What?"
	Ami took a deep breath and leaned back in her seat, 
motioning for the other girl to join her. Hotaru did so 
after changing back. " Perhaps you didn't notice it 
because you've still been growing so much over a relatively 
short period of time, but we all got a little bigger after 
we first became Senshi. It wasn't much, only about a 
centimeter or so and a kilo or two, but we all changed 
after our first transformation."
	" Mine wasn't really normal, I guess," Hotaru 
admitted, shrugging. " Not with someone else controlling 
my body at the time."
	" We don't really know why it happened," Ami 
continued. " It may be part of why we're different 
from normal people. As Senshi, we're somewhat stronger, 
faster, and so on. The extra height and weight might 
just be the changes to our skeletal structure and 
musculature that enables us to do that."
	" That must have been fun dealing with," she 
quipped. " I guess it was time for a new wardrobe, huh?" 
	" You don't know just how much fun it was," Ami 
dryly replied. " Ever wear a bra that was just a little 
too small?"
	Hotaru winced at the thought, causing Ami to 
laugh at her reaction before going back to her 
explanation. " When I first became Mercury, I was 
about a total of two centimeters taller than I had been 
a week before that. I had been measured for a physical 
as part of my transfer to another new school, so I knew 
my height quite well. The rest of us had pretty much the 
same results. We all gained a little bit permanently, and 
a little more on top of that when we transform.
	" I'm one of the least noticeable ones, with Mako-chan 
and Haruka-san being at the other end of the spectrum. 
They're physically a lot stronger than I am, though, so 
that could be part of the reason."
	Hotaru went pale at the pleased look that came over 
Ami's face after that statement and unconsciously leaned 
away from her on the couch.
	" Hotaru-chan," Ami sweetly asked. " You do have 
a private gym on this floor, don't you?"
	" Yes," she nervously replied.
	" That's wonderful," Ami almost purred, rising 
to her feet. " I was looking for something to occupy 
my mind today, and I just realized that you gave me a 
new puzzle to try and figure out. I want to get some 
idea of how strong you are now and when you're Sailor 
Saturn, among a few things. Treadmills and weights to 
begin with, I believe. 
	" I may have had a problem acting like a doctor a 
few moments ago, but I'm great at being a research 
scientist."

************************************************

	The conditions that night were some of the nicest 
she had seen in a long time, and she was glad that he had 
asked her to accompany him this evening. She slipped from 
one shadow to another, carefully avoiding making a sound. 
There was only a little bit of light from the stars right 
now, so it was a nice change of pace. The hunting in the 
park near Usagi's didn't have nearly the challenge that 
this place had, and the artificial lights made it so 
easy some times. 
	A gleam of silver ahead of her was Artemis doing 
much the same as she, although he had gotten to be 
slightly better than her at night work. His coat made 
him use more care and skill in planning his approach. 
She had realized that she had gotten sloppy one time 
they were playing hide and seek a few months ago to 
keep their skills honed. 
	Despite her coloring giving her a distinct advantage 
at night, she had been spotted more times than he and had 
been the loser that evening. That was why they were now 
prowling the slopes of the hill by the shrine. The thick 
undergrowth was a natural haven for their prey and would 
give her many opportunities to practice.
	He had stopped and was slightly tensed. She saw 
his ears twitch forward, indicating he had spotted 
something. Automatically, she swung out to circle 
around on his right and get herself in position. She 
was the one who needed the practice here, and he 
understood that. 
	Whatever it was, it had no idea that she was 
here. The rustling continued as she crept forward. She 
stepped over a dry twig, and carefully avoided some 
brittle leaves until she was in the position she 
desired. Mouse, she realized, catching the scent as 
the breeze swung a little more towards her. 
	It only took a few more minutes. She had the 
patience that a regular cat couldn't match and her prey 
soon moved in closer to her. The mouse couldn't see her 
in the dim light and she wasn't moving. The kill was 
almost anti-climactic.
	" Good stalk," he said as he walked up to her. She 
shrugged and let the mouse go. It sat in shock for a few 
moments before scampering away into a tuft of grass. They 
both tensed instinctively, preparing for the chase, and 
then smiled at their reactions.
	" It wasn't much of a challenge," she sniffed and 
examined one of her paws.
	" It should never be a challenge," he replied, 
sitting down next to her. " Your instincts are still 
there, Luna. You're just out of practice." 
	" You would be if you had my job," she added 
somewhat defensively. He flinched slightly at that, 
and she realized what she had implied. " I'm sorry, 
Artemis. I didn't mean... it's just that she's still 
so much work for me."
	" I know," he sighed and leaned against her a 
little bit. " I have a lot more free time now, and 
some nights it is very nice to be able to let instincts 
take over for a while and not have to remember."
	" I know," she whispered. " I miss that, too." 
	" I told you I could take some of your nights for 
you."
	" I... she's still such a handful that I really 
wouldn't feel right doing that. Sometimes I feel that 
she'll never grow up."
	" You've done a good job, dear," he added and 
began to groom her behind the ears, right where he knew 
she liked it. " Usagi is a light that only shines in the 
darkest hours."
	" And to think that I wondered just where Minako-chan 
came up with all that horrible dialogue that Usagi-chan 
copied," Luna teased him before getting serious. " She's 
having a tougher time accepting it right now. Usagi has 
been very upset ever since Minako-chan saw her changing. 
She almost tried using the crystal last night to bring 
her back." 
	" Baka," he growled softly. He got up and began 
to walk up towards the top of the hill. " I could have 
told her that it won't work." 
	" Artemis," she called out in a shocked voice 
as she followed him. " You mean to tell me that-" 
	" What would you expect?" he whispered so quietly 
she almost didn't hear what he said. She could, however, 
easily feel the pain in his voice. " Yes, I tried to 
reach her mind. She was as much my daughter as Diana 
will ever be. She was my friend, Luna.
	" I snuck in to see her the first night and almost 
put my entire soul into her in an effort to find out what 
happened. I still couldn't find her. I've done the same 
thing every couple of months on the hope that we've 
somehow gotten lucky. 
	" That girl looks like her and smells like her, 
but we still can't prove that it is the Minako we knew. 
There's no sign of Minako. I can't even find any sign of 
Venus anymore."
	" Oh, no!" she exclaimed. " Artemis, I'm so sorry. 
Why didn't you tell us?"
	He sighed as they reached the actual grounds of 
the shrine but didn't answer her right away. Phobos and 
Deimos didn't even stir from their perch as the cats 
walked by them after climbing a tree en route to a warm 
spot on the roof near the chimney. It was only after 
they had curled up in a ball together that he went on.
	" I may have been wrong, Luna, and I couldn't... 
couldn't bring myself to break her heart like that."
	" That's true. It has been tough enough for Usagi 
with Minako-chan being gone, let alone the chance that 
it might be permanent, " she replied, remembering the 
scene on the chartered Learjet after Usagi had been seen 
off by Minako's parents. Usagi, along with Michiru, Haruka 
and the two cats were supposed to be going to Europe to 
see the girl who was being hired to be Minako's double 
on the volleyball tour. The strain of having to imitate 
Minako and deal with her parents left Usagi so 
emotionally drained that she had collapsed as soon 
as the doors closed. 
	Michiru took her into her arms and got her onto 
the plane's couch. Usagi wasn't wailing like she usually 
did when she cried. This was a quiet sobbing that just 
wouldn't stop until she fell asleep a few hours later. 
The two women diverted the plane to Okinawa and took 
Usagi to a private resort for some time to recover and 
regroup. The two cats, along with Haruka, flew back 
later that night in order to bring Mamoru to Usagi. She 
also took the opportunity to do a light mind-touch on 
Usagi's family so they wouldn't miss her for a few weeks 
since the black cat was the most familiar with them.
	" Her mother would be proud of her," he added a 
few moments later. " I think that we've done a good job."
	" I think so, too," she replied before resting 
her head on him and closing her eyes for a brief 
catnap. He was only too glad to join her, and for some 
time the only sounds were the branches rustling in the 
light breeze.

***********************************************

	A small noise woke the child up in the darkness of 
the early morning. She stirred and looked up before 
breaking into a grin as she recognized the visitor. The 
child didn't make a sound, though. She had learned that 
the other one would leave if she began to cry out. The 
mark on her forehead began to softly glow, giving 
everything in the room a pale, golden tint that matched 
the child's hair.
	" That's very good, little one," the woman whispered, 
picked up the child and made her way to a seat on the sofa 
by the window. A hand was gently laid over the glowing 
sigil as another appeared in response, glowing in a 
luminescent violet on the woman's head. The child's 
faded after a few minutes.
	" You're not needed right now, sweetheart. Rest 
while you can."
	She always liked this view from this particular 
house. The city lights and the darkness of Tokyo Bay 
were a wonderful contrast and she used to spend a lot 
of time here just looking at them. This was even better 
now, she admitted to herself. It had been so long since 
she had been able to do this.
	The others were like her children in some ways, or 
her younger sisters in an extended family. She had helped 
raise almost all of them over the years, even the one she 
now held. She had long since lost track of how many hours 
had been spent like this in the early mornings of the past 
in the castle on the moon, holding one of them and looking 
up at the blue orb that loomed above them.
	 Her voice wasn't used to singing this softly and 
threatened to break a few times, but she quietly crooned 
a lullaby that hadn't been heard for over a thousand 
years. The last time she had sang other than this was one 
time just after meeting the first of the others here, when 
she had walked in on them while they were playing music 
together. She knew the words, of course. It was her help 
that enabled the composer to finish the piece all those 
years ago.
	The other two had been startled, but continued 
playing as she took over the role of the singer from 
Haruka, and put her heart into it as a remembrance of 
the glories that she had seen go by and the brilliance 
of a young prodigy. They almost applauded as she finished, 
but that would have spoiled the moment. They also wanted 
her to continue performing with them, but she had 
declined the invitation.
	Her song tonight had the same effect on the 
girl that it did in a previous life, and the child 
was asleep in a few minutes. The woman was almost 
surprised that she remembered the lullaby since it 
had been so long ago. In a way, the others had it 
easier. They didn't have to live through everything 
like she had to, but had simply slept through a 
thousand years.
	No, they had it much easier, and on some days the 
load was harder for her to bear than on others. The years 
weighed heavily on her right now, and two lines of tears 
silently made their way down her face.
	The faintest of pressures on her shoulder made her 
look up in surprise. The translucent form of a woman 
stood before her. She had long, golden hair that reached 
to her waist, a fuku of white and orange with a blue bow, 
and her eyes were very sad, but also sympathetic. This 
ghost knew something of her pain, she realized, and she 
stood to properly greet her.
	A thought silently changed her clothes to match 
the style of the other's, a matching fuku but in a 
black that seemed to absorb the light where the spirit 
was in glowing orange. She nodded once, silently. Words 
were not necessary.
	Another figure appeared in the room. She was also 
not fully there; a diaphanous, young woman who was just 
a little shorter than the first apparition. She had 
short, shoulder length black hair and her clothes 
matched the others, but in purple with dark red ribbons.  
	The newcomer came over and embraced the woman, 
melting into nothingness as she did so. She should have 
been sad at her departure, but was refreshed in spirit. 
The other one stepped forward as well. An insubstantial 
hand stroked the child's hair once, and then she felt 
the comfort that the embrace should have brought as 
the image dissolved at her touch.
	She wasn't alone, she realized, her mood brightening 
somewhat. They did remember her, and understood her duty 
and the demands it made on her.
	" Thank you," she softly spoke and put the child 
back into the crib. The blankets were carefully tucked 
back in and she gave her a soft kiss on her forehead 
before standing up straight. A staff appeared in her 
hand, the gem at the top glowing a soft red, and she 
vanished just before the door opened to admit a sleepy 
young woman who stifled a yawn as she went in to check 
on the child. 
	Her hair bobbed around her neck as she bent over 
the crib, it's black color and cut an exact copy of that 
of one of the spirits who had been in the room a few 
moments before. The young woman yawned again and went 
back to bed, still trying to figure out what had awoken 
her a few moments ago if the child was asleep.

**********************************************

	The calm night at the shrine didn't last long. The 
crows started screeching at the same time the cats both 
heard a fearful cry ring out from inside the shrine 
building. 
	" Rei!" Luna called out, realizing that the voice 
was too high pitched to be either of the men there. Two 
lights came on downstairs and they could hear a pair of 
footsteps going up the stairs. Artemis was in motion 
already, scampering around the rooftop until he was 
outside of Rei's window. Luna was right behind him. 
	They could see the door inside burst open as 
Yuuichiro came through with Rei's grandfather in hot 
pursuit. The girl herself was sitting upright in bed 
with the covers tangled around her legs and waist. They 
found that  her eyes were wide and unblinking when the 
older man threw the light switch.
	" Rei-chan!" Yuuichiro called out to her and gently 
shook her by the shoulders. His intentions were good, but 
it still didn't prevent her grandfather from pitching him 
out the door for approaching her in such a state of 
relative undress. 
	" Make some tea, son," he called out over his 
shoulder, flashing a brief smile of gratitude at the 
younger man to let him know he wasn't in the wrong for 
what he had done. They could see that while the priest 
was concerned, he wasn't in a state of panic.    
	" Rei-chan," he softly called to her in a soothing 
tone of voice. His hands pressed against the sides of 
her head at the temple while he intoned a low chant 
that reminded the cats of the mantra the girl used 
with her wards. The girl shuddered and relaxed, 
slumping against him for support. 
	" Thank you, ojii-san," she said a few minutes 
later. 
	" A vision?" he asked. " You came out of the 
dream in a trance state."
	" Another vision," she admitted. A knock at the 
door kept her from saying anything more. She 
straightened the sheets and pulled them up around 
her chest as he got up to open the door. Yuuichiro 
came in with the tea and a look of concern on his 
face that was mirrored on the two outside.
	" Are you all right, Rei-san?" he asked, his 
concerns and the presence of the priest making him 
use a more respectful form of addressing her. She 
nodded at him and gave him a warm smile when he handed 
her the tea. 
	" Could we talk about it in the morning?" she 
asked before her grandfather could ask her to explain 
what she had seen. " I want... I need to meditate and 
clear my mind before I start to forget anything about it." 
	" I'll go tend to the fire," Yuuichiro said, 
moving to leave. Her grandfather nodded his agreement, 
but she could see his concern. He turned down the 
corridor and the younger man began to close the door.
	" Thank you, Yuu-chan," she softly said, getting 
a smile back from him. The door finished closing and 
she heard a muffled cry from the hallway, and her 
grandfather beginning one of his tirades about the 
boy being too familiar with his granddaughter as 
they went down the stairs. He did tend to be very 
conservative in regards to their dating and their 
relationship, but she also knew that he was hiding 
a smile behind his mustache. The priest had gotten 
fond of the young man over the years. 
	The scratching at the window roused her. She 
opened it, and was rather surprised when two cats 
jumped in instead of the birds she had expected. Artemis 
blushed and politely turned away from her. Luna 
affectionately smacked him in the back of the head 
and muttered something about his being a peeping tom 
while Rei blushed as well. She slid on a robe and tied 
the sash before sitting back down on the bed.   
	" Are you all right, Rei-chan," Luna quietly 
asked. " What's this about visions?"
	" I had the first one about two months ago," she 
admitted. " I'd wake up and have this grave sense of 
foreboding, but I couldn't remember seeing the cause." 
	" And it was worse tonight?" Artemis ventured. The 
girl nodded before taking a drink of the tea. She held 
up a hand to them and spent a few minutes composing her 
thoughts before continuing. 
	" We've been studying astronomy in my science 
class at school. The sun is supposed to eventually cool 
off for a long time before partially collapsing and going 
nova. It will blow off most of it's outer layers a few 
billion years from now. This will destroy most of the 
inner planets, by the way," she nervously added, grimacing 
despite trying to smile and make it a joke. 
	" It didn't happen in the future like it was 
supposed to in my dream. It was happening now. The final 
winter came. Everything was freezing, and we... we all 
died."

************************************************

	" Thanks for waiting, Usagi-chan," she said, still 
slightly out of breath from running to the recently 
opened cafe from the bus stop.
	" It was no problem," she replied as she looked 
up from the cup of Darjeeling tea she was nursing 
along. " I'm glad you could make it today."
	Naru smiled as she sat down in the other seat 
of the corner booth, marveling at the changes she had 
seen over the past year and a half. While she had only 
been about ten minutes late, the Usagi she used to know 
would have had the table covered with empty ice cream 
soda glasses by now, or some other calorie-laden 
concoction.
	" You know, she admitted, glancing around to 
make sure that none of the other patrons of the cafe 
could hear them. " It is kind of ironic that you chose 
this place to meet today."
	" Huh?" she blurted as a confused look came 
across her face.
	" It is called Cafe Luna, silly," Naru smiled, 
her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight. Usagi blushed 
in relief before she could prevent it, and then felt 
a little pang of loss at seeing the green bow holding 
back Naru's reddish-brown hair. She recalled a similar 
red one that someone else used to wear who also had 
blue eyes and smiled a lot.
	" Why do you say that?" she asked, still hoping 
that the conversation wouldn't go in a certain way. 
Sometimes, she had this eerie feeling that Naru knew 
more than she was letting on. It wasn't entirely 
explained by the fact that her boyfriend was the vital 
cog in the rumor mill, either.
	" Your cat," she commented, and Usagi breathed a 
sigh of relief.
	" Any word from that college?" she asked, hoping 
to change the subject.
	" That's part of what I wanted to talk to you 
about," Naru began, pouring herself a cup of tea and 
browsing through the menu for a moment, and then 
catching the waiter's eye so they could place their 
orders.
	" We got our acceptance letters from Nekomi Tech 
yesterday, although it is still conditional on our 
finishing high school, if you want to call going in 
just for homeroom every morning the equivalent of high 
school."
	" Naru!" she gasped, feeling happy for her 
friend. " I'm so glad for you! You both really wanted 
to go to the same university, and he's had that one in 
mind since grade school."
	" I know," the brunette smiled back. " The extra 
credits we got from taking the summer classes allowed 
us to finish most of our schooling and take the 
entrance exams a semester early. I put in for their 
business program so I can help my mom, and Umino is 
going for the computer courses. 
	" We met this really nice exchange student when 
we toured the campus last week, and she and Umino got 
along really well. They were speaking in Greek, for all 
I knew while they talked about computers and stuff, but 
he thinks that we'll do well there. Can you believe that 
the auto club already is already trying to get him to 
sign up with them to help computerize their latest 
project?"
	" He doesn't even have a driver's license yet," she 
protested, heartily laughing all the while. " I'm glad 
that you got accepted, but I'm going to really miss you. 
Nekomi is on the other side of Tokyo, and you've already 
said that you want to move into a place near the 
university you went to."
	" I know, Usagi-chan. We won't be able to see 
each other as much for a little while, but you're going 
to be awfully busy yourself. You still have the last 
semester to finish up and your entrance exams to take. 
You're going to be eighteen in a few months and you 
need to get some idea of what school you want to go 
to."
	" I need to make it through this one first," she 
moaned. " Haruna-sensei has finally gotten over her 
surprise at the change in my grades and is getting her 
revenge for the principal assigning her to every class 
as I progressed to it."
	" The other teachers were afraid of you, 
Usagi-chan," Naru giggled. " Haruna-sensei is just 
paying the price for complaining about you so much to 
the other teachers."
	" She'll be the end of me!" they both intoned in 
unison in a near-perfect imitation of the teacher they 
had in their first two years of high school before 
breaking into easy laughter together. The waiter came 
by at that time to drop off their meals, and they were 
quiet for a few minutes as they began to eat.
	" Thank you," Naru said suddenly after releasing 
a deep sigh. " I've been a nervous wreck trying to 
figure out how to approach you on it, but I did want 
to thank you."
	" Excuse me?" 
	" Usagi," she began, clearly not using the -chan 
suffix she always used when talking to her in order to 
emphasize the seriousness of what she was about to say 
and the closeness of their relationship. " I know, 
Usagi. I've known for quite some time about who you 
also are."
	" Naru-chan," she stammered, letting her fork slip 
from her fingers and clearly at a loss for words. Naru 
reached out and took Usagi's hands in her own. 
	" I used to be mad about what happened, and that 
you didn't tell me. We've been the best of friends since 
the third grade, and then everything changed after you 
got Luna almost four years ago. Suddenly, you didn't have 
the time for me, it seemed. You had a bunch of new 
friends, and I figured that was the end of it. People 
sometimes just drift apart as life goes on.
	" Then, out of the blue, you wanted back into my 
life like everything was back to the way it used to be. 
That went on for nearly a half a year, and then you're 
gone again and running around with Ami-chan and 
Mako-chan. The funny thing was that you had been so 
close so suddenly, and all three of you seemed to have 
forgotten about each other at the same time, and then 
remembered about your previous friendship at the same 
time."
	She held up a hand to forestall Usagi's protests 
and took a sip of water.
	" It finally clicked, Usagi. I don't know why it 
took so long, but I suddenly realized what was going 
on with you a couple of years ago, and then I realized 
the truth about the rest of them once I thought about 
it for a little while. Wherever you were, she would 
show up."
	" I'm sorry, Naru-chan. I don't know what to say."
	" I won't tell anyone, Usagi," she went on with a 
little smile. " Not even Umino. I realize how much you've 
had to do to protect so many people as well as us, and I 
don't hold it against you for not telling me. I'm just 
glad that you've taken the time over the last two years 
to spend some more time with me, and to not just let 
our friendship die. It really means a lot to me, although 
I wish you would let me help you with what's been 
bothering you so much the last week. I know you well 
enough to see that you're hiding something."
	" In for a penny," she sighed heavily, and fished 
her wallet out of her purse. She flipped it open, took 
out a picture and handed it over to Naru. " Do you 
remember Minako-chan?"
	" Yes," she said, looking at the picture of the 
little girl. " She went to Europe to go to school, didn't 
she? This is the baby that Michiru-san and Haruka-san 
adopted, though."  
	" No," she forced the words out past the 
pain. " That's not right. She died almost two years 
ago, Naru-chan. She gave up her life to save mine. We 
think she was reborn as that child, but we don't have 
any way of knowing for certain."
	" Usagi-" she began, slipping around in the booth 
and putting a comforting arm around her friend.
	" That's not all, though," she interrupted and 
sniffled, trying to hold back the tears that were welling 
in her eyes. " She's really bright and quickly learned all 
of our names. She saw me transform one day last week. I 
wasn't thinking and did it in front of her. Now, she's 
changed in how she acts towards me. I was her favorite 
one, and now she doesn't even remember my name anymore."
	A sob finally escaped from her as she began to 
tremble. " She calls me Serenity."
	Naru blinked in confusion, not knowing what Usagi 
was referring to, but the pain her friend was feeling was 
obvious. She gathered her into her arms to console her, 
and held Usagi while she half-heartedly tried to pull away.
	" No... can't cry," Usagi managed between the sobs 
she was trying to suppress. " I have to be strong. She 
gave me another chance and I have to be strong this time."
	" Silly girl," Naru gently scolded her as the dam 
broke and the tears began to roll down her face. She 
pulled her head down onto her shoulder and patted her 
gently on the back. " You can't hold everything in like 
that, Usagi-chan. Just let it out, and then we can talk 
about it. We've got plenty of time, and you can tell me 
all about it."

************************************************

	The bell rang, signaling the end of classes for 
the day and causing a stampede for the doors. What she 
would do next was mainly done just to annoy Sister 
Agnes. The old nun had been a monster towards all of 
them recently, and she just couldn't take it anymore.
	Her locker was just outside the room that the 
old prune taught in during the last period, and she 
also knew that the teacher would be just beyond the 
doors to the walkway outside right now, trying to get 
the other girls to behave in a more dignified fashion. 
Fat chance of that on a Friday afternoon in early April 
when the sun was in the sky, boyfriends were out there 
to be found and a vacation loomed ahead.
	Fishing the denim shorts out of her locker, she 
slid them on underneath her skirt and stepped out of 
the lower half of the uniform of Thomas Aquinas school 
for girls. Her top came off next, revealing the T-shirt 
she wore underneath it to combat the overachieving 
air-conditioner in the new building that nearly made 
her last two classes the equivalent of a winter 
wonderland. 
	She didn't like the cold in that building and 
dressed accordingly, all the while considering throwing 
a curse on the ancestors of whichever dirty old priest 
came up with the school uniform. Being forced to wear 
a short skirt in winter wasn't easy, not when you 
preferred the heat of summer. The spring weather was 
the most variable, however. It would be warm outside, 
freezing inside and difficult to adjust to the change.
	The garments went into her backpack along with the 
uniform shoes. She stepped into her sneakers and ran out 
the doors, passing the old nun in a blink of an eye.
	" Good-bye, Sister Agnes!" she called out cheerfully, 
scandalizing her teacher and sending her into a fit of 
spluttering about the degradation of morals in this age 
and what a proper young lady should be wearing. She 
herself was far too respectful of other religions to 
insult them, but nothing in the Shinto precepts taught 
to her by her grandfather said anything about poking a 
little fun at a fractious old nun who thought that the 
ideal career for her students was joining a nunnery.  
 	Some of the other girls there had a good laugh at 
the expense of the teacher as Rei
continued running out the gates and down the low 
hill. Her conditioning let her keep up the brisk pace 
and to just make it past St. Andrew's before the bell 
rang there. She liked the attention from the boys there 
at her school's affiliate, but she wasn't in the mood 
right now to fend off some of her ardent admirers. By 
the time the boys got out of class and off the school 
grounds she was two blocks away and around a corner.
	Assured of having a peaceful time the rest of the 
way home, she slowed her pace to a steady walk and window 
shopped at a few of her favorite stores as she went by. Her 
wardrobe needed a few new things, anyway, and she liked to 
get out and see the displays of the new merchandise. She 
hadn't the opportunity to do much of that recently.
	A number of things had made her very busy recently. 
She had taken one of the preparatory classes for her 
university entrance exams despite Ami's offer of help. Ami 
was a wonderful friend but wouldn't be as hard on her as 
she needed someone to be at times. 
	Things were also looking up between her and 
Yuuichiro. Somewhere, the ice had broken between them. 
She didn't know when or where it had occurred. Their 
relationship was also a slow one to develop. It wasn't 
easy going from being friends with someone to becoming 
lovers, which was what it seemed to be heading towards. 
	Between these things and her duties as a Senshi, 
she had been very busy, indeed, but she decided that 
she felt good enough today to take a little detour. Going 
through the mall up ahead would add a few blocks to her 
trip, but she didn't mind. The shop would be open.
	The mall she turned into was an old one and an old 
design. The newer malls were practically glass enclosed 
cities with wide streets. This one was open to the sky 
and almost narrow, and it only covered the distance 
between the two streets. Some food vendors had set up 
carts, resulting in a delicious smell and an almost 
tangible warmth that the new malls lacked. The shops 
and their customers had been here for a long time in 
most cases, and she simply liked it better here.
	She darted into one shop and poked her head around 
the corner into another. The proprietor of the one she 
was in smiled at the game that was played out about once 
every two weeks. The clerk at the music store was helping 
some grungy looking guys in the drum section, so she 
slipped around the corner, went in and sat down at the 
bench of the organ by the entrance.
	The functions of the switches had already been 
memorized, and her fingers flew over the two banks above 
the twin keyboard. They pressed down a few keys and lifted 
several others. The organ hummed a little as it warmed up, 
and then the thunderous opening of the movement filled up 
the store. Even the rockers turned, impressed by the power 
of the piece despite it's classical origin, and listened 
until she had finished.
	" That was excellent work," said an older man who 
had come out of the office in the back of the store as 
she played. " It will, however, take more that cutting 
off several opening bars or so of that one to fool me, 
my dear. 
	" That was from Gustav's 'The Planets', but your 
selection surprises me. You're more of a Jupiter to me. 
The bringer of jollity, you lighten up my store every 
time you show up, Miss Hino."
	" Jupiter?" she echoed in surprise as she powered 
down the organ and reset the controls. Then she laughed 
aloud. " No, I'm not a Jupiter."
	" Neptune the mystic, perhaps, but anything other 
than the bringer of war," he smiled back. " I'm sure that 
Holst never had you in mind when he wrote that work."
	" I can only hope to be like Neptune," she 
cryptically responded and then laughed again, shaking 
off the sudden somber look that came into her eyes. " I'm 
clearly and definitely Mars, I'm afraid."
	" Well, Miss Mars," he said as he extended a hand 
to help her to her feet. " Are you going to be able to 
get yourself that birthday present you want so much?"
	" I'm close, but not that close. I only have a few 
weeks until the birthday comes around and I'm about two 
months away from saving up for the piano."
	" That's too bad, then. I know how much you want 
that one we have."
	" Yes," she admitted, looking in the direction of 
the upright. She had been saving up for it for over a 
year now. While it would have only taken a word to some 
of her friends to obtain it, she wanted to get it on her 
own.
	The mirrors at the back of the store behind the piano 
revealed something that made her face go pale. She spun 
just in time to see a cascade of auburn hair move out of 
her line of sight and then she was already on her way to 
the door. The owner of that hair had been in the doorway 
when she glanced in the mirror.
	" I'm sorry, Mr. Tomino," she called out over her 
shoulder. " I just saw someone I needed to talk to. I'll 
be back in here soon!"
	It only took her a few moments to reach the walkway 
and begin to run in the direction the other woman had 
taken. The walkway was virtually empty with the exception 
of the sidewalk area about fifty meters away. The only 
ones near her a mother and her two young children. She 
slowed to a stop.
	A loud sigh escaped her lips as she blankly walked 
towards the street in order to have a look around even 
though she knew that she wouldn't see her there. The wall 
to her right got an accusing stare from her.
	Ghosts were supposed to be able to go through 
walls, and she had seen a ghost a few moments ago. It 
had been nearly two years since anyone had seen that 
girl who was in the mirror. A whisper escaped her 
without really being noticed.
	" Hamaji."
	

***********************************************

	" Do you feel it, too?" 
	Haruka looked up as a shadow fell across her. She 
shivered despite the fact that it was a pleasant morning 
and she was wearing a shirt and slacks. 
	" Yes."
	" The seas are troubled, Haruka," Michiru said as 
she sat down next to her on the towel. Michiru had 
wanted to go swimming in the ocean in order to clear 
her mind, so they had driven to this resort late last 
night. They only had gotten a few hours of sleep but 
they were used to that. Neither of them needed as much 
as a normal person, and they had the beach to 
themselves at this early hour. 
	" Just like the wind," the blonde added, glancing 
up. The sun was just rising over the horizon and colored 
the clouds in tones of orange. " It looks calm, but you 
can feel the tension building."
	" Something is going to happen today," Michiru 
replied and began to dry her hair with her towel. 
	" Do you still like my hands?" Haruka grinned, 
catching Michiru's and gathering her into an embrace. 
The other woman laughed gently and let herself get 
pulled down onto her partner. The white one-piece she 
wore was still wet and left some damp marks on Haruka's 
shirt.
	" Yes, I still like your hands," she murmured, 
squeezing them and remembering that day when they had 
felt this way before. To their surprise, it turned out 
that they actually had the talismans that they had been 
looking for. Neither had realized it because the 
artifacts were supposed to be in the possession of 
a person with a pure heart. Haruka had said that 
particular morning that she thought her hands were 
dirty, a metaphor for all the things that she had 
done that she felt would have made her unable to have 
the talisman..
	" I like your heart, too," she added, leaning 
over to briefly kiss Haruka. " We'd best be going, 
then. I told Makoto that we'd be at her place by nine 
to pick up Minako-chan."
	" Nine?" she protested, grinning. " That doesn't 
leave me much time to drive all the way back to Tokyo if 
you take the hour you usually do getting ready. You must 
have a lot of faith in my driving."
	" I'm the passenger, aren't I?" she quipped, getting 
to her feet and helping Haruka to hers.  They walked up 
the beach and back to the inn with their arms around 
each other.

***********************************************

	" That's really weird," she agreed with Usagi as 
they walked through the park. The morning sun made her 
squint a little bit but didn't seem to be bothering the 
blonde. It was probably because Usagi still wasn't used 
to being up so early on a Saturday morning.
	" I know, Mako-chan. Wouldn't you think it was 
strange to see someone who died nearly two years ago?"
	" She didn't die," she commented as she stopped 
to see if there was some way to put down the cover of 
the stroller to shield Minako's eyes against the bright 
light. She shouldn't have even bothered because the child 
was still asleep. " Rei-chan said that she disappeared 
without a trace. What I don't like is the day it 
happened."
	Usagi's face fell for a moment at the reminder 
of that day in June nearly two years ago. She wasn't 
the only one who had died. Makoto had been among the 
vanquished. The child in the stroller was possibly the 
only reason that they were alive this day.
	" Rei feels that it's related to us somehow," she 
explained. " The fire didn't tell her anything conclusive, 
though."
	" I hate this part," the taller young woman growled, 
smacking the fist of her right hand into the palm of her 
left in frustration. " I hate knowing that something is 
going to happen, and not knowing what."
	" Mako-chan," she said as she saw the look on her 
friend's face. She pulled her over to a bench that was 
shaded by a tree and sat her down. " Maybe it will just 
be another golem."
	" I hope so," she suddenly grinned. " I could 
really stand taking out some aggressions out on one of 
them. They're not bright but they are resistant to 
damage."  
	They laughed together at her joke and relaxed 
for a few minutes. The child stirred in her sleep and 
the brunette looked in on her again with a smile on her 
face. 
	" I owe her a lot, you know,- " she began when 
the blonde interrupted her.
	" Would you have made the same choice that she 
did?" she asked Makoto, indicating the child.
	" Yes, Usagi-chan," she sighed. The other had 
similar conversations with Usagi recently about the 
same subject. It was only a matter of time until she 
got around to asking her this question. " I don't know 
how she did it, but I would have done the same."
	" Why, Mako-chan?" she nearly cried out. " Why 
are you all so eager to die for me?" 
	She threw an arm around the blonde's shoulders 
and pulled her against her before going on. 
	" I'm not all that eager to die, Usagi-chan. 
Especially not right now. Still, I wouldn't have anything 
now if it wasn't for you, and the others feel the same 
way. If there wasn't any other way to do it, I'd give up 
my life for yours. We all would."
	" Why am I so-" she began to protest when a finger 
was laid across her lips, silencing her.
	" Stop it, Usagi-chan," she said. " You're our 
friend. It's not because you're the princess. You've 
given so much to us over the years that we'd do it in 
order to make sure that you're all right. We want you 
to have some of the happiness that you've given us the 
chance to have. You have to stop dwelling on that, 
Usagi-chan.  
	" Enough of this, though. It's too nice today 
for talk like that, and too early."
	She pulled the blonde to her feet and got her 
walking along the path that meandered around the lake 
at the center of the park. There were a few joggers out 
this early in the morning, but the crowds would only 
come a little later in the day. She kept up a flow of 
small talk to keep her occupied and to cheer her up 
until they came to the cart of a street vendor and 
bought two cups of tea. 
	" Now, Usagi-chan," she added after they resumed 
their stroll. " Today is supposed to be a special one. 
I want you to cheer up, all right?"
	" All right, Mako-chan," she automatically responded, 
but her eyes took a few minutes to brighten up. It was too 
nice a morning to be down and her natural, sunny disposition 
finally came through. " You're awfully cheerful this 
morning. Did everything go all right last night with 
Hiro?"
	" You mean 'my hero' ?" she giggled at the play 
on words and then got a wistful look on her face. " Yes, 
it did, but he left this morning and won't be back until 
the end of the break. His parents want him to go, and he's 
close with his relatives in Nagasaki."
	" So, would you call your first real date with him a 
success?"
	" Yes, you little matchmaker. We've seen movies 
together a few times before and such, but it was our 
first real date last night. I had a good time."
	" That's great, Mako-chan," she exclaimed. " It 
seems that running into your sempai last month was a 
good thing, then." 
	" Oh, yes," she laughed heartily. " I was so hung 
up on him that it was funny, and he made an absolute fool 
of himself that day when he saw me pushing this 
stroller. He was thinking that she was his child, 
and started talking about marriage.
	 "I needed that, Usagi-chan. I was able to finally 
see just how much of a fool I was to have done that to 
myself over someone like him. After that, the idea of 
dating other guys didn't seem to be so strange, and I 
wasn't holding anyone up to a false standard that I'd 
built up over the years."
	" I'm really glad, Mako-chan. I'm glad you're 
finally over him."
	The tolling of a church bell in the distance made 
the taller girl check her watch and gasp in surprise.
	" I didn't realize that it was so late! I've got 
to get going, Usagi-chan. The cooking part is done, but 
I'll still have to assemble and pack a lot of stuff. Could 
you wait here a few minutes for Michiru? I told her to 
check the park first before going to my house to pick her 
up."
	" Certainly, Mako-chan," she agreed, nodding her 
head. " Ami-chan and I need to drop by school to see the 
test results, and then I'm free until twelve. I'll see 
you later."
	The brunette scowled at the mention of tests, but 
then gave her a quick smile before running off to her 
apartment. Makoto had volunteered to do a lot of work 
for today and would need the time to get everything 
ready.

************************************************

	He glared at the book, but it still refused 
to give up the secrets that it held between it's 
covers. His coffee had grown cold as well. All in 
all, it hadn't been a good morning. 
	This library had almost become his second home 
over the last year and a third he had been researching. 
Despite his intentions, the puzzle here had drawn him 
in. He pushed himself backwards, allowing the chair to 
roll back a meter from the desk. His eyes acknowledged 
the size of the room and how many books he still had to 
go through. 
	The house was in one of the very affluent 
neighborhoods of Tokyo. Michiru had been the one to 
discover it while going through Setsuna's records. It 
was one of several houses that they didn't know of her 
having and was part of a series of safe-houses. The 
fact that there were two libraries had caught her eye.
	Ami had been called in when they found out what 
the second, smaller library had dedicated to. All of 
these houses had extensive libraries that were mainly 
devoted to reference materials. If you wanted to find 
out just about anything, one of these libraries was 
the place to go. The one in this house had been a 
great deal of help to him.
	The second library here was devoted to works on 
magic. Michiru and Ami had tried and failed to learn 
anything of substance there and had called him in. He 
was the closest they had to someone who could actually 
manipulate magic. The others used it, but they didn't 
know how they did.
	His time had been spent going through all the books 
and he averaged about two to three hours a day on a 
regular basis in addition to going to college. Usagi 
had tried to help him at first until he gently sent her 
away. She meant well, but was a distraction here.
	The selection at the library covered just about 
any comprehensive work in the field for the last three 
hundred years. Most of the authors were fakes or 
charlatans, and only a few were by writers concerned 
with rational analysis of the subject. Some were 
originals and some reproductions, but all of them 
had one distinct drawback. 
	The problem was that none of them actually could 
prove that magic existed, let alone use it. His 
conversations with Kunzite when he started had helped 
him to prove his theory about that point. That would 
mean, according to logic, that none of the books could 
help him to learn anything about the subject.
	Unfortunately, there were enough kernels of 
wisdom hidden among the chaff to make him go through 
all of them. His old mentor had been able to guide 
him at first, but it was getting harder to contact 
him as time went on. He calculated he would only have 
a few more conversations with Kunzite until he could 
no longer manage to make the connection between the 
living and the dead. 
	Kunzite's power had helped to make the contact 
possible. Jadeite and Zoicite were only reachable a 
few times until their stones didn't react to him anymore. 
Nephrite managed an even dozen. They were only able to 
cover the basics that they taught him long ago, but 
anything was better than the search through the books 
or waiting to remember.
	The book that he was glaring at had a very obscure 
section that hinted at actually having some real meaning. 
He picked up his notes again and studied them, along with 
consulting his database on the computer. Ami would come 
by once a week and do the work involved in setting up the 
cross-referenced system based on his notes that would 
really yield results. 
	His watch chimed, reminding him of the hour. He'd 
have to leave in two hours to pick up Usagi and go to the 
park. He stood and stretched for a few minutes before going 
over to the side of the library that held the books he had 
gone through. Something was nagging at him about the book 
on the desk. 
	Somewhere on that set of shelves was the clue he was 
looking for. He was getting very close to something 
important but he lacked the piece of the puzzle that would 
let him get a glimpse of the total picture. All he needed 
was a hint of where it was. All he wanted was something 
that would prove him wrong.
	His next decision was almost one of desperation. Ami 
gave him an updated printout of the list of books he had 
covered. Taking it out, he cut it into equal sized pages 
and taped them together into a rough square. Then he 
smoothed it out on top of one of the large tables in the 
middle of the room and climbed up so he was sitting 
cross-legged next to it. 
	Several minutes of steady breathing calmed his body 
while his meditative exercises calmed his mind. He slipped 
off the necklace he wore under his shirt. There was a ring 
on it, a plain silver band set with a teardrop shaped 
piece of turquoise.
	The ring was the only thing that he had that 
belonged to his mother in this time. He still couldn't 
remember her actual face. Only the photographs came to 
his mind when he tried. The ring had survived the fire 
that had destroyed everything else in the car.
	He was hoping that it would serve as a link to 
his mother in the past. She had been rumored to have 
the gift of prophecy and he was in need of some kind 
of guidance. Maybe her gift had been passed on to him 
somehow, and he intoned a brief prayer that it be so. 
	Closing his eyes, he extended the hand that held 
the chain, letting the ring swing to and fro underneath 
it. He started in a slow, deliberate spiral pattern that 
would bring the ring over each part of the chart.
	A strange feeling made him stop at one point and 
set the ring down. He only opened his eyes long enough 
to make a small mark on the paper with a pen before he 
closed his eyes again. The chart was turned several times 
at random until he had no clear idea which side was 
towards him. After that, he did the same test again.
	It took him ten more minutes to repeat the exercise 
two more times. He'd kept his eyes closed the whole time 
after making that first mark. A bead of sweat dropped from 
his hair, a sign of the effort that the concentration on 
the simple spell had taken from him. He
didn't yet have perfect faith in this method, but it might 
be a start for him. 
	The marks were all on one section of one page, which 
gave him a glimmer of hope that he had done the exercise 
correctly. The names were familiar to him, so he took a 
few of those books down at random to skim over them for 
some hint of why they were indicated.
	The fifth book gave him an idea and a reference to 
one of the books that he hadn't read yet. He took out the 
book that was mentioned and skimmed over it to acquaint 
himself with the contents. He wouldn't have the time to 
read it today, but a mention of a tribe of Australian 
aborigines caught his eye. The practice the book said 
they employed was a new one to him, so he wrote a note 
to put this new book into his queue of ones to be read 
and walked down the hallway to the main library. 
	Thick carpets muffled his footsteps as he opened 
the doors and walked to the computer. It only took a 
moment to boot up and give him a list of books that 
had the information he desired. 
	The first one was an old book that was first 
published in 1953. The notes on the computer mentioned 
that the descriptions were accurate but that the author's 
conclusions were in question in view of the decisions 
reached in a more recent work. He opened it carefully 
because of the old spine and almost jumped when a slip 
of paper that was yellow with age fell to the floor.


Endymion-sama,
	
	Please join me upstairs in the observation room. 
	I'd like to speak with you in private. 
					



************************************************

	" Hi, Ami-chan!" Usagi called out, waving at 
her friend.
	" Good morning," Ami cheerfully replied. " Are 
you ready to see how you did?"
	" I guess," the blonde grinned. " I've been a 
little nervous about this one, but I think that it's 
been a force of habit for so long to be worried rather 
than actually being worried."
	Ami laughed at the humor in her voice and started 
walking with her to the bulletin board outside the school 
offices. Her sandals tapped out a steady beat on the 
pavement until they took a short cut across the grass. 
	" I'm hoping to have broken eighty percent, 
Ami-chan," Usagi said after a few minutes. They would 
have normally gotten the test results yesterday, but 
there was some sort of delay in getting their tests 
graded and the results would go up on a Saturday. 
	" That would be great if you did," she smiled. 
Usagi had come a long way in her studies, although Ami 
didn't like to think about the reasons why. This 
turnaround had come in the semester following Minako's 
death. Usagi was doing much better in her classes, but 
her reasons for doing better were a source of worry for 
Ami. She should be studying to make herself better. 
	" Hey," she exclaimed, eager to change the 
subject. " There's your new boyfriend."
	" Ami-chan!" Usagi complained. " Shino-san is 
not, I repeat, not my new boyfriend."
	The young man at the board turned and waved as Ami
giggled. He wore the older style of school uniform in 
black with a high collar rather than the shirt and tie 
that were currently preferred. He had short, black hair 
and was taller than the girls, but not by too much. 
	The gossip said that he didn't have many friends 
because of the accident. Shino Takayama had been the 
only survivor of a car wreck that had killed his natural 
parents. Head trauma had robbed him of his memories of 
the time before he was sixteen. He could read and write, 
for example, but he didn't remember going to school to 
learn it. This was his second semester at their school.
	Green eyes were covered with another stigma in the 
minds of most of the students at the school. He wore 
glasses, and while they weren't as bad as the ones like 
Umino wore, they were bad enough. He was considered 
different. Usagi had been one of the few to try and 
befriend him. They got along well with each other and 
even had some classes together.
	" Hi, Shino!" Usagi called out.
	" Hi, Shino-san," Ami respectfully added.
	" Usagi-chan, Ami-chan, " he slightly bowed to 
them, more out of respect than formality. Ami had been 
one of the others that had looked beyond the gossip, 
although a lot of it had been at Usagi's prompting at 
first. He had even reminded Mako-chan of her sempai 
for about a week. " I'm not too surprised at the 
results today."
	" As always, Ami-chan gets to put another notch 
on her pencil case," Usagi drawled, making her friend 
blush. " How'd you do, Shino?"
	" The usual," he admitted. " Good in math and 
science and I flopped in the arts again. I hate those 
subjects. Math has one answer, not all this stuff about 
how you feel and if the teacher happens to agree with 
you today."
	Ami stepped up to look over the lists that showed 
the exams for several subjects and was joined by the 
others. 
	" Shino-san," she said. " Second on two of the 
lists isn't just good. That's great work."
	" Ami-chan," he blushed slightly. " Please, don't 
call me that. I'm not used to it and I'd rather my 
friends didn't use it when referring to me. Besides, 
my scores aren't all that great. Great would have been 
beating you out for the top place."
	" All right, Shino," she agreed, still looking 
down the list. She had forgotten about that part. He had 
been adopted by an American serviceman and his wife. Both 
of his parents were fluent in English, but his father had 
some troubles with Japanese. Shino had picked up his 
father's unease with the honorifics being used among 
friends. To him, his using the '-chan' suffix while 
addressing them was a sign of their friendship." Still, 
you did very well on your tests." 
	She knew something was up when Usagi started 
getting that little smile on her face. It had started 
showing up as her grades began to improve. Her eyes 
finally found Usagi's scores. They were just a little 
higher on the lists than she had been looking. 
	" Usagi!" she yelled as she grabbed and hugged 
her. " An 80.2% average. You did it!"
	" Congratulations," Shino said, clapping the blond 
on the shoulder.
	" I told you, Ami-chan," Usagi exclaimed. " I 
thought I did good on those."
	" She certainly did," Shino added a few moments 
later and began to scan the tops of the lists again 
before muttering under his breath. " Again? This is 
getting silly."
	" I'm sorry?" Ami asked.
	" Here," he explained, pointing at the 
lists. " The spots for numbers four and five are 
held by the same two people again, the same ones 
who have been there for just about every test this 
year in every subject."
	Ami and Usagi looked at the test results with a 
good idea of what they would find. 
	4. Michiru Kaioh	
	5. Haruka Ten'ou
	" You two know them," Shino asked. " What gives 
here? I know they were a year ahead of us, but there 
is no way that they were held back because of poor 
grades." 
	They traded a quick glance that the boy missed. 
	" It wasn't academic problems," Usagi hastily 
began. " Almost all of their school records were 
destroyed when their school blew up a couple of years 
ago. They were in an advanced honors program at the 
Infinity Academy
	" When they were going to be placed into the 
regular school system, one of the administrators 
expressed some misgivings about their achievements 
in that advanced classes and whether they had truly 
accomplished what they stated. Michiru and Haruka are 
both very proud, and they demanded that they be 
allowed to repeat the grade that they almost finished 
if the school board had any suspicion that they didn't 
properly earn it. That's why they're in our grade."
	Usagi breathed a quick smile of relief as it 
appeared that Shino had bought the story. Michiru and 
Haruka had been in an advanced class at the Infinity 
Academy that was teaching at two grades above her own, 
it turned out, but they had changed their records and 
forced their new school district to let them into Usagi's 
grade in order to be near her. 
	Haruka had been adamant about that after they got 
back together following the fights against the magi, 
regardless of the difficulties. They didn't even seem 
to mind that they were repeating old material. Since 
they could easily do the homework, it gave them more 
time to help take care of Minako, and allowed Hotaru 
to only have to take care of the girl during school 
hours. 
	" That was the school in the middle of that new 
business district, the Mugen Delta, right? Did they 
ever figure out what happened?" the boy asked. 
	" Gas main," she and Ami said in unison and then 
blushed at their timing. That had been the most plausible 
explanation for the destruction of the Infinity Academy.
	" Takayama!" a deep voice yelled out suddenly, 
making them jump in surprise. A group of four of the 
school's baseball players were gathered around them. The 
other three students there were moving away from the 
coming confrontation.  
	" Let me guess," Ami said with a sinking feeling. 
She'd been on the receiving end of their threats 
before. " He ruined the grading curve for your class?"
	" Hey," Kawaguchi, the oldest, added. " Guess 
who's here as well. It's little Ami Mizuno."
	" Good," another rumbled. " I can make sure she 
regrets that perfect score in chemistry last year. I 
didn't get to play because of her."
	" Stop it!" Usagi yelled, springing in between 
Ami and one reaching for her. He sneered at her and 
shoved her back. She stumbled and fell into the wall 
by bulletin board. Her head hit the wall and 
everything went black.

***********************************************

	He spent several minutes considering the note 
itself, let alone the implications of the message. The 
paper was clearly older than he was. All the time in 
the library had made him into something of an expert on 
old paper. It was a heavy sheet of a quality that you 
just didn't get today, regardless of the expense. The 
watermark was of a company that had probably gone out of 
business years ago. The ink was even translucent.
	The faded writing was another hint of something 
being amiss. It was handwritten English, which 
automatically excluded any of the Inner Senshi from 
reading it. Ami might be able to decipher it given some 
time or her computer, and Minako was too young. That 
meant that the people who might run across the note and 
understand it were either himself or the Outer Senshi. 
Hotaru had gotten a good grasp of the language since 
starting to learn it a year ago while Haruka and Michiru 
could pass as natives of several countries.
	Some other concerns were put aside as he decided 
to check this out. He knew the room that the note referred 
to. The house was done in a style that imitated a famous 
mansion in America, even down to the small sitting room at 
the highest point of the roof. He and Usagi had spent quite 
a bit of time up there enjoying the view and getting very 
close to doing some of the things that they had generally 
agreed to wait until she turned eighteen to do again.
	He checked the security system as he went to the 
stairs leading up to that room and found the alarms still 
enabled. That was how he had set them after coming in this 
morning to start working. Taking a deep breath, he started 
up the stairs and into the room at the top.
	All four walls had large windows that gave a 
remarkable view of the hills and the city below. There 
were four chairs, two couches, one coffee table and one 
occupant in the room. He stopped and silently stared in 
shock despite the clues that indicated that it was her.
	" Your Majesty," she greeted him, inclining her 
head and making her dark green hair shimmer in the 
morning sunlight. She wasn't wearing her fuku. Instead, 
she was clad in a sharp looking, dark pink jacket and 
long skirt with a white blouse and boots. As usual, it 
looked great on her and was a good complement to her 
hair and skin color. " Please, won't you be seated?"
	" Setsuna," he stammered, sitting down 
automatically. " We... We thought you were dead."
	" I'm not," she admitted a moment later and 
poured him a cup of tea from the service on a platter 
on the table. "  I don't even know if I can. That isn't 
important, though. I need you to promise something to 
me before we go any further."
	" I'll try," he cautiously replied.  
	" Actually," she continued. " Two things. First, 
you need to promise me that you won't tell any of the 
others about this conversation for several days. Nobody. 
Not even Usagi-chan."
	" I'm sure you have your reasons and believe their 
validity," he said. " I can agree with that for the 
moment."
	" That's good," she said and then broke into a 
smile, one of the few times he had ever seen her do 
it. " Now, here's the important part. I want you to 
stop moping about today. Your daughter will be seeing 
you today for the first time in over a year of her 
time. She shouldn't see the face that you've been 
wearing for the past few weeks."
	" I... " he almost smiled at what she said and 
the words of agreement died in his throat. He took a 
drink of the tea to give him a moment to recover. Try 
as he might, he couldn't keep the look of defeat off of 
his face. " It's bad, Setsuna. I think I know where we 
all went wrong. I pray every night that it's a mistake, 
but I just can't get the idea out of my head."
	She stood and walked over to take a seat next to 
him. One of her hands took his in a comforting grip. " I'm 
sorry, Mamoru-san, but I'm afraid that you're on the 
right track with your work."
	Setsuna stopped for several minutes to carefully 
consider what she was going to say while she comforted 
him. Mamoru didn't even notice the time going by. He 
was in too much pain from what he was realizing. She 
used one of the napkins on the tray to wipe away a 
line of tears on his face.
	" We all have a great deal of power, Mamoru-san. 
Power that comes with a great deal of responsibilities. 
We have to meet the obligations that our position demands 
of us."
	" Why her?" he whispered. " She's already done so 
much for so many people. They don't have any idea of what 
she has gone through for them, and now she has to do 
this?"
	" Are you so sure that she wouldn't agree to it?" 
she asked. " You've seen her give so much of herself. Has 
she ever hesitated to make someone else's life better, 
and do you think that she's not going to do the same 
thing again if it comes down to it?"
	He mutely shook his head.
	" There's something else, isn't there?"
	" Yes," he finally forced himself to admit it and 
sighed. " I don't love the princess. I don't love Sailor 
Moon. I fell in love with a dear, sweet girl by the name 
of Usagi Tsukino. I love her more than I do life 
itself. Why do I have to give her up?
	" Why does she have to give herself up?"

************************************************

	The sound of glass breaking brought her to a few 
moments later. The back of her head hurt and she could 
feel moisture on her scalp. Shino was curled up on the 
ground a couple of meters away and was clutching his 
stomach. His nose was bleeding, and Kawaguchi was 
stepping on his glasses. She could feel a few tears 
running down her face. Sympathy for him, she decided, 
or maybe just the pain.
	The one who had shoved her was named Takeru. He 
was stepping towards Ami, who was standing by her with 
her back to him and looking down at her. Ami had her 
transformation wand in the palm of her hand, hidden 
from the view of the others. Usagi almost gasped in 
surprise at the look on her face. She had never before 
seen anger in Ami's eyes. 
	" No!" she yelled out as a movement caught her 
eye, desperately hoping that it sounded more like a 
command instead of a scream of fear or pain. Anything 
to stop her. This wasn't worth it.
	Behind one of the ones in the back, Hotaru put 
away the Glaive. She had been about to use it to deadly 
effect. Instead, she kicked his knee from the side as 
she walked past him and he went down screaming. Another 
two steps put her right behind Kawaguchi, who had knelt 
down and was cocking his arm back to hit Shino again. 
	She hooked her arm around his and stopped the 
blow. He grunted and tried to break free, turning slightly 
towards her as he strained against her grasp. Her arm 
didn't move. She shifted her weight and brought her knee 
up under his chin, knocking him out cold.
	The other one who had been watching was already in 
flight. Ami had turned back around at the sounds that were 
the result of Hotaru's intervention. She could see that 
Takeru had frozen in shock as Hotaru simply stared at him. 
It was the same look on her face that they had seen at a 
planetarium just before she had been possessed. Hotaru's 
face promised mayhem and that she was very capable of 
delivering it.
	Ami took advantage of it by walking around in front 
of him and kicking him in between the legs. He'd be in 
pain, but it was better than what Hotaru might have done 
to the one who had actually hurt Usagi.
	" Shino," Usagi exclaimed and staggered over 
towards him. Hotaru stopped her before she had even 
gone three steps. A warm hand was gently pressed against 
the back of her head and the pain receded. It was very 
soothing and she could feel the power that Hotaru was 
using. 
	" Wait a few moments before getting up after a 
head wound, Usagi-san," she whispered to the blonde. " I 
need to make sure that you're all right first. Luckily, 
it was just a little scrape from the wall."
	She helped her sit down next to him and told her 
to stay there for a few minutes before she walked over 
to the water fountain. Ami was kneeling on the other 
side of the boy and was helping him to sit up. 
	" You shouldn't have done that, Usagi-chan," he 
admonished her and then smiled suddenly. " Thank you."
	" Are you all right?" she asked him as he looked 
around on the ground. Ami handed him the frames to 
his glasses and he sighed in exasperation.
	" It's just a bloody nose," he said as he 
examined the frames. " I rolled with the one to my 
stomach and acted like it was worse than it was. They 
usually don't do anything when I'm on the ground, 
though."
	He inclined his head in gratitude when Hotaru 
came back and handed him a wet handkerchief. " Thanks, 
Hotaru-chan."
	" Shouldn't we tell the school administration?" Ami 
asked while he cleaned up his face. 
	" No,"  the girl with the black hair smiled. " You 
didn't see who was watching the whole thing. Umino's 
protoge` saw everything. I talked to him over by the 
water fountain. The whole school will know he was 
beaten up by a girl before homeroom on Monday."
	Shino laughed at that, clearly amused. " I've been 
in the same math class as Kawaguchi ever since I got 
here. He's tried pushing me around before this, but this 
is a far better revenge than ruining his grades."
	" Usagi-san," Hotaru quietly said, catching her 
attention. She tapped her watch.
	" Shino," she asked while getting up. " Are you 
going to be all right? I have to be going. I've got an 
appointment that I can't miss."
	" Yes," he smiled as he stood up. " I'm sorry you 
got dragged into this."
	" I'll make sure that these three are all 
right," Hotaru added. " You're going to be late, 
Usagi-san."
	" I'd best be going, too," the boy added, 
giving a little bow of gratitude towards 
Hotaru. " Thank you."
	" Bye, Shino," Usagi said as he walked off. 
	" Does this happen much?" Hotaru asked in a 
cold tone of voice.
	" A few times," Ami admitted. " It's usually 
just some verbal abuse and a few vague threats. I 
just ignore them."
	The girl took a deep breath and held it for 
several seconds before exhaling and relaxing. She 
turned to the others. " I guess it's a good thing 
that my train was early and I decided to walk to 
your house."
	" How's your father, Hotaru-chan," Usagi asked 
as she picked up her purse and made sure everything 
was still there. 
	" He's doing well," she replied. " I hardly 
had a chance to see him this time, but I had only 
gone up there to drop off some documents and a few 
books he wanted. We had dinner and talked for a while. 
That new bullet train line to the north sure is a big 
help."
	She looked to make sure that Shino had turned 
the corner around the side of the building before 
continuing. " Ami-chan, stay with her until Mamoru-san 
picks her up. I've got a funny feeling about today for 
some reason. I'll see you at the park. Now, get going 
before you're late."
	The two girls complied, walking off towards Usagi's 
house to meet her real boyfriend. Hotaru got one boy on 
the ground to get up. It only took a single mean look 
to give him all the inspiration he needed to hobble away. 
The big one, she realized after taking a closer look, 
would be out for a while longer. That just left the 
one who was still writhing in pain.       
	" Hello, Takeru," she greeted him as she picked 
him up by the front of his jacket and hoisted him to 
his feet with one hand. He tried to run and realized 
that she was actually holding him a few centimeters 
above the ground. " We have some business to discuss 
somewhere private."
	To his astonishment, she jumped up to the top of 
the walkway as lightly as if she was jumping up a couple 
of stairs. She didn't seem to notice that she was 
carrying a guy who outweighed her by about thirty to 
forty kilos. The next jump took them to the top of 
the administration building. He began to panic as she 
walked around to the other side of the building and 
held him out over the ledge to dangle above the ground 
two stories below the whole way there. 
	" You hurt her," she softly declared. He would 
have preferred a scream of rage to that quiet 
voice. " You made her cry."
	Her violet eyes bored into his mind. He couldn't 
look away. He wanted to scream. Nothing came out of 
his mouth.
	" If you ever touch her again, if you ever hurt 
her again or cause her any pain, I'll be back. I won't 
be so nice, either. The next time you'll be dead."
	She released him and he was finally able to scream 
as he fell. It was like he had been freed from a spell. 
His arms and legs frantically began to move as he tried 
to run in mid-air. She smiled at the look on his face as 
he fell into the overflowing garbage bin below, imagining 
just how ripe he was going to smell. 
	As she walked away to another side of the building 
and jumped down to the ground, another person kept a 
close watch on her from the shadows of the air-conditioner 
on the top of the gym. It was a much taller building and 
gave her an excellent view of what had just occurred and 
the fight that had preceded it.
	The sun hit her as she stepped to the edge. Her 
long, auburn hair glowed in the morning sun that picked 
out the gold highlights of the black clothes and armor 
she wore. This promised to be interesting, she thought 
with a smile.  

************************************************ 

	" I wasn't in any danger, Mamo-chan," she 
pleaded. " I was with Ami-chan and Hotaru-chan."
	" I know, Usako. That still doesn't make it any 
easier for me, though. I should have been there sooner."
	" Listen," she scolded him and pushed him down 
onto the bench nearest the dock in what had become 
their favorite park. She bent down towards him with 
a stern look on her face and suddenly kissed him. They 
held it for a few minutes before she sat down next to 
him and spoke in a quiet voice. " This is a happy day, 
Mamo-chan. Don't feel like that. If I was in real trouble, 
you would have been there. You're always there when it 
counts."
	" Thank you, love," he whispered pulling her head 
down onto his shoulder and putting an arm around 
her. " You always can make me feel better."
	They stayed that way for several minutes before 
noticing another nervous couple had arrived in the same 
area. Artemis was about to wear a circular path in the 
grass from his pacing in a circle around Luna, who 
calmly sat under a nearby tree and waited.
	" Seven minutes," he said in response to her 
unasked question after he glanced at his watch. " We're 
not the only ones waiting for a daughter, either. I 
guess we had-"
	He sprang forward while Usagi screamed in horror 
as a patch of pink clouds suddenly appeared high over 
the dock that stretched out into the pond. Normally 
they took a few moments to form, and it also was only 
a few meters above the water. They had never seen it 
happen above the hard, wooden surface of the dock.
	She came into existence fifteen meters up in the 
air. He was in mid-leap as she plummeted towards the 
ground. She had just managed to start to get into the 
correct position to take a fall when his arm caught her 
around the middle. 
	They landed in the pond with a thunderous splash 
as Usagi came running up along with the cats. She didn't 
stop and dove in after them. Artemis nearly didn't stop 
either but thought better of it. They had seen only a girl 
falling from the sky, and not a girl and a cat.
	" Chibi-usa-chan!" she cried out as she broke the 
surface near them. To her consternation they were beginning 
to laugh as they looked at each other and then he pulled 
the girl into an embrace. They were both either unhurt or 
too happy to see each other to notice any injuries.
	She found the water there was deep enough to make 
her stand on the tips of her toes while he had his 
shoulders above the water. Usagi made to embrace them 
as well until the girl pulled away from her. 
	" I want to be with my Daddy," she tried to say 
to her in a stern tone of voice and utterly failing. The 
giggles were giving her true feelings away. " You said 
I'm growing so quickly that you won't buy me any new 
clothes."
	Usagi began to look crestfallen. That was the 
moment the girl chose to jump away from her father and 
onto her. Both went under for a moment and came up 
holding each other and laughing. Usagi gave her a 
quick, fierce hug before shoving her towards the dock. 
	" Here you go," Mamoru said as he boosted Usagi 
up to where she could climb up onto the dock on her 
own and did the same for Chibi-usa. 
	" Chibi-usa-chan?" she whispered in surprise as 
they stood up. The pink ponytails had been about ten
centimeters longer even before they had gotten wet, 
but the biggest surprise was that the tips of the girl's 
odango came up just over her own shoulders. 
	" Mama," she sniffled and threw herself into her 
mother's arms for a proper hug. They were both crying as 
Mamoru came over and wrapped them up in his arms as well 
for a few minutes before nudging them towards the 
walkway.
	" Small Lady?" Luna ventured from where the cats 
now sat, safely away from any of the wet and dripping 
humans. Chibi-usa slipped from her mother's embrace and 
walked over to them. She knelt down and gave each a kiss 
on the forehead.
	" Your daughter sends her love and regrets," she 
told them as she fondly looked at them. 
	" I take it there were some problems, then?" Luna 
asked politely, but she was plainly hoping for some 
information about her daughter.
	" I'm probably a grandfather already," Artemis 
muttered, half in jest and half in fear. Luna almost 
smacked him in the back of his head.
	" The last time I went home," the little girl 
began as she took a seat between the other two sitting 
on the bench. " The transit was pretty bad for both of 
us. This one coming back was even worse. Diana would 
have had a very tough time with it right now."
	" The time-keys are still working, but obviously 
not as smoothly," Artemis commented. 
	" How could you ever guess?" the young girl wryly 
added while looking down at the plain, thick white dress 
she wore. It was functional but nearly shapeless. " We 
didn't even know if anything I took with me to this time 
would make it back since the stuff I took forward the 
last time didn't survive the trip. Usagi-chan made 
this from the drapes, I think, and now it's all wet 
and ruined."
	" Chibi-usa-chan," Mamoru said, and the girl 
turned her gaze from Usagi, who was on the receiving 
end of a teasing look, to the two cats. " Diana is 
all right, correct?"
	" I'm sorry," she apologized to them. " Diana 
is fine except that she's having a tough time adjusting 
to being able to change into a human. We all thought 
that the trip would be too much stress for her right 
now."
	" Couldn't they send her later?" Luna wistfully 
asked. The girl took a deep breath before answering.
	" Not... not without Pu. We're conserving the 
key's energy. We haven't heard from her and Mama... 
Mother doesn't want to force the gates open. This isn't 
the first time Pu hasn't answered the door to the gates 
in a long time, although she usually tells us to leave 
her alone first."
	" I'm sorry, Chibi-usa-chan, but we haven't seen 
her," Usagi whispered and then sadly shook her head. The 
words failed her. The young man had a pained look on his 
face as well, but the two girls missed it since they were 
looking at each other.
	" C'mon, everybody," Mamoru spoke in an effort to 
cheer them up. " The car's right over there. Let's go 
home and get cleaned up, then we can get this girl into 
a mall. I know that none of her old things are going to 
fit anymore."
	The news of a quick shopping trip lightened the 
spirits of both of the young ladies as they walked back 
to the car and ignored the glances of curious passers-by 
who wanted to stare at them for being so soaked and so 
happy. 

************************************************ 

	" Pain is a fascinating sensation," he commented 
as they sat on the roof of the observation deck of the 
Tokyo Tower. The same winds that blew her long hair and 
his single, thin braid made the tower gently sway 
underneath them. 
	" I don't have any idea of what you see in it," she 
sniffed. " I was human and had more pain than I could 
ever want to deal with. Why do you seek it out?"
	" I don't quite 'seek it out'," he replied, idly 
straightening the collar of the black school uniform 
he wore. " It is interesting to experience it, however. 
I consider it very insightful."
	" We don't needs insights into their minds," she 
burst out. " Why don't you just let me take care of it? 
The one who was reborn _may_ be a danger to me, but 
the rest are no match for the power we've been given."
	" Patience, Flare," he said in an attempt to 
placate her anger. " There are two of them who have 
been reborn and this isn't about defeating them in 
battle, or at least not yet. I want them to react in 
a certain manner, and that takes more time."
	" Are you so sure that they will jump through 
your hoops?"
	" Actually," he grinned in response, his tawny 
eyes sparkling. " This method will be far easier than 
my first idea. I used to think that I might just make 
them renounce her, but I've seen the error in that 
approach. It wouldn't be painful enough to force them 
like that. 
	" They will voluntarily do it, however, when we 
give them the right reasons. Keep with the plan about 
the genius girl, and light off the first warning shot 
later today. All we need to do is to make them realize 
the cost of supporting her. If we make it too painful 
for them to go on, they'll abandon her." 
	" And if they don't?"
	" They will die, Flare," he declared. " All of 
them. Every living thing on this planet will be dead. 
Except for her, of course. It will be enjoyable to 
watch her suffer over a few eons."

***********************************************

	The cool, clear water closed over his head as 
released his hold on the rail and let himself begin 
to sink into the depths of the lagoon. A silvery 
stream of bubbles in front of him told him that 
Madison was already on her way down. It wasn't too 
surprising she was in a hurry, he grinned behind his 
mask and glanced up at the receding surface. 
	They had spent the better part of seven months 
waiting to get all the permits to do this dive. The 
site wasn't hot any longer, but many of the ships 
were sunk with full loads of ordinance, and that 
made it dangerous to be here. Only a fool would think 
otherwise about entering the waters off of Bikini 
atoll.   
	Despite the safe readings on their Geiger counter, 
he had found himself apprehensive as he prepared for the 
dive. The cameras were ready, but the cameraman wasn't. 
He didn't think that anyone could be unaffected by being 
here. He was about to approach ground zero of a nuclear 
blast and see firsthand the fruits of Operation 
Crossroads.
	Shortly after the second World War, the United 
States had moored a number of ships off of the atoll 
in order to see what the effects of a nuclear attack 
would be on the vessels he was about to film. Most of 
them had been severely damaged, and then the second 
test, an underwater blast, had finished the job. The 
few surviving ships had probably sank after one of 
the nearly two dozen more atomic explosions, and the 
entire area had been off limits for years. 
	That was the main reason that they had wanted 
to do a dive here. There were several interested 
parties who wanted a copy of the tapes. They ranged 
from the production companies that made documentaries 
for cable TV to the organizations for the sailors 
assigned to each particular ship. The area was in 
pristine condition from having so few divers allowed 
to enter it. 
	This was going to be one of their big breaks, 
he realized as he checked the camera and his gear. 
Producers who made documentaries for both programs 
about diving and history had been calling them ever 
since the word got out that they had been allowed to 
make the descent and film the wreckage. He'd start 
with the Saratoga, which should be below them. 
	Madison had stopped about fifty feet below 
the surface and he could see her smile despite her 
mask. She waved her arm around and gave him the 
thumbs-up. He agreed with a nod. The water clarity 
was incredible today, and it was bright enough for 
him to make a quick measurement with one of the 
waterproof gauges. 
	He gave her a thumbs-up of his own. It was 
nearly as bright as at the surface on some of the 
days they had filmed they had filmed the Great 
Barrier Reef in Australia, and they were a lot 
deeper right now. The sun was still rising, he 
recalled, and that must be why it was getting 
even brighter. This was certainly going to be 
a wonderful day. 

************************************************

	" I think these are done," she decided and popped 
one of the shu mai into her mouth. Haruka gasped in 
surprise at the temperature and started rapidly exhaling 
to cool off the dumpling. 
	" It serves you right," Michiru giggled as she 
handed her iced tea to the taller woman. Haruka quickly 
took a drink and sighed in relief before finishing the 
dumpling.
	" Someone had to see if they were done," she 
protested, and tried to make her voice sound like she 
was hurt by her friend's comment. She knew she was 
failing miserably, so she turned back to the fire, 
closed the lid of the steamer and sulked. It had only 
taken her a few hours to make the steamer and the 
stand out of some spare metal at her garage the 
previous morning. 
	Michiru stood and brushed a few bits of grass 
from her pale blue sundress before walking over behind 
Haruka. The blonde tensed up at first when she began 
to massage her shoulders and neck, but then relaxed 
and loudly exhaled. 
	" You're as tight as a drum," Michiru whispered 
as she looked around them. They were at the top of a 
hill in a park near her parent's old house. Since it 
became a gated community last year the number of 
visitors to the park had dropped, and they almost 
had it to themselves. The only other visitors were 
a few families down by the base who hadn't even tried 
joining them at the top. 
	Makoto and Ami were setting up a tray with plates 
and condiments several meters away in the spot with the 
better view. The steamer they were keeping an eye on 
needed to be on a more level surface, which was the 
reason for their being away from the others. Rei was 
splitting her attention between watching Hotaru helping 
Minako to try and walk on the sloping grass without 
falling down and setting up a carafe of hot tea. 
	She leaned down and straightened the collar on 
Haruka's white shirt before giving her a brief embrace. 
The other woman leaned back against her for a moment, 
drawing in some of the calmness that surrounded Michiru. 
They both felt that they were going to need it today. 

***********************************************  

	" They're done, Mako-chan," she said as she set 
down the bamboo steamer basket and took off the lid. She 
grabbed another shu mai in the process and popped it into 
her mouth before the chef, who was smoothing out a wrinkle 
in her beige dress, could stop her. 
	" Haruka-san, I saw you sampling them over 
there," Makoto complained in a good-natured way, 
waggling a finger at her in a vain attempt to admonish 
the taller woman. " If you keep that up nobody will 
get any."
	" I had to make sure that they were done, and 
you have more than enough for everyone, Mako-chan," she 
grinned as she picked up the next two baskets, stacked 
them atop one another and returned to Michiru and the 
fire they had set up earlier that was several meters 
away. 
	" Here you go, everyone," Makoto called out and 
indicated the plates and chopsticks in the basket at 
her side. 
	" I guess we should take advantage of this," Ami 
giggled as she began to fill her plate with an 
assortment of dim sum. " It isn't often that Usagi-chan 
is late for a meal like this."
	" Well," Makoto shrugged in the direction of the 
bottom of the hill and nabbed one of her shrimp har 
gow while Ami looked the other way. " They're here, so 
you'd better hurry up."
	" Look at how tall she is," Rei gasped as she 
joined them while they watched them get out of Mamoru's 
car at the bottom of the hill. Usagi and Chibi-usa were 
in near matching outfits, jeans and white T-shirts, due 
to the reasons that Mamoru had explained earlier when 
he had called to let them know that he would be a few 
minutes late. The pink-haired girl had grown considerably 
since the last time they had seen her. Chibi-usa let 
out a cry of delight and began to run up the hill towards 
them. 
	" She must be at least ten," she finished, and then 
went over to get Minako before putting her hand on Hotaru's 
shoulder. The young woman jumped in surprise and quickly 
nodded in gratitude when Rei gave her a little push. " Go 
on, Hotaru-chan."
	" Thank you, Rei-chan," she hurriedly whispered 
before bounding off down the hill towards the young 
girl. At Makoto's beckoning, Rei picked up the child 
and carried her over by the others and sat down. Ami 
traded her an empty plate for Minako and set the girl 
down by her to begin sharing her own meal.
	" At least that part hasn't changed," Makoto 
laughed as the girl grabbed a char siu bao from Ami 
and began to eat the pork bun. " She still has the 
same appetite as her namesake."
	They joined her in a slightly nervous laugh 
at the jest, but were still a little concerned about 
the situation. Each day the child began to look more 
and more like the Minako they used to know. They 
still had no idea of what was going on with her, or 
if she was even the Minako they had known. 
	" Hi," Mamoru said as he walked up to them 
and put down the cooler he was carrying. He took 
off his leather jacket before taking a seat. " I'm 
sorry we were late, but we had to make a little 
detour through a mall on the way. If what I said... 
say in the future is correct, she must be making up 
for lost time by growing so quickly." 
	" We can see why," Makoto added, taking the cooler 
of drinks and sliding it around so that it was slightly 
more out of the way. They all fully remembered the shock 
when the future Endymion's image told them that the girl 
was almost nine hundred years old. " I can't believe 
she's gotten so big."
	" It's almost been a year for us," Usagi 
continued as she joined them. " And it's nearly 
been the same for her."
	" Here you go, Usagi-chan," Rei said to her 
with a teasing smile as she handed her a plate and 
some chopsticks. " There's plenty to go around, 
even for you." 
	" Rei-chan!" Usagi complained as she took 
several dumplings and put them on her plate. She 
fed one to Mamoru before starting in on them herself. 
	" Don't say that, Rei-chan," Mamoru said around 
a mouthful of food. " Our daughter makes her mother 
look like a light eater when it comes to dim sum. My 
wallet found that out the last time we went out when 
she was here."
	" Well, there is more than enough, even for 
their appetites," Makoto declared as Hotaru and 
Chibi-usa walked up to them. 
 	" Mako-chan," the girl scolded the cook. " I 
told you not to go to any trouble like this on my 
next visit, didn't I?"
	" I guess you don't want any, then?" the brunette 
replied in a sweet tone of voice. 
	" No!" the girl blurted out and then blushed as 
they laughed at the look on her face. She recovered 
by quickly taking a plate for herself. " Thank you 
for doing all this, Mako-chan." 
	" It was my pleasure, Chibi-usa-chan," she replied. 
	" So," Ami ventured a question with a broad smile 
on her face. " How are things in the future?"
	 " Ami-chan!" they all yelled, but laughter made 
most of them miss timing it correctly. It was an old, 
but familiar joke between them about Ami wanting to 
know something about the future, and Chibi-usa not 
being able to say anything. It had almost become a 
tradition for Ami to ask it and for the others to 
complain in a good-natured way.
	" Actually, I did have one question for you, 
Chibi-usa-chan," Hotaru asked a few minutes later. " They 
would have gotten you anything you wanted to wear today 
when you hit the stores on the way here. Why the jeans?"
	The girl thought about that a few moments 
before laughing. " I guess I can tell you that part 
without causing any problems. 
	" Thanks to a certain person's penchant for 
formal wear," she explained while pointedly glancing 
at her father, " the retro-twentieth century look 
hasn't been in fashion for years. I haven't been 
able to wear anything comfortable outside of my 
rooms for months."
	" Eeek!" Usagi screeched in mock-horror, not 
noticing someone walking up behind her with the next 
two baskets of freshly steamed food. " She's turning 
into a tomboy like Haruka-san!"
	" Is there something wrong with that, 
odango-atama?" Haruka asked with a sweetly ominous
smile as she tapped Usagi on the shoulder.

************************************************

	 Far above the blue waters a figure stood in 
mid-air, contemplating the scene below. The islands 
were mere dots at this height, and she could even see 
the faint suggestion of a curve to the horizon. The 
scattering of clouds would have obscured the vision 
of her old eyes.
	The one place she wanted stood out in her mind 
due to what had happened there long before. It was one 
of the places where they dared to try and emulate her 
own power, and that impertinence galled her. Today she 
could finally begin to make them pay for that and all 
the slights they had visited upon her in her earlier 
life.
	Confident of her being in the correct spot, she 
rose straight up in relation to it through the remains 
of the atmosphere. She went past the gadgets they had 
in the lower orbits until she was at the most cluttered 
altitude. Here were their satellites with the most 
stable orbits, although the greatest concentration was 
directly over the equator.
	If one of them was pointed at her, they'll 
certainly get a show today, she grinned as she began 
to call upon her power. It would take just over eight 
minutes for it to accumulate and reach her. The stage 
was set, the players were in their places, and the 
show was about to begin.

***********************************************
	
	The one who was closest to the center was the 
first to see what was happening. He cried out a 
warning to the others and shared his view with them. 
Theirs were the only eyes to gaze upon this. The few 
deep space probes in position to see it weren't 
looking in the right direction at the right time. 
	The fierce, blinding radiance of the sun began 
to go dark on the side opposite the third one. They 
watched aghast as the darkness spread over the space 
of a few seconds to cover the rest of the surface 
until the only light emitted was on the line between 
it and the third one.
	It will just miss, she reassured the others. She 
was strangely calm for nearly having faced certain 
destruction. The nova-bright shaft of light hurtled 
along it's path, and the sun began to shine with it's 
accustomed splendor over the entirety of it's surface. 
	It begins, the one fourth out quietly stated 
to the others. They watched the brightness of the 
beam move through the darkness. The first one out 
was well away from it, but the second was closer to 
the blast than he. She shivered in fear at the 
feeling the energy had. 
	Such hatred, she cried out in anguish. The bolt 
of light illuminated the surface of both the third one 
and her daughter as it passed between them and stopped. 
The figure floating there in the space between reached 
a hand into the raw power and began to glow.	
	They could hear her laughter as she directed 
the energy down towards the planet below. The clouds 
vanished in the beam's path, getting blown outward in 
a circular pattern as the blast fell from the sky and 
slammed into the atoll.
	
************************************************

	The Frisbee caromed off one tree and narrowly 
missed the girl before swooping up into the air as 
part of her plan to bring it in on her from behind. 
Chibi-usa was wise to it, though, and easily evaded 
the second attack. Usagi caught it and flipped it 
over to her daughter. 
	" See? Just like that American TV show heroine. 
Your turn, Chibi-usa-chan."
	" It's a lot harder with this," she replied, 
frowning in concentration as she caught the disc. " I 
could do it with your tiara."
	" Some of us just have the natural talent," she 
smiled back. They were about ten meters down the hill 
from the others, who were still eating and talking. Dim 
sum was supposed to be enjoyed over a long period of 
time, with lots of tea and conversation according to 
Makoto. The two of them had gotten bored and decided 
to play catch. 
	Her daughter was good, but she didn't have the 
same touch as she did. All the practice with her tiara 
and an instinctive grasp of it made her a whiz with a 
Frisbee. The return throw from the girl was a good one; 
fast, hard and level, but easy for her to catch.
	" You're not supposed to throw it like the 
sidekick," she teased the girl. A quick flick of her 
wrist sent it past the girl and off of two trees before 
it returned to her hand. She almost laughed at the 
exasperated look on the girl's face. 
	*Mama no baka*, she faintly heard an amused and 
distinctly un-ladylike snort in her mind. 
	" Chibi-usa?" she whispered in shock.
	*Not like that, Usagi-chan* the voice replied. She 
could make it out to be her daughter's now. *Like this. 
Inside*
	" Inside?"
	The girl pointed to her chest where they would 
normally be wearing their broaches if they were in 
costume. *The crystal*
	*But how...*
	*We can hear each other's, remember? I talk to 
mine, and you can hear me*
	*That's incredible! I'm so proud of you for 
figuring that out!*
	She could feel the wave of slight discomfort go 
through the girl and realized that she must be putting 
a lot of her emotions into the link as well. 
	*Usagi-chan?* her daughter asked.
	* I wasn't supposed to find this out, was I?* she 
guessed.
	*No, it's not that* the girl sent back, and then 
blushed. *You showed me how to do this just before I came 
back this time. You said I'd need it, and since you've 
been broadcasting your emotions at me ever since I saw 
you there at the dock, I figured you already knew how 
to do this.  That wasn't what I wanted to ask you, 
though. Can I ask you a favor?*
	*Of course*	
	*I love you, Mama, but could we just be friends 
here? I still feel more like we're sisters or cousins 
here, and I sort of like being able to be your friend*
	*Certainly* she smiled back and let her love for 
the girl show through. She was feeling the same warmth 
being sent back towards her.
	*By the way, Usagi-chan, we shouldn't do this too 
often*
	*Why*
	*It's hard to concentrate on this and the rest of 
the world at the same time. Look to your left*
	She did and jumped in surprise as she realized 
Haruka was standing there making faces at her.
	" Earth to Usagi-chan!" she called out again, 
waving her hand in front of Usagi's face. " You okay? 
You didn't hear a thing I was saying."
	She turned and made a face at the girl after she 
heard a faint giggle. " I'm sorry, Haruka-san. What were 
you saying?"
	 " I needed to talk with you two for a moment," she 
quietly said and waved her arm at the girl, motioning for 
her to come over.
	" What is it, Haruka-san?" Chibi-usa asked when she 
got there. The tall woman wore a more serious expression 
on her face now.
	" You said back there that you brought nothing but 
the dress you were wearing back with you, right